Bhimsen

When you grow up in India, you hear stories about great musicians, singers of the past. Even legends about them. How their singing can make it rain.

When you hear Pt. Bhimsen Joshi - you become audience to those legends.

One of the most memorable moment of my life was listening to his Abhang - Maze maher pandhari with thousands of Varkaris in Pune.

You see thousands of Varkaris instantly mesmerized, swayed and touched spiritually. Thousands who get that much closer to their god. Thousands who may not have experienced a connection with spiritual power before, experiencing for the first time. And all this throughout the night surrounded by these wonderful Varkaris who so deeply believe in God. And you are filled with this pure positive energy and warmth that even if for a second, you do believe everything will be fine. Rather you just dont think, you just want to remain in that place, some where far closer to yourself than you have ever been before.

Then you realize that with music anything and everything is possible. Pt Bhimsen Joshi was one such legend and he will always be. He gave with his singing a kind of experience that you will remember forever. And his songs will make rain for you, just believe a little.

Life and path and bitterness of the soulless heart

Don't blame the lord for troubles of the path.

With no lord, there wont be a path.

Don't blame the night for darkness.

With no night, there wont be stars.

Don't blame the rose for thorns.

With no roses, there wont be beauty.

Don't blame others.

With no others, there wont be you.

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On your bitter days, remember the sweeter

And on your sweeter days, remember the bitter.

Blame all you want on others.

It wont change a thing.

Blame yourself for everything

and you will be changed forever.

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Its so easy to blame.

To satisfy your ego.

To justify all your wrongs.

To satisfy your greed and lust.

For you know only the bite of your own shoes.

For all you feel is the pain of your own thrones.

Then stop and ask.

Have you ever done wrong?

Have you ever cheated

and lied and stole?

Have you ever done wrong with out meaning to?

And then ask yourself

Did you ever questioned why you got something?

Did you ever deserved any thing?

And what did you do to deserve it?

Did you ever questioned

When you were getting?

Now then why you ask, when you stopped getting?

Courage

There are many forms of courage. One of the forms is to smile despite knowing that there is nothing you can do to prevent what is going to happen to you or some one you love so much.

Almost every day you will have to go to bed crying and yet you have to wake up like nothing has happened and everything will be alright. You have to put up a show just to be happy and try to enjoy those last few days/weeks/months what ever left you with out thinking of the end.

It is very difficult. It takes tremendous amount of courage to get through such situation. You tied and pushed in a corner and punched and you can not scream but have to smile through each punch. And yet you want this to go on forever. No, you need this to go on forever. Because every new second you get feels like a blessing.

I sincerely wish that no one ever need to display this form of courage.

Money

Making money is easy. (1)

I learned this after running a business for 3 years. Not a highly successful business. Not a million-dollar business (, yet). But just by taking that risk.

Initially - perhaps like any one else (or may be not) entire focus was on from where next months expenses are coming. From where I am going to make money. Of many more such dirt cheap living situation before I can crash on a bed in a nice comfy apartment. How much more time before I will finally stop having nightmares about not able to make salaries or having to live on the street.

After 3 years I realized making money is absolutely easy. If I can even think about running a business, I sure can make money when ever I want.

Once you take biggest risk in life and are still on and about, then everything else starts looking pretty easy. Not easy - but not something you will be intimidated by. Not something which will give you nightmares at least.

And after I realized that money is the easier part, I decided to take that final step. Not thinking actively about making money at all.

Life seems full of much more opportunities than before.

(1) - Not crores of rupees but enough to spend for a comfortable life-style with may be very few corners cut.

Neglect

The worst thing a person can do other person is neglect.

You can be angry with some one and express it. You can hate some one and express it. You can be disgusted with some one and yet express it.

But if you neglect some one, then the wounds run much deeper than any thing else. I am not sure why. (1)

You can shout at some one, say sorry and move on. You can even hit some one say sorry and move on (I dont recommend this though). But you cant just neglect some one, for a long time, and then still hope to build a relationship with them in future.

Neglect is basically questioning some one's mere existence and its impossible not to feel extremely insulted and depressed because of it.

Be careful with this powerful weapon, you might burn down bridges which you dont want to.

(1) - Very quick research shows me that know one has ever attempted to study neuro-behavioral pattern when exposed to neglect, or tried but I am not able to google the findings. And since neglect is not really expression of any emotion, it is perhaps difficult for brain to process it and hence it leaves a deeper mark on emotional processing of the individual. Animals are also observed to react to it. My personal, thoroughly un-scientific observation is - couples which often quarrel end up having better relationship than couples who use neglect to express then anger/frustration/disagreement (silent treatment etc).

Privileges

What we are is defined by how we use privileges given to us.

Whether in personal life or in professional. We are entrusted with privileges thinking that we will make good use of them and will not abuse them.

Entire social hierarchies and control mechanism have come into being because people started building tendencies to abuse such privileges.

Stop and think before you are doing so. Because you may soon find that these privileges are taken back from you. And not just you but even your peers.

You are not just affecting your own life but life of people touched by your existence.

Journey

Destinations are quiet places where we want to reach in the end.

Journey is what makes reaching there fun and enjoyable.

Journeys are where we make friendships and forge relationships.

Destination is just a carrot to keep us going, journey is what we really want.

Problem is we often realize that only when we reach the destination.

Perhaps we can start thinking less about destination and more about journey.