SRV Oregon: Older Girls’ Weekend Retreat, April 2009
Our second weekend retreat with the older kids was a most precious event and a rare opportunity to participate in a full day’s ashram activities. They all arrived on Saturday night in time to help prepare for and attend SRV Oregon’s weekly worship. Following dinner, and before bedtime, the girls returned to the shrine for a short meditation and blessing. Annapurna then held out a jar with “Vedantic fortune cookies” [minus the cookie] consisting of ideas to ponder. Each girl pulled out two and were told to think about them as they went to sleep. We would discuss them the next day. Here are a few of those ideas:
On this Easter Saturday, and following a simple worship in the shrine room in honor of Lord Jesus, our young children in Oregon got a new teaching to add to the Easter Egg theme. Like above, the focus was on the Divine Mother who is the Mother of the Universe, by whose power everything is projected, sustained, and dissolved, just like waves in the ocean. She alone, like the water of the ocean, is the real part of each of us, just as the water is the essential part of a wave. The scriptures refer to this Source and Substance of the universe as the Golden Egg, Hiranyagarbha. It has its corollary in Om, the primal vibration. Additionally, the children were told the analogy Sri Ramakrishna used describing the old woman who saved various things, like seeds, and “sea foam” and other items in a hotch potch jar for later usage. Like that, the Divine Mother saves things for the next creation (projection). What might those be? Well, there are lots of possibilities and you can see Babaji’s commentary in his book, Sri Ramakrishna’s Stories, page 39.
We met around the big, old, wooden dining table at SRV San Francisco. On it were spread pieces of blank newsprint on which our four little students drew pictures of what makes them feel peaceful. There were pictures of trees, ponds, the sun shining, Easter bunnies and more. Each child had the opportunity to explain their drawing. Afterwards, we met in the shrine room with flowers for a simple worship and meditation.