Bliss & Peace!

It is said that once, during his childhood, Sri Ramakrishna saw some pure white cranes flying across the dark grey clouds on a winter evening and fell into a state of divine trance. Though I can come nowhere near the shadow of that Supreme Being, I felt my own fair share of that divine bliss this morning. Going for a walk on the seashore, I crossed the spot where hundreds of pigeons and crows converge every morning. They eat the peanuts and grains offered by the visitors to the beach. This morning too they were there.

Image Source - Google

While walking in a contemplative mood, I saw them take off at once, fluttered by some noise. It wasn't one bird or even ten birds. There were hundreds of birds in the air, at once! There could have been even a thousand or two of them. Just as I was watching them, they took flight simultaneously, dotting the sky above the Bay of Bengal. The Sun had hardly come out, and was swarmed by the grey clouds, like a celebrity surrounded by people while emerging out of the residence. With that mixed hue of orange, grey and other such shades one can expect to see in the dawning sky, the birds mingled in their dark, silhouetted forms. It was like the sky trying to put up an entirely different show now - from being the dark expanse filled with shining stars, to the bright - well, almost - sky dotted with dark forms. The contrast and the bliss I felt were beyond words!

It was then that something clicked open, deep inside me. Then I realised this - we are all conceived and born in a deep state of bliss and peace. And, we are all entitled to feel and be in that state forever. Letting all the transient emotions and ephemeral experiences have their effect on us and dull that state of bliss and peace is like committing an injustice against ourselves. Anything that hinders that state of pure peace and pristine bliss is to be either seen for what it is and transformed to the right state or needs to be trimmed out of our minds. Clinging on to the pain and crying always is like hugging a cactus, not letting go, while still complaining about the pricking thorns.

But then, I also realised that the trick is not about mere 'realisations', but about having timely reminders. It is possible to let these positive realisations sidelined by the chaos of our daily lives. Traffic snarls, workplace confrontations, arguments with friends that turn ugly, silly spats with the dear ones in family, hidden pains, bitter memories of the past, fears about the future, the loneliness of our lives, the occasional feeling of vacuum inside our minds - all these and more can form like soot on our soul and make us forget the lessons and come down from that divine state of bliss. The trick then is not about mere realisations but about setting constant reminders.

There are many ways to remind ourselves of the divine bliss and peace that is always around us. Gratitude is one of them. Love is another. Keeping a permanent smile on the face is one other trick. Each and every one of us have tools and techniques that can help us heal quickly from the daily travails and get back to that supreme state of mind easily.

But, like every aspect that dominates this Universe, this realisation and reminder are also guided by that greatest boon bestowed on us - freewill. We can either choose to realise, remember and remind ourselves constantly that bliss and peace are ours and they belong to us. Or, we can simply leave such things to be the topics for sages and saints and go back to letting our mind rot in the rut of day-to-day life. The choice, purely, is ours!