To Nanda on Christmas at the Mandir

[Guest guest]

Nanda wrote:

....Parvatiji already gave a good account of the one we had at the

Mandir . I would like to add a coupla notes to it ......Maa gave

us some beautiful advice, but here is what stuck with me. She said

that we needed to spend each day in a certain way, balancing out our

sadhana, work and personal life. 8 hours for sadhana8 hours for the

work of the world8 hours of personal workThis is Maa's recipe for our

ideal daily activities. ...At the end of the evening's

festivities, Maa and Swamiji personally hugged each of the devotee

present. When Maa hugged me (Gosh the power in that tiny frame), she

whispered something in my ear. When I didnt quite get it I asked Maa

what She said. She said" My child, be an instrument of God" That

line, seems to capture the essence of all that we are trying to learn

from Maa and Swamiji. All our sadhana, seva, satsang is aimed for one

purpose alone - to let God's will happen through us. Swamiji said

to me later, with so much conviction in voice, that , if we even

ever-so-SLIGHTly open the door of our hearts a tiny crack , SHE WILL

RUSH in AND TAKE OVER, and we will become true instruments.

Dear Nanda ~ thank you so much for sharing this. I can't imagine the

bliss of being hugged by Shree Maa. What bhava that must have been.

And I loved what She and Swamiji said. My one sadness is that the

8/8/8 formula doesn't work very well for me because of my illness.

For example, now it is 12:00 noon, and I am a great deal of pain. I

will be eating lunch and then taking a nap. Similarly, very often in

the evening the same thing happens, and I have to go to bed so early.

That was why I asked Swami about whether it would be okay to chant in

bed. I would be lucky to be able to do 4/4/4, so I guess I have to

start out very small. But I do understand the basic idea is

regularity and commitment. And I will work on that heart of mine ...

getting that little crack because I would love for Her to "RUSH in

AND TAKE OVER."

 

I want to share with all of you a sankalpa I have made, which is to

say nothing negative about any member of my family from the moment I

made the sankalpa through the New Year. The first day after I made

this sankalpa, I was surprised how easy it was (LOL). I even caught

myself in the middle of a negative thought about my family, and

turned off the thought bot. Of course, each day, it seems a little

harder, and I'm only on the 3rd day. So even one little change can be

a really big challenge. But I know from the peace of mind I have

already experienced from this sankalpa that Somebody (I won't mention

any names) planted the idea of doing it in my mind. Jai Maa , Jai

Swamiji , Maa & Swami devotees ki jai!