The economically poor: The culture torch bearers

You look out of the window, at the poor construction worker family. With thatched makeshift huts, their home at the street side. And watch closely, at what they eat, what they wear.
When I say poor, I mean economically lower, but not beggars. I mean the ones who toil, but still just make ends meet. The ones who never even had the equal opportunity to get ahead in life.
Look closely at them, and you see the model of the true Indian. And again, I don't mean to say this from the economic perspective, but from the cultural perspective. You give the woman a choice, but still she'd prefer her Saree over any other dress. She'll still cook the chapati than buy a bread. The fast-ageing father will take his children to temple, more than any other affluent family visits.
And you think to realize, God's world is strange, but it can't be unfair. When Jesus said, The meek will inherit the kingdom of heaven, there was a meaning to it. These so-called poor, are really more content than us. They are the ones who'd certainly attain bliss, for they are right at the cusp. Of course but, they are not the target audience of the globe-trotting, true Jnani gurus.
Yes, if you ask them of their future, they'd worry too. But don't we too, despite all our pay cheques and bank balances too?
They don't have the time to idle, their work keeps them engaged and happy. They don't have the money to get pulled into consumerist marketing, the junk food, the idle brain's food - the TV or the games.
Their kids, we only have to ensure they get a good education, because the true teachings, of the Vedanta are within their family's day-to-day living. If they only get the opportunity to study, they can guide us, and the country too.

Why are teachers paid less

Why in any nation are teachers paid less

Why their sacrifice earns such disrespect

Is really market economy the answer to all

How can a by-quarter world view be best for all

A seed once sown, takes months to bear fruit

A human generation, two decades to gain trust

Those who nurture and protect

Should be heralded the best

Must become the guiding policy

For a nation's interest

There was that beautiful bliss

It felt like a walk in a forest
With sun rays passing through as arrows
It felt like standing on sandy beaches
With gusty winds blowing on
I know not how to describe it best
It felt like a holiday afternoon
With feet on sofa, and reading a book

But no, that doesn't, even tell it best
I guess it was just beyond
Just beyond any pleasure felt

Bliss is what we all pursue
But bliss is all, we really are
It's just the illusion, the covering of karma
Else bliss is where, we all came from

Use ego to win over senses. Then go beyond ego

Achieving bliss, is ironically, a war
Conditioned by senses, our likes, our dislikes
There is no out with
Every moment a test, every action a reaction

The journey then, is a series of steps
And a step a time, could even slip nine
I introspect thus, to fight iron with iron
And use the stronger iron, to scale the mountain

If Ego is bigger, put it to effect
Use it as weapon, in the battle with senses
Your anger, your tastes, your lust, avarice
Set these as targets, your Ego could win it

And once the battle is done,
With Ego weary or bloated
Have it look around then
Who ever cares for your win..

Don't Honk..but does it make sense?

Read an article about Bengaluru being the second most noisiest. And saw a pic with Rahul Dravid holding an "I don't honk" sticker. Agreed, being second noisiest is something for the traffic and transport departments to take notice about. But to deflect the blame to "honking" is pure escapism!

The reasons were in the article itself: They said people honked to express frustration. Traffic Jam, or some other driver making a mistake. Well, then what you have to fix are the traffic jams, the honking will automatically stop.

My point is I've seen this about USA too. People there, especially in the suburbs hold honking in very low esteem. But go to the downtowns with actually filled up roads, and then you see the difference. It's all honking, no different from a metro in India.

The reason I honk does fall into the other category, where driving habits, and traffic rules are poorly enforced. And it is indeed mostly linked to the traffic jams (or potential traffic jams ahead why drivers have gotten used to be so much in a hurry, something in the blind spot or not!). So I better honk, at a passing stray dog, the pedestrian who's looking the other way and crossing, or the motor cyclist who's joining the road from a T-junction, but doesn't even bother to look if vehicles are coming at speed at him before joining.

So what the message needs to go out, loud and clear - even by Rahul Dravid if he could kindly - is represent the motorists, and go to the traffic department, and with them to the transport department, and with them to the planning and financing department, and with them to the chief minister even if need be: Bengaluru is the second noisiest already, please fix it!

You can be higher than the Gods you pray

Those who became Gods, asked to be, and accepted that fate.
Power and perhaps, even pleasure abounds.
But as nature of pleasure goes: Habit forming, transitional, they find no end to it.
And as far as power goes, even controlling natural elements, is but limited.

To free themselves of this, they have to take birth
And birth as none else, but humans on Earth

So while you are here, may you use them as models
But not for once, choose them as ideals

Realize your worth, make the realization intuitive
Filled with compassion and love, merged will All with you Go

Serve

This Earth may be dream, but do not deride it
There are things to be done, do not deny these

Of human contribution, and not concern result
Is all this life is, do not forget this

The time has come now, you should not lose it
Coming back to finish, would take another birth this

Grace of the Divine

O Deva Subrahmanya, the bestower of boons
Ever since you established, your presence in Swadishtana
You blessed me progeny, You granted me thus immortality

Dear Mother Kali, you guide me to liberation
I ask you of all, as a child demands of mother
In one stroke of  Sword, you have rid me of ego
Your Trishulam defends, keeps my senses in control

Ayurveda treats the root cause, maybe not the effects

This I learnt when I took my son to the Ayurvedic Pediatric doctor at Punarjani in Bengaluru. To cure my son's back-to-back ear infections, the approach to cure was ensuring he doesn't get his cold again.

And that's what the Allopathy doctor's parting shot had been, for which they had no medicine, only cure if it occurred.

But Ayurveda had natural medications - bitter quite a bit - but ones that quickly showed effect. The approach of Ayurveda is in general to help build the body's immunity through herbal supplements. So there are no side effects, and the body builds up its defenses to fight the infections that earlier it was so prone to.

I guess this is why Ayurveda should, and must, build and market itself as the preventive cure that this and coming generations really need!

Light and Rain

Light and rain, it's a drainy mix right away
I wake up, get feet wet, and dance away

There was no sunset, so sunrise I missed
I just stayed awake, the body may have slept

There is no such as me, there will be many more
I'm still the One, the drop that completes the ocean