Love, Life and Living Coded in the Trees

 

Lord Byron: “There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more.”

The tree in your yard is as alive as your friends, family and more. There are more prominent complexities in nature than the man-made systems. Read the seminal work of self-explaining nature and you will scientifically understand why a tree is as alive as human beings.

It's not some esoteric, mystical talk. You will learn how life is as good, valued and important at all levels in nature. It will bust your misconceptions that creation is human centric. Read the open pages of nature to know your real place in the scheme of natural things. Come on, brace up yourself and your next visit to the forest will give you unimaginable perspectives. You will feel more of a human being. Well, it's strictly for your benefit only.

Warren Buffett: “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

Well, if you plant a tree, with the concomitant resolution to help it grow and become a big tree, before starting on a journey into the forest, it will be an icing on the cake. A very nice inauguration I tell you, a pious deed like breaking a coconut to start your prayer and rituals.

We are safe in our civilization because nature decided to have trees before we arrived on the scene. We are simply a little drama under the nature’s shade. Accept it. Feel the gratitude. And go plant a tree. You owe it to Mother Nature. We have our own carbon quota that we let out with every breath exhaled and the pollutants born of household utilities, cars, refrigerators and air-conditioning. Now set up your plant of oxygen. Plant a tree. It avoids us from being utterly shameless.  

Martin Luther: “For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”

To make it more logical for you, I recommend 'The Hidden Life of Trees' by Peter Wohlleben. The eminent forester delineates his profound love of forests and woods. On the basis of his personal experiences in pristine forests, he throws light on the remarkable processes of life, death and regeneration among trees and their communities. Astounding scientific mechanisms go with intellectual precision behind many wonders that we simply take for granted as almost unintelligible, unconscious random occurrences.

The book is full of groundbreaking observations. Can you imagine that almost similar to human families, the parental trees stay around their children? The moments are full of communication among themselves. The older trees support the young saplings as they grow. The bigger trees share nutrients with the weaker and younger trees in the community. There is a natural push for creating an ecosystem to lessen the force of weather extremes like temperature and precipitation. Because of these channels of cooperation, the trees in a community support each other to beat the challenges against their survival. On the other hand, lonely trees, just like orphans, find it very difficult in the game of survival. Could you read the undercurrents of love, affection and care in all this?

Researchers have found Mycelium (Mycorrhizae), an underground network of symbiotic fungi attached to plant roots. These fungal threads are the means of nutrient exchange. It helps the young saplings as well as very old stumps that won’t survive without this community support. This fungal web of mutual care, share and support has been termed as Wood Wide Web. Still need more proof of the essentiality of love and sharing as the basis of existence?

There are tiny miracles unfolding in nature around. Take for example African Acacia. When an animal starts nibbling at its leaves, the tree lets out a chemical. Its scent travels through the air to reach the neighboring trees. It triggers a short-lived toxin in them as a response. So when the animal reaches this tree, it finds it uninteresting to eat when it sniffs at its leaves. And then the things become normal after some time. No grudges, no animosity, no personal agenda. Things simply are.

In certain trees, under attack by the leaf-eating insects, the leaves after tasting the predator’s saliva produce a chemical. It catches the attention of bigger predators that swoop down and attack the leaf-eaters. There is no malice, no excess of endeavors, just a balanced, all-inclusive game without any egoistic exclusivity.

It’s not a mute world over there. Electrical impulses travel across leaves and roots at a speed of 1/3 inch per second. This is the rate of communication in nature. Slow in comparison to our rampaging speed though, but sustainable as per the laws of love, care, harmony and peace.

Isn’t it a wonderful system out there with its basic constituents of love, care and share? The latter are the fundamentals on which the mundane game of survival takes place.  

The Love Code of Existential Intelligence

 

Go into the lap of nature and seek at the most mundane of places away from the disillusioning hoot and holler. I feel the deep pools of universal compassion as the major constituent of the cosmic energy transforming around us. Come, give me company while I tell a small tale of love and parental care. It’s primarily about unconditional love without which the shapeless fluid in tiny eggs won’t change into thriving, vibrant, hopping winged life. There is an existential intelligence of love containing the secret of creation. It sustains this amazing burst of life around us.

I see a tireless woman who is camera shy. During the breaks it takes rest on the wire and there I go to take a picture. But it is really shy and doesn’t allow me to click her with a close-up smile, forcing me to take a look at some sister model of hers from the internet to know more about her species. Unmindful of my curiosity-driven poking in her affairs, she is busy all day in knitting a little cup of love on the branch of our Parijat (night flowering Jasmine) for the new lives inside her. Well, best of luck soon to be mom, little red vented bulbul!

Taking inspiration from her hard work, I too decide to contribute to the cause and keep a watch on the neighborhood goon, the big rascally cat, as big as a leopard cat in the wild. I think my stick also needs to be in the scene somewhere.

No need to mention that her husband is a loafer and does less work, fools around more. Possibly in the guise of warning tweets, it flirts with the lady birds around. Well, not that scandalous because all men are like that. He is just true to his salt. So forgetting about him, we can talk a bit about red vented bulbul in general.

They are tentative smoke brown birds, double the size of common sparrow and have partially crested black head that gives them a semi-hawk, stern look. There is a very attractive crimson patch below the root tail. Their white rump is very prominent in flight. They can be very angry for their size. I am wondering about the shape and location of the nest. It doesn't look too safe. It is simply a cup of rootlets. But then possibly they are confident of defending the citadel.  

