Today, standing in the balcony, I saw a school bus full of cute little children dressed as Santa. This small moment refreshed all the childhood memories when Christmas was the much-awaited festival. That day, we went to school without making any excuses, with our eyes filled with hopes of getting chocolates from the Santa. That jingle bell chorus and decorating trees for the welcome of Santa was the happiest moment. A bar of single chocolate from the Santa made our day and we all made a wish list to be fulfilled by Santa.

Childhood was so wonderful, I wish I could relive it. Walking down the memory lane I realized how the festivals have just become holidays and how we all have just forgotten their real meaning. December 25, celebrated across the globe as the birth of the Son of the God, Jesus Christ, who was born to mother Mary and father Joseph at Bethlehem. The holy soul was sent to earth to spread the message of love and peace to humans and save us from the sins and sorrows.

Christmas is the festival of joy, happiness, peace, love, and forgiveness All over the globe this festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm. The houses are cleaned, delicious delicacies are served with people coming together to celebrate this pious occasion leaving behind all their differences. Christmas trees are decorated and gifts are exchanged to show affection and love towards each other. The whole city and the church are turned into heaven. While adults are busy with their decorations and exchanges, innocent children make their wishlist, keep them in the socks beside the Christmas tree and wait for their Santa Claus to fulfill their wishes.

But with the outdoor preparations, we usually tend to forget the real essence of the festival. The dazzle of the outdoor decoration makes us blind to the real meaning of the customs followed for the celebrations. As Christmas arrives we all start cleaning and decorating our houses and churches. Preoccupied with the cleaning of houses, we often forget to cleanse our souls. This Christmas let’s cleanse our souls of greed and hatred before putting any decoration on the entry gate. Let’s throw away all the bitterness and the negative thoughts before throwing away the used and old clothes away. Let us welcome people with open heart and cleanse our hearts of all the malice of the past. If we decorate our souls with the shimmer of positive thoughts, good heart, and love for everybody, we would be one step closer to the God and lay the foundation of the beautiful tomorrow we all had one imagined in our childhood.

Christmas tree is believed to attract positivity and keep the negative vibes away. It is not just the Christmas tree which attracts positivity, God has blessed us with the mother earth to take care of all our needs. But we have left no stone unturned to exploit the nature for our greed and selfish needs. Christmas not only teaches us to live in harmony with each other but also teaches us to live in harmony with the mother earth. Let this Christmas be the starting of the new era where we all take a pledge to respect all that is around us and make this earth a greener and cleaner place to live in.

Now, Santa Claus. We all have spent our childhood making our wish list and have slept changing sides and waiting for morning to see our gifts and wishes be granted. Now we all grown up, after the reality hit us hard, know that there is no Santa Claus to fulfill our wishes. But what we do not realize is that we all are our lives, Santa Claus. Let this Christmas we forgive ourselves and give ourselves the gift of a better version of ourselves with good hearts and compassion for others. Let us be the Santa for the people in need and grant them their wishes of a better lifestyle. Let us be grateful to God for the beautiful gift of life, wisdom, and mind and use this wisdom for the betterment of society.

Today’s world is not different from the world when Jesus was born. We all live in a world filled with hatred, ignorance, greed, and superstition. We all are children of the Almighty God. This little realization and a small amount of effort can turn our world into a better place to live in. A place where everybody is treated with respect and equality. A place where peace prevails and we all live in harmony with each other. Let this Christmas bring happiness and smile on the faces of people who are less blessed and we all pray to the Almighty God to bless us and take care of us. Let us put all our faith in God and spend our lives working for the other children of God. In the end, I would like to quote Jesus Christ:

“For what shall profit a man, if he gained the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul”

-Chainika Tanwar

This article from Economic Times clearly points out how our so called ‘traditions’ of immersive devotion are immersing all of us into a cesspool of Poison

https://m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/immersions-left-yamuna-unfit-even-for-bathing/the-severe/slideshow/67178434.cms

