Hi Folks,

I have been absconding from this blog from the past few weeks and I sincerely apologize for the long gap. I am caught up with quite a few things which are consuming most of my free time. There are quite a few unbelievable events which have happened over the past one month or so and it would be unfair not to talk about them.

About twenty individuals (players & supporting staff) brought glory to India by winning the ICC Cricket world cup after a gap of 28 years. It was a terrific team effort and a great moment to cherish for all the Indians. The team deservedly won all our hearts for playing excellent cricket for over two weeks and bringing back the glory. The Government and various organizations have gone overboard and are busy emptying the cash coffers for the team. I acknowledge the great accomplishment and agree that the team should be richly rewarded, but spending the tax payers money unreasonably stupefies me. Anyways, this is only my point of view.

Coming to some more important issues..... I had been to Ramana Maharishi centre for learning a few days back. I love the peace and tranquility that I experience whenever I go there. I was always curious to know the reason for a young lad to relinquish everything and become a renunciate. I was reading an article about him and came to know that one fine day he felt that he would die. He was gripped with the fear of death. Then he rationalized and thought with a lot of clarity and understood that one day the body would perish as death is inevitable. This thought brought about a great transformation in the lad and rest of the story is known. However I was reminded of a very interesting and a powerful story which iterates the same point.

Yama (God of death) happens to pay a visit to Vishnu. On his way, he looks suspiciously at a small bird that happens to be sitting at the doorstep. However, he proceeds further to meet Vishnu. Garuda, who is known as the king of the bird species is irked by this queer behavior of Yama and decides to protect a member of his clan. He carries the small bird to a very far away island, leaves him there and comes back to his abode. Meanwhile, Yama finishes his meeting, comes out and looks for the bird. Garuda is pleased with himself and tells Yama that he had hidden the small bird in a very far off place which was beyond his reach. Yama gives a very mischievous smile and thanks Garuda for his help. Garuda is confused and asks for a clear explanation from Yama. Yama tells him that the bird was to die in a short while in a very far off land. He was confused about how a small bird could travel so far in such a short span of time. That was the reason, why Yama had stared at the bird initially. It was destined that the bird would die in a far off land and Garuda was instrumental in leaving the bird there.

I like this story very much as it has a very powerful message for all. Death is inevitable and we are moving closer to it everyday. We should keep this in mind and perform all our duties with detachment. That is the ideal way to live. However, this is extremely difficult (almost impossible) to practice. Hope we understand this reality and perform our actions with detachment. The reason I chose to write on "death" is because thousands of our brethren from Japan died during a recent calamity (earthquake-tsunami). My heartfelt condolences to all the people who have lost their loved ones.

Signing off for now,
Krishna