ROAD TO NARA

A Traveller’s lessons from ten years on the ँ Road

by Narayan Kaudinya

Few years ago while swimming in the river Tungbhadra in Sringeri, I met an Indian data Scientist who had left his job in the US to work on the Indian River systems. As we spoke while floating in the river conversing about culture and civilization, it that time when i realized something very commonplace, and the impression of its true meaning changed something in...

22/04/2020

Comments 86

Guidance: Ways to grow, On The Road, Philosophy, Road Journals

28/09/2020

When a wedding found me travelling in Mumbai

It was then my first visit to Mumbai. And hence everything i was laying my eyes on went deeper...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 108

27/07/2020

To a Monsoon Wedding and a Rare Feast –III

After Kaushik and I experienced our first monsoon thunder, together under this Divine Tree, I knew that home was...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 61

27/02/2016

The Wedding Song

In her wedding dress that one day she stopped counting years I met J uncle on a very...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 26

19/08/2015

Jaimaal – The Wedding Song

An image of my parents wedding in 1982 I met J uncle on a rainy very cold january morning this...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 25

04/04/2021

A Dip in the Rivers

From time to time, a dip in the river changes your perception about that river you just became with....

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 53

08/03/2021

When Krishna calls. A dream life of an Australian Photographer from Paris : Travels...

“O Krishna, the stillness of the divine union, which you describe, is beyond my comprehension. How can the mind...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 55

24/11/2020

The motorcycle, Dalai Lama and the Meal – I

Few years ago, I was travelling with once upon a time a beautiful friend. And like all great friendships...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 108

09/09/2020

A Journal of Animal stories in the last ancient fair of Nepal

“There is no other no other culture on earth that worships a woman as a goddess. And has gone...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 63

One night at the Indo-Pakistan border

Published by Narayan Kaudinya

As Corona and the bats are the rhetoric of the year, i remember one night that came and crossed all expectations of mysticism and fear that will always go...

24/06/2020

Comments 88

rajasthan, Short Stories, Tales from Rural India

LAST FLIGHT OF AN OWL

Published by Narayan Kaudinya

She kept looking towards the sky while floating in the water kept for cows. Her death seemed such that at one time I felt she chose it. But...

13/02/2020

Comments 8

Mysticism, rajasthan

Mangla and her magical milk

Published by Narayan Kaudinya

Mangla’s milk has been the best thing to happen in this sea ashram. But today even before I could taste it, Logar brought Papaya for the first time and...

29/01/2019

Comments 0

rajasthan, Short Stories

The neem Tree

Published by Narayan Kaudinya

Its time to sleep. And Logar starts beating the drum again tonight. May be he does it for mangla, the cow. But then there is no need for that....

26/01/2019

Comments 2

Mysticism, rajasthan, Yogic Studies

04/04/2021

A Dip in the Rivers

From time to time, a dip in the river changes your perception about that river you just became with....

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 53

22/04/2020

A Traveller’s lessons from ten years on the ँ Road

Few years ago while swimming in the river Tungbhadra in Sringeri, I met an Indian data Scientist who had...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 86

20/02/2020

Homeland

He woke up four inches below the snow like bed. But the day ahead was going to be as...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 6

14/09/2019

Amarnath in the times of article 370

Even after thinking about doing something daily, one ends up doing it, achieving it, finishing it only in the...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 5

07/12/2018

Love is everywhere

Cambodia has started to settle inside. It is hot. But Its winters here. Its Busy and Open. Moving slowly....

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 5

07/12/2018

The Red Cambodian Bed

I had been walking for last two days. But did not really reach anywhere. At the same time...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 0

30/11/2018

First Flight to Bangkok

We are a few minutes away from entering into December. Most things if asked from the deepest alleys of transparent,...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 0

29/11/2018

In the land of Snakes

Twenty six days ago and three hundred fifty kilometers north I Moon I reached Aldona late in the night....

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 19

Ancient Life and Research, Guidance: Ways to grow, Yogic Studies

5 Ancient Secrets of Yogic Wellness – III

A long time friend and astrologer, who works as an Engineer in California has cautioned that the next 10-15 years is going to be very tumultuous for the world....

