Ten Reasons to Be Happy

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Since I came home from India I’ve been suffering from a bit of the old V.I.S.S. (Vrindavan Induced Separation Syndrome). So along with the winter drizzle, a general gloom has settled in. I feel barely any enthusiasm towards my university degree; demotivated, procrastinating like crazy every time I sit down to do some ‘work’. The other day I turned down an incredible opportunity to travel and preach this winter, because I knew it would mean ultimately not being able to complete my coursework for this semester. And all to get a piece of paper and two letters after my name which render me at least level with the however-many-thousands of other graduates being churned out every year.

Anyway, the point of this blog is not to moan on about my minuscule woes, but to say that, I had a very happy day today. You know, one of those where the sky just seems brighter, jokes seem funnier and inspiration seems to pop out of unexpected places. Oh the joy of being under the influence of the modes of nature.

Years ago in school, one of our teachers saw something on Oprah where they were suggesting keeping a ‘gratitude book’: all the things you are grateful for in each day. She sat us down one afternoon and handed out little booklets of coloured paper which we dutifully wrote in every afternoon. I don’t remember any of the things I wrote in it, but I thought about it today and thought it would be nice to share the things that made me happy today, however mundane. They might just make you happy too.

1. Chanting rounds in front of my deities this morning (they have a new outfit that I brought back from Vrindavan. Srimati Radharani finally has hair and they are looking pretty beautiful – is that a tautology?) The picture below is old by the way. My camera is broken – Vrindavan dust killed it so it has gone to camera-loka…
2. Watching a bowlful of yellow split peas swell as they soaked in water for five hours (I occupied myself with other things also, including aforesaid coursework). It was like magic! It reminded me of those little magic Christmas trees that used to sprout violent pastel coloured growths when you stood them in water. I took an unsoaked pea and compared it to one of the soaked ones at the end – call me simple minded but it brought a genuine smile to my face.
3. Singing Kabe Habe Bolo this morning. I never cease to be amazed at the beauty and spiritual potency of the poetry and songs left to us by the acaryas.
4. I debated putting this one in, for fear of people thinking I am crazy. Then I thought, why not. Better to be honest. Number 4 is accidentally slicing my finger with the bread knife at lunch time. Why was this a happy occasion? The slice was deep, but so quick and clean that it didn’t hurt at all – I suppose that’s not profound but it made me marvel for a minute or two.
5. Watching Srila Prabhupada give a Bhagavatam Class this morning . The class was from the prayers of Queen Kunti, given in LA. Every time I watch Srila Prabhupada on camera, I wonder at – everything really. I typed a few things there, but none of them captured what I felt. His words are so clear, so perfect. He has a wonderful sense of humour and sparkling wit. His devotion is tangible, even through a fuzzy black and white cinefilm. He talked about a simple way to test whether or not we are in maya. If you are jealous, you are in maya. If you are not jealous, you are truly Krsna concious. He said there’s no question of wondering about how spiritually advanced you are. Just simply test whether or not you feel jealousy towards anyone – then you will instantly see. It is also special to me that devotees have made the incredible effort to make all this footage available. I have not taken advantage of it for the past 20 years of my life, but I am finally realising that there is no excuse not to listen to Srila Prabhupada’s words. A generation of amazingly dedicated and hard working devotees have made it so easy – through books, films, lectures, photographs, paintings – he is here always – I have just been blind to it. As the poet e.e. cummings said ‘now the eyes of my eyes are opened’.
6. Being visited by my friend Jaggi, who just got back from India yesterday. He came bearing sandalwood for my deities, my long lost iPod recorder (yay!) and gave me a quick tutorial on Garage Band, the music recording software on Mac computers (and yes, by that sentence, you would be right in assuming I recently bought a shiny new one – momentary madness). It is a revelation! I’ve had it for a month now but with no wireless internet in my house yet and no word processing software on it yet, I’ve still been using our old slow PC; so I haven’t really explored the avenues of what you can actually do with a Mac yet. It was amazing, in about three minutes, I had recorded a violin track, put on some vocals, added some effects – it was so cool. I feel like a new door of opportunity has just opened. The music in my head can now magically appear from my computer…
7. Reading Indradyumna Swami’s Vyasa Puja Offering. I can’t add anything to his words so I won’t say anything more. It moved me greatly.
8. Seeing photos of a play performed at Govardhana by some devotees, including my friend Campaka who made the most beautiful Krsna. It brought tears to my eyes. I have so many fond memories of spontaneous plays I was a part of growing up. I remember one Balarama’s Appearance Day, my family and my friend Sari’s family were on holiday together in Cornwall. We decided to re-enact some of Krsna and Balarama’s pastimes together and dressed up my little brother Mali and Sari’s sister Pallika, decorating them with fresh flowers from the hedges (Cornwall is the only part of England with some semi-tropical flowers naturally growing). My sister and my Dad got to be Canura and Mustika. Hehe.

We weren’t really performing for an audience, there was only us. So for twenty minutes we watched Krsna and Balarama wrestle, and pretend to be peacocks and play with their friends, while I played a soundtrack out of the car speakers. It reminds me of how Lord Nityananda used to re-enact the stories of Lord Rama with his friends. They used to become so involved that they really believed they were Ram, Laksman and the monkey army! One wonderful evening at Mother Yamuna Devi’s house in Saranagati, I had the opportunity to listen to her read about these play pastimes from the Caitanya Caritamrta. I will never forget it, we were all captivated.

9. The night time frost as I went for an evening three round walk. Under the yellow streetlights, the road glittered like diamond making my numb fingers completely worth it.

10. Reading Bhagavad Gita this evening. I am ashamed to say that I have still never read it the whole way through. Maybe that is typical of gurukulis (how’s that for ironic?). I hope not. Anyway, needless to say, finally deciding to read it through, right from the beginning is probably the best thing I have ever decided to do.

And that’s more than enough reasons to smile.

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