Needed: Spiritual Practicality

A new post in Current Events

The world has been busy talking about Climate Change, Solar Energy, Global Terrorism and all these other things. Political leaders, subject experts, public intellectuals, journalists, pretty much everyone who reads the newspaper and watches news on TV or follows it on social media has an opinion on these important topics of the day.

No, this post isn't about one more opinion on these important topics. It is actually about something quite contrary. It is about the inadequacy and the insufficiency of the mental ideas and opinions.

Remember my post from last month about Who is a True Thinker? Of course, you do. Especially if you are a thinker!

In that post I had spoken of two essays of Sri Aurobindo: one titled, Conservation and Progress that inspired the True Thinker post; and the other titled, The Conservative Mind and Eastern Progress that is the inspiration for this one.

In some sense, this post may be considered a natural sequel to the previous post. Because only a True Thinker will be open-minded enough to engage with the ideas presented below. Are you one of those? Why not reflect on this question for a while?

In the essay, The Conservative Mind and Eastern Progress, a phrase that intrigued me was "spiritual practicality." This phrase could present a challenge to the general notion or understanding many people have of the term "spirituality." Most people are somehow used to thinking that spirituality and practicality can't go hand in hand. This perhaps comes from the faulty notion of seeing "spiritual-type" people as "impractical, other-worldly or out-of-touch-with-the-real-big-bad-world-out-there types."

But the truth is quite something else. One just has to give a quick look (without any preconceived notions) at the thousands of years of history of India and one will learn about the immense contributions of rishis, munis, yogis, sadhaks, gurus in practically all aspects of human life and activity. Philosophy, psychology, ethics, sociology, mathematics, astronomy, science, medicine, literature, arts, politics, warfare -- every field of what we consider as "practical" human activity has been the field of work of our rishis and yogis.

[Of course, one wouldn't find this in the Marxist school of Indian history which is generally being taught in our Indian educational programmes. One will need to do one's own un-learning of the old ideological view of history and then begin a process of re-learning of this deeper and inner history of India.]

But the other day as I reflected more on the term "spiritual practicality" as used by Sri Aurobindo in his essay, I wasn't thinking of history. I was thinking of the present.

Photo by Suhas Mehra

Global Poverty vs. Mindless Consumerism, Ecological Destruction vs. Economic Development, Terrorist Violence vs. World Peace, Religious Wars vs. Respectful Pluralism. Not a single day passes when we don't hear or read something or the other about one or more of these harsh conflicts facing the humanity and the world. It seems that such conflicts represent the state of things right now in the world.

In their own ways peoples, societies, and nations have been trying to address these conflicts in different ways. By enacting reasonable laws, by forumating thoughtful policies, by creating organised institutions, and by promoting all the 'right' secular values such as equality, liberty, human rights, universal education and at the same time lending their weight to the nobler ideals such as compassion for all life and nature, peace, non-violence etc.

And yet nothing seems to be working.

What is missing?

"The present era of the world is a stage of immense transformations. Not one but many radical ideas are at work in the mind of humanity and agitate its life with a vehement seeking and effort at change..... No nation or community can any longer remain psychologically cloistered and apart in the unity of the modern world. It may even be said that the future of humanity depends most upon the answer that will be given to the modern riddle of the Sphinx by the East and especially by India, the hoary guardian of the Asiatic idea and its profound spiritual secrets. For the most vital issue of the age is whether the future progress of humanity is to be governed by the modern economic and materialistic mind of the West or by a nobler pragmatism guided, uplifted and enlightened by spiritual culture and knowledge. The West never really succeeded in spiritualising itself and latterly it has been habituated almost exclusively to an action in the external governed by political and economic ideals and necessities; in spite of the reawakening of the religious mind and the growth of a widespread but not yet profound or luminous spiritual and psychical curiosity and seeking, it has to act solely in the things of this world and to solve its problems by mechanical methods and as the thinking political and economic animal, simply because it knows no other standpoint and is accustomed to no other method. On the other hand the East, though it has allowed its spirituality to slumber too much in dead forms, has always been open to profound awakenings and preserves its spiritual capacity intact, even when it is actually inert and uncreative. Therefore the hope of the world lies in the re-arousing in the East of the old spiritual practicality and large and profound vision and power of organisation under the insistent contact of the West and in the flooding out of the light of Asia on the Occident, no longer in forms that are now static, effete, unadaptive, but in new forms stirred, dynamic and effective."

(Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 13, pp. 137-138, emphasis added)

What is missing is "spiritual practicality," which when combined with a "large and profound vision" and a "power of organisation" can help humanity come out of the conflicts it has created in its path to progress.

What kind of "large and profound vision" do we need as an ideal? Perhaps the ideal of a true human unity?

But it can not be a mentalised ideal of unity which is unable to handle diversity without imposing a certain mental idea of uniformity. What is needed is a truer, an inner unity that doesn't impose uniformity but also doesn't tolerate abuse and disrespect of all that is different and unknown. What is needed is a deeper unity that doesn't eradicate diversity but also doesn't allow inhumanity and mindless violence (not only physical) to trample over all that is good, beautiful, true and humane.

Such unity doesn't come easily. Such unity doesn't come simply by wishing. Or simply by being politically correct. It requires sincere honesty. Of intention, of action, of rising above the pettiness and the lowest tendencies of greed, power struggle and domination. Serious work, stragetic work is required. On all fronts -- national, international, political, economic, social, cultural, educational.

And most importantly, on spiritual.

What is needed is a sincere effort to recover that "spiritual practicality" of the olden times and make it relevant for today and tomorrow. A spiritual practicality that helps us -- individuals and societies -- become more conscious of all our movements, all our actions, decisions and choices.

On an individual level, it could be something as basic as making food choices that are least harmful for the environment or becoming conscious consumers in order to keep reducing our carbon foot-print. Or it could be at the level of socially-politically active individuals organising together to work toward a greater civilisational and cultural renaissance.

At all levels what is required is an inner approach to outward action. Only a deeper, inward turning to the higher truth (of the self, not of the ego) and a disinterested action (in the sense of unegoistic, unselfish, having no regard for the result, with no preference for any particular outcome) can become the basis of a true spiritual practicality. Mentalised ideals can only take us so far, because mental ideals are easily broken at the first attack from life's complexities and circumstances.

What is really required is to rise in consciousness so that as individuals, societies and nations all our actions and decisions are more and more guided by unitarian, integrative and harmonizing tendencies instead of separative, divisive, egoistic tendencies.

Unfortunately, for many people being 'open-minded' and 'modern' has come to mean accepting pretty much every lifestyle choice as an equally valid choice, in the name of 'freedom.' Being 'liberal' has come to mean defending or being apologetic of the worst kind of violence and terror against humanity. All in the name of becoming the voice for the “all beliefs are equal” type of post-modernistic relativism.

This supposed ‘value-neutrality’ is against the most essential tenet of any spiritual path which emphasises the development of a clear sense of discernment, vivek -- defined by Sri Aurobindo as "intuitive and inspired judgment gained by a previous purification of the organs of thought and knowledge" (CWSA, Vol. 1, p. 501). It is an ability to sincerely and honestly distinguish between right and wrong, between good and not-good, between dharma and adharma. This applies equally to individuals in their individual sphere of life as well as to the societies and nations in collective life.

It is also equally important to recognise that spirituality doesn’t have to be religion-based, it can just as easily be areligious quest. The most sincere seekers on any spiritual path are in fact most open-minded and accepting of the diversity of wisdom traditions emerging from within various civilizations and cultures. They recognize that while each religion has a spiritual component but practical spirituality or spiritual practicality doesn’t require or necessitate any fixed adherence to any outer forms of any religion. They recognize and respect the truth that for some seekers a religion's outer forms such as rituals, ceremonies, etc. are important aids on the path. But equally so, this may not be the case for many others.

Such equal acceptance of difference is part of the inner make-up of sincere seekers on the path of truth. They recognize that what binds all these diverse seekers is a common search for the higher truth, an inner seeking whose practice is generally as individualised as something can be. Only such an experience has the potential to help one inwardly realize the deeper truth of values such as freedom, equality, and unity, beyond all intellectualising and rationalising of such ideals.

