Urban Sadhu Exploration February 2025

hēy śiva shankara, hēy mahēśwara sukha kara dukha, hara hara hara śankara
Meaning: Shiva, destroyer of the ego, witness of all that passes. All sorrow stems from identification with the transient, all happiness from identification with the eternal. – Interpretation by Austin Sanderson
Bob and I have cats ... we’re cat folks. We have animal companions that live with us in our home, but we have a larger number of community cats that live in our yard or come and visit us for food and shelter. Recently, a young, small, scruffy black cat appeared. He was very friendly. As I opened a can of cat food he ran right up to me, butted his head against my forearm and showed affection to me. I stroked his head and scratched his ears, and he purred with delight and then ate the can of cat food. I thought he might belong to a neighbor and had been let out to play, because he seemed too uninhibited to be a feral cat. Like so many of the outdoor cats he would come and go. Long passages of time would go by and I would not see the scruffy little black cat.
One day, while I was in my kitchen cooking a vegan meal, I was thinking about the difference between the term “being seen” and the act of “darshan” when I heard a very loud “meow, meow, meow!” at the window. I looked up to the kitchen window to see two golden eyes staring at me from a solid black face. It was the friendly little black cat, and he was hungry. I went out with food, and as always happens in my interactions with this amazing being, he butted his head against me, purred, and longed not just for food but for connection. I gave him the food and petted him and stroked his shiny black fur as he ate, and I wondered what I could learn from this interaction.
Darshan is an ancient act that is performed in the traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and yoga. The Sanskrit word darshan or darshana literally means “sight,” “vision,” or “viewing.” A key concept of darshan is the act of “making eye contact,” be it with a murti (image of god), a guru (enlightened teacher), another human, or a sentient being. Darshan is an act of equality: I see you, you see me. Or “I see your hunger and fear, you see my hunger and fear,” as my friend Devdutt Pattanaik expresses it so simply.
In today’s echo chamber of ‘yogaland’, we hear a lot about “being seen”. “Being seen” is not the same as the eye contact made in darshan. “Being seen” refers to a one-sided gaze: it is a demand of “look at me,” made by someone who feels unseen, but with an added attitude of “I don’t have to look at you; you have been seen enough!” In “being seen,” eye contact is taboo, because being seen is based on a power grab, not a power exchange. Being seen is the law of jungle, where all beings are predator or prey and a beta never looks an alpha in the eyes because that would be a threat or challenge. Once dominance has been established, the alpha only looks at the beta to put it in its place. Demanding to be seen puts the one who demands in the position of alpha, and the viewer in the position of beta. Being seen is about subordination.
In the ancient act of darshan, the seer is the seen and the seen is also the seer. The alpha is the beta and the beta is the alpha. When darshan is offered, both parties become vulnerable. Imagine a different scenario with the little black cat – one where he came to my window, looked across my back yard with his back to me, and screamed “meow, meow, meow!” More than likely I would have had a very different reaction to him; I would have thought he was calling out to another cat or was fearful of a more dominant animal nearby. I wouldn’t have assumed he was looking to connect with me. But because this small animal instinctively knew and understood the power of making direct eye contact, he saw me and I saw him. Yes, because I have food, one could say I am the alpha, but when the little cat showed me his trust and affection, he made us equals.
In an article in Hinduism Today, “Darshan, the Grace of Seeing the Divine” (August 1998), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami explains the act of darshan: “The concept of darshan also embraces the guru’s seeing of the devotee. When you are in the presence of the guru, his seeing of you and therefore knowing you and your karmas is another grace. So darshan is a two-edged sword, a two-way street. It is a process of seeing and being seen. The devotee is seeing and in that instant is drawing forth the blessings of the satguru, the swami, or the sadhu. In turn, they are seeing the devotee and his divine place in the universe. Both happen within the moment, and that moment, like a vision, grows stronger as the years go by, not like imagination, which fades away. It is an ever-growing spiritual experience. The sense of separation is transcended, so there is a oneness between seer and seen. This is monistic theism; this is Advaita Ishvaravada. Each is seeing the other and momentarily being the other.” Satguru Sivaya is speaking of the connections between devotee and guru, but the challenge comes when the Christian is asked to see the non-Christian, the vegan see the non-vegan, or the political liberal see the political conservative, and vice versa. This act of seeing each other and dissolving otherness can and should be offered from one and all, to all beings. Not just the ones we like or the ones feel comfortable with. Yoga is about stepping outside of our comfort zone and reestablishing a sit of comfort.
We cannot control others, nor can we control their actions, so if you wish to be seen, start by seeing others first, and stop expecting them to see you. The reason we may feel invisible is that we are unwilling to truly see others, their fear, pain, and hunger. Maybe we are not seen because our demands to be seen lack the compassion and empathy that we so desire. Or maybe we surround ourselves with a community that can see no further than itself, creating a closed-mindedness that is unwilling to see that we are a community bound by our humanity. Perhaps we feel unseen because we are unwilling to offer the same nonjudgmental attitude to others that we crave. If we could start to see all beings as holy beings and not just the other, we could let go of our fears and anxiety. We could recognize that whatever fears and anxiety we have, other beings have also. Darshan is seeing beyond the superficiality of the surface that seems to make us so different and see the Divinity in all beings.
Austin Sanderson, Urban Sadhu
Comments