"Now close your eyes....imagine something
peaceful...try to remember something that makes you happy...your childhood,
your mom, a day at the beach....go back...."
As the teacher says these soothing words at the
end of the session, and I frantically try to transport myself to a happy, calm,
serene, soothing place outside of the world around me. The only calming thing
that pops up in my mind is the faces of my children...but it is not what the
teacher means when he wants us to experience meditative sleep/ happiness in
those five minutes of shavaasan.
As I wonder why it takes me forever to take my
mind to happy times, I discover that it is because I find calm at an unusual
place.
I find that the most appealing images of life to
me are those of people eating - in a restaurant (not a fancy one with piano
playing the background, and the fountain's tricking sound soothing you; but
those of common tea shops and Bikanerwala's, and Haldiram's and the likes), in
a food court, on the bus and train stations, in fast food outlets, in offices,
at home..... Everywhere.
The reason is pretty simple. I find that looking
at all the people eating makes me happy because it tells me that all is not yet
lost. It tells me that in spite of knowing that they are eating stuff that is
supposed to be rich in all the things bad for us- oil, sugar and salt, cholesterol
and saturated fats- they are eating it and they look fine. It is comforting in
an unusual way.
Yes, it might be bad for the body but it tells me
that so many people are healthy enough to eat this 'bad' stuff- may be once in
a week, once in a month or even daily. Their hearts are in the right place,
doing the job they are meant to do; their muscles and bones will still take
them back to their cars and their homes and their offices, their waistlines are
never going to go away but then they know it....it is a sin they a committing
very knowingly, and enjoying it too. It fills me with a sense of calm and peace
to see the world around me at that point immersed in eating what they want to,
and enjoying every bite that they take...right from the young children to their
grandparents. It tells me that we all are in the same boat, even if it will
eventually sink one day; it makes me feel a part of the bigger community of
human beings who are committing the same mistakes (another way of saying that
it reduces my personal guilt!) and most importantly, it takes my mind away from
the harsher realities of food- hunger, pesticides, additives, preservatives
(all the E numbers), hormone fed fruits, veggies and chickens, artery
blockages, reduced immunities, gastric infections, tipping needles on the
weighing scale, failed kidneys and livers, and doctors.
I know, it is warped logic, totally opposite of
what I tell myself and my kids....but it is calming, even if only for a little while.
There is no rule about what should or should not
calm you, is there?
