Sri Sarveshwari Times
Vol.V:NO.IX:SRI SARVESHWARI SAMOOH, 19334 CARRIGER RD. SONOMA, CA. 95476, USA: TEL. (707) 996 -8915
Sept 30,1995
NAVARATRI ISSUE
The Divine Mother
Navarath is the time to engage ourselves in
the upasana of Shakti. Upasana literally means to
obtain a seat next to, to get close to, enrich oneself
with, worship etc. Shakti is the all pervading energy
that is the source of the existence of the world. All the
living creatures become lifeless for lack of Shakti. It
manifests itself in numerous ways. Seers of the ancient
time have tried to describe Shakti in various ways.
Shakti is the power, strength or capability of "God" In
order to speak about Shakti, seers have called the
Shakti "Mother". Shakti manifests itself as creation; it
is the mother who gives birth to and nurtures the
Friends,
Bhagawati will have to be
approached through your
sentiments, known by
your feelings; she will
have to be seen by your
emotions.
She
will Aghoreshwara Bhagwan Ram Ji
absolutely not be found
where feelings and emotions are lacking. She is hungry
for your feelings. It has been said that divinity resides in
pure sentiments. It is through your feelings that the
essence of whatever fruits, flowers or water you offer to
her reaches her, and is carried to her through the
medium of smell, through the medium of air, through
the medium of fire.
The "emptiness" that lies between you and me,
between the earth and the sky, is the source of that
Divine Mother. Some scriptures have described this
Although Shakti is beyond the boundaries of
"emptiness" as the creative belly of the Divine Mother. It
gender, form or color, we call It Mother because of its
is in this "emptiness" between the earth and the sky that
qualities as a mother. Out of this idea different names uncountable souls take their birth and into which they
and forms came into existence. It is the formless that disappear. This belly of the Divine Mother is where you
takes form depending on the intensity of the seekers' and I and all other creatures take birth, develop, and
longing and devotion. Navarath is the time to grow. It is in this "emptiness" that great creative power
acknowledge and revere that formless by giving it a lies; and it is the same "emptiness" in which we walk and
roam around, which we breathe in and breathe out. If it
form During the observance ofNavamtri addressing the
should end before us, our own ability to live would end.
seekers and his devotees, Baba said:
Life itself would end.
m this occasion of Navaratri, we rc involved in
All activities of life are possible only due to this
prayers, worship, and some thought-provoking talks. "emptiness". It is here in this "emptiness" that we have
You have been curious as to how to find Bhagawati^ the houses, homes, mansipns, palaces, villages, towns, cities,
Divine Mother. "What is her actual form?" you have plants and shrubs, mountain peaks and rivers.
asked.
Everything is breathing in and breathing out in this
newborn.
"emptiness" only. It is the source from which everyone
derives warmth and energy. Everything appears here
and disappears here. If we did not have this limitless
"emptiness" today, if it were curtailed or limited, then no
creature would be able to find a place to live. Yet this
"emptiness" does have a boundary on all sides, and is
hollow in the middle. Because it is "empty11, we can all sit
here and do everything we need to do in it
perception where "what is not" is perceived as "what is".
Things do not necessarily happen, they appear to have
happened. Nobody can catch the sky, but everybody
sees and perceives the sky. Nobody can catch the wind,
but everybody experiences the wind. A fragrance or
aroma does not have any form or color, but it is still
perceived. We experience a peculiar sensation on
touching somebody's skin. This is just a perception, not
the reality. It is not the reality at all. It just appears to be
so.
You will have to know other thirigs about the
Divine Mother, too; about her food, about her way of
living, and that she never accepts even an iota of Similarly, if we say that we can see or understand
whatever substances are brought before her. She does the omnipresence of the Divine Mother, then it is a
not take these substances, she does not enjoy them. It is mistake as this omnipresence is boundless, limitless.
our feelings and emotions that enjoy them, our own How can anyone measure through speech something
thoughts that accept them, our own desires and that is immeasurable? You should know the Divine
objectives that make use of them. The Divine Mother is Mother to be without measure. The Divine Mother is
like the "empty" space between the earth and the sky in a part of the limitless joy and ecstasy of the play and
which all living beings are enjoying
action of Matwbhairav^ the Supreme
That Divine Mother is the Being. To hear, to know and to
their gift of life.
