Guiding Light of The Month

O Lord, how ardently do I call and implore Thy love! Grant that my aspiration may be intense enough to awaken the same aspiration everywhere: oh, may good- ness, justice and peace reign as supreme masters, may ignorant egoism be overcome, darkness be suddenly illu- minated by Thy pure Light; may the blind see, the deaf hear, may Thy law be proclaimed in every place and, in a constantly progressive union, in an ever more perfect harmony, may all, like one single being, stretch out their arms towards Thee to identify themselves with Thee and manifest Thee upon earth. - The Mother

May - June Sunday Activities at the Centre - A glimpse

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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