BEING SMART - WISDOM FROM CLOTHES & SHOES

Ever thought of the number of clothes we have worn and discarded since our childhood. Do we have any track of them? Ever thought of the number of shoes and slippers we have worn and discarded since our childhood. Do we have any track of them? These questions may seem quite stupid, childish and irrelevant to our present situation, isn't it! Wait a minute before you brush aside these questions, might be there is some wisdom in them. Let's see....

THE FIRST LAYER OF WISDOM
The first and the obvious (may not be so obvious to many. Life is such that what is supposed to be obvious is not always obvious.) layer of wisdom is to be grateful for all these facilities we had been and have been given access to. It may appear too simple to be grateful for all the clothes and shoes we wore. Ya, but true gratitude is about being grateful for simple little things in life. Believe me, all these things that we took for granted, millions of people didn't get access to or don't have access to. And what about being grateful to our parents and to our guardians who toiled hard to give us what we wanted. We may feel it was their duty. Maybe, but duties could be shirked away or be done grudgingly. Most parents do more than their duty entails without giving their ward an idea of what they go through to provide the needs and wants of their wards. If as parents they do their duty of providing for us - as children, isn't is our sacred duty to at least feel grateful to what they have provided.

(EXERCISE - Close your eyes for a few seconds and feel grateful for all that our parents have ever done for us. All the more better, if you can remember the details of what they have provided us. At the end, genuinely say "thank you" from the core of your heart.)

THE SECOND LAYER OF WISDOM
The second and a more philosophical point is that just like we have no track of how many clothes we have worn or how many shoes we have worn, the scriptures explain that it is very difficult to have track of how many bodies we have changed. The Vedic scriptures explain that this cycle of birth, death and again another birth keeps going on and on. Since time immemorial, this process is being going on. Adi Shankaracharya explains this phenomenon in a beautiful Sanskrit verse -

"punar api jananam, punar api maranam
punar api janani, jatare shayanam"

"Again birth, again death and again birth in the womb of another mother"

And the irony is that there is no guarantee whether we will be born again in the womb of a human mother. That's why Adi Shankaracharya, continues further in this verse by saying -

"iha samsare bahu dustare
krpaya pahi pahe murare"

"This samsara chakra - the wheel of birth and death is very cruel. Therefore, Oh Lord Murari, Oh Lord Krishna, please deliver me from this vicious cycle and place me in Your abode."
This prayer and desire is the sign of true intelligence and maturity. A sincere devotee thinks, "Enough of this game of "becoming" and "unbecoming"  - let me exit this pointless game and enter the spiritual world, my true home where the real game is going on with our eternal Father - a game where no one looses, everyone is the winner."

Just like we need to be grateful to our parents for providing us all the variegated clothes and shoes we got to wear at different times in this life, we should also be grateful to our parents of every birth in whatever specie they must have been (and we must have been) for giving us different dresses (bodies) at different times of our soul's journey, so that ultimately we could come to this rare human form of life. And we should be eternally more grateful to our present biological parents because of whom we have got this human form of life. It is said that to go to where we want to, we must always remember where we came from. Every body we took in every specie was perfectly orchestrated for us to come to this point. After coming to this human form of life, we should know that the best and the ultimate way to show our gratitude to all our parents of every birth is by perfecting this human birth by developing our connection with our Eternal Mother and Father, Sri Sri Radha Krishna. It is only by connecting with our Eternal parents do we truly connect with all our biological parents of every birth and become worthy children of theirs. It's our responsibility to make our parents proud and not let them down and their pains go in vain.

(EXERCISE - Close your eyes for a few seconds and feel genuinely grateful to all our parents of every birth to bring us to this point of human form of life. At the end, say "thank you" from the core of your heart with all the sincerity you can command.....Just by doing this exercise, you have experienced a shift in your consciousness. That is the magic of gratitude.)

THE THIRD LAYER OF WISDOM
The third layer of wisdom from our clothes and shoes is that even though we were attached to each and every one of them while we were wearing them, we didn't have any difficulty giving them up. Why? Firstly, because they became worn away and secondly and more importantly, we got a brand new and very often a better set of clothes or a pair of shoes. That's how the transition happened smoothly. Similarly, will death be a scary transition or an exiting one - solely depends on what kind of body we are going to get next. If our next body is going to be more miserable than this present one then to be detached from this present body is going to be extremely difficult and painful. But, if our next body is going to be a much better one and what to speak of it being the best one then death is not only an acceptable proposal but a welcome proposal because we clearly know what awaits us. A devotee is not afraid of death but is excited about it because he knows that he is going to get a fully spiritual body with only joy and no pain, so he faces no pain or trouble getting detached from the present one. Death for a devotee is a beautiful experience - he closes his eyes here and opens it in the spiritual world. Such is the glory of being a devotee.

From this article, we understand that simple aspects of life can have deep wisdom hidden in them if we are willing and are trained to see beyond the superficial veneer. But for this to happen, we need to be a little more conscious and aware in life. Somehow, our fast-paced, gadget-oriented, ultra-modern, hi-tech lifestyle has made us numb and dumb to the simple truths of life - it has removed the life from life and left us only living in vain and pain. We are apparently conscious and aware but in actuality unconscious and unaware. Real education is not just about being technically smart but about being spiritually smart. In today's era of smart phones, smart cars, smart TV's, smart washing machines, smart watches and smart classrooms we can't afford to be spiritually dumb. Let us all thrive to become spiritually smart by connecting to our Supremely-smart, Eternal parents and truly become smart.

- Achyut Gopal Das