Hidden Treasure Series – Part IV- On ‘Courage’

 Dear Bretheren,

Am indeed grateful to Almighty to assist me forever –BE in the company of ‘Highly Pure’ souls like FEW of us, almost ‘pure souls’ like SOME of us and ‘less impure’ souls like MANY of us. Even VERY FEW ‘highly impure’ souls end up helping me for no rhyme or reason, I have observed over the years! Thank you benevolent almighty. As my colleague Priya always says, ‘Life is indeed beautiful’, if ONLY one WANTS it that way!

Well, lemme start with my answer to Appu who has commented (See comments section and please share your thoughts/ experiences etc) that some of the views in OUR blog are coming like ‘bouncers’ to him. Well, my dear Appu, I’m no Douglas Jardine (Of the infamous Body-line series) to bowl a ‘bouncer or a ‘beamer’! I’m a spinner and love the googlies, doosras and even carom ball! Hah Ha!  Well, as I keep repeating – That ‘Yours Truly’ is only a ‘key-stroker’ and do NOT wish to take any credit for OUR blogs.  However, one may give me ‘debit’ if any. The thoughts and thereby words have emanated from Dhyan and writings of many or simply ‘man watching’ (‘Women Watching’ as well! – Those interested in human behavior may read those two books of Desmond Morris).

Folks, you would agree that while it requires compassion to ‘share and care’, it takes ‘courage’ to speak our mind and THEN ‘walk-our-talk’, isn’t it? Well THEN, what’s courage? Is it a sheer physical prowess or shouting slogans or hurting others as we have a wide mouth to speak, freedom to DO whatever we WANT at the cost of others and able hands and legs to physically hurt, not to forget the technology arsenals!

Is America so courageous that they use all the arsenals and warheads against countries that don’t tag their line?

Are some agitating students OR politicians OR even the mafia OR just anyone on ‘Mother Earth’ so courageous that they take to violence to show their physical prowess or might?

Read on…

Ravi: A happy Friday evening to you Shri. GRK. As you know, our brethren on ‘Mother Earth’ have started cherishing the ‘Hidden Treasure Series’ and some of them have requested an e-book to be made on the series…

GRK: That’s nice to hear, Ravi.  We shall do that. Time would come for that. Let’s cross the bridge when we come to it.

Ravi: Thank you so much for your permission. Our friends like Suba would be happy hearing this. Well, let’s get to today’s topic. Is ‘Courage’ physical prowess alone or something else?

What is Courage?

GRK: Not at all, Ravi. Courage is not mere physical prowess. It is not the capacity to endure suffering, pain and agony patiently. Going into dark alone, playing with a snake or tiger, fighting with the robbers unexpectedly met, may be the acts of courage; but they do not reveal the full meaning of courage.

Ravi: Oh! is ‘courage’ something to do with the ‘intellect’ or ‘mind’ which science couldn’t unravel even NOW?

GRK: Ravi, ’courage’ is a psycho-physical phenomena. Its generating centre is in the mind and intellect. Hence, the greatest courage is the ‘intellectual’ courage. Realizing that each one of us IS alone in this life and world is itself a great act of rare courage. In fact, most of us are frightened to think that we are born alone into this world and THAT we have to face and confront life alone by each one of us.

Ravi: If it sounds so simple, WHY and HOW do we fear THEN?

GRK: Our fear to accept life as an alone process is due to our sense to possess gadgets, house, wealth, wife, husband, children, subordinates and friends as devices (rudders) to overcome our feeling of insecurity. All these DO fail and will not be of much help in assuring us of our security. So we resort to ideologies, religions, power, and status and then at last to the thought of God! – With all these coming handy as measures of security to our aloneness!  (Am afraid to ask if this is ‘helplessness’-If NOT, what else?) None of these possessions, obsessions and attachments could give humans a sense of security or sense of fulfillment.

Ravi: What is the greatest courage THEN for ordinary mortals like me?

GRK: Well, the greatest courage it to face life as alone-process and accept it, confront it and live with it! As such it needs a great courage for a human to accept life and death with the same equanimity. Humans need the rarest courage to accept death as part and parcel of life. After all, death is not cessation of life, but fulfillment of it. It is not dissolution of life, but culmination of it. Death is not shattering of life but fruition of it.

Ravi: Onto that, is death a ‘fixed’ or a static phenomenon?

GRK: Death does not take place at a particular point of time in our life. It is a simultaneous process along with living itself. We die every day, every minute, and step by step, as we live on. Thus life and death are a continuous bi-polar process. After all death is the sumnum bonum of life. It is the termination nay a conclusion of life itself. It is an ‘octave’ of life song. Death is NOT an-end phenomena, but an everyday process of life.

