A Meditative Walk

    Some experiences are too sublime to be captured by somethig as mundane as words. The incredibly complex and naively simple experience of the sensual world can best be felt, not described. However, sometimes it leads to so many strange and diverse meditations that they should not be confined to so conjested a place as human mind, else they might get smothered and lost into obscurity forever.

      I don't know from where to begin or what to describe- the colours of the flowers, their freshness and fragility; the refreshing sounds of the birds chirping in the trees; the strange, evasive feel of spring in the air- all added a nuance to that fairytale-like, childishly dreamy state I found myself in today, when I went to the park opposite Lacas school for a walk.

      What strange feelings of wondrous awe, of sincere admiration did those beautiful, crimson sunflowers evoke in me, falling gracefully from a tree. Feelings one rarely experiences without a tinge of envy for the possessor of such beauty and innocence, but which were miraculously of the most primitive and pure form in which, I am sure, they can ever be expected to exist in this materialistic world- a rare blessing if one can appreciate it as such!

      Those pinkish-purple flowers falling freely from another tree across the walls of Lacas- with a serene disregard for the manmade boundaries caught my eye due to their lovely hue. How nature defies man's cemented efforts with tools as fragile as a light breeze and as delicate as a flower's petals! How enviably free those petals were- proudly flaunting the richness of their luxurious colours, being admired by all and sundry. I wish I could one day cross that "men-made" wall of dogmas, customs, restrictions and limitations as effortlessly as those petals- spreading whatever little fragrance I might have in the whole world, exploring the innermost recesses of my soul and the farthest extremities of the world. How we dream impossible with open eyes! But then dreams are like those purplish-pink flowers- unrestrained by boundaries, undaunted by ventures, oblivious to limitations and untouchable by 'men'. You just cannot restrain them!

        Then there were all sorts of flowers I don't know the names of,imbued with all the shades in a rainbow! There also was that refreshing green of the grass, and of the trees- presenting a nuance of the dark and the light for those who cared to notice.

        Then the chirping birds! How can I ever forget those exuberant spirits of the sky! Without their melodies in the background, what a colourless scenery it would have been, like a muted television channel! Strange how unconsciously I lent a visual quality to the birds' chirping by alluding to the 'colourlessness' of the scenery. Stranger still, is the unobtrusive interaction of the senses that paints the complete picture on the canvas of our sensory experience.

          And yet what can be stranger than that I was never moved to such musings before, was never aware of these thoughts in me, never realized what sensory, spiritual and philosophical pleasures these quiet manifestations of nature's mastery could afford to man!

          Mankind has been ignorantly ungracious and cruel both to nature and to itself; endangering the former with its unbridled lust for power, while leading the latter to a never-ending labyrinth of unwarranted miseries, dangers and fears. And yet, nature has been kind to man, graciously providing him with loving respite from his self-imposed ordeals. Yes, come to think of it- nature indeed is magnanimous!