Grounded and Soaring

Rishi Khanna | Engineer, Industrialist

I’ve always associated stones with a sense of calm. They ground me. As a kid during summers in Pahalgam, I would play with pebbles for hours by the stream side looking for one that was unusually smooth or had layered hues.

Then in Gulmarg I would listen intently to the sound of pebbles scraping and slipping against the hooves of my horse as I tried to trot and canter but never quite gallop. Hadn’t heard of ASMR then but stones and their sounds soothed me nevertheless.

Was so fascinated when my dad explained to me that millennia back this little pebble I held in my hand was a giant boulder. So many spiritual themes embedded in that little piece of information. Something being a symbol of change yet also of permanence for example.

If one way of thinking about spirituality is to be able to see oneness in being grounded and in soaring high to the heavens - then what’s better than a stone to remind us of that.