Some days ago I went to a Himalayan town named Solan along with my friends. While sitting in the bus and travelling to the town, I observed many pyramidal shaped hills or mountains (I have observed same type of mountains in almost everywhere in Himachal). At the top of those mountains, a temple has been constructed (most of them are 100s of years old). According to my research and some scientific recommendations, the pyramidal shaped structures are full of energy and cosmic power. In reference to Graham Hancock’s work, he too referred to the Great Pyramids of Giza and the pyramidal shapes as energy generators.
These areas are the focal point which converges earth’s energy to a point from where the living beings can harness it for growing their consciousness and energy fields or auras. So, we can surely say that our ancestors were very intelligent and advanced beings. They built temples atop of almost every such kind of pyramidal mountain so that the energy fields could be harnessed positively and not negatively. This fact is definitely very interesting and logical.
The Hindu religion is definitely based on logic and science and moreover the basic aim of the religion is to harness a higher conscious level. But now-a-days because of some selfish preachers or so called baba’s our religion has restricted to only idol worshipping. Just because of this idolism the religion has been picturized as illogical especially in the minds of many educated world people. Even most of the hindu population too has not understood the true value of the facts and usage of their religion.
When we were child, obviously we were unconscious and less educated. We used to do whatever our parents and society asked us to do. As we grow up and become educated our level of consciousness also develops. We start thinking about everything that’s happening around us. We start observing the details in everything more than that our books told us. I personally feel that a person who says ‘I don’t believe in god, religion or tradition’ is just an unconscious one. He/she may be a doctor, scientist, millionaire or a big personality whom many people follow but if he/she is found saying these words that means all the knowledge that he has acquired in his lifetime was no more than orthodox and bookish. The real scientific (rather cosmic) knowledge lies here in front of our eyes but we stupid don’t bother to even notice it. It’s our failure that the biggest knowledge acquired by our sages and ancient saints that have been preserved for us for centuries, is now considered as waste because of our ignorance.
It’s our duty (of each and every educated person) to open our consciousness and think about each and every tradition, religion, myths, books and sacred texts. We have to explore the meanings hidden behind them. For example a temple according to Hindu tradition is built up on a specific site selected by a priest or god himself gives a signal about it. Most of the temples as I earlier wrote (mostly ancient ones) are constructed over a pyramidal hill tops or a site where earth’s energy is in abundance. These temples again have a pyramidal shaped top so that all the earth’s energy is trapped and magnified with the help of that shape. The main purpose of a temple is to tell people that there is a supreme being above us all, who can do many things that we can’t, who might be in other dimension and can neither be created nor destroyed.
So, according to me if we go to a temple we must sit there in a silent corner and meditate atleast for 15-20 minutes. And definitely we would be filled with positive energy, happiness and satisfaction. Our souls would definitely be at peace and in harmony with the surroundings. We would enjoy each and every atom of this universe, and would see every living being with respect. There will be no crimes because everyone will enjoy their life of peace. It is an awesome idea and moreover very simple to perform but why it hasn’t happened yet, where lies the problem? It’s here in us, in me and you. We educated and conscious minds don’t have the mindsets and guts to divert the big masses towards the right path. We are so into our daily routines to earn money that when we go out of our comfort zones things annoy us. It’s a true saying of Gita that for a conscious journey everyone needs a guru or a teacher. In Hindu religion, there is an abundance of gurus. Though our country is full of gurus, some are in jails, some in foreign countries, some have already died and the remaining ones are hard to be trusted, then how to choose a guru? No doubt it’s very difficult but I believe in supreme God, he will definitely enlighten our path to the right teacher, who will definitely take us to the journey towards the Supreme Being
If you liked my thoughts please share it with others who would value them.
That week was very hectic for me. I had to complete my writings, there was a wedding of my classmate out of the district, and my bestie’s engagement in the weekend; so the week was fully packed. Yes, I was stressed out of all these things happening all at once without any break. Still I relaxed my mind, and consoled myself that may be that week’s outing would help me to refresh my body.
So, on Sunday I wrote an article and uploaded it on my blog. Then in the evening I packed my bags for the wedding function of my classmates that was arranged out of the station. The next day I woke up very early and boarded a bus to the destination. There I met one of my best friends. We talked so much as we had met after so long and simultaneously got ready, then moved to the main marriage spot. I was delighted to meet my college friends, actually everyone was joyous. There were two reasons for that; first, almost all of our classmates were present there, so it was a get-together; and second, two of our classmates finally ventured a successful love story and tied a knot that day. We chatted and laughed, had a good food and danced.
