Dreams

Dreams need not always come true. If they always did then they would lose all their charm and be called something else. We are given the choice to dream our own dreams. The choice to fulfill or neglect them also lies with us. Luckily, there are dreams whose existence within our minds make them more beautiful than being projected elsewhere. These are valuable treasures for they are our closest friends.

Aesop’s Fable

I always love this Aesop’s tale.

This is the story of the man, his son and their donkey. As they were passing through a village on a long journey, one of the villagers remarked, “O look at the foolish man. He has a donkey for his trip yet he makes his young son walk in the hot sun. How merciless is he towards his son”? Hearing this the man lifts his son on to the donkey and moves on. When they reach a new village they are confronted by a lady who remarks to the son, “What a heartless son you are. You ride the donkey and make your old father walk. Shame on you”. Now both father and son are perturbed. So the father also gets on to the donkey. They ride on the donkey to another village where another comment from a farmer greets them, “Look at those cruel people. Two of them are riding on a lean, skinny donkey while the poor beast is almost dying from tiredness”. Hearing this the man has no options left. So the man and his son tie up the donkey’s legs and carry it on their shoulders for the rest of their journey.

The moral of the story is live life on your own terms not on the opinion of others. You have a better understanding of your life and it is foolish to follow someone’s opinion who has limited understanding of your self.

Self-Confidence

Self-confidence is very essential in life. However it should not be mistaken with ego. The confidence one has in his self – his Atma or his Spirit is true self-confidence. Ego is the feeling of I, me, and myself that cripples one’s spiritual well-being. Self-confidence is always liberating unlike the ego that binds a person to his limitations. Self-confidence confers joy unbounded. It is the mark of an evolved soul.

Love

Dependency is a human weakness and weakness leads to suffering. If you are dependent on your very purpose of existence – love, then your suffering will be unfathomable. Your heart is the very source of never-ending love. You have to let this love flow to the world outside. It is foolishness to struggle and grovel in the dirt trying to receive love that is already in your heart. But remember that your aim is not to make others dependent on your love but to help them open their hearts to spread their love too.

The greatest solution of all problems is love. But understanding of love comes with great thought and experience. Understanding is the key but it can either open or shut a heart full of love. That is why the greatest problem of all solutions is understanding of love. Life is never wasted understanding love and it is never complete till it is understood.

Pure love is not giving alone. It is giving without feeling of sorrow or pride, or for any personal interest. It is giving with unsullied joy in one’s heart. Love cannot be a transaction because it flows spontaneously from a noble heart not bothered by the suffering it may receive in return.

Perspective

The grass that gets mowed in the lawn believes its suffering to be unbearable and curses at the man using the lawn mower for being so cruel upon it. It however fails to understand that the idea behind the mowing is not to make its life miserable but to make a beautiful lawn. The position of the grass is such that it cannot view the situation from the perspective of the man. In many a ways we too question the ways of the seemingly imperfect world for the suffering it thrusts upon us, unable to fathom that the real beauty behind all these is to teach us. Thus our frame of reference is of great importance since it decides how we react to situations in our lives.

The Yakkhas of the Himalayas

Among the three clans of the present day Kiratis living in the Himalayas, the Yakkhas (commonly called as the ‘Dewans’) are the minority community and in many occasions, overshadowed by the more prominent Rais and the Limboos. But the Yakkhas are certainly a distinct community with their own language, culture Yakkhas and tradition. Many people are of the view that the Yakkhas represent a common link between the Rais and the Limboos since the Yakkhas practice traditional rituals common to both these communities.

The Yakkhas add the surname ‘Dewan’ which infact was a title given to them by the founder king of Nepal, Prithvi Narayan Shah, when his Gorkha kingdom defeated the Kiratis and added the Kirat land to Nepal. To quieten the influential Kiratis, who could pose an internal problem for him, he granted them a ‘Lal Mohur’, a document declaring them to be the owners of their land (Kipat). Along with it came the title of ‘Dewan’ to the Yakkhas, ‘Rai’ to the Khambus and ‘Subba’ to the Limboos or Yakthumbas. My own ancestors in the kipat of Madhi in Eastern Nepal were the recipient of such a Lal Mohur. Because of a dispute with another community, one of the three brothers of the family left home, came to Darjeeling, ‘Munglang’ in those days, and settled here.

Decades later, the dispute settled, our long forgotten relatives came to Darjeeling searching for the Lal Mohur. Thus, long estranged families met and the Lal Mohur was given to them as a gesture of goodwill. Today the Yakkhas live mostly in the districts of Eastern Nepal, the district of Darjeeling and the state of Sikkim in India. Their population is very less in all these regions and thus have never been the focus of independent study except mentioned as a part of the Kiratis in most anthropological literature. Belonging to the Mongoloid stock with physical features similar to the Rais and the Limboos, most of the Yakkhas are not aware of their distinct cultural identity. With very low population size they are mostly married to the Rais and the Limboos, which is accepted within the Kiratis. In spite of the gradual dilution in their culture, the Yakkhas have never failed to contribute to the development and welfare of the place where they live. With their culture so delicately poised, there is an urgent need for a deep study into the history, language, culture and present day positions of the Yakkhas.

