Advent Calendar 2011:Christmas Day

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During our Advent calendar times here on UCP we often consider the relationship between the Christ child, humans and animals. It always seems to us that this is so much a theme in the Christmas story and ironic then that the festival is celebrated by many by eating animals for lunch and dinner on the day itself and days prior.

Of course over on our sister blog Meady's Musings the human and animal story is very evident as we often tell the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse. But even the original Christmas story so filled with animals. We have explored the relationship with animals and Jesus Christ of Nazareth before during our Easter blog postings. Consider this blog where we asked what about the feelings of the donkey as Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday:

The Holy Week: Palm Sunday

Excerpts from that blog post:

"...What of the donkey? To me as a Hindu all through the stories I hear of Jesus the Christ’s life I wonder about the animals that surround him…to me these stories are filled with animals from cradle to crave! I mean there were camels, sheep, cows and donkeys at his birth, fishing expeditions, snakes (I think?) as he made his way in life and now here he was about to be crucified and he is riding in to it on a donkey. And as a Hindu looking on at this I can’t help wondering about the connection to the animals and how they feel about all of this. You see from my Hindu perspective I see it that all the animals are also with soul and part of the Universal spirit…so to me I keep thinking of how they would have felt to be surrounded by such an enlightened spirit that was embodied in the flesh of Jesus the Christ while he was on planet earth. However I’m sure Christians must see it differently and so it must be noted this is just my point of view being shared with…no malice…no spite…and certainly no disrespect but just plain enquiry from where I stand in the journey!

So for the intent of my story I shall proceed to name this donkey upon which Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. I shall name him Sam…don’t ask me why but it is just what pops into my head as I keep seeing him before me…I don't perceive him as a talking donkey a la 'Donkey' from 'Shrek' but more that his spirit can communicate on a more subtle level with the spirit of Jesus...So as Sam walks into Jerusalem's gate with Jesus on his back he feels it...he knows this is the week it will all end...but at the same time his donkey hairs stand on end to know that is part of something bigger than him...something on a grand scale Universally!:)

In terms of Jesus' interaction with the donkey, Sam as they had traveled to Jerusalem I feel it would have been a very loving one...he would have been gently stroking him and stopping frequently on the journey for Sam to rest, drink and eat...he would have recalled too how another donkey took his mother, the Holy Virgin Mary to the manger for him to be born some more than thirty years before...and at that moment he would have perhaps recalled how he was about to go beyond his earthly maternal ties and make a sacrifice on a bigger Universal scale...although it would no doubt hurt his mother on the material plane very much!

And now as he sat upon Sam the donkey at the gates of Jerusalem he again touched the animal's mane lovingly and in that moment connecting with the animals spirit feeling both his fear and awe...He would have alighted from the donkey Sam and come before his face...caressing his snout in both his arms and explaining to him through divine connection that...Sam, the donkey should fear not for he would one day be liberated from the earthly plane and he would a greater spirit be for accompanying him on this journey!:)..."

So now let's look at all the animals in the Christmas story in more detail. First of all let's list all of them as much as possible:

1. The donkey that Mary and Joseph were riding
2. The camels that the wise men were riding...possibly three
3. Oxen not sure how many
4. There was bound to be sheep in a place like that right? With all the shepherds and everything

There may certainly have been more animals and I understand there may have even been a snake at Herod's court but generally these are the main ones that usually make up the Nativity scene i.e. the creche.

So how so you think these animals felt on this night? The night that the Christ child was born and then when into the dawn many came to see him?

Did they feel his divine presence just like how Sam the donkey in our Palm Sunday story felt it?

And we here at UCP wish you a happy and holy Christmas filled with divine blessings as we leave you to contemplate on this. Merry Christmas everybody! :)

And we leave you with even more to contemplate on as the Cherry tree bends to the Divine will in this which is one of our fav Christmas carols by Joan Baez.

Advent Calendar 2011:The Christmas Eve Prayer!

All the animals came over from "The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse" over on our sister blog to join Brother Greg in the Christmas Eve prayer! And here is how the prayer was said:

"Gracious and loving God: With hearts filled with gratitude for the endless ways you come to us, and love us, we again remember your greatest journey - being born in humility, as a child among us. Your birth into our world brought us light, love, peace and joy, and they are eternal gifts. This Christmas, may your Son once again be born into the hearts of your people. Make us instruments of your peace, and bring us to a deeper awareness of your unconditonal love this season.
Amen"

Merry Christmas from UCP and from all the animals over at the Meady's Musings Production House!

Advent Calendar 2011: A Christmas Prayer!

We have been so asunder this year that even on a blog entitled Universal Collective Prayer after already opening the Advent calendar late...we OMG! forgot the Advent calendar opening prayer! We surrender on to the Divine and beg for forgiveness and we didn't even ask Bro Greg to come say the prayer but as a result we shall contact him for our Christmas Eve mass prayer for sure!

Now in our lateness we had to take inspiration from the little mouse who is on his Christmas Adventures next door on our parent blog Meady's Musings. So here is the mouse's Advent calendar Christmas prayer!

