Bravery

I oh-so-proudly belong to one of the richest mythologies ever known to the mankind. Being brought up amidst these mystical stories in everyday life, Ms. Lil Right Brain has been very artistic in ideas. Imagination saw no boundaries, my head explodes with images, events of the epic being told, I’ve always had a version, probably the most beautiful one in my thoughts. As I see, as I listen to these - fantasies or fables or even simple folktales, I delve so deep that I become an integral part of the story, hence they sure had (…and continues to have) a profound effect on me.  

The Goddesses, Gods, wars, warriors, triumphs and trails, good vs. evil, sages and ascetics, plots and laments, the list is inexhaustible, and never fail to mesmerize me. One thing always strikes me the most is a Hero, his/her Bravery. The immense courage, absolute fearlessness displayed with infinite poise. A real hero, his grit, the very valor he harbors is heart-throbbing. I am so in awe with the heroes, well the real ones. One of the scenes in the recent movies I watched - Bahubali2, intrigued me, to question this - Where are the heroes these days? Sure, not the ones fighting with the swords, not those exalted warriors on the battle flied, not that charming prince riding an Unicorn, not the one who has the ability to throw a weapon into the seas to create serene backwaters, not the ones who can tie Holy Ganga with his hair, but in today’s ever changing world, who is a HERO? What does bravery mean? 

On one of my recent journeys, while traveling there were a few incidents I witnessed. With common sense and no judgements, now if I think back on the subject of Bravery, I am so intrigued to know, where are the brave men these days?

#1. On a overnight train to Kerala, in India, in the middle of the night, a girl raises her voice warning a fellow passenger who kept reaching for her even after several requests and warnings. She couldn’t take it anymore, so she came down her top bunk and started to question him. Then one person stood by her, confronted that freak, then came another, then it looked like the whole compartment supported her, fetched the police and got the evidence from his phone where he was trying to take this girl’s pictures when everyone were asleep in the dark. All these men were awake till he was taken out to the police station in the next stop. I was in tears, felt so happy for she stood for a good cause. 

Only now I realize this strange thing - she was with this guy and they were a couple from what she said, but he never showed up during the whole saga. Neither did he actively participate to encounter that middle aged pervert nor did he stand by her. Wow! I am super stoked. Sure he was not a local, but I can’t wrap my head thinking if he was a coward to retreat in the lower bunk, or just too faint hearted to come out? I will never know.

#2. Holi 2017, Varanasi, India. As beautiful as it is depicted by authors/movie-makers in the books/cinema/on-screen, it is also as brutal, at least for a girl to experience this with the essence of naked goodness. The guesthouse where I was staying had warned us about girls going out alone on the streets, suggested to take necessary precautions and boys to accompany girls, if that is available. Morning of colors, in the bright sunshine, I didn’t go too far, I was mostly sticking to the ghats, and there I saw this couple who also resided in the same place. After a while, I only saw the this girl, she was laughing and playing, but again and again, there would be a gang of guys who would come wishing “Happy Holi” and try to misbehave right there on the streets in the broad daylight. A couple of really good men, who were protecting me, who advised me to stay behind them, were acting as moral policemen while the actual policemen sat smoking and and watched all the deeds. After about an hour, this guy from the guesthouse comes around, then the girl sees him in the crowd, and requests to accompany her till the house. While tracing their way back, again people come in troops to wish the girl with a evident motives to mistreat her, she managed to getaway after agitation but I kept watching the guy who just witnesses all this, doing absolutely nothing. Sure, no need to go bash them up, but at least show up, let her know that he is there in the moment when needed? Make himself visible, make her feel he is the man? wow! Really? It blows my mind, whatever happened to the chastity of bravery.

#3. Yoga retreat in Rishikesh, India. I met a girl who was wearing an interesting bracelet, when asked, she just smiled. She blushed. I got curious about it and probed. She got super excited and told that it was handmade by her soulmate, and she never takes it off. She would talk about all the daunting tasks she did,  because she so wanted to align every experience for them for some history they had. When connected with her, she would go on about how much she was in love and how she began to love not just that a person, but the whole race, because of this one wonderful guy she met sometime ago. All the efforts she put in from planning, flights, trains, buses, hotels, home-stays, friends, places, timing, logistics was one thing but it was first time in her life she was taking a trip this long and with somebody so special, everything she did to make it an incredible reality, she was full of life. She was full of love. After a couple of days, I got to meet the guy. While I spoke to him, it was hard for me to relate this guy with the same “soulmate” that she described so vividly. Gratitude was a far-off thing, but he was no where in the same frequency as she was. I was surprised beyond what my mind could comprehend, as I imagined a person to be something so phenomenal to deserve all that.

