Ākāśāt Patitaṃ: Many Forms, One Reality

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Adi Shankara: The image that's stayed with me forever Sanskrit and shlokas have always fascinated me. The sheer vastness of Sanskrit literature is humbling. There are enough verses, texts, commentaries and traditions to occupy many lifetimes, and still leave one feeling that one has barely scratched the surface. But I didn't think much about any of this when I was growing up. I would recite shlokas in the morning and evening without fail. They were simply part of life. The words were there, the rituals were there, the temples were there—but much of it happened in the background. I was busy with academics. There was no time for Sanskrit or Vedanta. At least, that is what I used to tell myself. Of course, time was never really the problem. I could spend five days watching a Test match from morning to evening and somehow consider that perfectly legitimate use of my time! The truth was simpler: Sanskrit and Vedanta had not yet become priorities. Gr...
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Holi He...

It was Holi, the festival of colours and everyone was in good spirits. We, at Rolla celebrated Holi this year too by the Schuman Lake. It was freezing but nobody was complaining. The Holi colours were purchased in Chicago. Everyone tore open the colour packets and started spraying it around on others in glee. It was supposed to be a dry Holi celebration. We weren't supposed to splash water simply because of the sub-zero temperature. But nobody was listening. People got cans to fill water from the lake to wet others. More than the colours, it was the water we had to escape from. I reached the venue about fifteen minutes late and by that time, all the colours were depleted. I had to bear the wrath of the cold water and I was literally freezing. Then I saw my friend standing. She was literally numb, thanks to the buckets of water poured. She was immediately whisked from the place by others. I realised I was lucky to be late.


After the Schuman lake, the crowd headed to the South West Bell Center(SBC) to have a snack. The menu was Pav Bhaji, Congress Masala and Laddu. Of course, people went home for a changeover.


By the way, Who will be cleaning the Schuman Lake if everybody went to SBC? So, we had to immediately find people who could do this. I along with four others got stuck with the task of cleaning up the colours. Believe me, it is no easy task!





After about an hour and a half of hectic cleaning, we headed to the SBC to have our fill of all the goodies! It was another fun filled day at Rolla away from the usual blues! If you are wondering why there are so many pictures on cleaning, your guess is as good as anybody else's - I was a part of the cleaning!!!

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 23, 2006 at 4:56 PM

    Holi in sub-zero - guess we were the first. Thankfully no hypothermia. Yea and twas fun cleaning Schuman .Darn green color.

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  2. AnonymousMarch 26, 2006 at 6:18 PM

    That was real nice!!
    Man you should eat more Dosas in order to move that Table ;-)

    I missed Holi in Pittsburgh this time :-(

    Hey will mail Amit and Shashank tom. Lets check whats these buggers are upto.

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