All is well so far with the usual struggle. The net is set up followed by laying eggs. I have chased away the cat many times. It has stopped visiting. Ironically there are always counterpoints in nature. Once you have the eggs, you see Shikra, a small hawk bird of the region. At noontime I hear the parent couple's panicked notes and tweets followed by ruffling of wings in the branches. I just run out exactly at the moment the hungry hawk is trying to perch on the delicate branches for a belated egg breakfast. It flows away and watches from a nearby tree. I loiter around to increase the morale of the defending force. It makes an attempt again and due to my being still ready for the job it has to fly away. I see it again the next day and become painfully sure of its success. Then I just pray that its hunger be quenched somewhere else, on a dead animal preferably. Thankfully I haven't seen it since then. Possibly existential intelligence carries out our selfless plans in its mysterious ways.

The nest is very small and looks a weak fort. Little do I realize the couple's pugnacity in defending even a weak fort. In any case this is what that keeps them busy, this ever-on game of survival between life and death. They don’t have to build space rockets. They are here to simply survive and survival needs almost 24×7 surveillance and awareness. Contrary to our belief, it’s the other spices that live in total awareness. Slightest lapse and you are gone. Since we humans have more time, we can afford to lie idle in unawareness and get into huge follies.

With my typical human-centric make-believe sense of awareness, again I poke my nose into their affair and wrap a piece of cloth around the nest, leaving a hole for the birds to sneak in, making it a better house. In any case, Mother Nature can do without my discretion. But then I have to take some credit. The same old human malady, you know. So I presume that possibly the hawk gets duped in taking it as some human design to capture it.

The hawk is not to be seen around anymore, by the way. Possibly it has done as little as shift his awareness to some other nest somewhere else. It comes very easily to them because they don’t have any ego problem.

I have to take back my words hitting at the father's laziness. He has earned my respect in many regards. While the mother is in the creative process of managing the nest, the Dad has been keeping a stern sentry watch from the vantage points in all this heat. I often see him perched on the top end of a rusted out-of-use TV antenna pole. Even with hawk birds, few-times bigger in size, he gives all that a father can. He fluffs his feathers to look larger and makes cantankerous noise to distract the predator. He keeps on going very close to the enemy and tow it away with the bait of a larger meal. What won't parents do for their children! And still we fail to spot love as the basic ingredient of the cosmic show running around us!

He is freer with crows that are also far bigger in size but less lethal as a predator, lazier as they are. He just doesn't allow them to sit anywhere on the surrounding trees, lest they spot his family. The more I look at it, the more I am sure of the divine intelligence ingrained everywhere. Whenever he is having a row with a crow, tweeting vivacious abuses at a furious pace, the group of house sparrows, warblers and sunbirds add to the chorus, forcing the larger bird to leave the scene in indignation and irritation. And they don’t even need the certificate of friendship to play their part in the show of friendliness.

Elsewhere, the collared dove looks silently with her mummed-up stillness and majesty. The cantankerous babblers just babble in a group possibly chasing a cat or even some little snake. Sternly professional mynah goes with an air of well-meant business. Peacocks, exiled by pesticides in the fields, sing mourning songs in the village. But who cares about the multi-colored wonder of nature.

Monsoon has been normal, so everything is richly green. Butterflies go with honeyed business among the bougainvillea flowers that bloom to wildish proportions. And most importantly, I see the parents ferrying insects, grass seeds and worms into the nest. Possibly hatchlings are there, one step further.

Creation takes another tiny step towards fulfillment of the divine goal. I hear very faint chirping. Yea, new life! A new beginning in the stream of existence that links all of us. Life is just one common force driven by cosmic intelligence and it blooms in endless forms and avatars. Another drop of existence manifesting in the sea of supreme existence. Well, best of luck bulbuls! Let's hope all goes well.

They must have gone a bit far this day. I hardly expect such casual attitude from them but grab the chance to have a look into the nest. Aha, life from close quarters, so open, transparent, innocent, vulnerable and optimistic at the same time. Shaped out of the fluid. Soft, almost transparent maroon-red balls. Their beaks are always open. The parents are busy throughout the day, still it falls short. They have to eat relentlessly, grow as fast as possible and beat the moment that may undo it all. 

A squirrel lets loose a chit-chatty chorus. A group of parrots passes with a fruitful shriek. A tatihiri (lapwing) goes on a trumpeting hoot, possibly happy for its correct monsoon forecast. A butterfly darts from bougainvillea to motia to mogra to rajnigandha to sunhair. The butterflies appear like the flowers’ extended self dissolved in airy flirts. There are more birds than a decade back and it gives some hope that Mother Nature isn't totally angry on us.

Now it turns out to be a roller coaster week involving lots of noise. Well, the hatchlings have jumped out of the nest. I marvel at the change from a soft tiny ball of meat to a handsome toddler. All that incessant feeding bears fruits a bit quickly from human standards. There is no pause at this level in nature. One miss, and you are gone.

I see one of them in the shrub below the nest. The parents never fall short of nibbling at crows’ feathers whenever they happen to be in the near vicinity. The father especially doesn't allow any bigger bird to perch on any nearby vantage point that may expose the tiny hatchling.

They are all day putting out different sounds to communicate in a mysterious way. The language of survival with its syllables of love. Presently they spiritedly object whenever I am nearby. I respect their ownership of the tree. In the scheme of things, they own it before me. I don't know about the other hatchling, maybe it's there also in the shrubs, may be it hasn't survived. Well, I am not looking for it either, because whenever I do they abuse vivaciously and I feel like an intruder in the scheme of nature. Let's hope this hatchling takes its first flight in the next couple of days. All the best little one/ones!

Well, it turns out to be a happy ending. The little one stays on the tree, after coming out of the nest, for couple of days. Remains completely subdued, glued to a branch for two days while the parents ferry food. On the second day it drizzles almost throughout the day. It stays like a cute little ball under a cluster of leaves. It even jerks its feathering and coat to shake off water. Well, then possibly it gets bored. It’s too difficult for somebody to sit like that in childhood. After all, it’s pure, happy energy unburdened of life’s thousand and one concerns.

