Something to think about..

" Chotu, kitne paise hue?" "325 rupees, sir. And it would be kind of you to give me the change as I don't have any" The formally clad, good looking guy looks at chotu for a second when he hears unexpected sophistication coming from him while chotu is busy using his pretty cool looking calculator/wristwatch and not trying to show off even a little. What is a 10ish year old handsome looking boy doing in a grocery shop at 7 pm in a still pretty neat looking school uniform, while kids his age are playing outside enjoying the rains so rare, I wonder. Maybe he's helping out his father who owns the shop. Maybe he works there after school to make some money. Two very different scenarios I can think of as I picture chotu's reality. I have no idea what it is. My mind wanders and by default I end up feeling pity and think, he deserves better. All these underprivilaged deserve better. All the kids deserve better. All the poor deserve better. All the sick deserve better...and it's endless. I deserve better. I deserve so many things I didn't get. Chotu deserves so many things he didn't get.
The truth is, we get what we get. It's got nothing to do with what we deserve or not. Maybe God knew what kinda humans we'd grow up to be and He created us anyway. We didn't deserve it, but He did it anyway. The problem is that, we keep looking at life in retrospect and always end up feeling this way. A lot of people I know, do. Maybe they all don't have self pity or regrets, but at some point or other, they share this feeling.
See the truth is, again, we get what we get. And that is irrespective of what we do or don't do.

One of my favorites by Cyrus Merchant.

What I really want is for people who have been righteous and good to know that these sterling principles paid off, I want those who have prayed to know that they did not pray in vain. I want unhappy people to be happy; for heaven's movers like Santa Theresa to look down and find that a world which rejected god still has a god which has not rejected the world. I want to see justice done. I want the good to know the old Jewish assertion: "Know whom you pray before." I want them to believe in the power of god and the wrath of god. I want them to have everything they ever wanted. Everything. And sleep after a long time, knowing that god hadn't gone anywhere.
I want fine people to know that it really is up to god, not us. People say we can do everything. We can't, not until god sanctions it. They don't know because they haven't been through hell. Sometimes you have to leave it to the great outer force to come in and work it out for you.
And with all that god has at his disposal, waiting at his command to help, he can help and do it for you in a minute. The saints are his, the holy souls are his, all the power of nature is his, the powerful planets are his, the angels are his, his army is incredible and they are ready to work for you. I am ready to do it for you, but I can only wish. God alone can make that wish come true. Pray to god to do it for you. He alone can. And will.
Until that happens I want the religious and righteous to know is believe, believe totally. Set no store by man or woman. Direct your prayer, however small and sincere, to god. Have a blind heart with blind faith and you will  open your eyes to more happiness than you can see.
You think no one knows how bad your suffering is. God can see it. I urge you to continue being righteous and religious, in the strongest sense of the words, for then all you want you will have. God's love for the good is primal, urgent, shattering. He saves the best for those who go through the worst. More than you, I want to see you happy. Because then it validates my belief in the beauty of the world and the beauty of the one who created it.
Your dream of what you want, my favourite Mother Teresa's prayer always said, is only a shadow of the dream god has for you! I may have this absolute child-like belief but I do believe that there is a better world than the one we are living. I do believe that in time people like us will find that beauty, peace and perfection we are looking for. Good has to win. The promise of my religion will save you. Don't count the years and your tears. Somebody is keeping an account. When you are right, you are on the right side of god.


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EVERYTHING YOU WANT YOU WILL HAVE - Cyrus Merchant

