Long Walks On Leafy Streets

5/9/2015 Kansas Ave at Sheridan St NE, Washington, DC
Yesterday evening I went for a walk around the neighborhood. The sun was going down and the streets were very quiet. My mind was also very quiet and peaceful. I had had a restful day after dropping off my parents to stay with my sister on Thursday and also finishing the grant proposal on Friday. It was the first time in the past few weeks I had had a day like that and I could feel the difference very distinctly.

I walked on Eastern Avenue to the main “Plaza” of Takoma Park. Eastern Ave intersects with Laurel Ave and Carroll Ave here. This is where they have their weekly Farmer’s Market. The houses along the way were bedecked with blooming Azaleas and hibiscus plants. In front of our home we have a big pink azalea bush that is in full bloom now. At least I think it is a pink azalea.
People were out and about, enjoying the evening, having dinner at the restaurants both old and new around the “ Plaza” and having dessert at the little ice cream / gelato shop. On one of the benches a little boy was sitting on his big sister’s shoulders while she was trying to look at something on her shoulder. It reminded me of Hema and me when we were young. Although she was younger than me she is still like a big sister to me. It was adorable to see them play although the girl didn’t seem to be enjoying it very much.

After stopping by the nearby ATM I walked back home on 2nd street. By now it was darker. The cherry blooms that I showed in my post from April 12 had fallen off and now the trees were fully green. I started reciting the Sanskrit shlokas that I had started singing to the little one. I am developing a newfound appreciation for our ancient scriptures and their verses. They are meant to have a profound yet subtle effect on the psyche, to elevate it above the material and bring it to the level of the sublime, just like the Gregorian chants or chants from other religions. One verse from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says “Everything is the infinite (the universal being) and comes from the infinite. Taking the infinite from the infinite one is left with the infinite” (my translation). It is a very deep, almost mathematical statement. I am amazed at how science has shown that the universe as we know it – and there may be other universes that we don’t know about! – Has a finite beginning and ending in time. The Vedas describe a universe that gets created, then dies out, and then gets created again, in a cycle of existence just like all living beings on this planet. The entire universe gets created and destroyed within a period of about 9 billion years. Although today we know that our universe started with a big bang about 14 billion years ago, I wonder how the sages of ancient India were able to come up with such theories that are remarkably close to the current state of knowledge without the aid of modern science. There are some cosmological models today that predict the universe would eventually contract, leading eventually to another big bang.

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