The battle...

...of the sexes

I really wanted to find a beautiful picture to match this post which is a request from Robbie, and thought this was the best!
When we talk of the male and the female sex, it is not even at the level of the mind, leave alone the soul, which is neither male nor female, tall nor short, good nor bad, but one homogenous matrix that is present in everything and everywhere.
The battle if any is just at the physical level and the gross mind, very close to the body level of thinking.
And what we think is a battle, is indeed not so too. It is a struggle for evolution. And evolution, growth and progress can happen only when there is a challenge to the present conditions. Speaking from my own experience, I have heard people complain: Oh what womanhood, so many trials and tribulations, so many people to answer to, so much to bear with resilience and silence..." But any amount of withstanding of challenges thrown at you from whatever direction is to strengthen one's own experience to get back to the now. And whoever has the most of it, is indeed fortunate.

And it ought to be a battle of the sexes, because that is the major factor separating human from human, besides many other smaller or bigger factors such as caste, language, religion or nationality.
When the point of view shifts to the physical, the gross mind, the battle is bound to be. But when the focus shifts to the consciousness within, then there is no battle. If any wound is inflicted upon, it is for one's own growth, one's own progress. How else is one to realise the sad state of affairs one has been caught in. If there is no fight, there is no struggle, there is no pain, there is no existence.
The battle of the sexes, is the very essence of Sansar which has to be observed and transcended. It is inevitable. It is necessary, if the world has to turn round and round.

Swahilya's

....Kutir

I am aware my blog has been stagnating since Tamil New Year, when I posted 'An Ode to Akshara Griha.' Well, the reason for this delay is 'Swahilya's Kutir.' In the heart of the bustling city of Chennai, in a corner space is this little kutir that I stay, colourful screens constantly fluttering in the wind, wind chimes, chirping music by the birds and squeaking squirrels, breaking the silence surrounding the solitude.
'Ashram' is a place where one just comes, to relax, let the agitations of body and mind settle down, get refreshed and rejuvenated and get charged to face the world with more and more of divine inspiration. It was my wish that I should stay in an ashram - and that has now happened in a very small place, just where I stay, an ashram in miniature model.
This is a place where the old meets the new, the most ancient building space, named Gitalaya, because the owners were brought up on the Bhagavad Gita, built during the year of Indian Independence. Modern with the use of simple gadgets that help in the fast-paced lifestyle.
Symbolic of all that meditation is all about, being rooted and at the same time expressing as the most freshest of flowers and leaves, branching out into space. It is a blending of Sansar and Sanyas, almost at the threshold, where the hectic work of family and office go on side by side with the silence of travelling inward into my own self.

And there's just one thing left with me to offer at the end of it all, myself with gratitude.

*****