Wednesday, May 9, 2007

On Being Good

I finally felt the need to write, though it isn't something I thought I'd blog about. A few weeks back, I had attended a meditation at the Pranic Healing Foundation here, and while the whole experience was wonderful, there were certain things of a more superficial nature that made me for some reason, rather happy.

For instance, though we were complete novices, in that room, supercharged with energy, we almost effortlessly were able to feel auras and chakras, and the changes that could be wrought on these by the simplest of words. Simply saying the word 'Hate' was enough to make the heart-chakra shrink, while 'Love' made it larger. Saying a small white lie (the experiment we conducted involved a lady lying about her age) was enough to make her Antakarna slender as a thread... the antakarna connects us to our higher soul, our conscience, and even that white lie, spoken as an experiment was enough to damage it!

The experiment that I enjoyed the most was that of rooting. Imagining being rooted to mother earth, with beautiful white roots was all it took, without any physical effort, to become rock steady.

Apart from all the other deeper, higher things that were said that day, one story which I was much struck by was about Master Choa Kok Sui, who had gone to Sarojini Nagar Market, and once there, he purchased a large number of blankets and started distributing them. His pupils tried to tell him about how, in Sarojini, one is supposed to bargain, pointed out that many of the people were coming again and again for the handouts, and tried to prevent it. Master, however, heeded none of it, and continued to give.

The reason that I keep remembering this story and find it so powerful, is that it made me realise that if I'm being 'cheated' out of some money by a shopkeeper, it may be doing him some good, so i shouldn't mind it.

If someone comes for repeated handouts, maybe that person will use the blankets thus collected to set up an enterprise which will earn that person some money, and maybe that person will become self reliant.

Every one here is pretty clueless about most things, and most people beg for different things, often without even being aware of the fact. We need to share what we have, not hoard it and pretend that it is exclusively ours. Giving doesn't deplete what we have. We get other things, of greater importance. A nicer feeling about ourselves, for example.

And that is why that rooting experiment was so significant. If we were to root ourselves from within, there would be no more of that aimless floating we do so much of. No more swaying towards whichever side the opinions of others blow us.

And if only we could quieten down, stem the flow of continuous rubbish that we spew heedless of what it does to others, or even to ourselves. If saying one less bad or negative thing about a person can give me one more minute in which to say something kind instead, I'm healing both the other person and myself.

I guess that is the whole issue of being good.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i go pointwise:
1) like what you have done to the blog...i like blue!
2) being good and doing good, i think are two separate things. being good doesnt necessarily involve peace of mind, it could be done just to appear obedient and to avoid any confrontation, doing good instead is different, it amkes you feel good automatically and it comes unconsciously.
3) i agree, gving leaves the most amazing feeling, hwoever sometimes it just happens to border on condescension which in a sense deafeats the whole purpose.
4) i like that story!
5) you give a lot sweets, you do....your tiffin for instance! small gestures like that go a long way!
6) mooral of the story: if you are ashamed of yourself for not being able to bargain, don't be! think that you are doing someone some good!
7) you are right, we all beg in different ways, we just don't realise it. there is this line in japji sahib which goes something like, 'the giver gives eternally,though the receiver tires of receiving' i know i have slightly changed the context but somehow i was remminded of this line!
8) yeah, we realy shouldnt bitch so much! can do so much other good stuff instead! :P
9) just read my comment, very arbit and rambling no? does it make any sense?

The New Age Superhero said...

deep.. i agree wid most of it tho the selfishness in me begs to differ.. i cant express myself very clearly on many points n so i choose 2 stay quiet on the issue till am myself clear with my thots.. but i wud luv to discuss this with u someday :)

and yeah.. u hav 2 teach me meditation whn u get to mumbai.. no kidding.. one day reserved for ths.. thanks :)

heh? ok said...

you should preserve and bottle yourself in little bottles that people can smell when they're feeling hopeless.

Sneha said...

The rooting thing (quite literally) reminds me of the earth signs and the "swaying towards whichever side the opinions of others blow us" of the air signs. how very much like them. and guess what, earth signs and air signs don't blend easily. okay, my point was not to get into astrological details, the post simply reminded me of this and i wanted it to go on record! :D
oh btw, i'd come across this book on how positive emotions tend to make pretty crystals in ice whereas negative ones make ugly crystals.. i can't remember the name now, but i'll relay it to you when i do. interesting stuff.

ninkita said...

@sim: thankyou for loong comment!!
1.i like blue too
2.being good is from the inside, i meant.. not the kind of being good we do generally at home ;)
3.yes, condescension is pretty pointless
4.i also :)
5.haan...feed the hungry :P
6.you understand everything!! :D
7.yes, you told me that too
8.hahahahahahahahahahhahahaaa!! you know why :P
9.it makes sense :)

@suk.. we'll discuss it anytime you want to :) and i can't wait to get there!!!!

@sangee.. hehe.. that sounds so much like my brother's idea of patenting little bits of me and selling me as comfy pillows!!! except yours sounds much nicer!

@sneha.. ooh, i like the idea of those ice crystals!! and i'm earth, so the rooting was a totally happy feeling :)