Dear friends, the next post shall come a bit later on. I am engaged in its preparation and I am as eager as you are to discover some more facts about rebirth or reincarnation.

My latest trip to the holy shrine Shri Badrinath just got over and I took some time off at home yesterday to see the lovely pictures that I have shot there. I am exhibiting a few of my best and favourite photos to share with you. They are in a sequence for your convenience. If you have already visited Shri Badrinath sometime, then too I am certain that you will relish seeing these photos because I have included quite a few pictures of our enchanting biodiversity, our rich heritage, apart from the holy and religious places in the Himalayas. And for those of you , who are yet to make a trip to this pilgrimage site, these pictures will be of some use for your planning and organizing the trip in future. So with this objective, I am displaying my photos in the gallery in two parts-I & II.

Part I  is a series of photos starting from Haridwar, Rishiskesh, Joshimath, Badrinath and ending with Mana, a small hamlet near Badrinath, just 3 kms away.

Auli was really, really mesmerizing. Part II will have photos exclusively of that, a place in the snowy mountains around 8,000 ft above sea level, near Joshimath.  So here we begin….

Haridwar

Rishikesh, the ancient  foot hill city made for rishis and sages to contemplate and meditate.

On our way up to Badrinath, the journey begins! 

Joshimath or ancient Jyotirmath-the monastery of light

On our way to Shri Badrinath temple

Badrinath

Mana

And beyond…

To be continued….

Death is frightening for all of us. But those who look straight into the face of death are not intimidated. The daredevils of various shows and tricks look directly into the face of death. It has been observed by doctors and scientists that patients who are fearless of death and recover faster than those who are petrified of dying. But why do we feel afraid of one of the natural stage and processes of life?

The answer is that leave alone mastering, we have not yet thought of learning how to die peacefully without any regrets?

And who can die peacefully?- The yogis. The spiritual explorers and philosophers in ancient India delved into the mysteries of death and dying in the same manner as one observes life and birth in nature. It was looked upon as culmination of one complete life. The process of dying is a natural one unless intervened by karmic compulsion and resulting in untimely accidental deaths. If we have lived our current life very well and have done no wrong, then we shall also die well without any fear of dying, or repentance and regret.

So many people brood and think that at the moment of dying, they shall suffer. This is not true. Death is not painful; the thought of death is painful! Unfamiliarity with the knowledge of death gives birth to illogical fears. Like any other event of our life demands sufficient preparation, so does the last chapter or should I say the last page? If we prepare ourselves well before the  predetermined event, in that case we shall be able to confront and tackle the situation dexterously.

So what is required of us? And how should we prepare for it?

The five senses and our mind are the main things that are totally involved with this progression; the physiological aspect follows customarily. Each man acquires his state of consciousness according to the karmas performed. As a result, the state of consciousness in any person is categorized in 7 levels. Like there are 7 chakras in a personality, there are 7 levels of consciousness abbreviated on the spinal cord hence giving that person’s mind that level of corresponding state of consciousness. The lowest three chakras are considered the lower category, the fourth chakra the midpoint and the remaining three chakras considered auspicious and favourable.

Similarly there are 7 strata or levels in the astral world from 1 to 7. Correspondingly, the lowest three worlds are considered inauspicious, the fourth gate or house the midway and the last three worlds or gates of the astral worlds are auspicious and harmonious.

Again each strata/level in the astral world is subdivided into 7 sub strata or 7 bands or 7 degrees of minor elevation. Levels are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Sub strata-1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7. Then comes the second level 2 with sub strata 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3…2.7; Next is 3.0, 3.1……………… and lastly the level 7: Sub strata7.0, 7.1……………7.7.

One should lead a clean, honest, pure, generous and spiritual life. The physical, material and spiritual goals and activities should be well balanced or else we suffer in so many ways in this world as well as in the other world also.

Just above the Earth, between the surface of the Earth and eternity, there are 7 skies. After our life expires on Earth, each human being is designated a berth or tier as per his performance on the Earth life. Recall post, “What happens after we die?” The lowest plane is the place of the liars, cheats, murderers, rapists, swindlers, etc. and they are severely punished by God for their abhorrent acts. There is no redemption, but only punishment for them. How are they punished you may ask? They are punished by complete loss of peace and fearlessness. Such bad and condemned souls are always suffering mentally and are all the time restless and agitated. They lack love, compassion and are overladen with hatred, lies, jealousy, fraud, deceit and falsehood. The duration here as punishment is long and durable. They get ‘perceived mental beating’ by the supposed Yamaraj’or Death deity and they are repeatedly questioned and asked whether they will replicate their heinous crimes. The answer always is in the affirmative. Sadly these souls never regret their deplorable acts because their ego is oversized and awareness nil!

The next strata or level is of abusers, tormentors, sex obsessed, thieves, country spies, adultery  doers and even the adulterators. Their condition and situation is more or less similar to level 1 people except in intensity and degrees in their karmas. They are gloated in ego and they fantasize that they are the doers and makers of everything and God’s presence does not prevail at all. Forgiveness from the Almighty God approaches very late for such downfallen souls. They get repeated births for many, many years and take extra-long to clean and refine their Spirit because of so much time that they have spent in vicious and evil actions.