What is needed is a waking up to the life-affirming nature of Indian spirituality. Not religiosity, mind you. But a deep, personal seeking, an intense inner and outer search for the truth, the right, the good and the beautiful.

"It is more important that the thought of India should come out of the philosophical school and renew its contact with life, and the spiritual life of India issue out of the cave and the temple and, adapting itself to new forms, lay its hand upon the world. I believe also that humanity is about to enlarge its scope by new knowledge, new powers and capacities, which will create as great a revolution in human life as the physical science of the nineteenth century. Here, too, India holds in her past, a little rusted and put out of use, the key of humanity's future."

~ Extract from an interview given to a correspondent of The Hindu, quoted in Sri Aurobindo--His Life Unique, Rishabhchand, p. 410

Are we ready for the challenge to re-discover that key to the future? Ours and our world's?


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To read other posts in the Current Events series, click here.

India's Daughters: They Make it Happen

Sometimes you don't need too many of your words. You just need to be an instrument to spread the words of others. No, not just the words, but the works, the really good, noble and inspiring works of others. Today's post is like that. 

Today's post is about India's daughters who make me proud to be one of their sisters. I share about only a few such daughters, but there are countless others. All across the length and breadth of this vast country.

Come, listen to their stories.

Ardhnarishwara, at Airavateswara temple, Darasuram

Photo by Suhas Mehra

Daughter # 1: Neelam, Haryana

Thirty-one-year old Neelam is the sarpanch of Chappar village in Haryana. She ran in the village elections for the post of sarpanch because she wanted to see a positive change in her village. The state of Haryana has been notorious for having a highly skewed sex ratio owing primarily to neglect of girl-child and sex-selective abortion.

Under the leadership of Neelam, this has begun to change. Chappar villagers now distribute sweets and welcome every newborn girl child. She has been encouraging girls to continue their education. More women are now actively participating in the village matters.

Watch a video interview with Neelam to learn more about her work here.

Daugther # 2: Sindhutai Sapkal (Mai), Maharashtra

Sindhutai Sapkal is an Indian social worker known particularly for her work for raising orphan children.

Born in 1948 in a very poor family, she attended school only until 4th grade. As was the custom in those times in her village community, she was married off at the age of 10. Her abusive husband abandoned her when she was 20 years old and pregnant. Her personal struggles became her inspiration for her life-long work which has given her the title of Mai (mother), Mother of Orphans.

As of 2012, Sindhutai Sapkal has nurtured about 1,442 orphaned children. Many of her adopted children are well-educated lawyers and doctors.  Some, including her biological daughter, are running their own independent orphanages. One remarkable fact about Mai's life is that she donated her biological child to a trust running an orphanage in Pune, only to eliminate the feeling of partiality between her daughter and her adopted children.

Mai has been honoured with hundreds of awards. All the award money goes to create and maintain homes for her ever-growing family of sons, daughters and grandchildren.

Read more about Mai's work here.

Daughter # 3: Kudumbashree, Women's self-help group, Kerala

In September 2014, the state of Jammu & Kashmir faced its worst flood in 100 years. The disaster took the lives of more than 200 people, and left thousands of people homeless.

Indians from across the country came forward to extend their support. Food packets, clothes and medicines and other supplies were sent across. But there was one essential woman-specific requirement that was ignored by all – sanitary napkins.

Enter the women of Kerala’s biggest women’s self-help organization, Kudumbashree. In association with Get Closer, a CSR management company, the women manufactured thousands of sanitary napkins in just 2 days, and were able to transport them urgently to their “sisters” in Kashmir.

Read more about this story here.

Daughter # 4 and many more: 

I can't end this post without highlighting once again the stories of five more brave daughters of India. I spoke about them in my recent article in Swarajya.

Theirs are the stories in which we will find lessons for not only finding one's strength to fight back, stand up for one's honour, self-respect and rebuild one's life. Theirs are the stories in which we may also find some powerful lessons for how to fight against social evils such as violence toward women. These are the daughters of India who have shown the path of courage and self-respect to countless other women.

