to srini about holding onto Maa's sari

[Guest guest]

Dear srini ~ as always your post is wonderful and enlightening because, even though I have had my own way to get through the dryness, I so much like the image of Maa building our fence as the Master Fence Builder, and also loved the image and idea of holding onto Maa's sari. This image along reduces the idea of I and mine because it has the capacity to cause us to be innocent as a small child and say, by grabbing and holding the sari, Maa, I can't do it without you; with you, I can do anything. I also really liked the idea of your adding to the compilation of texts with drawings. I have hit a major dry spell with my drawings, and perhaps I need to grab onto Maa's sari for that as well. I don't know of the "compilation of texts" that you speak of. Can you add a link to the next digest so I can go there? As always, thank you, srini. And thanks also to vish for asking such a wonderful question.

 

 

srini wrote:

So the first thing I would like to say is that, in my view, you are blessed to experience 'dryness' because this means you are still at the altar to experience it. I suspect that only when we are willing to sit and know 'dryness' in worship we will be able to feel the Water of Life welling up deep within as a sign that Divine Mother Herself has come to 'moisten' us and make us soft again. Thank you for making me realize this and for strengthening my determination to keep my sankalpa.In a practical sense, Swamiji gave great advice. I asked in class what we should do when our fence is weak and cows come and knibble away at our tree of devotion. He said that Shree Maa is the best fence builder there is, and that we should ask Her to come and build our fence. He also said that we should grab hold of the hem of Her sari (and He demonstrated this with gusto via webcam) and not let go! This is an image that helps me very much when I feel 'dry': I look at Maa's picture and ask Her to come and build the fence and I mentally place myself at Her feet, clenching the hem of Her sari just like Swamiji did, and then I start worship. This really helps me to stay put.Another thing is that in times of 'dryness' I try to keep myself 'open' and look for as much inspiration as I possibly can wherever I can, apart from formal worship: cleaning and rearanging/decorating my altar, reading spiritual texts or poetry, listening to music, drawing etc. In that regard, I now find great joy in the beautiful compilation of texts Sriniji has placed on the website recently, which I have printed out and which I intend to decorate with drawings and pictures, and use as source of inspiration during the day. New year...new news. Be the first to know what is making headlines.