Category: Uncategorized

What is Normal?

G posed these questions to us on the morning of 26th March:

What is natural? What is dependence? 

What is natural expression?

Can there be any expression which is outside the framework of reward and punishment? 

How am I different from the animal that sits alone in the jungle after finishing its food? If that is natural, then are we unnatural?

He concluded by saying:
If I am really concerned about human beings, I have to find out what is normal, not what is natural. 

Fire will burn

G is like a massive full-blown flower intoxicating us with his life-giving nectar and fragrance that nourishes and sustains. The deeper I go into things, seeing them in the light of his living and functioning, the more I feel unburdened. I feel stable and confident. How over the last four and a half years, by just being in his company, not meditating, not practising anything, not following any discipline, I feel I have my two feet on the ground, remarkably free from the massive burden of sorrow and self-generated agony that used to bother me since a very young age. The big hollow inside me that used to eat up and drain all my energy till I met him, has been filled to the brim with his living essence. There’s little room left for things that are not necessary or congenial for me to live and function in this complex world of people and ideas. His presence does not allow my conditionings to gather steam and gain momentum. That is how they begin to lose their iron-grip. It is the very nature and property of the order that is functioning in him. For the sense of self, it is akin to playing with fire. If it continues to engage with the fire, it will get burnt for sure. 

The Oasis Song

I wrote, composed and sang this song during the Corona lockdown when I was in Kolkata with Guha in 2019. My friend Venkatesh DC (Venky), who is an accomplished musician, did the music arrangement in his studio in Bengaluru.

I had given up singing and music for 13 years when I met Guha in October 2016. I was completely out of practice and my voice was shaky and hoarse. He soon found out that I was a trained singer and started encouraging me to sing. He would make me sing in front of his friends very often and announce to everybody how good I was. I noticed he would close his eyes and conk out every time I sang. He would tell me, “You have something in your voice. You start singing, I close my eyes and I am out.” Since then I have recorded numerous songs. My voice, as I know it, has never sounded better.

Lyrics

It is an oasis in the desert of humanity
I stumbled upon by chance, that took away my misery
In the desert of humanity ... it is an oasis

When I was suffering
I didn't know what I was missing
I know not what happened to me
Other than his company
In the desert of humanity ... it is an oasis

This seclusion magnificent!
Oh what a resonance!
Each cell, each neuron singing its own song
I am the greatest witness of this cosmic symphony
No one can hold a candle to it
Not even Bach or Beethoven

Now you see what I mean when I say
I am in love with Nature 
And its protege, Oh G!