By Vijay Phanshikar :
     Evening arrives
     when a tired afternoon
     says ‘goodbye’ ...
     ... twilight !
- Self 

AFTERNOON’S bright glow gives way to evening’s twilight -- rather hesitant, rather indolent, rather even indifferent ! Every moment, the inner sprawl of the house starts assuming a darker shade. In a few extended minutes, the rooms’ decor starts showing only highlights. The distances -- between the door and the statue in the corner, between the centre table and the book shelf, between the showcase and painting on the wall -- start disappearing. Tucked in a recliner in the corner near the bookshelf, I take in that play of darkening shadows basking in twilight, enjoying its enveloping shroud.

 

 Prose  

 

It is time to switch on lights, perhaps. Yet, the twilight’s haze is so, so ethereal that the idea gets dismissed. In the quiet moments of early evening, I sense that the distance between me and the inanimate house is dissolving. This is my space -- bathing in the inexplicable, magical twilight glow ! The room is dark enough. I cannot see my arms and legs. But I do sense of my presence, all right. I am almost the room. In the darkening room, I slip into meditation. I start sensing certain light within me and in the room -- the light that is not there. Is this the inner light the sages talk about? Where is it coming from? That light has a bluish shade that one does not find in one’s paint box. It is momentary -- that light -- but also momentous ! Just a blob appears on the mind’s screen.

 

It expands to fill the inner space with a quiet brilliance. One has never seen such a glow before -- emerging from my cocoon of deeply darkening twilight. A wordless spiritual bliss flowers somewhere deep within one’s self. In that quietitude, possibly, the mind is travelling from certain darkness to certain light -- without definition. How I wish it stays on forever ! How I wish it keeps glowing within me all the time ! Of course, that light -- the inner glow -- is often there. I am the unfortunate one not to see or sense it often. Possibly, that quiet evening bathed in twilight is an exception ! n