An Aristocratic Lady

Dear Friends,I was recently at Bhakti Center in New York where we have our monthly Urban Devi group. We are working with Visakha Dasi's book, Five Years, Eleven Months, and a Lifetime of Unexpected Love. We discussed Chapter Seven, An Aristocratic Lady: Her metaphor for the awakening of faith in her heart.Visakha wrote:"The faith I had in the unbelief, skepticism and suspicion I'd inherited from my parents was becoming a noxious squatter who lived in my heart as if it owned me. Spiritual faith, I discovered, could not be trifled with. She was like an aristocratic guest in my home. If I was hospitable, if I made her feel welcome, if I respected her, she'd gladly stay and offer me a life so filled with varieties of loving relationships it was beyond my imaginings. But neglected or taken for granted or in the company of unpleasant people, she was gone- along with a sense of how small things depend on great things and how I cannot comprehend much in this world. When faith left, my sense of the mystical left with her.Yet, faith was more than a house guest- she was a permanent resident within me who'd long ago receded to an inner room. As she slowly emerged, doubt was edged out along with his tasteless and flagrant decor. Faith began decorating with tenderness and beauty, warmth and impeccable good taste. A child's candor and wonder began to return to me- the unspoiled vulnerability and verve of innocence."(Excerpt from Five Years, Eleven Months, and a Lifetime of Unexpected Love, Our Spiritual Journey Press, February 2017)Find more books written by women in the Bhakti tradition, by clicking here!All the best,Rukmini Walker