When hate overwhelms your heart and being, listen to this: never fails to make my eyes moist. My bhakthi, my spirituality is this.
My mom who did not live for long, took us to chapels to light candles. When we fell sick, we got no allopathic medication. Only some herbs and a visit to a temple and a masjid. Remember vaguely an old man doing some tricks with a stick after which I got okay after running temperature for days. In Tamil we call it ‘mandhirikkaradhu.’ As my mother also taught the hearing and speech impaired middle school girls who she brought home for weekends or festivals sometimes, I was blessed to grow up without biases and with acceptance of everything. Even disability was not strange to me as visit to my mom’s school was very common during summer vacations, their school days, sports days etc.
Today I spend an year between three totally different countries. A couple of months in the US, rest of the time divided between Middle east and India. Living amid varied hues of people and different cultures has made me aware of our shortcomings as well as advantages. To me, this is what makes me a Hindu.
Om Shanthi.
vijiravindran's 