How I wish we will make films after films about their courage, about the way they inspire so many women.

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Such positive stories are all around us. Of women who make it happen.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, I salute these daughters of India. And all those unnamed billions of women all across the length and breadth of India and in the world, who have in their own little or big ways made a difference to the lives of people around them.

...no law can liberate women unless they liberate themselves; likewise, men too, in spite of all their habits of domination, will cease to be slaves only when they have freed themselves from all inner enslavement.  (The Mother)

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Women AND Men: To read this blog's IWD special post from last year, click here

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Linking this with Blog-a-rhythm's IWD Linkup.

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Linking this with ABC Wednesday, H: H is for Happen



#Makeithappen
#Internationalwomensday

From the Teacher's Desk

Dear V,

I am touched by the lovely card you sent me from across the seas. Thank you so much for your heart-felt words of love and gratitude. I am so happy that the work you started many years ago has finally come to its fruition. Your persistent effort and will to continue the work despite all the delays and challenges finally paid off. I am very happy for your well-deserved accomplishment, and grateful to have been a small part of the process in its early days.

Thank you for the beautiful gift you got for me when you visited your son in another distant land. The fact that you thought of sharing with me a little momento from your time spent in the warmth of your family's love says so much.

With this little gift of love, aquired in one part of the world, transported to another and finally sent with such sensitive care to yet another part of the world, you have tied together three different outer places. But more importantly, the spirit behind your gesture speaks to me of three different ways of overcoming inner distances -- with gratitude, rememberance and love.

Gratitude, for all that the other has given one in one's journey, no matter how long or how little or how far the two travelled together.

Rememberance, for staying with that feeling of gratitude, because it is so easy to forget in our rush to move on to the next excitement of life.

Love, for what is love without gratitude and rememberance.

I remember the times and talks we shared together, sitting in my office or on the steps of the building entrance. I am reminded of our works together, of learning with and from each other. I am reminded of the joy we experienced in our roles, that of a learner and a facilitator, and of the ease with which these roles often switched. Yes, they did. Because without that there wouldn't have been this connection that manifests today -- in your sending the card and the gift from so far away, and in my writing these words. After all those years.

I remember some words I had read some years ago. Words from a teacher and seeker, someone whose words you and I must have also read together at some point in our shared learning journey, all those years ago.

I don't know exactly where you are on your journey. But I suspect that your journey, like mine, is towards trying to come into a deeper understanding of what it means to live divided no more. If we can come to a deeper understanding of what this decision might mean for us in the context of education, we will have done something well worth doing. 

~ Parker Palmer, The Grace of Great Things: Reclaiming the sacred in knowing, teaching and learning  

I think in our own little ways through our given roles as learners and facilitators, we each tried to do something worth doing. In our meetings, in our discussions, in our emails, in our works. In the context of education. In life, which is an education. None of that could have happened if we didn't remember to do it in love. With love. Love for the purpose that joined us in our different journeys when we walked together for a few years. The purpose of wanting to "live divided no more...the decision to no longer behave differently on the outside than one knows one's truth to be on the inside." (Palmer)

These words make me feel happy today that we knew a little bit of each other's journey back then. These words make me feel content that today after all these years even though we may not know much of each other's journey, we know for sure that we are still trying to walk the path of gratitude, rememberance and love.

Thank you for remembering.

With love and best wishes, 

B

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A small package that started its journey many thousand miles away across the seas and reached my doorstep a few days ago made me want to write this. A love letter to all my students, past, present and future.

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To read last year's Valentine's Day special post, click here.

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Linking this with Blog-A-Rhythm, Wordy Wednesday #4, prompt: Love for all seasons

Light is All You Need

A new post in the series - Reminders to self

Note: This could be seen as a sequel to my earlier post on Why Should I Write, in which I share some writing advice from Sri Aurobindo, advice that speaks to me personally at this point in my writing and in my life. The words below may be seen as a response to another one of my questions - How Should I Write.

When all feels dark, kind of lost

Thoughts are all better-off tossed

Ideas don't work, no fix in sight

All you need is one little Light.

Light in the heart, Light in mind

Go seek, and ye' shall find

Light in action, and inaction,

Stillness of one moment's fraction.

