Saturday 28 November 2015

Small Creatures

 There are small creatures,
All around you,
Hiding here and there,
Doing their work too.

They do their work,
Only at night,
In quietness and stillness,
Away from the light.

They are short in height,
But quick and fast,
They have those wits,
Which no one has ever surpassed.

They help every person,
 Or animal find their home,
They are found in every country,
France, Italy or Rome.

So whenever you're lost,
Stand still and pray,
That there is a small creature nearby,
To help you find your way!
          
                                               - Anushka Dash
                                               IX-A




Sunday 25 October 2015

Draw it forth

By K Geethanjali

Instead of cribbing about unpleasant realities, K Geethanjali decides to create a desirable one for herself by drawing them on paper
Acceptance never came easy to me.  I was known as the one who always faced any challenge with a “NO, "
But acceptance came hard when life was a drag. It was not only the challenges that life threw that were frustrating, but also the daily grind. Why did I have to accept all the rubbish that life dealt?
And then came an insight that made acceptance feel just right. While I thought things were happening to me I just could not accept the cruel cards life dealt. Then I stumbled on the truth that life was not happening to me. Life was only responding to the thoughts that I held about it. Now acceptance began to make sense.
If I was the creator of my reality, it meant that whatever showed up in my life was put there by me and only me in collaboration with the Universe. And only if I accepted it could I take full responsibility for it. And only if I took full responsibility for it could I heal it. As Seth (an entity channelled by Jane Roberts) would say, “We have got things backwards. We don’t have feelings because of events in our life. We create the events in our life because we have strong feelings and beliefs in our mind.”
Healing and acceptance began when I began to trace all that appeared in my life to the beliefs I held inside. Once when my dog Bruno messed up my new balcony in Chennai and I was on the verge of shouting at my spouse, I stepped back and paused. The usual response would have been “How could you adopt a big dog when you knew very well that we were shifting to a flat?” But if I go by the premise that I create my reality, others in my life are only instruments to help me create it. If the dog was there in my life I had drawn it forth. And it was pointless to blame others. I suddenly remembered my childhood craze for animals, and how though I had had an array of cats, I had been crazy about pups and had badgered my parents for a pup to no avail. My conscious mind was now showing me the practical difficulties involved in taking care of a dog in a flat, but my subconscious had drawn forth this experience as it still carried the memory of an unfulfilled desire of having a dog. It would have only known that such an experience had not been completed in my life and had obligingly drawn it forth!
Leaving Bangalore, the garden city, and coming to Chennai, my hometown, was another thing I found difficult to accept though it had been a conscious decision, once my son left for higher studies in the US.  I had my close relatives living in Chennai.
But I missed everything about Bangalore – the weather, the people, the malls. I would talk at length about my love for the garden city and complain about the heat of Chennai (the only thing my mind could find to complain about) to everyone I met till my sister remarked. “Life would be better for you and others if you accepted it. After all, it was your choice.”
I did another inventory and found the crux of the problem, which was that Bangalore held memories of my life with my son, who had grown up there. These memories were creating the distress. Once the reason became clear I could let go and make a new life in my old city.
Does it mean that we should passively accept all that we created unconsciously? Nope. That’s where our power lies. We change it if we really want to, by drawing forth a new reality. Seth talks about how our current reality is only one of many probable realities and how it is not solid or fixed and can be changed. How do you change it? By drawing forth other better realities by changing your core belief in that area. He gives an exercise. Take an area of your life you are not pleased with. Think of it only as one probable reality you have drawn forth because of a belief you held about it. Draw forth the version you want to see. For five minutes hold on to the belief which will draw forth the reality you want to see.
About this time I got an email from a website I had subscribed to. It was about a children’s book called Harold and the purple crayon. It was a simple book about Harold, a boy who went out for a walk. When Harold found that there was no moon, he just took out his purple crayon and drew one. “The whole book is about Harold’s great adventures scaling a mountain, soaring in a hot-air balloon and touring a city, all created by his ever-faithful purple crayon. It’s a powerful book because it demonstrates a great spiritual truth—we are the authors of our own lives. We draw every detail—even the dragons and the oceans we “accidentally” fall into…We all have that power,” explains Pam Grout  of pamgrout.com and writer of the  book E-squared. She adds that this book taught her more than any self-help book.
By drawing what we want, we give a clear command to the universe
By drawing what we want, we give a clear command to the universe
Harold literally draws the things he desires to see in his life. This set me thinking. We have all heard of vision boards. Could this be something like that? When we draw out our desired pictures, our subconscious gets the message instantly and we draw it forth into our lives.
Maybe like Harold, literally drawing my wishes on paper would keep me focussed  for those five minutes that Seth suggested we put in. I realised that since our world is our projection anyway, why not draw it out clearly and draw it forth into our lives? The thing I love to draw the most is a loaded table with all my heart’s desires because my favourite psalm is Psalm 23. “He prepareth a table before me in presence of my enemies… My cup runneth over.
My sister and I decided to try drawing our reality when we were going through difficult patches – the worst in our lives. I would then click pictures of my latest intended creation and Whatsapp it to my sister. Sitting in the hospital seeing her husband through the worst time of their life, she too began to draw all her heart’s desires – perfect health, happy family outings.
geethanjani2It’s too soon to talk about results. I am not even waiting for my new world to show up because I know it is around the corner. It is the cosmic law. As I draw or doodle, my vibrations increase. Instead of focussing on the problems that are bogging me, I am focussing on what is possible. This is what is meant by accepting what one had already created and simultaneously doing something positive to change it.
Our world – we create it individually with our thoughts, beliefs and feelings. Even in our scriptures we are taught that there are as many Brahmandas as there are individuals. Only when we know that the world is a mirror showing us our deepest beliefs can we readily accept our creations. With it comes the breathtaking realisation – If I am a powerful creator anyway why not create things I would love to accept. Turn the tables on life and take charge of life.
I now enjoy drawing forth my world with my doodles and co-creating with God. And yes, I breathe easier because of it.
As the saying goes “The best way to predict the future is to invent it!”

