Transformative Energy of Words

Tags

empowerment, energy, language, transformation, words

What feelings and emotions come to your heart and mind when you read or hear the single word, Mother? The reactions among different people may range from positive to negative, to perhaps neutral. The reaction to that single word depends on the life experiences that we may have had in relationship to the person(s) which that word represents. 

Now, let me modify the word to “Mother Mary”. What feelings and emotions come to your heart and mind now? Are they different from the single word, “Mother”? The shift in the power and energy that the two words “Mother Mary” evoke probably depends on whether you have a Christian background and/or have friends of that denomination. If I were to ask the same question of a tribal who lives in the Amazon rainforest, what would their response, if any, be? And what about words like Durga and Kali, which evoke the divine feminine who is currently being celebrated in ‘a nine days and nights festival‘ in India?

The spiritual power of certain words, phrases, combination of words as prayers, mantras, and such, is well established. There is a scientific basis for the power and ability of words to convey certain energy. The basis of word power and energy is the mechanism of vibration. At the particle level, we are all atomic, vibratory beings. So, it would be natural that the vibrational energy of words would affect us in certain ways. In addition, certain words and prayers, repeated millions of times by cultures over time, attain special significance and energy. One such word which has spread universally from Indian (or Vedic) culture is AUM (or OM). Are there words or prayers that have achieved ‘special energy’ status in your language or culture?

Words, particularly when spoken in the language of the listener, confer thought, ideas, meaning and transformative power – Swami Sarvadevananda

The ability of certain words to affect us negatively, when spoken in a language which we can understand, is also powerful. The power of their words to send us almost instantly into a state of anger, dismay, rage, even hatred, has been felt by many of us. This is where our spiritual practices can help us. If we learn to keep track of our ‘trigger’ words and the situations in which we are particularly vulnerable to those triggers, we can take action. We can align and harmonize our practices to set up ‘early warning systems’ for such words, people and situations. ‘Trigger-word’ awareness is a bit like being the ‘squawker goose’ in the flock of geese sitting in the middle of the river who alerts the flock that a human has been sighted on the shore!

So, words have power, energy and the capability to set off positive, negative or neutral vibrations within us. By choosing words which empower and energize us, we are likely to empower and energize those in our energy field. By repeatedly choosing words and word combinations which enhance our own spiritual well-being, we can transmit universal positive and healing energy. Let us be empowered to speak healing words, or simply keep our silence. Such awareness and practice would be a sign of spiritual growth, yes?

Kumud

P.S. Today’s blog post was inspired by a talk titled ‘The Science of Mantra” given by Swami Sarvadevananda of the Vedanta Society of Hollywood in Cleveland on September 22 2019. It inspired a lot of questions about ‘word power and energy’, and I look forward to sharing some of those questions with you in our weekly twitter chat. Join us, Sunday Oct 6 at 9amET in #SpiritChat – bring your ‘power words’ and ‘trigger words’ to share. Namaste – @AjmaniK

what words does this photo evoke? what energy do they transmit to you?

Raising the Divine Feminine

Tags

abundance, celebration, empowerment, feminine, spirituality

An Indian legend goes that when the Earth was overrun and overcome with the oppression of the Audra’s – those with evil tendencies – even the all powerful (male) trinity of creation, preservation and regeneration felt powerless. The three then decided to contribute their best strengths, and appeal to the universal force above them, to evolve a superlative, energetic being that would help restore order and righteousness to the world.

The result was the creation of Shakti – the energy of the divine feminine, which restores order, harmony and dynamic balance to the world. The arrival of this new energy, a new trinity, is celebrated over a nine day festival that is currently underway in India. I view the festival as an opportunity to reflect on all the trinity of feminine influences in my life.

Who are the ones whose creative power of navigating the next big obstacle still flows within me? Who were the ones who taught me about the power of the creative arts of singing, writing, dancing, cooking, and much more? Who are the ones that showed me, with their propensity towards giving and sharing, that prosperity grows and flows best through the channel of an open heart? I raise all of them, celebrate them.

