Your sacred space
Mayapur, West Bengal.
I don’t beleive it happens too often here in Mayapur but for the morning class a woman spoke. Urmila is a senior member of our society and a student of its founder, Srila Prabhupada. She spoke eloquently from the elevated seat we call the Vyasasana.
I came in a little late due to some preparation for the evening’s drama that I’m directing. When I entered the temple room I witnessed something which reminded me of the early 70’s in our temples of North America. Aside from Urmila’s polished message the placement of listeners numbering in the hundreds was very pleasing. I saw men including two or three sannyasis (monks) occupy half of this room while women occupied the other half, all seated on the floor in the lotus position. In other words the room was divided in half for the two genders instead of the usual men in front and women in the back. I liked it.
I percieved such an arrangement as fair, natural and conducive to today’s audience. I believe it sets a good standard for a modern world and also for an International head quarters of a spiritual organization.
So here was the scenario a qualified speaker delivered a message about building good relationships to a large body of people who had come from around the world. It was an inspiring event. It reminded me of the sacredness of sages coming together to hear about that which is important.
To quote Joseph Campbell, scholar of mythology “Your sacred space is the place where you meet yourself again and again.”
5 Km
No comments:
Post a Comment