ESSENCE OF INDIA- Part 1

This is My India ...

One can witness extremities in everything, in every situation and in every field in India, starting from religion, culture, economics, opulence, poverty, education, and of course illiteracy. 

India is very an avant-garde, liberal and yet very conservative and hopelessly orthodox.

potpourri

This may appear very much contradictory to most of the tourist and even to the natives alike. How can two absolutely extreme opposite situations survive side by side, as if  twins conjoined or somewhat like Siamese twins joined together by some invisible bond. Both sides thrive together side be side, one may compare this situation with the sides of same coin, both are true and existentially possible, and yet so different and antidote to each other.
A new phenomena of recent times:  India's much hyped as a corrupt nation and yet sporadic sprinkling of honesty here and there. We as a native of this nation has got accustomed (I do not want to use the term"indifferent") of reading scams of million and billion dollar everyday. We have accepted it as like any others story, somewhat like weather news-thunderstorm here and there, with occasional torrential rains, which can be compared with political rallies against corruption. Otherwise everything is placid, and quite at surface. And interestingly in all this background a story of beggar pops out, who dares to return bag full of money to the owner. Or a story of a honest government official in some remote town, who prefers to lay his life rather than compromising his honesty to a mighty politician. Both are ruthlessly true but maybe later one in a sad way.
 India is a nation of unity amid mass diversity on every front: religiously, culturally, demographically, geographically, and now lately economically. One can not stop gaping while witnessing it. 

I have fell short of phrases but the story goes on...
One can say India is like "potpourri". Now let me explain why?
As by definition this phrase means a mixture of dried petals and spices placed in a bowl to perfume a room. Here the BOWL is India, and dried petal can be compared with our ancient culture, which is age old but still thriving and emitting a very pleasant smell and aroma of spirituality to the world.

Rich Indian cultural food.

 I must mention our much famous "Indian cuisine", which is becoming rage across the world. And which has a unique taste, flavor and with combination of all essential healthy spices.

Much famed spices

 It has so much to offer to tourists/people across the world catering to their varied taste, from tracking virgin mountains in north India to laid back beaches on western and southern coasts. From learning yoga, meditation for spiritual aspirants to satiating desires of learners of art, culture and music. You name anything, India has it. World class hospitals to five stars health resort, from technology to our much awed IT industry. But sadly nobody knows how to "tame a Dinosaur", who is slumbering even after 66 years of independence, Or one can say "dragon", but who will train my this slumbering dragon? It is becoming a big question for its inhabitants.

Our Rich heritage.

The horizon is too big, I won't be able to do justice to all, so I will be writing more about it in part-2.
Till then I request readers to understand India with HEART and not with Brain.
Because I feel that India can be felt but not understood.





pics from web.

LET US LEARN TO LOVE

LET US LEARN TO LOVE


Interestingly I have written so much about love...
1)Travelling towards sacred domain-love.
2) Exploring the concept of love. And then "valentine day"which is regarded as the epitome of love.
We all know that, this spacial day comes only once a year, so what about the rest of  the year. 
When I say "LOVE", this word does not implies sexual relationships only, it implies all forms of love. Generally people married for years together and having kids and full life still feel unloved, incomplete, empty or vacant inside or you can say still virgin emotionally and mentally. And on the contrary, a single glance from a complete stranger fills you up- to the brim. No physical touch, no communication, and absolutely no contact afterwards and knowing nothing about that person, no longings, a complete an aura of mystery around that person, which even you sometimes afraid to break, because it is so complete, so fulfilling, as if you require nothing more than that. This Love is wholesome, as it is without the fear of losing your beloved, as you never really owned him/her.

Just a glance and a little hint of smile in the eyes is all you required to make yourself complete. As if he/she understands you and love you in his/her own secret way. You feel so satisfied which even a passionate love-making lacks.

I agree that love is a state of ecstasy. It envelopes us, sustain us, and is the very cause of our being. It is omnipresent. We can see it in the eyes of lovers, feel it in the touch of a mother, hear it in the chirping of birds and can gauge it in the embrace of a child. It is over flowing inside each of of us.
But we restrict it by making choices: we can only love ourselves or the likes of us, or in a way, our own extensions. Unfortunately, those, who don't fall into these categories are the innocent victims of our wrath. Their only fault seems to be that they happen to be different.
Love is a positive energy, which can give directions to our lives. It has the capability to makes us achiever, giving a whole new  meaning to our goals and ambitions. Whereas hate is the negation of what love stands for. It is a destroyer and if not controlled consciously, would destroy the life of a hater and the  hated ones alike for sure.

Can't we celebrate love everyday. In every bit of our and other's gestures, like a few kind words to downtrodden, sick or a smile to a beggar.
Why, we have to build walls of doubts, envy and revenge around us, which most of the times hinder us from savoring the nectar of pure love.

