What I learnt from my grandson - Part II

What I observed!

Sanjay was very curious, inquisitive, seeking, wondering and marveling, practically, at everything. Everything attracted him and he was happy about everything.

He was happy all the time, in every moment. He didn’t need anything in particular to be happy. He was happiness himself. He was never attached to anything in particular, though he fancied everything he saw, touched, and felt. As his interests in things shifted from moment to moment, every moment of his life seemed fanciful.

He just didn’t seem to think. He was out of his mind all the time, I mean, outside of his mind. He did what genuinely pleased him - no matter whether it pleased someone or not, never making mental calculations, trusting the moment, trusting that there is someone to take care. He never hesitated saying ‘no,’ or ‘enough,’ without feeling guilty about it. He never found the need to keep pleasing people, yet, he pleased everyone.

His frequent crying was his only way of communicating to us that something was wrong. If he screamed, threw tantrums, or yelled, they were his way of drawing our attention when he felt it was lacking. Nevertheless, they were so temporary that even the sight of a small bird scrounging for some food in our backyard was sufficient to shift his attention. He was very demanding or adamant at times and misbehaving at other times, but it was just normal and not premeditated.

He needed nothing in particular to be occupied. He was simply occupied with anything on hand, with everything he did.

Time had no relevance to him. Yesterday, today and tomorrow were the same to him. NOW is the only time he recognized.

He might have revolted, thrown tantrums, and screamed – but that was how he was, naturally expressing his anger. We might have scolded him, taunted him, threatened him, scared him, denied him, gave him a timeout, but he was never hurt. He was beyond it. He would always come back to us, the very next moment, as though nothing ever happened. He was also amenable to our every trick to bring him in line and he had never felt bad about them.

Everything was playful and fun for him. ‘It is funny,’ was his approach. He was a source of happiness for everyone around, in whatever he did, in whatever he uttered. Maybe, he had played pranks on people or was goofing off. That was for fun. He didn’t intend anything. He imitated, dramatized, incanted many words and sounds over and over again without getting bored, created scenes over nothing, and invented his own rote method of learning and remembering. All for fun. Overall, he was rather a great entertainer.

He observed everything and everyone – our manners, what we preferred or avoided, what we accepted or rejected, when and how we dodged him, our language – good or bad, what dress we usually wore for occasions, what his parents agreed or disagreed and argued or fought about. The list was endless. We might not even know that he was observing.  

He loved company even while he loved solitude and quietness. He also loved music, nature, space, fire, wind, sunshine, chillness, water, flowers, grass, birds, animals and all things in nature, all in the same breadth. He also loved teamwork and relationship. Of course, he loved some, more than the others.

He was very vulnerable, gentle, soft, innocent and at times violent too. He was also very clever and intelligent.

He didn’t really fear much, though a few things startled or scared him. He was very cautious too.

He just was; he was what he truly was: His SELF was not there, so no ego.  He was just a Being rather than trying to become something. He was just natural, normal and he didn’t have to be anything different. He didn’t have to become something to be something. He was everything and Every Thing was Him. He didn’t differentiate. He was Dependence and Freedom fused into One.

                                                                                                        To be continued …………………….

What I learnt from my grandson?

Introduction:

“Hey thaathaa!’

Hearing the voice, I was startled. It was Sanjay, my grandson who was just going to be one year old in another couple of days when I started writing this.

Did I really hear Sanjay speaking to me? How can that be? He was not even a year old and yet to pick up any word to speak. All that I heard from him normally was just, “Ahhhh… yeh……… ohh….. yeh..yeh.yeh….. mmmmm” Since when did he start speaking and calling people?

While I was wondering, he said, “Are you surprised that I am speaking to you?”

I was.

I looked at him with amazement, not knowing how to respond to him. I wondered, ‘Do I have to really believe what I see and hear?’

“Yes, I am speaking to you now because I want to tell you something very important; something important that you can tell everyone else. Will you do hear me, thaathaa?” I heard Sanjay speaking to me.

I nodded my head in agreement, still dumbfounded, lacking words; he seemed to have understood my silent agreement. He began to talk to me and what he spoke to me may not be any great revelation of “Conversation with God” type, as described by Neale Donald Walsch in his book, but surely a reminder to me of what small children might like to tell their dads and moms, grandpas and grandmas and other elders at home and outside, but could not.

And that is how my learning from him started, Sanjay teaching me some of the greatest truths, next only to what I learnt from Sri Amma Bhagavan. He was truly like Dhandayuthapaani revealing “Ohm Nama Sivaaya!” to Lord Parameswara.

                                                                                                                To be continued ........................