So, again, what does bravery mean in today’s world?

The one who can stand up to the truth.

Bravery is all around, countrymen who fight for us in the harsh borders, people who pray for their safety, back home.

People who protest on the roads, who sign petitions to defy foolish laws, who can go out there to bring about a change, who can live out of their heads and speak their hearts.

Change of perception in the above stories. Isn’t it sheer bravery for 

#1 - The whole train who awoke to stand by a girl

#2 - Those 2 men who volunteered to protect all the women on the streets amidst chaos 

#3 - The girl with her unconditional love for her soulmate

These are real heroes. A hero in me salutes the hero in You!

Courage is everywhere. Aren’t we all born with it? 

We just have to ensure we don’t kill it. Thats all.

PS: I once knew somebody who enlightened me about “Whole Truth” How an oath in a certain country in taken, how he likes to standby his truth, but just partly. Irony, as I know it, is he is living his whole life a whole lie, as 1/2 truth, 3/4 truth, 1/4 truth, 1/3 truth is never really the truth. Ah! If only people practice what they preach, world would have been a much happier place.

Truth is only true when it is whole.

~ ykw

Participation

We participate in the dance of creation. The magic of life, unfolds in front of your eyes, as you keep taking those inspired actions - which in turn define the whole of our lives. I’ve always believed-

Choices we make

Decisions we take

Rules we break

Things we forsake

This pretty much summons the whole lifetime. You set our goals accordingly, arrange the priorities, sort, shift, re-arrange, it is a continuous process - this participation to move towards the Goal. Doesn’t matter if somebody else decides for you - which college to go, when to settle down, whom to marry, which city to live in.. etc. but ultimately choice comes to you whether or not to go with it. You follow the protocol or break a rule or forsake a thing to define that exact path. 

Participate to - fit in, to earn, to live, to survive, to protest, to choose a leader, to rise against inequality, with family, friends, relatives, acquaintances, society, culture, country, within/ beyond limits or boundaries. Every single day and night, it is necessary. On this path, while taking the voyage, what if you encounter something totally unexpected? How many people can embrace the unknown? That complete uncertainity, can you even acknowledge that “undisclosed” could be GOOD? There is a general belief where anything unknown is unpleasant, and is usually frowned upon. People freak. So, you discard in the very beginning, resist the whole newness, follow the customs. But it keeps coming back, as though there is an unknown power behind that, so what if for once you change it around, embody the mystery, believe that there is a higher force guiding you into it, and go with that flow. You participate, with no set guidelines, no mandates, no book rules, all you want to to experience life as it unfolds, as you follow your heart. 

You learn things which you never thought it would exist outside of your imagination, basking in the freshness of metanoia.

Participation sees no bounds, nothing you do feels “enough” as you want to do just as much more and more and more.

While all this is true, when do people really STOP participating? Do they do it consciously or sub-consciously?

Perhaps, they take “it” for granted?

Perhaps, they just are no more interested?

Perhaps, they get digressed?

Perhaps, they stop trusting it”?

Perhaps, they got lazy sitting in the “backseat”?

Perhaps, they are so confused in their own heads?

Perhaps, they underestimate the power of participation?
Perhaps, they don't have the courage anymore?

Perhaps, they are “done” with it?

Or perhaps, you participate so much, so that, you know If you do anymore than you already have, it will be so against all the beliefs, against your own morals. Not being stubborn or egoistic, not that you started expecting anything, but you realize, you have done everything in your power and a little more (by virtue of your born habits) - You think is it time for somebody else to start participating? huh! Nope, but you can never really STOP. You tried to stop, but Universe doesn’t let you. So you pause. Just PAUSE, hold it there. Right there.

The choice is always YOURS - You want to or You don’t want to participate.

                                                                                                               ~ ykw

Letting-Go

You let go, let go and let go, because that is the only way, You have been learning, all your life. The whole world teaches you otherwise, but you learn to let go.

Anyways, what is there to hold on to, nothing is everlasting – Isn’t it?

Not even love? Not any ordinary love, that LOVE where you connect with the other soul, when you fall in love not with the mere person, but the light which shone through the heart center.

Fine, you let-go.. now, this suffering.. Why do we suffer, Oh My God, so much?

