SAVING TREES

The recent news to cut down 16,000 trees by the Delhi Govt for housing project jostled me. This is like giving away lungs to save heart.
This sad news of slaughtering trees persuaded me to pen down my emotions to save trees and save nature. Because it is not only the trees but the whole fauna and flora would be axed in the name of development. I got up from my long hiatus of almost two years to be back to make a plea to my readers. 

Wake up call….

Trees, trees, trees…

Do not cut the trees

They the life they are the lungs

They provide us with clean air and suck our residual air

They are working like an obedient servant round the clock all day and all night long…

Deodar trees adding beauty to hill stations

They saved us from choking and gasping for fresh air working silently and that too without a complain

They are the home for naughty squirrel and chirping birds

They are the playground for jumping monkeys and flying crows

They lend their extended branches to birds to savor their catch

And parrots to sharpen their beaks and koel to sing coo coo.

 Just think where would humming bird sit to mock us and where would the vulture perched to scare us

I am afraid that silence would be ominous, daunting and kill us                                                                                      

 And the whole future of gliding species of birds, vultures and nestling birds would be lost.

 Just take a few minutes from your hectic life and listen to their woes

You will feel their pain while touching their withering leaves

They stood up like a sentinel and save us from danger far more grave than you can fathom

They are the binding force of the mother Earth's womb

They stitch the ripping soil and hold water together

Otherwise cities would be flooded, homes buildings would slide away.

Without them Newton would not had invented gravity and Lord Buddha attaint his Nirvana.

 Just hold a second, where would a tired traveler sit to take rest and kids to play hide and seek

Obviously under their welcoming shade which hugs us like a friend and solace us when in trouble

I need not to repeat the much known and talked about fact of their providing us with food and shelter

The very thought of their disappearance from our planet sends chill down my spine.

I am appalled by the very thought of our dear lord Krishna grazing his herd of cows on barren land

And his much talked about Raslila in tree less Virdavan

forest 

Krishna grazing his cows

Nature “prakriti” is the manifestation of Goddess Parvati and lord Shiva “purusha's as prana  soul, Incomplete without each other or

lord Buddha

embodied together. We are a very religious nation, we have the notion that plants are living beings, and which they are truthfully. And  this news would be taken as mass murder.

So for God”s sake save the trees.
Life would not be same without them rather there would be no life.

Save the trees…

Perpetuity bounded by time: Konark sun temple part- 2

This post is follow up from previous one:-Perpetuity bounded by time: Konark sun temple part-1.

The name Konârka is derived from the Sanskrit word Kona (meaning angle) and word Arka (meaning sun) in reference to the temple which was dedicated to the Sun god Surya.

View of temple.

Strangely though it is called temple but prayers were never being offered there, since the time it was built in 1250 AD.
It also symbolizes the passage of time, from childhood to young age to old age. There are many stone carvings on the wall to emphasis it. Hindu Religion always laid much stress on this theory.  There are three main gates to lead into this temple guarded by lions, horses and elephants. All of them are symbolic to power and valor. Now at present much of them are lost to salty breeze that eroded the stones. It remained buried under a huge mound of sand until the 20 th century, when restoration begun under British. 

In the days of its grandeur, the main idol of Sun God used to remain suspended in the air with the help of the huge magnet at the peak and another magnet fixed at the basement.

There was a diamond in the center of the idol which reflected the rays of sun that passed. In 1627, the then Raja of Khurda took the Sun idol from Konark to the Jagannath temple in Puri. The Sun temple belongs to the Kalingan school of Indian temple architecture. The alignment of the Sun Temple is along the East-West direction. The inner sanctum or vimana used to be surmounted by a tower or shikara but it was razed in the 19th century. The audience hall or jagamohana still stands and comprises majority of the ruins. The roof of the dance hall or natmandir has fallen off. It stands at the eastern end of the ruins on a raised platform.

lion mounting elephant, riding on human head.
The guide told us to show that ego should be curbed strongly when entering a temple

The wheel of time.

Sun God in the afternoon.

Konark is also home to an annual dance festival called Konark Dance Festival, held every December, devoted to classical Indian dance forms, including the traditional classical dance of Odisha, Odissi.

I think I can never get over by this over whelming temple, absolutely stupendous.
I feel the necessity to upload small video from you tube.




Pics from web and video from you tube.
Thanks for posting them.

Perpetuity bounded by time: Konark sun temple part- 1.

View of Konark temple.

