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2023 - The Year That Was

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
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Faces in the Crowd - The man at ease, at Norbulingka

We were just entering the main complex at Norbulingka, when my eyes fell on this man....




He sat, absolutely relaxed, at peace, on a chair, his feet on the railing, keeping an eye on the visitors. We smiled and nodded at him, as we went past, and he smiled back, inclining his head slightly, just acknowledging our greeting. He was still there when we returned, and was just as still. 

It made me wonder if I could ever sit like this, so peaceful, and at ease, just watching the world go by. These days, as I rush around, with a thousand things to do, a huge event next week, this pic somehow manages to soothe me. Does it soothe you too, making you wish you could just sit still like him? Do you think you could ever be so peaceful? 

This post is part of my series on my #summertrip 2015, and I hope to take you along with me as I recount stories from my month long trip, which took me across the country. To get an idea of all the places I visited, and what you can hope to read about, click here.  
Related Posts:
  • The Himachal Series- 

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Location: Norbulingka institute, Sidhpur, Himachal Pradesh 176057, India

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