Photo by Ashley Marie - CC License

On this playground of life, we get to choose how we spend our time: we can choose to run around doing things that lower our vibrations, OR we can choose to commit to regular, daily spiritual practices that raise our vibrations. Each small change that we make within ourselves then ripples out and benefits all of Creation. This year I intend to help raise the vibration of the human species, through my work as a cheerleader for spiritual practices.

Here is some recent news from the playground of my life ~

~ The simple daily events of this past month have brought me into a state of Deep Listening and Deeper Devotion. For the past two years I have been chanting the Hanuman Chalisa (a prayer of 40 verses in praise of the Hindu monkey god, written in Hindi by the saint Tulsidas) along with a CD by Krishna Das called “Flow of Grace”. Usually I just chant it once each day, but lately I’ve been chanting it many times daily, to the point where I lose track of how many times. This is a very healthy addiction for me! As I write in my pocket book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living, our minds are easily habituated and they really like to hold onto something, so if we give our minds spiritual practices to hold onto, they will naturally begin to cling to those practices. I am certainly witnessing the truth of that, as I watch myself turn on the Hanuman Chalisa for the tenth time of the day!

~ I love the way the Universe sends just the right book to read at just the right moment. Currently I am reading Krishna Das’ book Chants of a Lifetime: Searching for a Heart of Gold. I am deeply laughing and crying as I read, because I feel so much resonance with his experiences, and because I also feel such deep devotion to Neem Karoli Baba, the Guru of Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Ram Dass, and this yogini. Although I did not meet Neem Karoli Baba in the form this lifetime, he has visited me strongly in dreams and meditations, and I know that he is my Guru. I love what Krishna Das writes in the first chapter:

“Chanting brings me into the space of love within, which to me is my guru, Neem Karoli Baba…. I’m not trying to sell him to you. There is no group to join; we already joined it. It’s called “the human race.” Maharaj-ji, who was beyond any sectarian beliefs, said over and over again that we’re all part of one family and that the same blood runs through our veins. / “Guru” is a hard concept for most Westerners to grasp, but very simply, the guru is whoever or whatever removes the darkness from our being.”

~ Several weeks ago, a small not-so-cute bunion pain developed in my left foot. Each day the pain increased, making it difficult to sleep at night and also making it impossible to put on any shoes. Not realizing that this was a great blessing in disguise, I asked my brother if I could go barefoot to work. “Sure,” he shrugged. As the days went by, I began to enjoy my new reality as the barefoot bike shoppe girl, and I wrote a few blog articles about going barefoot. (“Barefoot Yogini Bliss” and “Jai Krishan’s Reasons for Walking Barefoot”) 

~ Lately my boys have been so busy with all of their activities and friends, that I feel as though I hardly see them, even during the times that they are at my house. On Mother’s Day weekend, my older son went with a friend on a trip to California, and my younger son was at Papa’s house… But they both called to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day, and my younger son even stopped by to gift me with a red rose! I felt so blessed and appreciated!

~ This winter and spring I have been grieving the loss of a best friend, an earthguy who I’ve been in love with for quite some time… we can’t be together, and the grief of that takes me to the depths of sorrow… and recently I understood that I needed to do something to help move the process forward… so I made a photo collage and photo book of our times together, and I cried a lot, and it was really, really good for me to acknowledge WHY I am so sad – it’s because we had a very sweet, very special connection… and I needed to really honor the depth of Beauty and Love in our connection… and although I am still grieving, ever since making those photo creations of us, I have felt a bigger release and more permission to allow Happiness in my life again. I feel as though the Universe is conspiring to make me Happy Teja again… it feels as though life is in constant, joyous, FORWARD motion!

~ On that note, lately I have been deeply listening to my heartsong and I have discerned that I need to consolidate all of my creative energies into one on-line offering. So yesterday I decided to take a break from Facebook for a while and just focus all of my creative juices into making this Teja Blog more and more fun and amazing! 

~ I do feel some grief at letting go of the Facebook Playground, and so I see that it is a good practice for me to let go anyway. Yesterday I read Krishna Das’ chapter (in Chants of a Lifetime) called “The Fruit of Attachment is Tears” and that struck such a deep chord in me. My heart is singing to surrender into a much deeper process of letting go of attachments and learning to cry tears of Joy for God, rather than crying tears of sorrow over lost attachments!

~ As Summer approaches here in Ashland, I intend to spend more time outside and less time on the computer. I intend to spend much time working and playing – barefoot – in my own neighborhood. And I intend (by the end of the summer) to once again offer weekly Radiance Rising Circles, this time here in my own neighborhood. And, I will continue to publish regular blog articles about my experiences as a barefoot bike shoppe girl, a vegan yogini soccer mama of two fabulous boys, a Reiki practitioner, a spiritual practices cheerleader, and a brahmacharini wannabe who straddles two worlds!

~ As I prepare to go on my next pilgrimage to see my beloved Guru Ammachi (in California in June), I am filled with Gratitude for Deeper Devotion and Deep Listening. I am falling back into my deepest Self, again and again, with these words of Krishna Das echoing inside my mind: “Every saint who has ever lived has told us to look inside.”

~ May each of your playgrounds be filled with Depth and Happiness.

May all beings everywhere know the Joy of Deep Listening.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photos of Pink Blossom Delight and Teja’s barefeet in spring blossoms by Teja Shankara. Photo of Teja grounding at the tree by Teja’s son Zak.