Samasthiti

                                              The 21  Taras  painted by Salga according to the Nyingma terma tradition  When people ask me where do you feel at home the most, which part of the country, my mind first goes to the mountains in northern India and then eastwards to the lands of buddhism. It was during my trip to Nepal, that buddhism resonated in me, more Vajrayana buddhism that it's Mahayana sister. I felt a connection to imagery and the buddhist texts of Tantra - the same buddhism that is found in the Tibetan valley. I glanced at the sculptures and pictures of the Boddhisatvas and Taras and felt an immediate connection. Of course it helped immensely that my teacher with whom I was travelling in Nepal,  was a deep believer herself and I used her energy to guide me to this ancient mystical world.  Since then, a mantra that settled deep within my body is a mantra dedicated to the Green Tara - Om Tare Tutare Ture Soha, here's a gorgeous version by Deva Premal . In Ti

I believe in God, i really do. Maybe not God as in Jesus, or Allah or the millions of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. But a higher power that is guiding us and that also rests within us. Which is why when in our most desperate moments, we kneel down and pray to God and ask for a sign or ask for courage, we tend to find it, in ourselves and in things around us - which too are a part of the magnificence of this power, of the Universe. That Universe which is itself a manifested version of the unknowable and indescribable God.  I share this Universe, or God, and his/her religion with all the beings - human and others. Some days, when i find it difficult to find God within me, and I feel far away from love and hope and faith, I somehow find it in music. One such day as I stopped everything I was doing and just sat, feeling all sorts of things in my head and heart, so overwhelmed that I could break into tears if someone asked me to speak or spoke to me, I shut my eyes and took a couple of deep