The Calling to Ma Vaishno

Thats what popular slogans say about a journey up to vaishno devi.
If she has not called you; then you may not go. ("Bulawa aaya hai Mata Rani ka" - The calling has come finally from mother queen!)

Vaishno devi is in north state of Jammu/Kashmir in India and is one of the most crowded hillocks in the world. The number of people which climb this ancient hill to view 3 rock formations inside a small cave is un believable.
In north India one of the popular cults is of the 9 different forms of mother goddess - each present in a different place (and generally all are natural rock formations). The nine temples are spread across punjab, Himachal, Jammu. They to me; are all power centers where natural power was felt by our ancient travelers.

The nine temples are :
Mansa Devi/ Jwalamukhi/ Chintpurni/ Naina Devi/ Vaishno Devi/ Chamunda Devi/ Baijnath/Lakshmi Narayan and one more.

But the most famous ofcourse if Devi Vaishno. She is visited by immense number of people all through the year (except peak winters where it becomes difficult for people to climb up).
I undertook the visit some time back, after perhaps I got my calling with my folks. We took a train up to a small town in Jammu before taking a vehicle to the base of the hill.
I was sorely disappointed intially (well cause I thought naively that the hill climb would be a purificatory journey - which it is intended to be). The hill has been destroyed by rampant capitilism - stores selling all types of crap like audio / video what not; apart from eating and resting joints.
If a person does brisk walk it will take him close to 3 hours to climb up, and if one decides to cut through the path - then the journey might be even shorter in time.
The entire way is littered and chaotic with tons of people of varied age and cultures - apart from the locals who make a damn good business taking people up down on their ponies/donkeys what not.
We wanted to walk up the way; and we did in our good time. My mother cannot walk up hill for a long duration and we had to stop many times over before we reached our destination.
The queue for visit is another thing all together, people wait as much as 12 odd hours in damp dingy little rooms made on top of the hillock to get a 2 second darshan of the beautiful rock formations inside a very small cave. The entire way leading up to the cave is a queue - which is extremely crowded and chaotic to say the least. My parents and I cannot generally stand crowded religious areas and we decided to get one of our contacts to help us get the first evening darshan possible.
So we get freshened up in a small ashram close by (which is not least bit hygenic, but in the name of religion and love for goddess - dirt and purity have no or equal value!)
We wait until the evening deeparadhana - arthi is over and then we are huddled and pushed in a single row file to the temple. The entire way is controlled by army personnel due to the extreme risks present in having so many people on a small hill top at any given point)
So these guys push people in and out of the hill, cause no one would otherwise probably come out. The cave is very small (I had to bend to walk in and stay like that), and just when my annoyance with the army guys was coming to a peak - cause of their incessent pushing; I see the 3 small rock formations and before I could take a closer look - an army guy pushes me out of the cave lol. I really did laugh out loud and people would have mistaken my demenour for some sort of religious ecstacy - well it was just that ! What was I hoping to find, some beautiful power center untouched and untapped by people? No that would be too easy, maybe a reminder that energy is present abound here as it is everywhere else - yes but I already knew that. Maybe that many journeys do not have any purpose or goal and they exist cause they have to exist. That would be bettter.
I did not get an oppertunity to visit the famous bhairava temple present closeby - shiva is present everywhere his consort is, his conscious full power nature helps dispel any sort of malign ego intentions which might hamper a full vision of cosmic power at any of the given power places. This is across india and only for goddess temples.
People say that it is not good or the journey is not complete if you do not visit the Bhairava temple after visiting goddess, but my folks and I were extremely tired after the entire ordeal of walking waiting and getting pushed around, and to top it all the crowded hilltop started getting cold drops of rainfall which was going to intensify any moment - and as we did not have any staying place on top (our hotel was at the base), we decided to take couple of horses and head back down in the least bit of time affordable.
Well the horses are another story, the thing with these horse headed beings lol is that they can see single line of sight - and they follow the path closest to the edge - the edge here is a steep bloody drop and it is absolutely no fun riding along looking all the way down all the time - I got a funky alpha male horse who was on full strength to go down flying or dying, but it suited me just fine (apart from my posterior - which got a beating sitting on the horsey!)
We reached back and spent a quiet evening looking at the hillock (our hotel was atleast having the right view of the blessed hill).
I would think that many many years back, people would come with steep devotion to climb this steeper hill and sit at the head of power, of natural organic biological power mixed with the ancient rocks - which have been capturing and amplifying solar energy for eons before any human walked this earth.
Unfortunately now people with their negative energies go to such pretty little shrines and rampage it with their need and greed! How could that ever work!