In the evening it stops drizzling and away it goes on its first sortie under a heavy shadow of clouds. Due to the monsoons everything has almost double foliage. It helps him. I can see the parents loitering around on a cluster of keekars nearby. More than the little one, I am sure of the parents' ability to defend it. So I don't see any big hassles.

They are no longer bothered about the tree and the nest that they defended so stoutly for a month. They possess a thing in totality unlike we humans who do it in fragments, which unfortunately makes us run forever. Now they possess that cluster of lush green keekars. I can see the father perched on that dead keekar tree at his sentry point. Well, the world is better with at least one, and hopefully two, bulbuls. Well done both you husband and wife!

Even a prickly keekar appears so luxurious in the monsoon season. The little one must be in the cluster of trees, a larger world, learning the tricks of the trade. I can see the parents loitering around very cautiously for the next two weeks. They have a stern look and stout defenders of their rights for their size. Just watching them busy, I can surmise that they still have the little one somewhere in the branches to get them fulfilling the parental duties. But now they look more relaxed, a clear signal that the young bird is growing well.

After exactly two weeks of its first flight to a bigger cluster of trees, this breezy morning, I see the fruits of their struggle. It is growing. Boy or girl, I don’t know. In any case, they don't bother about such gender issues. Their duty is full, not fragmented. It has a slight plumage and a slender crown on its black head. It is sitting on a high branch. And parents tweet from a distance. There it goes with a free swirl followed by the proud Ma and Pa. They aren't concerned about the nest. They own everything and nothing at the same time.

Well the tree has new tenants, a pair of spotted munia. The already existing bulbul nest is still cozy but they don't care about anything that doesn’t belong to them. They have made a new globular grassy citadel still higher on the tree. All bird species have their own types of standard, customized nests. They don’t have memory chambers to retain all that information. In any case, memories are created basically with learnt knowledge. Without trying to learn anything, they simply do it when it needs to be done. Well, do we need more proofs of existential intelligence?

Coming to spotted munia, these are smaller birds, the size of house sparrows. To ensure better probability for their nestlings to survive, they need a better accommodation. A bit down the new nest is another world, a tiny hammock cup nest of an oriental white eye. Little worlds within a small world in a cluster of small tress.

The oriental white eye sits sternly with its white band around the eyes. The more I see, the more I realize the design of existential intelligence. These birds weigh a few grams and look at their feats. The codes of existential intelligence are very smartly written. All this won’t be possible if love doesn’t define the lives of each and everything in setting up the course where they love their offsprings more than their own lives. This love is the fuel of creation. Salutes to the supreme power!

There is no individually separate life. It is just an ever-evolving, transforming process. All apparent forms are merely part and parcel of the ever-expanding stream of energy. Individuality is simply apparent on the surface because of the certain frequencies behind the shapes on which creation is moving ahead in a particular sequence. But you still feel elated when you see a milestone reached in the process. And here is the family: Ma, Pa and the young bulbul. I see the happy family on a dry crowning branch against blue skies overlaid with domes of floating white monsoon clouds. The moment stands at the cusp of a small milestone on the countless highways of creation.

They have built up the bridge to the continuation of ‘life and living’ from their tiny point in the infinite scheme through their selfless work of the last few weeks. The father, as they are, is aloof, to the left. Ever pampering mother, like they are everywhere, is nearby to the right. And in the middle is the prince/princess, the fruitful outcome of love.

The little one is almost the size of its mother. I can recognize it only because it still has the childish manner of opening its beak and shakes its wings expecting to be fed an insect. It is gradually opening to free flights in an open world. It darts quite sharply, a bit erratically though, and is seen out of the cluster of trees where it has been hiding for the last two weeks.

They are still concerned about their little one. And they will continue dutiful to their task till the day when it will take to the skies of its own. The father takes liberties to be off the scene these days, and must be definitely flirting somewhere. The mother, on the other hand, is just busy with single point focus. I cannot see any other priority for her right now. She makes sounds particular to their species and type. The little one is being trained in different tones of sounds, for alerts, for socializing, for love and who knows what other coquettes of the birdie world. I even hear it imitating and responding to her.

On this despondent day, she nibbles at a guava on the courtyard wall and the young one looks keenly. It also imitates its mother and takes beakfuls of guava. It must have really liked it because it continues greedily till a flock of sparrows lands and teases it by pecking at its tail. It then flows away with visible irritation.

Now they take even bigger sorties in the open chunk of free skies. But off and on, I see the mother and kid, and sometimes the father also, on the dry branches of the dead keekar tree from where the father scouted the skies for predators during the nesting phase. Well, it has been a happy story. Well done bulbul pair. And best of luck little one!

Don’t you see love in fluid motion across the stream of this story? Try reading it again if you missed it. The secret of love lies in such pleasing anecdotes perpetually unfolding in the lap of Mother Nature.

Treating the Diseased Roots of the Tree of Love

 

So many times we commit the folly of treating the symptoms instead of the disease’s roots. Suppose there is a tree in poor health. Its leaves dispirited pale and not fresh green. Its canopy hardly able to put shadow on the ground. It just waits for some storm to claim a natural calamity. Then you see somebody nurturing its leaves, pouring water and manure on them and dreamily look forward to greenish luxuriance. Of course it’s a folly. The problem lies in roots, not on the leaves.

That’s how it’s with human lives. We look for solutions on the surface, at the levels where the problems manifest themselves. Little do we realize that the root cause of such problems lies somewhere else. Those who get lynched by the diseased emotions of jealousy, hate, anger, frustration, insecurity and animosity have a problem deep within the self. These negative emotions are just like surface wavelets, mere symptoms of a restless self within. So stop bothering about the effects. Take care of the turbulence inside and these simply vanish. They lose their meaning and become redundant because you no longer entertain the factors that triggered them.

