Sydney

Just returning from a glorious trip from Sydney, in the Land down under. It was fun! Specially meeting my kids and grandkids! Weather was cool! But people were warm! Read a charming book: ‘In a sunburned country’ by Bill Bryson. I came to be introduced to the Ancient culture of The Aborigines.

The Natives believed that every ‘rock tree and waterhole has deep religious meaning going back to primordial dreamtime’ be they kangaroos, lizards, honey ants, they sang themselves and the world into existence, an aborigine’s country is her Mecca, her family tree, her cathedral and her tomb. Was amazed at their depth of thought!

Aborigines believed that the word was first perceived as a ‘Dream’ or Life is a ‘dreaming’ or We all have our own dream, that we manifest. My apologies, if I am not clear. But it is a deep philosophy to put into words and maybe I have not understood it correctly.

I perceive that it is close to what the Hindus say. Life is a ‘Leela’ (Divine Play) And each person’s ‘Dharma’ is his own to pursue. 

Visited the ‘Blue Mountains’ The Blue Mountains owe the bluish color to the eucalyptus oil drops that the trees contain. What a sight! Reminded me of the Grand Canyon. Nature makes one feel close to the Maker!

An inscription on the mountains reads: 

Welcome to the Gedumbah from the Elders of the Gudungurra people. The Gundungurra landscape is respected by the Anangus, Gooris, Koories. Mugaddah dreaming is told in the Constellation of Pleaides and Orion. Mugaddah affects people’s consciousness for its arrival indicates a time of great planetary change. Ancient stone engravings at the cliff edges map the passages of stars in the night sky. These dreaming stories belong to the traditional custodians and are told on different levels. Traditional law and custom prohibit the telling of the full story of the seven stories to the uninitiated people.

Please do not ask me to interpret and explain the words. And to think that during the 20s and 30s, the Whites took the young aborigines forcibly from their homes, and educated them into their ‘Way of  Thinking’. to teach love thus to the Peace loving Elders and Custodians of Ancient faiths? Makes me wince. Yet Kryon states: No one owns God. This humanity is one family (Hindus say Vasudeva Kutumbakam), one earth, each with different tasks. No one tribe owns the essence of God. The understanding of this is part of the grand solution for all challenges currently on the planet.

I saw ‘The 3 Sisters’ Rock formation and was granted the courage to walk into one of them. Younger people, visiting, chickened out.

‘Australia’s story begins with Captain Cook and his ship HMS Endeavour in Botany Bay in 1770. I read that the local Aborigines did not react to the docking of the ship and the entrance of the Whites. They continued doing whatever it is that they were doing without getting distracted. Visited the ‘Rocks’ the place where the convicts landed, erected tents and built Sydney.

Am told that today, their off spring are highly respected. Most of the prisoners were accused of petty crimes. They went on to build a nation! God! Talk of turning a difficulty into an opportunity! It was during the gold rushes of the 1850s that the largest gold nugget was found. Australia’s convict settlement converted into a thriving colony. ‘Australia is the world’s largest island and the only nation that began as a prison! The first faint signs of life have come from Australia. Indigenous stories talk of a Rainbow Serpent that slithered across Australia and created mountains and rivers. Hindus believe that the world rests on a snake.

Visited the Northern Beaches, Fisherman’s Market, Royal Easter Show, a play at the Opera, a Bahai Temple, churches, Cathedrals, Hunter Valley, Bondai Beach and so many other wonderful spots. Took photographs under the bridge of the most beautiful harbor I have seen. The Opera house ‘squatting cheerfully beside it’ is a landmark! Enjoyed Sydney’s blue water and gliding sail boats.

Left Sydney and my children with a heavy heart but tears of joy. There was one small nagging desire left. Had wanted to see the Ayers Rock. And you know what? as we flew over the ‘Sunburned country’ the pilot pointed it out to us! This is probably the only time, that I welcomed the captain of the aircraft’s intrusion into my sleepy and content thoughts!