Monday, February 27, 2006

Karma

When realisation strikes it's more like lightning. Good summers are to be wasted doing something unproductive. Unproductive like sitting under a shady tree by the roadside and watching the world go by. I was doing the same when i noticed a half dead earthworm being eaten by a swarm of ants. I wanted to do something about it so i picked up a small stone and started killing the ants. Who then happened to pass by? An ascetic with a sceptre in his right hand. And he saw what i was doing and asked me if i really understood the gravity of my actions. I said" what". I was just killing a few ants. {Karma- The total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence. Understanding karma is very fundamental in understanding yourself. Lord Krishna in Mahabharata during the epic war told Arjuna that there was nothing wrong in killing Karna while he was trying to get his chariot's wheel unstuck. And after the war was over Krishna went into a forest and was sitting under a tree when a hunters arrow aimed at a deer mistakenly struck Krishna in the foot and he bled to death.} I was told by the ascetic that the earthworm was a helpless Karna and the hunger of the ants was Arjuna. What did that make of the ants? The ants were Krishna and i with my empathetic motive of saving the half dead earthworm was actually mistakenly killing the lord himself. I was the killer of Krishna. Funnily enough my name is Gopal...another name of Krishna. So did Krishna sit under the tree knowingly or unknowingly ?
  • There was a time when i used to tell myself a million times again and again that i had to kill myself. By killing ants i did achieve the same.
  • Well, i've learnt this lesson well in life that anything you do against your conscience is as good as killing yourself.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Covering the distance

I think i'm headed towards Kerala. Let's see. My dad works on the plants planted by my mom. He doesn't want to leave Kerala for them and a lot of other reasons. If you see Santosh Sivan's 'The Terrorist', i see my dad as the guy who gives Ayesha Dharker, the female lead, shelter in his house. The setting of his wife who is in a coma. The plaintain leaf that he serves with food and leaves empty. His son who is never going to return.. The optimism that every seed he plants.. will be a tree. And in the movie he has a dumb worker living with him to do menial jobs whose name is Gopal. Kurukshetra to me means..the womb.. why? Kuru means 'seed' in the language Malayalam and Kshetra means 'realm' of the seed. Kshetra represents the apparent reality which enjoins us to play a role with the laudable objective of sustaining the universe. Kurukshetra is also the abode of the divine where the great war of Mahabharata took place. The movie is about a suicide bomber who is pregnant and stays in this old man's house as a guest, days before the planned act of terrorism.