It’s not that the point of serenity doesn’t lie in all of us. It does. Invariably. In fact that is the biggest commonality among homo-sapiens. The only problem is that we tend to forget it and identify ourselves with shallow, shaking waters on or just below the surface. The only effort required is to be aware of this deep, unmoved tranquility inside and accept it as the seat of the real self. Instantly life acquires a new meaning. You can even witness the upheavals, which tortured you earlier like they were you only, as a neutral observer. You look through the mist. You start seeing things as they are instead of what you want them to be.

If the interior is rooted in calmness, poise and control—the elemental tools of love—such diseased leaves won’t sprout on the surface to take a toll on the physio-psychological health. In the depths of the sea, there is a calm world basking in the glory of bluish darkness that stays unmoved. On the surface there are storms and upheavals. The surface tosses and turns as if struck by some mad force. Disturbance is destined to die. But before it dies, it takes casualties like a pyre burns on firewood. Only peace and calmness can be permanent. And surprisingly calmness does not draw on any fuel to sustain its eternity. It’s self sustaining. There are no collateral damages. So isn’t it prudent to dive deep into the womb of serenity to be reborn as a calm child who is in control of his destiny?

Submerge into the cool depths of your real, inner self. Explore your undisturbed waters, your loving nature, your essential self: compassion. In its bluish darkness, you will see a lamp of self-realization. You will clearly see the funny part of surface storms and even laugh at yourself for having been so crazy in the shallow, muddied waters. Don’t waste this precious life in the muddied storms. The pearls of your destiny lie at depths. So brothers and sisters, raise your head above the stormy waters, take in a big breath, dive deep and shake hands with unruffled waters where your real self awaits with the answers to all the root causes of the problems on the surface.

There is a little exercise manual as you decide to dive deep. Practice forgiveness. It’s the most effective potion for healing the self. Since you are an inseparable part of this world, you contribute to heal the world also as you conserve vital energy that otherwise was to be burnt in brooding over hurts and pains.

Once you see through the prism of forgiveness, you will find nature ingrained with the principle of forgetting and forgiveness. If not for them, things will simply burn themselves out after a trigger. Forgiveness has healing properties beyond words. Just imagine even a blade of grass won’t re-grow if the grass isn’t able to forget and forgive after the turf has been trampled. Forgiveness is thus the potent pill of self transformation. It dusts off the negatives you have gathered around your true, loving self.

Struggle + Smile: A Love Candy

 

As you huff, puff and frown on the slippery path of life, it appears natural to lose your smile, giving you a firm, frigid look. Naturally your loving persona takes a backseat, making you a determined, steely beast. I am not asking you to abandon your steely resolve. Just that we aren’t lifting a stone all the time to make our teeth grind with effort all the time. Don’t forget your smile fella! Always remember, there is something good at the end of it.

There is light beyond

the deepest dark depth,

There is a bright day after

the ghostly haunts of nightmarish night,

After a barren famished fight

there is a full blossomed spring delight,

After pining pangs of separation 

there is a worthy end to the desperation,

After crashing in the gutters

there is a surge and rise to bathe in holy waters,

After crying convulsions on the lips

a smile takes honeyed sips,

After the last defeat,

there is an undying urge to accomplish the feat,

Even when blind with despair,

there is hope hiding and cajoling somewhere,

Even in hate, love still lurks somewhere!

Oprah Winfrey: “Where there is no struggle, there is no strength. And your strength actually gives you a smile.”

So indirectly our struggles are the catalysts for lots of our smiles. Just that we need to remember it more often than we do otherwise. Moreover, the most generous, loving people are the ones who have won odds against struggle, pain, defeat and loss. Smiles and love are the perfume manufactured in the perfumery of hard tasks and bitter odds. Real struggle and real efforts rarely turn you bitter. At the end of it you come out a cute, loving and kind-hearted lady.

The glorious triumph of life and its meaning are defined by the hard course one has taken. Actually you earn your smiles. And earned smiles are the most genuine. They emanate from the deep pool of a loving persona. It sums up to a character of gold I tell you. Long before others tell you, your own soul will give you the big-grinned thumbs-up. After that what others think of it hardly matters. With this Godly muse, a smile will not depart from your lips. The things that you considered to be a loss, lose their meaning. They simply become redundant, like darkness loses its meaning once you have lighted the room with a small lamp.

One more thing, the hardest of an effort doesn’t sound like a struggle anymore if you retain your smile. Those who pass this test, qualify to be amazingly successful, loving people.

Help the Feminine Flower to Ultimate Love-blooms

 

Jewel Parker Rhodes: “Prejudice is sinful. All blood flows red. And the most harmful and foolish kind of prejudice is prejudice against yourself. Every woman is your sister, and every woman needs her sisters. So try to give other women the courtesy of your compassion, respect, and forgiveness. Love yourself despite - and because of - your flaws.”

Well this world will become such a beautiful place if women have more love among themselves. Given their natural entitlement in caring and sharing for biological reproduction, they can bring the art of love to perfection. Unfortunately, there is a tendency among women to shower love and affection on the male half of humanity and keep lots of scorn for their own species. With this slight alignment to channelize a bit of female love in their own quarters, the power of feminine love can heal humanity, unifying many a divisive fronts. It has the possibility of remaking a society on better lines.

Rumi: “Woman is a ray of God. She is not that earthly beloved: she is creative, not created.”

Women have almost unlimited scope to exercise compassion. High time they realize their infinite worth. A woman is a bouquet of sensuality, opulence, elegance, insight, caution, splendor and humility. Don’t you think they are the best masters for the alchemy of love?

