(music: 'Madhur Suron', found on Ustad Alla Rakha's The Multifaceted Genius)
A flood of unforgettable memories and feelings for a love that runs
deep within me, makes me want to share this small tribute with you here
today ... and if I had to say it in one sentence, it would be this:
If Gaia, our precious Mother Earth, had a heart, it would be India
Be
always watchful of Her infinite changing faces ... at times flowing
mellow, easy-going and chilled, yet even more often the fierce hot sun
of Shiva-Kali in action - India is bursting, full to the brim with the
10,000 joys and sorrows of humanity. She will rip you apart and turn you
inside out.
Here I see genuineness wherever I look. The
old and the poor especially move me to tears - we have so much to learn
from those who never had or have lost everything of this world. They
freely share the little they have, offering me, a stranger, their daily
little joys with a completely open smile. Kindness, humour, and genuine interest in
others transpire their lives and go hand in hand with silently endured hardship ... With what
graceful lightness they tread this earth, with what
patience and respect they labour the soil that nourishes them, their
simplicity of ancient
times always present in mind and deed.
India needs no
make-up, nothing is concealed, it all lies open in plain view for all
who care to look. Man, woman, heaven, earth, beauty, ugliness, fear,
hope, friendship, corruption, death, decay, everything and every soul a
pure reflection of our times as they really are, whether I like to see
the naked truth, or not.
Yet if I keep looking without
turning away in fear, I start to understand and accept that all this is
part of a great magic, all part of nature; and I do what I feel is right
and hold all beauty and horror as equally sacred in my heart, as part
of the whole truth I am searching to understand. And when this happens, I
find myself moving in perfect harmony in the moment,
with a free spirit and suddenly beyond contradictions and opposites,
beyond separation and judgement.
Mother India welcomes all who come to her, and I, having
made my long way from far away strange Western lands, feel like going
down on my knees in gratitude for finally having arrived home... home
within, closer to myself. And I take this with me on my life's unfolding journey, wherever it may take me.
Namaste
Namaste