It is perhaps time for all of us to consider contributing our best strengths, and raising the divine feminine within us. Endowed and graced with that new Shakti, what obstacle(s) couldn’t we overcome? What new wave of equitable prosperity could we send forth with our best new energies? How much new creativity could we evoke to find solutions to our current challenges?

Raising the divine feminine within, is thus, cause for celebration. I invite you to celebrate the Shakti within you – for the peace, joy and goodness that it can bring to all,

Kumud @AjmaniK

Join us, Sunday October 14 at 9amET on Twitter. We shall celebrate the best of the divine (feminine) energy of the community that is #SpiritChat. Namaste – Kumud

The energy of #autumn is a wonderful time to reflect on the divine feminine… avail a walk…

Power of Remembrance

Tags

empowerment, memory, remembrance

One of the lasting memories that I have of my Dad is when he returned home from an out-of-town assignment, exhausted and totally worn out. I asked him – Dad, why did you go when you didn’t really have to? His reply was – “I signed up to do the job, so I wasn’t go to quit halfway and come back even though I wasn’t well”. That one conversation, which barely lasted a minute, has remained lodged in my mind, thirty years on.

There are certain remembrances, that have the power to keep influencing our heart for a very long time like a warm, gentle summer rain. Then, there are others, which we would much rather divert, or even dam, for the pain and the angst that they bring back like the flash flood created by a spring thunderstorm. What distinguishes our “warm rain” remembrances from the “flash flood” kind?

Is it that the mind filters and amplifies different memories differently? Is it that we teach ourselves to “play favorites” with certain remembrances as compared to others? Is it that time and distance from the actual event change our perception of it?

Regardless of our original experience, it often happens that our own inner growth, our spiritual journey can effect a change in our heart’s attitude towards some memories. This can particularly happen with our “flash floods”. In India’s gangetic plains, flooded fields can often be the recipients of rich deposits of minerals, once the waters recede.

Those very memories, which had the power to create pain and angst among us (farmers), with patience, become the fertile grounds for new growth in our hearts. We learn to create better filters, better perspectives through which we accumulate new memories. We begin to trust ourselves more, and build better reservoirs for their preservation. We empower ourselves to let some memories go – yes, even the “warm rain” ones – if we need to lighten our load as we go up higher on the mountain.

One way that we can lighten our “memory load”, is to discover the power of “constant remembrance”. How may we discover this power? We can ask ourselves. What is the “constant” in our lives- That which is beyond the influence of time, space, and the weather of our emotions? Once we answer That question, we can create a practice of “constant remembrance”.

Let us empower ourselves to ask. It is perhaps the best way to remember the “warm rain” of all those who sacrificed their all, so that we still have the power to ask.

Kumud

P.S. Join us Sunday, May 27th at 9amET / 630pm India for our weekly twitter chat. Share some of your favorite memories in #SpiritChat – particularly those ones that empower you towards “constant remembrance”. Namaste.

On Empowerment and Equinox

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empowerment, equinox, happiness, healing, joy, spirituality

May we not be so attached to “winter” so as to let slip the opportunity to experience the beauty of the transition to “spring”. May we experience the empowering invitation, to walk through the balancing portal called the Equinox.

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The pre-dawn symphony often begins with the call of a single lark – the one who feels the dawn coming for all of the others, and strikes the first chord of hope I the forest

And then, slowly, languidly, perhaps even reluctantly, one or two other dwellers rise and join in on support

But, in this really early hour where it is still more dark than light, and the stars are still out along with the almost full moon high in the sky, filtering her light through the tree branches laden with new buds, the symphony often dies after a minute or two, for the heaviness of sleep and the fog of winter weighs heavy….

The songbird bides her time… and waits… and stirs her lungs again after what seems a quarter of an hour… for I am waiting, lying in bed, mostly awake, for the sparks of sound to light up the forest again, and she duly obliges with a serenade which is, this time around, irresistible to the bird village…

A symphony worthy of welcoming the sunrise ensues and the distant church bells join in as if on cue to conjoin the opening of the human world with that of the natural world… and what had once seemed interminable has been yet again declared to be impermanent and transient…

Arise, Awake, declares the Equinox. It is time to transition.

