Be You series - Meera , Know who you are born as and always "Be you"

Hi Meera,


Today on April 19 / 2020, you turn 3 years. A very happy birthday to you , my princess. My apologies, I could not be there with you for your 3rd birthday due to the corona virus crisis the world is going through. Since you are born, your parents make sure they both are there for your special moments and we will continue to do so with this time being an exception.

I am writing this blog as a gift to you as I could not even send gifts for you because of the total lock-down in India. The blogs is your introduction to you and the world. I hope you will cherish this blog and use the lessons mentioned when the time comes.


The day you were born


You were born on April , 19th 2017 in Seattle, USA but for us you were born when we got to know that your mother is pregnant which is on August 9th 2016. I say so because your mom carried you in her womb for 9 months and sacrificed her job, many kinds of food, her sleep and many more things to ensure you stay healthy and stay happy in her stomach. Know that , your father who is a foodie, cannot say no to any good food for even a day but your mother said "no" to many foods for months. Also, when you have another life in your womb , life is different and you are restricted in doing and not doing , many things and your mother bore all this for months and did it very happily.  All this because , Daughter, they say a person's character building starts from the mother's womb. That's why your mom read to you 1 chapter of Gita every day , your dad read you Lord Krishna's stories everyday before going to bed and we also played spiritual music  like Krishna's "Achyutam Keshavam"  prayer which became your favorite. We also read kids rhymes to you and you had many favorites. This all was still when you were in your mom's womb. Yes, you stayed in that tiny little womb for 9 months , cuddled to your mother. For you to come out in the world, your mom had to go through a lot of pain for 36 hrs, a pain that is unparalleled than any other to bring you to this world. On April 19th at 9:15 am, you were born and brought  a lifetime of  joy  & happiness to your parent's world.

First 100 days of you being born  and a little about your mom's sacrifices

Daughter , know that from the day you were born till 100 days after , its the most critical period for you and your mom. Your mom's body and mind goes through so much that it makes them very weak and vulnerable. Also , for first 6 months at-least, your mom's milk is your only source of food and so mom's sacrifice with food continues.  To make sure you grow strong and that you are comfortable , your mom refused to go back to job until you are comfortable in going to school. Staying out of job is not a easy thing for your mother and is a big sacrifice. But she did it so that she can focus on you and build a strong character in you. Daughter, when you grow up yourself, you will realize, how tough it is to raise a child for a parent and more so for a mom. Your father goes to office for 8-9 hrs in a day and your mom has to take care of you completely and alone during  that time. But your mom never took this as a task and no mom should - your mom is an epitome of love , affection , dedication and motherhood that's why here parents name her Neha. Her parents also gave her the best gift of being connected to Krishna in her early childhood itself and thats why to your father - she is a form of Krishna.


The stage is now set for me to introduce to you and to the world "who you are". Always remember you who were born as and "Be you" through out your life because its your identity.

Being a Human

So lets now talk about some of the aspects that will define you throughout your life and are the aspects that makes you - Meera Tiwari. Daughter, I am highlighting this aspect so that you internalize it so strongly that these aspects always remain with you and you never loose the "real you " you were born as. You were born as an American Indian to your Indian parents. You were born to a Hindu Brahmin family. Lets talk about what it means to be a Hindu Brahmin but before we do I want to caution you , daughter , that the world is nasty out there and there is all kinds of discrimination based on religion ,race  color and creed. We will talk about this discrimination in another blog but I am emphasizing it here because when I say to you that you are a "Hindu Brahmin" that is not to make you feel any different but to tell you what your duties are as a "Hindu Brahmin" to serve the world you are born in. We are all born to love, respect and help each human being regardless of their religion, country , caste, creed or color. But , daughter, staying a good human being and staying as good and as pure as you are born is toughest thing in the world because of the impurities in the world.

