"Are you listening to me?"

"Are you listening to me?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Are you listening only to me?"

I nodded again. But something had changed. This was a different nod. There was a shift. And I wasn't the same person as before. Something had melted inside me. I had suddenly become so much alive with the awareness that I could notice every single thought that was crossing my mind. And I could just watch them flowing. It was probably for the first time in my life that I was just observing. Nothing else. And that it didn't matter what they were. And the very notion etched in my mind of the very well internalized thought "I am always right", which I was so sure of , just vanished in the air. I had finally found the person who had just dissolved it. It had become inconsequential. Despite the fact that I was always very sure of anything and everything that I could possibly put my hands on. I had finally met somebody who I thought knew more than me. And that knowing could never end. But did it end at that?

And with this experience, came an innate joy in the face of most uncertainties. Well, I am not perfect. Nobody is. But, over a period of time, I realized, that we don't really learn anything if we always keep holding on tightly to our own notions of everything. Because, we restrict ourselves to experiences that might be very limited to our own span of thoughts. And, as not all of us are intelligent enough to know, all thoughts are inconsequential. Had thoughts been the sole purpose of of our lives, all the women in the world would have been the Queen of England in the body of Miss Universe, and all men happy ;)

Jokes apart, there is something beyond thoughts.

Say, your yoga teacher told you to combine yoga with a vegetarian diet for a few days. And you didn't give it a chance. In that case, did you actually learn anything new out of it? No. You didn't. You basically went to the teacher with your own notions, and came back with the same- the value added thus being zero ! You didn't bother to challenge yourself to try it. And this is the sign of a closed mind- a mind that sticks to its own fixed sphere of thoughts and unwilling to experience anything new, even if it's harmless. This is how we restrict our growth as human beings.

Hell yeah, I do love yoga a lot and the example came naturally to me. 

But, on similar lines, the developments in the world around in the last few months have really shook me. I do realize that empty debates are futile until words are backed strongly by coherent and sensible actions on ground. But, closed mindedness, which may look seemingly harmless at the outset, can take ugly turns of epic proportions. In other words, it starts with "Holier than thou" and allied insecurities. It then turns parochial, killing a sense of belongingness between people. And it turns debates into a war of words rather than an exchange of ideas. Be it matters of faith, career, family, whatever. And what to say when those "holier" than others punish the latter with acts most inhuman- to say the least! The beheadings, the whippings, instances of burning innocent people alive, destroying entire cities, forcing women into sex slavery, killing innocent children- these can only be perpetrated by someone too savage to remember what being holy actually is. Darwin should have been alive to map these changes in the most evolved species, and where these will lead mankind to. Even animals are content with their needs and don't break into the boundaries of needs defined by the laws of Nature. Is it so difficult just to listen to others? Even when they are ready to listen & help?

And listening isn't  going to help just them. It is as much important for all of us.

How I wish these butchers could feel the same presence! One that would make them drop the myth of their holiness. 

I hope their God is listening. Or, to be correct, I hope they are listening to the(ir) God.

And, by the way, "He" is my Yes!+ teacher, Akhilesh (Parmanu) Bhaiya :),  the first Mechanical Engineer who restored my faith into the community of mechies :D.

I hope and pray all of us find a teacher like him. And I'll forever be grateful for having born in a country whose ethos is defined by these beautiful verses.

Akashat patitam toyam sagaram prati gacchati,
sarva deva namaskaram Keshavam prati gacchati"

"All the water fallen from the sky goes to the sea,
salutations to all the gods reaches to the KeSava"