Sunday Service: The Eternal Word & Fire Ceremony

Yesterday - on Sunday, Jan 1, 2012 - I went to Ananda LA and had a great experience.  They did a fire ceremony.  I remember hearing about the fire ceremony from my Buddhist days.  Although I never attended one, I did listen and tried to recreate it in my own home, when I lived alone in Fontana.

But yesterday, I actually attended a fire ceremony.  A fire ceremony is a symbolic ritual - where rice or seeds are cast into a fire.  This rice (or seeds) is symbolic of bad karma, being burned up in the Fire of the Eternal God.  This was guided - Ram, who led the ceremony would toss the rice in the fire, while we the congregation changed a mantra and stretched our arms out towards the fire - mentally releasing our personal karma into the fire.

Then, afterwards, Ram and Dharmaraj sat before the audience and one by one we approached one of them.  I had a slip of paper, on the back of which I wrote a personal message of my goals which would be burned.

I approached Ram and he did a ceremonial prayer and touched my heart.  I felt the energy from his hand, as it vibrated against my chest.  When he was done he said something like "By the Grace of God and Guru - you are Free."  It's not an exact quote... just what I remember him saying - I could be wrong.

At that point I went up to the platform and burned my piece of paper and threw it in the bowl - symbolizing my release from my problems.

The service itself was about the Eternal Word: AUM.  A quote from "Rays of the One Light" was read - which was a parallel translation of the Bible and Bhagavad Gita.  The Biblical quote was from John, about "In the Beginning the Word was with God and the Word was God..."

The Eternal Word, isn't the Bible, or any Holy written work.  For the Word was in the beginning - and the Word predated all writing.  The Word is the comforter, the Holy Spirit... the creative force AUM.  It lives in every cell, every atom.  By realizing that, and taking communion with that Word, we find Heaven.  It is the very presence of God.

Do you want me to worship my mistakes?

http://www.anandala.org/mp3/2011-11-13sunday_shivani.mp3

The title for this post comes from a quote that I heard in the link above.  The link at the top of this blog post is from Ananda LA. The speaker was quoting someone who after leaving her spiritual path, returned and some other devotee's where upset about this person returning again.  Similar to the Prodigal Son story of the New Testament.

The woman said to those upset by her return to the spiritual path: "Do you want me to worship my mistakes?"

I really liked this comment. It brought some ideas to my mind:

First, it's never too late to return to the spiritual path. As long as you can think thought, you can return.  Don't loose heart. Don't feel you've 'done too much wrong.'  Don't also obsess about "but which path is right?"  Just seek God and it will work out.

Second, those of us on the spiritual path, shouldn't look down on others who have made mistakes.  Some reasons to avoid this are:
a)  Even the mere thought of frustration with someone who left and wants to return - we are mentally creating a division.  We are saying "They are not me... I'm doing what's right.  They failed."  That division is Ego.  Ego is the identification with the Body.  The more we loose the body and think in terms of consciousness, we see ourselves as ONE with each other.
b) Also - by pushing others out, thinking "who are they to think they can come back" we are forcing them to worship their mistakes.