Winter is here..

[Vinodh Valluri]

Not a lot of people like this season. I myself claim to have a complicated love-hate relationship with Winter, loving the delightful snow-scapes, and grunting at the surprisingly deep reach of those icy winds. Too bad, it takes a lot of determination to wake up early enough to appreciate the depth and clarity of mornings' freshest thoughts written in the sobering gray sky.. There is no real beauty in this world, but merely infinite perceptions of it. The bare trees, skimpily dressed in snow, in penance for some unknown sins, standing Stoic in the unforgiving winds form part of one such definition. Every landscape clad in the robes of this new starkness, rural, sub-urban, or downtown, represents the pinnacle of this beautifully solemn season.

Solemnity itself, however finds its disciples, if you will, in every aspect of winter's loathed entity. There should be strong reasons why the wintry chill of Himalayan peaks is a lure to sages who seek places devoid of the restless, endless, passions of a life lived amongst crowds. In the solitude of a snow clad mountain peak, one may listen to the voices of silence. Standing on a forest floor on a December night, looking through the frail branches at a spread of stars, one may connect again with Nature, meekly braving Her worst emotion - a cold, distant, colorless anonymity.

Anonymous exclamations would be worth discarding without analysis, but Henry David Thoreau, a reasonably smart fellow, examines in 'Walden' that all mundane endeavors - work, food, shelter, and clothing etc, are centered around maintaining the bodily heat. How hard is it, really, to keep oneself warm? Winter is after all, just another season.. Now, no reason for panic just because the miniscule planet of ours, the Earth moved barely a few intergalactic inches away from the Sun in their ceaseless cosmic dance? How hard it is, indeed, to keep warm.. If it were easy, Hell really should be frozen and thick with ice, and not a burning inferno as often assumed...

Scientists know that outer space is bone chilling cold, and heat exists only in stars, and the planets that are briefly blanketed in the warmth of their suns. We have fortunately noted that all energy in the universe is constant, so logically, there is always a means to get warm. Unfortunately, we have not yet discovered whom all the heat belongs to, since everyone (even the dead stones on the ground) is gaining and losing heat all the time... At this junction, a different strain of earthlings observe that the Ultimate Source of all energy, all 'heat', is God - the Supreme Ultimate Truth. Well, don't turn the pages skeptically already, all it takes to have faith is a single snowflake - such a simple, delicate, joyous, beautifully unique artistry humbly bespeaks a Supreme Architect, a Supreme Energy Conservationist, a Supreme Scientist...

We are too quick to condemn such theses as mere sentimentalism, or ill-advised inquiry. How is it that in the eons of discovery, we have not yet sought the key question? "Where does my living heat come from, ultimately?" As is it often said, faith and love are not 'arguments' that could be logically dismembered or constructed... However, religion is more than just 'blind faith'. What the world has tossed aside in the name of secularism is not just blind practice of meaningless superstitions, but a wealth of answers, remaining out of reach to the inquisitive seekers. After all, Ultimate knowledge is not just the mechanics of heat, of how we are keeping alive, but the essence of why we are living at all... A very important question. Just something to think about before you step outside into the chill..

[REJI JOHN]

A very important question. Just something to think about before you step outside into the chill..