Rabindranath Tagore Blew The Candle

Rabindranath, one of the greatest poets of this country, was living on a small houseboat. He used to live for months together on that houseboat; he loved living on the houseboat. It was a full-moon night and he was reading in his room, a small cabin, just by a small candlelight, and he was reading about aesthetics — what is beauty?

And the full moon outside, and the cuckoo calling from the distant shore, and the moon reflecting all over the lake, and the whole lake was silver…! It was a tremendously silent night, nobody around, except that cuckoo calling. Once in a while a bird would fly over the boat, or a fish would jump in the lake — and those sounds would deepen the silence even more. And he pondered over great books on aesthetics in search of the definition of what beauty is.

Tired, exhausted, in the middle of the night, he blew out the candle…and he was shocked, surprised. As he blew out the candle, the moonrays entered through the window, through the door, inside the cabin. That pale light of the candle had been keeping the moon out. Suddenly, he heard the cuckoo calling from the distant shore.

Suddenly, he became aware of the tremendous silence, the depth of the silence surrounding the boat. A fish jumped, and he came out…. He had never seen such a
beautiful night. A few white clouds floating in the sky, and the moon and the lake and the cuckoo calling…he was transported into another world.

He wrote in his diary, “I am foolish! I have been searching in books for what beauty is, and beauty was standing outside my door, knocking on my door! I was looking for beauty, searching for beauty, with a small candle, and the small candlelight was keeping the moonlight outside.” He wrote in his diary, ”

It seems my small ego is keeping God out — the small ego, like a pale small candlelight, keeping the light of God outside. And he is waiting outside. All that I need to do is to close the books, blow out the candle of the ego and go out — AND SEE!”

Well, a small addition from my side. Unfortunately, we are blinded multifold in the realms of this unknowingly known world. The only thing which we can do is to do the right thing at the right time so that your vision is crystal clear and you atleast know where the candle is present, before blowing it out as Rabindranath Tagore did.

Equilibrium

This is an excerpt/story taken from Osho's teachings, which I thought does brings to light something about being in a state of equilibrium when there are crests and troughs under the seasons of the Sun...Read on....

When I was a small child at school there was a wrestling competition for the whole district; I have never been able to forget that incident. There was a wrestler, the most famous wrestler in those parts, who was defeated. He was going to be the champion, the district champion or something, and he was defeated by a totally unknown man!

The whole crowd laughed in ridicule, people enjoyed it like anything! And I was surprised, everybody was surprised; in a second everybody fell silent, because he also clapped and laughed… the man who had been defeated! He laughed so uproariously that the whole crowd fell silent in embarrassment; what was the matter with this man? And when they fell silent he laughed even more!

Later on I went to him; he was staying just in front of my house in a temple. And I said, ’This is strange – and I loved it! It was very unexpected!’. He said, ’It was so unexpected, that’s why I also laughed! It was really unexpected. I had never expected that I would be defeated by an ordinary man of whom nobody has ever heard! The whole thing was ridiculous, that’s why I laughed!’

But I have never been able to forget his face, the way he laughed and the way he clapped and the way the whole crowd fell silent. This man defeated the whole crowd and their ridicule… he participated! But great courage is needed! A great courage is needed in life to be yourself, in failure, in success, in appreciation, in condemnation, when you are going very high and when you are going very low

Love Unconditionally

During my growing up days, I used to think what is there to stop us to love each other, unconditionally. Scores of reason would come as a flash in front of my mind. None was clear nevertheless. But as I am navigating through my days of life, I am finding one thing that is common to everything - and that is we love because we want to love. We always want some return to our friendship, to our hand-shakes, to our love.

As far as I could decipher the DNA of life, if you like someone, if you really care for someone, if you really want something good for someone, just be good to that person and never in your iota of thoughts, think about the return. This way, you already set the rules and you play the game. But in the end, everyone comes out to be a winner. Remember there is always much more to Winning than winning in real terms.

I have always dreamed of making this world happy....of making people around me happy....of making things easy for my friends and for people who I even do not know directly. Its that feeling of non-attaching ourselves with our action, which perhaps sets to the real upliftment of ourselves in our own eyes. This would never be easy and would never be a piece of cake but if we want contentment and the correctness in our life, this approach is worth a try. We never know what happens tommorrow. So let each today be a stepping stone for each tomorrow so that day-after tomorrow is happy for us and everyone around us.

I guess that's how God would be looking after each one of us. He does not want us to go to him and pray...he just stays there on top and takes care of each one of us, in his own way. We may understand some of his actions, some may not carry any meaning or not-as-desired but everything good or bad is for Us...believe or not believe...But if you ask me, I do believe in Him and pray that my belief should be intact every moment of my life.

Now that's called Confidence

John Carpenter reached the last final question of the episode and the question was "Which of these U.S. Presidents appeared on the television series Laugh-In?", with the choices being A) Lyndon Johnson, B) Richard Nixon, C) Jimmy Carter, and D) Gerald Ford.

