In the Wilderness

Kramskoy "Christ in the Wilderness"

 The wilderness was where Moses had wandered with his people for forty years, and where they had nearly abandoned their God to worship a golden idol.
The wilderness was where Christ had struggled with the devil and endured his temptations: And immediately the Spirit drive him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness for forty days tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.
The John Milton’s Eden was surrounded by a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides /Access denied to all who sought entry.
When Adam and Eve were driven from that garden, the world they entered was a wilderness that only their labor and pain could redeem.
Wilderness, in short, was a place to which one came only against one’s will, and always in fear and trembling. So, wandering in the wilderness is a poignant symbol for the human condition of questioning despair, of the search for meaning in a world, in the quest for the truth.
The wilderness for us is the unsettled state, of seeking our promised land. In search of it, we had  figuratively to leave our habitable towns and cities, and go to the unknown and wild desert. But for me, the desert as an extreme degree of wilderness is not malevolent symbol. It just represents desolation, abandonment and contemplation of that which lies beyond the familiar. Certainly, it can be heavy and terrible but necessary.
It is not just an impersonal force that is unconcerned with anything else but itself. It is, rather, a mirror in which one can see clearly the darkness hidden in one's heart. A mirror which destroys man's pretensions, all these mirages, and shows him the truth about himself. And it is the most propitious place for revelation, where the non-essential is stripped away.
In this lonely journey one may be given a clearer insight into one's own wilderness. And we understand that the conquering of our demons was a task that we needed to face there and overcome alone. Only after that we can leave that time and place in our lives that are challenging, perhaps difficult, but through which we may become more aware of the Divine in our lives.
And then, the wilderness will not to be place of temptation and becomes instead a sacred temple.

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA