You are the forest
by Akka MahadeviEnglish version by A. K. Ramanujan
Original Language Kannada
You are the forest
you are all the great trees
in the forest
you are bird and beast
playing in and out
of all the trees
O lord white as jasmine
filling and filled by all
why don't you
show me your face?
 | -- from Speaking of Siva, by A K Ramanujan |
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I really like the image of God (Shiva) as a forest, as every tree in the forest, and simultaneously as the myriad of animals "playing in and out / of all the trees".
Contemplate this image for a moment.
First, God is the forest -- the place, the region. You might call this the field of being.
But then God is also seen as "all the great trees" -- the green and living pillars that collectively embody that field of being. This is like stepping in awareness from the unmanifest to the manifest.
And then we have this living, moving, "playing" circulation of beings -- "bird and beast" -- that constantly flows "in and out" of the trees. Mahadevi is evoking an image of individual points of consciousness playfully, naturally moving between the unmanifest and the manifest, between the interior and the exterior. And God is also every one of those points of awareness, circling relatively in and out of manifestation.
An image of God as all life and all things. Not merely being all things, but at the same time permeating and flowing through all things... "filling and filled by all."
It inspires the mystic's plea:
why don't you
show me your face?
This vision of unified being within such swirling multiplicity awakens the fundamental hunger to witness the Singularity -- for that is our true Beloved and our true home!
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