My experiments with spirituality

House of Cologne....

2008-10-24T02:44:00.002+05:30

In the world war II, the whole of cologne was razed to the ground and I believe there was only one of the very old churches left out with out even one hit from the London. Then the people build this place up again, from scratch and I salute to the spirit of the Cologne and in general to the german people....
______________
Spirit

Around
In and Out
The candle burns
Itself out
To start again...
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Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

The flow of the river...

2008-10-21T09:23:00.005+05:30

Some times the blogging happens because you come across something that you want to share with all... I have kept this blog for spritual things that I do but then you realise that sprituality is not something that you need to go to some special place, a temple or holy journey to experience it... and here are few of my most recent experiences that I come face to face with sprituality in most unlikely manner....

My first cup of coffee in Germany (Frankfurt Airport) and I have this lady sitting across with a huge statue of Virgin Marry (...I think) and she is so focussed in her thoughts that although she looked at me, she was not looking at me.. she was in some way above all the people around her and within her own world of devotion....

Then I was watching the people walking on the banks of River Rhein in Cologne and a small child with her mother (...I think again) were having the most blissfull experience of being in the flow.... how lovely and important it is to grab the bliss what one can only feel in fleeting moments like this...

Two very different people and having two very different things of focus (... I believe though that the children are closer to God as they are so fresh from them) but having the same eternal bliss... But most of the times and every one in life has these experiences yet we are not the most happy beings in the world and some times I stop to think about it and I feel that the only issue is how to give this experience a permanence....and that is what the Yogi's with their process, practices and penance and thousand many ways try to achieve....

Here are some people who are trying to reach out to their own happiness through their own means...

I enjoyed the Lambada music actually and when the singers hit the La la labamba, the river front restaurant became live with many happy people, blissfully aware of the life and happiness including me... Cheers!!!!

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

Signifcance of insignificance of Life....

2008-06-07T12:49:00.005+05:30

This post is one of my comments to one of the blogger friend posting that I have had read about instantenesous Insignificance that I had read, which I thought of posting here too as it has got me down on the road to thinking about Life and Significance of Life

Life, when I think about it, make me feel like Ganga... a river who's ultimate goal is to reach out to sea and loose its own identity... but then that is only a goal, but its not life.

Life is being Ganges, moving from the skipping, hopping, jumping in the early stages from Himalaya (Gangotri)taking along with some friends like stones that you shape... then moving in to the plains with force, flood, richness of life giver to the plains... then going on to the delta .. where she slows down to think contemplate and then finally merge... this is life.. and in the same process, you have been able to touch some one, make some one happy, make some one reach his/her goal and finally without thinking of your ego / self etc merge with supereme consciousness with peace of mind is what I believe is life...

I have agreed with Stephen Hawkins and many more who are out to tell us that we are nothing more than a random combination of four Nuclei as Nandi mentioned, our insignificance etc.. but when one does not believe in EGO, then there is no question of being significant or insignificant...

Some times reading Gita makes you feel like Lord Krishna supereme consciousness.... but only if you are egoless...

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

The life at typical Indian Railway Platforms...

2008-02-27T12:15:00.011+05:30

The way to the village has been marked with many interesting images.... the first one is of the sky with a dry tree in the foreground.. I loved it as it looks like as reverse thunder in the sky...

My train journey to my village of 3000KM has taken more than 50 hours instead of expected 38 hours. Typically in India trains do get delayed and specially in the areas where there is no double tracks... so the trains wait on the platforms to let the oncoming train pass like this stoppage that our train took...

While waiting for the train to pass, I started taking in the life around me on the platform...we have an amazing collage of life on the typical India Railway platform. there were people leisurely doing their own job, in this case a baba making the coveted Sphatik Mala (Garland)

Then there is this old man waiting with his whole family for the Passenger train to come. You can actually see the expectations and wonder in his eyes...

Then most of times you will also see this typical scene of people getting off the train and taking off their bicycles that they have chained to the window grill of the train and travel another 10-15 KMs to reach their house in the interior villages, where there is no other mode of transportations...

And Sun sets on my 50 hour long journey.... and I looked forward to meet my friends, relatives and above all be in the presence of Pind Roop Durga Ji.

Well this also happens on the platforms...

But to just leave you all with a better Image than this, let me show you the beauty that is all around the journey.. this typical Indian field colored with mustard flowers among wheat fields... Lovely...

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

On the way to my ancestral village...

2008-02-23T11:42:00.006+05:30

The 50 hour journey to my ancestral village from one end of India to another - A journey of 3000KMs was full of interesting sights and thoughts....

In the early morning mist, the Ghaghra River flows silently while the train thunders through the old metal bridge across it... the river has its own myths and stories related with the Ramayana and this river goes on to meet the most pious river of India - The Ganges

Along the way many temples dot the landscape and this one temple stood out with its vibrant color amid mustard fields...

Its very interesting to see the fields and the people how intermingled they are in their lives and the day to day activity around the religious symbols and worships....

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

Many places, Many thoughts...

2008-02-22T10:07:00.004+05:30

When I look back to 2007, I realise that there are so many things that have touched me and changed me subtly. From the Highs of Phuket, Thailand to the lows of Colombo I have travelled many interesting places... many different places and some times indifferent places.

I will leave with you some interesting sunsets / sunrise from some of the locations...

This one is from Dubai next to the world tallest Hotel Burj Al Dubai...

Long time.. been travelling in South East Asia, Middle East now going back to my spritual roots...

2008-02-10T12:14:00.000+05:30

HI I am surprised that I did not put up anything on the blog for almost a year...

Have been travelling a lot recently and now as usual my self has become toxicated with lot of materialistic things and needs to get this out of my system. Last year I took one very important step in life by making one very beautiful temple in South Indian Architectural style. This year too going to this very beautiful temple and also to my spritual roots that I have always been bound to .. the Durga Temple in my ancestral house in our village in the backyards of Northern India where not even the electiricity has reached..

Need to unfold my self, thoughts and manything that have been accumulating inside for almost a month.. so keep checking this page if you are interested in knowing more about it..

I will leave you with a very beautiful susnset in Abu Dhabi with the world highest Flagpost (recorded in Guiness Book of World Records)

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

...and Shiva watched from lofty heights.

2007-02-23T12:13:00.000+05:30

The beautiful image created in the serial electric light is a specialty from South India. This was more than 50 foot high and was specially brought over from Chennai in parts. Most of the times when a function that happens in South India, the artisans create various images of Idols in the serial small bulbs of different colors to create an impressive effect in the dark of the night. This particular image is called the Ardha Narishwar, where the lord Shiva is shown as both male and female combination of Shiva and Shakti. This is also very closely related to the Tantra Yoga where it is assumed that the mating of Shiva and Shakti provides the ground for enlightenment. The base chakra at the lower portion of the spine (Shakti) when rises up to meet Shiva (the crown chakra) at the top of our head, one realizes the most profound sensation of the enlightenment. This image stood over all the functions in the consecration of the Shiva Temple watching over all the ceremony with His benign eyes.

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

Making of a Shiva Temple in a remote village in North India...

2007-02-22T23:03:00.000+05:30

The Shiva Temple I was involved in making in one of the most remote villages in India in state of Bihar. Its based on the temple architectural style of south india and from Madurai's famous temple architecture heritage this came about. this was in the making for an year by artisans from Madurai and we brought in the priests of Kumbakkonam (Thanjavur) to consecrate it. I was there for the same for some time and hence could not be online for some time ... and then I left for the sacred bath in one of the most prominent fairs in the world which comes after 6 years called Ardha Kumbha... and in those holy waters of the confluence of Ganges, Yamuna and Sarawati, I felt the achievement of life time.... I will write about the whole experience in detail following this ... Please read this blog occasionally if you would like to know more about it...

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

A Universe fit for Life

2006-10-21T13:43:00.000+05:30

Recently I watched an interview of Paul Davies on BBC which made me think a lot about the life... and rekindled the desire to know about the fundamental questions that we keep asking ourselves. Hereby I am giving the gist of the book that he has written ......

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Professor Paul Davies' The Goldilocks Enigma tackles fundamental questions about the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it. Scientific breakthroughs, he argues, have brought us to the brink of comprehending the underlying structure of nature or "a final 'theory of everything'".

A UNIVERSE FIT FOR LIFE
For thousands of years, human beings have contemplated the world about them and asked the great questions of existence: Why are we here? How did the universe begin? How will it end? How is the world put together? Why is it the way it is? For all of recorded human history, people have sought answers to such 'ultimate' questions in religion and philosophy, or declared them to be completely beyond human comprehension. Today, however, many of these big questions are part of science, and some scientists claim that they may be on the verge of providing answers.
Two major developments have bolstered scientists' confidence that the answers lie within their grasp. The first is the enormous progress made in cosmology - the study of the large-scale structure and evolution of the universe. Observations made using satellites, the Hubble Space Telescope, and sophisticated ground-based instruments have combined to transform our view of the universe and the place of human beings within it. The second development is the growing understanding of the microscopic world within the atom - the subject known as high-energy particle physics. It is mostly carried out with giant particle accelerator machines (what were once called 'atom smashers') of the sort found at Fermilab near Chicago and the CERN Laboratory just outside Geneva. Combining these two subjects - the science of the very large and the science of the very small - provides tantalizing clues that deep and previously unsuspected linkages bind the micro-world to the macro-world.

If almost any of the basic features of the universe, from the properties of atoms to the distribution of the galaxies, were different, life would very probably be impossible. Now, it happens that to meet these various requirements, certain stringent conditions must be satisfied in the underlying laws of physics that regulate the universe, so stringent in fact that a biofriendly universe looks like a fix - or 'a put-up job', to use the pithy description of the late British cosmologist Fred Hoyle. It appeared to Hoyle as if a super-intellect had been 'monkeying' with the laws of physics. He was right in his impression. On the face of it, the universe does look as if it has been designed by an intelligent creator expressly for the purpose of spawning sentient beings.

UNIVERSE A PUT UP JOB?
A good way to think about this is to imagine playing God and setting out to design a universe. Suppose you had already settled on the basic laws of physics but you still had some free parameters at your disposal. The values of these parameters could be set by twiddling the knobs of a Designer Machine. Turn one knob and the electron gets a bit heavier, turn another and the strong force becomes a bit weaker, and so on. You could do this and see what happened to the universe. When would it make a big difference, and when would it scarcely matter? Although physicists can't actually carry out the experiment (at least not yet!), they can perform simple calculations to see what - all else being equal - such changes would do to the prospects for life.

HOW COME EXISTENCE?
So, how come existence? At the end of the day, all the approaches I have discussed are likely to prove unsatisfactory. In fact, in reviewing them they all seem to me to be either ridiculous or hopelessly inadequate: a unique universe which just happens to permit life by a fluke; a stupendous number of alternative parallel universes which exist for no reason; a pre-existing God who is somehow self-explanatory; or a self-creating, self-explaining, self-understanding universe-with observers, entailing backward causation and teleology. Perhaps we have reached a fundamental impasse dictated by the limitations of the human intellect. I began this book by saying that religion was the first great systematic attempt to explain all of existence and that science is the next great attempt. Both religion and science draw their methodology from ancient modes of thought honed by many millennia of evolutionary and cultural pressures. Our minds are the products of genes and memes. Now we are free of Darwinian evolution and able to create our own real and virtual worlds, and our information processing technology can take us to intellectual arenas that no human mind has ever before visited, those age-old questions of existence may evaporate away, exposed as nothing more than the befuddled musings of biological beings trapped in a mental straightjacket inherited from evolutionary happenstance. The whole paraphernalia of gods and laws, of space, time and matter, of purpose and design, rationality and absurdity, meaning and mystery, may yet be swept away and replaced by revelations as yet undreamt of.
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Now thinking about the things that he had said in his interview, one thing stood out quite interestingly. Answering to one question of the interviewer, he replied yes it’s possible to take the chemical and physical elements and create life... which is quite an amazing statement. Till recently the question was about who really created life, who really breathed life in the human beings was put up to prove that there is some one super intelligent form who can be GOD who made all things in the universe? But if humans can create life from Chemicals then each one of us can be the GOD. It’s really amazing to think in those lines as in our own Hindu Philosophy we are supposed to be the part of the universal consciousness... In each person or things God has his ANSH (Part) ..... is this thought process is going to be proved right?

Or the whole thing can be turned around and go on to prove that there is nothing like Supreme Consciousness that guides, governs and makes this earth go round...?

Just wondering ..... Is the Universe really a PUT UP job or just something that happened and out grown to start looking at the very foundations of beliefs....?

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

Underskin....

2006-08-11T21:54:00.000+05:30

I have seen serpents
Running over your skin
Playing in your hair locks
Bathing from the rivulets that
Run down from your head
And then some one told me
That its me
Now I find them leaving you
and running across my blood
Slithering in and out of my blood vessels
Touching my senses
In cold touch
I have them making me feel
Gripped in coils
While my mind writhes
In shudders
Of coiled tightness
Of my life
Day in and day out Love
I find you
Probing my senses
with your flickering tongue

Om Namah Shivaya Virtual

The loneliness of people among a crowd...A Visit to Phuket in Search of Buddha within me

2006-07-22T18:25:00.000+05:30

The visit to the Phuket – a beautiful island in Thailand was not the expected routine. I had a training to attend to which was in the most beautiful resort called Evason with lush green environment and beautiful beaches. I looked forward to my visit to a very famous Buddhist Temple but it was proving to be very difficult to move out of the resort as there were many activities and training scheduled. Any way during the visits to the city Phuket town and Patong Beach which was the most famous beach in the Island I did had some glimpses of life of the people who are kind of enmeshed in the quagmire of living, existence and fulfilling one’s karma in the most superficial way I could see. I did see hordes of tourists lounging around in the dance bars, discotheques and places where the sheer magnitude of materialism made me cringe inwards. I did not feel aversions to the girls (and in most case boys turned girls usually called Shemales) as they were trying to survive the fatalities of life that they have had but I did feel lot of sympathy for the tourists whose sheer materialism, search of happiness in the senses made them run after one type of enjoyment to the other without ever realizing that its all so transient. The mind of the people were taking them in circles of finding the right sense of joy among things that were not happiness but only a passing sense of gratification.