In this Light when all feels changed

Remember to shine it on those estranged

Feelings, thoughts, words repressed

Lest they rally to make a protest.

A moment speaks, a truth revealed

Only that rigid mind won’t yield

Slave of habits, oppressor of a kind

Don’t force it, slowly make it refined.

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Linking this post with Write Tribe - 100 words on Saturday 2014 #16: The prompt was to imagine a conversation with a favourite author on writing. 

I realized that any questions I could think of had already been answered as seen in the excerpt shared above from Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo, Volume 27, p. 599. The light of his guidance however inspired me to pen down the 100 word-poem to further dispel the darkness of my doubts.

Image source: 1: mine; 2: Google

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To see previous post in this series, click here.
To see all posts in the series, click here.

Why Should I Write

A new post in the series - Reminders to Self

Drawing hands, by M. C. Escher, Source

Any reader of this blog or even an occasional visitor must have noticed that almost all of the writing here finds its inspiration in, or a connection to the words and thought of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. So when it comes to writing itself, it is obvious where I would look first. And last.

Many aspiring poets, sadhak-poets and writers in the Ashram and elsewhere used to ask Sri Aurobindo for advice and help with their writing and writing process. And Sri Aurobindo would painstakingly write back to each one of them, giving suggestions, making corrections to their drafts, guiding them. In many of his letters and talks we find great lessons on process of writing, inspiration for writing, role of concentration while writing, deeper purpose of writing, use of English language, writer’s block, and even place of humour in writing. And yes, a reference or two on plagiarism too. His own voluminous writings - prose, poetry, drama - serve as incomparable examples in various styles of writing including literary, philosophical, mystical, sociological, political, satire, polemics, you name it.

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For many years in my professional-academic life I learned about and facilitated learning of others in this thing called academic writing. Yes, that genre of writing with all kinds of quotes and data! And jargon too. Though I was never really fond of the latter. I was also fortunate enough to work in a non-conventional stream of higher education where academics for the most part have not bought into the model of “publish or perish.”

As a result, my writing - other than what I did based on purely academic research like my doctoral and post-doctoral work - was mostly inspired by or influenced by topics, themes and issues that were of interest to me at that time. Some of these may be read here, here and here. My expression, voice, and style in most of these writings would not really qualify as “academic writing” in the most conventional sense. Yet there was an undeniable influence of the years of training in and exposure to a certain style of writing that is common to academic circles.

When I started this blog last year, I wanted to follow no particular “style” or “voice” or “objective” but just express whatever was inspiring, interesting, important, relevant, and meaningful for me at that moment of time. I have written at length in another post about one simple criterion I follow when deciding whether to post something on this blog.

And when it comes to “how” to express, there too I haven’t put any limits. It can be words, music, images, inspiration gathered from various sources, mixed up with my meanings, my words, my silences.

Today my inspiration comes in the form of a reminder. A reminder for why I should write or rather why I should NOT write.

I can not not write. But I must remember why I write. This blog, or anything else. Especially now, at this point in my life-journey.

Why I should write, why I shouldn't write

Someone once asked Sri Aurobindo:

I cannot deny that along with my urge for acquiring a fine style etc., there is hiding some desire for fame as a good writer which, however, one can reject, at least one can hope to.

He replied:

Better not force the inspiration. You have some literary gift and can let it grow—but no desire for fame, if you please. (4 October 1933)

In another reply, I find this advice:

There should be no “desire” to be a “great” writer. If there is a genuine inspiration or coming of a power to write, then it can be done but to use it as a means of service to the Divine is the proper spirit. (14 May 1934)

And this:

Every artist almost (there can be rare exceptions) has got something of the public man in him in his vital-physical parts, which makes him crave for the stimulus of an audience, social applause, satisfied vanity, appreciation, fame. That must go absolutely if you want to be a yogi; your art must be a service not of your own ego, nor of anyone or anything else, but solely of the Divine.
(14 September 1929)

And this too:

It is your aim to write from the Divine and for the Divine—you should then try to make all equally a pure transcription from the inner source and where the inspiration fails return upon your work so as to make the whole worthy of its origin and its object. All work done for the Divine, from poetry and art and music to carpentry or baking or sweeping a room, should be made perfect even in its smallest external detail, as well as in the spirit in which it is done; for only then is it an altogether fit offering. (11 November 1931)

~ Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo, Volume 27, pp. 600-601

Today I feel grateful for this reminder.
Today I remind myself to remember this advice. Today, tomorrow, the day after, and after.
Today I remind myself to practice this advice. Today, tomorrow, the day after, and after.

