To Babu about Blossoming Seeds~ by Muktimaa

[Guest guest]

Babu Krishnan wrote:

 

The kind postings from Linda and Chris makes me feel so energized and

charged about the need to restring and retune the inner guitars, so as to offer a

sense of deeper solace to the many worldwide devotees and aspirants...

Some years back when asked by one of the visitors to the Martinez temple,

whether someone who is so full of desires and fears, would be eligible for the

"TRUTH", Shree Maa in her usual and sweet way said:

"Truth is not a reward for any good behavior nor is it a prize for merely

passing few tests. This cannot be bought or sold or transferred. It is the

primordial and" pratama 'adhyaya"( starting place ), yet unborn or unseen but

ancient in in its source. You simply cannot be meriting the truth. It is already

your own, and always same and you cannot escape. Just stop running away by

running after. Stop and stand still, try and BE. Try to be quiet.

 

 

Dear Babu Krishnan ~ "restring and retun the inner guitars" ~ this metaphor

really speaks to me since I play guitar and need to get new strings (else my

high E string will soon break). Anyone who has ever had and tried to play a

guitar knows how trying this can be. Yet somehow, from the inside, in my case,

the intent was so strong, I did all the necessary things, which, when you

have a steel stringed guitar can be trying. First I had to place each (left

hand) finger in the proper place on the guitar to make a certain chord. Then I

had to go and simultaneously push up from underneath my finger (so they would

be dampening the strings) to make a kind of arch while pressing down very hard

with the pads of my fingers.

After a bit of this, you get bloody fingers, you get sore fingers, yet, you

are driven so you keep on until there is that magic moment when it all comes

together and suddenly it seems effortless.

 

Next to this difficulty, it occurs to me that sadhana seems easy, though

many of the elements may be the same. In my case, with my sick body, to be able

to get to a point where I can just sit up while reciting. Some of you know

that about a year ago I wrote to Swamiji of my difficulties and asked if it was

okay for me to recite while reclining in bed. He wrote back that yes, it is

okay. But now I have gotten to the point where I am able to sit up in bed

while reading. Just like playing the guitar; I never formulated this consciously

as a goal.

It was something I was doing from the inside out. But who formulated the

goal? Linda never said, well, let's see, now I will work on sitting up in bed

while reciting. It seemed to happen by itself.

 

I am not saying that a person should not formulate goals. In doing the Earth

Mother Sankalpa, which I assume is continuing, at some point I realized that

I might never achieve reciting the number of malas given in the instructions

for each planet. So I formulated a goal of reaching at least 1/3 the number

of each planet's malas. I have wended my way, being a little turtle, and now

I find I am very close. To those who completed the sankalpa in the first

month or completed it and are now on round 2, this may seem very small. But to me

it was a big surprise to find, when I did my last count, I was so close. I

applaud all those whose capacity is greater and who are able to do much

sadhana. And I have had to learn humility in knowing I rarely can keep up, and I

have had to learn (better and more completely) focus so that I could keep going,

when, initially I felt so discouraged.

 

So there are two examples. One in which a "goal" springs spontaneously from

within and is accomplished, and one where the goal is formulated by the heart

or mind and stated externally, and is accomplished (in my case, according to

my capacity ... my capacity was much greater when I was in my teens getting

bloody fingers). Both of these seem equally valid to me.

 

And I very much appreciate, Babu, what you recounted above of Shree Maa's

words. Whenever someone shares a personal experience of what they have heard or

seen from Maa or Swamiji, it is like Christmas morning, or Happy Birthday,

for me, a wonderful present. I loved what Maa said about Truth not being a

reward, but being already here, within us, as is the spark of our own divinity.

And the more we rush about and "do" and "try," the harder these are to catch.

Why? Because we are kittens chasing our own tails? But Mother sees all,

smiles, perhaps laughs at our youthful running around in circles. But then, like

any good Mother, She will eventually say, "Stop." I think, it can't be that

simple, can it? But from my own experience I know it is. Of course, I also

think our striving and chasing and searching is part of the process that many

must play out before they are ready to Stop. Thank you, Babu.

Jai Maa ~ Linda