Until lunch I started getting worried, I was already late to get back to home. Everybody else was still enjoying, nobody cared about anybody else. I was hungry and stressed. Quickly I convinced everyone to have food first. We sat down on a mat on the floor for having ‘dhaam’ our traditional food.
The serving men filled our leaf plates with rice and lavish traditional dishes. As I picked the food to my mouth, the right side of my jaw cracked and was unable to open my mouth. Both of my eyes became wide open as I encountered with a weird and unknown problem.
I was starving and wanted to eat that delicacy, but my body was in a different mood. I tried endlessly; still the whole right side of my face was burning with pain. Everybody else was enjoying their meals and nobody noticed that I was in grief neither I wanted anybody to notice. I tried once again, this time I picked very less amount of food and threw it inside through the narrow mouth opening. However, I was not able to chew it.
I knew something was wrong, that needed to be fixed immediately but at that instance all I could see and think about the food in front of me and my groaning stomach. Somehow I managed to feed my tummy with some food. I wanted to return back home immediately after finishing the food; but the travelling distance between my home and the place was too much and the thought of travelling added up to my stress level.
As I started bidding goodbye to my friends, they captured me and forced me to stay for the following day too. I gave up on them and thought of enjoying my time. In the evening I got a few moments to Google up my symptoms and know about the thing that I was facing. All my symptoms suggested that I was having TMJ (Temporo-mandibular-joint dysfunction or disorder). I stumbled upon many articles upon it; at the end of one, they advised to consult a doctor or dentist.
I was relieved as I had a saviour; one of my bestie, who was going to get engaged in the weekend, was a dentist. I immediately called her, but she didn’t pick the phone. I knew and understood that she might be busy with her preparations for her engagement which was only two days ahead. I didn’t want to disturb her, so I didn’t call her again and instead dropped a message on her whatsapp about my situation and googled results.
After half an hour, she called up. In concerned tone, she asked all my symptoms once again and confirmed that I was having a TMJ. She asked me whether I was stressed out and I hesitatingly accepted. She advised me to stay relaxed and gave me a few tips on how to handle the problem.
The moment she hung the call, I googled back about TMJ to research about its causes. I wanted to know why I got the disorder that time only, as I had many instances in my life when I was more stressed; and even had seen many people who were more depressed, but never had I heard about this weird disorder.
Surprisingly, I came to know that TMJ was one of the most common disorders especially encountered by women in the age group of 20-40. The main cause for the joint dysfunction is definitely stress or injury or poor posture in some cases. My dentist friend advised me to have liquid food until I could properly move my jaw, and a few light exercises with steamed towel fomenting on the infected parts to reduce pain and swelling.
I felt uneasy and painful for more than a week and then finally I went to a mouth and ear specialist, he gave me few antibiotics and pain relievers, he too advised me to foment with steamed towel. It took around a month for me to completely recover back. Still now, I pay attention to stay stress free and calm. I prefer to do pranayam and meditation in the morning hours that had definitely helped me to de-clutter my mind and feel lighter for the whole day.
‘TB’ a word which when heard everyone imagine about a weak person constantly coughing and waiting for his demise. Two decades ago, there was no treatment for it which obviously meant that a person infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis would definitely have a very painful end. Moreover it is a communicable disease, so was and even is a taboo in itself. But thanks to the efforts put by World Health Organisation, a cure was invented because of which millions of people, including me, recovered back to their normal lives. Here I’m sharing my experience through this dis-ease.
I joined my college in 2009 and the first semester went very well. I was very enthusiastic that time, participated in almost every extracurricular activities, had a very happy and a positive surroundings and moreover was showered with love from everywhere. Even I participated in the Art of Living’s YES+ course and felt more positively spirited. I was literally in love with my life. But I don’t understand where laid the lacuna, from where I let loose the thread and from where that monster entered my life.
During the Diwali festival I went to my home in October 2009. After coming back to the hostel I caught up cold and cough due to climatic variations. I didn’t care about it and readily the cold vanished away. But cough retained its field. Even then I didn’t care. I took is casually as every now and then I used to catch up cough due to allergies.
