When my cousin Bhanu
from USA called to speak to me – just to catch up, in passing she mentioned “
Padma”, there is not a single day that passes when I do not think of you. I met her last year after a 25-year gap !
Her words triggered
my thoughts to write this…
How many of us are blessed to have friends, relatives, kith
and kin who think of us each day ? The thoughts may be fleeting, but the power
of thought is immense.
I believe in the power of both positive and negative
thought. Thoughts are energy that is transmitted through our feelings and
actions and/ or reactions. When my parents tell me that I am constantly in
their thoughts – I feel blanketed by a feeling of well-being, protection and
positive energy. A person who is constantly in your thoughts – be it positive
or negative is bound to experience its
effects. When we are engaged in a project ( be it the upcoming housewarming
party, birthday party or your exams), when it means a lot to us, we tend to constantly think about it. When we
sleep, our subconscious mind goes to work on it and sometimes, when we wake up
we have a platter full of ideas , plans to carry out. Sometimes, when our
conscious mind has shifted to other areas, the subconscious mind that has
allotted a certain amount of memory and processor space for the issue, is
working constantly in the background . We may have unconsciously observed ,
recorded and assimilated certain sights and signs. These unconscious recordings
pop up to help us with the pending project / issue that we were pondering about
earlier. Suddenly, when we are in the
shower – an idea pops into our mind how
do you think this happens ? When you are
at a totally unrelated task, you tend to pay attention to things you normally wouldn’t.
Such is
the power of thought – the potential and power of human subconscious
mind.
Imagine yourself in a ring. With you in the very centre of
it. There are several concentric rings – which I call layers of the society to
which we are bound. I observed that we tend to be closely knit to our spouse,
children, parents , siblings, nephews and nieces this falls in the first ring.
Then in the next layer come our close family friends, relatives, uncles and
aunts. The rings gets wider – we have neighbours, our work-group, college and
school mates. There are never ending layers of concentric rings where we have
placed people of varying importance in our life.
We tend to have different levels of affinity towards each
layer. Many a time, we even play God in
deciding what or how much of our time, care, love, attention, friendship and
help each person from each ring deserves and dole it out in doses that we think
is appropriate.
The funny thing is that when we help a person – we tend to
like them, its not always necessary that
we help someone because we like them.
And as a corollary, when we hurt
a person we tend to dislike them more. We justify our treatment as we have evaluated them as deserving of
that. But for all the judging and evaluation we do, we fail to see that we are but
a speck in the inter-woven design of life and all our well calculated
moves do not guarantee anything but
fleeting and momentary success in our self-centred scheme of things.
I also notice that when we have some good and happy events
happening in our lives or some sad and troubling events of our life – we either
keep it to ourselves or share it with a very select few. Yes, its good to be
able to tackle your issues on your own, but by sharing your troubles and joys
with more people ensures two things – “you” are in their thoughts. Their
feelings of happiness or empathy as the case may be – would go out to you.
One could point out
that “why waste our time and energy sharing our woes with people who are miles
away, who cannot do anything to help” ?
Well, Thoughts are energy. It triggers some action/ reaction. The people with
whom you shared your sad/ troubled feelings – may share some vital information
with you. They may try to find a solution to help you. If not anything, by
constantly thinking of you or “worrying” about you – the energy of their
wishing that things go well for you – will certainly carry some weight.
When my athimber was diagnosed with Hairy cell leukaemia , I
shared this information with many of my friends and acquaintances. Most of them
did not know my atimber directly. They were MY friends .I have no words of
gratitude for their empathy and help- blood donors, the suggestions, mails and
prayers. Athimber did not survive the chemotherapy , he died a premature death,
but the wishes and support kept me and my family positive and gave us the
strength to stick together in the knowledge that there were many souls sending
out their prayers for him by their thoughts, by their wanting to help out.
In India, when we seek blessings from elders –the palm of
their hands face us – this is actually a form of directing their good thoughts,
love and best wishes in the form of energy to be sent towards you. I believe in
it. Each time, I seek blessings from the elders, I always wish and pray in my
mind for the elders to “ always have good health and be around “ to guide us.
The exchange of good thoughts felt from deep within – is palpable. I say palpable because, Each time I receive blessings, I experience
intense emotions of gratitude, joy and a
feeling of overall goodness.
What strikes me most is that by positioning ourselves in the
center of the small ring of our family–
we tend to alienate ourselves from the wider and spaced out rings of humanity.
That is why I guess, great souls are never inside any circle/ ring. They hover
above the surface of all rings – thereby being equidistant from every ring and
the people in those rings. They see the big picture of humanity.
Friends, open up let others share your ups and downs. Let
yourself be in others thoughts constantly ( for good reasons) and see how the
entire world conspires to help you in times of need.
