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2001 Gujarat earthquake:

On January 26, 2001 an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter
scale hit the state of Gujarat killing over 20,000 people. The
earthquake occurred at 8:40 in the morning and lasted for two
minutes. Several towns and villages were destroyed in the
catastrophe. Being close to the epicenter, Bhuj was among the
worst affected areas including Anjaar, Vondh and Bhachau.
Several buildings were damaged or destroyed in the quake. The
famous Swaminarayan temple in the city of Bhuj was also partially
damaged.
DESTUCTION CAUSED BY THE EARTHQUAKE

The final death toll in Kutch was 12,300. Bhuj, situated only 20
kilometres (12 mi) from the epicenter, was devastated.
Considerable damage also occurred in Bhachau and Anjar with
hundreds of villages flattened in Taluka of Anjar, Bhuj & Bhachau.
Over a million structures were damaged or destroyed, including

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many historic buildings and tourist attractions.[7]The quake

destroyed around 40% of homes, eight schools, two hospitals and
4 km of road in Bhuj and partly destroyed the city's
historic Swaminarayan temple and historic fort as well Prag
Mahal and Aina Mahal. In Ahmedabad, Gujarat's commercial capital
with a population of 5.6 million, as many as 50 multi-storied
buildings collapsed and several hundred people were killed. Total
property damage was estimated at $5.5 billion and rising
1950 Assam earthquake:
The Assam earthquake also known as the Medog earthquake occurred on
August 15, 1950 and had a magnitude of 8.6 on the Richter scale. The epicenter
was located at Rima in Tibet. The quake caused widespread destruction in both
Assam and Tibet. Over 1,500 people were killed in Assam alone. It was
considered to be among the ten largest earthquakes of 20th century.

DESTUCTION CAUSED BY THE EARTHQUAKE

At least 780 people killed and many buildings, Two thousand homes,
temples and mosques destroyed. Hardest hit is the Brahmaputra
Basin in NE India and In the Arbor Hills 70 villages were destroyed
with 156 casualties due to landslides.
1991 Uttarkashi earthquake

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On October 20, 1991 an earthquake measuring 6.1on the Richter

scale shook the districts of Uttarkashi,Chamoli and Tehrilocated in
the state of Uttarakhand. Over a thousand people were killed in
the quake and extensive damage was caused to property. The
tremors of the quake were felt up to Delhi.
DESTUCTION CAUSED BY THE EARTHQUAKE

The earthquake measured 6.8 on

the moment magnitude scale and occurred
within the main thrust system of
the Himalayas.[2] 1294 villages and more
than 300,000 people were affected with
the quake and 42,400 houses were
damaged.[3
Three Possibilities of My Self
Rupert Spira
The Known, the Knower and Knowing
From the Known to the Knower

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Thought considers Me to be a separate self, born into a world, moving around in
space and time and destined one day to disappear. As such thought considers Me
an object, a mixture of thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions, sharing their
limits and destiny.
In this way thought overlooks My essential nature and considers Me a body/mind a man or woman, tall, short, hungry, sad, happy, intelligent, twenty five years old,
etc. - that knows or experiences objects, others and the world. However, one
simple look at experience shows that I know the body/mind just as I know the
world. I am the Knower of experience; the body/mind is known.
Qualities of the Knower
I know thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions but am not Myself made out
of thought, feeling, sensation or perception and am therefore said to be empty,
silent, transparent. I am present and aware and therefore known as Awareness.
As such, thought likens Me to open, empty space in which all appearances arise.
Like physical space I am not affected by what does or doesnt take place within Me
and, therefore, peace is My nature. Peace is not a quality of Myself; it is Myself,
ever-present under all circumstances.
Like empty space I have no agenda with appearances. It makes no difference to Me
whether the mind is silent or not, whether the body is young, old, healthy or not,
nor what is happening in the world. I allow all appearances unconditionally and
impartially.
Thought likes and dislikes but I neither like nor dislike these likes and dislikes.
Thought resists and seeks but I neither resist nor seek the end of resistance or
seeking. Being empty, I do even not know resistance and am, therefore, causeless
happiness itself.
Like empty space, I do not share the qualities nor the destiny of the objects that
appear within Me; I do not move and change when they move and change; I do not
appear nor disappear when they appear or disappear; I am not born and do not die.
The body and mind are always on a journey but I never undertake the journey with
them. They journey through Me but I never journey in them. I am the unchanging
and ever-present Knower of all that is known.
From the Knower to Knowing
However, by thinking of Me as the Knower or the witnessing space in which all