Socrates says, “Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.”  

In order to explore the possibility of love among women, first we have to redefine the meaning of violence. Do you think violence is basically about breaking heads, firing bullets, stabbing knives, blood, wounds, injuries, sticks and guns etc., etc.? Please give me some company for some revision if you think so. To me the most dangerous form of violence is within, in the mind in the form of ideas, emotions and thoughts. What we see in the form of broken heads and mangled bodies is just an outcome, a portion, of the volcano of violence within, in ideas, thoughts, emotions and reflections.

Do you think, given man’s penchant for expression of violence in physical form, man is more violent than woman? Please stay with me for some more moments if you believe so. Like they are suitable competitor to man in every field presently, women may not be less in violence as well, if not exactly in the bloodied form, but certainly in the intensity of the violence within, the scheming volcano that smolders over the years. And then bursts suddenly.

The coy, dove-eyed slaughterer! Quite unfortunately, the victims are fellow women predominantly. It’s more so in conservative, traditional societies. In the ghettoized social space, where women are left suffocating for freedom, violence brews up a very nasty cocktail. It’s like hen fighting within the shitty cage. They cannot come out, so they fight among themselves. The historic sense of revenge accumulates and pours out to seek a target. As is the natural law, it seeks a soft target, and who is a softer target than a dependent woman in a conservative ghetto. Often it’s dirtier than a bloody fight. Nothing can match the violence of a female for her fellow species in traditional societies. It’s about revenge, plotting and scheming. All these define a cycle of self-annihilation.

In most of the crimes related to death, dowry and divorce in arranged marriages, the plot is hatched and aided by females. No wonder, the victim of a violent female mind is another woman. The remedy lies in setting them free, a free run out of the cage of tradition and convention. The women on the open platform of life are less violent in life. Or at least this is what I think. Look at the Western societies where women are suitably empowered. You have minimal cases of females unleashing violence on their own gender.

It will help in harnessing the left out love potential of humanity. It has the capacity to reshape civilizations that have turned out to be deeply scarred. Love among women themselves is the remedy for the bruised times.

An Ounce of Love Tilts the Scale in your Favor

 

Contradiction is inherent in nature. Positive–negative, acidity–alkalinity, dark–light, etc., etc., these are all manifestations of a homeostatic balance.

You know stars are held by this same dual, contradictory force of nature. Gravitational force pulls the molecules to the core; at the same time super-temperatures force the molecules to stay away from the core at a feasible length.

The stars smile and shine just because of the contradictory chemistry of these two opposing forces. Remove either of them and the star meets its end. Remove gravitational pull, the star will explode as a supernova. Remove the escaping force born of high temperature, the star will suck into its own core as a black hole.

So survival means a fine zone in the twilight of creation and destruction. Natural laws apply to humans as well; they hold the same validity if we treat an individual as a system. The human life is a wonderful phenomena sizzling like a shiny star in the twilight of humility and pride, altruism and selfishness, good and bad, faith and atheism, etc. So greatness lies not in casting off one side of this undercurrent. It lies in tilting your balance just a bit to the side of the so-called good aspects in the pair. Why? Because we are social phenomena as well, apart from being the natural ones. Our conscious sense of loving kindness sets us apart. It’s the hallmark of humanity. This is the best carat authenticity for the human self.

Just add a teaspoon of loving kindness to your forte of skills and belief. And see how wonderfully the overall taste of life gets changed. Our consciousness equips us to shine and survive like a star–but with a definite purpose. The purpose of general well-being; of helping others in maintaining the same balance of survival leading to definite evolution; of contributing proactively to the overall balance hung between the two contradictory frames.

We can contribute more than what our natural states have defined for us. Believe me! It works. Walk ahead to be a social phenomenon and not just stay a natural incident you are born as. Just help someone in need. It can be a tiny deed. As tiny as an unconditional smile! You will feel yourself elongating your natural self a bit to the positive side. This is what it takes to be human in the social sense, which is a degree higher than existing just as a natural phenomenon.

This is the alchemy of love. Make it an essential ingredient of your thoughts, feelings and actions. You will be minting gold I tell you.

Love: The True Destiny

 

If you define yourself by the external factors around you, you surrender your destiny to the outside forces. If you identify yourself with your true self, your soul, you instantly take charge of your destiny.

God was hammering down nails into my wooden being to shape the box of my destiny. I but kept on crying with pain and cursed Him for his mercilessness. My prayers egging Him on to toil more on my behalf and all this while I thought He was deaf.

Making is a bit painful buddy, but believe me every nail writes the script of many-many pleasant moments in future. Pain is never futile. It’s always a box in the making. And was creation ever devoid of pain, sweat, labor and suffering? Ask a mother who gave birth and brought up children if you need further explanation.

The storms that strike against the planking of your ship are just simply elements of ‘making’. They are the ones that define the journey. They are as important as the steam in the engine.

Now I see the beautiful artwork of the box and come to realize why those nails were hammered. It was all meant to see me home.

So love your struggles and efforts buddies. That is when you actually get ‘made’ into something substantial. During the so called smooth phase when the life is safely on autopilot, you just trundle ahead carrying your old self cocooned in the make-believe sense of being happy and content. But in reality you hardly move ahead during this phase. The routine just plods you ahead like an impassive dummy.

So be willing to accept your pain, suffering and struggle. It’s one of the best investments I know about. When you come out of the last dark hours of the night, believe me the sun shines resplendently like never before. After coming from the dark, you realize the importance of light. After tears, a smile acquires its sweetness. After pain you come to have a real taste of joy and comfort.

