Friday 1 November 2013

Monday, October 28th, 2013

Coming Down

Tel Aviv / Amsterdam / Toronto

Flight 462 on KLM was super intense. Coming in for a landing into Amsterdam was not easy. Powerful wind currents had struck before the cloud level. The English woman next to me seemed calm, cool and collected during this turbulence but I could see a host of people adjusting their individual vents from above, response to wooziness. The plane maneuvered in circles. Some passengers were poised with their disposal bag to their mouths. Any chatter going on had ceased while the pilot in the cockpit held his focus on what to be done.

The English woman said, "The pilot must be working up a sweat. I know because my husband was a pilot and an uncle as well."

For me, my fidgety legs that wanted to do no more than be on the ground, quieted by the upstaging of the wavering plane. I mention to the woman that as a kid I used to get motion sickness being in the car (one reason for me to sleep in them). Just looking at solid ground below seem to anchor my equilibrium somehow. Any moment that I set my eyes to the inside the shakiness within sent dizzy impulses.

Gradually with time, minutes, we landed which was also a rough one. But we made it! I had been up to my protective mantras during the process, which is the grace of the Guru. Perhaps I wasn't the only one praying. In my mind I thought, "this could be it."

It was just before the turbulence that I picked up the major story in the New York Times. It was about President John F Kennedy who himself encountered a fragile, shattered and perhaps heroic life. Soon to come will be the 50th anniversary of his assassination. Some 40,000 books have been published about the man whose death traumatized a generation. The article brought to light with one new book (I forgot the name and author now) that delta still lingers on the character and contribution of the person. Despite all written on him he remains a mystery.

I couldn't help but parallel a concept from the sound Gita. Krishna Explains that many people (seekers) give consideration to the nature of the soul. Gyanis, the wise, speculate as to its nature. They ponder its existence and are still left with questions.

This also can hold true for studying the nature of the Absolute. You can spend a lifetime --or lifetimes-- in attempting to penetrate the inconceivable. You may have reached an epiphany, but in the end the mystique prevails.

Whatever we may conclude with realization on life will be what they are. The question is tiered for leaving?

May the Source be with you!

2 KM

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