EVERYTHING YOU WANT YOU WILL HAVE
there is a place and a time where everything will be well. and you will be present there. am i merely some merchant of hope, selling you soap for the soul each tuesday, will what i tell you ever bear fruit, your fruit? that you will know. and until you do, believe. believe that this whole thing we are all a part of was not designed to end in despair. besides that this whole thing which we so little understand, has at the helm, someone who does understand. god is too good too let it be bad for you. for long. heaven won't keep you hungry, it will serve you a banquet. and i will come with my fave tea, yes! but here's the difficult part: you may not get your deepest hunger for whatever it is you are hungry, fulfilled here and now. accept certain inalienable truths. accept them as god's will. a will you don't want. hate. can't understand. one that makes you ask aloud "why is god doing this?" yes, in the pressure cooker of your prayers, burning on the slow flame of faith, for years you asked. and it is still being denied. don't curse and turn your flame off. your faith may not have won for you, but it will warm you. the serenity prayer which every living adult is familiar with is more profound than we know... 'god help me to accept that which i cannot change.' millions before you have resigned at the altar of his wish.... and found happiness. the house of the lord has many rooms, some will welcome us. the wisdom lies in not banging on the door that can never be opened. at a breath-takingly beautiful lunch at six pm with a lake down below, an old friend awash with wine and some of life's most mature living, concluded that no matter what we do and what we try, god's way is final. only humans rush where even angels fear to tread. and then we live lifetimes paying the price. god always gives us what we want; when will we give god what he wants? having said the difficult part for you and having said so after having seen many lose their dream, their loved one, sickness battles lost even after persistent prayers, i know that in some enchanted place where there is a perfect music, everything will be alright again. you will have what you want. and you will have who you want. but not now. perhaps even when your eyes are closed and you are a part of a world that is not this one, you will have your heart opened with joy. god's delays aren't god's denials. sometimes he says "yes," sometimes he says "no." and sometimes he says "wait." pray with the intellect of your soul. and find out which of these three is his answer to you. and then have the grace to accept, and have the sense to know that god knows what we think we know. and have once and for all, the supreme liberating knowledge of that if you can be with god through life, no matter what, then life is with you, no matter what. you only need obedience, you only need to be exceptionally good, you only need to be eternally religious or spiritual. through life, on his side. just never give up and fight the fight with a smiling soul. the play is infinitely more significant than the problem. your life is not your problem. your problem is a part of your life, it is not your life. cross the river if it's stormy on this side, but don't keep cursing, crying. the river will flow anyway. life will go on and you will be left behind. what kills homes, families and individuals and may be you is not your problem, but in the way you perceive it. there is more good to your life than bad. and the bad will go. it all always ends in good. that's why they're all working there - for us. there are only happy endings; it's the interruptions that are sad. i know you will be very happy because that is the eternal promise made to us. og mandino said it beautifully: just before you were born, just before you were coming out of your mother's womb and into this world, god whispered to you - "you are my greatest miracle" and you will be loved by me through life." then we were delivered and we forget his last words to us. remember god's promise to you. remember that when you go back to him, you will find everything repaired again. nobody is unhappy, nobody is dead, nothing is wrong. in an increasingly materialistic world, i have nothing to offer you, but this - in some enchanted place, when god is happy with you, you will find your loved one, your miracle, your greatest joy... and you will remember what you read today.


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FEAR KNOCKED, FAITH ANSWERED - Cyrus Merchant

