A VISIT TO THE SEA SHORE
Although Kanyakumari is not a long distance from my town we visited it only last summer. I just had a fancy for it. Serene of course is the landscape where Saints find their abode. Serener still is the Southern tip where three oceans vie one another to wash the feet of the Motherland. The enchanted waves offer their howling prayers from dawn to dusk and from dusk to dawn untiringly. Thousands of people join the prayers of the waves at the shore.
It was dawn – the most fascinating moment when the scarlet disc of the Sun-god rises from the dark blue ocean like a shield – turning brighter and brighter till one cannot face its glamour and retires. We too came back from the point of sun rise. The beauty and glory is forever embedded on the canvas of my mind. Whenever I see the horizon ablaze – my own horizon gleams with joy and wonder.
I am an ordinary boy. Still I can visualize-thousands of miles away from the Everest, the crown of the Mother land, Kanyakumari sits like a Yogini measuring the depth – deep sea before and vast humanity behind her. From her bosom sprang Vivekanand, the saint who measured the depth of human soul and established its entity with ‘Paramatman’.
I had earlier visited sea shore at Chaupati in Mumbai. But people go there to taste ‘Bhel-puri’ and many other dishes. They satisfy the demand of the palate. At Kanyakumari it is a soul stirring drama. At a little distance where the sea is a bit peaceful we got a steamer for Vivekanand Rock Memorial. It is built on a sea rock on which the Swami meditated for a few days. Waves splashed over us. By the time we reached the steps of the pious building we were all wet with the saltish water. The Memorial hall had a full size statue of Vivekanand not to be worshipped but to be followed.
From the balcony of the Memorial I saw the vast ocean on all the sides. The water of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean mingled to be one. It seemed it was a call for unity from nature itself. On the back was the channel we had crossed. Now it was time to go back-to be washed by the waves again and to cherish the memory of the day for ever in my heart.