Tag: One Life is Not Enough

one life is not enough – the paradox

On By Durga DashIn Life Sutras7 Comments

One life is not enough, yet for now, this moment is full in itself.

One life is not enough, yet for now this moment is enough unto itself. The statement may  seem to be a paradox, self contradictory, and outright goobledygook. However, it is not when you see different parts of the statement from different perspectives.

When you are playing the role of an experiencer, when you are drowned in sense pleasures, you crave to experience the pleasures again and again. The lustful man wants to have sex with all the women in the world, the greedy wants to own all the wealth of the world. Same way one can be greedy for experiences and achievements. Alexander wanted to leave no corner of the earth unconquered.

But, you can switch your role from being an experiencer to being the observer, or  a witness. Then you have a glimpse of the depth of the moment.

Baffled by the myriads of the creations, I have often made the petition to the maker  that one life is not enough to experience His limitless creations. At the same time, to experience the depth of His creation, one must learn to dive into the depths of the present. One who is bothered too much by the past or concerned too much about the future, loses the opportunity to utilize the fare of the creation on offer right now. Same way, being grateful gives out a message to the universe that you deserve to be an active part of His creation for ages to come.

Time is fleeting. It is a continuum. The moment one tries to catch hold of it, it is already gone. So where is this moment and how to catch hold of it? One can experience the relative dimensions of time depending upon one’s state of mind. In deep meditation one can experience time stop and a stage comes when is established in the witness consciousness. In doing 100%, one is not bothered by past or future.

It may not be possible to play the role of the observer or be in a state of samadhi through out your life. Same way it is tiring to hanker, non stop, experience after experience. Deep real rest and an attitude of letting go helps a lot in recharging one self from time to time.

Life in its myriads of colours, shades, flavours and tastes

There are six basic tastes, according to Ayurveda. Depending upon the person, some tastes are pleasant some are unpleasant and some may be outright atrocious. However, to have a balanced diet and thus a balanced body and mind, one should include a bit of all the tastes.

Same way according to Bharata’s Natya Sastra, the artistic expressions involve nava rasas or nine falvours- some positive some negative. Contrasting flavours makes any story interesting.

So also in life. There are positive as well as negative feelings and  emotions.

If one has experienced only the height of joy and not the depths of depression and sorrow, if one’s journey of life has been a smooth road without any ups and downs, any twists and turns, one has missed to live life in its totality.

Life is such an enigma

This is my translation of a favourite Hindi film song from Anand – a  popular movie of yesteryears.

 

Life is such an enigma

Sometimes it makes you laugh

sometimes it makes you cry.

The mind never wakes up.

It continues chasing after dreams

Sometimes it so happens

The traveler on the path of the dream

leaves behind the dreams

and goes away somewhere

never to be found again.

Those who came together

to set up the ‘mela’ of life

together struggle and are

partners in happiness and sorrow.

Suddenly one of them chooses silence,

and goes away somewhere

never to be found again.

one life is not enough – the philosophy

On By Durga DashIn As You Like It9 Comments

 

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Each role has been like a life.

The transition of roles have been

Smooth sometimes.

Sometimes as painful as

Death imagined.

 

A student’s life, a teacher’s life

A son’s life, a father’s life

A spoilt life, a disciplined life

A civilian’s life, a soldier’s life

A villager’s life, a small town life, a big city life

A hermit’s life, a yogi’s life, an indulgent life

An addicted’s life, a sober life

A reader’s life, a writer’s life

A famous life, a nobody’s life

From being a student celebrity

To being an anonymous soldier,

Worker, clerk, teacher, and leader.

An atheist’s life, a god fearing life

A believer’s life, a rationalist’s life.

 

 

I am so grateful that in this one life

I have experienced so many lives.

Still somewhere

Why does the mind harp on

That this life is not enough?

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(Next post: one life is not enough – the paradox)

Dear friend, what is the first thought you get when you come across the line – one life is not enough? Share your views in the comment.

 

The Monk who is yet to get his Ferrari

On By Durga DashIn Life Sutras23 Comments

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‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’

In addition to sharing bits and pieces of information about my life on many of the posts here, I have written specific posts covering my personal life. All these have been categorised under 'memoirs' . 

May be this is an opportunity to sum up the journey so far. Maybe, I could be revealing some aspects for the first time in a public forum.

I was born in a remote village in Odisha about half a century ago and spent my early childhood there..

Did all schooling and colleging in government schools and colleges at government expenses (was recipient of generous Government scholarships from class IV till Post-Graduation)

In our days, campus placement was unheard of, but I got a campus selection.
(The head of our High School Campus selected me to marry his daughter.)

 After remaining an academic topper in all the exams till matriculation, decided to dip the academic graph so that I was able to join Indian Air Force, another childhood fascination. (Maybe to pay back part of the Govt. generosity bestowed on me during student days).

Now that our son has crossed fourteen, he is at par with both the parents and his elder sister  to have all the rights in our democratic family where no one imposes anything on another, even though consultations and opinions are actively sought.

While in high school, wanted to become a monk, so ran away from home for a brief period (safely during summer vacation) and stayed in a stranger’s house in Puri near Jagannath Temple.

Spiritual depth came in life after coming in touch with my master Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and his Art of Living in 2001.

After living a vagabond life due to a frequently transferable service, came back to the city of my first love, Bengaluru,  in 2011.

In 1996, was bereaved of my mother who was unique, like every one’s mother and in 2008, lost my father – a simple man who never imposed anything on me even in my childhood.

