Thursday 19 July 2018

NONE OF US TRULY WINS UNTIL WE ALL WIN

Balachander Aiya shared a beautiful post that he came across in a Whatsapp group.
When a newspaper reporter interviewed a farmer who grew award winning maize each year he entered his maize in the agricultural show, it was revealed that the farmer shared his seed with his neighbours.
Amazed, the reporter asked, “How can you afford to share your best seed with your neighbours when they are entering their maize in competition with yours each year?”
The farmer smiled knowingly and explained, ​“The wind picks up pollen from the ripening maize and swirls it from field to field.​ If my neighbours grow inferior maize, cross pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my maize. If I am to grow good maize, I must help my neighbours grow a good crop. 
So it is with our lives. Those who want to live meaningfully and well, must help enrich the lives of others. For the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. 
And those who choose to be happy, must help others find happiness. For the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all. 
Call it power of collectivity.
Call it a principle of success.
Call it a law of life. The fact remains, “None of us truly wins, until we all win.” Know this secret as you grow older! 
In life, when you help the people around you to be good, you surely become the best.
Which reminds me of the story of the three seekers who made it to the walls of the kingdom of god. The first seeker grabs the ladder perched against the wall and climbs it hurriedly in eagerness and anticipation of what he would see beyond the walls. Once on top of the ledge of the wall his face lights up and he plunges over the side of the wall into the inner courtyard, without even looking back at the congregation that had by now gathered behind him. The next seeker climbs the ladder and reaches the top. He exclaims in joy and shouts out to the others what he sees over the wall. He too takes the plunge. The third seeker goes up the ladder, perches on the top, tells the rest about what he saw, disappears beyond the wall only to return to the folks he left behind with the news and his experience while in the kingdom of god. Which seeker would we want to be?

It is said that many a saint of a bygone era, had taken all those assembled around them along as they merged together with Erai.

True to the statement, “None of us truly wins, until we all win”, when I met Tavayogi he told me it was not enough that I came to the worship of the Siddhas but bring the family too. I am blessed to have a family that followed suite. Today I have an extended family at AVM who have all taken the Holy feet of Agathiyar and live a meaningful life. We help each other attain the life envisioned for us by Agathiyar, neither out-beating the other or being envious or jealous of another's achievement. Agathiyar too did not give a standard formula for all but instead is leading each one with specific directives, customizing spirituality for each. It has been a wonderful journey of discovery and we look forward to more revelations and guidance from Agathiyar.