"Dear Lord although I may but a little mouse be
You well know that I let little scare me
Apart from those cats of course
And even then I just surrender to you as the divine source
And although the start of this Advent calendar maybe late
It won't affect what will be on any of my guest's Christmas Eve dinner plate

You know better than I great spirit that in the Universal sense of things we are all one
And so please don't let my Christmas plans be undone
You see the owner of the house was late to open the Advent calendar
But she must not be blamed for such a blunder
As her world I'm told was a bit asunder

So let's now work together
To make this Christmas the best one ever
Keep the cats at bay
And let all our house guests enjoy their stay
This dear Lord is my Advent calender opening prayer!"

And speaking of prayer we here at UCP would like to ask you to take a moment and reflect on the year gone by so far and ask you to look within and consider what is your Christmas prayer? For now and for the New Year?

And with that we leave you with this lady singing about her grown up Christmas prayer or wish or list well all the same no?! :)

Advent Calendar 2011: The Opening and Happy St. Nicholas Day!

We at the Meady's Musings Production House have left many a story untold this year and many a blog post unfinished and unposted! You our readers must realize it really was never our intent! However we were just too taken up with travelling to different lands and putting on real live blog displays on UCP this year but mostly too involved in our day job! Yes as you know we must pay the bills and we have just been putting our shoulder to the wheel all year long this year!

But we really have just gone and done it now! As we've started our Advent calendar late now too! The Purple Elephant and Little Mouse were just very cross indeed and so they had to make it out of their imaginary house over into our real world to let us know just how they felt! And it wasn't a good sight I will tell you for many a passerby to see a cartoony looking elephant purple at that with a cartoony looking mouse on this back scolding a real life lady on the street! In fact many of the passersby ended up on the psychiatric chair! And for that we at the production house all yell out an 'Oh dear!' But it must have been worth it for here we are to declare the Advent Calendar 2011 open!

The rules again this year will be that on Meady's Musings we will be telling the story of 'The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant with the little mouse' of course at times we may pause for a little this and that.

And on UCP-Universal Collective Prayer we will be keeping to the reverence and prayer of the season.

However there will be days that the two blogs will collide like today as we join to launch the calendar and celebrate St. Nicholas Day! Yes Happy St. Nicholas Day 2011 folks! So although the Advent calendar is declared open late this year it is not that bad as it is on this very special day that celebrates that old saint of giving whom has forever been Americanised as a fat man in a red and white suit!

As we celebrate the day this year we look back at these times when we asked:

Do you believe in Santa Claus?

and when we said:

Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus!

And remind you again this year that if you need to learn more about St. Nicholas the St. Nicholas Center is a pretty good place to start!

And remind you that we do believe in Santa Claus as we also recall the gift giving that was done for the baby Jesus!

Happy Ganesh Utsav 2011!

Copyright of The Meady's Musings Production House 2011.

From the UCP desk to you- Happy Ganesh Utsav 2011!


May the melting of your Ganesh (hopefully clay and so melted) represent another year of you shedding something that needlessly binds you to the trappings of your mortal coil as you find your way back...





Everyone came out for the festival today at the mosquito creek even the Purple Elephant (who kept waving away mosquitoes with his trunk but no really it's just a name there were no mosquitoes!) and the little mouse who both felt so honoured! And they personally thanked Sonu Dubay (yes the nepotism at the UCP desk continues!) for the photos! Of course he signed all the rights over to the two fellow mammals and so all the pics that appear on this blog post today are...

Copyright of The Meady's Musings Production House 2011.

Eid Mubarak 2011-A Sojourn in Islam!

The owner of the Meady's Musings Production House had her fifteen year old niece ask her to throw out one of the guys writing at a UCP desk just for today so that she could write today's UCP blog post instead! Of course you know we're kidding as we couldn't have such nepotism and violence...it is just not the UCP way!:) But seriously the niece of the owner of the Meady's Musings Production will be the contributor to our UCP Islamic celebrating blog today. It's not nepotism really she is fully qualified as for the last few months she has been dabbling in the religion of Islam to learn more about it...at times to be honest the owner of the Production House had felt she had converted fully...boy that niece can be such a good actress! :) So the owner of the Production House almost nearly pulled this story before she read it...but once she read it she broke into a wide smile...she was proud to see how well her niece had learnt all on her own (or perhaps by following example) the UCP way! :) So without further delay here is blog post by that other Dubay! :)

EXPLORING ISLAM

Assalamu Alaikum (peace be upon you)

As far as the journey has brought me, I had a very wonderful and pleasurable experience learning and educating myself about Islam. Coming from a strict Hindu background, people would find it a very odd approach to see someone like me engaging in such an activity. From my path however I saw it as a higher pillar of life and beyond. It is much more than a mere eye would see.

Questions came towards me as to why I decided to go on about Islam or simply 'Muslim'. As to how I would see it,. there is only on God but we see Him differently based on the different strengths of our faiths. But as one race, being the human race, it would tak time for us to understand and accept the truth. Conversion can never be the positive step forward though. As that is just a negative divergence. If you trult have faith and love, the only way is the religion of love and compassion. You should not be biased or fanatical though. If you are particular defined religion
and you are a true devotee of God in your faith then you should not judge other fatih as it is the same said God. When you start doing this, ther is no use of using God's name. You become a loser.

