THE HOLY DIP AWAITS US

 



“A river cuts through rock not because of its power,

but because of its persistence.”

Jim Watkins

 

I love rivers… They are very, very inspiring. Whenever we see a deep, serene river, we, often, forget how, hundreds of miles away, they originate. Invariably, they originate as violent, fierce waterfalls somewhere in mighty mountains…  and, from there,  they flow down, making their way all through, till they join the oceans. If you try to stop them, they make new way to reach their destinations. But, river being a river, it has to flow constantly; it has to persist… It has to join the ocean…

I love this story about every river. You and I – generations after generations – may come and go… while these rivers keep flowing.







“Did you go for the Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj?”       

No, I didn’t. But, several of my friends did. Almost all of them are back and have resumed their daily grind…

What about the ‘change’? I mean, has there been a real cleansing within after the holy dip?

I don’t know if a ‘dip’ in a river can cleanse you of your sins or forgive you of your crimes and help you become a better human…

Paradoxically, I, too, believe, that a sincere gesture of humility, quest and surrender can, in deed, bring about these changes… Faith is that powerful. If you and I had gone to Maa Ganga with such earnestness, humility and sense of surrender – yes, we must’ve come home becoming better humans, after the dip…

Else, I am sorry…

The thought, that the river Ganga or the Brahmaputra originate thousands of miles away, and begin their journey violently, and make their way through every kind of terrain – cuttings through rocks because of their sheer persistence, never losing sight of their goal, to join the oceans – yes, the journey of a river points to the journey within my soul… My journey, too, has a violent beginning… It’s a journey of constant quest… It’s a journey of deep, serene experiences… which are ever new. As said, I can never step into the same river twice… The flow is not the same… I am not the same!



So, this Artificial Intelligence has come like a new, ferocious flow… disrupting many settled lives, causing anxiety, insecurity and fear… “Will we be able to survive?”

Come on, we have survived one of the darkest periods called ‘the Pandemic’… and not long ago, that was. Do we remember the fear and uncertainty and how we survived with the ‘barest of the bare minimum’?

If we are anxious about our jobs due to this merciless gush of AI, let’s not panic… The Ganga and the Brahmaputra have survived for eons, so would the human spirit: It finds a new path to flow and reach its destination…

As J. Earp reminds us, we just need to keep steering our boats, and not attempt to alter the course of the river…




The ‘Triveni’ is within us… The holy dip awaits us…

‘Har, Har Gange’… ‘Har, Har Gange’… I hear the holy song within… I feel the cleansing…

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic’s.: Pixabay

Videos: 1. Papon  2. BoneyM/Love1Another

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