Ancient Life and Research, Guidance: Ways to grow, Yogic Studies

The cost of Life?-II

“Conserve”, because No, nature does not need us instead we need nature to stay relevant as life on earth.” By the end of 2020, the year had dented many...

Ancient Life and Research, Yogic Studies

A brief history of life on Earth and the origin of Yoga-I

It has been many centuries since humans have stopped moving from one place to another. Almost the majority of people today grow up in long settled societies. This new...

Guidance: Ways to grow, Yogic Studies

Moon, Woman, and the essence of a Long Life

The year will soon end, and hence i was thinking of going into the realms of my understanding of this life as a Yogi, to speak to you in...

Yogic Studies

Food and the World on a new Yogi’s mind

It was time. The sun had arrived when he decided going to bed again. After last night chocolate truffle, the cough had soared. The times are odd. Eversince electricity...

Mysticism, Yogic Studies

Life is only breath. Every other thing a distraction.

The night before was dedicated to red Hibiscus flowers. They ended inside the fire place while praying for the solar chord, our right nostril, symbolising river Ganga; and in...

Motivation and Inspiration, Mysticism, Yogic Studies

In Life’s darkness. Mother is light.

In these ongoing paralysing times of helplessness, while doing nothing; close your eyes. Think of water, a river. And if possible become it. Shiva was eyes wide open in...

Mysticism, Philosophy, Yogic Studies

Are you Blinking ?

It happens only while blinking. Sages and meditators who have closed there eyes for the longest time in there lifetimes, know when to blink. How much later to blink,...

India, Letters to self, Yogic Studies

The Paradox

Who is observing the observer? Are you in front of the camera or behind it ? Or are you it ? Do you realize the change Changing? We walked...

Yogic Studies

The Essence of Food in the times

How can we describe food? What sun is to plants, food is to humans. Food is as much sun. The only visible god. The energy. Prana Shakti. What you eat...

22/09/2020

The Play of Tendencies

There are many layers under our skin. Cells that live with us and leave us without even letting us...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 18

24/01/2019

Arrival of Maharaj

Threads of cotton. Some new event had to happen. A long day in motion. Paris. Not patparganj but Indirapuram...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 0

07/01/2019

Play a sport

Many a times when body starts feeling the temperature, it starts affecting every other small action, as simple as...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 0

29/12/2018

The dip

Sometimes one dip changes your smile and temperature. It takes you then to places that can only be created...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 2

24/11/2018

For a better Life

As someone pointed out; convinience trumps privacy. Morality and good judgement for too many of us- the internet has...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 0

22/11/2018

Pattern

Here In north India if women had left dishes overnight to wash them tomorrow; then elderly women used to...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 0

HYPNIC PICNIC : 5 elements Wind and Water published in Rare Journal

by Narayan Kaudinya

The journalist had been following my journey here on the Road to Nara and later found herself ecstatic on seeing some images that i had made few years ago following the sea along the expansive South-Western coast of India. I was then documenting it for a long term project on the journey of five elements and various shapes and forms they take. HYPNIC PICNIC was this month’s theme, magic as she asked me for images that carried in them a life in between and the journey. Along with me came a few other artists, as many as the fingers are in both hands, two from India and few from far away countries. Working, carrying their experience of the world in their fields of expression; illustration, sketches, graphics, Paintings and images. In them i found few very interesting people doing the things they have been doing in their lives like Stilleke, he is a curator and was invited here to talk about the future of festivals and even more so in the years leading to...

Life is only breath. Every other thing a distraction.

by Narayan Kaudinya

The night before was dedicated to red Hibiscus flowers. They ended inside the fire place while praying for the solar chord, our right nostril, symbolising river Ganga; and in yogic texts known as pingala. It was also mauni amavasya, i.e the quiet moonless night, as advised for centuries, this day must be observed in silence. Women who could not restrain themselves from speaking, fasted in exchange for words. And the ones who spoke nothing from mouths were seen talking cautiously from eyes. There was nothing satvic about the day even though I tried to make it. And above all It ended without a moral, not that it had to. But without a story as if either it wasn’t needed or we weren’t important. In the evening the walk became unending. It didn’t feel long but the sun had set. We went around the circular home to find more wood but instead found two calves loving like statues. Somehow they got excited and started running like jumping deers. The once desired magic when attained, when passed...

