Preparing for Death

I got the following mail from a friend of mine, Vinaya Natarajan, and wanted to share it on this blog:

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"So here we were in Osaka on Sunday night. We had bought something called a Kansai Thru Pass that let us roam around Osaka, Kyoto and Nara. Japan is truly a great place. We found the people very respectful, the place very clean, modern and rich in history. Most of our time was spent in visiting the temples, which were quite different to the Indian ones. For one, they were no pujaris, no pujas just the shrine, or the Buddha. The temples were often located in beautiful, scenic places. We would have walked about 10-15 kms each day, and by day 3 we were dead tired. We just made it to the train to take us to the airport and heaved a sigh of relief when we boarded the flight.

As soon as dinner was served, I dropped off to sleep. We were awoken in a few hours with a scary announcement. “The plane is going to make a emergency landing at Guam due to technical difficulties. Cabin crew please prepare for landing”.

We could smell burning rubber, but we had no clue what was happening. For the next 20 minutes we didn’t get any further instructions apart from “Please review the safety instructions in the booklet in front of you and mark your emergency exits”.

I immediately started to focus within. I wanted to be in peace. On one side, I could feel my mind getting flustered, on the other hand, I was trying to reach out to the place of calm and strength within. I thought that this could be the end but suddenly a sense of calm had over-powered me. I was connected! I held Kushals hand at one point to re-assure him, he also seemed to be doing OK.

The one feeling that I felt was that it was fine, whatever happened was fine. I was ready. There was never a feeling of regret or things that had to be done or things I could have done. Life was complete and gratitude was there. I felt love for my parents, husband and also a sudden feeling of love towards my brother!! (I enjoy having silly fights with him all the time!)

There had been a fire in the cockpit. The captain announced just after the plane landed safely. We had a great time at Guam afterwards. But something had changed. I asked Kushal whether the experience was positive or negative and he said “It was a very positive experience, for the first time, I thought about my own death.” Kushal is usually a very logical and scientific person. I told him “You know you can be extremely scientific and logical, but that is not going to help when death is coming.”

That was the biggest thing that I took with me from this incident. Of course, in this case, had there been a major catastrophe, there was time to prepare for death, but sometimes death can hit so suddenly it can catch you unawares!

I was feeling rather complacent with myself afterwards, but the only person, the only one that can take credit for helping me in this time of crisis was my teacher. His words, his effort to continually remind me that such a time will come where all else will fail came true but the strength within was there.

All I can feel really is.. what a gift!"
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priya

A Date to Keep

I went on a nature walk this morning,
And discovered that I am on a date with You.
They gave you all these exotic names
Paradise flycatcher, warbler, purple heron, dab chick…
That I cant remember much of–
But oh! You beauty!

You are all around me,
In blue, white, black, yellow, brown, violet, green…
You are calling out to me,
Through myriad bird calls-
Sweet, raucous, musical, whispery, screeching…
I am drowning, filled.

Then I look around,
To see You shimmer, evaporate from the lake’s surface,
And I am in a classic romantic duet.

Even as I rush to catch that elusive glimpse of colour,
You pull at me with your prosopis hands.
I laugh at my whimsical self,
And fight with it to brush You off my clothes;
But oh! You beauty!

They are talking of a civet –
How it helps in dispersing seeds.
I see only Your design.
I turn to my companion to ask about-
You are grinning down at me!
They are lamenting about the disappearing landscape,
I watch You jump across the wall,
To chop trees for firewood.
I look up – the length of You,
Standing tall, fluttering your leaves for the wind.
Defenseless, vulnerable, strangely euphoric -
Me, this moment.

And then its time to leave you behind,
You bursting with riotous colours,
And You devoid of colours.
You of the rich and scaling sounds,
You of the invariable electric-saw drone.
I leave You,
Whooshing in my ear, ruffling my hair, kissing my cheeks –
Calm, still and nourishing, not a ripple to be seen.
You beauty!

We head to a hotel for breakfast,
And what’s this?!
You are serving me my cup of nirva-
Oh, what’s that You said?
That I have time yet to conquer You?
You of my laughter!
No hurry at all,
As long as I am on this date with You.

- priya

The conflicts of sadhus abroad...a clash between sanctity to food and its longevity!

