Be there in the Orbit, Love and Greatness Await You

 

There is an option for the best chance to survive, move and be happy. Choose your orbit and glide with perfect harmony. The objects that fall out of the orbit, presuming it to be a leap of freedom, go burning and crash-landing into smithereens. The destination is not into the depths of cosmos for you to get into hot pursuit like a burning meteorite. It’s always nearby, at some place in the same gentle periphery of your common journey.

No journey is common by the way. Extraordinary is just maintaining your hold on the ordinary. Love the gentle loops of your circular journey around the axis of your being: the axis of your small, small commitments and responsibilities. That is the mother planet for your individual self to revolve around in circles. It defines you. It keeps you in the orbit. It helps you in your happy journey. It stops you from escaping into the black guts of the cosmos like a rootless rock going burning and turning to ashes.

So choose your little orbit. Staying in the orbit does not mean being tied to a chain. It’s a grasp for lasting freedom. It is the life-force, this gravity that keeps you bound to your orbit. Your destination lies in the orbit itself. The day you get it, it becomes the loftiest orbit and the journey worth it.

Things as small as bunking office to be with kids, surrendering your right to the TV to allow kids to enjoy their cartoon show, letting the little one to play on your abdomen and suppress the discomfort to give a winsome smile and even laughter, laughing when the little one pees on you, going to office daily over the years to see that small world back home in the evening, saving money over the years to give the surprise gift of a car to your children, and many more. These are the forces that keep you in your orbit. They turn life into living. Unconditional love is the catalyst that propels this alchemical shift from life to living.

Love your orbit. Glide effortlessly. You will cover astronomical distances on the same familiar path. Love these common repetitions that go unnoticed and unrewarded. Loving these is the reward itself. Like your path. It’s strictly yours, stamped with the unique greatness of your unseen efforts to stay in the orbit. Just to stay in the orbit means to be great.

There are countless milestones that you reach. These are as shiny as the biggest stars. This universe started with a bang from a point. That was the explosion of potential for countless souls to carve out their orbits, to glide peacefully in their trajectory. Be there, smile, feel the goose-bumps of loving kindness, and give a victorious cry for you are already a winner.

Dig up your Treasure

 

It’s a beautiful, fresh morning. A fox is on hunt in the forest. The sun is verdantly casting long shadows from the east. The fox gets drunk with ego and pride looking at its long shadow.

Smitten with excited goose-bumps, it goes into self-bragging, “I must be really big and powerful to cast such a huge shadow! So little rabbits and tiny rats aren’t worthy of being in my big body! I have to hunt an elephant at least. That will do justice to my true status and standing.”

So all through the morning it roams around to get an elephant. Many small preys cross its path, but swooning with ego and pride it just ignores them. It’s not before the noon time it sees an elephant. The sun is hot and brightly overhead. The fox stands in the elephant’s path. But before it even realizes what is happening, the elephant swipes it away like a dust particle with its trunk. It lands at a distance very painfully. It now runs in panic.

While running it looks around its feet and sees the tiny shadow clinging to its scared self. “How come I’ve become so small after the fall?” it wonders.

Holding onto the impermanent elements on the shifting stage of life is the cause of pain and suffering. The externalities are the moving shadows. They give the impression that they define you. But how can such fickle, impermanent, transient, fleeting, temporary things and phenomena be the component of our real self? Peace and happiness lie in connecting with the essentially real self, the substance, the permanent entity. It lies inside all of us. But is of no use unless and until we spot it, observe it, realize and acknowledge it. If it’s not recognized, it’s almost of no use like the beggar who died wretchedly on a hidden gold treasure.

A beggar died in most wretched poverty in his hut. The place just reeked of misery and suffering. After cremation they just couldn’t bear up with the stench, so decided to dig up the place to remove the signs of wretchedness. To their surprise, there was hitherto unfound golden treasure under the hut. There was gold just a few feet under the surface and a man had met a slow, prolonged and painful death due to poverty on it.

