Paying tribute to Swami Vivekananda in chilly chilly Chicago.

Isn't it strange that CHICAGO is the city from where I started my recent USA visit and I am writing about it in the very end of my travelogue.
Well! the answer is that this chilly windy city brought  plethora of questions  with its high velocity winds, or persistent thunderstorms. Whatever, I am not sure about the right term. But one thing is for sure that I am still finding answers, even after so many days.
See, as you must have guessed from my blog, that I am an unpretentious woman visiting USA second time from THIRD WORLD (India). I have noticed that India, once a revered country of intellectuals and saints and recent ones VIVEKANANDA and Mahatma Gandhi has now stooped so low (excuse me for saying this), that its inhabitants should be ashamed of  their MOTHER LAND.

polar bear in Lincoln zoo

And strangely even after knowing about the present situation of India, still
I AM NOT ASHAMED TO BE CALLED INDIAN.

 The interesting places I visited in Chicago was Lincoln Zoo situated in downtown.
When I passed the famous Art Institute of Chicago, where Swamiji delivered his historical speech in 1893. How I wished if there could be such a window from where I could peep and witness the whole event today even after 123 years. It was not possible, so I moved on with heavy heart. But I found rendition of that historical speech on youtube and that I have duly shared with you guys.

People trapped during snow storm in downtown.

Wills Tower. It reminds me of my favorite book "Fountain Head."

Michigan Lake in winters

This view of Michigan lake is in winter reminds one of extreme cold weather of Chicago.

Art Museum of Chicago. Swamiji made his historic
speech here in 1893.

Now about questions, I will be taking up one by one, and the foremost comes in my mind is "Whether the city makes people like it or other way round, I mean people who maketh the city

Millennium Park downtown Chicago
It is bordered by Michigan Avenue to the West, Columbus Drive to the East, Randolph Street to the North, and Monroe Street to the South

Swami Vivekanada Famous speech. 
You can call me naive but my heart swell with pride when I listened this.

 Whichever is more relevant I do not know, all I know is that I can still feel the "shiver down in my spine.

.
                 This is clipping from a youtube.
 
 An animated film on Swami Vivekanand's famous Chicago address in 11/9/1893. Since there was no original audio and video recording of that historic speech in the convocation of world religion. So this is rendition of Swamiji's speech. He spoke so well that everybody was spell bounded.


Thank you everybody, who made this visit to chilly chilly city Chicago possible. Otherwise I would have missed a few truths of life.

pics. web file.

MESMERIZING MUSSOORIE

scenic beauty 

Mesmerizing Mussoorie

I have very special memories of this place. My elder son was visiting us from USA, and he wanted to gift us a nice holiday in hills and we short listed this place. This hill station is so beautiful that it is nicknamed as “Queen of hill stations”, and more over very well connected with Delhi. Its Foot hill town Dehradun is considered as base as from here it is only 21 km by road. The moment we reached Mussoorie, I was taken backed by its sheer beauty. This place is situated geographically in such a way and though not at very high altitude, clouds get trapped in these hills, giving it a fairy tale like view. And more over my cherished author “Ruskin Bond” lives here. All those stories told by this great author comes alive in my mind, and I hoped that I might came across him on much famed “Mall Road”, (no confusion every hill station in India has its specific Mall Road).

cloth shop in a market & I love to bargain 

Night view of Dehradun from Mussoorie

  

the hotel where we stayed

 As I said everything was taken cared by my son, from train booking to Dehradun to taxi till Mussorrie, including finding good hotel. He had set priorities in his mind that it should be clean and well connected with mall road. And luckily he found one, and food served there was also very good.

Once we were got settled in room, I started inquiring about temple in nearby place. I do not know if somebody has noticed or not most of hill stations have small old temples just a small room with low roof. And I get allured by them. (May be my past life connection). And fortunately I found one, so next morning I started my day with visiting that temple. We strolled down the Bazaar and we bought a few presents and after that had sumptuous south Indian  food. We had nice stay there, but strangely both of my kids were very quiet, when asked for the reason, a weird answer came. They were embarrassed that as this place was thronged by honeymooners, and my presence was making them uncomfortable. I was pretty disappointed that our week long stay had been cutoff to mere two days.

Sky walking



This hill station has plenty of adventurous games to lure tourists.
Sky walking, trekking, mountain climbing are named few.

Kempty Falls

Camel back natural rock



pics from web.

But I was more satisfied with the fact that how  my kids, who once used to tag along me, now exude an aura of authority and self confidence.
(God Bless Them.)  

JAIPUR GALORE -A TREAT FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.

Amer Palace

From Spiritual Glory to Jaipur Galore.

I am using 'spiritual glory' phrase because that's what I felt in Mount Abu. As if the whole universe is working at your whims. A visit to materialistic abundance, "Jaipur Galore", proved a huge contrast. Here people are working at whims of rich and powerful.

 Jaipur is the city that stands for opulent palaces. And whose grandeur is written all over from their intricately designed doors, their paintings, to their living. It was so splendid that I just could not take my eyes away from it. The very next day, I took city tour and saw Lake Palace, HAWA MAHAL, Jaweri Market and all the tourist spots. But I could not make it to now ‘world heritage’ Jantar Mantar.

Jal Mahal

Hawa Mahal

Jaipur is very popular tourist place and I was visiting it on the pretext of shopping. First thing I did next day was to visit "Amer Palace", which stood camouflaging with the mustard color hills.  It was just a splendid view. Palace stood atop small hills as if further proving its supremacy over rest of city. All the superlatives’ terms fell short in Jaipur. Their intricately designed stone studded jewelry, their colorful clothes and their art paintings were too good to resist. Anybody could have been spell bounded. I could not resist buying couple of things.

Amer palace's inside view

Amer palace

Amer Palace boast of nice restaurant inside the premises’ and royal family is still living in one portion of the palace. One could see wealth all around, OMG! My eyes started to blurred, I just could not register more of it. I just wanted to be out of that place, tourist guide showed women quarters’, around a open veranda, small cubicle rooms and balconies, just to peek little of outside world.
Were those women suffocated, lonely and sad? All of them stack together in the vicinity of main palace waiting eternally to be called by their Lord (king of Jaipur).These sad thoughts started bombarding my mind. I think there was something in the aura of that place, as even after  500 years, it made me very sad for their hopeless situation.  And do not forget all the jealousy amongst them. They must have been very beautiful, as I read from some history books, that king had many wives. He married beautiful young girls, whosoever fancied him. I was overwhelmed with sadness for all those women, who once lived there. These royals must have belonged to rich glorified past but I cherish my independence.

colorful clothes

KUNDAN JEWELERY of Jaipur is very famous. 

*Just an after thought

All the views are mine, to demean any place or anyone is not my desire.

famous lac bangle

 It appeared as if Jaipur city though proud of its valiant Rajput Kings and its magnificent past is now pushing itself towards modernism, riding on famous Jaipur Metro.

Jaipur Metro




pic. courtesy web.

TRAVELER BECAME SEEKER

Meditation on Brahman

QUEST FOR TRUTH

It became my intense drive after visiting Mount Abu. I was totally changed after staying in Ashram for three days. I felt as if I had stayed with God. My 'eternally' disturbed mind was relaxed and desires for material things appeared too flimsy. I was totally at peace with myself and situations. I was ashamed of my 'reasons of sadness'. 

There was some magic in that place. First time I felt that whatever knowledge I have acquired is all second hand. As it was from the books, based on somebody else experiences. So it is their truth and not mine. In my heart I knew that I have to find out my truth, my goal and my purpose of life. Eating, gossiping and maybe (earning) can not be the goal of this precious life. Guruji opened new vista for me. My spiritual master (Guruji)  opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him.” Guruji told me to read 'Bhagwat Gita', Which I dutifully did. But I was too naive to understand this noble treatise. But I understood that to start journey towards God, I must have some particular relationship with HIM. 

Meditation on eternal truth

1.One may be a devotee in a passive state;

first sound of universe.

2.One may be a devotee in an active state.
3.One may be a devotee as a friend;

4.One may be a devotee as a parent; 

5.One may be a devotee as a conjugal lover.

 If we talk about 'Realization of self' the name of Lord Buddha comes foremost in our mind, who got enlightenment while in meditation. He laid certain rules for seeker.
If I have to explain crux of Buddhism then I would say it like this :
1) to lead a moral life,
(2) to be mindful and aware of thoughts and actions, and
(3) to develop wisdom and understanding.
Their religion is broadly based on "Four Nobel Truth", 

What is the First Noble Truth?

The first truth is that life is suffering i.e., life includes pain, getting old, disease, and ultimately death. We also endure psychological suffering like loneliness frustration, fear, embarrassment, disappointment and anger. This is an irrefutable fact that cannot be denied.  

 What is the Second Noble Truth?

The second truth is that suffering is caused by craving and aversion. We will suffer if we expect other people to conform to our expectation.

Our lifetime is of wanting and craving, creates a powerful energy which cause us to reborn.

What is the Third Noble Truth?

The third truth is that suffering can be overcome and happiness can be attained; that true happiness and contentment are possible. 

What is the Fourth Noble Truth?