TIME FROZEN IN TIME

That is Konark temple for me. Absolutely spell bounding, majestic, personal and yet so aloof, I am still having goosebumps, when thinking of it. Konark sun temple, dedicated to Sun God, is a marvelous piece of unmatched Architectural feat. It was made all those centuries ago and still standing tall in the lush green, manicured gardens of the state of Odisha formerly known as (Orissa). The temple was granted World Heritage Site status by the UNESCO in 1984. 

Perpetuity means eternity. and that is what those artisans had done centuries ago to capture the endless cycle of life in this temple.

 The temple was originally built at the mouth of the river Chandrabhaga, but the waterline has receded since then. The temple has been built in the form of a giant ornamented chariot of the Sun god, Surya. It has twelve pairs of elaborately carved stone wheels which are 3 meters wide and is pulled by a set of seven horses (4 on the right and 3 on the left).The temple follows the traditional style of Kalinga architecture. It is carefully oriented towards the east so that the first rays of sunrise strikes the principal entrance. The temple is built from Khondalite rocks.

Two smaller ruined temples have been discovered nearby. One of them is called the Mayadevi Temple and is located southwest from the entrance of the main temple. It is presumed to have been dedicated to Mayadevi, one of the Sun god's wives. It has been dated to the late 11th century, earlier than the main temple. The other one belongs to some unknown Vaishnava deity. Sculptures of Balarama, Varaha and Trivikrama have been found at the site, indicating it to be a Vaishnavite temple. Both temples have their primary idols missing.

According to local folklore, Narasimhadeva I (eastern ganga Dynsty) had hired a chief architect called Bisu Maharana to build the temple. After a period of twelve years, a workforce of twelve hundred almost finished the construction. But, they failed to mount the crown stone. The impatient king ordered the temple to be finished in three days or the artisans be put to death. At the time, Bisu Maharana's twelve-year-old son, Dharmapada arrived at the site. Bisu Maharana had never seen his son, as he had left his village when his wife was still pregnant. Dharmapada successfully proposed a solution to mount the crown stone. But, the artisans were still apprehensive that the king will be displeased to learn that a boy succeeded where his best artisans failed. Dharmapada climbed onto the temple and leaped into the water to save his father and his co-workers. According to local legend, – stated by a guide, the solution offered by Dharmapada was to place a strong magnetic rod in the dome at the top, which attracted the iron ore laden rocks and kept them stable. 

There is another popular legend, Samba, the son of Krishna, was cursed with leprosy. He was advised by the sage, Kataka, to worship the sun god to cure his aliment. Samba underwent penance for 12 years in Mitravana near the shores of Chandrabhaga. Both the original Konark temple and the Multan temple have been attributed to Samba.sculptures.

 I have no idea, which story or legend is true, all I have is second hand knowledge given by scriptures and the endless text material posted on wikipedia and government sites dedicated to konark temple. My knowledge about it, is limited to my experience as a visitor, who is still awe stuck by this marvelous piece of human craftsmanship and human endearment, who tolled their dreams,their hardships to make this mammoth monument alive, out of which most of it is still standing proud, as if paying homage to all those people lost in time and saluting them, for conceiving the idea and to making it happen and true.   

The Temple complex

Main Temple

Temple 1. is the main temple complex

As described above, the entire temple was conceived as a huge and colossal chariot drawn by seven horses (three on the northern side and four on the southern side) over twelve pairs of stone wheels. The twelve wheels may symbolize the twelve months of the year. 

Below the platform and the bada is noticed an upana, which is a ledge-like projection and treated with decorations in friezes. The friezes are decorated with various themes, and the most recurring one is the elephant. The elephant motif is in various attitudes – elephants in defile, uprooting trees and branches, consuming the uprooted ones, feeding the younger ones, giving birth, fondling the younger ones and mates, etc. The next motif which dominates the upana is the military marches and processions. The procession consists of elephants, cavalry and infantry. The hunting of animals is also another theme that is depicted in the upana portion. Very often the king himself is shown hunting a boar or a deer and rarely a lion. The other themes that can be noticed are of the caravan scenes, pulling of a long rope by athletes, armed prince on a horseback, etc. The depiction of giraffe on the south side of the upana is an interesting and noteworthy one. 

Wheels of chariot of Sun god.

A guide telling tourist how to know the time from the shadow of sun..

I am sure I won't be able to do justice unless I will show all the many more important temples in its vicinity. I will be covering them in my second post.

It is good if you take some guide with you as he will aptly explain you details. They are easily available in the area. 

* in the end my gratitude all those craftsmen, who tried to capture Sun god, epitome of time into this timeless monument, and giving us the rare feat to cherish.