After the semester exams in December, I went back to my home. There too I kept coughing and ignoring. A week later, my father noticed my persistent coughing. He bought few medicines and cough syrups for me, but still I didn’t recover. After a week I went back to the hostel. The day when I was returning, my father strictly instructed me to get checked up by a doctor in our campus Health Centre. Even then for few days I didn’t care to move my feet to the health centre.
My coughing started becoming severe and with that my father too started exerting more pressure on me to get checked up. Finally one day I went to our campus Health Centre. The female doctor there checked and asked me to get a full check up and few tests from a bigger hospital. The next day I went to a private hospital in the city. They took X-Ray of my chest and blood samples for testing. The doctor then suggested me to get further checked up and medicated by the government hospital. I was confused as I had no idea why he asked me to get medicated by the Govt. one, as according to the reputation of the hospital, they too must have the medicines. Then the doctor explained that I might be having TB and there existed a medication DOTS for it which had to be provided by the Govt hospitals.
I was totally illiterate about this disease and the DOTS. Until then I was totally lenient about everything and took it as granted because of my limited knowledge. And then I told everything to my father, who was literally stressed out after hearing all. He then said that he would be coming the next day to take me to our family doctor in Chandigarh to confirm about and get further suggestions.
That day I researched about everything related to Tuberculosis, its causes, effects and medication. After learning about it I was in severe disbelief that how could only I was infected and not others who share the same crowd and surroundings with me. I started listing up all those lacunae which might have made me susceptible to the bacteria, and the foremost of them all was our hostel surroundings. Every morning our surroundings would smell like an open gutter and gradually upto the evening the odour would merge into the air. Moreover there were no precautions laid to keep the wild and infested monkeys away from our drinking waters. I was disgusted by the college authorities who never cared to invest the funds in making our surroundings healthy. But simultaneously I knew that it was our fault too that we never forced them to do so.
For the next 2-3 days I was examined with every possible test from blood test, X-rays, Mantoux test, sputum test to CT-Scans. Every report tested me positive for TB. Our family doctor then suggested my father to link up with the nearest Govt. Hospital to my hostel. He too repeated the same things about DOTS.
The next day we came back to Solan and went to the Govt. hospital. They once again took my sputum to confirm about the disease. After the confirmation a nurse took us to the DOTS centre within the hospital campus. A male head nurse then gave me five big tablets and a glass of water; he then said to eat them all infront of him. I was surprised to know that I had to eat them all at the same time but gulping another glass of water I did it. The nurse then instructed me to eat healthy food rich in calcium and iron especially cheese, milk and sprouted pulses. Also he asked me to come there after every second day for taking the medicines. The hospital was about 14 kms from my college so my father asked him to shift the medicines to the campus Health Centre. He agreed and I started my medication journey with DOTS.
I had to go to the health centre every second day for few months to consume those five big tablets in front of the head nurse. Also I started consuming raw paneer 100 gms each day! I enriched my diet with everything that the doctor had suggested. I felt very bad for the people around me, so I always covered my mouth with a handkerchief, so that they didn’t get my bacteria. I was captured in self guilt and never felt comfortable in telling anybody that I was in dis-ease. Only my roommates knew about it and in my room too I always covered my mouth, kept my things away from them and talked very less. But somewhere my roommates knew that I was not getting positive about it. So, they started comforting me in every possible way. Divya, even drank water from my bottle to comfort me that I was not tabooed (I know that’s seriously the stupidest thing ever practically, but I appreciate her love and courage that let her do so only to comfort me). They laughed, played and enjoyed their time with me.
Fighting Tuberculosis
I used to carry a card, issued by the DOTS centre to track my medicines, with me to the college every time when I had to visit the Health Centre for medication. Once while sitting in the class that card fell on the ground near my seat and I didn’t notice it. Nitika picked it up and while reading he passed it to me. In shock and guilt, I literally snatched it from her as I didn’t want anybody to know about it. She noticed the stress in my expressions and started comforting me by saying that she was ok with it and her friendship didn’t care about any disease. I felt supportive and positive after her response. Most of the times I used to cough severely during the nights and many times it literally felt as if my lungs would come out; at those moments Komal would always come for my comfort. I am very thankful to all those people who stayed with me at the worst time of my life.
