Reflections on life

Sushmitam, thanks for sharing your hospital experience and your
profound experience with your father's spirit. It's not easy to
express these deep personal experiences, but they make the reality
of Sri Chinmoy's message that life and death are just two sides of a
'coin' very evident.

Having spoken to many of Guru's students about their own
experiences, I am constantly amazed (although I shoudn't be) that
Guru is helping on so many different planes of consciousness. The
fact that he guides and helps our families inwardly in life and
death whether or not they fully believe in him, is a true testament
to Guru's oneness with humanity and to his infinite compassion. I'm
sure lots of us have stories similar to yours and mine, and it would
be nice to hear them. I remember how we talked at celebrations about
how we'd like to post themes and get people to comment on them from
their own experience. While talking about the passsing of our loved
ones is not easy, it can be therapeutic, spiritually and emotionally
(you're the therapist).

Thanks again for sharing. See you in August. Devaki

-- In
Sri_Chinmoy_Inspiration@yahoogroups.com, sushmitam_r
wrote:
> Dear Devaki, I fear your posting is going to result in me being
> late for work! I identify so much with what you have written! I
> too have had such a busy time with work and centre that it's been
> hard to find time to post - in spite of my promise to the
> contrary!
>
> One of the things I have been wanting to post about is stories
> about my father and the last year of his life, including his
> death. Your story has inspired me to start my story series - but
> not today as I must be out of the house soon. Just a couple of
> snippets today... I too had the beautiful experience of singing to
> my father in hospital and feeling the beauty of Guru's light in
> the room. My father was in hospital for about 10 days, in and out
> of consciousness, and my mother and I spend most of each day
> there. In my case I spent most of the time singing, which was a
> beautiful experience (and totally amazed the hospital staff!).
>
> For about 6 weeks after Dad left his body, I experienced what I
> can only describe as "joy bursts". Mostly these occurred after
> meditation when I was sitting quietly just reading. Suddenly I
> would feel an arrow shoot into my heart - just like in the myths
> about cupid, but the arrow was filled with joy, not love. What's
> more, it had my father's signature on it... I can't describe it
> any other way! The arrow would 'pierce' me and then explode or
> perhaps burst... like a bubble filled with joy. The wordless
> message was clear - my father's soul was giving me a glimpse of
> the joy of the other world. There was a kind of thrill attached
> too, as if he were saying, "It's amazing! You're right! The soul's
> world is filled with joy!!"
>
> Enough!! I must go to work! I leave you with one of my favourite
> poems by Sri Chinmoy -:
>
> In vain
> Death, the finite
> Tries to hide
> Life, the Infinite
>
> Gratitude for your beautiful posting and the inspiration it's
> given me!
>
> Sushmitam
>
>
> --- In Sri_Chinmoy_Inspiration@yahoogroups.com, sunamitalim
> wrote:
> > Dear Devaki,
> >
> > What a profound Life and Death experience you've been gifted
> > with! [and another download for my Inspiration Group notebook.]
> >
> > Doubtless, every one of Sri Chinmoy's students has been blessed
> > in myriad, unfathomable ways, which includes blessings on our
> > loved ones as well. Sri Chinmoy embodies cosmic consciousness,
> > largess and love for humanity.
> >
> >
> > Soulful gratitude for your selfless sharing,
> > Sunamita
> >
> > --- In Sri_Chinmoy_Inspiration@yahoogroups.com, devakigroulx
> > wrote:
> > > Sri Chinmoy is amazing, as we all know. My life has changed
> > > quite a lot in the last few months and in spite of the
> > > unfortunate happenings, I have, through the Grace of God, seen
> > > and learned so much.
> > >
> > > I was thinking about the phrase "the Lord giveth and the Lord
> > > taketh away" (or something like that). I was really enjoying
> > > reading all the postings a few months ago, and then I got so
> > > busy at work I didn't have time to breathe (let alone post)! I
> > > was given a new level of English to teach - complicated
> > > grammar and writing techniques, etc. (at the University where
> > > I teach).
> > >
> > > It was all I could do to keep up with the new material and all
> > > the correcting as well as the Centre business, when I got word
> > > my father was very ill. Priority alert! He lived in a
> > > different city and it meant dropping everything and driving
> > > all night to get there. My husband works in flowers and it was
> > > their busiest time (Mother's Day), but somehow the colleagues
> > > in both our jobs were kind enough to work for us.
> > >
> > > My father had been a little sick, but it seemed they had found
> > > the solution and when I had talked to him a week previously,
> > > he was very upbeat. He was still practicing law at 77 years
> > > old. Now suddenly he had had a stroke and we were told to get
> > > there ASAP.
> > >
> > > We arrived at the hospital in the middle of the night and he
> > > was in a coma. Family and friends streamed through the ICU and
> > > the outpouring of love and friendship was so moving. When it
> > > was apparent he was not going to come out of the coma, it
> > > became evident that the close family would spend his last hour
> > > with him as the machines were disconnected.
> > >
> > > His wife (my step-mother), her daughter, one of my brothers, a
> > > close friend who is a Buddhist, and my husband all encircled
> > > the bed and silently prayed. Vidura (my husband) and I
> > > meditated and silently sang the Invocation. Instinctively, my
> > > step-mother, who had until then proclaimed that she didn't
> > > believe in God or Heaven, said: "I want to believe he is going
> > > to a better place." I told her, "Believe it, I feel he is here
> > > in spirit now and he wants and needs you to believe it." She
> > > put her hand on his heart and told him it was OK to leave, go
> > > and be peaceful.
> > >
> > > The Buddhist (Jewish) friend said, "I would love to sing for
> > > him, if I could." I said, "We can sing." So Vidura and I sang
> > > Guru's songs to him and the whole hospital room was enveloped
> > > in light. We sang a few more songs and Carole (my step-mother)
> > > said, "I was never a spiritual person before, but I am now!"
> > > Miracle! Slowly the heart stopped beating and we knew he was
> > > in God's Arms. Later, Carole repeated to everyone how
> > > beautiful the singing was and how she felt my father beside
> > > her constantly. When people say being at the bedside of a
> > > dying person is a 'gift,' it is true; but I had never
> > > experienced it before.
> > >
> > > Two weeks later I was at Aspiration Ground in NY, and suddenly
> > > I was 'feeling' my father's spirit very strongly. The whole
> > > place flooded with light and I 'heard' my father, who had been
> > > a proclaimed atheist, non-believer, very afraid of death kind
> > > of person, say: "It's ONLY the OTHER SIDE!" Then I heard Sri
> > > Chinmoy call my name, and he blessed me for a very long time,
> > > taking away all the sadness and inwardly taking care of my
> > > step-mother and my family. God might have taken away my father
> > > from this earthly plane, but look what He gave to his wife: a
> > > new-found belief in the Afterlife, etc.
> > >
> > > The most miraculous thing was that Sri Chinmoy had only a few
> > > months earlier given my father a 'Lifting up the World with a
> > > Oneness- Heart' award, and had called him 'the guest of
> > > honour' at the function! When it came time for the funeral
> > > service, I inwardly felt that I had to tell all my father's
> > > hundreds of friends and family that Sri Chinmoy, who had
> > > honoured Princes and Kings and Heads of State with a similar
> > > award, had presented the medal to my father because of what he
> > > had in life, which was truly a Oneness-Heart - as evidenced by
> > > the outpouring of love and affection from all present.
> > >
> > > Our dear Guru is constantly taking care of all of us, his
> > > spiritual children, and our families as well. I was very
> > > grateful to be with Guru on Father's Day and knew that he was,
> > > is and will always be our True and Eternal Father.
> > >
> > > With gratitude and Oneness,
> > > your sister, Devaki

