Bliss (2)

It was a pleasant evening there wasn’t much work to do, but then there was a sudden impulse to visit Mundakaniamman temple at Mylapore, Chennai, India. Though born and brought up as a Roman Catholic, I got well acquainted with other religious perspectives during my college days, where my inner quest challenged all belief systems. I started seeing divinity everywhere irrespective of creed, colour and race. My quest unbound took me to great leaps. In fact, my first Jyoti darshan is of her somewhere in 2007. From that day I use to frequent her to pay my reverence and gratitude.

     Even before I entered the temple, I felt a strong current encompassing me. I stopped near the entrance, leaned over the wall and started looking inside myself. Light spasms of joy started building in my heart. Something deep inside me was touched and was alighted with bliss. Only then she allowed me to enter her humble abode.

St Teresa in Spiritual Ecstasy

     There I took a spot to her right, leaned over the hundi, placed my helmet down and let myself mix with a beautiful, clear, divine voice drifting in the mid-air. The voice belonged to an old lady seated on the floor, to my right, facing the entrance. The voice was mesmerizing she drew it up somewhere deep within her and it reverberated like a tensed cord. I would say she was connected to the divineness in itself. The songs lured me further into myself. The being inside me was set ablaze and it was taking me higher and higher and I almost crossed the point of losing myself to the divinity. That too when she drew the words “Samboo Mahadeva” I was not able to hold the bliss anymore in my heart. It was an ecstatic moment. Beneath the skin, something inside me was trickling upwards and leaving this mortal body. She again drew the word “Samboo Mahadeva” in a high pitch, I finally said no more and left the spot half-heartedly in reluctance.

    I thanked both the deity and the lady from the bottom of my hearts for forcing me into such a blissful evening. I was just awaiting some situation whereby I can pay my gratitude to that old lady. The opportunity didn’t turn up so I decided to leave and stepped out of the temple. The old lady was standing before my bike and asked me if I could drop her in the bus stop, which I did to my heart’s content.

Date and Time of Experience: 01/23/2015 Evening, IST.

Date and Time of Writing: 01/26/2015 21:16 PM—23:22 PM

Image Source: http://francesfox.com/wp-content/uploads/st-teresa-face.png