In Life’s darkness. Mother is light.

by Narayan Kaudinya

In these ongoing paralysing times of helplessness, while doing nothing; close your eyes. Think of water, a river. And if possible become it. Shiva was eyes wide open in all directions. Yet the destructive eye had to open, and took him inwards. Ujjain arrived in the morning. We went to pataloka to touch the equator in dim light and later ate potato spice. Darkness is the birth place of all creations. A child becomes in the dark. The lights glows the most in the dark. It is not that the darkness is wrong. It’s a part of life, a backdrop for the stars at night, the space between what you know. Darkness has a way of reminding you of the light. ExistING side by side. Sometimes overlapping, one explaining the other. And Mangla, the beautiful brown cow here in the village is pregnant. One big similarity, between a cow and a human mother is that both take nine months for their child to come out playing in the wild. Also one of many reasons, the oldest living...

28/02/2021

Born to Run

The first half of Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography makes some things abundantly clear: He had no natural ability to play...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 41

22/02/2021

Technique, and how must, can we learn one ?

Its amazing by how much we can get done simply by trying. Whether its writing, finishing a complex film,...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 15

25/12/2020

Conversations in a Dream

Never stand and drink water, eat food or smoke. Some one very important from the other world entered in...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 65

10/11/2020

Tomorrow comes Daily

Slowly slowly as good days passed, hardest ones arrived. Three deaths and earning a bagful of silence later, we...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 49

25/09/2020

Finding Music

The poet-priest Kabir says, the first thing in the morning, do not rush off to the work. But take...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 54

15/09/2020

In Life’s darkness. Mother is light.

In these ongoing paralysing times of helplessness, while doing nothing; close your eyes. Think of water, a river. And...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 54

31/08/2020

Being the Light

People in general have been generous with us through the years. A doctor who took the time to understand...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 29

17/08/2020

Towards Peace

Peace might not mean getting everyone else to do what you want them to do. Instead, it may involve...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 37

Life at School, The Capital

Vandy and her Wonders

Day 6 I called Vandy again, out of love. To show our solidarity, that school is behind you, that we are with her in this hour of anxiety and...

Life at School, Motivation and Inspiration

Many Children and a School for Life

Anyone who in coming weeks, months or years comes across this post, must know that we are always on a look out for someone who is happy and wants...

Bruce Lee, Life at School

A Digital mind

The world has long gone past finding comfort for humans. Comfort seems secondary. They might only say it has only started. Facebook and Google will leave no stone unturned...

Life at School

Schools ruining the foundational roots of learning

We spent almost 15 years being brainwashed on learning things that have nothing to do majorly with our present mind space. And we keep paying the price. It is...

Life at School

Teachers Day is also a Mother’s day

Teachers day is somehow another Mother’s Day. Because mother is our first teacher. First person who taught us love, and taught us how to everything on earth. It was...

Life at School, Yogic Studies

Open your eyes, inwards

Dawn 7 New Delhi The day was Tantra. But first of all what is it that you feel when you read this word? Does it evoke complexity? Mixed emotions?...

Man’s Search for Meaning

by Narayan Kaudinya

When I returned to Ishbar that night, Shiban seemed speechless. But Dr Kaul looked at him with satisfaction giving an expression like “then he has seen.” And soon the moment came to explain to him what he had seen. We sat around fire, while waiting for the food to arrive. Open your ears, said Dr Kaul and he began speaking like reciting an over practised hymn. “The men in the east, he said, are trees; those in the south are flocks of animals; those in the west are wild plants. Last, those in the north like ourselves, who cried out while they ate other men, were the waters. When the collective sound of chewing filled the air, he started explaining about eating. The act of eating is a violence that causes what is living, in its many forms, to disappear. Whether grass, plants, trees, animals, or human beings, the process is the same. There is always a fire that devours and a substance that is devoured. This violence, bringing misery and torment, will one...

