THE MASTERSTROKE - Reflections on the retirement of Dhoni & Raina

"Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it." - Ann Landers

Everyone is sad about the retirement of M.S. Dhoni and Suresh Raina from international cricket. This shows how much love and respect these players have earned from their fellow Indians. Indians also should be proud of the example these players are setting by retiring timely, thereby setting a healthy precedent for the other players to follow. Voluntarily retiring at the right time by the elder generation in order to make space for newer and younger generation is a sign of maturity and wisdom. This has been the mindset of great leaders of this great land of India - to live with dignity and leave with dignity. This is the spirit and ethos of India. To hold onto a position till one is made to forcibly quit it, is not a dignified life. Only those who live a life of detachment are respected.

That they chose to retire on 15th August, Independence Day is also significant. True independence is to become free from artificial dependencies and temporary designations. Our heartiest congratulations to Dhoni and Raina for making India proud by playing cricket so well and making India more proud by their decision of timely and voluntarily retirement. A Masterstroke indeed. Our prayers and best wishes for the new phase of their journey of life.

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

GOVARDHAN REFLECTION

While doing parikrama around Govardhan Hill, I was reflecting back on all the times I have performed Govardhan parikrama in the last so many years. I reflected that each time I have performed it, it was always with different devotees at different phases in my life. My companions during the parikrama and my situation during the parikrama were all different. The only similar factor in all these parikramas was Govardhan Himself. Being an eternal form of the Lord, He is always the same. The more we realize Krishna and His various forms to be the only constant factor in this changing world, we can seek our refuge in the Lord and experience shelter and stability in a changing world. Srila Prabhupada, one time was sharing with the devotees life lessons connected to his visits to Jagannath Puri. He explained that, he came to Jagannath Puri for the first time as a small child along with his father. He then came as a young college student. Then as a yo...

GETTING OUR ATTITUDES RIGHT

" Our altitude in life depends not on our aptitude but our attitude in life. " A few days ago was the appearance day of Sri Advait Acharya. Advaita Acharya is non different from Lord Vishnu and appeared as one of the most confidential associates of Lord Chaitanya. His life is filled with great lessons for all devotees in the line of Lord Chaitanya. Here are two most prominent and crucial lessons from His life that is very very important for devotees to understand. RIGHT ATTITUDE OF A PREACHER Advaita Acharya even though was Lord Vishnu Himself, still seeing the suffering condition of the human society, prayed to Lord Krishna to personally descend. Why? Because He thought, He was powerless to transform the hearts of the living entities. Just see, He Himself is the powerful Lord but still felt incapable. This is a true quality of a powerful preacher - he considers himself powerless and thus seeks and prays to access powers, higher than himself. By His earnest prayers, Lord Kr...

CHANNELISING MIND'S CURIOSITY

We all have heard the saying "The grass looks greener on the other side". The mind by nature is never satisfied, always looking for "what others have that I don't have". It is always curious to find newer and newer ways of enjoyment and material nature seems to understand our mind by offering us unlimited varieties to enjoyment. There seems to be no end to the fascinations that are available in this world. Why is the mind always looking for newer ways to enjoy? Because it soon gets bored of what it has. It looks for release from this boredom through newer experiences. But the problem is that as soon as we get the new experience that we are looking for, it's not a long till that also becomes old and boring. The point we miss to understand is that " the newness that material nature provides in its variegated forms are all the same oldness packaged in new ways. " As they say - Old wine in a new bottle. But we never really believe this fu...

The Wisdom Park

Search This Blog