RASIKA

The Forgotten Pilgrimage of Navaras

“We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.”

— Khalil Gibran

In everyday life, in our daily struggle to survive and thrive, there are a few moments worth pausing, relaxing, and appreciating. What are those? When we are younger, we are eager to grow older; when young, we chase something; and when time slips by, we make failed attempts to remain young. In all that journey from birth to death, we are chasing something.

But in that chase, there are moments that seem to take away our breath  when we are closer to death, when we witness beauty in its purest form, something that touches our senses and enters our heart. The mind stops reasoning, the heart pounds, and the soul connects with that phenomenon. And at the dusk of our lives, we again relive those moments as fond memories.

But ultimately, it’s nothing but a life well-lived  when the heart, mind, and soul are truly connected. Those moments and sensory experiences gave us something beyond the senses. They gave us a glimpse of eternity. The Navarasas, the nine emotions that make us human, awakened the true human within us.

Life is nothing but keeping that human nature alive, moment by moment. A soul that enters the human form comes with infinite possibilities, but this is really difficult because the nail that hits our coffin is struck into our mental faculties in our growing years  by the system, in the name of the system. They gave us cute names to tame the wild spirit within us.

A group of men and women in a particular region, at a particular time, decides how we can function throughout life based on where and in which family we are born. But here comes Rasika.

A soul nourished by the Raseshwari  none other than the Earth. The one responsible for all fragrances, emotions, and colors that flow within us. She flows within you irrespective of gender, color, caste, religion, or social status. She is the building block of our very existence  flowing in every cell, drinking every thread of sunlight, each drop of water.

Whatever is possible, she does all of it  dancing her way through every body, touching our souls. They are here on a journey of their own, and she blesses them with joy. Are you scared that enjoying life to the fullest is a sin? Are you afraid of desire or of the demons hiding within your mind? She is nothing but pure and eternal bliss  of which we are all rightful owners. All of us are made of bliss, and whenever it overflows, she is expressed in those moments.

“Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity, and you are the mirror.”

— Khalil Gibran

Those moments  either spent in quietness or with loved ones  become our fond memories. But she resides in every moment, in every soul. It’s just that we must care to manifest it in its fullest possibility. Nature, the body, and the senses are all meant to mature at some point and then return to their seed state.

That is the law of Prakriti. But in each state, beauty manifests in her own way. When we keep the baggage aside  the dogmas, biases, training  and consider ourselves travelers, we tune into her frequency without prejudice. We become the receivers of the vast force flowing through us. The sacred pilgrimage begins when we enjoy with all the senses yet remain aware that we are just travelers, given a chance to witness the grand drama. We experience it for a short while, then take our exit with no regrets, only bliss.

“The significance of man is not in what he attains, but rather in what he longs to attain.”— Khalil Gibran

Rasika is that Nayika, that girl or lady you may have seen in your lifetime. A person without a label. A truly free spirit on a journey of self-exploration, without shame or guilt attached. She might not fit into your moral compass, but somewhere down the line, she has touched your soul. Somewhere you may have felt that same pang in your heart. Yes! I am also like her. Don’t forget that feeling, because the same flow is within you.

Rasika doesn’t belong to time; she slips between centuries like the fragrance between petals. Her dance is not bound to rhythm or ritual; it is the pulse of existence itself. In every sigh of the wind, in every tear that knows no reason, she reveals herself. When someone dares to love without calculation, or weeps without shame, she awakens. Rasika is that moment when duality

collapses  when the body and the soul, the lover and the beloved, the seer and the seen become one. To walk with Rasika is to walk the thin line between madness and liberation. She whispers that beauty is not a possession but a revelation, a fleeting miracle meant to be witnessed, not owned. She teaches that the senses are not chains but gateways  each taste, touch, and sound a key to the infinite. Those who dare to feel deeply are her disciples; those who fear their own intensity are the ones still waiting at her temple gates.

And when the night deepens, when silence takes over the mind, Rasika appears not as a person but as a presence of the soft hum beneath creation. She is in the lover’s breath, in the poet’s pen, in the painter’s trembling hand. She is the forgotten pilgrimage within each of us, a journey not toward a shrine, but back into our own unguarded heart. To remember Rasika is to remember ourselves, the part of us that never forgot how to feel, how to love, how to simply be.

“God’s beauty is in the smile of a simple act, in the kindness of a stranger, in the cup of tea shared between weary souls.”— Khalil Gibran : Divinity in daily life

Muse : K Raginee Yogesh

Words & Images : Yogesh Kardile

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