On one of the corner, I find a woman selling some cigarettes and lighters and I looked into her eye trying to find what she feels about all this and I found to my surprise that she was more content than the rich crowd she was trying to serve. She, I was sure, has understood the real meaning of being Sambhav (Equanimity) preached in GITA where one does not get affected by the feelings of joy or sorrow, doing work without the anticipation of fruits. I asked her to give me a small pack of chewing gum that she was carrying and I got it with a smile and a grateful eyes looking at me in thanks.

The feeling that I got in that crowd of tourists going about from one place of joy to another, was of desperation of trying to get something worthwhile and sustainable in there… and the feeling I felt each one coming out of those places, was of a disappointment writ large on their faces and an eagerness creeping in to visit the other place to find a better enjoyment. This is the vicious circle we live in … day in and day out and this what we need to get out of trying to find a better place, better thing or better experience to have each day in and day out. This is what Buddha preached and practiced and this what most of our yogi’s did all their lives living frugal existence but with happiness abounding in them with the touch of the superconscioues soul.

The next day I was able to go to the temple and find a great calm expanse of beautiful gardens and water bodies.

Wat Chalong

This is Phuket's most important Buddhist temple. The temple is revered among Thais for its healing powers. The prayer hall contains the statues of three of the temples most venerated monks: Luang Por Chaem, Luang Por Chuang and Luang Por Gluam. However, it is Luang Por Chaem who is best known and who has given Wat Chalong its fame as a place of healing. In 1876, during the reign of King Rama V, there was a rebellion by the Chinese tin miners, or “Angyee”. Luang Por Chaem (Lord Abbott Chaem), the abbott of the monastery at the time, helped to stop the rebellion and acted as a mediator in the peace.

Wat Phra Nang Sang

This is the second most important temple on Phuket. Its fame is derived from a magic statue of the Buddha (Phra Tong means “golden Buddha”). The statue is in a seated position but is only exposed up to the middle of the chest. Though claimed to be made of solid gold, the statue is more likely made of brick, cement and plaster, with a thin layer of gold leaf covering it. The legend surrounding the statues says that anyone who tries to dig up the statue will suffer terrible misfortune or death. Therefore, a cast of cement and plaster was placed over the statue to prevent further attempts to remove it and a bot (temple hall) was built to house the statue. The statue remains half buried in the middle of the hall and is subject of great reverence by local people.

I was mesmerized with the beauty of the place and calmness of the surroundings. The whole pagoda like structure with big round temple was like a beacon of light calling me over. The statue of Buddha although quite different from the one’s that I have seen in India, was still the same radiating peace and happiness… I was moved beyond my sense of joy that crept in as I did not expect this kind of place in the middle of superficiality. I was touched by a monk calling me to come over and sit with him in mediations and we mediated for almost hours together and he took me through the paces with chanting of Buddhist Mantra….

The sense of sadness left me slowly from the last nights visit to the place that made me wonder is that all that is with humanity – running about like a headless chicken. Here I did find what I was looking for – the inner calm and the peace that I have had heard about in India about the south east Asians attachment to the Buddha and the way they arrive at their mental balance in the middle of all the chaos around them. I was slowly sinking into the inner calm when the Monk asked me to join in with him in chanting the mantra that he was chanting in a beautiful sonorous voice. I felt slowly drifting into the vast sea that surrounded the entire Island and could float into the cloud along with him. The waves far down moved with the breath of our chanting and the clouds walked under our feet in tandem… the beautiful birds soared along with us in the deep blue universe and I felt the sudden chill of the evening breeze…

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

9th Mantra on HI5 Mantra Yoga Group...

2006-07-09T21:44:00.000+05:30

The days at my village has been a calming effect on me and the last day I did Chants of a great Mantra in our own ancestral Temple which my great great Grandfather made and my father created the temple structure around it. It is believed in our folklore that when Goddess Durga arrived to stay in this temple, she came like a queen in palanquin with many divine horses, elephants and Her own Lion alongside. The Durga mantra, which although very simple to pronounce but is very powerful.

OM SHRI DURGAYAI NAMAH

Pronunciations:

OM = as explained earlier
SHRI= “SH” as in SHell
“RI” as in River

DURGAYAI = “DUR” as in DURing but sound of “D” is soft sound as in “TH” in THe
= “GA” as in GA in Garland
= “YA” as Ya
= “I” as “AI” in fAIr

NAMAH = As explained earlier

Meaning :

I bow to the Mother DURGA

Explanations:

DURGA ji (Ji is a sign of respect in our traditions like what we have as in Mr / Mrs but has more deeper sense of respect) is supreme divinity. She is without qualities and attributes and as such she contains all qualities and attributes. The masculine qualities are important but they must be balanced with the feminine principles. Masculine and feminine are but observe and reverse of the same coin. Durga represents the motherhood aspect of God which is the force or Shakti through which the divinity manifests. Durga is power. She is the protector and benefactor. According to the Hindu mythology, the Chaitanya or pure consciousness of Brahma Vishnu and Shiva were united to form the being of Mother Durga. She is commonly pictured as riding a Lion and having eight arms with which she carries flowers and weapons of protection and gives the gesture of blessing.

The chanting of above mantra will give one peace, protection, wealth and happiness in very short time as her nature of mother is of divine grace and Her grace is easily obtained.

Method:

As explained earlier one has to become calm with initial process of sitting in lotus position or comfortably in the corner which was used for chanting daily. With incense stick, lighted lamps and flowers to make the mind get more attuned to the chanting. Pranayam if possible or breath control as explained earlier.

With the sound of OM take the breath up from the heart chakra with a golden sphere of light to the throat chakra and then with SHRI one has to take the breath and light further upwards to the ajna chakra at middle of the brow. With DURGYAI one has to take the breath and the thought of divine grace to the crown Chakra and feel the light “GOLD” filling up the mind. With NAMAH This Golden Orb of light to be brought to the heart chakra along with exhalations of breath.

With the sound of OM again the Golden sphere of light has to be taken upwards as above process.

This Mantra should be repeated at least 11 times a day or if possible 108 times.

This mantra in my personal experience too has given me lot of confidence and peace of mind and has removed many obstacles and knots in my own life and made me more calmer and happier.

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

Day Six... VIsit to Lord Buddha's Maha Nirvana Site

2006-07-04T20:28:00.000+05:30

Today I am on way to the Kushi Nagar where Lord Buddha attained his Nirvana.

It was in Kushinagar, that Lord Buddha breathed his last with the last words, "Behold now, brethren, I exhort you, saying, decay is inherent in all component things ! Work for your salvation with diligence." The Mahaparnirvana Temple dedicated to the aforesaid event, stands amidst a serene grove of Sal trees. The huge statue of the reclining Buddha, excavated in 1876 at the temple, is one of the most momentous of all sights for the devout..

Known earlier as Kushinara, now Kasaya, Kushinagar is one of the most sacred sites for the Buddhists. It was here that Lord Buddha is said to have attained 'Mahaparnirvana', the freedom from the endless cycle of birth and rebirth at Kushinagar. At the time of the great event, kushinara was an insignificant settlement, a part of the Malla Kingdom.

Kushi Nagar is an archaeological site, significant for its close proximity with the life of Lord Buddha. So far, at least ten monasteries have been discovered. The Mukutabandhana Stupa, which was built to hold the Buddha’s cremated remains is considered of great sanctity. There is also a large reclining stone figure of the Buddha. The original image was made in Mathura and brought to Kushinagar by Haribala, a monk who lived in the time of king Kumargupta (AD 413-455). Although, the original image was destroyed, it was restored in the last century.

The place is about 40 KMs away from my village and the road is lined by majestic trees and the weather is cloudy which makes me feel good. I pass along the rice fields and many canals that criss cross the eastern UP which made me long to get down and play in the water the way I used to do long life time ago. How one grows fond of things that one has enjoyed in childhood. Along the way I passed one very rickety old bridge across a small river and found many wahsermen washing clothes upon its banks. The water is muddy and still has many children playing along its banks. All full of joy and fun. The town has an old world charm about it and the people seen all unaware of the importance of this town which has a major presence in all the Asian countries where Buddhism flourished. The Buddha who had succeeded in giving the peasants a freedom from the Vedic rituals and idol worship by giving them a way to attain peace in this life itself by Dhyan and Tantra mediation in the local language by discarding the Brahminical tendency of limiting to Sanskrit of all Vedic teachings. But how ironic it is to see, the people resorting to Idol worship of Lord Buddha Himself, who abhorred the idea of idol worship. But I feel that its for common people necessary to resort of focus ones simple mind to an image/ idol or of a character and its just a tool to attain enlightenment.

The place where Buddha finally rested has a beautiful garden and in the sanctorum I find the amazing statue of Buddha sleeping. I had visited this place many times earlier but this time it seemed to come alive to me. I felt the calmness that was spread over the serene face of Buddha and it enveloped me too. I went around the sleeping figure in reverence with bowed head and thinking of the peace that surrounds the sanctorum and the inner turmoil that I have within myself. How contradicting it is? like a hot water vessel immersed in the cold waters of spiritual peace. I sat down at one side of the place directly facing the Buddha’s smiling face. As I closed my eyes I felt his energy boring inside me probing and soothing the inner turmoil. The sprinkling of his calmness started to make my bubbling inner self calmer with each breath. I felt the place grow alive with thousands of Bhikshu’s going about the place from on place of worship to another. I find so many enthusiastic younger disciples crowding around the place where Buddha will finally emerge from his simple dwellings to talk to them. I find the trees swaying in happiness and fresh breeze flowing in from all sides. The atmosphere went from serene calmness to one of happiness bubbling with the joy of the Bhikshu’s who are able to be with Lord Buddha himself.

Slowly I opened my eyes to look into the face that provided me with so much of joy and I felt Him smiling and I bowed down and looked at the Bhiskhu who was around to attend to the pilgrims. He was smiling too. I went around the reclining figure once again and touched the huge feet’s of Buddha and went out of the sanctum to have a fresh look around. The foundations of the huts and the structures are still visible and give a great sense of reality to those stories that I have read about the Buddhist movement in India.

The town of Kushi nagar also offers many newly constructed monastries all around with aids from Japan, China, Sri lanka etc. they are all so beautifully done but then they lacked the power that one simple place that remains the center of all energy of the town.

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

Day Five....

2006-07-02T17:26:00.000+05:30

Most of the relatives are now in the process of catching up with each other and I have to catch up with my own tryst with Goddess Durga Ji. So early in the morning I got up and asked one of my aunts to get the temple washed by some one and I went out for a bath with the motor pump. This pump is in the field and the water comes out rushing with 7 HP motor through its 4 inch hose like a water canon. As the water thrust forced out my weariness from the previous day, I could not help thinking about those days when we have had to request our farm manager in various ways to get this started so that all of us kids can have a great fun time, splashing about in the water. Slowly a crowd of village children gathered around me and I invited them to join in the fun and as they thrashed about in the water I went back in time. After an hour or so of playing in the morning sunrise with thick jet of water gushing down on me, I came out and went to the temple. By now the temple was washed clean and the Durga Ji’s platform was glistening with water drops. I arranged all the things in order and I started Puja with all the rituals that I know of. There are many rituals of performing prayers for any particular deity but for me its just what comes to my mind at that time, I do. Making sure that its just like honoring a guest who has come to one’s house and making him/her comfortable. After an hour or so I started with the reason that I had to come. I wanted my self cleansed and wanted to chant Her name for a number of times and so I started with the morning sun still low in the east.

As the breath became calm, with Pranayaam (A breathing exercise given in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra which is supposed to be very powerful for spiritual upliftment and attaining Samadhi (A state of eternal bliss))and performance of chanting with the breath and chakra, I felt my tension leaving my body. My mind started becoming slow and sluggish and the thoughts that have been running and thrashing about here and there like the children that were playing with me in the water, started get calmer. The waters constant splash started sounding more like clinging of bell and the mind started loosing its ripples in the lake of thoughts. The mula dhara (Base chakra) became red and started glowing and slowly I find it rising up wards to the navel with each round of chants. Slowly I felt it rising to the heart chakra and a blue calmness enveloped me. It pulsated with my, by now very calm and measured breath, and it expanded with each of my heart beat to envelope the whole of the environment around me. Slowly I started feeling hot in around my throat and it became unbearably hot slowly. I opened my eyes and looked around to find nothing to produce this discomfort and it was unusual and slowly I found my self feeling rather sad and I closed my eyes to let this sadness leave my inner self. I started praying again to Durga Ji and asked her for the reason but nothing was forthcoming. So I let it go and again started with my chanting. With each cycle of breath with Pranayaam I felt calmer and slowly I could achieve the depth of meditation at what I had left. My mind was calmer now and the pressures of sadness has left from deep inside.

The point between the eyes become now pressured and I could feel lot of energy glowing there in form of a flame and with each sound of mantra it started growing and glowing firmer… I was entranced in its dance form and I started loosing the control of my chants and it became slowly inaudible to even me. I felt my hairs standing on its ends and I felt my self merging in the atmosphere. I felt my chants leaving me and flying around in the temple and slowly I felt a deep sense of exhilaration rise in me and fill me up with solid gold light. I was happy and I felt like I could fly. I was then floating into the sky like riding the breeze that was enveloping me from all sides. And Slowly I came down on an ocean of white waves with blue ridge and I was skimming the surface with my hands. It all felt so new and happy that I could almost touch the happiness and suddenly I was in water and felt suffocation which at once cleared to give me a great vision of the depth of the sea. I could even see the bottom of the sea as it was unusually lighted from all sides… I was wondering what was happening then suddenly I found my self in front of my own temple in the whole far corners of the sea glowing red with energy and I went down inside to bow before Durga Ji and then I heard the sound again of the Mantra that was given to me some ages ago as mentioned in this blog some years back. I was thrilled and prostrated before Durga Ji in form of the platform in the temple which was shining like a orange cube. I touched my head to one of its edge and felt the soft warmth of the edge and opened my eyes.

