A Taste of Pure Love

[Guest guest]

Many thanks to all of you who have taken time to churn and discern how to

give AND receive pure love. May I share with you a moment in time which

happened several years ago now here at Devi Mandir?

At that time I was struggling with the challenge of raising a fifteen-year

old who was going through their normal adolescent rebellion. I was beside

myself to find the patience and a way to nurture a sense of closeness that we'd

once had. One Saturday when I had come to the Mandir to do some seva, Shree Maa

called me into her small trailer beside the creek on the Napa property, on the

guise of teaching me how to make cauliflower/ ginger parathas. After asking me

how my daughter and I were getting along, Maa proceeded on to the cooking lesson

of preparing the chappati dough and shredding the ginger and cauliflower. After

rolling-out a few lop-sided chappatis, I finally managed the technique and

produced a round one with the proper amount of ingredients inside and proceeded

to fry it with a little ghee. When Maa saw that I got the hang of it, she then

took over the frying position and told me to sit down right there on the floor

of her small kitchen and eat one paratha which she had just fried.

Just when I took the first bite of her offering, to my surprise, tears

started flowing down my face. I was actually " tasting " Shree Maa's pure love in

a way that I had never experienced before. There were no words between us for

some period of time. In that space of silence Maa was entering my heart, and

filling me with her simple and high wisdom of how to nurture my child even

through the difficult periods. My daughter was a vegetarian, and considered it

a real treat to go out for Indian food. Now I had a way to transmit my love to

her in the simple making of a meal, and through so many other of the small

things we did everyday.

This Spring Navaratri marks the seventeenth anniversary of my initiation

with Shree Maa as my spiritual " Mom " and " Guru " . A thousand pranams and thank

you, Maa, for this teaching on Pure Love, and so many other lessons you have

taught me. I pray that I will be worthy of many more.

Kamala