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A humbling realisation

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, Mar 29, 2007.

  1. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Sudha
    When you lie on your terrace and watch the stars in the sky, the brain does open out automatically! I look at your admission of your miniscule brain as an example of utter humility, thondaradipodiyan endru sollikolvathai pola! :)
    Sri
     
  2. iyerviji

    iyerviji Finest Post Winner

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    My dear Anna

    When Sudha has herself said that some things have gone above her head what about me. But I can say if I read all your threads that itself is like travelling whole universe.
     
  3. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Viji
    My ramblings do not certainly deserve that kind of praise! You are just being indulgent towards your Anna!
    Sri
     
  4. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    Sir,

    Amazing. Only you can really make such a heavy and complicated topic so light and hilarious. Had a good chuckle over the hilarious stories.

    But on a more serious note. It is truly humbling. I have long given up the effort to even try to comprehend the magnitude of things. All that I succeeded in figuring out is that I am unable to even comprehend how insignificant my life is in the whole scheme of events.

    And that being as it is, isn't it ridiculous how we blow our problems out of proportions and keep fighting with each other over trifles and making ourselves miserable over nothing?

    But then as those same Chinmaya mission people said, this is called "smashaana vairagyam". After realizing everything and shaking our heads sadly at life and ourselves, we will promptly be back to revelling in our own follies and this story is repeated ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
     
  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Satchi
    "Smashana vairagyam" has to keep itself bound within the precincts of Smashana. When we step out of it after seeing a soul off on its final journey, it is quite in the fitness of things that we ring up a friend to ask if Chennai Super Kings made it to the final. If that vairagyam lasted even for a day, the consequences would be far worse than if the sun lingered at the zenith a couple of hours longer than its wont.

    The humbling experience that I mentioned was merely to keep us in correct perspective particularly when we find our ego feels the need for nourishment. A hundred years of human life is not even tantamount to the shuffling of our feet in the grand scheme of things.This knowledge is essential to keep us in due bounds with all mankind.
    Sri
     
  6. Srama

    Srama Finest Post Winner

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    Dear Cheeniya sir,

    I was bored thoroughly and had an intense need to read something - light yet intense and not long, beautiful and quick. You know how those moments descend on us sometimes and I browsed through your threads, this caught my attention. No, not because of the title of the thread but because of the number of responses! And after I read it, I realised 'this was meant to be'. I know I have read it before but had not responded and I am only glad to have done that for I could read it again in a new light. I am always amazed about this thing called perception!

    One regret I have is that I did miss a golden opportunity to watch a meteor shower in the middle of an ocean on a cruise ship! I could not for the life of me pull out of bed to watch the perseids when I was reeling under severe headache and some sea sickness and after almost 4yrs I still feel the pangs of it. Hopefully I will have an opportunity to right this wrong and enjoy the bliss of a bautiful night sky the way I want to one more time. Your description reminded me of this episode and makes me long for a night like that sans the headache and the sickness :)

    Of course never for a moment did I think an old magazine in a dentist's office could lead to such a beautiful write up. But then that is how treasurers are always hidden aren't they? As for that soothing music in a dentist's office, I remember asking my dentist in India to change it with 'for all the money I am paying you, I should be able to listen to the music I want and not what you think is good - demanded to see the cd's and chose - all under the influence of nitrous oxide' much to the embarrassment of my sister who worked as a dentist there and to the absolute amusement and delight of her boss. He could not believe we were sisters and I cannot believe that the whole procedure lasted for 2hrs and was only glad to have spoken my mind, nitour oxide or not!

    Now coming to your article, Cheeniya sir how did you resist the urge not to stand up and put things in perpsective to all those people with fear written large on their face? An assurance that this dentist's office and that aching tooth is not such a big deal and that universe of pain they imagine is just inside their heads and no more and no less :) You know what I mean! Wouldn't that count as 'A humbling realization' too?

    or that feeling of fear!


    <DIR>
    - he is indeed telling us as long as we are listening!


    </DIR>
     
  7. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    My dear Srama
    Perception is a very obsessive pursuit. Quite often, it makes me feel intellectually inadequate. Do I see it as others see it is a question that bothers me very often. If I see crazy things in a seemingly ordinary situation, I am reluctant to speak out for the fear of being branded crazy. This is when I feel comfortable when I come across a person whose perceptions match mine, if not completely at least to a great extent. The fact, however, remains that most of us are enslaved by things we do not see consciously but we get freed from it only by conscious perception.

