Work as Temple Elephant

Elephant is India's much-loved animal and an integral part of the culture and mythology. Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed God of wisdom, is probably the most worshipped Hindu deity in the country today.
The elephant is associated with Goddess Lakshmi, the Hindu deity of wealth and prosperity. One of Her eight manifestations (Ashtalakshmi) is known as Gajalakshmi. In the history of Buddha it was a white elephant which descended from the heavens and announced to Queen Maya the coming birth of Prince Gautama.
It is traditional to have elephants in Hindu temples. It is considered auspicious to be blessed by one. Those on India tours are likely to see elephants if they visit a Hindu temple, where the creatures are an important part of traditional ceremonies, blessing pilgrims and devotees with their raised trunks as well as performing other physical duties.

Parvathi, Madurai Meenakshi Temple elephant, 2012

The elephant is used to perform various tasks in and around the temple. However, it is important that these animals are well looked after.
Life as a temple elephant can be quite hard. The elephant may be kept chained by the ankles and may be trained with the use of the ankush, a hook, which is painful. Even if treated fairly well, the temple elephant is expected to stand for many hours on pebbles or cobblestones, in the hot sun, greeting, bowing to, or touching the heads of the temple visitors, so it is a difficult life. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the government is has set rules to be followed in the care of captive elephants. The elephant will also be provided a place to rest in clean, healthy surroundings, with shade. A bathing pool is required, and the elephant will need to be bathed in the summer at least twice a day. On reaching the age of 60, the elephant will be retired and will no longer be working. These rules will be a great help to protecting and ensuring the safety of the elephants.

They bless us so let God will bless them!

Thekkady 2012

Psalm 19

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.

7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.

10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.

14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Ayat al Kursi - the Verse of the Throne

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

Allah! There is no God but He,

the Living, the Self-subsisting, the Eternal.

No slumber can seize Him, nor sleep.

All things in heaven and earth are His.

Who could intercede in His presence without His permission?

He knows what appears in front of and behind His creatures.

Nor can they encompass any knowledge of Him except what
He wills.

His throne extends over the heavens and the earth,

and He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them,

for He is the Highest and Most Exalted.

 [Surah al-Baqarah 2: 255] 

Battle with the Angel

Rembrandt van Rijn The Struggle between Jacob and the Angel

This story in Genesis 32, in which Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord, is very strange and mysterious. As however always when the higher forces contact to the man. Certainly, all can be considered it from the metaphorical point of view. It is a metaphor for human struggle: personal or spiritual. Our life is like this long night of battle .
Before the encounter, Jacob is scheming in life to ensure survival. He is filled with fear. The odds are against him succeeding. He is driven to prayer: to seek God`s blessing. He is a wilful man. He knows what he wants and he is determined to get it. He was not going to take "no" for an answer. But did he realise that he may have to pay a price or that something needed to be done before his prayer would be answered .
And if the object of one's desire is a relationship with God, his blessing and his love, then the battle cannot but culminate in the gift of oneself to God, in the recognition of one's own weakness, which triumphs precisely when we reach the point of surrendering ourselves into the merciful hands of God.
In a straight contest of wills between man and God, man`s struggle is doomed to failure. But by the struggle and subsequent surrender to God`s will, he is rewarded through God`s mercy and is transformed. He is given a new name and is declared the victor. His will is aligned to God`s will.
His fear is overcome.

Love Her, Mind

Odilon Redon The Golden Cell

Love Her, Mind;
She can ferry you across
the sea of birth and death.

Taxes must be paid in this worthless marketplace,
but it's stupid to trust in wealth and family.
Have you forgotten your past?
Where were you? Where have you come to?
Where are you going?

You wear nothing
but a costume in the world.
The Enchantress makes
illusion dance, so you dance.
And you sit on Her lap
in Her prison.

Egotism, hatred, love, attachment to pleasing things --
why did you share
your kingdom with these?
Tell me that!

What you've done can't be helped;
the day is almost over.
On a jeweled island
Siva sits in Siva's house.
Contemplate Her always.
Prasad says,
Durga's ambrosial name libertates.
Repeat it without ceasing;
drench your tongue in nectar.