The fourth truth is that the Noble 8-fold Path is the path which leads to the end of suffering.

 What is the Noble 8-Fold Path?

In summary, the Noble 8-fold Path is being moral and abstain from misconduct and sensual overindulgence, to refrain from untrue speech.

What I found out that Buddhism is very close to teachings of Lord Krishna in Shrimat Bhagwat Gita in the battle field of Kurukshetra. I will elaborate more on this in my next post. I only want to add, as we have seen that there is one 'constant battle' going on inside us between Right and Wrong.

And I believe that we also need Teacher Or Guru to show us the light. And help us to conquer our battle.

Meditation on chakras.
There are ways to purify ourselves and yogic meditation is mandatory to cleanse our chakras.









pic courtesy web.

METAMORPHOSIS IN MOUNT ABU

Legends has it all the 330 million God and Goddess of Hindu religion used to visit this holy place. Mount Abu was the home for many saints and sages in old days.

Nakki Lake in Mount Abu

MOUNT ABU
TRAVELER BECAME SEEKER
I visited this place about 10 years back with my elder son. Actually till this day, all the memories of this place is revered by us. There was an aura of mysticism around this place. We were visiting an ashram of our Guruji. The whole place including weather, fauna and foliage appeared other worldly to us. Even the mountain rocks has very strange resemblance to animals. As if the time has stood still freezing everything with it.. We were strangely surprised to saw it. Here for the first time I experienced incidents that can not be explained by science. I became sure that I have to find answer to all these things. MY TRUTH. It is here I became spiritual or rather totally metamorphosed. 
We were treated with kindness and love by everyone including our Guruji. We felt totally blessed. Our whole life changed after this visit. 

Dillwara temple

This place was an abode of spiritual sages once. It is still revered by Jains and Braham kumaries. There is huge. Dilwara temples, the exquisite poems in marble. The rocks in Mount Abu has strange shapes resembling animals. I have posted a few pictures of them.

Dillwara  temple

Wheel depicting cycle of time

rock resembling face

strange looking rock

marble pillers in Dilwara jain temple

toad rock

rock resembling huge bird ready to fly

Rock appearing somebody riding animal

famous sun set 

Mount Abu boost two famous points, lots of tourist visit this hill station to witness sun rise and sun set. Like giving a subtle message that EVERY SUN RISE HAS TO SET AND EVERY SUN SET HAS ITS DAWN. One lives between these two eternal truth.   

pics from web.

REMINISCING ROHTANG PASS

Rohtang pass in winters

ROHTANG PASS 
Navigating a dangerous route.
It is one of the most treacherous road in the world as there is always danger of land slides. In spite of danger, it attracts tourist around  the whole year. Tourist gets lured by its beauty and adventure that it offers. It boost of adventure games, parachuting, paragliding,skating, and zorbing  and much more in Solang valley. It is becoming more popular as a  ski resort in winters.  I must mention that I chickened out and could not do any of above mentioned adventure games.

ved Vyas temple 

Rishi Valmiki Ashram.
It has sulphur spring

Hdimba devi temple

 Rohtang pass is in Manali, which is situated on the banks of river Beas. The beas river is named after Rishi Ved Yayas, of vedic times, who has written sacred Vedas and many more spiritual and religious text like Bhagwat gita, Puranas, and Mahabharat. As the fable goes Ved Vyas  Rishi was regarded as incarnation of lord Vishnu.

 Rohtang pass is a high mountainous pass on the eastern Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas around 51 km (32 mi) from Manali. It connects the Kullu Valley with the Lahaul and Spiti Valleys of Himachal Pradesh, India. Manali-Leh Highway,  transverses Rohtang Pass. This  pass provides a natural divide between the  Kullu Valley with a primarily Hindu culture and the arid high-altitude Lahaul and Spiti valleys with a dominant Buddhist culture (in the north). Army has started a project to make a tunnel under this pass as this is very important road for Army. The tunnel will reduce the travel time by five hours.

View of Himalayas from the top of Rohtang pass 

Panoramic view of Rohtang Pass

There are many temples in this place, the worth mentioning are Rishi Valmiki Ashram, which has hot sulphur spring. This temple was my favorite place. When we visited Manali two years back, I was just mesmerized by its divine beauty, and kept on thinking what bought those spiritual guides to come here to do meditation. I think there was something in the air of that place.

The Manali is famous for its plum and apple orchids. It is regarded as small Switzerland of India.
There are plenty of very good hotels here. A very good holy place to spend long weekends. This hill station in Himachal Pradesh is well connected with Delhi, Chandigarh by Road.

beautiful view

solang valley

Breathtaking view 

pic. credit mayank wadhawan and web.