IN SEARCH OF A HOME

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Ayudha Puja: Worshipping the instruments

Imagine a festival celebration everything, yes EVERYTHING, and NOT EVERYONE....

I learnt about this festival only in 2015. Its Indian. Its Hindu. You thank all instruments that help you. Pen, pencil, notebook, book, writing ink, colours paint brushes, cars, computers, fans, calculators, and yes broom and dustbin as well.

You worship your tools. If you are a doctor you worship the thermometer, if you teacher, the chalk and duster (in those times :), if you are a street cleaner, you worship the broom and the dustin. You adorn them, you join your hands and thank them....for they bring you dignity because they give you a livelihood. Allow you to feed your family.

May be now you know why I keep falling in love with hinduism. The more I Iearn, the more I love it.

Pooja pooja wrongly translated as praying, is a way of evoking the spirit or the God within ....we use the same word for worshipping in temples,--its not the same as praying. It is recognising the spirit within, and thanking it. For participating in our lives, for making them easier.).

The festival comes in autumn, when all of us go within.

Ayudha Pooja this year was October 14, 2021

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Perspective

First published in 2013, I think I tried to repost this one in the last few years. But at the time blogger was switching a few things and did not allow to repost. So the story remained on its old date. These buildings have been my background and foreground in the decade that I have lived in Sweden. Yes, it has been a decade.

I have seen these buildings in every season, and seen the trees in front of the them grow, taller, change color in different seasons. I can see them from my house, because I live 5-7 minutes walking distance from the university. Every time I look at them....I think of this post....PERSPECTIVE.

First Published on June 6, 2013--I had been thinking of this post for a while. I see these buildings almost every day, if not a few times a day. Sometimes I notice them and other times-lost in my thought--I overlook. But like most of Sweden, they change color. They seem to have a personality which alters every season. Here is the old post, with some new pictures!! Perspective it is!!

Hmm...doesn’t it look like its a picture painted by a ten year old. Well, its painted by a being that is timeless....if it is a being

God, nature, force, universal energy, what ever you want to call it.

I came out of a building and looked left, and had to do a double take. It had been raining, and the clouds had created a a feeling of translucent fog around everything. And since it was about five degrees that time (yes only a week ago, and during our summer) --it might have been fog. Moisture hung in the air.

I did another double take. And then I stood there, getting wet in a very feeble but quite cold rain. I slipped my hand into my summer jacket and pulled out my phone to take a picture.

Following two pictures were taken on purpose to give you the perspective. The above picture was cropped a bit to show what I saw in my mind when I took the picture.

The building at the bottom was much closer to me than the building that looks like a cardboard cutout!!

This picture clearly shows the position of the building, but even here it looks flat.

I stood in the rain for a few seconds thinking about image, camera angles and how they translate into the perception of our own minds. From time to time, it is a requirement that we clean our thinking glasses.

And I know materials or feelings or emotions that we should use to clean our thinking glasses must be made of humility, gratitude, and love!!