I was not aware of Bhagavan’s plans for me. I had given the money away at the temple without expecting any return. I was slowly sliding into a breakdown as I had no job and being a quiet housewife was just not me. I had written three novels by now and they were not getting published either. The family was running only on my husband’s income and it was not easy.
One day, Amma came in front of me and said, “Sundari, you do 11 shashtang namaskarams every day, in front of the Srimurti. See how your life changes after that.”
In those days, although I prayed to Amma, I could not connect with her as much as I could to Bhagavan. It took me a long time to realize that they both are one and the same. Whenever there was a need for transformation in my outer world, Amma used to talk to me. Otherwise, most of the time, the need was in the inner world and that’s why the connection with Bhagavan.
About the namaskarams
I started doing them right from the day Amma told me to. This was on a Thursday.
In those days, my daughter had done an intern’s job for Mumbai Mirror during her summer holidays. The BMM course that she was doing demanded that the students work during the summer and show a certificate for the same. She had gone to the TOI building to collect her salary and certificate and I had just accompanied her. This was Friday, the second day of my namaskarams.
Not realizing the divine plan, I just happened to give a crumpled copy of my biodata at the Times of India office in CST. I had been on the lookout for a job since five years and used to carry a biodata with me at all times. The dispatch clerk told me to leave it with him. I did not even have an envelope or a covering letter. I just decided to leave it there on an impulse.
The namaskarams continued. On Monday (Day 5), I got a call from the HR of TOI to go there for an interview. I just could not believe it. I asked that lady over and over to confirm things and also asked her for her name. Her name was Sagorika and I was not familiar with such a name and requested her to spell it for me.
I went for the interview on Tuesday and got a job with Mumbai Mirror on that very same day and joined worked on the Thursday.
Can you believe the power of namaskarams? Amma gave me a lot of gyaan about it much later.
I asked her, “Why is it that men do shashtang namaskarams while women just do namaskarams? You have given me this advice and I have followed it. It’s brought transformation into my life. But all women don’t do shashtang namaskarams. The Hindu religion does not encourage it.”
I could not but recall Bhagavan’s teaching, “You have to unlearn everything that you have learned”.
Amma said, “Shashtang Namaskarams are a means of surrendering yourself to the divine will. In yonder days, both men and women used to do it. But when men thought that women might become superior to them in everything, they felt threatened and changed the way women prayed. That’s why this came about. Usually, surrender needs to happen in the inner world. But what happens is that you cannot take any action in the inner world. You can only be aware that you don’t have surrender. When you seek surrender from deep within, doing namaskarams in the outer world gives it a push to get you closer to the surrender state. And then, the whole universe is yours.”
Amma had transformed my world that simply!
WOW! I AM JUST SPEECHLESS WITH GRATITUDE.
Soooo Shweet. Love u AMMA
ReplyDeleteNamaste ji
Deletewill you please explain me what is shastang namaskaram
thank you
rajgautham3@gmail.com
Great!
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