A while back I was in the monastery with two other friends... When I first entered I felt a very familiar presence inside the monastery... Similar to the one I felt in the presence of my Sufi Sheikh in Tunis... After praying and meditating for a short while in the sphere of that presence... I got up and started walking towards the room where Saint Charbel spent his last moments in his body... But suddenly while coming near to the church's door a very shining personality caught my attention and I was awe stricken by it and holded back where I was walking... He was a monk with a figure similar to a white statue and a face with a white beard similar to that of a Greek philosopher but with the radiance of an angel... A very beautiful being indeed... An old monk with a white beard and rosy cheeks and very absorbed eyes...
I kept on walking to the other room... But kept on thinking about him... Should I go speak with him or go take another glimpse of him... But suddenly it dawned on me that he left... So I went to go see and so it was... When I looked at the passage way where he might have walked I thought to myself most of us here on this earth are wasting their time... This is true living...
One of my friends remained in the church and took a good look of the monk... He told me that another person in church tried to talk to him but he didn't budge or answer obviously he had taken a vow of silence... When he stood up... His frame was very tall and majestic... A young boy kept on pointing towards Saint Charbel's picture and then pointing to the monk and telling his mother this is him he's here...
My friend who stayed inside started meditating and went through a peak experience in the divine presence of that monk.
Too bad that such saints are hidden and living the life of solitude... All in all me and my friends were very grateful for the beautiful darshan we had from this saint...
This meeting happened like three weeks ago and it was really short but I still can't get it out of mind... And was thinking about writing it down here a couple days back... My family is on it's way to Saint Charbel's monastery now and I read a post by another forum member on Saint Charbel... It's ripe time I put this in writing...
The beauty of Saint Charbel is that he wasn't dogmatic nor secular... He advised each muslim, druze and christian to pray in their own religion and not to convert to another one and he was visited by people from different sects and creed and so it is until today... His miracles and blessings are spoken of by people in all sects...
Reminds me a lot with what happened once with Rumi:
Quote from FIHI MA FIHI:
Rumi’s love and honor for all religious traditions
was not always popular in his day, and often
provoked criticism from the more dogmatic. A
story is told that one such public challenge came
from a Muslim dignitary, Qonavi, who confronted
Rumi before an audience. “You claim to be at
one with 72 religious sects,” said Qonavi, “but
the Jews cannot agree with the Christians, and the
Christians cannot agree with Muslims. If they
cannot agree with each other, how could you
agree with them all?” To this Rumi answered,
“Yes, you are right, I agree with you too.”Love[
]
Ananda
