I have to say that I love South India. Sure I love North India too. But all in all, I just find the South to be more laid back, more friendly – more white coconut chutney, golden sambar and vegetable subji, white rice, (or a crispy wholesome masala dosa) on bright green banana leaf… 
Back on the Indian trains again – I write this from my seat, gazing out the window at the endlessly green South Indian landscape (passing out of Chennai into the expanses of rural Tamil Nadu), of rice paddy fields, coconut trees, cows, villages, small stations that our express train speeds through without slowing – we go express from Chennai to Trivandrum. After a five days holiday in the small fishing town of Mahabilupuram, I am finally off to the Ashram of Amma (Amritapuri Ashram), in Kerala, a place I have planned to visit for a long time.
A part of me worries that the Ashram experience may be rather hectic (I hear it is quite a busy busy place, with perhaps a thousand persons; and I am due to share a dormitory of four); for me, this kind of busy-ness can be quite unwelcome. But still, I look forward with eagerness. I am sure that it will be an interesting experience. And should I be able to take the darshan of Amma, I am quite excited to see what this will be like. Never before have I been (physically) embraced by a saint!
This leads me to what might be my only other experience, having darshan of a holy person — (mind you, are we not all holy people? deep inside? But putting this aside, perhaps let us just think or speak of holy people as they are defined in the social world of relative truth) —
First, what is darshan? Darshan was an ancient Sanskrit term simply meaning “to see”, or “vision” — there has in the Indian tradition, been a strong importance given to the notion of simply “seeing”, or “having a view of”, the divine.
As one aside, we might find this to be an interesting note on the Indian tradition of religiosity, or the sacred. Why Hindu traditions were sometimes seen to be a kind of “pantheism” by some of the earliest Western thinkers who were exposed to them (and while the issue is complex, “Pantheism” is a not unfair characterization, many would agree, of the Hindu view of the divine), is simply because the divine was often said to be “in everything.”
In India, there long has been a feeling, or a recognition (could we say), that all is divine. That all is God.
(I remember now, working the night shift at Loblaws many years ago, being told by my dear Indian co-worker Laxhman, “Gard is in Everything! Gard is right here, now — in this conversation!” (nice that we were having such holy conversations, at night in a grocery store))
Thus it makes perfect sense in the Indian tradition to speak of seeing the divinity. Of seeing something holy. Physical forms can indeed be holy.
And the divine can express itself through physical forms. Indeed, the divine does express itself through each and every one of us.
There is in particular a notion that, at our heart(s), that each one of us is truly divine. That each of us is God, deep deep inside, so to speak.
Why do I not feel like God? We might ask that question…. Well, in the Hindu tradition, it is often felt that, the matter of achieving God is not a matter of finding something outside. Not a matter, necessarily, of achieving something extrinsic to ourselves….
Rather, in the tradition of jnana yoga, and indeed to be sought through all of the traditions of Indian religiosity, it is said that when we find our true selves, (free from all of the acts, and plays, and games of personality, and identification with our personal separate-ness…) — that when we find our true selves, then we also find God.
So the Saint is inside all of us. It is just a matter of, if we are interested in finding our “holiness.”
But I have digressed from my original train — I was going to mention the other Saint or Holy Person I have had a darshan of — this was His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in Dharamsala in 2013.
It was a surprisingly powerful experience, and an interesting circumstance… I had managed to procure a ticket to see the teachings of HH. D-L at the Large Temple just by the town. As those who have been before know, the teachings are in Tibetan, but one can procure radios, and listen to the buzzy translation while attending.
In any case, through some circumstance, I had become extremely late, and felt that I might miss it. At some point I met up with an Irish fellow, who had just arrived in Dharamsala, and came expressly to go to the teachings, but had no ticket.
I was skeptical of whether they would let even me in, as the teaching was nearly over. For him, I thought it was likely a hopeless case; as it was likely quite crowded, and he had no ticket. In any case, to my surprise, we managed to get in. As we came in, the crowd was quite dense, and we had to remain on the stairs.
After ten minutes, the lecture ended, and, we were lucky enough that His Holiness chose to walk out precisely by the way we were standing, passing by our crowded staircase! He passed about perhaps 5 or 10 metres from us. I felt a great deal of joy and happiness to see him — this very humble looking man, bowing to everyone, with these wonderfully vibrant, bright and joyful eyes, and bright and laughing expression.
Just to see this man made me so happy! He looked at all of us and gave little bows, hands pressed in front of him…. What can I say — I experienced — and others said they had felt much the same way too — such a wave of good feelings to experience this darshan.
So much happiness was in me through being around this joyful man. This joy remained with me throughout the day, and to a muted degree was still felt — this upwelling of happiness — for several days thereafter.
In any case, this kind of thing may be “mind-created” — (but, is not our whole world mind-created?)… Perhaps everyone who sees a “celebrity” who they like, also feels this wonderful, wave of darshan.
That is possible. But I just know that this was a great experience for me, and I can report that the ancient Indian practice of travelling long distances, simply to take “darshan” of a Saint or Holy Person, is something that, in this instance, did not disappoint me.
Silent Cedars 