Quintessence of humanity
Quintessence of humanity
– Christmas festival is about understanding love
by Jyotikar Pattni,
Love begets love! Let us give love and compassion especially to those out on the limb. Christmas season is about understanding the need to become quieter, mellower, calmer, patient, perseverant, compassionate and humane amidst all the noise, haste and waste.
When we reflect ourselves within the context of this whole world that is tormented with unforseen tragedies and disasters, we will be able to see that there is a need to give love and compassion especially to those less fortunate victims of disasters, epiphanies and tragedies, those suffering from trauma and distress, and those that are victims of rejection due to paradoxical misunderstandings.
"Every leaf is a sacred scripture to those who have learnt to see the righteous virtuous vision of the eternal ways." That is the answer to our daunting questions; right before our eyes, if only we will learn to be still enough, calm enough, loving enough, and above all humane enough to receive the answers.
For example, from spiritual platform, life does not die, it only moves on to another place or plateau. Life is a perpetual cycle of karma. Life is an on-going process of change, continually transforming from one form to another. That is the mystery and the nature of life. However, what one sees always depends on one's viewpoint. For example, the view from the bustling, jarring city street is much different than the view from the pure, clear air of the mountain-top. Similarly, in order to see life differently, one must change one’s platform to a different viewpoint.
The root of all suffering and misunderstandings within our families manifests in the conflict between the self-pride ego and the spiritual freedom each individual spirit of life is entitled to.
In many instances, there is the excessive attachment to this "I" or wanting to have one’s selfish ways. Selfish desires and power due to our obsessive identification with "I", the chore of the virtual truth is clouded, or veiled, and that covering by multifaceted political camouflages causes us to misinterpret what is happening in accordance with one’s mind and ego rather than taking ten steps back and envision it all from a spiritual reality. Families get together for few hours out of formalities and thereafter resume their normal lives, each one segregated and differentiated into their respective labels and compartments. Is that it?
Is Christmas really about having great wine, great food and great presents for great few moments of a short winter day or is Christmas really all of that plus an opportunity to reflect upon our collective life karma in eternal love. What transpires in the world out there between nations and the conflicts that erupt between the thesis and the anti-thesis, between the political adversaries and the egoistic political leaders, between the threatening terrorists and the religions, between the social infrastructure and the economic reality, and much more in somewhat profound sense co-relates to our own families and our own individual lives. Hence we are not fearless and we are not free from the conflicts, misunderstandings and allegations.
Our humane freedom, the freewill to express ourselves, the freedom of rightfully being there for one another seems to have lost its core values. We seem to have forgotten how to have self-respect for one another within our family units and this loss of humane compassion manifests in the society at large and as a result amongst nations raging with anger, hatred and frustration with one another either due to threat or otherwise due to reactionary movement or act of terrorism.
Our families keep disintegrating and the fragmentation in extended families keep growing with distortions, antagonism and misunderstandings. When someone amongst our families is misunderstood purely as a result of multifaceted political conflict, then it is our duty, our fullest responsibility to extend our support and our loving compassion to listen to those out on the limb. To judge and to condemn those out on the limb with personal prejudices and slander whilst celebrating Christmas festival with wine and food and presents is falsehood, false pretence and temporary pleasure of the selfishness.
The entire planet is an ever-changing construction zone, covered with volcanoes and earthquakes and floods and all sorts of ways that people can get killed. It is, all in all, a very dangerous place, and although the dying sometimes looks quite dreadful, and everyone gets quite caught up in the drama, oddly enough, death is not really a problem for those of us who die in due course of time. It is only the ones who live that suffer. It sounds like a rather strange adventure, but the spiritually awakened seem so full of light and happiness when death comes uninvited!
Yes it really is delightful. One comes out of one’s life with whatever one puts into collective karmic life. So, if we put in love and kindness and beauty into our lives, then we will come out with love and kindness and beauty and above all light of hope. Those who put in something else, well, they too will come out with whatever they put in to collective life karma bank. The Vedic wisdom talks about death as a change over.
In this context, the Vedas state that it is not what brought the death, it is not why one died, it is not where and when one dies, it is not in the crux of time death matters, rather how a person dies in the moment of time. The circumstances and the conditions prevailing at the time of death determine a person’s karmic journey.