Generally, people gets into the habit of gauging every actions of everyone, and getting ruthless, especially for those whom they hate. And this is the worst thing they can do anybody, is to doubt their every actions including good ones.
India is lucky to have a few saints, who understood the great power of love. They spend their whole lives for the uplifting the poor and sick, and this eventually became their passion and ultimate goal in lives, without thinking about their own needs. The foremost example stood out of all is SWAMI VIVEKANANDAJI, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Looking for the ulterior motive in others actions, is worst thing we can do to repay them.
The Professionals will think, what favor you might ask in return and a rich man will think that how much money you will demand.
This psychology has given birth to a new barter system favor/favor. Well I have come across a few shameless people, who impudently says, that it was pretty difficult for me to help, but then I thought that I might be needing your help someday. Or a new fad line in India, bhai, mujjei to punnai lagega, (I will get blessings from God, if I am helping you now, even though it is like a giving it a car lift  for a small distance, or looking for a patient for few hours or keeping you as a guest in foreign land for few days (relatives included).
Here I would request God or eternity to let me to keep me  away from this barter system. Let my few kind words or a gesture of goodwill would be understood as love. Nothing more and nothing less. And let me stay away from sick psychology of accessing people' class, creed, religion or nationality before helping them or saying a few kind words to them.

Let it be understood as a simple extension of love.

pic. from web.

MY RENDEZVOUS WITH LIFE.

My rendezvous with life...

According to me life is not hazard, everything in life is well planned by some mighty force governing our lives, this world, this universe and maybe beyond this universe. 

Shaking hands with life.

Generally some people do put up a theory that we make our own lives or destiny, well I am very doubtful, all I can say that this statement is not true for me. It was never that way.
 I went, where my life took me. And if at all I did made a certain choice, I fell into an abyss and had to retrieve my steps.
Firstly my choice of studying of proper behavior and search of wisdom in masters course after finishing graduation in sciences surprised me more than anybody else. But my inborn and inept understanding of metaphysics, logic and religion cannot be passed as a mere chance. Though I am quite happy that I did that. Life as a whole would not have opened up all its mysteries unless I had prepared myself for that. I realized the power of prayer in Novice in Nanital, mesmerizing Mussoorie and while in Rohtang pass I must mention here that most hill stations in India have famous old temples in beautiful surroundings. They do appear as an abode of God and Goddesses. I always pay my humble obeisance there whenever I visit that particular place. It has to be seen to believe that how God acknowledges your prayers in his own subtle ways.
 Becoming a journalist was another surprise thrown on me by destiny. I always wanted to be a model, but my parents objected it, so fate opened a new avenue for me to be in limelight. And being a journalist I can get a chance to satiate my that desire, and you can imagine how much I am feeling happy and blessed about that now, and my getting a Gold medal in that course boosted my confidence in my career.
Secondly posting my book "BRAHMAN the ultimate reality" in the shape of my blog posts  TRAVELERS VIEWS  was never the way I planned. I was working quite hard on that book for couple of years. It took me so long as the subject matter is very complicated and I am not supposed to write anything unless I am too sure about it. 
I wanted to publish it on KINDLE but in spite of my best possible efforts, I failed to do it.
Anyways now writing a blog on that subject appears a better option. This way I got the chance to interact with my readers, which would not have been possible otherwise.
Back to my title the word rendezvous means: An agreement between two or more persons to meet at a certain time and place. And in my case it is ME and my LIFE as a whole. All the events, and all the people, who came across including my near ones has left a certain marks, sometimes scares on the canvas of my life. I felt shiver down my spine in chilly chilly Chicago and all the contradictions that present India stands for, cannot lessen my love for my nation, as I have said in essence of India -1 and I got pampered in hasty tasty Houston and halcyon Houston took rest in Getaway Galveston and contemplated in serene SAN Antonio.
 So I moved on, I cried, laughed, feared, disappointed, humiliated and elated with it. But always felt in love with it (life).

Trying to accept life as it comes.

I moved from one phase into another like travelling from one state of mind into another. My journey started with "Amazing New Orleans" representing the sheer lust for life, and treading down the bygone era (Mississippi River). After that I tasted the nectar of metaphysics in the following posts: Metamorphosis in Mount Abu and India calling. My tilt towards spirituality started with my becoming "seeker in part 1 and part 2" from a traveler. I realized during the course that unless you purify your thoughts and actions you would be lost in the "road of self enhancement". I started this with gigantic task of facing my true self or self analysis and then passing the litmus test of bonding with people or coming out of cocoon. I had to take up the next desired step of initiating spiritual journey (commencing the important task). This I accomplished with cleansing my aura and chakras with yoga. I realized during the course that we are all Beings of light moving towards light or BRAHMAN.
I understood the power of "Love" while treading towards this sacred zone.  I realized soon that only love has got the power of putting life into the stones and making them alive. And during my journey, I learned to love, and found this truth, that only GOD can love you unconditionally(pure love). I felt the necessity of GURU in this crucial juncture of my life. In the sheer reverence to the divine power called "Guru", I became a dedicated devotee or as I have written in (UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF GURU IS DISICIPLE). During this inward journey, I understood the power of prayer part 1, and got captivated by the Goddess Durga in power of prayer part-2. I got eventually mesmerized with the allegory used in our religious texts. How the saints at that time weaved a beautiful story around Goddess to make meaning more relevant and simple as I have written in Extended post on Power of Prayer part-1, 2. Allegory explained.
I tried to live my life as a honest, truthful, hardworking and a gentle person. All the venom I faced till now could not change my core values. 
Still a few chapters of my book "BRAHMAN the ultimate reality" are left, so lets see how and when I will finish and post them.

cover of my upcoming book.

Pics from web except cover of my book.