It was past 1’O clock in the night. I was on the bed but sleep was not catching up. I did not see any sign of eye lids to get closed. I jumped out of the bed and went up to the terrace. The autumnal equinox passed few days ago but the sky was not yet clear. There was no sign to say it was an autumn night, the residue of monsoon clouds were all over the sky; seasonal imbalance inflating year by year. As the time on the wall clock was moving forward, my mind was going back to the days of early years in my hometown. The autumn nights were spectacular and splendid with clear skies. The kind of pleasure, delight, solace and consolation that nature, music, art, architecture, and literature give is immensely magical that no other thing can. The blooming mornings of spring, the refreshing evenings of summer after the sizzle, the drizzle on monsoon days, the frosty late nights and the misty early mornings of winter; and the starry and delightful autumn nights.
The autumnal full moon nights- clear skies with garland of stars and a delightful moonlight. There is ecstasy under the effulgence of celestial light. The river waters shine from the gleam of moonlight. The soothing voice of tides that touches dunes all along the river bank. The blessing of gentle breeze that blows from the meadow, from the grove, from the river stream. The heart fills with the joy, what more can it ask from the nature ?
The twinkling starts on a dark no moon autumn night ignite the mind, in such a darkness and in the absence of any light pollution with sky being completely clear one can see a faint band of light that stretches from horizon to horizon – the milky way, our own galaxy. There is a magical power in the darkness with faint glow of stars, it provokes to think, sometimes beyond our imaginative boundaries. Many of the stars are million light years far, some among those might have died million years back but their light still reaching to our eye and it would exist million more years. Every existence has a meaning and significance from macro celestial objects to micro organisms. In the 4% of known universe, our solar system, our planet, our own existence is not even a drop in the ocean but we traveled for ages, human evolution progressed for aeons. Human evolution started the moment man started thinking, perhaps it might have started with astronomical observance, the first science might be Astronomy. Few kilometers from my hometown there is a confluence of an eternal voice, the Bay of Bengal and an everlasting stream, the Godavari. I always wish to take a photograph with Bay of Bengal on one side, Godavari on the other and the Milky way stretch between the two on the background.
Full moon autumn nights give pleasure and delight to the heart and no moon nights give consciousnesses and wisdom to the mind.
Thanks to the human heart by which we love,
Thanks to the human mind by which we think,
Thanks to both by which we live in the glory of love and thought !