Divine Mother is waiting to deliver us from illusion

There is a story of how Divine Mother, in her sorrow, cried tears over how people had harmed themselves through their own jealousy, self-justification, greed, pride and selfishness. Each of Her teardrops falls to Earth and becomes a devotee, willing to do Divine Mother’s work, the highest and most blissful aspiration there is.

What is Divine Mother’s work?

She is the force of compassion and caring, so needed yet so often unrecognized in our world. She offers a creativity that destroys rigid thinking. She is receptive to new thoughts and can birth new ideas. We can become Her devotees by seeing Her light in all of our experiences. When you can see Her life-giving rays even in desperate human tragedies, you begin to understand how much there is to learn and how fragile our existence is. It’s important to give wholeheartedly back to life. A different vibration of gratitude is set in motion, a clearer way of looking at the world and the mystery it holds.

Create an image of Divine Mother in your mind, with an awareness that this is creativity at its highest. Most of us create through sex, through art, through work, through all of our actions. The creative force is just constantly creating, so we have to keep clearing things out and being aware of what we are creating. The force behind creation comes through from the unmanifest—you can think of it as thought, and sometimes it’s not even your own thought. But it has energy and it becomes very concrete in some way.

If we put energy into thoughts, they become quite solid and sometimes it is very hard to get rid of a solidified concept. We ordinarily load ourselves up with concepts and stories and desires and wants and worries and obligations and resentments. All that power can be redirected for our benefit and the benefit of others.

If we can be straight, considerate and caring, we can build the foundation for attaining the power of discrimination and compassion, which is the potential of humanity.

How do you create a firm foundation with Divine Mother and know that She too is on a firm foundation with you? Through your own personal spiritual experiences, you can maintain a connection with your spiritual self and that state of awareness where everything becomes clear. Things that seemed so significant become insignificant because you know there is something else that gives your life real meaning.

When you look back over your life, sometimes you may think, “Why did I put all my time and energy into those negative situations and ways of living?” It’s very hard in those places of illusion or delusion because we are blinded by emotions. We don’t understand what we have to do, and we want it to look like something that we can approach and understand right away. But everything is a process; everything is part of a continuum.

Often we may want someone to tell us what to do. But when we go to someone else, we are giving them the power that we could gain. So where do you go? How do you make that connection to Divine Mother? How do you recognize and understand and change? My guru always said she could tell the spiritual evolution of a person by his or her willingness to change and follow it through.

Divine Mother will give us the illusion, and She will give us the liberation. These are her extreme gifts. We have to decide what we want. That decision can be difficult when we are constantly busy and deluding ourselves about what is important. We want to stop running from all these different places and to all these different things. Just come to Her feet – we are Her Child and She will look after us. You know that a mother will do anything to look after her child, and so will Divine Mother.

If you really want to realize your potential, you have to determine what you want—the understanding, the discrimination, the connection with the Light, whatever it is.

You have to turn to Her, gaze at Her, and make your silent request. Keep that thought alive and then wait, because the promise is that you will receive what you need in proportion to the movement you make toward Her.

They call it the razor’s edge because it’s all up to you, and you are always the one making the choices at each turn. The thing to remember is that She will always be there to lift you up, to put you back and give you another chance.

Practice

Repeat the Divine Mother prayer:*

Oh, Divine Mother
May all my speech and idle talk be mantra
All actions of my hands be mudra
All eating and drinking be the offering of oblations unto Thee
All lying down prostrations before Thee
May all pleasures be as dedicating my entire self unto Thee
May everything I do be taken as Thy worship.

Now imagine Divine Mother. What image of her do you have in your mind? Can you feel Her presence? What does it feel like? Let her come into you and fill you completely. Look at yourself through her eyes of compassion. What does she see? What does she say?

*From Ananda Lahari [Wave of Bliss], an ancient Sanskrit text in praise of Divine Mother

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Swami Radhananda is the spiritual director of Yasodhara Ashram in Kootenay Bay, BC, Canada. Appointed president of the Ashram in 1993 by her guru, Swami Radha, she carries forward the spirit of Swami Radha’s work with heart and integrity.

As a longtime householder yogini, she has a special understanding of how to incorporate yoga and spiritual practice into daily life. With a specialization in educational consulting and a passion for adult learning, she has been instrumental in developing the Yasodhara yoga training programs. She has also successfully opened the way for young people to become involved in yoga through the Ashram’s Young Adult and Karma Yoga programs.

Under her stewardship, Yasodhara Ashram has thrived as a harmonious community built on the spirit of generosity and inclusion. Swami Radhananda encourages practitioners to live their yoga in daily life and to realize their potential through self-inquiry, service and devotion.Swami Radhananda is the author of a memoir about her time with Swami Radha, Carried by a Promise: A Life Transformed by Yoga, and a book of inspirational essays, Living the Practice.

She teaches internationally.

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Ed: Brianna Bemel