A Reflection on the Jagannath Rath Yatra There are festivals that delight the senses. There are festivals that preserve tradition. And then there are festivals that quietly transform the human spirit. The Jagannath Rath Yatra of Puri belongs to this rarest category. Every year, amid the roar of conch shells, the chanting of countless voices,Continue reading “When God Comes Out to Meet Man”
Tag Archives: spirituality
At Seventy-Three Part-II
A Reflection on Time, Purpose, and Quiet Continuance Part II: Continuance Stillness, in these years, acquires a deeper meaning. What appears outwardly as withdrawal may inwardly be a fuller engagement. Ancient wisdom has always hinted at this paradox: there is action in inaction, and inaction in action. A slower pace allows attention to deepen. OneContinue reading “At Seventy-Three Part-II”
At Seventy-Three-Part I
A Reflection on Time, Purpose, and Quiet Continuance Part I: The Clearing There comes a time in life when celebration yields, almost instinctively, to stillness. One does not resist the passing of years, nor does one hurry to greet what remains. One pauses instead, —listening for what silence, newly audible, might now be asking. Seventy-threeContinue reading “At Seventy-Three-Part I”
What Draws Millions to Vrindavan?
The queue moved so slowly that it seemed hardly to move at all. The summer sun beat down relentlessly upon Vrindavan. Faces glistened with perspiration. Elderly pilgrims leaned against railings for support, a few of them confined to wheelchairs, with sons or relatives standing patiently behind them. Women from every background chatted ceaselessly to passContinue reading “What Draws Millions to Vrindavan?”
Manikarnika: Where Fire Becomes Eternity
I arrived at Manikarnika as the sun was preparing to leave the sky. The evening light had begun to soften the hard outlines of Varanasi. As I walked through the city’s labyrinthine lanes, Kashi displayed all its familiar contradictions at once—pilgrims and shopkeepers, temple bells and motorcycle horns, saffron-clad ascetics and foreign visitors, all sharingContinue reading “Manikarnika: Where Fire Becomes Eternity”
The Oak-A tree of Time, Myth, and Memory- VI
In Memory and Intimacy: A Personal Companion “The tree is the slowest, most patient of all living things. To sit beneath one is to be reminded of what endures when everything else passes.”— John Fowles If myth made the oak divine, and art made it eternal, then memory makes it beloved. There are trees weContinue reading “The Oak-A tree of Time, Myth, and Memory- VI”
The Oak-A Tree of Time, Myth, and Memory – Part V
Oaks in Thought, Word, and Image: Literature, Art, and Human Creativity “Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,Sermons in stones, and good in everything.” -Shakespeare (As You Like It, Act II, Scene I) John Constable, The Cornfield (1826), National Gallery, London. If in myth the oak stood as a sacred emblem, and in ecologyContinue reading “The Oak-A Tree of Time, Myth, and Memory – Part V”
The Oak—A Tree of Time, Myth, and Memory – IV
Of Gods and Druids: The Sacred Oak in Myth and Ritual ““The oak is called the king of trees, the pride of the forest, the glory of the landscape.” — William Gilpin Temple of Zeus at Dodona with oracle Oak If the oak is the heartbeat of the forest, it is also the pulse ofContinue reading “The Oak—A Tree of Time, Myth, and Memory – IV”
Sycamore: A Tree, A World, A Wound
In the Shadow of the Sycamore Two tall and stately Sycamore trees stand magnificently at the far end of the lawn in my son’s opulent home — guardians of grace, stretching skyward in noble stillness. They are unlike any tree I had encountered up close: pale-barked, broad-limbed, with a silvery elegance that seems toContinue reading “Sycamore: A Tree, A World, A Wound”
Standing on Pamban Bridge
As I stood upon the Pamban Bridge, the sea stretched endlessly on either side—glistening, murmuring, beckoning. The sun played hide-and-seek behind gusty winds, cool one moment, warm the next. On one side, a flotilla of small fishing boats lay moored in still devotion. On the other, the sea unfurled infinitely, like an unanswered prayer. TheContinue reading “Standing on Pamban Bridge”
