A Tiny Bubble of Laughter I....

"A tiny bubble of Laughter I, have become the sea of mirth itself!" Is what Guruji says in his poem "Song of Samadhi".
The other day, while wanting to launch into meditation with an inspiring thought, these lines occurred to me...and I dwelt on them... Then, as the spirit of the words sank in, I began to laugh...laugh... laugh. Laughter was coming from the very depths of my being. For no reason at all. And I imagined myself as a "bubble" of laughter...and then I merged into the sea of laughter... I saw a whole sea of faces laughing, the birds and animals laughing and my laughter mingled with theirs... and I saw myself as the sea of mirth!!
That whole day, my spirit was high and the words "A tiny bubble of laughter I, have become the sea of mirth itself!" kept coming to me...
"Laughter, the best medicine" says the Reader's Digest heading. Humour columns make you laugh, forget your woes and transport you to a dimension of light and purity. All modern Gurus encourage laughter as part of the purification or catharsis (Osho stands out among them)... Laughter takes you from your common dimension of reason and logic to a sudden unexpected illogic dimension...and even the illogic makes some funny sense! then you laugh...
But do we laugh for no reason at all? Like a madman and for no apparent reason at all, coming out suddenly from nowhere, do we laugh that way? No wonder we will be called mad. We all laugh only for a reason...at others or at ourselves...when somebody does a verbal slip up, or physically slips down on a banana peal...we all laugh for a reason. But a laugh without reason (like they do in laughter clubs) is not a socially accepted style... you will have to belong to a mad society to laugh for no reason.
But when Guruji says "A tiny bubble of laughter I...." he means this reasonless, "mad" laughter. And believe me, it was purifying, it was a catharsis... made me feel empty, light and ....sacred, if you will... I got a glimpse of the dimension where such beings dwell...the realm of eternal laughter... pure... and this is a dimension to which each one of us has access...if only we permit ourselves laughter... even if it is only laughing for a joke, let's begin to laugh... of course not laughing "at somebody" ...may be one day we will reach the realm where the no-reason laughter will dawn upon us, and then our laughter becomes the laughter of all hearts. Believe me, it is indeed transforming!!
Love Shanky

Ranchi - why is it special to me?

Ranchi - there is magic in that name. Why? It's because there is a beautiful heavenly place called Yogoda Satsanga Society of India - an ashram established and nurtured by our Guru Sri Paramahansa Yogananda in 1917.
"I have sprinkled this place with the nectar of my soul realizations!" says Guru maharaj. And indeed so.. In the bustling town of Ranchi, one would indeed be surprised to know that a sylvan retreat exists ensconced near Hazaribagh road...very close to Ranchi station, about 5 minutes by walk. The road is named Paramahansa Yogananda Path... To the cycle rickshawman you have to say "Jogda"...and he takes you right inside the compound!
If you have informed the swamis in advance of your arrival by train...you will be pleasantly surprised to see a swamiji waiting for you and help you find your room/dormitory. Otherwise, Shri Chandrashekhar Panda, the Bangali Babu from Dilli is always ready to help you. He will provide you with the required number of mattresses, bedsheets, pillows etc... A soft-spoken and firm man, always ready to help, he will tell you straight without mincing words "Sir, please don't move around in your shorts...these are not allowed here!" So, it shud either be a dhoti or pyjama or a big towel around your waist, but mind you "no short pants". Such are the rules. "You better get ready for energization exercises and morning meditation at 7 a.m.!" Either there will be a swamiji or a brahmachari who will be conducting the morning and evening meditations. But energization exercises will precede the meditation. "Double breathing with tension....!!" and so it goes....It will be 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. in the morning and 5.30 to 7 p.m. in the evenings. You can soak in the sublime sound of OOOooom, OOOooom, OOOooom!!! and then "Brahmaanandam, Paramasukhadam Kevalam jnaanamurthim..." A couple of bhajans and then 30 mins of meditation. Meditation over, you tread serenely, in sublime mood, about a furlong or so to the dining hall catching a glimpse of the Shiva mandir, the Samarpan hall, the Smriti mandir of Guruji... well, here an ambrosial treat awaits you...tasty, sattvic food served with Love and eaten in gratitude and silence!!

