by Lea Kraemer“Without beginning or end, O Goddess,
Primordial energy, great mistress born of Yoga,
Sri Mahalakshmi, we bow to You.”
One of my favorite chants for many years is a beautiful hymn in eight stanzas called the “Mahalakshmi Ashtakam”. When I spend time doing this as a daily practice, the effect within me is to know that everything happens in attunement. The experience of prosperity for me is not about pulling stuff in, needing, wanting or demanding, it's about feeling thankful, sometimes even very surprised.
The "Mahalakshmi Ashtakam" is sung for prosperity and goodness in honor of the eight forms of the Goddess Lakshmi, an embodiment of beauty and giver of wealth, both earthly and spiritual. Mahalakshmi is the mother of all the worlds and you will see paintings and drawings of her seated as if floating on an open Lotus flower, symbolizing Ultimate Consciousness.
Please join me and Veronica DeSoyza to chant for Sri Mahalakshmi on the night of October 16th, the supermoon! This will be a sweet chance to hear or learn a longer Sanskrit chant and to receive its healing energy. We will have time for guided and silent meditation too, and a few closing mantras.
On this night the full moon will be in Aries and motherly compassion is the divine theme. I have been reading about how being with others in kindness and comfort will be very auspicious! It’s an opportunity to hear each other without judgment or the need to fix anything but to just accept and acknowledge each other. As this supermoon is all about spiritual abundance, and our truest inner power, the eight stanzas to Mahalakshmi are a perfect fit for our Kirtan, our group chant.
This supermoon also comes close to so many self-reflective holidays and a Hindu festival called Durga Puja in South Asia. Durga Puja celebrates the fierce Goddess Durga, or Kali, who destroys evil and always protects her devotees in the cosmic victory of Good over Evil! In India this festival is important and devotees offer vegetables like bananas, cucumbers or pumpkin.
Maybe we can too?
Event Information:
Supermoon - Mahalaksmi Kirtan
LED BY LEA KRAEMER AND VERONICA DESOYZA
Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 8:00 pm - 9:15 pm
Suggested $10 donation at door
