Online Study Group of Shri Anandi Ma’s 2010 Guru Purnima Blessing
In Ma’s Guru Purnima Address, Anandi Ma quoted from the Shiva Purana, saying:
“The roots of spirituality are
the contemplations of the soul
and who or what is Shiva.”
Some of us feel the need to explore Shri Anandi Ma’s talks a bit more deeply, so this month we are introducing a new interactive feature, an online study group. In this post we are opening up a community forum on Ma’s 2010 Guru Purnima Address.
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Anyone who is interested may participate by using the comment form below. This is the first time we have done anything like this, so it is a bit of an experiment. Please stay generally on topic. Comments will be monitored and may take a little time to post. You can use your name, or choose a pseudonym as our first comment author has done. But when filling out the comment fields you must give your real email address in case the staff has a question. That email address will only be known to the Shakti Staff and will not appear online. And please don’t all sign as “A Disciple” or we will have trouble following the thread. Please choose some other moniker.
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With God and Guru’s help may this study take us deeper!
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Sita Ram,
The Shakti Seva Team
I’m having a hard time grasping the section of the talk where Ma compares the workings of the mind to a seed and sprout.
A Disciple
This is just my own level of understanding. The seed/sprout relationship that is referred to in this talk is representing the cyclic movement of Shiva’s(Guru) tattwa. A seed of thought arises in the mind, maybe translates into an action or a repetitive behavior but eventually is changed or given up and returning to a seed of potential in the mind. They appear to be different states but are all from one energy and all from Shiva/God/Guru. In the past i was helped by being given an image of a diamond with infinite facets cut all around it. Every facet is different but never separate from the diamond. Hope that helps.
When I hear this metaphor, I see the seed as: quiet, contained, full of potential. I see the sprout as manifesting that potential out into the world. And I love the idea that finally the plant simply manifests the seed again, as a metaphor for how Shiva becomes manifest and then becomes Shiva again.
I wonder if we are really supposed to grasp with the mind these metaphors that point to different states of consciousness. After all as Ma said : ” Govind is the supermost aspect of principle that goes beyond words and description”; and: “This is truly an aspect of experience and when we hear these details—the promises from the scriptures—and when we have that inner experience, it is verified and it brings about a deeper level of bliss and understanding”
I think it might be rather like someone describing what a foreign culture is like, or as Ma says, the taste of sugar. You can describe it in words, but when you have the experience, that is qualitatively different. However then there is that recognition factor, “Oh, that is what that description meant!”
What I understand from this talk is that it is helpful to contemplate these concepts. When reading and re-reading the talks and scriptures I definitely feel something happening, some energy, some shift. But I imagine it is taking place in a sort of jnani inquiry way, or similar to the workings of zen koan, via the mind, but not understanding which is at all linear, with the thinking mind.
The love that I feel for the seed metaphor, perhaps that delight is more important than any “understanding”. Who knows how this all works? That is what is so delightful to me, we just get on the Ma train, trusting it is going in the absolutely right direction, and with Grace, have a ball looking out the window.
Sita Ram!
J’ai Gurudev!
sue rama
The following words came to me as I contemplated Ma’s comparison of the workings of the mind to a seed and sprout. I humbly ask Ma and Guruji to forgive any and all inaccuracies and errors in these words.
While the mind is attached to the transient pleasures of duality, the mind’s experience is similar to that of a seed that attaches itself to the pleasures of the soil in which it is planted.
All around the seed there is the warm, soft, moist, quiet, peaceful darkness of the soil. The essence of life hidden in the seed hears the lullaby being sung to it by the soil … and falls asleep … and dreams that it is no longer a seed but is now a sprout.
The dream-sprout plunges into the darkness of the soil, in much the same way as the soul plunges into the darkness of the womb during a cycle of rebirth.
The sprout eventually emerges from the darkness of the soil into the light of the sun, in much the same way as the soul eventually emerges from the darkness of the womb into the dream of being in a new, individual body.
For a time, the sprout experiences life under the sun. The sprout grows into a plant; it experiences cycles of day and night, cycles of rain and drought, gentle pollination by bees and violent attacks by pests. In like manner, the mind that has fallen into the dream of duality experiences the polarities of pleasure and pain.
The mind-seed that desires the transient pleasures promised by the lullaby of the soil of physicality falls asleep into the dream of sprouting into an individual body. But just as the plant stays rooted in the plant-seed, the mind stays rooted in the mind-seed throughout every dream of sprouting forth into the soil of physicality.
One day, the mind-seed remembers its true identity. The mind-seed remembers that seed, soil, and sprout are all one – at which point the mind-seed no longer hears the lullaby of the soil of physicality. Now the mind-seed hears a new song – a sweet, beautiful, blissful song of timeless devotional love. The mind-seed hears the song of Sita calling for flowers for a garland for Ram, and the mind-seed gives itself to Sita – for both the mind-seed and the flower in Ram’s garland are Shiva.
Sita Ram! Jai Ma!
Suryakant Small
It is very simple actually. The seed is Shaktipat and the growth is the rising of Kundalini. Watering the seed(spiritual practices) will increase the rate of growth, however, the seed has been planted and the Sun is shining- IT WILL GROW! Try not to think too much. Be thankful that you are blessed and alive. Jai Gurudev! Shri Ramachandra Ki Jai! I am an old disciple who has been sundered from the mother tree for many years and have been lazy in practice, yet the blessings continue. Om.
This is a something i have never been able to grasp. I remember this satsung ma gave at guru purnima. The quote that stuck out in my mind is she said Shiva is everything everywhere. So if God is everything everywhere why do we do spirtual practices for protection from negative energies? So what are the things we call negative? Are they God? I know i am very ignorant in most spirtual matters and probably foolish to ask this but according to that statement does that make God Ram AND Ravana. UGH this thing called duality.
Norman,
You can never be foolish to seek understanding. Since we are temporarily in duality, everything is split: light/dark, good/bad, positive/negative etc., even Ram/Ravana. It’s all from the confused perception of separateness that causes this. We are separate from all we perceive because we have been duped by ego to see nothing else. Some call it the veil and the Guru is doing everything to help us see and experience the totality and truth beyond that veil. Until that happens, we do need help and protection from so called negativity. Even though everything is Shiva/Ram/God, it doesn’t appear that way until we experience self and God as one. It’s a terrible irony and conundrum for the mind because this is not something the mind can grasp. This can only be experienced and i pray we all have it very soon!
Sita Ram,
satya
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