Goodbye friends till the second post on this subject.
 Konark lies on the sea shore of state of Odisha. Bhubaneswar its capitol is well connected with road, rail and air,  We took flight from Delhi airport to Bhubaneswar and from there we drove down to Puri and from there it is around 60 km by road.

The konark temple pic posted above is captured by Rekha Singh

And other pics from web and most of referential material from wiki.

SIGNS-The guiding stars for a seeker

SIGNS- An object or event whose presence or occurrence signifies the probable presence or occurrence of something else. 
They are very powerful tool to move forward irrespective of physical, mental or spiritual world. They are the essential mode for us to grasp  and learn from them, whether they are traffic signs or some other. 

They are omnipresent in our lives and we have made a unconscious habit to follow them or rather taught to follow them, here I am taking up signs as a whole whether presents in the house or outside. e.g. a swollen face indicates a person is hurt or angry, and will not take more nonsense from you, even a small child can read this sign. And likewise stepping out side the house, we start following them e.g. road signs, traffic signs and so on so forth. They give us direction to move forward in this worldly jungle or complex enigma called life.

I think we can say that signs are intimation, mark, manifestation or demonstration.

They had made presence in our lives once we take birth on this planet in the shape of Zodiac signs and their traits. our whole lives or future is bounded by them, and believe me it is not an easy task to break free from them. We cannot escape from their repercussions, whether we like it or not but their presence is imitable.

Who can forget blockbuster Hollywood movie Signs:-

Signs is a 2002 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by Night Shyamalan.

Even I have seen this movie and truthfully, I was bit scared at that time and did not believed much of its credentials, I mean aliens and all sounded very imaginary at that time but not now. As we grow older our horizon  expands, I am not sure about the mental capabilities but certainly our experiences and wisdom does improve with time.

Only today priest told me that they have 24*7 lamp burning in the temple and they are very very careful about it that it wont get extinguish or whether oil is enough for the whole night, but if by chance it does, they get dream that it has got subdued.

Strange isn't it? No scientific logic can explain this phenomena. as priests rooms are outside the main sanctum sanatorium and the doors are closed after the night prayers.

But some higher entity or God (as I am talking about temple here) must be sending signal to them.
 Faith and beliefs are mandatory to have commune with God or we can say higher authority, atheist have tremendous problem with acknowledging it and interestingly they cites all the scientific reasons to made their flimsy point and eventually forgetting that science itself is an offshoot of knowledge bestowed by higher authority to maintain life. And in a no way different than religion, metaphysics, or physics. And there is very thin line between them, interestingly they cry horse to prove God's authenticity. Isn't it like seeing a child, and denying the existence of its parents?
Well it is their problem and not mine.

I am an ardent believer and believes that God gives signals or signs to his devotees.
I have plenty of examples to cite from my own life, and sometimes they are amazing just out of this world, like some force is leading me, and how much I try to do otherwise would always be discouraged or failed to accomplished it. So I have made it a habit to follow 'signs' unconsciously, but that again is very catch 22 situation, what explanation, could I give to maintain my stance and most of the times, end up hearing that I am very orthodox or unnecessary skeptical or in plain words "superstitious", but now these comments does not bothers me any longer. Rather I feel privileged to have signs from God.
 Though, lately I have been trying hard to dissociate myself too much indulging into this habit, in my day to day routine. Only a  few years back I used to have clear vision that one saintly person is taking stroll in the forest among'st wild vegetation and then suddenly he bends and pluck one wild flower and then I would wake up, this dream kept on coming repeatedly for days, I was certain that this must be having some message for me, and then one morning it dawned upon me, that wild flower (weed) was none other than me. After my this inference or conclusion that signal disappeared totally.
I tried to explain bit of this "sign"phenomena in my post -
Living in fools paradise.
Gratitude to all the Gurus in our lives part 1
Gratitude to all the gurus in  part 2
I believe you could acquire most of the worldly knowledge from books, teachers and lectures but the spiritual knowledge evades you unless you are in the patronage of a spiritual Guru, only he can make you understand how to decode that particular sign. When Guru says it is very dark, he is not referring the physical darkness or absence of light, what he meant here that your soul is covered by the dark clouds of ill thoughts, of envy, greed and revenge, which are blocking the shining light of Supreme entity. And another interesting sign was Guruji  introducing me in a big gathering as a "Writer". This surprised me lot as before that writing  a single page used to be an ordeal for me. And remarkable one, was some force leading to a specific section of books in Huston book store, where my son gifted me two most precious books. And both of these books are essential for physical and spiritual life.