Therefore Vedas state that everyone is born to die and we are all journeying towards that oneness regardless. It is not in the fear of dying that we have to address love nor is it in the fear of loosing someone we love, but in the conscious awareness of our collective life karma, of understanding love that we become less afraid of the dark. Christmas festival is about understanding love in a broader view.
The more one gives, the more one gets! It is really amazing but it is true. For all those who feel lack of self esteem because of being discouraged or because of being judged subjectively, just do not give up hope and keep on trying to do your utmost best to the best of your ability and knowledge and leave the rest to the higher order. Even if some persons criticise, reject and discourage you, do not loose your integrity, self-respect and above all your inner most humanity to give more and more.
When we loose self-respect and integrity and character, we have lost everything. Nurturing our soul divine, protecting our soul divine from aggressive apprehension, and safeguarding our integrity from the malicious slanders of the petty minded callous selfish bullies is our foremost duty and responsibility. If we let someone stronger and canny bully us, take away our self-respect and integrity and defame our character, we have lost everything. We are left with nothing. We are dead.
One must therefore not even attempt to deprive integrity to especially someone out on the limb. Just let us live to give and give and give! Even a few moments of life on Earth are worth all of the annoyance and pain.
Oh just let us live to feel love, to give love and to receive love, even for just a moment, oh that is so amazing, it is beyond words!
Life is a precious gift from God and the purpose of life is to enjoy so we must enjoy it, endure it, love it and above all understand it! It is when we let others rightfully enjoy their lives and let them be rightfully in their domain for who they are rather than for what they have become because of circumstances and conditions of their lives, that we truly earn our respect. Respect cannot be demanded nor can it be imposed upon. Respect grows out of appreciation. Respect does not refer to what status, or position or power of money one holds. That is social prestige and social prestige will always stand high for the richer and the more powerfully positioned
The spiritual respect goes beyond the social prestige criteria and with deeper understanding it measures one for ‘who’ one truly is in this spirit of life and for the contribution one generates towards the future generation children in spirituality and humanity.
People will come looking for you and people will be knocking on your doors and in some what mysterious ways we just have to give unconditionally to the one that reciprocates our whole sacrifice towards a better world of humanity.
The Vedas mention about the intention of the seeker and the intention of the giver. Always look at the intention of the seeker and selflessly, unconditionally give to make this other person spiritually a better person.
When slander and prejudice enter any communication, the outcome will always be a negative and a destructive one. Never reply slander with slander. Always proactively understand the essence of slander and then retrospectively try to understand the magnitude of anger and anguish surmounting the other person who has raged written or spoken aggressive words under threatening frame of the “I” mind and without the compassionate understanding of eternal love for humanity. Threats, aggression and fiery exchange of anger and hatred has been tabloid in most leading news all over the world and out of disrespect towards one another nations quarrel and have misunderstandings. In most instances, there may not be any substantiated complete substance towards the need for war.
Therefore one who brings discouragement, defamation and personal prejudices into a discussion and begins to claim to be right by imposing is not in actual fact communicating but impressing upon others the sense of self importance, self pride and selfish intentions.
As such, many examples have shown us that our year has been full of upheavals and catastrophes, mostly caused by selfishness, self imposed political power and canny intellectual manipulations towards the weaker.
Let this Christmas festival bring to us an awareness of humanity and how wonderful it is to give and to share love. Even just a few moments of love or kindness or beauty are so exquisite that they are worth any price!
All over the world we suffered storms, upheavals, threats of terrorism, roaring of the angry sea, bellowing and screeching in wildness, thumping the shores and thrashing the little pebbles and the silver sands.
There are echoes of the past the bygones and the deep buried hurt.
There is the symphony of music as time flows obliterating the beat of the surf and the currents of the pressing rivers shaping different fates inexorably from the past to the unknown future. In many of our hearts, we still suppress and feel afraid to speak up our minds out of intimidations and inferiority complexes.
However, when we suffer hurt and let another continue to hurt us without any substance are we punishing our inner most spirit of life and therefore bringing ourselves to a lower level of mundane gross material survival entrapment of all this, that and the other.
Fear brings anxiety and insecurity. Out of fear emanates many diseases and when we are alone, out on the limb, no one would actually understand the strain or the distress of trauma that psychological illness brings as a result of threatening imposition or fear or insecurity. Paranoia, fear and insecurity are features of social bigotry, social chaos, and social fragmentation amongst our own kind.
Our present day life styles lack simplest humanity to recognise one another in their own merits and in their own rights.
