Friday, April 14, 2006

An ode to...


Akshara Griha


Akshara Griha was the name I gave my house, which came to me by nothing other than sheer grace. It was when I needed a piece of land to call my own, I searched and then sat down, giving up everything and surrendering. The house that was waiting two years unoccupied, happened like a miracle, through random casual conversations, in just a week's time.

But the moment I stepped in, the beauty with which pictures, photographs and statues and pieces of art and material use found their place, showed to me the conscious presence of the all within four walls.

It was a conscious entity by itself, I saw. It had its period of cacophony and eutrophy and abundant moments of symphony and order, following a conscious pattern. There were times when I went far, far away from my home only to return and find that the moment I step in, I feel quiet, meditative, peaceful, the undescribable presence filling me up.

Letting open the door facing east brought in a piece of the Universe every morning and how many an opportunity to realise the divine presence has the door lens, the boiling tea in the kitchen, the lamps and incense in the meditation space, the soft winds from the living room, the hot water from the geyser, the synchrony of space and matter in the walls and the self-tidying process of nature in the sleeping room, the calling bell which sings Om Namah Shivaya, Jai Jai Ram Jai Shri Ram and the Gayatri Mantra, has never failed to let me know who is it that knocks at the door.

Today, I had to move out of that place to another place in my city and I find it is the same space, the same music, the same synchrony, the same silence and in fact, more and more of it. My journey through time and space continues and Akshara Griha was an important milestone.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

What is...


...and should be

The past two days my mind was tossed about with a Hamletian confusion of a different kind - it was not thankfully a question of 'To be or not to be,' but between 'What is and what should be.'
Though in reality I know that everything is one spiritual essence, there is always a nagging botheration of missing something dear in space and time.
I put it across to my Guru, Swami Akshara, when he happened to make a rare appearance on my chat box as he does to many a disciple. It was one of the most liberating Satsanghs I had when his reply to my expressions of a confusion led me to a confluence in the end.
Those words which I noted down, I have etched them and have his permission to share it with you: "The distance between 'what is' and 'what should be' is the cause for all misery. That's called 'Bondage.' And freedom from that is known as 'Liberation.' What is' = Present. 'What Should be' = Future. 'What should have been' = Past. People get trapped in the last two, mostly.
'What should be' leads to anxieties and fantasies. 'What should have been' leads to regrets. And 'What is' leads to truth, fulfilment. The mind is denying the present and seeking the absent."
Even as I was reading them, I watched how my mind tried to escape into the future of what should be, or in the past of what was once and how it wouldn't sit now in the present moment.
It was a liberating revelation.