Life's just easing in, more so, since this morning! One good reason is I woke up and remained in some sort of a lazy, spellbound sleepy existence, that had a yoganidraa feel, today. Surprisingly, a strong cup of tea also failed to snap me out of it. Then, having woken up out of such hypnotic state, I began to get happier, smiling to myself like an insane person. It lasted through the bath and my daily rituals.
I trace back this feeling of easy living to insane states I'd gotten into a lot of times earlier when I was spiritually bound. In the recent past, I've crawled away from such inclinations and even my readings had stopped. Rather, I'd fallen from my own ideals.
But this automatic switching to such a smooth float on life's troubled waters happened when I realized that all my greedy excuses got bombed by themselves. The luring after money and cars for a short period of time gave me a tense set of months. But then, it all just evaporated one fine day. A thought occurred this morning about all this. If you've money and lose some, you don't mind; but its also true that if you don't have much money and lose it, it doesn't matter either. Many may not agree with the latter part of the statement, but its better to not care much for money and survive, than to live on the edge of money matters. I was just happy to step out of this mucky living, be it so at the cost of some money... finally, its just money!
And now, I'm comfortably numb, again :)
War
Yesterday night, I started screening the Band of Brothers series. Although, I've hated war for.... like ever, still, there is something about it that enthralls me. That something has got to be the discipline: the discipline of the soldiers, the discipline of the medics as projected in M*A*S*H, lets just say the discipline of any discipline that anyone belongs to!
Military arrangements are also proof enough that hierarchies are needed for any system to work, be it a screwed up logic of shooting anyone and everyone for all sorts of godforsaken reasons!
(I wanted to say more, or so I thought, about wars... but after that last thought, I've just gone blank in my mind! So, maybe some other time, or maybe not.)
Military arrangements are also proof enough that hierarchies are needed for any system to work, be it a screwed up logic of shooting anyone and everyone for all sorts of godforsaken reasons!
(I wanted to say more, or so I thought, about wars... but after that last thought, I've just gone blank in my mind! So, maybe some other time, or maybe not.)
A Ramanashram ride - part II
Continuing from where I left off last month... On Saturday, after darshan and breakfast, I started off for Arunachala pradakshina on my bike! Its less than a km till the highway meets the tar road that goes around the holy hill; even the road's name tells it so.
Arunachala remains hidden between structures some times and at other, the trees shadow its presence. While you're trying not to speed away, there's a good chance that you may miss a few good glimpses although the hill's aura is inviting enough.
One of the bad things of being on a vehicle is that one can't continuously view the hill; walking paints a better picture. However, I took pit stops to click some photos and even tried some stupid on-the-ride video-capture! The image on the left is how the hill shone on my first few clicks.
As I rode a little further, I saw a make-do bench beside a tree meant to give some rest and shade to the devotees who walk around on the tar, quite a lot among them barefoot. Its a good burning-the-feet exercise during day time and in the evening too, as the tar takes its time to cool off. I was also barefoot, but thankfully on the bike! Last time, I did walk around the hill
but it wasn't with naked feet.
On this bench were three monkeys playing around and hunting for some food thrown (with plastic bags by some idiots) in passing. I was watching these creatures pass their time and mine nicely. It makes ya wonder why humans are at each other's throats while even animals understand each other, especially their own species, better!
I continued my ride switching off the camera after a while, thinking of taking another stop to click photos later. Its a belief that walking around Arunachala brings in many a virtues including pull towards moksha. Ramana Maharshi used to walk around the hill at an extremely slow pace, at times, taking over three days to complete one parikrama.
It was pretty hot and the muffler I'd worn to cover my head was making me perspire. The starting point of the circumambulation is the ashram at Arunachala's southern face, also qualifying Bhagavan as dakshiNaamurti. As long as the roundabout road is the only road in the vicinity, you feel being in a village with its associated tag-along calmness, soothing the effects of heat from the sun. But no sooner than you meet another road, you can feel the town's noise eating into the bliss emanating from your meditative parikrama.
