Vasundhara kamal

Jesus in the carols 

The Christmas carol I researched about is "Silent night". When I reached the church, I could hear that the carol was being sung in Korean but because I was able to recognize the melody, I was able to interpret that the carol was as mentioned before.

It was written by Father Joseph Mohr in 1818. The melody of the song was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber and performed for the first time by both of them during the mass on the night of December 24 at the St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria. The carol is basically talking about the birth of Jesus in a poetic manner.

In Luke, Chapter 2 , "¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told." is equivalent to the line "Shepherds quake at the sight" from the carol.

Jesus is portrayed as a newly born baby to whom the carol is being sung as a lullaby by his mother, as she says "Sleep in heavenly peace". He is called "Holy Infant", "the Saviour" and "Son of God". He gives to the people the peace they have been looking for and a state of tranquility where ever they have been living.

Reflection :

I wasn't able to find much information on what Jesus is giving or bringing to the people so therefore I had to the answer the last question on the basis of my own interpretation of the carol. But anyway, while I was finding information on this carol, I came across a number of melodious versions of this carol and enjoyed listening to all of them. I was also enthralled to read about how this carol became famous and sung in different languages. All in all, it was really a great experience to go to the church and look at how the carols were being sung. 

My Shema

My God has no human body or any other physical feature and is only a light that is everlasting. It shines even brighter than the largest shining planet in the universe. It comes down on the Earth taking up a human body form whenever his devotees are in need of some kind of help.

Back in India, December 2007, my great-grandfather was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and one day what happened was that everyone in my grandparents house was sleeping when he suddenly just went out of the house. When everyone woke up and realized that he was gone, we all started searching for him. For two back-to-back nights he was not found. My father and my uncle reported about my great-grandfather at the police station. On the third day, he was brought back home by an auto driver who said that a man told him to  drop my grandfather at a specific address that was written in a small book found in my great-grandfather's pocket.
Me and my family have always considered that man to be God who helped us when we were in need. He was the one who took out that small book from my great-grandfather's pocket and told the auto-driver to drop my great grandfather to our house.

I remember God by taking out 5 minutes from my entire day's schedule and say a short prayer in mind to thank him for the blessings he has bestowed on me.

My shema
" Dear God, the most powerful and eternal, with no human body and only a light, you help me whenever I am in the most difficult situations of my life. Hopefully, I will never stop praying to you and be with you always and never lose faith in you".



BUDDHISM REFLECTION

The meditation we did in class was a soul-enriching experience for me because it allowed to be in control of my mind.

Initially the task was difficult because I was getting distracted due to certain thoughts such as my about to come up Chemistry test but then after a while, when I was sitting with my eyes closed and repeating those mantras such as "All the things in life are  impermanent " and "Nothing has a permanent self", it kind of dawned on me that my marks won't really matter after a point of time and that currently I have to just concentrate on something more important such as meditation and hopefully attain enlightenment because our purpose in life is basically that. In the entire 8 fold path, positive thoughts and silence helped me to concentrate and meditate . It made me more optimistic about life and taught me that life is much more than just about scores, it is about providing service to the needy without causing any harm to them, which is a component of the 8 fold path of Buddhism - Right conduct. As well as to do the right things to the best of my capability without doing anything evil- Right effort.  

The trip to Bongwonsa temple was literally beautiful. First of all when we were walking towards the temple through the forest, I was able to connect with nature and feel that my feet were kissing the ground. The Bongwonsa temple was mesmerizing . The most great aspect of the temple was the 800 Buddhists. Buddhism is lived out at Bongwonsa by burning incense sticks and by practicing the Yeingsanjae ritual in which offerings are made to the Buddha for enlightenment of all the humans on earth and peace to everyone. The kind of Buddhism practiced at that temple is most probably the Mahayana and Theravada. When we were at the temple many people were praying and probably practiced Mahayana because this type of Buddhism involves self-sacrifice and compassion for all living beings.

The one new insight I learnt about myself was that I can control my mind if I just focus on what I have to do, and about Buddhism is that this religion is about releasing the desires that we inherit and living life with the basic needs and being happy with those blessings.            

HINDUISM IN ACTION

“’Love thy neighbor as thyself’ is not something we Hindus prescribe to, but it is something we could learn from.”

This quote was said by Gandhi when he tells his wife to clean the latrine but his wife refuses to do so because it was the work of the untouchables, the lowest caste in the Hindu society. But by saying that Gandhi tells us that all humans are equal and that we should love each other just like how we love ourselves, regardless of their color, caste, religion etc. No one is in this world is upper or lower and any kind of work is not prescribed for a particular section of the society. All of us are made of the same flesh therefore we all are equal.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS.”

In the movie Gandhi, it is not shown at what particular moment and situation of his life he speaks the line. This is heard at the last when his ashes are being poured into the river Ganges by Jawaharlal Nehru. But still we can draw a lot of meaning from this line. From the article written by Martin Green, reporter from NY Times January 30^th 1983, we can see how Gandhi used to be the peacemaker between egoistic Indian leaders fighting for individual political goals.  He always used to speak the truth even when there were fights among the boys of his school so that he could resolve it peacefully. Also in the movie, his ability to remove the British Government with his truthfulness proves us that tyrants have always fallen.  Gandhi even laid his life for his principles as mentioned above, advising different religious groups to stop violence, and live and sort out differences through peaceful means.

Yoga

While laying down and bringing my entire body and soul to rest, I felt at peace after so much of stress and tension. We did Raja yoga where physical exercises are done to bring discipline to the body and soul. I am a Hindu. I haven't really practiced Raja yoga. But after this activity I do feel that my path to nirvana can be obtained through yoga because I was calm while doing it and hopefully can one day discover my inner being, my atman, so that I can experience Brahman. 

Dzi Beads

In Tibet, I carve you on agate stones

And draw those different symbols

of colors- white, black and brown

so that 12 eyes can appear.

 Through your multiple eyes

you ward off evil spirits

and make life appear brighter

and protect us forever.

 I fear that something evil is looming around me

I fear I might suffer gravely

As long as I have you in my necklace

please protect me immensely.