Same is the case with the treasure trove of our real self, the essentially loving self. Find it, acknowledge it, nourish it to be happy and be at peace, or meet a painful, discontented death. Much as we run after the shadows, the centre, the pivot lies neglected. Shifting shadows never give permanent joy. So go down, unearth and lay bare the treasure you are sitting upon! The deeper you go, the more interconnectedness you will feel. This web of unity will land you in the zone of harmonic being where self-love is no longer separate from love for all. 

Author Interview (Sandeep Dahiya)

 

Author Interview

·         Can you tell something about yourself?

That’s my primary quest: To know more about myself. The real joy starts once we begin to be more aware about our real self. Most of the problems of life are born of our illusions, presumed fears and imagined insecurities. As a matter of fact, only 10% situations are objectively challenging and they need our methodical approach to resolve them. The rest are the phantoms of our mind. Now the question arises how to dispel the clouds that hide the sun of truth from us. Well, it’s an exploration, a kind of journey. This journey is what we call as our life. We learn from books, from others, from our own experiences, from observing this wonderful game around. The nearer we come to our self, the better we feel. So I would say, primarily I am a seeker of my true identity. I love travelling in the Himalayas. Reading is my full time occupation. I have decided to be a learner for life. In between, I write my version of truth under the expectation that it helps fellow travelers on the path.    

·         How are your books different than others?

All of us are unique products of mother existence. Genetically we may share a big pool with our fellow Homo-sapiens but our Karmic imprint related to our individual consciousness stands out, making you a representative of the entire existence. Writing is immensely personal. Every book has a message, so has this humble writer. I write with the intention that my word will reach someone who needs a message at some point in his/her journey. As a writer you have to be sensitive to the fact that by putting your creation on a public platform you are taking a commitment to the cause of wellness of all. All of us have our individual philosophy of life. We have our versions of reality. It includes what should be done as well as what we can avoid. I have seen a lot in life. I believe we are the products of our circumstances. But we have it in us to mould our circumstances as well. We know where we goofed up things. Through my fiction, non-fiction, poetry and sketches, I try to share my experiences. I write about small things in life. It helps in viewing life as a very simple process. I try to simplify the process of life through my writings about nature, little ironies, small tragedies and the interesting quests of human mind. The words, phrases and sentences are mere tools for us to forge our path to the next destination in life.

·         Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?

From the book of life itself! It’s endless. I think observing things more closely is a habit that all of us can work on. The reality as it appears has multiple dimensions. It’s within our capacity to interpret life at a joyful level. Most of the time we are puzzled and our muddled thoughts create an imaginary baffling situation. Learn to simplify things. There is an inherent simplicity in the design of mother existence. Although there are agonies on the road yet there are many reasons to smile about. As a sensitive heart it’s better that we feel the pain beyond our own self. But I would also advise not to miss the smile of a lone flower by the path. I roam around and observe things. It triggers varied emotions. I observe my own emotional reaction to the stimuli and then write something that may help someone at some phase of his/her journey.

·         What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

That writing makes me instantly feel better. It’s a sort of catharsis. My Ikigai. Sometimes you don’t know where you stand. There is some deep discontent. Contradictory thoughts and paradoxical emotions pull you in different directions. That is the time when you need some support. It can come in many ways. You can talk to someone, read, play music, do exercise, get busy in painting or write. All of us have our means of feeling instant relief. Writing a few sentences helps me in getting my footing back. How can I expect others to feel better by reading my book if I myself don’t feel that relief while writing it? I am surprised to know and feel how writing instantly uplifts my mood. It gives a sense of purpose, of doing something beyond my own self.  

·         What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

I don’t follow a strict routine when it comes to writing. Words, thoughts and emotions have their own sovereignty and I respect that. A particular routine makes it cumbersome and hence less joyful. Give yourself full freedom. But yes, I try to keep my senses open to what goes around. Writing something on paper isn’t an abstract event. It has a sequence of events. A lot many things are happening at the level of thoughts and demotions as you follow your routine. In my subconscious I have this resolve that all this flux is going to give me a nice, presentable version of reality that will not only help me understand life better but will help someone as well in his/her journey. But there are a few techniques I follow during that preparatory stage. I keep in mind outstanding keywords for the incidences and happenings that draw my attention. I keep them in mind. Sometimes, different keywords link up nicely to give me a story. As they say, nothing is fictitious in fiction except the names and dates. 

