Kannan, E. My realization of Hinduism's truths began at a young age, but wasn't fully recognized until a year ago. I'd like to share with you a few episodes that brought me closer in this lifetime to embracing our Sanatana Dharma.
Coming from an abusive household had its deleterious as well as enlightening impact. Deleterious in punishment but enlightening in the belief that God's truth transcended the pain and the anomaly of the persisting reality. Though I didn't identify with Hinduism at the time, its precepts, concepts and introspective truths were knocking at my subconscious doorstep. I knew that life and existence had to be defined differently and more honestly. Sage Adi Sankara's instruction, Nityanitya Vastu Viveka – cultivate discrimination between the real (eternal) and the unreal (temporal) – became essential to me.
I remember discussions in the Middle East and in the Mesoamerican continent of the Mayan civilization focusing on the mysteries of extraterrestrial origin, space travel, lost continents, etc. Somehow these "unexpected" encounters reinforced my overall inclinations. Certainly, they've added to my deductive processes of sorting fact from fiction and fantasy from reality. The search for God-Realization is intrinsic to our survival. As history clearly and repeatedly has demonstrated, civilizations fall when they're adharmic and yield to ignorance.
It was late one Friday evening atop a very high mountain edge in Zfat, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. It must have been 11:30. The sky was clear as glass and the silence of Om was omnipresent. The celestial panorama was astounding. I witnessed Siva's jeweled crowned moon ablaze in light. And it was courted by a ruby red Mars and a brilliantly shimmering Saturn. As I gazed above, I felt in meditation that there must be a message here. Spontaneously a splashing abundance of meteorites rained over the eclipsed hills in all directions. I was very heartened by the glorious array of celestial activity. Only moments later, after continuing my stroll, the sky above was totally overcast in cloud and dampness. Rather strangely, the young women with whom I'd been walking saw nothing unusual or extraordinary that evening.
Enraptured by this experience, I was sensitive to the idea that these three celestial bodies signified some form or aspect of deification. I did not believe in the Christian Trinity but recognized and respected the Judaic symbolism in the three-pronged letter shin, representative of God. But even this was insufficient. There had to be another more personally touching omniscient dynamic at work. I look back now and am assured that on that special evening, I was reacquainted and reintroduced to Lord Ganapati and Lord Murugan by the Holy Grace of God Siva.
I've sought out anew our great religion and sacred tradition because it is the only body of divine unfoldment that deals lucidly, cohesively and convincingly with the matrix of the unexplained and makes it satisfyingly and instinctively palatable. Our great rishis and saints wrestled with these so-called ambiguities and uncovered insight and wisdom at the deepest level.
Hinduism is appropriately the seed of all other faiths. I've found that within its glorious mythological cultural corridors is demonstrated the serene light of purpose and kinship of all life. So my dear friend, here I am today in your company, in God's company, and am very pleased to join with you at this precious moment of great discovered, continuous unfoldment and ever-sustaining love.
Article copyright Himalayan Academy.