In other words, life does not mean mere pre-determined “dragging of feet” mechanically and the passing of time. It is a ‘live’ process, at the same time simultaneously perishing or dying at every moment.

Ravi: How does one make an attempt to realize WHAT you said?

GRK: To realize that death is inseparable part of life and to understand that our life and our entity is not permanent on this earth, we need a great courage nay a rare courage. This courage is possible when only we realize the fundamental truth or fact of life; that death is another side of life-or other embankment to the river of life. This very realization is a greatest benediction and peace nay courage. When we attain this courage, THEN only it gives us the real and true courage AND that is an ecstasy, a liberation, a nirvana, nay a moksha by itself. Do you get the point, Ravi?

Ravi: No way, my conditioning does not allow me to say YES right away to your thoughts and views on courage. Need to munch. Kindly give me some time.

GRK: Take your time. Hope you understand this fundamental ‘juice’ of life. Thanks for your time. Allow me to leave now.

Ravi:  Thanks a ton once again Shri. GRK. See you soon!  I can’t wait to talk to you next Friday on ‘Religion and Culture’!

Folks, some of you realized souls would have gotten and cherished the LIFE ‘juice’ on ‘courage’, many souls like me would need time to munch. That’s better rather than ‘disagreeing-agree’, like most Indian politicians do, Isn’t it? What do you like to share, especially our brethren in Slovenia and Saudi Arabia who are silent readers of our blogs and whose numbers are increasing, not to forget readers in the US of A where the number of readers have crossed 2000!

Wishing you ALL a ‘rocking’ weekend and hope India rocks tomorrow in the Cricket world cup final.  Ofcourse, the ‘Lankan Lions’ roar and are raring to go for the coveted cup! May the best team win, isn’t it? And we all would celebrate, whoever wins! Ultimately, the wonderful ‘team’ game CRICKET would be the eventual winner!

With Love,

Ravichander Venkatraman

Hidden Treasure Series - Part I - On ‘Love’

Dear Folks, young and not-so-young,

It has been around 2 ½  months since I key-stroked my last blog. End December 2010, I visited Anand Ashram at Kanhangad. Suffice is to say that it’s one of the holiest places, sans GODs, “God-men” OR “God-women”, sans ‘routine’ discourses and back-breaking rituals. I stayed for 4 days, was in absolute peace, sans mundane meetings and meaningless talks. Was fortunate to meet some sages, some ‘sage-like’, and many awesome ‘humane’ humans as well. The hospitality was stunning and seen to be believed! An hour away from Mangalore, I visited my ‘Life Guru’ Shri. GRK and stayed with him for a couple of days. He presented me with his book ‘Life Explorations’ written 2 decades back, which was never published for sale. Ten minutes into reading the book I went to him and complained in a raised voice as to How come he didn’t give that book to me so far! (For starters, I have written about Shri.GRK in my first blog).

My dear readers, the book(Allow me to name it a ‘Hidden Treasure’), 42 pages in all, all sentences written in small caps, without any comparisons or fictional stories, without any religious connotation / politics; is full of ‘LIFE JUICE(S)’ – For YOU and me, for YOUR family and my family, for believers / non-believers, educated/not-so educated, rich or not-so-rich, for the humane souls to ‘not-so-humane’ souls. Simply, to ALL human-kind. It’s upto each individual to take, drink the juice, cherish and digest it. Also, it’s upto the individual to share with others like HOW Shri. GRK asked me to share with YOU all – In the form of a conversation between Him and ‘Yours Truly’! We start the ‘Hidden Treasure Series’ with WHAT everyone WANTS and not many giving / getting IT- i.e. Love or being Loved. Allow me to add, in the purest form! Read on…  

What is Love?

Ravi: Shri. GRK, many in India, thanks to the print and media, SEE ‘Love’ as a relationship between a girl or a boy, man or woman, some kind of attachment. Are they not correct?

GRK: Hmmm. Ravi, “Love does not mean a relationship between man and woman. Neither it’s an attachment, nor a pity. Love does not mean a FEELING of possessiveness or obsession” either.

Ravi: Oh! What is Love THEN, in this fast-food world, humans needing instant success and instant gratification? Also, what’s wrong with a husband or wife being possessive of each other and a mother obsessed with her only child?

GRK: We are living in a civilization in which we want to possess NOT only houses, cars and gadgets, but also wives, husbands, children, institutions and ideas as well.  Love is nothing to do with all these, and it is not based on the instinct of self-possessiveness or over-obsession.  Love does not have anything to do with the satisfaction of desire and the pleasure as well.