·         What do you think makes a good story?

A good story is an instrument of support to the reader. A broken heart needs some succor, a puzzled person needs some wisdom and practical advice, a sulking human needs some mood uplift through humor, someone going within needs some spiritual guidance to help reach the destination or somebody needs simple entertainment. All of us have the need for something or the other. That’s just to be human. Someone is lonely and a book is a nice friend. A good story will have one or more of these elements. It will add a positive dimension to the reader’s life. Someone has entrusted his/her time and money in reading your story, so it’s your duty to add value to the people’s life. 

·         What is your writing process like?

It’s a multi-pronged approach. Observing things more closely is a habit that all of us can develop. Once you know that you are working on a particular book of a specific genre, your idea of life comes to centre around the main theme. You observe life from the perspective of your characters and plot. You read the books that help you enlarge your perspective on the topics related to your work. You travel the places keeping in mind the subject of your writing. You talk to the people who may add some value to your pursuit. So basically you look at the world around you as the stage on which your characters will play a little drama. Creative people have a lot of emotional upheavals. It’s necessary to use that surge of energies. I work on multiple projects at a time. Sometimes the soul wants to sing through poetry, so I write a poem. Another time, the mind has hardcore analytical frame of operation, so I write some non-fiction. Sometimes I write stories. In this way, many books develop in a sweet parallel. It helps avoid the process from turning monotonous. 

·         What advice do you have for budding writers?

Avoid writing strictly to earn worldly laurels. Write only if it makes you feel better and joyful. Feeling the joy of writing is a reward in itself. It’s a lifelong process of learning to write. There is no retirement age. Read as much as you can. Maintain a journal. It helps in enlarging the perspectives on life and living. Listen to the inner voice what kind of writing helps you feel better. Keep the dream alive over a period of decades. Writing is just a portion of our experiences. So naturally all of us are sure to become better writers as we add to our experiences and learn more from life. If you have the real passion for it, you will definitely hit home some day. Till then keep observing, journaling, reading, and on top of that WRITING.

·         Tell us how the stories occur to you?

Even a wayside flower has a story to tell, so has a beggar on the railway platform, or a street puppy, or a rag-picker. There are countless stories unfolding every second around us. All we need is to be a good receptor. First we have to acknowledge the existence of something. Greet the wayside flower. How will it tell you its story if you just pass by lost in your miseries? Open to the surroundings. I keep myself open to the nice emotions and ideas and they just float in. Doesn’t water flow to an empty basin? Keep some space vacant inside you and welcome little things to enter your heart. You will have your stories. 

·         What are the books all about?

I have many books to my credit. I am lucky to have someone like Mr. Ajay Setia to publish my books. Kindly refer to my website www.sandeepdahiya.com to know all about my books. There is a separate ‘About the Books’ section that gives a gist of the books.

Repose, Rest and Creative Imagination: The Seeds of Love

 

Don’t be in haste, don’t run too fast, for in running too fast, always looking at the destination ahead in future, you lose the real charm of your journey. You forget yourself and identify yourself with what you are not. You snap your ties with your real self, and with broken ties with your true self, you hardly stand a chance to grow firm roots in the personal and professional domain around you.

As a speedster you miss the real fruits that were placed solely for you along the path. You hardly realize the real profits and boons coming across your path. You miss your present, the real you who can exist in the present only, the rest is just a mere mirage of ideas about incomprehensible future and regretful past. The unreal you has no tangible existence except as a bunch of insubstantial, phantom thoughts. Unfortunately, this phantom idea takes precedence over the real you, deriving a chasm between what you think yourself to be and what you are in reality.

So under the fallacy of identification with the unreal, you forget yourself, you overlook the present impregnated with countless things around waiting to be defined just by your look, your insight, your observation. Every phenomenon is incomplete without you as an aware observer. So by forgetting yourself, you ignore your role in the process of creation.