absolute whole, she is
understand that Divine Mother
That Divine Mother is the supremely whole. She is
requires stability. This knowledge
absolute whole, she is supremely absolute peace, she is
eludes us because we are so very
whole. She is absolute peace, she is supremely peaceful. She is
unstable and superficial.
supremely peaceful. She is the Mother the Mother of all. She is
Dear friends, to understand
of all. She is everywhere, she is in everywhere, she is in
everybody. She is like the fire, like the everybody. She is like the the Divine Mother and her actions one
has to do many things. Many people
sun and its rays. She is the fire, like the sun and its
have sacrificed themselves many times
embodiment of light She is divine.
rays. She is the
for this understanding and yet have
Sometimes it is necessary to embodiment of light. She
not recognized her. It is like the
sacrifice a lot to find that Divine is divine.
villager whose house caught on fire. He
Mother, but when we have been accepted into the
felt the heat and cried, "I am burning, I am burning." He
company of a spiritually realized guru or teacher, we do
ran away. Down the street, he felt cooler, he felt safe.
not need to sacrifice anything. Until we have achieved
Then he said, "Mine is burning, mine is burning." A
the company of such a master, we are invariably tied
neighbor asks, "What is burning?" He answers, "My
into the bonds of duality; virtues and vice, heaven and
boxes and my wealth, my children and my
hell, action and inaction, enjoyment and pain, all of these
grandchildren, my cows, my whole house, everything
opposites. As long as our perception of the world is in
is burning." He runs back to try to save his riches.
terms of these dualities, our minds remain unclear. If the
When he gets near the burning house again, he feels the
mind remains unclear, all kinds of faults will keep
heat and again says, "I am burning, I am burning." So he
arising in it. It has been said:
runs off where he feels cooler, safer, and in that moment
"The mind and its causal action
of peace, he again says, "Mine is burning, mine is
burning." Sometimes he thinks, "I am burning", and
lead to bondage or liberation."
sometimes he thinks, "Mine is burning". His mind is
It is through the mind that causality, bondage unclear.
and liberation are produced and perceived. This
In the fire of life, when somebody is saying, "I
perception exists in all creatures. It is an elusive
am burning," he may get out of the situation and become
stable temporarily. But because of the unclarity of his
mind, he begins to say, "Mine is burning," and then he
goes back to the very same merciless situation which
had burned him in the first place. So he burns, and he
burns, and he burns. Burning so, he turns into charred
remains of himself.
In a similar manner, we have been unsuccessful
through numerous lives in finding the Divine Mother.
What is the reason for this? Friends, the reason is that we
have not accepted that Divine Mother in the right way.
When she comes before us, we hide from her. The result
is that we remain poor of all her virtues, we begin to
revert to all our old ways, our minds get polluted and
unclear, and our own heart b^ins to hate us. The heart
says, "Alas, I never moved towards that supreme power.
I never moved towards finding my real Self, I never tried
to realize that I am not bound to anything, that in reality
I am faultless, and that I do not have confining egotism."
It says, '1 never vowed to my Self that I would not do
anything that would make me unhappy."
Since the time you have been born on this earth,
you never made this promise to your Self. And if you did,
you broke your promise. When you have broken your
"own word, how can anyone else trust your word? How
can that Mother trust your mantra, your meditations,
your prayers? You may have broken your promise made
to someone else and it would not matter so much,
saying, 'Yes, I made a promise to you but you did not
keep your part of it, so I broke my promise." But the
promise you have made to your Self, that you should
never break, is this: "Oh, my Self, I promise to honor you.
I will never deceive you. I will never let you fall." One
who makes a sincere promise like this actually makes a
promise to the Divine Mother. His promise then has
great value; it becomes precious. On hearing such
words, God himself arrives promptly to help. Friends,
you know that through mantra you can counter the
effects of a poisonous snake-bite or scorpion-sting. What
is the mantra for that kind of situation? That mantra is
actually a promise, as if you were saying, "Oh, God of
snakesl Oh, bearer of poisonl I will not harm you, your
family, or your relatives in any way. So help me. Please
take away the poison which is killing the person you
have bitten." Thus, it is through our words, our speech,
that we receive everything. It is through our words that
we make the divine powers happy. If we say the wrong
thing we can be "Oh, my Self, I promise
chastised, but on saying to honor you. I will never
something good, we deceive you. I will never
can receive sweets. It is let you fall." One who
by the power of this makes a sincere promise
"word" that millions of like this actually makes a
dol l ar s wor t h of promise to the Divine
business are undertaken Mother.
every day. Some people written record! A person well
do not even require a respected for keeping his word
just picks up the telephone and asks this company or
that company to send him the goods. If this faith in
someone can move millions of dollars in our everyday
world, in our practical lives, then just consider how
important sincerity is in the world of the Divine Mother,
in the world of that Supreme Being.