Trip down memory lane

How come I landed here?

As if suddenly from the blue! No, not from the blue... from Delhi. Here now l am a medical transcriptionist...err an editor!

There, I was called a shipbroker in Delhi - many wondered what that was.... a breaker of ships? and in Delhi? which is nowhere near the sea??! Ha ha, no, no a broker..one who connects a shipowner to another who needs service of a ship.....a charterer!

They, the ships, came in from all directions...to India with tons of cargo...sulphur, fertilizers, grains, oil... The ships had features like LOA, beam, draft, DWT - Oh, I forgot the pet terms SHEXEIU, SHINC, WTS and ATS...reversible, freight, deadfreight and demurrage....and of course the most important 1.25% brokerage commission!

But "shipbreakers" do exist too, they are a different breed... how can I forget Alang and Beypore...that's where beach them and break them up for the steel.

Oh what days they were...life amidst that deadly congregation The New Delhi Shipbrokers' association!! Transchart!! The chief controller of Chartering.. The Central chartering Committee, MMTC,STC, Foodcorp, Agrindia.. and a Banerjee, Anchan, Nambiar, Saran, Rangasamy, Chauhan, Sharma...ha ha!!

I owe it to Ramakrishnan (my father), and Viswanathan (my uncle) the great man under whom I learnt the basics of shipbroking. Not to forget my great friend S. Ganesan (Pollachi Ganesan)..

Negotiations...subjects...approvals...success....a fixture!! Wow, celebrations, sometimes with bottles of whisky!! a salaam to Hanumanji of Channa market... He has delivered me from my travails many a time.

Or failure, disapproval...ship getting delayed...not presenting at port! uhhh...notices, ultimatums, threats...arbitration!! - the other side of the coin..Telex messages, faxes...phone calls...(never heard of email then!)

"Put them on notice!" yelled Saran...and submissively did I obey... A post office you are, no more, no less, he said! I believed it. Demurrages due...shipowner's threat..."we'll blacklist you and your damn charterers!!" "You'll never get a ship again..." yelled the shipowners... futile words! They (charterers) always got a ship..

Two decades and two years...looks like a dream now...did I go through all that? Yes I did...till the ship of my life got caught in a whirlpool and I had to call it a day in 1999!

Three long years of travails, no shore in sight...failed fixtures, cheated of commissions... What's happening... prayers to Vaishno Devi... and Keshavapuram Aishwarya-Ganapathi.. and Guru Maharaj...a storm was in my heart... I pleaded... And I did get guidance....Prabha persuaded me to come down to Coimbatore.

Yes I'll take the jump...decision was taken, Usha protested loudly... what will we do down there in Coimbatore?? Let's see, something mus tbe there, I assured. A visit to Sadasiva Brahmendra shrine finalized it.

Landed in Coimbatore on April 7, 1999. Sweet, softspoken but tricky Coimbatore...cool-weathered Kovai - where Mukunda became a brahmanan, a "dwija" with investiture of the sacred thread.

Yes, I am used to Cbe now...maybe behaving like a Coimbatorean now...so different from the harsh Jat demeanour of Delhi or the snobbish Punjabi behavior...this is a land of smoothness and smiles, clever subtle operators with sweet, suave words and winsome smiles... they are no fools. But I am happy here to be among our own...

And what do I do now??? tap tap tap...on the keyboard...in a place called RND Softech... Venue: Silver lab...RND Softech Ltd... They call me "Sir" here... in deference to my vintage years and the liberal salt and pepper hair....

