EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH
Learning how God is in us
By William M. Stephens
On my 17th birthday, soon after Pearl Harbor was attacked, I joined the Marines and soon found myself on Johnston Atoll, southwest of Hawai'i. After months on Johnston, I got so used to the roar of the surf that I hardly noticed it. But later, when I transferred back to Pearl Harbor, I found myself missing that symphony of sound.
Many years later, I discovered that oceanic sound again in the depths of my own being. I had reached a point of crisis in my life. I had lost all faith in religion, technology, people and the political process. I was even skeptical of the reality of beauty, truth, God and my own soul.
At low ebb, I was resting one day in a coconut grove on a secluded beach, seeking solace in the rumbling surf. Without warning, my heart started beating slower and slower. Gradually, inexorably, the heartbeats slowed and finally seemed to stop.
Surely I was dead. Yet I was conscious! How could my mind function if I was dead?
I seemed to be drifting in a black void, searching desperately for a light. Suddenly, miraculously, I saw a glimmer of light, and then I was hurtling through space approaching the light. I seemed to explode into a brilliance beyond anything I could imagine, and I felt immersed in the warmth and joy of a living presence that loved me and accepted me totally.
In the midst of the light was a compassionate, loving face.
God? Could it be God?
Everywhere, within and without, was a deep humming sound, reminiscent of the oceanic sound of Johnston Atoll but more vibrant, imbued with a resonance that was stirring beyond description. A river of electrifying energy surged through my being and in and out of the rocks, trees, mountains and all living things. Somehow I knew beyond question that God is at the heart of everything and everyone; and that each of us, and every galaxy and every grain of sand, reflects God's glory, while every beating heart keeps time to his music.
Finally I found myself back in my body, awestruck by the miracle of life, convinced that nobody really dies. We simply change forms, playing many roles, with a new script each time we go on stage.
Soon after, I ran into a friend who'd just returned from India. He was a follower of Meher Baba, whose photograph in the book "God Speaks" I recognized as the face I had seen in the clouds.
Since then, my wife and I made a dozen trips to India, to Meherabad, on the Deccan Plateau, site of his ashram. Although he died in 1969, his presence and his spirit are palpable and exceedingly strong at his two centers near Ahmednagar. People from all over the world visit the Meherabad pilgrim center.
Meher Baba teaches that there is only one God and all religions are essentially the same. Whatever religion one follows is not important. The important thing is to love God and to love our fellow beings and to ultimately become God, which, in reality, we all are.
William M. Stephens of Maui is a retired lawyer and marine naturalist who writes mysteries and children's books.