Thanks Anami for your thoughts and for the quote from Sri Chinmoy's
book "Death and Reincarnation." It's amazing that all of us there
did focus on my father's heart, and I prayed almost word for word as
Guru suggested - for God's Victory. It just shows how we can be
unconscious instruments when we try to live in the soul's realm and
not in the mind's. The most ironic thing was that a few days before
that I had been talking to someone from another Canadian Centre who
related his father's deathbed experience. He said that he had knelt
at his father's bedside and sang the Invocation. I told him I'd
never be a be to do that, knowing that my father and that side of
the family were not that accepting of spirituality. I also had no
idea that two days from then I'd be at my own father's deathbed!

When I was able to sing the Invocation (albeit silently), I thought
of how amazing it was that I had the opportunity. Another wonderful
thing that happened was that my father's brother - who had not been
on speaking terms with him (stupid human pride) - came to the
hospital in shock at the loss of his older brother. My brother and I
brought him into the room and told him to say everything he had NOT
said while my father was concious. Even though he was in a coma, we
knew he would hear and it would help him to pass on more peacefully.
My uncle sat beside my father, took his hands and told him how much
he loved him and that he was so sorry that they had not reconciled
and that he begged his forgiveness. We all cried and I knew once
again how our beloved Guru was working through our whole family. I
am so grateful.

Devaki