28 April 2013
–Meditations on ‘Savitri’
That evening, we turned
our attention to one of the many turning points of the epic poem,
‘Savitri’. Book 3, Canto 4, ‘The Vision and the
Boon’.Ashwapathy has the vision of the One Worshipped. Like in
a whirlwind trip, in a jiffy, the six pictures that made up that
section of Meditations on ‘Savitri’, brought us through
the whole of the Canto 4. This section in a sense, brought before us
about 6 aspects of the canto: Ashwapathy’s magnificent tryst with
the Divine Mother, his mighty vision of Shiva’s dance which tore
the past, his luminous vision of “the Omnipotent’s flaming
pioneers”, his ardent prayer for Her to descend upon earth and
the benevolent granting of the supreme boon and his return to the
“speed and noise Of the vast business of created things.”
Following meditation on the words of Mother and the paintings by
Huta, we settled to read the lines that came along with the pictures.
These lines were heavily laden and reading them had an effect on our
state of consciousness. A few questions were raised, mainly by those
seeking some clarifications. It was good sitting together and going
through those very significant lines. We ended the evening with New
Year meditation music and headed home, looking forward to next
Sunday’s activities.
5 May 2013 -
Readings on Mother’s Work and OM Choir
We were still on the
broad topic of exploring the inner world. Our reference for the day
was Mother’s words compiled in ‘Living Within’ by A.S.
Dalal. We did a simple exercise on quietening the mind and focusing
our attention inwards. Participants shared their experience in gong
within for those few seconds. One participant mentioned that she
immediately could go in and be with a silent self within. Another
mentioned that thoughts of events preceding his arrival at the Centre
dominated his mind space. Another simply allowed her attention to be
occupied by items and articles she saw in the room prior to the
exercise. Following this sharing, we read a passage The Mother had
written on the best attitude one could hold towards events in one’s
life, from within. We concluded this part of the evening reading
short but poignant passages on that helped us contemplate on what it
meant to be living within.
OM choir followed next.
We enjoyed the harmony of our voices offering the majestic OM that
filled our outer as well as our inner world. The fact that our inner
world was also filled with only this sound became evident when we
stopped OM choir and let ourselves be led by the vibrations produced
by the sound OM on our being. For some time, the ringing of OM
continued. We concluded this first Sunday evening with meditation on
New Year’s music by Sunil-da.
12 May 2013 - Talk
by Jared Quek- “The Spiritual Transformation”
The second Sunday is when
we have been having talks by Jared at the Centre. The topic this time
was “The Spiritual Transformation”. As always, we were each given
a hand-out with excerpts from The Life Divine. Spiritual
Transformation, just as in any other form of Transformation, is a
steady process with constant evolution across a period of time. Every
bit of Transformation that one undergoes comes with effort from our
side,at least initially (which may last life times, we have been
told) and a lot of Grace from the Divine.
The first part of the
talk was about the three essential motions that pave the path to the
process of Spiritual Transformation. These three motions are The Rift
in the lid of the stubborn Mind, The Ascent and The Descent. It is
the rift that opens our vision to something above us, the SOMETHING
here is the eternal Presence which signifies infinite Bliss. It is
the same rift which also helps in the descent of powers of this
Presence into our being.
From this topic, we went
on to the next topic, The Spiritual Nature. This brought about a
fundamental question relating to this subject—“Who exactly is a
Spiritual Person?”. We shared our views and opinions on what we
thought necessarily constituted a person who is aspiring to be
Spiritual. After this discussion, Jared also highlighted briefly the
Danger and Limitation of pulling down the Forces hastily, before the
wholesome Transformation is complete. We concluded the day with a few
lines on “The Supramental Necessity”.
19 May 2013 -
Musical Offering by PanditBarun Pal on the Hans Veena
It was a privilege indeed
for us to have Barun Pal ji at our Centre. He filled the room with
the melodious strains of offering, devotion and gratitude through the
Hans Veena, accompanied by the assenting notes of the tabla, played
by Sri Mihir Kundo of The Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS).
The first Raag to fill the space was Shivaranjani and the second,
Jansamodini. Besides being a musical offering dedicated to the
Divine, it was also an occasion for the disciple to honour his guru.
Barun Pal ji’s guru was none other than the late Pandit Sri Ravi
Shankar, the Sitar Maestro. It was indeed our privilege to have Barun
Pal ji and Sri Mihir Kundo in our midst. They indeed brought us on a
special journey through music.
-
Jayanthy and Preethi
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