It is difficult to choose an excerpt from a novel that does not feel like it is diminished by being out of context. I guess the opening is a good choice for that reason, but you always wan the opening to be ever so perfect.
I tried posting an excerpt from a novel I am trying to write. The post is called Wisdom's Fruit, but to me something is missing because the reader does not know what happened just before.
Hi Richard. Sorry for the slow reply. Yes, I'm Graham Brown from Sydney, and I also paint. I would love to post some excerpt from my novels, but it might take me a while to go through my writing and make a selection. Currently I am getting my father's house ready to sell, and will also be moving house in a the next few weeks, so creative things will have to wait until the dust settles, unfortunately. The novels have a long way to go I think. I have working titles for them but even these are not set in stone yet.
What is your full name? I am thinking that you did some painting some years ago that we used in The Divine Cool Breeze magazine. Am I remembering correctly?
On your profile page it says you are writing three novels, but it sounds as if they are not completed or published. Do you have titles for them? Would you like to post an excerpt here, in the Writings section?
And how about a haiku or two? Did you see that Nick also writes haiku?
So glad you brought this puja talk to our attention. I had actually been looking at an old translation when your post came. My copy has notes all over and in particular that Sharada is also the name for Autumn ... which evokes the lovely Keat's Ode.
I also note Shri Mataji mentions that the English language has evolved without the blessing of Shri Sharada Devi. So we are working under difficulties, aren't we?
But the reason I had been looking at this talk was to do with the emphasis on Shakti: which is a word which is often tossed about loosely by Sahaja Yogis So in the first part she is talking about the Mahakali Shakti which fills us with awe because it is Raudra - (coming from Rudra - i.e. terrible, roaring) and alerts one to the notion that Shakti means ability, capacity, power, strength, skill..
The word Shakti also means regal power which comprises the three elements, Prabhava, majesty; utsaha, energy, and mantra,counsel.
Then, Shri Mataji says, after that comes the second stage of the our awakening to Mahasaraswati - Sharada Devi. She is also Vag Devi from Vak - speech.
The western equivalent was probably Muse, usually referred to in the possesive form 'my Muse'
"his particular genius, style, or spirit."(OED) Originally the daughter of Zeus, but quickly reduced to a human status by the Western mind. The word music of course also comes from here. Shri Mataji says:
"In every simple thing there should be a covering of Shri Sharada. You should know music - maybe even timely speech."
Of music she says: ..."there should be purity ... even in music they bring impurities ... English also
bring everything because they do not know how to sing pure music. They keep mixing and making more mixtures. In villages people sing so lovingly with complete blessing of Sharada Devi."
By 'English' we understand Shri Mataji means all people of Western cultures.
We have all seen the extent to which Western musicians alter the pure sound of bhajans to suit their conditioned ear.
So, in aspiring to write we need to pray that pure shining quality of Shri Sharada will always guide us and teach us how to bring those qualities into this language which has evolved without her blessing. She is such a great Shakti and we are so privileged to worship her.
Thanks for finding that. I was lucky enough to be at that puja. Shri Mataji gave the talk in Hindi and there was only a rough translation of it for many years, I think. I'm not sure where I got the quote from.
When you are writing … you don’t think from where you are getting the power to write something. Who has given you this power of writing…? It is from Sharada Devi....
Many people wrote many things by the grace Sharada Devi. Gyaneshawara wrote Gyaneshawari. Then he wrote one more book after this. It is so beautiful that you feel that you are taking elixir. Saints have written, on whom the Sharada Devi has Her grace. In the beginning of Gyaneshwari, he writes with the blessings of Sharada Devi that “Whatever I am writing is to please the Sharada Devi, that these words will not give you pain in any way like the petals slowly fall from the tree.…” In the same way, my words should fall on your hearts and make it fragrant. What a wonderful writing, such a beautiful poetry … such a beautiful forms of his thoughts....
But there had been many great poets in English language, too.... His name was William Blake. Such an enthusiastic poetry that it will fill you with enthusiasm, as if Devi Sharada Herself has come out of his poetries and entered within you. [In the] same way, if you read Sharat Chandra, then you will start writing stories. Such writers have been born in India that nowhere in the world you find them. I agree that Tolstoy was very great, but Sharat Chandra was greater than him….
The greatest writers are in our country, they are not westernized, but they are original Indians. They don’t have money, but are blessed by Saraswati....
Even in Bengal there were one greater than other and all this is by the grace of Sharada Devi. With every word, you feel religion flowing, all words arranged properly and enlightened. You feel that, as if written in thoughtlessness. Such a pure explanation.
All the great scriptures were written by the blessings of Sharada Devi. But in these present times I feel that Sharada Devi has stopped her blessings.
This puja was on 11 December 1994. It was a Shri Adi Shakti Puja.
It is difficult to choose an excerpt from a novel that does not feel like it is diminished by being out of context. I guess the opening is a good choice for that reason, but you always wan the opening to be ever so perfect.