As I passed through various faces of the hill, it
seemed to change the shade and emit different colors on to the sky. Of course, the sun was helping play this game too. I pulled over again to get a longer view of what you see on the left. I tried various camera angles and owing to no zoom on pocket digicam of mine, I got only approximate expressions of Arunachala. Now thinking, its only the convenience of this Vivitar that let me capture what you see here. The beauty of the blue sky and the white clouds flying over the hill.
There was some breeze around that eased the "pain from the heatwave". That last phrase doesn't sound authentic from a Mumbaite but I left Bombay over five years ago and Bangalore serves a better temperature through the year.
At this break, I gathered that it wasn't far before I reached back the ashram and upset myself with the thought about the traffic that I'd be heading into. I sure wanted to make it before lunch hour, having missed the same on Friday, with enough margin for a wash.
In good time, I found myself struggling through thin crowded roads around the bus stand and Arunachaleshwara temple, with one-way signs pointing in confusing directions. I sped onto the highway just to meet more barricades and traffic pushing me to first gear. The view of Arunachala had also changed itself back under its veil of just-another hill at these noisy traffic junctures!
After some difficult feats, I made it back to the ashram. Having parked my bike and had a wash, I looked up the watch to tick around an hour of biking around, adding some breaks. The last 10-15 minutes of not-so-pleasant riding had added to my appetite, to be followed by a hearty meal and the usual blissful nap.
Arunachala remains hidden between structures some times and at other, the trees shadow its presence. While you're trying not to speed away, there's a good chance that you may miss a few good glimpses although the hill's aura is inviting enough.One of the bad things of being on a vehicle is that one can't continuously view the hill; walking paints a better picture. However, I took pit stops to click some photos and even tried some stupid on-the-ride video-capture! The image on the left is how the hill shone on my first few clicks.
As I rode a little further, I saw a make-do bench beside a tree meant to give some rest and shade to the devotees who walk around on the tar, quite a lot among them barefoot. Its a good burning-the-feet exercise during day time and in the evening too, as the tar takes its time to cool off. I was also barefoot, but thankfully on the bike! Last time, I did walk around the hill
but it wasn't with naked feet.
On this bench were three monkeys playing around and hunting for some food thrown (with plastic bags by some idiots) in passing. I was watching these creatures pass their time and mine nicely. It makes ya wonder why humans are at each other's throats while even animals understand each other, especially their own species, better!
I continued my ride switching off the camera after a while, thinking of taking another stop to click photos later. Its a belief that walking around Arunachala brings in many a virtues including pull towards moksha. Ramana Maharshi used to walk around the hill at an extremely slow pace, at times, taking over three days to complete one parikrama.
It was pretty hot and the muffler I'd worn to cover my head was making me perspire. The starting point of the circumambulation is the ashram at Arunachala's southern face, also qualifying Bhagavan as dakshiNaamurti. As long as the roundabout road is the only road in the vicinity, you feel being in a village with its associated tag-along calmness, soothing the effects of heat from the sun. But no sooner than you meet another road, you can feel the town's noise eating into the bliss emanating from your meditative parikrama.
As I passed through various faces of the hill, itseemed to change the shade and emit different colors on to the sky. Of course, the sun was helping play this game too. I pulled over again to get a longer view of what you see on the left. I tried various camera angles and owing to no zoom on pocket digicam of mine, I got only approximate expressions of Arunachala. Now thinking, its only the convenience of this Vivitar that let me capture what you see here. The beauty of the blue sky and the white clouds flying over the hill.
There was some breeze around that eased the "pain from the heatwave". That last phrase doesn't sound authentic from a Mumbaite but I left Bombay over five years ago and Bangalore serves a better temperature through the year.
