When in most parts of Russia it is still snowing (though it is already May 12) and the bloggers, one by one, are writing how tired they are from the 7-month winter, we are happy to enjoy flowers in the forest living in 900 km from the capital. Frankly, I have not expected there can be such a great variety of flowers in the forest just at the beginning of May!
There are periods in life when nothing goes as has been planned. Meetings cancel, results are not gained, replies are delayed… And at this time the bridge to frustration is quite short…
Today in the morning something in me did not want to give in and persistently continued looking for positive things in what life suggested. And I did what I had been longing for… Took my bike and went to the river… Wouldn’t be possible if not for the unexpected changes in my daily timetable.
The view is absolutely awesome. A deeply blue colour of the water has obviously soaked the indigo tinge of the sky. A loud intensity of the small curly waves of the Volga chains your attention. The sand is being combed by the piercing wind and it is really dazzling because of the too bright sun. And there is nobody. Not a soul… And you just sit down on the so-far-not-very-warm sand and feel completely peaceful – just yourself in the nature.
“The man made a huge mistake when he imagined that he could separate himself from nature and that he might not reckon with its laws“. (V. Vernadsky, Russian and Soviet scientist, thinker and public figure)
We are created according to the laws of nature, and therefore it is foolish not to follow them. Not knowing the basic rules and laws of nature, mankind will not be able to subdue the elements, to manage them and to become excellent in relation to other creatures on earth.
Another Russian publicist and writer said, “Great things are done with great [financial] means. Only nature makes everything for free“. (A.I.Gertsen)
All the ideas mentioned above are especially intelligible when winter comes to its end. There appears a strong desire to become closer to nature for it to clear and balance you.
Thus, it was not an odd deed of ours (mine and my daughter’s) when we tried to overcome the mud and puddles of early spring striving to turn out in the forest. A little bit soaked feet and dirty hands were really worth it! And in such weather when the sun is shining and everything is melting it is even more pleasant to be in the forest realizing that you can hear birds’ singing and not people’s voices as not many of the latter are ready to start for the forest along the muddiest road ever.
To get of a bad mood doctors and scientists recommend “switching off” your brain. A way to do it is to go travelling.
Researchers observed a group of people who walked about a forest for 1,5 hours. In each of them brain activity decreased in the areas of their brains responsible for psychological illness. Just imagine what can happen if someone spends several days surrounded by nature!
Their level of creative thinking increased by 50%.
So, it’s worth dropping everything once in a while heading somewhere quite beautiful.
Garden of Flowers
Do not go into the garden of flowers
O friend, go not there.
In your body is the garden of flowers.
Take your seat on the thousand petals of lotus
and there gaze upon the infinite beauty.
There is a strange tree,
which stands without roots,
bears fruits without blossoming.
It has no branches and no leaves.
It is Lotus all over.
Two birds sing there:
One is the Guru and the other the disciple.
The disciple chooses the manifold fruits of life
and tastes them
And the Guru beholds him in joy.
Kabir
photo by the author of the blog
On Saturday, we watched a movie “The Patriot” with Mel Gibson in the main part. Americans’ struggle for independence. Many families are ruined, houses are burnt. In the middle of the film, one of the characters asked what they were fighting for and another one answered that when they were free they would get an opportunity to build a new, beautiful, world.
This phrase just did not leave my mind… Americans got freedom. Two hundred years have passed since then. What is their world now? Loss of values, extreme consuming, money-thirstiness, spiritual coldness in families – what can be called beautiful there?
I do not say through hearsay. Having lived one year in the States (I met the millennium there), I also became infected with money making (though, on returning home, thank God, my zeal was cooled down).
Another example. India. The previous century. A struggle for freedom. India got physical independence by many victims. Not much time has passed since then (what are decades for history?) but what is happening in this country now where spirituality have been nurtured for centuries? Spiritual values are being exchanged for cheap aspects of western culture.
