Think of a hammer. Make it stand on its handle. Watch it topple. Watch it topple so that the hammer's head could come down. Even better! Hold the base of the hammer's handle with just the tips of your fingers and watch it swing to bring its heavy head down. In simple physics, this happens for a reason. Potential energy. Everything wants to be at a lower potential energy.
Being religious isn't my strong suit. That aside, the words "Conversation", "Parents" and "Interesting" seldom come in the same sentence. Not that they don't, but rarely does anyone say "I had an interesting conversation with my parents". Our parents do have a lot of history behind them, by the sheer virtue of the amount of time these folks have spent more than us here. So a lot will go unknown to us about them.
Yesterday was Shivarathri, anniversary of the day Lord Shiva and goddess Parvathi got married. And we got a holiday for that! Can you believe it? Someone gets married, and a whole bunch of people get a day off? Goodness! Gods should get married more often! Anyway, mom and I were talking about my granddad, who is a Shiva devout. It was my turn for an interesting conversation with my mom. I cannot recollect what my mom told me, but it was something to do with "Bhole naath", which translates to "The innocent protector", one of Shiva's names, that caught my attention. Gods? Innocence? Now you have my attention.
The little that I know about Lord Shiva, he's been associated with purity, grounded energy, virility, strength, self control, destruction and a lot more. A male Nemesis, if you may. The truest manifestation of his own thoughts, unadulterated, without a single minced word on his tongue. Basically no bullshitting. Sorry Nandini... If you know what I mean. No offense meant.
Delve a little below the surface, into his hand, four of them. One holds an axe(Parashu), one holds a trident(Trishul), the third holds a drum(The Damru) and the fourth one holds a deer. It was the fourth one that fascinates me the most.
Imagine a deer. It jumps, bobs, hops and runs around restlessly. It is one of the most literal manifestations of energy. Unbounded but ungrounded energy. Easily excitable. Easily sapped. It is beautiful to watch, affectionate, lovable looking creature. That's what we are. Little balls of frantic energy let out into the wild. Or rather, after realization struck, that's surely what most of us are.
In Hindi, it is called चंचलता ("Chanchalta"). The mind hops from one thing to another, easily gets distracted, easily gets frustrated, easily gets disappointed and delighted all the same. Lots of undirected energy. A horse without reins.
Let's get back to imagining a deer. Watch it move. Observe the amount by which it moves horizontally. Now see the amount of vertical displacement the deer makes in order to travel horizontally. Now compare that to the movements of say, a cheetah. All its energies are devoted to moving forward. Very less vertical movement. Everything is streamlined. Everything is as possibly close to the ground as things can possibly be. Its heavy tail beautifully acts as a counterbalance to keep its energies from splaying horizontally.
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