FEAR KNOCKED,  FAITH ANSWERED
when you are just about to give up and throw your faith into the air, a divine agent dives and catches it before it breaks forever which way is your problem going to end? how is your problem going to end? is your problem going to end? the tunnel gets darker on certain days, the prayer you've been praying feels like a piece of paper, the word 'god' screeches on your nerves and you're pretty much ready to resign to your belief that god works for the world, but not for you. someone's still sick on the bed nearby, someone's still fraught with financial anxiety nearby, someone's still racked by the grief of loneliness nearby, the worst is nearby, relief seems distant. the friend who goaded you on with support on the phone is also confused, your mind is in chaos, which way is your life going, if at all it's going anywhere. nothing makes sense. well not to you, not to us. but the clouds which cotton the path to paradise are seasoned with maturity, they know, from up there everything makes sense. a talmud assertion comes to mind: ''for everything, not just for each and every one of us, but even for each and everything, there is god's very own guardian angel watching over. every single blade of grass, has it's own angel and every morning, it whispers to the blade, 'grow, grow' . we are not alone, never is the link broken. even when we think and feel that it has been, it really hasn't. it is believed that unhappiness doesn't sever ties with god; pain, problems, none of the hurt and heartache severs the link. only disobedience does. when he feels his will is not being obeyed (and each of us in our heart knows when we are defying it) only then for a while, does god turn his face away. otherwise the link remains. god is present at all times, more so when his presence can't be felt. when you feel your prayer isn't working, it is then at that point, that it really is working. when you are just about to give up and throw your faith into the air, a divine agent dives and catches it before it breaks forever. the darker it gets, the brighter it's going to be, it is darkest before dawn. the problem is going to get solved. only it might not be in the way you imagined. you put a face to your fortune and when it doesn't come looking like that, you imagine that you have lost, your prayers been unanswered, you imagine god let you down. misfortunes always go, but people don't notice their departure because they always expect a particular face for fortune to wear. then the other round of problems start. you've asked, prayed, begged for something, it's almost there and yet so is the earlier unhappiness. nothing's got done well, because you never allowed it to end well. as people we are bound to make mistakes, we've just finished with the big lot and we go about creating the next ones. there is some wisdom in allowing god to solve your problem his way. this takes much more time, this leaves you helpless, this leaves you feeling more worried, but in the long run, it works out best. god and his angels want so much to help us, we push them all away. god knows what we think we know. i have seen around me that the worst casualty of a major problem a person is facing is not the problem itself, but the tendency of the person to act irrationally, to act quick, to try and sort it out, to act with fear. things are going so badly that people in fear get into the picture, push prayer out and start responding from that fear. and the problem only gets more complex. i believe that god can do anything and everything. he just has to want to do it for us. till he does, we have to live the life we are given, that's why we are born to this. and till he does, we have to walk and live in trust. recall that brilliant badge of a line: ''if you knew who walks besides you every moment, fear would be impossible''. don't be scared. fear knocked. but faith answered. and then suddenly there was no one at the door.



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A VERY BEAUTIFUL MIND- Cyrus Merchant

A VERY BEAUTIFUL MIND
perseverance is a very powerful prayer. it was the chant that brought alicia and john nash out of their twenty-year ordeal. their story of love forms in the ultimate analysis of a beautiful mind, the answer to all, not just mental pain. it takes the last scene in the beautiful stockholm hall to bring one man's circle of life to a happy closure and one line from him to make so much sense of what is happening to all of us, and what really it is that can be ''not just the reason, but all our reasons'' of living. yes, ron howard's true life story of a human being's struggle is an achievement of a film; because art imitates life, it is an icon of a film, heart-breakingly intelligent, heart-breakingly beautiful, documenting one man's torment, because it is all our torments; substitute the cause of pain, and pain is pain. his was schizophrenia. and, even in the classic script which uses the mind as a metaphor for all ills, his greatest love and companion, sums it up for him by saying in the film's most poignant scene: ''everything is not necessarily in the mind, it is also in the heart.'' and in the next instant the movie takes it's chartered course to tell its main story that love heals anything. and what it can't heal, it comforts. it is compulsive viewing. it will tell you something you need to know to love the one you love. and it doesn't do it screaming. it takes the road of subtexts to prise out two people's love for each other. on his way to being recommitted to an institution, in a subtle scene the car engine that is turned on down doesn't take his love away from him in abandonment, she walks into the room, walking in for everyone of us who ever felt abandoned and doing what everybody is duty-bound as a human to do for another: commits to help and be there till the end. no matter what. ''all of what you believe is not real,'' she says to him. so too to us. what is real really is the love in our lives. placing her hand on his face she says, ''this is real.'' placing her hand in his hand, she says, ''this is real.'' placing her hand on his heart, she says, ''this is real.'' only love is real. ''i need to believe that extraordinary things are possible,'' she says and proceeds to see him heal himself. all we need to feed is the belief that life is bigger than anything and it is a gift designed by the world's most beautiful mind. and even a mathematician, even the most clinical mind and precise thinker, given to fact and the arithmetic of existence, came to the conclusion that crowned the film: his acceptance speech upon winning the nobel . looking ahead at the great friend, companion, soul-mate, wife of his life, a beaten but not broken man, said these words: ''in pursuit, all my years of solving the mystery of the greatest equations of life, i've come to realise, know, that the only logic is the logic of love.'' and to a tearful alicia, he says, what we all ought to say to that one person we all ought to be blessed to have: ''you are the reason. you are all my reasons.'' no matter how ugly people have made the world, in the quiet sanctuary of your beautiful mind if you have that one enchanted friend on earth, you are a heartbeat away from a beautiful life. one true love down here. one great love from up above. if god reads the heart felt, may he grant everybody this.
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An extract from Sakaal Times

