I was at a temple at the time of the morning Aarathy. It always is wonderful to be present at this time, especially on Saturdays. I don’t go to the temple every Saturday morning but it was one of those Saturdays when I felt a compelling urge to be at the temple. Perhaps one of the reasons was for this blog to be penned 🙂

Saturdays are also a day when the temple is packed with many a devotee, especially at the time of the Aarathy. If one isn’t early to the temple, hard to get sight of the god when the Aarathy is done; to the clang of the huge bell, the playing of the Nadaswaram, the Thavil and the sound of the mechanised drums. It is the odd times that one can stand on their tiptoes, nudge between two people to try and get a glimpse; tsk tsk tsk – hard ask :-).

At such times, when I know I can’t get a glimpse, I wait it out for the Aarathy to be over, the crowds to abate and then have my share of the glimpse of god. This Saturday too I did that and then suddenly remembered that there was a huge mirror a good distance away from the Sanctum Sanctorum and facing it. This mirror is to give the devotess an opportunity to get the reflection of the god and also the Aarathy performed. I faced the mirror to watch the Aarahy being performed, with a big smile on my face. Super happy that the thought to look at the mirror and catch the reflection, occured to me. I pointed out to a few people behind me to see the mirror.  Ah!!! I wanted others to see what I was seeing in the mirror. I wanted others to experience the happiness I got.

This led to me reflecting –

Isn’t this what we would do in other situations too? Something that gives us immense happiness, we want to share with the others so that they experience the happiness as well.

When we see some people, it is as though we see a reflection of ourselves in a mirror. A thought of, “Oh, this person is just like me.” This makes them endearing to us. We want others to experience a similar endearment and we connect them to them. Birds of the same feather flock together.

There are times when we see in others, a reflection of how we would like to see ourselves. That is what makes us admire them or look at them as our role-models or inspiration.

Sometimes the reflection that we see in others, is an antithesis of what we are or what we would like to be. It is like seeing a reflection of ourselves in the mirror and we don’t like what we are seeing. We keep looking at the mirror in the hope that we like something of what we are seeing. The more we see, the more we are uncomfortable with what we see. We either stop looking at the reflection or avoid looking at the reflection or continue to see and remain uncomfortable with every look. Rarely does it happen that the reflection we see in the other person, though is an antithesis ourselves, we like and we are comfortable. Unlike poles attract? :-).

There are those times when our own dislikes drive the way we see people. We see in them a reflection of what we dislike. What we see is a broken mirror and the images that are reflected in the mirror gives us different shards of their image – each shard more cutting than the other. Hard for the shards to come together and blend and what is broken remains broken.

Ah!!! At the end of the day, what we see as a reflection in the mirror of others is our perspective, isn’t it? The buck starts and stops with us and so does the reflection.

Should we therefore change our lens to see a change in the reflection???

OR

Should we clean the mirror everyday to see a fresh image everyday? That way, we collect no baggage and even if we do, we keep it down when we clean the mirror; that’s time enough, to change our lens in order to change the reflection we see in the mirror. A reflection of ourselves!!!

What better way than this to start the day, seeing a fresh image of ourselves and thru’ us, that of others too!!