~~A magical conversation~~When I first heard the words "Pray...pray...pray....Gaia is calling" by one who I knew progressively as
Eli ,Swami Shraddhasudhasharananda, Guruji to some and Swami Eli to others--and all these and more to me! - I was aware of different layers of interpretation, each thought with its opposite, all chaotic
Something's wrong with Earth, and our prayers will help --
But why should we interfere with what's going on?We are being asked to connect ~
Aren't we already connected?
We're being asked to pray -
isn't the heart always at prayer?Layers through chaos...the way
a star begins to shine.
Those powerful words kept ringing in my ears, till like a mantra that begins to flow into our energy field, they went beyond words into the essence.
When Siona began the Gaia Minute Call meditations, I realized that I would need to do something in order to listen to Eli's voice on that call. I call [ring up ] my parents in India very often, so we had a wonderful calling plan for India. As it turns out, my parents are miraculously visiting us here now, so I decided to use those minutes to call Swamiji instead. He agreed to be on a conference for the second Gaia minute call, where we heard him just prior to the meditation. What a strong, vibrant, loving voice!
As we moved into the message of the Gaia Minute, interpreting what it seemed to mean, I sensed that there would be questions about prayer; the layers I had experienced were not only 'mine', and I wanted to be able to record them as well, in his voice. In his humility, Eli kept asking me why I thought those words have such importance, but agreed. What he had told me about prayer was important to share widely.
And then on one magical day, when the breeze cooled a warm Florida morning, the sun shone through the clouds, and birds visiting for the winter filled the garden with song, the conversation took place. As I asked questions, the voice from the mountains answered and spoke and shared.
Now picture this: there I am, with completely amateur equipment - a cordless phone and a digital camcorder, not wanting to film the fence or the home so much as the Earth home, walking about the garden, with phone in one hand and camera in other, holding them close so that the voice gets recorded at the right stages in the conversation, but pointing the camera to the sky. Mosquitoes are happy at my presence but usually they don't feast too much - I guess my blood isn't sweet enough for them! Bees are going about their activity, an occasional dragonfly flits by and as my heart is lifting with the blue sky and clouds and filming the spider webs framed crazily by the sky and the hawks watching overhead. Aging muscles got their message across as a need to film the sky, and I connecedt with Mother Earth as I haven't in a long while, by lying on that Florida grass.
Mother Earth, Father Sky, Grandfather Sun, and even Grandmother Moon! Animal guides, breeze and flowers.
It was heaven.
A voice from the mountains with a message connecting the dots of space and time, coming through apparatus that has been sent to earth as technology, to show us that the voice is always in our ear, the touch even closer than the heartbeat, the message coded into our DNA.
Brahmand is there in every moment, in the ordinary and the extraordinary.
And as I saw the parijat flower blossoming in the garden, I knew that just like the fable that talks of this tree being brought down from heaven to earth, so has Swamiji come to us from the mountains, as Eli, and the wonder is that they could come as one and actually be a physical voice coming through the phone lines to be recorded and shared!
All of Gaia was there.
I am not one who easily bows to ones who come as teacher or guru or swami. But one who came this way, like a whisper filled with love, simplicity and purpose, with a message that he could deliver clearly and in our language and medium, profound and powerful in its delivery, and encouraged us to receive and give in our own words, shining a light on those around him rather than on himself, but also graciously allowing himself to be recorded - to him, and to all who are around him, I bow most joyfully.
As I wrote on HummingBird's blog, I am not one who prays to ask as I never know what to ask for, never feel that what I could want would be better than what the more expanded self wills for me, but I was aware that prayers go out from the heart and those are the ones that are constantly being answered. When others spoke of praying for something, I used to wonder why I don't pray, not in others' words or my own; except when a mantra or bhajan make their way out through me…and yet feel so close to the Unnameable One.
I could not therefore understand why we were being asked to pray in this direct, focused, conscious way.
I realized that when being asked to pray, a vague sense of fear comes into being. And that is not what is being conveyed here. That is why the inspiring message of the Gaia Minute came through: to send your highest vibration into Gaia. Fear will not do that. Knowledge will not do that. Thinking will not do that. Prayer with an attitude of devotion will do that.
These words of Swamiji's connected it all for me. They helped me to realize that prayer is a state of being in our highest vibration while going about our daily or special activities. It helps us to access and use our energy in a way that staying in other states of emotion or disconnect cannot, for actions that are not only for ourselves but also for those we call others.
As the next step, I wanted to make the movie and post it on YouTube, but as things turned out, my aging computer equipment would not allow that. That is the way the Oneness reminds us to reach out and connect! My son uploaded the snippets and then I reached out to Kathy. A flurry of emails later, in which I saw an artist, a being of great beauty and sensitivity at work, a video has been made.
I realized that watching Kathy bring this to life is watching prayer.
Then Anna did what the heavenly messenger HummingBird does...spread the nectar around and from Gaia.
And now people are responding with different layers of response. It is as it is meant to be. The cycles repeat, and in the hands of all, is the 9:09---the pattern that seems to repeat but actually takes us one step up, each time, raising the energy.
From seeing the wonder manifesting around me I know the prayer that went out from my heart. To see a true swami, one not attached even to this as a title. To the loving connection underlying different facets of Gaia.
It is not we who pray. It is not we who ask. It is what is to be, the connection, that comes to us as a prayer. We just flow with it.
Om Namo Narayanaya
Links:
The Gaia Minute Call - Week 2 with Swami Eli's voice
9:09 The Gaia Minute ~ a call to light A Guide To Prayer Prepared For The Gaia MinuteOct 28th, 2009 by HummingBirdHow
~KES made the video