Darshan is reverence for a higher being. What if comes to my mind often. We perform sadhanas and try to lead a spiritual life. What if we did nothing? And the answer is we will go through life with emptiness in us.
The saddest part is many of us can remain unaware, until the prana, the vital breath has left our breath. Some of us go through a life of extreme difficulty and we emerge smiling. We are able to see that life is not only about us but it is about others also. Some of us can go the temples, churches and places of worship and emerge joyous. Others will go to such places and observe the worshippers as being hypocrites.
We will criticize everything and when the service is over, we will step out unchanged, unmoved. Some of us can go the sacred shrines and our hearts are full of adoration, we only want a vision (darshan) of the divinity and our hearts are replete. We have nothing to ask for except thanks and gratitude. Some of us go and weep our hearts out, ask for comfort, and some of us are so angry that we are critical of everything and everyone. If we examine this state, it is that we accept the divinity, and we are talking and remembering him.
The young novitiate
Once when Swami Satyananda was a young novitiate, he was given the task of washing and cleaning the deities. It was four in the morning and it was bitterly cold on the banks of the Ganga. He was sleepy and grumbling loudly that it was cold and why did he have to scrub the deities with ash and ice cold water. Suddenly he heard a voice and it was Swami Sivananda‘s, he was standing behind him looking radiant and unsurprised. He said “You are talking to God, and you are doing God’s work. The deities are live and you are speaking to them.” Swami Satyananda was silenced, and he continued his task with joy in his heart.
Aim Hrim Klim