Diary of an unknown SriVaishnavan travelling thro' America

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Dear friends,

 

As I sit here before my keyboard to pen this posting,

I recollect a famous passage in the

"mahA-NArAyaNa-upanishad". It's both a sacred and

poignant paean to what perhaps is the most precious of

the 5 great natural elements of the world --Water,

known in Sanskrit as "aapah:":

 

aapO vA idagam sarvam

vishvA bhUtAnyApah:

prANA vA aapah:

pashava aapO

amrutham aapO

annam aapah:

samrAda aapO

virAda aapO

svarAda aapa

chandAgam aapO

jyOti aapO

satya aapO

sarva devatA aapO...

 

bhur-bhuva-suvar-apa ...(pranavam) II

 

(meaning):

 

All existence is verily Water:

all beings are in Water,

all vitality is Water,

all animals are Water,

the nectar of life is Water,

the food of life is Water --

Water is the brilliance of life,

Water rules Life,

The Vedas themselves are Water,

The celestial bodies are Water,

Truth is Water --

 

All the gods live in Water!

 

**************

 

For a long, long time I have wondered why the

Upanishad sings this "mantra" which is a panegyric, as

it were, to Water and which resonates eternally in our

ears and hearts. Till today I have not yet fully

fathomed the true intent or import of the Vedic

passage. Why does the Upanishad place Water upon such

a lofty moral pedestal? Water is no doubt an essential

need for all life on earth, but then so too are other

great elements of nature such as the air we breathe or

the earth we tread. Why does the Upanishad 'mantra'

single out Water for deification in such absolute and

universal terms of awe and reverence?

 

On my recent travels -- my first one -- through

America I believe I was able to grasp, even if only in

the vaguest or feeblest of terms, some idea of the

transcendent vision of Water found in the Upanishads.

 

****************

 

Last month, work took me for over three weeks from one

corner of the world in the island of Taiwan in the

South China Sea to the other end in the tiny island of

Bermuda in the Atlantic and onwards thereafter to the

Eastern sea-board of the USA -- to parts of New

Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Maryland

and Washington DC.

 

The scorching pace of my tour-schedule was partly set

by the official tasks I had to complete as well as by

my own eagerness to cover as much of territory as

possible and to visit and see as many places of

interest as could possibly be squeezed into my rushed

itinerary.

 

This was my first visit to USA which in my imagination

of many years had always been the proverbial 'land of

milk and honey' -- the land everyone on earth wants to

go to, live and make a fortune in, a country variously

hailed as "bhulOka-vaikuntam" (paradise on earth!),

"bhOgya-bhUmi" (the land of plenty!)... a land which,

more than any other in the entire world, appeals to

popular imagination as the closest possible

approximation of the kingdom of God on earth.

 

The moment I set foot on its hallowed soil, I was

seized by a strong desire to see as much of USA as I

possibly could in the limited time available to me --

to take in and experience its many fascinating sights,

historic landmarks, its grandeur, its natural

vibrance, its teeming prosperity and its great many

variety of peoples.

 

America did not disappoint me. It was indeed every bit

the land of plenty, the veritable "bhOgya-bhUmi" my

colourful imagination had all along led me to believe

it truly was.

 

The first sign of God-given plenitude I saw in America

was the overwhelming supply of fresh water the country

possesses. As a native of the rain-deficient and often

water-starved city of Chennai, India, and furthermore,

as a long-time expatriate-resident of the desert-city

of Kuwait on the driest fringes of the great Arabian

Desert -- where a barrel of potable water costs as

much as it does the world to buy a barrel of precious

crude-oil -- I was simply overawed to see America's

seemingly inexhaustible supply of fresh water

everywhere I went.

 

The first sign of Water I saw was as soon as my plane

began its descent into Newark International Airport.

All around the state of New Jersey and right along the

ruddy horizons stretching across New York, Connecticut

and Massachussets -- certainly as far as my eyes could

see, from my seat in the aircraft, over the sprawling

landscape they call 'New England' -- I saw nothing but

vast white and seemingly unending sheets of snow in

the distance.

 

It struck me then immediately like a flash of

revelation: Snow! Snow it is! Snow it is that's the

precious, perennial, plentiful groundswell of

America's live-giving, life-nourishing wealth --

Water... "aapah:"!

 

>From the port-hole of the aircraft, I saw a sight that

made me momentarily seize my breath! I could not

remember having beheld ever before in any one single

moment (except in movies perhaps or in some odd serial

on 'Discovery Channel') so large an aggregation of

water-mass of such great proportions upon so vast a

tract on Planet Earth. I held my breath in wonder as I

took in the scene: it was like watching a giant,

benign and blindingly white glacier in motion --

stately, magnificent, majestic... It seemed to me

Nature, in that moment, was verily show-casing for my

sake, for me, a first-time visitor to America --

showcasing in one moment the immensity of all her life

sustaining force.