Carpenter used his Phone-A-Friend lifeline to call his father, and had the following conversation:

Host: ...John you've got thirty seconds, starts right now.
John: Uh...Hi, Dad.

Tom: Hi!

John: Um...I don't really need your help, I just wanted to let you know that I'm gonna win the million dollars...

Well, the confidence level at that point of time for this man was simply authentic and genuinely take-a-bow one. For here he was with all his controlled composure saying that he wants to call his parents just to let them know that he is going to win the first edition of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" in 1999

If At First We Dont Succeed

First time success may not happen, always. Or rather referring to the times when we say life is not a bed of roses. But being in such stance does gives, if taken, of course, us the will to carry on and see the correct side of things, as they are and not what they seem, at the first instance. It makes us what we ought to be, ideally.

A nice poem to remember and carry on despite hiccups, we may find every now and then :

Failure doesn't mean - "We are a failure,"
It means - We have not succeeded.

Failure doesn't mean - "We accomplished nothing,"
It means - We have learned something.

Failure doesn't mean - "We have been a fool,"
It means - We had a lot of faith.

Failure doesn't mean - "We don't have it,"
It means - We were willing to try.

Failure doesn't mean - "We are inferior,"
It means - We are not perfect.

Failure doesn't mean - "We've wasted our life,"
It means - We have a reason to start afresh.

Failure doesn't mean - "We should give up,"
It means - "We must try harder.

Failure doesn't mean - "We'll never make it,"
It means - It will take a little longer.

Failure doesn't mean - "God has abandoned us,"
It means - God has a better way for us.

Hats Off To Friendship

I wonder what this world would be if we dont have friends. What it would look like when we wont have someone to share our feelings, when we wont have someone to whom we would share our joys and sorrows alike, to whom we can trust to the core of our heart, to whom we can believe to the extent of belief, to whom we dont think twice about helping in need or so, to whom we are Us and not Me alone.

Wonder what had gone into my mind this time. Just now saw the movie Cars and was quite surprised at the sheer simplicity in which the story tells about the basic necessity of friendship in life.

Life is not always about winning the race. Its about enjoying every bit of the race, make things simple for ourselves and for others. And to make friends, live and give the moments for others and share the joyful nature of friendship

Hats off to friendship!!!!

Whether We Think We Can, Or Think We Can't, We're Probably Right

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think that you dare not, you don't;
If you'd like to win, but you think you can’t,
It’s almost certain you wont.

If you think you'll lose, you've lost;
For out in the world you'll find
Success begins with a fellow’s will.
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise;
You've got to be sure of yourself before
you can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don’t always go
to the stronger or faster man;
but sooner or later the man who wins
is the man who thinks he can.


Simply awesome, strightforward, revelling and awesome poem

Attitude Does Matter Sometimes

Its somewhat quite different to feel the same always. Sometimes you feel quite ecstatic, sometimes we feel quite less energetic. Why so ? God knows.

But what I do know is that we can let the ecstatic attitude be our USP for as long as we wish it to be. Pray to God that you are always given the power to do the right thing, to behave in the right way, to make things right everytime, when given a chance and most importantly, when not given a chance.

If you really want to maintain ego or have attitude on something, keep the attitude or ego of being correct, no matter what happens or what the situation delves you, suddenly, into.

Pray, if you are feeling weak. Pray, if you are not able to be strong enough to adjust being right. Pray, to listen to your inner voice, wherein we, as God, recides. For He will and Can never be wrong.

Listen to your inner voice always, no matter what the mind and the body says. Therein Attitude matters

Stay With What You Believe

A Classroom had Aerodynamics as the topic of study. Teacher told the students that each of them have to choose a partner and all individuals have to make a paper plane. The team whose combined individual planes fly the most distance than the other teams, would win the contest.

Tom and Jeff became the partners. Jeff was considered by teachers and the students a low-grader, as his marks were usually poor. But Jeff would always think winning.

All the teams came one by one to present their inheritance of paper airplane skills. Tom and Jeff's were the last team to present their gadgets. Tom had prepared a simple paper plane , with lots of curves but he was not sure that his team could win, as Jeff was still holding a blank sheet of paper.

All the teams fared too good. Each one was surpassing the other in the distance relation. Last team was that of Tom and Jeff. Tom sent his plane off and it travelled a comfortable distance. All eyes were set on Jeff.

Jeff slowly took his masterpiece from behind. It was still in a non-deformed state. He rolled the paper into a ball and threw it into the air, surpassing all the other team records. Everyone, including teachers were dumbstruck

How Perception To Things Matters A Lot

One day a father and his rich family took their young son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be. They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

Very good, Dad!"

"Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked.

"Yeah!"

"And what did you learn?"

The son answered, "I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon."

When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.

His son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are!"

Isn't it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family, health, good humor and a positive attitude toward life, you've got everything!

You can't buy any of these things. You can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for the future, etc., but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!