The other day I was watching a talent show on MAA TV, hosted by S. P. Balu. It is titled Padutha Theeyaga (even though awkward it may sound, the word-to-word translation in to English comes down to “I will sing sweetly.”)
Every week some renowned personality from the world of music is invited as the judge. That week, they called the music director, Vidya Sagar.
When Vidya Sagar came on screen, I felt some kind of déjà vu and nostalgia struck me slightly and I had goose worms and a chill through my spine.
The memories from an incident almost ten years ago came to my mind’s eye vividly.
***
It was in 1997 when I went to a family trip to Tirupathi with my family: my father, mother and my brother. The number of visitors at this shrine is so high that people have to wait for their turn to get into the temple, and then wait for hours together before they can see the idol of Lord Balaji.
So, we too were waiting for our turn and got ourselves lodged in the temple’s accommodation facility. That day while waiting for dinner time, my brother, who was 12 years of age at that time, and I, one-and-half years elder to him were sitting on a cement bench. I was explaining to him about the galaxies and star formation about which I studied in a science fiction some days ago.
After some time, I realized that somebody was sitting behind us on the bench to our back. Four guys, perhaps in their late 20s, were amusingly listening to what I was telling to my brother.
One of them interrupted me and asked some question from the explanations I was giving, which lead to a conversation with them. So, they asked our details and also introduced themselves. One of them, pointing to another guy told me that he is Vidya Sagar.
I looked at him with a blank face depicting an expression of “So, what?” he asked me, “Don’t you know Vidya Sagar?” “He is a very famous music director.”
Now, I understood that they were trying to pull my leg; or perhaps making fun of that guy. Thereafter, I started giving them satirical replies to the attempts they were making to convince me that he was indeed a famous music director.
After an hour of conversation, we dispersed and had our dinner. They actually invited me to their room which was just in the next block of the accommodation facility we were lodging. So, after dinner I went to their room and conversed for another hour or so, during which time they continued their efforts to convince me that he is a music director for movies.
Finally, after another hour of conversation I came back to my room still unconvinced about what they were telling me.
***
But when I saw the judge on MAA TV’s talent show, I realized that that person was the one whom I met in Tirupathi, implying that that the one I met there was indeed the famous music director!
Somehow, I felt that there is a lesson to be learnt from this whole flashback. After meditating a bit on that, I realized that the lesson is about “not accepting that beautiful and pleasant coincidences happen to us all the time.”
As I meditated on my feelings of that day ten years ago, I understood the reason behind my not believing that the person could be a famous music director. It was because I felt that such a pleasant surprise couldn’t happen to me. I was thinking, “How could a famous music director like Vidya Sagar, come and eavesdrop on my amateur conversation and be impressed with it?”
Somewhere deep down my heart, I did not believe that I deserve such a pleasant surprise. So, I did not accept the possibility of it at all. Of course, this is a very simple act of denying positive possibilities in life. This is what happens to most of us.
However, there are more intense and disastrous denials that people resort to. When we come across something miraculous happening in our lives we start backing off thinking, subconsciously, that we do not deserve what we are getting. There are also instances when people even sabotage success and pleasure just because of this paradigm.
Remember, the first principle of being happy is accepting that You Can Be Happy and that You Need To Be Happy.
If you are in a habit of self-denial, stop it at once. See the beautiful side of your life and tell yourself that everyone is unique and everyone gets their share of pain and pleasure.
Do not consider pain as negative and pleasure as positive. Pain is just an alarm of wrong-doing and Pleasure is reinforcement of right-doing.
The moral of the story is: Know that you are as important to the universe as anyone else is, no matter what your state of affairs is like.
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