At this break, I gathered that it wasn't far before I reached back the ashram and upset myself with the thought about the traffic that I'd be heading into. I sure wanted to make it before lunch hour, having missed the same on Friday, with enough margin for a wash.
In good time, I found myself struggling through thin crowded roads around the bus stand and Arunachaleshwara temple, with one-way signs pointing in confusing directions. I sped onto the highway just to meet more barricades and traffic pushing me to first gear. The view of Arunachala had also changed itself back under its veil of just-another hill at these noisy traffic junctures!
After some difficult feats, I made it back to the ashram. Having parked my bike and had a wash, I looked up the watch to tick around an hour of biking around, adding some breaks. The last 10-15 minutes of not-so-pleasant riding had added to my appetite, to be followed by a hearty meal and the usual blissful nap.
Thoughts 20
20. Driving fact: The vehicle in front of you is always slower, and the following one faster, than you!
Coming back to life
After the following phase of shifting my blog to vanishingwisdom, I'm back on anythingwise. Moreover, I shifted out on a Thursday and back too on Guruvaara.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Taking a break
The author's mood currently does not permit him to share this blog! Thanks for dropping by.
3 Comments:
Pink Floyd's Coming back to life is a good inspiration for me right now... and here's how it goes:
Where were you when I was burned and broken
While the days slipped by from my window watching
And where were you when I was hurt and I was helpless
Because the things you say and the things you do surround me
While you were hanging yourself on someone else's words
Dying to believe in what you heard
I was staring straight into the shining sun
Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of life and the seeds of change are planted
Outside the rain fell dark and slow
While I pondered on this dangerous and irresistible pastime
I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life
I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the waiting had begun
And I headed straight..into the shining sun
Thoughts 18
18. The vaasana-s drag you on the spiritual mountain you've been climbing and drop you off the cliff!
Uncharted waters
Call it the fear of unknown or whatever else, the mind refuses to get into uncharted waters. It had rather have you go its own old-fashioned, walked-by-masses lanes, than the road thats beginning to open anew. As the Zen saying goes: "the obstacle is the path"; not wanting to jump hurdles, one eases into mind games.
Once one starts avoiding difficulties and giving into simpler approaches, the lazy flow with the stream continues endlessly. "Everyone does it so, why should I be any different?" seems to be a good excuse, without *wasting* any time further. There's no effort to snap out of habitual living that has built over years, decades, maybe lives that will in turn be the cause of more births! Again, "whats wrong with birth?" is a conclusive question for many. Yearning for happiness every moment of life, attaching oneself with it, feeling hurt when failing to get the object of happiness and hating everyone/everything thats the cause of such failure are mostly the only things that one does in life!
If a person were to be happy without such dependencies, then the happiness becomes permanent. That permanance of happiness without a reason or season is what I understand as bliss. That bliss emanates from inside oneself and gets absorbed into oneself, while doing so enlightening everything that there is. That would be true living, except that the mind doesn't allow such unwavering, unthought, unmoved, unaffected, natural state of being.
Once one starts avoiding difficulties and giving into simpler approaches, the lazy flow with the stream continues endlessly. "Everyone does it so, why should I be any different?" seems to be a good excuse, without *wasting* any time further. There's no effort to snap out of habitual living that has built over years, decades, maybe lives that will in turn be the cause of more births! Again, "whats wrong with birth?" is a conclusive question for many. Yearning for happiness every moment of life, attaching oneself with it, feeling hurt when failing to get the object of happiness and hating everyone/everything thats the cause of such failure are mostly the only things that one does in life!
If a person were to be happy without such dependencies, then the happiness becomes permanent. That permanance of happiness without a reason or season is what I understand as bliss. That bliss emanates from inside oneself and gets absorbed into oneself, while doing so enlightening everything that there is. That would be true living, except that the mind doesn't allow such unwavering, unthought, unmoved, unaffected, natural state of being.
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rgds
But, of course :)
Thx.
Miss reading your blogs.
Once you are back hope you have some
enlightenment to share.