My experiments with spirituality: My journey to our Ancestral House to find peace and my spritual roots

The sunsets in the west while I was walking through the jackfruit grove in our fields beyond the canal that marks the boundary of my house as well as the fields. How serene it is in the evening here. The trees that hosted us monkeys in our childhood are long gone but many of the jack fruit trees still bear the testimony of our frolicking here. We used to play a very particular game which is called OLLAH PATI (It’s a game where one person goes out to fetch the stick that is thrown by one of us and while he goes and picks it up and brings it back to the tree and places in the circle that is drawn on the ground, we all scramble up the tree. Then he has to catch one of us before any one of us can reach the stick and touches it either by climbing down or jumping from the tree as the den tries to catch one of us by climbing up the tree or trying to touch some one from the ground) where we have broken many branches. I still find the one mark of broken branch where I was sitting with whole bunch of village kids as it broke by all our weight and we all came tumbling down. How I remember our farm manager came out shouting from our house as the sound of the broken branch reached him and we all ran away from the scene of crime.

The walk back to house was full of sadness as I remember how my father wanted this whole land to be made an orchard of Mangoes and I think that is one wish of his is still to be fulfilled. Which I think will be done later this year ..

The house is now full of relatives and I did not feel like going there and chatting about things that I do or I do not so I walked away to our village and found that many of our childhood friends are away on work in the neighboring cities and I found only handful of children gathered about doing things like feeding the cows and buffalo’s. The village that was once so vibrant at least the time we used to come every year in summer holidays and all our friends were used to plan and be there when we were there…. Now is lost like a soul has left the material body.

The sun went down and the darkness now surrounded the village in its engulfing shadow and sadness crept on me like a cover which weighed me down and I walked back to the temple and sat inside holding out my hands on the square platform that is our embodiment of Goddess Durga Ji and I asked Her why these things happen. Sat there for almost an eternity before my thoughts began to wane and a sense of calmness spread all over me. The place become more peaceful and the chirruping of birds fell silent and the evening changed to night and my hands on the platform started shaking. Suddenly I found myself looking deep inside the platform which was changing its shape to a placid lake. I slowly started immersing in the lake and I found my self engulfed in warmth that was so profound and peaceful as I heard a long distance bell ringing and I found my answer….