Usually we write our blogs with you in mind, dear friend, but this time I’m going to do something different. After nearly three months in India, we’ll be returning to America in a few days. Although it will be a welcome change to stop traveling and have some familiar things around, my heart is filled with profound appreciation for all that we’ve received here. So, if you’d like, you’re welcome to read my love letter to India.
Thank you, dear India, for the depth and beauty of your people. The light of God that shines in their eyes, their gentleness, and their subtlety have endeared them to me forever. The slightest nod of a head can communicate volumes and renders words superfluous.
Thank you, dear India, for your profusion of brilliant colors—the reds, blues, magentas, pinks, and neon greens in birds, in flowers, and in the colorful saris that even the poorest of laborers wears. You offer a vision of life in technicolor, while the rest of the world remains in stark black and white.
Thank you, dear India, for your cities, where the overwhelming abundance of life—of housewives, children, students, businessmen, merchants, cows, dogs, pigeons, pigs, and monkeys—boggles the mind until one tries to see the One Divine Life behind it all.
Thank you, dear India, for your insane traffic congestion that absorbs buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and motorized and bicycle rickshaws into a great organic being that pulses and lumbers forward, and somehow delivers everyone to where they want to go.
Thank you, dear India, for breaking my heart at the sight of homeless, ragged adults and children begging from indifferent BMW drivers; or at watching a little girl with no prospects of a better life happily performing backflips to receive a few rupees from the luxury cars that stop at the traffic light.
Thank you, dear India, for being a study of contrasts: of the mounds of filth and garbage along the street not far from high-rise offices and apartment buildings that rival the most innovative architecture in the West.
Thank you, dear India, for the intensity of your feelings, whether it be the pride and discipline of the military, the sensuality of Bollywood dancers, the vehemence of politicians, the love for children in families, or the devotion of saints seeking God.
Thank you, dear India, for the Himalayas, which never have entirely become a part of this material world. They stand as aloof, remote, and silent sentinels of a higher sphere of existence, and call to our souls to soar to their heights.
Thank you, dear India, for the friends you’ve given us from every part of your land. They’ve helped and cared for us in unimaginable ways—always available; always showing us how to solve the problems before us; always offering a meal or a cup of chai; always making us feel not like foreigners, but as cherished parts of their own family.
Thank you, dear India, for sending my Guru to America with his oceans of love, joy, and wisdom; and for allowing us to bring a tiny cupful of his gifts back to your shores.
Dear India, when my life is done, I hope that you’ll receive some of my ashes to mingle with the indescribable sacredness you’ve given to the world.
Your child always,
Nayaswami Devi
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36 Comments
Deviji,
This is one of your best blogs…very touching, truthful and loving….
Your last sentence, “Dear India, when my life is done, I hope that you’ll receive some of my ashes to mingle with the indescribable sacredness you’ve given to the world” sums up your love and adoration you have for India.
My humble respects to you both for the noble, spiritual service you have been doing for so many years especially for India.
God bless you both with health, peace and love so that you can serve for many more years!…
Keen Observations and superb expressions about the melting pot called India. I thank you Devi ji and Jyotish ji and through you Kriyananda ji for bringing back the Teachings to India in general and for establishing Chennai centre in particular
Beautiful expressed! My feelings exactly for a land, culture, history and people so vast and difficult to comprehend and describe. Thank you, Devi.
Jai Guru!
Dear traveller of eternity, your views and opinion about my motherland are so honest which shows purity of your heart. I would have loved if I have got to meet you. But always believe in mathematics of Karma.Hopeful for time to come. Pranam and love from India.
Deeply touched. The letter is full of gratitude. You are part of us Devi ji. The love you both have showered will ever remain in our heart????
What a tribute to India.Very touching and sincere.Thank you Devi ji !
Dear Deviji and Jyotishji,
Pranam.
Very beautifully expressed.Thank you.
So unlucky I am that couldn’t meet you personally when you are in India.
Perhaps it was not perfect time to meet.
As God and Gurudev’s wish.
JaiGurudev
Mohini
So beautifully expressed.Thank you.
So unlucky I am that couldn’t meet you personally during your visit India.
Perhaps wasn’t proper time.As God and Gurudev’s wish.
Jai Gurudev.
Mohini
May God and Master bless you. This article really touched my heart. Thank you for understanding India
Love you dear Jyotish ji and Devi ji. Beautiful heartfelt blog that brought tears ….
