Is this what bliss feels like?

I have never understood what bliss is. I had a feeling today which is hard to describe. May be that’s how bliss feels like. Let me try to explain.

Basic level – You find doing something good and you feel happy about it. Eg. Painting, singing etc.

Next level – You might find something amazing and might be in awe of it. Eg. Seeing a beautiful palace, listening to a superb song or singer.

Next level – You are not just in awe. It’s beyond that. You are extremely happy that you are getting to experience it. It’s no more about the person or thing you are in awe about. It’s about you. It’s your experience of it that is making you immensely happy and satisfied. May be this is what is called bliss.

That’s the best way I can explain it. It’s like the feeling you get when you walk out of an amazing music concert or play. No particular song was special. The entire experience was special and satisfying.

I felt it today when I went to the Ranakpur Jain temple. The sculptures was beyond explanation. Beautiful is an understatement. The very fact that I was there and seeing and experiencing it made me feel extremely happy. The feeling lingered with me for a good 3 hours even after I left the place. Bliss!!

The temple is a very peaceful place. Even though there was some crowd in the temple, something about it was instantly calming me when I entered it. It looked very beautiful from the outside. But the inside, it’s another world.

What you are seeing in the image above is not some crochet work. It’s carving on stone. This is what you see on the ceiling of the temple as soon as you enter. The intricate carving in marble is just mind blowing. It looks like a recursive pattern woven around each other. Zoom in to see better.

The temple was built in the 15th century and it took 50 years to build. It is built with the concept of four. It’s called Chaturmukha Dharana Vihara. It has four entrances. Each have four main central areas. The four entrances are in alignment with the four directions (NEWS). It’s all made of white marble with exquisite and intricate carvings.

The temple has 1444 pillars. Each pillar is carved with intricate detail. And no two pillars are similar. Each have a different pattern or deity. Just standing in a corner and seeing the pillars in all directions gave me goosebumps.

While the temple is filled with intricate and beautiful carvings some carvings make you feel they are not from this world.

This structure looks like this from all the four sides. The mere shape of it is extremely beautiful. It has small carvings of all the Thirtankaras in a sitting posture. I will let the picture speak for itself.

Palitana is a place in Gujarat which is sacred to Jains. It is said to be the place where the first Thirtankara Adinath meditated. It is a hill and has around 900 temples. In the above sculpture, on the top you see two people sitting below a tree and meditating. That is Adinath. The remaining is all the other Thirtankaras. This is carved from a single piece of marble.

This is the carving of another Thirtankara Parshwanath. This carving shows Parshwanath and 1000 snake heads forming an umbrella above him. What you see like a thread pattern around are the snakes intertwined with each other. Isn’t it amazing? And this is a stone sculpture. Not from wax.

The pillars have some extremely intricate and beautiful carvings. Some are simple. Some have pattens. Some have figures on them and some are a combination of all.

One of the pillars also has an inscription from Akbar. During his time, he wanted to have peace with Jains and the inscription conveys it. However Aurangzeb destroyed the temple, broke it down and made it into a haunted place for more than 200 years. It was later restored in the 1900s.

There are four main halls in the temple for the four entrances. The pillars and the roof of the halls make you feel you are in another world. I am just going to add the images. You can see it for yourself.

No amount of photographs did justice to what I was seeing. I reached at 4pm and the temple closed at 5pm. Had I know what I was supposed to expect I would have gone earlier.

There were some other very beautiful structures carved in the walls and ceiling. It can be used as an inspiration for designs on wood or cloth. I wonder what these guys smoked when they did all this. Or may be it’s a divine intervention that happened here.

After a while I forgot that this is all carvings on stone. I forgot that I am in a man made structure. I felt like I have been transported to some place outside this world. And when that feeling kicked in, the experience was surreal.

There are two other temples and a small pillar in the temple complex. It is said that the main temple took a lot of time to build. So the sculptors made a smaller temple to pray to while the main temple was built. Even the small temples are so beautiful with superb carvings.

After a while I was just enjoying the space and I was experiencing it and not just seeing it. It gets into you. It’s a feeling I cannot describe any better.

In my opinion, a visit to this place within your lifetime is a must. Forget the Taj Mahal marble. The marble in this temple transports you to a different world. It is divine and blissful.