|
One way to cultivate or
magnify your sense of love for the divine is to focus on your beloved deity as
a meditation. Even though Rebecca and Chandra
[2 stories in The Path of the Mother, in the Chapter, "Love and Rapture"] had natural tendencies toward
devotion, their emotional feelings toward the divine had to be awakened.
Regular practice of one or more of the following meditations can spark
spiritual memories that have been lying dormant within you.
The following visualizations can cause
negative and positive emotions to surface ‹ sadness, awe, yearning,
gratefulness, lust, jealousy [this tendency
is explained further in the "Breathing Meditation" found in The Path of the
Mother]. Rather than trying to understand why, or wonder where these
feelings come from, simply witness them without any judgment or interpretations
of their origins. Feel free to direct all your feelings towards your beloved
deity. As black absorbs all colors, the Mother ingests all negativity.
 If you have a moody or passionate nature,
you are a perfect candidate for the devotional path.
Tears of emotion easily turn into tears of love and joy for the
divine beloved. I've often found that I will get angry or jealous first, then
fall into grieving for the Mother. More times than not, when I leave India,
before I realize I'm sad, I am easily irritable and aroused to anger. Over the
years I've come to recognize the symptoms. Saying the last good-bye to Ammachi
or sitting quietly in meditation opens my inner pathway to love and yearning.
Once my tears are released, the river of love can flow through me freely.
Two of the following
visualizations focus on the feet. Worship of feet is a traditional practice in
Hinduism for many reasons. The most obvious
explanation is that touching a saint's feet causes us to feel a sense of
humility and surrender to the divine. Sacred rituals to the feet cultivate
qualities of devotion. Tenderly touching your beloved deity's feet can be
likened to fondling the feet of your intimate loved one: boyfriend, girlfriend,
husband, or wife. In India it is common to see devotees kissing or patting a
holy person's feet. In the New Testament, the highly emotional Mary Magdalena
washes and anoints Jesus' feet. And Jesus bathes his disciple's feet at the
last supper.
In a
saint, feet are the most sanctified part of the body; it is a very favorable
omen to touch a holy person's feet. Why? A
saint's feet walk the earth, symbolizing they have taken a human body to teach
us and help us to the goal of self-realization. The two feet represent the
duality of creation: through worshipping or honoring the holy one whom we in
the moment perceive as separate from us, we will ultimately attain the goal of
oneness with the supreme.
Using your
imagination, you might come up with any number of reasons why a holy person's
feet are desirable objects of worship.
|
 Fixing the mind on the Beloved Deity:
You may choose any representation of the Mother of the universe that
appeals to you. Ammachi encourages the use of any form, male or female, for
this process. Any male or female deity, in body or spirit, who has motherly
qualities of patience, forgiveness, and love -- Mary, Jesus, Kuan Yin, Krishna,
Shiva, Saraswati, Durga, Lakshmi, Shekinah, Ammachi, Jillellamudi Mother. The
meditation can be done with your eyes closed, alternating with eyes open. Gaze
at a picture of your beloved deity for a few minutes, then shut your eyes and
focus inwardly on your memory of the image. Ammachi suggests we imagine that we
are offering flowers at our beloved deity's feet. If the form fades away, we
can imagine that we are mentally embracing the feet. Or, while chanting the
divine name, we can pretend we are binding the deity from toe to head with the
rope of repetition of name. Finally, visualize that you are undoing this rope,
and continue imagining the deity. This binding and embracing can be repeated
whenever the form fades away. If you do like this the mind will not get a
chance to think about other things.
|
Mother Nature
Contemplation:
Meditate on images in Mother Nature:
a mountain, a river, a lake, a tree, or the ocean. This can be done with the
eyes open or closed and in combination with the breathing meditation. Loving
nature can arouse an expanded sense of dispassion and awe. An American woman,
Marie Watts, attained self-realization after years of contemplating the night
sky outside her home in Ely, Nevada. She believed that by looking at the
perfection in nature we will eventually recognize that as our natural state of
being. As a child, Marie used to gaze at the stars and imagine them to be the
windows to heaven. Undoubtedly inspired by this childhood experience, she would
lie outside on warm desert nights, and fix her mind on the absolute perfection
of the star-studded desert sky. The culmination of her spiritual search
occurred while she contemplated a sunrise in the Grand Canyon, Arizona. As she
gazed at the rising sun in the grandeur of one of nature's most evocative
formations, she was consumed by love and the absolute reality of all things. To
cultivate this divine love through nature, Ammachi suggests the following
visualization:
". . . imagine that the
moon is the face of the Divine Mother. . . As the wind blows try to feel that
it is the gentle caress of your beloved deity. . . You can imagine that your
beloved deity is calling you near, hugging you, kissing you, caressing you,
blessing you, and then hiding in the clouds and coming out again a little
later. By this kind of imagination you go deeper and deeper into your own
consciousness."
|
Worshipping the Beloved Deity:
Imagine your beloved deity, in this case the Mother, is
standing in front of you. Try to see each and every part of her body, noticing
the beautiful silk garments and the jewel-studded gold crown she is wearing.
Invite the Mother to sit on a throne bedecked with rubies, emeralds, and
diamonds. Then light an oil lamp and incense stick. Imagine yourself waving the
lamp in a circle three times clockwise around the front of your beloved deity,
from head to toe. Then do the same with the incense, slowly, and with loving
concentration. Now picture yourself placing your beloved deity's feet on a
foot-stool covered with a olorful silk cloth. First lay a brass tray on the
stool, then carefully lifting the feet with one hand and pushing the stool
under with the other, let the feet rest on the tray. Next visualize yourself
bathing your beloved deity¹s feet with different offerings: first with
water, then coconut milk, now whole milk, and finally yogurt mixed with honey.
Enjoy the different ways these liquids feel on her feet. Afterwards imagine
pouring rose water from a small pitcher to rinse her feet. With a soft white
cloth, pat the feet dry, then gently lift them off the tray, removing the tray
now filled with liquid, and place the feet back onto the stool. Now put a
garland of fragrant flowers around the Mother's neck. Then offer her sweet
pudding, watching her relish the dish you have made for her. Envision her
smiling at you and your heart opening to her. Finally bow down to her, thanking
her for accepting your offering. Sit still for some time, feeling the afterglow
of her presence. |