The third level habitants are those who have committed suicide for some reason and are suffering mentally. The stingy people, scheming people, those fanatical about sex pleasures, petty thieves, angry people and those who do not wish to still reform themselves are pushed in this house, still quite dark and unhappy. As they had sowed, so they reap there. These three levels or houses as we may call them are full of darkness inside outside. They are for the sinners, evil doers, unrepentant, stubborn and ignorant. The duration is stretched until the soul promises to God that he/she will not do such deeds again on Earth. The tragedy is that these souls crave to return to Earth as soon as possible because of their so called vasanas or unfulfilled lust and greed and they try to even jump their parole whenever God is gracious enough.The lower three levels of the astral are jam packed and resemble extended dirty slums of Earth. There is no space, tranquillity, happiness and quietude anywhere.

The fourth strata or house is reserved for those beings, who along with prohibited karmas have also performed some virtuous karmas and there is some light, some peace in this atmosphere unlike the previous three lowest levels. Sometimes there are flashes of light in this region because of arrival of some saintly soul who arrives from the higher levels at the request of these inhabitants. However, this is not a regular feature. The beam of light is the spiritual light of the illumined being and can be seen by others as well, barring those living in the lowest three sections!

The fifth level is of the angels, dwarfs, elves, fairies and other such helpful souls. These beings are gentle and loving souls who were very kind, caring and affectionate even on Earth when they were alive. They can move from one place to another at a quick speed and they have been assigned the task of rescuing people, stopping accidents, creating an alarm by giving a buzz and thus averting mishaps, untimely deaths and unfortunate accidents to others. Basically they put things in order and thus give happiness and peace of mind to others. These souls are the blessed souls and require no penance or redemption.

The sixth level is of the ‘jeevanmukta’ souls. These are those ones who were liberated from various illusory tangles after many, many lives of penance, contemplation, good karmas and various kinds of purification means either at the  end part  of this life or if they were liberated even at an earlier stage of their last life, they had decided to live a reclusive life out of their own choice as they had earned spiritual ecstasy and wished to drown in it.  After attaining ananda they did not wish to come in direct contact with the normal world. In this liberated category come the rishis , munis, tapasvis, maunis, sages, philosphers, some serious scientists and even poets and painters. Such souls continue doing their sadhana even in the astral world and they may or may not fall down from the elevated steps depending on their remaining dormant, hidden desires or wishes.

The seventh sky is of the ‘param mukta’ souls, the serving Masters who have been permanently liberated. They are completely freed of Maya and are not under the influence of any binding factors or mayic forces. The soul resides on a particular tier according to his/ her spiritual achievements. All these beings live here in complete harmony and divine bliss and they shall pursue further advancement as they climb up steps to gain unrelenting ecstasy and complete peace of mind. They worship God in so many forms and meditate more often than anything else and help each other in advancing on their paths.

Again like any other level there are 7 sub strata on the highest sky . Depending on their earning and spiritual attainments, some souls are on level 7.1, some on 7.2 and so on. But there is an exception here. So far except for His Holiness Shri Mahavatar Babaji, there is no soul who has crossed all the sub levels of level 7 of the highest sky and there will be no time when anyone can supersede him because he is aeons ahead of us and no soul can hasten or speed up his/her spiritual progress to catch up with him as it requires a lot of time on Earth and the astral world to earn that much wealth.

Therefore my many, many salutations to this Mahatma, the  shashwat, eternal soul. Blessed are we that we are able to receive direct instructions and teachings from none other than this towering spiritual giant. He is the most humble soul I have ever come across. He is so pure, so gentle  and so holy. That is why God  has prohibited him from mixing with common people and he obliges God in every way by obeying him in the smallest way. In spite of having reached the epitome of all divine qualities and highest incomprehensible spiritual achievements, Mahavatar Babaji has acute compassion and love for all because he understands well how intricate and trapping is the power of God’s Maya. It deludes and traps each one of us. We all suffer because of our  ignorance and he sympathizes with us by helping us all the time by delivering timely directives and messages in so many  direct and understated ways.

Anyone of us who is serious about transforming himself/herself now, and wishes to make a better and purer life, here and afterwards must make immediate right positive changes in his/her life. Instead of explaining directly how should we die, a roundabout route was taken to explain how important it is for us to lead purer lives because our life does not end once the physical body casts off. There is life beyond what we see and perceive. It is important to have a strong conviction in reincarnation and life after death because only after knowing all this a person will be able to reform and he/she will be inspired to accomplish unceasing composure, poise, calmness and happiness which we all are seeking today.

So we return to the main question- how should one die?

