अब नहीं

ओझल हों वे स्वप्न ही क्या है

लड़खड़ाए वे कदम ही क्या हैं

नजरें गर खोईं तलाश में

ऐसी भटकी नजर ही क्या है

पग हैं वे जो गिरते पड़ते

चलते रहें, हों भले सिसकते

आशाएं जो विपत घडी में

धडकन की लें डोर संभाले.

होगा कोई और जो अब तब

टूट पराजय को अपना ले

होगा कोई और जो अपने

चिर प्रताप को ना पहचाने

साहस मेरा परम शस्त्र है

अग्नि-शिखा सी अभिलाषा

कैसे लूं स्वीकार पराजय

रग रग में बहती आशा.

शीश नमन है धरा तुम्हे पर

अब ना तुम्हारा वरण करूँगा

प्राण त्याग दूँ भले समर में

मृत्यु पूर्व अब नहीं मरूँगा.

जाने ओझल हुए कहाँ पर..

आँखें खुली हैं और मन भी

खुला खुला है सब कुछ

शायद इसीलिए है लगता

बिखरा बिखरा सब कुछ.

साहस केवल जुटा हुआ है

साहस का आधार नहीं

स्वप्न बिखरते लगते हैं

अंशमात्र साकार नहीं.

नजरें खोईं शून्य गगन में

मेघबिंदु की थाह नहीं

इन्द्रधनुष का सिरा हाथ में

अंतिम का आभास नहीं

पग हैं बढते सहमे-सहमे

मंजिल की पर आस नहीं.

इसी राह में इसी गगन में

इसी नजर में रचे स्वप्न थे

इसी धरा पर इन्हीं पगों में

पुलकित से अरमान भी थे

जाने ओझल हुए कहाँ पर

मेरे निज की पहचान भी थे.

NON ATTACHMENT

This is one of my favourite zen stories:

Kitano Gempo, abbot of Eihei temple, was ninety-two years old when he passed away in the year 1933. He endeavored his whole life not to be attached to anything. As a wandering mendicant when he was twenty he happened to meet a traveler who smoked tobacco. As they walked together down a mountain road, they stopped under a tree to rest. The traveler offered Kitano a smoke, which he accepted, as he was very hungry at the time.

"How pleasant this smoking is," he commented. The other gave him an extra pipe and tobacco and they parted.
Kitano felt: "Such pleasant things may disturb meditation. Before this goes too far, I will stop now." So he threw the smoking outfit away.
When he was twenty-three years old he studied I-King, the profoundest doctrine of the universe. It was winter at the time and he needed some heavy clothes. He wrote his teacher, who lived a hundred miles away, telling him of his need, and gave the letter to a traveler to deliver. Almost the whole winter passed and neither answer nor clothes arrived. So Kitano resorted to the prescience of I-King, which also teaches the art of divination, to determine whether or not his letter had miscarried. He found that this had been the case. A letter afterwards from his teacher made no mention of clothes.
"If I perform such accurate determinative work with I-King, I may neglect my meditation," felt Kitano. So he gave up this marvelous teaching and never resorted to its powers again.
When he was twenty-eight he studied Chinese calligraphy and poetry. He grew so skillful in these arts that his teacher praised him. Kitano mused: "If I don't stop now, I'll be a poet, not a Zen teacher." So he never wrote another poem.

I Choose Them!

Since morning, I was feeling a bit lethargic and sleepy. But it was rather mental than physical. Procrastination, inactivity and sapping self-confidence had taken their toll. Usually I am not among those who get disheartened very easily still it was gloom all over in my mind. It was with this mindset that I reached my office. Later due to some official work, I had to visit a gentleman, an old acquaintance. Though much older in age, he was agile and jovial. Soon I took leave of him with a positive state of mind. I guess his energy was contagious.

On my way back I was feeling good about things around. Suddenly I realized that I wasn’t happy at all earlier in the day. And I had then supposed that I might remain so throughout the day. But now, I recognized that all those reasons for my not-so-happy mindset had obscured into nothingness. I pushed my mind to get into that again but it didn’t happen.

It was then that a thought flitted through my mind: Was my low-spirited state of mind a deliberate choice? Did I myself choose misery over joy for my own self? Does everyone do the same?

I was really perplexed as I had read many a times: ‘Our thoughts make our mind’.

I Have No Answer

“Why don’t you write?”, he looked straight into my eyes.

-          I had no answer.

-          Ok. Why do you write?

-          I again kept mum.

-          “Just to show off; to get attention, appreciation... why? Why did you start a blog after all?

-          What could I say!

-          Did you really have anything to express? How can you say so firmly that you have got a viewpoint?

-          I again had no answer.

I was at my wit’s end. What the f*** was going on!

Hey! ... I was standing against a mirror!!!

-          “Who the hell are you?” I said.

-          He had no answer.

Health is Wealth

It took a really long time for me to get down to writing something again. Though the reason, being my ill health, is immaterial to mention here, yet the lessons i learnt from it is worth recollecting. All our life we have read, heard and known in principle the adage that "health is wealth". I myself did so too. And cared for it as good as i could, or at least I thought so. Yet the erratic condition of my health for past some time has made me sit down and think deeply about it. Having got a decent job, couple of good friends, positive outlook as well as all the familial love and support, in brief all the necessary requirements i had and i was genuinely leading a happy life. But all this got eclipsed once i fell ill. It used to happen every single time i got sick in the past too, however i didn't learn anything significant then. But now, since my not-so-well health unexpectedly derailed my usual daily routine, i have sincerely come to realise that all is not well unless one’s health is not well. Meanwhile i read some blogs concerning lessons for leading a happy life, i was little surprised when i invariably found health as one of the top priorities in all of them.

There was no point in writing this as a blog post, there really wasn’t any, as people aren't as negligent about health matters as I am, but i have a little doubt in mind, IS THAT REALLY SO?

Abraham Maslow's 8 Ways to Self-Actualize

1. Experience things fully, vividly, selflessly. Throw yourself into the experiencing of something: concentrate on it fully, let it totally absorb you
2. Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth): Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.
3. Let the self emerge. Try to shut out the external clues as to what you should think, feel, say, and so on, and let your experience enable you to say what you truly feel.
4. When in doubt, be honest. If you look into yourself and are honest, you will also take responsibility. Taking responsibility is self-actualizing.
5. Listen to your own tastes. Be prepared to be unpopular.
6. Use your intelligence, work to do well the things you want to do, no matter how insignificant they seem to be.
7. Make peak experiencing more likely: get rid of illusions and false notions. Learn what you are good at and what your potentialities are not.
8. Find out who you are, what you are, what you like and don't like, what is good and what is bad for you, where you are going, what your mission is. Opening yourself up to yourself in this way means identifying defenses - and then finding the courage to give them up.