To Steve on form

[Guest guest]

Steve wrote:

if i can't [for now] are there any thoughts out there on capturing

theessence of the spirit of the sankalpa without any loss, but

notcapturing the traditional form?

Dear Steve ~ don't let Self Deprecation get you. It seems to me, you

are doing very well. Your devotional energy is obvious in everything

you write, and it seems to me this is the heart of the matter. A

number of people addressed this very question in this #503 digest,

and they all seemed to say the same thing. I would put it this way:

stay with the devotion; the form will follow.

 

When I am reading the Chandi or the 32 names of Durga, I read the

Sanskrit first and then the English. I think each time I read it my

ability to at least read the Sanskrit, if not pronounce it properly,

gets better. Before the group Chandi Sankalpa started, I was going

through the Chandi page by page, with the tapes, and making notes

about how Maa and Swami pronounced certain words. This is because,

even with the help of the Sanskrit pronunciation guide in the back,

many times it seems they pronounce the words differently than if one

followed the guide. I know part of this (with Maa) is Her own

upbringing, idiomatic pronunciation, etc., and with Swami, I believe

it is from his training and experience. One thing that I would love

to get down is the rhythm. I almost feel I would have to go through

the book and the tapes and notate (like music) ever verse. LOL But I

love the rhythm, and Swami's is very different from Maa's. So, in the

end, it seems to come full circle to some personalization of the form,

yet devotion is the Mother. Jai Maa ~ Linda