Recall from the previous post that mind and breath are inseparable. Wherever our mind is, there will be our breath. We shall be born where our mind is. Death is cessation of breath. The last moment of a man’s life is the exhalation of a breath. The breath exits the body by any 5 openings or holes of the body. The lower 3 chakras are connected to basal desires or vasanas  and correspond to greed, sex, money, hunger, survival instincts and other lower sub human qualities. When the consciousness of a person is low, the mind will be in the lower chakras and the last exhalation or exit of the prana or life force will be from the area of reproductive organs. The prana will make a small inaudible sound while departing and the person will die unwillingly. Maximum people die in this manner and they are the same people who are going to crowd the lower 3 levels in the astral world unfortunately. What they have experienced here, they will continue to feel, perceive and feel up there too!!

Some people’s life force at death terminates and leaves from the mouth. They are the ones who have done partly good karmas and partly bad karmas. Their consciousness belongs to the fourth chakra. This goes to show that their mind was little elevated than most people yet it was wandering at the time of death. Wherever the mind will be, our new birth is sure to be!

Some people after their evolution reach the fifth chakra, their level of consciousness is of higher category and the life force also leaves with ease from the mouth. Some of the people who die suddenly in accidents, in stray cases have however shown their life force terminating from ears or nose.

Holy people who have aroused their third eye or agya chakra  have known to leave the body when their life force was withdrawing from the eyes.

Only those souls who have controlled their mind and senses in many lives by various techniques and have been very faithful to their spiritual masters are able to discard the body willingly and consciously from the crown of their head. The mind and all the senses are in  place and in full control. When the time to leave the physical world comes, the yogi preconceives the time of his death. The relatives and all the departed arrive from the astral world  to receive him and take him along with them to the other side, the true yogi waits until his/her guru arrives.  He is in no hurry and waits for the guru to give directions. When the spiritual master comes, the mind is brought to the place in between the eyebrows and it does not wander or scatter. All the life force in the body is collected and diverted towards the nervous system and then siphoned out of the hole at the crown chakra very peacefully. This yogic kriya is a blessing from the guru and God for all the beautiful, sacred and blessed deeds performed on the Earth by this yogi.

In peace, serenity, forgiveness was a life lived and in tranquillity the body was returned to Mother Earth after the duties were performed gracefully.

In light was a life lived and in light that life vanished. In love was life lived, in divine love and divine bosom a life dissolved….

(A note-With this post we finish the title ‘death and dying’ in occult, rest articles will appear once I return. All the three articles should be read without a break to get the full meaning and a right picture in mind.

I am yet to revise this post thoroughly but it can be done only once I return, but you may continue to send your responses and I shall revert later. Thanks & Rgds.)

Man has been gifted with the power to act by God. The power to act in a man also comprises the power of their effects embedded in them. The power to act is the cause called karma and the power of manifestation in a seed- karma is the power of effect or karma fal. Cause and effect go hand in hand; karma will lead to karma phal.

The earth gives birth to not only the seeds of plants and trees on its soil, nevertheless it is the same  place where we all are born. It is the place where the effects of all the karmas done by all on this earth are manifested in time in some or the other form which we all have to reap.

The will to die or one’s sankalpa to die is necessary before the body and soul separate. Sometimes the will to live is much more stronger than the will to die.  Death is inevitable to the one who is born and it cannot be prolonged if desired unless in some exceptional cases where one performs unselfish  deeds in abundance.  God blesses that pious soul and grants grace time so that more good deeds are done for the benefit of mankind on this Earth.

We die because the harvest of one life exhausts and the seeds of the left over karmas are carried forward in next life.

Along with our karmas are also fixed the number or count of our shvaas or breath. The number of breath depends on the quality of performed deeds or karmas. As we live day by day, the count of breath diminishes and we approach the final stage. The cessation of life force in our breath is death.

Who decides when should we die?

Our karmas.

Who decides the quality of death and the state of consciousness at the time of our exit from the world ?

Our karmas.

What shapes our next life?

Our karmas.

My dear friends and fellow co- travellers, I have not written much in the past since the last segment-C drew to a close. And from the time with the inception of the new segment D there have been mainly visuals on the blog of the places that I have travelled to recently. I don’t know how many kilometres I must have covered but I have completed the whole set of five destinations starting from Kanhangad caves in Kerala in Nov’11and finishing it with Khajuraho temples in Madhya Pradesh in the beginning of March’12.

My Param Pujya guruji Shri Mahavatar Babaji had carved out this plan for me in the month of Sept/Oct’11 and I happily obeyed his divine instructions without bothering to know the reasons of doing so   as I felt assured that new learning experiences must be coming my way as there is a never ending process of spiritual personal tutoring with him.

The role of a wise disciple is to conform to the instructions of the learned Master while the role of a Guru is to forever teach the disciple in case he or she never ceases to learn.  And so my journey began on a high note to many noteworthy places like the dynamic caves in Kanhangad where Swami Shri Nityananda of Ganeshpuri  had meditated years ago and from where I got recharged and set out to many places of ancient heritage sites of India.