I was still in my temple and the place around me has become active unlike the morning calm when I had started the chanting. It was mid day and I found one of my cousin coming towards me to ask for lunch. I was very light hearted and I felt the spring in my feet’s and found my strength again of happiness.

After lunch I came back again to complete the chanting and I was able to finish the same by the night fall and I was very happy in the sense of achieving something that I had promised my self to do this time in my village.

It’s a very powerful mantra that I have been given by my esoteric Guru at the time of my initiation into the spiritual fold. He had told me that by chanting this mantra one can actually get friendship, avoid pitfalls and disease, and be secure and happy in life. I wanted to do this chant at this temple for many years and now that I have done this I was thinking of putting this chant on my group “Mantra Yoga” which I have been promising my friends since long time. I think now I will be putting it up in my group as well as here once I finish the last day of my visit to the village. i.e tomorrow.

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

Day Four......

2006-07-01T13:15:00.000+05:30

Today is the final day of my father’s Kaam and Kriya (This is the main ritual which usually on 13^th Day, the departed soul is given a farewell which is usually accompanied by things that he may use in the next life or what he used to like in this. The pyramids are the most famous example of this ritual). The day for me started with my visit to neighboring villages for invitation for the feast after the ceremony in the evening.

My village is surrounded by many pockets of thatched houses. Each one has its individuality and most of them are based on the ancient caste system that we have in India. One of them is Lala Tola (The houses of Vaisya – The people who do commercial activities. This also housed our washermen and people who are related to the field activities like sowing and tilling. To reach this village we had to go along the canal and that brought me back a rush of memories. I remember the times when in childhood I used to go to the local school. How many times our farm manager had to literally threaten me of throwing into this canal if I don’t go to school. I never was interested in going to the school which looked so drab to me compared to so many activities that were very much inviting in the mango grove, the fields and the river. Along the way I came across many people whom I used to know from the ancient times. One of the women was surprised to see us and commented why we have left the village and never looked back. Telling her, that we have been coming here every once in a while was no use as she was one lady who used to care for me and my mother many a times and took care of my like a nurse in early childhood. Its so humbling going to each house and talking to them and inviting for the ceremonial feast as they after seeing us came out scampering from the hut some times in reverence which is due to our status in the village some time in respect of our being brahimns. I found most of them in need of basic amenities and felt sad by their plight but then I looked at their faces and that made me see the inner peace that they have is lacking in most of the people in the urban cities.

On the way I passed a very old pipul tree which is very old and huge canopy which almost covered the entire road as well as the field behind it. I used to get scared on this tree in the nights when winds used to blow and shake every branch and leaves. I remember the time when in the middle of the summer afternoon bunch of us armed with ropes and a wooden plank went to this tree to put up a swing. As I was the kid in the group adept at climbing trees was allotted the job of going up the tree and reach the overhanging branch that was higher to reach from the ground and put the rope across. As I was walking on the branch and doing a balancing act with my hands outstretched I felt a gentle tap on my left shoulder and a sound which made my hairs stand on its ends. I looked around and found no one besides me on the branch and still could feel the ringing voice asking me to get down son and do not disturb, Baba is sleeping now. I scampered down and ran away from the place along with many of friends came after me asking what happened but I did not have the courage to stay and explaing them. I still hear the sound some times and now as I pass under this old pipul tree, I find it very peaceful. We have always believed in the village that this tree houses the Lord BRAHMA called in local dialect BARAM BABA and that was the day I felt his presence and today I feel it in looking at the base of tree where many people have left things, sacred thread is running across the girth of the tree which is a sign of being a Brahmin. I felt the urge to sit down here and I asked my cousin and younger brother to wait for a while. After some time my younger brother got up to go to the fields edge and I suddenly asked him not to go there but move a little bit on the right and stay there. Suddenly he shrieked and jumped up. We all ran towards him while he started telling us about a huge cobra passing by. I felt the presence of Lord Shiva that moment and silently prayed to Him and realized that He has just blessed us and my father is happy being there in his abode. With a joy in my heart I strted to go to our house.

By the time I came back, the whole process of ceremony has started. The priests from many places have reached and the chanting of mantra has been started. My elder brother was sitting with many pots all around him marking many things that will be needed on the journey. There was on one side the a cot one which full bed was ceremoniously decorated and on its sides many house hold items including cooking vessels and daily use of clothes were placed. On one end, chair was bedecked with silk and ornaments on which a huge picture of my father was kept. Slowly the chanting grew up in volume and the priests asked us to go and get our mother. With my mother many of the local women folk came out in a group and our ladies walked in beside her. The whole atmosphere just turned from spiritual color to one of sadness and many of the relatives who have come to this place from far off places in India and abroad felt the pain of my mother. The idea was to let the people close to my father pay their farewell and finally let him go.

After the ceremony was over all our elderly relative joined in the ceremony of placing headgear to my elder brother which basically means that he now takes over from my father as the head of the family. As ours is a joint family with all five of our brithers living together, the relatives and all of us acknowledged my elder brither as the head of the family which makes it easier for some of the common decisions to be taken easily and the transition is smooth.

The evening saw thousands of village folks gathering from all around to join in the feast and make show their respect to the departed soul. As per custom, all brothers joined in to serve to the village folks starting with the Brahmins who have had performed the last rites.

Slowly the rush of the people trickled down and the night brought in a sense of sadness descended on me. I was feeling lonely and depressed so I walked into the temple and sat down to mediate. The Bhagwati mantra started slowly engulfing me and I felt the presence of many of the people in the temple. My grand father in his attire of pure white looked so peaceful and many of my uncle’s specially joined in. I felt the presence of my Maternal grandfather who was believed to be so close to Durga ji that many people said that he talked to her most of the times. It felt soothing and I relaxed and let my mind wander among the stars.

Om Namah Shivaya Virtual

Some thoughts in between..... Of spirits and spiritual experiences

2006-06-30T15:49:00.000+05:30

The whole thought of spirits manifesting and making an appearance is what our movies have given us by shaping our thought process through the mind as it readily accepts anything as long as our senses are happy and enjoying.

I don’t deny that these things happen but most of the times, these things that few people report are nothing but our minds games to make one’s senses happy. The spiritual experience is some thing all together different and it makes one progress beyond this materialistic self and the illusion. The knowledge of universal consciousness and our inner self reaching and coming in touch with the Supreme Being is an altering stage of life. Beyond this stage one becomes more peaceful and ego less as he has seen what really life is all about and then he/she does not gets the kick which one usually gets by being some thing different. Most of the times those yogi’s who have attained that stage does not talk about it as it does not matter to them as they see the world differently and their perspectives are different of the world after that …that is why the most revered yogis have attained Samadhi after attaining that reach.

But few of us who talk about are those who are still ignorant of the real thing and only groping in the dark or being lead by our own conscious mind into something called euphoria as it makes us more comfortable and sensibly peaceful that is all that our mind wants … Our mind does not want us to get disturbed so its makes stories out of our some experiences to explain things to us. We are always controlled by our senses and the king of senses is our mind which in effect controls us. The spiritual experience is beyond those sense and has a deeper meaning beyond the mind and once its attained the mind does not have a part to play at that level so that is why our mind fights so vigorously not to let go of that control.

One can have major spiritual experiences once one is able to hold on to initial on one thought (Which will be very difficult as our mind will run here and there with thousands of thoughts crowding this exercises) and then focus on the universal being and then one does see the real universal consciousness from where all our spiritual experiences originates. In our Veda’s its said that one should first try to hold on to one thought for 12 seconds, which is called on Unit and when on is able to hold on to 12 units on one Sound OM (The primordial sound) one reaches a stage of heightened consciousness and once that is done one should hold on to 12X12X12 seconds (28 minutes 48 seconds) on the universal light which opens the gateway (The kundalini rises at this time to reach the crown chakra) and at this stage one can and does experiences merging with the whole consciousness. The state is so blissful that one does not want to come out of it usually so it’s advised to be guided by a guru to reach this stage as one has been given a life to fulfill one’s Karma before attaining nirvana.

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

My journey to our Ancestral House to find peace and my spritual roots - Day THREE Contd from below...

2006-06-30T15:21:00.000+05:30

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….

Reality

What is real

The vessel

Or the water inside

When submerged

In universal consciousness of sea

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

My journey to our Ancestral House to find peace and my spritual roots - Day TWO Contd from below...

2006-06-29T23:48:00.000+05:30

The open sky under which I slept gave me a tug in the morning with its cold winds with sun rising on the east breaking the first lights of the dawn. I was so refreshed to be under an open sky and could not help but walk over to the corner of the roof facing the sun and raised my arms up and soaked the morning rays. The eastern winds caressing my whole body rejuvenating the soul and I could not help smiling as I remembered the famous Titanic pose that I was displaying in the cold morning breeze with the corner of the roof acting as the hull of an ancient ship.

The day started with my brother going over to our mango grove where the pot containing my fathers ashes were kept. There we had to perform a ritual of bidding farewell to father with all honors and providing him with the necessary means for his life onwards. Such is our belief system that we don’t take the death as a parting but only as a continuation of a journey. There is a different sect of Brahmins called Karma Kaandi’s (Those who perform last rites and who take the offerings for the death as a means to convey the same to the departed soul. As per our customs we have called 11 Brahmins for the ritual and we will have to perform rituals and offer food and offerings to those Brahmins. My brother being the eldest had to take the lead in all the rituals so he was bathed and then he had to sit in the ritual for continuous 5 hours meanwhile as per our customs, we all brother had to shave our heads or cut hairs as offering of our own ego to the perpetual truth of life being momentary and we are all mere occupants in this body and finally we will have to live. I remember the famous saying of GITA, that the soul can not be cut, burned, make wet or dry, the soul is the forever living element of the Par Brahman and only moves on. Hence this ritual in effect makes one understand that it’s the ego which causes us pain not the death of the suffering.

Once we have had finished the rituals and the Brahmins have departed we all went to a nearby river which was 3 KMs away for a bath. I remembered so many incidents that happened in those fields that it almost made me feel sick in heart. How happy those days were, free from pressures and pain. Pure bliss, even in the games that we played in the dirt and dust, I found undiluted happiness. I came across those rustic villages where we used to walk around looking for some sweets, or some special branches of trees shaped like V for making a special slingshot. Armed with those slingshots, the bow and specially sharpened arrows we used to walk into the mango grove called Kookuhali which has so many trees that even in the mid day it was dark inside. Specially in the summer days, when the mangos become ripe with each passing breeze, they used to fall to the ground in hundreds and we used to go crazy trying gather them in the baskets as soon as they fell. Now the place is in ruins as many of the trees were felled and many a storm also took its toll, I looked around for the special tree that we used to call King and Queen and used to celebrate each year there crowning with so many kids gathered around. We even used to have the tie the knot with Vedic rituals of marriage with one of our cousin pundit tying the sacred knot between those two trees planted firmly next to each other.

The river came into view and it flashed in my memory like a long lost friend. This river a very small tributary to Holy Ganges is called Bansi River. How much fun we used to have there. My brother’s son went all wild and started running to it to make a running dive inside the cold waters and I find myself running along side with him. Just before he made his jump my flashback went off and I simply walked to the river. The water was cold in the hot summer which made all of us refreshed. The river was bringing along with it many water plants and algae and while being in the water it used to touch me which made me jump every time. I am still scared of snakes although in such a frolic no one snake will dare to come around but I was still scared. Slowly the sun started settling down and we decide to walk back to our village.

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

My journey to our Ancestral House to find peace and my spritual roots - Day ONE

2006-06-28T15:07:00.000+05:30

By the time I reached my village it was almost midnight. I found the serpent like road that was uncoiling before me and thought of the time when I used to take this same road with song on my lips and joy in my heart. Today, the journey had another meaning and it was sad to feel that the place my grandfather and my father poured sweat and blood to make a happy place, will not be there to receive me. The stars are shining so bright and thousands of it just waiting so near that I could almost touch them almost I wished for a shooting start to pass by and make my wish come true.

The small canal passed by and I saw my self playing in those refreshing waters just yesterday, will I be able to come back here again and play? The tarmac road changed to a dusty pathway the moment we crossed the small market near the school which my father helped with my uncle through donating land to one very famous Baba (Sadhu) whom we used to call Falahari Baba (The one who only ate fruits and vegetables which he was doing since his childhood) and he set up the small village school which now teaches 1000 village kids. The road took a bend and we bumped into the vast track of land that belonged to us. In the distance I could see the great double line of Jack Fruit trees which was looking too forlorn in the night sky. I remember we used to get very scared to come here in the night as it was supposed to be haunted. Now I felt no fear as its not the spirits that scare us but rather our own mind that does remain so possessive of our physical being getting harmed that it creates a panic in ourself about things unknown. I found that small running drain that accompanied the big canal that draws water from the Burhi Gandak ( A tributary to Ganges) and we moved to the bridge that joins my house to our land. The bridge remains same a mute spectator to many visitors and I could find that some bullock cart has broken the flat slab at the one end of it where we used to come and sit in the evenings talking to whole lot of people from my village and others passing through my village.

