Well… I have finally left India. What?!? How did this happen
so soon? I don’t know. But I am heartbroken.
I have a few upcoming posts about my last little while in India and the things that I’ve learned… so here is part 1 of 3. Buckle up, it’s a long one!
Today I want to write about something that I have become
much more aware of since I’ve been here.
In India, everything is symbolic.
In all of the religious rituals, and just in life in general, there are
symbols everywhere and everything has a significance. Everything is either auspicious or
inauspicious for one reason or another.
This has made me pay much more attention and recognize how much we can
learn from the details of life… all of life’s little lessons in nature and
symbolic rituals.
There are three symbols I have thought a lot about since
I’ve been here, and I want to write about each one. They are fire, the lotus flower, and peace.
Fire:
In my last blogpost I mentioned that the fires in these
photos are very special… let me tell you why!
Legend (and most people in Varanasi + outside of Varanasi)
will tell you that these fires have been burning for hundreds or thousands of
years. Meaning, they never. go.
out. When I first heard this I thought
‘yeahhhhhh riiiiiiight……….’ How is it possible that a fire can continuously
burn for that long without ever going out?
Well, actually, it’s possible. All it needs is dedicated people to continue
to fuel it and shelter from harm such as rains or winds. And I believe it! When we were there, there were people lined
up to put in the bodies of their loved ones who had recently deceased. In India, families cremate their loved ones
after they pass and then send their ashes into the River Ganges. Varanasi is the perfect place to do it
because it is one of the holiest cities and Hindus believe that if one dies in
Varanasi they will have resurrection.
ANYWAY, back to fire.
So this got me thinking about the symbolism of fire and what I could learn
from this situation. Fire is really
symbolic in a lot of cultures. It has
been worshipped for centuries. In
Chinese and Shinto traditions is has similar traits as a yin-yang which
symbolizes balance and unity. It also
symbolizes unification of polarities in Celtic tradition. In Christianity (and many other faiths) it
can both be a symbol of destruction and hell and also purification.
Fire brings warmth and light. Light is usually a symbol of knowledge and
truth. It helps us to see clearly and
understand reality.
Two symbols of fire that I found especially interesting were
fire found in the scriptures as a symbol of the presence of God, and then as a
symbol of light and positivity within ourselves and the world.
If we apply this situation to our lives using these two
symbols, it’s really interesting. The
fires in Varanasi are never burnt out, they are always present because people
take care of them. Just as the presence
of God can be in our lives. As long as we
continue to put in our efforts to keep it burning and we shelter it from harm,
we can always have His presence in our lives to give us warmth, light, clarity,
knowledge, and understanding. Sometimes
the fire feels too hot and we want to escape or give ourselves space, but we
forget that fire is a purifier and a refiner.
It may take a lot of work to keep it burning and it may be painful at
times, but it is necessary in order for a pot of unclean water to become purified,
or for a coal to turn into a diamond.
Just like in the Old Testament on the altar in the temple,
we must continue to put in our sacrifices in order to keep the fire
burning. But the warmth and light that
we receive from God’s presence is worth every wordly sacrifice that we put
in. At times we may want to leave it or
let it burn out. Sometimes we feel like
we don’t have anything more we can offer, but all it takes is something small
and the fire will continue to give at least a little bit of light and
warmth. The less we put in, the more dim
the fire will be, and the greater we put in, the greater it will be. Sometimes we may just want a change and we
may want to leave the fire and let it die… but when we do that we are putting
ourselves out in the dark to be lost and also losing the opportunity for
purification and refinement.
And then we as humans are like oil lamps or candles, adding
to the perpetual fire of the world.
Something interesting about the fire of a candle is that it can light thousands of other candles without losing any of it’s brilliance or light. We, too, can share our light, our knowledge,
and the truth that we know (perhaps understood also as the Light of Christ)
with thousands of other people without losing anything ourselves. We can’t keep the light that we have hidden,
we must set it on a hill for all to see so that we can help others also have
light and warmth and clarity.
Something interesting about this particular situation… (and
this may be a little bit morbid) the people use the bodies of their deceased
loved ones to keep the fire burning. At
some point, our oil is going to go out and we can no longer put off fire into
the world. At that point, whatever is
left of us (our bodies, or our lamps… the vehicle for carrying the fire) is
burned as a final offering. So even
after we pass away, the remains of us on the earth—perhaps our legacy or the
positivity we leave behind—can also keep the fire burning for others to use as
warmth and light, as long as our loved ones use it and apply it to the fire.
