Visit to Limestone Caves, finding God and evolution

My previous year was dedicated to traveling, exploring and absorbing myself in this new western world of East and mid-west in United States. I also spent some time trying my hands at Canvas paintings and polymer clay crafts (that I deeply fell in love with) and will eventually share those works here.

Right at the beginning of this year I visited one of the most beautiful natural sights in Madison with my husband called 'Cave of the Mounds', which was discovered in 1939. The delightful beauty of this limestone cave illustrates nature's intricate handiwork, with many beautiful structures inside. Limestone is majorly made up of Calcium Carbonate, that came from shells of marine organisms on ancient ocean floors. Since these are water soluble, rainwater created cavities in them forming a cave. The water that formed cavities, carried calcium carbonates to other areas creating new formations inside the caves. Many of these formations and structures took millions of years to form.
My previous visit to any such limestone cave was back in India in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, though those caves did not have cavities as deep as this. And hence walking here was a richer experience for me.

Cave of the Mounds, Wisconsin

During our walk, we spotted two places with peculiar formations (specifically to Indian eyes) closely resembling Indian Gods. The first was common and often found i.e. Shiva-ling. The second one resembled Lord Ganesha. With a quiet understanding, we passed a smile at each other. Both of us knew, if it was in India, this would have been a place of religious interest.

Formation inside the cave resembling to Lord Ganesha (above)
and Shivaling (below)

On our way back home, we were discussing about such places in India where devotees go despite the journey being life threatening. And many people each year lose their lives to be at those religious places. Interestingly, many of the relatives of dead consider it to be auspicious when their known die there (since everyone will die someday), believing them to reach heaven. Perhaps it is the spirit of adventure and the hope of finding something bigger than ourselves that makes us go such great lengths.

Since these caves were formed on ancient sea-bed, the limestone here were rich in many minerals and fossils. We bought fossils of fish, which being a biologist’s wife now, is a cherished possession at our home. 

The Ammonites (spiral shaped fossil) were sea creatures that lived from 65 to 350 million years ago and are now extinct.

It is interesting to see how every creature on earth including ourselves, evolved from fishes- you may find the first episode of this documentary interesting – Your inner Fish

P.S. Wish you all a very Happy 2017 :)

A lesson from my Grandma

Nani (my grandma) always taught my mother never to look down and talk low of others. One's inconsideration and self-pride can anytime turn those blessings that one has into distress. She had a few real life stories behind her teachings that had strengthened our faith in karma and imbibed good values in us.  Today I am sharing one such story I heard as a kid about her neighbors. 

Before I narrate her story, I would like to remind my readers about Indian desperation for a male child over female. While a bride is worshiped as Goddess Lakshmi (the goddess of material possessions), a daughter was (and is still in some parts of India) considered to be a liability and stigma on the manhood of a father. Sons on the other hand have been seen as successors of the family, the name takers. Hence in many orthodox families having sons was (is) the matter of pride. 

When my nani was a child, having two younger sisters and no brother yet, her neighbor used to boast about having sons. He, filled with pride, talked aloud about how fortunate he was with 3 sons and how unkind God was to those who have none. Nani’s mother (my great-grandma) never paid heed to him and advised her daughters to turn deaf to his blustering. She always focused on the education of her daughters and treated them as a blessing from almighty. 

As time passed, she became mother again twice and both were sons. Life went on, and neighbor still had this habit of looking down at these three daughters, but none of them ever said anything to him. All five kids grew up with decent lives to look forward with respectable careers.  On the other hand the haughty and arrogant neighbor witnessed a tragic life. 

His eldest son developed mental retardation (reason unknown) and one night ran away from home to be never found again. The second son died in a car accident. The third one lived a very mediocre life with many struggles and never got married.

No one among us knows our future, how worthy or terrible our lives are going to be. Hence before judging or making derogatory remarks on somebody out of superiority, one should always think about the uncertainty life brings to us at each step.

A happy life can only be enjoyed by the kind people having good virtue.

What do you think? Do you believe in Karma? Do you know any such stories? 

