The Moon And Its Many Aspects

From the way our bodies work, to how emotionally aware and intuitive we feel, so much can be derived from lunar movements. Bandana Tewari waxes eloquent on the moon and its many aspects

- Bandana Tewari

Imagine the full moon as the opening of the first cosmic window that makes us question the nature of reality and our intergalactic relationship with the universe. Whom amongst us hasn’t looked up at a blazing ball, a blood moon, and wondered about our place and purpose on earth? The moon is not only poetic in embodiment, she is transformational—if only we listen to her call for deep contemplation. Take Sharad Purnima, a full moon at the time of the Indian harvest, a season of abundance and gratitude for nature’s bounty. It is said that Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, glides from house to house, in the glow of the full moon, asking us a simple question: “Ko jaagarti?” or “Who is awake?” in Sanskrit.

Now, this idea of wakefulness is not the ordinary circadian pattern of sleeping and waking; it is an invocation to spiritual awakeness. “Who is awake?” is a question posed to us, the finite beings, asking us if we are in tune with the orchestra of life and the symphony of the universe. Are we truly awake to experience deep within us the interconnectedness from microscopic to macroscopic, from the infinitesimal to astral, and recognise that we are, what the Vietnamese monk and ‘father of mindfulness’ Thich Nhat Hanh called the ‘interbeings’.