Ramprasad (1718 - 1775) translated by Rachel Fell McDermott

Mount up with birds

Vishnu and Garuda

“ They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles." (Isa. 40: 31) 
Probably the birds, denoting symbolically the angels, symbolise certain spiritual hierarchy.
And often birds participate in struggle of the angels against the demons. That is, the opposition between higher and lower states. In the Hindu tradition this is the struggle of the Devas against the Asuras and also, the combat of Garuda against the Nāga. The Garuda is the vahana of the God Vishnu usually and is the eagle, who regarded by many cultures as the 'sacred messenger'. The birds thus played the part of “messengers” and assist in matters of higher knowledge.  For example, the dove as spirit messenger bringing communication between the realms of the conscious and the unconscious.
Many Hindu gods such as Lakshmi, Brahma, and Kama are portrayed riding upon peacocks. According to Sufi legend the original Spirit was created in the shape of a peacock. When it saw itself in the mirror of the Divine Essence it was so overwhelmed by the beauty it saw therein that great drops of sweat flew from its body. It was taught that from these drops all other living creatures were formed. They are sometimes seen drinking from Eucharistic chalices or near the Tree of Life. Because of their association with the Tree of Life, peacock thrones were popular in ancient Babylon and Persia.
 Birds in general represented the element air, but at the same time, their flight was identical to the ascension to heaven. And the phoenix also incorporated the element fire, thus portraying the union of two elements and its transformative – regenerative – outcome. The phoenix bird builds its nest which at the same time is its funeral pyre, and then setting it alight cremates itself. But it arises anew from the ashes transformed. The birds of alchemy - the Black Crow, White Swan, Peacock, Pelican, and Phoenix - which are descriptive of certain stages of the alchemical process. Thus, in Phenix we have captured the alchemists experience of spiritualisation, that he is no longer dependent upon his physical body as a foundation for his being.
For hindus this stage can be symbolised by a swan - hamsa. White swan is the vehicle of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and wisdom. Paramahamsa (supreme swan from sanskrit) it's a symbol of spiritual perfection and this title of honor is applied to teachers who can always distinguish between the Real (so) from the unreal (ham).
And what means a condition of a bird for the person which has not reached this stage?
In medieval 'Book of Beasts' translated by Terence White we read:

...when the eagle grows old and his wings become heavy and his eyes become darkened with a mist, then he goes in search of a fountain...and he dips himself three times in it and he is renewed with a great vigour of plumage and splendour of vision...Do the same thing, O Man, you who are clothed in the old garment and have the eyes of your heart growing foggy. Seek for the spiritual fountain of the Lord...

Cathedral of S Lorenzo, Genova

Six-winged

The name Seraphim means "the burning ones." In chistianity they are the caretakers of God's throne and continuously shout praises: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. All the earth is filled with His Glory."
The Seraph which had three pairs of wings, has to be interpreted as a symbol of a philosophical and religious idea. It is possible to explain the symbol of the six-winged Seraph as the six stages of illumination, which begin with God's creatures and lead up to God. The wings become stages in the process of the mind's elevation to God, and their position on the body of the Seraph indicates the heights of the stages of the soul's powers by which we mount from the depths to the heights, from the external to the internal, from the temporal to the eternal...  As if, on the six wings by which the mind of the truly contemplative man grows strong to rise, filled with the illumination of supreme wisdom.

Detail of seraphim, Hagia Sophia

God's Answer to Job

©Estate of Ben Shahn/Vaga, NY/Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX

For me, the most powerful story in the Old Testament of the Bible is the Book of Job. It's completely beautiful and I highly recommend reading it.

Job suffers from from injustice as he considers, ask the eternal questions all the book. And it receives the answer in the last four chapters where Lord informs Job who's Who and what's What.  Each of us could ask these painful questions of Job. But not everyone is worthy to receive and to hear the answer.
 Chapter 38


1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

2Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

3Gird up now your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and you answer me.

4Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding.

5Who has determined the measures thereof, if you know? or who has stretched the line upon it?

6On what are its foundations fastened? or who laid its cornerstone;

7When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

9When I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,

10And prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors,

11And said, Thus far shall you come, but no farther: and here shall your proud waves be stopped?