As being known everything that we create is the reflection of what we are inside. Only a pure (dharmic) person can create beauty around. As far as the beautiful world is concerned.
***
…Interviewer: The theory that scientists say that man came from a little cell from heaven know where; how did you feel about those?
Shri Mataji: It’s a fact, it’s a fact. He (man) came through a cell, evolved through a cell. How did he evolve? Why did he evolve? What is the purpose of his life? It is not all answered by science. What is the power that males you evolve? Also, that is not answered. So, in Sahaja Yoga you know all that. Not only you evolve but with the same power you go higher.
Interviewer: What is your theory about that then? Why are we here or, why are we so long in the process?
Shri Mataji: You see anything that you create, even human beings for example, you have created things. A beautiful lamp is to give us light, isn’t it, the power. So, that’s how God has created us, to give His power to us that we feel Him and know Him in our awareness and understand and we emit His powers and enjoy it; to say in the words of Christ ‘to enter into the kingdom of God’…
Interviewer: Is it what Self Realization means; that You mean as a Realized Soul?
Shri Mataji: Yes, Self Realization means when the Self, which is talked about in all the scriptures, starts emitting its manifestation in our conscious mind; means that time when we become aware of it. To this extent our central nervous system starts recording the power of our Spirit, of oneself and we start feeling the breeze-like vibrations of the Spirit which is called in the bible as the ‘Cool Breeze of the Holy Spirit’…
Interviewer: Two very interesting thoughts come to my head at this point. One, is it through being Realized that one gets to knowledge of what’s on the other side of death, as it were and two, whether one really through this Realization that one finds a little bit of God inside oneself? Continue reading “Beautiful World”
It is the same place (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, the Volga river) which the pictures are taken of.
Watch the time.
At the same time on the other side:
The whole picture was, approximately, like this:
It is like this in life: first it seems that the sun is shining and then that a cloud is approaching (the change of the mood and state takes place very quickly and often). But in nature it is planned so as only having gone through both of them you find what is in the middle – balance, joy and beauty (a rainbow in this particular case 🙂 ).
The pictures are taken by my friend, Ann Myilenkova
We were going from Saint Petersburg (Russia) to Moscow by train yesterday. It took us 7 hours and it was a surprise for me that I was absolutely fresh and full of energy when we finally arrived. The trick was that while in the train I was looking through the window and enjoying the fields with fresh green spring grass, fluffy clouds forming different figures, tall slender birches with small leaves and the sun shining so brightly into the window. I had a very strong feeling that my Spirit was absolutely free and at the same time it was a part of the loving and caring nature.
And I also remembered the words of my old uncle suddenly uttered by him one day before his death, “The Paradise is here, on the Earth!” Continue reading “To Be Free – the way not to get tired”
If the desire to create goes from your heart and not just mind, the process of creating may purify you and reveal all the best in you. Especially when you are working with natural materials. I am sure you have noticed that hand-made things have something about them because of which it is so pleasant to take them in hands, to have them at home. And it is not only a piece of soul and love of the person who has created them but also the love of the All-pervading power, the vibrations of Paramchaitanya. As when our heart is open, we allow the Creator to use us as his “paintbrush”. It is He who is the real Creator working through us.
And we really felt what I have just described when we crossed the threshold of an ordinary (from outside) building of Saint-Petersburg Children’s Art House. As soon as we had entered it we found ourselves in a real Palace. There was such love and joy, purity and beauty around! It is a world of morality and history, a place to rest from the daily routine of the working days in a big modern city.
Kids are taught so many things here (for free!): making laces, weaving, embroidery, making things of birchen bark, painting, history of the city, ceramics, origami, making soft toys, painting on wood, video shooting, karate and other sports, design, singing, dancing, etc…
And the motto of the Children’s Art House says: If there is no Sun in the sky, find it within yourself!
In fact, we came to the studio of ceramics where our friend, Sasha, teaches. Continue reading “Through Art to Purity and Love”
Know Thyself 