I would wish everyone a good ardous and meditative journey to Mata Vaishno - if she does not call you - do not worry - you can call yourself on her behalf and take the journey without a point.

Peace and Bliss

Flat World Finally

So you have created a concept of a flat organization after eons of slavery and perennial exploitation. Now why don't we try to implement the same in our consciousness and of course the present world.

Flat World was something of a model of the old world, and then some fool said that the world is round. Actually the world is like an endless ladder - you try to climb up and where you give up you fall off to the abyss - your home (where you began from). There is no end to climbing this ladder - from the perspective of one's work, one's personal misery or desires. Anything for that matter. The ladder of course goes both ways; but narrow sighted horses that we are - we just are obsessed with trying to climb it (whatever climbing would mean - getting more/higher).

Now its a fact that for one to live, one must sustain; sustainaince through food and shelter (against what now? Well other human beings of course - we have destroyed other external harmful influences like predators and caused nature to become worse through our presence lol).
So for sustainance, one has to work - and as we as a world sees it beneficial to adopt some sort of primitive profit model as the basis for ones useful work - it is the perfect place to start for implementing a flat consciousness.

Everyone works - and everone's work is important but we choose to see only some aspects as profitable lets say a rag picker's job is worthless compared to that of a lawyer or a con-sultant. This causes shifts in power, economic and social capabilities to say the least, with people trying to get 'education', 'degrees', what not to shift themselves to something which might be least interesting in the first place (come on a lawyer is just a sophist of new day age - and sophists were worthless in the past, their only job being to fuck another over to prove a point, but the same concept now fetches you lots of 'respect' 'money' and of course power! over another)
What if a rag picker did not do his work for a day or a month, you would seem to be living in your own shit and not have the ability to pick it up (oh you say that you do, but you really don't)

There has to be a re-look at the way we look at the importance of every job/function which is present in society, a paradigm shift includes this in a major way. You look at every job with equal importance and power associated to control others in the sphere of existence. In this way, every job is equal and important. In this way, there is no fucked up competition for becoming a doctor or a lawyer or a mba (whatever they do is absolutely useless except for working on something called excel). Everyone will get to do what they choose to do.
So you say who the fuck would anyway want to become a rag picker, here comes another aspect of this paradigm shift - when every job is given equal importance, the stigma attached to something drops and the actual importance gets highlighted. Yes in this day and age, picking up garbage seems to be way less in demand than sending a probe to another planet. Everything becomes truly utalitarian at first; and then it gives a better perspective to what is important for society.
Arts and Sports and becoming an Actor become attractive but not central to society and its visions of protecting itself and other species present.
This shift is slowly taking place in many of the 'civilized' societies but not cause of a shift in consciousness, people in richer countries are realizing that to get their menial work done (the work they dont want to do - or cant do rather), they will have to pay a lot more than paying for a supposed specialized sophisticated job.
I believe every job is equally difficult/ardous, and sophisticated. Some make use of the left brain, the other right and many other physically and heartfully disturbing. You can put the job of a rag picker or a shit cleaner amongst the heartfully disturbing. It doesnt require much brains, but does require a hell of a lot of will. Something which profit oriented people do acknowledge but really never do indulge.

You say as an argument, that people are rewarded for their hard work, and I agree partially but its not equally recogonized, not even an attempt made. There is a lot of negative energy for most of the people's work and some asshole who develops an ipad/ipod is thought of as a genius.
We are all a bunch of genius who are actively engaged in negating others' genius and trying at the same time not to be original, not to see what is required/need of the hour and not paying enough introspective attention/energy empathisizing with life all around us. That is what is most disturbing.

