State of Mind

Our mind takes on different states based on our physical condition. Mind works continuously, and our thoughts and actions are controlled by the STATE OF MIND. If our Physical condition can change the state of mind, our Mental condition can change the physical activities being carried out. There is this invisible soul that's tangled with the visible physical body, both cooperate with each other giving life to soul.

Knowingly or unknowingly, emotional part of our mind spends most of its time on two types of people, if one type is the group of people whom we love the most, surprisingly the second type is the hate list. Our mind always pre-processes activities to handle these two kinds of people. Then, how about people outside this circle? They are in and out of our mind on demand.

Mind is a powerful invisible tool that can change the way we live our lives...as they say "Mind rules our body". It's our own INNER SELF with whom we talk most of the time, our true companion. If all the activities in our mind can be reproduced on a piece of paper, I'm sure we'll run out of paper in no time.

Below is a brief analysis of how I look at our State of mind (please bear with me if you are into Psychology and the terms are totally different). As you can see from the diagram, mind takes on four different states - Conscious, Subconscious, Superconscious and Unconscious states.

In Conscious state, both mind and body are in sync, resulting in visible actions that are controlled by the physical senses. The main driving force to make decisions are based on past experiences, as we are well aware of the actions and their consequences in real world. Conscious mind talks with inner-self continuously accompanied by the powerful gift - Imagination. Imagination has no limit and the mind creations that can be achieved in real world can be turned into actions/goals, whereas other subset forms our fantasy world.

In Subconscious state, mind travels bit far from physical senses and adds bit of sixth sense to control the actions in Conscious state. Ever wonder how we can set our Mental Alarm clock and wake up on time during exams or in need? The other dimension of Subconscious state is the powerful tool called Intuition. I'm sure many of you might have experienced the power of Intuition at times. When a decision has to be taken based on Subconscious state, our mind debates between conscious state and intuition, and there could be a lag in taking decisions.
And Dreams come on our way when mind drifts from Subconscious to Unconscious state and vice versa.

In Superconscious state, mind goes bit farther from the material world and can completely control the actions in Conscious state, bypassing the lag caused by decision debate. This state taps the spiritual side of inner self with sixth sense being the predominant factor, one of the wonderful experience of the power of the soul within. Telepathy is that Superconscious state of mind that allows one to be in sync with loved ones, even when they are far physically. Mind reading and Prophecy are other arts of the Superconscious mind only few can master.

In Unconscious state, soul completely shuts off the physical power and takes a stroll into space that's beyond human perception. When soul comes back to same body, mind had a flight from unconscious state to conscious/subconscious/superconscious state, and that means you had either a good sleep or in coma. If not, soul is planting fresh mind in another body.

I'm blessed to experience the Superconscious state through a sequence of events during my father's last few days of life. Wonder what made me to book a Tatkal train ticket to see my father on a busy weekday? Stayed with my father for four days and fulfilled his wishes sitting by his side.

After few days of returning home, I was restless....completely restless. My husband was listening to his favorite songs and he started humming 'Abhi mujh Mein Kahin'. I didn't know why, that song touched my heart so deeply, I started crying, called my brother and begged him to take my father to hospital and made my husband console me for more than an hour. As per my brother's update, father was fine and in deep sleep. Still I was not convinced, kept on crying. Went to YouTube and watched the song for the first time, as its lyrics were in sync with my state of mind. The moment Hrithik Roshan hugs her sister in the song, I felt my father with me and broke down into big tears at 10:50pm, and that's the exact time my father passed away.  After half an hour, I got a call from home and my brother told that father passed away at 10:50pm. Each time I listen to this song, I feel my father with me and tears just roll down. A song that will remain close to my heart forever....

Later, I was shocked to hear that my father asked my mom "Am I in Punni's house in Bangalore?". And this was just few hours before his death, whereas he never visited Bangalore in person...proving loved ones will always be with us, no matter how far they are from us.... and our mind in superconscious state is a reflection of our love for them. 

Mother - The visible God

At first sight, birds in our balcony made us happy... but soon our happiness turned into a headache with pigeons...they peck at the plants, dig the mud out of pots and dance on the washed clothes with their muddy feet.

They left me no choice, but to scare them to save my plants. Shouting Shu...Shu..Shu.... and chasing them like a live scare-crow seemed like a temporary fix. Planted some twigs around the plants to cover flat surfaces. This idea paid off to some extent. But after few days, they learned the art of pulling out the twigs. And I tried my best to secure the twigs :-).

One of my friend warned me to cover all the flat surfaces around the plants...as pigeons lay eggs and make lots of mess. My next solution was to tie pot plates upside down ....that too in a slanting position.

At last, I was happy to save the plants in the balcony. BUT BUT.....one pigeon outsmarted my plans and laid an egg in the pot next to the window, the place where I spend most of my day. Lesson learned...pigeons are indeed SMART!!

When I saw the mother sitting on the egg, motherhood within me started admiring the hen pigeon. Couldn't believe that the pigeon was sitting just half feet away from me....

My famous quote "oops...my plants" turned into "oops... poor egg". I didn't want the egg to float in the water, so arranged some coconut husk when mother was away for lunch.

Soon realized that father also comes to guard the egg when mother is away for food.

But it is the hen pigeon taking care of the egg throughout the night....father comes once in awhile, giving sometime for the mother to get her food. Amazing to see their understanding to raise a family.

To our surprise, the pigeon laid another egg by next morning. Soon I moved them into a tray....to protect the eggs from the plants ;-).

Hats off to the mother for sitting day and night to keep the eggs warm by spreading her feathers.

Our patience turned into happiness when we saw the baby emerging out of the shell. Some of the beautiful moments to watch.

In few hours, saw a crack in the other egg too...

Again, it was father's visit in the afternoon...

