Everyone knows. It’s the season of gifting.

As the days of Diwali come closer the pace gets frenetic. Inside. As well as outside the home. Gifting. What do I gift my near and dear ones? I am not much on the social circle. I hover on the outside periphery. With a small but merry band of close and intimate connections.

Which means, the gifting is not necessarily difficult. It’s not a chore. It’s not an item to be struck off the Diwali-to-do list. It’s a pleasure. And it’s also a lot of ruminating. Planning in advance. With almost fiendish precision. And then I swoop down to that one store and get it done. That’s not to take away from the quality or the appropriateness of the gift… mind you. It’s just that, it’s as much thought through as it would have been if I had visited 40 outlets, shortlisted 5 and back-tracked to that last one!

Oh yes, now we can safely talk about the joy of giving. That holier-than-thou act of giving with that supercilious look on the face like only you could have thought of ‘this’ or ‘that’. I love splashing in that ‘joy of giving’, of creating large ripples in the ‘pool of giving-happiness’ (if there is one such pool) and making large waves of ‘I knew you’d like it’ while I clapped my hands.

But this time there was something greater. Something deeper. Something more visceral. And yet not visceral.

The act of receiving. The receiving by the other. Yes, I put thought into what I give. Yes, I found something ideal. But that is from my selfish, limited point of view. How is it received? How are you being received?

Is it right for them? Is it ‘just what I wanted’?
Is it ‘look how good it looks’?
Is it ‘oh wow… how did you guess?”Or ‘I can’t believe this…this is what I needed!”
Or even, “I love it!”

That spontaneity in receiving doubles my joy. That joy compounds mine. That expression completes the entire act. It’s something out of my hands out of our hands and into a new space.

The whole space becomes bigger: bigger than the giver, the receiver, the giving, and the receiving and transcends to an etheric level.

Today, the gifts I give have been received with joy. It’s something both of us receive. And bow to in reverence.
Divine Grace.

This Diwali I welcome you to giving. To receiving. To being given to. And to being received.