UNDER THE RAIN TREE!

(based on my childhood ordeal of being caught in a rain-storm under a rain tree… to divert the fear, I imagined the tree speaking to me and this is what it seemed to say )

Hey little one, trembling in the rain…

Rest the doubts… that rise in your brain.
Why does this rainstorm, overwhelm you?
This earth is yours… and this sky is too!

Look at me - the rain tree… that shelters you now

And the route of my roots, how they plough

They go deep down, so that my trunk may rise

But what matters more… is my canopy size!

So often we find trees… that grow very tall

But they have no shade, for the seeker’s call…

Now you are sheltered… under me - the rain tree

Can the truth of interdependence set you free?

Learn from the little birds… that rest and nest here

They too are drenched… but no longer by fear!

When they are born… they too shiver in the rain

But grow up to know… that it will happen again

It isn’t about the rain, fright storms within

Fear grows larger… if belief is lean
You got to believe… this fact to be true
That this earth is yours… and this sky is too!

Don't be submerged… in the intensity of the rain…
Don't fret and tire out, under an illusory pain
The skies will clear, seven colours will gather...
Diverging from the spectrum… but staying together

Together we can create: the rainbow way...
From Mother Nature, don’t ever stray away...

The cloud burst, the thunder… the scary storm

Are worse in the mind… when there they form.

Hey little one, dance in the rain…

Overcome fears that storm your brain.
The eco-logical truth includes me and you
This earth is ours… and this sky is too!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Learn Forgetting

Two monks, in a Zen parable, were walking in deep silence. They came across a spring on the way. A young lady was standing at the edge, seemingly worried about spoiling her clothes while crossing the stream. One of the monks lifted her in his arms and carried her over the stream.

His mate was shocked with his colleague’s act. But, he remained silent until the night halt, when he burst out, ‘As monks, we have sworn not to touch women... yet you carried her?’ The first monk replied calmly, ‘I left that girl on the other side of the stream. It is you who still carries her in your mind!’

So often, we hold on to views that are irrelevant in the larger scope of the situation. So often, we carry emotions turning them into a burden. So often, we chain ourselves to past experiences and fail allow them to hold us in a vice that chokes progressive thinking and clouds our perspective.

The phrase - ‘forget learning… learn forgetting’ – is very meaningful. We need to let go the unnecessary if we want to move on in life. For every harvested crop of experience, we need to sift the grain of understanding from the chaff of misinterpretation. We must learn to let go of the needless.

Forget learning… Learn forgetting
ignoring the needless is truly liberating!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Astray

My mentor, Frederick Tucker’s favourite anecdote was of a traveller who had wandered off his route. He had no clue as to where he had reached and how to get back to his original road. After going around in circles, he looked around to ask for help.

Upon sighting an old man, he confided, ‘I have gone astray. Please help me find my way.’ The old man queried, ‘do you know where you have come from?’ On receiving a reply in the affirmative, the elderly person prodded on, ‘Do you know where you want to go?’ The traveller nodded again.

The wise man calmly uttered a great truth, ‘if you know where you have come from and where you want to go, then you are not astray. You just need the connection to your way!’

Whenever astray, we can reconnect to our destination by recognizing the co-relation of the present location and possibilities of a newer and different approach rather than just trying to get back to the old path. It is pertinent to note that being astray is an opportunity for discovering new paradigms.

Never mind the turns in the maze... you will never be astray

If you know where you come from and where leads your way!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Unpacked Gift

There was an exceptionally talented jazz pianist who played in a bar. People came out just to hear him play. But one night, a client told him to sing a song. The man said, ‘I don't sing.’ But the customer was persistent.

So he sang the song, ‘Sweet Lorraine’. A piano player who had never sung in public did so for the very first time. The talented pianist discovered a new talent of singing. Nat King Cole went onto to become an iconic singer!

Nat King Cole had talent that he was sitting on! He may have lived the rest of his life as a gifted piano player in a local bar, but because he discovered another gift of singing, he went on to become one of the best-known entertainers in America.

We have skills and abilities. We may find our ‘talent’ to be a gift, but there may be other gifts that lie unpacked. With exposure and then persistence, most skills can be enhanced. A lot of possibilities go unnoticed as the owner continues to sit on them! We have to get off the comfort seat and discover new unpacked gifts that need to be opened.

Get off the comfort seat...
Open the unpacked gift!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.