beyond the ideal...

The Sunday that just passed by was a revelation to me. What a day it was!
Long story put short....

I had only heard of Love. But I witnessed it that day when thousands of devotees came together, cried like children, and pleaded their beloved Satyatma Tirtha Swamiji not to leave the town. Impersonal love is probably the most beautiful love that one can be in. Such devotion, such love, such celebration, such affection...I had never seen such a thing before.

300 four-wheelers had lined up in front of the temple in Bangalore to accompany Swamiji to Devarayana Durga hills. I had no plans of going there. But plans changed in a minute and I was on board with young devotees to go the hills. We went there had Darshan, took Swamiji's blessings and left the premise. It was one such day when things fell into place without any effort from my side....

Devarayana Durga Hills
Photo Courtesy: Sanjeev Gumaste

There were more than a thousand devotees there and I had never gone to Devarayana Durga so late in the night and never with so many devotees. You can imagine the chaos there, with all the pomp they had to bid him goodbye which they did. In spite of all that "chaos", I felt a calm deep down within me. A silence which no external noise could manage to break. I felt like I belonged there. It was not the people and their smiles, it was not the place, it was not the rains, it was not the darkness outside....it was perhaps all of this put together. It's not what I used to call bliss before. It was something beyond everything and yet very grounded. I caught misty eyes at the end of it all. I wasn't sad. No, I wasn't happy either. It was magical nonetheless.

The world around me was as real as it could get. It was a divine world with chants and songs and melody in the hearts. It was nowhere close to the ideal. It was way beyond the ideal. It was Divine.

“In the silence between your heartbeat

bides a summons.

Do you hear it?

Name it if you must, or leave it forever nameless.

But why pretend it is not there?”