LIFE IS RELATIONSHIP

As I stood there in the market deep in my thoughts, I saw a simple feat of friendship. The same vendor who grabbed a bunch of prawns from a pile in a hurry to sell them to a customer, was taking his time and hand picking the big fresh ones from the same pile for another customer. I asked myself, why would the vendor do that ? How are the customers different from each other? He charged the same amount from both of the customers. But why would one get hand picked ones and one get random picked ? I just stood there and watched. Then the first customer just paid and left, but the second one stayed for a while, shook the vendors hand, made conversation and paid him and left. The second customer who got hand picked prawns was my father. He always greeted the fish vendor with same enthusiasm every time, even if he did or did not buy anything from him.

A few days ago I asked my father, what was the purpose of life ?, as he seemed to have figured it out. With a smile on his face and a steady voice he said, “Relationships”. I was puzzled. I could figure out until a certain point by what he meant, but not till the full extent. He further explained it as, life being filled with relationships, your relationship with a person, with a car or a shoe. Then, as his theory started spreading through my mind, I started realising. Ever since the day we are born until they day we die, we are webbed with relationships. Relationship is constant throughout life. I started understanding as I could relate to it. From the clothes I wore till the air I breathed, I was bound in a relationship with them. I thought to myself, how could such a simple thing be the purpose to life?

“Sometimes the simplest things in life can be the hardest to understand” said a voice from inside me . I had got an answer but not an absolute one . My father’s theory made sense, but perhaps there was something more to it. I felt like there was a big part of it missing. But, I was happy that I had gotten an insight into my question and had something to start with.

That afternoon as I was eating big, fresh prawns unlike the first customer, something crossed my mind. The vendor had a relationship with both of his customers, then why would he treat them differently? As I told before, father used to always greet the vendor and conversed and they had developed a friendly relationship. It’s obviously because of that reason, he got fresh prawns. But why was there a gap between the two customers? Then it struck me! There’s another thing which is constant throughout life other than relationships. And that is “Time”. Just like relationships, we are bound by time throughout our lives. I had finally figured out the big missing part from my father’s theory. Relationship and time have always been co-related. You can’t have a relationship without spending time on it. And , you can’t spend time without having a relationship.

The first customer only spent time on making relation with the prawns he purchased. But, my father spent more time on the vendor than the prawns. Every living organism spends time on relationships. The reason why everyone’s life is different, is because each one of us chooses our own preferred relationship to spend time on. So in other words, “Life is all about spending time on relationships”. It’s as simple as that. Maybe there is something more to this theory, maybe there isn’t. Other than time and relationships, nothing is absolute

aN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY MY SON ON 23.03.2018 which enthralled me where I felt he needs no more education as he has decoded life itself

LOKESH SANGHI

DELUSION to TRUTH

 

DELUSIONS TO TRUTH

 

Having studied my early schooling in Kendriya Vidyalaya for 12 years where I chanted the hymn without never knowing its meaning, Recent visit of my friend Ranjeet I was reminded  of entire the hymn:

asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
mrtyorma amrtam gamaya
om shanti shanti shanti.

ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय ।
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।
मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Lead me from the delusion to the Truth
Lead me from darkness to light.
Lead me from death to immortality
Om Peace Peace Peace.

(Brhadaranyaka Upanishad — I.iii.28

I thought that mind will get silenced just by searching the meaning for the entire hymn. But actual quest began now as the entire being was vibrating with the moot question

·       What is DELUSION?

·       Whether DARKNESS is truth or LIGHT is truth?

·       Whether DEATH is TRUTH or DELUSION as the above seeking is beyond death towards immortality

The deeper I went I started drowning in quicksand, but a thought held my hand & the inner voice said “Hari don’t struggle, search the meaning through a definition & you will get the respite.” Though I also got an answer how each being is eternal & immortal but that is another story to share some other time. But now I shall restrict myself to DELUSION TO TRUTH.

Definitions are very important in life as it explains to a common man a phenomena & its location/destination so that a person can create a path & travel that path with one’s physical & mental energy & reach the destination as defined by a definition. The most popular definition literature across the world is an OED- Oxford English Dictionary & Dictionaries in respective language in each country, now is sewn on a single platform called GOOGLE.

When I browsed for the definition on google, according to OED, This is what I got

“the truth. [singular] the true facts about something, rather than the things that have been invented or guessed.—“

After exploring the dictionary I was not contended but stood more confused than ever as I did not get the answer satisfying my mind so as to have clear distinction between DELUSION & TRUTH. Whenever I stand confused & cannot get to the core I seek answer in the cosmic creation which is very much part of nature. For me that is how journey of life has been a travel from the domain of IGNORANCE to KNOWLEDGE.

 

By habit I looked up at the sky & found that when sun rises the light on earth comes & when the sun sets the darkness engulfs the earth. This was my experience in the journey towards the delusions to truth. After observing this phenomena. An inner voice started screaming “Hari now you can easily define the aspect which can bring out the distinction between delusion & truth. My definition of truth for separating one from the other is as under:

Truth is an observable phenomena in this existence which occurs eternally irrespective of one’s influence. So what comes & goes cannot be truth but is a pure delusion while what eternally exists can only be a truth & not delusion.  So with this dictum DARKNESS is TRUTH & LIGHT is a DELUSION.

How right I found my neo-experience that we cannot fill or infuse darkness but only fill & infuse light & when we remove light, the darkness will automatically arrive. So what is eternal is darkness & not light. So DARKNESS is TRUTH & LIGHT is DELUSION.

I also found in this cosmic creation that the colour of sky or space is actually BLACK despite having infinite stars. I also realized that these shining objects have to die sooner or later by becoming RED GIANT or WHITE DWARF that will turn into a BLACK HOLE where even a ray of light cannot pass.  But when our planetary system dies in a few billion years’ time it will eat away planet Mercury Venus first & then shall engulf all planets including Earth too. Now I could strongly experience within me the entire process & experience that every creation which has birth has to have death too. So DEATH is truth & LIFE is delusion.

 

All along my life till my 55 years as a human being from the societal experience  I have been chasing life over death, light over darkness, possession over emptiness, knowledge over ignorance, companionship over loneliness noise/music over silence & finally anger/hatred over love & physical & mental war over peace. The TRUTH remains to be death, darkness, emptiness, ignorance, loneliness, silence, love & peace. The world exists not in duality but in singularity as TRUTH is eternal & does not have shades but is absolute. The moment we remove the temporary DELUSION the eternal TRUTH automatically appears.

My learning from this experience is that faster I indoctrinate these TRUTHS the faster shall be long lasting PEACE within me & outside me.

Hari Rao/19092021/dedicated to my brother Ranjeet whom I coincidentally met.

I will share some other time that there are no coincidences but our inability to see far beyond our vision, till then let us enjoy “Delusion To Truth”