second-order questions

Excerpt from the book The Four Horsemen

Maybe faith and belief in divinity and an afterlife, even if founded on claims for which there can be no evidence, may nonetheless be considered a force for good?

Maybe they offer moral guides and ethical codes without which the world would be a cruel and riotous place? Much of what we live by is metaphor. Why shouldn't we accept a religious narrative irrespective of its truth - as a framework in this relativist culture cursed by the disappearance of structure, hierarchy, and meaning?

And what about spiritual, the numinous immanence we all feel? Can you really deny that there is a realm which reason and numbers and microscopes cannot penetrate?

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Open inquiry, free thinking and the unfettered exchange of ideas yield real and tangible fruit. 

Srik

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flight of a hornbill

When I am in the woods, there is always much to wonder. One can certainly expect a lot of surprises and nature will never disappoint anyone. No, I am not talking about a tiger sighting here. Yes, there are so many other tiny-little-things that can thrill me if I observe carefully. The wonderment of sighting a new thing is always a beautiful experience.  I still remember a lot of such beautiful moments in the past; be it sighting flying squirrels or sighting a Himalayan brown bear or a beautiful orchid up on a tree. I may or may not have clicked a picture, and it does not matter as much. What matters is that there is always something to look for when in nature. 

One such beautiful sighting made me feel ecstatic during my recent monsoon trip towards North-West Karnataka. After seeing the magnificent magod waterfalls, I was at Jenkal gudda photographing those huge valleys cut across by the gorgeous Bhedti river. While the river silently flows, there comes a great hornbill flying from one side of the valley to the other. It was a beautiful sight to see the hornbill crossing the valley and it was even magical because I was able to see it from a higher elevation. It took a long time to cross the valley and I was observing its flight for a long time till it completely crossed over. I was also lucky to get some pictures (of course not-so-good ones) of its flight. This one sighting was worth the trip this monsoon. 

Cheers,
Srik

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