Images from google

Prayers

In India, people tie these knots at holy places to make wishes. I clicked this photograph last year during my visit to Mahakumbh in Allahabad, U.P.

P is for Prayers on April 18
A to Z Challenge.

P.S. During my Gangtok (Sikkim, India) Tour I learned a lot about Buddhism. People following Buddhism tie these prayer flags in different areas. It is believed that when winds pass though those multicolored flags, it spreads mantras written on them in the environment thus making it pious. See all photographs and read further information about Buddhist prayer flags and prayer wheels here: Gangtok in Photographs.

I found another interesting way of praying to God during my visit to Almora, Uttarakhand, India. Believers wrote their wishes on affidavits and hung them in the temple- you can read about it here- Golu Devta Temple

Have you ever tied these knots in any temple or mosque? Do you know any other way of praying to God? Please share your experiences or post your links of any related posts you have written! 

Being Atheist!

A Random thought on what will happen when a few civilizations will emerge a century after Doomsday and they will find something during excavations!

Click on the image to Enlarge it.

P.S.  Author believes in God and doesn't intend to offend anyone's beliefs. Though she is against the wars happening between religions. Religions are the teachings that can only guide us to follow a righteous path and hence should not be the subject of superiority or to suppress any gender/caste/creed's right of living.

The Tag!

Few days back, a fellow blogger Ritvik tagged me with some questions. I would like to answer them here. I am sorry Ritwik for not being able to answer them before. Here I go:

1.  Would you rather go to an urban place or a deserted place for a vacation?
   Answer: I would rather go to a deserted place, an escape from the Urban area I already am living in.
2. One thing which you think is most unique to you?
   Answer: My DNA & finger prints.
   
3. Blogspot or Wordpress?
   Answer: Blogspot, I have become comfortable with it now. Wordpress would mean starting it from the scratch.
4. One thing which India needs urgently.
   Answer: Loyalty & empathy of Indians to fellow Indians. (it includes loyalty and empathy of politicians to Aam-Janta as well)
5. Do you believe that Anna Hazare's lokpal bill is the ultimate solution to corruption?
   Answer: Can't Comment. But it has to start from somewhere.
6. What is God for you? Do you believe in idols?
   Answer: I believe in everything that is not harming me or any other living being. I do believe in God and my belief makes me fight the adversities, if any, and keep me Positive.
   Again I have my own theory of worshiping the idols. We sometimes need to give structure to our thoughts and a place to meditate. Positive auras of people in temple make it a pleasant place. Though I worship Him in either way. (Did I over-answer it?)
7. What kind of blogs do you like to read?
   Answer: I pick blogs randomly. Fictions, poems, life previews, cartoon strips, social issues anything. They just  need to feed me with a good time, while reading them. Good ones of course win my Loyalty.
8. One word that would describe you?
   Answer: Random!
9. Your favorite movie. And why?
   Answer: Pinjar. It finely portrays the struggle (social/physical/mental) of a girl before and at the time of partition. (Such mishappenings and struggles can be observed during any disaster).
10. Person you admire the most?
    Answer: My parents (I see them as a single entity)
11. Will you follow me? ;-)
    Answer: LOL. I already am!!!!
    
    These were interesting questions. No need to say, your views on the above are welcome. :)
    
    This time I would like to tag all my visitors/fellow-bloggers here. If you can Answer these ten questions, please do:
    a.  "Forget and forgive" or "Remember and plot your revenge"?
    b. Greatest thing that has happened to you till now?
    c. Do you really laugh/smile, when you write lol/haha/rofl on chat?
    
    d. Do you believe in Life after death?
    e. Hollywood or Bollywood or any other -wood?
    f. Whom do you trust more with your secrets- Family/Friend/Stranger?
    g. Your views on Gay marriages- can you accept it in your family or in case of your son/daughter?
    h. One of the most interesting things about you?
    i. How important is money? "Live today" or save for the "D-day"?
    j. Mind over heart or heart over mind?
    
    P.s. If you feel like answering these in your blog, do that. Post it's link here!

Pride

(Click on the image to Enlarge)

P.s. Feel free to pour in your views!