The so called rough phase is nothing but a passage to a better self at a better destination. There, if nothing else, your kind and compassionate self awaits. It dissolves all the previous bitterness. Bitterness gone, your regrets and anguish vaporize. You are then left with crystals of love. There cannot be a bigger reward.

The worldly replicas, which we presume to be achievements, will stay here on earth and will be recycled to five primal elements and so will the image that they defined in other’s eyes. But the footprints of love on your karmic DNA engrained in your consciousness will go with you in your further march to evolve supremely to submerge in the sea of ultimate bliss.

Accepting the fact of your loving self is simply acknowledging the march of your soul. Any conscious effort to continuously remind yourself of your inherent loving nature is as good as removing the road-blocks from the path of your evolution.

Happiness is the Water in the Well of Love

 

Yes you can cut your butter knife through the lump of iron. For a person suffused with unconditional love, all this and more is the simplest of a task.

Martin Luther King, Jr.: “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

There is a fountain of happiness inside. It lies dormant under the self-imposed crust of fears, illusions, assumptions and ignorance. You have to unearth it. You have to remove the burdensome layer that weighs you down like a beast of burden. You just pull ahead like a coal and soot laden steam engine, lifelessly, mechanically. You have to realize you are more than a beast of burden and a steam engine.

Pierce through the crust’s increasing thickness. You have to dig deeper. Stop, take rest and get a sense of what you are doing. Again you have to pick up your pickaxe. You cannot afford too much rest. Rest lies at the destination. There it is a factor of eternity. Once you reach there, running and resting will become the same.

Hit hard. Let its iron run deep into the earthen wall that separates you from your real potential, your destiny, your destination for which Mother Nature has shaped and nurtured you. Dig deep. Look within. Life isn’t worth living just as a series of accidental occurrences bobbing you like a wooden wreck tossed by stormy waves. It’s about calculated, well planned steps and moves.

Steer the ship well. You were born to master it, just keep it in mind. With knowledge and information you can move on the crust only. It’s just living accidentally. Wisdom helps you dig deep. There is a source of your real happiness. It doesn’t require a sprint on the outer crust. You will just head-butt other runners, fall in the dust and grind your bloody teeth. After all, it’s just a stampede.

Break through the outer shell. It needs some guts to begin with, but then at later stages it is like you are cutting butter with a knife. You will have the passage to your real self. It will be an escape route from the mindless race.

Just dive into it. Below lies the tranquil sea, your own unchartered waters. You are the owner of its infinite depths and cool currents spreading in countless directions. You can drift anywhere. Just imagine the freedom. Claim your freedom. You were not born to be a slave to your fears. Freedom is just unadulterated love. Go, do it!

Love is a Lotus in the Pond of a Calm Mind

 

Buddha says to enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline one's own mind.

Well, the great soul just nails it. A disciplined mind lays the stage for love to blossom. With discipline, mind turns calm, resulting in inner strength and health. In the silent waters you get a clear picture, which minimizes the risks of misunderstanding and miscalculation. No wonder you just turn out to be more loving than ever, simply because the agents of hate and anger vanish under the lucid rays of the sun of truth. An irked mind, on the other hand, is the stone that topples the love cart.

As all of us know, we shape our destiny with the chisel of our thoughts. To carve out a beautiful statue your chisel has to be well-maintained. Keep it sharpened, keep it under control, manage it, and you will have a beautiful image of your true self surfacing in your thoughts and actions as you move on life's path.

As Joyce Meyer says, “You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.”

So brothers and sisters, pull up the reins. The real you is kind, loving and joyful. Only that the load of a freely straying mind makes you feel otherwise.

Love sprouts from a pure and peaceful mind. To have a pure and peaceful mind, practice forgiveness. Forgiveness simply stills the mind in an instant. And you just cannot have a restful mind in a hateful body. Restful mind and love are synonymous. Compassion is the real elegance of mind.

The biggest challenge to love is from an ever-suspicious, insecure mind. It is up to you to flip the coin and be the best from the worst by training the mind. Nail down the affirmations into the mind. It obeys, believe me! But it needs to be told repeatedly. It’s after all an obstinate child.

O my mind: —

Be the seat of my strength, not weakness.

Be the seat of kindness, not cruelty.

Be the source of light, not darkness.

Be the source of energy, not idleness.

Be the source of creativity, not limited vision.

Be the source of love, not hate.

Be the source of smiles, not tears.

Be the source of happiness, not suffering.

Be the seat of optimism, not pessimism.

Be the seat of gain, not loss.

Be the source of help, not obstruction.

Be the seat of leadership, not just sheep-walk.

Be the seat of a better human being.

Be the source of a more loving person.

O my mind,

My seat of limitless potential,

Take my journey further,

Please choose the better half of all the dualities for me.

 

Keep reminding your mind. Repeatedly. Daily. With eyes closed and a fervent request on your lips. It’s a very nice, nutritious pre-breakfast food.

Choosing the better side of the pair of our actions and feelings is as easy as flipping a coin in our fingers from head to tail. It's a very short journey from the worst to the best. As short as the flip of a coin. A mere realization. Acceptance. Simple awareness. And a pledge to remember. Thanks to the flawed model of upbringing, we get almost pre-conditioned for the negative end of dualities. The instinct can be broken. Just a simple early morning practice is sufficient. It needs only as much as reminding the self. Repeatedly. And the vast avenue of care, share, love, compassion, happiness, joy and bliss open up.

The Natural State of Existence: Love

 

Have a deep grasp of the vast scheme of things and you will find logic an insufficient model of cause and effect. There is a sense of naturality in most of the phenomenon around. At the core of our existence is the point of effortless, attributeless and choiceless being. Move away from it and you have the spinning phantoms created by mind. The farther we are from the centre of our being, the more are the illusions. Hate, jealousy, greed and prejudices are the thundering clouds in these outer orbits. They keep the sun of our true being hidden under the cloudy veil.

