Let's play the drum for Lord Shiva

I had the occasion to watch a solo Bharat Natyam recital recently in which in one of the pieces the dancer plays tribute to Lord Shiva. Before the actual dance, he explains to us what the piece is about. Among other things he tells us that Nandi, Lord Shiva's vahana loved to play the mridangam for the Lord. He played the rhythm for Shiva's Tandav with absolute joy and devotion.

Then when the dancer starts dancing he depicts Nandi playing with such passion and joy and ecstasy that I was totally floored. I couldn't help thinking "Wow! Look at Nandi play for Lord Shiva, if only we could play like that". If only we could go about our daily life and act and talk and think like Nandi played the drum for Shiva, wouldn't that be awesome. If underlying each of our actions there was love, just like Nandi had, wouldn't our drumbeat be just as ecstatic. Wouldn't our actions then be free of any expectation of acknowledgement or recognition, after all we are playing for Lord Shiva, right? Applying the laws of karma, if our actions are performed with love, wouldn't love then return to us. Isn't that a super deal?

So, just like Nandi did, let's play our drum for Shiva. With love and passion. After all, this life too is a Tandav. This life too is a celebration and a creation.

random snapshots - 2

the wind in the trees,
song birds and wind-chimes
playing ‘antakshari’
cat nestled in my lap
loving strokes on velvet fur
or is she stroking me?

moonlight on the carpet
in lacy filigreed patterns
God’s little love message
your scent on my breath
long after you have gone
souls refusing to part

a voice on the telephone
tender, motherly love
a child I will always be
ashes of my dreams
poured into my pen
how the poems bloom!
~~~

Spring blossoms and godly contests

Ah! Spring is here! There are flowers everywhere and red, tender leaves at the tips of branches. Our plum tree is aglow with buds turning into blossoms on all the lichen-covered branches with not a single leaf in sight. The daffodils are out in full bloom, whole beds given over to these smiling, yellow-headed bell-shaped beauties. It lifts my heart and brings on a smile whenever I see daffodils nodding gently in the breeze.

The variety of flowers is amazing, from tiny star-shaped white flowers cascading over fences to large magnolia and rhododendron clusters. When I go on my walks I pass a tree bare except for pink flowers. I stand under the tree looking up at the blue sky visible through the lattice of delicate pink. And I feel like a queen.

Once I saw a tui bird, a distinguished gentlemanly fellow with a dark green body and a small white pompom at its throat looking like a bowtie, having his meal. It had a long tapering beak which it tucked into yellow bell-shaped flowers and drank deep of the nectar. then it skipped on to another branch and did the same. I stood watching it in fascination until it few away.

At the crack of dawn, the ‘Dawn Chorus’ starts its combined singing, sweet, dulcet tones combine with chirrupy warbling to create unusual melodies. And just as quickly they fade away as the birds take off for the day in search of food and other pursuits. The same is repeated in the evening as the birds come home to roost. Occasionally a lone owl calls in the dead of the night.

There is an ongoing contest between the rain god and the sun god. For the past few days the rain god has been winning, so the rain has been steadily falling even at night when I wake up to the steady beat of the rain on the roof. My office window looks out to a verdant view. The mist sits on the hilltops and the folds between the hills and it looks like the hills are in dreamland with their heads in the clouds. The trees and the grass are a fresh shade of green which only rain can conjure up. And the red-tiled roofs contrasted against the green looks striking. The windows are sprinkled with tiny streams of rain water which look more beautiful than any decoration.

But the sun god watches from behind the clouds, smiling. He knows his day will come, when the clouds will disappear and people will look up smiling at the blue sky and bask in the sunshine, and his light will wink off faraway windows, and dance on the surfaces of leaves rustling in the wind, and shimmer on the tops of rippling waves.

The rain and clouds are only temporary while the sun is always there even if you don’t see it sometimes. Just like God.

random snapshots

clothes drying on the line
fluttering madly in the wind
longing to be free.

sunbeams on the water
peering into the depths
greeting sunbathing fish.

cars lined up on the highway
gleaming metal on black ribbon
playing ‘catch-me-if-you-can’.

a voice on the telephone
energy impulses / sound waves
makes or breaks a life.
long, intimate silences
on lazy languorous afternoons
when only the Soul speaks.

insect-buzz and birdsong
in the silence of a forest
God listening to Himself.

~~~