Awaken
each day with total humility, stretch your arms wide open and be sure that Life
will provide you all that you need.
I met a young lady
who is an ace photographer. She prides herself with being able to connect with
the who’s who of India and shoots them in the most unique contexts with the
rarest of rare expressions. Her ability to create magic with her subjects is
exceptional. While she’s talented, she’s clearly not very admired. Most people
who know her believe she talks too much – often about herself. “I want to shoot
people in a manner in which no one has done before. I want my stamp all over my
pictures,” she declared to me, proudly.
|
Raghu Rai with his iconic picture of Mother Teresa Picture Courtesy: The Guardian/Internet |
I had an
opportunity to listen to one of the greatest photographers in the world, Raghu
Rai, recently too. And he said, “There is the divine in every moment. As a
photographer I don’t try to show off my skill or talent through a picture. I am
merely an instrument, as much as the camera that I use is, who captures that
divinity for posterity. I am a nobody in the larger cosmic design.”
The two
perspectives are so contrasting. One who humbly believes that he is only an
instrument. And another who brags that she is the creator of all the magic in
her work!
I recall reading a
beautiful interview that Times of India
had once done with A R Rahman. He told Priya Gupta: “Every time I sit for a song, I feel I am
finished. It's like a beggar sitting waiting for God to fill your bowl with the
right thought. In every song, I ask help from Him. Everybody around is so good,
so to create music that will connect with so many people is not humanly
possible without inspiration.”
This is the
humility I am referring to. To feel enriched, to live fully and to create value,
we must empty ourselves daily. When we approach Life with a sense of
nothingness, nobody-ness, in total surrender, we will be able to see and
experience the Life that is ordained for us.
Our wanting
anything is of no consequence really. There’s an old Arabic proverb that goes
like this: “What
is destined will reach you even if it be beneath two mountains. What is not
destined will not reach you even if it be between your two lips.” Let’s remember that this Life has been given to each
one of us. We didn’t ask for it. So, logically, if something has come free,
without your asking for it, you don’t impose your wants on it. You accept
what’s being given and use it intelligently, fully! That fullness can only come
from respecting Life and being humble. When you start believing that your Life
is happening because of you, you are being both ungrateful and irresponsible.
You must cease to exist in a metaphorical sense for the God within you to find
expression.
This is why people
like Rahman or Rai, or any successful or creative person, is able to live in
this same, cold, dog-eat-dog, world that we live in and are able to produce a
matchless, beautiful, work of art each day. I am not talking of celebrity
achievements here. You and I too can achieve those levels of
creative expression, leading to phenomenal success, if we learn to empty
ourselves and let Life express itself through us.
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