SAKAAL TIMES
This morning, work took me to a place where little children and old people were lying on the floor -- an unreal heat, an unreal poverty, but very real people. Three little children like little broken Christs or broken Krishnas condemned to a life that the old around them were probably waiting to end. This evening as I stood in the fire temple, I wondered, would they ever know the privilege of finishing a good day with a good bath and a good hour of worship? Prosperity, like joy, is a gift of god. But people take them for granted. Worse, they squander them. You don't know when life will end. Yet, you are unwilling to live life truthfully, in the company of god. You have god's blessings -- you have a home, a happy heart, health.
From the Torah down to every holy book, a way of life has been prescribed -- not just a way, but the way. For, there is only one way. But not everyone prays every day. How many adults even thank the elements -- earth, water, air, fire -- or the provider?  If you are blessed, are you leading your life the way god would want you to? Your heart will give you the answer in a second. If a kitchen sink, leave alone a kitchen, is an unattainable luxury for you, what will you do with life? Nothing. Poverty, illiteracy and misery are chains. You can't even dream. Even a day is far from perfect. But for many life is near perfect, we have more than we need. Does this inspire you to take a leap towards a perfect life? If you don't begin now, when will you begin? Are you allowing life to fool you? Your mind will play tricks, it will let you believe what you want, but your heart will tell you what an illness, tragedy, upheaval usually does -- it will tell you, you aren't happy.
There is apathy towards living. What a waste of life! Small things have become attractive. Big things are cast aside. They belong only to the scriptures or some forgotten time when people worshipped a god. You have it all but you squander it all. Worse, you hanker after things that are transitory; things which won't last. Lifestyles have become like a gravy that has congealed. I have an inner reluctance towards things that depart from the simple things of life. I am compelled to withdraw. If s/he doesn't put a gleam in god's eye, s/he is dust. From dust, of dust, belonging to dust. Success is no measure, because these days just about anything is successful.    Neither is happiness a measure, because these days even the most twisted things make people happy. Things are far from being perfect. Therefore, sometimes you do go down; but at least, go down fighting for what is right. And, for what is really lasting- Cyrus H Merchant
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Something more by Cyrus :)

