I am the Vishnu of the Adityas, the glorious sun among heavenly bodies; Marichi among the winds, and the moon among planets. — The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 10, verse 21
July 5, 2020
It was a quiet bright night. The full moon of Guru Purnima was shining brightly, intermittently obscured by dark grey clouds. Many years ago … on one such night … Veda Vyāsa—the author of Mahabharata—was born. Jupiter—often referred to as the Guru Graha (guru of all cosmic entities)—was close to the moon and shining brightly as well. My mind was calm … a calmness that I’ve never experienced before.
In the morning however, especially during the time of the lunar eclipse while I was meditating, a strange feeling had engulfed me. Not sure if “strange” is the right word, but that’s the first word that comes to my mind, when I think of the beautiful potpourri of feelings. My mind was like a swing with Lord Krishna on it.
The twenty brave Indian soldiers who died fighting on the line of duty in Galwan was on my mind. When I started meditating, there was a certain sadness … a heaviness on my heart that I was unable to fathom. However, as I went deeper into meditation … time and space seemed to collapse. I was in Galwan arm in arm with the soldiers … dancing on summer snow.
The soldiers cheered me up! They asked, “Why this sadness? We died Abhimanyu’s death. We died protecting our Bharat Mata (Mother India). What can be more glorious than that? Just like Abhimanyu, we’ve killed more than a hundred warriors of the enemy. Be joyous and know this … there is no greater honor for a soldier than to die while protecting their motherland. Go home and let everyone know … that we’re always guarding the border … and we always will.”
I don’t know if anything of that was real or if my mind was playing tricks on me. I looked up at the moon … and imagined the moon-like face of Abhimanyu. He died on the 13th day of The Mahabharata war … just before a lunar eclipse. He was the bravest of them all … and so were the 20 of Galwan.
in memory of the 20 brave sons of India …
- Col B Santosh Babu (Hyderabad)
- Nb Sub Nuduram Soren (Mayurbhanj)
- Nb Sub Mandip Singh (Patiala)
- Nb Sub Satnam Singh (Gurdaspur)
- Hav K Palani (Madurai)
- Hav Sunil Kumar (Patna)
- Hav Bipul Roy (Meerut)
- Nk Deepak Kumar (Rewa)
- Sep Rajesh Orang (Birbhum)
- Sep Kundan Kumar Ojha (Sahibganj)
- Sep Ganesh Ram (Kanker)
- Sep Chandrakanta Pradhan (Kandhamal)
- Sep Ankush (Hamirpur)
- Sep Gurbinder (Sangrur)
- Sep Gurtej Singh (Mansa)
- Sep Chandan Kumar (Bhojpur)
- Sep Kundan Kumar (Saharsa)
- Sep Aman Kumar (Samstipur)
- Sep Jai Kishore Singh (Vaishali)
- Sep Ganesh Hansda (East Singhbhum)
