The Three Goddesses

We all know that Parvati has two daughters and two sons naming Lakshmi, Saraswati Ganesha and Kartik. What we do not know is that Parvati actually has three daughters-Saraswati ,Lakshmi and her twin Alakshmi.
We talk of the first two because we like them but we never remember the third because she is not liked by anyone. What we do not keep in mind is that much as we hate her we can not disassosiate her from her twin sibling-Lakshmi..
Both of them exist together and are inseparable.
Lakshmi stands for wealth and prosperity .
Alakshmi stands for anything and everything that is negative-lust,greed,jealousy and all of the same family.
So man craves for Lakshmi,finds ways to get her without ever realising that he gets a package -the inseparable twins together.
Both the sisters manifest themselves in man's life simultaneously ,leaving him in a state of fix - the more he wooes Lakshmi the unhappier he becomes. He fails to understand the reason because he never tries to understand clearly the nature and characteristics of the goddesses that he has been worshipping.
So does that mean Lakshmi is bad?
No way !
She is wonderful!
We must worship her but she has a brilliant sister who we forget. That is our mistake. We must understand her sister Saraswati's virtues.
Saraswati represents Knowledge that leads to Wisdom.
Knowledge is the information accumulated over a period of time through various resources.
Wisdom is learning to assimilate and use that knowledge for our good.
Saraswati is the only one who can teach us the right value and use of her own sister Lakshmi,towards our good.
Saraswati is the only one that can teach us to protect ourselves or rather dodge Alakshmi while enjoying her twin Lakshmi.
If we have Saraswati in our lives Lakshmi is sure to be there ,only in all her glory and purity firmly restraining Alakshmi.
Alas! Without knowing all these three Goddesses completely ,we get carried away by the dazzling Lakshmi and ignoring Saraswati or not giving her the deserving value ,we end up in the clutches of Alakshmi- fighting, hating, killing and dying an unfullfilled unhappy life.
So He Maa Saraswati! Lead us from darkness to light....the light of Wisdom!!!!
Let us bless our youngsters with Wisdom.
We generally bless them with success, wealth,happiness.
Anybody who acquires Wisdom will have all the above mentioned naturally.
So may I wish Wisdom to all?
Amen!!!!!!!!

The Off Site

Lord Shiva was sitting with his eyes closed when Goddess Parvati bustled in . As if sensing her presense Shiva opened his eyes and smiled at her.
" Guess who I met today on my walk?''bursted Parvati''Khushi and Santosh!!!! I met them near Mansarovar...and you cant believe what I found them doing?They were meditating!!!!''
''I asked Khushi how could they afford to be there for were they not the most sought after on Earth?''
''We are on an off site''answered Khushi''along with my friend and colleague Santosh.''
''Off site? for what ?''
''To introspect,analyze our fast dwindling presense in the market .We have been told to identify the cause and come up with steps to deal with it. That is what we are doing here ,unsuccessfully so far ,though.''Khushi was really stressed. She pointed out to a far hidden cave where she said Santosh was in deep introspection.
''I don't understand''said an exasperated Parvati''people on earth do not want Khushi and Santosh any more? How can that be possible? I believed they were timeless in demand.'''
Finally getting a chance to speak Shiva said,''This is what you call Globalization. The market now suddenly is flooded with too many products. It is very natural to try those ,thanks to such agressive marketing. When the people try all ,face their effects then slowly they could come back to their old loyalities. Let me also tell you Parvati,our darling daughters have a big role to play in this transition.''
''You blaming our daughters for this? How can you?'' asked an angry Parvati.
''No no , I dont blame them . I said they also have a role to play in it.''smiled Shiva patiently.
''My darling Lakshmi , Saraswati...you just say anything''.Spoke the hurt mom.
''You are forgetting the twin? Alakshmi?''asked Shiva?''
''Lets go and eat ,I am famished''said Shiva guiding his confused wife to the table......
Alakshmi???????????

