The Holy Week, Hanuman Jayanti and Farewell My Friend

Today is sometimes called Palm Sunday and it heralds the start of the Holy Week during the Lenten season. UCP has remarked on this in the past under these headings:

Palm Sunday 2010!

The Holy Week 2009!

Today and over this weekend Hindus celebrated the festival of Hanuman Jayanti...see these blogs we've written about this festival in the past here:

Hanuman Jayanti 2010!

Hanuman Jayanti 2009!

But this year the UCP desk and the entire Meady's Musings Production House as a whole are a bit dull as we have lost our dear friend and supporter of the Production House Bro. Tim Douglas!

Here are some of the things we and other friends to the Production House have had to say on his transition into the light:

"Here was a man who had reached almost to the point where you only saw in him his true being...love and light...indeed! :) And love and light you will always be...indeed! Farewell Bro Tim into the light you go! :)"

"I guess you all heard about the passing of our dear Bro Tim...may he be one with the eternal love and light! :)"

"My message notifying the Salvation Army* as to what to do with my donation...Please donate the money to your International Emergency Services in Iraq-Canadian hearts glowing in Iraq. In loving memory of the love and light on planet earth that was Tim Douglas!"
*Bro Tim's family suggests that in his memory you donate to the local chapter of your Salvation Army.

As dedicated by Philip Zeuner:
"For Tim:
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

All is well.

Henry Scott Holland"

As stated by Bro Greg Kirk:

"Just learned of the transition of dear friend Tim Douglas to Eternal life. May the Angels welcome him home and may his family feel God all around them."

As stated by Garima Singh:

"Prayers and love for Tim Douglas and his family and friends. Dear Tim I know you are still watching us all, sending us your love and smiles. All of it back at ya and more!"

Ed Croucher aka our Grandpa Ed:

"Here was a man who glimpsed Heaven and shone that Light to us all. Thank you, Tim, you cheered us all the way and now you are blessed. We'll meet again."


Into the light you go Bro Tim...into the light you go!


And knowing that you engaged in UCP just like us while on the earthly plane we salute you with your own words:
"LIGHT, LAUGHTER and LOVE!!! NAMASTE!!!"

And play for you these forty verses (chalisa) in song written in praise of Hanuman Baba on this occasion of Hanuman Jayanti 2011. May he be your guide on this flight as he is the son of the wind and has a heart filled with light as in the sky he flies! :) And may you enter on your new journey into the light with the same steadfastness and courage as Jesus did when on Palm Sunday he entered Jerusalem! :)

Hanuman Jayanti 2010!

All pictures copyright of Meady's Musings Production 2010

It's that time of year again for us at UCP to wish our favourite little yet sometimes big yet sometimes human size monkey friend Happy Birthday again! Yep it's Hanuman Jayanti 2010...perhaps it's why over on Meady's Musings not too long ago we were thinking about him and wishing to have a prehensile tail like him. Who knows it must have been a premonitionary feeling visualization thing in the air hinting at us to remember his bday!? :)

I can say I have also had another lovely moment with him not too long ago as well when my niece who says to my mother that he, Hanuman Baba is her fav of the Hindu deities gave her necklace with a Hanuman amulet to me! :) It was the sweetest thing for my niece to do by the way and truly UCP at its finest! :) But I was having the creepies one night driving home and I called up my niece to say so...that it was just the weirdest creepy thing feeling...and when I drove into the garage she was waiting there for me and told me something to the effect that you see I, unlike most other relatives etc. continue to not have a mala, a pendant, or necklace or amulet of some sort hung up in my car...this would protect me and make me braver you see! I'd go with God full speed ahead! :) And then without me asking she proceeded to go into the house and bring out this amulet of Hanuman Baba on a necklace she owns and hangs it up in my car! HOW SWEET!:) And so very kind of her as if Hanuman Baba is her fav form it must also be one of her fav amulets and necklace too and she just gave it away to me!:)

So now here he hangs looking out my car windscreen...but I find the shadow it casts even more profound see pic above at start of the blog!:)



So Happy Birthday Hanuman Baba! And thank you my niece! :) According to Hindu stories you were asked by Ram to stay here on earth to protect us all through this age of Kalyug and I must say I'm surely glad he asked you to and you so humbly and willing agreed! As you are often a needed friend indeed! And on your bday I must cue your fav salute the Hanuman chalisa and re-show the clip from Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan where we see you are asked by Vishnu himself on earth to stay!:)

Universal Collective Prayer: Hanuman Jayanti and Holy Thursday...Bhakti Yoga at Its Best!

