Father Dominic Emmanuel

After sharing some of my experiences from the scenic environs of Kerala about how spiritual life without God is impossible just as tea leaves (branches) have no life without being attached to the plant;

about beginning our day the way singing birds do and experiencing God’s infinite care as good shepherds much the way the shepherds look after their sheep, I can’t resist myself telling you how spiritually refreshed I felt by discovering a nice little brook of cool and clear water down in the valley.
In my last days of exploring the lush green tea gardens, listening to birds and devouring everything that came my way, in the valley I found a stream of crystal clear water at the foot of two clusters of mountains. Going that far was a tough call for someone like me who is used to city roads, but I found a well-paved path, which led to that deeper portion of the stream where the quantity of water was more. I soon learnt that this path was actually made by the grazing cattles that make their way to the stream to quench their thirst.
As I made my way further down the stream, the unmistakable sound of the water flowing over the little rocks and pebbles forming its own dance in stark contrast to the utter stillness of the valley was much more soothing than the recorded music of meditation halls. One could sit for hours and listen to that sound feeling comforted and uplifted. I began to see and feel why the sound of water flowing as well as the sound of the ocean waves are said to be therapeutic. Having sat there for quite some time, I could not but stretch my hand out to touch the water. Quite spontaneously I took the water with my bare hands and began splashing it on my face. I can hardly describe in words how I actually felt doing that. But it stealthily lead me to a memory of a Hindu friend of mine who had once told me how when she lost her dear mother, her father who happened to be familiar with the Bible went to a nearby church in New York and reciting Psalm 23 meditated on it to calm him down during that sad bereavement. The precious Psalm, which is frequently used by both Jews and Christians to pray and meditate upon and which has been set to music by several composers goes like this:
“The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters; He refreshes my soul; He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me... You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” No sooner I had finished recalling that uplifting Psalm and being in a near perfect setting, my mind dug out another Psalm befitting the moment, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”
While churches, temples, mosques and gurdwaras provide one an opportunity to pray and worship in a more structured and systematic way, I found that for the Psalmist (Psalms were supposedly composed by King David), the presence of God in all such places and imagined that even deer and birds would find a shelter on God’s altar. And so in Psalm 84, he expressed his longing for God thus, “How lovely is your dwelling place O Lord, My soul longs, yes faints for the courts of the Lord, my heart and flesh sing for you to the living God. Even a sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young at your altars, O Lord of hosts, My King and My God.”
It all suggests that, as the poems of Rabindranath Tagore amply affirm, one can commune with God right in the midst of forests, hills, rivers and everything that nature has given us. “Thank you Lord for your beautiful creation.”

— The author, a founder-member of Parliament of Religions, is currently the director of communication of the Delhi Catholic Church. He was awarded the National Communal Harmony Award 2008 by the Government of India.
He can be contacted at frdominic@gmail.com