Good bye friends
I will share more on this topic, if allowed to do so by almighty:)

pics from web store.

Dilemma of a seeker

 A religious seeker: a pilgrim, or one who aspires to enlightenment, nirvana, salvation or God Realization.

A seeker is like a half baked cake.

One can not make something else out of this uninviting looking soft sticky dough.
 It is neither in molten stage, where it can still be used in making milk shake and nor fully baked into an aromatic, sweet smelling, mouth watering hot cake. But something in- between, where the old stage is lost and another one is far fetched.

One cannot retrieved it to initial stage of separated raw materials, so that something else can be made out of this.
This phenomena is absolutely like a seeker, he has collected and added laboriously all the requisite ingredients, which I have already mentioned many times in my previous posts:
1)Commencing the important task.
2)Road to self enhancement.
3)Under the patronage of guru.

Strangely, all the essential ingredients are added in appropriate proportion and has been churned ferociously to make a nice even fluffy dough, but sadly left aside by Almighty, the ultimate baker, for some unfathomable reason before the final stage of full baking (self realization).
That's the dilemma of a seeker. He feels lost that what went missing, he tried his level best, walked the treacherous path with the constant fear of falling down, because it is very much possible in the spiritual pursuit, one mistake and you are back to initial stage. It is called adhogati ", descending opposite to ascending or pragati
 Essential virtues for a seeker are truth, morality, honesty, charity, humbleness, and compassion. To adept them in one's life, or to live with them, believe me is not an easy task. I can say that because I have been struggling with these issues for the last fifteen years. Sometimes I feel totally lost.
For example, let us start with truth, nobody, absolutely nobody wants to hear and speak it, and if you are doing it, they will automatically came to conclusion that you are lying. And you are left with no option but to keep on justifying your stance. And believe me it is quite painful.
Sometimes it becomes so tiring when you see disbelieve in their eyes, because how much you can argue, it is not going to change their perspective. Either you have to withdraw your point and let the lies wins or keep mum or just ignore and stay hurt. (now the choice is yours). And most of the times the later one wins. "Hurt stays".
I was just like a normal teenager in my youth, felling in and out of love or infatuation.
Then a big change (marriage) happened and I realized that there is nothing like true love or love at first sight, or even compassion in relationships, only the barter system works.
But I do believe in "hate at first sight". No, no my dear, I am not joking, it is very much possible and prevalent in almost every house hold. My experiences are very limited, only to Indian families and as much I have gathered from Pakistani plays that is more found there, poor girls, they are always living in fear and sycophancy.
Only the God knows why there is an eternal tussle to win over the "boy" between bride and grooms's mother, and they leave no stone upturned to win. Here since I had very little armors ( lies, back-lashing, and hypocrisy). My defeat was certain, so I withdrew myself from that war. I do not know why people thinks that "everything is fair in love and war". The only blunder I did was to open my heart or pain in front of every sympathetic ears. I know now, that was really bad and nobody really helped me, to lessen my pain. Here, I do admit, that I blundered and pushed onto the downward path, and unfortunately, I suffered a lot, because those two sympathetic ears which (at least) I thought, turned out to be more vicious and opportunist, so the net result was I was more pained. I think that is what is mentioned in religious books that a person is put into the "boiling oil" in hell. I think to listened to your own insults constantly on your face is nothing less than that. Well I was young and full of bollywood dreams, which were badly and miserably shaken something like 'nailed down on the alter'.
Looking back, I think I can call it churning process as I did not compromised on truth and morality (virtues) against vices of outside world or within family.
At that time, I thought nobody is really worth it, that one should deviate from one's chosen path for them.
But here I am again proven wrong, as there is no duality in this universe: good/bad, truth/lies,honesty/dishonesty so on and so forth, everything is just a part of this whole universe.
 Now, again I feel stuck, like a dough in the pan and waiting anxiously for divine's next sign.
'Signs" are very important for a seeker they are like a guiding star in the total darkness of ignorance.




Good bye friends,
I will be writing my next post on SIGNS.




pics from web.