Just after the bridge the dusty path bend at 90 degree and my house and our most favored Durga Ji’s Temple or rather the Goddess Durga Ji’s most favorite household temple where She had decided to remain ( The temple is a very powerful one since my childhood I have been so attached to this temple that our fore father built and my father made the superstructure so that it is covered from rain and sun) came into view and I just bowed my head in prayer. I am here again and in her service and made a silent vow to come back here again soon once She finds me my footing and self respect.

The whole one acre of land in front of our house was set up with tents and sleeping cots and tables for food and at one corner there was the cook’s gang which was still at the middle of night preparing food or some stuff for the guests… I saw my brothers who have already reached there and for the first time I met my mother after the enlightenment of my father. She was looking weak and distraught and thank God that she did not broke into tears as I would have found it hard to contain mine. My younger brother who had come from hongkong came over and my elder brother who had been sitting our side taking care of things asked us to come over and have some tea.

I took one of my cousins a child hood friend along with me to look around in the night of the place and could find many things that still remained the same, the small litchi tree, that used to be our focal point for meetings in the evening as many of the villagers used to pass by this tree in the evening after the weekly market in the evening is closed. I also saw the well, where I used to have bath in tones of water Pitcher full, as our person used to make us bath in the childhood, is closed. The mud fell one season closing it forever and I felt sad. Many times sleeping under the neem tree that was in our courtyard next to the Durga Ji’s Temple, over looking the well, I found a beautiful lady in white clothes walking out of the temple and going over to the well to have water and come back. I still feel her presence even after so many decades have passed by today. Even now writing about it is making me feel her presence and my hairs are standing on its end and I find goose pimples all over my self. I asked my cousin to do something about it and restore the well as it has many memories of me, my brothers and my father. The mango tree that was next to it still stands and how refreshing is the memory that we used to climb at the top of it and how many times my brother came tumbling down from its peaks. But sadly the jasmine with all its scent has passed away in the memories lane.

I came back to my house and sat with brothers planning and thinking about things that needs to be done tomorrow and slowly the night passed away and we all left to sleep for whatever time the night has left for the day to walk in…

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

Winds of Change....Waiting at the Gorakhpur Railway Station

2006-06-17T19:29:00.000+05:30

I watched the leaf falling through many branches and swept away with winds and finally resting on the rails of small guage train rails... Just like I have been swept by winds of turbulent times testing my strength and courage as well as my conscious belief in superconsciouness...

Waiting here at the Gorakhpur Railway station on my way to my ancestral village, I was reflecting on the way things have changed from past few months to few days.. even. Imagine going through a training in the world capitol of IT Bangalore few days back and now here I am online through my Nokia Communicator which I am sure not going to work once I start on my way to my village which is like the dust ...hidden in the IT Back lanes.. so may be I will be online only in few days...

But apart from this there has been upheaval in my life too... Waking up to a call from my brother in early morning 4AM and knowing that my father has passed away just after few days of my penning of a poetry in celebration of his joining HIS heavenly abode... now sitting here two thousand miles away thinking about those moments brings to the contrast of the feelings and sensitivity. Dad wanted to be near his earth where he was born and brought up so all of us brother and my mother thought it fit to have his last rites in his own soil. ... DUST TO DUST SOUL TO SOUL...

Every time I used to reach this station which has always been a kind of gateway for me fromurbanisation to my rural lifewhich I have loved always... I used to feel so good reaching this place from delhi... and some times my couontry cousins used to travel 100 KMs to be at this stationto join us on our journey to our village.. used to have fun... now sitting here with one of my brother and one friend... we have an urn of ashes of my father to be spread across the fields where not only he, but we all used to play....

The sun is setting and the train is on its way... I will leave you all with some small thought that is coming to me just now...

Another life Unfolds

Fluttering leaves
Settles on the dust
tentatively
Waiting for the wind to unfold
and
Take her to the far corners
Of turbulent time
and leave
Her on the village temple
Footsteps
In wait for another life
To unfold

JAI DURGA JI

______________
Om Namah Shivaya
VIrtual

Well .. I was away...

2006-05-05T13:30:00.000+05:30

Hi all..

Whoever is following up on this blog. I was away due to certain set back in my life that left me broken and shattered but I am back. I feel that it was all a process of cleansing up that God has ordered for me in natures / Maya's garage like an overhaul or regular service of the vehicle that is this body. I am now coming to terms with the changed situation and picking up threads from where I have left off.

This cleansing has done one thing that I am now very clear of my lifes goal and what I am going to do....

I am back but I will be less online than before but I am here now...

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

Kada nilimp nirjhari nikunj kotare vasan....

2006-03-27T18:17:00.000+05:30

All the time I have been chanting this Tandav Strotra for lord Shiva and whenever I came across the lines

Kada nilimp nirjhari, nikunj kotare vasan
Vimukti durmati sada, sirasthamanjali vahan...

(When I will live on the banks of Holy River Ganges in a small hut, without any negetive thoughts and chant Shiva's name with my folded hands on the head....)

I used to really wish to do that... which by the Shiva's grace happened past week...

I am back from few days of living with a baba at the banks of river ganges in Devprayaag 80 Kms away from Rishikesh in Himalayas. This time, on the insistence of Ganesh Maharaj, I stayed with him in his Cave which is on the confluence of river Ganges. I have lot to actually write about but it will take some time to put all that in place... but mean while I will leave you all with some images that I have of the place...

I am going to post some of my thoughts on the experience there in coming few days pls try looking this page more frequently now... at least for a week as I have lot to share...

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

Rishikesh....

2006-03-27T18:10:00.000+05:30

Haridwar...

2006-03-27T17:43:00.000+05:30

The cave where I stayed ....

2006-03-27T17:33:00.000+05:30

The cave in which I stayed this time by the insitence of Ganesh Maharaj who is the care taker of the Ghat at the confluence. It was amazingly simple and uplifting stay at that place.. slept on the floor on some rugs... while the sound of the rivers flow nearby kept the innerself focussed on the spiritual process. I enjoyed my stay there.. a lot. You see Ganesh maharaj (You can actually find his picture elsewhere in my blog) in the T-Shirt who used to go up to bring me some Hindi Newpapers to read in the day so that I am not cut off the world here..

Bathing in the night before the evening meditation... at the confluence

2006-03-27T17:29:00.000+05:30

The river flows behind like a pure energy stream while submerging oneself in the holy river ganges was in itself was like how the gold is purified by fire... Every night it was an exhilerating experience to purify oneself with holy river's waters..

Sunrise at the Confluence....

2006-03-27T17:25:00.000+05:30

After brahma muhurat... with lot of waiting the sun peaks at the top of the mountain in the east. It was amazingly beautiful moment to see the sun rise at the Devprayaag and it finally became a habit to find Surya Bhagawan rising to a new day at the place

Morning Ritual ...

2006-03-27T17:00:00.000+05:30

Surya Namaskar at the dawn

You left foot prints in me....

2006-03-15T10:06:00.000+05:30

The stars are coming closer

Over the sea

And I find you walking down the waves

Waving to me

How the stars have fenced the sea

Come sit next to me

I remove the space between

“Come walk with me

These moments”

So that they leave foot prints in me

No man has said this before

No one has

Fluttered your heart

No one has loved so much

Yes no had asked me before

How I love

What do I do

Sleep is playing tricks with me

I am dead now

Now I am dreaming

That you love

Now you are leaving

Throw a little dirt

Cover it with your laughs

I am lying awake

In my piece of space

Six feet deep in earth

Death is acceptable

But what do I do

Its not coming

Before that

Your pain happened

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

Wake up my Love....

2006-03-13T13:17:00.000+05:30

Wake Up My Love

The whole pain
Precipitated from the night sky
In the morning rain
Chiding me for love exposed
Now in the drenched soil
Uncared and very small

How I love
A question that needs answer
Only to those who don't
And it etches like
A newly acquired scab
I just don’t know
How

What I know
Is this feeling in me
Growing by each space
You put in between
Brings me down on my knees
Feeling the greatness that was
To smallness that is
Now

Meanwhile the Rain
Lashes on my car windows
Love lashes within
Whipping up a storm
And I call you up
To say how lovely is the weather
Around
Wake Up

Om Namah Shivaya Virtual

There was a comment on this poetry on the group where I usually post my poetries.. which I am reproducing here

Star

From	Star
To	Poetry Message Board
Date	3-11-2006 3:08 PM
Subject	RE:Wake Up My Love...Challenge & comment

Message

this is really wonderful. such deep emotion of love in this. If I is about love of the purest kind.

Rameshwaram - The First thoughts....

2006-02-17T18:59:00.000+05:30

After a long wait and lot of desire, I finally reached Rameshwaram. I have been hearing about Rameshwaram since the time I started understanding stories. And I always pictured Rameshwaram to be some thing really beautiful, which it was when I finally reached the seashore, which was supposed to be the place where Lord Rama in the great Epic Ramayana paid his respects to Lord Shiva by making a Shivalinga in sand and performed Puja.

The first thing that stuck me about the place was the beauty of the sea itself. It was so blue and pure that I felt that I have come across the river Ganges in its great form. Its said that the waves don’t come higher here as Lord Rama has requested the sea itself not to show his vigorous self so as to enable the army to cross over to fight the demon King Ravana. The waves that were lapping on the shores of Rameshwaram were like the thousands of devotees who were paying their sincere homage and respect to the Lord Shiva there… serene and calm. I reached Rameshwaram at around 3PM at the guesthouse of Coast Guards thanks to a great friend who arranged for me to stay there. It was bang on the beach itself at Mandapam around 16 KM from the Temple and the view was very invigorating as I could see the vast expanse of blue sea through the palm tree that was like a veil – revealing the tantalizing beauty of the sea from the balcony of the suit that we had occupied. I could not resist the idea of leaving immediately to reach the destination that I have been waiting for since so many years and started immediately to visit the temple and the Place where Lord Rama crossed the sea to reach Lanka to fight his battle.

Rameshwaram - The First thoughts....

2006-02-17T18:54:00.000+05:30

When I reached the temple, which is one of the very famous abodes of Shiva and only one in south India, the sun was setting on the main entrance, which at once captivated me. We went inside the temple and at once I felt a weight leaving my shoulders as soon as I stood in front of a magnificent Shivalinga. The desire, which was in me since early childhood, left its pressure and in its place a serene calm descended on me bathed in the powerful vibration of the Shivalinga. I felt a surge of affection to the idol rising and I bowed my head within the powerful chants of Tandava Strotra (How ironic it was that I was enthralled with the powerful recitation of Tandava Strotra which was composed by the same Demon King of Srilanka, Ravana for whose defeat Lord Sri Ram performed the Shivalinga Puja and installed the same Shivalinga. In our own Epics Ravana has been acknowledge as a great master and Priest and composed the Tandava Strotra to appease Lord Shiva who finally gave him many powers to become invincible). After some time spending in the Garbha Grih – The Sanctum Sanctorum, with the very powerful Shivalinga, I came out visibly shaken and very much thrilled.

Rameshwaram - The Shivalinga brought by the Monkey King Lord Hanuman...

2006-02-02T21:37:00.001+05:30

Just next to the Garbha Grih, there is another very powerful Shivalinga which has a great story attached to it. When Lord Shri Rama came back to the shores of Rameshwaram, after conquering the Kingdom of Ravana, he wanted to perform a puja and pay his respects to Lord Shiva for making him victorious. To do this he needed a Shivalinga to be brought from the heavenly adobe of Lord Shiva from mount Kailash to which Lord Hanuman the Monkey king said that he would rush and get it from there which was at the other end of India in Himalayas and left to bring it. Every one waited for him to come back with Shivalinga while the auspicious time for the performing Abhishekam (The Abhishek is about bathing the Shivalinga with Ganga Jal (Holy water from Ganges river which is supposed to be most purifying) and adorning the Shivalinga with various auspicious thing. So finally at the insistence of many priest Lord Shri Rama decided to make a Shivalinga out of Sand and performed the Puja. By that time Shri Hanuman also arrived with Shivalinga from the mount Kailash and was very much disheartened by seeing that the puja is already being performed. To see his sad self Lord Shri Rama consoled him by granting him that the Shivalinga that he has brought will be before the Shivalinga he has performed the Abhishek for and people will also pray at his Shivalinga too otherwise they will not get the benefits of the performing puja. Hence he was appeased and made happy.

This Shivalinga is just next to the main shrine, which attracted me a lot with its own beauty and powers. I sat in front of it where many devotees were already sitting and I started meditating and I could feel myself going deeper in the form that was Shri Hanuman and could visualize how devoted he was to bring this from the Mount Kailash. I can touch the feeling that he was having at that time of being the one to bring such precious thing to Shri Ram whom he was devoted. I went out with him on his trip to Mount Kailash (Which I desire very much and would like one day to be there too on mount Kailash in the heavenly abode of Lord Shiva) and feel the passions rising with the powerful wind swept face by the speed of which I was flying in emotions. I could feel the swell of my bliss rising within and I was exhilarated in the moments of reaching that divine place. Suddenly I got out of the meditation and the Shivalinga was looking so bright with glow of its own which made me feel utter calm and joy. The priest of the temples requested me to do special puja, which I felt within my heart to do too. And after making arrangements for the Rudra-Abhishekam for the next day morning, I came out to go to Dhanush Koti where Lord Shri ram crossed the sea to reach the shores of Shri Lanka.

Rameshwaram - The story of Shri Ram at Dhanush Koti....