Back to the broad topic of Islam. I am not confined to any faith or cult but I believe that there is a supreme being in this world. Atheism isno the way as it does not have solid truth about it. It we use the example of air. We know for a fact that air exists but we cannot see air, same with the Creator.

Learning about Islam and the way of Allah (God) has been quite interesting as I can now tell a muslim what I know about his/her religion. By exploring another faith, you learn to accept your other brother and sistes in life more and you respect them even more.

As Islam will present itself, it is solely based on the principles of the Holy Qur'an, Sunnahs and Prophet Muhammud (PBUH). I will not do into details with the Qur'an. But I will share some benefits of Islam. Islam prohibits alcohol use and the ingestion of toxic substances. It helps you to draw closer to Allah in dua (prayer) and teaches you how to go to Jannat (Heaven). Allah gave men and women equal rights but different responsibilities. He entrusted the men with the duty of working to take care of the household and going to the masjid. The women are to cook and take care of the children. Islam has been stereotyped to things such as terrorism and domestic abuse. But it is not so. There is good and bad in everyone and the innocent should not be accused for anything. Muslim women lead normal lives and are treat very well by their husbands. They are give right to eve work and drive. These things are just stereotypes. Men are to wear clothes up to their knees which are loose and women are to cover their entire body except for the hands (up to wrist bone) and face. Hijab is not just a piece of cloth but a practice and test. Once you are wearing hijab, you wear it for Allah. You are to lower your gaze being Muslim. During Ramadan you are not only forgiven of your sins but you can loose fat and help purify your body while getting closer to God.

Islamic architecture is quite fascinating and so is its song and music. The Qasidas, Qawalis, Nasheeds and prayers are very peaceful. The most peaceful music though is believed to be Sufi music which is associated with Sufism (a sect of Islam).

If you find experincing a new faith interesting to you, you can try learning about Islam, Hinduism, Christianity or others. Trust me, it does pay off in the end, and it helps to clear many misunderstandings and doubts you would have had. This does not mean you are converting however. You are just embracing another reality.

Ramadan is near to a close and I hope that Allah is pleased with everyone's dua and fast. Lailatul-Qadr ( which usually falls within the last ten days of Ramadan)is considered to be the night of power and prayer on this night can be as equivalent strong as doing 83 years of tapas (Sanskrit word used in Hinduism to represent the destruction of accumulated sins by underdoing physical sacrifices that leads to spiritual evolution).

Keep praying, keep smiling and Insha Allah you will be greatly blessed. Hope you enjoyed your Ramadan and Eid Mubarak to you all! Khuda Hafiz! Assalamu Alaikum! (peace be onto you!)

We're Back on a Krishna Janmashtami Again-Happy Krishna Janmashtami 2011!!

Copyright the Meady's Musings Production House.

We started this dance we call UCP-Universal Collective Prayer back in 2008 on Krishna Janmashtami so as we always say Krishna Janmashtami to Krishna Janmashtami we have completed another year of this blog...granted we've been away for most of the year thus far...but we've been taking the blog on the road...and we will let you know more about that soon! But for now we want to say that Krishna Janmashtami to Krishna Janmashtami this blog is now three years old! :)

So as we reflect today on the manifestation of Krishna into the flesh in the Hindu world and the fast of Ramadan continues in the Islamic world...we find fresh energy to announce on our birthday that we share with Krishna himself that we will finally be back to blogging consistently here on the prayers...and getting to the God series as we had promised back on the road in June. So look for it this Wednesday as we start back blogging with the expectation of one or two installations here on UCP every week either on a Wednesday, Friday or on both days. But now on with the birthday celebs...!

To mark our birthday and that of the supreme Godhead of Hinduism-Krishna. We will do two things:

-Reminesce, reflect and re-examine the reason we started this blog and
-Recall some of our favourite Krishna tunes!

Why we started UCP?
We thought this would take a long time to explain and lots of soul searching before we could type this response here. But really a blog is a web log...a diary of sorts in cyberspace...and so the answer really was right there embedded in our first UCP blog ever...when we used to write in the first person...here it is:

"So I go into this evening's proceedings (as it thunders and rains here very much as it did according to the Vedic tale on the day that Baby Krishna came to earth) with this in my heart... this in my prayers. No matter who we are where our ancestors came from or how we choose to worship... Let us all show each other love and compassion. I truly believe this and so this is my truth that if we all focus on this and practice this piece by piece and as we get better at it...the truth will prevail...and we will all of a sudden realise that LOVE IS ALL THERE IS! (and I think I may have just quoted a Beatles song there...no rights infringement intended) Please reflect on my loaner pic from the Bhaktivedanta people and look at the love and beauty in it. A mother lovingly bathing her baby. Don't bother too much bout who was right and who was wrong who came first or who came last. Who was better and who was best or who is right now or wrong now. May God Bless Us All and fill Us with Love and Compassion to All Beings of the Universe!"

And now some of our favourite Krishna tunes: