The Full Moon in the sky, seen from any angle, any perspective, is a deeply moving
experience. On the horizon, rising or setting, it seems to touch and illumine hidden
recesses in the brain; angular, it whispers to the heart to make light and love;
and then, it draws the spirit upwards, to partake of ethereal enchantment. Beings
of light are abroad in the magical dimensions, as all the portals through the universe
are ajar with the force of this subtle, yet intense radiation. It is as though the
lights of the Sun and the Moon are dancing in the romance of a soulful symphony,
moving all earth sentience, illumined by the divine interplay of their radiation.
It is one of those mystical cosmic events, full and free, imbued with love and the
sheer synergy of universal creativity, which makes life on earth such a blessed
experience.
Troubles and worries will take their turn, in tandem with the waxing and waning
of the Moon, but the three days of the Full Moon – one day before and after – are
a special invitation to bathe in the radiation and to be inspired, to pray and be
touched by the love and grace of the Formless Absolute in its many refined ways.
Many a poet has compared the Full Moon to the face of the beloved. For supreme goddess
of illusion she is, healing souls seared by the harsh glare and unremitting heat
of the Sun, applying the cool and refreshing balm of the munificent glow, if only
for a night or so.
On earth, the sap rises. It surges within the magnetic, molten core. It overwhelmingly
rushes with the tide, filling all the nooks and crannies of the rocks on the shores
and in labyrinthine passageways in bodies and mind. Deep into the silvery night,
a bird sheds its tears in longing, releasing the song of unrequieted passion, for
his alluring beloved is high up there in the skies, unattainable. The bittersweet
pain of the fullness of his love makes life worth living for him, for this one occasion,
when he can see her from afar, undisturbed, in her full glory. This is the legendary
Chakor, the bird that pines for none other than the exalted and ethereal Moon, entrancing
kings, poets and sages with his sweet melody of love.
The great ascetic guru and philosopher of Advaita, Adi Shankaracharya, describes
in the most sensuously moving, lilting words in Sanskrit in Saundaryalahari (Ripples
of Beauty), the divine glory of the Goddess Tripurasundari as Amba, revealed in
the face of the Full Moon. She rises from the ocean, clad in the luminescent jewels
of the spray of the surging tide. High above in the sky, the luminous sweep of her
full light releases waves of chaitanya – cosmic consciousness – dripping with the
nectar of immortality. And the Chakor, thirsting for the charm of her enchanting
smile, drinks in this nectar, which brings the fulfillment of his life’s purpose!
Contemplation on the sixteenth degree of the Moon, that is the Full Moon, brings
spiritual enlightenment and liberation for the advanced soul, through merging with
the great Lord of the Moon, Shiva, according to occult lore. Sometimes such merging,
or samarasya occurs at the etheric lingam in the Manipur chakra in the region of
the navel; at other times, it happens through contemplation on the white light of
the Full Moon in the region between the two eyebrows; and still other times, when
it is the full union of Shiva and Shakti in the Sahasrar, bringing in its wake amritvarsha,
or the shower of the nectar of immortality, bliss and liberation.
Archive
|