Messages of God: By Latha Ramanan

The tortoise base of the tall lamp stand found in temples.

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don’t go back to sleep.” – Rumi

Every moment is a treasure and an opportunity to receive a message from God. It can be in the form of prana (the vital life force) in the air that you breathe in, the wind that brushes past your face, the chirping of the garden sparrow or in the pause of a scuttling squirrel. The message just for you can also be from the scorching sun or in an overheard conversation.

The whole universe is conspiring to enlighten you, to answer a question in you that is an answer to all questions in you: to unlearn your so-called knowledge, to undo all your spiritual practices, to realise heaven and hell are your mind’s creation.These messages beckon you to become a child whose world is undifferentiated and whole. It is later that the adults around the child teach him/her the concepts of ‘mine’ and ‘others’. This differentiation in adults is what breaks down with spiritual teachings, hence you re-discover the child in you through the spiritualism.

All teachings have the underlying message of unlearning and undoing all the concepts that creates division, conflict and disharmony. Acquiring concepts or knowledge is an activity of the mind, like any other mental process. The more aware you are of this aspect, the less greedy you will be to acquire knowledge. For example, we label a thing ‘apple’ first then picture it as apple when you hear the name , apple. What if you can comprehend the apple, and the hand or the basket that holds it are one and the same energy in different forms. This is what unlearning the concepts does to you.

The tortoise, by withdrawing the body parts into its shell gives a message – the core message of Raja Yoga to practice pratyahara (withdrawal of senses) in order to remember our real Self. In South Indian temples you can see this message in the form of a tall, lamp stand emerging from the top of a tortoise’s statue. The light from within shines through when you control your senses as symbolized by the above mentioned lamp stand.

“You can see the Sun with different colours
(depending on) which glass you are looking.
You should break the glass,
for seeing the light.” – Rumi

Pratyahara can be either the practice for realising one’s Self or it can be the result of realisation. You may practise pratyahara and receive messages directly from God, without relying on your five senses. It can also be the other way round, you may realise ‘You Are That (Tatvamasi)’. Consequently you withdraw your senses. As seen in the the enlightened persons, then your silence or inactivity become your teachings or activity correspondingly. Your sensory perceptions no longer bothers you.

Let all beings learn to decode the sacred messages that is available freely from the universe! Namaste!

“Be quiet and tear the thorn from your heart.
Uncover your soul’s own rose garden.” – Rumi