Short story# True life warrior

Short story# True life warrior

It’s not the very first time mankind is in danger due to an invisible enemy. Once we know the weaknesses of our adversary, it becomes easy to defeat it. In the current scenario,researches are going on and I know sooner or later a vaccine would be developed. Let’s start on a positive, healthy note and pray for each and every living creature on this planet. Kann kann mein bhagwan- God is in every particle.”

Many years ago, a wedding was solemnized. The entire lane was lit up, everyone was dressed up in their best attire, adorned with accessories. Multi-cuisine food was being served and there were happy faces everywhere. This scene happened in a district of Northern India. A new bride entered a popular household. Little is known about the personal lives of bride and groom. However, many differences lead to separation and subsequent divorce. Unfortunately or rather fortunately, nature had implanted a warrior in the womb of the bride. It was too late to go for termination when the lady realized she was pregnant.The groom takes charge and proposes to bring up their child. For the bride, this was a golden opportunity as she was waiting to free herself from the marital clutches. Soon, a little girl was born.Years went by, everyone got busy with their lives.

This little girl was brought up by her father and grandmother. Life hit a rough patch when the man was diagnosed with a mental illness and refused to take treatment.Tough decisions made by the grandmother lead them to move to a different city. The girl went to school in the morning and helped her grandma in household chores in the evening and then worked at a Public call office. They enjoyed each other’s company a lot. Life gave a jolt when her grandmother suffered a stroke and was in a need to be hospitalized but she met her demise before she reached the hospital. While giving fire to her grandma’s pyre, this girl pledged to find her mother. Some well wishers sent her to an ashram. By nature she was hard working and honest. Soon, she won over trust of the head priest and other ashram’s sisters. She felt kind of adopted by the ashram chief.

Her quest to meet her parents seemed like a distant possibility. After many struggles, she got the address of her mother from her father. She got ready for the big day when she would finally get to see her biological mother. They met at a temple where the mother clarified that there was no space for the girl in her life after she divorced her father as her parents got her married to a widower who was thirty years older than her and already had four children. With a broken heart, the girl returned to the ashram and continued living there as a concierge.

A regular visitor to the ashram sought her hand for her handicapped son. The head priest solemnized the wedding. Finally, life seemed normal after so many years. Her handicapped husband was a gem of a person and he loved and respected her. Soon, she gave birth to a baby boy and named him after her father. All this while, she used to remember her father dearly. With her husband’s encouragement and support, she brought her father to stay with them. Sadly, he didn’t recognize her and continued to live like a stranger. This girl warrior never complained about her hard life and braved every storm with a smile. Soon, her father also left for the other world to be with his mother.

In spite, of meagre income and below poverty line status, this girl warrior struggled to educate her son. She worked as a security guard at a college while her husband was a helper to truck drivers who took goods laden trucks to other states. All this while, she wore her best ornament, which were her smile and her belief in Gods. Her unshaken faith in Gods and her hard work reaped her rich benefits. She became the proud mother of a District magistrate.

Till date, she is unable to get an answer for- why her mother left her after birth? Was her mother’s own life more important than her own daughter’s? Why did God made her suffer ? Often, she would look up in  the sky and talk to God,” I know I am your favorite, as the most difficult part is given to the best actors.”
There is a famous saying ,"  Never say your problems are big, rather tell your problems, your Gods are big.

There is a warrior in each one of us.

When the going gets tough # the tough gets going.

This is one benefit of having a cup of tea at night. With each sip, pearls gets typed which when sewn together form a beautiful inspiring story.

Love,

Juju

BUDDHA#YUGPURUSH

BUDDHA#YUGPURUSH

Gratitude in abundance is my mantra for universal lock down. Everywhere I look, I perceive a sense of peace and calmness all around. Reason is related to human beings, who are living in their defined zones without encroaching on Mother nature. I will not dwell on negative aspects of Corona times, rather focus will be on positive effects. 

In my Popsie,s own words who is a renowned senior advocate,” God,s courtroom is the only courtroom where there is no hearing or further appeal. One has to welcome God,s verdict humbly in folded hands pose with gratitude in heart.”

I was introduced to Buddhism at a tender age of 11, when I played the role of Buddha,s disciple in a skit in Inter house competition. My only dialogues along with 5-6 other disciples were ” Buddham sharnam gachhami, dharman sharnam gachhami,……… (continous chants).  My quest for Buddhism had just begun, our school started participating in competitions at Rama Krishna Mission. Preachings of Swami Vivekananda and his guru Ramakrishna and Maa Sarada Devi started to touch a chord in my neurons. Our prizes in elocution and debate competitions (in English, Hindi & Sanskrit) comprised of books. These books impacted me in my foundation years.

