The Sparrow And The Eagle

Dear Cheeniya sir,
Not first things first but last things first......you can write with equal ease both serious topics and humour as well.Serious matters makes grey cells work and can have a good laugh with humour. Even behind humour you have some spark of thought or message conveyed...even if it is saying that you did not need a T.V in triplicane as equal real life dramas happen in other tenants' homes and those give equal or more entertainment!
I have a couple of writer friends...write short stories. Both of them say that fans of Wodehouse definitely read serious literature also (They are 100 % sure of the fact). I agree with them as they are more knowledgeable than me.
Sparrows have almost extinguished.....that is sad. I remember in childhood when my mother used to sit for picking stones in rice in Chata, made of bamboo ( I do not know equal English word to it) sparrows used to come and how intelligently they remove the husk from grains of rice and eat only rice part. It was fascinating to watch them. Always there used to be one nest in ventilator.
Birds migrate in winters to south. In USA we used to stay in Pennsylvania and in the onset of winters it is a familiar sight to see flocks of birds, small ones flying to Florida. Somebody told me they cover the distance in a few hours in one stretch! My cousin and his wife are doctors in Florida. They say in winters quite some senior citizens come and stay in Florida to in winters from North east states to avoid cold and quite some of them are their patients. They call them snow birds!
Bach...I do not remember how many times I read Jonathan Livingston seagull and do not remember how many people I gifted the book but not sure how many read it. From the small book we learn so many things, so much can be achieved even by the slowest living being, motivation, achievement, a lot of knowledge and sharing with others! I want to write a lot lot about that book but I restrain myself as you and Sabita know a lot more things about Bach!
It does not matter how fast mind can travel fast as Yudhishtara said, but even if it is at snail's pace progress made in spiritual life is what matters and that is priceless! Is there a limit for perfection? No...as you said. it is not bounded by numbers...Yes.
I would better stop now. Otherwise it would be longer than the blog. May come back later in the discussion.
Thank you sir.
Syamala

 

Dear Mr Cheeniya,

[QUOTE="Cheeniya, post: 3957041, member: 4510

"There is a saying in Tamil that however high a sparrow tries to fly, it cannot become an eagle.

உயர உயரப் பறந்தாலும் ஊர்க்குருவி பருந்தாகுமா?
It could never happen.

In the same way if a turkey tries to dance spreading its wings it cannot compare itself with a peacock.

கானமயிலாடக் கண்ட வான்கோழி தன் பொல்லாச் சிறகை விரித்து
ஆடினாற் போலுமே கல்லாதான் கற்ற கவி.

I have heard people calling this daily visit of two eagles from Varanasi to close to Chennai as utter non-sense!

We went on excursion to Thirukazukunram when I was studying in Kanchipuram. When the gurukkal offered the prasadam only one eagle came. We could not wait for the other eagle to come as we had to leave for Mamallapuram.

They have not probably heard of a bird called godwit which has been seen to fly 11000 kms nonstop from one end of the world to the other. This is a scientifically verified fact. Mind you, these birds are not huge beasts of power like the modern transpacific jets but live birds that measure some fifteen inches and weigh much less than half a kilogram! Don’t say you won’t believe it because ornithologists have labelled them and proved their flying capability. Their flying time for 11000 kms is roughly 8 days nonstop! Nonstop, mind you!

It seems birds have tremendous energy. Lots of birds visit Vedanthankal even now from thousands of miles away.

Our mind travels faster than the fastest birds and the man made vehicles.

After finishing this write up, I showed this to a friend who is normally my sounding board for all my new blogs. He read this and told me that I was better in jovial subjects. ‘Go back to Triplicane’, he advised me![/QUOTE]

I totally disagree with your sounding board friend's opinion. Here in IL people are waiting eagerly to read your ramble on any subject under the Sun and above the sky.

PS

 

Dear Cheeniya sir,

I am not aware of the eagles flying from Varanasi to chennai, but the sparrows - I can only sigh. A couple of days ago I read an article which said these little creatures are nearing extinction due to lack of emotional connect. The indifference of humans towards nature is one of the primary cause and they are also homeless. Where can they find place for their nest when most of the houses these days are in the size of a sparrow's nest?

And, thank you for introducing Richard Bach! I have added him to my to-read list -

I have read the little excerpt again and again, marveling at what it conveys, trying to dive deeper into the context, trying to embrace the extraordinary!

