I have a hunch!

               My mom and I had been at loggerheads from the earliest time that I could recall. Only recently have we resolved it from the root, when I witnessed a series of healing sessions for her in ThetaHealing(R).  I have been working very sincerely on myself for two years now to become clean and clear from within using various healing modalities. She has noticed this change in me, more so after I learnt ThetaHealing™ and about two months ago asked me to start sending her healing as we have been living in different countries since last year. It’s wonderful to finally start sharing a loving and respectful relationship with her. It’s even more enjoyable as we do this with an awareness that we chose to be mother and daughter, and now that we have cleared all our soul contracts for our highest and best.

               This was not always the case though. One of her favourite sentences comes to mind as she traumatized me through my growing years with it – ‘You have a hunch!’ - pointing towards my back.

               Yes it is true, I do. And I am very happy to hunch when I want to. I can say that now, but those days it was the ‘worst’ thing to hear about yourself - especially from someone who was supposed to give you unconditional love, no matter what. And watching all those Hindi movies as I grew up reinforced the belief that she must be a step-mom to treat me so badly – mothers love their kids – which she obviously didn’t.

               The more she said it, when I was hunched over my books, or my needlework (I was very adept at embroidery, cross-stitch, tatting, knitting and sewing etc.) – the more I did hunch over it. I knew it irritated her even more when I did that and those days the philosophy of being loving to your enemy was not part of my consciousness. Tit for tat was the swiftest way to deal with anything. What she didn’t like, I would do more – sweet revenge!

               Strangely, the more I hunched the better the output of my labour would be. I made some beautiful pieces of handkerchiefs – with embroidery and with lace, napkins, table cloths, lace for my tops, sweaters for the dolls (yes, I was knitting at 9 years or so), and a real big size sweater for the first boyfriend – all made in my favourite hunched up position.

               Finally she stopped saying it in that tone and in those words, but continued to nevertheless bring it up now and then, in more innovative ways. ‘Who will marry you?’ – and if I pretended not to understand what she was referring to she would give a very pointed glare toward the back. Or ‘How will you get a job in a five star hotel if you stand like this?’ (I was studying Hotel Management those days), or even ‘We spent so much money on your braces but what can we do about your back?’ and on rare good days ‘The face is nice, but the posture spoils it’.

               By now I didn’t even care. The men had arrived in my life and did they even notice the hunch? No way, there was so much else to do. I was feeling good and what she said had no effect whatsoever on the conscious mind. I do realize now that she had after all managed to play on the sub-conscious mind very well, because I stood up just a little bit straighter when in the company of people. Sometimes I would lean against the wall to make sure my back was straight, while people thought I was just tired and so supporting myself with the wall!

               Impressing people apart, I still hunch. I have realized to my horror that it is my favourite position to be in. I wake up in the morning to find that I had been hunching in my sleep. I get out of bed and after a few hunches in the toilet (you know brushing and the like), I am ready to hunch over towards the Sun God. Then comes the hunch with the newspaper and the coffee (more milk, little coffee powder, no sugar). Then I hunch over the laptop and facebook and various emails are all sent out while completely hunching over every word!

               Finally I sit down to meditate, very upright! AHA! Now this is one thing I do not hunch over, as I have been told that the chakras need to be open and the back must be rather straight when we do this. Maybe I will straighten up permanently if all I do is meditate. For now, after meditating it is back to hunching over the plants, the phone calls, the bed, the wardrobe, the fridge, the sink etc. I hunch in the theatre, in the salon, in the bookstore and at the ATM machine too.

               I forgot to mention this earlier, once when I was rather young and my mom went on and on for days about my hunch I told her maybe I was the Hunchback of Notre-Dame previously. What I got was a slap in the face and ‘badtameez’  (very filmi! Did you notice how this word is a mix of English and Hindi…see ‘BAD’ and ‘TAMEEZ’…meaning “not good” and “manners”)…but now with all the Past Life Regressions that I have been through for myself and others, I do believe that could be closer to the truth than any one would imagine.

               How else can you explain the amazing pull, almost magnetic feeling that I FEEL for the Notre-Dame…? Just seeing a picture is enough, in fact just a thought is too and I feel I am there, in another time. I feel it in every part of my being and I almost see myself as the Hunchback of Notre-Dame going up to sound the bell.

               The first time I visited the Notre-Dame in Oct 2005, all I wanted to do was sit outside hunched over a cigarette (I smoked then), and look up (still hunched up) at the beautiful facade – the desire to go up and toll the bell was so strong, almost overwhelming and I couldn’t quite understand why.