Anger and hatred always result into violence, destruction, and catastrophe. Hatred manifests in anger, envy manifests in discouragement, jealousy brings greed and control, false pride creates egocentricity.
A nice personality shows in the manner in which one attracts strangers and children. This message of Christmas season is towards all those out on the limb. Let no one person demean or take away integrity or self respect away from someone who is already psychologically tormented because of lack of parental emotional foundation or because of lack of family emotional foundation.
Experience speaks for itself. We have to learn to love even our ill wishers and think well and good of those who slander us and shame us out of spite, injustice, and vendetta. Out on the limb, seldom do people amass understand the true meaning of giving light of hope to the hopeless and giving loving compassion to the traumatically distressed, psychologically helpless, mentally and emotionally broken, psychologically tormented. Out on the limb, most are misunderstood and alienated. When we touch the chord of a psychologically distressed humanbeing, or an emotionally broken humanbeing, with dignity, self respect and integrity, giving them our loving compassion and understanding, we do not feel sorry but we raise their self esteem within the parameters of their own strengths and their own merits and their own skills, we understand love with a greater magnitude of objectivity and humanity.
Those that do go out, to reach out to the hopeless and the tormented have truly celebrated their festive season in the spirit of love, compassion and joy. For those that give selflessly and mean to give selflessly, nothing can ever touch them; not a threatening thunderbolt nor a storm of words can destroy or defame the character of the one who is held by the will of almighty Great Spirit of Life.
God always protects those that never sell their integrity, self respect and dignity. Once we deny integrity, self respect and dignity to another we have denied livelihood, presence, and freedom of humane joy to our spirit of life.
No one human being has a right to deny self respect, integrity and dignity to another out of hatred, fear, and threat. No one human being has a right to cause duress and bring harassment to another human being out of personal vendetta, half informed facts, untrue facts and malice.
Just as time proves the fates and destinies of all rivers our life karma determines the course of our life flow here and now. Whether one believes it or not, the purpose of any festive season is to reflect upon our humane karma.
A truly beautiful soul divine spirit of life one cannot be called ugly merely by slander. It is unrighteous, false and therefore a sin to condemn beauty.
Measure beauty by the beauty surrounding one’s auras, one’s home, by the warmth surrounding one’s walls, by the vibrations one’s home echoes when you passage through the entrance. When we enter a home filled with love, compassion, prayers, culture, peace, harmony and happiness, we feel a vibration inside us. A beautiful divine soul reflects beauty and light and attracts others towards him/her like a magnet unintentionally. Divinity in a beautiful soul manifests in the eyes!
A person is beautiful not because he is powerful, mentally canny, technically rich and strong but because this person has earned his or her respect by being caring, softly spoken, and gentle with the less fortunate sharing and laughing with the weak and making the hopeless feel good about themselves in extra special ways.
Wars, misunderstandings, grief, falling apart, trying to justify this, that and the other, shouting, bickering, screaming, swearing, abusive languages, hurtful words, upheavals, family noises, all the hasty nasty things prevailing in families happen because we become too attached to the little things in life that are so irrelevant and insignificant. In no time all will appear like an illusion when death comes uninvited.
Who is our foe? Who is our true friend? Who is our true relative? We have known so many friends, made so many acquaintances, and even some foes who wish us ill, who say nasty things to us out of spite to hurt our feelings and deny us our freedom of humane happiness.
Suddenly, one becomes uneasy at heart when one has to leave one’s accustomed shelter of bliss - home where one forgets all the fears and rests in the laps of mother divine supreme. One may ask why? Is it the alienation from one’s shelter or the fear of the unknown territory?
Being called upon to serve and to fulfil one’s duty and obligations in an alien land where home no more is and peace no more is like leaving one’s bond of joy and happiness. Recent world events are such empirical evidences of false power and falsehood projected by false political imperialism and prejudices reflected upon the root causes of terrorism and threats.
Better even ask if one’s home is lit with candles at every eve unconditionally as though the night glares at one’s windows and one invokes the spiritual world to bless one’s home.
Deliverance is not in renunciation of all the goodness of spiritual delight but in the embrace of thousand bonds of delights that emanate from lighting lamps of hope in many dark corners of this world.
From many subjects and many experiences, this message of festive season of Christmas especially go to those out on the limb whom few can understand and appreciate without the fuss of all this, that and the other.
