to vish about sharing spirituality with life partner

July 7, 2008

vish wrote:

....My wife and I have been going to the Temple every morning at 4:30 AMfor singing and aarti then chanting the Durga mantra at the homa.It is so enlivening to being the day this way. Then coming home,chanting in the car, then at home resting, then performing puja andchanting the Durga mantra throughout the day...

Dear vish ~ this is so wonderful, and every time I read something like this, I feel it is such a blessing to have a life partner who shares your spirituality, not just accepting it, but both being active participants. I have never had this, and in fact, I have right now, at best, toleration, and at worst, negation of my love of spirituality. Sadly, I am easily cowed, and this drives me underground, so to speak, so that most of my worship is in bed when the lights are out and I silently chant mantra. I have a small altar, but have not done much with it, in terms of caring for it or worshiping. I believe it would be very good for me to stand, or knell, or sit, in the face of this hostility, and just go right ahead with my worship. So a sankalpa I want to make is that by the end of this week, I will have my alter cleaned up and in a condition for me to use it for sadhana, and then to do the sadhana, no matter what. It is very good to check back in with the group and have that sense of support of so many others who are practicing. So I thank all of you ~ Linda

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July 11, 2008

Namaste everyone,

I joined this group sometime ago but have not visited for a long time.

Even when I did, I was what you might call a " silent lurker " although

I do go to the ShreeMaa website.

There is a reason for everything that happens and for quite some time

now I have questioned myself and put the question to Divine Mother as

to why I am so fragmented and lazy and lack regularity in my sadhana.

Even when I make it something as simple as listening to a stotra which

is no longer than 5 mins, after 2 or so weeks it goes out of the window.

Then a few days ago on the website I was just browsing through the

archives and I came across a post about sankalpa. Many times I hear

Swamiji speak of " we make a sankalpa... " but this post said that in

order to make our sankalpa shakti strong we pray to Shiva and it gave

a link to the Shiva sankalpa stotram being recited by Swamiji.

In fact my concern has not just been that I am fragmented, it has been

more serious. I noticed a pattern that as soon as mentally I showed a

desire/intention to perform a particular worship, whether it be mantra

japa, recite a stotram, or even just keep the shrine clean and light a

lamp each day. Sure as eggs are eggs it would not last past a few days.

Now today I logged into this group for the first time in maybe over a

year, the first post I saw in the list had the the word

" sankalpao_phobia " in it! And I thought, " That is meeeeeee! I have

this disease! " But then I thought, " no " . What it is is that I have made

no real sankalpa so far. Why? Then I realised, when I think of the

Divine, it is always Mother and then I blame my self that I don't do

it regularly. Now the Mother has answered my question and sent me to

the Father.

So....

to the Divine sound of...

Mahadev Mahadev Shiva Shiva Shankar Mahadev...

humming in my head and my heart, I too like Linda, go to clean my

alter, after which I will begin with listening to and learning to

recite the Shiva sankalpa stotaram everyday. That is my sankalpa. As

for the ability to do more, ie the fruits..as Mother Divine wills...

Linda, support and help comes in many forms and my experience has been

that if we ask, it comes but I usually find it comes not in the way I

think is best for me, but in the way SHE thinks is best for me and I

am learning to trust her.

Sorry for the long post. I promise subsequent ones won't be half as long!

kind regards

Her_asha

, nierika wrote:

>

> vish wrote:

>

> ...My wife and I have been going to the Temple every morning at 4:30 AM

> for singing and aarti then chanting the Durga mantra at the homa.

> It is so enlivening to being the day this way. Then coming home,

> chanting in the car, then at home resting, then performing puja and

> chanting the Durga mantra throughout the day...

>

> Dear vish ~ this is so wonderful, and every time I read something

like this,

> I feel it is such a blessing to have a life partner who shares your

> spirituality, not just accepting it, but both being active

participants. I have never

> had this, and in fact, I have right now, at best, toleration, and at

worst,

> negation of my love of spirituality. Sadly, I am easily cowed, and

this

> drives me underground, so to speak, so that most of my worship is in

bed when the

> lights are out and I silently chant mantra. I have a small altar,

but have

> not done much with it, in terms of caring for it or worshiping. I

believe it

> would be very good for me to stand, or knell, or sit, in the face of

this

> hostility, and just go right ahead with my worship. So a sankalpa I

want to make

> is that by the end of this week, I will have my alter cleaned up and

in a

> condition for me to use it for sadhana, and then to do the sadhana,

no matter

> what. It is very good to check back in with the group and have that

sense of

> support of so many others who are practicing. So I thank all of you

~ Linda

>

**************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for

> fuel-efficient used cars.

(http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)

>

July 11, 2008

Namaste Dear Sister,So glad you are out were we can see your beautiful light now.Sounds like you are moving along indeed.You are so fortunate to have Linda's support.Keep coming, keep sharing.Your posts are a light to others as well.May all your days be filled with songs of praise. Jai Maa,

Devi--- On Fri, 7/11/08, her_asha <her_asha wrote:her_asha <her_asha[www.ShreeMaa.org] Re: to vish about sharing spirituality with life partner Date: Friday, July 11, 2008, 8:13 AM