Tosh – Lap of Shiva

After civilization came the question. Who? Who sowed the first seed? Who makes the fruits? Who has created this world? Who pushes out the Sun everyday from the womb of the Earth? Who blows the wind? Who decides when men should die?

It was then that man sought out the Gods. In the cradle of civilization on the bank of dank river valley, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, man gave form to God. God had all the answers. He was all supreme. The next questions man faced was what does God look like? What does he sound like? Is he clothed or naked? Where does he stay?

Man looked around himself and found the manifestation of God in his environment. To him, God was as large as the unending mountains. He gave birth to the Sun and swallowed it too every day. The nourishing rivers flowed from him to the sea. He rode the cattle of the mountains and found himself at the highest of the most treacherous of peaks.

The ancient Man must have observed his environs. Virgin untamed mountains, yet to be touched by civilization and the demands of society stood mightily before him. He did not have the words to express what he saw. He just created symbols which would fuse the Gods he sought to the might of the mountains he saw. There was no other way to pay homage to the godly sights he saw. There was no bigger symbol to express the Gods he sought. By the flowing river and under the crescent moon, man suddenly found himself in the lap of Shiva.

Over the millennia, the stories would have changed, to the point where we do not know how much of the original stories and their interpretations still hold. But on this we must agree. That God was not in a temple or a mosque or church. God was once Shiva – eternal and omnipresent – before man created God in his own image. The image of Shiva is a calm man with his eyes closed. He appears disconnected from the world. Yet we know that there is none as connected to everything as Shiva. He accepts the world as a part of himself and himself as a part of the world. The two are not different in his mind. You can still feel that in the mountains today. You are a mere tiny speck amongst the vast expanse. And your existence is what gives the vast expanse meaning. You are not different from your environment. You are your environment. And Shiva understands this. And so he smiles.

To those who have never been to the mountains, I urge you to go to Tosh in Parvati Valley. In the heart of the village still not infected by modern telecommunication. Go and watch the sky for a while. I promise you will not be bored. You will feel a connection to the world beyond than what your little screen could ever provide you. If amongst those mountains and valleys we cannot find God, I don’t know where we might.

Himalaya

Years and years have passed, since I had visited those mighty peaks

unkempt roads chiseled out of the flesh of the mountains

took me to views the world of men weren’t meant to see

Yet they must, for it shows what the world was meant to be

The path was treacherous and the journey tiresome

but is beauty still worth it if not allowed to be seen?

Yet to be seen it had to be defiled

A cost, in my heart I knew was not completely justified

Sky unlike the one defiled by the demands of economics

Innocent sky, crisp blue young like an infant just awoken

with hovering clouds casting black baby shadows upon sunlit mountains

Clouds, whose paths are blocked by heights reaching out to the skies

Along the way one passes by a stream taking a stroll upon the landscape

making its way to the riffles rapids and rivers

Rivers so clean the word “shining” was inadequate

and so “shimmering” and “glistening” were created to honor the rivers

Beneath such streams some rocks are seen

with each wave changing the shape of the sight

the rock bloats and shrinks, giving the impression of breaths

who is to say, in the Himalayas the rocks aren’t alive?

Do the dead hills not steal soil from rains tinkering down the slopes?

Did they not help the trees to grow high?

Trees, whose roots holds the mountain soil together

Allowing itself to prosper, and the mountain to stand the rains

And to those who claim to not have seen the winds

I beseech them to turn to the Himalayas

Every valley howls along when the wild winds pass by

and every leaf, speck of dust, ripple, and river breathes of visible wind

And when the mountain winds blow even the deserts shall tremble

as each growth of moss and green striving for decades

shall be buried in sand for centuries to come

and those shall see shall shiver at the might the mountain wind brings

                                                                                       

And no city has ever known, darkness as it was meant to be seen

when the river of stars lights up above the rush of the one below

Complete darkness of lights and sound and thought and difference

for you are one with the mountain and the mountain is one with you

The vastness encapsulates you, making you one of her own

as it stretches out endless and boundless like the sea

For the mountains know no borders and acknowledge no might

yet petty creatures draw maps with chalk dividing the undeterred high

Not every bit was as beautiful, not every brown shined gold in twilight

some were rickety rocky and stony, reminding us of perils

Dangers the mountains underwent themselves, and posed to anyone who dared

Reminding, that might and shine come from struggle

The story struggle of the Himalayas is written in small stony rocks

Formed when the mountains tore through the womb of the Earth

and the rivers carving over thousands of years

making passes and valleys, allowing humanity to prosper and progress

Years and years have passed, since I had visited those mighty peaks

and perhaps I did not take those moments along with me

Perhaps I left a bit of myself, in a spectacular mountain moment

In horde to steal a little life from a moment, I left a bit of my life in it

So come to the Himalayas and ponder the world as it was meant to be

and bring your children so they may be allowed to see

what a “blue sky” means and the wonders that in natural beauty be

and then, perhaps, in life they shall remember to preserve what now flees

Vishal Gupta

9 Nov 2017