Ancestors Posing For Posterity
~ Anne Deon
My Ancestors Were Beautiful
~ Joe Gilmore
My GrandParents, My Parents And I
~ Frida Kahlo
GrandParents
~ Elena Flerova
Riding With GrandFather
~ Wright Barker
A Walk In The Clouds
~ Leonardo Ruggieri
GrandFather And GrandSon In Canola Field
~ The Vangobot (Doug Marx And Luke Kelly)
The GrandFather
~ Pavlos Triantafillou
GrandFather
~ Ajay K Jacob
*****
BECAUSE we have forgotten our ancestors,
our children no longer give us honor.
BECAUSE we have lost the path our ancestors cleared
kneeling in perilous undergrowth,
our children cannot find their way.
BECAUSE we have banished the God of our ancestors,
our children cannot pray.
BECAUSE the old wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our hearing,
our children cannot hear us crying.
BECAUSE we have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering,
our befuddled children give birth to children
they neither want nor understand.
BECAUSE we have forgotten
how to love ..
how to love ..
~ Maya Angelou
*****
The Tree Of Genealogy
We're born with da three Debts, which r otherwise called as 'rin' in Sanskrit. Da Debt to da Gods is called 'Dev-rin', da Debt to da Gurus is called 'Rishi-rin' & da Debt to one's parents & ancestors is called 'Pitri-rin'. Hindus try to do 'Shraadh' during da fortnight of 'Pitri-Paksha' every year.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, dey console themselves dat their ancestors wud visit only during those 15 days & go back to heaven (some of them wud naturally get back to hell only!) immediately thereafter. Dis is misconstrued, b'coz it is only a symbolic gesture for many, who r otherwise oblivious of their wonderful ancestors during da rest of da year.
In actuality, dey wud continue to be monitoring & guiding us in subtle ways which wud be difficult to comprehend for da ordinary mind. Human beings shud be good during their life on earth for them to become an angelic ancestor. Every star that we see in da sky is nothing but such an ancestor sparkling from heaven eternally!
Maya Angelou could not have been more correct. We all belong to a 'sub-group' with our ancestors, relatives and close friends being the other members. The relation betweem members of a sub-group continue to change over several lives. The hidden message is that we must build a loving relation with the given sub-set of people before we talk of Vasudha-ev-kutumbakam and other lofty ideals. Obiously it is easier to find love or at least understanding in a given sub-set before one makes an attempt to move out of the sub-set. So, those who wish to spread their wings far and wide, must be more understanding and accepting of our near and dear ones despite whatever shortcomings they may have [percieved or real]. The sub-set is not going to change, even after death in the other realms or in future births. Therefore we must ourselves become more and more accomodating, understanding, yielding, accepting. Then we truly fulfill our duty as a human being. I hope I learn myself from what I write.
ReplyDeleteRemembering our ancestors should happen on a regular daily basis. It is from them that we have become what we are. It would also facilitate us to try to make the world a better place to live. And leave it gracefully to our succeeding generations.
ReplyDeleteIt is one of nature's ways that we often feel closer to distant generations than to the generation immediately preceding to us. Having grown up a child themselves, Grandparents come with the wisdom that only abundant love is crucial to a child's development than any amount of disciplining as a parent would love to believe. And it is no wonder that a child takes the greatest liberty in expressing itself completely with his or her grandparent than any one else enjoying all the unselfish showers of love.
ReplyDeleteMore than a parent who might at best become a role model to the child the grandparents are often the people who take the children to a different world narrating stories of the yore with abundant love, patience and humour. Again it is the Grandparent who teaches the lessons of life to the child in a palatable fashion and provide comfort and care when in distress even after the grandchild has grown up well into adulthood.
Just as the lovely collection of paintings depict the intimacies that Grandparents share in each and every activity of the grandchild, the poem expresses beautifully what we have been missing in this mad rat race of the world and it's consequences on us and our world. Will we be ever able to connect to the wonderful world of our ancestors and gift our children their roots..