When the time is good, it seems to have wings. Fast forward thirty years, Bingo! I am in Corona times watching my quarantine serial, Buddha.

Buddha was a divine soul whose quench for cause of misery, pain and suffering led him on path of divine knowledge and finally attainment. I was always intrigued by the concept of moksha- human being,s ultimate target. My image from childhood memories, as formed by reading Amar chitra katha,s Tinkle, Target, Reader,s Digest etc was different rather contrary to what I came to know. Thanks to research by Dr. Modi & Buddha productions, I got an insight into Buddha,s life. He was a yug-purush in true sense. He was a warm hearted, compassionate soul who lived a life of luxury, post marriage and fatherhood, renounced it.

His stories wisdom along with compassion are many. I will highlight only those which have touched me immensely. On his perusal, King Suddhona, his father passed an ordinance for woman of Rang Mahal ( prostitutes) which stated that it was woman,s will to have a relationship with a man. No one could force her into doing so. This, in today,s world is “No, means No!” When a women utters these words, one must respect her will. Still we have been unable to make human beings understand these simple words. The sexual abuses, rapes etc. are still prevalent in our societies.

Another important anecdote is related to Amprapali, nagar vadhu of Vaisahli, (supposedly extremely beautiful and irresistible lady). She accepted challenge from King Bimbisara, ruler of Magadha. Soon after Prince Siddhartha marriage to Princes Yashodra, Amprapali tries to lure Prince Siddharth by her dance and moves. When Prince gives his necklace as a gift, she asks for few personal moments with him. To which, Prince Siddharth readily agrees. Amprapali is about to enjoy her win in bet, her trance is interrupted by words by Prince. He elaborates further that post marriage, in conveying the word “ main ( I)” , he was not alone, his wife was a part of him/ main. Amparpali looses bet to kingBimbisara and later becomes Queen of Rang mahal in Magadha. Prince Siddarth,s love for his wife was unconditional and he treated her as equal.

Even before setting on his spiritual journey he discusses with his wife and leaves with her consent with a promise to return once he gets answers to his questions. He honored his promise.

During his spiritual journey, on a chance encounter, he counseled and motivated King Bimbisara against Bali pratha-killing of animals to please God. “ Bali pratha” was abolished then. Still, this is taking place in so called 21^st century. I happened to witness “ Bali ghar” where baby goats head were chopped off to please Maa Kali in Maa Kamaykha temple, Guwahati, Assam. Priests were holding cut heads of baby goats with blood dripping- a heart rendering site. My family was disturbed by this site for some time.

True to his promise, Siddharth returns as Guatam Buddha to Kapilvastu and does justice to each and every relationship- be it of son, nephew, husband, father, brother or his kingdom. He completes all his relations and leaves no open wounds. 

Let life unfold at its own pace, just take care to have gratitude, compassion, honesty, trust and integrity at all times. Life is to cherish. Embrace life will all might as who knows what tomorrow holds.

Spread love, spread care, spread trust, spread harmony. 

Also stay safe # stay indoors.

Budhham sharnam gacchami, dhrmam sharnam gacchami………

Love,

Juju

The Unforgotten Longing

The Unforgotten Longing

Life is unfolding in front of my eyes moment by moment, months by months ,years by years. There are many missing pages in my story. My heart yearns to remember them fondly, somehow tears roll down my cheek bones.

My heart goes out to the eight month pregnant lady who was a witness to untimely loss of her father. The woman who gave birth to a bonny baby boy who did not survive and was buried as per religious customs and she could not attend the burial. These memories haunted her till the last breath that maybe her son was actually alive while everyone buried him. Her heart ripped at the mere thought of this possibility ( which was of course never there)

I can see my school friend in basket ball ground of middle school crying after missing school for two weeks, only to reveal that she had lost her father suddenly due to heart attack while he was chatting with her and her sister. I can see the pain in my friend,s eyes, my best friend Kamaljeet when she shifted to Long Island ,New York. I could see flames arising from pyre of my childhood friend Meena, who had lost contact once she got married only to see her obituary in newspaper when I was in medical school. 

My grand mother,s figure draped in white in back yard of my hostel room, bidding me farewell and after few days my parents revealed that my nani had left for the higher journey the very next morning (I had seen her- strange).The unseen (smiling) faces of my nephews who left this world during intra uterine life.

My junior in my residency days who died in train and we got a call from Director,s office summoning us to go to Mumbai CST railway station to collect his body. The long ordeal of paperwork, collection of body, postmortem, embalming and finally dropping him at airport. That was the first time I witnessed postmortem of someone so close. Something inside broke and I became a changed person. I started believing in life after death.

