Hi Folks,

Traveling to significant and historic places gives me great satisfaction. Whenever I visit a new place,I am amazed at the grandeur of my country and feel humbled. I visited the Aurobindo ashram in Pondicherry recently. It is basically the home in which he lived from 1910 till he passed away in 1950. The ashram is very simple and tidy. We can sit in silence near the Samadhi and spend some time. I happened to purchase a book on the life of Aurobindo Ghosh and am halfway through it. He was a great revolutionist and one of the prominent personalities who was giving sleepless nights to the Britishers. He was a scholar par excellence and it clearly reflects in his literary works. My dream project would be to read and understand "Savithri" an epic poem composed by him. As I read his biography, what I have grasped till now is that he had a very intense love for his motherland and he transformed the same towards the Divine mother. I am wondering at the events that must have transpired to drive an active freedom fighter into solitude and transform him into a spiritual personality. Of course, I will know when I complete reading my book.

After a couple of weeks, I left to Kolkata to visit the Kali temple at Dakshineshwar. It is here at the Kali temple that Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa had intense spiritual experiences and realized that all religions lead to the same goal. I was mesmerized by the beauty of the place. There is a certain positive energy that radiates from the temple. This beautiful temple is on one side of the Ganges and across the bank is the magnificient Belur Math, established by Swami Vivekananda. The main temple enshrines the relics of Sri Ramakrishna. When I visited the room of Swami Vivekananda, I felt very humbled. I want to share an incident from his life.This is an excerpt from the book "life of Swami Vivekananda" which gives us a glimpse of his personality.

On the very day of his epoch-making triumph at the Parliament of Religions, Swami Vivekananda was invited by a rich and distinguished man to his home in a most fashionable part of the city. Here he was entertained royally; a princely room fitted with luxury beyond anything he could conceive was assigned to him. But instead of feeling happy in this splendid environment, he was miserable...As he retired the first night and lay upon his bed, the terrible contrast between poverty-stricken India and opulent America oppressed him. He could not sleep pondering over India's plight. The bed of down seemed to be a bed of thorns. The pillow was wet with his tears. He went to the window and gazed out into the darkness until he was well-nigh faint with sorrow. At length, overcome with emotion, he fell to the ground, crying out,' O Mother, what do I care for name and fame when my motherland remains in utmost poverty. To what a sad pass have we poor Indians come when millions of us die for handful of rice...Who will raise the masses of India? Who will give them bread? Show me, O mother, how can I help them.

Reading this incident sends a shiver through my spine. What a personality.... Ravindranath Tagore rightly said " If you want to know about India, read Vivekananda". As I said before one feels really humbled while talking and reading about such personalities.

Each one of us has a responsibility towards our immediate family and we all should strive to carry that through. But we also have the additional responsibility of our brethren who are less fortunate than us. It is time for all of us to dive deep and ponder what we are doing with our lives. We have to become selfless and that will put us on the right track.

Signing off,
Krishna