WANDERLUST: My Journey of Re-affirmation...

Between Mirrors of

Life and living, I reflect

'Now', eternally.

Some times as the life changes gears, the path that you have taken takes a turn that leaves you wondering - where I am going? As I reflect about last few months, these lines from "Songs of the Mist" comes to my mind...

"You sit here wondering where you are going to go today. Life all around you is new, based on the sensation of living but the moment you bring yourself down to thinking you realize that it is not one straight line. You start with one point and just as you are about to reach, you have another crowding your space. You force that out of your path and you get pushed into the other. And you pursue that further, feeling what is it like to be, how that one made you smile, how that one made you cry, and you are overwhelmed in feeling the highs and lows, but then find yourself somewhere down in the dark depths of unknown, as if that a person is taking you home but you never had a home..." - Calliope on the banks of Holy River Ganges (Page - 135)

It takes a life time

For a sigh to die; Living

Still flowers in pain

And in situation like this, you have to have that undying faith, that out there, there is some one with a cosmic design in which you have a particular place and with your own karma you fill that particular colour required in universal fabric of cosmos with the thread of your living in 'now'.

But as is the case usually, we are not enlightened enough to know that design, so we have doubts, waver with uncertainty of going nowhere and these are the times, I have come to realise, when one has to reaffirm his / her faith in divinity, in the universal energy that is within all of us. And time to time, we need to touch base, reach out to hold that cosmic energy within us from external sources. The last few months have been one such period of exercises, in which I went all around Tamil Nadu to reconnect through service, meditation and spiritual travels.

My Journey of Re-affirmation 

Faith:

There is a beautiful temple of Sai Baba on East Coast Road of Chennai, where I have been many times before, but I needed something more. So one day me and my friend reached early morning at the famous Sai Baba temple on the banks of Bay of Bengal and I asked for the way. I not only get to know where I have to go but also I found a fellow traveller on my path. I, quite literally, handed over my baggage to him and got ready to walk...

Service:

There was a group of pilgrimages, coming all the way from Bihar (on a round trip of almost 3500 Kms), who reached Kanchipuram, famously known as Kasi of South, and my friend took me along to serve them food. 

There are only two types of daan (To Give) that has a direct connection with the cosmic design and your place in it. One is to feed some one (Ann Daan) and the other is to actively / physically do something for the upliftment of down trodden and needy. 

The whole day we spent feeding more than 50 pilgrims in one of the ashrams was more than one can get by visiting numerous places of worship.

Meditation:

When I came to Chennai for the first time, I have had a great personal experience with Goddess Parvati of Meenakshi Temple in Madurai. After almost 20 years of that experience, I had the desire to see her again. We started one early morning, reached Tiruchy for over night stay and then next morning reached Madurai. 

The thousand pillar temple with its grand gopuram and golden dwaja stambha (Flag Staff) was glittering with golden sparkle, turning the dark long corridors into colourful golden hue, being reflected in rainbow colors of the mural on the roof. 

There was the same connect, which had not diminished over two decades of my absence in these premises. The huge wet rose flower garland in my hand looked like the rosary bead and within my heart, there was a peace that comes from knowing that all is well all around. 

The walk within and within the walls of the ancient corridors with huge sculptures of dancers, devas and Dancing Shiva filled the space, emptied by darkness of unknown.

And as I sit here, writing about the journey in Bengaluru, I reflect upon the ripples of time that have flowed by, and remember again Calliope's thoughts...

"...in times of desperation you try to seek out who has the reins of your life. You go beyond the cause and effect and seek within that deepest cognition, with all your logic and understanding of how you came to be here." - Calliope (Page - 137)

In eternity

We live. Come from. Life is one

Series of footprints.

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Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Songs of the Mist - Back to the root

Year 1986: The Civil Engineering survey camp of our Batch, had a stopover at Rishikesh and I spent two days walking bare foot in the cold october weather, on the holy Ganges Bank, sitting hours together after cold morning bath in the river, thinking about my childhood dreams, experiences and beliefs. Coming from a Brahmin Family, spiritual belief was easy to adhere to but the clarity with those crystal clear ripples, playing with morning sunrise and the idea of the book was born. 

Year 2016: It gave me immense pleasure that after almost two decades I could go back to the Deva Bhoomi and offer my   gratitude for the blessings and the strength to bring the book "Songs of the Mist" out and unveil at the most pious place among the vedic chant at Parmaarth Ashram, with the blessings of H H Swami Chidanand Muni ji.

H H Swami Chidanand Muni said as he unvield the book, "It is Shashi Sharma's - an engineer's book of inner engineering. We should not only sing songs - aarti to Ganga Ma, but we should also be silent some time, sit on the banks of holy river and listen to her whispers as She flows by because it is most beautiful and heavenly song- the Songs of the Mist."

What a wonderful way to unveil my book. I am honoured. 

Now let me take you on a journey of those days at Rishikesh, where me, Raghwesh, Sreenivas and Vipul spent an incredible time. We reached Rajaji National park late in the night, and after haggling with the gate keepers, who were intent on not allowing us in the forest due to the Elephant threat in the night, we could be on the way after crossing the barrier. It was 10 PM in the night and the forest was dark and silent, with its usual nocturnal sounds. Every bend had the imminent danger of walking into the path of elephants but we reached safely at the Chilla forest guest house.

As usual, I could not sleep much over the night and was waiting for the sun to rise in the morning to have a look around the place. It was lovely sunrise over the Dam, where Ganges was in full flow...

The next few hours we got ready to move to Rishikesh...

Raghwesh with his morning Mantra Chant, in front of the cottage..

Early morning tea...

And we reached to our new location at Shivpuri, 22kms away from Rishikesh, which is owned by Sreenivas's friend. It is in the middle of the valley, where the holy river Ganges flows serenely by...

When we reached Rishikesh back, the first order of the day was to offer the book to the Sivananda Ashram that has seen this book being manifested through out the decades. I have had been visiting this ashram over the years and the "Song of the Mist" was seeded in...

I learned from the Swami Sivananda's words read in the library, during my many stays in the ashram. And I feel the most important was what the Monk says in my book "Songs of the Mist"

"The more mind has the knowledge of self, the more power it has to correct its course. The more cohesive it becomes with the life outside the more it can control itself from doing useless things, which only brings suffering in the end." - The Monk in the Book "Songs of the Mist"

The return journey through the boat was beautiful as the cold water of the river splashed on the sides of the boat, has a musical overtones that kept me remind of the various nights, spent on these banks, or in the Guru Nivas, overlooking the river. This has been captured in my book as Sanjana Ma, prepares to play the music into the night...

The boat ride to Parmaarth Ashram...

As the crowd gathered for the world famous Ganga Aarti, the sun silently descended into the river, making it sparkle like gold...

The international crowd of devotees had started gathering for the Ganga Aarti and in time, H H Swami Chidananda Muni reached the venue. There was an hour of devotional song and finally my long cherished dream to offer my labour of love and devotion to Holy Ganges. I have been blessed with friends, family and a sense of devotion that has taken deep roots in me and have flowered this book, that I intended to be a guide to the young generation to fight their own Mahabharata in their day to day life through the teachings of Lord Krishna from the most practical book Bhagwat Gita....

Now I leave you with images from the place and may Lord Shiva Bless you with peace, serenity and bliss.

The next day, it was an exhilarating morning, walking on the banks of Holy River Ganges, reflecting on the spiritual journey that I have had undertaken for almost two decades to culminate at this pious place...

The book is available at the following channels, please check it out.

Amazon.in || Amazon.com || Amazon.UK || Flipkart || Google Play || Kindle ||

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Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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