Kailash-6

The primordial sound from which all notes of music originate is “OM”. The Lord who originates, sustains and migrates unto himself, this sound syllable “OM” is called Omkareshwar. Similarly the Lord also is the Master of all dance forms and is called Nateshwar or Nataraj. Thus the Lord is the teacher, performer and spectator of all forms of fine arts, whether it is music, dance or any other “Kala”.

When we visit someone’s house and see a statue of Nataraja on the mantle, we are drawn towards its symmetry in design. The Lord in one-legged ecstasy in his Thandava, with serpents adorning his neck and head as Nagabhushana, the crescent moon on his mane as Chandrashekhara etc evokes a response from us “Wow! How Wonderful!” Now assume that the same statue has a broken leg because the child of the house dropped it and broke it. We are not so wonderstruck looking at that statue because it is not symmetrical or complete anymore. Likewise, early in the morning, around 6-615 am when we are going for our morning walk, we see the golden sun; we bend in obeisance to the sun, gaze into it for a few seconds in silent prayer. Now assume that we left for our walk a little later, say 8.30-9.00 am. At that time, we don’t even want to look at the sun because it is blazing hot and we cannot see it with our naked eyes. In the first instant we say, the Sun is Beautiful and in the second instance we say the Sun is Blazing! We go to our local temple where our favorite bhajan singer is singing a melodious bhajan. We are lost in the ecstasy, and say “How melodious” whereas if the next day, the same singer, due to a sore throat, sings the same bhajan, he sounds hoarse and we don’t like it so much. In all cases, the object of experience remaining the same, our reaction to it changes from a positive extreme to a negative extreme.

Actually the beauty or symmetry or melody that we enjoyed in each of the experiences was because of the quietness or stillness that came into our minds when we witnessed the positives and likewise the opposite reaction was due to the disturbance that enveloped us due to the lack of these positive qualities. Our minds are automatically tuned-in to appreciate these positive experiences and we come to feel the quietness and calmness of our minds, which makes us experience the divinity within us and we come nearer to our Godhood.

While on our Kailash yatra, we are sure to encounter many natural spectacles that will bring to our hearts, this joy and happiness of beautiful experiences. The mightiest of them all will be when we are alone and contemplative in front of Lake Manasarovar or Mount Kailash. To bring in that subjective joy and ecstasy in us at that moment, we must cultivate a constant practice of just savoring the present moment without bringing any thought agitations in our mind. For enabling that, we can learn to calm our minds during the daily pranayama exercise that were taught to us by Nimisha Parikh. We can also do that during our morning walks by training the mind to remain calm without any disturbance.

The more and more we practice, we will be able to capture in our hearts, the ecstasy of being in the presence of the Lord’s Abode whilst at Kailash.