Monday, August 31, 2015

He Looks Upon a Spark

In terms of sin and redemption, sin is absolutely acknowledged. Yet punishment for sin doesn't take on a necessarily eternal form, but a definitive time-limited one in which punishment is in proportion to the sin. That punishment may be hellish or rebirth in the life to come in a lowly form.

Hinduism putatively solves the problem of equitable and proportional punishment for sin, and that even after death there is the possibility of God's redemptive grace. One may possess good karma or bad karma and enjoy heavenly peace or hellish agony. But these states both have their ending in time. And when that karma is burned away? Here mysticism begins, but only insofar as the mystic speaks figuratively of mysteries otherwise inconceivable, even to the mystic himself. He looks upon a spark, and speaks of the Sun.

The forests hint the Tree of Life,
And the waters hint His fathomless love,
And the mountains hint the height of His majesty,
His creation is His sign, having made nothing without meaning.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

The Well of Fathomless Waters

I had a vision of the son of Vayu, Rama's faithful servant, the wisest of his kind. I said, "Immortal Hanuman, how is it that Vishnu granted you immortality? Was it some boon He granted? A wish He fulfilled in exchange for performance of some terrible austerity?

Hanuman answered, "Never for myself did I perform His service or obey His command. On the day that Sita emerged unscathed from the fire, on that glorious golden morning when she was restored to Rama's side, I said, 'Make my prayer a fountain of living waters whereby I may live as long as Your sovereignty endures and make mention of You in every world of Your worlds.'

"Lord Rama redeemed my promise and fulfilled my prayer. If I seem alive to you today, it is not for myself, but is because there is not a moment when His name and His praise is not on my lips."

I said, "His love is your well of fathomless waters, the vault of endless treasures, your heart of eternal life."