Forgetting yourself, eyes peeping into the hazy distances, leaving all the multi-hues of things and phenomena waiting to be defined by your aware look, you stumble so many times. And the blame game starts. You target destiny, you point out unfair forces against you, you crib about injustices and system failures. All these are but the projections of your unreal self on external circumstances. The things outside are simply the screens where you play the disharmonic drama driven by the wrong protagonist impostoring as you.

So you run very hard with all your might, your eyes mechanically glued to the so called target. But is it, in any way, better than a blind run? And mind you, no destination is defined in isolation, just in itself, something lying at a distance in abstract. Every destination is the sum total of the experiences coming across the way. The so called ‘reach home’ is just one more milestone like any other along the way.

The runner is always more important than the act of running and the so called finish line. So cool down. Take a pause. And move restfully with equipoise and respectful awareness. The things that light up your awareness at each step are as important as the goal to which you are dying to reach. The ever-giving trees, singing birds, cotton soft clouds floating as spectators, gentle breeze applauding your march, motherly soothing sunshine, restful ponds, naughty rivers, gracious people, charming conversations, and what not. The list is endless.

Not that there aren’t grey shades to the things around. There are, but they are mere appendages to the basketful of bounties. As they say, change your outlook and the world changes. Grey has just two factors of white and black. Multicolored probability, on the other hand, has a big rainbow of possibilities. However, it’s never complete without the participation of your prism, your heart.

The little wayside flowers have no meaning if you don’t pause to reciprocate their smile. A sub-atom of reality has an observer and the observed. Nature has played its part; now play yours by being a keen onlooker. These small milestones coming with each watchful step have their rewards and satisfaction, provided you don’t belittle them as mere steps to the so called final trophy.

Each step is a destination itself. I hardly see any final destination apart from dying without too many grudges from life. The rest are mere steps following one another. To avoid the final judgmental hammer-strike at the fag end of the journey, it is simply required to be just a journeyman. The journey itself is a reward. It’s an end in itself. Pain arises when we take it as the means to something. There is just one journey, life. There is just one destination, a regretless ending of the show.

Your each step carries the prospects of the pearls of happiness provided you slow down your time. The time that is yours, defined by you, not by the clock’s clicking hands or other’s expectations and your imitation of the conventionally safe pursuits. The latter give you a fake sense of security but leave your soul thirsty, depriving it of the adventurous nectar that could have been sipped from the flowering of your own self by gracefully picking up the pollens lying for you.

There is no absolute time, just relative fixations of it to serve tiny human purposes. That doesn’t mean it should become the master of your destiny, casting you in its cement mould, making you a caricature of your true self. Your time ought to obey you, not the vice versa. You can slow it down with your increased awareness. Stretch each second on the enlightened curve of awareness. Time then serves you, giving you more in seconds than you ever observed and experienced in whole days. As Abraham Lincoln mused: “In the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” So sisters and brothers, pump life into your days.

Do you think a journey is accomplished by the running force you propel into? Think again if you say yes. It’s not possible to run forever. A run has to depend on rest and pause to sustain itself. Do you think the accelerator paddle in your car takes you to the destination? Not at all! It’s the brakes intervening to give restful pauses for safety to give meaning and control to your speed, to make it an organized run instead of a mad rush ever accelerating and crashing into some fatality.

The break, the pause, the rest, these are the basic ingredients to turn any random movement into a meaningful, assured and safe journey taking us to some point further in the voyage. Miles and miles of mindless dash without intervening, restful pauses are meaningless crazy pursuits in a desert ending in painful mirages.

As you run without pause, rest and awareness, and with heedless hurry, you stress yourself out. This stress and tension kills the imagery. All tensed up and stressed, looking anxiously at the destination far, far away, you lose the dreamy imagery that makes each step a victory in itself. Do you think life is meaningful without restful reflections and creative imagination? It simply isn’t. If not now, you realize it later when unfortunately it is too late.