Kalsubai mountain in Maharashtra gave me an enjoyable experience of trekking and learning the nuances of photography in Dec’11. Ajanta Ellora happened just when the new year arrived and a place where my eyes could not rest enough because there was so much to see and appreciate. I also went to Grishneshwar temple of Lord Shiva, one of the twelve jyotirlingas in India in Aurangabad.  Had I not gone to see Ajanta Ellora caves, I could not have seen this clean and very tranquil and isolated temple of India. Both the sites are  very close to each other. I guess the Ellora caves must have been chosen at the present site closer to this temple  because this temple is older than the caves and  it ‘s  name is also  mentioned in our holy scriptures.

In the month of Feb, at last arrived the opportunity to go to one more isolated spot of pilgrimage and that was Mallikarjun temple in Sri Sailam near Hyderabad, the Kailash of South India. I consider myself very fortunate to have done two jyotirlingas in a short span of three weeks and I take  it as a prasad from my Param Guruji Shri Mahavatar Babaji. I, on my own could never have done all this because I did not even know that these sites were so very blessed and sacred. Their energies were phenomenal more so of Mallikarjun precincts. One should go there to experience the blessedness that prevails in the air since thousands of years. I could feel the presence of rishis, munis and all the wise ones in the atmosphere. They must be visiting there in the astral form to take the darshan of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati residing in the temple. All along I was thanking God and my gurus for their kindness to have asked me to go to such powerful holy places. I also realized that we spend so much of our time and money in unproductive and useless things and never have the wisdom to use our resources in such a wise, enriching and inspirational manner.

My visit to Orissa in Feb end was a never ending learning opportunity cum vacation apart from seeing the splendour of majestic temples of Kalinga architecture like Mukteshwar, Raja Rani and Lingaraj temples. Jagannath Puri temple was awesome and  one of my desires that got fulfilled after waiting for many years. Going to far east of India never happened because of distance  and now I wonder how could I manage all this in such a short span of time? Puri was calling me since a long time and I had dreamt of making it on a number of occasions but it did not happen. Why it was calling me so often was discovered just a few days ago as everything fell in place. My meditations have become more  dynamic and my consciousness seems to have  expanded considerably since I have gone to these places of worship. Konark Sun temple was not a place of worship but a place of art, culture and architecture of medieval times.

Then came Khajuraho in the first week of March and it was surely much awaited. As an avid learner, I had wanted to see Khajuraho once in my life because I used to wonder why so many foreigners come to see this place from trans- continental distance.  What do these temples depict? What do they say? There was something magical about them always. And so Khajuraho was also visited recently and I wrapped up my travelling itinerary with this remote and sleepy place in Madhya Pradesh.

If you recall, I had written in my last post ‘And the last one to Khajuraho, the land of ancient temples’-

“As we landed in Khajuraho, it felt as though we were taken back to old times when life was at a very comfortable pace. The whole atmosphere was very calm and placid. The people were gentle and are far from commercialization and modernity. Our hotel was exactly two minutes away from the airport and the complete range of old temples was within a circumference of barely five kilometers. However, once we started seeing the temples, we ran out of time and energy. There were so many and each temple demanded a lot of our time and concentration. We forgot to eat and  drink  water  later in the day, they were so engrossing!! People who like history and appreciate one’s past rich heritage must visit Khajuraho once. Except for excess unchaste engravings on almost all temples, everything was very welcome. I guess there was a lot of competition between all the kings of Chandela dynasty at that time and hence they must have not exercised moderation and sanctity rules in places of worship like these. The next post shall continue with this thought and context and my experiences on the same line of thought.”

If you really ask me I saw the Khajuraho temples with the eyes of my Guru Mahavatarji and with my mind  fixed on him. For not even a minute could I break from my yoga, called the mind connection with him since the word go. Whether it was planning, booking, travelling, catching planes, or sitting in auto rickshaws the unity did not break even once. He says that the unbreakable unity and oneness which was bonded without my knowing is my Prasad that he gave me because of my obedience and devotion towards him.  For unremitting more than six months or so whether I could meditate or not, whether I was at home alone or amidst noisy people there has been a constant unity of minds, a dialogue between us even while I have been travelling zealously. There has been no time to do anything else but to constantly learn and get divulged inspirational, lengthy discourses on grave topics from him as I was walking or seeing people or walls of temples or just being by myself. The bond never broke.

Subsequently, there was a continuous stream of disclosure and discovery and unfolding of many  secrets and mysteries of the bygone times. I have travelled back in very far off times with him in  Sri Sailam when I could feel the presence of Lord Shri Ram visiting that place or for that matter Arjun doing his penance to get the Pashupati Astra form Bhagwan  Shankar before the Mahabharat war. I remembered living there once upon a time about thirty five lives ago on a small hill near the present temple. It was a pleasant experience to know about one’s identity and my connection with the past.

