Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Beholding God : Winter 2007 Road Trip - Update 1

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes
- Marcel Proust

Well, i did start off wanting to see new landscapes. And ended having new eyes. Let me start off with the grandest of the sights i saw on the trip (ever?) :
(click to enlarge photograph)
The picture above can never do justice to the what the eye saw and the mind now recalls. It can be a mind-altering experience. The scale, the age, the colour, the depth, the beauty, the form - it is adbhutam (wonderful), overwhelming.

One now appreciates slightly more what Arjuna would have experienced when Lord Krishna showed him His form:

Thereafter being overwhelmed with amazement, with his bodily hair standing on end due to great ecstacy; Arjuna with his body offerred obeisances unto Lord Krsna and began to speak with folded hands
- Bhagavad Gita, 11-14

Thoughts like these run through your mind and then you come across the following plaque and rub your eyes in disbelief:
Yes! The oldest layer of the Grand Canyon is named after Lord Vishnu!


Coincidence? Unlikely. Note use of 'Zoroaster' in the picture above beside 'Vishnu'. Seems like the Canyon is purposely named on spiritual lines. More on this with more photographs in the next post.

11 comments:

Sandeep Bhasin said...

Thanks for sharing these images and your thoughts with us. Every time I visit your blog, I learn something new.

This was a long wait but I must say, the wait was worth it. I have never been one of those 'globe-trotters' but I must tell you that these images that you have seen with your mind's eye will live with you for rest of your life!

Will discuss whe you are back.

Sharan Sharma said...

Hey, thanks a lot for your generous comment!

Subrahmanya said...

Before Nature's beuty, we are always speechless. When we stand before Nature, we know how tiny are we.
Well, I will show you even older layers. That is YOU. We are all made up of hydrocarbos, that is, we believe, 13.7 billion years old!

Sharan Sharma said...

That's an interesting take, SSK. It actually is a philosophic one. If an individuals takes herself as the phyical body having been born on an x date, it flies against the H-C date.

Sandeep Bhasin said...

>If an individuals takes herself as the phyical body having been born on an x date, it flies against the H-C date.<

I am lost!!!

Sharan Sharma said...

meaning, if you are someone who believes you are just the body and admit only a present life, the body had to have an origin-time. This origin time can only be that of birth according to your beliefs. Then you cannot be the billion year old hydrocarbon that you say "you" are. It's different when you say "the *physical body* is *made of* hydrocarbons'

Sandeep Bhasin said...

Thanks. Apun ka I.Q. thoda kam hai na yaar... isi liye...

Sharan Sharma said...

Kya sandeep bhai, aap bhi...

Ajith said...

Great correlation with the Protector Sharan.....my take on nature is based in its extremes....sometimes it can be this soothing, passive yet overwhelming presence, at other times it can be this strong forceful and again overwhelming presence..both are beautiful in their own ways!

Anonymous said...

I felt the same when I first saw the grand canyon. My husband had already been there but he refused to tell me anything about it and told me that he would like me to experience the first view all by myself. If one wanders around in the canyon lands, quite a few beautiful structures can be seen ( for example the valley of the Gods). My husband and I camped in this area way back in 1992 for a couple of weeks. If you get an opportunity, you should lie under the delicate arch in Arches National Park on a moon lit evening and contemplate the universe.

Sharan Sharma said...

Hi Ajith,
> my take on nature is based in its extremes

Was just going to write about this!

Hello Revathi,
Thank you for dropping by. And thanks for the travel suggestions! Appreciate it.