A crash course on omens

"You bet!" (used as a colloquial substitute for "of course")

"I can bet you on that!" (used just to emphasize their point and having no balls to actual bet)

"Wanna bet?"

"I bet you......................."

I hear these words often but I never used them myself. I had never done betting in my life until few days ago. I thought gambling is "bad". Although the concept of "nothing good, nothing bad" runs deep in my thought process, but somehow I never gambled. May be, it was because of fear of losing. May be it was my childhood conditioning. I hated playing cards and luck based games.

Few days back, while IPL was going on, a thought struck me. I wondered, 'How would I know how good or bad my luck is until I bet?' I thought of share market but that isn't pure luck. It involves knowledge too and comparatively more money than usual friendly betting. I don't watch cricket at all, so I thought of betting randomly. Based on a meager information, I bet 20 bucks on Mumbai Indians. Yes, just 20 bucks with few friends. I just wanted to test my luck. Mumbai Indians won, I won.

Next match, I again struck a deal. 50 bucks this time with another friend. Something more happened that day. I thought of calculating omens or signals from the universe to speculate whether I'll win or lose. I was in office and it began raining cats and dogs. It was a storm too. The rain didn't seem like halting at all. I had to leave the office and thought it's a bad omen because I didn't want to get wet in the rain.

As I left the office, the rain stopped. It was a cool breeze with a slight drizzle. It was soothing. A seemingly bad omen got converted into a good one. In a flash, I remembered, 'I kept my clothes on the terrace! What if they flew away? Oh no, it's a bad omen'.

As I reached my terrace, my clothes were not on the wire where I hung them. They had fallen down and because of rain, they got wet and heavy, so they didn't fly. Rain saved so many clothes of mine. A bad omen was converted into a good omen. Now I was sure Mumbai Indians will win.

I decided to watch the match. A bad start for Mumbai Indians. Sachin got caught. They had a poor run rate initially. But I noticed, Mumbai was playing on luck. Royal Challengers Bangalore had a bad time fielding. Mumbai Indians won. I won the bet. 50 bucks didn't matter. What mattered was that I learnt, to some extent, how to read omens and how to interpret them.

I still have a lot more to learn. I would want to bet everyday because I want to learn to read omens for my little advantage in this big world. And yeah, you might carry good luck or bad luck and never even know about it until you bet. Wanna bet?

Ah, This!

A raincloud shrouds the valley.
Night rains have filled the air with sage.
Past my window, a tumbleweed spins
and, in the stream, a gray heron stands,
poised to strike.
The morning sun rolls over the dark hills.

On and on, wherever I look, beauty, wonder.
I could say, "This is God,"
or try to tell you about Zen
or the Zen master whose book this is.
My head could talk to your head.
But why?
The master has said it all
better than I,
and now lives in silence,
occasionally murmuring
"Ah, this!"

This is the 'introduction' of my favorite book, "Ah This!" by Osho. I have read this poem hundreds of times. And every time I read it, I feel it's new.

Where do I go?

Shoulder to all, love to all

I know how to cheer them all

In the gloomiest of their days

I do roll a smiling ball

Yes, they share their burden

They lighten their hearts

Even cry with bucket tears

I love to wipe them all

In a silent corner of my heart

I sit and ponder

Who can cheer my heart?

A voice echoes, "None"

In the dark valleys of my nature

I look up in the sky

Shouting, "Why"

The stars just smile at me

I smile back, good manners say

But who understands my way

All grown up, I remain a child

All civilized, my emotions still wild

A wild child, in search of comfort

Found it inside a heart

The heart of its own

But is it the place for the grown?

All the questions still unanswered

Something still encumbered

Found everyone, everywhere

With an option to retreat, at the right time

The need to be united

Being a loner always, I thought ‘lions hunt alone’ while ‘monkeys stay in groups’. I never need any company whether I have to eat or shop or entertain myself. I can even laugh or cry alone. After a long self introspection, I realized that whenever I had performed a task with someone, I had felt much better and learned much more. May be that’s the reason monkeys evolved but lions didn’t.

Someone might love guitar, someone else might love drums or singer’s voice. But when united, everyone and even more people love the music created by the unification of the band’s solo elements. It doesn’t mean that solos are not worthwhile. In fact, they can be worth more than the band. What exactly I think is: when unification is more progressive than each of the solo elements, it’s better to unite, else, make a one man show.

Mind is an attribute of the individual, there’s no such thing as collective brain or collective thought. But brains in synchronization with one another can produce big results. Computer, as we see today, is an example of synchronization of ideas of different geniuses to produce a thing that is more useful than the ideas alone. Everyone has to think alone, generate ideas alone. To combine it or average it with someone else’ idea is their own will.

It has been proved that chanting ‘mantras’ or meditating alone won’t give as good effects as doing it in a group will give. Probably, that’s the reason Osho meditation resorts have a huge hall where mass meditates in togetherness. Sri Sri Ravishankar also encourages the chanting of mantras in mass congregations. But the pre-requisite of all this togetherness is being on the same frequency otherwise it’s futile or may be hazardous.