Lesson from Yamma Gucci
28-Nov-06
I am often asked, Dr Kataria, who is your master, who is your guru? I answer, I don’t have a particular master, I learn from everyone who comes my way.
Let me introduce you today to one of my gurus. Yamma Gucci is a stray dog who lives in my street in Mumbai.
During 2001-02 I was worried about many problems in my life. One day I started keenly observing Yamma Gucci. He was one of a few stray dogs in our neighborhood. He was named by an old couple Mr and Mrs Anand, who were my neighbors. They had named all the stray dogs around and used to feed them twice a day despite stiff resistance from the other neighbors.
The old couple took good care of stray dogs – including vaccination, sterilization, and visits to veterinarians when any of them were ill. Surprisingly this couple, who were strict vegetarians, cooked chicken for the dogs although they lived on a limited pension.
Yamma was a brown dog and was strikingly different from the rest of the strays. Every morning I would see her on my way to Laughter Club. Yamma hopped along on three legs. Later I learnt she was run over by a car and had fractured one of her hind legs.
In spite of her broken leg, I noticed that Yamma was very agile, enthusiastic and ran all over with the other dogs. I went close to her and saw in her eyes there was no sign of depression or despair.
To me it seemed that she had a message for all of us: so what if one of my legs is broken, I continue to live and celebrate life. Life does not cease to exist for me. It is you humans who make drama of happenings in your life.
Thank you Yamma Gucci.
Observing her I thought, if a dog can continue to live happily despite the problem of physical movement, what’s wrong with me? Why do I worry about my problems so much?
I realized that Yamma Gucchi showed me another way, by giving me the mantra: “So What?” Life Must Go On.
I applied this mantra to the problems I faced and found that they vanished in no time.
For each problem, I asked myself: “what if this happens?”, and the answer was: “if it happens I will survive, I will manage” and the fear was gone. I practiced this mantra during my meditation. While inhaling I chanted in my mind “So What” and while exhaling I said “Yamma Gucci” silently in my mind.
We have the habit of worrying about problems don’t asking ourselves “So What?”. We keep worrying and making our life miserable with worry.
If we apply Yamma Gucci’s formula of So What? we can become free of worry and get on with living our life.
Yes I agree that it is within the every day circumstances of our lives that we find our teachers. I found a teacher on a visit to a hospital room years ago. I continues to this day to remember to “shine on” in the face of adversity.
This teacher was a young man, fourteen years old who had been recently been shot and blinded. When we entered the room we found a lively teenager talking on the phone with a friend. He was assuring his caller that everything was going to be alright, not to worry. I was dumbfounded.
What I had expected in no way matched what was real. Instead of reveling in despair and feeling sorry for himself, this young man was hitching up his socks and saying “so what, life goes on.”
In those moments I realized that I had never had anything to whine or complain about, in fact, I had reason to be grateful for much I hadn’t until that moment noticed.
Sending tons of love, heaps of peace and oodles of laughter every which way…
Comment by Anne Cressy — November 29, 2006 @ 1:06 am
Thank you for these offerings. I too recieved a gift from within a hospital room. While administering a therapy to an old woman it became obvious that she did not know what to do. She had been on therapy for several days, so I inquired if anyone had given her instructions. She shook her head. I nearly immediately flooded with multiple negative emotions…anger at my co-workers, embarrassment/shame for our department, fear of prolonging her hospitalization, etc. While stammering through apologies, this kindly old soul interupted and said, “Honey, don’t you worry ’bout a thing…just do the best you can and go on.” As fast as they appeared, the negative and uncomfortable feelings vanished and were replaced with serenity. I cannot claim this next statement as my own, but cannot for the life of me locate the author, either.
Take care of each moment and the years take care of themselves.
Love & Peace & Laughter,
Mark
Comment by Mark Iberg — November 29, 2006 @ 11:01 am