An anonymous life..

In a world where people bare open their daily lives to the public, I prefer to live an intensely private life. Protected from the glare of the public eye, unsolicited interruptions and distractions, I can focus on what is truly important to me. 

In an obscure corner of the world, I seek to live a quiet, unassuming life. One can live a creative and content life despite being a nobody to the world at large. In anonymity brews the golden richness of an inner life. I see, feel, think, love and learn and just as quietly I hope to take leave of this magnificent world.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!  - Emily Dickenson

I asked for fame, so others would know me; I was given obscurity, that I might know myself. - Billy Mills, Oglala Lakota

In the light and dust I find my freedom ..

We become truly free only when we transcend the limits of this little body and envelop the limitless. When we see ourselves as part of one big whole, nothing will feel alien to us. We will become one with everything there is ..the light, the dust and the grass. Our mind expands into the infinity of the universe and our thoughts become free to roam into its farthest corners.

The dust and light

Tagore, the philosopher poet sings of this freedom in his song Aamar mukti ..

My freedom is in the light of the sky
My freedom is in the dust, in the grass
Far beyond the mind and body I lose myself
My freedom soars in the melody of songs
My freedom is in the mind that is in everyone
Pain and danger made trifle by hard labor
My soul burns as a flame in the altar of the creator,
My freedom comes when I offer myself to thee

(Adapted from the translation by Ratna De) 

Aamar mukti aaloy aaloy ei aakashe,
Aamar mukti dhulay dhulay ghaase ghaase.
Dehomoner sudur paare haariye pheli aaponare,
Gaaner sure aamar mukti urdhe bhaase.
Aamar mukti sarbojaner moner maajhe,
Dukkhobipad-tuchchho-kara kotthin kaaje.
Bishwodhaatar jogyoshaala atmohomer bonhi jwaala -
Jiban jeno diyi aahuti mukti-aashe.

Call of the Inner child ..

Within each of us dwells a childlike spirit needing attention. Like a child craves for the mother's undivided attention, the 'inner child" yearns for our company.

Have you felt, at times the urge to abandon all chores and worldly cares? It is a call to commune with the inner child in leisure and solitude. So long as this call is neglected, there will be a restlessness and a nameless longing within us. We can be content only when we nourish the inner child.

The poet Tagore laments this neglect in the poem Tumi amay dekechhile chhutir nimontrone ..

You called me, to join you
On a day of leisure
I was far away from you
I know not what I was looking for

When finally I arrived at your shore
The setting sun was taking his last peek of the day
Through the mountain top, gazing at the glittering daffodils
And I realized my day has ended, unmindful and careless

You called me, to join you
On a day of leisure

Your writings, I see in the garland of shiuli flowers

Your words, in the glow of dawn, as if touched by gold

Your belated invitation reached this tired soul

On a cold night when bruised flowers are falling
Swept by the wind, listless in your absence.

You called me, to join you
On a day of leisure

(Translation credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3bRLN3twm8&list=RDB3bRLN3twm8&start_radio=1&t=1 )