The all encompassing eye

"WHAT YOU ARE SEEING IS NOT REALLY WHAT IT IS.THAT WAS NOT IT"S FORM BEFORE YOU SAW IT, NOR WILL IT BE SO AFTERWARDS.. FOR ALL THINGS ARE MUTABLE"

I read this somewhere and found it to be very true and quite eminently practicable."Let"s start practicing it", i told, myself.....May be i will start getting wiser,.. After all, i am getting on in years and it is time i caught up with some enlightenment of the soul,and at least at this age should find out what is what.

One has to develop a comprehensive view to to understand this factor of mutability....i read...... just like the bird"s eye view,we used to study about in our childhood.One has to view the front,sides and even the back of our noses.. an improvement on the winged creature.

I tried to follow this golden maxim and found out the result a bit startling....Now i can not look at a new sari without picturing mentally how it is going to look in few more days,......faded, crumpling at the hems ,and in tatters..worse...thrown into a rag bin........

Now i take up a glass of water, stare into it as i remember how all the water molecules in the earth"s atmosphere do not decrease or increase in volume ..... just get recycled and recirculated......The liquid in this tumbler may very well be the same molecules someone drank ages ago, ..or..is the raindrops in a forest,..the roof of an igloo,...the tear drop of a mother,...the perspiration of a labourer,...or..yuck ....the piss of an animal.....

But ,the weirdest thing happens as you look at people"s faces....You get to see a, young , nubile girl and foresee the lovely curls going grey,...bags forming under the bright eyes,,and she turning out to be just like her mother or grand mother.....a young boy changing.....hair receding,..pot bellied...... into a tottering, senile old fellow...

I see a bright new painted building, looking all crisp and shiny like a new currency note,and know exactly where it is going to show it"s ugly side in a few more years.....the railings are going to be grubby.....the windows are the first to take rust.....the corners of the landings....ugh..

You walk about a place,..and it has a history...Once i went to Alampur in Kurnool district and they told me it was a bustling city during chalukya period. Today it is only a very dry, hot,little hamlet....Another time i was at Pedavegi,,,and it seems it was a capital city for the vengi kings just few hundred years back.Now there is not even a standing remnant of it....Once the bay was supposed to be reaching the Thirumala hills, and now it receded back till Nellore and Madras.

Well......yes...this type of philosophical, bird"s eye viewing was quite awesome..and unnerving.....but did not seem to deter me for long....Just a few moments of introspection......I continue to wear new sarees, drink lots of water , appreciate the good looks of others, and take joy in the present....Just shows that by itself KNOWLEDGE (jnanam) is not going to influence our reaction to our urges and feelings.