When we sit for meditation (preferably in Indian way of Meditation) adopt a way of arranging our hands, touching our index finger on the thumb and the remaining three fingers away from it. This posture (or mudra) is called Jñāna Mudra or Chin Mudra. This is very common in Yoga practice. This kind of practice is not alien to the Christian meditation. The saints of the West, especially the monks who engaged in themselves for the meditation have used in their prayer. If the fingers in the mudra held pointing upwards it is called Jñāna mudra and if it is reverted it is called Chin mudra. My aim is not to philosophize it, but to derive an existential meaning to it.
The thumb finger represents God, the Supreme Being, whereas the index finger represents the Soul or the Human Being. According to the Indian terminology, it is Brahman or Paramātman and ātman or jīva respectively. It can also be understood as microcosm and macrocosm respectively (or lokāloka). The ātman could mean the entire universe. The union of two fingers is the ultimate aim of any sādhana, the spiritual practice. The end of every spiritual practice is the union with the divine. The union could be of human with the divine or the cosmos with the divine.
The second aspect one needs to note here is the inseparable relation existing between God and Soul (and world). They are very much close to each other. The relation can be better understood in the imageries such as soul-body relation or part-whole relation or the relation of one locus. Therefore, it is usually said, “God is closer to me than I am to myself.”
Śaivism gives a symbolic meaning to the remaining three fingers. The middle finger represents āṇavamala, the ring finger māyamala and the little finger – karmamala. Mala means impurities or in our ordinary understanding the enslaving elements. Āṇava refers to the impurities at the atomic level. In other words, it is at the psychological level. It represents the very nature of our ego, the ‘I’-ness (mamakāra, svārtha, ahaṅkāra, etc). ‘I am superior’, ‘I am the best’, ‘I know it all’, ‘I did it’ and ‘I am doing’ kind of attitude is part of this nature. Māyamala is of the nature of delusion. It is the unseen desires of life like power, position, material gain, name and fame. The third kind is karmamala, the bodily desires, all sorts of physical pleasure or the material desires one is enslaved of. A serious look into these three impurities would tell us that these refer to three different modes of enslavement at the levels of our existence – psychological, social or material and physical.
As a Christian, while meditating on the three temptations of Jesus at the desert (Mt 4:1-11; Mk 1:12-13; Lk 4:1-13), we come across the above mentioned three levels of impurities one is being tempted of in one’s existence. St. John the evangelist commenting on the temptation says it is, “the lust of the flesh [materialism], and the lust of the eyes [Hedonism], and the pride of life [egoism]” (1 Jn 2.16). The first temptation of Jesus was to turn the stones into bread to quench the physical hunger which Jesus overcomes with ease. The second was a still at the higher level, at the ontological level- the temptation of power and position. This too Jesus conquers. The third was at the psychological level. The very identity of Jesus is being at stake, “if you are the Son of God…” Jesus does not defend his position here, but categorically affirms that he is the Son of God. He affirms his position well, “do not put your God to test.”
A similar test is being seen in the book of Genesis where the first parents were tested their faithfulness to God. The strategy of the Satan is clear. It is the same strategy that Satan uses with Jesus. The first begins with lowest one, the physical one “why don’t you eat that fruit”, then gradually moves to the higher level, a social level where a dialogical relation with the family members is brought in. And finally, the Satan enters the psychological level, “You will be like God”.
Our life also is like this. The physical or bodily desire leads a person to begin the crime, lose one’s integrity and morality. As the days pass on, the person moves into the second level and eventually falls prey to the highest level. It is here when the person reaches to the third level of sin, that person totally loses one’s identity, becomes like an animal.
If the primordial parents could yield to the temptation and eventually were deprived of the divine joy, who am I to overcome it? Am I not born of flesh and blood? This seems to be an utopia, but not impossible to attain. We have a solution. We have an example to follow who could overcome the temptation. It is Jesus who overcame the temptation at the desert, before his public ministry.
Lent is a season to retrospect and see as in which level of existence that we are in. It will be easier to embrace God if we are in the first level. If we are in the higher level, only grace of God can enable us to come out of it. That would be a miracle in our life.
Our life must be a constant meditation till we breathe our last. It should be a constant yogic practice to live as a limb of the body of God. If the limb is separated, the body is no longer called a complete body, nor is the limb called a fuller body. It is in its integrity a whole is realized. This does not mean, apart from me God is incomplete. He is complete without me, but I am incomplete without God.
When God created me, I was the image of that invisible God. Due to my sinful nature, I have lost that original beauty. I have been losing my original identity at different stages of my life. I need to detach all that impurities estrange me, just like in the meditation mudra I detach three fingers from the union of index and thumb fingers.
The meditation is not just for few minutes, but should be a reality through out our life. When I am able to do this, life becomes ever an Easter in my life. People like St. Augustine, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Angela of Foligno, St. Dismas, St. Thomas Becket, St. Philip Howard have done it. In our own time, people like Samandar Singh who murdered Sr. Rani Maria and is now witnessing Christ is a living example in front of us. May the Grace of God be with us to achieve this task.
Fr. Raju Felix Crasta