               I finished the cigarette and still did not want to go inside this beautiful monument. So I walked across the road and got myself a crepe and found another spot to sit, still able to see the entire place, hearing the bell made my heart jump with joy (Quasimodo was deaf because of the bell ringing!). And as I hunched, I munched on the crepe as much as my thoughts; feeling this feeling that I have been here before! Just another un-explained pull. (I didn’t know about Past Lives then).

               Finally I went in and made a confession to the Priest (about something else, not that I thought that I was the Hunchback returned) - who told me to ‘love myself first’ – and at that time I believed he was taking to me; NOW I realize this Priest was talking to the Hunchback in me ! Perhaps he did recognise me as the Hunchback after all!

               Armed with the Past Life Regression technique and my hunch all I can say is – I have a hunch that I may be the Hunchback, so what’s important now is that I go BACK and get the proof…

               Past life regressing here I come, show me the Hunchback!

               Or should I simply just trust my hunch?

               Love and Laughter,

               Honour and Gratitude!

               Latika.

              P.S. Do you have a favourite position? And have you had any hunches that came true? Was the Hunchback of Notre-Dame a real person, click on the link below to know more...

     http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/artsandentertainmentbooksreview/7945634/Real-life-Quasimodo-uncovered-in-Tate-archives.html

                      (c) 2010 Latika Tripathi (to the article not the link!)

Sun Vs Son Worshipping in India

            In India, there is an act of Sun worshipping that is performed during the early hours of the morning where usually the Hindus wake up at the crack of dawn, rinse their bodies in cold water; and if in the vicinity a quick dip in a holy river is considered even better - and then without speaking a single word, perhaps silently muttering some chants under their breath they pour water towards the rising Sun facing East during the entire process. All this is done with utmost faith that the Source, the Provider, the Creator is the Sun. In fact he is fondly referred to as Sun God. Even though Indians know and welcome hundreds of Gods, Sun God is the one they choose to start their day with.

       Rich or poor, young or old equally participate in this daily act. As a child, I have watched my uncles, aunts, cousins and even my rather old and ailing grandmother perform this during my summer holidays when I would visit the farming village deep in Bundelkhand in North India. Have no false illusions then that this must be the most peace loving place and a paradise on Earth. Far from it! More crimes happen here than anywhere else. There are also a large number of Lawyers in this part of India. More crimes means there is a bigger demand for Lawyers. At one point in time my dad even told me that the dreaded lady dacoit was from the village next to ours. I didn’t sleep many nights after that. That was a long time ago before she surrendered herself, so my fear was justified.

            Despite all this external mayhem, I have found these folks to be very simple and internally happy. It made me wonder if this was what kept them beaming, but never enough to want to wake up early to participate in this early morning act. I am a late sleeper. 

            This morning activity is performed with clockwork precision, after all the Sun does not wait for the sleeping Joe: these folks know who calls the shots here and they never miss this morning tete-a-tete with the Sun God. Just as any Lawyer would love to have an opponent that would not talk back; this is one chance for them to say anything without any ‘objections’ beings raised!

            This done, the next round of activity was the newspaper reading which the entire joint family would pore over and then discuss each piece of news loudly, perhaps believing rightly that the neighbours could not afford the newspaper and it would be wise to alert them of the floods in our neighbouring country. 

            The third thing on the daily list is the breakfast which is consumed with much delight. The Soul nourishment via Sun worshipping is not sufficient for the body that craves fried delicacies. This is when the second worshipping of the day starts to take place. It’s a mother-son thing now. There is no one more important for the house cook, namely mother; than the son. No matter what the age of the son, this relationship never matures. She is always a little concerned about how thin he is looking or how pale his skin has been for the past few weeks and the feeding begins. Not that he complaints. He either loves this attention or he has simply given up by now. Complaining to an average Indian mother would fall on deaf ears anyway.

            The reason why I mention this is to give a basic understanding of the common thought process that prevailed here about 200 years ago as my grandmother narrated when I was younger; and then definitely about 20 years ago as I witnessed this exact scenario first hand with my cousins. I am a girl with no boys in my family so this kind of fuss was never directed towards me. I believe it still continues in my cousin’s lives who are playing the envious role of the precious Indian son. 

            The whole thing of Sun worshipping as the ‘Creator’ and the son worshipping as the ‘created’ – is perfectly okay until the day the son gets married and the new lady, namely the wife enters the scenario. This has been the cause of many a drama; literally – and many a T.V. soaps have been based on this plot. The son is now torn between the mother who has been doing son worshipping her entire life and the daughter-in-law is committed to pull them apart as she has been witnessing the unfair treatment given to her while her brothers were worshipped  and now she wants to get even with the one man that she knows she has firmly under her belt, for obvious reasons. What she could not manage to make her mother understand, she will definitely teach the mother-in-law. The fact that these soaps enjoyed top ratings just goes to show much the audience resonated with the ‘spirit’ of these soaps.

