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...

Back and Forth

Whistling back to the glorious days of yesteryears,
I saw myself standing at the threshold of yore,
But, Why? The past just comes to the fore,
I wondered, wondered and wondered alone!

Standing at the corner of every street,
Waiting all along for every other treat,
Absolutely no reasons to celebrate,
But, we always found one not to retreat!

Life is a profound mystery,
You were worried, "When can I go out?",
Today, questions take a new turn
You are worried, "Am I going out?"

As your gaze falls on the pixels in front,
Thoughts flood and fill you in doubt,
The program runs out of memory,
Enough to bring old memories back!

You were waiting for this,
Total recall of the past,
Endless events appear and reappear,
You wish it just would disappear!

You have solved the problem,
Your program no longer runs out of memory,
Back to star gazing, now a new program,
Thoughts churn out again in a flurry,
Frantically hoping to clear the memory,
The pixels fade, you have turned it off!

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