Savitri L. Bess

Imagine thousands of sparks shooting out from Amritapuri where our Divine Mother Amma blesses all who come to Her. The act of giving arises from compassion.

Amma tells us that "spirituality begins and ends with compassion." Those who live in Amma's Amritapuri ashram in Kerala, India, often describe it as heaven on earth. From this heaven on earth, Amma's wisdom and effulgence flows out worldwide to devotees and interested souls everywhere. We can create a heaven on earth no matter where we are.

When infused with sparks of love, we often are inspired to respond by giving. The stories in "Sharing about Giving" blog will help to encourage a world culture to regain its way of living that is based on the spiritual principles of Sanatana Dharma, the Way of Eternal Truth, the path of compassion and of the unity of all beings. Sanatana Dharma recognizes that everything is permeated with God-Consciousness.

Through giving, each of us has experienced this all-pervading Divinity, even if only for seconds. The act of giving selflessly takes us out of darkness and into light. When we give, we are filled with Amma's all-encompasing, Unversal Love. The giver and the receiver become One.

In "Sharing about Giving," we tell about the kind of selfless acts that effect a positive change in an individual and thereby a change in the family, the community, the world, and in all of nature. We are all born with gifts or talents.  Our Beloved Amma inspires us to express our individual dharma, our personal pathway in harmony with the universe.Our own dharma leads us towards the Dharma of all human beings—Liberation or freedom from suffering.

Our experiences and our practices of giving are simple but fertile gifts that can inspire others. We offer many sparks from our inner wealth to help make Sanatana Dharma available to everyone. You just never know where this blog might end up, to be seen by someone who needed Amma's love in the form of devotee accounts about giving.

Stories about our spiritual journeys offer a powerful way to give—every one unique, every one according to our essence and our particular life path, our individual dharma. Our accounts arise out of our lives dedicated to a daily practice of Amma's teachings, based in kindness, compassion, and humility.

Amma has asked us to share about our weaknesses, along with our gifts. And then to describe our transformation, how it came about, and how we rose up out of darkness and into light. 

"Sharing about Giving" is about raising awareness and passing these blessings—these sparks—on to others.

You are invited and welcome to submit stories

(see left panel for Submission Guidlines)

THE NEW THEME "SHARING ABOUT GIVING" BEGAN WITH THE PREVIOUS POST. ALL POSTS THAT FOLLOW WERE UNDER DIFFERENT THEMES, THOUGH THEY MIGHT BE SEEN AS RELATED IN THE SENSE THAT ALL THINGS ARE INTERCONNECTED. 

A big line-up in humanitarian Aquarius on this New Moon--the dazzling Sun with the nurturing Moon, fleet-footed Mercury, and Dark Moon Lilith. All these planets together in such close connection signal unique contacts with friends and associations, and ingenious ideas for change. If this line-up is strong in your chart, you might even write an article  or give a speech about the necessity for a profoundly inovative way to affect new ways of approaching life and making a difference. And, making a difference in small ways, if everyone does it, can bring about enormous change.

Our Lady the Dark Moon Lilith is in the mix of Aquarius planets (and you don't ever want to mess with her, or with anyone who reprents her). She's powerful and like Goddess Kali, will do all she can to cut away all the nonsense and the ego-involvements that interfere with clear and clean outcomes. 

Usually I'm not deep into politics, but last night Stacy Abrams gave one of the most inspiring talks I've heard in a long time. Her response to the State of the Union. To me her speech was the embodiment of this Aquarius line-up--her vision, her compassion, her  belief in the goodness of human nature, and her no-nonsense and cut to the chace words. 

Stacy Abrams began her speech by telling a story of how her family had only one car. On a stormy night they went to pick up her father who was walking home from work. He got into the car, soaking wet and chilled to the bone. Stacy's mother asked, "Where is your coat!?" He said, "I gave it to a homeless man." Stacy asked why. He responsed, "Because I knew you were coming for me and I knew no one was coming for him."

This is the age of Aquarius. 

Introduction to an archetypal view on astrology.

You find yourself wandering into an astrology wheel, meandering around from sign to sign, discovering stories there, stories written in ancient stones like petroglyphs, mysterious and compelling.

You find suns and moons and people and spirals, all etched into the stones. You close your eyes and sense an energy of those eons ago, with sacred fires burning, white-robed priests and priestesses chanting, tall ethereal spirit beings appearing from behind trees. A woman in a thatched hut deep in the forest diagnosing and healing wounds of flesh and emotion. A king who has lost his way while longing to seek counsel from the wise ones.

Etched in stones, you'll find spiral designs from ancient cultures all over the world.

We might decide these spirals are the astrology wheels filled with a layered plot indicating your destiny, a labyrinthine pathway to a spiritual discovery or even a pot of gold promised.

All the while you let  both knowledge and intuition guide you. The art of allowing insight to lead you on a journey into your zodiacal wheel. The art of allowing the astrological details—details passed down over centuries—to color your pathway. The art of plying the building blocks that form the foundation upon which you expand and illuminate your own life through story and archetype.

It's a never-ending maze of discovery and vision.

You're walking along, and there at your feet is a little critter, alive in the wood, with moss coat, emerging from its cave. Does it have two heads and one central horn, or is a moving picture, head to the right leaving its shadow on the left? They can do and be whatever they wish, invisible to most eyes to see, living there, in this case, right on the trail, in a gnarly twisting curling piece of wood. 

Since I just arrived from Ireland where a farmer used to tell me about all the leprachauns he sees in the early morning hours, or late at night, dancing on the hill, the little ones with green jackets and red hats, I imagined a faery living in this tree here in Maine, in Acadia National Park. Why not? My friend Danny, who has a rath (hill fort) and a dolmen (tomb) right on his property in County Wexford, says that some leprachauns have picked up and landed in all manner of places outside of Ireland.

Row row row your boat....whoops....well.....if your oar is stuck in a pond just carry on as no matter what you do or say, the truth is .....merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.

In Ireland I met many stone beings and now in Maine I'm meeting log beings. In the deep silence of the sea, behind the sound of waves, beyond the rush of the stream in the deep forest--all--lies the land of Nod. And I say the land of Nod is the land of inner Knowing.

I never tire of these morning skies in Inishowen. Every day different. Every day a vision of all the manifestations of light from the heavens above.

Whenever I would watch films about Ireland, I was captivated by the classical Irish cottage. Ooooo, I'd love to live in one of those. And now here I am.

Soul reflections.