There are many more happy moments. Somehow, as I see my life all the painful incidents seem to have been stitched together. The dusk time is striking a melancholy chord. I try to fast forward the few losses and the tape gets stuck on 18 June, 2015 evening 6 pm- when I witnessed the most painful experience loss of my mother in my own hands,my lap, in front of my eyes. I changed. With her, went a part of me and I felt incomplete.

No solace or comfort was enough rather, is enough still. Each evening as the sun sets, the memories automatically start moving like a slideshow.  I have got used to this and send my love to the other world.My mother chose me. Maybe she thought I was the toughest. She left on a happy note as she was a contented, soul who was waiting to cross over the other side to meet her parents, brother and her first son- Happy.

In august 2016, my closet friend shifted base overseas. I survived this jolt gracefully.

Meditation has helped me immensely to overcome this Unforgotten longing.

I quote my favourite lines- Aadat song from movie Kalyug:

Juda hokar bhi tu mujh me kahin baaki hai, palkon par bann ke yaad, ......chali aati hai.......

God bless you.

Love,

Juju

YASODHRA aka GOPA# BUDDHA,s WIFE

Netflix#Buddha#Episode27

Yashodhra Siddharth Gautam#Buddha,s wife

Vajrasana , my favourite pose for studying and writing. In my endaevour to keep myself positive and happy, I shortlisted Buddha serial as my quarantine serial. Each episode is so well scripted and depicted that one feels like watching it again and again. Every time, I watch a particular episode again, I learn something new. The depth of this particular episode hit a chord deep in my heart. 

Yashodra, wife of Prince Siddharth was a strong minded, independent lady. A lady, way ahead of times in her thoughts and decisions. She married the man she loved. She was intelligent to know that someone in the palace was not happy with her marriage. There are many such more incidences which highlight this. 

What left an impact was, the love and understanding she had, rather they had. Even though it must have been dramatically projected to gain TRP, yet there must be some truth. Prince Siddharth was upset, post war and nightmares haunted him. She handles the sensitive situation with utmost maturity and sensibility. She remarks,” I can bear the pain of separation but cannot bear the pain of seeing you ( her husband) suffer every minute”. She requests him to leave on his journey to find the cause of pain and misery at night. It takes immense courage and wisdom to understand your spouse,s pyschology and motivate him/her to pursue on his/her path.

I am deeply touched by their unconditional love, infact she is a true ardhangini. She chooses to stay back and take care of their son and his family. Behind every successful man, there is a woman behind him. The discussion was entirely between them, they never consulted anyone. This is one core truth of marriage- discussions should be between husband and wife, there should be no space for any third person. One should have mutual faith and respect. This inspiring episode holds few such key commandments to a successful marriage.

During my school days, I was always under the impression (formed by reading Amar Chitra Katha,s, Tinkle, Target and Reader,s Digest etc) that Prince Siddharth leaves his wife and son in the middle of night (sounds so cruel and selfish). 

Yashodhra,s actions endorsed that a woman is complete on her own and she can single handedly raise her/their child and even look after her in laws. Her role though undermined in history had a pivotal role in Buddha,s journey.

I wind up with a feel that human mentality and nature has remained more or less the same, only change is in way of dressing, technology and connectivity. Infact, in earlier times, they were more organzied and had more common sense. Anyone can choose to differ, I will respect that. 

Take care,

Love, 

Juju

Meditation #Corona way of life

Meditation #Corona way of life

“Meditation is a way of life”. I endorse this phrase with full conviction and belief. This is an art which can be learnt by oneself.  No second person can help you. Like Buddha says, It’s a method which needs to be practiced by oneself to imbibe it. There is no guru or school which can serve it as a ready made thing on platter. I believe even few minutes of meditation – thoughtless mind in sync with one,s inner self can do wonders to our mind and immune system.

Today, I learnt yet another aspect of this spiritual process.  I sat for meditation with a mind full of thoughts, as if it was a war zone with invisible fight between the positive and negative thoughts. After initial few minutes of chaos, I settled and could catch on my thoughts one by one. I could vividly see them as useful and useless and sorted them in few minutes. There was tremendous calmness followed by a sense of clean breathing and thoughtless mind. I am happy to share that this space is absolutely phenomenal and one can attain this by regular practice. This is the actual cleansing process which needs to done at regular intervals.

Like BK Sister Shivani says, “Every morning you check whether you have charged your mobile? From now on ask yourself did you charge yourself first?”

I cannot enumerate on what I gained in this cleansing ceremony, but definitely I lost a lot. I lost my irritability, my false ego, my anger, my negative and sarcastic thoughts. This is one loss, from which you gain. There were so many issues on my mind and believe me I discarded more than ninety percent of them within few minutes of meditation. Imagine the amount of energy I saved from spending on them. 

