A daily dose of Gayatri on!

When I decided to share the news of Ranjan's cancer with friends and family, I received a mail from someone very dear and in it he said: you are going to be buffeted by commiserations that will irk, advise, questions and interrogations sage as well as malicious..! I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who reached out to me from every corner of the planet. Most of them were persons that came into my life through Project Why and in some cases people I had never met face to face. I was also touched by the reaction of my family members, many of whom I rarely meet or talk to for varied reasons. Everyone of those alive, ranging from 90+ to 20 called in person or on the phone and offered to help should the need arise. Everyone of them sounded sincere and let us leave it at that. I do not think it will go further but it was comforting. A cousin even went to the extent of reaching out to Ranjan directly - they have been to the same school - and convinced him to meet some healer who would help him. I was completely stunned when Ranjan accepted to do so and has been in touch with the said healer on his own. It is really a first, as he has always been cynical or at the very best tolerating and non interfering when I decide to perform some religious event. He often takes off for a game of golf. I guess cancer changes your attitude to things. But let us get back to the point of this post.

There is a part of the 'family', not mine, that has, for reasons I will not go into as they are hurtful and negative and I have no place for such feelings in this fight, cut me off altogether. However following the news of Ranjan's cancer has decided to send a SMS a day, written in that most irritating new age way of 'c u' for 'see you' that get my goat. Each message as the phrase 'Gayatri on'. It took me some time to decipher the fact that it meant that the person was chanting the Gayatri Mantra for him. It felt irksome. If I do something for the well being of someone I profess to care for, I do it discreetly without reminding the person concerned every single day that I am doing something for him. The whole purpose and sanctity of the prayer or pledge is lost. Why the hell do you want the world to know, and most of all why do you want the person you are doing it for to be reminded every day that you ARE doing something for him/her!

In this time of strife this daily dose of Gayatri on is the only irritant I have to face. So help me God. Or wait, as in everything else these days, is there a silver lining of sorts? Difficult to figure out at first as this irritant emanates from a corner that has left no stone unturned to hurt me and those I love.

The Gayatri itself comes to us from the RigVeda and asks us in its purest form to beseech the Absolute Creator to stimulate our intellect and bestow upon us true knowledge or in other words to open our third eye. Many benefits have been attributed to it from removing obstacles to lead us to eternal truths. I guess it all depends of where you are on the road to the eternal. Each one can us can derive the depth of the meaning we want to attach to it. Many have forgotten this. Today the Gayatri has become the mantra you loop on your music device every morning for a stipulated time in your shop be it in a small market or a mall; of the one you chant at every havan or prayer meeting; the one you learn at school just as we as convent kids learnt the Lord's prayer. Being reminded of it every day, even in an annoying way, gently nudges me to remember its true meaning and correct my attitude to the inevitable. It is a process I probably have begun. Perhaps it is time to go deeper and cleanse myself of the negativity I hold on to unnecessarily. Easily said than done. But will give it a go!