The one about traffic brought tears of laughter, and about poverty tears of sadness, but invoked thoughts for the betterment, about Himalayas, tears of Joy and aspiration to higher Conscious levels…the last few lines about our Guru, Divine friendship and Sacredness are indescribable and brought tears of love .. We miss you , but see you very soon …:)
Thank you dear Devi ji and Jyotish ji for giving us a Wonderful time in India.
Dear Nayaswami Devi Ji,
Thank you for this beautiful blog :) We sincerely Thank Swamiji and the Acharayas for bringing back Master’s teachings to his home land
Blessed we are to be part of his Spiritual family
Thank you again for your time and energy. What a beautiful season we had :)
Joy,
Prem
Dearest Devi,
Beautiful tribute that brought us all to India with you … Her richness and magnificense came alive. I could see Her, smell Her, feel Her spirit through your words, your wisdom, your heart.
May God and Gurus bless you and jyotish in kind for the great service you are doing to help us all remember ‘we are One’.
AUM and Prem, Shanti
A thoughtful writing.
Dear Deviji and Jyotishji,
It is just not possible to express in words as to how each and every word in the above message touches my heart…everyone who reads or listens to your message will be experiencing the same feeling.
May Almighty shine through both of you unceasingly …May we all have opportunities to be in that light again and again…
Humble Pranams
This leaves me without words but a longing to return to my spiritual roots and the timeless friends I have there. Friends that may not know me but I know them because they are part of Masters ray.
:-)
A loving poignant tribute to this great country blessed so abundantly by God. I could relate to so much you experienced having been there many times myself which has left me with unforgettable wonderful memories.
What a beautiful love letter to India. I hope to go there someday… Thank you for sharing, Devi.
And thank you, Devi, for sharing this treasure with me.
Thank you Dear Devi. Though we are happy to have you back home, I’m sure many of us would like to steal away with you to the Mother India you shared with us!
I read this through dissolving tears that flow, seeing true understanding of our unity within incomprehensible nuances/contrasts of the truest Love that created India .
It is the India that I reentered for the first time in this life that dissolved my mistaken idea of where I came from.
God’s Love in the Land of opposites that you invoke, dearest Devi, brings me Home. Thank you profoundly, dear friend.
Davi, your apt descriptions fill my eyes with tears. Thank you for this, and all you and Jyotish represent, Americans, returning to the place of no doubt, your former lives. You two truly represent the union of East and West.
Jay
Thank you Devi, for thanking India so eloquently and for so articulately putting into words the indescribable. From our many cherished trips to our sacred Mother India, we wholeheartedly concur with every single word you wrote.
Jai Guru, Jai Mother India.
Krishnadas & Mantradevi
Dearest Devi ji when I think of Divine Mother I think of you being a pure channel of her.
I thank you for being so much a part of us. You belong to us . You belong to all of us. We would be selfish to want you all for ourselves in India.
But just as Master travelled to the west you and Jyotish Ji travel to India to spwnd time with us.
We are deeply touched and blessed by your vibrations . We see Master and Swamiji through your eyes
Thank you, dear Devi for sharing your India. It brings hope to my heart and tears to my eyes.
Excellent.
Please consider publishing this article.
Thank you.
Your words are so touching, dearest Devi! I feel them profoundly in my heart like a beautiful prayer full of love.
Thank you so much!
Such a blessing to have these thoughts brought down from the ether for our benefit. Jai Guru! Jai Ma!
Amen, Ommmm, wonderfully evocative. Thank you!
Beautiful …
Thank you dear India for sharing your love and joy so fully and abundantly with our dear, Divine friends Jyotish and Devi. Thank you dear Guru for this Path of Light and Love. Thank you for all whom we meet that remind us to behave. And thank you so deeply for the unceasing Joy of Your Love that we see reflected and radiating from all loving souls. So much Joy, so much joy. Namaste
Thank you dear Devi ford sharing your beautiful poem. I was very touched and moved to tears by your heart’s song of love that made me see you the way I always have, and loved you since. I am so blessed to have you part of me, and feel to be also in your heart. I miss you and Jyotish but I know we live together in Master’s and Swamiji’s heart.
a hug from your bhajana
Thank you, Jyotish ji and Devi ji. Thank you for bringing these teachings to this country. You are the people that Swamiji mentioned when he echoed the prediction made by Swami Rama Tirtha a century ago in America, ‘someday, you Americans will take our Indian teachings, make them practical, and bring them back to my people.’ Although I try to see myself not as an Indian but as a disciple, you are not in the slightest ‘American’ or ‘Indian’, but true children of God, spreading His teachings with all of us. I have been very very lucky to have met you this year in Bangalore. Hopefully more such times will come. Joy to you.
AAAUUUMMM
Thank you dear Devi, for writing this beautiful letter.