Ravi: Hah ha! What an outstanding thought? Mothers may complain though! Shall we say then, that ‘Love’ is some kind of concern? Again, should it be conditional or un-conditional?

GRK: You are on-the-dot, Ravi.  Love is a concern - a feeling of identification-to co-beings, to nature, to a situation, to an event and to a reality. It is an unconditional concern and does not have expectations-particularly commercial and utilitarian, THUS love is sacred and sublime.

Ravi: In that sense, it is correct if one could say that he/she loved a beggar and that he/she loved a leper?

GRK: Yes. Not only that, Do we mean REAL love when we say that I love my book, that I love my wife, that I love my car etc.?

OR  

Could we say that we love our religion - NOT in the sense of loving one’s rituals, denominations, gods, goddesses and images-BUT religion as a feeling of concern, to the nature and beings?

OR 

Could we say that we love our country - NOT as patriotism, as sentiment, as nationality and as a racial superiority (pride) but as a GENUINE concern to the people around us? 

OR 

Could we say that we love nature and flowers - NOT to make them garlands so as to make use of them for our use, for fragrance or for prayer, but that we love them as they are and appreciate them as a ‘sight of joy’ and nature’s gift and are concerned to them and are moved to ecstasy by their beauty? 

Ravi: So, you SAY that ‘Love’ is unconditional, sacred and sublime? Am I with you Shri. GRK?

GRK: Yes, Ravi. Could we NOW understand that THIS love which is ‘unconditional, sacred and sublime’? If not this concern, what else is love? Allow me to add that, that concern should be towards co-beings, living or dead, nature, living things or non-living things. We have seen children loving their teddy’s so dearly! Have you noticed?

Ravi: Very much. Read somewhere that even non-living things do have a soul. My younger daughter speaks to her Teddy as though it’s a living dog, talks to the very old scooter I have(which still works to my surprise!), maybe thanks to her ‘unconditional love’ on them! Maybe she speaks to their souls!

GRK: If so, all I can SAY is that she has an awesome RIGHT brain which you know is very benevolent and kind. Also, she is far ahead than your thinking and doing. So do most of this generation kids. Remember that.

Ravi: Well said. In fact I’ve shared a blog “Three powerful Diamonds”, long ago, what we learnt from her. Many liked the diamonds and as I understand are NOW being SHARED around in this cosmos!

Thank you, Shri. GRK, for your time. Please could you advise what’s the ‘treasure’ which we shall share with the human-kind next week?

GRK: Sure. Let it be on ‘Service and Sacrifice’. Many of us have a not-so-right opinion on that as we FEEL that’s not for us. We FEEL that those are for the NGO’s, religious organizations and CSR programmes!


Ravi: That would be awesome Shri. GRK. Thank you once again for your time. Look forward to our teta-tete next week.

Folks, DO share what you FELT reading this first ‘piece’ in the ‘Hidden Treasure’ Series. Shri. GRK has lot more to share with all of us. Never found wanting of enthusiasm and energy, this learned ‘sage’ is an epitome of humility and ‘Caring and Sharing’, sans publicity. Is an institution by himself -> Like Anand Ashram, instituted by revered Papa Ramdas in 1933. Till date, haven’t seen an advertisement of any sort. Hence “It’s a not a “cult” for scandals to erupt!” Hah ha!

Let me end with a nice quote on Love, taken from VSET, an offshoot of Anand Ashram.

The sun shines for others,
the trees bear fruit for others,
the rivers flow for the good of others.
Human birth is, likewise, meant for doing good to others.

Love gave us willing, caring hands,
to perform some helpful deed.
Love gave us sympathetic words,
to answer someone's need.
Love gave us soft hearts,
to aid another along the way.
Love gave us smiles and laughter,
to brighten someone's day.
Love gave us all these treasured gifts,
for helping one another.
Love works through us all,
so that we care for each other!

Endrum Anbudan

Ravi

Ps: The holy souls in Anand Ashram, chant ‘Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai  Jai Ram’ non-stop from 6AM-6PM, everyday, rain or shine. Have recorded the chanting during the New Year ’s Eve. Found it soothing, helps even noisy souls like me to be in peace and the elderly in absolute bliss! If you or the elderly in your family / neighbor’s, (your pet doggy and catty  too) like to hear, write to me @ ravi@gatesandwindows.in Will email the link in the ‘cloud’, where it has been saved. For my ‘non-believer’ friends, Ram mentioned here is NOT the ‘fictional’ King of Ayodhya. You advise me then, what’s the meaning of this ‘Ram’?