In the myriad of Hindu festivals that are out there...today is Hanuman Jayanti...I don't do anything special on the day as such as I often hang out with the Monkey man myself(no offense Hanuman Bhakts I'm one myself in a kinda way and he told me I could call him that if I like). So I need no special reason to worship him...but I guess like with any friend you mark their Bday so Happy Bday Monkey Man! :)

Seriously Hanuman Baba is one of my Ishq Devtaas I find as I wrote about back here. So I metaphorically hug him all the time and then ask him for strength and in general seriously we just hang around and monkey about a lot! :) In my understanding of him growing up Hindu and in the Ramayan stories he for sure has to be a really funny being so I figure if he was a blogger he would use smiley faces a lot :) and LOL (laugh out loud)! plenty! :). What you think? :)

According to the Ramayan he was a really smart monkey...incredibly learned...yet despite that a real Bhakti kinda guy capable of 'The Ultimate Surrender' onto the Lord...also a real humble player too...the kind that even forgets his own powers and needs to be reminded about it...cool guy huh? Now you must know why I often hang out with him if only in the metaphorical sense! :)

Check out this excerpt about the Ramayan tale referring to my long time friend from Wiki:

'Having seen Rama and Lakshmana, Sugriva sends Hanuman to ascertain their identities. Hanuman approaches the two brothers in the guise of a brahmin. His first words to them are such that Rama says to Lakshmana that none could speak the way the brahmin did unless he or she had mastered the Vedas. He notes that there is no defect in the brahmin's countenance, eyes, forehead, brows, or any limb. He points out to Lakshmana that his accent is captivating, adding that even an enemy with sword drawn would be moved. He praises the disguised Hanuman further, saying that sure success awaited the king whose emissaries were as accomplished as he was.[8]

When Rama introduces himself, Hanuman reveals his own identity and falls prostrate before Rama, who embraces him warmly. Thereafter, Hanuman's life becomes interwoven with that of Rama. Hanuman then brings about a friendship and alliance between Rama and Sugriva; Rama helps Sugriva regain his honour and makes him king of Kishkindha. Sugriva and his vanaras, most notably Hanuman, help Rama defeat Ravana and reunite with Sita.

In their search for Sita, a group of Vanaras reaches the southern seashore. Upon encountering the vast ocean, every vanara begins to lament his inability to jump across the water. Hanuman too is saddened at the possible failure of his mission, until the other vanaras and the wise bear Jambavantha begin to extol his virtues. Hanuman then recollects his own powers, enlarges his body, and flies across the ocean. On his way, he encounters a mountain that rises from the sea, proclaims that it owed his father a debt, and asks him to rest a while before proceeding. Not wanting to waste any time, Hanuman thanks the mountain and carries on. He then encounters a sea-monster, Surasa, who challenges him to enter her mouth. When Hanuman outwits her, she admits that her challenge was merely a test of his courage. After killing Simhika, a rakshasa, he reaches Lanka.'

So you see there is a lot to learn from my monkey friend...humility...excellence...wit...strength...bravery...but above all how to complete 'The Ultimate Surrender'...it is that ability that really keeps we coming back for more with him...it is why I still visit just to hug him as he surrenders at the feet of his Lord...such a pure, sweet monkey he is then...interestingly I find too that all beings when they are doing 'The Ultimate Surrender' well they become as one...not just in Universal Collective Prayer but in everything...any being doing 'The Ultimate Surrender' cannot be distinguished from any other being doing it...they all become one...merging into the cosmic fluid I guess...no distinguishing 'em again...just oneness...dissolving into the cosmic dancer that is the Shiv man perhaps...or Bodhisattva...

So on this Holy Thursday as I also continue to share in the Holy Week...I also recall another Bodhisattva in my mind...as I wrote about him just earlier in the week...for sure Jesus Christ of Nazareth completed 'The Ultimate Surrender' too...here is the excerpt from this post earlier this week where I rejoice in his surrender up on the Cross...

'You have to feel pain before you can transcend it and that does not come easily...in my understanding of Jesus he never became detached to it but what he did...you see he was the greatest Bhakti yogi....so after he felt and took the whole pain and sufferring of the entire human race on him...he said to the father...the lord of the Universe ...or the Universe...God...to take it from him...he then made the ultimate surrender...he offerred it all up to the Lord or the Universe...and it is in that moment he became one with it...enlightened...due to his Ultimate Surrender...but it is the process of going into the pain...feeling the pain of others...so much compassion...that made him capable of this ultimate surrender...it showed him the way...the love and the light...so in reflecting on the pain of him and his mother the Holy Virgin Mary...I think we learn from them...and become ourselves closer one day to the Ultimate Surrender...'


So I leave you with my favourite Hanuman Chalisa sung by Hari Om Sharan who to me is the only fitting singer for my friend on his Bday...Hari Om Sharan is no longer on the earthly plane and to me, he for sure was a very elevated being perhaps a few wavelengths off from being Bodhisattva himself...so wherever he is in the now...earth or spirit realm...I bow to his pure devotional voice which he possessed and recorded while here on the earthly plane in the form he had back then as the singer...Hari Om Sharan...

Enjoy! Happy Birthday Monkey Man! And let's continue dancing through the Holy Week!