Daughter, when anyone is born, they are born pure and are said to be an avatar of "God" which ever god people follow. But then as a child grows up - whether they remain as pure as they were born depends on parents in child early years and depended on the child when the child becomes a little independent and start to make friends. Your parents are trying to pay special attention to ensure that we teach you life skills, teach you about our religion and culture and keep you as pure as you were born.

Daughter, as human's we forget and take your parents for granted until we become parents ourselves. One thing you can do as human is not to forget your parents and what they did for you. Be always thankful. This doesn't mean your parents are placing this condition on you and that you agree with everything your parents say or do  - of-course speak up to them , stand up to them and differ with them when needed - but always come back conclude positively and hug them as you are in this world because of them. Your father has dis - agreed with his parents the whole life, he stood up against them and even has fought with them but he has the same affection and same love for them. As humans we ought to take care of our parents.

All what we are talking here in this blog , Daughter, is to also create a sense of right and wrong in you. My father used to say , one should see herself in the mirror every morning and if they can see themselves with respect that means they are doing a good job as human being. So when faced with situations in life , you will have to be conscious of making the right or wrong choice . Do the mirror test by closing your eyes - if you thing you will not respect yourself for doing something - don't do it. Spiritual way of looking into this will be - if you think your actions will embarrass god then don't do it.

So remember , daughter, BE A GOOD HUMAN BEING FIRST BEFORE BEING ANYONE OF THE BELOW.
 
Being a Brahmin 

So lets get back to what defines you as a Hindu Brahmin and what makes you "you". Remember , this is not for us to discriminate others. Anyone can be a Brahmin if their acts are like one.

Most important aspect of being a brahmin is that we are messengers of god and we are servants of god and we come to this world to serve our lord and in the process serve humanity. Thousands of years ago, the only job of a Brahmin was to learn all Vedic scriptures and spread the word of god to all. They used to go to every house to perform prayers and in return get food. Of-course, world has changed and changed for good . But it doesn't mean we stop being god's messenger and stop reading Vedic scriptures. We can do so as we live our life and spread the message. You must be asking what are those Vedic scriptures - they are many of them beta and even we are still in process of reading them. But the two that you parents have read and the ones which are very dear to us are - Ramayan and Gita. Ramayan is the past times of Lord Ram when he came to earth as an incarnation of Vishnu (other name for Lord Krishna). Gita is the past times of Krishna when he came on earth as Krishna himself. As you see beta, these great figures came to earth and left a world a far better place for us to live in. They also epitomize how we should be living our life. That's why I am writing this article for you - we are born as Ram and Kishna but as we grow we loose our inner-self and we loose to be Ram and Ksihna's incarnations  - in short we loose to be us.  Knowing who you are born as makes you cherish it and with discipline makes you preserve it.


The second aspect of being a Brahmin is our acts. Every human being  has  some special senses - according to Hindi scriptures they are more but I am making it simple. Eye is one sense which allows us to see. Tongue is another sense which allows us to speak and eat, Ear is another sense which allows us to hear . Nose is another sense which allows us to smell. Hands and legs are also considered one form of senses.