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For previous posts in this series - Reminders to self, click here.

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Linking this post with Write Tribe Wednesday Prompt 2014 - #17  The prompt is to write a letter, or a poem or non-fiction giving advice to a novice writer. I am writing this letter/reminder to myself. 

More to Come Still....

One year. Of much happenings. Unforeseen and predictable. Irreplaceable losses, indescribable gains. Unexpected visits, unsurprising truths.

Unimaginable moments. Of involving, of witnessing. Of turmoil, of calm. Of pain, of healing. Of questioning, of acceptance. Of battle, of surrender.

Through it all, one love has been constant. Supporting, motivating, comforting.

A conditional love.

Yes.

Because unless I “do” it, it won’t love me back.

The more I “do” it, the more it becomes mine.

The more I give of myself, the more it lets me be…me.

The more I listen to it, the more it lets me express…words and silence.

Artwork by Leah Dorion

Writing.




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This post is written to express my gratitude to One and All, and to the outer action of writing with its inner rewards. It is written to mark the one year anniversary of this blog tomorrow. It all started with this post on Sankranti day, April 14, 2013.

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This post is linked to Write Tribe's 100 words on Saturday 2014 #11 prompt: conditional love.

Also linking this post to ABC Wednesday, prompt M. M is for More.

A Fragrant Lesson in Patience

I admit it. Patience is not something that comes easily to me. No, I should be more honest. I am quite impatient. But I value very much the quality of patience and would like to become more patient. Ever since moving into this house two and a half years ago, I have found a very nice and delicate way to develop and practice this virtue of patience. It is a personal practice or lesson for me, delivered in the the way I like it - small, beautiful, and self-taught. And as an added bonus, it makes my fingertips smell so fragrant afterwards.

All I do is go out in my garden and gather the little and tender flowers that are showered upon the ground by the good and gracious Parijat/Harsingar/Night Jasmine tree. Every morning this few-years-old sacred tree (so thankful to the previous owners of the house who planted it), the Divine Tree which is also known as Tree of Sorrow or Wish-granting Tree*, offers to the Earth below its most precious gift in the form of beautiful and delicate flowers. And I, a child of this Mother Earth, wanting to grow in my aspiration to become more patient, gather some of these flowers and bring them in my home.

Now starts my little lesson in patience - to slowly arrange these tiny and fragrant flowers so that each flower stands white-creamy side up and on its tiny orange foot. Of course, the first impulse is to gather these flowers in my palm and just immerse myself for a few seconds in their divine fragrance. Having done that, the blossoms which are somewhat soiled by the wet earth need to be tenderly cleaned making sure that neither their small white-creamy petals nor their tiny orange centers are broken. As they are drying out for a bit, I decide upon the appropriate vase or container or bowl in which I want to do the arrangement.

Then starts the most favourite task of picking up and arranging these tiny flowers, one by one, white side up, orange side down. My most preferred way is to float these flowers in water. Sometimes for the sake of contrast, I might also alternate and put in a few blossoms upside down, but that is very rare. There is something so beautiful about the way the tiny orange center shines through the middle of the white-creamy petals.

The flowers stay nice for two to three days, and interestingly even as they begin to wither away they just take on a darker creamy shade and don't really look so bad. At least to my eyes they don't! And when you are ready to give the old flowers and the used water back to the Mother Earth (by way of either putting them in a compost bin or doing what I prefer, which includes simply sprinkling the flowers and the water under some plant or bush in the ground or in a pot), you come across this beautiful yellow-orangish coloured water which has taken in itself the vibrant, fiery colour from the flowers.

