Again one more Onam.
One more visit by Mahabali. A cultural and spiritual revisit down the memory lane. Reminiscences and nostalgia.
Floral designs, dance, music, movies, food, new clothes, gifts, reunions, camaraderie, mirth and celebration. Away in one corner of the world, a narrow strip of land, slithering between silent peaks and howling waters, of green paddies, silvery streams, of brown hills, tall coconut trees holding pots of nectar, passing breeze whispering to giggling jasmine creepers, the drum beat of monsoon rain on thatched roofs, school children clutching piles of books huddling under leaky umbrellas: the cradle of my birth and of childhood dreams.
On this auspicious occasion my thoughts fly like a flock of migrant birds driven by a compelling instinct to a distant oasis hidden deep in my heart. A day of thanks-giving and gratitude, to shut my eyes and just revel in a past that will never return in the future.
Swami Bodhananda
2 September 2014
College Station, Texas