1. Daughter, what we see with our eyes has the ability to pure us or corrupt us. That's why when a child is small , parents control what they watch. They don't empower control to show they are powerful but they know with this age of internet there are so many nasty things out there that can corrupt your mind and distract you. They want to preserve your sense of seeing and keep it pure until you learn to keep them pure .  When you see things , you also grasp that information and store it in your mind. What you see  over and over again gets imprinted in your mind. Then your mind starts to act on that information. If see good, you store good and you do good.
2. Tongue is a very powerful sense - your father's father taught him that Goddess Sarasvati lives in tongue and hence we cannot corrupt our tongue. The first thing this world teaches you when you go out is to use the tongue to swear. Your mom and dad were pressurized too but they chose never to swear and ensure the Sarasvati in their tongue does not leave the tongue. We may have done some mistakes for a handful of times but corrected them soon enough to not disrespect goddess. Daughter, as soon as you start going to school or meet new people, there might be a lot pressure to speak ill or speak slang from your friends - I faced it until engineering but remember we are not born to be part of crowd and loose self. We are born different and born pure and it will be up-to you to stay pure.You parents have been so disciplined that now people don't even dare to speak foul language in front of us or drag us to do that.
3. There is another thing you do with Tongue and that is - you eat and taste. Brahmin's always eat Satvik food - vegetarian. We don't believe in eating any living being no matter how small or vulnerable that being is. That's why beta , your parent - till date have never ever eaten non vegeteriain food. There is definitely a spiritual reason but there is also a choice and an important aspect of being who you are born as. We don't believe in killing and eating. Killing is violent and messengers of god cannot use violent mechanisms. The world will tempt you and the world will give you scientific reasons to eat non veg food but remember we are not here to prove to the world who we are and we are also not here to pick a fight with those who are not like us. People have their reasons to eat non- veg and you will have your reasons to not eat. We will love and respect everyone but we will still do what we suppose is right for who we are born as. We are here to serve everyone but serve it on our way and serve them by preserving our-self - "Being you".
4. Tongue also allow you to speak up, speak truth and speak without fear. Its a power that needs to be used very carefully. But never hesitate to speak up against wrong, speak up against injustice, speak up for voiceless and speak up for you. Your father has a very strong and powerful tongue and he always does speak up no matter what but he has also done mistakes and is learning. We all learn how use the power to speak with our tongue whole life. More on this another time. 
5. Ear is another powerful sense - it allows us to hear the beautiful sounds of nature, hear the soulful songs of Rama and Krishna, hear the good voices of great people around us. But world will also tempt you to hear bad things - bad words, violent sounds, hateful speeches and what not. Out duty is to turn our-self  away from anything that can pollute our ear and then our mind. Ear works same as eyes, what we hear, we store and then act. Hearing good will make you store good and then make you do good.
6. Hands are given to care , to help and to give others. They are also given to do prayers and to greet others. You father strongly believes in Mahatma Gandhi's message of non-violence to the world. I will tell you more about Mahatma Gandhi in my next blog. But remember we never raise hands to hit. Your father had many opportunities to hit people but till date he has never and he will never. Hands raised for wrong deeds can never be raised again for good deeds as they go weak. 
7. Legs - they let us walk and they let us decide the direction we take in our life. Never direct your legs to go to places you will regret , never direct legs to do things you will be embarrassed of. Use your leg to go see new places in the world. to chase your dreams and to use your legs to go help others. Use your legs go to temple every day.

The third aspect of being a Brahmin is the legacy we leave for the world. When you read about Rama and Krishna you will learn what legacy they left in the world. And you will be inspired by them to do the same. Some in the world may say this is wishful thinking but daughter I say it is dreaming big and it is our way to achieve our purpose of life. You want to be like Ram and Krishna so that you can touch many lives and make this world a better place.

For all of the above to be practiced , daughter, it is important who you associate yourself with. Since childhood, your parents maintained discipline of only keeping good association. Being a boy, your father especially had to go through a lot of outside pressure to do things that were inappropriate but wrongly defined as things boys do. You will also faced with these situations and again remember you will not allow anyone to corrupt you and in the process make you loose "you". These situation will be your test and always remember that you don't have to stand with the crowd no matter the pressure and ridicule. When you do this enough, God will create a protective shield around you so that these same people will come to you but will not force you to do inappropriate things but rather start getting inspired from you. This is a kind of social distancing you will have to practice until you get this shield and may be even after. I will talk more about this in another blog

Being an Indian

Now, we have talked enough about you being a Brahmin, lets talk about you being an Indian now. Of course you were born in America but he blood in your veins is Indian and its such a sacred blood . But before , I move ahead - I will caution to you to not discriminate people. Just as for us being Indian is special, being American , being Pakistani or being of any other country is special for others. So although we take pride in being Indian , we don't take it to our ego.