The fire is perpetual and eternal… it’s like the Billy Joel
song! “We didn't start the
fire, It was always burning since the world's been turning. We didn't start the
fire, but when we are gone will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.” We didn’t start it, it’s been going on
forever, but we can add to it while we’re here and whatever we leave behind can
continue to add to it as long as those who come after us apply it.
These 2 analogies kind of mesh… having our own personal fire
(our own fire of ourselves and the fire of having the presence of God in our
lives) is what adds to the large perpetual fire. We need to add to the fire! We must put in our sacrifices to keep it
burning, and we will receive warmth and light, truth and understanding, we will
be purified and refined and better, and we will help others to do the
same.
Don’t let your fire go out.
Don’t abandon it. It takes a lot
more energy to start and build up a new fire than it does to throw in a piece
of wood here and there in order to keep one burning. But if you have let your fire burn out, you
have all the materials to start a new one, and that’s ok if you have to do
that. The opposition of the darkness and
cold will help you realize why it’s so important to have a fire. If you are lost in the dark, find someone
else’s fire and use it for warmth until you are able to take from their fire to
start your own… and then once again, add to the perpetual fire.
Lotus:
The lotus flower is a really popular symbol in a lot of
eastern religions and philosophies. I
never realized why it was so important until I started learning about it.
The blooming of the lotus is symbolic of the mind and heart
opening to truth and the soul expanding.
It is a symbol of being grounded in the earth, but aspiring towards
something higher and more divine as it grows.
First it is rooted in a dense material—mud. Then as it grows it moves up to something
less dense—water. And eventually it
reaches the least dense of the three—air, which can represent resurrection,
enlightenment, or a higher spiritual plane.
It is a really important symbol in many aspects of indian
philosophy, some of which include the chakras, many deities, and yoga. The position Padmasana is the normal position
for meditation and is a symbol of the lotus (legs crossed, back straight, hands
rested on knees). The lotus also interestingly
opens up every morning with the sunlight, and then closes and sinks back into
the water every night.
The lotus is a symbol of beauty, purity, divinity,
enlightenment, and truth. All of these
symbols are due to its nonattachment to its surroundings.
Shanti shanti shanti:
 |
| shanti shanti shanti in Hindi |
Peace is considered a natural state of being. When I was learning Kuchipudi (traditional
Indian dance of Andhra Pradesh) we learned that there are 9 different emotions
in classical Indian dance that are portrayed through facial expressions and
hand gestures. They include love,
comedy, sympathy, anger, bravery, fear, disgust, wonder, and then peace. Our dance teacher explained that peace is the
absence of too much of all the other feelings… so basically a balance between
all of them. Every dance must start and
end with the peaceful emotion. She
explained that in life we are only truly in this state twice—while we sleep,
and when we die, which is interesting because it comes at the end. After a long day full of extreme emotions, we
end in peace as we balance out our entire day and sleep. Just as in life we are filled with extreme
emotions going up and down in each one, until we finally add them all together
to create a feeling of being whole—a feeling of peace, when we die. We also see this pattern in all kinds of
aspects of our culture, such as movies and stories, music, art, etc. There is a reason we feel discomforted at the
end of a movie or book if the story doesn’t pass through multiple emotions and
then end with a resolution of peace. We
feel like we leave only half full.
Ending with a balance of all the emotions portrayed throughout the story
leaves us feeling full… like we just ate a balanced meal and we are no longer
hungry.
I like noticing this theme when I think about feeling the
spirit. There are many different
emotions that come when we feel the spirit, just like it talks about in
Galatians—the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. We have all felt many of these emotions when
we feel the spirit. But I look back on
the most satisfying and rewarding spiritual experiences I have had—and there
have just been a few that have been extremely significant—and all I can use to
describe them would be this idea of peace, harmony, and balance. It’s like all of your emotions come together
and make sense together and you feel whole.
It’s not an ‘I’m so happy God loves me jump for joy and shout from the
rooftops’ kind of feeling, although those times are great too. But instead, it’s a quiet feeling that you
can’t quite describe. It’s deeper than
just happiness or joy. It’s something
one can only understand if they experience it because it is so personal to
them—joining together all of their emotions and trials and joys and experiences
to a point where everything just makes sense and they feel full. I imagine that that’s what it will be like in
Heaven. :)
Sorry for the novel. More novels to come. I just had a 4-month life-changing event in a 3rd world country, can you blame me?? :)
