To srini & Kalachandra about Question on Offering (one's work to God/dess)

[Guest guest]

srini wrote:

 

In the last class, Kalachandra had a beautiful suggestion that we take a

sankalpa to make every action an offering to God during this Holy Navaratri!

 

Could you share your thoughts of how you would make your life's work an

offering to

God?

 

 

Dear srini ~ ah, the last class, and I missed it. What a beautiful thought,

Kalachandra. Thank you for sharing it with us. For me, it is easier to think

of making every action an offering to God/dess. It is harder for me to think

of it in terms of my life's work because, due to my illness, I haven't worked

in over 10 years. My other "work" ~ my music and my art are also difficult to

do much with because the illness has affected my ability to sing and my

energy to perform, and I'm still setting up my studio in my new house, but I

wonder if I'll be able to use it.

 

Yet today I received a wonderful blessing, another friend offering to help

me make a demo tape of my songs. I have always felt that my songs are a gift

from God/dess, but through all my years of performing, I never made a

professional tape or cd. Now friends are coming out of the woodwork offering to help

me make a cd. One I hadn't heard from in a long time, a very accomplished

singer/songwriter in her own right, was the one who called me today (Thursday).

When I told her my health had worsened since she had moved away and returned,

she said she would help me; she would even sing my songs for me if that is

what it took. Five years ago that would have felt like an insult. "I" wanted to

sing my songs. Now I realize it's not important ... God/dess shared them

with me, and they should go on and be shared with others, whether it is by me or

by another. So I was thrilled.

 

My "work" consists of getting up, doing errands or chores or creative work

of some kind, in the morning, which is the best time of day for me. Then my

"work" is resting; then catching up on the digest; then eating; then maybe

playing guitar if I'm not too tired or sick, then going to bed early and doing

sadhana. Right now my "work" also consists of separating with my husband. I did

better last night then the one before. I try to see him as Divine, and

sometimes I am successful, but I am so hurt that it is hard for me to have any

interaction beyond the briefest, and sometimes I feel I am being curt and cold.

And this makes me sad.

 

So, I guess, in this sense, my life as it occurs ever day, and as I live it,

is my "work." I used to think of this in terms of "art." Everything I did,

every action, whether it was making a painting or a pot of soup, was "art."

Back then, when I was much younger, Art and Divinity were the same thing to me.

When I think about it consciously, they still are, and perhaps the "art" of

life is exactly dedicating every action to God/dess. To make this "work" an

offering to God/dess would be first a decision, then a sankalpa, then an act of

Will, and then all of my tools would be pulled into dedicating my "work" to

God/dess. My feelings, thoughts, behavior, etc., would all need to be in

alignment with this intention. This is probably the hard part for me. But as I

say it, I see the image of the chakras in the Advanced Shiva Puja book, and

knowing that each chakra exists as an energetic center of some quality, I see

that I could use this image to help me align my thoughts, words, deeds,

feelings to dedicating my "work," which would be really dedicating myself to

God/dess.

 

Thank you again, Kalachandra and Srini for providing such a good and, for

me, pertinent topic to think about. I'm interested to read what others wrote.

I'm going to take the Shiva Puja Book with me to the xerox place today and see

if I can make an enlargement of the chakra picture, as a visual reminder.

Doing this dedication feels not only important to me, but absolutely essential.

Jai Maa! , Jai Swamiji! ~ Linda