May is a beautiful month. It's full of youth and full of an unshakeable enthusiasm for life. Kind of like the people born in this time of the year. They have so much spring in them, just a memory of them is enough to make you want to love life the way it is, while it's there. It doesn't matter what you read, whatever you do, your mind spreads all over the place and gets stuck there. I was reading many books in fragments and the contents of all those books are scattered all across my mind and my mind is scattered all around the space and time identified by humanity to be of any significance. I'm sitting inside my cage and watching the birds move along in the brightening sky before the sun has taken over the entire sky. They move frantically, sometimes it seems they are merely being pushed by the wind in every direction, or maybe what pushes them around like that is some kind of external force like the gravity of unknown planets and stars, pulling them around in every direction, or maybe it's some kind of an internal force. The Spring is really inside them. Outside of them, there's only a stagnant air and stagnant light. They know only here and now. Little black or white indentations or specks in a clear sky that just doesn't scatter light enough. The light stagnantly sits in a spot, refusing to move at the fixed speed which the scientists have assigned it. It's the light of happiness, a stagnant light that blinds you, a light that just doesn't move fast enough, kind of like a car stuck in the middle of a heavy morning traffic jam, I imagine many photons just stuck in a jam of space time. While it's there, this light almost blinds you and then suddenly it's going to be gone leaving you in the darkness of your own mind. Maybe the birds understand more than us, because they don't read books, they don't waste their time with words, they speak in actions and reactions. Movement is work, it's communication for them. The birds accept uncertainty as a way of life. Their lives, just a mere reaction to the indeterminate nature of the universe.
The breaking of the fast is called paraņa and you will find a lot of different opinions and restrictions with regards to when and how a fast should be broken, at which phase of the sun and moon and with which foods in particular. When I am fasting, I try not to focus on rules and restrictions because the idea of fasting is to free the mind, not bind it further in rituals. And when you impose strict fixed schedules and too many rules with regards to eating on the mind, it is bound to focus on food. Like it is said in the Geeta: yatato hy api kaunteya puruṣasya vipaścitaḥ indriyāṇi pramāthīni haranti prasabhaḿ manaḥ Meaning: The senses are so strong and impetuous, son of Kunti, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination who is endeavoring to control them. I enjoy fasting because it helps me focus on reading the Bhagwat Geeta. But when my Karma calls me, it becomes difficult to focus on reading and understanding. I need this body to...
Comments
Post a Comment