The Ascetic

We were going to Uttarakhand (a state in North India) by car. The journey was long. Those were the winter days. The route was green and beautiful. Roads were topsy turvy and the journey was getting more tiring with the passing time. We decided to take a halt for some time. It was a chilly afternoon and the strong winds were making it worse. While we were enjoying the scenic beauty around, our eyes suddenly rested on an old man with dark complexion whose bone structure was visible from everywhere underneath his wrinkled skin that was covered by almost nothing. Apparently he looked like an ascetic or could be an ordinary beggar. He had some wheat flour, probably someone living down the hill might have given to him. He took it out and made dough out of it. He then collected some dry wood from around and created fire by rubbing two stone pieces (like in the stories from stone age) and cooked a chapati with it. We were amazed to see that, how a man at such a low temperature wearing almost nothing living in the wilderness arranged a meal for himself! And as he was eating it, he was crying out of joy, saying "Thank you God, for giving me food to eat, fire to be warm even in this place where there is nothing to survive. I am grateful to you, its because of you i am enjoying my fill with whatever i am having, I need nothing else thank you God for all the kindness you have bestowed upon me." And the tears of joy were constantly flowing out of his eyes..."

This was the real life story, told by my maternal uncle.
Contentment, a state of being in peace with whatever one has. I shared this story here with a hope that it will inspire us all to be happy about this life and we would work to attain that higher state of perfection of soul and true happiness and peace, the ultimate goal behind this life.

After Thoughts : Are we happy with what we have? Should we be unhappy about what we do not have? What is peace and satisfaction? What is ultimate Goal of our lives? Are we in the same state even after having everything that one needs and not desperately searching for what we do not have? I feel this instance gives depth to our thoughts and another perspective to see the world and our own lives..

War of Gods

Bare my beliefs, I want to rise spiritually with my own faiths, not as others want me to, I want to see world with my own perspective, not the way others want me to see. I believe my beliefs not what others want me to believe.
I have been a God’s believer and this belief keeps me positive in many aspects. Of course I don’t belong to a class or group where a person fights for the superiority of his God and disown other people’s beliefs or faiths in other religion or gods. It is shocking when we see wars between the people over the superiority of God. Like Iskonians say Krishna is the highest ranked God amongst other Gods, whereas Arya Samaj says Idol worship is fake, Shaivism followers believe there is no one above Lord Shiva. And hence debates go on and on. What if all the Gods are friends above enjoying tea and snacks together, laughing on human’s foolishness for such irrelevant fights? Even if there is only one God, or according to some none, what difference does it make? But the debate goes on, people keep on fighting arguing and keep on showing each other down. A useless effort!
Is there anything constructive I will do, if I will convince one person to follow the same path, even if I have never known for sure where it will lead me? Yes there will be one thing for sure, will get a company to chant with me for my Krishna, my shiva or my light. And who knows you may accompany me after death, whatever my lifelong chanting has formed for me. I have been watching more and more wars related to Gods between the rigid followers lately, anyhow people like me are flexible,. There are splits and fights within Hindu religion, so expecting a respect from such groups for other religion is a far away dream. I respect people’s view on religion or in God, I respect the beliefs of atheists, if one doesn’t believe in God, one doesn’t. There is no point to convert him into theist. As such faiths arise from within inside. There is no point in breaking somebody’s beliefs, if that belief is not harming anybody else. Showing down somebody else or disrespecting somebody’s faith wont make you or your God superior neither will it put a stamp on your faiths, in case you want a proof from other people, that ‘your’ God exists. No two people on this planet are alike, hence their thoughts and believes will also vary.
Swami Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has mentioned in his autobiography that he followed other religions notably Christianity and Islam, and said that they all lead to the same God, as per his own experiences. He was a Hindu Bengali Brahmin and big follower of Kali. This means religions are merely paths, to reach the same destination. Please don’t debate to create tensions and war between the gods for achieving the superior identity for anybody, for whom-so-ever u wish to.

Karma philosophy in Hinduism

I was reading some article about Hindu philosophy on karma cycle. There were so many questions that came in my mind, hence I'm sharing here what I gathered. Of course I believe in births and rebirths. I have examples before me in my own family. So I, by no chance can question the fact. So I do believe in karma.

