October 1989
MY TURNMy Personal Reunion With Hinduism
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.
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