Wave Watcher by Craig Alan Johnson

Dear Lisa,

I meant to write you weeks ago when I started reading Craig's book 'Wave Watcher'.
As you know, I'm back in Brazil for a short while organizing my life before heading to the Holy Land of India again.
Going over my personal things left here I found this book given to me by an affectionate friend whose company I failed to enjoy properly. I often feel when I meet someone like you, There comes another beautiful being crossing my way …and I just won't be able to share with him/her the time we own to each other .

But that is life. And being so short in this present consciousness/ memory, every meeting with it's particular value can be as fast as a breath, as fast as the present moment, but it may leave long lasting impressions.

Anyway, weeks ago I had questions for you like, Is this an autobiography or the fruit of a creative novelist? So, is Ray Craig's alter ego? I s Louie really his brother or someone he met on the way? Are they all real? If so, what a sweet childhood!

As I kept reading it, i forgot about these questions and I started enjoying it some more and finding some resemblances. For example, I also have a thing with sleeping. The sun is for me as the click of the clock. I do not spend the night watching it going by, of course, but as soon as Lord Surya is about to shine over this universe, I'm somewhat aware of it, and there is nothing that can keep me in my sweet dreams. I must get up, no matter how tired I am.
So, coincidentally or not, this early Sunday morning I definitely wanted to sleep as long as one could, feeling tired of a long week of classes and arrangements for the coming trip.
But, after taking two Valeriana pills to help me sleep again I ended up reaching for the Wave Watcher and bumped into beautiful thoughts that led me to other beautiful ones and so on, like waves.

I just started reading the story of Ray/Craig's trip to Jerusalem and I particularly enjoyed it because in a little more than a month I'll be there myself accompanying my mother on her pilgrimage. And in this chapter I found this paragraph so worth noting:

"The break of a wave is that tiny pause before it falls. The point at which it has become all that it can be. Fulfilled its destiny. Lived its life. And then it falls out of itself and into the sea. Returned, I like to think, form where it came. The break is when the pattern is complete. The wave is the trophy given to the sea by the swell as thanks for setting her, for a moment, free."

This thought made me dive in my own daily experiences/thoughts like the simple power of breath and my relationship with the universe. The analogy with 'the ocean and the drop of water', the manifestation of the whole material universe being manifested at God's exhalation and imanifested at God's inhalation, when the entire creation goes back to the body of God.

The holy scripture Srimad Bhagavatam describes the universes and their planets, nature, rivers, stars, etc. as being part of the Supreme Lord's body. So, whenever I contemplate Nature, I see it as a living body. Just like there are so many creatures living in my body. Their universe is within my body, but still I keep my sense of unity and personality. Similarly, all universes are within the body of God. Bellow I shared a passage of such description.

SB 8.20.22 reads as Srimad Bhagavatam Chapter 8, verses 20-22

SB 8.20.22: Bali Mahārāja, along with all the priests, ācāryas and members of the assembly, observed the Supreme Personality of Godhead's universal body, which was full of six opulences. That body contained everything within the universe, including all the gross material elements, the senses, the sense objects, the mind, intelligence and false ego, the various kinds of living entities, and the actions and reactions of the three modes of material nature.

SB 8.20.23: Thereafter, Bali Mahārāja, who was occupying the seat of King Indra, could see the lower planetary systems, such as Rasātala, on the soles of the feet of the Lord's universal form. He saw on the Lord's feet the surface of the globe, on the surface of His calves all the mountains, on His knees the various birds, and on His thighs the varieties of air.

SB 8.20.24: Bali Mahārāja saw beneath the garments of the Lord, who acts wonderfully, the evening twilight. In the Lord's private parts he saw the Prajāpatis, and in the round portion of the waist he saw himself with his confidential associates. In the Lord's navel he saw the sky, on the Lord's waist he saw the seven oceans, and on the Lord's bosom he saw all the clusters of stars.

SB 8.20.25-29: My dear King, on the heart of Lord Murāri he saw religion; on the chest, both pleasing words and truthfulness; in the mind, the moon; on the bosom, the goddess of fortune, with a lotus flower in her hand; on the neck, all the Vedas and all sound vibrations; on the arms, all the demigods, headed by King Indra; in both ears, all the directions; on the head, the upper planetary systems; on the hair, the clouds; in the nostrils, the wind; on the eyes, the sun; and in the mouth, fire. From His words came all the Vedic mantras, on His tongue was the demigod of water, Varuṇadeva, on His eyebrows were the regulative principles, and on His eyelids were day and night. [When His eyes were open it was daytime, and when they were closed it was night.] On His forehead was anger, and on His lips was greed. O King, in His touch were lusty desires, in His semen were all the waters, on His back was irreligion, and in His wonderful activities or steps was the fire of sacrifice. On His shadow was death, in His smile was the illusory energy, and on the hairs of His body were all the drugs and herbs. In His veins were all the rivers, on His nails were all the stones, in His intelligence were Lord Brahmā, the demigods and the great saintly persons, and throughout His entire body and senses were all living entities, moving and stationary. Bali Mahārāja thus saw everything in the gigantic body of the Lord.


Then I went back to the cover pages to check what words Craig had handwritten to me as a 'dedicatória' and I was suprised to acknowledge the date. 2006!? Could that be? That made me think of another of my divine master's wise phrases. He said some books are like a bomb that can explode at any moment. It might seat on somebody's shelf for years and one day it may come out and 'explode'.
It took me 4 years to start reading it, but no doubt this is the right time to do so. As you can see, it got me thinking.

So, Thank you and Craig for this inspiring gift. His book is a beautiful expression of a harmonious relationship between mind and soul.

Namastê!
Chaitanya Mayi Devi Dasi