The intention in the heart (Amma in San Ramon)

[Guest guest]

The following was posted today on Ammachi's website.

In case you're wondering whether it's OK to put a

picture of Amma or a deity in your bathroom, go for

it!!

 

The intention in the heart

 

It was that lovely time near the end of darshan, late

at night (early the next morning), when people have

moved near the front of the hall and Mother is

chatting with people close around Her chair. The

subject was "acharas"-those traditional dos and don'ts

for our spiritual practice. What are the rules? How

should we do things?

 

A woman sitting near Mother raised a question to Amma

about the correct way of displaying photos of Mother.

It seems that in her bathroom at home, she had a

picture of Amma, and a friend had scolded: "How can

you keep a picture of Amma in the same room where

people use the toilet? It's disrespectful!"

 

So the woman asked Amma.

 

Amma's answer was simple: "Daughter, God is

Omnipresent. When God resides in everyone and

everything, then there is no place where God is not.

So then how could it be wrong to place Mother's photo

wherever we want to be reminded of Mother?"

 

Another devotee wanted to know about pujas and homas

and chanting God's names: "It is said that one should

chant the Sahasranama Archana (Holy names for the

Mother aspect for the Divine in the Vedic texts) only

in the morning and the Sahasranama Stotra (Holy names

set in the form of a continuous string of names) only

in the evening. Is this true, Mother?"

 

Again Mother's reply was absolutely simple: "Son, will

a child call its mother "Ma" only in the mornings, and

"Amma" only at night? And won't a baby, when it is

hungry, simply cry for milk? A mother won't put her

baby on a schedule, will she?"

 

In Her inimitable way, Mother, eyes twinkling, took

that back: "Perhaps in these days when women have to

go to the office, they must feed their babies on

schedule." People nodded in rueful agreement. And Amma

completed Her thought: "But that isn't Devi's way.

 

"Prayer in whatever form in whatever place at whatever

time is of course always not only permissible (in

fact, as Mother mentioned, the bathroom can be a good,

quiet place to meditate, undisturbed, undistracted….)

but encouraged. There might be some small

restrictions-like: for the first hour and a half after

eating, one should not meditate on the point between

your eyebrows. Such limitations are for our benefit:

If you do, you might get nauseated. These rules are

not to propitiate or appease some demanding deity. It

is however OK to think about God or pray during this

time. But in fact, a spiritual aspirant's every

thought and deed will be a worship and offering,

without regard to time and place.

 

Of course, it is good to have a schedule and to

observe the acharas; a spiritual discipline helps us

not forget to do our practice. But these rules are for

our benefit, not God's.

 

What matters most, Amma always says, is the intention

in the heart.

 

http://www.ammachi.org/amma/being-with-amma/Summer-2003/day-five-sanramon.htm

 

 

Keval

 

p.s..what would Amma say about a Kali toilet seat?

http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa111900a.htm

 

 

 

 

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