Tuesday 13 October 2015

The Dark Night

                                                                                                             -Nandita Karthikeyan

Heavy rains again, there was nothing to say about it. This was the season when the farmers of Madras were really happy and joyful because after these rains, there was a continuous season of drought and bad harvests. Probably, God had given us additional rain this time. I, as I had already mentioned, am a rain lover. Even if I was sick or completely hospitalized, I would still enjoy the rain and I'm sure cold would never dare come close to me.

I was peeping out of the balcony, trying to enjoy the rain. My neighbours think I'm crazy, because I'm the only person who gets completely wet, standing in my balcony!

I peeped out to get myself completely drenched - I love it whenever that happens. I could not go down because my mom was out and only I was at home. If my mother was at home then there would have been no problem, she would have allowed me to go down but when she is not there, I'm the one who is supposed to take care of the house. My father was at office. I went into my room to change my night dress. I came out wearing a pretty one. I was very bored so I planned to sit in front of my laptop or my TV, but even that seemed really boring. Wishing my mom was at home, I kept staring at the TV, when all of a sudden, the lights switched off.

I was known to be one of the 'ghost riders' or the 'exorcist' of my gang as I am the strongest among all my other pals but really, who would have the guts to stay at a place where it is completely dark and you hear all sorts of howls that too at night time?

I tried hard to close my eyes but closing or opening my eyes did not make any difference because the whole room was pitch black. I tried rubbing my hands on the TV parapet to get the torch light, but all of a sudden I remembered that I left the torch in the rest room. Now, I didn't have the guts to go to the rest room to fetch the torch! I didn't lose hope and I continued searching for my mobile. I kept swaying until I found something really cold.

"Oh my, it’s so chill!" I shouted. It was a Limca bottle which I left open after drinking a little of it. A few seconds later, I heard somebody yell my name.

"Taaaarrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaa......."

Who could it be at this odd time? I hoped it was somebody I knew. I looked through the key hole.  The person outside started banging on the door. Who could it be? I was breathing heavily. I took the Limca bottle in my hand and I planned to hit the person if I didn't know him or her.

"Taaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrra open the door!", the voice said. I opened the door,  and I swayed the bottle half way when I found out that it was my friend, Nisa. Thank god the bottle didn't hit her head! But something even more stupid happened. The bottle was partially open and juice spilled over both of us and we smelled like Limca. The lights came back on and we looked at each others’ faces. If only the electricity had come on a little more early!!

Even now, whenever I think about that day, I cannot control my laughter.

F

My

A “Very Indian” Dancer

-Bhavana Panchumarthi



The windows of his soul sparkled with joy like a tyke’s first smile,

One could see love embracing the hearts of crowds, in a beautiful world for a while.

No! Not for a charming girl with graces and airs of romance,

But a desire to grant elixir of life to his beloved classical dance,

A senile survivor for whom his love is truer than the truth.



Emotions and expressions poured out to ornament his graceful dance moves that stun,

With his abhinaya, some wondered if he was a divine angel sent to describe heaven.

Never did he worry over a future “society-approvable” job, very civil;

On his first tiny but graceful step he had known the end of his difficult tunnel,

To see light, he has to dance towards the end, battling the insults of life’s claustrophobic crowd.



Working towards your ambition does not mean deciding your occupation……………. it means doing something you love and you can be proud of. Your ambition and your future salary are as different as drought and rain. In the case of a male dancer, many doubt if he is a ‘he’ for having such a ‘girlish’ dream. A cruelty called society tries to make everyone its puppet, but when you follow your ambition, you snap your strings as a puppet, and you see light at the end of you tunnel soon enough. There you are left with so much satisfaction that you can't hold on to every single bit of it.





The Beauty Of Night

-Anushka Dash

In the midst of the dark night,
Stars are twinkling in the sky,
The dogs are howling loudly,
But nobody knows why.

There is silence everywhere,
For which you can even hear the wind's sound
The street lights are switched on,
Although there is no one around.

People say that during the night do not talk or shout,
Because there are spirits roaming around,
But once, just come out and see,
The night's beauty all around!

Coming home after a duty,
Make sure that the light's are switched off.
And then admire the night's beauty,
As the night is not something to be scared of.