Try to be near the centre. Move inside. It's a meditative state of deep relaxation like you have in sleep with the added faculty of full alertness. From here you can see the tragedy of fighting in the shadows away from the shiny centre-pole of your all-loving self.

This is the point of unified consciousness, of a massive singularity of love, peace and harmony. Here you love everything with a detached Godly muse. This is the comforting seat of love. Shrieks from our restless, incessantly chattering mind, however, betray and lead us into the maze of meaningless pursuits always leading to the same pain and recurring disappointments.

There is a cosmic law of just being. It drives things and phenomena to float effortlessly in the space-time continuum. In the self-evolving mode of existence, most of the events and occurrences just happen, naturally, effortlessly, without any fuss, needing no pushing, prodding or cajoling. Harmony thrives on such effortlessness. It sustains life, retains the cosmic balance and nurtures the eternity.

You may have a supposition that after taking a pinch of snuff powder, one sneezes. Well, you must have seen many old people doing that, or even experienced yourself. Ok, snuff gives you a sneeze. Agreed. But only as long as a free ‘effect follows the cause’ principle is applied in the natural form. Smallest interjections from mind will topple the scale. This universe loves its harmonious sequence of cause and effect. Tamper it with your conscious meddling, it will repel the transgression.

Charles Darwin did an experiment. He called ten snuff powder users and asked them to take pinch of snuff and then sneeze. He put a gold coin in front of each of them as a reward if they sneezed after taking the snuff. On any other day, snuff and sneeze would follow as natural companions, but not today. Today there was a forced will to win the gold coin in between. The snuff users became extremely eager, and consequently super-conscious, to get the sneeze. The natural balance between the cause and the effect was broken. They won’t get the sneeze. Their faces contorted in all directions at funniest angles, their eyes watered like anything, but the accursed sneeze, which came hurtling down so effortlessly every day, will not come today.

So moral of the story is: Certain natural things are better left alone as simple occurrences without our stone-pelting the sequence born of super-conscious, egoistic meddling. Guys don’t allow the sneeze to topple the snuff.

Sharpen your natural instincts, allow them to guide you, trust in them, and be a follower. It mellows your heart, makes you more tolerant of life’s idiosyncrasies, turns you receptive to differences because you see the ultimate singularity. There are lot many human affairs where we can meddle with our brain games. So learn to leave things as they should be naturally. And once you hone this art, the actual things wherein you have a right to poke your nose will start falling in you grasp. It saves a lot of energy also. With more energy left in your reserves, you feel better and confident. It then becomes a sure shot remedy of happiness and joy.

Once you allow this beautiful aesthetic sense of naturality of things to sink in, you will feel showers of the sun of compassion warming every pore of your being.

Physical Body ̶ Love = Robot

 

Take a deep look into the pools of nature. Mysteries will dissolve. Hardly anything looks improbable or impossible as you come to understand everything better and see more clearly. Beyond all the drama for survival, with apparent self-centered follies and ambitious pursuits, you will find the common stage of love and care. There is a natural propensity for it. Cut away the brief moments of insecurity and fear-driven runs, the rest is peace, repose and harmony.

Delicious dew, lazy blue skies, the sea lost in its own depths, sleepy pastures, dreamy meadows, pathless woods, lonely slopes, solitary groves, refreshing rain, balmy sun, the still beauty of a dawn, languorous dusks, spotless white snow, all these and more are just soft whispers of nature in the language of love. All this loveliness sprouts from the uninterrupted flow of love.

No wonder Michelangelo mused that his soul could find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness.

Nature is not with anybody. Neither is it against anyone. It is for us to decide whether we are with it or against it. The onus is on us! Since we are a part of it, it suits our purpose if we go with it. Going against nature means going against ourselves. But that is what we are doing presently.

With its impartiality, nature ensured a competition among the species for survival. Look at the fantastic evolution of organisms and species. But then with the food-chains reaching a dead end with mankind being the master, the nature itself—the cause—will become the casualty.

Humans evolved as inseparable part of nature, just like any other animal species, using their best skills to survive. Humans used brain to master nature. Even now the mankind (biologically) and its institutions stand on nature’s back. But now we are crossing all limits. Possibly the inevitable juggernaut of progress will drive us over the precipice. The more forests we cut, the more species we force into extinction, the more pollutants we release into the air and the seas, the more we are eating into nature’s guts. It’s like killing the hen that lays golden eggs. It’s like cutting the branch on which we are sitting. Can there be a bigger folly? And still we feel so proud of our brains!

Our present biological standing is a sum total of the nature around us. We are a reflection and sum total of the state of the overall natural health. With more natural ecosystems being decimated to get into a more mechanized world, it will be a folly to think that we will be able to survive with the present biological level of human physiology.

In a world with ghastly depleting natural resources, and cement, steel and machines ruling the roost, how will the present human biology—the outcome of the natural phenomena and food-chains—survive? It just will not. So the cut into nature’s guts will require adaptations in human biology and physiology as well.

Simple fact is: the present human physiology will be totally redundant in a world where there will be hardly any forests, most of the species extinct, air polluted and weather totally changed. To survive under the new challenge, the mankind will be forced to bring out mechanization in the physiology itself. Genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, artificial organs and many other goddamned things will see a world in which mankind will be a semi-machine managing full machines.

And with the final traces of nature gone, with the environment modified mechanically to survive, the mankind will finally become a full machine. It might be just 200 years away when the last sinews of human blood, ligaments, flesh and skin will be replaced by artificial devices. The cycle of evolution grossly manipulated to reach a point of no return.