    
        Now, I never did any Sun worshipping up until two years ago. My dad was far away from his roots after he chose the life of an Army Officer. Waking up in a jungle in the morning surrounded by a large snake may have kept him from doing his Sun worshipping I guess. His lifestyle kept him and his family away from the religious rites and rituals most of the year; as the Army lot were very cosmopolitan  in their ways and no-one made a big deal of religion and everyone was a ‘fellow-being’ rather than of any particular sect or religion. Rituals were not given too much importance and everyone celebrated events together for FUN more than anything else. So Christmas was for everyone in the regiment, as much as Eid and Diwali. And this is how I interacted with my friends when I was younger and because of this exposure to the Army life.

        My mother had been brought up to Sun worship since childhood, woke up early and performed this daily ritual; however never did she enforce it on me as she perhaps understood that the awakening has to happen on its own. Or I guess she just wanted her own quiet time in the mornings and the later I stayed in bed the more peace it meant for her.

    
        About two years ago when I faced huge challenges in life and started with the Sun worshipping act every morning on the suggestion of someone, I did not expect what I got in return. I started by taking a hot shower at the early a.m.’s. Cold water and lakes and rivers are not for me. Even on a hot day. I learnt the chants. At first it was a tough act to follow. But the magic happened soon enough when I realized just how wonderful it felt to do this every day – day after day watching the most beautiful thing that there is – witnessing the Sun rise. Without fail. Always there. This act of witnessing the sunrise started giving me a sense of knowing all is well. Faith. I had begun to enjoy my one-sided case presentations to the Sun God too, just like my  uncles. All He did was smile back and shine even brighter on me, and having done that I felt good. He allowed me to win every time!

        I also enjoyed the chanting. Try it! Just mouthing the Sanskrit words over and over again; meant to be repeated 108 times for maximum efficacy – and seeing how tranced out I became doing that. It’s like a self-hypnosis exercise. A great high. And the breakfast tastes really good after this morning exercise.

        It’s two years since then, I am deep into spirituality and my journey I feel has just begun. I enjoy my morning Sun-time. When I first see HIM peeking out of the darkness and slowly rising up, I get the thrill that it is only He and me in this entire Universe. Sometime around this brief moment of oneness in time, the birds announce that they have their share in His sunshine too. I allow them in and we create Paradise in those brief seconds before the softness in His glow becomes a glare.

            Just recently, with all the talk about Ascension and the Shift, and people asking me how to meditate and connect – I mentioned to someone to start doing this morning ritual of Sun worshipping. I cannot describe their expression! They could not figure the connection with all this and with what I was proposing. So I had to sit them down for another thirty minutes even though their session with me was over for that day; and shared some things that came to my awareness simply because I became a Sun worshipper.

            There is a Creator that created this wonderful Universe I said. They nodded. He’s pure energy. They agreed. He lives behind the Sun I said. They opened their eyes wide in disbelief. Technically the act of Sun worshipping is the closest one can get to talking to God, I said. They kind of agreed as my expression was so ‘awed’ and ‘enlightened’ they could not really disbelieve -the eyes that said it all.

            I suggested to them to start doing the Sun worshipping for just a week and see how they felt from within. They reluctantly agreed. Ten days later they called to say they would like to cancel the next session which was a fortnight from their last session as they had resolved their drama of life. They stopped coming to me for therapy totally! Husband and wife were one again. Such are the benefits of Sun worshipping.

            How does it benefit me to send away my clients to heal themselves directly with the Sun? Well the Sun and I we had a little chat (note: chanting and chatting are just one alphabet away!), and He is my friend and he likes the fact that I show people to find HIS LIGHT within themselves; and as a bonus he sends me more and more Souls – and I send them right back to Him. This was part of my one sided presentation to Him. He agrees to all my proposals, because he knows they are for the larger good.

            I haven’t started on the second kind of son worshipping yet. He’s fifteen, my son. I’ll let his partner be my friend and his too; and just for her sake I choose not to worship him. He’s making breakfast for me right now, as I wrap up my Sun worshipping and presentation for today!  

            Didn’t I say the breakfast tastes really good after this morning exercise? More so when the son made it!

            How’s that for a modern Indian mother-son relationship? My frail grandmother would have surely fainted!

     Lots of Love and Light! 

     S(F)unnily yours,

     Latika.

     (c) 2010 Latika Tripathi