I am a monk who is yet to get his Ferrari – having fun living the contradictions of life – being a mystic and a man of the world at the same time; trying to  delve into the depths of spirituality without getting biased or dogmatic towards anything.
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More about me and my writing journey

On By Durga DashIn As It Happened31 Comments

 

Who am I and why do I blog? May be this should have been my first post. But then, it would have been too early. Of course now and then I have shared bits and pieces bout me and my outlooks. Here, let me sum it up and provide the missing pieces.

Four months back I was trying WordPress just as a time pass. I noticed that the domain durgadash.com was available. Then it was an instant decision. I registered for the domain and started this blog. Of course I have another blog where I have been blogging since 2014. Now,  I have stopped updating that blog and  I am planning to close it after sometime as it is not practicable to maintain two similar blogs.

Reading and writing has been a passion since childhood. When I was eighteen, four of my poems were published in an international anthology. After graduating from Berhampur University in 1987, I joined Indian Air force to fulfill another passion, i.e soldiering. In the twenty years of my defense career I traveled a lot, met with a lot of different kinds of people and did a lot many other exciting and mundane things.  But reading and writing took a back seat. In 2008, got released from Air Force after twenty years of honourable yet no so extraordinary service.

In 2009, I started my first blog. It was with Blogger. Sometime in  2011 or 2012, one day I came across an advertisement for cheap hosting options offered by GoDaddy. I got a little tempted. Mine was any way not a commercial blog. However, I thought  why not go for it to give my blog some professional feel. I fell for the bait of cheap hosting and shifted my blog to an independent domain.

However, after six or seven months, to my horror, one day I found that my blog was behaving strangely. The customer care at GoDaddy was also not able to sort out my problem. Subsequently, things became worse and the blog collapsed. I don’t know whether GoDaddy has improved its quality, meanwhile. Another unfortunate lapse from my part was that I had not taken back up of all my posts.

Then, for quite some time I was busy with my professional activities and could not restart my blog till 2014.

Now, coming to the question as to why the hell do I blog, well, I blog to share my passions. Both the visible and the invisible elements of creation fascinate me. I am a wanderer and wonder-er. And, one life is barely enough to experience even a fraction of those passions.Hence my blog – as a kind of plea to the maker is named as  One Life is not Enough. I  have expressed this as a poem, which can be read here. There is also a sequel titled –  One Life is not enough, yet for now, this moment is full in itself. 

So, through my blog I wish to share my passions. My passions which can be shared without being politically incorrect in an Indian context. Photography, poetry, travel, books, movies, personal growth, philosophy and mysticism are some of my passions worth to be listed. I will also share my views and feelings on social issues that I deeply associate with.

As a reader your passions may be different. So, in my blog  please indulge yourself in  whatever you find interesting. And of course your feedback  will be of immense support to me, in my blogging journey in particular and my writing journey in general.

Thank you.

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Looking Back with Gratitude

On By Durga DashIn As It Happened29 Comments

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So here comes my feedback form. My feedback at fifty. If the biblical life span is 70, for a Hindu the ideal life span is 100. So, here I am, at the thresh hold of my half way mark.

I did my education at a number of schools in a number of localities falling in rural , semi urban and urban areas. This provided the opportunity to have a taste of  India in its myriad of colours and flavours. This experience was extended in range and depth when I joined Indian Air Force that provided me the opportunity of close interaction with people and places from all across India. A career in Defense takes away many of the biases associated with religion, language and locality. The stint in Indian Air Force has truly been a blessing.

By the way, as I write this article today, the Indian Air Force is celebrating its eighty fourth anniversaries. My hearty greetings to all Air Warriors (serving and Ex) and their families. I also take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Indian Air Force for not only giving me an opportunity to do my bit for my fellow citizens, but also for enriching my life with beautiful experiences.

There were times when the perceived indifference of parents was painful. But, when I saw how some of the over caring parents are playing with the dreams of their children and hindering their growth by their protectiveness, I realised what a blessing it was to have parents who did not interfere with many of my choices.

It is has been a great wandering, a great journey. There have been moments of fulfillment, moments of disappointment. Kabhi khushi kabhi gam – life has gone on. There have been rewards, there have been brickbats. There have been times when I have been treated like a celebrity and there have been times when I preferred to go into temporary oblivion. Plenty of foolish decisions marked by a few sparks of wise ones.

But no moment has betrayed me. Each moment has given me an intensity and passion. The failures have been as intense and meaningful as the successes. A cluster of failures caused disappointment in those moments. But, ultimately it was so sweet when those failures led to greater success subsequently. Through it all everything has been a learning experience and it continues to do so. Every event has been a launching pad, a rest house by the great road side of this journey called life.

One thing that I lack let me confess, is focus. Nature’s myriads of creations detract me. Sometimes I want to do too many things in one life. I get easily bored. However, I feel my interests in thousands of things do not leave any moment to get bored.

At the end of the day what is there to achieve ?  Of course here I am reminded of the sand artist. Every achievement is like the art work of the sand artist, may be just a little more enduring. Nevertheless, the sand artist does not stop his creative work knowing full well it would be so transitory.

Similarly, I also take up challenges – sometimes for my own personal growth, sometimes to bring some beauty into the world through creativity, sometimes to make this world a little more livable and lovable thorough bits of unreasonable acts of service and criticism. Have I achieved anything substantial? By the way what would be my definition of achievement? Well that is for others to evaluate.

And so far, it has been a great wandering in this wonderful creation; and I would continue to wander and wonder.


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(This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.)

First blog post

On By Durga DashIn As It Happened5 Comments

Welcome to “One Life is Not Enough’ now at WordPress and with an independent domain.

There was this fascination to have a blog in a primary domain. Coincidentally, the domain I was looking for was available. So, here I am, with my new blog. The old blog will continue to exist for some time, maybe till I shift all contents here.

Hope, you will enjoy reading this blog too and continue with your feedback.