Piping the Praises

Some folks have an amazing "eye". Like a blogger friend Magiceye.

He posted this picture as a part of his contribution to the ABC-Wednesday, this time for the letter X, something he notices in the natural setting of all the incense sticks and the unusual metal structure.

This is something he photographed atop Gilbert Hill in Andheri. Lighting and offering incense sticks is a common form of simple worship by casual visitors to temples here.

Of course, for those who do not trudge up and down hills frequently, this visual suggests something else too....


(Gilbert Hill is a 200 foot (90 m) monolith column of black basalt rock in Andheri (West), Mumbai.The rock has a sheer vertical face and was created when molten lava was squeezed out of the earth’s clefts during the Mesozoic Era about 65 million years ago.

According to experts, this rare geological phenomenon was the remnants of a ridge and had clusters of vertical columns in nearby Jogeshwari which were quarried off two decades ago. These vertical columns are similar to the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, and the Devil’s Post Pile National Monument in eastern California, USA.

Atop the rock column, two Hindu temples, the Gaodevi and Durgamata temples, set in a small garden, are accessed by a steep staircase carved into the rock. )



(photo by Deepak Amembal)


Heavenly
Multilimbed Gods,
kitted out
with shells, lotuses,
rotating death wheels ,
and maces,
spears in hand,
feet pressed
on the
Neck of Evil;

And simple
technical Gods,
standing in
a worship zone,
piping their praises
to the heavens
in the orange zone,
incense-full hands
some straight,
some leaning,
some falling across others,
but all of them
held up somehow
invoking
a simple
praise of the Lord....