Happy Pain

It was a wonderful morning.Bright.sunny,with the air filled with high spirits,collective affinity and a sense of happiness joy and enthusiasm. People cutting across age,religion,gender felt one walking, laughing the Mumbai Marathon. The spectacular myriad of colours presented in the forms of all possible walks of our lives, was amazing. The one thing that was common to all was the feeling of joy . They all ran to express that joy.
It was my first such experience. I was a bit apprehensive about it keeping in mind my physical limitations ,but it was all because of my husband's belief that I also held on to my belief and I actually could do it .
On our way back as we were walking to the station to board a train,we saw a man in his early forties ,may be,limping ahead of us. He was carrying his shoes in his hands and was walking barefooted. While crossing past each other ,we smiled . He smiled back (how beautiful is a warm happy smile...I just cant understand why such a simple precious thing is not so frequently seen!)
I asked him that why was he walking barefeet when the feet were apparently in pain.
He said that he had made some mistake in evaluating his new shoes so had developed a nasty shoe bite....
I smiled and said' Must be paining hell of a lot..could we be of any help?''
He smiled back thanking us for offering help and said,;;Not at all. Yes it is paining quite a bit but it is a HAPPY PAIN.I am feeling so happy after running the marathon that I do not mind this pain.''
I loved the phrase...''Happy Pain''.
Anything that we do ,by choice, for the purpose of joy , can be assosiated with the phrase.
Everything demands a price ...so it is always wiser if we try to be clear and sure of our actions...what ever they are -so that they lead to happiness and what we experience then would be ''Happy Pain''

Love For Life

It was well past midnight. Mostly all her fellow passengers were fast asleep . Lolita generally could not enjoy a sound sleep on a train. She didnt mind it much because she loved looking out at the world passing by so swiftly. As it was dark outside she sat on her berth glancing now and then at any activity happenning in the compartment.
The young man ,from the berth on top of her came down and tucked the sheet gently around his wife ,who was fast asleep on the berth opposite them. Lolita smiled at the warm love on the man's face as he tucked his wife.He turned and met Lolita's eyes and he smiled. She smiled back . Hesitantly he then asked if he could sit on her berth for a while as he was not getting any sleep. Why would she have any objection? She had been watching the couple all day . At her age of seventy, you tend to see all your relations in the people you meet.
She had noticed the wife doing most of the talking of whatever talking took place. The boy was generally quiet.Both spent their time reading or sleeping. Lolita wondered why do people not talk? In today's time when everybody is struggling to manage their different roles in time ,a train journey can do such wonders. One can just talk ,talk and talk. She smiled at her thoughts for all her life she had always been very fond of talking,sharing thoughts ,views.. why should she judge everybody by her parameters?
It is so strange that at times it seems the most natural thing to talk and that exactly happened now. The seventy year old Lolita and the forty year old Anmol just got talking. To her surprise she kept listening to the man who she had seen to be so silent and immersed within self, the whole day. He spoke about his family ,his work and that he and his wife were returning home after a short holiday.
Suddenly Anmol realised that he had been doing a lot of talking so looked embaressed.
''Can I ask you something,if you dont mind?''Lolita said.
''Sure'' pat came his reply.
''I did not find the two of you talking much the whole day . I am very pleasantly surprised at how good you are to converse with. So why this contradictary behaviour?''
''Aunty I think over a period of time both of us have withdrawn ourselves from conversations,unless necessary, to avoid problems.''said Anmol sheepishly.
Lolita was not shocked. She had seen many such people all her life. She felt sad like she always felt looking at people who had given up in life.
She could see the love between these two, it was evident in various actions of both the people but probably like so many around ,they also did not want to live life fully.
To live a full life you need to love life. Only then will you give in your everything to make it fuller and more beautiful.
But Lolita knew that you can not tell others to love life.
Sad ,but even at this age ,with all her share of trifles and tribulations, she is still looking for more colours to paint the canvass of Life for she has not yet come across the reason to stop loving Life.

