O' God, Take Me From Light Towards Darkness
Saturday, November 12, 2005 Labels: Philosphy Of Life 2 commentsSlogan written under India's Official Symbol of three Lions, is in Sanskrit Language:
"Tamso Maa Jyotirgamya". This is a prayer to God to "Take (guide) me from Darkness (ignorance)towards Light (enlightenment). But I find the reverse journey very exhilarating."
I go for a walk every morning to a botanical park by the sea-side. The pathway is shielded by dense trees. This seclusion gives a sense of being shielded from daily humdrum life. But, of course you are in the company of scores of familiar faces of regulars.
Recent floods in Mumbai, left the electrical cables damaged in the park. Now it has no lights in the evening. They still allow you to take walk up to 7:30 pm. By 6:45 pm its already dark.
I find walk in evening from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm as almost a spiritual experience. There is only faint stray light. One walks aided by the habitual knowledge of the twists and turns of the pathway. The feeling of seclusion from everyday life is now total, since one can't even see the familiar faces of regulars. Dark shilhouette and faint patterns of lights on the ground create a heightened sense of surrealism.
One is all to oneself - in a totally unreal, weird, unfamiliar setting - this is the key to reach an uncommon mental state.(please see my post on gaining consciousness after being put under anesthesia)
One savours the present moment cocooned in the darkness. Its almost like meditating. Its now easier to defocus the past. What has happened in past is not by any hidden design. All that happens is just a random happening - to be accepted as such, not part of any trend or design. With these thoughts one gets magnanimous towards people around you - and not be anxious of what may happen in future. The more you are with such thoughts the more one clings to the present moment. Its a exhilarating spiral descent into self.
Its the journey back from garden through bright city-lights that is physically "Tamso Maa Jyotirgamya". But it is in the darkness of the park, that I am guided from ignorance to enlightenment. I wait until dark to get it!
To gain similar exerience as you do in your evening walk, during our summer camping trips, in total dark nights, me and my friend used to take a canoe into the middle of a lake, a couple of miles from the shore, and just sit there...see nothing, hear nothing, no sense of direction, just dark. Of course we occasionally talked to each other. So that we can return where we left, we used to leave instructions with our wives, to show a search light towards the centre of the lake after an agreed time. Of course, I never ventured to go there all alone.
You are lucky that you get such an experience every evening.
Thats great. Being alone (even with afreind) in middle of lake is much more exhilerating. I envie you.
I hope your wives did play prank on you by delaying show of light for your return.