JOURNEY INTO HEALING
One fine day I accompanied a Punjabi friend of mine
to attend a two-day seminar on 'REIKI -- for Health, Prosperity and Spiritual
Growth'. The dates were January 9 and 10, 1998. The REIKI master was an Ex-IITian
from Delhi.
In the seminar, we were told that REIKI is a Japanese word for mysterious
power/vital life energy force. Earlier, I had read a book on the subject,
which informed me that REIKI is transferred to the student by the REIKI Master.
Teacher during an attunement (initiation) process, creating a special
link between the student and the REIKI source forever. And that REIKI reverses
the ageing process to restore good health, beauty and innocence. The seminar
was short, simple, sweet.
Then started the journey into healing. To start with, the severe back
ache, which had been troubling me for quite some time ( almost eight years
), disappeared completely. In the first few days of full body self-REIKI,
I felt a sense of balan
and an amplification of energy. Stress, while working in the industry
for hours together, was also lowered. The production in my department, where
I was serving then (Punjab Communications Ltd.), multiplied threefold. Engineers
in the adjoining department were amazed at this.
After completing twenty-one days of REIKI, I received another gift
from the Universe. I got my posting orders to take up the company's project
in Himachal Pradesh (Kullu - Manali area). The four-month stay amidst the
Himalayas was like a paid holiday in the company's guest
house. Being there in the hills, amidst snow-clad mountains, enjoying silent
moments by the riverside was an exquisite experience, as if I was in Heaven.
Six months later, my beloved accompanied me to take up her first degree
in REIKI. Now both of us do REIKI. We did a second-degree course as well (
another two day seminar ). Life has taken a complete U-turn. We have lost
all fears, anxiety, anger, hatred, jealousy, lust -- all of which we had picked
up from the outer world.
We have regained prosperity, peace, love, self-expression, intelligence,
intution and vision from the inner world.
Every day, every hour, every minute we experience oneness with the
Universe. Our silent prayer is 'O the Universe, kindly protect what we have
and provide what we need.' Next moment all is granted.
Closing with an attitude of gratitude for this divine energy -- REIKI.
Thank you my dear Punjabi friend.
-- Prof Karan Sharma
AEGRI SOMNIA VAN
It is probably the saddest moment in the of a nation that is more
than 5000 years old, when after such a historic march through HISTORY, a
certain entity called Agasthya has to stand up before learned readers - and
defend the national
her of the very soils from where we have sprung. Civilizations have
come and civilizations have gone. the sands of time have all but removed the
last footprints. It is to the greatness of this nation that storms have to
dismember us - but for
how long?
The vedic era, our ancient past, battered by Muslim and Central Asian
Invaders, later by the British have all but removed our uniqueness. Constant
imposition and forced mingling have all but erased our distantness. So that
what remains is
a fusion of sorts - that reads more of confusion than of any other
thing.
Friends, it is not to fight that I exist.It is not to argue that I
inscribe this piece. It is not to prove a point that I put down my blood in
black and white. It is to plead that I stand before you. A fervent appeal to
our common sanity,
to uphold ourselves. Let us be banyans that embraces all yet stands
firm and tall. Let not be the ville reeds that sways to every passing breeze
and becomes yet another fish in the ocean. Let our age be not that which is
cursed to write the
obituary of the single word which is dearest of all of us.
Reminds me of a story that I had read way back in my boyhood days.In
these days, Jawaharlal Nehru was completing his education in England. On being
asked to draw the national flags of their respective countries, the young
Nehru drew the
figure of the UNION JACK. For that is the flag that crowned the masts
of his homesoil. It was only when bitterly reminded by his classmates that the
UNION JACK belongs totem and not to a dark-skinned native that the young Nehru
learned a
lesson. No matter, what does not belong to you will never accept you as
an equal, only vassal.
The sun rises on a new India these days - where Indians are either
ashamed of their own entity or too cynical to express the greatness of their
own nation. We have degraded ourselves to the state of a bunch of sycophants
and hypocrites.