I feel lighter, bouncier in my head and fully receptive.

Please adopt meditation as a way of life.There are numerous ways to do, follow the one which suits your style.

Stay safe # stay indoors.

Love,

Juju

My little monk - Part 3

My little monk - Part 3

Hello everyone,

Hope all of you are doing great and adjusting well in this new “Corona way of life”. My Popsie,s pet tag line, I am a learner till my last breath. One ceases to grow the moment one stops learning. With this pearl embedded in my heart and soul, I try to learn from each and every person in my surroundings, be it my family or friends or patients or society. Being a parent of two teenagers, I can vouch every moment of our lives is awesome, adventurous and challenging with new thought processes and interpretations emerging from the ends of teenage spectrum - 13 year to 19 year.

Recently, one of my subconscious habit, was surfaced out into my conscious plane. My little monks remarked, “Mom, please refrain from answering on our behalf in front of elders. We know you try to answer in an amicable and diplomatic way to avoid displeasure many a times. We appreciate this but, please, let us answer and handle the situation in our own way.”

After a long time, this remark brought out my thinking cap from the closet and soon, I was in my favorite meditation pose, thinking !!!

Unknowingly, I have intervened innumerable times since they learnt how to walk and talk and am, still holding on to their hands (please read as speech). They are an intelligent, focused generation which is very clear in their mind and soul. I should not try to modify or alter their creative responses by copy/pasting my responses from my past experiences?  This is great injustice to the child. Internally, I seek forgiveness from almighty. I make a pledge with myself that I will let them handle their responses and will focus on my own. In case, they seek help, I will just suggest them. It,s for them to either take it or leave it.

Soon, my elder monk comes to my place of solace and blurts out, I knew mummy, that you must be thinking on a remark which happened earlier, rather in past .

Why do you think so much about a simple remark? Leave it and focus on present and enjoy as your Momsie# my nani always says, “Live in the moment”! 

I come back in the present, firmly secure the knots of my thinking cap and get up to make wonderful cuppa of ginger tea for my family. At times, I fail to understand, do our children know us more than we know them??? 

Lot many thoughts are churning in my mind. Will come back soon after tea break. 

Till then be a learner. Your children are your teachers in this path of parenthood. 

Listen to them and enjoy the journey.

Love,

Juju

NETFLIX#BUDDHA #EPISODE 34

BUDDHA#ENLIGHTED ATMA

Currently, mankind is going through one of the best phases of their lives: even though it is endangered by a micro-organism aka Corona virus whose size is infinitely small as compared to highly evolved multi cellular organism, namely human being. We may not be fully aware of this fact that this lock down will shape us for the present and future with a transformation – long-long awaited.

Each one is trying to utilize their time in the best possible way. Besides, the multiple hidden talents, I harbor, I have also started to enjoy my sofa (neglected since a long time) in my lobby which has a huge TV to compliment. I came across one series –Buddha on Netflix, based on life story of Prince Siddharth of Kapilvastu who attained enlightment and became Buddh. He was a man ahead of times whose teachings and principles have stood the test of times. There are some 55 episodes and “Episode 34 “is a must watch for all. In this episode, he attains enlightment. His principles which he made from self experience are priceless. Meditation, truthfulness, faithfulness, middle path, nirvana ,etc are all in sync with nature. 

During the last few centuries, man has gradually lost contact with nature and the result is in front of us.After all, we call it as Mother nature and like a mother, she has given us umpteen chances to mend our ways – natural calamities etc, Human being like a stubborn child has time and again failed to listen to his mother. The current situation is the end result of a tight slap in our face which has shaken us to the core. Time to re-think, time to re-assess, time to rewind our actions and ponder .It all seems like a big dream which will vanish once we open our eyes. 

The new era demands life style modifications, with full honesty and integrity. We all exist in our minds, as we feel though shall we see. A happy mind finds warmth in the scorchiest sun and an unhappy mind seeks resentment in the most pleasant weather.

During my residency days in Tata memorial hospital, Mumbai, I learnt that everything is in one,s own mind – Life is like one big mind game where start and end is already written, in between one has to manage. One must ensure to be a great script writer as one candle is enough to light the darkness. Each moment I live to realize that life is happening now- live in the moment (my momsie,s tag line).

Let,s all pledge to write a beautiful story which will inspire many and live in the moment- not past nor future. With this, I wind up my magic pen.  

Meditation# mind cleansing# aligned happy positive thoughts.

Close your eyes for few moments and dwell inside, all that we need is already within us. 

Why are we searching it outside ?????

I take your leave with a promise to be back soon,

Love,

Juju