1. Have an Interesting Snippet to Share : Click Here
    Dismiss Notice

Just Two!

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by rgsrinivasan, Oct 10, 2018.

  1. rgsrinivasan

    rgsrinivasan IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    10,291
    Likes Received:
    9,985
    Trophy Points:
    540
    Gender:
    Male
    I was down with cold and that dull headache similar to the time when you rue about the missing opportunity over and over again, in a seemingly endless loop. It seems funny that such small things rob your happiness that quick and leave you in that terrible mood. It was then that my 8 year kid came up asking if he can eat something. I reminded him that he just had his lunch an hour ago and he should defer eating anything at least for an hour or more. As usual, he ignored my words and went for the box that usually has some snack. His face fell when he found that empty that day.

    Not liking what I saw, I suggested the sweet lemons in the fridge. He hared across and brought them at the speed of light. Thoughtful that he was, he then brought the knife to peel them off. He wanted to do that himself but our advice has been stern and worked right for this one - that he should not use the knife then. He obliged after experimenting and getting a couple of cuts actually. I watched him as I deliberately slowed down peeling them. His patience lasted for about a minute as was then peeling the inner skin of the first half of the first fruit. He felt like bursting at any point and as you guessed right, snatched that from me when I was just about to be done and ran to the other room. I admonished him earlier for that, but I didn't do it then. Completing my task of peeling the remaining fruit, I collected the peeled skin, sampled one slice and summoned him. "Dump them in the dust-bin yourself! Don't call me for that!", he said and ended that with "You always ask me only to do that!".

    He came back however and took away the remaining fruits. A minute or two later, he came back, offering a few slices. Moved, I took some out of his hand and tasted one. The one that I tasted earlier was a bit tangy but what he offered were sweet. "Tastes so sweet you know?", I said. "I know that! I gave only the best to you!", he said. For a moment I was lost. Mellowing down a bit, I said, "Even if you were to offer me the not so sweet slices, they will be sweet to me!". He looked up and said, "How could that be? I only gave you the sweeter ones, right?" and moved off to do something else. As a child, we always are eager to share the love, irrespective of circumstances, people and everything else and of course beam when we are cherished. We might have been adamant yes, and demanded for specific things, even cry at times to reinforce those demands, but those things don't last beyond a day utmost.

    And it is our ignorance that plays a huge part in being happy with whatever little that we get instead of brooding over things that we desired, but not had. I still consider one who enjoys little things in life and celebrates it small, as a gifted individual regardless of his social status. I ruminated further, wondering why we are more disturbed as we get to know more. You can always state that what you choose to know makes all the difference and I may agree. But that stage comes after going through some phases of learning, whether you like it or not. I remembered an incident that happened when I was in teens [not so long ago, so please don't yawn :)]. I was with my dad and we were in a train that took us home. In that short journey, somebody called my dad, who was in his early fifties then. That person was slightly taller and had this superior attitude that irritated me then. He was my dad's supervisor in the previous job and sounded every bit bossy. Thankfully, their conversation was short as we had to get down soon. "Who is he? Why is he arrogant?", my bunch of questions started. My dad seemed to be uninterested but answered me nevertheless. They had quit their jobs at about the same time [roughly a year back then], he said and was happy that his ex-supervisor found a job. My dad did get another job but was drawing one-fifth of what he got earlier.

    "All that is fine! But why should he treat you like that?", I asked. "He is still not out of his earlier job and mindset. Poor fellow!", he said and changed the topic. I was so dull that I didn't realize that until the next day. "But you could have behaved in a similar way, right?", I asked him. "I didn't want to be harsh to him, let him have that little pleasure!", he said. "Don't you feel angry about that? Don't you hate his attitude?", I persisted. He just smiled and moved on. As I get older now, I understand now that such things don't matter as there is so much that we need to be concerned about. He is now at a stage where he doesn't have grudge on anything and just embraces everything and moves on. He has his basket of sorrows and a few health issues, but I have never seen him complain much about them. He is moved by any small act of kindness from anyone and wishes them well. And he had always shared his mistakes and ego trips openly as we all grew up.

    It felt like seeing both extremes to me, where we start from a state of blissful ignorance, gather a lot of things good and bad in between, that makes us go through a number of states and then as we age, we shed these one by one, back to that state where we hate nobody and reconcile with all things which include shortcomings of self and others and share that love again, to any and every person with whom we interact with. In fact, there is this age old question in physics that differentiates between distance and displacement. If you come back to the same point where you started from, what is the distance you covered? And what about the displacement?

    Perhaps we should focus more on not just how far we go, I feel. What is your view on this, friends?
     
  2. PavithraS

    PavithraS Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    2,048
    Likes Received:
    4,129
    Trophy Points:
    290
    Gender:
    Female
    What a way to be back ! Welcome, RGS !
    Hope you are doing better now.
    True that. being happy is just a inner state of mind. You train your mind to be happy irrespective of the outer influence. But that comes only with experience and maturity, again the time taken to overcome the ignorance depends upon the capacity of concerned individuals .
    Aha ! So this is the sweet 'Sulai' that was wrapped in this snippet !! You definitely hide a spiritual sulai within an ordinary looking fruit skin very well, RGS !
    No, I did not :smile:
    He practiced not preached, the only effective tool when it comes to teaching young minds, by young I mean not only those who are young in age.Again,like being happy, being young(being old too) is also a matter of inner mind, I think.What you say?
    Have not I told you before too, that you at times write/echo precisely what is running in my mind exactly around that time ? Well,I repeat that again here. You say ignorance, I prefer innocence as a child comes in to being with that purity related to divinity. While ignorance simply means lack of knowledge, innocence gives room to think that the child is open to learning, curious too.