Like the vain crow that sticks a discarded peacock feather onto his
tail in the hope that others may take him to be a peacock.
Freinds, we have lost one fact-
the beleif in ourselves.
Why should we be subservient to others? Why should we look to others?
We gave the world's first grammar - Panini's Ashtadhyayi. And it required
a German Max Muller to express the astounding feat of human intelligence that
required such a complete and logical treatise. We Indians were meanwhile busy
applau-
-ding the WREN and MARTIN.
We gave the world the concepts of ragas, tamas and satlva. Wegave
the world's first economics, Chanakya's Arthashashtra ; the world's first
encyclopedia- Brihatsamhita. Our literature is impeccable, unique and has
its own standing. Yet we
Indians have left it to collect dust. While regal ourselves in
imitating other, aliens to our culture are deciphering our texts. We gave the
world's first town planning and civic amenities. We prayed for universal peace
and brotherhood when the
rest of the world were still living in caves. We gave the world's first
example of democracy and tolerance. Our examples of Ram rajya, exist even today
as examples of an ideal state. Our philosophies of active reforms, rather than
passive resto
-ration were the reasons of our prosperity. Our architecture, music,
learnings, social norms .... the list is never endless. One can go on and on.
What is it that went wrong? Why are we today engulfed in a quagmire?
When we have led from start, why are today not where we right
fully belong.
The answere is startingly simple : We have stopped beleiving in
ourselves. The jeans culture have eroded our values. Not that there is anything
wrong in the clothes. It is the mindbend of the beings that have put on this
atire that is
wrong. we have come to state that anything remotely connected to India
is not right. The west is the best. Our music form is rediculed, while those of
the west are awh-wahed. Our social values are fassing an invalion - and we are
only advan
-cing their conquest. English speaking has become of greatness, our
mother-tongue languishes in bondage. MTV culture has eroded our art and dance
forms, viciously forcing them into obsolescence. Capable Indians are leaving
the motherland - and
they cynically ask, what can India do for us? What they don't ask us is
what can they do for India?
True that we cannot shut ourselves out. We cannot live in isolation.
But should co--habitation require such a heavy price that we give up all that
we have inherited.
Ladies and gentlemen, Bharat is not merely a geographical entity. It is
an ancient land bounded by the Himalayas, bodered by the seas, extending from
the deserts of the west to the jungles of the east wherein lives true
Bharatvasis. At
home in oneself, in peace.
As oquoted in the Rigveda:
" The true man is that at home in himself. Who lives in that
undisturbed tranquil state where the eternal out and in of breathing goes on peacefully,
in which he gives himself to the world without losing himself in it, abides
there awhile
without being swallowed by it, withdraws himself without cutting
himself from it
and remains alone without ever hardening himself".
In an India today that is becoming increasingly today centric, the past
is becoming of little consequence and the future more distant bthan
The Eclipse -Suhash Chakraborty
Nature, she no longer rumbles
in the
journey of the brook,
She twinkles not as at the stars I look,
She flashes in the oblivious smile of the
child no more,
She no longer conjures up castles in tiny
hands on shore.
Innocence, are you dead,
Or, is it a pause?
Nature, she no longer cries in the
morning dew
When from her the night bids adieu.
Nature, she does not sing to herald the
birth of a new spring.
Evenings are not crimson blushes, young
hearts on Cupid's wing.
Love, have you lost your way
or, have you begun to hate us?
The valleys of life do the tears flood,
And my moon is stained with blood.
The sky is no longer an innocent blue,
" Where we go? "-the doves got no clue
Peace, have you forgottenour land
Or, is it you battling in the bloody sand?
Wretched and ragged, the mother nature
roams the street
Where stones and curses do her greet
Sanity has left the skies, my mother is mad
But I am not all sad
For I Know
Hope breathes, llife lives-
ALLELUIA!
LOKI'S DEFENCE
Whither all the dreams of desire,
Fugit like the running hands of time,
Never in grace with wretched hope,
Deceptive like the quench of wine
Thou the fairy with healing wand
soothing the burnt of unfulfillment
Leaving behind scars of impotence
Of failures and timeless relent.
