Do you wait for someone in
your life to come and change the way you look at yourself? Do you find yourself
changed after their visit? Do you have guests?
People today are losing the sense of time. Chronometers may display digitized
images of numbers or signs and minds may be seized of an urgency reflecting
lack of it though! There is no time! To be departing before arrival may sound
cryptic but it is exactly what is happening to people around. There is a
general lack of interest in a place, person or event which is supposed to be
focus point and the person arriving or taking it up is more engrossed with what
he is supposed to be doing next after the task in hand gets over.
Three decades ago when a close friend who had settled in Paris remarked,
‘Relatives or Friends are supposed to take appointments to visit each other’
there, I did not believe him. Rather, I was flabbergasted. Today, I realize the
same is happening to everyone around me.
Athithi Devo Bhava (Guests are equivalent gods and have to be treated so) has
been our tradition but today I find that the respect, love and sensitivity of
handling guests are changing with times. Except hotels and commercial
establishments, rest of the segments of social activities ‘guests’ are turning
out to be parasites or unwelcome visitors if they tread in uninformed.
I believe it is our heart that decides finally.
There are people who bring in a whiff of fresh breeze to our lives. People who
are so loving and sincere that the very thought of their being around makes us
happy. What can possibly happen if they arrive?
When they arrive we forget the sense of time. We choose to leave our egos
behind. They become a reflection of our likes, our desires, our yearnings. They
transform into elements of our attention, part of our own selves. They become
one with us. They no longer remain guests or visitors.
They are people for whom we are willing to wait a lifetime. We love their
company. We cherish the moments of sharing. We find the sparkling joy in their
presence. They care and heal our sorrows. We lost the sense of time once again.
Their arrival signifies we cherish the magic of creation. The desire of our
hearts, wishing them to stay on, turn into a prayer yet they have to leave.
They are not guests. They are part of our lives; our souls; Our Conscience
Our homecoming.
jpkallikkal©2014/homecoming
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