2006-02-02T21:32:00.000+05:30

When Lord Shri Rama reached the shores of Rameshwaram, he was not very sure how to cross the river. He asked the sea to give way for the army to cross to which sea said that it will be against the nature of the sea to part way and requested him to make a bridge across and the sea also promised to subdue his waves to make it easy. Then he saw that many of the army is throwing rocks in the sea that does not sink. To his surprise he saw that they are writing His holy name on the rocks, which makes them float. This Dhanush Koti is the place where this bridge was made and it’s the nearest access point to the shores of Srilanka, which is only about 7 KM away. The remains of the bridge are still seen and after Sri Ram on the battle and installed demon Kings own brother as the king of Srilanka, who requested Him to destroy the bridge so that the kingdom of Srilanka remains safe from intruders. The site itself is very beautiful with sea on both side calm and serene. There were many tourists thronging the place and I took almost an hour to take it all in. Visualizing Sri Rama’s Army ground to a halt here and feeling what would have been a very active place at that time. The fishermen’s hut that dot the place there now and their many boats that are anchored in the sea makes me wonder if we are still at attached to the same time. What happens to the people who are touched by the powers of the place daily? Most of them I think don’t even realize that its something very unique or rather most them loose the charm of it all. I remember a very nice couplet of a Sufi saint, which basically means that those who live in the forest of sandalwood, end up burning the sandalwood.

Rameshwaram - The Prayers and bathing Ritual...

2006-02-02T21:22:00.000+05:30

Next day was hectic for me, so I slept early and woke up at around 4 Am in the morning to meet the priests who said that they would wait for me at the gate. By the time I reached there, the dawn was breaking and they took me inside for the early darshan which was supposed to be without bathing as the bath of purification is a famous ritual here. After which I was lead to the beach for the bath in the Rameshwaram sea for purification. Hundreds of devotees were there and the sun was slowly rising in the east. One lone cloud was hanging in the morning sunrays some distance away a devotee was performing Suraya namaskar (It’s a great ritual where one pay one’s respect to the Sun by offering him water through ones cupped hand after purifying oneself with bath). The setting was almost holy and I waded deep into the sea and took my three dips in cool refreshing waters of Bay of Bengal. After this bath I was lead inside the temple to bath in 22 water sources within the temple, which are supposed to be the direct sources of waters from the various holy places in India. These are under ground springs with very refreshing cold water which actually makes one feel so pure after having a bath. The person who took me around explained to me the various holy places each kund was associated with. During the next one hour I was taken to each of the 22 kunds and bathed by pouring water from them. The ritual has a very calming affect on the inner self. The cold water and seeing hundreds of devotees with devotion in heart and prayer on the lips and chanting of Om Namah Shivaya mantra makes the whole atmosphere pure and sanctified. Slowly one withdraws oneself inside and thinks of the Supreme Being within and gets ones first glimpse of the inner supreme consciousnesses which slowly arouses in each one the devotees who have even an iota of faith within. I also witnessed few children bathing and crying at the same time, to which I felt rather bad as to why the parent have put them through this as they were too young to even feel the sanctity of the ritual let alone mature enough to understand it. At the end of the whole ritual I came out so refreshed and so close to the Supreme Being that I ended up in a reverie.

Rameshwaram Visit - A peaceful begining....

2006-02-02T21:15:00.000+05:30

Outside I changed to fresh clothes after the bath and started to visit the temple for my Rudra Abhishekam. The process of Rudra Abhishek is to get one pot full of after purified by the chanting of Mantras and performing certain Vedic rituals by three to five priests with the person who is doing the Rudra-Abhishek. After almost an hour of the same we were ready to go to the sanctum sanctorum to bath the Shivalinga with the purified water. I had brought myself pure holy Ganges water, which was also added to the pot. Its said that one get great benefits if one brings holy Ganges water from Rishikesh to perform the Rudra Abhishek. Then in the front of the Shivalinga we did perform puja with Vedic mantras and Vedic rituals. It was an enlightening experience for me as I was ale to feel the presence of strong vibration once all the things that were adorning the Shivalinga and I could see the powerful Shivalinga that was installed here by Lord Shri Rama Himself. The Shivalinga in its free from all the adornments gives a feeling that one is seeing the same Shivalinga along with Sri Rama while one is performing the Prayers. One suddenly gets there in that space of time and be with that period of performance. I was grateful for the priest that he took my prayer beads too and adorned the Shivalinga with it, which I had brought from Kedarnath, the other four of the Powerful Jyotirlinga of Shiva like this one. I could feel the beads still burning with the touch of the power source and I was ecstatic while wearing them again around my neck. The whole 5 hours of ritual made me very pure which I could feel in my veins. I grew blissful with each intake of breath there and after the end of the whole Abhishekam, I just went out and sat besides the Shivalinga that Lord Hanuman brought and went into a peaceful realm of supreme consciousness.

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

Some Images of Rishikesh and my time there...

2006-01-15T20:19:00.000+05:30

It was a blissful surrounding here at the DevPrayaag ... Once I reached there, I forgot all the worries of the world and was immersed in the bliss of the Himalayas...

One finds many types of people on the way to various pilgrim places enroute in Himalayas. This Pilgrim here has been staying at this place for number of years and is come down from the higher regions of Himalayas in the winter

Sunrise at the Vashisth Gufa(Cave) which is on the banks of the Holy River Ganges. It was exhilerating to sit on those stones and just watch the sun rise behind those lush green hills.

Vashisth Gufa 28 KMs away from the Rishikesh where Vashistha Muni (Sage) did meditations. These idols are centuries old and when one sits within that confines of the Cave one can really feel the presence of Sage very powerful vibrations.

A huge Lord Shiva image on the way to Dev Prayaag from Rishikesh. Pls notice the other huge Shivalinga which on the side under whose canopy there is the temple of Lord Shiva. You can imagine the height of the Shiva Statue by the size of My driver standing in the front and my car in the back ground

A Bathing ritual at Dev Prayaag...

2006-01-15T20:18:00.000+05:30

The simple devotions of the village folks make me wonder why we all go ourselves tying up in knots trying to find the bliss that comes so easily to these village folks. They on the Sundays or special holy days come all the way from their villages far flung in the mountains to revere the holiest of the rivers Ganges on foot traveling sometimes 10-15 miles in mountains to have a simple bath in freezing cold water and pray to this life giving river which is considered the holiest of all the rivers in India.

The Simplicity of devotion in the country folks...A Bathing ritual at Dev Prayaag...

2006-01-15T20:09:00.000+05:30

My attention was drawn to them because of their cries, while I was on the confluence of River Bhagirathi and Alaknanda at this holy place called Dev Prayaag from where the river takes its famous name Holy Ganges to travel 2000 miles to reach the far corner of India at Ganga Sagar to meet the Sea. I looked towards the sound of cries to find that the women folks were holding one of the women while she was taking a dip in the river. The River was flowing with freezing cold water and pleasant noise so typical of waterfalls and of this river even when its in plains. Her face was in deep reverence and she was shaking her head side to side like a woman possessed. I thought that it might be a reaction to the cold water but I find the women holding her hands in deep devotion and their face full of reverence, which did tell me that it has nothing to do with cold water. This comes from within, although it may be a reflex action of the cold water hitting the body but above all the thought behind the immersion of ones own body to cleanse is a pure thought and spiritual in nature.

The serenity of Devprayaag....

2006-01-15T20:02:00.000+05:30

I walked away from their private moments of devotion and started to do my prayers and my own cleansing process. Here at this Ghat I have a friend who lives in the only cave on this confluence. He is does aarti every day on this confluence and in the cave he has a dhuni (Fire of logs) and devotes his time in, I think, contemplation of Shiva. He always calls me when I am in Chennai and requests me to come over. This time he offered me tea on the fire and also offered me a Rudraksha Mala (Beads of Rudraksha is a very powerful as its specially provides the bearer with power and wealth) and then agreed to perform Puja for me. I have always offered the money to this yogi for the aarti at this confluence for the whole year, which he does every time in the evening.

I finally went to the river and took a very refreshing bath listening to the flowing water and sat on a stone jutting out to the river. Sat in meditation for some time looking at the river coming from the side of Kedarnath and Badrinath. I have always loved performing puja at Kedarnath, which was the last time I was there an enlightening moment. I thought of my feelings at that time and I sat in meditation looking inward to relive the moment of the ecstasy that I got there. The river flowed without much turbulence at the surface but deep within I was able to feel its power, which was surging forward. In moments of reflection I have always thought of how it would be like to flow with that force. Slowly I came out of my deep reflection and the priest was calling me for the puja. While sitting there I thought of my friends, relatives and brothers and father mother.. and wished them all happiness and great times ahead in life.

Whenever I sit on the banks of river I find myself full of love and also sure of the well being of all my surrounding. This feeling of love for all increases manifolds at these places and gives me so much confidence that I feel like I can actually make all of them happy. Is it true.. I feel it some times from deep within that it is so. Because when I touch deep within I find the part of soul, which is part of the same universal consciousness that is the source of all joy and manifestations. I think in those times of bliss that I am capable of manifesting happiness all around. I am grateful to The Lord Shiva for filling me with these thoughts and feelings of love…

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

One evening at the Vishwanath Temple in the Shivananda Ashram..

2006-01-15T19:59:00.000+05:30

I was sitting in the Vishwanath Mandir at Shivananda Ashram meditating on the Lord Krishna. There were few swamis going about cleaning the place as the aarti has just finished. Some of them were cleaning the utensils, which were used to keep the prasaad, and a very young devotee was sweeping the floor. Suddenly the hall’s silence was broken with shattering of glass as one of the swami’s dropped the bottle containing the oil for the lamps. I opened my eyes to find few of the shards of the bottle lying at my feet and the boy sweeping the floor gently swept it away. As my meditation was broken, I opened my eyes to see the Krishna eyes smiling in all this silent commotion and I started thinking how the life at the ashram is so peace full within the life’s chaos. The ashram is full of the divine joy, which usually comes from the vibrations of devotion. In 1943, the Vishwanath Mandir was consecrated in the Shivananda Ashram. From that time onwards thousands and thousands of devotees devotion has made this icon of focus for all meditations and devotions a very powerful source of bliss radiating out from it. This 67 years old icon of peace in the form of Lord Vishwanath has its internal teja (The spiritual power) pulsating in his divine smile. And for the people like me who are on the look out for a short cut to achieve a life of bliss, which many thousands of devotees find after a life of tapa and asceticism.

One evening at the Vishwanath Temple in the Shivananda Ashram..

2006-01-15T19:50:00.000+05:30

Sitting there in dhyaan, in the front of the Idol while on my left side a very powerful Shiva’s statue in sitting posture beckoned my attention. I find a young priest paying his obeisance with prostrating in front of it and then going on one side to meditate. I look at him and find him full of peace and his eyes fixed to the radiating face of Krishna while he prepared himself to sit comfortably in lotus asana and start his daily routine of meditation. The wind out side was blowing its coldness through the chinks in the window and I shivered. The light outside was slowly fading into darkness and the light from the garbh griha (the sanctum sanctorum) was making it presence felt more strongly. Slowly all these things started fading away from my thoughts and I started feeling the goose pimples that usually spring up when ever I am on the way of touching that internal switch of the soul. My spine become erect and slowly I find with e3ach of my breath, the sphere of light started rising slowly to my heart chakra and then it started expanding. I find my self slowly drawn within and then break free like a flying bird outside the ashram. I find my self, hovering around the confluence of Dev Prayaag and the winding river Ganges calling me to merge within it. I take a sudden swoop down and plunge deep into the night stillness and very cold water… All the surrounding lights submerged in the flowing river and I was totally blinded slowly I saw a light emerging at the far end and I saw the beautiful face of Krishna radiating with joy. Things slowly came back into focus and I find my self thrilled with joy and a sense of internal bliss while I saw that the devotee sitting in my front is gathering his books of chants and is drawing his shawl around him in preparation of getting up to go back to his room to sleep.

I also left the place walking around the statue of Shankaracharya, which is installed in the Vishwanath temple. What a true yogi he was, who attained his smaadhi at the age of 32 in Kedarnath after traversing the width and breadth of India at such an young age. A true beacon of light of Hindutva who at the time of deep depression in the Hindu Sanskrit came to the land and made its real self known to the thousands of devotees with his sheer perseverance, devotion and hard work. I remember some one saying that he was a great yogi and above all a great trekker who traveled all the Dhams on foot and revived many of the great places in its present glory.

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

One Evening on the banks of River Ganges....

2006-01-15T19:45:00.000+05:30

Sitting on the banks of Holy River Ganges, my mind this time was full of doubts. I have been through lot of worries, which I had left for the will of God to take care, while I kept up to my work. Slowly things started falling in the place but I had doubts of things like even if I had not left it to Him, then would it have been solved in the way it has or not. So many choices any one of those would have worked fine I guess. But what is it, which makes things finally fall in place. My faith, divine interventions or just plain luck. With these doubts, my thought was searching for the clarity, which I guess, I did realize at the end.

What happens when one leaves the results to the God is that whole universe conspires to make things happen with the best choice. As the deepest desires and well being of a person actually comes from within the soul, the gateway to the paramatman. Once one leaves it to that gateway, it actually manifest things in the way its more conducive to the health of the soul.... Contd.

One Evening on the banks of River Ganges....

2006-01-15T19:41:00.000+05:30

Slowly the lights started fading away on the banks and I see a floating plate made out of leaves with a flickering lamp and flowers as the offering to Ganges come to the place where I was sitting and in it I saw the solution of my predicament. The faith and devotion does have its manifestation qualities. As the lamp flowed away riding out on the faith of devotee, I felt a deep sense of calm.

In the night, while sleeping I saw a vision of me flying high with some one in white robes to the dawn of another day. A new day came up and gently woke me up with rays of sunrise from the windows opening out to the Holy Ganges. In Guru nivas of Shiva Nanda Ashram I did find a new day with lots of love and feeling of belongingness.

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

My Stay at Sivananda Ashram at Rishikesh....

