50 % and 100 %

[Guest guest]

Someone has advised me to post only that which i have reflected upon and been

able to find a personal meaning instead of just quoting. this was a good

advice in my opinion.

So here´s something for which recently I have been able to find a personal

meaning:

 

Normally, in every day life, that which one´s senses and mind perceive and

conceive, is at best a 50 % experience as it seems. This seems to be true not

only for me, have talked about this with others recently, some of them devotees,

who in a way shared my experience.

 

the idea: every cloud has a silver lining, but also, every silver lining has

a cloud so to speak.

 

I moved a few days ago. on one hand there was the lunar eclipse not too far

away from our moving time, on the other hand there was an auspicious

astronomical/astrological constellation also, they say, a rare one.

and then, even during socalled unauspicious times, that which is not one´s

karma cannot befall one in my opinion.

Back to the 50 %: as for our moving: previously I lived closer to the city of

Munich than now.

I have found out that on one hand it is practical to live closer to the city

as for working in the city and shopping. Yet on the other hand proximity

of/to the city involves a lot of noise, and hustle and bustle that can be

getting

on one´s nerves.

To live far out can give us more peace, a better chance to get in touch with

nature, a more beautiful place to conduct Satsang, but house and garden also

mean a lot of work.

This ambiguity seems to be true for other fields of life, too.

to have a spouse and child/ children is nice, but also gives us a huge

spiritual training field. It is easy to talk about marriage and bringing up

children, just as it is easy to talk about anything whatsoever, yet those who

have

got some personal experience in this field will know that the practical part of

it is not just as easy.

I do admire my daughter´s love for freedom, but at first it was not easy for

me to let her go.

I have a wonderful husband. According to Vedic astrology we match well, and

meanwhile we even share a liking for Sri Swamiji as well as a liking for Siva

as Lord Nageshwara, or Sri Swamiji as Lord Nageshwara Shiva if you like.

Yet still marriage is something to work on day in day out. Choosing the

"right" partner is only the beginning, a small beginning!

so this is what I mean with 50 %, the on one hand..., and yet on the other

hand....

in general, humans nowadays seem to have a tendency to be discontented with

each other easily, and criticism can easily become a disease, not only for

marriage partners, but also for singles/not yet married ones.

The state of Sat Chit Ananda is devoid of pairs of opposites, but can only be

experienced by the Self realised Ones.

Still we others can have what I call a 100 % experience, even if certainly

not to be compared to the former.

Many years ago a friend of mine put it like that:

"Life is always concentrated on little golden moments,

like a shooting star that encloses our sudden wish for ever."

So this post is about golden moments in my life and my wish to thank all

those who contributed to these moments.

I have read, probably in "Heart to Heart" that Sri Swamiji asked a devotee

whether he/she only wanted a snack or had come for the complete meal - in a

methaphorical sense.

So the full meal in the end is going to be 100 %. Only we cannot swallow it

all at once. So we have to chew properly and digest properly. If one tries to

take in too many teachings all at once, one will get mal digestion. If on the

other hand, one doesn´t eat at all, (i.e., doesn´t want to change one self at

all) although the meal has been served by Sri Swamiji, it is certainly the

devotee´s fault and not Sri Swamiji´s fault.

Sri Swamiji is a 100 % Guru, a Brahma Rishi, He is Ganapathi, Vishnu, Shiva,

Bhagavati, Datta Himself.

Also, for me, the Mysore people are 100 %. Prasad as Secretary to Sri

Swamiji, Manasa Datta with his courses and singing etc, the musicians, the

priests

and puja counter people and so on, volunteers of all kinds.

Same for DYC USA and Datta Temple Baton Rouge. When i first started with

reciting the Guru Gayatri Mantra in 2001 - there was a specific Guru Gayatri

Mantra Recital project going on in the US at that time after the Priest Nagendra

Sankaramanchi Sarma´s dream - everyone was very kind and helpful.

(I did know the "normal" Gayatri Mantra before, but reciting Sri Swamiji´s

was a totally different experience to me. ) I called DYC USA from Germany,

Nandini Rao answered the phone and kindly recited the Mantra for me as for

proper

pronunciation. She also sent my seva registration to Datta Temple Baton Rouge.

Later on, Nagendra Sankaramanchi Sarma explained me the meaning of Sarpa

dosha and kindly prayed/recited Mantras for me during Sri Swamiij´s Sarpa Dosha

Puja and Homa in Mysore in 2003.

So everyone in Mysore and the US has been so kind and I felt so much at home,

also e.g with the Minnesota people.

Same with DYC Germany, the three chairwomen, the bookshop people, people in

charge with planning the future Datta Yoga Retreat Center and so on. 100 %

performance on their part.

I had been in other spiritual communities before, but I remember none to have

been so kind and of such a helpful nature as the above mentioned ones. Not

giving criticism unasked for, but giving real help and friendship.

Another memory of golden moments:

Our rabbit Nelly died recently, before our moving. In her own way, she, too,

was a "100 % experience" for me. In my opinion we humans can learn a lot from

animals, serenity, simplicity, being 100 % in the presence, without regret,

remorse or worrying about the future or about other people ´s progress in

whatever field. Also, animals usually don´t have the tendency to "beat on a dead

horse" that humans are prone to fall prey to. If you want someone to be

contented

with you, think about having a pet. It will be grateful, and won´t compare

you to other humans in all probability, nor will it (or better he/she)

criticize you uselessly.

those were golden moments when Nelly would meditate together with me,

listening to Ganesha Kavacha Mantra, her favorite (because this Mantra is so

"playful" or because Ganesh is usually depicted in the form of an animal

Himself? I am

sure that Ganapati does like animals, that´s why animals in turn like

Ganapati)

That´s why her death was very sad for me. Her little corpse was beautiful

even in death, without a sign of pain/agony. I came to think she had been like

spring to me, ever fresh and new with every new day, in a way representing the

whole of Nature for me. In my pain I imagined that I should from now on be

wearing a necklace with a pendant/gemstone that would remind me that spring had

not really gone, but is eternal and is with me every day, just as Datta is

with us every day. I even saw the gemstone before my inner eye, as beautiful

moments and good friends/friendly persons are like gems in our lives that give

it

radiance.

Some time later Antje sent me the Prasadam for the 2003 Mysore Ashrama

Navaratri Shanti Homa sponsorship. She had brought it from Mysore, as she had

attended Navaratri there.

It contained several beautiful things. The most beautiful being a small

gemstone pendant. Later on she told me that Sri Swamiji had materialized it from

a

Lotus flower. This is my personal experience as for the meaning of spring.

Spring is not dead, but it is eternal. Gemstones outlive our physical bodies.

The

bodies go, but spring remains. Jaya Guru Datta.