A trip to Pandharpur

Like any other kid of North Karnataka and Maharashtra region my association with Pandharpur and Lord Vittala dates back to my infant days- when we are encouraged to do "Vittal Vittal" (clapping our hands like in bhajan). These words were often heard in my household, mainly due to my parents' spiritual inclination.

Lord Vittala is at the epicentre of Bhakti tradition of Maharashtra (Dynaneshwar, Tukaram, Eknath etc) and Dasa tradition of Karnataka (Purandara Dasa, Vijaya Dasa, Gopala Dasa etc). Pandharpur is as famous as Kashi in Karnataka and Maharashtra region. I was always in awe of how Vittala has inspired spiritual inquiry of so many generations. Then there was this image of Vittala- standing with his hands on this waist on a brick, eyes closed, care-free posture, looking serene- that was greatly captivating. Then the stories of how at least 10 lakh people visit this place every Ashadha and Kartik Ekadashis, always made me want to pay a visit to this temple town. So when a couple of weeks back, conditions worked my visit to this pilgrim town, I was super-excited.

Though Pandharpur is just a taluka town in Solapur district, there is good development, thanks to its popularity. The temple is at the centre of the town. The temple is quite big, though not as huge as Madurai Meenakshi. Though it was an odd day, there were still thousands of people who were visiting the temple. It took us around 3 hours to enter the sanctum sanctorum through the 'Darshan Building'- very quick by the standards. The specialty of the temple is that you are allowed to touch the idol of Vittala. The idol is around 5 feet tall and is majestic. I have never seen a more dignified idol that this one. One gets enchanted by the beauty of Vittala. No wonder that He has inspired so many of the sadhus and sants of India, who have immensely contributed to India's spiritual wealth. The idol of Vittala perfectly demonstrates how we should be calm and composed even when faced with big calamities in our lives. One feels at peace in front of Vittala.

There are many other temples in the vicinity- Vittala's consort Rakhuma bai (Rukmini), Satyabhama, Ganesh and Hanuman. Pandharpur is a must visit pilgrim town. The place is very well accessible from Bijapur of Karnataka.

Skandagiri

After lengthy talks of hiring a Tempo Traveller to accommodate scores of "trekking enthusiasts", we finally set about to Skandagiri in a Santro with 5 members last Saturday (5th Oct). The team was relatively new with Netra and Vindhya joining us for the first time. Avinash and DP were the other two troopers.

This was my second trek- after the breathtaking Kumara Parvata 2 years back. Skanda is of moderate severity- with an average pace, 2.5 hours to ascent and 1.5 to descent. We had set certain rules- pickup points, timings, what to and what not to carry etc. These rules were followed only by Netra... First time with us, she will learn...

People generally trek Skanda either in night or early morning, maybe we are the only ones in the history of Skanda who started the trek at 10:30 AM under the scorching sun, with just 3 bottles of water (half of which we had finished in the car) and a few chocolates/biscuits (no prizes for guessing who carried them). After a failed attempt to be a Vasco-da-gama to discover a new route to the top of Skanda, we followed the regular route (if we Indians are good at something, then that should be 'following').

Skanda didn't disappoint us- during the trek and after we reached the top, it pumps in us new energy at every step. As we progressed on the trek, Sun god got kinder. After at least 6 "we reached the tip" proclamations by DP, we finally did reach it.

The cool breeze that caresses our faces when we seat at the tip, rejuvenates our souls and eliminates all the traces of tiredness. I spent nearly 30 mins sitting there idly... how refreshing and blissful this place is!

We need to do Skanda trekking as often as possible.

Lacuna

Yesterday we met for a long overdue Parinati meeting and it was followed by a regular high philosophical discussion with the regular three- Avi, Pradeep and me.

All three were making comments which made one thing clear- there is a lacuna in our beings; but either we feared naming it or didn’t know what it was. But nevertheless we accepted its existence. We held the uber-zoomed and uber-materialistic lifestyle of Bangalore responsible for it. We recounted how our parents despite earning a fraction of our salaries led a more fulfilled and more meaningful life. I feel we three may not be the only ones who get such thoughts.

I feel the only difference between survival and living is that the latter involves love. Do we love? Anybody? Anything? Ourselves? Do we even know what love is?

