May 28th -
Savitri, an Unending Journey
Eight members met in
the centre premises today and continued with Canto Five, ‘The Godheads of the
Little Life’, the screening of which was carried out in the last month, leaving
today’s session for explanations, discussions and sharing of thoughts. One by
one, we read out the lines of all the pictures and looked into detail Pictures
1 to 10. We attempted to travel with Aswapathi as he turned his gaze into the
turmoil of the little life, “an unhappy corner in eternity” and the governing
godheads. Life was being scourged with his vision’s “sun-white blaze”. All
within, small and little was left bare to this “search-light” and this little
life in us too was left bare for our scrutiny. In this dreariness of the little
life that was painted, there was some hope in the lines devoted to the last
picture we concluded with for today, Pic. 10:
“Our seekings are
short-lived experiments
Made by a wordless and
inscrutable Power
Testing its issues
from inconscient Night
To meet its luminous
self of Truth and Bliss…..
Amid the figures of
the Ignorance,
In the symbol pictures
drawn by word and thought
It seeks for the
source of Light with vision’s lamp…”
June 4th – Readings from AIM Magazine:
We read a few passages from March 2017 edition, All India Magazine
The theme of this
week’s readings was “The Value of Money”. The circle was about 8-strong. We
opened the evening’s contemplation on money with a reading from The Mother’s
writing on page 21, titled, “Helping humanity with money”. Though several other
passages were read, such as, “Conquering money for the Divine Work” and “Money
is meant for action and not possession”, many of the readers present constantly
made references to the first passage in understanding the right attitude
towards money and its handling. In this passage, Mother speaks about the value
of philanthropy and how that need not necessarily serve the Divine purpose but
instead, may serve the ego of the person practicing philanthropy. When we give
to the poor, do we create more of them by the very act of giving? According to
the Mother, this is not altogether false. Instead, in this yoga, one remains
the first person that one should help.
Here is an excerpt from this passage:
“…the first human
being that concerns you is yourself. You want to diminish suffering, but unless
you can change the capacity of suffering into a certitude of being happy, the
world will not change. It will always be the same …. For there is something
missing, something not there, that is the consciousness. That’s all”
We reread the whole of
the passage that was first read out for the evening, and settled down into
concentration with the New Year’s music for a good length of minutes.
June
11th - Musical Offering of Devotional
Songs by Padmini Chandrashekhar, Ashwin and Lakshmi
It was an hour of sweet devotion that
filled the centre this day when Padmini, Ashwin and Lakshmi took to the stage
with their musical offering of bhajans. Besides joining in with his flawless
voice, Ashwin constantly kept tune at the keyboard while His wife, Lakshmi and
Mother-in-Law, Padmini. He was very adept at the keyboard, having trained under
A R Rahman for two years and practicing in Mumbai for a year. The numerous
compositions, mainly in Sanskrit by great composers, formed a bouquet of
bhajans on all the deities we are acquainted with and uplifted the atmosphere
to that level. The numbers ranged from
Gajavathana as the starting piece, followed by Guru Deva Tava, Shankara
Chandrashekhara, Namo Devi, Anantha rupini, Pranatha Palini Ma, into
Mathurashtakam, a medley of songs on Lord Krishna, Lord Rama and Anjeneya and
Durga Pancharatnam, with a beautiful western orchestration composed by Ashwin
himself. The last piece offered for the occasion was a composition by Alwaar
and Surdas set to music again by Ashwin.
The fifteen of us who were present there
thrived in a hour of bliss and with gratitude singing in our hearts, thanked
the devoted artists from the bottom of our hearts.
June
18th – Awareness through The Body – Sharing an Experience
Some 21 members turned
up for this day’s journey into awareness through the body (ATB) shared by
Jayanthy. She shared her experiences in this area gleaned from workshops she
had attended in Delhi and Auroville conducted by ATB exponents. Basically, ATB
helps one better acquainted with the body, its physical habitual movements,
reactions and the degree to which body senses are tuned to function better and
efficiently. Furthermore, once we
recognise habits and tendencies in us which may not be helping us towards
whatever goals we have set for ourselves in life, then we have the chance of
consciously changing habits to ones which help us lead a life of purpose and
quality. Integral yoga leverages on the integral transformation of our nature
such that divinity can find its abode on earth, manifested in our beings.
The session was an
interactive one with short breaks of interactions and activities that required
members to be quietly observing them as they walked around the room with the
focus on their bodies, state of being and the atmosphere around them. The paces
were increased and changes in their states of being were observed and shared.
Next, members walked around the room with eyes closed. This was quite an
experiences and several members commented that it heightened their sense of
awareness of their body as other functions took over the process of walking
with eyes closed. Last of all, one by one, each member walked towards the
facilitator diagonally and touched her outstretched hands (palms) once with eyes
open and afterwards, with eyes closed. Some made it spot on while others went
astray. But the activity was fun and an eye-opener.
After a brief sharing
session, everyone concentrated, with full awareness on the body and through the
body on The Mother’s New Year’s music.
-
Jayanthy
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