The orange or saffron center of this sacred flower represents the fire in the heart, the source of all our energy, the fire that purifies, the fire of aspiration, will, and perseverance. It is believed that the dye produced from the central part of Parijat flowers was used to colour the robes of monks and ascetics in olden times. And in our times too, we find that the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram gave to this sacred Parijat flower a most appropriate spiritual significance - Aspiration (Innumerable, obstinate, repeating itself tirelessly).



At times when I don't have much patience and don't feel like doing my lessons either (though on these occasions I pretend to myself that I don't have much time, but really, it is the patience that I lack or the aspiration or will to practice my lesson in patience!) but I still feel like arranging these flowers, the result might look something like this. Or some variant of it.

Spread out in an old brass thali with only a few drops of water sprinkled over them, 
just enough to keep them fresh for a day

And when I have just a little patience or want my practice session to be really really small, I gather only a small bunch of flowers so that I can do only a small arrangement. Something like this.

I can't tell you how happy I was to find this tiny shallow vase at the Matri store on my last visit to the Delhi Branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. It is just perfect for small parijat arrangements to be offered to a small round Krishna in copper.

I am quite certain such a lesson may not work for most people, and I myself haven't really made a conscious effort to examine whether a constant practice of such lesson has helped me in any small measure or will help me if I continue with this over the next many years.

But what I do know, or rather what I do feel, is that the very act of gathering these tiny flowers one by one from the ground and spending the next half hour or so cleaning and arranging them makes me forget whatever pressing demands there may be on my time. And in those few minutes there is no hurry, no rush-rush to finish up the task at hand and move on to other things. There is simply a quiet joy of doing something delicately beautiful. Being with the sacred flowers. Being with the task. Just being.



* There are many legends and cultural significances associated with this special tree and these special flowers. For a quick read, see here.

Photo credits: 1 - Suhas Mehra, all others - Yours truly.

Gratitude

Today this blog completes six months.

Today is the day to express Immense Gratitude:

To the Divine Mother whose Presence and Words are the inspiration for this blog.
To the Divine Master whose Guidance and Grace are the force behind this blog.
To all those regions from where the ideas and thoughts and feelings come.
To all those parts and planes of the being which facilitate reflection and integration.
To all those faculties within which help sieve, select, synthesize and express.
And,
To all those who click, read, motivate and encourage.

A BIG THANK YOU!

Ipomea Carnea, Pale pink Morning Glory

Spiritual Significance: Gratitude, It is you who open all the closed doors and allow the saving Grace to enter.

Source

Today is also the day to remind myself of why I do this blog: 

As as a humble offering to Her.
As a humble attempt to contemplate upon, live out, and express the following words:

"Let beauty be your constant ideal.

The beauty of the soul

The beauty of sentiments

The beauty of thoughts

The beauty of the action

The beauty in the work

so that nothing comes out of your hands which is not an expression of pure and harmonious beauty.

And the Divine Help shall always be with you." 

(The Mother)

Today is also the day to express a prayer:

May I always remember to 'Remember and Offer'. 

May I always remember to reflect deeply on all that appears on this blog.

May I always remember to assess deeply before anything gets expressed on this blog.

May I always remember to see all this as:

a means to progress, 

a means to become more open and receptive to Her Force.

a means to grow in gratitude and humility.

a means to seek and express deeper delight in all life and work.

So, What are You Working on?

A new post in the series - Satyam Shivam Sundaram

A series featuring inspiring words from various sources, words that speak of  timeless truths, words that remind me of the deeper and hidden truth behind surface events and phenomena, words that shine light when all seems dark, words that are just what I need - 

for this moment and for all times to come.

Early Study. Painting by The Mother, 1895. Oil on canvas

“In work too there is an austerity. It consists in not having any preferences and in doing everything one does with interest. For one who wants to grow in self-perfection, there are no great or small tasks, none that are important or unimportant; all are equally useful for one who aspires for progress and 

self-mastery.” 

