Flat line means Death!

In the EKG (or, if you are in teh UK, ECG), flat line loudly proclaims death. The ups and the downs are what define life, and activity. However, the sharp lines symbolic of life are definition of a physical presence, not a spiritual existence. The spirit does not trace sharps. It writes in gentle curves. It knows no pain and delivers none. The letter Aum is only curves... It is the sound that preceded existence and the sound that will survive beyond eternity- Sanatan. Eternal. Truth.

The spiritual practices in everyday living round off the sharps and give gentle rocking curves that nurture teh body and allow the soul a journey that it is meant to have. Everyday spirituality does not mean dedicating fixed time to prayer or renouncing the world. Everyday spirituality means being true to your Soul Purpose. It means doing what you do with full intention and complete body, mind and soul. It means being present in the moment, each moment. It means performing everyday tasks with sincere gratitude- that we have the task to perform! And with diginity- that each task defines and colours our living experience.

Spiritual sincerity at the kitchen sink, in the bath, while driving or while talking to a friend helps to eliminate sharps, cut extremes. It introduces curves in life. It moderates the breath and modulates the mind. It puts us in resonance with our energy. It magnifies teh life force available to us. Chanting helps us focus our energies more efficiently. It helps us to focus our mind to a point. The NOW.

The trace from birth to death is to be a line of bliss and happiness for the soul. The journey is frought with difficulties and apparent distractions. We need to remember, however, that obstacles are those tiny things that take our sights away from the goal, away from the task at hand. Any chant brings about Unity of mind, word and action- Manasa, Vacha, Karma. for Valmiki, it was Maramaramaramaram..... ; for a mother it may be her child's welfare; for a lover, it may be those magical three words- I love you!

The Zero, the shoonya needs to be experienced to realise the resonance that is possible in life. The Universe also appears tpo be shaped like a warp- a zero! The rounding off of the edges brings bliss, joy and achievement.

Why must the bliss be attained after death in the flat line of ECG? Why can it not be attained in life with single mindedness of purpose?

The line of death is simply a line. A line when alone is unity... but is single. To magnify its value, it needs attachment! Attachment to zero. To nothing, and to nothingness. The curvature of the zero magnifies teh energy of Unity to infinity... In themselves, ech alone has little or no value.

This seems to be the ultimate journey of the soul in the human body... to achieve union of the Unity with the shoonya.

This appears to be the The Soul Journey... from birth to death, form unity, through zero to eternity...

Embark. Enjoy.

Physician heal thyself

They study hard. They work harder. They dedicate their life to illness. Sometimes they rise above all this and start to think of wellness!

I have been a doctor for so long now that I cannot count the years on my fingers. I am finding myself disillusioned. Disillusioned with the profession that kills its soldiers. Disillusioned with the soldiers who are like Zombies, not humans.

Intelligent. Idiots.

The doctors spend all their life and time on making people better, battling diseases that make other 'ordinary' mortals live in fear and sometimes die with fear. What puts others out of business is precisely what defines the business of a doctor. Extraordinary!

Invincible.

And human. They also lose. Nature wins. They also lose, and the disease wins.

And one would think having studies the life processes in such minute detail would fill them with awe and reverence at the marvel that life is, and particularly the wonder that the human life is. Yet! One finds very few who feel the reverence. One finds fewer still who will acknowledge this wonder.

What does this profession do to us?

I see jealousy and narrow-mindedness all around me. I see insecure humans who pose as invincible gods and feel great when they are placed on a pedestal. Human fallacies and vanities make us all behave oddly. Most doctors are average or even below average human beings. Only the averages are higher because the baseline is higher!

People are too full of themselves to see better around themselves, and we see them in all professions. Somehow, however, we see many many more like this in medicine! Medicine, as a profession, places a lot of stresses on its practitioners and leaves very little time or energy for them to do anything else. Observe a coffee table conversation between doctors- " Wow! Man! What a case! Have you seen anything like that before?" Life moves around being doctors. Nothing else. They are not doing too well at being friends, or parents or a lot of other roles and relations that ordinary humans derive their value and strength from.

Physician... Heal thyself...

Only when you are fit and healthy, can you deliver your care in a fit and healthy manner...

Age of innocence...

This happened so many years ago in my life that I could not tell exactly when it happened. However, the event was so explosive and the age so impressionable that I remember each detail of the episode.

It was in our doorway at home. My brother and I were soaked with sweat, having had a great game out in the garden. It was a warm summer evening. Vacation time. There was no hurry to go back home. No school next day. It was still light at around six thirty or seven in the evening.

One of my 'friends', got annoyed with me for some reason. We all turned back home. Being next door neighbors, we were walking together. Not a good idea when you are annoyed. It did not help the situation. We were in the doorway- nicely framed by it. This girl could not keep it inside! She turned and slapped me full on my face- her left hand to my right cheek.

We were being taught about the Gandhian ideals at that time. I felt the sting of the slap. I also felt the sourness of the mood. For a moment, I felt a rage rising inside me. And then, all of a sudden, it disappeared. I told this girl- Gandhi used to say if you are slapped on one cheek, you must put forth the other. Violence is not a fitting reply to violence and a slap in return will only be returned by another slap... For a child of about ten, I would say, that was remarkable.

However, before I could even turn my cheek, she turned around and slapped me on the other one! Here's one for your Gandhi! She was really upset.

Looking back on it- I can still feel the hurt. I can still see the scene as if it is playing on a screen. And I can still live all the emotions I felt.

This girl is still my friend. We can now laugh about this episode. She is now embarrassed about it. But- we can not forget it!!!!

I have been called a lot of things. After this one one more epithet was added to the string of titles I would find attached to me- Stupid!

I would have preferred Innocent. But I came to be called Stupid.

Now my son has done something he will not forget the rest of his life... He is also INNOCENT!!! And he has done something in school- where he will be facing a lot of bullying for stupidity!

Another boy asked him to splash ketchup on the classroom fan if he wants to continue to be friends with him! And he did!!!

The teacher was livid- rightfully so.

I have not seen it- but I can well imagine what the red must be looking like on the clinically white ceiling of the newly painted class-room! I asked my munna ( is there anything else I can call him after this?!) why he did that!? His reply was that the other boy said he would be friends only if Moksh did this! " What is the name of this boy?", I asked in sheer exasperation. My son's unbelievable reply,"I do not know!" He does not know who asked him. He did it because this guy told him that was the condition of friendship!!!

Such are the days of innocence! Such are the currents that we learn to swim against. Sometimes they hurt us physically like the slap, and sometimes they hurt us much deeper like the teacher screaming at my son for having done something he could not explain. At the other end of the spectrum are the children who have the fun- at teh expense of the innocent ones...

But each action generates a karmic debt or equalises it... We, the innocent are better off- being taken care of by the Guardian angels and equalising at each intersection.