My Birthday!!!

January 5, 2010

Aum Amriteshwaryai Namah...

OMG....I am so....excited today is my Birthday - my 33rd Birthday! It's Tuesday and it's my favourite day at the Ashram. It's meditation day and Q&A day and we get prasad lunch.

I set my asana down in the Kali Temple (as usual) before breakfast so that I could have a good spot. Had breakfast and went into the Temple to meditate. I was contemplating going for Darshan today even though it's not a regular Darshan day. Since it's my birthday I am allowed to go, but Mother was not feeling well. There were a lot of questions on the clipboard for Her to answer, but She came down and read through them all while the Bhakti Achan (devotion brother) spoke (as he usually does at Amma's request. In his talk, he relayed something that Amma said in Zurich in a Conference of Spiritual Dignitaries. These words really touched my heart. "We need to live for others, not ourselves."

I saw that Amma did not answer a single question. She was coughing and obviously not feeling that good. After watching this and seeing that She only sang one bhajan with some man in front of Her (whom it appeared She was mentoring in singing this bhajan) and then She served lunch, I decided that I would wait until tomorrow to go for Darshan as it would still be my birthday in Canada and I don't want to be selfish - I want to live my life for others, not myself.

After lunch, I went over the waters into Vallikavu to the bank machine to get money so that I could pay for my medium sized doll that I ordered (special) so that I can take Her on tour with me. When I got back to the Ashram, I quickly went up to the Doll Shop to get the doll, which is totally beautiful and went to the dining hall for my birthday party at 4:00pm.

There was a really great turn out of people. I was a little late for my own party (fashionably late) and there were a whole lot of people that were already there waiting for me. Brahmananda brought out the cookies (cashew cardamom butter cookies) and the fudge brownies with a candle on it! I was sung to in two languages - English and French (thanks to Luciole). It was also Prana's birthday so we called her over to celebrate with me. It was so much fun! I was blessed to feed Ram (the elephant) when I took some treats over to Gireesh Swami. Instead of Gireesh Swami eating the treats, Ram ate them.

After the party, I had so many brownies and cookies left over that I started walking around and met this really beautiful man named Rober Gerber from New York. I offered him a cookie and brownie and we landed up making a very sweet connection.

After taking the treats back to the room, I went and put down our asanas in the Kalari so that we would have a good place to sit for the Special Kali Puja.

Then I went to the beach to watch the last bit of the sunset. The Kali Puja was really amazing. Robert joined Jim and I for that and we were all blown away. The energy and vibration was so high!!!

We were concerned that we wouldn't have anything to eat since the food lines would be closed by the time we were out of the Kalari and we were all really hungry. The Western Cafe was still open and we just got in under the wire.

After eating, Robert and I were just sitting in the dining hall chatting while Jim was washing his dishes when Amma came down and went up on stage (behind closed doors) to record the 2010 bhajans as we are about to go on South India Tour. This too, was a blessing to have a glimpse of Her just before bed.

Tomorrow is regular Darshan day and I am anticipating my Birthday Darshan...sweet dreams of flower shower and apples.