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Inner journey
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journey The mind and soul open up during a visit to temples on Shivarathri
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Photo: R.SRIDHAR
Enlightening The Big Temple in Thanjavur
It stands tall, overshadowing any attempt to classify or any aspiration to think beyond. It is a temple, a marketplace and a cross-road, allowing us to converge with a united intake of breath. Like a hungry tide, it grips us all in one sweep of its s
culpted hand. We are but measly artists, architects and artisans who stand amidst the wind-warm Brihadeeswara Temple.
Somehow, we gather ourselves and walk towards the edifice, bare feet grazing the sand. It is Shivarathri.
The Big Temple at Thanjavur marks our journey’s end. Earlier, we have traversed the countryside visiting Thiruvalanchuzhi, Thirubhuvanam, Thiruvidaimarudhur and Darasuram.
Through this nocturnal sortie, I feel my temples ringing with sleep-heavy visions. Apparitions and laughter flit in and out of my unsteady eyes. Panchabhoothangal, I hear a voice exclaim from somewhere behind me in this bus of restless query.
Perhaps this is why we choose to visit five distinct points on this map, striking a note wherever we go in an attempt to complete this pentatonic melody.
A group of us, young artistes, musicians, photographers, actors, businessmen and curators have decided to visit these shrines to Shiva through the night. Together, we have decided to commune and find a simple way to paint a shared reality.
Inner search
This is a search for most of us, a quest to understand where our art and creativity are headed within the new Indian reality.
Our generation thrives not merely on hope, but on the brief intervals of time that lie suspended between economics and commitment.
Stretching those intervals to embrace spaces for exploration and aesthetic endeavour requires a comfort with oneself, something that seems to play truant for most of us.
I find comfort in the peopled warmth of this bus ride through the edges of darkness.
In the moonlit grove outside, fireflies dance with abandon. They seem aware.
At Thiruvalanchuzhi, it is rumoured that the Cauvery changes course underneath the temple’s super structure, and hence, a Ganesha whose trunk curves ‘the other’ way, like a call to change one’s flow to suit new and better realities.
As we traverse through each of these temples, their lore and solidity cut through the gorges in our minds, exhorting us to find ourselves.
We need to be able to cut through successive prakarams or ascend steep outcrops of stairways to achieve the sanctum, that inner core of flame-lit clarity.
As the air of anticipation weaves its way across the throng, I consider myself blessed to be seated with this special group of seekers inside the sanctum of the Big Temple.
A sight to behold
A lone firefly alights on the tip of a lamp above. Suddenly, it springs and the priests remove the veil to reveal Ishwara in all his glory.
Energy bursts forth in every direction and I am swathed in light and sound.
The key to all creation seems to be a complete surrender to the process.
The outcomes will manifest themselves on their own, in directions one least expects.
(The author is a Chennai- based musician. This is an account of a journey made by a group of artistes)
ANIL SRINIVASAN
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