The medicines that I was having were very strong. The whole day, on which I used to have those 5 tablets, had definitely gone in peril. My abdomen used to burn like a furnance and the heat emitted from there used to consume whole of my body. Within 2-3 hours of consuming the medicines I used to feel drowsy after which I slept like a narcoleptic. Even during lectures I slept in front of the professors (I don’t know whether they were aware of my medication or not, but they always ignored me sleeping in their classes). I was fed of my drowsiness; moreover sleeping infront of a teacher was really disrespectful. I didn’t want to do that all. So, I started diverting my mind to some other tasks in between like sketching the professors’ faces! This helped me a lot. But still I used to sleep even in the 5 min break that we got when we switched to the next lecture.
After two months my medicines were reduced. Now I had to take three of them after every fourth day. I was happy that the load of those medicines had reduced but the drowsiness still entrapped me.
But inspite of having a regular medication, I went to a trip to Nainital-Mussorie, participated in three dance items in the college night and did all that challenged me. I was literally fighting with that dis-ease that entered my life unbeknownst.
Slowly my life came back on track. After the six months of medication completed, the health centre nurse tested my sputum once again to confirm that I was totally infection free and completely immune to the TB bacteria. I was completely fine so, they ceased the medication. Really I felt freedom like never before.
I was and am thankful to the scientists who discovered the antidote and invented a medication for that life threatening disease. Because of their and WHO’s efforts millions of people including me, are alive. Still there are millions more who are not that lucky and because of the lack of awareness they perish in agony. Moreover there are few others who lose the battle just because of the lack of moral support from the society especially from their loved ones.
My life after the disease and the medication went well for many months. But unfortunately after the medication some uninvited problems entered in my life. Although the medicines saved my life but it gradually weakened my immune system. I went through a paradox; I was now more susceptible to cold, fever, cough and weakness. I’m not saying it from my side only, but few other TB survivors too told me about the same after effects. One more consequence that I had to pertain for whole of my life was the scrambling joints. I was suffering from aching knees ever since I started the medicines. I had never linked it with the disease until I was enlightened about the same from other TB patients. Many a-times I went to see a doctor for getting the aching knees checked up. But they never took it seriously and instead shooed me off as if I was just wasting their time. I know this is a problem associated with the disease and definitely it is going to trouble me lifelong. But I will fight with this too. Life is short, it teaches lesson every now and then. We should enjoy it and feel the happiness within but most importantly we have to spread it to our surroundings, only then will it come back to us.
The Hindu New Year has begun from 18th March and with this the nine days celebrations aka ‘Navratra’ of worshipping ‘Shakti’ the Goddess of Energy (Durga) has started. The small girls are happier than ever before as they are being worshipped as a representation of the Goddess. These nine days they are treated as the princesses, their feet are touched to seek blessings and they are booked by many for the morning poojas, plus they are showered with money, eatables, clothes and the most important of all -the respect.
Hindu religion worships Goddess Durga as the Mother of every being. She is represented as the creator and the nourisher just like a mother. In general, she is idolised as the most beautiful female with extravagant features; she has eight arms and on each hand she holds some weapons, a flower, a conch and one of her hand is always positioned to shower blessings on everyone.
This idolization of Gods and Goddesses might be illogical for many but when giving the mythology a scientific thought, many things related to them becomes more logical. Devdutt Patnaik gave his detailed views on the idolization and the representation of Hindu Gods and Goddesses in his various books such as
Let’s keep idolism aside and consider the representation of Goddess Durga as an energy and the source of everything.
‘Shakti’ or Energy whatever we call it, it’s the invisible power that is omnipresent. In the form of air, it flows silently through the mountains and the plains to our homes and with every breath it enters our body; in the form of energy it moves from the infinite universe to every planet, continent and individual and fills everyone with a consciousness; in the form of light it spreads everywhere making its creations and marvels visible to everyone.
From that unknown infinite source that I call ‘the Source of Everything’ the light spreads out into the vast cosmic space. As it touches the celestial objects and materials, a spark revives their barren forms. Their journey to harness life is initiated. Without that energy every matter present on the earth or in this vast space is lifeless. Not only the living things regains their conscious but the non-livings too captures some part of this infinite non-exhausting source and gives it back to the livings in the form of some miraculous beautiful entity.
I feel proud that our religion has signified this powerful creative force as a female mother figure and no doubt it is. And the nine days of Navratra celebrations are completed with worshipping the innocent pure female souls.
What are your thoughts about ‘Shakti’ and Goddess worshipping, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
Prakriti Writes 