Big Sur - There is a water fall into the OCEAN
Understanding Oneself
Well so many incidences have been happening in life - all to a great reward.
Parent and Child think Different
Living with my son and daughter-in-law is an on-going learning process in balancing relationships. I came to realize that the love that the parent feels for the child cannot be reciprocated by the child. It is a different feeling. It is not a 2 way process. They are 2 different processes.
My expectation constantly for reciprocation of love, care, consideration, expenditures all lead me to often feel so disappointed , dissatisfied and unhappy. Till the knowledge dawned on me that my expectations were just not going to be fulfilled because the feelings were totally different and that is just natural. That realization calmed me down and now I feel happy to just be.
We as parents are extremely giving, generous and sacrifice all our basic needs to give the best to our children.
Mama, I did not ask you for anything
First of all, the child did not need all this. It did not ask to be born into this world, it did not ask any sacrifices to be made. You could have fed simple kanji ( porridge..) , dal, rice and govt. milk. The child did not ask Nestle spray, Farex and all exotic food, toys , luxuries. If u did it, you did it out of free will and choice.
Lets us set each other FREE
Second , you have to set them free at some age - preferably by 20 years LET GO !! This freedom has to be a 2 way process - both the child and the parent have to let go of each other completely from within. Then the relationship blossoms and takes a whole fantastic shade. It becomes a rewarding experience to be in each other's company.
When you are a mother and a single parent, you get extremely emotionally entangled with your children and that leads to all sorts of confusion for both.
Be Financially INDEPENDENT
Third and a very important issue for a rich rewarding life journey is financial independence. Every individual should make easy inflow of cash into life from a young age to death. When you are young, all you think of are your children, put them in the best school, clothe them lavishly and make all sorts of sacrifices to make them feel good and may be thus squander away hard earned money. If you dream that your old age will be well taken care of by your well-to-do children, then you are in for a major disappointment. The human child is not programmed that way.
If you observe the animal world nowhere we see off-springs taking care of aged parents. It is always the parents caring for the off-spring till it is strong enough to fend for itself. But in the animal world the parent does only that much and does not cling to the off-spring once it is ready to face the world . The parent moves on with its life.
What sets the human race apart from all the other animal world is the ability to feel emotions, express them. Man's thinking power is so great that he created the entire world so beautiful, so comfortable to help him survive and thrive. His intelligence has been so rewarding to his species, but his emotions have been his undoing.
Self Discovery along the journey
SELF-REALIZATION.
After the advance course at the Art of living Bangalore Ashram, I go for regular morning walk and do 1 hour of breathing exercises ( Pranayam). There is a huge sprawling garden in Nigdi called Tukaram Park - I call it Nakshtra Garden. I am so blessed to be living in such a beautiful area. There are so many lawns, benches, trees - it is just such a beautiful place.
I do Kapalbhati (Thank you Ramdev Baba Guruji), Nadi Shodan Pranayam, Ujjai Breathing, Mudra Pranayam, Basricka and Sudharshana Kriya - for all these I am eternally grateful to Guruji Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
All of them are breathing exercises. Takes me an hour. At the end of it I feel so light - as if I am nothing, my entire body feels one with nature. I also feel the immense vastness and the silence of this universe ( Thanks to Echart Tolle - "Power of Now") - the feeling is so divine. Your thinking simply blanks out and it feels so so good. One automatically slips into deep meditation and become one with nature around.
Sometimes it iis so funny - ON the one hand you feel you are nothing and on the other, you feel everything is within you - God, Guruji, nature ..
When I am returning home, I walk back slowly, feeling so weightless , so good, so peaceful It seems the world is so beautiful. I feel so grateful for everything.
This is the journey of SELF-REALIZATION.
I read recently Deepak Chopra's book - Guatama BUDDHA - His life journey - How he attained enlightenment. This book is a must read - it is written so well - one literally lives with Buddha in that period - The book does not discuss Buddhism - it is a dramatization of Buddha's life Thank you Deepak Ji . Grateful to you.
I now feel blessed that I may be getting there - ENLIGHTENMENT.
