Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with
I sit by the shore, enjoying the solitude it offers me, only the mountains, the rocks and the water, for company....
Watching the waves, as they rush to the shore....
Building up momentum, as if they can't wait....
And then, frothing into nothingness, merging with the sand.
I watch the huge rocks, which stand tall....
As they have stood for aeons, braving the sun, the sand and the sea.
I watch the waves lash on the rocks......
Their spray wetting everything in sight....
It almost appears as if there is a game afoot....
A game that has been played for centuries....
A game that makes no sense to me, but if only those rocks and waves could speak, what stories they could tell us!
For now, I can do little but watch....
Feeling incredibly small and insignificant.....
Under the gaze of these pillars of nature, which stand strong but calm...
Even those which aren't as majestic, on a closer look...
Reveal shells and barnacles they have provided a home to...
Tiny creatures, delicate, fragile, find a haven within......
Remnants of algae, probably from the bottom of the sea, find their way here too....
Reminding us of another land, under the sea........
As the sun begins its downward journey, it seems to put it all in perspective - the sun, the sky, the mountains, the land, and of course, the sea....
What a beautiful sight it is! As I get up to go back in, and join the throng of people in the cafe, I wonder -
What it is that makes this scene so beautiful?
Is it the mountains, standing tall in the water, in spite of being lashed by the waves day in and day out?
Is it the water, the waves which now seem so calm, yet lashing the rocks over and over again, with no respite at all?
Is it this clash which lies at the core of this beautiful sight?
Is it, in fact, a clash?
Or is it, the perfect balance?
That exists in nature....
Which shows us...
That we can exist together, in perfect harmony, in perfect peace...
No matter how different we all are.
Amazing sight, amazing clicks and amazing description!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Varsha! good to see you here!
DeleteBeautiful images! I love this beach.
ReplyDeleteThanks Niranjan!
Deletenice..i have huge set of such beautiful pics I took during sunrise at Om beach..lemme try if a photoblog can be stitched together.. thanks :-)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures particularly the close ups!
ReplyDelete