Enduring and Eternal

"Fire cannot burn me. Water cannot wet me, Wind cannot wither me. Weapons cannot cut me. For I am the Soul enduring and everlasting. I do not come into being and do not cease to exist," Lord Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhaghvad Gita, Chapter 2 Verse 23. With this thought we mark the fifth year without Akshay.

A Message from Heaven

If Akshay were to speak to us, this is what he would say: 

As I sit in Heaven and watch you every day, I try to let you know with signs that I never went away. I hear you when you are laughing and watch you as you sleep. I even put my arms around you, to calm you as you weep. I see you wish the days away, begging to have me home. So I try to send you signs, to let you know you are not alone. Don’t feel guilty that you have a life that was denied to me. Heaven is truly beautiful, just you wait and see. So live your life and laugh again, enjoy yourself and be free Then I’ll know that with every breath you take, you will be taking one for me.- Anonymous

Come, fly with me

Albert Einstein has said," Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one." Quantum physics as a subject was in its early days when the world started questioning the nature of reality. But we as Indians have been familiar with this concept since Vedic days. There is one Mahavakya or fundamental truth of Advaita Vedanta - Brahman Satyam, Jagat Mithya. which means, this world is an illusion, or Maya and the truth lies beyond the reality of atoms, protons, electrons. It exists in the form of vibrations or waves, the quantum physicists say. Socrates too had said a similar thing about the body being a separate entity. The soul is separate from the body and is energy form. Until Isaac Newton came along and gave the laws of physics to the world and forced mankind to identify itself with only the physical world. But you cannot keep down true knowledge no matter how abstract it is. And thankfully physicists made progress and admitted the possibility of many worlds and existence of souls or energy forms in these many worlds, albeit in different forms. But why am I getting into all this; because quantum physics says that Quantum entanglement is love at a sub atomic level. Even though two objects are separated by light years there will still be a strong attraction between them. Which easily explains in scientific terms the reasons for rebirth and that complex concept called Karma. In other words, there are worlds unknown to us where our loved ones live after ceasing to exist in this world;and there is a strong chance that we shall meet again. Science says so.

Birthdays and Unbirthdays

Akshay came into being this day 15 years ago. Being and non-being; the nature of these two states has been explored by Greek philosophers since the 6th century. Plato had put forward the idea that what 'is not' is also in a sense 'is'. If a being is a material thing in the visible realm, a non being is a non material thing in the invisible realm, goes the Platonic logic.Sounds perfect. Which means there is more to nothingness than meets the eye. Taking that Greek philosophy further and giving himself the creative license Lewis Carroll had introduced the concept of 'Unbirthday' (which is every other day except the birthday) in Alice in Wonderland. He even wrote a very silly song to go with it. Birthdays and 'unbirthdays' are expressions of time. So do we live our state of non-being in a rabbit hole like Alice? Could Akshay from his state of non-being watch our lives through a looking glass? Life, as Alice would say only gets curiouser and curiouser. To get back to Platonic logic; he was simply extending what his teacher Socrates had expounded - that reality is unavailable to those who use their senses. He said the sun-lit world of the senses is a den of ignorance and we should climb out of it, for this material world is no more than a fleeting phenomenon. Its impermanence fills us with a fear of the unknown. He urges us to see it with the eyes of the mind as that will take us beyond the physical world and transmute our fears into hope.

Sit by a stream and listen

Every now and then everyone must try to sit by a stream and listen. We all feel a disorientation after a life changing event, the loss of a loved one or a personal crisis. Experts suggest that in order to recover, one can practice deep listening, an ancient healing art. The Water element easily facilitates deep listening. Try sitting beside a stream or river and watch the river flow by. Listen to the gurgling and bubbling sound of water flowing over the pebbles. Observe the waves and ripples - how they rise and fall. Observe the colours of the sky in the water. As you reflect, your fears will weaken, your pain will dissolve and your inherent wisdom will rise forth to make you feel strong again. Buddha explains this act of sitting by a river bank even better. He says when your mind is disturbed, sit by the side of your mind. Watch it with all its muddiness, old wounds, hurts, unfinished things. Slowly, ever so slowly, things will clear up and the muddy stream of your mind will become clear. By sitting on side of your mind you become the observer. You are not involved in the act of flowing and that helps you become calm.