The child in us :)

Jai Gurudev! Friends,

Blogging is such a good idea, doesn’t allow physical distances to come in between hearts, wow, getting poetic already.

Been soul searching of late, (yeah going inwards is really soul satisfying and blissful.) Recently came across an article wherein Guruji was asked by someone, "What did you want to grow up to be when you were a child?" And Guruji in his inimitable style replied, "I'm still a child, when did I grow up?" (Can imagine his twinkling eyes and impish smile). This triggered off a mood of contemplation and it set me thinking, we all have a child within us – sometimes giggly, at times naughty, very often crying for attention, so often throwing tantrums, always longing for love, being playful, drooling over yummy eats, and indulging in various activities so typical of children. Most often than not, this child in us is curbed, scorned at, ridiculed, scolded and asked to behave, sometimes by the grown-up self in us and sometimes by the general populace. With passing time, this ‘asked to grow-up child’ grows to such an extent that it forgets to smile, leave alone giggle and laugh, fails to grasp the fleeting special moments that are so rare to come by, being surrounded by dark clouds of judgement forgets the art of enjoying the little colourful nuances that life holds forth, now and then.

In all our courses we are encouraged to nurture this precious and precocious child within us, yet how often do we remember to! In our own mature worlds we are so preoccupied judging people that we are left with no time to love them.

Now comes the point where I am really looking forward to those enlightening comments –
In between being ‘Childish’ and/or ‘Childlike’ – there’s a thin line dividing the two traits. The dictionaries label a childish person as someone who is immature, irresponsible, silly and frivolous while a childlike person is described as someone who is innocent, simple, candid and uncomplicated. In between the two descriptions, I’m sure we’d all like the second one, (well I certainly do, because I truly feel I’m at times too candid and of course always responsible.) Now, when we ask someone to ‘grow up’ and ‘stop being childish’, which are the traits that we are asking that individual to give up and why? Do they also include the traits of a childlike nature? Here, do we overlook all the other acts of responsibility that the said person has carried out to perfection, judging him/her over a couple of ‘silly facades’, yeah the childish trait could also be a ‘smokescreen’ a cover-up for much pain hidden inside, who knows? Who knows if the ‘displayed frivolous nature’ could be hiding an intense introvert who goes into the shell the moment he/she is out of public view, who knows what sorrows the juvenile laughter could be hiding?

Each one of us, child or adult needs a guiding hand, a symbol of hope and encouragement, a guiding light to show the way – something, someone, somewhere to assure – ‘You are not alone-I am with you, I belong to you’. Aren’t we all lucky here, to have that very special ‘Someone’. With such a mentor and enlightened master as our beacon I’m sure we can all assuredly lead the world from mortal darkness to immortal light and credit ourselves with mature acts of responsibility being thoroughly alert and aware while keeping the child within us smiling and playful.