Praise Or Not To Praise

''My grand parents always loved my sister more than me'' quipped in Ritu.

''That is not true''protested Rahul,''Father loved both you sisters equally and so did mother . Both of you were so very very dear to them.''

''No ,Ria has always been their favourite. They only had things to talk about her. She was the best ...she did this ....she did that ...'' and Ritu stomped out of the room with moist eyes .

Rahul and Roli sat bewildered looking at each other. Memories of Rahul's parents with their daughters flashed by on their mind screen. How they doted on these grand daughters !How did Ritu come up with such wrong thoughts?

Roli remembered an incident of the past. She had attended a family wedding shortly after her own marriage. She had gone there without her in laws. She had had a great time as she could use the occassion to gel with a big chunk of her new family at one shot. She enjoyed every moment of it and returned with many new warm relations in her heart.

After a while ,her mom in law received a letter from one of Rahul's aunt, praising Roli and showering her with blessings for her reaching out to the family ,at the wedding and congratulating her to have such a loving bahu. Roli saw her mom in law beam ,reading the letter ,then passed it to Roli to read too. Roli remembered mumbling something at such unexpected shower of praise. Suddenly she was shocked . Her mom in law had torn the letter and threw it in the dust bin.Roli did nt understand this.Generally mother would keep the letters on the dining table for all her four sons and bahus to read . Why then had she torn away this letter?

Roli noticed that there was no mention of the letter at the dinner table too. She was feeling uncomfortable. At night she narrated the incident to Rahul . Rahul drew her in his arms and said ,''Dont worry ,mother loves you a lot, but she did not want any ill feelings in any body's mind against you so she tore away the letter.''

''Why ill feelings against me?''Roli was aghast.

''Because you are noticed and praised for things that may be, are not valued as much by others or some in the house. Things that you will be loved for by others may point out the very lack of the same in some ,leading to seeds of jealousy.Mother does not want such feelings in the family and I feel she is right too.''Rahu said smilingly.''We all choose to value different things in life and are known through them. People who value the same things ,will be sort of alike and would be noticed in a similar manner ,but people who do not value the same things do so probably for their own reasons. They will never like to be pointed out this difference through some one else .''

Now Roli could understand Ritu's outburst better. Ritu and Ria had always been so different by nature.Where Ritu was the one who would be immersed in her self most of the time Ria would entwine herself around people effortlessly. Roli remembered her in laws talking of so many things that Ria would do when they would go visiting her and her husband.Small things ,small actions that would shower her grandparents with feelings of love ,want ,need and joy.

Roli realised that probably all that ,over a period of time conveyed more love for Ria than Ritu in the later's mind. Sadly she could do nothing to change this false belief from her own daughter's mind .

We must always appreciate goodness...the right things that a person does ..but we should be careful not to present that in a sense of contrast between others closely around.

Actually people do not intend to do so . Sometimes they do it to applaud goodness, sometimes they express their joy on finding their values in their loved ones and sometimes also with the intention of showing the sweet rewards of goodness but it is treading on dangerous grounds.

Who knows what seedling gets planted in whose heart which grows into a tree to show it's undesired fruits, ironically without you having any role to play in it.

Happy Teacher's Day

Teacher's day is celebrated in the memory of the great scholar and teacher the Late Dr. Radhakrishnan.It is a day where we talk about the teachers in our country.We talk about it being a noble profession. We talk about the teachers who are different as they touch the lives of many. The teachers ,it is said ,have the power to shape a nation.
We all have had teachers in our lives and it is for each one of us to claim the role they have played in shaping our lives.We grow up and our children are sent to be shaped up in the hands of people, called'' Teachers.''

Who are these ''teacher's'' for us?
They are -
people who will change our children from what ever we have made them, to the best.

they are magicians who will keep on working at our children,relentlessly,to make them unlearn everything that we keep on feeding our children with relentlessly, in order to teach them the basic pre-requisites to education ,the first of them being-Respecting the teacher.
We teach our children to criticise our teachers for we ourselves ,have no respect for them .

