Linda: Taj Mahal – Feb. 8

Taj Mahal – Feb. 8

When one says that one is going to India, the first image that comes to everyone’s mind is the Taj Mahal, one of the Wonders of the World. Indeed, many travel to this amazing country primarily to visit this monument. Being a person who often prefers the less acclaimed sites, I had mixed feelings about coming to Agra. The Taj Mahal is a tomb. It is a tomb in commemoration of a devoted love between the King of much of India, Shah Jahan, and his beloved wife who had died in childbirth, bearing their fourteenth child. Into its design and construction, Shah Jahan poured his soul, his art, and his wealth (much to the chagrin of his son, who, shortly thereafter took over the kingdom from his poet father, locking his father away in the glorious Agra Fort Palace where, until his death, he gazed across the river at the tomb of his beloved).

So much has been said about the glories of the Taj, so many photographs. Though everyone who has been has said it was worth seeing, I wondered. It seems I had seen, through photographs and film, all the moods and angles of this monument.

Words cease. The world stops. Gazing at the Taj, looking from its gates across the lawns and gardens, the pools of water reflecting light, a vision. A pearl drops from heaven and sits just above the earth. It is neither of this world or the next, but seemingly hovers, lightly, iridescently, in graceful perfection. One sits, neither here nor there, transfixed in time, surpassing, surpassing all expectation. Pure contentment and peace is this abode – more than a testament to love, but to Love. A vision to hold onto, to become part of, to turn inward, anywhere and always.