I From chutney to realisation of truth is an interesting journey. Sushmita maps her inward journey, exclusively for Different Truths.

Life is a wheel that is constantly churning and coming up with a mélange of flavors, ranging from melancholy to jubilation and beyond. And in what a way the wheel churns! At times, we crib and cringe, feeling ourselves to be ever on the fringe, trying to find and inch towards our place in this cosmos that is truly ours. We are found to frown and cry, in crunch moments, searching for a way when down, seeking the way up and out. Churning is constantly on, our life rendered an urn, from where we are beckoned to fetch and find the beauty of truth, as conveys John Keats, in his Ode on a Grecian Urn, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.”

Perplexing and concurrently dazzling is the beauty of truth, as it comes up in ways undefined and unprecedented

Perplexing and concurrently dazzling is the beauty of truth, as it comes up in ways undefined and unprecedented, the unprecedented being the precedence, ever beckoning to the potential and purpose of transcendence of all that is not true, beckoning to find the light in darkness. Thus, it leads to constant self-referral, serves constant reminders, arranges for the realignments with it, leading to self-resurrections and self-redemptions on the way to self-realisation.

How, otherwise, the residue of chutney (of coriander and amla, called Indian Gooseberry, with green chillies and garlic cloves), while was being brought up from the blender pot, as I was trying to extract it to the maximum, comes up with, presents, the extract of life? “Clean your consciousness. Be in the present!”

… impatience crept in, stealthily.

After the chutney (sort of a ‘dip’) was well-blended, I was transferring it to a container. The bulk, transferred, the residue, clinging on to the walls of the pot, had to be salvaged to the maximum. And it is then that impatience crept in, stealthily. The time taken, on this occasion to prepare the chutney, was much more than the earlier ones, and there were other chores that were blinking on the shores of consciousness, demanding attention, seeking consent for their immediate completion. This found me a bit irritated, cleaning the walls of the pot, extracting the residual chutney but wanting to do something else.

And right then, the chutney, churned, making me realise, which it served, in fact, as a reminder! Cleaning, the walls of the pot, is presented as clearing and cleansing those clinging residues, baggage in the consciousness, to extract and embody the purity of the source – consciousness, our truth. In this case, too, cleaning to the maximum enables the salvaging of our truth — and the residue, which refuses to go, despite our conscious effort, moves out and away, swept away by the flow of Grace. The entire process, of churning and unfurling of the churned, is Grace, and surrendered to Grace, flow of truth, the residual superficialities too leave no more their trace, with us shining as and in the embrace of truth. It is the promise, beckoning fulfillment…

Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist has likened the process of cleaning material objects to the cleaning of the soul.

Coming to this analogy, I am also reminded of the read in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, wherein, as far as I can recall, he has likened the process of cleaning material objects to the cleaning of the soul.

Indeed, it is the alchemy of truth in progress and process, churning constantly, making us earn the realisations and receive the reminders, as it serves them unfailingly, untiringly, unconditionally — gently, ruthlessly, firmly, but never judgmentally. So are received the reminders as gentle nudges, truth holding no grudge over our repeated floundering and wandering, wavering and roaming away from truth. And so it affirms that it shall continue to, ever aligning us with it, to ensure that never again we are found to flounder, never again departing from truth, ever playing and thus finding the part and place entrusted and gifted, in the cosmos, consciously, being present to the present, always.

Being present to the present, always, calls forth a conscious consent only to the thoughts and feelings…

Being present to the present, always, calls forth a conscious consent only to the thoughts and feelings, beliefs and notions, perceptions and precepts that are truth-aligned, spontaneously choosing them from the mélange that presents itself, from the milieu the consciousness solely resonant with truth.

Thus, from among the chores and the associated thoughts that beeped on and thronged the shores of my consciousness, from the reverie and impatience that they could weave and cause, I was brought back to the present, through the ‘present’ that got churned by the churning of the chutney.

Just as I received the realisation that cleaning and extracting the residue is akin to and an invitation to clean all the scum and unessential flavoring that the consciousness is coated and seasoned with, immediately follows suite the reminder: “Be in the present! It is only by being in the present can the presents that the present beholds and nurtures, the inherent treasures that it holds, can be found and received.” 

I was not in the present; I had wandered to the future, conjuring the chores that had to be attended

I was not in the present; I had wandered to the future, conjuring the chores that had to be attended and how to complete them. Running by the watch, I was not watchful of the moment! It is only the ever-vigilant and watchful truth, that brought me back, rewound me to the present, through the present it offered, which transformed the cleaning of the pot to a joyous work, filled with gratitude. The impatience and irritation, courted, had to leave, the court held by the realisation presented, reminder served!

Cleaning the ‘pot’, the consciousness, clearing the ‘residue’ is essential.  Truth yet again affirms, and ensures that the cleaning is duly delivered, in due course! Nothing comes to pass, before and after the perfect moment for it has come to pass, everything materialising perfectly timed. Our consciousness-objectified, forming our life, as the consciousness tunes in to the source-consciousness, backed by faith, so appear the revelations and affirmations, and so do they keep appearing anew. It changes our receptivity, experiencing our intrinsic connectivity to the source, inching towards the source-consciousness, no more lamenting that life infringes and ever keeps us on the fringe.

The churning on, of varied chutneys, in and as the consciousness, ultimately it is truth that reveals and blesses with its flavor, in all its beauty — soothing, nourishing, healing — not as an accessory, not just a ‘dip,’ but as the main course, containing all, calling to dip and dissolve in it, to experience the dips no more!

©Sushmita Mukherjee

Photos from the Internet