Yoga or Meditation

Recently when I was having a casual talk with one of my friends, we somehow slipped into the topic of spirituality. She is more of a religious person who does all kinds of fasting, rituals etc. Now while we were discussing about the universal doubt “existence of God”, she spilled out a statement saying that yoga and meditation are two different things and according to her both are two different worlds altogether. This statement actually made me look deeper into the unexplored dimensions of our life and helped me understand the link between yoga and meditation to some extent.

Yoga in Sanskrit means, union or becoming one. So yoga is not about twisting your body or standing with your head down or doing all those unimaginable asanas. If you are sensible, you can notice in your life that for different states of our internal feel, you exhibit different external postures unconsciously. Have you noticed this? When we are happy, the way we talk, walk, sit, see etc is in a certain way and the same things we do in a totally different way when we are actually unhappy. Ancient yogis have capitalized on this link and they brought out a totally a new domain of science called as Yogic sciences for our well being. It goes this way that when you hold a certain posture, you can actually change the way you feel. So here we are becoming conscious about the way we do our external activities in order to attain a certain state of calm and peace within us. In yogic tradition it is believed that this yoga was first introduced to mankind by the Adi Yogi (Shiva) himself and he was the first person to show the way to people to attain their ultimate nature. So yoga comprises of everything we do in the name of sadhana for self-realization. What we call meditation or Dhyan is one of the limbs of yoga (Ashtanga yoga). So if you are in yoga, meditation or Dhyan has to happen. In addition there is nothing called as doing meditation, if you become aware about your inner nature you become meditative, that’s all. But now unfortunately meditation is being propagated in a totally different perspective which will subsequently destroy it with time. Meditation is not about becoming something; it is all about knowing that you are a no-thing.

Unless and until these things comes into your experience, yoga, meditation, soul, self etc are mere a group of alphabets or wordw and you will have your own set of ideas and concepts in your minds for these as you do it for all other things. Doing so will take you nowhere. These subjective aspects of life cannot be approached with total logic as you do with the survival aspects of life. Unless you  explore the deeper dimensions of life, you will lead a very superficial life as all other animal beings on this planet and the whole human life will go waste upon you. It is high time that we should move towards the path which will help us to know and experience life in it full depth and details.

So don’t get lost in this war of words and start your journey to know it yourself. Only then there is a possibility to live here as a complete human being, else you are one another animal among the countless on this planet.

She is my Love

In the twilight of the evening, I was walking in the park, surrounding a small pond with trees on both sides of the way acting as roofs. Ah ! What a creation ? Hats of to the creator ! Everything appeared beautiful for that moment, be it small children playing hide and seek or bulky aunt's quick walk to regain her zero figure or the elderly people's loud chats and laughs. Come on, nothing unusual happened to me except that my girl, my love (one side love, my side only) was with me walking along my side which made my entire existence beautiful. Entire creation appeared nothing but just an extension of her mesmerizing beauty.

Every step was joy walking beside her. Though it was just any other day for her, but for me this day became etched in my memory forever for all the crazy feelings which I went through in those few minutes. As we walked beside each other, I kept on working how to reduce the distance between us while talking all those stupid things which otherwise I would never even listen too. With much persuasion I managed to brush my hand on hers (as though unknowingly) in a feathery touch. I am sure she would have not even sensed that touch but my senses woke up as though they were waiting from birth for this day. With no signs of opposition from her, I kept brushing her hand (though stronger this time) continuing my non-sense talk. Occasional side glances of her eyes sent shivers down my spine. The dance of her lips while executing the task of speech made me understand the choreographic element of the creator. Her chubby cheeks are still managing to reflect light in full blaze during this late evening hour when even sun is begging for its shine. All of a sudden planting those occasional smile on her face in between our talks became the sole goal of my life.

Borrowing some courage from somewhere, hesitantly I managed to grab her forearm (not palm) once in a while to sense if there is any disagreement shown from her. Those forearms were marble pillars that shone even in the dark and were softer than the butter. Generating a bit more courage I slowly approached down and held her palm. Still she showed no signs of any anger or frustration and continued singing the words and her lips still dancing to the tune of her voice and words. Finally when I could mange to touch her palm, Oh my God, really that's the ultimate felling I ever had in my life. The texture of her palms made me go crazy. The very feel of it transported me beyond this earth. We have crossed half the park and only still half is left is the bitterest thing to digest for me at that moment of time.

Yet the most unexpected thing that made my life worth living happened then, when she too held back my hand for fraction of a minute. Even though that did not last for a long time, those few moments of joy will transcend time and live for eternity. She intertwined her fingers with mine and that's it and I was ready to die that moment unconditionally. On that day, I felt I have fulfilled the purpose for which God has created this creation, this beautiful angel and of course me. Although her finger grasp got loosen in some time, I did not loosen the grip or leave her hand and I treasured her hand as the most precious thing known to me in this planet. Walking hand in hand with her made me realize what heaven would feel like and the kind  of bond that prevailed between Adam and Eve. The huge park suddenly appeared tiny and with her hand in my hand I felt that I could traverse those mighty Himalayas with ease. My craziest hope (against hope) was that those beautiful moments with my love should continue for eternity, I didn't know how, but felt it should continue.

Everything was beautiful and romantic when I was totally melting like ice, until I could hear my mother's stern voice, shouting at me "You useless fellow, its already 9 am, now get up and get ready for the office". It is only then I realized that everything was a dream and actually these things can happen with me only in dream (already I am 27 years old, you can understand my pain). Then I shook myself out from the dream and replied "Ya mom, let me wake up to reality".

It is a general saying that morning dreams actually materialize. So hoping against hope that these beautiful moments of my dream may turn real someday. If it happens then you all will be burdened with another blog post friends :-)

Punjab Bale Bale over Mumbai

Nowadays the IPL matches has taken over my evening entertainment. My entire May evenings has gone with myself laying on the couch with a newspaper in my hand. Reading and watching going hand in hand. Yesterday was something special not for IPL but for me. I went through a rollacoster of emotions in a 3 hour game between Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians.

Happy times for Kings XI Punjab

In a must win situation the King's XI Punjab had to take over mighty Mumbai Indians in a league match on 10/05/2011 at Mohali (home ground for Punjab). Somehow for unknown reasons I predicted a Punjab's win and updated the same on my twitter page. The moment I updated the comment on my page that "today Punjab is going to win over Mumbai Indians" the fortune of Punjab took a turn over. They were a below average team up till now with their performance and never even in my wild imaginations could I believe that they could beat the Mumbai Indians (MI)who are consistently performing, evident from their table  topper's title.

With a mediocre total of 160+ to get, MI started their innings with great confidence and with no clue whatsoever about the humiliation they are upto, they started playing. In the third over itself, the God of cricket, as called by his fans, Sachin fell to an excellent ball from Pravin Kumar. Then within no time MI were  three down for thirty in 6 overs. I became very excited and started jumping in joy. Thinking today, still I don't understand why did I support Punjab over Mumabai, as me being a Chennaite and love Chennai Super kings from the bottom of  my heart. As the match progressed, on one hand I kept on updating comments on my twitter about my anticipation of Punjab win and on the other hand the wickets kept tumbling like a pack of cards. Finally MI were bowled out for a mere 87 runs if I am not wrong.

Now the beauty is that my prediction that Punjab is going to win the match inspite of their poor show in this IPL,2011 negating the consistent MI team turned out to be true. I was elated more that my prediction had turned true than the huge win that Punjab had claimed over MI.

Whatever, now Gilchrist should acknowledge the fact that apart from their regular practices and strategies,my prediction and twittering too helped them to clinch those most important two points to stay alive in the tournament.