The Goddess Saraswati
[An ancient wooden sculpture on loan from a museum situated in our hotel]
Always after visiting India I go through a stage of a certain amount of mayhem.And every time it takes me by surprise.
I call it my spiritual clear out …because it is. What is it about that place? No matter which part I visit (this time the south) it gets me every time. Of course, there is always some sense of chaos in India and it seems that much is approached tangentially in terms of personal interaction. For example when money is exchanged it is as if some quasi sleight of hand is being enacted; there is a mild shaking of the head and glances off and great amounts of paper are shuffled around. I quite go into a dream.
This last time I had to spend two extra weeks there holed up in a hospital (the husband had contracted Typhoid). You would think these starker than normal realities would have had a very sharpening effect on my faculties, but not so. Nurses gently wafted in and out bearing drips and pills, smiling and nodding. I ordered meals from a nearby hotel, which arrived with gentle knocks on the door.
Even in traffic, whizzing in and out of lanes, and when stopping a hair’s breadth from the bonnet of another car, all goes on again as if the near miss had never happened. Somehow, the chaos nullifying the chaos; there is some kind of “flow”.
So, upon my return to order, the subconscious reactions come to light. That odd kind of chaotic flow has done something. There is a subterranean working through of another part of myself which has something to do with my spiritual unfolding. I have to work hard as I stare this in the face and let the discomfort inform me and lead me into clarity.
Thank you India … I think.
By the way, the Goddess Saraswati was the Goddess of Wisdom who understood how to reach understanding and clarity out of chaos.