~ The Mother, Four Austerities and Four Liberations

Imagine living this ideal. What a complete contrast with the typical things we often hear ourselves and others saying –- “oh, I really don’t care for my job, it is so boring, so mundane... I want to do something that is meaningful, that satisfies me, that makes me happy…etc. etc…”

What do we know about what we are really supposed to be doing, especially when we don’t really know who we truly are and what is our true nature? And still we keep looking for that perfect work that will make us happy? Happiness has nothing to do with the real, true Delight we should be seeking…which is not dependent on any one particular type of work…it should be there in all that we do.

But how, oh how, do we tread the long path… By doing…by practice, by aspiring, by rejecting, by surrendering…But this big “I” and its demands and preferences keep coming in…oh god!

***

Previous posts in this series:

Inner Truth of a Flower       On Sensitivity and Appreciation of Beauty     

"No Construction Without Destruction"

We Pray that It will be Done in Beauty....

It has been a while since my last post...critical matters of heart, matters of life have become the sole occupation. And while that still remains so the following words on my Facebook feed this morning resonated deeply.

To pray, you open your whole self

To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon

To one whole voice that is you.

And know that there is more

That you can’t see, can’t hear

Can’t know, except in moments

Steadily growing

and in languages that aren’t always sound

But other circles of motion

Like eagle that Sunday morning

Over Salt River

Circled in blue sky, in wind

Swept our hearts clean with sacred wings

We see you see ourselves

And know that we must take

The utmost care and kindness

In all things

Breathe in knowing we are made of all of this

And breathe, knowing we are truly blessed

because we were born and die soon

within a true circle of motion.

Like eagle, rounding out the morning inside us

We pray that it will be done

In beauty, in beauty

Poem by Joy Harjo

And whatever remains to be felt and expressed and heard beyond words, art does it all...

Prayer by Bindu Popli

Sunday Morning Lesson in Beautiful and Precise Action

Had the joy of having the freshest possible idlis and steamed dosa for breakfast yesterday at the Visitor Center at Auroville. The joy was doubled when I saw a sweet lady come out of the restaurant kitchen with a basket full of assorted flowers and a polished-to-shine urli filled up to brim with water. She was about to start arranging the flowers in the urli - something that one can see on the restaurant main counter every time one visits this delightful eating joint. Leaving my husband alone at our table, and taking my coffee cup with me I went near this petite lady and after greeting her with a smile and hello, asked her if I could simply stand there and watch her do her ‘thing’ with flowers. She smiled a sweet smile and said yes.

And then it began...the delight of watching one of the sweetest and most beautiful work in progress.

All the flowers from the top of the basket were first laid out on the counter and separated by colours. First came a layer of delicate flowers (Rose periwinkle/Madagascar periwinkle/Catharanthus roseus; Spiritual significance given by The Mother – Integral Progress). 

Photo courtesy here

Each flower was floated in the water with careful precision and delicacy. After all the flowers were arranged in a circular pattern, the lady very gently pulled at one of the petals of each flower in order to leave just a hint of a space between the rim of the urli and the flower. This made the water sparkle in the combined light of the shiny brass of the urli and the white brightness of the flowers.  And I thought to myself – what a nice idea! How beautiful it looks.  But within a second I understood her actual reason for doing that.

She had discovered a whole bunch of tiny purple/lavender flowers at the bottom of the basket (Wishbone flower/Bluewings /Torenia fournieri; Spiritual significance given by The Mother – Krishna’s Play in Matter) and this tiny little space between the rim and each of the white flowers was just enough to float those purple gems. 

Photo courtesy here

And then it began again...my awe at how she was so carefully handling each of these purple flowers and arranging them in an exact precise manner so that their petals were floating in the same direction. No randomness, all in perfect order and harmony, and yet all done with such flawless spontaneous movements of her fingers. The flowers were so tiny but her soft eyes and gentle fingers were so observant and exact that not a teeny-weeny extra bit of an over-grown petal or accompanying leafy material made it to the arrangement.

Perfect precision in creating a work of art from the heart. I wish I had the camera with me to capture that gentle perfection in progress....but perhaps it is for the best that such beautiful moments of creating beauty are simply experienced in the flow of the moment, and not frozen.

Beauty of the action...

Perfection of the form...

Seeking the divine harmony behind everything...

The Sunday breakfast turned out to be a perfect lesson!