Darsan and the Tetragrammaton. OMG, weird foreign words, this is going to be boring. Hang on.
In Darsan, Diana Eck defines darsan as “auspicious sight of the deity.” She further explains:
“When Hindus go to a temple, they do not commonly say, ‘I am going to worship,’ but rather, 'I am going for darsan.’ They go to 'see’ the image of the deity– be it Krsna or Durga, Siva or Visnu– present in the sanctum of the temple, and they go especially at those times of day when the image is most beautifully adorned with fresh flowers and when the curtain is drawn back so that the image is fully visible…
”Darsan is sometimes translated as the 'auspicious sight’ of the divine, and its important in the Hindu ritual complex reminds us that for Hindus 'worship’ is not only a matter of prayers and offerings and the devotional disposition of heart. Since, in the Hindu understanding, the deity is present in the image, the visual apprehension of the image is charged with religious meaning.“
Religious concepts are always hard to understand from the outside, but I feel like this Hindu concept resonates with me.
I have had mystical experiences, and while explaining them is of little use to anyone, they were darsan. They were moments of clarity, where I was filled with the knowledge and comfort of God and connection and they were from meaningful sight. Darsan of the ocean. Of? I don’t know. They were moments when I was completely saturated with God, when I knew God at the core of my being. They were experience. They were sight. They were darsan.
I believe that the tetragrammaton has this kind of power.
In Darsan, Diana Eck defines darsan as “auspicious sight of the deity.” She further explains:
“When Hindus go to a temple, they do not commonly say, ‘I am going to worship,’ but rather, 'I am going for darsan.’ They go to 'see’ the image of the deity– be it Krsna or Durga, Siva or Visnu– present in the sanctum of the temple, and they go especially at those times of day when the image is most beautifully adorned with fresh flowers and when the curtain is drawn back so that the image is fully visible…
”Darsan is sometimes translated as the 'auspicious sight’ of the divine, and its important in the Hindu ritual complex reminds us that for Hindus 'worship’ is not only a matter of prayers and offerings and the devotional disposition of heart. Since, in the Hindu understanding, the deity is present in the image, the visual apprehension of the image is charged with religious meaning.“
Religious concepts are always hard to understand from the outside, but I feel like this Hindu concept resonates with me.
I have had mystical experiences, and while explaining them is of little use to anyone, they were darsan. They were moments of clarity, where I was filled with the knowledge and comfort of God and connection and they were from meaningful sight. Darsan of the ocean. Of? I don’t know. They were moments when I was completely saturated with God, when I knew God at the core of my being. They were experience. They were sight. They were darsan.
I believe that the tetragrammaton has this kind of power.
The tetragrammaton is magical, if I can use that word without sounding heretical. The letters themselves give life. They give God. They are unspeakable and shrouded in the mystery of our ancestors’ secrets. I mean, two heis, guys. Hei is my favorite letter. It is life-giving and invokes the name of God. It is feminine like a wise mother.
The tetragrammaton is the mystery of ancient religion bound into the unspeakable mystery of God, of the one in the many, of the masculine and feminine combined in a powerful word… so powerful that darsan is the only way we can experience it.
Darsan.
My spirit is on fire.
Eck, Diana. Darsan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
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