I do not ask you to make a promise to the Divine
Mother, I ask you to make a promise to your Self. Make
a promise to your Self that you will not break this
promise to your Self. This is what is known as guru's
initiation, or guru's mantra.
If you keep your promise to your Self, this
mantra begins to grow, to develop, and gives you the
sweetest fruits. But we keep thinking that the mantra is
something else, that our word is something different, that
the Divine Mother is something different, that the
Supreme Power is something different We think that
Divine Mother has a super-human form, endowed with
four arms, riding a tiger or an elephant or a horse, just
as in a cartoon. But this is not so, friends. Poster makers,
picture makers, have depicted the Divine Mother in
those forms, but that is more like a cartoon than a
reality. If you keep meditating on forms of those
cartoons, and you worship them. By doing this you
cannot know the mysteries of the Divine Mother.
If you really want to know her, you have to
make a promise to your Self. You will have to know that
this "empty" space between the earth and the sky is the
place where the whole world exists, where we exist,
where the solar system exists. Above this sky is more sky,
above that is still more sky, and still more sky above that.
When you know that, you will know the Divine Mother,
who is easily knowable through pure sentiments and
emotions.
To know her in this way, we need to control
ourselves and make ourselves very stable. We keep
thinking trivial thoughts, and we keep exuding those
thoughts through our mouths like an unending
effervescence. We do not need to speak that much. In
fact, we seem to have a disease of speaking. The more
we stabilize our minds, the deeper we will become.
When you become deep, you will become very stable.
Then you will know how to be with that Divine Mother.
For example, when you go to a high-ranking officer, you
immediately become very attentive. You may be
laughing or joking with your friends before that, but as
soon as you are with the officer you become very
attentive to just how much you should speak, what to
say, how to stand, where to stand. You do not stand with
your back to that officer. If you did that, he would ask
you to be removed from his presence.
Ashram News:
Baba's Birthday Celebration:
On Sept. 12 Baba's birthday was celebrated with
much love and reverence. We thank Carol Bojarsky
for preparing a lovely cake for this occasion.
Sthapana Divas (Foundation day):
On Sept 21 Foundation day was celebrated with Flag
hoisting ceremony and morning puja and Arati.
Observance of Navaratri:
From Sept 25th through Oct 2 Navaratri is being
observed in the Ashram with morning and evening
prayers and meditation.
New Yoga Schedule:
Similarly, we stand with our backs to the veryDivine Power which we worship. We never face the one
whom we worship. And if we face that power, we face it
as if we are facing an oncoming train which will come
and ram into us, breaking us into a million pieces. We
don't stop to think that we can actually move to the side,
to the left or r^ght, and get on the train in any car, and
go where we want to go. We face that Divine Power
head-on in that same way. The result can only be that
we will be destroyed, or at least we will not get to know
that power.
We are thankful to Kalena Babeshoff, Carol Bojarsky,
Margaret Carradine, Carol Evans, Barbara Fetesoff,
Jean-Pierre Lemoine, Kanak Raj, Carol Ruff, Hannah
Schoenbach, Pt. Anirudh and Reena Shastri for their
contributions to the center.
So, friends, be attentive, be stable, do not break
that promise made to your Self, and you will know the
Divine Mother. With this, I take leave from you.
May the grace of Baba keep showering on all and
keep guiding us towards light.
In early October new schedule for Tuesday and
Thursday classes will be announced. Please contact
the Ashram for information.
Thank You Note:
Published by Sri Sarveshwari Samooh, P.O.Box 950 Sonoma, California 95476 USA Tel (707) 996 - 8915
Guidance: Harihar Ram, Editors: John MacKay and Marjorie Russell, Distribution: Howard Morris © Aghor Publications
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