Discovering that the Full Moon always rises as the Sun sets.
Mumbai 1986 (Bombay as it was still called then)
pink balloons at the iconic Gateway to India
From here I took a boat from the quay, across the bay, over to Elephanta Island
5th-century rock-cut caves, dedicated to the worship of Shiva
climbing the steep, stone steps past the vendors and monkeys to enter the cool, shadowed interior of the basalt caves.
goggle, jaw agape in awe…the Trimurti, a huge, three-headed bust of Shiva
Nataraja, Shiva as the cosmic dancer, dancing the world into being, crushing the demon dwarf of ignorance, Apasmara underfoot
the Ardhanarishvara panel— a depiction of Shiva as half-man, half-woman (split down the center with his consort Parvati), representing the synthesis of masculine and feminine energies.
pockmarks on the stone—damage left behind centuries later when Portuguese soldiers used the images within the sacred caves as target practice. heathen. other peoples gods.
It was a Sunday, the locals there on a day trip, large extended family picnics, tiffin tins bearing creamy, spice stewed curries… kids pell mell running around, all the boys playing cricket.
The return trip back across the water, the engine cuts out, we are adrift in the stillness of the bay
many of the young boys gather round, clamouring, they become convinced I am one of, else at least, the spitting image of an Australian cricketer
Jeff Thomson? Geoff Marsh? Greg Matthews? they squabble over precisely which one… our physiognomies pleasingly vague and similar to the locals eye and sensibility.
As the red sun dips into the western horizon of the Arabian Sea, the massive, luminous full moon rises simultaneously in the east over the Mumbai skyline.
Amongst the hubbub, here at the center, stillness
a fulcrum: Sun going down, nestling deeper as huge gawp full moon rises.
It is ever thus Full Moon always rises at Sunset
from first principles, a simple scientific realisation, but something I had never appreciated or known before
the simplicity of cosmic alignment, the moon lit by the suns rays has to be directly opposite it when it appears full
at all other times the light is at oblique angles
grok good, harmony and beauty, the cosmos reels and wheels, we rest, eternally seated below