I was grateful to be an editor today... but not before being put thru' a 10-month-drill...never thought I'd live to see the day I'll be an MT...but it happened....an MT I became...an MT that faltered and blundered...and contributed my own crop of bloopers to the world's repertoire of bloopers!!

Did the patient tolerate the procedure well...and did he walk to the recovery room....removing all extremities... errr moving all extremities??

And one day, against my remonstrations I was made an editor... and am happy to stay with 87 minutes of editing. "You better take it...that's the way to growth...how long are going to be an MT at 45 minutes??" they told me. In deference to the persuasions I yielded...and am happy to be an editor...

And so it is...now three years down the line...an Editor....picking holes in other's scripts....do I suppress a chuckle when I see a silly mistake...an easy blank...an unknown usage or phrase which only Smart Me could decipher...?!! But no, my weakness is the formatting...it's a bugbear that scares me... but I do have a nose to sniff out a ridiculous soundalike!! I only have to tell it to Joshua...and he is too happy to broadcast it all over the lab!!

Life goes on smooth...a warm and persuasive Jesu, a kindly Jayanandan, a gentle GM Rajesh a pleasant ladies Rangini and Priya..

I sit beside ....a noisy Joshua ....a "playful" Rajendrakumar (always seeking an opportunity to play computer games....a tireless chatterbox called Bharat, a petite Poorni and silent, smiling Sarita....

Where do I go from here??? No idea...it's now my family for now!!

--------With Love Shanky

INFINITE NOTHING

Beckoning silence ....deep space
Overarching, permeating deep Blue..
I gaze into your plumbless depths
In the inky dark night speckled by shining diamond stars
scattered liberally everywhere.

The feeble sounds of wind chimes
from a nearby house reach my ears, deepen the silence
gentle breeze swish-swashing palm-tree branches,
A rhythm I detect in the far off stars
Is it the rhythm of their twinkle?
Ahh, it's the sound of my own heartbeat!
such synchrony! Beautiful harmony...
Mouth open... in wonder I look above
waiting to taste the emptiness
waiting for an unseen Hand
to pour a few drops of its essence
down my thirsty throat.

What would be the taste of Silence.... I wonder
Only Emptiness beyond can grant me the taste...
When will it happen ... ??? No idea
But till then, I painstakingly stand straining my neck...
gaping at Infinite Nothing
No hopes...no hopelessness
But waiting, every night....
maybe This night is the night
maybe This is the moment,
Who knows!

----------- Inspired by the life of Gurudev and Osho

Authentically religious

An authentically religious man is an individual.

He is alone, and in his aloneness there is great beauty, great splendor. I teach you that aloneness. I teach you the beauty, and the grandeur, and the fragrance of aloneness.

In your aloneness you will reach to the heights of Everest. In your aloneness you will be able to touch the farthest star. In your aloneness you will blossom to your total potential.

Never become a believer, never become a follower, never become a part of any organization,never become a part of any religion,never become a part of any nation.

Remain authentically true to yourself.Don't betray yourself.

Osho - Bodhidharma: The Greatest Zen Master, #10

AN INTERESTING ZEN STORY

THE GIVER SHOULD BE THANKFUL!!

The Master Seistsu required larger premises as the building he was teaching in was very overcrowded.

Umezu, a merchant, decided to donate five hundred gold pieces for the construction of a new building.

Umezu took the money to the teacher and Seistsu said "Alright, I will take it."

Umezu gave the sack of gold to Seistsu, but was very dissatisfied wit the attitude of the teacher
as the amount he had given was very great - one could live for a whole year on three pieces of gold, and the teacher had not even thanked him. "In that sack there are five hundred pieces of gold," hinted Umezu.

"You told me that before," said the teacher Seistsu.

"Even if I am a wealthy merchant, five hundred pieces of gold is a lot of money!" said Umezu.

"Do you want me to thank you for it?" said Seistsu.

"You ought to," said Umezu.

"Why should I?" said Seistsu, "The giver should be thankful!".