I love Cliches !
I am serious, I really do love cliches. And I realized that only recently...or you can say I started loving them only recently. Life kind of runs in circles they say, so did mine. Like most of us, I grew up listening to all the cliches like honesty, sacrifice, goodness, selflessness, etc. In every school, every household and in almost all those old hindi movies in India....these ideas are resounding. You will find them everywhere. But may be an overdose of anything kills it, so did these ideas reach their saturation points for me. I grew up with these values and in my late teens I kind of got irritated with them. They no longer made too much sense. I live for myself and to fulfil my dreams....I thought. It was "me" everywhere. Every step that I took was for pleasing this "I". And on a second thought, may be this building up of "I" is important till a certain point in our lives.
But as I grew out of my college days, out of those career minded days, I felt different. My addiction to philosophy made me think on a higher plane. All the beautiful concepts in philosophy and spirituality put a charm on me. I keep thinking of them almost everyday to see how it can change the quality of my life and everyone around me. And wallah!!!.....In one such conversations with myself, I realized that these values are the cliches I got bored of some years back! At that point every value that I had heard as a kid just started making sense....wow can you believe it that its all true?!
Its all there, it was always there, but now I know why that is so important to me, to us! And life came to a full circle....its amazing how these things work.
After putting a lot of thought into it, I am listing my most loved cliches here. I think I will keep adding to this list as I come across more of them.
1. Honesty: Nothing can give you the peace of mind that this one will....it works like a charm!
2. Selflessness: Very very hard but even little bit of it gives a lot of peace and satisfaction. Ask anybody who has volunteered even once!
3. Nature: I never understood why people said they love nature. Oh nature is this, it calms you, it invigorates you, blah blah blah. May be I was too busy with myself to notice it, but today I get unprecedented happiness and satisfaction when I am in the wild....all those beautiful national parks of the US and the beautiful beaches here and in Konkan. Its blissful!
4. Karma Yoga: I donno how many can relate to this cliche. I think most of the Indians will. Oh how many times have we heard the shloka "Karmanyevadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana"?
I had rejected it big time when I was in college. Only now I realize how deep the meaning is and how it can really make a difference in your life.
5. No Backbiting/Gossiping: Oh yeah, most of us love it! If we don't have anything to talk about we surely can talk about someone else. I have seen it so commonplace with so many people, that we don't even realize that we are doing it. Not doing it was a cliche I grew up with, only today I know why not to do it. To put it in the most simple words, it's a complete waste of time and energy!
6. Be Good and good will come back to you: Come to think of it, isn't it the most easiet way to be?
7. Follow your heart: How can I follow it when I can't hear it?? But every school of philosophy says it and I believe in its truth. I won't say I can hear my heart everytime, but an attempt is always made.
8. Nothing is Impossible: I love this one! Kind of builds up my positive attitude and almost every time it is true if ofcourse we try enough. And its never enough unless we make it possible :) Intersting rt?
9. Do not borrow: This one I kept hearing from my grandmother "Mai". If you think about it, not borrowing will help develop and sustain a happy and long lasting relationship with everyone around us. Its just better that way I feel.
10. Love: "I always had a choice between love and hate, but I chose love and I am here today"-- A.R. Rahman. In one of his interviews he said, "I see every situation in my life and around me thru' the lens of love."
I just realized that this blog turned out to be way more serious and may be preachy than what I intended it to be. I hope it did not bore you too much! The spirit of it is how life comes back to where you left it and I hope you take it in that spirit. Again this is a cliche and I love it too :)
But as I grew out of my college days, out of those career minded days, I felt different. My addiction to philosophy made me think on a higher plane. All the beautiful concepts in philosophy and spirituality put a charm on me. I keep thinking of them almost everyday to see how it can change the quality of my life and everyone around me. And wallah!!!.....In one such conversations with myself, I realized that these values are the cliches I got bored of some years back! At that point every value that I had heard as a kid just started making sense....wow can you believe it that its all true?!
Its all there, it was always there, but now I know why that is so important to me, to us! And life came to a full circle....its amazing how these things work.
After putting a lot of thought into it, I am listing my most loved cliches here. I think I will keep adding to this list as I come across more of them.
1. Honesty: Nothing can give you the peace of mind that this one will....it works like a charm!
2. Selflessness: Very very hard but even little bit of it gives a lot of peace and satisfaction. Ask anybody who has volunteered even once!
3. Nature: I never understood why people said they love nature. Oh nature is this, it calms you, it invigorates you, blah blah blah. May be I was too busy with myself to notice it, but today I get unprecedented happiness and satisfaction when I am in the wild....all those beautiful national parks of the US and the beautiful beaches here and in Konkan. Its blissful!
4. Karma Yoga: I donno how many can relate to this cliche. I think most of the Indians will. Oh how many times have we heard the shloka "Karmanyevadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana"?
I had rejected it big time when I was in college. Only now I realize how deep the meaning is and how it can really make a difference in your life.
5. No Backbiting/Gossiping: Oh yeah, most of us love it! If we don't have anything to talk about we surely can talk about someone else. I have seen it so commonplace with so many people, that we don't even realize that we are doing it. Not doing it was a cliche I grew up with, only today I know why not to do it. To put it in the most simple words, it's a complete waste of time and energy!
6. Be Good and good will come back to you: Come to think of it, isn't it the most easiet way to be?
7. Follow your heart: How can I follow it when I can't hear it?? But every school of philosophy says it and I believe in its truth. I won't say I can hear my heart everytime, but an attempt is always made.
8. Nothing is Impossible: I love this one! Kind of builds up my positive attitude and almost every time it is true if ofcourse we try enough. And its never enough unless we make it possible :) Intersting rt?
9. Do not borrow: This one I kept hearing from my grandmother "Mai". If you think about it, not borrowing will help develop and sustain a happy and long lasting relationship with everyone around us. Its just better that way I feel.
10. Love: "I always had a choice between love and hate, but I chose love and I am here today"-- A.R. Rahman. In one of his interviews he said, "I see every situation in my life and around me thru' the lens of love."
I just realized that this blog turned out to be way more serious and may be preachy than what I intended it to be. I hope it did not bore you too much! The spirit of it is how life comes back to where you left it and I hope you take it in that spirit. Again this is a cliche and I love it too :)
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