So we can have a global fucking corporation, where everyone is a knowledge/wisdom/physical/heartful worker. We can all acknowledge that we all are required and not some more than others. That attitude which stems from wise conscious understanding is what can create a flat world. We can see that the guy who serves us in a hotel or cleans our laundery is equally inspiring as some douche like warren buffet (we know him cause he is a rich miser lol).

But for this human beings would have to use way more brain capacity than they are currently actively using; apart from using something abstract called their heart. That is if they have one. A big IF.

Peace

No End in Sight

I have built my death bed; It is through years of effort. It is nothing simple to say the least; or profound. It simply is a matter of illusion in this illusory state like everything else.

I spent years in trying to have a deeper connection with this existence. Building naivity and connections to the self, without breaking off from the other. But all this yielded less than any use. The lesson became more pronounced, the more I tried to break away from it. Now on my death bed; I see everything which came a full circle. All knowledge and wisdom of little or no use, the love which was built upon with the beloved, destroyed - burnt down to ashes. No one remembered the good that had been bestowed by this mortal fraility like any other else. There is no immortality or grand redemption, not even the children's story/fables which pronounce the meek inheriting the heart and earth and fitting into heaven.

The age has become extremely critical, for it had been already predicted - that the time when it comes will make man surge away from inner divinity, it will break the firmest of man's resolutions to find inner solace. Inner peace, instead a void and meloncholy will arise - which will have no base and never an end. This will be replaced by the inherent greed and tecchnological play things - like all of us in and of this day and age indulge in. We are here because we have no clue where else to be, we are here to waste time and think that it is worth our while and others. But for what base or profound reason.

Such questions have prodded me since time immemorial, and the more I searched - (no, I did not get more questions); rather the lack of questions or answers. There was no response from the universe; and where there was - was some sort of sad satirical silly joke in life. Which was supposed to befit the question for the self; in disguise.

I have worked and walked, traveled and talked. Sat and peaced; now there is simply nothing else to be. I wished for anhilation and that too I know is of no consequence. This inner search would be over, the sooner it is; another will take over.

There seems to be no end of beginning in sight, probably what god of this day and age wants us to see in plain sight. Hence he/she/it runs away from us, No there seems to be no recourse than sit and wait for the self to purge.

I have lost meloncholy and hope; replaced with the irrefutable void. Washing me over again and again. No end in sight is the best I can say.

Peace

Dancing Amidst White Snow

This is awhile back, but its as fresh as anything that ever is in my head.
I travel to the hills, starting with a pit stop in chandigarh; where I pick up my friend and we await another who is traveling up north india for business. We spend some time in peace and catching up; and I personally spend these precious moments re-visiting my once peaceful home in panchkula where I stayed for more than a year. We start up early in the morning from the sector - 40 bus stop where inter state buses align continously for himachal. Our destination is a distant place called Rampur - the last stop in the shimla district (or so I remember). This is the last village also bordering with the manali district of humachal. We have a common friend up there who we are to catch up with; who will show us some nice places. The travel up is as usual, slow yet exciting; as the weather cools and the scenery beckons, we all lose our sense of tiredness and catch up less sleep and more sights and before we know it- we are in shimla. We get off and take some time off roaming the empty streets at six in the morning and refresh with some hearty hill breakfast.
We get on the next bus towards narkhanda - the highest point in the shimla region. Its a quiet destination for many a honeymooners and travelers, I personally have been there more times that I care to remember. We get off at narkhanda and head of for the HP guesthouses; where we have some light lunch and sip on mountain wine. This is where the unthinkable happens, after drinking a couple of bottles my friends and I take a walk on literally the edge of the mountain and before I know it, I fall some 10 feet down on a pile of dung. Am drunk at my stupidity and laugh uncontrollably. So do my friends, and the sense of numb pain in my left leg starts shooting up one neuron at a time in my head. It hurts real bad. I cannot put my weight on it and I have ruined my trip for myself. My friends help me get some pain killers and I rest my weight on their shoulder and we catch the next bus as we move off to our destination - some 3 hours away, the small town of rampur. Little to say, I could do nothing, I could neither go this way or that. Going back home to delhi was a distant option and I was anyway not in a mood for it. So I take my friends advice and sleep in the bus with the help of some strong painkiller in the hope that the pain and hurt would subside. It wouldnt, my leg is swollen up and it is a bad sprain - which would take atleast a month to heal/ I could tell just by looking at it. But that was not my worry; it was what I could do as a vestigial person on the trip which killed me from inside. I keep hope none the less and we reach as I open my eyes, my friends tell me that I drooled like a kid and fell over all my fellow passengers on the way, not that I care to remember.
We are greeted by our friend who has booked us a moderate hotel in the vicinity. The view is amazing, there is a small river which seperates the village of rampur from the starting of Manali district. The river is small in breadth and great in respect of the ferociousness it shows. It is clearly impossible to cross, and the locals have built a beautiful little wooden bridge to cross it. The dextirity and simple inginuity of village folks especially on hills never seems to stop amazing me. I spend the night with my friends as well as our common friend who in his best efforts tries to do hot and cold compress on my leg, all i need is some shut eye time and a lot of healing. But that is very difficult to do when you are with friends on a trip. And I am not one to crib or cringe cause of pain (atleast not all that much). My friends take a midnight stroll on the river side and the bridge as I sit on my beautiful little balcony in silent meditation looking at the fast moving body of water. There is a sense of peace in the pain none the less.

