AMBIGUITY, SADHGURU AND MY TRAVEL PLANS FOR THE NEXT 8 WEEKS
When I woke up this morning, my good friend MC from KL had
sent a discourse about Planning your Life by the south Indian sage, Sadhguru.
The same feeling of Déjà vu as I have found that many of the Yogic
Philosophical thoughts resonate with what Indians in USA has taught me. I
realize that most people, think of the present time and look at their plans
with that prism but if you have studied or belong to a group of people who have
distilled the knowledge of centuries, then plan that appear ACUTE all of a
sudden become CHRONIC, that has been plaguing your mind or lying dormant trying
to protect your personality.
Indians have taught me that Chaos and Ambiguity is what is
normal and the European concept of Certainty brings additional conflicts. Only if
you have centuries of understanding can you accept ambiguity in the present as
being part of your life. For most people, the chaos or ambiguity in their
present day life is seen as a failure to plan or a failure in their individual
personality, not take into consideration the universal aspect of their
individual sensation.
In the discourse my friend MC sent me, there is a famous
sentence by Sadhguru: You can plan for tomorrow but you cannot plan tomorrow.
Look at the political events, thirty years ago, the romantic image of the Arabs
as portrayed by Omar Sharif in the movie Lawrence of Arabia did not predict
that the very same image would be seen as murderous and barbaric!
I have to do a presentation in Nebraska, USA in two days’
time (Culture, Technology and Culture) and then begins an eight week long
wandering. Only the dates are written in the agenda, but I know that things
that are supposed to happen will happen and that the people I need to meet, I
will be meeting them.
Reminded me of what my Meskwaki teacher said to me: Stop
looking for people, those who need to meet, would come your way
Immediately after the talk, I will leave for Buenos Aires,
and as the name implies, to breathe the good air once again and perhaps walk
along the streets of Jorge Luis Borges. The fact that that fascinating city has
good food and wine, is not omitted. I am hoping to see some good friends but
relive some memories of past attachments, I am expecting nothing. A short stop
in Panama, once again hoping to see a Jewish colleague of mine from Medical
school days and then on to the moveable feast of my life: La Habana, Cuba. Alas
a short visit, I have a mental picture of who I would like to see but I will
let it happen. A brief stop in Bogota, the high city where mosquitos are not a
threat!, museum of Gold and the old part of town and a nice meal and it would
be time to go to Nantes in France via Madrid in Spain. A three days stay at the
seaside town of Quiberon, reciting poem of Pablo Neruda to a curious mind and
savour crepes de ble, the local cuisine with the abundant sea food. It is the
long road back to the Indians, with one night in Madrid, one night in Bogota
and one night in Miami. After the usual time with the Indians, I look forward
to my Etihad flight from JFK to AUH and then on to CMB, only to take a
connecting flight to COK.. Cochin where I feel emotionally at home. A hello to
the last Jew of Cochin, a nice Malayalee meal with the local foodie, with the
possibility of working with him on a humanitarian mission in South Africa and
greeting my good friends RN and CW.. And saying hello to the tea wallahs,
waiters and receptionists and perhaps even a drink as the sun dips on the Arabian
Sea at the Old Bristow Hotel? On to another city close to my heart, Kuala
Lumpur and stay at the usual hotel at Jalan Ismail (Double Tree). Two Omaha
Indians would arrive and I will play the tourist guide to them for the next
three days, take them to Cambodia to introduce them to the fantastic Peer to
Peer Programme of my good friend Maurits van Pelt mopotsyo.org and of course be
their guide at the Angkor Archeological site..will be staying with my Burmese
hotelier brother, Ko Maung Maung. Malacca and Salalah to follow.. what route I
will take to get back to Miami where I look forward to days and dinners with my
sister and my good friends MG is any ones guess!
Coming back to Sadhguru, his words are condensation of millennia
of philosophy, one has to listen carefully and understand what he is saying
You can plan FOR tomorrow but you cannot PLAN tomorrow…
PS this is the tea wallah I am hoping to greet in Cochin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdDl_YFfhwc
