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".
Posts
20 comments:
Unknown said...
wow rashmin you are truly amazing....i never knew that you can be so romantic and insightful at the same time..... i am entranced and mesmerised and nostalgic about my Hrishikesh advanced course when i faced the jumping point and went on to jump another two times and the weightlessness feeling in those few seconds and the freedom is just out of this world. analogy was fantastic and i did learn something more than just laws of physics ;) please keep writing loved every word of it.... :) JGD
Unknown said...
sooooo... shall i start planning your next jump then? :)
Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa
Unknown said...
:) :) Ohhh.. Rashmin Bhiyaaa.. u made me remember the FUN it was GOD....... now toh I feel like doing another YES!++ at Hrishikesh with all of you once again...
And yaa just JUMP IN, its totally perfect, I remember my jump too.. though the Guide gave the strict instructions that don't look down if you want to jump even then I intentionally looked down, as otherwise I could not say YES I DID It,knowing that some part of me was Suppeerr scared to do it and did not wanted to do it at all :) :)it made the adventure even more adventurous and memorable:) :)
Jai Gurudev
Minnie
Anonymous said...
Wonderful!!!
Anonymous said...
So true. We always choose what is easy for us. And hold back because of fear for the unknown.
Unknown said...
Cool... and makes a lot sense......
Unknown said...
Cool... and makes a lot sense......
Anonymous said...
nice one... my experience too... (though not with river rafting!)... every time i scrape thru a so-called tough scene, i say to myself.. " big deal yaar, it was nothing!" :)
the deal is to remember it whenever i think that "oh man this is going to be tough"!
JGD...
erica said...
JGD Rashmin bhaiya :)
Found your blog in bau's ... and Jumped in.... :)
awesome.. awesome to read your blog ....an eye opener!!!
it reminded me .. that i dint jump frm the cliff and how i fell in the fear...
Love
erica
Abhi said...
wow!
you are an awesome writer!
straight from the heart!
just toooo good!
Anonymous said...
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!! I will make it to the Rishikesh Advance course next time!! :)
Bhanuja Sharma said...
hey bhai...ur analogies make me think how deep the present moment can be :p
vp said...
nice post at the point of jumping it was so scary, but after the jump it was sheer bliss.
Do check my my blog out, http://thehumanmind.blogspot.com
Unknown said...
wow...what i would find even more meaningful is more and more posts from you:).......
Anonymous said...
...WOW!!!!!!!!
i needed this most at this point of time!!!.....thanks!!!!!!!....
jgd...
Anonymous said...
Jai GuruDev bhaiya!!
we can learn so much from some little experiences..this blog is really great to read n recommend to others..
Mayank said...
awesome post :)
please do write more blogs.. love ur expression.
Anonymous said...
rashmin bhaiya !
running into your blog is such an amazing coincidence :D
im richie . . i met you during the spiritual sojourn to Himachal Pradesh . .
remember me :P
Swati Arora said...
wow!nice analogy! bhaiya this is just what i wanted to know today.."The more I give in to the fear the more indecisive I become forcing me to step back." so i ain't going to give int o the fear..and just jump! :)
looking within said...
Beautiful post. I am jumping in Jgd.