Karma means an act or a deed. Hindu philosophy of karma clearly speaks what we sow is what we reap. We will get benefited from our good karma and will have to pay for our bad karma. Karma can be performed through actions, thoughts or speech.

Karma in Hindu philosophy are classified in three forms viz. Sanchita Karma, Prarabdha and kriyamana or Agami karma.

Sanchita karma are accumulated from our past lives. Since we cannot endure or enjoy all karma in one life, hence we reap the effects, sweet or sour in the following lives, depending upon how much we have accumulated. These are considered consumed only when the person has enjoyed the fruit because of good deeds or suffered due to bad deeds and not otherwise.

Prarabdha is the present fruit bearing karma, which is a portion of accumulated karma that a person has to suffer in any case in present life.

Kriyamana karma are the ones for which we are working in our present life and which will shape our future later.

Only in human life we can change our future destiny. After death we loose our ability to act and perform until we take another birth again in a human body. And when we reap all the fruits of our deeds from our past and present lives, we get free from the cycle of births and rebirths and attain Moksha or salvation.

Once asked from a saint, "what will decide if we will get a better life or worse life in the next birth, how will we get to know about it", his reply was "every person knows what karma he has done and hence knows how next birth will be for him..."

Indian superstitions

Superstitions are integral part of Indian tradition and society. The daily life of us is governed by beliefs and superstitions. Each day in a week is dedicated to superstions. And since my infancy i have been hearing loads about it from my elders i felt like jotting them down herein my blog as another post. Hope it will be an interesting topic to read. So lets start from days of week.

It is believed that Monday is not an auspicious day for shaving and cutting hair. Likewise Thursdays and saturdays are not good for washing hair. Tuesday is believed to be not good to reach any body's home from a journey. Saturday is considered bad for purchasing metal or leather. As it brings bad luck in terms of financial prosperity. Again for some people purachsing of metals on saturday is lucky. SUPERSTITIONS!!!

If we go a bit further, we all know about a common superstition, we have been hearing since our childhood, crossing of our path by black cat is a bad omen. And interestingly, if somebody gets even a small wound within 4-5 hours of that incidence, he will curse that black cat who has crossed his path hours back not realising his mistake. Again calling a person from back when he is leaving home for the day is considered as bad omen. Likewise theres another superstition, if somebody is going leaving home for days work and you sneeze thrice, its a bad omen. I did it several times during my childhood. And elders used to tell me to sneeze once more to distroy this omen. lol

Again if your head bumps into another person's head, black dog will bite you. So in order to vanish this effect you have to bump your head once again into that person's head. Another one is you mustn't sprinkle common salt over the floor, as in the next birth you'll be reborn as a bird and you have to collect each grain of the salt (which is considered painful for the birds). Another one eating sweet curd before exams brings good luck. Though for this one particularly i feel its scientific, as curd has cooling effect. And so it relaxes our mind. So this implies some of the superstitions are scientific too.

Another one very common, if a girl (not sure about guys) eats directly from kadhai during cooking something, it will rain in her marriage. Some of my friends have experienced it, and they tell me "i ate directly, thats why." lol I still am not sure why it happened with all of them.. And i have heard people saying if it rains simultaneously with sun shinning over, it imples some jackal is being married somewhere in jungle. hahaha.. This one is the most funny one.

Watching elephant during a journey is a good omen as it symbolises with Lord Ganesha, mythological God in Indian tradition. Seeing Peacock is also considered as good omen while hearing its shrill sound is considered bad omen. Falling of utensils, or creating sounds from pair of tongs is considered bad. Footwears upside down brings fights in family.

