Sitting inside my room, my mind wandered hearing the sound of rain. It was a sudden heavy downpour tempering into a steady beat that took me back over the years to a drive. I was on my way to a place near Sirsi, located in Karnataka.  The evening sky was slowly casting its shadow across the luscious green forest on either side of the road. I asked the driver to stop for a while and stepped out. I took a deep breath inhaling the purest of pure air and held it within me for a few seconds slowly releasing it back into surrounding space that I had borrowed it from. Pranayama  breathe in and out – feel the prana,  the self… that binds us to our body.  Prana that helps each cell vibrate to a pulse count.

As I counted my pulse beat, I tuned into a chorus of crickets chirping. I could not see them. I could only hear them from amidst the bushes, perhaps hundreds. It was an outburst in unison that suddenly divided itself into two groups and chirped in successive count just like a musical ‘sawal jawab’. It sounded like a million percussionists performing to a cycle of ‘bols’ or phrases with emphasis at regular intervals in synchronised harmony of pulsating beats. The pattern repeated itself again and again as long as I stood there. Even as I left reluctantly, I could hear the chirping in my mind for a very long time. Yet another instance was when I was at Mahabalipuram on a full moon night. The family sat in silence on the beach as the full moon rose above the sea. The resonance of the waves increased gradually. We were lucky not to have artificial lights messing with the natural moon beam as we watched the tip of the foam inching closer. The movement of the waves like pranayama was breathing in and out. The moon beam danced across the foam in symphonic pattern as the waves rushed towards us. Rhythmic patterns everywhere… if we seek we find and at times it is revealed most unexpectedly.

This is the universal rhythm of life that I am a part of, and that which exists within me. This is a realisation that came upon me whilst an Echo test was being conducted on a family member many years ago. I was shown the monitor capturing the beat of the heart and its movement. I sat in a trance slowly drawn towards the movement. It became a part of me, and in a flash a thought materialised; a realisation that all existence pulsates on the same beat, the same rhythm…  The crickets chirping, the rhythm and resonance of the waves, the wind, the swaying movement of trees, the heart-beat, the clock ticking…

Every being is united with this universal pulse. Humans, animals, birds, nature, the entire universe exists because of this metronomic beat of one-two, the universal laya. I have always believed that Intuitive space is the universal space of Knowledge and can be experienced in Silence. It teaches and guides if we seek. Intuitive space has always given answers and brought about an understanding that effortlessly falls into place.

by Pramila Lochan

Published in ‘The Little Book of Serendipity’ compiled by Anuradha Nalapat.