Coffee particle and me

1:30 P.M. in the afternoon. Something is different today…

My ears, with amazing ease decipher the various sounds coming out of a cacophony. The long and familiar horn of trans-Yamuna train, the factory hooter signalling the lunch time for workers, the shriek of carpenters wheel, continuous barking of street dogs, sound of swift winds and the rustling of leaves, the car horns, the chatter of kids on their way back home in their rickshaw…

These sounds were always there around me but today they suddenly seemed all the more clear and vivid. Inspite of the loud and continuous bark of street dogs, I could still listen to the soft sound of leaves rustling… I could hear the silent footsteps of someone walking down the road… What is even stranger today is that I could hear all these sounds inspite of my Mom’s snoring; generally hearing which I shut all my senses down and wish that my mom stops snoring.  What was so different today?

Suddenly, my attention turns towards my hands, hands which are feeling warm because they are holding a cup of hot coffee.  The blood rushing through veins in my hands seemed glad to have come in contact with something warm. The excitement in my blood was so profound that I could sense the marathon which my RBC’s and WBC’s were running even beneath my nail bed. But what’s new? This should happen every time I hold a cup of coffee…

Aaaahh the smell of coffee beans, the pure white fumes rising from the cup, it just made me smile….but wait…isn’t it the same coffee which I drink daily!! What’s different this time?

I bring the cup near to my mouth to savour the coffee. In the cup I see a tiny brown particle, a coffee particle going round and round in circles. Whenever it stalls to get a sense of where it is, it is again pushed towards the walls of cup by the ripples of the brown sea (coffee) inside. And as it hits the walls, it starts the same circular motion again, for my hands which were enjoying the warmth of the coffee cup also trigger the rotations in the cup.

Oh my dear God, what is so different today? Train comes daily, Dogs are there always, my mother takes a nap daily at this time, I have a cup of coffee daily made of same milk, same coffee beans. Everything is same but I never felt this way before. What was so different this time? How was I so much more aware of the surroundings?

Can you think what was so different this time?

The answer lies in the coffee particle. Just like the coffee particle we are pushed from pillar to post by the ripples of life. We then loose touch with ourselves. Today was one moment, when in between those ripples of life, I was trying to sense where I am…just like the coffee particle which comes to a standstill once…..and in this process whole surrounding around me became alive, because I decided to be aware. What will happen next?

Am I like the coffee particle which is set into same motion again once a ripple hits? Will I again loose this touch with the surroundings when life throws a googly?  Friends for most of us (including me) the answer to this question would be “YES”.  Yes, I will get bogged down with life’s problems as soon as I face one…Today I got a job, I am sitting at home, my parents are glad that their daughter is coming back, I am excited regarding the fresh start of life so, I am relaxed and centered and hence more aware. Tomorrow, I might face a challenge in life. Should I then drift from my center and get  bogged down with problems? But, that’s what coffee particle does!!! So law of correspondences hints that I would do the same!!

But wait, there is one fundamental difference between the coffee particle and me…I have WILL POWER, it doesn’t. If I decide that I am going to remain aware and centred come what may can’t I actually be so?  Yes, I can. The life’s ripple would still push me from pillar to post but I would then have the ability to discern the ripple from life itself.

So friends, let’s not be like a coffee particle, but instead realize that we are not human beings having a spiritual experience but we are spiritual being having a human experience. So, Be Happy, Be you, and Be now!