 

"Here at last", I whispered to myself as my plane

descended, "here at last stands before me the secret

behind all of America's riches, prowess and greatness

-- the overwhelmingly plentiful supply of fresh Water,

"aapah"!

 

**************

 

I flew into NJ from Bermuda on a late afternoon

Continental flight on March 20 '04. I was told I could

not have chosen a better day to first set foot on

American soil: Winter was over and Spring would be

officially announced across the whole country

precisely at dawn the following day, March 21st -- and

my very first one in the land I recalled (from my old

geography lessons in school) had once been called "the

New World".

 

When I woke up at 5Am dawn the next day, America woke

up to herald a brand new season of Spring. I performed

my "prAtah:sandhyA" ritual in the semi-darkness of the

plush guest bedroom my kind host had put me up in. I

could hardly see the ritual water ("arghya",

"aapah")cupped in my palms.

 

Outside the window I took my first good look at urban

America just as the first sunrise of spring began to

spread its smile all over the country. It was however

still bitingly cold. In the streets of New Jersey, for

the first time in my life, I was presented with the

sight of real snow... first-hand and at close

quarters.

 

I stepped out from my host's apartment into the street

and into the dark and nebulous morning and,

immediately, felt the soft crunch of fresh white snow

withering crisply under my boots... It was a strangely

delicious feeling that overcame me. I could hardly

explain to myself why the sound of crunching snow

should move me at all. Was it because it somehow

reminded me momentarily, in some vague, ineffable way,

of similar sounds echoing a whole continent away? The

sounds my feet made as they trod upon fine, burning

sands across some forlorn stretch of the Arabian

desert just outside Kuwait City, a whole continent

away in the place where I lived and worked...?

 

Later on I was told the the part of America I was in

-- New Jersey state -- was not really the best or the

most attractive part of the country. On the contrary,

New Jersey was one of the oldest, most industrial and

hence environmentally one of the most polluted of

states. New Jersey was said to be such a dark and

dinghy state it had acquired, I learnt much to my

amusement, the dubious distinction of being known as

the "Armpit of America". And yet that morning, as I

looked out of the window offering "aapah" as "arghya",

all of snow-clad and water-covered America looked to

me just about perfect. The dawn of spring and the

first spring dawn, the enchanting whiteness, the sense

of all-pervading, frozen stillness around me... It all

appeared to me as one of the most serene places I had

seen in life. To my eyes all of America stood in that

moment swathed in the sheer, sacred magic of Vedic

Water..."aapah"...

 

************

 

Later during the week, while visiting Washington DC, I

took the oft-trodden, tourist-beaten track down the

Mall right along the route from the Capitol to the

Lincoln Memorial.

 

Strangely, it felt as though I was on some sort of

pilgrimage. It is the 21st century AD, after all, and

America is the most powerful nation on earth,

militarily, economically and politically; Washington

is the epicentre of all worldly power and here I was

at the doorsteps of the White House, the seat of all

temporal power in the world! Well, well, it did feel

like some kind of pilgrimage to tread the winding path

down Independence Road, 7th Street and Pennsylvania

Avenue, past the Smithsonian Museums until to be

finally led past the Jefferson Memorial and reach the

grand Lincoln Memorial on the lush banks overlooking

the magnificent river Potomac...

 

As if arriving at some sacred "teertha-sthala" or

"pushkariNni" (temple pond or stream) somewhere in the

holy lands back home in India, I came upon the swift

Potomac and felt immediately as though I was

witnessing some ancient fount spouting and gushing

forth crystal-fresh Vedic "aapah"...

 

Seeing so much of deliciously white snow around me on

my first day in America, and the later memory of those

vividly blue and historic waters of the River

Potomac... it all made me silently wonder, again and

yet again, at how overwhelmingly copious God's

blessing of fresh, clean Water has been upon the

length and breadth of this vast, gracious land.

 

*************

 

There is a famous 'mantra' usually chanted during the

'sandhya' rite in praise of the 'aapah:devata'. It is

a very inspiring one even in normal times. For some

strange reason I can hardly fathom, it seemed suddenly

to assume, on the first day I stepped into America, a

resonance more powerful and far deeper in significance

than normal:

 

"aapah: punanthu pruthivIm

pruthivI pUthA pUnAthu mAm...

 

"sarvam pUnanthu mAm-apO'

satAmcha pratigraham svAhA!"

 

"May the Waters purify this earth!

May the Earth thus cleansed

Cleanse me too and my heart of all sins...

May the Waters render pure

All that be."

 

************

 

(to be continued)

 

Rgds,

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

 

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