There are so many gifts
Still unopened from your birthday,
There are so many hand-crafted presents
That have been sent to you by God.
The Beloved does not mind repeating: ‘Everything I have is yours.’
Please forgive Hafiz and the Friend if we break into a sweet laughter when your heart complains.
Ages ago every cell in your soul
Capsized forever into this infinite golden sea.
Indeed a lover’s pain is this sleeping,
When God just rolled over and gave you
Such a big good morning kiss!
–Hafiz tr. Daniel Ladinsky in ‘The Gift: Poems By Hafiz’ (Penguin).
Hafiz is underrated and eclipsed by Jalaluddin Rumi. Even virulently Islamophobic discourses and persons, adore Rumi. Whereas, Hafiz is the underrated Sufi, the forever second fiddle to Mevlana Rumi.
The first lines are priceless: the need for loving appreciation of the many unopened gifts and hand-crafted presents from the divine Beloved/Friend.
However, many of us whine and complain about what we don’t have, as opposed to gratitude for the many unopened gifts and hand-crafted presents–our talents, our bodies, our fluid genders and sexualities, our laughter and our love–to mention a few.
Hafiz goes on to talk about every metaphorical cell ‘of the soul’. capsized in the golden sea of divine love ages ago.
The last lines are unrivaled in literature–I cannot think of anyone except for Rumi and Rilke who communicate such easy intimacy with God so fluently and well.
Cute metaphor: the Beloved rolling over in bed to give us a good morning kiss–fast asleep in our own separateness and self-pity, we don’t feel it!

–Raj Ayyar

https://www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/article/students-scientists-showcase-tech-to-tackle-climate-change/328197

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Jeremiah

There is no Hindu and no Muslim!
–Guru Nanak after his enlightenment.
Time to revisit that gentle, beautiful universalist mystic Guru Nanak, one who synthesizes the best of Hinduism and Islam, without being constrained by the narrow identity badges of any faith.

Beyond that is the ultimate reality that Nanak calls Ik Onkar–both the ineffable One, (similar to the Nirguna Brahman in Hindu Vedanta and the Allah beyond attributes, beyond the 99 names, in Sufi Islam), and All-That-Is.

Nanak also believed that if you wanted to continue to describe yourself as a member of this or that faith, that you needed to establish that by living the essence of that faith, not its superficials.

His message is especially relevant in India today, torn by right-wing religio-political polarization and separation, the clamor of politically stoked sectarian and communal fervor and religious nationalism.
Nanak would dress as a Hindu on some days, and as a Muslim on others, to show the need for taking one’s religious labels and identities lightly.

–Raj Ayyar

But then I realize it isn’t the outside world that is a whirlwind; it’s only my mind.

The world has never complained about how busy it is! There is a famous Buddhist saying that everyone appears as Buddhas in the eyes of a Buddha, and everyone appears as a pig in the eyes of a pig.

It is suggested that the world is experienced according to the state of one’s mind. When your mind is joyful and compassionate, the world is, too.
When your mind is full of negative thoughts, the world is, too. When your mind rests, the world also rests.

–Haemin Sunim: The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down.
So often, Zen Buddhism is stereotyped as an abrasive, rude form of wake-up therapy.

Certainly if one confines Zen to the more shocking, paradoxical koans, that stereotype has some truth to it.
LIke the Vietnamese Thich Nhat Han, the contemporary Korean Zen monk Haemin Sunim soothes us into deep restfulness through his words and the breath-pauses between the words.
I find myself turning the pages of the book when I am feeling stressed-out, anxious, angry or plain tired.

Sunim has a gently nurturing mentor presence that can slow you down, to where you then accomplish all that you need with effortless ease.
–Raj Ayyar

Liberation cannot be achieved except through perceiving the identity of the individual spirit with the Universal Spirit. Atman and Brahman are identical. Their essence is pure Consciousness.

– Sankara

Undisciplined love dwells in the senses, for it is still entangled with earthly things. . . . Disciplined love lives in the soul and rises above the human senses and forbids the body its own will.

Mechthild of Magdeburg