Sunday Story: The Transformative Power Of Good Company

-

The immense transformative power of good company is often undervalued, but for one who desires to raise himself to his potential, one automatically gravitates to the right people in whose company one can further his progress. The important thing is intention and if it is there, the forces within and around us, will place us in the right company. After all, we are naturally disposed towards reaching out to our higher Self, but our predispositions and forgetfulness divert us. 

In this context there is a remarkable and true story which was picturised in the movie, 'Do Ankhen Barah Haath'. Six hard-core convicts were brought together in a farm in an 'open prison' experiment where the jailor wishes to transform them. He trusted them, treating them as humans capable of rising beyond their base nature to their higher self. He knew with the right environment and by instilling humane values, people can be transformed. The six convicts were eventually transformed to become productive farm hands and had evolved to be good people. We know from this the power of good company, where just one person, in the form of the jailor in this story, could cause a change in their hearts.

The lietmotif of the movie is the beautiful song, 'Aye Malik Tere Bande Hum'. See below. The song plays in the end and we see the six convicts kneeling down with their hands joined in prayer and know the transformation is complete. We realise the indomitable goodness of the human spirit, which just requires the company of one good person.

Can't help shedding a tear watching this song, when the words in the following stanza play out:

"जब जुल्मों का हो सामना,
तब तू ही हमें थामना
वो बुराई करें, हम भलाई भरें,
नहीं बदले की हो कामना
बढ़ उठे प्यार का हर कदम,
और मिटे बैर का ये भरम"...

Aye Malik Tere Bande Hum

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Weekend Musings: What One Life Taught Me About Peace

-
Image
  Remembering Albert Schweitzer For reasons I cannot fully explain, Albert Schweitzer came back to me recently. My first encounter with him was in childhood, when I was barely ten or twelve. I remember a book — blue in colour — far beyond my reading ability at that age. I remember his photograph inside. I remember that it spoke of peace and of service to humanity. I understood neither in any meaningful way, yet something stayed. Perhaps children recognise sincerity before they understand ideas. Life moved on. Over five decades, his name would surface now and then — in passing references, in conversations, in lists of Nobel Peace Prize winners — but I never found the time, or perhaps the inner readiness, to go deeper. And yet, the impression never faded. Today, that unfinished encounter seems to ask for closure. Albert Schweitzer was many things: theologian, philosopher, musician, doctor. But what sets him apart is not achievement; it is choice. At a time when intellectual recognit...
Read more

Weekend Musings: The Leap of the Frog — A Moment in Haiku

-
Image
 An old silent pond— a frog jumps into the pond, splash! Silence again. This weekend’s Musings arose from an invitation to reflect on these lines by Matsuo Bashō. What began as an invitation soon turned into a gentle challenge, as it became clear that the poem invites many ways of seeing. It can even invite silence, as we honour the stillness of the pond. The image is simple, almost bare. A still pond. A sudden leap. A brief splash. And then silence again. Nothing is explained, nothing is concluded. What is offered is a moment, complete in itself. Yet, being a Musing, I must still arrive at my own reading. In these lines, Bashō draws us into a world where there is no past or future — both constructs of the mind, or the ego. He lives entirely moment to moment, in full awareness of it. The past becomes nothing more than memory, a storehouse of conditioning, biases, and habits. The future is merely the drama projected from that past. In such a state of awareness, action is no longer ...
Read more

Election Day Musing: My Keemti Vote

-
Image
Having just completed my duty, or shall we say my right, by casting my vote, a few observations and thoughts came to mind. The walk to the polling booth is something I take almost every few days, so I was not expecting anything eventful to happen. But I was in for a surprise. Unknown people were greeting me and smiling. One particular person, whom I had neither met nor seen before, actually called out my name and said, “Mahimkar saheb, 4 number lakshat theva.” I noticed regular shopkeepers and party workers standing in groups, and it was not difficult to guess their affiliations. Another thing I noticed was a white band across the road with “200 meters” written on it. Closer to the center, it read “100 meters”. When I had seen this a few days earlier, I had not known what it was for, but today it became clear. Strangely, I noticed one more thing—the streets were extra clean, as if one day’s clean roads would influence our decision! The center itself had standard security measures, and...
Read more