Saturday, February 27, 2010

Simplicity and Faith

Read this recently : Loved it and sharing
"Believe in God with childlike faith; for simplicity with intelligence is the sign of the Holy Ones. " - Bowl of Saki

"Comentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
The question arises: what is the manner of opening the heart? The way to it is a natural life, the life of the child, smiling with the smiling one, praying with the praying one, ready to learn from everyone, ready to love. The child has enmity against no one, he has no hatred, no malice, his heart is open. It is in the child that you can see the smiles of angels; he can see through life.When the grown-up person is made ready, when he has acquired the attributes of the child, then he creates heaven within himself, he understands. The child with his innocence does not understand, but when a person with understanding develops the childlike loving tendency, the purity of heart of the child with the desire to be friendly to all -- that is the opening of the heart, and it is by that blessing that he can receive all the privileges of human life.

... truth is simple. The more simple you are and the more you seek for simplicity, the nearer you come to truth.

I remember the blessing my spiritual teacher, my murshid, used to give me every time I parted from him. And that blessing was, 'May your Iman be strengthened.' At that time I had not thought about the word Iman. On the contrary I thought as a young man, is my faith so weak that my teacher requires it to be stronger? I would have preferred it if he had said, may you become illuminated, or may your powers be great, or may your influence spread, or may you rise higher and higher, or become perfect. But this simple thing, may your faith be strengthened, what did it mean? I did not criticize but I pondered and pondered upon the subject. And in the end I came to realize that no blessing is more valuable and important than this. For every blessing is attached to a conviction. Where there is no conviction there is nothing. The secret of healing, the mystery of evolving, the power of all attainments, and the way to spiritual realization, all come from the strengthening of that belief which is a conviction, so that nothing can ever change it.

We read in Vadan, 'Simplicity is the living beauty.' Mankind today has made life so complex that whatever one seeks after, one wants to find in complexity. All things in life which have importance, beauty and value are simple; and simplest of all things is the divine truth."

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Witness of Grace....

Morning began as usual today. Thursdays is follow up day at SSRVM. Got a call from the HOD in the morning that I had to take Kriya early today, so with kriya tape was off to school. I must confess I have become habituated to driving a little fast these days! Well not very fast though, so twas a speed of ard 60kmph. An SUV behind me was speeding and driving too close. Suddenly at the crossroad near Lifestyle, a car suddenly came in the middle of the road in front of me and I braked, coz there was nothing else I could do.

I went completely blank. Heard a very loud noise (movie style), and saw the SUV behind me had brushed the whole car on my side.When I regained sense a few moments later, I realized the car that had come in front of me had disappeared. The driver of the SUV was saying something, but I wasnt listening.

That moment of the braking and the loud noise that I heard, I felt as if I was encircled by somthing which cannot be described in words. 'GRACE.'
Completely untouched, I drove on to school. With the loud noise that I had heard, and the hit to my car, I dreaded the thought of seeing what had happened to the car and drove on. My mind on 'Kriya time was 9 and I had to be there.' Reached school and got down wondering what my car would look like, but apart from some few white scratches on the doors, there was nothing! :)

Looking back, I realize that in those few moments I had been close to complete disaster. All I felt was this protective shade around me. That moment I was a witness of what was happening without being a part of it.

Just yesterday we had gone on a school trip to Iskcon Mandir, Gobinddham Gurudwara and a beautiful old Masjid. The swamiji at Iskcon was so happy to see a whole bunch of over 70 kids and their teachers dancing to the tune of ' hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna hare hare'...They did not allow the kids to leave till all of them got the fruit and mathri prasad. While we were leaving he called me and a gave a generous helping of halwa in my hands. Felt blessed and now feel the trip was for me! Maybe some samskaras got burned... :)

"You are being taken care of" - are Guruji's words that ring in my mind.

On the practical side: I have to take care while driving and not speed up.
ALIVE!! Every moment in faith and eyes full of tears of gratitude..... :)