Lead Us From the Unreal To the Real,
Lead Us From Darkness To Light,
Lead Us From Death To Immortality,
Let There Be Peace Peace Peace. – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.
I was thinking about that prayer this morning as I sat by the river in the darkness, waiting for the group to arrive for morning prayer. ("The group" includes a number of adults, and also about thirty VERY enthusiastic young boys. One could say that they walk down the steps to the river.... but it's actually more of a cascade of energy pouring down the steps to the river. Moving fast. In the dark. On crazy steps... but more about the steps later.)
Anyhow.... many years ago, when I first fell in love with Hinduism, I spent a good deal of time at Kripalu, in Lenox Massachusetts. Morning prayer began, if I recall correctly, at about 4:30AM. So the ashram would begin to awaken and stretch and shower.... all in silence. And since that ashram was the residence of the guru, everyone would don whites.... white saris, white shirts and pants, white kurta/pajama. So here we all are, in this enormous building (built as a Jesuit seminary eons ago), in almost dark (with only an occasional dim light to mark a turn in the hall, or a stairway. And we are all in silence, and all in whites, and all in darkness. And the traffic was silently, whitely, darkly flowing into the main chapel, where everyone would gather for morning arati (offering light to the deities, offering light to the guru), and morning prayer, and then yoga... and one more set of prayers and off into the day (which by now was in fact in daylight).
Years later, I was in Varanasi, walking to the Ganges before sunrise. Same feeling... all around me, ghostly figures scurrying toward the river in the dark... just glimpses of the people as the moved quickly by me, all drawn to the holy river. At the river, no sense of organized prayers.... just thousands of devotees praying, praying, praying.... praying to be led from darkness into light, as the sun rose with incredible beauty over the Ganges.
And then today... sitting alone by the Narmada river, immersed in what has become a familiar feeling.. the sense of stillness, and waiting prayerfully for the sun to rise.
The other mantra most associated with the sun, the Gayatri Mantra. I spent some lovely time yesterday chanting this mantra with some people also staying at the ashram.
Out of darkness, light.
Lead Us From Darkness To Light,
Lead Us From Death To Immortality,
Let There Be Peace Peace Peace. – Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.
I was thinking about that prayer this morning as I sat by the river in the darkness, waiting for the group to arrive for morning prayer. ("The group" includes a number of adults, and also about thirty VERY enthusiastic young boys. One could say that they walk down the steps to the river.... but it's actually more of a cascade of energy pouring down the steps to the river. Moving fast. In the dark. On crazy steps... but more about the steps later.)
Anyhow.... many years ago, when I first fell in love with Hinduism, I spent a good deal of time at Kripalu, in Lenox Massachusetts. Morning prayer began, if I recall correctly, at about 4:30AM. So the ashram would begin to awaken and stretch and shower.... all in silence. And since that ashram was the residence of the guru, everyone would don whites.... white saris, white shirts and pants, white kurta/pajama. So here we all are, in this enormous building (built as a Jesuit seminary eons ago), in almost dark (with only an occasional dim light to mark a turn in the hall, or a stairway. And we are all in silence, and all in whites, and all in darkness. And the traffic was silently, whitely, darkly flowing into the main chapel, where everyone would gather for morning arati (offering light to the deities, offering light to the guru), and morning prayer, and then yoga... and one more set of prayers and off into the day (which by now was in fact in daylight).
Years later, I was in Varanasi, walking to the Ganges before sunrise. Same feeling... all around me, ghostly figures scurrying toward the river in the dark... just glimpses of the people as the moved quickly by me, all drawn to the holy river. At the river, no sense of organized prayers.... just thousands of devotees praying, praying, praying.... praying to be led from darkness into light, as the sun rose with incredible beauty over the Ganges.
And then today... sitting alone by the Narmada river, immersed in what has become a familiar feeling.. the sense of stillness, and waiting prayerfully for the sun to rise.
The other mantra most associated with the sun, the Gayatri Mantra. I spent some lovely time yesterday chanting this mantra with some people also staying at the ashram.
- In Devanagari:
- ॐ भूर्भुवः॒ स्वः ।
- तत्स॑वितुर्वरे॑ण्यं ।
- भ॒र्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धीमहि। ।
- धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त्॥ ।
- Transliterated:
- Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
- tát savitúr váreṇ(i)yaṃ
- bhárgo devásya dhīmahi
- dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt
Out of darkness, light.
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