Aug 26, 2009, 12.00am IST
Mangesh Ghogre.
Ever wondered what song would best describe your life right now? What if you could change the song to your liking?
If your life is as sombre as a ghazal, how about just switching to a racy number to change the mood? If life is moving just too fast for you to catch your breath, you could tune in to something more sedate, an opera, maybe.
If each one of us could choose the song of the moment, we'd end up as DJs, setting the music to suit the mood or change the mood. If you are in a crabby mood, being your own DJ could become problematic - you might end up making matters worse. Fortunately, we do have a DJ who calls the tunes; the Divine DJ, the Almighty.
Unlike radio and television disc jockeys, the Divine DJ is unpredictable. Just when you think you love that slow, relaxing number, DJ God changes track. You need to rev up to keep pace. At other times He changes the tempo from fast to slow and we find our lives slowing down from a foot-tapping racy track to a painfully slow song.
A slow track may translate as a setback in your professional career; it could be the loss of a dear one or there could be no apparent reason for the switch. Things just start to go slow. We usually associate such times with a 'rough patch'; times when we get into an introspective mode and try to overcome our shortcomings and build on our strengths. Even before we know it, we suddenly find ourselves out of the woods and the life song changes track. It's rock and roll once again.
Does this mean we should keep dancing to our DJ's music? The answer is `yes'. However, one can create space for some amount of autonomy by maintaining emotional equanimity through changing tracks. This will give us the strength to endure trying times as well as not go overboard when life is on a roll. It's called ekagrata; it signifies that our emotional development lies in achieving greater control over the ever-jockeying mind.
To go a step further, although the Divine DJ is in overall control, we can, by being alert and aware of our inner selves, train ourselves to react positively to any given situation. Our reaction will decide what lies in store for us and in that sense, we turn out to be our own DJ. This is svabhaav, this is the song of our choice. As we experience the many songs of life played by the Divine DJ, we too can develop our svabhaav to come up with a signature song, our favourite number that would define the way we are.
The challenge is to maintain our ekagrata and increase the awareness of our svabhaav. Too often we fail to do that. Sometimes an overzealous ekagrata prevents us from seeing beyond a sad song. We allow ourselves to wallow in self-pity and slip into inertia or become anxious and agitated. At other times, due to a lack of awareness, our svabhaav confuses the DJ's cheerful tune for a sombre one and vice versa. Then we get confused.
What is important is be open to the grace of God. Let's not worry about what's next on the cue; just enjoy the song, and one day, the Song of God will reveal itself to the true seeker, transporting her to a state of bliss.
E-mail: mangeshghogre@yahoo.com
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