Paper boat

                                       Paper boat

Hey!! do you remember how we used to  play with paper boats...exclaimed my friend when he saw a few kids playing with paper boats, while we were walking on the streets after a pleasant evening rain. I nodded and said yes and we both reminisced about the good old days. Those days were the happy days, our joy knew no bounds.

We used to craft a boat, keep it ready and wait impatiently for rain to stop. When rain stopped, we used to jump and rush to select the small water streams on the roads, to let our boats sail…. We would compete for the selection of materials for the boat, designs and the right streams to set sail our boats. We would blow air from our mouths and try to make them go fast. Sometimes to our dismay they would topple and sink instead.

We would have lots of fun and childish misery in childhood playing like this in the rainy days. In our childhood just as much as our joys were intense so were our miseries, when we lost our toys or a game, when we bullied and played pranks on one another, etc. It was indeed a great training ground for the future life of cooperation and competition as grown-ups. How we cope with our inter-personal relationship has its roots in childhood

How similar is our life to the paper boat. We start with hope and excitement, then experience the joy of initial success but as time goes the inevitable setbacks set in. It could be other way round as well, initial setbacks and final success or both alternating all life. In whatever order life happens you will essentially go through all the vicissitudes of life and in the end depart into the unknown leaving behind everything, leaving no trace...… Life is so fragile, unpredictable, takes unexpected twists and turns. By the time we realize what meaningful life looks like, our life will be knocked out of the earth.

I am not a fatalistic person, I believe in fighting till the end. However there are circumstances where things are beyond our control and we may not have the ability to handle them. In such a situation, be patient and have faith and pray for divine intervention, instead of needlessly torturing yourself to the point of madness. To have faith and pray for divine intervention requires patience and sadhana…..

Life could be so fragile. But can't we maintain a semblance of sanity and strength in the midst of gloom and doom. Like there's calm in the eye of a storm we must also learn to remain calm and wise and strong in the middle of life's unpredictable storms. Gradually that peace and strength within will radiate and infiltrate our outer life and bring a semblance of stability.

We must take inspiration from our epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Life threw all possible misfortunes at Rama but he was by nature so pure and strong and wise he never once lost his balance. He was not touched by misfortune. Only time he suffered was, understandably, when his beloved wife was in trouble.

Sri Krishna went one step further. He was not just calm and balanced but in the middle of all chaos he remained always in joy as if he was enjoying the whole thing! He was Anandamayi.

Purandara Dasa is famous among the Haridasa of karnataka, is known for surrender and devotion. Early part of his life, he was a miser and greedy and lived only to amass wealth. He was nick named as Navakoti Narayana.

An incident opened his eyes and he realized the impermanence of life and gave away all his wealth and said God is  his wealth. He was calm and composed for the tough life he had to lead after he relinquished his wealth. He composed lakhs of songs in praise of Lord Krishna. He was in continuous joy and ecstasy throughout his life in devotion and surrender.  

Let me narrate a beautiful story...

A king goes hunting with his soldiers in a thick forest, the sun is setting and it is getting dark everywhere, all of a sudden a ferocious hungry lion from one of the bushes roars loudly and attacks the king. All his soldiers run helter-skelter to save their lives. In the melee, the king was thrown out of the chariot by horses as they try to save themselves from the lion.

The hungry lion chases the king, while running to escape from lion, he falls into a pit, it is an open dry well, while falling he observes a python sleeping in the pit, he gets panic and somehow he manages to catch hold of one of the roots of the tree he sees protruding from inside the wall of the pit. Now the king is suspended in the middle of the pit. Above is the hungry lion waiting to kill him, and below python is aroused and slowly moving upwards to gobble him up.

Meanwhile, the king hears a feeble sound, he looks around and finds two rats one white and another black biting the root on which the king was holding on to.…..he was in a dire state. Above the lion waiting and below the serpent was moving up….. not knowing what to do, he just looked at the sky, a few drops of honey fell on his lips from a huge tree where a honeycomb was hanging. King while savouring honey he forgets the problem……..after sometime he comes out unscathed …strange…how?

Story is a metaphor; when you are faced with situations which are beyond your control, placing your faith in the universe will help you overcome tough situations. Lion and Python represent problems and two rats represent time, day and night …..when misfortune strikes it's usually so bad your mind goes blank. At such times we despair and look up (it is symbolic). Honey is the divine intervention to assure you that difficulties will eventually get resolved but one must endure patiently.

This is how the story ends. On hearing the roar of the lion, the python comes out and fights with the lion, in the end both die. On hearing the commotion rats run away and the king comes out unhurt.

Placing faith and surrendering to a higher power is easier said than done. Our logical mind questions their rationality and refutes them as baseless. Faith is intuition in the heart. It's a higher quality than intellect and we develop it through patience and sadhana as we get wise weathering the blows of life.