However, I underwent a sense of twinge when I was there at the Sun temple as I could feel and hear the curse of  hundreds of innocent workers who were sentenced to death just because the temple for someone’s fault could not be made in the way the king had wanted when there was a fault in the architectural plans and designing!! His dreams of becoming a renowned king were shattered. No wonder this temple has not been able to withstand the onslaught of nature while many others older than that one have. Ours as well as humanity’s past, reveals a lot about our past personal or collective behaviour if you scrutinize historical places with a divine eye.

 I could hear the voices of so many innocent lives whimpering and groaning at the site of Kalinga war at Dhauligiri. My heart melted and regretted for those lives that died mercilessly at the senseless and erroneous decision of a king whose lone desire was to be the emperor of united India. Even though he regretted his unwise decision later on and converted to Buddhism, made Buddhist temples, and did a lot of charity and missionary work, alas it was too late!

 I was seeing the temples of Khajuraho with the eyes of Mahavatarji and my mind was always in collusion and agreement with his. So in moments of deep meditation when I saw godly Light along with his divine presence he took me to the times when Khajuraho temples were made. He enlightened me by revealing that Matangeshwar Mahadeo temple, the Shiva temple,  medium in size  and simple in form, was the first temple that was made in Khajuraho approximately one thousand eight and a half hundred years ago. It was God who gave the inspiration to the first king of that dyansty to make this temple. That king was a fair and just ruler and his character was noble so God chose him. It was God’s plan to plant divinity in one place so that the effects of bad karmas of masses could be nullified and the earth would stay pure and clean. Surprisingly even today this is the only temple that is still in use while the others have been vandalized and figures and idols mutilated by the Afghan and Mughal raiders at a later stage in history. The king made this temple with his own money and some  tax that was collected as a treasure from the populace. He did not burden his people and made it with devotion and love for God and his own people. Afterwards, a little later sadly the next generation kings began to indulge and wanted to make more temples to gain honour and fame but with the money of the general population. They were taxed heavily. The corpus money of the kingdom was saved and instead used to buy jewels and finery for their queens and children. As a judgement for grave wrongdoings from God, the minds of future generation got contaminated and more and more unchaste carvings were made on the temple without realizing that it was competition with former rulers that were driving them into unholy acts and therefore slowly the noble dynasty declined and vanished into oblivion.

Whenever there is a dearth of dharma, there will be decline in prosperity, wisdom and virtuousness. The power to discriminate wrong from right will be distorted and hazy.

And this is how I got my answer as to why such obscene private life of humans should be displayed on the walls of temples where God is worshiped. To my utter surprise, Konark Sun temple specifically was so filled with the same trend and the other temples of Orissa also depicted some of this trend but in a low key manner.  Wherever worshiping of God and deities take place, certain rules have to be obeyed and scriptures should be followed so that the sanctity of the place is maintained.

There is one Devi, Mother of the Universe temple called Jagdambi mandir in Khajuraho. I liked it a lot and that night before I went to sleep during meditation, Divine Mother unfolded one more thing to me, “The kings cleared mountains after mountains to make these temples. The precious and semi precious stones were dug from beneath this part of the earth to add to the treasure of the kings or as idols in Shiva temples. Iron and other metals were also used to make this temple village. And if you take so much from nature and in return give nothing back to it, then God punishes the lineage or generations by degeneration of values and culture and poverty in return. We must return immensely in terms of goodness, material wealth and virtues back to society after extracting and using so much wealth from the face and womb of the earth or else we are cursed.”

Tryst with my destiny.

On next day morning, that is on 11^th of March in Khajuraho, I discovered that once I had lived in the same place and have also made one temple with my spouse dedicated to a holy deity there. I was made to understand that fortunately I had a sense of detachment and could understand at that time that the wealth and fame that one gets from God should be shared with all or else the future generations become corrupted and dull in mind as far as spiritual wisdom is concerned. I thanked Divine Mother for telling me all this so that I revive my spiritual lessons all over again. In fact, she told me that in the coming days, Shri Mahavatar Babaji will tell me more about my few past lives. I once again respectfully bowed at the holy feet of Divine Mother and thanked her profusely for bestowing me such meaningful insights.

Since I returned from Khajuraho Mahavatar Babaji has given me many new spiritual lessons and insights, some of which can be shared with all of you. They are-

“Liberation or Moksha is a very long journey. It takes many lives to conclude the futility of one’s ego and desire and material clinginess. Just a few are successful in this long marathon full of births and deaths. Those who succeed are blessed by God as they nullify all their bad karmas and afterwards regenerate innumerable virtuous karmas because of which they never fall again in the web and maze of repeated life cycles.

The Maha Guru after enlightening you will again send you to those main landmarks in your soul journey so that you can recall how much hard you have strived to reach a stage of complete purity or nirvikaar, the stage of Brahma, a stage of perfection. The uppermost chakra called the Brahmarandra is the most difficult to open and recharge and happens only with the blessedness and grace of the gurus and God.”

