A tale of spirituality

 December 31st 2020,

After more than 24 hours of train journey, we had landed ourselves in the city of Somnath in the State of Gujarat. It was my first trip with my father while being accompanied with a bunch of complete strangers, who had become great friends in just the span of a day. We were tight on schedule and hence, we had to fresh up real quick. The plan was to visit the famous Shiva Temple in Somnath, and then we had to get going to Junagdh post dinner. We hurried ourselves out of the hotel, with our mobile phones and our backpacks in the hotel itself, because the premises prohibited entry while carrying a mobile phone. As we walked along, getting close to the temple, we witnessed something stupendous. The temple is situated along the coastline and the wide horizon of the Arabian Sea left all of us mesmerized. It was moments before sunset, and a perfect time to be there, and to click wonderful pictures. I was cursing myself for not carrying my phone with me. I really did want to capture it along in my phone, to show everyone, how beautiful the view was. But again, we were tight on schedule and we needed to go to the temple too! Giving out a sigh, we moved on to the gates of the temple. One by one we were entering in and to my surprise, of all the people over there, I was denied the entry to the temple simply due to the fact that I was wearing a three-fourth length garment and the area below my knees was exposed. Well, that had happened to me on multiple occasions but that was the first time that it happened in a temple. I was taken aback by it and was asked to wait outside or change to a trouser and then go in. I told my dad that I would wait outside, while all of them hurried inside. Universe has its own way of caressing us beings. Not going to lie, but a part of me did want to stay out and enjoy the lovely view of a sunset along the horizon of the coastline. I knew that the sunset had a while to get implemented. So I rushed back to the hotel, not to put on trousers, but to get my phone, so that I could click pictures and shoot a few clips for my vlog. I rushed in with great pace and started churning through my luggage to find my phone. I dug and dug but no luck. My phone was nowhere to be found. I was so much pissed at the situation that I could not think. I checked the entire luggage at least a million times before giving up. In the end, I had to walk out disappointed. Not because my phone was missing, but because I was unable to capture the lovely view. But, I did not want to miss the visuals so I rushed to that spot with great pace. I wanted to capture the view with my eyes, if not the phone. I stood on a short bench in the area next to the premises of the temple to have a better elevation for the view. There was absolutely nobody over there. It was just me, and the universe in a sacred little conversation with each other. Everybody was inside the temple and here I was, standing on a bench, capturing the beautiful end to yet another day possessing the attribute of hope. 

That moment. That very moment made me realize how tiny I am. How tiny the entire human race is. With the vibrant wind brushing through my cheeks and breezing through my body to give me goosebumps all over made me realize that I was nobody to decide the way my body should function. I surrendered myself to that very scenario and wished for it speak to me eternally. The setting sun and the hues fading away along with it were shouting and telling me that, it was okay to rest and breathe for a while. It was okay to not be productive all the time, but it was not okay to take it for granted. The violent waves striking the rocks with all their might made me realize that physical strength does not necessarily depict the mental stability or ability to take control of that power. The waves so mighty could destroy anything on their way, but their power was being controlled by the Moon. I was so amazed to witness the phenomenon when I did know of its existence. I looked up to the sky, to find the stupendously large and deep and dark realm, in front of which, I was smaller than a peanut. I was nothing at that point. The universe did not care about my education. The universe did not care about my productivity. All it did was, it made me realize that no matter how high one goes in his/her life, the universe is going to caress every being in the same way. 

I looked again at the coastline and the Sun had already set. However, the hues were still there, fading out inch by inch. I don’t know why, but I had tears in my eyes. The loss of the hues was hitting a deeper note and it felt like I was losing the people close to me. I could not stop those tears. The dark and seductive background was absorbing the vibrant brush strokes in it. And I just wished that like those hues, the universe should soak up my body along. I wanted to stay along those hues to eternity. At that very moment, all I could think of was that, out of all the people, the mighty power chose me to witness that particular scenario. It was like, I was summoned by the Lord, to have some theories taught, and some lessons learnt. It felt like, salvation. With tears running down my eyes, I witnessed the hues fade away and the waves were getting more and more aggressive, trying to bring my senses back to reality, but I was stuck with the fading away beauty. That moment made me realize that in this world, every thing is temporary. It struck me hard, and it felt like the fading away hues had paused. That was when, I witnessed GOD. I felt like the one in the cocoon, being safeguarded from all the external follies, I felt protected, I felt safe even though I was alone in the dark and my entire group was somewhere else and my Dad would have been searching for me. But I could not let go, this was GOD. I spread my arms wide apart and asked the mighty power to swallow me up in the oblivion along with the atrocities, but no. Even that moment faded away and I was brought back to reality. It felt a bit bad for the moment was no more, but I had the satisfaction to have witnessed GOD. 

 

Spirituality. With our traits and attributes defined in a way to depict uniqueness in a form, we tend to base our opinions over something which we find superior and threatening to our own self. Our beliefs, customs, thoughts, actions, and what not seem to be a product of an ongoing war between our conscience and invasive opinion. Our uniqueness, is something which makes us discrete and feasible. With the wide variety of fragmented mindsets, we do have something common. Something that binds us all on a superficial level. And that attribute is of having ‘hope’. I bet, nobody out there can survive without having this golden form of attribute. Yet another thing that unites us all, is our common fear of loneliness. Even though we hope for things to get better, at the end of the day, we need someone to share our pretty follies with. We need someone who knows us in and out. We need a place where our little world would be safe. We want to be caressed and that’s when we summon GOD. 

Authored by- Rushil Tambekar