Happy Birthday, Guru Ma!

by Rev. Jaspal Soni

The Chananda Cultural Society celebrated Mother’s birthday on Sunday, April 3 during our Sunday service from 11:00 am-2:00 pm with much enthusiasm and excitement. We had sent out beautiful invitation cards to our members in the Metropolitan New Delhi area and followed it by calling everyone on the telephone. Many old and new members came, including some Keepers of the Flame with their families.

To make things move smoothly during the service, we printed beautiful booklets, yellow in color, for each person’s use.

People took them home after the service for using them again for decreeing and also as a souvenir. The booklets had the picture of Mother on the front cover with the following words inscribed from her:

“I leave you with the promise of glory. I leave you with the vision held in the heart of the Mother. ‘Tis the vision of your victory. It’s the vision of your light. Reach out, reach up, and seize the torch of victory and run with the light. For it shall be and it shall come to pass that you also will be the Buddha in the world to come, and Mother of infinity.”

The booklet included a brief bibliography of Mother, ‘The Legacy of Elizabeth Clare Prophet’ followed by the words of her keynote song, ‘Beautiful Dreamer’ and five short decrees including Call to Fire Breath; Heart, Head and Hand; Light Set Me Free; I AM the Light of the Heart; and I AM Light decrees.

After offering our devotion to the Guru through her keynote song and decrees, we watched a few excerpts from the DVD produced by the Summit Lighthouse Elizabeth Clare Prophet: A Life Lived in Love. This video is a living and inspirational testimonial of the life of our beloved Mother who lived in love and showed to the world that what one can do, all can do. People were moved by the video and several of them commented afterwards how they felt uplifted.

We had a delicious pineapple cake afterwards, served by two young adults — a brother and sister — who had been coming to the Sunday services with their parents. It turned out to be a hot day with temperature soaring in upper nineties. To cool it off, we served fruit salad, ice cream and cookies. It was a nice fellowship of which to be part. People loved the snacks very much. Some folks stayed much later until seven o’clock in the evening and enjoyed basking in the light.

During the entire service, one could feel the tangible presence of Mother with us. This was the first time at the ashram, since we established our focus in October 2011, that we celebrated Mother’s birthday and showed the video of her legacy.

Everyone seemed to enjoy partaking in this feast of light. Happy birthday, Guru Ma!