Contempleting the Meaning .............

A young couple with a four-year-old girl brought home a new born baby boy. They soon learned though, that their little girl would have nothing to do with him while the parents were in the room. This was very disturbing because she wouldn't say why. They had no idea of her intentions, could she be jealous? But that wouldn't be clear unless they did as she desired. And she insisted it was the only way she would make contact with the baby.

This went on for several days and still the little girl refused to have anything to do with the infant while the parents were there. And she refused to say why. Knowing that they had to begin a relationship between their children the parents came up with a solution. They would listen in on the baby monitor while the little girl visited the baby. So they placed the baby in its crib next to the monitor and allowed the little girl to go into the room - alone. As she closed the door behind her they ran around and listened intently at the monitor.

They heard her across the room to the crib. The crib creaked slightly as the little girl leaned over the rail. Then silence. The parents held their breath in anticipation. Then, in the slightest whisper, the little girl said only one thing to the baby. "Tell me about God. I'm starting to forget."
Sean Penn told that story on Charlie Rose, and I am sure, most would echo my sentiment of how greatly moved they are to hear that story. Most people relate the term God to religion or spirituality. To me, the way I understand God; it is my inner realization and awakening to things. It's never about going to the temple or church or believing in Hinduism or Christianity or Islam. It's all about finding that inner peace and understanding the meaning of life.

In the grand scheme of things we were all created for some specific purposes and we also had our predetermined particular stations in life, but how do I find that? Who can tell me that this is what I was meant for and this is the course of action I should take as a pathway to the attainment of my goal? Every experience that we go through in life is so unique and unrelated to each other!! Sometimes we just feel there is nothing on this earth that we have control over and that our strings are being pulled over or manipulated through some vague source which falls beyond the sphere of understanding of a mortal being.

These questions often keep me busy and my mind well oiled. But after I heard that story, I figured that may be I found my answer. As long as we don’t forget the source of our creation and try to stay connected with it in any way possible, there is meaning in life. We are often looking for that one superior cause to make a difference in order to find the meaning, and in the process, trample upon all other opportunities considering them small or worthless. There is, however, meaning in each one of them. We are often trying to understand the entire world and society but never take a moment to connect with our own self and spend time with our inner core. We are trying to bring a change in to the world but never try to figure out that perhaps, our own outlook may also need a change………….

We may probably never find the meaning of our existence,but as long as we don’t forget where we came from and are able to connect with it and understand who we are, there is perhaps meaning in life……………………

Living a Fantasy is better than.................

Sometime back, I came across a statement which goes like “ living a fantasy is better than living an act………” What exactly does it mean? Are we supposed to live in the world of fairy tales or believe in the existence of Santa Clause? I was baffled for a moment thinking why are people so afraid of facing the reality? Why do they fancy themselves to live in a world which is outwardly, which only exists in our imagination or may not be a part of imagination anymore because our imaginations are nothing but fragments of reality.

An act is what is happening on a daily life. Living an act would mean addressing the situation and taking stock of the reality whereas living a fantasy would be trying to delude yourself into a world which does not exist, which does not have any evil in it, where there is hope everywhere, the good always wins over the evil and happiness is the outcome of every story. A world of fantasy is where there is no suffering, no lie no deceit and where desire, hope, happiness, expectations........ still have their meanings alive.

It’s a world in which my six year old or my infant might be living in. My daughter watched a movie a couple of nights back with her dad called “In conversation with God”. That night she woke up in horror sobbing and seemingly very perturbed. I was scared. Asked her what was the matter, and she told me that the movie that she saw had a poor old man in it who was very hungry, didn’t have any food to eat so he was eating food from the garbage, and people, instead of trying to help this old man out were making fun of him. I smiled at her calmed her down. Told her, well its just a story, a work of fiction and she shouldn’t worry about these things at all. She asked, so this man did have food to eat right? People don’t make fun of old poor people right? I replied, no they don’t, and don’t get so upset about all these things. It was a work of fiction and nothing was for real…………

She went back to sleep feeling confident that everything is fine and the world is not so bad after all and whatever they showed doesn’t happen for real………… .......
That calm satisfied look on her face made me wonder how could I ever tell her that the reality is far more worse than that. How could I tell her that the world she is living in right now is pure fantasy. The reality out there is very cruel and ugly. How could I tell her that we are living in a seemingly intolerant society these days. There is anger, hatred, jealousy and revenge. There is a person who is so angry with the world that he decides to go to a mall or school or a church and starts shooting randomly at the innocent defenseless crowd. What explanation do I have for the killings of babies by their own parents? People kill each other in the name of God .Call me old fashioned, but in the in the name of modernity and self expression the young crowd in their teens are talking or writing so voraciously about the topics which could be so explosive in nature. Nothing is sacred anymore, no sanctity, people don’t care, responsible or irresponsible that’s my life…… is what I hear. What explanations do I have, I was bewildered……….

Doesn’t happen for real, doesn’t happen for real, my own words kept echoing………..and I realized, its not about the fairy tales or the existence of Santa Clause. Its about the pure humanitarian values that’s becoming a fantasy for us, and the statement “living a fantasy is better than living an act” made perfect sense to me.

At least we have something to look up to ……….a life of hope and happiness…………….