My dear ones, I have recalled my past life when I have lived in Puri some births ago while I was there in Feb lately. I also saw that site where I lived once and on which is today a temple of Krishna’s supreme devotee . Back then also I was involved with the making of one of Krishna’s temples  in Puri when I was there in the royal family. I was also given an opportunity to see that old temple during my visit to Puri in which I was involved too. Some of the present big temples have been made by the kings on old small temples made centuries ago by others. Obviousl,y we all cannot know this because no one lives that long but the maha siddha yogis have special eyes of divinity that can reach out in any time and space.

 It doesn’t end here dear readers. When I have meditated I could also peep in my past   and have got to know that I lived near the site of present day Ajanta and Ellora caves once. No wonder I know now why I was sent to these places by my Param Guru!

 I was quite surprised to learn that I was so deeply involved in constructing holy sites in my past lives and could also connect to the present trend that I still continue to have in this life. It has struck me now that it was because of all this that Shri Mahavatar Babaji is so appeased with me and never gets tired of working on me. I am extremely grateful to him for the never-ending effort from his side that goes on  in making me. My many, many  namashkar and pranams at his divine feet!

 

This is  Matangeshwar Mahadev temple in Khajuraho, the only temple which  is functional today. It is the first temple that was made here. It has a Shivalinga which is nine feet above and nine feet below the earth, one has to climb up to worship it.

My dear readers, it has been quite some time since I wrote an article with my profound insights and revelations. You must have noticed that the last few entries have gallery of photos which is quite different from my style of blogging. This has happened because I have been travelling a lot and as I had informed you right at the inception of this segment that I will be travelling widely to many world heritage sites as well as to a few pilgrimages of India during this year.

Apart from meditation, travelling far and wide also has given me a lot of new understanding and regular learning but I could not devote much time to do serious writing. I have missed my writing sessions very much and the constant interaction with you. Arranging my serious thoughts and then composing a new post is like meditation for me. And this process is also therapeutic in nature sometimes. In short, let me confess that I have really missed my meditations and the outcomes of those beautiful divine moments and sharing some of those exclusive moments with you my revered reader. I always experience a higher happiness and joy if I connect to my inner divine being during meditation and after that describing about it in a page or two as a new post on this blog. It is a moment of great joy for me whenever I get to discover a new divine law or a shrouded secret about an old heritage site or about some more intricate ways of functioning of God. It is very energizing for my whole being to be constantly in touch with the highest power and it is only because of this reason that I could travel so extensively in spite of many inconveniences and some physical hardships here and there. Nevertheless I am enjoying every second of this experience endowed on me by my Holy Spiritual Master Shri Mahavatar Babaji and I look forward eagerly to visit the last of this heritage site series to Khajuraho temples which is just a day away.

I returned from Orissa on 26^th Feb evening with some very beautiful and memorable experiences. If you are following this blog you will know that I also went to see Chilika Lake and saw some dolphins. That was an awesome experience as it is not a common experience to be catching a glimpse of dolphins and then capturing some difficult shots. In fact, I could hardly see them because they were frisky. And once I got to see them, one boatman disobeyed all the rules of watching the dolphins and in the process he upset me a lot. The rule is that in that protected area when one goes to see dolphins, one is supposed to switch off the motorboats as they make a lot of noise. More than five boats are prohibited to come near the dolphins and people sitting in the boats are supposed to see the dolphins from behind and we are not to bring the boats in front of the swimming dolphins. All these measures are to avoid scaring or hurting them.

Just when a pair of joyful dolphins came near our boat and we were ecstatic about it, one senseless boatman in a fit of stupidity or ignorance or both, brought his boat so close to those dolphins that they immediately dived in the waters out of fear and the pair separated in two different directions and the immense joy of seeing nature’s such beautiful creatures vanished in a moment. I could not overlook or ignore this experience and it saddened me for the next few days and it was also bothering me whenever I sat down to rest or at times just when I was about to sleep. In short, I could not forsake or forget the sight of that boatman obstructing the path of two dancing innocent dolphins and the unnecessary fear he created in this whole process. All the time I talked to myself-Why did he do it?

God is an observer and knows about us as nobody else. He knows everything and is familiar with all our joys and sorrows. On 26^th night of Feb, the moment I got in the bed to sleep after a long journey, a blinding light hit me in the eyes and forehead and I saw myself leaving the body. My soul, like a lightning transcended from the physical plane and united with the Light of God. All my aches and pains and sorrows melted like iron in a hot furnace. I was no more in the normal world where your soul has problems adjusting with so much wrongs and evils. The realm of God is pure and guiltless. It has only joy and peace and once we connect with that realm we become one with that joy and peace. The limitless comfort and rest that I got then was enough to rejuvenate me completely and I began to drown in that ocean of immense serenity and sublime happiness. There was just golden Light surrounding me…..

Just then God began to enlighten me in that magical moment, “Your heart is wounded. Your soul can connect to the soul of those dolphins and you have felt their sense of alarm and panic as though it was yours. I am touched by your sense of oneness of Spirit and respecting the sacredness of God’s creation.