    Missing a meteor shower while in the middle of an ocean in a ship is an unpardonable crime! I only hear of them and read about them. In a hazy metropolis like Chennai, you look up and see only the moon and a couple of brighter stars. I remember my school days some six decades back when we always had a spectacular view of the night sky. Lying on my back in the terrace and watching the stars used to be a thrilling experience. Even the Milky Way would be visible to our naked eyes. The shooting stars would blaze across the sky and vanish into oblivion. I never knew these were part of the meteor showers then. Now we know their names but can’t see them! I don’t mind headaches and sickness but I certainly long for a night sky which I can behold in all its brilliance. But this is becoming a far cry even from villages let alone the cities!

    My dentist Daya is like my daughter. Her clinic is across my flat and whenever I go to her for a checkup, she will play the music I love most. Paul Mauriat has a soothing effect on my nerves and with his music playing, I find it less difficult to face more difficult situations! But your visit to your dentist brings us back to the question of perception. Your demand to your dentist that ‘I should be able to listen to the music I want and not what you think is good’ is a good example of perception. I remember how my wife who had never been exposed to western music earlier used to grimace whenever I played Paul Mauriat. I would tell her to keep an open mind and listen to it with the knowledge and awareness that millions of people across the globe adored his music and there should be something in it. She softened her stand on Paul Mauriat and eventually started liking him as much as I did!

    Fear of the dentist is a strange thing. We go to him with terror writ large on our faces. When he is through with us and we find that we did not feel a thing, we not only feel highly relieved but our estimation of ourselves goes up a thousand fold. You can see that from the smug smile on the faces of people coming out of a dentist’s clinic!
    Sri
     
  8. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Is the dentist planting those type of magazines in the front desk as a symbolic gesture to make the patients go away from the terrestrial world and when the inevitable extraction takes place, we feel we have landed back on earth after a painful journey? Is it an indication of the nightmare he goes through when he looks into an open mouth not knowing which one of those 32 planets (grinders) deeply rooted to the gums is defective causing pain to the human solar system?

    Whatever said and done, 32 soldiers have done their job of grinding the hardest Poruvilangai Urundai to the easiest rava urandai? They work overtime to send down those unimaginable quantity of food down the intestinal system? When the dentist feel that it is time to retire for one of the soldiers, he extracts them out of service. When the time comes for all of them to go, we get an artificial set that gives us the flexibility to brush them without opening our mouth. We also realize that we have come to the evening of our life.

    Coming back to the wonderful finding of a new star news that was drowned by the world cup frenzy, it only makes me put myself in a proper perspective that what I know is very little. I am not even a dot in the entire universe to make a difference. At least I can use that knowledge to control my ever growing organism (EGO). These findings are very much comparable to what I know about myself and I can spend another 100 lives without understanding my true nature.

    I am humbled by this post.

    Viswa
     
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  9. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Viswa
    It is a good one comparing our teeth to an army of soldiers. But the irony of this army is that the soldiers that tackle the hardest enemies are the first one to go out of the scene. The soldiers who pretend to be fighting from the front are just pretenders and are more interested in showing off like the male models of the Fair and Lovely Cream! I have seen some of my peers having only four teeth in the front! I am happy to see that my army is well preserved!

    I always let my mind dwell on the cosmos whenever I am drawn into a ego-based conflict. When I hear that our planet is smaller than a mustard in a foot ball field, where are we placed in the whole scheme of things? And with a life span of about eight decades, we are worse than a still born child in the grand scheme of things. Let us just explore the purpose of our being here and move along. The least we can achieve is to be a source of joy at least to a handful of people.
    Sri
     
  10. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

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    Fantastic! Throughout I was thinking I was reading a Geography lesson. But the last paragraph summed up the whole thing.What a twist? Jonathan Livingston Seagull is one of my all time favourites. I read that book at least half a dozen times. Generally I underline while reading a book. In Jonathan Livingston I underlined half the book.

    Quote

    I have learned that it is hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.
     
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