Thank you devi mandir, thank you swamiji (bit of a ramble) what i learned from chapter 2

[Guest guest]

If any one of you have ever been to central new jersey you know that

its like little India. There are 4 mandirs, 2 ashrams, and innumerable

amounts of yoga centers and Indian restaurants within 20 minutes from

where I live. So for navaratri I decided to attend the homa at the

durga mandir near my house. On the first night they had a quick homa,

about a half hour. And I was so excited to just be as close to the

bhava of the devi mandir as I can at this time.

 

The oldest pujaris are very short and boring with their pujas and for

the second night he only did chapter 2 (traditionally the second night

is chapters 2,3, and 4) and barely any preliminary from the chandi

itself. When he was done they all started speaking in hindi which I

don’t know more than 10 words of. But a few words stuck out to me

“kavach, argala, kilak†so when we circled the fire I asked the woman

what she was saying about these stotrams. And she told me they were all

displeased that the pujari didn’t do the limbs, so after hearing the

pujaris poor pronounciation and lack of bhava I said I can give it a

shot. So with a bit of reluctance and forewarning, and internal prayers

to ma and swamiji the next thing I know, there I was, chanting the

limbs while they continued the homa. I know there comes a time when ma

says its time to step in and share the blessings I give you. and I=2

0

really felt that especially to swamiji. I am so grateful to his

presence here on earth. Having met him once for probably a total of 2

hours. For him to share all of this wonderful wisdom and knowledge with

me! I bow down to his feet, at least in my mind (and at my altar) for

now.

 

The point of this story is that swamijis transference to me allowed me

to share just the tiniest spark of his light with these people who were

seeking to go deeper to worship ma and understand what was being

chanted, and I was able to provide some of that by the grace of

swamiji. They all had almost no idea about the story of chandi so I

read to the 3 chapters in English to the few that stuck around after.

In all this I realized that one of the greatest blessing that ma gives

us is the ability to bring others closer to her! To share our love for

her.

 

They all felt so enriched and thankful and one actually said “I learned

more tonight than I have from coming here for 4 yearsâ€, so I pass that

thanks to you all. Everyone was passing the book around and I told them

about the devi mandir and how special swamiji is and how special his

teachings are. So devi mandir don’t be surprised if you get a lot of

orders from new jersey. I thank swamiji, and ma, and all of you at the

devi mandir who help to make that place what it is. And I share with

you all just

a little way how your grace has traveled to this mandir in

new jersey. With the grace of all of your help and technology I can sit

at my altar and learn from swamiji as my guru for the rest of my life.

That is incredible and will change our reality! Well enough of my

rambling, I hope that I got an (at least mildly) enriching point out

from all this. Thank you all thank you thank you! happy navaratri! May

we all continue to share Ma’s grace in whatever way she chooses!