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appearances arise, thought is imagining Me separate from appearances. In fact, I
am more like a screen, one with and intimately pervading the image that appears
on it. In fact, the image doesnt appear on nor is it pervaded by the screen. There is
no independent image present to be one with or pervaded by the screen. Only
the screen is truly present. The screen is the appearing image. Image is another
name for screen.
Likewise, although the body, mind and world seem to exist in their own right, they
owe their apparent reality to Me alone. Body, mind and world are just the names
and forms that thought gives to Me when I have been overlooked.
The character in a movie is only real from the viewpoint of one of the characters.
The image is only real, as such, from the illusory viewpoint of the image. From the
true and only viewpoint of the screen, only the screen is truly present and real.
There is no real character there; there is only the screen.
Likewise, I am all that is truly present and known in all experience. All that is
known of the body, mind and world is the knowing of them and I am that Knowing.
It is only thought that abstracts a knower and a known, from the seamless
intimacy of Knowing or Experiencing. However, the body, mind and world are never
known or experienced as such. So we cannot say there is the knowing of them,
but rather that there is only Knowing. I am not the knowing that pervades all
experience; I am the Knowing that is all experience.
Just as, relatively speaking, we do not see objects, we see only modulations of the
suns light, so in reality we do not know objects as such, we know only modulations
of Knowing. Only Knowing is truly known and it is Knowing that knows Knowing. I
am and know Myself alone. This absence of distance, otherness or separation is
love. True knowledge and love are identical.
The Imaginary Separate Self
It is thought that superimposes a subject and an object upon the seamless intimacy
of experience thereby seemingly veiling the peace, happiness and love that lie everpresent and always available at its heart. With this apparent veiling, I seem to be
lost or forgotten and, as a result, an imaginary self, made of Myself plus the belief
that I share the qualities and destiny of appearances, comes into apparent
existence. This imaginary inside self is always on a mission to regain the experience
of peace, happiness and love that seems to have been lost when My nature is
apparently veiled.
To this end the imaginary inside self undertakes a great adventure in the imaginary

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outside world, in time and space, without realizing that these are its own creations.
Like the character in a movie who travels the world looking for the screen, the
imaginary self travels the world seeking peace in circumstances, happiness in
objects and love in relationships, without realizing that it is already made of the
stuff for which it is in search. I am already the love with which I am longed for.
Frustrated by the inevitable failure of its search, the imaginary inside self devises
all kinds of strategies such as stilling the mind, disciplining the body and shunning
the world, in the hopes that I will be revealed as a result.
In time, the activity of seeking and resisting that is the separate self may, through
exhaustion, frustration or intelligence, come to an end and, as a result, the peace
of My true nature shines for a timeless moment as it truly is. This dissolution of the
activity of seeking and resisting is the unveiling of My presence.
In fact, even that is not true. I am eternally as I am, independent of what thoughts
and feelings do or say, never truly veiled by the activity of seeking and resisting. In
fact, I never cease to be aware of Myself and, therefore, never really become aware
of a separate self, let alone an object, other or world, as such. Therefore, the
separate self is only a separate self from the imaginary viewpoint of a separate self.
From My viewpoint, which is the only real viewpoint (and which is not really a point
of view) there is never any real veiling or forgetting of Myself. The entire adventure
of the separate self takes place in a bubble of thought and feeling whilst all the
while I am at rest in and as Myself.
Like the wave that reaches the shore and, ceasing to be wave, is revealed as
ocean, so the seeking/resisting thought comes to an end and, losing its name and
form, stands revealed as Myself alone. It doesnt become Myself; it is always only
that, just as wave is always only ocean. Only its temporary name and form seemed
to make it something other than ocean. The fuel of all desire is already the
happiness for which it seeks.
Love and Freedom
Like the moth that longs for the flame but cannot experience it, so all the separate
selfs activities are designed to find Me alone, but I am the one thing it cannot know
or have. The only way the separate self can know Me is to die, just as the moth can
only know the flame by dying in it. That death is the experience of love, the
dissolution of self and other.
However, for the flame, there is only the flame; for water there is only water; for

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Myself, there is only Myself. Veiling, forgetting, searching and finding are for the
self that thought images Me to be, never for Myself, the true and only self that is.
Whatever the limited qualities of the body and mind that thought superimposes on
Me, I stand eternally free, untouched but intimately touching all seeming things,
lending them My reality, thereby giving them seeming existence.
It is upon Me that thought superimposes the witness and the witnessed, and then
further invests My witnessing presence with the qualities and destiny of a
body/mind, thereby downgrading Me to a separate self. But all the while, I stand
naked and alone never actually being, knowing or loving anything other than My
eternally free self.
For thought there are three possibilities for the self to be the known, the Knower
or pure Knowing; to be a person, a witness or pure Awareness; to be something,
nothing or everything. However, I never truly am or know anything other than
Myself.