One of the truest Yakkhas I have ever seen was my own grandfather. People called him ‘Yakkha Bajey’. Having been brought up in the age of the British rule in Darjeeling, he was a perfect disciplinarian. Very meticulous in his work, however small they might be, he was particular about his daily routine and would never hesitate to give anyone a piece of his mind if he was obstructed in any way! All his superiors admired him, his colleagues respected him and his subordinates held him in awe. However there were two qualities in his personality which were known to his close relatives only. He was a philosopher at heart and possessed a rare gift of imagination. It was always a pleasure to listen to his stories when I was young and to his amazing adventures in Assam during the Second World War. Above all he told stories of our ancestral Yakkhas with such delight. My own interests in these fields were kindled due to his constant encouragement. He lived long, right up to the age of ninety, perhaps due to his ever healthy state of mind. It will be rare for a person of such character to be born again.

Any culture that is rigid and unable to adapt to change eventually destroys itself. History is replete with example of such cultures as recently seen in Afghanistan. The Yakkha culture, fortunately, has always been flexible under the influence of its two big brothers and has managed to survive and will continue to do so, maybe with new changes. It will be interesting and worthwhile to examine what these changes have been and will be in future.

Flux

The world is not static for any period of time. Everything is in a constant state of change – flux. We all are evolving each moment of our lives. But evolution has now taken a different path. The journey from a single-celled organism to a complex being was a physical one with progressive development of an organism’s organizational complexity, which has resulted in the present-day man with power to control things around him. It is a common question “Where do we go from here”? The answer may be a bit difficult for die-hard scientists to swallow. But now our journey is a spiritual one and our evolution will take us into a spiritual dimension. We will have to evolve as spiritual entities for there is nothing more left for us to evolve into in the physical realm. There is no escape from this and now it is not the question of if but of when.

Happiness

Its been quite a while I added anything here. Time, Time, Time. How fast it flies? Not that I have stopped thinking! I will try to add to those that I have collected somewhere.
Once God organized a programme to focus on the need for happiness on earth. Having patiently listened to the stories of sorrow and sadness of the people on earth he declared that from that day onwards everyone on earth would be happy. Ages passed and everything looked fine on earth and everyone seemed happy. But one day a sad-looking man arrived at God’s door and begged to see the Lord. Surprised at the man’s sorrow the Lord sought a reason for the cause of his sadness. With tears in his eyes the man replied, “Merciful Lord, you have given us complete happiness. But I am unhappy today because all of us are happy on earth. I want to be more happier than the others. Equal happiness saddens my heart”. We too are afflicted with the same malady that prevents us from being truly happy. There is happiness on offer for all of us. Yet we weigh down our own happiness with infinite desire for more.

Meaningful Life

Nothing in life is given for granted. And nothing can be taken for granted. Everything comes with a purpose. And everything must fulfill that purpose. The slightest of our actions are of immense significance since each of these small parts add to the whole which our life is. If the smaller parts are neglected, life as a whole will be unpleasant and meaningless. There is no such thing as “I will bear these smaller, unpleasant things and concentrate on the pleasant things alone”, for the bitterness of the unpleasantness will never let us enjoy the pleasant things. Each and every moment of our lives must be an enjoyable experience – even unpleasantness must be turned into something pleasant. We must learn to enjoy whatever we do and not just do what we enjoy. Nothing is stopgap, nothing is ad hoc with life. Every experience is accounted for. Every action is recorded for eternity. The simple reason is “life is a precious gift”. It has been given to us as a precious gift to be utilized to the best of our abilities. Circumstances could land us in difficult, unpleasant situations. But it is we who will decide if a particular circumstance is pleasant or not – no one else. Difficult situations are opportunities for us to learn and grow – and this can be made a pleasant exercise. Most of the great events of the world arose in difficult times for there were people who could rise to the occasion and use that opportunity to make things better. Life will be meaningful and pleasant if nothing is taken for granted, nothing is thought frivolous.

Thought Refinement

Why do we write blogs? Aren’t our thoughts meant to be personal? And why do blogs portray perfection (as mine does) when the world is generally not so? These are the thoughts that arose in me within this short period of blogging. I shall try to answer them and justify my words here. Thoughts are myriad and mind-boggling. At most times they are unrefined and directionless. If we take a moment to be consciously aware of the thoughts that float in our minds, we will realize that they certainly are not clear and at most times not worthy of expression. As I write this blog, hundreds of unwanted thoughts come into my mind; thoughts like – I forgot to recharge my mobile battery today, its getting hotter each day in Bangalore, why am I not able to finish writing my emails on time, people talk too much, this new TFT screen is good, I need to take some typing lessons (I type too slow). We certainly cannot reproduce all these for others to read. They are not worth it unless we have the skill to write something like “To the Lighthouse”.

So it is only those thoughts that we feel are worth publishing that gets written down. Writing refines our thoughts and gives it character. Obscure, abstract thoughts are streamlined in writing and made understandable for others. We seek perfection in all our endeavours, our life and our destiny. Everyday I am reminded of this and so I write on this too. Who wants to write (and read) cynicism and slander when we are already surrounded by it?
We need to rise above the grim situation and see the greater truths. Grovelling in the filth of negativism and trash thinking will never ease our eternal itch for perfection. We need to swim in the crystal-clear waters of sublime thoughts. Thus I try to keep negativism out of my blog and focus only on the good. No, this is not the writings of a saint. It is the work of a humble being, even with multitude of imperfections, trying to fathom the eternal human quest for perfection and sharing his experiences with all.