A Yes!+ advance course in Rishikesh would not be complete without river rafting in the Ganga on the last day.
The stillness of the huge mountains on one side silently witnessing the soft caresses of the ever flowing water of the holy ganga keeps your mind captivated throughout the exciting journey. Wherever you look you see beauty and as you are engrossed in admiration and have already started planning your next visit you wonder where is the noise coming from? Yes!..one more rapid ! A rapid means nothing but basically water misbehaving. Its a place where the river tries its best to pull you out of the raft and makes your adventure a bit more adventurous.
Just as in life we have a Guru, in the raft you have a guide, who keeps directing you so that you make best use of the oar in your hand to stay inside the raft while the rapid lasts. Actually its the guide who does most of the job but somehow you feel you too are contributing a lot ( 'Gyanees" who are reading this are welcome to draw " meaningful" analogies)
Its fun .. its exciting. something really really worth experiencing.
The day ends with the guide parking the raft at a spot where the water has calmed down. You are introduced to the traditional "Jumping point". A small cliff with a rock protruding out. One is supposed to climb up and jump into the super cool water, that too with a life jacket. Your mind goes " whats the big deal"?
Well .. things are quite different when you get there. From the edge of that rock ganga suddenly stops looking holy.. the stillness of the mountains scares you. You feel all alone. Why the hell am I standing at the edge of a cliff jumping into a flowing river GOD knows how deep. I can swim .. I am wearing a life jacket too ... so what?! what if the life jacket decides to desert me while I am in mid air? I jump, I go down into the water and what if I just stay there a bit longer? Actually I think i should not jump. I mean I want to But I should not..may be later .. let this guy go first..
All sorts of rubbish went on my mind when i stood there and then I heard a few shouts " common jump its just water.. whats wrong with you". I told myself "I am not going back .. no way" I took off and then all the laws of physics obediently followed its own course and I was back on the shore. The trauma was over. The adventure was complete and there was a huge relief.
The rest of the time I entertained myself watching other people standing up there and getting scared of virtually " Nothing".
Every time in life when a decision needs to be taken I have a choice either to Jump in or to succumb to my own baseless fears. The more I give in to the fear the more indecisive I become forcing me to step back. Its then when I hear a voice saying "Jump in, you fool! whats wrong with you?"
Every time I have listened to this voice I have learnt something valuable in life.
Love
Rashmin
PS: I hope you find the analogy "meaningful".
The stillness of the huge mountains on one side silently witnessing the soft caresses of the ever flowing water of the holy ganga keeps your mind captivated throughout the exciting journey. Wherever you look you see beauty and as you are engrossed in admiration and have already started planning your next visit you wonder where is the noise coming from? Yes!..one more rapid ! A rapid means nothing but basically water misbehaving. Its a place where the river tries its best to pull you out of the raft and makes your adventure a bit more adventurous.
Just as in life we have a Guru, in the raft you have a guide, who keeps directing you so that you make best use of the oar in your hand to stay inside the raft while the rapid lasts. Actually its the guide who does most of the job but somehow you feel you too are contributing a lot ( 'Gyanees" who are reading this are welcome to draw " meaningful" analogies)
Its fun .. its exciting. something really really worth experiencing.
The day ends with the guide parking the raft at a spot where the water has calmed down. You are introduced to the traditional "Jumping point". A small cliff with a rock protruding out. One is supposed to climb up and jump into the super cool water, that too with a life jacket. Your mind goes " whats the big deal"?
Well .. things are quite different when you get there. From the edge of that rock ganga suddenly stops looking holy.. the stillness of the mountains scares you. You feel all alone. Why the hell am I standing at the edge of a cliff jumping into a flowing river GOD knows how deep. I can swim .. I am wearing a life jacket too ... so what?! what if the life jacket decides to desert me while I am in mid air? I jump, I go down into the water and what if I just stay there a bit longer? Actually I think i should not jump. I mean I want to But I should not..may be later .. let this guy go first..
All sorts of rubbish went on my mind when i stood there and then I heard a few shouts " common jump its just water.. whats wrong with you". I told myself "I am not going back .. no way" I took off and then all the laws of physics obediently followed its own course and I was back on the shore. The trauma was over. The adventure was complete and there was a huge relief.
The rest of the time I entertained myself watching other people standing up there and getting scared of virtually " Nothing".
Every time in life when a decision needs to be taken I have a choice either to Jump in or to succumb to my own baseless fears. The more I give in to the fear the more indecisive I become forcing me to step back. Its then when I hear a voice saying "Jump in, you fool! whats wrong with you?"
Every time I have listened to this voice I have learnt something valuable in life.
Love
Rashmin
PS: I hope you find the analogy "meaningful".
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