Tranquil moments by the river

Last weekend, I drove down to Nashik with family. Just like that because we felt like running away to some place, unplanned!

I love travelling by road and discover fascinating world the travel unfolds! For people like me, thriving in urban chaos it is luxury to witness change in tapestry of landscape. As one leaves city limits, the scenery changes. The concrete jungle slowly disappears giving way to the single houses in the farms. The dense back to back constructions gradually fades and like pleasant surprise one sees homes amid set of clutch of mud walled huts with thatched roofs amidst green fields. And soon those very green fields redefine “pristine” and compel you to slow down. 

It is incredible experience to watch the roads get narrower and suddenly curved only to reveal a quiet river stream. Imagine, there is not a soul on the road on either side and you are left alone at the bank of the river watching Nature’s alluring canvas with trees swaying in unison with the stirred breeze and the Sun light playing hide and seek. It is like being soaked into meditative trance engulfing every single pore!

Fortunately our mobile connections broke down as ominous sign it was no time for undesirable intrusions. I sat down beside the river and realized how each stream has its own rhythm, its own music and its very own soul!

In the calm of quiet flow of the river, the stillness in the air, and jutting trees in the horizon, the beauty of the moment brought lightness into my being. That un-definable load evaporated slowly from my soul, making me alive in the moment! I remembered it was quite long since I had dialogue with Nature with open heart with my mind shut completely for a change. Sometimes all one needs is to sit in perfect stillness and watch the shadows of the day sink in every pore of your soul. 

Those moments when I was sitting at the bank with the river steadily changing its rhythm, I also witnessed each moment passing by. It turned out to be an astonishingly spiritual journey of renewal. And all the while there was this profound sense of stillness, reverence and peace. It is hard not to sense the timeless and eternal rounds of life, our place in the mystery of so much bigger than our usual separate sense of self at such tranquil moments! Sitting at the river bank invited great awareness evoking interesting paradox of emptiness and fullness!

Lord Buddha often used river as image of our life. He spoke of entering the stream of awakening, crossing the flood of clinging, observing the fleeting river of experiences. “Do you never see the clumps of bubbles as they float down the river fleeting, empty and void? Do you not see the river of thought, feelings, perceptions arising and vanishing, equally fleeting, empty and void?”