Never judge anyone from what you hear or what you believe to be the truth. If you truly want to find out about someone, ask your inner most soul divine; and listen to your inner most spirit of life – you will hear God speaking.
Oh the worldly fellows let the strains of anger and distress of false hatred melt away on the eve of this beautiful Christmas. When we hurt someone knowingly with our words we become slaves to our statements and as such we are ultimately accountable for our spoken or written words to the higher order in the karmic cycle.
When things go wrong and we feel upset inside ourselves because someone we love so much has said some things to us to hurt us to make us feel worthless and to make us feel so timid and so small, we must rise above the mundane levels of atrocities and send back all the negativities to their respective sources.
Whatever it is that has upset one, whatever it is that has caused an upheaval in the world, whatever it is that has caused a torment and a tornado of hurt into our hearts, let us try to realise that it is out of gross ignorance and out of only darkness the heart of the wretched of this earth, such an entity bruised and hurt the weaker.
It may or it may not be the right thing to progress when someone discourages us, upsets us and even hurts us. However, if we listen to learn that it is here and now in the present moment in time that the beautiful most wonderful delight of God's light can be realised barefooted, empty handed in emptiness! Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today, now, at this present moment in time we shall be able to give the same to those out on the limb.
All said and done, what really matters in 'all this, that and the other' (noise, haste and waste), is that we form a togetherness of the universal spirit of humanity to offer a prayer to the three worlds of existence - the spiritual, the celestial, and the terrestrial world.
May we all in togetherness of the divine spirit realise peace and serenity in profound silence. May we all, together cherish life in love, and affection? May we all, together give love and become loving to our true spirit of divine life.
Happiness is our birth right, a state of being sublime, not a condition of circumstances.
In a human world that is torn apart and fragmented in so much anguish and hurt, may we light a candle of hope to change and make better all that we can with courage, strength, and spiritual virtue.
May we join hands in the spirit of humane togetherness to bring joy to the mundane days and nights on the human earth that is withering with time to all those out on the limb – those that are misunderstood and sometimes even barred.
“In beauty, may we walk together as different rivers of fate towards the grand ocean of destiny, to leave behind us a pathless trail of beautiful divinity.” JP
“Ah life! my spirit greets the morning sun and the new sweet fragrance of the soil to write and re-write, to create again and again, and to re-create again and again, a breathe of love and hope, i am not a lost voice, but an echo of many sounds, all colours, all fears, all loves.” JP
Let us believe in our hearts that something wonderful is about to happen to another less fortunate, to someone who has long suffered adversities, to someone who deserves our loving wishes and compassionate blessings, to someone out on the limb.
Let us love ourselves and in return love our life. Let us give love without the fuss of all this, that and the other. Let us understand with greater integrity that our spiritual integrity cannot be touched nor can it be taken away from us. Let us believe in the higher order that God nurtures pure intentions, pure consciousness, spiritually divine. Let us believe in own power, and in our own potential, and our own innate goodness. Let us not be afraid to admit that we are less than perfect for this is the essence of our humanity. Let those who love you help you. Let us trust enough with caution the right intention to be able to take what is given with good intention wholesome. Let us look with hope to the horizon of today for today is all we truly have. Let us live this day well. Let a little sun out as well as in. Let us create your own rainbows and be open to all our possibilities, all possibilities and miracles. Let us always believe in miracles.
“Spirit oh spirit of life, remember, remember the sacredness of running rivers, the glory of the sun in the wonderful beauty of the dawn and the dusk. The sea forever is still, the teeming vast sky forever is tranquil; the nightingale is a sacred glitter of delight forever. Ah the firefly of the night sky, ah the flash of the stars, let me rest in peace, in quietness, without the intrusion of all this, that and the other. I came into the world as a child of karma; I leave this earthen world as a childlike spirit of life. Spirit oh great divine spirit! Glory be to the light of truth!” Jyotikar Pattni
For all those who suffer from acute manic psychological stress, traumatic distress and manic depression and to all those out on the limb, misunderstood, feeling lonely and afraid at night:
“May God grant you peace and harmony. May the Christmas season be filled with holy greetings and warm affectionate compassionate love. Know that God is awake in the darkest night keeping a watch over you and that the great light of lights never failing brings truthfulness, blissfulness and divine peace. Truth always triumphs, just do not quit. Amen.”
“It is easier to be critical than to be correct.”
©Jyotikar Pattni© December 23rd 2005