ON A HOLIDAY WITH DAD...

PART-I Lessons @ Akshardham!!!

Last week I was on a trip to Vaishnodevi...The first unusual thing about this was that only my dad accompanied me..The last 2 years with my MBA did not permit to go out of Mumbai much and hence inspite of busy schedules or everyone else in my family,I still insisted that we plan it..Sometimes we learn life's important lessons where we least expect them...And sometimes we get the biggest surprises of life where we least expect them...Something similar happened during the trip......

Our first destination was Delhi's Akshardham temple...A magnificient structure...grand...beautiful...and full of artistic carvings...Huge land area...Nothing wrong in saying that it's a majestic piece of art..The documentaries made on the life of Lord Swaminarayan are indeed a treasure of invaluable knowledge and lessons of wisdom which the younger generation can adopt..Lord Swaminarayan,during his childhood. made a trip of the entire nation barefooted...and visited all the big shrines...The depiction of all these places and the portrayal of his dedication towards the goal of his life is amazing...

There are 2 important messages in the documantary which particularly stuck me...

One message was in the form of a big piece of rock which is partly carved and partly uncarved..The carved portion is a human face and hands holding a hammer...and trying to carve the rest of the rock...A lesson which is very important and still often forgotten by most us ...We ourselves are the sculptors of our life and are solely responsible for whatever happens...good or bad.I found a reference to something similar in a book called EVERYDAY GREATNESS which talks about the necessity to act in life and not wait for being acted upon..

The second lesson is a single sentence which is so powerful that I believe it has the power to uplift a sad heart...to cheer a sorrowful soul and to fill with confidence a heart filled with fear...It says "JAHAAN ISHWAR HOTA HAI,WAHAAN DARR NAHI HOTA."(Where there is God ,there is no fear)...All of us know this but still we forget it where it is most required...dont we??

There are still many more things to be mentioned such as the lovely taste of Swaminarayan Khichdi served at Premvati foodcourt,the magnificient temple with the beautiful statue of Lord Swaminarayan,the carvings of elephants,peacocks..the main entrance with 10 gates in 10 directions ...and many more..but some things are to be seen to be believed...

After the short but memorable (and incomplete also coz we missed the boat ride due to lack of time) visit we moved on to Katra where there were some unforeseen experiences ,some memorable moments waiting for us...We shall see that in Part 2 of this write-up!!! KEEP READING....