Book of the week-2

I found this book in Kochi air port recently. An unusual book both by its title and content!

I have often been asked by friends about the topic of my photography. Most of my photographs are of birds, flowers, children and other scenes in nature. 

It is true that I carry a camera with me most of the time. I am not used to taking phots with the mobile phone and the camera in the phone I use is not of good quality. So I depend on the camera.

I have been rather serious about photography for the last thirty years or so. A few thousands of pictures of children stay in the store, mostly slides of children whom I wanted to follow up during my neuro-developmental examination. I do not access them now.

But since using digital photography in the last twenty years, I moved on to nature, sights and scenes and the present collection is easy to access.

I take time to revisit the photos and I feel inspired by something about which I write in this photoblog for the last seven years. 

But his book gives year another dimension about photography. It is all about 'taking pictures with a deeper vision'!

For the last two days, while driving to work, I noticed a solitary crane in the paddy field soaked in rain and still looking for its feed. Although I could not take its photograph due to heavy rain, this sight stayed with me for long. To me it was a symbol of the story of thousands feeling distressed by rain and yet having to fend for themselves. As this sight captivated me and connected with a reality beyond my normal thought or consideration, I realised that what Philip Richter wrote in this book is  a reality worth pondering upon. Some sights and scenes can so captivate a person that it begins to influence and change perspectives. 

For him spirituality is all about a new consciousness of self and God. 

This happens at a depth level that the message transcends from a fact that occupies the mind. There is an awakening within to move to another level of awareness about dimensions which hitherto did not seem to exist. This book is all about living with consciousness at the soul level. We see beyond the superficial when an awakened consciousness dawns on us.

The book helps the reader to find a greater purpose than the obvious we are used to.  This movement from the need driven existence, to the possibility of living purpose guided is what book calls the reader to consider! It is when we live for a purpose we can find the meaning that soul is aspiring for. 

I watched yesterday the gardener dressing the hedge outside the college canteen. He cut four inches lower than the current height of the plants. He told me that there is  more 'life in the plant beneath what is on the surface'! He allowed what was beneath to come to the surface by cutting deeper. 

It is this depth consciousness which can redeem us from thinking ill of others and feeling provoked by others. I visited the national TV channels yesterday. What disturbed me was the hate language of intimidation, challenging and arrogance of projecting some political leaders others judgementally!

We are losing the art of living from inside and depth consciousness. 

I valued reading this book, it is all about seeing beyond what is obvious!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)