In Search Of Spirituality With The Hyundai Tucson

The hardships of the past couple of years have put life into a better perspective. Our days in solitude have taught us to keep our near and dear ones close, enjoy what's good around us and most importantly -- find our spirituality. Blessed to have the other two in place, my quest to find spirituality began with a drive in the Hyundai Tucson, which has led me into the great Himalayas. 

Here, on top of the world, you have time and quiet to reflect on life. The pure air, clear sunlight and the white glaze of snow help you get one with nature and be one with your thoughts. But, this is when I realised that spirituality is not about leaving the world behind, but making it a  better place. 

Our mighty soldiers find spirituality in sacrifice, making our lives safer. Inventors find spirituality in creating machines that make our lives simpler through technology, making us more comfortable. And of course, our places of worship aid us in our path to finding spirituality by giving us hope, and peace. But to find such a thing, we need not travel to the mountains, but simply, look around.

Closer to home, here in Maharashtra, stands an architectural marvel which defies human understanding. A feat so extraordinary that experts even today cannot accurately predict who built it, and more importantly - how it was built. I am of course - talking about the Kailasa Temple, a technological gem of the Ellora caves. 

This three-story high temple dedicated to Lord Shiva has been carved into a mountain. Not built from one, but carved in. And, they started from the top and carved their way to the bottom. If it still hasn't hit you, what an incredible achievement this is - know that this temple has complex drainage systems, stairs, compounds, balconies and bridges. All things that had to be planned methodically and to perfection before a single hammer was lifted. And yes, legend has it that this was indeed carved with chisels and hammers.

While technology today helps us create marvels which help improve our lifestyle, this is estimated to have been done between the seventh and 10th centuries. Planned, and executed in less than 18 years. And to do so - the people building it would have had to remove about 4,00,000 tonnes of stone - equivalent to a modern-day skyscraper. 

This means - removing about 60 tonnes a day, and four to five tonnes of rock every hour, and moving the debris to a different location. By hand. And you know what, the removed stone is nowhere to be found. To put this in better perspective, the weight of Burj Khalifa is about five lakh tonnes and the mass of the Statue of Unity is close to 67,000 tonnes. 

Experts unanimously agree that this, even with all the technology and tools available to us today, is hard to achieve. Hence, some claim that the people building this temple had extraterrestrial help, while others believe they gained strength from their spirituality, from their worship of Shiva - God of destruction. 

Whatever you may choose to believe, this place still leaves modern-day architects in awe and with more questions than answers. And these answers can only be found in one’s spirituality. How -- by coming together, we can create marvels that can leave generations inspired. It's coming to places like these that you realise how insignificant we are alone, and how together, we can create wonders that even to science, can feel like fiction. 

Driving back in the Tucson, I am sitting on ventilated seats, with the aircon on and the car scanning the surroundings for hazards. Literally cocooned in the lap of comfort. Everything is made possible with the cutting edge of technology we know today. But I still can't stop thinking about the skill, technology and determination those people had, to carve out an entire three-storey building from a mountain. They probably were way more advanced than we are today. But cars like the Tucson, they give me hope that we are getting there, again.