2005-12-01T16:49:00.000+05:30

This time I stayed in Sivananda Ashram, thanks to a friend who introduced me to a great person Swami Yati Dharmananda. A great person only 33 years old and he became sanyasi at the age of 25 years. He hails from an affluent family from Orissa a State in India, and was a software professional working in Singapore before he felt the lacuna within himself. He came to this ashram and now his daily routine is many hours of meditation and then setting up a state of the art Media center where he makes VCD DVD and spiritual albums along with their own printing center. I asked him does he have any regrets which, although a very blunt question, elicited a very calm reply. He said, “No I don’t feel regret as I feel that the worldly relationship does not last long and full of breaks in belief and relationship”. Finding him in those surroundings does make me feel so and I find bliss in his face which belies the young age that he has. How one can find bliss away from his mother, brothers and worldly pleasures is not hard to believe as I continued living there for two days.

The spritual power....

2005-12-01T16:32:00.000+05:30

The place is full of spiritual powers and the atmosphere makes one relate to God in much more easier way than one can find among the negativity that one has in urban surroundings. The holy Ganges that flows down the hill sends such powerful vibrations that one gets drenched in the flood of spiritual thought like being in a monsoon shower. The sounds of conch, chants and hymns being sung in the ashram rekindles the spirit and makes one conversant with ones own inner self. Meditating in my own room that was graciously provided by Swami Ji was full of instant awakening of my own muldhara and the heart charka as I felt a surge of joy flow through my spine up to my heart and I felt a joy which definitely is hard to achieve in normal atmosphere. I feel that is the reason I am drawn to this place and now I feel this place as my spiritual home.

Meditation at the Ashram....

2005-12-01T13:18:00.000+05:30

The night time meditation at the banks of Ganges was kind of revisiting my own self. How one forgets to keep in touch with oneself in day to day routine of business and pressures of urban jungle. While the chilly winds from the Ganges kept me thinking of those sages who did not have had any clothes while meditating and even the founder of Siva Nanda Ashram who used to come early in the morning at 4 AM and stand in waist deep water to meditate for hours together.. There were people sleeping on the bank and the sound of their breath keep touching me in my meditation while I tried concentrating my mind to one thought of Ganges flowing out of Shiva’s Locks. Finally I lost all the consciousness of surrounding and find my self swirling in those locks submerged in the sift current of holy Ganges. And in one sudden gust I shot out of the locks along with the main current of Ganges and started falling like in a very deep fall. I hit the ground with a force along with the current and I felt the shock of the break and started gasping for breath… I don’t know how long that lasted but then slowly I regained myself and I could see my self blissfully floating in the Ganges from where I was sitting and meditating.

I slowly walked back to the top of the hill and after doing the prayers, I slept at 4AM in the morning like a log till 7AM, when swami Ji sent my driver to wake me up for us to Visit Neel Kanth Mahadev Temple 30 KMs away from our place.

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

On the Way to the Neel Kanth Mahadev Temple....

2005-11-29T18:15:00.000+05:30

On the way to the Neel Kanth Mahadev Temple I always stop by this beautiful stream running down to meet the river ganges around 8 kms away. Behind this there is a natural cave where some devotee has placed a shiva linga and comes every day to worship the Shiva Linga. Last time I discovered it accidently and this time I find that myself looking forward to see this place and offer my prayers.. ... I enjoyed my stay here which was very refreshing and I find that this place has a great calming effect on my senses.

Neel Kanth Mahadev Temple....where Lord Shiva Drank the Poison

2005-11-29T18:09:00.000+05:30

This is a picture of the Idol placed inside the Neel Kanth Mahadev Temple which depicts the Drinking of Halahal by Lord Shiva. The story of the churning of the ocean is well known in Hindu religion.

The Ocean was churned by using the mountain mandra and the snake Vasuki wrapped around it. Each side would hold an end of the snake and pull on it alternately, causing the mountain to rotate, which in turn would cause the Ocean to be churned. However, once the mountain was put on the Ocean, it began to sink. Then, Vishnu incarnated in the form of a turtle, Kurma to support the mountain.

As the ocean was churned, a deadly poison known as halahal emerged. This poison threatened to suffocate all living things. In response to various prayers, Lord Shiva drank the poison; his wife Parvati, alarmed, stopped it in his throat with her hands. This caused the throat to turn blue. Due to this, he is called Nīlakantha (nīla = "blue", kantha = "throat"). Then, various people, animals, and treasures emerged.

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

The Enetrance of Neel Kanth MahaDev Temple

2005-11-29T18:05:00.000+05:30

Neel Kanth Mahadev Temple....

2005-11-29T17:40:00.000+05:30

This famous temple that made me feel goose pimples all over, the time I take the final turn to take the most uphill roads around five kilometers before, is a very powerful spritual place. I try to visit this temple every time I visit Rishikesh because I find in its surroundings very powerful spritual current. This is the place Lord Shiva supposedly took the poison that came out of the churning of mythical sea with Meru Parvat (Himalaya as the Stick) by which the sea was churned. The belief is that one gets manifold results of Tapa (Meditation) done here. IN this picture you see the sea being churned. Its on the top of the enterance to the temple.

I got a great chance to be inside the temple and meditate on the very powerful self appearing Shiva Linga that is inside the garbh Grih here. The temple is very beautiful and then enterance is more like the Gopurams in the south with lot of carving etc..

I feel a great happiness that comes within me when ever I visit this place. While sitting cross legged here, I thought of so many devotees that throng to this place and their devotion still floating in the air. Nearby a stream runs and I find many of the devotess bathing before coming inside the temple to offer their prayers.....

The shops nearby gave us some Flowers, Bel Patra ( A leaf which is supposed to be offered to Lord Shiva) and Ganga Jal along with two incense stick. To light the incense stick we could not find any match box so we asked around and then could get one. This was lighted next to the very old Pepul tree.

When I started coming out of the temple I remember the Tandav Strotra where The Demon King Ravana Trying to Appease Lord Shiva said that you with your thrid eye has been able to even destroy many powerful enmies then please destroy my bad karma and let me leave next to you.....

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

The God's own Country and The Goddess own House.. Chottanikkara Bhagwati Temple in Kerala...

2005-11-15T18:57:00.000+05:30

Last week when Chennai was again thrashed by rain God Indra and each time this happens I am invariably are out of town. This time I was away contemplating thoughts about my growing affection with Durga Ji on the footsteps of a very famous temple Chottanikkara Bhagwati. I remember the last time I went to Kerala and specially this very Temple almost a decade back, I was in Cochin for an interview for a Job. Fortunately I did not get that job which makes now possible for me to travel to so many interesting places... in India and I could pursue my "Experiments with spirituality" here...

Kerala is a beautiful state and the moment I landed here I was asked by a friend who was sitting next to me on the flight to help him reach a place called Allepy which was some 90 KMs away from the airport. On the way, talking to him I realized that so many of us try to reach that ultimately peaceful state through many ways. Here is this person sitting next to me, crying about his wife to whom he was married for 27 years and feels the pangs of her absence – and is trying in effect to forget her absences by traveling.

At the Chottanikkar temple....

2005-11-15T18:52:00.000+05:30

At this temple so many thoughts crowd me. What is that brings me to the steps of some famous and some not so famous temples and why do I go to these temples at all. What is it that makes me take detours, make arrangements and make it possible to be in the temples or near a deity? What is that which made me remove all my upper clothes to enter the sanctum sanctorum (This is a custom in many temples which all have to follow to enter in the presence of the deity) where as I was very reluctant to remove in public. Why? Sitting on those steps I looked at one very old lady gyrating her head with her long old hair flying all around her, in total silence with her eyes fixed at the Idol. Why does she do it? To show to the people around that she is in trance or she really is in trance? But she never once looked at me or at the other people around her. She kept on shaking her head with murmuring lips.

Her Face Smiles away my doubts...

2005-11-15T18:43:00.000+05:30

In those surroundings where many people come and bathe in the pond, which for all practical reasons dirty, and then become pure to visit the Deity, where there is lot of sound but silence is reigning. The birds fly from the tree top to tree top and my thoughts are running haywire. There must be something that brings me here….?

I saw Deity’s Face shining in gold with Her eyes that followed me from the entrance to Her pedestal. I find in Her eyes peace and my various thoughts and doubts just disappeared. I was here to soak in Her power and feel Her presence seep through me.. That is why I keep finding my self in the temples looking for the super consciousness and the energy that is making me feel high.. and in a blissful state…

Out side I find that lady still standing there and talking to her Mother in the way she can.. in the way she can make Her understand that Mother I do need You. So Help her Mother.

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

Gopi, I find Krishna in your every breath...

2005-11-03T16:22:00.000+05:30

The air is heavy with your excited breath
You are immersed in the river Ganga
To douse that Love
Or is it the lust that you are carrying
In your wet clothes
That the lover
Dropped from the overhang

Drops cling to your wet clothes
Some dew drops hang from the your eyelashes
Some on your lips
Do you bathe in Ganges?
To be more enchanting, Gopi
To your eternal lover

You brush past me
With out even knowing that I exist
With your heart full of desires
To meet him
Where is the space
To even think of

I follow your scent
Which lingers around me a while
You swept past me
Even my past
Along with the memories
That I hang on to for some time

Gopi, I find Krishna
In your every breath
Then why do you go to the Ganges
Or to His Temple
To find Him
Every morning

-----------------------------------------------

(Krishna Playing with Gopi's on the banks of Yamuna River in Gokul. Below is the Picture from the main Gopuram of a Famous Temple in Madurai)

Radhe Krishna, Radhe Krishna
Virtual

Krishna Where are you?

2005-11-03T16:08:00.000+05:30

I felt walking on the streets of Mayapur Navdweep where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu walked his first steps and tried to gather what is so special in those dusty crowded streets where only a rickshaw can be plied..? What is it in the place that makes me bow down to touch the earth and put it on my forehead in deep reverence? When I stepped on the boat from the Mayapur to reach to the Navdweep, the journey itself prepared me for the vision that I was going to have in the birth place of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The river in its meandering ways with trees bent low almost touching the holy waters of River Ganges in obeisance. I almost saw Krishna playing joyfully in those branches of the trees teasing gopis by taking all their clothes to the tree top.

As soon as I touched the ground zero of Navdweep, I felt joy surge in me as I was finally in the place where bhakti yoga took its root and the air was full of vibrancy and devotion. The place where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to go to worship Govinda was full of his divine presence. Many devotees fresh from bathe in holy Ganges with droplets clinging to their clothes and freshly painted as dew drops on the enchanted faces like gopis dressed with desire to meet Krishna passed me on the way to meet Him. How graceful the way those gopis laid out their love for you Krishna. Among them I find myself so insignificant and small… how easy it is for them to be with you all the time along with their household chores.. and family burden.

The peacock feather and the Bidi-makers...

2005-11-03T15:59:00.000+05:30

The streets were full of people and vendors showing me all kinds of things related to you Krishna. Some were pushing their beautifully crafted Peacock feather fan some placed beautifully made idols but the shop next to one of your temples Krishna had some very old people making hand made bidis (Tobacco Leaves folded inside Bunyan tree leaves which is very popular among the country side for smoking). The whole generation of the family was involved in making those bidis but above all, there was a sense of peace within that close group which was permeating like the incense that was floating there from the incense stick under the beautiful image of Lord Krishna on the corner.

The essence of Krishna within the air and dust..

2005-11-03T15:53:00.000+05:30

The tea shop was full of people starting the new day with an invigorating drink and the best tea I have had since some time while I was waiting for the boat to come to take me back to the Mayapur. As soon as the boat hit the Mayapur shores there was flood of people surging to grab a place in the boat, many with their cycles and baskets and tools. Most of them were workers on their way to work. I had hard time getting off the boat fighting to hold my onwards movement against the inward tide. I felt sad reaching Mayapur as the mere breath in Navdweep was full of energy and religious sentiments. How close I felt to you Krishna when I was on the soil of Navdweep. Their, among the people, who were carrying within them the devotion that one son of that soil had for you and could reach you. I was closer to you there than I was ever… Navdweep, it’s great that you could hold that essence of devotion within your Dust and air. I bow to you in great respect.

Radhe Krishna, Radhe Krishna

Virtual

I was in a different world ....

2005-10-31T17:16:00.000+05:30

Each day I come in her presence.. makes me feel stronger and feel grateful that I have her blessings.. How impressive is her vision that surrounds me all the time and how forceful Her words are to me… today the evening meditation was marked with a group of people who had gathered to chant her name and among them sitting silently I watched them grow into the astral level devotees from ordinary workmen they were. Along the side of the hall, where I was sitting I can feel their devotion rising and growing envelop of chants that slowly engulfed me too.. and I was transformed into a living consciousness, devoid of any physical sense only the blissful awareness that I am among kali ma’s devotees and slowly an electric spark started growing on the base of my spine… by the time the singers were at the crescendo of the chants I was already floating among them.. with the sounds, the chants and Her benign presence.

Am I already changed...?

2005-10-31T17:03:00.000+05:30

The next day I was so enthused with her visions to me that I sat down besides the holy Ganges flowing nearfby and just watched the river flow quietly to the Sea. The people thronging the ghat, the children jumping in the rier from the pier and from the Tea Stall the fresh brewed tea scent hanging in the air, made the sun look brighter. The boatmen with their cries to grab the attention of the pilgrims going to the Belur Math set up by Swami Vivekananda made me feel fresh. Yesterdays whole night was spent in my thoughs of the experienced that had me uplifted me to a level where things seems to loose its form … its was kind of a feeling of being formless in a mass of energy light and happiness. It was very hard to break up from that feeling of being in the One.

Sitting in the room of Sh Ramakrishna Paramhansa, I thought of the things that have had come to pass… thought of the things that I am going through.. what is this change that is happening..? Will it ever change me….? Or Am I already changed?

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

No longer me

2005-10-31T16:31:00.000+05:30

The sound keep melting in me
The sound of silence
The sound of conch
The sound of circulating group of devotees
Till it was no longer me

I swirled within the circle
Floated in the group
Went high
and then merged
in the overall consciousness of me
In the Universe

She took me in her arms
and went away to the stars
A long silver thread followed
From the manifestations
Of God
Which was lying down in the group
Of Singers singing your songs

I woke up in the dew
That was hanging at the grass blade
Till sun trampled on it
With his harsh rays
And I woke in your love
Lying still among the chants.
-----------------------

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

Deeply in Love....

