Elevate
everyday experiences to the level of sacredness.
I first
met Reg when he was in his late seventies in Pondicherry . He was running the ‘Good Guest
House’. Hidden behind high walls, it is a
lovely guest house surrounded by a green garden.
It is
astonishing to step in from the dusty, noisy street, behind high walls, through
a wooden door, into that perfect place.
The
floors gleamed sparklingly clean, paintings hung on the walls and all was silent
inside. Reg used to be a French chef. He met the Mother at the Pondicherry
Ashram and stayed behind to look after the Good Guest House for her! ‘Who keeps it so clean?’ I asked.
‘I do’, he said. ‘I love to keep it gleaming, because when I clean the floor, I
feel I am wiping the Mother’s feet.’
When
work is done with such love, it fills the body and mind with bliss and
transforms any place into a sacred space. As Kalil Gibran writes in The
Prophet, ‘What is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth from the
strings of your heart, as though your Beloved were to wear it.’
This
reverence or shraddha is due to all, because of the divine spark that dwells in
all men—whether he is a legend or a leper. Sometimes it is obvious. The
Divine spark is the silent flame of consciousness that reaches out to you from
a flowering creeper or a healthy pet. Sometimes this life force has
lost its vitality and is dimmed by dirt, lethargy and lack of care. Clean the
glass of your lamp. Make
the light shine through. Decide to approach all events, people, and things with
affection, shraddha.
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