india my land...

Jan 2009 will be 3 years since I went to India. Aaah! It pains to be away from that land for so long. why such a long time? Was trying to avoid a double trip to india in the same year if (the deadly 'if') there was a wedding in the family! And finally it happened and I am making the trip to India.

My last trip was the fateful Silver Jubilee of Art of Living ...
I love India... even the 18 -24 hour plane ride... I love it all.. The plane landing in Bangalore.. stepping out from the plane.. walking throgh security and then into the outside.. the noise.. the chaoes.. the dirt... the people... i love it all! It took me to come to US to realise the might and vibrance of india! I am so proud to have born there...

If there is life anywhere on this planet, it is in India!! Trust me... in every eye you see it.. life stands out.. glares at you.. laughs at you... smles at you.. sobs at you... grins at you... in every glorious way life looks back at you from every eye in India. You cannot miss it, ignore it or shut it!

It is dancing in its most glorious outfit, in the most outrageous avatars.. in front of you!
You cannot escape India when you are there..
You cannot ask for your 'own' space...
Nobody even knows what it means out there..
You literally and figuratively realise you are a part of everyone and everyone is a part of you! That is India for you!

I relish every minute of the car ride from airport to home.. Can literally feel it!
I always wonder - how did I choose to come here .. how am i still surviving so far away from india.. i miss the country like crazy!

Earlier years more than the country, I missed my family. But now somehow I miss the land! This has happened since my trip for Silver Jubilee. Looks like Gurudev did some magic. I can still remember on my ride back in the plane from India I realised that your family somehow is always with you in memories, through phone, through email. But your conutry somehow stays behind. The mother of the land somehow just weeps when you leave and can never walk with you. It is left so far behind. There is no way you can experience the land but from being there. When I remember India through memories, it is like remembering someone who is dead.. not like remembering a living person!

I dont know if it even makes sense what I am saying.. but that a land can only be experience through presence and never in its absence. People are far away in another country and somehow you still feel they are near you but land somehow doesnt feel like that!

And in that sense, I miss the land of India! Every breath on that land is a blessing. Every meditation and kriya on that land equals zillions here. Like there is concentrated juices and things, India is a concentrated land of experiences. The land where time moves fastest! A day in India might be equal to a 100 days in the US. ha! ha! It sure is Shivas land in terms of eons..

I send my love and greetings to the land of India...