2005-10-21T10:47:00.000+05:30

Some thoughts are knocking in my head
I feel restless
And fatigued
Are you calling me from far?

Do you want me to come?
Sit besides you
And Hold your hand?
Or are you going away?

I am already far
Far from you
How further you can leave me
Away

It’s just that thought
That keeps coming back to me
Again and again
That is keeping you besides me

Or is it that you have already left?
Why then this emptiness
That engulfs my soul
Is not at all empty of you

Do you want me to come back?
And hold you close to me again
Or do you want me to go away
And hold nothing against you

Then what is this my love
That keeps coming back to in thoughts
Scratch my world of emptiness
And draw out some bloodless soul

I am just deeply devoted to you.

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

Kali Ma why I have Doubts .....?

2005-10-20T11:28:00.000+05:30

The bank of the holy river Ganga calls me every time I close my eyes in Meditation. I get transported to the Ghat where I have spent many hours in solitude among devotees thronging the very powerful idol of Kali ma. Dakshineshwar temple situated at the Ganga ghat in the far corner of Kolkata has been a place of spiritual upliftment for since the time my younger brother lead me to it. I find my self happy at the thought of being there again among the powerful presence of the spirits of great souls like Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Vivekanada and many such saints of Hindu religious sects. I feel, in my heart, a desire to reach out to the Kali Ma and ask her to give me something each time I stand in her presence at the prayer hall within my thoughts. But what do I ask her? I fear asking her something so small that the rare chance of asking her something for me fritters away.

I am happy in any case being given the chance to be with her at the mere thought of her divine grace and what more one can ask apart from the bliss that even her thought gives.. I have the grace of her so great that just by thinking about her gives me her presence so what more I can ask? But then I have this nagging fear that I may be going in wrong direction .. Am I Kali Ma? Why not you give me the direction to go, why not let me have the path which reaches you easily. Will I get that this time… ? But then I again I am filled with doubts what if you test me, give me another path that leads me into the forest of desires and fulfilling my Karma again. What if the path that I am going on is the right path as you have pointed me towards it years back? But Kali Ma, I also a child, asking from his mother, how to come to you.

Will you give me a circuitous path leading me away to began with or this time Ma, I will reach out to you?

How far one can go into the forest of senses? Don’t you think Ma that I am already half way through in the forest? Now will each step I take, lead me out of the forest …? Ma I need your divine help and your finger to hold and walk out of your Maya with you and me within you…Jai Durga Ma

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

Kailash Mansarovar ... A place I love to be next year...

2005-10-19T18:42:00.000+05:30

Kailash is a rather small member of the Himalayas. They are the youngest of the earth's visible mountains, growing at the rate of several centimeters every year, as

India

, the sub-continent and former island moves inexorably inland. The name of this stupendous range stems from Himavat, the father of Lord Shiva's bride, Parvati. The Himalayas or abodes of snow are considered the mystical dwellings of Gods from ancient times. Ancient texts such as the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas and the Vedas, all sing in unison of the glory and wonder of the Himalayas. The Ramayana says, "There is no mountain like Himachal, for in it are Kailash and Mansarovar. As the dew is dried up by the morning sun, so are the sins of mankind by the sight of Himachal."

Significance
Hindu mythology recognises Mt. Kailash as the only abode of the gods that can be visited by man in his mortal body. It is the earthly manifestation of Mt. Meru, the great mountain at the centre of the universe around which the whole creation revolves. While Brahma resides in Brahma Lok and Vishnu in Vaikunth, Shiva resides on Mount Kailash in a state of perpetual meditation, generating the spiritual force that sustains the cosmos. According to the Ram Charitra Manas, it was here that Shiva related the story of Ramayana to Parvati. Mount Kailash is also the residence of Kubera, God of Wealth. It is believed that Ganesha and Karthikeya both came into being on the Mandhata Mountain here. The offspring of Shiva and Parvati, along with other saintly and accomplished beings, able to grant the wishes of those living below, reside in these supreme mountains.

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

To Sherry who wanted to know about OM ..

2005-10-16T13:08:00.000+05:30

Here is some thoughts that came to my mind once you messaged me Sherry about OM...

Om is ..

The sound that Love sings
The Sound of pain that lover’s presence relieves

It’s with me,
Within me –
Om is Om

Om is the light
Om is the sound of silence
Om is my love
Om is the flame
That burns in between my eyes

The Three lines on shiva linga
The force that flows in the Ganga
The figure of Lord Ganesha

Is what OM means
To me

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

Description of Om...

2005-10-16T12:57:00.000+05:30

Some Details of Om…

Origin
Found first in the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism, Aum has been seen as the first manifestation of the unmanifest Brahman (the single Divine Ground of Hinduism) that resulted in the phenomenal universe. Essentially, all the cosmos stems from the vibration of the sound 'Aum' in Hindu cosmology. Indeed, so sacred is it that it is prefixed and suffixed to all Hindu mantras and incantations. It is undoubtedly the most representative symbol of Hinduism.

Use of this sound in rituals, may have originally started by imitating a similar territorial call of the male tiger.

The OM symbol's left part, which is like a figure 3, is also a component of some Devanagari letters, where it means "this syllable has no initial consonant".

Philosophy of AUM

Gods and Goddesses are sometimes referred to as Aumkar, which means Form of Aum, thus implying that they are limitless, the vibrational whole of the cosmos. Ek Onkar, meaning 'one god' is a central tenet of Sikh religious philosophy. In Hindu metaphysics, it is proposed that the manifested cosmos (from Brahman) has name and form (nama-rupa), and that the closest approximation to the name and form of the universe is Aum, since all existence is fundamentally composed of vibration. This is considered by some to be remniscent of some current physical theories such as quantum physics and super string theory, which describe the universe in terms of vibrating fields or strings.

It is frequently used to represent three subsumed into one, a common theme in Hinduism. It implies that our current existence is mithya, or 'slightly lesser reality,' that in order to know the full truth we must comprehend beyond the body and intellect and intuit the true nature of infinity, of a Divine Ground that is immanent but also transcends all duality, being and non-being, that cannot be described in words. Within this metaphysical symbolism, the three are represented by the lower curve, upper curve and tail of the ॐ subsumed into the ultimate One, represented by the little crescent moon-shape and dot, known as chandrabindu. Essentially, upon moksha, mukti, samadhi, nirvana, liberation, etc. one is able not only to see or know existence for what it is, but to become it. In attaining truth one simply realizes fundamental unity; it is not the joining together of a prior manifold splitting. When one gains true knowledge, there is no split between knower and known: one becomes knowledge/consciousness itself. In essence, Aum is the signifier of the ultimate truth that all is one.

Examples of Three into One:

* Creation (Brahma)- Preservation (Vishnu)- Destruction (Shiva) into Brahman

* Waking- Dreaming- Dreamless Sleep into Turiya (transcendental fourth state of consciousness)

* Rajas (activity, heat, fire)- Tamas (dullness, ignorance, darkness)- Sattva (purity, light, serenity/shanti) into Brahman

* Body, Speech and Mind into Oneness

* Etc.

Om Can be Seen as Ganesha...

2005-10-16T10:58:00.000+05:30

The Chandogya Upanishad (1.1.1-10) states, "The udgitha is the best of all essences, the highest, deserving the highest place, the eighth."

"Aum" can be seen as Sri Ganesh, whose figure is often represented in the shape of Aum. He is thus known as Aumkar (Shape of Aum). Sri Nataraja, or the Hindu god 'Shiva' dancing his dance of destruction, is seen in that popular representation mirroring the image of Aum. It is said to be the most perfect 'approximation' of the cosmic existence within time and space, and therefore the sound closest to Truth.

"The First Word Om (Aum) It is also called Pranav because its sound emanates from the Prana (vital vibration), which feels the Universe. The scripture says "Aum Iti Ek Akşara Brahman" (Aum that one syllable is Brahman).

When you pronounce AUM: A - emerges from the throat, originating in the region of the navel U - rolls over the tongue M - ends on the lips A - waking, U - dreaming, M - sleeping It is the sum and substance of all the words that can emanate from the human throat. It is the primordial fundamental sound symbolic of the Universal Absolute."

--------------

For me Om is the Sign of three lines on the Shiva Linga too.. For me Om is the Live breathing that I take with in me in and out..

For me Om is a Source of all my Bliss...

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

TORTURE GARDEN.. What to think... ?

2005-10-11T00:08:00.000+05:30

Oki I am hereby reproducing the message sent by a great person Kemi.. I am glad that she got me to read the works of Mr. Octave Mir beau who wrote Torture Garden in 1899. (You can read some quotes of his book here.. http://www.quotegarden.com/bk-tg.html) I am going to read the book looks interesting but here is what she quoted and I have replied to her my first thoughts..

Tell me what you guys think….
The Torture Garden (Octave Mir beau)

Quote:

"You're obliged to pretend respect for people and institutions you think absurd. You live attached in a cowardly fashion to moral and social conventions you despise, condemn and know lack all foundation. It is that permament contradiction between your ideas and desires and all dead formalities and vain pretenses of your civilization, which make you sad, troubled and unbalanced. In that intolerable conflict you lose all joy of life and all feeling of personality, because at every moment they suppress and restrain and check the free play of your powers. That's the poisoned and mortal wound of the civilized world."

:Unquote

In My opinion

Octave Mir beau was a person who has his own opinions and who was TALKING about the world that he saw.. which is not real... Its as per Hindu religious outlook is all but MAYA (An Illusion) - Rmember Matrix? but more importantly as per his character Clara, she was looking for the physical pleasure and which has its own limitation.. you can only go so much further with giving pleasures to ones five senses.. which in time gets immune to those particular pleasures and looks forward to new things all the time.. that is why the degeneration ofn society happens..
But on the other side if you try to make your self.. your own soul happy then you hit bliss of the attachment of the all prevading superconsciousness and you attan\in never ending happiness not of your senses but of your soul... which is definately more constant....

When the author talks about anything .. he basically talks about things in relations to the material body which dies.. so you see one has to look beyond the body that dies.. and feel oneself more closely to the one that lives in the body i.e. the soul who does the thinking who does the being ... I hope I am making some sense... hehehehe

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

How can I save your drop of love.....

2005-10-06T02:03:00.000+05:30

The water moves in graceful flow
Along with devotions of thousands of men
Carrying with it flood of sins
Seasons and torrential rain

From the top of mountains
To the limitless sea
I could touch
The underlying fact
In the cold wetness of
Holy river

That people change

Sitting on the banks of Ganges
The sun that was setting
In the orange gloom
as the evening slipped
In the night of thoughts

And I thought of you

How one saves a drop of water
From ever drying up
How I can save the trace of love
That I found in you
From Drying up

And the river told me the eternal truth
The only way one drop can be saved
Is to take it to the sea
Will you give me that one bit of love
You have
I will merge it with in me

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

The flow of Holy ganges stir thoughts beyond the realm of human experiences...

2005-10-05T02:51:00.000+05:30

The River that has the imagination of a country like India in its spiritual grip. The river that attracts worlds largest human gathering (30Million people, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1137833.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1134226.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1106050.stm)

the river that flows across the heart land of India, the River whose water never gets stagnant or stale even if you keep it for years together... that river has always stirred my feelings like a living image of Krishna or Shiva. Whenever I come across River Ganges on my various tours on work or on my meditation trips... I feel that I have just walked into presence of Lord Shiva whose abode the river comes down from and who has borne Her in His jata...

Many devotees in their old age live by Ganges in Kasi so that they die in her presence and attain nirvana...

2005-10-05T01:54:00.000+05:30

This time I came across the river while on the way to meet few of my relatives on the way to Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. I was passing through the Garhmukteshwar when I crossed the bridge in the evening.. On the bank there was a gathering setting up the Aarti of Ganga ma and I get off my car to go there. The sun was setting down and the orange glow was every where.. when I touched the river and sprinkled the water on head to purify myself as is the Hindu custom I felt refreshed. The river was in its full flow.. and the main stream was full of vigor and energy. Looking at it, I got transported to another plane of thought where the flow is like an energy stream that rises up from the bottom of spine to the top of head as Kundalini rises to reach the crown Chakra. The way any energy finds its way to the action, the way each river reaches its destination in the sea that each one of us understands, but the ways of Ganges is beyond ones grasp if one looks at the sheer devotion that it carries with it. The river becomes at each passing ghat more powerful with love it receives from her devotees. The same thing I find whenever I am in her presence. The beauty of her flow, the power of her each drop the power that she radiates is something to be seen to be believed.

After some time sitting by her banks, I found immense peace within and then slowly the Aarti started and after a long thoughtful mediation, I reluctantly left for my way back to Delhi.

Har Har Gange

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

2005-09-26T23:02:00.000+05:30

Mantra of Power - Shakti, Mantra of Durga Ji.

2005-09-26T22:58:00.000+05:30

Kali Ma...

The 8th Lesson of Mantra Yoga ...

2005-09-26T22:56:00.000+05:30

Now here is a very important Mantra for the seeker of the Power. I wanted to post this mantra later but I was getting lot of intuition that some of the people here needs this now. To post this Mantra I had lot of deliberations… I was seeking some kind of indication whether I can post this Mantra or not and that is why It got so delayed. But being in Dakshineshwar and then to Durga Temple “Kalka Ji” in New Delhi which is my childhood prayer place too, I could feel that it will be most suitable now to post it for all. I hope this mantra helps those people who I am having a feeling needs more now…

Preparation:

Make your self comfortable in the corner that you have had allocated to your self or the usual place where you meditate. Do the process of blocking your senses with fire sphere placed at your tongue, nostrils, eyes and ears. You can use a picture of Goddess Durga Ji or Kali Ma which I will post on my blog

Here is the mantra ..... for one to work on...

