Sweet Divine Delights

Last weekend had me sitting in on a radio recording of a spiritual leader at the beautiful Brahma Kumaris centre in Manchester. Set in their Quiet Room it was a delight in itself just to hear how one little lady could be so big and determined in her life purpose to achieve so much by giving up so much. Sister Jayanti, celibate since the age of nineteen has practised Raja Yoga for more years than I’ve been meditating. Her heartfelt concern is obvious as she speaks over the state of humanity and the environment and she’s a real ambassador for a better world that starts with peace and happiness from within each of us. I was able to ask a question to which she gave a concise and forthright answer to a personal dilemma which has recently plagued my mind. At the end she offered us her usual greetings along with a beautiful book called ‘The Gift of Peace’ as well a beautiful sweet which served to raise the gift of gratitude. She was talking to a packed room later in the evening, but beforehand a group of us had another opportunity to sit with her and chat. Amongst the favoured few were a couple running a local infant and junior school which teaches children about philosophical spiritual thinking rather than religious dialogue, and even has them learning Sanskrit. That’s a big call and one I personally doff my cap to. Traditional Sanskrit is a rich ancient language of poetry and science from Dharma that is used in many Hindu and Buddhist rituals as hymns and mantras. It’s seen as the basis of many religions. To speak it is another matter altogether. For an English school to study it and try to breakdown religious barriers is an admirable purpose for anyone.

We received a further blessing at the end of the discussion with yet another sweet and a booklet entitled ‘The Easy Way to Make Each Day Happy’. I got chance to ask her how she saw God and was again answered without hesitation or in any formidable manner that a single point of light is as beautiful a sight as you can expect to see. That settled my sense of foreboding that the omnipresence may be seen in the likeness of man. It’s nice to think that there may actually be an awakening of healing on the planet and her message was that we can overcome hunger, disease and poverty if we can only overcome our own sense of anger, greed and attachment, and that we can have peace if we only know how to love ourselves so we may give out that love to everyone. As an advocate of balance in everything emotional, physical and spiritual I was impressed by her easy manner of connectedness she described as upwards, inwards and outwards. Many people have to go back to their childhood to see a time when they had no cultural differences because of the sexual or animal instincts that come to us in later life. Looking back to our childhood can be important for our happiness to remove layers of misunderstandings, mistakes and misperceptions. The degree to which our parents felt security or survival needs in their own lives, would have most probably affected our understanding of abundance, and to what degree we have a rich or poor consciousness. Likewise, our relationships and how we responded to early intimate sexual obligations would determine our outlook on sex for life. Much of our health is predetermined by our physical and mental makeup being a fundamental part of our programming. We should all have a duty and responsibility to be compassionate, and even though Sister Jayanti is herself a spiritual leader, she spoke of Ghandi and Mother Teresa with complete humility and how we each must be healing ourselves on a daily basis in order to see the delight of Divine sweetness for ourselves.

We constantly tell ourselves stories from our ego self or our higher consciousness of how we are right about everything and usually believe ourselves to be the victim of every problem. Whatever we see, hear, say, feel or understand has been generated from our own darkness within and yet without resistance we could never appreciate the light of a higher conscious state we achieve through meditation and looking within ourselves. Another person we met on the same event was editor of a magazine that goes out to funeral directors about the possibility of beauty around death. Today I spoke to a woman who lost her thirty year old son to a heart attack and was recently able to feel real joy again after six years of pain and sorrow. Our moment of death is very important to everyone and if we could choose when and where, like some religions claim they are able to, we could all be stronger for it. I like to see it as we are here to serve others and when we have given that service we can die in peace. It’s always good to challenge our own thinking from within, particularly if we have an emotional problem as the suffering goes on endlessly unless we are able to transcend of own thoughts and release our pain. You have to know exactly who you are to achieve this and realise all pain is a learning. I upset someone this morning when I mentioned and she suddenly understood her recent serious illness was potentially caused by her emotional disturbance. Some say all suffering is an illusion of our own minds and that in our duality we will always be in pain.

To look inside and clear our own hurt, needs us to forgive ourselves and others as, in creating a higher capacity for love, we need to let go of everything and forgive everyone. We can empower ourselves by focussing on our intention for what we do, our purpose for living. We need to combine our own efforts with the powerful forces of nature to bring about an appreciation of the sweetness of Divine delights. Then we can begin to understand how the gratitude of love for others is within us all. Sister Jayanti believes that world peace is possible. I think by the end of the evening she had me convinced, if only we could all feel the power of love and spread it to everyone we meet.

Endeavour to feel the power of love with appreciation and gratitude.