There are many such superstitions which have become a part of our daily lives. Adding some different flavour in our lives. I just wish after reading it you wont curse and blame that innocent cute black cat which is going on her way, for bringing bad luck to you. :)

Vedas and Vedic Studies

The sacred Hindu texts, Collectively referred to as the Shastras, has two types of sacred writings in the Hindu scriptures: Shruti (heard) and Smriti (memorized).
*Sruti literature refers to the habit of ancient Hindu saints who led a solitary life in the woods, where they developed a consciousness that enabled them to 'hear' or cognize the truths of the universe. Sruti literatures are of two parts: the Vedas and the Upanishads.
Vedas
The word Veda came out from the word vid that means knowledge. When it is applied to scripture, it signifies a book of knowledge. They are the foundational scriptures of the Hindus. vedas are believed to be the most ancient books that have mantras in them.And it is believed that no human has created them and they were created by God himself. The Vedas are the eternal truths revealed by God to the great ancient Rishis of India. Rishi means the seer i.e the one who sees, seer of Mantra or thought. The thought was not his own. The Rishis saw the truths or heard them. Therefore, the Vedas are what are heard (Sruti). He was the seer of thought which existed already. He was only the spiritual discoverer of the thought, and not the inventor. So Vedas were never written, never created. They are eternal and impersonal.
The most ancient veda is Rig veda then Samveda, Yajurveda and the least is Atharva veda..
Initially Atharva veda wasnt considered as a part of vedas. And it was believed that there are only three vedas. But later on its was accepted as a part of vedas, and formed chatur veda.
All vedas are considered to have mantras that are used to perform ceremonies and rituals. since the oldest is Rig veda so it has got all the mantras and all other vedas have more or less repetitions of the mantras that are written in Rig veda. So Rig veda is the base of all the other vedas.

(1) Rig Veda have all the mantras in them, which are used to perform rituals. its is the oldest veda.
(2) Sama Veda all the mantras that are written in Rig veda are repeated but in a poetic manner. a tune has been given to mantras in sama veda
(3) Yajurveda has also got some repetetion of mantras that are in Rig veda.. and apart from that it has some additional mantras for performing yagya and bali.
(4) Atharva Veda- again Atharva veda also has some mantras of Rig veda.. But in addition to that it has got mantras for voodoo.

As per hindu relegion Mantra-Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads are combinely called vedas. i.e vedas are divided into 4 parts. The division of the Vedas into four parts is to suit the four stages in a man's life or known as ashramas in hindu system.A mans age is believed to be of 100 yrs. so each ashrama is for 25 yrs.
(a) Brahmacharya ashram is the first stage in a human's life. According to hindu system a man should study uptill 25 yrs. these are the years to learn.
(b) Grihastha Ashram is the second stage that is from 25yrs to 50yrs. A man should marry and make family. Bring up his children and apply his studies that he did in brahmacharya ashram to support his family.
(c)Vanaprasth ashram is the third stage in a man's life that is from 50-75 yrs. In this ashram a man along with his wife leaves the home for swadhyayan or self-study. This is the stage where a man starts cutting himself from the rest of the world and starts learning the eternal thruths of life.
(d) Last stage in a man's life is Sanyaas ashram i.e. from 75 yrs to rest of his life. It is the rule of life that one who comes has to go one day. And God is the creator of this life. So a man in this ashrama solely without his/her spouse leaves all the comforts and relations that he made in his entire life and lives a life that made him/her closer to almigthy God.
Division of vedas as told earlier, suits four stages in life.
(i) Mantra Samhitas -they are hymns in praise of the Vedic God for attaining material prosperity here and happiness hereafter. The Mantra portion of the Vedas is useful for the Brahmacharins.
(ii) Brahmanas are explanations of Mantras or rituals. The Brahmana portions guide people to perform sacrificial rites. They are prose explanations of the method of using the Mantras in the Yajna or the sacrifice. The Brahmana portion is suitable for the householders or grihasthas.
(iii) The Aranyakas are the forest books, they contain the phylosophies about life and almigthy that were written and explored in forests. The Aranyakas are intended for the Vanaprasthas or hermits who prepare themselves for taking Sannyasa.
(iv) The Upanishads are the most important portion of the Vedas. The Upanishads contain the essence or the knowledge portion of the Vedas. The Upanishads speak of the identity of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul. They reveal the most subtle and deep spiritual truths. The Upanishads are useful for the Sannyasins. there are 108 upnishads out of which 11 most important.
*Smriti Literature refers to 'memorized' or 'remembered' poetry and epics. It explains universal truths through symbolism and mythology, and contain some of the most beautiful and exciting stories in the history of religion world literature. Some of the most important of Smriti literature are:
1. Bhagwat Geeta- it is the sixth part of Mahabharata, written about the 2nd century BC . It contains some of the most brilliant theological lessons about the nature of God and of life ever written.
2. The Mahabharata - The world's longest epic poem written about 9th century BC, and deals with the power struggle between the Pandava and the Kaurava families, with an intertwining of numerous episodes that make up life.
3. The Ramayana - The most popular of Hindu epics, composed by Valmiki around 4th or 2nd centuries BC with later additions up to about 300 CE. It depicts the story of the royal couple of Ayodha - Ram and Sita and a host of other characters and their exploits
4. Purana- they contains myths, stories, legends, lives of saints, kings and great men, allegories and chronicles of great historical events.They were written to popularise the studies of vedas and to generate the devotion for God. The Puranas were meant, not for the scholars, but for the ordinary people who could not understand high philosophy and who could not study the Vedas.There are 18 puranas. Of these, six are Sattvic Puranas and glorify Vishnu; six are Rajasic and glorify Brahma; six are Tamasic and they glorify Siva.

