Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Words to live by.

‎"The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free." 
- Swami Vivekananda

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Hello World.

If you have ever taken a programming class, you'll know that "Hello World." is one of the first things they teach you in C++. Why do I know that? I'm a nerd and that's about as far as I got in programming.

Like "Hello World.", this is another new beginning for me. I haven't written in a long time. What a shame! Now, I finally feel like I have something to say and share. After going through a lot in my 30th year and just celebrating my 31st birthday, I have come upon some new resolutions (as I do every year).

Life is not what I expected it to be, neither is marriage. I'm seeing that in every new step of life comes new trials and tribulations that you have to meet, deal with and overcome. I've met these foes many times throughout my life with school, family, work life and now with marriage. I'm not sure that there is a category to these things into; not good or bad, they just "are". From these experiences, I want to remain open to learning and growing as a person. In the past, I have often thought of getting a tattoo to symbolize my growth and change, but never knew what or where to get it. I've always been afraid that I would get sick of it or regret it.

In the past two weeks it became clear to me. I've toyed with the idea of the "Om" symbol in the past and where to put it, but it finally clicked. I am a Hindu by heart and heritage. I've embraced the idea of being Brahmin and have learned to appreciate my spiritual self. I didn't want the symbolization of the tattoo to be generic, so I have been looking at the Bengali script "Om" (see the difference below) to be specific to represent who I am.


Bengali Script Om

Popular Om


Om means many things, all of which I feel that I can use a reminder of now and then. Om is the divine vibration of the earth. Om symbolizes the manifestation of God, the reflection of absolute reality and divine energy. The three sounds A-U-M mean the beginning, middle and end (respectively). 

The next hurdle was deciding where. I am not getting any younger, so it would have to be 1) somewhere where I could see it and 2) somewhat indiscreet  I have decided that my wrist would be a perfect location to remind me to have peace within myself, to realize that I cannot change everything but to always put out positive energy. Although I'd like to think of myself as a very positive minded person, there are many trying moments when I have found myself losing peace inside myself. As I move into the next stage of my life, I am giving myself a little help by stamping a constant reminder of what the world is and who I am in it.

-Om-