CYRUS - as i work on my new book (just three months before it trots to the bookstores) i find that more than ever now, i trust in the magical, the mystical, the miracle. i trust in the lyrical love of god. anyone who's been reading me over the years knows that, never mind what the world has taught and thought, i've stuck with what i've believed in. i hope you do too; it will take us together over the rainbow. god has to stoop if we aim lower. all my life i've tried to live by a higher standard, shunned all that people pursue, searched for the extraordinary. what's deep, what's pure, what's worth a real man's blood. i've gone for that. i'm not compromising, not for anybody, not for the love of anything. life is too special, you reduce it, not me, no thanks. know about the hen and the pig don't you? one sunny morning, haughty hen and podgy pig were walking down a rose-strewn street when they came upon a diner that announced "fresh ham & eggs". the hen was delighted, the pig was not. "ah, what joy," gasped the hen, "that's us". "no joy," groaned the pig. "it costs you nothing to give the eggs, the ham costs me my life." buddy, when you pick up the poor, mediocre stuff the majority is picking up, you lose your riches. i've had the graces of god and some hard work called living to be able to say no, no, no, to so much of that which people are still blindly and relentlessly pursuing. to our ownselves we will be true. brazilian born paulo coelho in `the alchemist' wrote: "keep listening to your heart. because then you'll know its dreams and wishes and you'll know how to deal with them. people are afraid to pursue their most important dreams because they feel they don't deserve them or that they'll be unable to achieve them. tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. and tell your heart that no heart has suffered when it goes in search of it's dreams because every second of the search for your dream is a second's encounter with god and with eternity." i hope everybody gets this, hope you do. trust again with childlike innocence. parsees the world over worship pariamai,a fairy godmother who wants us, her adult children, to be really happy. we can be. but only when we are pure in our pursuits, when we are bold, when we are childlike, for even the bible noted, "except ye become as little children again, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." big people playing big games with big money and big ambitions think they've struck splendor, but in the eyes of god, they're a sad bunch, the sorriest bunch. the hindu scriptures note beautifully that except for the "spiritual people, everyone else, even the richest of the richest, is poor." when you strike spiritual gold you're rich for many lifetimes. i believe in the grand play of the perfect universe, in an angelic and divine system which the eye cannot see until you see with your heart. trust in the better part of life, in instinct. instinct is everything. i go purely by instinct for it is, we are taught, the sudden suspension of our soul into the current of life where everything is written. that's why we know. there are stars and saints and angels and kingdoms and dreams more beautiful than fables. there is a world beyond shares and sex, new restaurants and manufactured new celebrities (how do you even tolerate these pathetic people, where's your taste and class gone?); ferragamo can wait, fate can't. on the other side of the daily circus, is an enchanted place called faith, where everything is possible. possible only if you believe. possible, like i have seen with my own life, only if you are willing to bear everything god gives you. possible only if you are obedient. possible, like the all-powerful prayer, `yatha ahu vairyo', says, only if you are able to sacrifice. never mind how painful it is. pain is the currency that can help you purchase paradise. be ready to lose all that you have to win all you want. sacrifice the things you think you desperately need because god knows - and you will later know - you can do without them, try giving up what you love, at his altar and his altar will fill your life with all the love you can hold in your heart. life doesn't always have to be lived for something, the greater life is the one lived against something. i know no other way to reciprocate god's generosity. most people give up when life gets too tough,but that's, i think, the best part. that's when the gift is just being wrapped. i know gifts are constantly being wrapped. you won't believe me.you'll tell your children magical stories, you've been told these stories yourself as children; but now you won't believe them. take a chance on me. try and live a little from where i'm living. like me, believe in the stars, the magical, the mystical, the miracle, the lyrical love of god. i challenge you with everything i've got that it is more real than your present life's reality.

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Heartfelt by Cyrus :)

HEARTFELT
what good is a work of art if it has holes in it? life is god's finest work of art, and yet bullet-ridden. everything good eclipsed by everybody's bad. the bad getting the glory. how we've massacred all that is beautiful, how we've buried the best things in life. how we're still stuck in the same place, while outside the sun shines. still no end to sickness, still no end to the demons that drove men crazy with sin, still no end to fears, still cruelty, still darkness. still the same mistakes. our mistakes. toss this aside. it doesn't concern you. it's the world outside. yes, you're right. wish i could be too. but every time i try, i turn around, and am drawn to feel for the god we continue to let down. i take it personally. nothing virtuous about it, doesn't make me bigger or better. just unhappier. behind windows, handshakes and smiles and a life that rages on, i see the shadows of things that aren't right. i'm asked why i feel this way. i guess i don't know any other way to feel. someone wrongs or someone weeps, someone dies or someone leaves someone behind and i go, like a puppy to a ball of wool. if it hurts god, it hurts me. kind of. rusi mulla, a very fine gentleman, who has lived a fine life has a toothache which turns out to be a pain in the jaw which turns out to be a tumour. this friend and guide taught me about the unimaginable power of prayer and all that there is to know about taking the road less travelled because that is where you find ultimate happiness. he tried zealously to keep young zorastrians from marrying outside the religion, this pained him as much as it did me. he said he'd help me do my best because i felt what few feel. this small man in a red cap sitting next to me at the karani agiary was my big hope. and yesterday he died. am i expected to turn away? how much of what we believe to be sacred is to be sacrificed again and again at the altar. just because we are few and lonely and unpopular with no one on my side? yes, right now all who are on the right track are under the wheel of life. the army of the almighty, thin. there are a few of you others who feel this same sense of helplessness. lost. i see you all: i see you abandoned, i see you broken, i see you struggling, i see you waiting, i see you sick; you who are tending to your bed-ridden child for years, you who've never known love, you who've been praying for happiness for years, you who can't have your own children, you who can't walk or hear or read. you who try so hard to uphold what is right. you who are let down by the people you love most. i see your pain, it is not your own cross, it is ours too, we all belong to each other, we have a commitment and a responsibility towards each other. but for most people, life is too fast. and too good for them. when things swing, nobody rings. heaven's door sees human drought. at good times god is a concept, not a reality they clutch tight. not until what they see outside their circle abruptly come in. we are all subject to the tyranny of surprises: husbands have heart attacks, bikes skid and boys go into comas, the one you love leaves you for another person, a toothache becomes a tumour. if i recollect correctly, god had said, "if you love me keep my commandments." keep them. because someday you might want done unto you what you have forgotten to do unto him. on the eve of our new year, i think of the commandments of our prophet and saviour zarathushtra not kept. i'm ashamed. what a farce of a celebration when this beautiful religion has come crumbling down. i wonder sadly if mulla's and many upright and honourable people's dream of marriage within the community will ever come true. we've all failed our religion terribly, makes me weep, but that's another column, one i don't want to write. it's never tomorrow what it was yesterday. they say there is hope for those who believe in ways the world has forgotten. the most victorious mushkil asan behram yazad promises, a miracle will find those who seek it.