To a season of your choosing. Whatever season calls to you.

To a healing of your choosing. Are not pain and suffering mere calls to healing?

To happiness and joy of your choosing. Will we hear their call in our stillness?

To walk, run, swim, travel… or any activity of our choosing. A call to action based in purpose.

To beliefs, values, and faith of your choosing. What is it that calls to you?

To a life of the living of your choosing. Will we hear the call to Life?

Will you walk through the portal? Will you choose empowerment offered by the Equinox? What will you choose? Will your new or renewed actions reflect your choices?

The time is now.
Choose with courage.
For it takes courage to choose love.
Life and light, hang in the balance.

Sound your call.
Your symphony awaits.
Fill the skies with your song prints…

The Equinox is here to listen. To Empower with love.

Kumud @AjmaniK

Join us Sunday, March 20th 2016 (Equinox – day of equal light), in our weekly conversation on twitter in #spiritchat – to celebrate a journey to empowerment. Hosted by @AjmaniK. Special greetings to all those observing Palm Sunday…

Empowerment and Communities

Tags

community, empowerment, spiritchat, spirituality

What is a community? What is its role in broader society? How does a community empower those who belong to it? Where does a communuity derive its own power from?

Some of these questions have been floating through my brainbox over the past few weeks as I have had the opportunity to travel and be among a community of close family, as I traverse the various social media streams and read the reactions of some close and distant friends to world events, and as I have continued my solo walks through the local forest preserve and watched its animal dwellers prepare for winter. I share some observations with you here, and hope you will share some of yours with the #SpiritChat community over the coming week.

The first role of a community is to create and provide space. A space where new members can arrive and feel a sense of safety. They feel safe in the knowledge that they will be treated with kindness, with welcoming smiles, with extended hands of friendship, with warmth and with a genuine sense of joy and gratitude expressed by all members of the community. This space can be physical or virtual. Community leaders often identify themselves by their willingness to offer unconditional heartspace.

The second role of a thriving community is that it grows leaders. How does this happen? Once the community space is established, it provides opportunities for growth for all its members. As the comfort level of the members grows in being with each other on a frequent basis, seeds of mini-friendships are planted, which form roots of friendship. Eventually, the healthy growth produces leaves and fruits which attract new community members. As the trust, respect and confidence level of the members grows, some of them feel courageous enough to ‘drop seeds’ of their own, and form new communities. This creates more heartspace, attracts different segments of people, and grows more leaders.

The third role of a community is that it protects those who are either too weak to stand on their own, by lending them a voice of strength that comes from harmony. The cool shade of a community may also protect those who need some time, space and healing words and remedies, to recover their strength caused by pain and suffering caused by ill-health, personal loss, or a sense of shared loss felt by the community as a whole. This protection is in the form of bridges built by the community leaders, for those in need to connect with those who have an abundance of what is needed by the needy. A community becomes an opportunity and a privilege for those who have the desire to serve and heal with gratitude, to be able to do so.

I am sure that those of you who have read so far can think of additional roles for communities, their members and their leaders. The three roles that I have listed above – to created and provide space, to provide opportunites for growth and grow leaders, to protect, serve and heal – are all, by design, designed to empower all who choose to embrace those three roles. However, we know all too well that not all communities operate in the realm of openness, love and expanded heartspace. The negative space created by excess of fear, misplaced jealousy, over-protectiveness and runaway greed can create communities – but these are anything but empowering for their members or their leaders. How can those of us who believe in creating empowering communities connect and communicate with those who choose to do otherwise? Can we? Should we even bother? Why?

I hope that you will pause and give some thought and consideration to the communities that you belong to, the values that they represent, and how they align with your values and your heartspace. I hope that you will join the #SpiritChat community in this conversation, and meet some new folks, form some mini-friendships, and who knows, even form your own thriving communities in the future.

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Part of this conversation will be held ‘live’ on twitter – Sunday, November 25th at 9amET/2pmUTC/7:30pm India. I hope you will be able to join us in that hour. What other key roles do your communities play in your life? How has your engagement with the #SpiritChat community affected your life? How can the community serve you better? I invite you to share with us… Thank you!