    Well, if it is all Loka Maya as they term it, the whole thing of starting at a point and finishing at the same thinking that we covered a distance and displaced some Time- it is all just for SomeOnes's fun and fervor. Might be Endless Illusion, nevertheless it is an intelligent entertainment,if at all the participants in the enactment too learn to enjoy the show along with the Directing Producer.:)
     
    rgsrinivasan likes this.
  3. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    2,474
    Likes Received:
    3,125
    Trophy Points:
    283
    Gender:
    Female
    Dear rgs,
    Sequence according to me is childhood innocence, then see and experience a lot of things..... Both ups and downs, learn and become mature. In that process sometimes negative traits like anger, frustrations, revenge etc etc also do take place. When children reach teenage we gradually mellow down. My father was quite a different man when we were teenagers and different when he grew old.Grandchildren mellow them a lot. What he found fault in us is not a fault when gc matter. Anger goes away, let go quality developed, forgive others easily. That is the way he was. Would happen with us also.
    Syamala
     
    rgsrinivasan likes this.
  4. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    5,365
    Likes Received:
    10,561
    Trophy Points:
    438
    Gender:
    Female
    Dear RGS,
    On reading your snippet I am reminded of a Tamil saying
    " Arupathu solvathu
    Anubava Nijam
    athai irupathu kettaal
    jeyippathu nijam
    ( what the person in 60s says is born of experience and it is a reality.
    If that is listened to by a person in 20s,he is sure to win)
    As age advances, things which seemed to be an unpardonable mistake earlier, looks reasonable and justified and we tend to forget and forgive it as a normal human tendency.

    jayasala 42
     
    rgsrinivasan likes this.
  5. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    13,370
    Likes Received:
    24,115
    Trophy Points:
    538
    Gender:
    Male
    Dear RGS,

    Brahmacharya, Grahastha, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa Ashrams are defined in the scriptures. Birth is a grace of the Lord to cure our Vasanas. Therefore, during the early childhood, we need to learn about Brahman through Acharya. Later, apply those lessons learned during Grahastha period practicing Dharma through Dana and Yagna. Having experienced the practical aspects of life, Vanaprastha is for contemplation and withdrawal from the worldly life and finally, we dedicate our life in its entirety to meditate upon the Lord.

    Talking in practical terms, learning and unlearning, inserting and eliminating qualities, realizing nothing here in this world belong to us and we are just a trustee, knowing desires and attachments are the root cause of pleasure and pain (the pair of opposites), preparing for Sathya, Dharma, Shanti, Prema and Ahimsa are the qualities that should remain in our true soul and the rest need to go, are the purposes of life. As long as this frame last, we need to keep progressing as much as we could and helping hand comes in the form of grace once we find the path towards salvation. It is enlightening to know that the progress we make in each life is the only thing that comes with us when we lose our frame. On the contrary, if we work with the presumption that the destination is too far, it impairs the tendency to progress.

    Get well soon.

    Viswa
     
    rgsrinivasan likes this.
  6. rgsrinivasan

    rgsrinivasan IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    10,291
    Likes Received:
    9,985
    Trophy Points:
    540
    Gender:
    Male
    Thanks for your like and a detail feedback to this post, @PavithraS. I feel much appreciated.
    It could as well be an illusion, nevertheless, its beautiful. There always lies that tiny part of us which watches self and most of the times bring us back to earth quick after a high / low. Perhaps the whole concept of maya makes more sense as one goes through the various phases of life. Gifted are those who stay afloat, or those who firmly believe in the almighty come whatever may. -rgs
     
  7. rgsrinivasan

    rgsrinivasan IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    10,291
    Likes Received:
    9,985
    Trophy Points:
    540
    Gender:
    Male
    You are right @shyamala1234. Yes, we mellow a lot as we age and get to that state closer to unconditional love and acceptance as we see each day as a bonus. Plus, the presence of grandchildren during your second childhood is always a boon, as you live through them and wonder how much they know at such a young age while it took ages for us to get there. So we take a journey that is a full circular path starting from love and ending with love actually. We learn and unlearn during the process. Thanks for your feedback. -rgs
     
  8. rgsrinivasan

    rgsrinivasan IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    10,291
    Likes Received:
    9,985
    Trophy Points:
    540
    Gender:
    Male
    You are right @jayasala42 madam. Leaving aside the time between two phases of life - childhood and super-senior state, we find a lot more in common and perhaps the acceptance of things at some point without arguing further, makes it unique. Perhaps, this entire life looks like a normal distribution curve to me, though there are rare exceptions who stay at peak longer than others. Thanks for your feedback. -rgs
     
  9. rgsrinivasan

    rgsrinivasan IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    10,291
    Likes Received:
    9,985
    Trophy Points:
    540
    Gender:
    Male
    Dear @Viswamitra,

    Thanks for your feedback and for your concern. I am better now.
    I am interested in showing two states and provide a cross-sectional view allowing self to introspect more and fill the gaps in one's own ways as we progress. You do have a clear view so, you tend to express a more holistic view. I cannot but agree more however, beg to differ on the last line of yours - I know that the destination is perhaps light years away and being ordinary and practical, limiting myself to this birth and life at the moment, I know that I will try no matter what, though I may not even go beyond the first step. The beauty of attainment of something is not in that final stage in this journey, but what you get in each step. As you get something, will you be strong enough to leave it behind and go further? In other words, let me repeat what someone said to me last week - What took you to here will not take you higher! Hope you consider my point of view. -rgs
     
    Viswamitra likes this.

Share This Page