Navratri, Lent and Prayers with Paulo Coelho

copyright Meady's Musings Production 2010

As the Hindu festival of Vasant Navratri kicks off we here at UCP are thrilled at the number of genuine UCP:Universal Collective Prayer events that seem to be popping up world over. The 'big man' (no not that one LOL!) himself Paulo Coelho of 'The Alchemist' fame and name is having a universal collective prayer event on Wed 6 April 2011 at 6 PM in your time zone! The famous author is doing it to celebrate his crossing 5million fans on Facebook! WOW! Five million fans on Facebook now that IS something! The Brazilian author might just be more famous than Facebook itself with a following like that and speaking of following...he has >1.5M followers on Twitter! Whoa!

But yep the great one is having a prayer event to celebrate his fans and following...it was actually the number one voted suggestion by fans! Coming in second was the idea 'to work together' but the great one couldn't see that realistically working out so he suggested a colloborative contest of sorts instead. Anyway it's all on the link if you go here to his blog. (Not that he needs the traffic! :) )

So of course we here at UCP will be clinking out mangeeras and going in...after all it's universal collective prayer at it's finest! :) And it's already Vasant Navratri and our Christian UCPers are in the time of Lent. Just last week one of our roving reporters had the most marvelous prayer experience...while working the field she came about a man who actually fasts for Lent almost like a Muslim...seriously! He doesn't eat all day and prayers for lunch instead of eating lunch...well we're not sure if exactly like a muslim as he may have water...but our Catholic find certainly did seem divine in his pursuit of Lenten prayers! :) So lovely! :)

So as we join Paulo Coelho in prayer on Wed we're sure the whole world will be prayered out! Because Paulo's prayer event is happening at 6 PM in each time zone so with his following for sure you will have a good 24 hour spread of prayer globe over and as it is Hindus will be prayering and surrendering to the Divine Mother and Christians are in the fasting and prayering period of Lent! :) So pray on! As we take our mangeeras out again and sing and dance to the Divine Mother to our favourite tune! :)

The Divine Mother Leadership Series:Day 9-Saraswati for Peace and the Grand Finale!

Today is the ninth and final day of the Hindu festival of Vasant Navraatri and also the last day dedicated to Mata Saraswati in our series here on UCP. So today we will be looking at her as the white cladded embodiment of peace and reviewing the whole nine day cycle as we wrap Vasant Navraatri 2010. Ladies and Gentlemen…UCPers far and wide…it’s the grand finale!

Now we started our journey fighting the bad guys with Mata Durga riding on her lion or tiger, bashing the demons left, right and center! She slayed that Asura (demon) Mahish and then her tiger gave a great big roar as she finally realized she had to STOP! Let it go already! LOL! This realization coming in her Kali form when saw that her demon bashing was starting to get kinda out ah hand…so much so that she now had her husband (in her Parvati and Sati form) Shiva at the mercy of her feet!

The Mata Lakshmi came along and stabilized everything for us and gave us all the resources we need to move right along to finding our inner self…

As Mata Saraswati rode in, all cool and calm like a breath of fresh air on her swan…bringing us the knowledge that we were more than the material…all pure and white with light…as we come to this point…the point of peace…inner peace…

Leadership Lessons Learnt:

Well let’s write it like this as we have recently been having fun with our Fishbone Diagrams of Root Cause Analysis fame on our sister blog Meady’s Musings…

The Root Cause Analysis of ‘Why the Ladies Divine of Hinduism aka Devis are Leaders’ is:

The Ladies Divine of Hinduism are leaders because they display initiative, commitment and passion and know how to nourish. They also have the wherewithal to source the necessary tools and materials to get the job done and the knowledge of their self...none of their strengths and weakness lay hidden from them (their Johari window is wide open!). However above all they know how to go with the flow and find peace within and with who they are…they truly are to their own selves true!

So ladies I salute you!

Om Shaanti…shaanti…shaanti!

