Sacrifices

This thought is very prevalent among the seniors today, that they have been under the control of their elders earlier and now, under their children. Yes, the plight of seniors, many of them, is of concern. This brings me back again to a fundamental question I ask again and again. About duties and responsibilities in a family.

Many youngsters have become successful on the shoulders of their parents who made personal sacrifices so that the children could prosper in life. Are the youngsters grateful? Do they understand that there has been a price paid for those sacrifices? And do they feel the love for their elders enough to reciprocate that love and caring? 

I can say with certainty that family is a great bond of shared love and support, PROVIDED there is always the element of mutual respect and freedom to grow. Discipline, sure! Unnecessary Controls, NO! Entitlement, NEVER! Individual wholesomeness is badly needed to establish a journey of a balance of give and take and of virtuous living, correcting flaws along the way. All of us have them.

When we see sterling qualities in anyone, observe and learn, especially if you have struggled earlier. Blaming parents, teachers, friends are never going to get us anywhere. It is a new day every day. Treat it as such and begin a new life every day, leaving past grievances where they belong! In the past!

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Discipline

Have you ever noticed that our stories write themselves? We think WE are writing them. Just watch with awareness how your days unfold. How many plans you make and how many actually fructify! Life has a definite flow. And if we try to break the flow, somewhere, we suffer. I call it trying to interfere with God’s plan for us.

Just look at the discipline and harmony in nature! Everything works like clockwork and seems automatic. God’s wonderful creation!

But we forget that so are WE God’s creation. Only, not so wonderful after all, considering the havoc we have caused just because of the extra gifts we have: a developed brain, choices and free will and a massive ego we have turned into obsessiveness and narcissism. Conflict at the cost of harmony and peace. What are we doing with these marvelous gifts? Abusing them big time? We live in a world of illusions, called Maya, but the veil of Maya has blinded us! Reality eludes us. We are like rudderless ships that have no anchor. Our illusory power stems from complete ignorance of who we are!

It is evident that we are out to destroy ourselves every day because we lack humility and the spiritual knowledge that actually binds us all with a thick cord of connectivity. Which we don’t choose to see.

It is evident that our connectivity with the Divine has been lost. Otherwise, we would not destroy human beings for land acquisition, for gaining supremacy and power, build walls of hate where only complete annihilation of those we hate will satisfy insecure and sadistic minds.

For how long? “Enough “ is far away.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Compassion

 

A man came to a Zen master and asked, “I would like to become a Buddha.” And the master hit him hard.

The man was puzzled. He went out and asked some old disciple, “What kind of man is this? I asked such a simple question and he got so angry. He hit me hard! My cheek is still burning. Is it wrong to ask how to become a Buddha? This man seems to be very cruel and violent!” And the disciple laughed. He said, “You don’t understand his compassion. It is out of his compassion that he has hit you hard. And he is old, ninety years old; just think of his hand – it will be burning more than your cheek! You are young. Think of his compassion, you fool! Go back!” But the man asked, “But what is the message in it?” And the disciple said. “The message is simple. If a Buddha comes and asks how to become a Buddha, what else is there to do? You can hit him and make him aware that you are it. What nonsense you are talking about!” If a rosebush starts trying to become a rosebush, it will go mad. It is already the rosebush. You may have forgotten. Zen says you are in a state of slumber, you have forgotten who you are, that’s all. Nothing has to be done, just a remembrance. That’s what Nanak calls surati, Kabir calls surati – just a remembrance. You have only to remember who you are!

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

Enough

How much is "enough”? Growing up, we determined its extent by the tone and body language of our parents. Even by the accent on particular letters of the word. Like, when they said, “enough!” the danger light flashed bright and we retreated to our rooms immediately. If they said, " enough is enough now", that was a warning signal not to stretch things too far.

We used to have to take our cues from them. There was strict discipline. Not only that, our elder siblings became unrecognizable when they donned the mantle of our parents while the parents were traveling. They turned Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde into nonfiction and a total reality.

Ah! Those were the days when even discipline did not keep us from smiling happily and basking in the love of family. Our parents were not friends as such. We had our siblings for that. But we ate together, sang and played bridge and card games together, holidayed together with our parents, every summer holiday without fail. Wherever we went, we distributed all the chores among us and it was the height of pleasure to do them amidst mischievous chatter only because we were all together.

On other holidays, it would be dormitory style living with cousins , climbing trees, plucking mangoes and tamarinds off the trees in the compound, playing hide and seek all day long with our elders running after us to get us to sit still for meals and snacks.

Rustic living but so, so beautiful and close to nature! There were no super expensive holidays to Europe and Switzerland. These were hardly any substitutes for the laughter and fun filled days, full of love and sharing. Our hearts were full, pity that this generation will never see such days. What it used to be, finding pleasure in the simple things of life.

Today, what is enough? Going to Europe and Switzerland is not enough. Having the best of cars and gadgets is not enough. Holidays with family are not enough. Being content with "enough" of everything is not "enough". Because, what IS enough? Is your "enough" like mine or better than mine? Simpler than

Mine or more complicated than mine?

Can I say "enough" today and get away with it? Can I say, “enough is enough" and not is put into a dog house for a sizeable chunk of time?

And what IS enough? I always felt that like "good, better, best", there ought to be categories of "enough”, too.

Like, enough, enougher and enoughest.

See! At least, you can smile. And that is enough.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

SpeakingtreeBlog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

Quote of the day