The day of the U-Turn

by Narayan Kaudinya

Winters had started settling in Leh. I used to get up the earliest, take the coldest shower from the waters of Indus. For at least half a day to come, my peace with that. I was making tea when i heard Cynthia, singing. An old American woman who had been teaching in Leh for last 29 years. From the US, she arrived each winter to teach Laddakhi students. I offered Cynthia Tea. She said “I am sorry, I am still not Indian’ and laughed out loud. And asked me to come up and look at the old lines on her table. The table had a beautiful map. And this map sounded fulfilling. It had a path along the river Indus, that left the road way down and lead one to an ancient looking narrow canyon. She suggested, I must take that. And then without asking walk for an hour or two to the village called TAR. There lives my best friend; in a cave, like kitchen, where Ibex’s and snow leopards come sometimes to...

One day win and other days Out

by Narayan Kaudinya

The night was strange. It was a mix of sleeping deep and aware of some thing gone wrong. Two weeks were over in Leh. And as I had planned I got a bike for myself from Angchuk. I wanted to have a classic 350 but after the new UT status, government ordered the bike union to commercialise all the bikes or they’ll be seized. I got a Himalayan with me. While riding down to the narrow path of lama ji lane at upper changspa, something happened; the tendon, the tissue that joins the back part of the knee just went numb. For a moment i could not lend my weight on to my left leg. As I lied in bed in the night the pain was such nonsensical that I couldn’t straighten my leg, and if i even pushed and did, i could not bend it again. Throughout night as I moved from one position to other, I could feel the weight of my knee. Somehow i completed the task of sleeping. In the...

09/01/2020

Protected: Ways of Seeing, as in 2020

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by Narayan Kaudinya

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14/09/2019

Amarnath in the times of article 370

Even after thinking about doing something daily, one ends up doing it, achieving it, finishing it only in the...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 5

06/02/2019

Planets find a well

The four rounds around fire and seven complexities. Sound of a marble like play of a mystic. Gaya left...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 0

10/08/2018

Saving the Bird Man of Kashmir

I and Rasool entered the hospital minutes after winter sun arose. Rasool had been in extreme pain ever since...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 0

05/07/2018

Vipassna in the Jungle

To tell you, I had lost this post a long time ago. Digital world has its own...

by Narayan Kaudinya

Comments 0

Man’s Search for Meaning

by Narayan Kaudinya

One monsoon in Bengal – II

by Narayan Kaudinya

After hiding under the monsoon tree i had thought of home and had felt at that moment home is calling. Bengal had become love filled for me because of Kaushik. I was living, moving in the rural country around his village as he wished to. We reached his home thinking i will take the evening bus to calcutta but the moment we arrived at his place it started drizzling and it did not stop raining for next four days to come. Here I am writing from Kaushik’s village home in Jhargram. Its night. Light has come after nine hours. I have cooked six packets of maggie with peas and potato. We both will eat it all tonight. Kaushik has gone to get McDowell’s for himself. Its my last night. We are partying. Meanwhile, I posted that letter to M. Something happened. Let me share this. it was magical – I am fortunate to have spent a memorable time during west Bengal monsoons. The blue sky behind the clouds had slept and drizzling took a break from firmly...

One Monsoon in Bengal – I

by Narayan Kaudinya

Monsoons are coming, Or are they ? They say that this year it’ll not rain but the skies are going to weep. Clouds have arrived two weeks early. Even the universe knows, that this time children are angry, they are not participating in anything. All are quiet and vulnerable. Few years ago, i travelled through Rural Bengal once in majestic Indian Monsoons. Being there it felt like my soul grew while in only seeing the earth showing her abundance, her happiness. So much went inside me then that i had to write a letter to a friend who sat far. Not to tell her as such, but to learn myself what was going. –– Clouds have arrived, I knew it ended right there with this photograph. I realised home is calling. Silda Football Ground West Bengal Rain was never far behind. This happened to be that moment of my journey. This tree felt home away from home. Travels have not been too comfortable but its liberating to learn that i could come to west bengal at this...