Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Faith in the Sun

I didn’t see the sun today on my commute down the coast. The rain was heavy; there were several small rock slides; the skies were dark. My daily morning prayers include the Gayatri Mantra, a prayer in praise of God Who manifests through the Sun to give us light and energy. But today my sun prayer “Om bhur bhuva svah…” was not visually connected to a sunrise. During the day I noticed that several of the hospice patients I visited were having a 'down day.' One of them noted that her moods seem to fluctuate with her ability to see and feel the sun.

This experience reminded me of some of my ‘bad days’ or hard times in life, when I could not see or feel Spirit, when God seemed to have turned away, when my faith slipped into the background or disappeared altogether for awhile.

I remembered one dreary day when the weather perfectly matched my mood. I had recently experienced a series of setbacks and disappointments. That day I was flying cross country with one of my teachers. As the plane lifted off it climbed through multiple layers of dark clouds. Visibility was zero.

Suddenly we were above the clouds facing a bright and powerful sun. I could see for miles. Although I had seen suns above clouds on other flights, that day something was different. The teacher looked at me with a knowing smile. No words were spoken, but we both ‘got it.’ The sun is always shining! We just don’t always see it. Faith is required, and, every once in a while, an experience of confirmation.

In the Upanishads, the mystical portion of India's Vedas, Spirit/God is compared to the spiritual sun which illuminates the universe of matter and the Universe beyond matter. The seers say that God is always there—shining, loving, giving, teaching, showing, forgiving, guiding, being. We do not always feel or see God, just as we don’t always see or feel the sun. But Faith tells us that God is there, just as the sun is there, shining brightly as always, above the clouds of doubt which cover our vision.

1 comment:

Bhakti lata said...

beautiful post, paramahamsa. You know, i was just reading old archives from my own blog... you left a comment on my blog last may and you invited me to YOUR blog. the invitation didn't even register back then... so I took you up on it TODAY! good to see your writing... and reflections.