It was not ignorance of the boatman or of lack of respect for rules of safety for animals. But it is something else. People themselves do not live in peace and do not allow others also to live in peace. And you are disturbed by that. Why should someone disturb the peace of some other creatures? By the law of God, we should not dampen or ruin anyone’s peace. If you learn to live in peace yourself, you shall let others also to live in peace. If all humans understood this law of God’s functioning, all living beings would live without fear. Fear is created on earth by destroying peace.

Tell all this to others by writing one special post by the title Live in peace so that they too know living in peace is abiding by the law of god and breaking this rule is a misdeed. Spread love and peace, spread joy and fearlessness so that all creatures live in freedom and peace.”

Happy Dolphins at Chilika lake

Suddenly their path being obstructed by this boatman

Welcome to one more narration of a historical place of significance that I just saw and visited in Orissa. On 23^rd Feb I saw the Black Pagoda, also called the Sun Temple. I had heard so much about it that I could not wait to see this master craftsmanship called the Sun Temple in the beach city of Konark. I have shared quite a many photographs of it in the last article ‘Another enthralling journey to India’s ancient heritage sites-III Konarka’ and you must have also found those pictures awe inspiring. When I was walking through the several levels and places of wonderful panels of artistry in Konark temple, I paid my homage and gratitude to all the technicians, sculptors and the immense hard work of the 1200 workers and masons who toiled excessively over a period of more than 6 years to make this beautiful monument around eight centuries ago.

Even today it is strongly held true by the locals and others there that those 1200 workers were executed by one King because the temple’s construction did not go right in the manner the King wished and wanted . The foundation of the temple remained weak because there was some fault in its designing since beginning and therefore the temple in due course of time began to fall and crumble little by little. I thought to myself even when I was too preoccupied with taking pictures at the site that I must pay my respects and homage to all those 1200 workers, labourers who could not live enough to see the ready structure that they had made with their own sweat and hard labour. If only the Kings and Emperors rule peacefully, there would not have been so much futile killings and sufferings on this planet…. .I was pondering and lost in these thoughts before and after I saw the Sun temple and there was a hidden sense of pain inside which I did not express to anyone. I felt sorry for all the innocent lives that were taken away mercilessly for no fault of theirs.

The same kind of feeling was resonating in me when I thought of the Kalinga war. Long-time back in a stray moment as a young girl I had wished strongly to see Kalinga and Kurukshetra where the two most gruesome battles for land were fought on this subcontinent. I wanted to pray for all those lost lives and for world peace on that ground. When I read my history lessons in middle school I imagined the whole scene and sequence about the Kalinga war and it was pretty real for me even then. I could not believe it as a young girl that somebody could kill so many innocent people for the sake of becoming a bigger king and making his kingdom larger just to call himself Ashoka, the Emperor!! Since I arrived in Orissa, I was very eager to see the site where the heinous war was fought for the sake of just power! !Quite quirky for me even to this day!!!

After I finished sightseeing at Konark’s Sun Temple, I moved ahead towards Bhubaneshwar around mid day.

On my way just eight kilometres before the capital Bhubaneshwar, I stopped at Dhauligiri to see the Peace Pagoda. Before I describe this important place, I will have to go back more than two thousand years ago in India’s history for you to understand the great significance of this place.

Magadha King Ashoka attempted to annexe Kalinga, today’s Orissa keeping in view of the policy of territorial expansion of Mauryas for political and economic reasons. The people of Kalinga put up a stiff resistance but the mighty and brutal Magadhan army squashed them. More than one lakh warriors and civilians of Kalinga dynasty and ten thousand of Mauryan dynasty were killed apart from colossal damage and destruction on both sides. Kalinga was looted and plundered and people were captured and taken with them to Magadha. It is said that the nearby river called Daya river became red with blood with so much horrific death play that took place at the site.

The site at which this battle took place is Dhauli, next to Dhauligiri hills just eight kilometres south of Bhubaneshwar. Even now the hill has vast open space adjoining it.

The unprecedented bloodshed of this war prompted Ashoka to adopt Buddhism. He laid down his weapons because he had seen so much blood and death before his own eyes and felt that he was the cause of so much destruction. This war motivated him to devote the rest of his life to Ahimsa or non-violence and Dharma Vijaya victory through Dharma. He ended his military expansion and led his empire to peace, harmony and prosperity for the rest of his life. He saw to it that Dhauli became an important centre for Buddhism activities. He built several Viharas, Chaityas and pillars there.

Today there is a dazzling white peace pagoda that was built by the Indo Japanese efforts. Japan Buddha Sangha and the Kalinga Buddha Sangha took the permission of the Central and local government and made this peace pagoda in 1972. If you happen to get a chance to see this place, do not miss this opportunity because the pagoda has many panels of life incidents of Lord Buddha and some of King Ashoka’s submission and propagation of Buddhism in this land. I am grateful to God and my Gurus for making my heart so sensitive so as feel it important to take some time off from my busy schedule and dedicate my prayers and silent peace intentions for those unknown dead innocent souls! My silent prayer to Mother Earth to bring more peace in our thoughts and minds so that there is no violence and merciless killing around us and we may live in peace and tranquility forever!!