Without respect there is no faith and so no learning.
Teachers are expected to somehow make the children marks churning machines- there is no quest for knowledge.

It is like treating an uneven barren land with more and more chemical fertilizers and pesticides for more and more produce.
Without working on the land,any amount of fertilizer and pesticide will not yield the desired produce-in fact it would cause much far reaching damage than can be thought of.

Then the capabilities of the teachers are questioned. The nobility of the profession is questioned?
Why is it that only the Teachers are supposed to be 'Noble'

Do the teachers not come out of our society itself?
A noble society will have noble people and so noble teachers.

Yes Teachers do have the power to guide the youth , to shape the nation,but only if it starts with the quest to learn on the part of the children and before that the want in the parents to be clear as to what do they want their children to learn?
The parents should want their children to learn goodness. They should want their children to learn to differentiate the right from the wrong ...they should want to learn to shape up their own lives....
There is no age for learning. It is a continous process.

Unfortunately ,at any age , we do not want to learn.
At any age , we believe we know better than what is being taught to us.
This humility of the need to learn is disappearing rapidly from within us and sadly , has swept down to even our children at such formative age.

We feel we do not need to learn so they too believe the same.
We should never let the feeling of knowing too much ,harbour in our minds.
Eager learners always find life beautiful.
To have people who we can trust with knowledge and our welfare ,is one of the greatest boons of life.
Let us all remain eager students for life that will feel warmly protected by our teachers.
Teachers? Any body we respect and trust is our Teacher.
Let us all remember that anything valued by us will only be valuable to us.
Let us value our teachers to add value to our lives.
Then there will be no dearth of teachers like the one being faced today in so many fields in our country.
The western world already has been facing this problem for a long time ,but INDIA ? Dearth of teachers?
A land of knowledge...known for the great teachers for centuries....
Let us stop this downfall and value our Teachers.

Smart Good

Rohan,a young army captain,could not wait for the journey to end. It already was long enough and he was dying to meet his Mumli and Dadu...his grandparents , to whom he was going to, after almost 5 years. He loved them dearly and his postings had kept him away from them for so long. His grandparents lived in a small village . He just had to cross the river and he would be there.It was a surprise visit so he could not help smiling ,thinking of their faces when they would see him.

As he was to set his foot on the bridge to cross the river ,he saw a fairly old man bending over the river,trying to pull something. He looked down to see exactly what the man was up to . The saffron clothes made him some sadhu. Rohan saw the sadhu trying to help a scorpion that was struggling to come out of the water. The sadhu picked up the scorpion by his hand and was about to drop it on land when the scorpion stung the sadhu on his finger . The pain shook the sadhu's hand and the scorpion fell in the water again,this time slightly farther away from the shore.

To his surprise, Rohan saw the sadhu wading through the water and reaching out to the scorpion ,picking it up again and on returning to the shore ,when he was just about to drop it ,the scorpion stung hard again.The burning pain involuntarily shook the sadhu's hand again carrying the scorpion even farther away in the river water.

On seeing the sadhu setting off to rescue the creature again,Rohan called out to him. The sadhu stopped in the water and waited for Rohan to come down . Rohan ran down and on reaching the sadhu asked him,''You are trying to save this creature maharaj, that has stung you twice? Will it not sting again?''

The sadhu answered with a smile,''It is the nature of the scorpion to sting but it is my nature to help. How can I let go of my nature that I have nurtured over the years with such dedication for a lowly nature?''saying this the sadhu turned to move towards the struggling scorpion.

Rohan said,''Maharaj, just a minute please.''

Saying this he broke a long twig from a tree close by,got down into the river ,stretching his arm pulled the scorpion with the twig and swirled it away to the neighboring bush.

Rohan looked at the sadhu smilingly,came out of the water and set out to finish his journey.

It always pays to be Smart,when we use it to be Good.

We can always retain our characteristics that we have nurtured by choice .

It is foolish to throw away our strentgh for other's weaknesses.