It is the sense of a presence that keeps you alive.When your eyes, nose, fingertips, toes and those little hair on your arms react to this, then you know that you have the capacity to experience it.Then you know it is formless, yet powerful. It has the capability to break down your ego,your desires, and redirect you to a path you could have never imagined. With the realisation of the existence of the all-powerful Supreme Being, material greed starts to destroy its own self, and a whole new empire builds up within you — of simplicity, peace and the sole desire to feel the physicality of its presence. As I was travelling in Himachal Pradesh, the captivating valleys made me fully aware of the divine process and synchronicity of creation and destruction.
The mountains made me feel like attaining the stage of Fanaa. Fanaa is the Sufi term for extinction. It means to annihilate the self and realise God, while remaining physically alive. Fanaa means ‘to pass away’or ‘cease to exist’.Persons having entered this state are said to have no existence outside of it, and are in complete unity with Allah.The nature of fanaa consists of the elimination of evil deeds and lowly attributes of the flesh. In other words, fanaa is abstention from sin and the expulsion from the heart of all love other than divine love. In the state of fanaa, the reality of true and only relationship asserts itself in the mind.One realises that the only real relationship is with Allah. Fanaa is one of the steps taken by the Sufi toward the achievement of union with God. Fanaa may be attained by constant meditation and by contemplation on the attributes of God, coupled with the denunciation of human attributes.When the Sufi succeeds in purifying himself entirely of the worldly qualities and loses himself in the love of God, it is said that he has ‘annihilated’ his individual will and ‘passed away’ from his own existence to live only in God and with God. Only after regaining full consciousness does a person attain the more sublime state of baqa or subsistence and finally become ready for the direct vision of God. As the Quranic verse beautifully explains, “All things in creation suffer ‘annihilation’ and there remains the face of the Lord in its majesty and bounty.”
For a month, I visited several isolated places in Himachal. Looking at the herculean snow-covered mountains shimmering in sunlight and the sturdy river, flowing rhythmically, swirling away through the rocks, I felt vulnerable and inadequate. Where I found a plant that caused me pain after I touched it, I found another plant next to it that healed me after I rubbed it against my skin.This is called magic. I know I am being taken care of. I was questioning my being. I feel so feeble.Nature has this power to literally demolish those ideologies, which have been stored inside you for so many years by the society, and show you a new dimension. I might not have been completely in fanaa, but I know I got a glimpse of it. I am also sure that anyone can attain that state.The only thing to do is to soak yourself in the essence of Creation. ■
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