THE CONQUERORS - I

Vast frontiers fall. Achievements in ‘sport’ proclaim one to be a champion or a star. Degrees in ‘education’ declare that one is a ‘master’ of this or ‘doctor’ of that. A thousand tongues say how good one is looking or how lovely one’s choice of clothes is. They are friendly people, trying to encourage and be nice; and they sometimes end up putting one in a narcissistic race with oneself, a race that leads nowhere but back into one’s private hell. The enemy lies within.

Praise is received best when it is received from a perspective that shows how the giver is trying to gift a pleasantry. One does not really have to start believing that one is a genius or a rock star. One just has to realise that the giver has been an instrument of bringing a little flush of joy in one’s life, and be thankful. The reply to praise is grace, humility and gratitude - towards nature, towards god, towards all the powers that be, and towards love.

If someone smiles at us or is pleasant to us, it does not necessarily mean that the person is very happy or content, it implies more that the person wants to communicate a pleasing feeling to us, wants us to be happy. A typical case is a visit to a patient in hospital or a child in pain. Most of humanity, in the magnanimity inherited from the Father, goes through life with the same attitude, trying to communicate love and goodness, even when not feeling much of it oneself. It starts with a brave feeling of drawing upon hidden strengths and ‘giving’, dispensing something that one sorely needs oneself. But there lies the catch; in the giving lies the receiving! It reflects, it echoes, it bounces back.

Sure indeed, what we are getting is what we deserve, what we need. That irksome partner or neighbour or boil on the back IS WHAT I NEED TODAY! And god has granted my need! All Praise!

Who am I that the world or my children or humanity or nature or god in any form should bestow favours upon me? What is so special about me that I should receive more favours than I already have? I eat well, I sleep well, I have a roof over my head, I am in good health, my children go to school or university; why should I hanker for more? How much of what I have am I willing to give up for someone else, without making a show of Being a Giver? Why should I not share my bounty with the next five needy people I meet and all six of us exist at the same level of comfort or health?

The grace and magnanimity of Life, by any name, are to be realized, appreciated and lauded. We have enough to be thankful for, let us open our eyes to see and our hearts to rejoice.