The next morning, we decide to head back, the trip has been shortened due to my condition and I am not really one to complain, the pain has not subsided and the swelling has just increased, it is impossible to put any weight on it, and I have to take my friends help or the help of some sort of support to make the simplest of steps happen - on a hill this is never a good thing. We take the bus and head back to narkhanda - the place where I got my swollen foot due to my callousness.
There is a very famous temple at the top most point of narkhanda - known as hatu devi. I have been to this temple once before and I must say, the scenery and serenity from the height is simply out of this world. There is no feeling to describe it. It is sheer delight. And we all were in deep wanting to see it once again. This was winters falling and the truck drivers who generally ply people up and down in summers were all huddled up not in any sort of inclination to take us up, they told us that the road was snowed in more than 10 feet in height not far away, but the sheer thought of mountain of snow made us want to see it even more! idiotic city folk is something that would have struck these village folk at the earliest. One of them did oblige ofcourse for a handsome price, and took us up through the narrow winding roads - made mostly for people to walk ( and not cars to drive). He stopped at a place, where there was a little lake formed besides and a thick tall mountain of snow on the road and everywhere in front. We were breathtaken; in sheer awe at the beauty and serenity of nature's pure white. It was out of the world. Simply brilliant. We all got out of the car, and took some time to sit in freezing temps. My leg was far beyond numb and I had to frequently come inside the car to refresh it a little, yet I would walk out and walk in the snow, time soon came where existence would have no meaning but snow falling on our heads and all around. And so it did! I started dancing little by little at the delight I felt in my heart, so did my dear friends. We were taken back at the beauty of this event. We had no words to ever descibe it even to each other, and only the satisfaction on our faces was the clue that something had been fulfilled. We stayed in the snow fall for over an hour and then made our way down to catch the last bus from narkhanda - which would take us all the way down to chandigarh.
I was in incredible pain throughout the journey, yet the simple dance in snow made me realize I am not the body, just the attachment to it and its sensations makes me feel that I am only the body. The pain and indeed the sensory otherworldy pleasure is enough to make me realize that true clarity and beauty was outside the realm of sense belonging. Maybe just a simple hint through the delight of senses was enough to make me see that.
The journey back was painful to say the least, i had developed a very bad stomach ache and with the pain in my leg - it was impossible to sit 8 hours in the himachal roadways bus - which drove at crazy speeds meandering down the hills. By the time I reached back to chandigarh and crashed at my friends place - I had been done over and re-made. I can still probably never forget this bus journey (like many others), I just could not sit through this one. Stomach trying to make push me into some other realms and the leg keeping me here with the pain!
The trip was not at all a success, we could not spend any time in peace and mostly because of my injury, yet the small stopover at the high point of that area had beckoned us to dance like sufi maniacs. Rejuvenated and rested our souls indeed!
Peace and dance forever~