-You weep, all day, all night, these tears, they come from some unknown place, you wish they dry up one day.. you wait, for them to be done.. but…

-You try to fall asleep, get a few hours of shut-eye, regardless of you wanting it or not, sun is so consistent (unlike people) so the day breaks, sun shines, a new dawn begins, you have places to be, things to do

-You dream, the haunting nightmares of what-happened/what-should-haves/what-could-haves, they wouldn’t spare you even while asleep

-Wake up with the thoughts completely engulfed even before you open your eyes.. making the suffering afresh, all over pouring in and out of you.. again.. and again.. and again…

-Work, studies, tasks absolutely mechanical, just go through with it

-Chores, what chores? The very inexhaustible energy that you’ve always had and been proud of, has dissipated to zeroness

-Emotions. You are completely drained of feelings, don’t feel anything but this constant pain, hurt, agony, abyssal darkness

-Music, which could light up the mood, anytime, now brings you more tears

-All your favorite activities becomes your greatest everyday challenges

-That real smile, which never flew out of your face, now disappeared forever

How can you be done, when it is so undone? 

How come you suffer for all you did was to follow your heart?

How did you create this whole situation to be stuck and marooned in this way?

How and when did you give LOVE, this power, to wreck you?

Who gave the permission for somebody to cause this anguish?

“We love so deeply

We hug so tightly

We long so desperately”

~from one of Jason Silva’s shots of awe

Let-go… Let go how? Let go of what?

-That Ambrosial Whiff of Jasmine as you walk along

-That familiar fragrance, the same one, which you had set an intention to “stop and smell the roses”

-That sacred space - Every-single time you step onto those four corners of the …

-That elixir of life as life as you sip on …
-That gaze on shining first star, moon dancing to the tunes of the night sky, which is ever enduring regardless of the skies
-That music, that meditation, stories, walks, reads, writes, talks, scenarios, shares, realizations.

The only way to get anything in the physical universe is by letting go of it. Let go & it will be yours forever ”.

~ Gautam Buddha

How much love is enough love?

LOVE... LOVE... LOVE...

How much love is enough love?

“Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.” 
~ Rumi 

LOVE - Ah! gives me chills even with the very “word” alone. The reading, writing, listening to, hearing of it in a beautiful lyric of a song, talking about it, anything, anywhere, gives this in-explainable bliss. I’ve wondered, why is that? There are all kinds, many ways.. in love-

Here especially with soul Love, regardless of the time/age/location/situations preconditioned in the mind. God! I think.. think.. I go on.. give it a thought.. more thoughts, which leads to 3 more thoughts, then an army of thoughts. All get jumbled up inside of my head, I pause. Then, take a deep breath in… let it out like in Yoga, a cleansing breath.. aaaah! Closed my eyes, to hear my lovely heart.. This is what she says -

“It isn’t the word gracing the ears, it isn’t the sight through the eyes. 
No, it isn’t the writing-reading-hearing-talking about it, but it is the very feeling attached to LOVE. 
How your soul resonates with your heart’s feelings which permeates onto all 37 somethingish Trillion cells of the body”

When in LOVE, when you experience this dance of ecstasy, there is an energy field created in and around you, that makes you limitless, so powerful, strength of the Gods/Goddess align so perfectly making you almost invincible, with serotonin raising, the potential, the exhilaration, the vitality, that potency - you never knew it existed, the un-containable joy perhaps equivalent to winning a Gold Medal, something you aimed for all your life, or perhaps like winning a zillion dollar lottery, something you never thought you will in reality. You shine through the day, into the night, as you walk, as you talk, as you shower, as you breath.. you shine on…like those countless stars embellished in the night sky. With infinite possibilities, you stare into the eternity, so immersed in the scent of very passion that you feel, not just for the person, but for the whole life. It is in this revelation that you touch the heavens and wonder if the rhapsody in there could ever match up to this gospel you are exposed to.

Eyes Gleaming

Hearts beating

Aflame burning

Butterflies fluttering

Time Freezing

Nothing else in the world matters, all you have is that moment sunk in the beatitude, surrendering your whole being  to that very breath you are taking. You become that moment. When you look into the iris of your lover - All the chaos of the past and the future become hazy and fade away into nothingness, like this camera with special effects focused on you looking into the only existential truth, and everything around you, the whole environment is blurred out, diluted. Much like a dreamy song sequence of an Indian Romantic Cinema, then you are off - singing, flaunting, dancing around the trees in snow capped mountains.

So, what, I am (hopeless) romantic, but the question is how much love is enough love?

As deep as the Oceans, the Mariana Trench?

As long as the skies?

As rooted as the Pacific Old-Growth trees?

As intense as the gravitational field in the super-massive black hole?

As sure as the polarities of a magnet?

As much as the total atoms constituting the Universe?

As expansive as an open heart can get?

As wide as a mind’s thought?

Nope, nope and nope! What’s the measure for it? How to quantify the intangible? What is the label you want to put, to limit it forever?

“A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home.” 
~  Rumi, Words of Paradise: Selected Poems of Rumi

All I know is I just can't get enough of it...