darkness to Light-Journey

All are stuck inside a dark room.

Billions:  Move about aimlessly banging against each other and banging against the walls. They neither know nor try to find out the door to Light.

Millions: Go the wrong way, open a trap door and fall into more darkness. Unless they realise that they have gone wrong, it becomes impossible for them to escape out.

Thousands: By chance find a torch light, but before they start to use it, the battery power eventually dies out and they are again engulfed in darkness.

Very few: Without fear truly search and never give up. They have unshakable faith that there is a way out of the room of darkness and are ever ready to lead and guide those who are truly wish to follow them.

It is time now to introspect and think to which category we wish to belong. Not a moment to be wasted!

My Best Friend's Wedding! Why didn't I go?

Since February I have been so excited about my friend's wedding. We studied together for 3 years in college. I used to share everything with her. We even discussed in a value education class about how our husbands should turn out to be- (of course it was an exercise given by ma'am, we were not so jobless otherwise). She, another friend and I even went for a movie which was so memorable and it is considered to be the first time I entered a cinema theater to spend quality time with friends.  

To describe my friend-benevolence, kindness, sweetness, sensitive, reserved, patient, cheery but occasionally moody and very talented. She taught me to be brave, boosted my confidence and her enthusiasm was so contagious. She was our class leader and her waves struck the stone like hearts of every individual. Most important she had many priceless qualities that I didn't have and even now I am struggling hard to develop them. 

During working days she used to mingle with all our classmates so well but the strange fact is that during the holidays she is never available. She has so many blog sites in which she displays and proudly shows off her artistic talents. She is busy sculpting herself and prepares herself for something extra during holiday season. 

Due to the fact that I consider myself to be her close friend, I had many expectations with her. I had been impatient, short tempered and quite rude at times which she had pointed out at various instances. I had irritated her many a time. She said once to me," Education is no use for you! What is the point of getting educated when you don't even know simple things." Only I was capable of bringing out the worst in her.  The fact is she was never frank about her feelings. Her face would be burning with irritation and when I ask her she would say, "Nothing, Nothing!". Of course I used to keep prodding her and endlessly be hanging around for replies. In absolute pressure, she would open out her feelings sometimes.

Now comes the main part. Why didn't I go for the wedding? Even though I had told her many times I would attend, I just stayed back. There were many reasons for it. One I was tired cause I had done some strenuous work that day. Of course thats a minor excuse. The major reason is that I felt it is a much better option to just stay at home and pray for the success of her wedding and for the new life she is going to begin. Apart from Faith, Prayers and good wishes too move mountains. If I had been present at her wedding, the gala atmosphere, the noise, the people would have prevented me from concentrating on my prayers. I would keep thinking about that and would even forget to pray. Besides I just couldn't think of a gift for buying her. Everything seemed to be just too small and trivial to be given to her. She deserves much more than impermanent material objects. 

I don't know yet whether she is angry with me. If she is, I hope this post calms and cools her down. I also hope that one day she realizes that there is someone far away, in a distant land praying for her good health and prosperity.

Guru and Shishya

The relationship between Guru and Shishya-(teacher and student) is an extremely complex one and at the same time a beautiful one. Everything that one knows in this world has been taught to him by some teacher or the other. The teacher need not be a highly knowledgeable philosopher like Socrates, Plato or extremely disciplined and talented like Dronacharya, but as small as an ant or as inanimate as a stone. One might be fascinated as to what an ant or a stone can teach us in life? Well, the ant never gives up, it is forever busy and it teaches us to always keep ourselves active. The stone never to overreact to situations in life and being as non reactive as a stone can help avoid so many nasty situations.

So everything in life has a lesson to teach us. That means there is nothing useless in this whole wide universe. All things material, beautiful and seemingly ugly creations have something to impart to us. To put it better each and every object in this universe is our Guru!

Fine we have identified who our Guru is-everything we see, feel, smell, hear and sense and even nonsense. Isn't it too hard to digest? How can everything be our teacher? I hate person B, I hate eating this particular food! Oh I hate the smell of garbage. I hate cockroaches and mice. How sweet smelling is this rose? How foul smelling is this dead lizard?

The primary lesson to learn from our surroundings is Acceptance AND Respect! From childhood we have been groomed to accept and respect our school teachers. Though we curse them behind their backs we still try to act respectful in front of them. The school teacher is only a symbol. While we are forced to obey and respect the teacher we must force ourselves to respect everything in nature.


Each person born into this world is a Shishya and must follow a highly disciplined and orderly life. Each moment is a lesson, an opportunity to learn. The basic tenet of a student as the Upanishads say is self control and very very important-humility and shedding of ego. Ego acts as a curtain and prevents a person from gaining true knowledge. Ego=Ignorance. The mind of a student should be tuned to listen and ever open to learn. It must never doze off at any moment. Alertness and Awareness are two more characteristics of the student. Learning, Retention and Adoption, Application of the things learnt in day to day life is the function of the student.


What about the Guru? Being a Shishya is far easier than being a Guru. When a Guru accepts a person as his student, he takes responsibility for his(the student's) entire life. The Guru has certain powers over his student but that should not go over his head. Power comes with responsibility. Since the student looks upto his Guru for guidance, the Guru should possess all the qualities-like humility, self control, alertness and awareness in  extreme proportions to the student. At the same time the knowledge should be imparted in the right manner, at the right time having no partiality and in the right spirit. Being a Guru is indeed lying on a thorn bed for whatever sins a student commits the Paapa (the demerits) all goes to the Guru.

Though the whole universe itself is our Guru, yet it is so difficult to accept it. The universe itself is filled with contradictions and it will surely confuse the small learners like us with our impermanent and finite thinking.  We must choose one main Guru to lead us in life. Sometimes it can be one Guru to overcome every situation in life. The following table acts as a reference as to whom to regard as our Guru. The choice of our Guru is like choosing the right boat to cross the river.

Born into this world-Parents are our first Gurus.
At school and college- True friends, good books and caring, impartial teachers.
Citizen of the country- Leaders (may be king or prime minister/ President).
Throughout life- Religious and Spiritual Books/ Leaders. For example: Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Jadadguru Sri Kanchi Shankaracharya Swamigal, Pope for Catholics and so on.