God, this is for you!!

We all at some point of our lives get into controversy, either with our innerselves or with people around us, that if God really exists. And mostly this controversy arises due to situations arising out of failures and griefs. Ironically these are the times when we remember 'Him' the most too. The conversions from theists to atheists are very prominent during these times, when negetavity is on its peek. But these conversions are not because of lack of faith in God, its due to lack of faith in oneself. Even if u hate God, u first have to believe in his existence and u first have to love him to hate him. Most of the people having different religions and people from different corners of the world believe that this universe and world beyond it, is a result of the miracle by somebody, who can't be reached easily.
Be it a hindu religion or christianity, we all believe in the existence of one greatest power above all which is controlling us. But why this debate about his existence? Even if God exists, is he important to our lives, or if he doesn't exists, does it makes any difference??
Sometimes our faith, in God or in anything else, makes our hopes strong. During the bad phase of life, one gets the feeling of optimism that this is not going to be like this forever, thinking that its because of karmas and hopes for some miracle to happen. Even if no miracle happens, we are escorted to good phases in the meanwhile. Its good to rely on somebody other than you, atleast it lowers the burden when you are low. This faith in God also helps us in becoming a better person. Because of the fear of being paid off for our karmas, most of the times we get rescued from harming others by our words or actions..
An atheist may probably reject this theory but a theist and confused atheist would surely agree to it in some way.When we say that this life is all about science, and our existence is based on theory of evolution. And we are formed with the fusion of microbes. That Fusion is a miracle.
When we say all these planets moving around the sun on their regular paths is due to gravitational force of sun, than that gravitational force too is a miracle.. We take births, we die, flowers blossom, fishes swim, birds fly, so many starsin the sky, somewhere its all sea and somewhere its all mountains, infinite galaxies everything seems to be the miracle. This miracle must have been done by someone. And we have named that someone as God. There are so many instances we heard about rebirths and life after death that certainly its a mystery that even science would like to solve.. And untill science solves it or rather discovers some logic behind our bare souls, lets keep guessing the God. But in the end we should not forget science is a miracle too.. :)

Rituals- Why do I follow them?

No one can pull me out of my roots,
I am a plant that dies without its soil, without its roots..

I follow values and traditions not just blindly, but for a reason. I dig out the causes to understand why they became rituals for people. When I can't find a reason, my heart compels me to respect the sentiments of elders. To make themselves proud and happy.

On the other hand there are some I don't follow at all, I act as a rebel. That is because sometimes these rituals give us a panic attack, enter our comfort zone and kill our pride. We feel and breathe too.

Values are our basic identity and individuality that separate us and our thoughts from others, providing a system of living. They set the standards and priorities in the life of a person. Though at times traditions and rituals bind our wings while other times they are the way of celebrating our and our tribe's existence on earth.

This is my first attempt at blogging***