Dear friends,
Living two years in IIIT-H with friends has been the most wonderful experience of my life. I have so many memories to cherish – the night outs where we used to sing till our throats swelled, the trips to whatever destinations there could have been in Hyderabad, working day and night to prepare for farewell, dancing till the music played, the trip to Vishakapatnam where we sat for hours on a rock beside the beach playing with the Sun, the chat sessions that never seemed to end, working on SE presentations together where there was less work and more bakar, eccetra eccetra.
Har ghadi badal rahi hai roop zindagi,
Chaanv hai kabhi, kabhi hai dhoop zindagi,
Har pal yahan jee bar jeeyo, jo hai sama Kal Ho Na Ho
Life is what we make it to be. I quoted the song above in retrospect that wherever we may be, whatever our condition may be, there is always something to cherish – to be happy. I have realized that life is quite simple and easy, the mantra is ‘be happy and enjoy’. I will share with you something that I read and found it be very interesting if applied.
The question is – how do we differentiate between dream and reality. Suppose we are dreaming – the dream is as real as real world – we only realize that it is a dream when we wake up. How can we be so sure that the world that we call real is actually not a dream? It may so happen that its another dream just we haven’t woken up yet. What I want to float is – just for an instant believe that the real world which we call is actually a dream, then all characters including me in my case are my projections. Now if I know that this is a dream and all characters are only projections created by me then I can take control of this dream and move it towards being a nice wonderful dream or a nightmare. The biggest fear we have is from the society but if we know that this society is only a projection created by me then its reaction is of no concern and I can be fearless.
We always attract things that we think about. For example, a person who wants money but keeps crying about his problems will attract more problems – he is thinking about problems and not about making money. My personal example – I used to have a fear of long queues. I would keep praying that “I do not want long queues” and what I used to get was long queues and feel miserable. After realizing that I was attracting long queues, I changed my approach. What I used to say was – “I want to be happy when I return.” The next time I went what I got was a long queue but there were some people with whom I started conversation and the long queue disappeared in no time (I did not feel that it took actually 2 hours for my turn) and I was quite happy when I returned. The next time – no queue at all and the tending person greeted my happily (which is a very rare occasion). And this has been going on since then. I attracted a place where I could learn and I came to IIIT Hyderabad, I attracted friends and found you all. We attract things subconsciously, if we attract things consciously there is nothing that we cannot get. The destinies of our life are in our control.
As we progress into next phase of our life, I would wish that all my friends do what they love to do. It takes most of us to realize what we love to do because we never give a thought to it. In later years of our life when we are old, we tend to say – “I wish I could have done things differently.” The real reason this happens is because we have no idea of what we achieved during our lifetime. The best solution is – setting goals. A life with no goals is – living like a goat – wherever the herd goes – where no goat has any idea where it is going. Setting goals is a win-win situation. While progressing towards the goal we are happy because we know we are on the correct path and in our later years we know of our achievements. Think how you would feel if you lead a life with set goals and a life with no goals.
Our true nature is not bound by space or time, we are expressions of the Is (non-duality), we are not truly born nor truly die, and we enter this world of Seems and Appearances for fun, learning, to share experiences with those we care for, to explore — and most of all to learn how to love and love again. – Richard Bach
Its time to make new friends. The good ol’ friends are for life. Its time to start over – to be kid again.
Love,
Romanch.
PS: I would love to know that you read it, so a comment just saying “I read it” will make me extremely happy.