2005-09-26T22:34:00.000+05:30

Mantra:

Om Ai(n)m Durgayai Namah

Its a mantra for Goddess of Power Durga Ji also known in her another avatar as Kali Ji. This mantra is used for all things about gaining victory over once adversaries as in both mental or physical obstacles etc, gaining power to do and help people and above all making oneself ready to take on the spiritual developments in the frail physical body that we have.

Pronunciation

Om : As told earlier.

Ai(n)m : “Ai” and “m” as in “aim” but with nasal “n” sound after Ai

Durgayai:

“DU” = Du as Du in Dune

“R” = as R in “Roar”

“Ga” = as GA in Gall

“Yai” = as Ye in Yeah

Practice:

This is about Power and it helps a great lot if one uses Red flowers to meditate on this mantra… Please start with thinking of a red evening sun on the Om sound and let it grow into the place between the eyes. Feel it growing while the whole mantra that you are pronouncing. With “OM” take a deep breath and let it reach the place between the eyes and hold it there with the sound of “Aim”. With Durgayai Namah let the breath out slowly and the Red Sun remains at the Ajna Chakra.

This mantra should be Chanted for 21 times daily in normal course of life… and for the people who are feeling weak in any sense atleast 108 times. The coming week is very important for this Mantra as its Dusshera times (Also called Durga Puja and Kali Puja and in India its very auspicious time for Durga Ji’s Chanting of the names). So if one Chants in the coming days from 3^rd Oct to 10^th Oct, every day 108 times if possible, then one is sure to get very powerful results.

Om Namah Shivaya

Virtual

My journey to an amazing effect.... Mayapuri - The devotees heaven

2005-09-23T03:14:00.000+05:30

The journey to the Mayapuri was very lovely. I had great company of three of research scholars from Indian Statistical Institute where I was staying for some time. The journey in itself was along with very lovely fields and at many points it was going through high grounds, where on both sides there was water. Some of the times the road ran along the river… lovely place… The trees on the either sides were very huge which I felt very attracted to..

A journey of discovery...again

2005-09-23T03:00:00.000+05:30

I was not very much attuned to the Mayapuri temple as I did have certain bias with the ISKCON as I had read some very adverse comments about it.. also I had my own interaction with some of the ISKCON members made me think that they are very rigid in their thoughts about the whole movement which I am sure that Srila Prabhu Pada would not have wanted to be in. It’s like the phrase in Hindi which basically means that the newly made religious follower follows more doggedly the path of the religion than the Priest who converted him…. But just as I took the U-Turn to get off the highway and it opened a completely new vista for me…a nice location with a village on the way with their jute raw material and workmanship lying around on the road. The West Bengal state of India is famous for the Jute works and Saris of Taant (Made of Jute threads I think).

I reached Mayapuri almost in the evening...

2005-09-23T02:51:00.000+05:30

By the time I reached Mayapuri Temple it was almost dusk a lovely setting for pictures. The place, as an avid photographer, interested me more to begin with their beautiful sculptures, very different Krishna from the usual Krishna temples in India, beautiful location of the place between rivers and above all with the over all ambience which was far different than more famous temples in India… I think the only other temple which has this kind of infrastructure is the wealthiest temple in India “Lord Bala Ji Temple in Tirupati in state of Andhra Pradesh, India.” . (You can find more about Tirupati temple else where in this blog)So I went on for clicking and video graphing the place.

The new temple....

2005-09-23T02:45:00.000+05:30

I went around and also had a look on the new temple that is a massive structure in modern building architecture which houses many paintings of Krishna’s life on the walls and then a most beautiful walk down the road which leads to the main Temple of Krishna. Once inside I had a beautiful sensation with such lovely idols of Krishna and the Gopis and Radha Rani. It was amazing to see them so life like yet so different. The guards on the gate told us to be very careful of not taking any pictures of the devotees. So it was an effort for me not to take a very young English child in traditional Indian attire. I took my own time to take pictures as many of my people had told me that the most beautiful that happens in the hall is the Aarti. So we, me and my friends waited for the time 6.30 PM. While the bhajan in the hall kept its constant tempo.

The start of Aarti - Archna ...

2005-09-23T02:37:00.000+05:30

At around 6 PM I was able to watch a very devoted person listening to the Chanting and not able to hold himself started to dance on the sides of the hall behind a pillar so as not to disturb the gathering. By 6.15 the atmosphere started changing.. the guards from outside came in and demarcated a place in the adjacent hall by ropes and the Tulsi plant was brought in (This is the first time I have seen anywhere in India that a Tulsi plant was planted on a planter with wheels) and then most of the ISKCON’ites gathered around it and the chanting began with Tulsi Puja. .. this slowly built in to a religious fervor and ended after 2 hours of devoted Aarti by most of the devotees. I find two very small kids on boy and another girl in the gathering who were so well involved with the whole ceremony that it was a real pleasure watching them dancing with chanting. As the women folks were I guess not allowed to join in, the Aarti, it was heartening to watch them to gather outside the arena and form their own group to sing the songs of Lord Krishna.

The whole ceremony was involved with many types of songs, many types of instruments and many lovely singers. And then it ended with parikrama which allowed many other people to join in with the ISKCON devotees. Finally the good part was that some one realised the earnestness of gathered crowd and take them into the fold by teaching them the basics of Krishna Chants and the steps the ISKCON’ites take in the Aarti.

My experience in the place, specially at the time of Aarti was amazing. The moment those devoted people came into the religious fervor the whole atmosphere changed. I usually have a very good take on the energy in the atmosphere... and I could feel the transformation happenning then and there.

The place comes alive with the power of Devotion....

2005-09-23T02:25:00.000+05:30

I personally think that what many of the ISKCON temples lack in the power emanating from the idols, they make it up with their devotion and love for the God. Our temples like Kedar Nath, Neel Kanth, Madurai Meenakshi temple, Bala Ji Tirupati and also Kalka Ji are there for many centuaries and peoples constant devotion and attachment and prayers make those places very powerful.

As the whole place got filled up with bhajan and rhythmic dance and slowly and slowly the atmosphere changed. I was unmoved in the beginning but slowly I could feel the power . .. of the collective religious devotion gathering all around me and at one point of time I could really feel the Krishna coming down from the place his Idol was placed and playing with all of us. I did have had a great sensation at that moment. I felt a very cool breeze flowing down on me like an air curtain and my whole body tingling with electric sparks. In the end I was so engrossed with my mantra Jaap and chanting that I was doing with my Mala beads that I forget everything and flowed in the emotions of the people around me. I did infact started dancing with all those devotees.....

It was a lovely time that I have had and I must say that the place is full of positive energy and I was thrilled to have the experience of coming to a spiritual life with such a devout gathering. I must end the whole thing with a poem that I composed especially for those devout souls who danced with me or rather with those devout souls that I danced with.

KRISHNA YOU LIVE WITHIN....

2005-09-23T02:11:00.000+05:30

The drums slowly start beating
The rhythm keep repeating
Your name
Again and Again

Soul gathers around
Form bondings
and running in Chanting
And crying in love

But you kept watching, my Love from a pedestal

The beats grow slowly in frenzy
The feet's tap more hard into the ground
The eyes look heavenly
While your eyes, my love, are of Stone

The shadows of the flickering flame
Put up for showing lights
To lost souls
Flicker more beackoning your light

Slowly, my love, you stir from your slumber
Your smile spread across the hearts
The lights flickers more
And my love bursts in to flame
Of blissful tears

My love I have you in my heart
and in my soul
Now I can peacefully die
In your love

Radhe Krishna, Radhe Krishna
Virtual

A visit to the temple town of Madurai in South India....

2005-09-12T19:15:00.000+05:30

I am standing Near Nandi who is supposed to be the bull Lord Shiva Rides ...inside the Meenakshi Temple

My trip to Meenakshi Temple in Madurai...

2005-09-12T19:09:00.000+05:30

The trip to Madurai was like a god send opportunity for me. My friend was transferred from Chennai to Madurai and he asked me to accompany him to Madurai which I readily agreed to. The temple of Meenakshi Devi at Madurai is one of the most famous temples in India and to me it has a special significance. Meenakshi Devi has given me a special Mantra when I was doing my meditations of Reiki (The whole story I have described in the blog elsewhere (almost in the beginning)). The day we reached, early in the morning me and my friend went to the temple before his joining of the Job. I must say that it was a great visit and I went back to the temple as long as I stayed there.. every day.

The Pic here is of the Golden Horse of the Chariot which is used to drive the chariot on special occasions when the Lord Shiva and His Devine consort takes a tour of the Holy city of Madurai...

At the East Enternace of the temple...

2005-09-12T18:59:00.000+05:30

The enormous temple complex is dedicated to Shiva, known here as Sundareshvara and his consort Parvati or Meenakshi. The original temple was built by Kulasekara Pandya, but the entire credit for making the temple as splendid as it is today goes to the Nayaks. The Nayaks ruled Madurai from the 16th to the 18th century and left a majestic imprint of their rule in the Meenakshi - Sundareswarar Temple.

Ganesha's Beautiful Image...

2005-09-12T18:52:00.000+05:30

The temple complex is within a high-walled enclosure, at the core of which are the two sanctums for Meenakshi and Sundareshwara, surrounded by a number of smaller shrines and grand pillared halls. Especially impressive are the 12 Gopuras. Their soaring towers rise from solid granite bases, and are covered with stucco figures of deities, mythical animals and monsters painted in vivid colours.

The Image above is of Lord Ganesha's Scuplture as one of the many... which adorn the walls around the temple complex... The Green things is bunch of grass that is given to Lord Ganesha as an offering by devotees...

The Golden Lotus in the Ancient Temple tank....

2005-09-12T18:46:00.000+05:30

This temple tank is an ancient tank where devotees take bath in the holy water. The area around this tank was the meeting place of the TamilSangam - the ancient academy of poets. The history of the sangam goes back to the days when gods dallied with men. This academy judged the worth of any work of literature presented before it by throwing it into the tank. Only those that did not sink were considered worthy of attention. The tank is surrounded by a pillared corridor. Steps lead down to the tank, enabling worshippers to take bathe in it.

The goddess of Wealth and prosperity....

2005-09-12T18:42:00.000+05:30

The Meenakshi Devi is a very powerful Goddess and she is the giver of wealth here….This time I had a great feeling of having her come to me with a view to bring her essence with me to Chennai. It was a lovely feeling.

Panchmukhi Idol at the Madurai Meenakshi Temple...

2005-09-12T18:28:00.000+05:30

The Gopuras... East Gate

2005-09-12T13:50:00.000+05:30

Shiva in Tandava Dance ... a place in the temple to sit down and meditate ....

2005-09-12T13:47:00.000+05:30

I also went to the place where Lord Shiva is in Tandava Posture … and meditated in front of him….lovely place… and on the whole enjoyed the company and peace a lot.

Om Namah Shivaya
Virtual

The Temple at Thirupparankundram...

2005-09-12T13:43:00.000+05:30

The next day I went to the temple dedicated to the other Son of Lord Shiva Karthikeyan called Lord Subhramanyam among with other names. The whole temple is carved within a huge stone.

Childless Couples offer prayers...

2005-09-12T13:37:00.000+05:30

This temple also has place of prayer for asking for child. Many childless couple offers prayer here...

Lord Muruga wedded here.....

2005-09-12T13:34:00.000+05:30

The Thirupparankundram, 6 kms southwest of Madurai, is a small town known for its sacred granite hill. It is regarded as one of the six abodes of Lord Subramaniya. It is a cave temple . Here Lord Muruga was wedded to Devayanai, daughter of Indra, after annihilating Surapadman.

The Enternace to the temple...

2005-09-12T13:27:00.000+05:30

There is a Rock cut temple here, built by the Pandyas in the 8th century. The temple is approached through a series of 17th and 18th century mandapas, at ascending levels, linked by stone steps. In the temple there are separate shrines dedicated to Shiva, Ganapathy, Durgai, Vishnu and other deities. At the entrance to the temple there are 48 pillars with artistic carvings.

The Carvings on the Gopuras...

2005-09-12T13:22:00.000+05:30

The entrance mandapa has typical Nayaka period pillars with horse and yali riders, while portraits of Nayaka rulers are carved on the columns. The Rock-cut Temple of Subramaniya here is thronged with pilgrims on all days of special worship. Its innermost shrine is cut out of a solid rock. The 14-day temple festival, in March/April, celebrates the victory of Murugan over the demon Suran, his coronation, and his subsequent marriage to Devayani.

Krishna takes away clothes of Bathing Gopis....

2005-09-12T13:18:00.000+05:30

There are many interesting images that are carved on the Gopuras (The entrance Gate and Towers) one of which depicts the story from Krishna’s Life … Where he took all the clothes of the Gopis (Village maidens ) who were bathing in the pond and kept all the clothes on the bank before going inside the water. He then climbed the tree and kept all the clothes on the tree…

The gopis in dilemma...

2005-09-12T12:09:00.000+05:30

The gopis were now in a dilemma as their families were waiting and they could not come out to take their clothes from the tree while Krishna mischievously smiled from the tree top and played on his flute nonchalantly. The whole thing is displayed on the Gopuras and I was not surprised to see the stark naked Gopis requesting the Mohan to give them back their clothes. In those days, the devotion played more important part on the minds of the sculptors. For them the devotion was the central theme then the nakedness of the statues that they have had created. This is also evident in the world famous sculptures of Khujaraho’s

Back to Chennai....

2005-09-12T12:03:00.000+05:30

In all after three days of a very uplifting time I came back to Chennai thoroughly refreshed and with Devi within me and a very blissful state.

Om Namah Shivaya