Daughter , the India , your parents belonged too can be seen in "Vedic Litretures" and also can be seen in a terrific book Jawahar Lal Nehru , the first prime minister of India wrote - The Discovery of India.

Being an India , daughter , means you respect everyone - you respect Hindu, you respect Muslim, you respect black , brown and white. You respect a beggar same as you respect a manager.  Being  an Indian also means - you care for others before you care for you - that's what our Father of nation , Mahatma Gandhi did. Daughter , Being India also means we are resilient and courageous and that we stand up as united against evil. That's what founders of India - Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru ji did. You will see many people scolding the past of India and scolding the founders. But you read about them and about India from authentic sources and when you yourself realize what millions of people went through and through resilience and courage they bought freedom to India without any violence. You will know how much power we as Indians have to influence the world.

Being Indian outside of India, means we are ambassadors of India and that we make people say that he or she as an Indian makes them born like an Indian, Your father and mother are very proud ,Indians. They have been the best ambassadors they can be. We have not stooped good things every Indian should do - Wake up and be thankful to god every day, take bath , do prayers, eat fresh food and see, say and do good.

Being an Indian also means being a constructive critics of things not good in our country. No Country is perfect and India also is not. So always be a true mirror and speak truth but with an intention to fix and not to disrespect India.  Again speaking up against wrong does not make you any less Indian. Remember , we are not born to be part of crowd and we are born to stand out and this applies to being Indian too.

 Daughter , know that since centuries , India and Indians have been inspiring the world. India gave the world the message of Rama and Krishna which is universal and can be understood by people from any language. India gave the world many renounced saints like Mira bai , who is inspiration behind your name.  India gave the world Gautam Buddha who gave "Buddhism" to the world.  India gave the world "Zero ".

 India taught  the world  "Non Violence " and through this India also spread democratic way of governing. Many countries got inspired by India and moved to be successful democracies. India taught the world  "unity in diversity " , India taught the world how to take care of poor and alleviate millions out of poverty with respect.

Now I stress on some of the great women , India has given to the world. I stress on her as you are a women too and you will need many examples of women inspirations.

1. In spiritual era , thousands of years ago , India gave  the world "Radha" - epitome of love and Krishna's reflection and Sita - supreme example for wifely and womanly virtues for all Hindu women. You will learn more about them when we read Gita and Ramayan together.
2. In modern times, India gave the world , first women prime ministers  - Indira Gandhi also named in the world as iron lady. As I write this blog there are very few women who have lead their countries and America is still waiting for its first women president. She was also the only women leader in the world who liberated another country - Bangladesh. She has a choice to invade and take over parts of Pakistan but true to India's spiritual and democratic values she didn't.
3. India also is known to astronaut like  Kalpana Chawla, first women of Indian origin to go to the space. India gave the world - Mother Teresa - epitome of love and care. She wasn't born in India but India made her Mother Teresa after what she did for poor.  India, also gave the world

India also gave the world another astronaut Rakesh Sharma and  Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian in Space. Yes, India was in space long long before and that's your answer to anyone who say  India hasn't progressed.  Rakesh Sharma described India to Indira Gandhi as - "Sare Jahan Se Acha , Hindustan Humara" - "In this whole world , India is the best". 

As I write this blog, there are millions of Indian living outside and are leading the world's best companies. So daughter , don't be belittled by what anyone says about India and even if he/she is a  fellow Indian - Know that you are to be only proud as Indian.

To be continued ----  

Daughter , there is so much to teach you from our experiences and I will write more blogs so that you can have them and refer them whenever you are faced with a situation and you need to decide between right and wrong.

Know that the best service you will do to god and to your parents and to you is - TO PRESERVE YOURSELF and ALWAYS BE YOU . BEING YOU - is the best gift you will give yourself and you will stand out as the messenger god wanted you to be.