Accept
whatever you get with gratitude and humility. Be grateful for the moment. That’s
all there is to Life!
Is that it?
Indeed. This
is it.
This moment
is all that you__and I__have. Embrace it, immerse yourself in it and you will
not have any problem with it and in Life whatsoever!
 |
| Bombay Jayashri: Grateful for the moment |
The first time, more than a decade ago, I attempted
to read Eckhart Tolle’s ‘The Power of Now’, it went over my head. Now, when I
look back, I think the book didn’t needed that many pages as it eventually had!
Just the title was enough to convey the power of the message, the essence of
the lesson it taught! This morning, something I read in The Hindu, amplified
this learning one more time. My good friend K.T.Jagannathan, interviewing
celebrated Carnatic vocalist Bombay Jayashri, in The Hindu’s op-ed page, asks
her of her Oscar nomination for her song ‘Pi’s Lullaby’ from Ang Lee’s 2012
movie ‘Life of Pi’. I quote the relevant part of that interview verbatim.
KTJ: What does this Oscar nomination mean to you? Where do you take-off from here?
BJ: It means
so much to me, Indian music and musicians. I feel I have been chosen to
represent them all. I really don’t know where I go from here. But I am just
grateful for the moment. That’s all I can think of at the moment.
So beautiful. That she should just choose to
celebrate the moment and be grateful for it! One can go on and look at the
larger impacts the nomination can have in the Life of an artist like Jayashri,
for Indian classical music in general and for Carnatic music in particular. One
can talk of how India has once again proven to the whole world what we are made
of and blah and blah. But the beauty, the joy, resides in the moment. And in
celebrating it Jayashri has chosen the more evolved path – of living with what
is!
Well, it’s easy to celebrate an Oscar moment the
realist may argue. Pointing out that it is so difficult to celebrate a tragedy.
Pain. Suffering. Death. How do you celebrate such moments when all you want is
for it to go away? A joyous occasion you will want it to linger on, stay
longer. And a painful one, you just want it over and done with. How then do you
stay in such a moment and what power does it have in our Life?
You stay in a painful moment the same way as
you stay in a happy one __ with acceptance. Moments don’t come labeled happy or
sad. These labels you give them. Your mind is the villain – it goes on labeling
it. A moment becomes sad because you dislike it. And it becomes a happy one
when you like it. What if you liked every moment? Then won’t every moment be a
happy one? This is the simplest and the easiest way to understand bliss and to
attain it. Imagine your Life’s a big status message box, just as the one that
sits on top of your facebook Wall. Each moment’s definition is a new status
message. All you have to do is imagine that in Life, just as it is presently on
facebook, there are no Dislike buttons and all you can do is simply Like each
status message, each moment! This technique may not prevent pain from coming
your way. But it will eradicate suffering for sure.
For instance, you cannot prevent death in your
family or in your circle of influence. The nature of Life is such that the
moment birth happens, death is inevitable. So, the best way forward towards
peace and bliss, in Life, is to accept death as an inevitable reality. Surely,
when a person you know and love dies, there will be pain. Enormous pain. But
there will be no suffering because you have ‘liked’, by accepting, the
non-negotiable dimension of Life called death! If you have transcended death,
if you are no longer running scared of it, what else can move you or trouble
you in Life?
Wanting a painful moment to go away IS the
cause of your suffering. Replace that want with acceptance. Do away with all
disliking and indulge only in liking what is. Because there are no ifs, buts,
or logic, in and to Life! It is what it is. Period. And each moment is teaching
us the immeasurable value of celebration, patience, faith and acceptance. So,
deal with Life’s moments the same way as you would deal with the teacher that
taught you in primary school__greet each moment with heartfelt gratitude and
immense humility. Bliss and abundance will follow!
For the musically inclined, here’s the video
clip of Bombay Jayashri’s Oscar nominated ‘Pi’s Lullaby’!
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