The site of Kalinga war today

Peace Pagoda at Dhauligiri

To tell you the truth dear readers, my main purpose of visiting Puri was to visit the Jagannath Temple and Konark Sun temple. I was anxious and eager on 21^st Feb to start off for Konark the very next day early morning to catch the first rays of the Sun on the black Pagoda. That temple’s real beauty is when the first slight shimmering golden rays of the morning Sun fall on top of the black pagoda like temple. They say it looks out of this world! But the locals were asserting that I must not at all skip seeing Chilika Lake before I leave Puri. Well, I knew it was worth visiting but in winter season I thought when I could see many, many exotic birds from as far as Caspian, Balkan and Mediterranean Seas besides from the upper heights of the Himalayas.

And after observing on 22^nd Feb morning that the mornings are misty in Puri these days, I changed my plan and decided to go to Chilika Lake just after seeing the Sunrise at the beach on that day. I should admit that I  have no regrets for changing my schedule at all because though I saw a few birds but then I was able to see the Irrawaddy Dolphins closely in the far off part of that lake. This lake is about fifty kms from Puri and takes one and a half to two hours time one way by car. Best time to visit early morning.

Now Chilka is a brackish water lagoon, the largest in India and second largest in the world. Brackish means that the lake has more salinity than fresh water but not as much as sea water because the fresh water that the lake gets from some river tributaries at one point mixes with the sea water of Bay of Bengal near an island. I visited this point where the lagoon unites with the ocean. Such places automatically change your state of consciousness, one feels so expanded and limitless, just like our indomitable Spirits.  And please let me know how you feel after what I said about our Spirits feeling so free and limitless in places where there is so much open space, unlimited sky and limitless water……Try to get a feel of what I am saying after you see those photos . One must experience this sometimes to recognize oneself….

Chilika is the largest wintering ground for migratory birds on the Indian subcontinent and is likewise a home for a number of threatened species of animals and birds. The endangered Irrawaddy dolphins are also found here and are protected species in this region. I have uploaded some pictures of them to share with you, but believe me taking their photos was a great challenge as an untrained eye cannot locate the dolphins because their colour, which is dark slate blends extremely well with the lake water and moreover they are too fast to emerge and dive back in the water at a hurried speed. To focus and shoot such fast moving objects was never so challenging for me. But I am glad I endured the harsh weather on that day and I have come home with such enriching experiences. Who would have thought that one day I would be so clever enough to shoot dolphins in their natural habitat?

There are four islands around this lake and the Rajhansa island is where you can find these dolphins after travelling about twenty or so kilometre in the sprawling lake by motor boats. Nevertheless, the effort and time spent on this exclusive trip was worth every moment and I would love to re-visit this lagoon in future if I get a chance but in December, to watch the spectacular wild life and migratory birds from all over the world.

On one of the islands is a dilapidated Shiva temple which I did see in the end though briefly because although we tried to make it fast, yet the whole sightseeing trip took me four hours excluding travel time from Puri. And for next time I shall remember that I must set out at six in the morning to see every little thing on this gold mine of nature’s mindboggling water body’s treasure….

Chilika Lake, a place of peace and tranquility

The starting point to get in the motor boat

The jetty

 The boat

Water everywhere

Red Crabs

Me on boat, a bit pensive. So much prana, creative energy, so much life energy all around me. Sensing that…..

Birds resting on bamboo sticks

My view on the right side

 On left side

View in front

Looking for dolphins very intently…

 First sight of dolphins at last!

Multitude of white birds nearby

 Folks and their lives moving on boats…

Wasn’t getting to see any more dolphins in much time as they are reclusive and human onlookers are restless. We were leaving the protected area and I was wondering that I hardly saw anything. After that wave of disappointment, this bird proved to be a good omen for me

 It’s presence gave me happiness and the moment it took its flight, it gave me a sense of joy and freedom. I gave up glumness and started taking pictures again…

 Later it struck me like a lightning that this bird was a harbinger of serenity and joy because while I was taking its pictures quickly, I was turning my torso towards right side of the lake following it where a happy twosome dolphins were swimming ecstatically and our boatman changed the direction of our boat to let me see the grey dolphins a bit unmistakeably this time. Wow! Can you see the white lucky bird near the dancing dolphins as if sent by Providence to show me the spot   where to look for them!

Don’t miss that white speck in the far background. It is the same white bird which brought hopefulness and happiness back in me. These are two dolphins swimming happily and one can see their fins and tail.

Our boatman finds his dinner!

On our way to the island where the lagoon meets the ocean

A hut of the fisherman I guess…

The meeting point of the sea and the lagoon, but before that an island

Resting in the shade for a while to rehydrate myself on the island near the gulf….

Fresh Seafood for sale

Pearls too

Returning to the shore

Secluded Shiva temple in a crumbling state on another island, our last stop…….

Coming up next…….Konark temple