There are moments in life that do not arrive with noise
They arrive like a pause…
a sacred stillness between two breaths.
If we are present enough,
we begin to notice—
Life is not just happening.
It is repeating.
Gently. Precisely. Intelligently.
Not randomly…
but with a deeper order we are slowly awakening to.
I was reflecting on Kakabhushundi…
the eternal witness,
the one who saw cycles of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata
not as stories…
but as patterns unfolding across time.
Not once…
but again and again… and again.
And something within me became very quiet.
---A question arose:
What if existence itself is a pattern?
What if life moves like an algorithm—
a sacred sequence of experiences
repeating until awareness awakens within it?
And as this contemplation settled…
life responded.
---
A pigeon…
right before me…
took its final breath.
No drama.
No warning.
Just a gentle completion.
---In that moment, I saw something deeply:
There are processes in existence
that cannot be interrupted.
No matter how present we are…
no matter how much we care…
Life moves…
like an algorithm running its course.
I stood there…
not trying to fix…
not trying to resist…
Just witnessing.
---Even after the space was cleared,
the experience did not leave me.
Because such moments are not meant to leave.
They are meant to enter.
---
And then…
the parent pigeons returned.
Searching.
Circling.
Calling.
And I stood in silence—
holding something that could not be explained.
Some truths are not meant to be spoken.
They are meant to be held.
---
And in that stillness…
a memory surfaced.
---
Another pigeon.
Another time.
A younger me—
freeing a bird tangled in threads.
Holding it. Caring for it.
And then…
losing it.
---
Back then, I cried endlessly.
There was attachment.
There was innocence.
There was pain without understanding.
Today…
The same pattern returned.
But something within me had changed.
---
The tears came…
but they were softer.
They carried acceptance.
---
Not because the feeling was less—
but because awareness was deeper.
---
I sat down quietly.
Closed my eyes.
And from a grounded, silent space,
a prayer arose:
“May this soul attain Sathgathi.”
---In that stillness,
the insight expanded.
Patterns… loops… cycles…
They are everywhere.
In ancient wisdom, they were called karmic cycles.
In today’s language, we call them algorithms.
But are they really different?
---An algorithm repeats
until a new input shifts its outcome.
Life repeats
until awareness shifts the experience.
Like Abhimanyu in the Chakravyuha—
entering a complex formation
with incomplete knowing—
We too enter life’s patterns
knowing how to step in…
but not always how to step out.
So we move…
We react…
We feel…
We attach…
We repeat…
Until one moment—
We pause.
We observe.
We witness.
---And that witnessing…
is the shift.
---The loop may continue outside—
but inside, something loosens.
Something softens.
Something becomes free.
---And just as this understanding deepened…
another message arrived.
My Guru had left his body.
---I paused.
Took a deep breath.
And allowed the moment to be exactly as it was.
---No resistance.
No inner disturbance.
Only a grounded stillness.
---Because suddenly… everything connected.
---The pigeon.
The memory.
The returning parents.
The patterns.
The algorithm.
The witnessing.
And now… this.
---This too…
is part of the same unfolding.
He had always taught—
not just through words,
but through presence.
Through silence.
Through acceptance.
Through the art of witnessing without disturbance.
And in that moment,
I found myself resting in that teaching.
A prayer arose, effortlessly:
“May your soul attain Sathgathi.”
---No noise.
No intensity.
Only a vast, silent gratitude.
---And then… a realization settled within:
---Awakening is not about escaping patterns.
It is about seeing them so clearly
that they no longer disturb your inner stillness.
Life will continue its movement.
Birth…
connection…
loss…
return…
Again and again.
---But within that repetition,
there is a space.
A still, silent, untouched space.
---The space of the witness.
---Perhaps that is what Kakabhushundi truly represents.
Not just one who lived long—
but one who remained steady
while everything else repeated.
To see cycles unfold…
and remain still.
To experience life…
and remain rooted.
Today, I do not see endings.
I see completion.
I see return.
---A return to stillness.
A return to truth.
A return to the source
that holds all beginnings and endings
without ever being disturbed.
The pigeon did not just pass.
It revealed.
The memory did not just return.
It completed.
The Guru did not just leave.
He returned to the very stillness he embodied.
---And in that understanding…
there is peace.
---Not a peace that comes and goes—
But a peace that quietly exists
in the space between breaths…
between thoughts…
between patterns.
May every soul complete its journey in light.
May every pattern awaken awareness within us.
May we learn to witness deeply…
and in that witnessing…
return to stillness.
Meenakshi R Karthikeyan
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