I tried posting an excerpt from a novel I am trying to write. The post is called Wisdom's Fruit, but to me something is missing because the reader does not know what happened just before.
Hi Richard. Sorry for the slow reply. Yes, I'm Graham Brown from Sydney, and I also paint. I would love to post some excerpt from my novels, but it might take me a while to go through my writing and make a selection. Currently I am getting my father's house ready to sell, and will also be moving house in a the next few weeks, so creative things will have to wait until the dust settles, unfortunately. The novels have a long way to go I think. I have working titles for them but even these are not set in stone yet.
Will try to post a haiku or two soon.
What is your full name? I am thinking that you did some painting some years ago that we used in The Divine Cool Breeze magazine. Am I remembering correctly?
On your profile page it says you are writing three novels, but it sounds as if they are not completed or published. Do you have titles for them? Would you like to post an excerpt here, in the Writings section?
And how about a haiku or two? Did you see that Nick also writes haiku?
So glad you brought this puja talk to our attention. I had actually been looking at an old translation when your post came. My copy has notes all over and in particular that Sharada is also the name for Autumn ... which evokes the lovely Keat's Ode.
I also note Shri Mataji mentions that the English language has evolved without the blessing of Shri Sharada Devi. So we are working under difficulties, aren't we?
But the reason I had been looking at this talk was to do with the emphasis on Shakti: which is a word which is often tossed about loosely by Sahaja Yogis So in the first part she is talking about the Mahakali Shakti which fills us with awe because it is Raudra - (coming from Rudra - i.e. terrible, roaring) and alerts one to the notion that Shakti means ability, capacity, power, strength, skill..
The word Shakti also means regal power which comprises the three elements, Prabhava, majesty; utsaha, energy, and mantra,counsel.
Then, Shri Mataji says, after that comes the second stage of the our awakening to Mahasaraswati - Sharada Devi. She is also Vag Devi from Vak - speech.
The western equivalent was probably Muse, usually referred to in the possesive form 'my Muse'
"his particular genius, style, or spirit."(OED) Originally the daughter of Zeus, but quickly reduced to a human status by the Western mind. The word music of course also comes from here. Shri Mataji says:
"In every simple thing there should be a covering of Shri Sharada. You should know music - maybe even timely speech."
Of music she says: ..."there should be purity ... even in music they bring impurities ... English also
bring everything because they do not know how to sing pure music. They keep mixing and making more mixtures. In villages people sing so lovingly with complete blessing of Sharada Devi."
By 'English' we understand Shri Mataji means all people of Western cultures.
We have all seen the extent to which Western musicians alter the pure sound of bhajans to suit their conditioned ear.
So, in aspiring to write we need to pray that pure shining quality of Shri Sharada will always guide us and teach us how to bring those qualities into this language which has evolved without her blessing. She is such a great Shakti and we are so privileged to worship her.
Devdas is such a powerful and popular story that it has been made into a movie six times.
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote 'Devdas' and other great novels.
Thanks for finding that. I was lucky enough to be at that puja. Shri Mataji gave the talk in Hindi and there was only a rough translation of it for many years, I think. I'm not sure where I got the quote from.
Here is a bit more from that same puja talk:
When you are writing … you don’t think from where you are getting the power to write something. Who has given you this power of writing…? It is from Sharada Devi....
Many people wrote many things by the grace Sharada Devi. Gyaneshawara wrote Gyaneshawari. Then he wrote one more book after this. It is so beautiful that you feel that you are taking elixir. Saints have written, on whom the Sharada Devi has Her grace. In the beginning of Gyaneshwari, he writes with the blessings of Sharada Devi that “Whatever I am writing is to please the Sharada Devi, that these words will not give you pain in any way like the petals slowly fall from the tree.…” In the same way, my words should fall on your hearts and make it fragrant. What a wonderful writing, such a beautiful poetry … such a beautiful forms of his thoughts....
But there had been many great poets in English language, too.... His name was William Blake. Such an enthusiastic poetry that it will fill you with enthusiasm, as if Devi Sharada Herself has come out of his poetries and entered within you. [In the] same way, if you read Sharat Chandra, then you will start writing stories. Such writers have been born in India that nowhere in the world you find them. I agree that Tolstoy was very great, but Sharat Chandra was greater than him….
The greatest writers are in our country, they are not westernized, but they are original Indians. They don’t have money, but are blessed by Saraswati....
Even in Bengal there were one greater than other and all this is by the grace of Sharada Devi. With every word, you feel religion flowing, all words arranged properly and enlightened. You feel that, as if written in thoughtlessness. Such a pure explanation.
All the great scriptures were written by the blessings of Sharada Devi. But in these present times I feel that Sharada Devi has stopped her blessings.
This puja was on 11 December 1994. It was a Shri Adi Shakti Puja.