Karuna

Karuna – Compassion

It’s a lovely game that we play with each other, the sea of ideas and I. Every morning, I excitedly run onto the beach at daybreak, to see what the sea of ideas has brought for me today. The sea is also waiting for me.

Like an indulgent parent, the sea throws up a plethora of ideas everyday, and then she waits for me to come and discover them. I can feel that she is as happy to see me running towards her as I am to meet her. All night, she has been busy, laying out a treasure hunt for me, eagerly waiting for me to come and play. She knows exactly where the game had ended yesterday and is ready to take it on from there.

If there is a sly glint in her eyes, I know that there are some interesting tidbits laid out for me; if there is a serious note, I expect to find a profound revelation of some kind waiting for me.

In her immense kindness, the sea of ideas plays this game with me like a cat plays with her kittens, as she gives them lessons in hunting. As I approach a clue, the pulse of the waves rises. The waves start drumming up a beat. The beat gets faster, as I come nearer. It rises to a crescendo, as I decipher the last clue and finally reach the pearl of knowledge. This will form a piece of the jigsaw puzzle, which is life. When I recognize it, bend down and pick it up, the waves crash against a rock to applaud me. I pick up the pearl, and look all excited at the sea. There she is, nodding at me, as excited as I am about my having found the pearl.

I see that this is a very special and precious pearl and look up at her again. She shrugs and says, “Finders keepers!” and I know that this is all the ownership that I can claim to these ideas. But I enjoy polishing and displaying them as my own. By now, the waves are lapping at my feet, congratulating me on my find. Game over for the day.

I walk home with the pearl in my hand. I am already wondering where this pearl would fit in the mural that I was making at home. This is the mural that I have been making from what I bring back from the sea of ideas everyday. The mural of my life. The beauty is that I have been given total freedom: I can pick up whatever I want from the beach, arrange it whichever way I want to, and make the mural anyway that I want. I can scrap a portion of it, if I don’t like it. I can even scrap the whole mural and start afresh any day. I know it takes tremendous courage to scrap the whole mural and start afresh, but I have the freedom and the luxury to do so if I choose to.

Most times, I am reluctant to scrap a part of it, even though I don’t like it. This is mainly because of my inertia, resistance to change and fear of change. Maybe laziness or boredom. But all laziness comes from fear of change. If I choose to change, however, anything that I need to work on my mural is out there, laid out on the beach every morning.

Every morning, life enticingly whispers in my ear, “Come on, beach boy, wake up.” The waves set up a din drumming their way into my stupor, “Come on, come on, time to play.” There are days when I drag myself out of bed, walk onto the beach dragging one foot after the other, I trample over the pearls, too pre-occupied with my petty problems to even see the treasures laid out for me.

At times, I look at a pearl and don’t “see” it. I even pick one up, look at it and throw it away, failing to appreciate its worth. Lovely ideas that I could not appreciate at that time, because I was blinded by fear, anxiety, anger, irritation or ego. After all that, I walk back dejected and even complain about the unfairness of life: no treasures for me today.

But the next morning, life again whispers in my ears, “Wake up, beach boy, time to play.” I go out onto the beach and there she is: all excited to see me with my eyes wide open and a spring in my step. The waves are already dancing with excitement.

I wonder how the waves, the sea and even life can generate so much enthusiasm for me, after my shameful behavior yesterday. I look up at the sea and see the same indulgent smile on her face, telling me, “Forget yesterday; today is a new day. Come on, get on with it.” The waves set up a beat and the treasure hunt is on again.

I am just amazed by the immense compassion that existence has for me. Existence knows that I will pick up the pearls of ideas from her and tout them as my own, as if I had generated them. Yet it sets up this game for me everyday, wakes me up, plays with me, helps me find the pearls and finally gives me an approving pat on the back for having found it.

My head bows with reverence to this immense karuna. What have I ever done to deserve so much love?