We complain about our spouses, parents, companys, salaries, managers, friends, looks, cars, houses... of course, I can go on. Our Eastern school of thought calls for finding big happiness even among small things, but do we even find small happiness among big things? 

The ancient Japanese treated even drinking tea as celebration, but today, even during festivals like Ganesh Chauti and Deepavali we don't celebrate. Come Ganesh, the first thing we think is where to dispose of the idol, don't we? For our parents, it was Lord Ganesh coming home, but for us, it's just a clay idol. Then, don't we know the reason for that lacuna already?

The rush, the speed, the pressure... are they worth it? Isn't it time we added a little love to our survival?

"Why am I not understood?"

It was a couple of week’s back, that I was ruminating with one of my friends, when this topic came up. "None understands me", my friend remarked with a sense of disgust. "Not even my parents..." he continued. Though I did not say anything then, I thought of jotting down my thoughts on my blog.

The first question that I want to raise here is- why should we be understood? Why this need to be understood by someone?
The roots of this "need to be understood" are penetrated deep inside. It is the feeling of "need to sub-ordinate" in other words. You perform an act and when it doesn't go well with "our" people and they protest, we come out with this "none understand me" line. Basically, our tendency is free will without opposition. This is an intrinsic human behavior and is harmless.

People have their own interests and their own life. They are not mere audience on the stage of life; they are our co-actors.

We should understand that we are different people- whether it is our parents/close ones/friends etc- and will have different opinion about different topics. It is in fact very difficult to find any two people with even 50% matching interests/opinions. Then isn't it natural to face opposition/criticism? Then what is this ado about "people not understand me"?

First, and curiously last too, we should understand ourselves and that will clear all our virtual problems. The path of life is majorly a lonely walk.

Drive to Mulbagal

With uncertainty receding only at the last hour, we finally decided to visit Mulbagal last Saturday. Mulbagal is the eastern most taluk of Karnataka. I was keen on a weekend drive out of Bangalore and Mulbagal was a just the right place. Just over 100 kms from Bangalore, located on NH4 easily accessible, this place is home to Sri Sripadaraj brindavan and Lord Narasimha temple.

We left pretty late at about 11 AM. We took Intermediate Ring Road and via Indiranagar hit the NH4. Up till Hosakote, there was heavy traffic despite being a weekend. Then from there to Mulbagal, I was touching 100kmph. It was a beautiful drive. This was the first time I was taking my car for a long ride. Mulbagal is around 35 kms from the district HQ of Kolar.

Reached Mulbagal at around 1:30. The place is beautiful and laid back. The mutt doesn't get fundings from our govt I think!! No great facilities. It has a pond called Narasimha Tirtha. The Narasimha idol is wonderful. The brindavans of Sripadaraja and others evoke a sense of spirituality. We had prasada (lunch) at the mutt.

The drive back too was very beautiful, though I was the only one awake. We reached home at 5 sharp. A great drive, a great place- a must visit place, Mulbagal.

Two drops of tears

Today with easy availability of loans buying a car is hardly a big deal. As most of my friends and two of elderly gentlemen I know call having car a necessity. But I beg to differ; I don't call it a necessity for I have spent nearly 3 decades of my life without it and perfectly happy, fit and fine.

As I drove my new car- my first- through the beautiful boulevards of Koramangala last afternoon, my eyes oozed drops of tears. It was a flashback of sorts. Many a scene of the past flashed before my eyes- my parents toiling to give me everything even if it was beyond their comfort zone, my caring teachers who performed beyond their call of duty, my darling friends who were there during crest and trough of my life, that Belgaum city which holds a special place in my heart, this Bangalore city which has shown me paradise, my wife who gives me hope for the future and my kiddo brother and all those unsung heroes who provided me shade as I treaded the road of life. Today I own a car that too without taking a rupee loan.

World looks different from through the window of one’s own car- more pleasant, more respectful and more self-value. May be life will never be the same again.

As I thank all those who made great contributions to my life, there stands one person who is more "parent-ful" than my parents, more "teacher-ful" than my teachers, more "friend-ful" than my friends- someone who is the road, the car, the driver, the fuel and the destination of this journey called life- my Guru-galu. Thank you.

