to Ardis 'Tales from the Devi Mandir '#6

January 27, 2005

-Beloved Ardis,

i am enjoying these 'tales' more than i could begin to express! i am

hungry for this incredibly sweet Prasadam! Although, i find that i am

very greedy, because the more you share, the more i want...:<)

i hope you are writing all of these wonderful stories down. To me, it

looks like the possible making of a book: 'Tales from the Devi

Mandir'. Just a thought... We are all hungry for these stories.

Perhaps other devotees could also add there own 'tales'. i know i for

one, can't get enough of stories about God and Guru. And there is so

much Love, Wisdom and 'teaching humor' that radiate from Shree Maa

and Swamiji... Thank-you, sweet sister for blessing us with these

sweet morsels to savor!

Jai Maa! Jai Swamiji! Jai Ramakrishna Deva!

muktimaa

-- In , Ardis Jackson <ardis1@v...> wrote:

>

> When I used to go up to the Devi Mandir on weekends, I had one

problem. It

> seemed that most of the seva that needed to be done involved

physical labor.

> I didn't mind cooking or cleaning or polishing puja vessels. I

didn't even

> mind weeding or gardening. But when it came to jobs that required

physical

> strength and stamina (digging ditches, hauling and stacking

firewood) I was

> not enthusiastic. Especially so on the days when it went over 100

degrees.

>

> One weekend I was driving up the road toward the temple. Suddenly,

Swamiji

> jumped out into the center of the road.

>

> He said "Ardis, please get out of your car." I asked him "shall I

pull it to

> the side and park it?" He said "no, just get out. This will only

take a

> minute."

>

> He pointed to the ditch at the right side of the road. He

said "jump into

> the ditch." (I need to tell you something about myself. I don't like

> heights, ladders or foot bridges and am poor at judging depth.)

The ditch

> was only 4 or 5 inches deep. I could have stepped into it; but

since

> Swamiji said "jump", I jumped in with both feet.

>

> Then he called me from the other side of the road. "Can you see a

culvert".

> "Yes, Swamiji, I can see the opening of a culvert". "Can you see a

cable

> emerging from the culvert opening?Yes, Swamiji, I can see the

cable

> emerging.Please grasp the cable for me and pull it on out a

little way."

>

> He then came over to the ditch where I was holding the end of the

cable. He

> took the end of the cable and said "now you have completed all your

seva for

> the whole weekend. You are free to do sadhana." I thought he was

kidding.

> He said "no, I am not kidding; your seva is complete."

>

> As I was about to get into my car he called out "don't think that I

was

> waiting out here by the side of the road just because I expected

you to come

> by." I said "right".

January 27, 2005

Dear, sweet Muktimaa, Jay Dayal, Grace, Berijoy and everyone who has

written in appreciation of my little tidbits of Devi Mandir joy,

Yes, I have been saving little “pieces” of writing about

my experiences at the Devi Mandir. I thought of writing a book about

the Guru-devotee relationship. But, you know how it is with the

Goddess, She is the doer of all action and She hasn’t

“done” the book yet.

I love the idea of collecting lots of short pieces by many devotees.

I would like it best if we remained anonymous but each put down our

experiences in our own words and styles. Of course this could not

happen without Maa and Swamiji’s blessing. Nanda’s story

about enkindling the sacred fire would be a great addition.

Blessings always,

Ardis