12Have you commanded the morning since your days began; and caused the dawn to know its place;

13That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?

14It is turned as clay under the seal; and they stand out as a garment.

15And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the uplifted arm shall be broken.

16Have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in search of the depths?

17Have the gates of death been revealed unto you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?

18Have you perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if you know it all.

19Where is the way where light dwells? and as for darkness, where is its place,

20That you should take it to its domain, and that you should know the paths to its home?

21Do you know it, because you were born then? or because the number of your days is great?

22Have you entered into the treasury of the snow? or have you seen the treasury of the hail,

23Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

24By what way is the light distributed, which scatters the east wind upon the earth?

25Who has divided a channel for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;

26To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man;

27To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender grass to spring forth?

28Has the rain a father? or who has begotten the drops of dew?

29Out of whose womb came the ice? and the frost from heaven, who has given it birth?

30The waters harden like a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

31Can you bind the cluster of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

32Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in its season? or can you guide Arcturus with its children?

33Know you the ordinances of heaven? can you set their dominion in the earth?

34Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?

35Can you send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto you, Here we are?

36Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart?
...

Chapter 42

1: Then Job answered the LORD: 

2: "I know that thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted.

3: `Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

4: `Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.'

5: I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee;

6: therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." 

What would you like done with me?

St. Teresa is Bernini's sculpture

For you I live and come to be --
What would you like done with me?
Sovereign, awful majesty,
Knowing till eternity --
Goodness, gracious to my soul,
Highness, godhead, one and whole,
Look at this nonentity
Singing of her love for thee --
What would you like done with me?

I am yours, because you made me,
Yours, because you then redeemed me,
Yours, because you suffered for me,
Yours, because you clamored for me,
Yours, because you did not lose me,
What would you like done with me?

What commands then, good my lord,
By such a creature should be done?
Or what office have I won,
Being but a slave abhorred?
Can't you see me, my sweet one?
Me, my sweet one, can't you see
What would you like done with me?

Right here is my heart, you see,
Lo, I put it in your hand,
My body, soul, all I command,
My entrails and my loving thee.
Redeemer sweet who married me,
Since I gave my all for thee,
What would you like done with me?

Give me life or give me death.
Give me honor, give me shame,
War or peace, it's all the same.
Give me sickness, give me health.
Weakness, strength, I won't complain.
Come what may, I'll let it be.
What would you like done with me?

Give me wealth or poverty,
Give me rest, or anguish fell,
Give me sadness, give me glee,
Give me heaven, give me hell.
Light of life, pray hear me tell
How I surrendered all for thee.
What would you like done with me?

If you will, teach me to pray.
If not, give me aridity.
From all good things your praise I'll say --
Or else, give me sterility.
O thou sovereign majesty,
Peace I find alone in thee.
What would you like done with me?

Wisdom give me, if you will,
Or, if you choose, give ignorance.
Give me wealthy circumstance,
Or give me thirst and hunger still.
Give me shade or light until
I'm tossed about unceasingly.
What would you like done with me?

If you command, at rest I lie,
For your love's sake I'll idle be.
Or if my labor's your decree,
Working hard, I want to die.
Tell me, "Where and how and why?"
Sweetest love, I ask of thee.
What would you like done with me?

Give me Tabor or Calvary,
Desert or the fruitful earth.
Be I Job in his sad dearth
Or John at bosom sucking free.
Perhaps I'll flourish gracefully,
Or sterile stay, if such must be --
What would you like done with me?

Be I Joseph, cast in jail,
Or Joseph, lord of Egypt's shore,
Be I David, punished sore,
Or David, king whom all men hail.
Be I Jonah in the whale,
Or Jonah safe, miraculously
What would you like done with me?

Be I silent, be I speaking,
Bearing fruit or bearing naught,
Let the Law show forth my fault,
Or Gospel soothe, if such you're seeking.
Be I happy, or by pain caught,
I only live when I'm with thee!
What would you like done with me?

For you I live and came to be --
What would you like done with me?

Saint Teresa of Avila  (1515-1582)
– translated from the Spanish by Alan D. Corré