Dear Friends
Yesterday I was at my village, where the ruling diety is Lord Chandrasekhara. I was fortunate to offer our Manasarovar Jal for Abhishekam to Him and then offer it for the villagers as “Theertham”. The few minutes I spent in solitude before Him transported me mentally to Ashtapad, where we saw the Lord in His full resplendence for the first time.
We returned from Heaven on Earth (no it is not Kashmir it’s Kailash) on 16th last month. To those of us who were present, there is no need to reiterate what we felt or experienced in His presence. To others, I can only say; so long as physically, mentally and financially there is a remote possibility of your undertaking this Holy Pilgrimage, please don’t overlook the opportunity when it confronts you. I am sure the impressions are fresh in each one who went there, but such is the nature of the human memory that, like brick-work on a wall, one after the other, fresh impressions built on top, one-by-one, tend to push the earlier ones to the bottom. Having said that, the experience in itself created reactions like “awesome” “fulfilling” “amazing” “peaceful” “blissful” etc etc. The extent to which we bring into our hearts, the stillness and peace that we experienced whilst there, on an ongoing basis day-to-day, will determine our “inner success” with this Yatra.
During the Yatra, I undertook a pledge to write our impressions and experiences into a new book. The few weeks since our return have been a constant mental catching up!! In the 18 weeks before our Yatra, the opportunity that I had to share my thoughts was in itself, as fulfilling spiritually, as the Yatra. My first writing experience, compiled into “Eighteen Steps to Kailash” was the result of His blessings only. I find a sense of incompleteness, now, after our return. Although the responses to my earlier posts were very few, the writing kept me steadfast, remembering Gurudev’s words; “Spirituality is a One Way Street-Only Entry! Book writing, by its very nature, has a tendency to take time in completion; and I am engaged now in two of them. So obviously the process is going to be long-drawn.
Many of our friends, who couldn’t make it to Kailash, have been waiting with bated breath for my weekly posts and the photos of the Yatra. Somehow, I felt that pictures by themselves wouldn’t give the complete story. So I have created a compilation of the photos and videos of the Yatra into a movie. The first trial with the voice-over failed, and I am in the process of completing the corrected version. Personal priorities have taken far too much time for me to complete the task that I took upon myself. I did make a DVD with only music instead of voice-over, which I have shared with a few “seekers” but the real-one is yet to be finished. I have now successfully uploaded the video on Picasa. I request your patience in giving me this week to upload the revised one with voice-over.
I will be blogging our daily experiences with pictures and videos on http://sureshsub.blogspot.in. The first of these should be up by 15th August evening. Please start visiting my blog periodically and revert with your comments. In case anyone can share any inputs, anecdotes, experiences that they feel I could add in my blog or my book, please feel free to do so.
As I concludel, I find there are unduly too many instances of “I” in this message, as compared to “We” that I have consciously chosen in my earlier blogs. I wonder if it is a case of “ego” or is it simply the need for communication. Maybe He can answer!!
Prem & Om / Suresh