Heard this story from a friend who is a frequent visitor to ashrams abroad. As this story portrayed the clash of life style and world views clearly wanted to write about it. In one of her visits to an ashram in the US recently she had to cook for a retreat. Used to the customs in India, she prepared fresh food for all those who came apart from a few speciality dishes the monk present would have liked. She was also informed that that this would be a pot-luck retreat and others would bring in food too. To her utter dismay she found that people (both Indians living there and locals) bringing in food that has been prepared for some other occasion and refrigerated for long. In her own words, '...in America, you get plenty of food for small amounts, their serving is really large (compared to India) and it was shocking to find that people brought left overs from some birthday party of a few days back, others brought food left over from a party they had given...I thought how could you bring food left over for a retreat or offer it to a monk?'. Of course, courtesy demanded that she does not ask this question aloud and perhaps even the monks living under the patronage of the same people who attend such retreat could not ask these questions.

Sanctity to food is an old Indian thought that carries many values along with it. Food is always prepared fresh, offered to a deity and only then partaken. Fresh preparation means normally food is bought in fresh also, which in turn means that it is seasonal food and not from the cold storage (In fact different festivals of India have different seasonal foods, fruits in particular associated with them so as to ensure that only fresh food is consumed). When it is freshly prepared, it retains its nutrients still fresh and most often than not it is consumed immediately after offering it to the deity through a pooja or a ritual of offering. As any expert in nutrition would vouch for, such immediate cooking (in certain ways) and consumption of fresh food is the most nutritious. In India the sanctity attached to it ensures that this health imperative is adhered to with much rigour and discipline. The food prepared for a monk or sannyasi is prepared with the same amount of reverence that would be attached to preparing for the offering to a deity or God. Retreats are special spiritual occasions where you not only convene to share spiritual thoughts, but, also practice some aspects of spirituality.

The availability of cold storage devices, of easy access to food, of dollar power, of inability to make up ones mind to discard old food all add up to such a situation as what this friend described. More important than any of these for me was the lack of sanctity to food. Sanctity enjoined with health consciousness and understanding of nature could be so helpful if only people were aware of the meaning of such rituals. This is where culture and the current conservation priorities join hands and there could be so much that can be achieved. However, it seems to have been compromised in the quest for a way of life. Americans are large consumers is well known, but, that Indians can lose their idea of sanctity for food so easily in the American environment is unfortunate.

Perhaps it is time some of the Ashrams that are established start teaching mundane day to day things where sanctity is practised. This may be more practical and useful (perhaps not very popular) and will at least address the growing menace on inequitable consumption pattern and eventually address the issue of 'way of life'.

Another Master passes away

This blog is getting updated only whenever I feel the loss of one more of the giants all around us. Laurie Baker dies day before, he was 90. Here is an architect who understood Gandhiji and interpreted him through his work of simple, low cost, local material based construction.

He must have inspired generations of architects who yearn for simple functional construction and see the aesthetics of it. His designs all bear an unique mark and never leave you without asking the question 'who designed this place'.

A British who became a native and through his profession articulated a true 'indian world view', he will for long be remembered by many as a marg darshak.

Dharampal - an historian who lived and inspired the Indian World View

Dharampal passed away early this evening. As I write this I think of all the time spent with him and what he has meant for me personally and in developing an understanding of the Indian World View, I started learning of these things with him.

He came from a large family near Meerut in UP, got involved with the freedom struggle, married a British women in 1948, his children today live in Britain and Germany, his wife died many years back. His personal life perhaps has to be written in such a single long sentence and the rest is his public life, his ideas often laced with a sense of humour, his utter humility with which he would listen with rapt attention to very simple people. His attention for details, his need for perfection in everything, particularly the written word (he would certainly have looked down at the blog kind of impulsive writing, his every word is weighed so much you often got an impression that he actually weighs it with a small scale or something), his insight into the internatinal politics that made him come up with some amazing predictions about the way the world is and would change...I can go on.

For someone who has spent a large amount of time with him in the past few years, it is a sad day to know that he is no longer going to be around, to argue, to fight, to agree and disagree, to listen to, talk and discuss things, ...he was one intellectual on whom the intellectual label didn't sit very heavy.

He was a gentle Indian teacher, at times very harsh, at times extremely soft. He could not give lectures to big audience like many teachers cannot, he was always best with a small group of people sitting close by and having a long interaction.

Will continue...