And after sometime, Mamma was back to the baby...

In few hours, one more baby was out to the world...

In no time, they started cooing. It's fun to watch them cooing and playing  :-).

Proud father was happy to see both the babies and sat there for quite sometime. And I was overwhelmed with happiness to see the proud family. Amazing to learn "Human" nature of Pigeons.

And next saw the usual process,  Mother out - Daddy in.....

In no time, babies started drinking mother's milk. It's interesting to learn that father also feeds milk to the babies ...lot learned from these small creatures..

"Pigeon's milk begins to be produced a couple of days before the eggs are due to hatch. The parents may cease to eat at this point in order to be able to provide the squabs (baby pigeons and doves) with milk uncontaminated by seeds, which the very young squabs would be unable to digest. The baby squabs are fed on pure crop milk for the first week or so of life. After this the parents begin to introduce a proportion of adult food, softened by spending time in the moist conditions of the adult crop, into the mix fed to the squabs, until by the end of the second week they are being fed entirely on softened adult food..."

Here is a video clip of their feeding...

After few days, their beak started turning black and so their body color.... 

I noticed a big difference between mother pigeon and father pigeon. Whenever I water the plants, if father is around, he just flies away and watches them from far.

But if mother is around, it just stays with the babies, tries its best to scare me with fluttering feathers, unusual sounds, angry eyes and pointed beak. God's creation is great. A mother is not blessed with big brain and big muscles like a man, but she is blessed with big heart and big emotions that make her BOLD enough to protect her offspring. 

And babies started responding to the surroundings. Each time I made a sound, they stared at me in protective posture.

It was fun to see them growing....

The babies were growing bigger....and so was the mess in the tray. Baby birds also started realizing the same. Couldn't stop laughing to see them sitting on the edge of the tray and pooping outside. 

One fine day, I decided to clean the tray. But on the very same day, I saw both parents sitting in the tray ....seriously thinking something.

When I came back after two hours to clean the mess, I couldn't find the parents and their babies... family relocation I guess  ;-). And now, the pot in the window moved out of its place...as we are shifting our nest from Punyanagari(Pune) to Bangalore....family relocation to give an independent nest to our kids.

By Laws of Nature, parents responsibility is to provide a comfortable and secure nest to their babies. But what if the parents kill their babies before they even enter the nest? It's shocking to see some facts in 'Satyameva Jayate'...wonder how suffixing IN-LAW title changes some mother's behavior :-(.

Puranas say that a woman will never achieve Moksha and get closer to God.... as Purusha(man) is the only qualified gender to achieve the same. But for a Mother, it's God who is coming closer to her as baby in her womb. Wonder why she needs Moksha?

The beautiful journey from pregnancy to motherhood is filled with emotions and pains. But the moment baby is out, holding and hugging the newborn baby close to her chest and feeding the Nectar of Life relieves her from all the pain....some of THE most precious moments of life for a woman.

All of us pray God almost everyday, but still we dedicate a special day called Festival to pay special tribute to that invisible God. Happy to have a special day for Mother - the visible God. For all the proud mothers, I wish you a very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! 

And to all the readers of this post, go and hug your mom if she is with you. Forget all the tensions in your life, go and sleep in your mother's lap for few minutes...feels like heaven. Isn't it?

S.......L......O.......W motion

Slow motion refers to an effect resulting from running film through a camera at faster-than-normal speed  and then projecting it at standard speed. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving more slowly. The technical term for slow motion is overcranking which refers to the concept of cranking a handcranked camera at a faster rate than normal.

Never realized that slow motion is a result of faster speed. You might be wondering, what slow motion has to do on my blog?... SLOW MOTION...yes..the same thing happened to me few weeks back. Even though it's a weekend, Saturday is the most busiest day of the week for me, with most of the time spent running around kids classes, and then my own list of tasks to accomplish. Mind had lots of plans to work out, but there was something...something... that was resisting my MIND POWER ...that's none other than MY OWN BODY.

With my husband out of town, sick maid off from work, I was completely exhausted by the end of the day. With so much pain, legs were hard to move...just felt like leaving everything and sit down.....I could feel the effect of slow motion. Thanks to my girls for giving a nice massage..and then cup of tea and crocin to forget the pain. After one hour, pain was gone...but mind was not ready to come out of the comfort zone and tightly tied my body to the sitting sofa.

While mind-body saga continued, eyes were glued to Dance-India-Dance. And to my amusement, there came the slow motion act by croc-roaz....God's sent messenger to lift up my spirit ;-). Truly awesome act...

Hope most of you tried slow motion act at some point in life....if not, try it in front of the mirror before giving a demo to others ;-). And here is Raghav's next and last act on DID (as of Jan 15th 2012...at the time of writing this blog).....

 

Movies add slow motion effects to elongate the acts...the famous Indian act being hero and heroine running towards each other with stretched arms...showing how much effort is required to give a simple hug ;-).  And video umpires in cricket and other sports make people open their mouths until the verdict is out.

Everyone likes slow motion once in awhile.. but not if the entire movie is in slow motion. Slow motion to recharge the body makes wonders..famous examples being Yoga and meditation. But if a healthy body continues slow motion for a longer period of time to avoid work and waste time, it results in laziness. So watch out your slow motions...

Uttarayan is leaving winter behind, to increase day-time by actually slowing down the day light process, to bring more sun light and to bring more consciousness to increase working efficiency, thus speeding up your slow motions. Wish you all a very Happy Makar Sankranti/Pongal!!
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Editing this post on 03/12/2012 to add more links to Raghav's slow motion acts....happy to see him back on DID :-). Shared this video on my Facebook wall "Beautiful song...few moments of flute at the beginning reminds me of Ilayaraja compositions...and this boy turning on a stable platform and his slow motion acts are simply speechless!!".