As the car was delivered last Friday, I have named it Lakshmi. Cheers to Lakshmi. Special thanks to my friends- Vinni(Friends Forever, sir) and Avi.

Getting "Settled"

My friends are getting "settled" in life. There was a time, till just a couple of years back, when we all dreaded the 'M' word- M for marriage. We attributed life's all ills to it. Loss of freedom, commitments, end of happiness, throttling of our bank balances and what not. But today most of my friends are either hooked or about of get hooked in a few months time.

Just yesterday an old friend, Venki, called me and announced to me his wedding in Mysore this month end. Then another friend's wedding is fixed. It's strange to see people who until yesterday behaved idiots and jokers are suddenly acting serious. Strangely, family pressure and unrelenting girl friend seem to be top 2 reasons for my poor friends’ marriages. Going by Vinni's oft repeated- I think I am getting old- line, maybe we are indeed getting old. You see, today we may feel remaining unwedded is the best thing, but, who has predicted tomorrow. We may not find any takers when our opinion changes, at that age and conditions. So they have all agreed to take that selective risk. Then there are those, who argue why waste present for grim imagination of future.

I sometimes wonder how times have changed. Life has brought and placed us at such different conditions. I am not ruing, but, just wondering at the changed conditions. A few have big dreams about their married lives and others sans them. These dreams may or may not come true. But life moves on, making us more resilient and more accepting of reality. We gain a bit and lose a bit- that's what life is after all.

Power of Spoken Word

Spoken Word has tremendous power. Therefore like anything that's powerful, it needs to be used carefully and wisely.

I have seen bad things like strained relationships, disturbed minds, professional decline etc happen to good people, just because they have not had control over this power. This rather than anything else hurts people. I have seen people having golden heart but rough tongue get into avoidable troubles that have devastated their lives.

The problem with spoken word is that it is taken to be reflection of mind, when in most cases it isn't. A friend may have love for us, but his words may not reflect that. If we move away from him, then we have lost a good person. This holds good for other kinds of relationships as well. One may argue that if there is "good understanding" then such an issue will not arise. I treat this "good understanding" as divine. But in today's age where the focus is on extroversion, material enjoyment and instant gratification, one should feel fortunate to have experienced this divine attribute.

More words means more problems. We should learn to keep it simple. More words will create turbulence in our minds and we lose peace. No wonder Silence is held as base for all spiritual activities.

Why we talk more than required? We feel that we can convince and change people to our form of thoughts and actions. But can we? NO. By trying to do that, at best you can create fear in them, which is certainly not desirable.I really don't have Dos and Donts list as a solution to this issue. But keeping in mind these things, I am sure we will behave more wisely and humanly.

Mr. Stingy

That's my new nickname, albeit in Kannada. Not by any unrelated persons, but by my own near and dear ones, so it may be true, hence deserves a blog post.

Coming from a lower middle class family, valuing money, perhaps, came naturally to me. There are many things that money can't buy; perfect, but those things can't be bought anyways with or without money. But for other things money plays a great role. As a famous saying goes- 'Money is not important, but one should make sure he has sufficient before saying this'.

I am a bit unusual to today's times. I am somehow averse to consumerism. My family members think I don't live proportionate of my paycheck and professional designation. I feel the best use of money is Saving. Readers shouldn't feel that I live and force my family live a wretched life. But asking questions like- 'Do we really need it?' before purchasing isn't a bad habit at all. If the answer to that is Yes, then buy, else avoid. Indulge yourself once in awhile 'with' happiness, but never 'for' happiness. For consumerism will never give us that.

We are living in uncertain times, we do not have the luxury that our previous generation had- job safety and constant flow of funds. Are we sure when the next financial crisis is going to hit? Are we sure that we will not be impacted by it? Then what about emergencies- medical and the likes? Well I am not a pessimist and am not painting a grim picture. I am not suggesting that we should live even a minute with this fear. All that I am saying is that let's remember this and spend intelligently and consciously. And replace fear with freedom.

A few of you may argue that I am equating money with security and freedom, no that's not what I am doing. I am fully aware that there's nothing called security in life. But in the kind of world we have created money plays an important role and let's not be blind to it.

Wishing you all a happy saving!!! :)