Nothing...

Enlightenment!

An idea was given to me

It came as a joyous infant

Fell into my outstreched arms.

For years four I nurtured it

It made me forget the world

It gave me a high

Lifted me when I was down and low

Whenever I thought of it

I prayed to any god I saw

Wherever I went and whenever I remembered

The idea was there growing

Like a happy child

By leaps and bounds.

And so many saints were there

Whose words I trusted

Go to sleep with the idea, they said

And when you wake up in the morning

'Tis there, sure as dawn's light.

"When you wish upon a star,"

said another

"Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires,

Will come to you."

Emboldened I was taking them for sure,

Like oxygen for the burning fire

I let them stoke the idea's fuel.

But death always lurks around

And who am I to wish it away

Leave alone the flimsy thought.

He cast his leash with a noose and sure

Slung it right around its youthful neck

And dragged it away before the beloved's eyes

In a trice was gone the fictional existence

As if an imaginary theatre vanished

With characters, set and stage.

Now I stand in the vacant void

With nothing to hold on, not even an idea

And in the silence I hear a sound

Om..... it says

But even that trails away

The emptiness and the silence

Is all left of me.

- Swahilya.

(Picture: Sulphur rock heating up the waters of Alaknanda at the Tapt Kund in Badrinath.)

Alluring

Himalayas!


Poets have sung its glory. Saints have sat in its caves and river banks. The seekers went and found their enlightenment. Village folks also live their life there, grazing cattle, cutting wood. Tourists go to stare in awe and wonder at the snowy peak. Trekkers climb and mountaineers try to conquer its heights. But for me, the sight of white snow against the black rocky slopes of the Himalayas, the blue sky behind and the sunshine adding to the aura never fail to send waves of joy, inspiring my being and lifting my spirits. Ever since I went the first time to Rishikesh, Uttar Kashi, Gangotri and Gomukh and the second time to Rishikesh, Badrinath, Kedarnath and Haridwar, it's always a feeling of wanting to go there again, of being there - though I wonder why.
I recently read in an article in The Hindu about why such places as the Himalayas, Kailash Manasarovar and many other places in the world that people visit for its spiritual power. The earth in those regions considered holy have a certain kind of free elements present abundantly. When the traveller enters the region, he is engulfed in its presence. There is an atomic exchange that happens. What I am goes out and what is there gets in to me. This is the secret of inspiring. Spire has its roots from Spirit and InSpire means to experience the spirit within.
While it is not required that one can know the spirit only by visiting the Himalayas, what you see is what you are. In the crowded world out below, all we see is pollution, corruption, crowded thoughts assaulting from all around, disease, poverty and just about everything we do not want to be reminded of. But up there in the mountains, there is silence, space, nature, serenity, calmness and tranquility. So we become all that we see there. So it is a lure of the breathtaking heights that eternally draws me up there again and again....

Picture: The peaks of Kedarnath, behind the Jyotirlinga Temple.

Flowing through: The Mandakini meanders and gushes through the Kedar Valley.

Sunday...

A glimpse of light...

A very auspicious day it was. Sunday - when I got to see what it means when they say light. A day for contemplation when there was nothing official to do, resting and restfulness. Clarity on what it means to be. When the past was burnt and the future there was none, it was a deep summer nap when nothing existed. In a half waking state, I had a glimpse of what the Masters call Light. As if through a chink, when the surface of the being crumbles into luminous shreds, getting absorbed in a massive light. A light that is whole and complete. The one who sees it also gone. There is just light which is much brighter than what we call day. No heat but just light. And that is what has got many names - substratum, consciousness, Om, God, Allah, Jesus, Buddha, Tao, Zen, Being, Living, Nothingness...as many names as there are people to say them. Thank God, the animals and the plants were not speaking! And that's all. There's nothing more to it than just light. Everything that is around is just light in different states of being. What else can I say? That's all there is. Light. And beyond....nothing.


Pic:- The morning rays of the sun streaming through the temple dome atop Parvatamalai.

Sri Lanka

The Verdant Teardrop

Just an hour from Chennai by flight, I reach a foreign capital. The Bandaranayake Airport's Green Channel welcomes me as a foreign national into a country that I feel very much at home. I am talking of Sri Lanka where I spent four five days recently.
Just like the green view of Kerala, there is nothing that I miss along the three-hour drive from Colombo to the hilly Kandy region. The Maruti 800, Alto and Wagon R, Bajaj Autorickshaws, Lanka Ashok Leyland Buses all go to make me feel that Sri Lanka is part of the Indian landmass, just separated by a stretch of water called the Indian Ocean. It has retained the essence of India. The name for a river in Sri Lanka is Ganga. So the Mahaweli river is called Mahaweli Ganga.
Everywhere I turn, there is a Buddha seated in meditation, around road bends, on top of hills and in the temples. Sri Lanka is a land where Buddha is celebrated with a national holiday on the new moon called Poya Day when the Buddha's teaching was supposed to have been brought.
The value of freedom of thought, speech and action - I learnt in Sri Lanka. Owing to the political situation, one has to carry their passport or the national identity card even while going on morning walk, to a temple or to buy something from the neigbouring shop!
I immensely breathed in the air of Sri Lanka. It felt good. Freedom is after all a state of mind and I wish all becomes well soon - for there is so much beauty that the whole world should know!