‘Waltzing with the Unknown’

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Review Article

`Waltzing with the Unknown'

Dr V.V.B.Rama Rao

Lakshmi Bandlamudi: Movements with the Cosmic Dancer, On Pilgrimage

to Kailash Manasarovar, Foreword by H.H.Dalai Lama, Intro by Dr

Karan Singh New Age Books, Delhi, 2006, (with photographs) Price Rs

295/-

Reading a book with a view to reviewing it demands rigorous

discipline to keep the eye steady and mind totally objective. And

then a book of devotion is quite different in that in it the author

tries to chart the uncharted regions of his or her own mind. It is

reasonable for the reviewer to accept the terms of the author's own.

Here is a book written, among other things, to know the self and its

relation with the Supreme Being, Paramapurusha, Parama Shiva.

 

I would start the review with a snatch of prayer to Sri

Dakshinamurty, another name for Pramashiva, the great Guru who

enlightens with a mere mudra.

bhoorambhaasyanilo nalombara maharnaatho himamshuh puman

itya bhaati charaacharaatmakamidam yastyaiva mooryashtakam

naanyatkinchinavidyate vimrusathaam yasmaat parasmaat vibho

tasmai sri gurumoortaye nama idam sri dakshinaamoortaye

Salutations to You, the one whose eight-fold form appearing

diversely as the elements, the sun, moon and jeeva, to the one

beyond whom there exists nothing for anyone inquiring, Salutations

to You Lord Dakshinaamoorty!

Faith is intensely personal. The relationship with the Divine is on

one absolute condition: the belief in one to one relation between

the aspirant and the Absolute. The book under review needs to

be `studied' by the devout, read avidly by tourists, travellers or

pilgrims and pondered with reverence for God and a degree of respect

for the devotee.

The work is introduced by no less a personage than His Holiness

Dalai Lama, who has chosen Bharat as his haven of contemplation and

the erstwhile Maharaja of Kashmir, Dr Karan Singh, the cultural

celebrity with a political distinction.

At one level, here is a private document and a travelogue. In a saga

of the much-contemplated and greatly cherished pilgrimage to the

pinnace of the Hindu envisioning of the Supreme Being's delectable

abode, the devout author weaves personal experience, mystic feeling

and historical, cultural, religious insights. Spontaneously she lays

open her innate yearnings, disappointments, travails and moments of

revelation.

The author draws intensely from the hoary intellectual devout

tradition of the country of her birth. Brought up in a family of

believers, who have been devotees for generations, Lakshmi garu

deserves veneration for her total devotion to Shiva, who is also

called Bhola Shanker, the easily accessible and

innocently `gullible' one. Her competent and devout voice is

resonant with echoes of Valmiki, Adi Sankara, Sant Tulsidas, Sri

Aurobindo, Nietzsche and Dante. Snatches from the Gita, Shivapuran,

Devibhagavatham come to her lips while giving expression to her near

mystic experience and feelings.

First, the author's commitment and devoutness: " Almost everything I

read for more than at least eight months prior to my trip to (the)

Himalayas, Mount Kailash and Lord Shiva. The obsession took over.

Nothing else seemed to be important or relevant. Every activity in

some form or other seemed to be connected to this spiritual

adventure. " Is there any another phrase better than `single-minded

devotion' for this! "

Next, her anguished, long wait, now despairing, now faithfully

reassuring, now immaturely incensed and now deeply repentant. In her

own words: " `You have made it your business to send me empty-handed.

What do you expect from me? What kind of abnormal standards do you

hold me to? … Considering my biological clock has ticked away I am

not going to know what it means to be a parent (mother), I only know

one role – the child and right now an angry child throwing temper

tantrums. …'

" The fury within me, just be sheer fatigue calmed down and I turned

repentant. `Oh! God! Forgive me for having the audacity to dare You.

I am so desperate. Please don't put me in such a pathetic state. I

am all too very familiar with this equation between You and me. …'

" And so the cycle of self-loathing, self affirmation, angry praises

to God, desperate pleas to God and justified resentment towards the

Chinese government repeated throughout the night. " (Ellipsis and

parenthesis here and elsewhere are mine.)

The impassioned sincerity and deep devotion strikes a chord deep

somewhere within and I remembered the intimate monologues in Graham

Greene's The End of the Affair for some kind of affinity of this

speaker here with a character there!

Here is her description of Mount Kailash with a deep exhalation of

fulfilment:

" The mountain is a perfect tetrahedron, smoothly covered with snow.

In perfect symmetry, the mountain forehead is chipped in three

horizontal lines at equidistance giving a clear image of three

horizontal lines of `Vibhuti' - ash marks characterizing Shiva's

face.

" Blessed am I to get this view, blessed not because I am worthy of

it, blessed because of Shiva's generosity (grace). "

She breaks into lyrical prose often: " There was Kailash! Yes,

Kailash! At a great distance but clearly visible… I burst into

tears, fell on my knees down in prostration only to rise again and

fall down to prostrate. " (p.125) That she has aspired to the spirit

of aananda tandava and her wish has been fulfilled is testimony to

His grace and her accomplishment.

The last fifteen pages set apart as Chapter 13 Return of the

Pilgrim, read like the enlightened author's statement of her

politique. Not an academic exercise, to say the least, but then it

is a cultured citizen-of-the-world's rounding up of her assessment

of the actual situation in the region she had taken the trouble to

visit. She has been forthright in her condemnation of the tyranny of

those who make it difficult to visit the sacred place.

The book is a must read not only for all devotees of Paramashiva,

but also to the travel-enthusiasts all over the world, for I am

certain that the visit brings the realization of human

insignificance, leading to self-illumination and a kind of `peace

that passeth understanding'.

Dr. V.V.B.Rama Rao (b. 1938) is a retired, Delhi based, ELT

professional, a creative writer, biographer, translator and reviewer

with dozens of published books to his credit.

Ramarao Vadapalli <vvbramarao