Vamsi is getting ready to marry soon. We are going back in time, some 30 years when we got married. The quintessential question is how do we keep the wedding processes simple and elegant? Can we have a physical set of functions, and live-streamed too? Can we have less ‘noise’ and ‘cacophony’? Can we have less commotion on stage(s)? Can we make it less ‘complicated’? Can the processes have a lower ‘time frame’? Can some processes be cut short? Without being rushed. Less travel? Less photoshoots? Can’t the live stream obviate photography and video shooting disturbing the wedding process flows? Less number of photographers?
Can’t we just have the essentials? do we need all of these – mangala snaanam, Gowri/Ganesh puja and Pradaanam, Kanyadaanam, Panigrahanam, ‘na ati charaami’ vows, sumuhurtham (cumin and jaggery – jeelakarra bellam on each other’s head), change into madhuparakams, mangal sutra dhaarana, talambraalu and exchange of garlands et al, saptapadi with brahmamudi, seeing Arundhati nakshtra, and seeking blessings of the elders?
Since most guests are actually family or virtually family, they can feel at home. Can we make them feel more at home? As personal as possible. Can we invite electronically? Some subtle music? No hungama, plasticity, plastic, is it possible?
Is it possible to have some 100 hours of simple elegance? For reaching an understanding that let us be together, let us seek blessings and let us be graceful in accepting the wishes and blessings. Why not?
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore will be 161 in a week. A versatile genius in writing, music, painting, etc. Shantinketan. Viswabharathi. A small book of 103 song offerings, Gitanjali, got him the Nobel prize.
“We have been made endless … the little flutes lose their limits in joy … we ask for a moment’s indulgence to sit side by side ….”
“We live in the hope … Our desires are many … We have no sleep … keep looking into the darkness … for our paths … let us rest with trust …”
“Why do we ever miss the sight of the person whose breath touches us in our sleep …”
“Our debts are large, our failures great, our shame secret and heavy … our love keeps us free … our free knowledge keeps us free … let us surrender to our will with love … new melodies break forth … new tracks are revealed with their wonders … the air is filling with the promise … and smiles of love are all around …”
“Our world is weaving words in our minds and our joy is adding music. We give ourselves to us in love and we feel the entire sweetness in us … it is the innermost who awakens our being with her/his deep hidden touches … All our desires ripen into fruits … yet there is time.”
“Our whole bodies and our limbs have thrilled with its touch. If this is the end, let it come. Let us flow with our diverse strains, contradictions, flow into a single current and flow to a sea of silence …” Let us keep flowing in the lap of the nature.
Gitanjali pushes us towards the most critical and essential transition of life. Vaanaprastha. Journeying into woods, hills, rivers, communities. Journeying into mentoring and sounding board roles. Can it be parivrajaka? Can it be focused outside of self? Can the diet be more fruits, raw? Can it be a spiritual pursuit/practice? Are we already one? In any case, we need to get ready. For the simple and elegant flows of life, despite diverse strains and contradictions.
We are already into this transition. Let us appreciate this and behave as per its sutra. Can we? Can we grow into them? Can we play the roles accordingly? Can we grow less and less detached? With power, wealth, strength, beauty, youth, love, emotions, body, mind?
Yes, we can. If we get ready and practice to let go. In the flow of N. For 7L.
Join us in the yoga of journeying into useful coexistence and co-action – prasthanayoga for 7L.