The Divine Mother Leadership Series:Day 8-Saraswati for Purity and Durga Ashtami

All photos in this blog post are taken by Meady's Musings Production but are photos of Art created by other artists (unfornuately their names unknown to me at this time)

In Hinduism you have to admit it's tough for a girl to get centre stage!:) I've always conceptualised God through Hinduism's eyes to be like a big huge diamond that had so many faces when it was cut and so many glittering rays reflecting off the diamond as it shone in the light that basically there were countless faces and rays. And each of these faces and rays could be conceptualised further...iconified and worshipped...so not many Gods really but many faces and rays of this infinite huge diamond that is the Universal spirit!:) But as we iconify and break them out...Boy does it get crowded and as I said in my opening line it's tough for a girl to take centre stage! :) She has to be pushing and elbowing her way up there! LOL!

But as I said at the kick off of the Leadership series we here on UCP were going to celebrate the nine days of Navraatri using the format of the first 3 days for Durga, the second three for Lakshmi and the final three for Saraswati. Making our way in a cycle on the three stops...facing and killing our demons....sustaining our self on the material plane and then reaching for the knowledge that is our pure and peaceful souls! Now having said that one can't count out the day like today though when Durga is worshipped in a big pooja normally in some parts of India and indeed here in Trinidad. It's Durga Ashtami folks! So here is how we here at UCP will reconcile it. We will upfront give Saraswati her day and then talk about the Ashtami after! OK...everybody happy! :)


SARASWATI FOR PURITY

Saraswati in Hinduism represents purity...dressed in her white sari with the innocent Hans (swan) as her celestial vehicle of choice. By the way isn't it cool in Hinduism how all the forms have their divine vehicles all being these animals!:) But now back to the devi hereself...I've often pondered on her peaceful form growing up as a child...I must say you can almost feel her presence and she must most appropriately sit and appear to I'm sure many a traveller at the side of beautiful, fresh flowing streams and brooks!:)Once in my teens I had woken up a early morning and decided on my own accord to do a hawan in our pooja room and I could swear almost hidden a step away or just as I turned I saw a lady in a white sari seemingly peeping out from some plane to peek at me and then hide or run off before I could really see her or catch her!:) Who knows I must have a vivid imagination...or perhaps it is the natural hallucinogen that is prayer or maybe just maybe she really did come to peek at me from some other plane or place?!:) When I told my mum she simply said...So Blessed! and smiled:) Isn't it lovely though whatever it maybe?

So I'm so so happy to recall her here today on UCP! :) :) :) That lovely lady!:) Now after having come upon a picture on a wall while renting a house with friends a few years ago in San Francisco. I am in this moment convinced that if she my beloved Saraswati was a devi in Japanese and Chinese cultured Buddhism she would be the lovely goddess and beautiful bodhisattva-Quan Yin! As seen below here in the image I took of the picture that adorned the wall of my bedroom in that vacation rental in San Francisco:



DURGA ASHTAMI

On my reading and research about this special day and celebration what jumped out at me was how they celebrated all the devis and 64 yoginis for Durga Ashtami and not just the demon bashing Universal mother herself! :) I'd love to find out more about these 64 yoginis...who are they? Can I one day become one? LOL! :) But they must be what I'd call the divine light rays reflected off the diamond faces...not quite the Divine Mother herself in potentence but a ray...a small subset of her divine presence indeed! And I'm glad their beauty, love and radiant presence is also celebrated on this day!:) I will one day research and write more on this yoginis in this space but for now you can read more about this celebration here!

The Divine Mother Leadership Series: Day 7-Saraswati: Knowledge

Picture republished from this site

To lead you must have knowledge else well it would be like the blind leading the blind. The Goddess Saraswati in Hinduism is the embodiment of knowledge. She represents the respect for knowledge...the knowing in the religion that the need to know is important enough to worship it i.e. focus and meditate upon it so it can be acquired...knowledge is found everywhere depending on what you are seeking to know about...but according to Hinduism the highest knowledge to be pursued is that of the self...and most societies would agree that the search for self knowledge is best expressed and documented in the Arts...music, poetry, theatre, literature and I guess in the modern day context...films, documentaries, TV shows and yep blogs...Youtube! :)

And so as we move into the last leg of three days dedicated to the goddess Saraswati we salute her here in the form of one of her embodiments...MUSIC! :)