Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani!!

Every good movie has a particular scene or dialogue that touches us. I watched Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani recently. Barring a few mis-placed parts, the movie was simply awesome! And the best scene of the movie for me-

The character Bunny (played by Ranbir Kapoor) wants to go around places and see, experience the world. But in that one scene in the movie, where Naina (played by Deepika Padukone) makes him realize that she need not go anywhere else to ‘get it’, she has it all here. For California ki dhoop, she has Mumbai ki baarish; for berry cheese cake, she has gajar ka halwa; for Norway mein opera, she has Maratha Mandir mein DDLJ. Life has everything every where, but fulfillment is now here.. and not where you are not. And if Bunny is craving to go somewhere else to ‘get’ something else, he would miss the beautiful sunset that’s there in front of him at that moment in that scene.

Life throws so much uncomfortable situations to Bunny to make him realize this.. while he’s away from home and into his adventures, he loses his father and gets to know about it only a week later.

Purpose of Pain

I often wondered why God has made experience of physical pain a part life. Every living being on this planet falls ill or meet with an accident and goes through physical pain.

Recently, I had very bad pain in my wisdom tooth. The dentist told me that it needs to be removed. I promptly agreed for the extraction and accepted the pain that the procedure would inflict on me. Now, having learnt and practiced to live in the present moment at least in a few situations, I kept my self away from anxiety of future pain, till, eventually when I settled down in the dentist’s operating chair. At that time, all the thoughts of my daily chores disappeared and fear gripped me! Right from when he applied local anesthesia and injected pain-killers in my mouth through syringes, I had dropped all my other intentions, worries and tasks aside and only kept praying, surrendering and asking Guruji- why am I supposed to go through all this? By the grace, the procedure was completely smooth and painless! But, I realized that possibly, I have an answer for the purpose of pain in life- at least for those moments of anticipated pain, I forgot everything else and brought myself in the present moment and in prayers. The intention of pain, whether physical or emotional should be to bring a person to surrender and prayers at least for some time.

A Beautiful Poem!

Are we in a conflict?

When is it that we fail to handle a situation and react? It looks like when our mind is in anger and ego, or in longings and desires.

Especially during conflicts, our mind has a tendency to hit back. And every time when we fail to respond, we increase the amount of work that we need to do in order to get free.

As we know, when situations outside and inside are hot, only more ugly things happen. So, this is the time to hold on and accept the present situation, whether a set back or an adjustment and let time pass by.

So, we should have a short term goal and a long term goal-

The short term goal is to move on from a conflict.

The long term goal is to keep moving on from such events that will keep on coming wherever we are.. as these events are not at all our final destination..

Pyre

My hair made a sparkling sound..
As it dissolved into the ground

My eyes closed and my body still
I enjoyed the bliss and my free will

There was no need to present or pretend
There was now- no foe, no friend

I feel so much peace and contentment
That now there’s nothing to repent or resent

With life’s riddles, I didn’t agree
But as the fire engulfed me, I was set free

The air escaped; the water, vapours
Now there were no laughters, no tears

The space was free, the earth into ashes
The fire released me, finally into infinity..

Should I be firm? Or should I let go?

There’s one common trait that we always observe in leaders- inner conviction. They take risks and walk the uncertain path, while others wither away.

Actually, to a certain extent, every person exhibits leadership. That’s why he able to take his decisions. The degree of leadership depends on the degree of firmness- how much pressure can one swallow?

This firmness seems powered by ego. So you also see some leaders dead, but not bent- like Muammar Gaddafi, Prabhakaran, Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussain.

So how many leaders exhibit the ability to judge when to be firm and when to let go? And does letting go mean not being a strong leader?

Life of Pi

There's one thing that clearly stuck me in this movie-

When Pi is completely helpless and gives up, he ends up at a strange island which saves his life. And when he is done with the island and he realizes that his life would be stagnant there, he moves on to find the real land.

Now, if God had wanted, instead of landing him on that strange island, God could have landed Pi up at the real land itself. But that did not happen in the movie. And so also in life. We have to continue to sail, and never give up. We have no option to stop. We can rest, take a break, relax for some time and then, again get back to sailing..

But then, I have another question- What is it exactly that I am supposed to achieve?

I feel, when I realize that there is actually nothing to achieve, no target to greatly chase, but to only live each day and do the things that come my way.. maybe peace would dawn and I would come back to the present moment.

But still, there has to be a goal.. and also an awareness that except for the sporadic time bound frustrations, the real contentment is in effort, not in actually achieving the goal.