By Charlie Lange

Our fearless group walks the path to Dodital. One foot in front of the other. Six miles, seven miles, we lose track. We wonder, “will we ever get there?”

Finally we come upon the sacred temple to Ganesh. The same location where Ganesh was decapitated by Shiva as he was guarding the lake in which his mother was taking a bath. I ring the bell at the temple, waking Ganesh to our presence. For us it has been weeks, maybe months even, for him it has been mere seconds.

We walk the stone path downward, thinking about how we are walking in unison with Shiva. Every step we take is one that he has taken before us. We feel it. The energy, the power. It comes around our heads first as waves, water washes over us.

We move closer, the energy can’t be ignored anymore – it surrounds our heads. As if we are sinking deeper and deeper into ourselves. There is something here beyond our comprehension, so much so that it manifests itself in our simple minds as an emotion that we can’t help to comprehend. There is no time to sit and meditate on this alien feeling.

The final gate to Dodital approaches; Trip and I exclaim that we have felt this before back at the temple in Delhi. Although we agree that this is stronger. Ringing the bells under the gate was the final wakeup call for Ganesh. This is truly a selfish experience, in an immensely positive way.

The positive energy our souls absorb around us allows us to close the mental eye. The eye that has been tainted by evil and selfishness. When we shut that eye, which only looks for the negative, we instinctively open the eye to our hearts. The eye in the heart is secluded by years of pain in the mind. The world we live in completely shapes how we think. Although we have all been shaped in this way, the heart never changes. It is always there, just waiting to be embraced by the soul.

I have embraced it, we have embraced it, Hinduism has shown it to us. “I” does not exist, “we” does not exist. This spaceship we call earth and the people living on it are only “it.” One cohesive unit of matter, living and dying. “It” moves as smooth as water down the Ganges and sits as still as Lake Dodital.

It is life, and it is beautiful.