I BOW DOWN

 

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

 

Recently, I spent three overwhelming days with a wonderful family, with real values and some humbling practices.

One such practice was that of “Bowing down” where you walk around bowing down after every 5 steps. We made a single file and began. Surprisingly, I had never ever bowed down anywhere before and so I was carrying a certain amount of hesitation in my heart.

As we started the practice, I was thinking to myself, “Oh no! I will have to wash my hair all over again after this.”

As we moved around on a stone path around the lawn, I began to take notice of all the ants, the centipedes and other insects, harmoniously going about their business. There were no accidents. There were no conflicts. They were in sync with each other and with nature.

My bowing down was probably causing a bit of a hindrance in their busy day to day activities but they did not seem to mind. Soon, I found myself taking care not to let my hair fall in their way, not to step on them or jerk them away, not to detest them but respect them for their ability to share space.

The feeling of mutual love and respect created a sense of oneness I had never experienced before. Pride and self importance were replaced by humility and gratitude. Tantrums and anxiety were replaced by peace and harmony within.

At the end of the practice, I sat in silence, feeling love in its purest, most harmonious form. 

Lessons from SMILE CARDS

“It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” 

― Mahatma Gandhi

Smile Cards look like a pack of business cards. Only difference being that each card reads “SMILE. You’ve just been tagged! Someone reached out to you with an anonymous act of kindness. Now it’s your chance to do the same. Do something nice for someone, leave this card behind, and keep the spirit going!”

I thought to myself, “What a beautiful way to infect people around me.” Luckily, my husband, Amber, had his SOIL alumni cricket tournament lined up the next morning. So, I quickly made my version of Smile Cards and headed out looking for a printing shop to get the cards printed on an urgent basis.

Amber’s boss was kind enough to share the number of a printing shop owner, Rahul (name changed). We tried reaching him by calling and messaging to get directions to his shop but received no reply. Finally, asking people around, we found our way to the shop. However, we were surprised to find Rahul turning his back on us and refusing to attend to us. Slightly insulted, we went to another shop two blocks away and got our cards printed.

While leaving, I suddenly realised that I was so ambitiously carrying out Project Smile Cards for the next morning that I had completely forgotten its core essence of being kind. So we hurried back and gave Rahul a smile card with a chocolate. He was dumbstruck. We simply smiled and left without a word.

A while later, we received a message from him saying, “Thank you for the chocolate :)“. He also shared with us how he was having a really bad day. We wrote back saying, “No problem. We understand. Take care :)”.

An important lesson I learnt from my experience was the huge difference between doing good in an organised project-like mechanical manner and in doing good the natural heartfelt kind of way.

The next morning, I was able to sabotage the cricket match, share the previous evening’s experience and distribute Smile Cards and candies to lots of smiling faces.