It’s unimaginable to guess how will the super-species behave! But one thing seems sure: with only machines all around, you have the inevitable destruction. All because the nectar of humanity, the soul of mankind, love, will come dwindling in proportion to the artificiality in human body, leaving us mere robots.

Do we need further proof about what chiefly stamps our identity as human beings? It is love by the way, if you still missed it. 

Stony Truths Pelted at the Love Flower

 

Siri Hustvedt: “Each person does see the world in a different way. There is not a single, unifying, objective truth. We're all limited by our perspective.”

Miracle of miracles, existence has given us five senses to interpret the inherent unity in our own ways. As Friedrich Nietzsche says, “There are no facts, only interpretations.”

All of us are destined to appear different in many ways. On the surface, above the deep sea of commonality, these differences define our specialty in the mass of heaving humanity. And the so called truth, which you hold dear to your self identity, is actually an opinion only. Problem arises when we present our opinion as absolute truth. Holding one's mere opinion as absolute truth panders the mankind's foe, ego. And you will hardly find a more potent enemy of love than an over-bloated ego. Accepting your opinions as mere opinions like any others will make you an amazingly honest person. And love blooms under honesty and humility.

If you are kind enough to allow someone's truth to shine, taking your dazzle away, you show a kindness. Not that you should always allow even ill-found opinions to sail over your head. You have every right to checkmate such misguided shots. All I want to say is that fight an opinion with your opinion only. It's just a scoring game. Outsmart and fox with your argument, but always remember that you are not the omniscient entity having a copyright on truth. And never forget to smile when cutting opinions with opinions.

Ravindranath Tagore says so beautifully and briefly, “Facts are many, but the truth is one.”

Squabble over facts, but never show the attitude that you own the domain of truth. Quite interestingly, truth may be told in millions of ways, and the beauty is all can be true in their own ways. And mind you, biggest truths are incontrovertible. They come in the form of love, honesty, kindness, humility and scores of other beautiful things. Can anyone put up a debate about this?

Don't you think that your firm convictions are laid bare by the sweeping winds of unfolding experiences and new facts and knowledge coming on the way as you move ahead in life? Doesn't it mean that so many of your own self-cherished truths turn out to be mere opinions later on in life as you move with flexibility, wisdom and meaningful search of life? So where is the truth? This much of open-mindedness will avoid so many unnecessary situations in life. As you cut down such chaotic moments from your life, you actually lay down a firm seed-bed for the flowers of love to blossom.

Pick you grains of truth. They are for some frail humanitarian purpose. Don’t take them as the cosmic seeds of the ultimate truth.

With our limited self perception, the universal truth stays out of our grasp. It is pleasantly lost in the infinite cosmic spread. So all we have is the scattered grains of perceived truths. My truth, your truth, his truth, her truth, their truth. Bits and pieces of truth, picked up for convenience, for suitability. Truth, as we seem to know it, is a mundane piece of daily utility, as much suitable as the food we take as per our body types and socio-economic circumstances.

It’s advisable to forget about the most justifiable of truths. The most we can do is to get an average of all truths, a mathematical average, a common truth. This but again is a simplified standard to derive rules, principles and moral code to run society. A mere arrangement to run a bigger household.

I know my truth can be false for someone else, and vice versa. Truth and falsehood, recurring shadow and substance. Sometimes falsehood is the shadow. Oftentimes truth is the shadow. But they are always nearby. Touching each other like the shadow clings to the substance. Both have their suitors simultaneously. Someone holds the substance for support. At the same time someone takes shelter in the shadow to accomplish something that can be managed in a grey zone only.

As Swami Vivekananda says: “Our duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.”

This much of space for each other leaves the scope for full gardens of understanding and cooperation in our social arrangement. With your leniency, long before you help others in search of their destiny, you primarily help yourself because your own opinions don’t turn stones to checkmate your growth and evolution. And when all and sundry are journeymen on the path of the ultimate truth, there is hardly any time for roadblocks and traffic jams resulting in quarrels and brawls. It happens simply because you aren’t trampling on any fellow foot. All are moving on their own path. This is what we mean by real liberation. And loving kindness is the soul of this quest.

Love: The Privileged Guest

 

Love is a noble guest. It stays in a regal hall. You just cannot expect it to manage in a chaotic household. Before you invite the love guest to stay permanently, you have to put your house in order. But then we commit this folly of treating the title more important than the story. Want to know more about it? Read on.

There is a house well plastered, tiled and painted on the outside walls. Its well-designed, vibrant exterior catches your attention. Drawn by the catchy external look, you step inside. You expect the same magnetism inside. But a surprise awaits you. You come across soot, grime, dust, unplastered walls, cobwebs, cement and stone-crush staring at you. How do you feel now? Don’t be surprised if you feel cheated.

It’s a house that has been left unattended inside. Incomplete. You will feel running out. It’s a house that needs the workers more than the visitors. That’s how most of us die: just houses under construction. Throughout our lives we keep on painting the outer walls to satisfy our ego through expanding our visibility, hoping worldly attention will give happiness and peace. Little do we realize that real comfort lies in the house completed from inside. So the interior remains incomplete, disordered and under construction. Can such a house give permanent peace? No.

Outer walls are important but only to the extent of defining our world, a psychological boundary to stamp our ownership of our chunk in this world. Only this much. And the importance of the outer walls is meaningless if the interior is unfinished. Outer paint is just the title of the orderliness inside. It’s a summary of all the cozy arrangement inside. We, but, commit the folly of treating the title as the main story. Can a title replace the main text of the story? No. The title ought to be catchy. But the story is all that matters.

So guys let’s first put our house in order from inside. Magnificent positivity, the lovely bride of love and compassion, will naturally step in turning your house into a home, making you the kind and considerate person that you are meant to be.