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A treat from 2010 by Cyrus !

A heartfelt message for 2010...
CYRUS H MERCHANT
Have a little gift for you today.The gift of Patience.There is a proper time and way for every delight.If we dont know what will happen,who can tell when it will happen.So,patience.
When you start holding the hands of Patience,you will automatically be clasped by Peace.And if there is anything we need,it is a ray of peace.
As citizens of the world entering a new year we need to acknowledge our talent of staying-power.Every day from the rising sun of Japan to thirteen hours later in Canada,we are all in one large football field the inescapable hours of the day.In the game of life,hit by our own choices,our circumstances,struck down by jealous people,and to top it all,the flag of penalty waved at us from above,none have been able to dodge that.But we are still playing in such trying times.Dont take that away from us.And look,here we are all again,bushy-tailed and eagereyed as the score-board flaps out,in large numbers,2010.
This is a wonderful world when lived in the truth,in humility.No politician can steal our joy,our city is roughshod over with money muscle and locked-inlobbies,our civic authorities literally take us for a ride,yet a million of us ordinary folk get up and take the train every day,a metaphor that we are unstoppable.Wrong billings,scarce water supply,a corrupt machinery where we cant register our rage,our voices arent heard.We are nothing short of bullied by the system.And yet those guys cant dim our lights.
What can and does is when people hurt people.Each day everyone is just trying to do their best.None are exempt from the call of Life so why not respond with grace and the fellowship of encouragement Employers to respect those theyve employed.Loved ones to love those entrusted to them.
And art to live this good Life with,for we cannot live by bread alone.When was the last Heal the World or Dont Worry Be Happy recorded,one song that we all like and know.When will another Aamir or the same one make another Taare Zameen Pe,a movie that fabulously liberates people from their unspeakable burdens and sets legislation and closed minds in motion When will we get to meet new people,a new friendship that will bring a blast of heavenly air into our life.In a world hung up on romance,the irreplaceable gift of friendship is not sought.This year,may some true talent in every field crash through the cordon of paid-for-marketing and come in front of us the public with its rawness.We need songs and movies,writings and paintings that are true to their voice.It is a need,because art even though it imitates Life,reduces the sting of it.
Christmas,the season that engaged everyone in a conspiracy of love is still in the air,New Years Day is the bridge of hope.Today onwards,everyday of the new-year may we all wear the garment of praise: put on Faith,like our morning clothes,spray on Hope and walk in Love before we set out.
It should be a pretty good day.
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