Kahlil Gibran: Marriage & Relationship

                                                       
On the attachment to one's near and dear ones, Gibran has some eloquent words of advice in his 'The Prophet'. 

On being asked about marriage, he says:
   
                             

'You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together, for the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Regarding Children Kahlil Gibran says :

                                                      

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you, for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Friends, how simply and beautifully expressed, but so difficult to cultivate such a detached attitude!

Mrs. Sangeeta Hegde

Celebration of Life!

Once a great politician lost his way while he was on his pleasure drive. On his way he saw an old man sitting under a tree and asked him, “Where is the way to the capital?”

The old man responded, “I don’t know.”

Then the politician again asked the old man, “Fine! Where does this way lead to?”

And the old man responded again, “I don’t know.”

Of course, the politician was very angry and said, “You don’t seem to know anything at all. Are you some kind of an idiot?”

The old man laughed and said, “But Sir, I am not lost and I perfectly know where I am. You don’t even know that! So who is an idiot ….?”

Moral of the Story ….

Friends, probably it is very rare to find a man who knows where he is. Most of us are certainly somewhere, but are absolutely in a state of sleep and go on moving.

Do we make any deliberate effort to become conscious? Once we become aware, we are centered, rooted and then suddenly we know where we are, who we are. Friends, that is the greatest moment in a man’s life. Then the doors of the ultimate mystery open up and God becomes available in all his splendor and beauty. Life no longer remains a drag, it becomes a dance! Then life is no longer momentary, it becomes eternity and  then there is no death….

….Then one starts living beyond time and space. That is life in its true sense, full of abundance, overflowing, in a state of continuous celebration….!

Have a Blissful Life Friends !

Monday Motivator (Why me ...)

From an email.

Once there was a small  child who, one fine day came to know that God is distributing apples to humans in Heaven.  The child was happy to receive that news and went with lot of excitement to heaven to get the apple from God.  There was a big queue waiting to get apples from God and this  child  also joined that queue. His turn came and the  child  put out both his hands to receive.  God gave him the apple but unfortunately the tiny hands couldn't hold that big apple; it fell down and the child lost it.  The child got very disappointed. The ministers near God told him that if he wants to have another apple from God then he has to follow the queue  again.  Having waited for so long the child didn't want to return to earth empty handed so he decided to re join the queue.  This time the queue had become even longer.  The  child  was very disappointed and thought Why me alone? Why I didn't get the apple in my hands hand when all others were easily able to get it? What wrong/sin have I committed that I alone should suffer like this?  Now the  child was so scared that it should not miss the apple again. His turn came and God gave the apple into the kid's hands and then spoke to him, "My dear child, last time after giving you the apple only I noticed that the apple I gave you was a rotten one and that's why I made it fall down from your hands. Having given you a rotten apple, I felt bad for you and wanted to give you the best apple in the farm which at that time was growing and that's why I made you wait such a long time in the queue. Here it is. Now the apple that you have in your hand is 'The Best' apple in the farm. Enjoy."  Sometimes it so happens that even after we have put  in our 100% dedication, commitment and efforts. things get delayed or go wrong.  The hardest arithmetic for us is to count our blessings while the easiest is to count our miseries. Believe that Almighty has something great for us and that's why this has happened. Always say, 'Gratitude is absolutely the best way to bring more in one's life'.  It is the best attitude and is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. As someone said, "Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that you have, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”  There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude.  It is accompanied with such an inward  satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance. - Joseph Addison

A Scarecrow - By Kahlil Gibran

                                      

Friends, Kahlil Gibran a Lebanese-American poet has beautifully presented the following story ….

                                               

To protect their cultivated farms from animals and birds, once the farmers in a village created a scarecrow…a false human structure using two wooden sticks placed as a cross. Then they put on an old shirt and a round mud pot over it to look like its head. The white old shirt with two hands spread and the round big head, it looked as if some person was standing and watching over the fields. That was enough for the animals and birds to keep them away from the farm.

                                                

Gibran has written, he once asked the scarecrow, “I can understand the farmer whose intention is to keep the animals and birds away. I can also understand the poor animals who don't have any intelligence to see that you are only a scarecrow, a false structure. But, I am unable to understand you. In rains, in burning summer and in freezing winter you keep on standing here…for what?”
                                                         

It seems Gibran was amazed when the scarecrow replied, “…You will never know my joy…. Just scaring those animals and birds gives me such a great joy that, it is worth suffering rain, burning heat, freezing cold…anything! I know I am not real and there is nothing within me, but I don’t care. My only joy is to scare others…!’”

Moral of the Story ….

Friends, would we like to be just like that scarecrow with nothing inside and even then scaring others, sometimes making others happy or sometimes even humiliating others?

Our struggle for freedom, bliss and truth is not with the outside world, but it is a fight with this scarecrow…which is our own mind!
                                                    

Is our life only for others? Will we ever look within? Will we ever check within to see if there is any master in the house? Friends, the master is indeed there but perhaps he is asleep but can be awakened. 
                                                  
And once the master is awakened within, one’s whole life can be painted with new colours, new fragrance, new music and new dance….! Only then one can be alive in the true sense, otherwise most of us are just vegetating.

Have a Blissful Day Friends!
Mrs. Sangeeta Hegde.

For All Parents and Children !

Conversation Between A Pencil & an Eraser .... Pencil: I'm sorry Eraser: For what? You didn't do anything wrong to me! Pencil: I'm sorry because you get hurt because of me. Whenever I make a mistake, you're always there to erase it. But as you make my mistakes vanish, you lose a part of yourself and then you get smaller and smaller each time. Eraser: That's true! But I don't really mind. You see, I was made to do this. I was made to help you whenever you do something wrong. Even though I know that, one day I'll be gone and you'll replace me with a new one, I'm actually happy with my job. So please, stop worrying. I hate seeing you sad.  ******************************I found this conversation between the pencil and the eraser very inspirational & could relate it to Parents & Children relationship. Parents are like the eraser whereas children are the pencil. They're always there for their children, cleaning up their mistakes. Sometimes along the way, they get hurt, and become smaller / older, and eventually pass on. Though their children will eventually find someone new (spouse), but parents are still happy with what they do for their children, and will always hate seeing their precious ones worrying, or sad.  All my life, I've been the pencil. And it pains me to see the eraser that is my parents getting smaller and smaller each day. For I know that one day, all that I'm left with would be eraser shavings and memories of what I used to have....!

Osho: Seeds of Wisdom on Real Life

A comfortable, convenient life is not a real life …the more comfortable, the less alive. The most comfortable life is in the grave.


If you are alive there is inconvenience. 
If you are alive there are challenges. 
If you are alive then every moment you have to face reality, encounter reality.


Every moment you have to be ready to change and to move.


Reality has no security and that is its beauty. Life has no security and that is its beauty. Because there is no security, there is adventure.


The future is unknown, nobody knows what is going to happen the next moment. That’s why there is challenge, growth, adventure.


If you miss adventure, you miss all. If your life is not that of an adventure, of a search into the unknown, then you are living in vain…!!