stones hit hard

STONES HIT HARD
Tamil poet Bharathi [ மகா கவி பாரதியார் ] wrote so many fantastic verses many of which appealed to me during my school days when we had them as part of our text for poetry.
One of the verses hit me hard on my head and I recite it everyday as part of my prayer to keep my identity in focus. The verse in Tamil goes like this:
''ஆங்கொரு கல்லை வாசலிற் படியென்று அமைத்தனன் சிற்பி மற்றொன்றை
ஓங்கிய பெருமைக் கடவுளின் வடிவென்று உயர்த்தினன், உலகினோர் தாய் நீ
யான்கனே எவரை எங்கனம் சமைத்தற்கு எண்ணமோ அங்கனம் சமைப்பாய்
ஈன்குனைச் சரணென் றெய்தினேன் என்னை இரும்பூதுடையனாக் குவையே ''
Here is a loose translation as it occured to me :
The sculptor of a temple got together thousands of black granite stones to build a fantastic and beautiful temple. The temple was already in his vision, complete to the last detail. All he had to do was to pick up the stones, work on them and put them in proper place.
Of the thousands of stones that got transformed at his skilled hands one of them became the first step at the entrance to the temple. Another stone which was lying next to it became the idol of the deity worshipped by one and all.
Just as the sculptor chose one stone to be elevated as the idol and another to serve as the step to climb on and enter into the temple, so too each one of us is chosen by Shakthi, the cosmic mother of all creation, to perform a specific part in the fantastic cosmic drama of the universe.
All the time this verse gives me a focus, and reminds me to be the best of what I am. Whenever I try to be something else this powerful verse brings me back to my senses. I realise the futility of such attempts to be what I am not.
The moment I accept myself as what I am and accept others as what they are I no longer experience any resistance or conflict. I am able to enjoy what comes to me as an occurrence in time, without any compulsion to change it.
This doesn’t mean that I become inactive, hopeless or a victim of fate. The moment I don’t resist things, the need to make them any different vanishes. I feel free to be. Just be. And enjoy whatever I am capable of doing to the best of my capacity, possibility and circumstance. The resources and circumstances are no longer a limitation since the need to be something different is no longer there. It is replaced by the awareness that ‘to be’ and to enjoy being whatever I am is vast enough to experience the abundance, and to become one with that abundance which I had not been aware of for so long.
Everything that takes place in my life acquires a supreme status of a cosmic occurrence.
Whatever has occurred so far has gone into my past. It has no place in my future or even in my present.
The occurrence of this moment gives a sense of presence to me which has not been so anytime before. I now feel the presence as it occurs. I feel no need to resist or restrict or limit this glorious moment by any need to make it fit into “it shouldn’t be so” or “it should be so” etc.
It doesn’t mean anything if it occurs the way it does. It doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t occur the way it doesn’t.
I see the beauty of this design where my concepts no longer restrict or limit my being.
I feel and experience the freedom to be unbound and unlimited by my concepts, my interpretations and to live my presence with the abundance of unlimited possibilities and choices.
The 5 Kg stone has more mobility than the 5 ton stone. Why should the 5 ton stone feel so great because of its size and weight when it is actually more grounded and immobile for the very same reason. Why should the 5 Kg stone feel small in front of the 5 ton stone when it is so free from the burden of carrying the extra weight and size.
The size doesn’t mean anything.
The weight doesn’t mean anything.
Position doesn’t mean anything.
Power doesn’t mean anything.
Fame doesn’t mean anything.
Beauty doesn’t mean anything.
Ugliness doesn’t mean anything.
Fatness doesn’t mean anything.
Leanness doesn’t mean anything.
Intelligence doesn’t mean anything.
Stupidity doesn’t mean anything.
Being Rich doesn’t mean anything.
Being Poor doesn’t mean anything.
Friendliness doesn’t mean anything.
Unfriendliness doesn’t mean anything.


We give meaning to meaningless things through our own interpretations. They don’t have any meaning other than being just occurrences. They occur as they occur at different points in time in the life of different persons.
The freedom that comes from knowing that there is no meaning to occurrences other than what I give to them liberates me beyond belief.
I am no longer bound by typical meanings arising from my past conditionings. They still arise at every occurrence but they don’t have the power to restrict my choices, my responses, my freedom to just be present to the occurrences.
Every moment now opens up new possibilities. The abundance is unbelievable.
Even to try to share it in so many words seems to be restrictive in some way.