Little children singing

...God Delights to Hear

It is my third year into my interaction with a bunch of these little chirpy children at the Aksharabhyas every Saturday. And what a divine experience it has been. I remember hearing them for the first time. They were quietly sitting and singing some bhajan and the mood was elevating. Soon after they broke into a dance and action to sing their favourite bhajan 'Thondhi Ganapathi Va Va Va,' in Tamil and with greater action in Hindi, 'Kha the bhi Ram Kaho...Peethe bhi Ram Kaho...' sitting, standing, turning around with several histrionics combined. When they began dancing, the whole dynamics of the energy in the room changed and I could feel a different presence, a different vibration dancing through the room.
And these young children are so quick to understand too. When we sing, "Bham Bham Bhola,' I will ask, "Where is Shiva? Is he in the Himalayas? In Mount Kailash, doing Tapas?" They will not take a moment to reply - "No....Inside us."
The same is the reply for what ever I ask them. They never make a mistake in that...god is everywhere, god is here, god is there, god is outside and most importantly god is inside.
Contemplating on the word Aksharabhyas, I found that Akshara is a group of letters beginning with A and ending with Ksha. It also means the soul...that which is beyond destruction. That Akshara, is the word of God. And Abhyas is to practice again and again and again. Practice is required because in case of an emergency, the knowledge has to happen in an instant. And preparation for war has to happen during times of peace. And the times of crisis where the divine word has to be called for armour and weapons is the war here. And practice for that ushering has to happen during times of peace...that is when there is no crisis, no troubles and no problems in life...exactly at the time of life that these children are in - growing from bliss to bliss.

The Freedom...

...of Consciousness

I am breaking a long period of self-imposed silence on my blog on this Independence Day when, happy or not, there seems to be a smile on people's faces that I see, wearing the tri-colour badge, hoisting flags or just enjoying a national holiday.
August 15, 1947 is Independence Day indeed. But that is only one facet of Independence we are talking about. Political independence, from the British Rule when symbolically, the Union Jack went down and the tri-colour of Sanyas, Peace and Prosperity, with the wheel of Dharma representing the core values of India, fluttered in the night air, 59 years ago.
But is that all. Indeed not. If we are talking of a spiritual emanicipation, a freedom of the mind, then India has never been in bondage. She has lost small battles, but has eventually won the war of life.
And India I speak of here is not a country with geographical boundaries and physical features, but a state of mind. But this knowledge of what is true freedom, the experience of what it means to be free...still is contained in the hearts of a miniscule per cent of the population. Even though they are expressing themselves, the sleeping hordes, ruled by Tamas is unable to open its eyes and receive the truth.
It is when it becomes the knowledge and the reality of the masses, whether in Chandigarh or Chennai, Mumbai or Madurai, Kashmir or Kanyakumari, when people walk on the roads conscious of their true self, when they talk to each other in the spirit of 'Tat Twam Asi,' in the awareness that matter is just condensed Consciousness, the truth of their being sons of the soil - a drop of that nectar - Amritasya Putraha...till that time comes, the struggle for the real freedom will continue...