Like always a nice write-up!

 

I am all the more excited reading the Caution dear Sir. Thanks for Cautioning me!!

 

Dear Sri Sir
The moment I read Bach, I immediately thought of @Srama. I knew she would love this post and sure enough she did!

It is true that sparrows can never be eagles. There is another similar saying that dancing turkeys cannot be peacocks. (kaana mayilada kandirundha vaankozhi...)
The problem is, you know that, I know that, but does the sparrow know that?

As for trying to understand the high end philosophy, I fail like the sparrow sir. I am not even going to pretend I understood it.

 

Dear Cheeniya Sir,

What a delightful thread this is! You are like Brahmaputra River (If Brahma is capable of creating a life at will, Brahmaputra should have enormous powers) that could change course in a few minutes. You can be humorous in a few threads and could be dangerously spiritual in another. You remind me of Kalaivanar N.S.Krishnan who made everyone laugh but think about what he said for a long time. This thread makes one think for a long time. How do you write about Tram in Triplicane and your hairdressing experiencing and suddenly switch gears to get into such a serious discussion? I have to examine your fingers that type when I visit Chennai next time. That should have some special powers. Besides, I also imagine you as an Eagle that has clear vision of everything down below because of the altitude at which it flies (with clear ability to assimilate and express knowledge that you gained over 75 years of life) but at the same time, being very down to earth like a Sparrow that we find hard to see nowadays.

Law of attraction used to be defined earlier as "Opposite polls attract each other" and recently it has been changed as "like attracts like". When you write humorous threads, it brings humor in everyone and when you write spiritual threads, it brings the best spiritual feelings in everyone. Please don't blame me if my response is spiritual. The only exception to this rule is spouses. The man seeks patience and hence he is provided with wife who is perfectly capable of testing his patience and wife seeks perseverance and hence she is provided with a man who never yields anything.

I happened to see an English language French movie named "Lucy" release in 2014. My son gave me rave review about the movie and rightly so this movie generated over $460 million when it was produced in $40 million budget. An American woman get caught as a drug mule in Taipei, Taiwan and the drug cartel sew a bag full of CPH4 (a synthetic drug) (a highly volatile substance that pregnant women produce for the welfare of fetuses). A guy kicks her in the stomach resulting in that drug releasing inside her stomach. She realized her cerebral capacity enhanced significantly resulting in her appearing and disappearing instantly at places, teleporting herself at will, extracting data from someone's brain by just touching that person and so on. Eventually, she becomes immortal spreading herself into a thin air. Our Cerebral power is enormous and it is my understanding we end up using only 10% of that capacity. It has the potential to store enormous data and analyze them.

Our Mind has no borders, unlimited powers and is perfectly capable of experiencing things that we have never experienced before. We limit ourselves to the human mind (body conscious mind) and above that there are higher mind (related to thought consciousness with no limits and transcends the five elements), illuminated mind (related to current in the body as it is a generator) and Over Mind (achieving totality). May be that is why Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam asked us all to dream more and Dr.MLK Jr made the famous talk, "I have a dream". There are three elements that has the potential to change the course of our lives and they are a) Ability to have a noble thought, b) empower that thought with enormous amount of energy through our will power and c) execute that thought drawing energy around us through our attitude.

There is a mystic in each one of us and the only difference is those perfected souls (Siddhas) in Thiruvannamalai have explored that and we haven't. They have traveled over the mind and explored things above the mind. We are limiting ourselves within a border that we are comfortable with. We have to stop analyzing the Super Power rationally through our limited cerebral capacity. Ideal situation is to have the vision of an Eagle (broader vision for the well-being of the society) and simplicity of the sparrow (humility of a small bird). Showing its place to the shadow (Ego) that thinks the achievements are individual's cerebral performance is important. It is empowered by the energy that is assigned to our will power and actions generated by our Free will by a Super Power. It is all about aligning our Free Will with that of the mission of the Super Power.

The mystics spend most of their time exploring something that they had never been before while a person like me is exploring my five senses even today despite all the rich knowledge available from the teachings of the learned people and despite seeing the Mystics who demonstrate how life has to be experienced.

Conclusion: We don't have to pretend to fly high (pomp and show) and when we really fly high due to noble thinking, will power and ability to execute a good action, we need to remain like a simple sparrow (achieve humility) in order to be an extraordinary soul.

Viswa