Celebrating "Ganesha Chaturthi" in Mumbai

Siddhivinayak temple

The best place to celebrate Lord Ganesha's birthday is in Siddhivinayak temple Mumbai, and that too especially on his birthday (Ganesh Chaturthi). This year I was fortunate enough to visit this divine place on this auspicious day. The program was very sudden, as I happened to be at my brother's place on 4th of September. My niece was supposed to fly there next day, she asked me and I just could not resist it. From that point onward everything fell into places, I got the air tickets of same flight, and interestingly found my identity card in my purse (which is mandatory). It was very unsusal as I generally do not carry my important documents with me. I took it as a divine sign and thought of to get along with the program. During our two hours flight, I just could not believe that, I am really going.
We were picked from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport  around 9.45 a.m and our host friend of my niece, was very jovial and fun loving, full of humor with his apt one liners, a rare quality, otherwise these days people are obsessed with their problems and possessed with jealousy and anger.

Road map 

Modakam 

There was an aura of festivity in the air and one could see group of people dancing on the drum beats, in front of their dear lord to give him warm welcome. It is customary to have your own idol of Lord Ganesha either in your house or in your society.
 There were an elaborate rituals associated with this function, prayers and special bhog called Modakam was offered to the deity. It was difficult for me to abstain from this caravan of celebrations. We had a great darshan in  the SiddhiVinayak temple our first stop.

Main entrance of temple

DecorateD with blue flowers.

The whole temple was decorated with flowers from entrance gate to main hall, which looked absolutely loaded with blooming flowers of every color giving it a very surreal  look.  After having a great darshan and paying obeisance to our dear lord, we wanted to eat and chill around. Our host made it a point to show us all the major roads and interesting points. We had a very nice breakfast of "missal pav and vada pav" in the typical mumbai style "maska mar ke" means full of butter. After having sumputious breakfast, we were out on the road again, shopping, sight seeing and appreciating new bridge. Bombay (Mumbai) is famous for its tall buildings, which looked spectacular against vast body of water. We also saw high tides in the slumbering Arabian sea in the hot afternoon.

Sea shore laced with high rising buildings.

   

New bridge

Lord Ganesha is the elder son of first mythological couple Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati epitomized by Purush and Prakiti (nature), sometimes shown as half man and half woman embodied together in one form depicting the presence of innate energy in all the materials forms, in this universe.
Lord Ganesha is the God of arts and wisdom. He is honored at the start of every ritual and ceremony, as he is considered to be the remover of obstacles. He is widely loved among-st hindu community all over the world. It is customary to seek his blessing before starting of any new venture.

Lord shiva made with flowers.

 It was an amazing trip for me as I had good darshan, had eaten tasty street food and done shopping, all in a single day and that too without getting tired. It must have been due to the benevolence of God Ganesha.
I had poured all my feelings, acquired knowledge and my beliefs in my blog "Travelers views", had emptied my mind and soul in that and left with nothing more to share. And then this visit to the sacred temple happened, which seems like a new beginning.
Lord Ganesha was always there for me, being born as a Hindu, he has been the integral part of my everyday prayer since childhood.
In the end all I can say is, thank you my dear lord, for blessing me in your own special way by rejuvenating me.

Marine drive view in night.

Good bye Mumbai, I am not sure when I will come here again.

Happy Guru Purnima to all...

On this auspicious day of Guru Purnima

I want to extend my hearty congratulations to all the devotees, who are very fortunate to have enigma called GURU in their lives. I am one of the lucky ones to be bestowed by God, who is kind enough to send one of his Masiha in my life.
I have heard from saints that our this life is just an outcome of our karmas of past lives, but we have to live it, otherwise these karmic burden keeps on piling up birth after birth or I can say as in karmic cycle. People can argue with me endlessly over this theory, as it sounds little fatalism, a sort of resignation to the inevitable. They can question that why we should be doing anything, and why not to accept whatever life is offering us. But we all know that it is not possible, as we would be wasting one golden chance to rectify our deeds. Now at this confusing state of mind GURU helps us a lot, by showing us the right path, otherwise we will be lost in the abyss of desires and our actions and then their reactions.
I have already written so much about "Enigma", called Guru and his importance in our lives, so I would prefer to only give links to those posts dedicated to Guru. 

Integration of mind is only possible with guru's kirpa.

Firstly, I witnessed Guru's enigmatic nature in metamorphosis in Mount Abu 
Then introduced to Guru's blessings in Traveler became seeker.
I looked beyond mundane to understand guru's divinity.
After this I came under the patronage of Guru to become a disciple.
Guru taught me what is true love or spiritual love. I have written a post about it in let's learn to love.
I had written about spiritual knowledge, which is not possible without Guru.
After this Gratitude to all the guru's in our live part-1.
And after that Gratitude to all the guru's part-2. happened.

Guru's feet are like lotus, which can give everything from material to mental peace and spiritual enlightenment to a devotee.
One must pay obeisance to them.
Once again happy Guru puja to all the devotees.