Flights of fancies that have no meaning-
Agency of mask and mirages,
Thy shackles shall I break.
Better are decaying reality cages.
But then thoughts in my hearts arise
What dreams be those that realise.
Amit Chakravarty
LUCIFER'S LAND
As I passed the window, the
scene inside the STD booth caught my eye.
The tin of sardines was bursting at the seams with boys all sizes. Damn
this self-centred world! Couldn't the guys restrict themselves to their
booth rather than booth capturing (literally) the one meant for girls?
In anger, I stamped my foot and felt it sinking into a soft pulpy, wet,
mass.
Looking down I found that the 'soft, pulpy, wet mass' was green and
stinking
too.You have guessed it right ! It was cowdung.
Shit! (I mean goddamnit!). Why do these have to be selfish about
the grass and go defecating all over the place? Mark it , my friends ,
in
this mean world even cows don't care about others. Hurling a hundred
imaginary stones at the cows of India, I washed my feet at the tap and
strode into the booth. "It is but divine to forgive this world for
its
meaness" I reflected on cooling down.
The boys didn't seem to like my presence. So , I crept into a
corner of the booth and tried to intrest my self in the STD code
chart.The
guy on the phone was talking to his girlfriend. "Just listen to me
.....
I did'nt ... ". All others assumed airs of sobriety. The booth
owner bit a
ten rupee note and stared out of the window serene as Buddha.
The expression on the face of the guy on the phone told me
that the receiver had been banged down at the other end.He redialled.
This
time there was no stopping him. Knowing full well that such matters if
heart
takes ages to resolve , I engrose myself in the chart. By now I'd
reached
Bhusaval (never heard of it) on it.
After what seemed like an aeon of time ,my turn came near.
Thear was only one guy in the queu.While he fired away in Kannada,
Buddha
looked on, placid and calm.
As he hung up; I stretched my hand towards the handest in
joy. No, it wasn't to be mune. Two jats juncks, twice my sizestrolled
in
csually and pulled the phone, reciver andall, to their side. No, this
time
the selfish world could't be forgiven.
'Ladies first', I said curtly and yanked the thing of their
hands. They didn't get the ideaand instead kept opening and closing
their
mouths in wide-eyed surprise.'Buddha', yawned nonchalantly
I dialed the number.An electronic voice asked me to check the
number I;d dialed. And in case, I didn't understand English, the
message was
repeated in sweet Bengali.
The jats got air of it. THat was it. The room blow up in
uproarious laughter. I hated the world most at that moment. THe std had
been to much of a strain in my nerves.I'd dialed the wrong code.
Idialed
carefully once again. THis time after seconds of instrumental of
insturmental
music playedin the local exchange (expensive music, this-at full rate)
I finally
got Rachel on line.
'Happy Birthday' I had maneged to blur out the only towo words
I had to say.
A long pause follwed. "today is october 25th. My birthday
is on Nuvember 25th."
I don't remember what exactly I said next to her. All I wanted
to do then,was to drink the blood of the sycophant whose mind cooked up
the idea
of wishing people on birthdays.
"Any thing else ?"she asked perfunctorily.
"No...............Nothing".
"Bye then",she hung up.
This telephonic tomfoolery had cost me Rs.86.00.Ihad only a hundred
ruppee note I gave it to 'Lord Buddha'.
"Go drink a cup of tea at Apolli,you will get the change ",he
uttered
his first words.
Exasperated at his reply I threw the thing on his table and stomped
out, cursing the mean, self-centred world that I lived in.People
couldn't even give
loose change.The miser wanted me drink tea for Rs.100.00 instead.This
was the height!
The dramatic exit, of course created waves and typhoons of laughter
inside. But I didn't
care any more for what the world thought.
"It is better to meditate alone in the Himalays then live in a
society
of sycophants and self-centered beings",I muttred.
Plop! I felt a familar wet mass and equally familiar pungent smell.Cow
dung again.