So guys watch your step. And look around you. Countless things and phenomena are waiting to enrich you. These are the things that make your journey fruitful and meaningful in the true sense. The destination stands defined only in terms of the process of journeying and the experiences gained alongside. And when you reach your destination as a victorious king, it’s only the experiences before the final goalpost that have turned the scale in your favor.

Dale Carnegie: “Today is life—the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.”

The nutshell is: Enjoy the journey fella! Don’t just close your eyes to the surroundings thinking about the destination where you assume to become happy some day in future. Forget it. No destination can give you happiness if you haven’t been happy while journeying. And happy journeymen are all extremely loving in nature by default.

Happy journey! Carry on! Be loving! All the best!

One More Step, One More Breath and One More Sip of Love

 All you need to avoid a fall is to take one more step, then another, and then another. You should be bothered about just one more step. Forget about miles and more miles. These are meaningless without the step just about to define your current journey, your present. Being in league with one more step makes you the real journeyman. It means you are right there, still moving, still fighting. The chance of victory is always alive as long as you are ready to take one more step. And the possibility of life is active only and only because of the upcoming breath.

So mind your step on a beautiful dawn. One more day, one more step and the fresh dose of the next breath. These are the basic building blocks of a well-meant life, a purposeful journey. You look too far into the hazy distances, and you lose yourself in the puzzlement that lies scattered around. You mind your next step, and you immediately find yourself. You mind your next breath and instantly you feel the enthusiastic pulse of life throbbing in your veins.

Just like life means one more breath, living means one more step. Life and living are simply a beautiful symphony between the next step and the upcoming breath, laying the foundation for the next and then the next, and on and on. These set up the notes for the beautiful melody that life is.

Each meaningful, mindful step becomes the destination in itself. If you completely mind your step, you then need not look for destinations and their assortment of heartbreaks far away into the distances of time and geography. If you inhale and absorb completely the portion of life provided to you in one breath by the existential forces, you won’t feel the need to explore living in the farfetched quarters of make-believe concepts erected in the hope of a happy, contented life. If you mind your breath, allowing it to give you the most it has to offer, you won’t be running into many decades of longevity to feel the elixir that living is. You get it, right here, in an instant. Life then turns into living and a reward in itself.

One more step and one more breath, taken under tender observation and careful awareness, are the building blocks of life and living. They are the fabrics of your being. Work on them and you get a wonderful framework decorating your mind, body and soul.

Don’t fall, take at least one more step, then another, then another. Only this much! That’s all you have to do for life and living: one more breath, one more step. And your one more step becomes more significant than the endless miles and still more miles. Your step defines miles not vice versa. One more breath, one more step! Seeped in the awareness of this incredible duo, you will first surprise yourself in the effortless ease you have walked on the path of life and living. You create and retain countless chances to reach a point, where you astonish yourself the most in your achievement.

The darkness isn’t completely dark as long as the tiniest of a flicker burns steadily, unsteadily in any corner of the cosmos. It holds the chances of light, of a win, of a fight, sometime when the conditions are more suitable. Hold your light. Hold onto your chances of a full blaze. It can even be the littlest star reflected in your fatigued eyes from the farthest distances across stormy clouds.

Just look back and spot some small-time remark of appreciation, some grateful bow, some serious acknowledgment, some feeble smile, some tiny reward to the tune of INR 500, or some words of praise. Hold them. Cherish them. Pick them up from the dusty corners of your room. They are the treasure. They are the light. They are the breath. They are one more step. One more step is as important as the complete journey. Or even bigger than that! A tiny flicker of light, lost in the darkish wombs of loss, is as big as the big-bang of primordial light and fire that created this universe.

Long before you conquer the world, learn to be happy with the tiny rewards that hold your dreams in piece, which sustain the life of your goals just like one more breath sustains your life. A tiny word of appreciation will one day turn into a massive trophy, a huge applause, with camera lights flashing around and thousands of screaming fans. This little smile on your lips will turn into a broad grin of triumph.

Hold the littles in your life, acknowledge their role like one more step keeps the journey, and one more breath keeps life together. Do only this much and you will naturally find yourself taking your sips of love and kindness, turning you richer on any scale you weigh upon.