FORGIVE

“THE WALL IS CLEAN”

An old age person allowed a family to stay in one of his vacant floors, out of compassion. This group of people started behaving as family members to the old man. On his demise their true colours came to fore, and became nightmare for the old man’s own family. The once in need family even refused to recognize the children of the old man as the natural inheritor of his estate, and assumed the occupancy as the ownership title. It led to frictions and in due course both became warring groups. Each would call for the police assistance at the drop of hat. Indifferences made room for hatred; hatred resulted in animosity and animosity one day led the occupant to indulge in some unsavory act.

Years went by and the elder son of the old man got adapted to tolerance and accepted the will of god. One day the elder son, out of his nature and true to Indian tradition offered one of the portions of the house for the guest of his neighbor, so as to let them celebrate the marriage festivities joyfully.  It soon turned into a horrifying experience once more, for the elder son and his family. As festivities were in progress the recalcitrant occupant painted some walls with abusive slangs. The festive atmosphere turned in different direction and ended with flare up arguments. The guests packed up and cut short their stay and moved out. Looking into intensity of the problem the perpetrator family erased the slangs, but not without leaving the scratching marks on the walls.

The son took the incident as a moral responsibility and went into depression and anxiety syndrome. An unexpected turn of events and insult on the face, left him with an agitate mind. Police was once again approached to take stock of the situation and book the perpetrators for obscenity. But they too opined that there was nothing so serious that calls for any action or to investigate the matter. 

The son took snaps of the slanging portion of the wall, and decided to take up the matter with ‘Human Rights’ and top brass of the police. In the process he could not sleep properly for two nights. The    sequence of events reverberated before him as a horrifying movie. On the third day as he returned home, he found the whole of the wall stands freshly painted in pink colour, the colour of love and harmony. The fresh look at the wall changed the very being of his. His body got harmonized within, as if ready to receive the divine. Absolute calmness prevailed around him. Soon he forgot of taking any action against the culprit family. The wall was clean and so was his heart.         

        

What brought the turnaround was a thoughtful action by the wife of the old man’s son. What a collective sense of a civilized society could not do, a ‘clean up wall’ did the trick. The moral of the story is go on cleaning the malice, the hatred, the ill will, and make a bigger room for love and compassion. There goes a Vedic prayer which says: “May all beings be happy. May all be healthy. May people have the well being of all in mind. May no body suffer in any way.”

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BE A WITNESS TO SOUL

“BE A WITNESS TO SOUL” 

No one can say what happens, when he dies. The person we have known as ‘I’ is no more there. And by any stretch of imagination cannot come back to reveal his last moments or of just thereafter. But why not to become a witness to the very soul, that is keeping us moving in this very life itself? Each person’s life is a message for the world. It is the way one look at. Make each soul journey an inspiring one. The ‘I’ has to be a witness in the process. And when ‘I’ is to be a corroborative witness it has be necessarily devoid of ego and other vices like anger, hatred, jealousy, selfishness, mindfulness of authority and power, and a feeling that only I am right, and likewise. It is then it becomes a companion of soul. 

The witness gets elevated to high pedestal. And whenever ‘I’ gets separated it leaves foot prints for others to follow. Anyway it is the way one conducts himself during his lifetime that determines his legacy. The ‘Geeta’ also says do whatever is righteous so that you may be remembered and followed by others. So is also written in all the Holy Scriptures. Be good to your conscience, do good, feel good, look good and all will be good all around. But bad for a bad man is good and what is good for a bad man is bad for a good man. Good and bad are relative terms. Nothing is permanent in a lifetime. Everything keeps on changing. What remains permanent is the 'SOUL'. It keeps on changing the ‘I’ apron.

An enlightened and elevated witness to soul never questions what happens after death. We are all here to play a part; play it like a soul. Witness everything around as soul mates. Life becomes so blissful and divine like. Fear of death and what will happen after me never envelops. This ideology also enables one to bear the hardships, sufferings and the challenges of life joyfully. One may say Abraham Lincoln was shot dead, so was Mahatma Gandhi, and what happened with other freedom fighters in this country and elsewhere. Does it give us a fright or flight to do good for others? Mandela, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King and many of them like were all elevated souls, because they transformed the ‘I’ of them into a witness and observer in their journey. The hard reality is that they are still living, long after the ‘I’ of them vanished. They left their indelible soul deeds. All body deeds got dissolved, but soul deeds become immortal. When a soul talks to another soul, there is no apartheid, no question of caste, colour, or religion.

Let the soul represent your body and not the other way round. We have given a name to everything but have we ever tried to identify the soul. Once we do that at any stage, we become enlightened. It came to Vibhishana; to Valmiki; to Tulsidas; to Sidartha and to many more, even now a day as well. We find a few them each year around Republic Day celebrations, when President of India felicitate young and brave hearts. Knowing about their bravery, who can deny that any of them, was at any point time got scared of death. What inspired them was simply a soul effort. 

Has anyone seen death of ‘I’ at close quarters?  It is believed that when one comes across the cruel part of ‘I’ encounter, it is only then one visualizes the source of ‘I’, ‘the soul’, for the first time.  I experienced it as my mother lay in coma for a year around, and we celebrated her death; I  came across a good friend who back stabbed me, and I forgave him; I have been to jail because a colleague thought I may be a threat to him, and I started loving him more; in jail I came across a prisoner whose death sentence was commuted, and he transformed himself to a divine soul; ever eager to help any prisoner/under trial; he will plant a flowery plant wherever he find suitable soil, he will ensure that a fruit bearing tree never goes out of the reach of prisoners, so that any one may pluck a fruit effortlessly; he was remind-full too all the time that he will never be freed from the four walls, and will remain in prison till natural death. He used to say, "I am living a life after death, there is nothing to be worried about, so why not live joyfully for others".

I am thankful to few people who gave me an opportunity to witness and experience a wholesome living, so what is there to be concerned about after death. Ignorant are those who do not live wholly, wholesomely and for others. Befriend a soul, who recognizes souls, and we all be for eternity... 

Thanks my dear souls, we never die.

(With inputs from life experiences of others and self, where ‘I’ is only the co-passenger, a witness or observer)

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