Om Ganesha,
Morning Pujas and Prayers
June 12, 2006
Namaste my chelas all over the world.
Here is a very special letter from my very special Queen, my son my Guru Jaya Das who soon will be in my arms.
Enjoy the letter.
He writes from his heart of hearts and I am so proud of my 73 year old child.
I love you my Guru Jaya Das.
Love Ma
Jai Kali Ma Ki Jai
Always at His Feet Of Our Neem Karoli Baba Ki Jai
Namaste my beloved Ma, I was wrapped in Baba’s blanket long before I knew who he was. I’m such a lucky “Queen” Im almost a King! well maybe not quite. It’s been 12 years since I had my liver transplant. I knew so little about the donor, but I do know it was a woman, almost putting me in that space where there is no gender. well again not quite. Most of the people awaiting organs died, while I lived. When I first shared my story with you Ma, you said “I was saved for my Ma”, saved for what I wondered, not knowing I would soon find out. Throught your light I have found a path to greater happiness, I never thought possible. When I awake each morning, I’m so full of gratitude that I’m still alive and kicking, this old fart, aging, alright……. Queen, can still make a difference still dumbfounds me. A Global Phone Darshan Saturday is even more so, so I just completely surrender to the Goddess within my own heart.
My beloved’s , my rivers, were sadly not serving with me that day, Ganga working (There’s No Business Like Show Business) and Yamuna in traffic school ( she has been known to drive like a high school dropout). Our steady backup is Peter who has embraced serving the homeless with a vengence, or maybe it’s because he’s one of the few straight me at our Asahram, but he’s a trooper. In the early morning we drove crosstown, Peter also lives in our hood, just in time for Swami Bhavatarini eggs and to celebrate our Sita Jenni’s birthday. Sita who weighed over 400 pounds, earlier this year had her stomach stapled, has already lost a person, over 200 pounds! She has chosen life, her joy infectious, an inspirition, after we were so concerned that she would even live. We all showered her with gift certificates to buy new clothes, which she badly needs. I look at her now with the eye of non-judgement, with love in my heart, but when I first met her I looked the other way, so avoided any contact. In the arms of you my guru, I have fully realized we are all ONE, and the ONE that loves us all is in a all of us. Who said you can’t teach an old queen, I mean dog, new tricks?
A quick meeting followed in preparartion for the big annual event, yes Ma, your visit! The excitement builds, and like Snow White (our Swami Bhavatarini) and the seven dwarfs (us chelas) we will all “whistle while we work” to help prepare our ashram for this event. The menu was discussed with our master chef’s Durguya Jaya, and Joyti with a little help from me, by request to do my secret ingredient, (e-mail me and I’ll tell you) always a sell-out, almost hot but not, the signature “nosh” of L.A., guacamole! Peter and I hit the streets with our eyes out to spot the contless homeless that make L.A. the homeless capital of the country. We of course don’t proselytize, except with a red heart drawn with “MA LOVES YOU” on each bag. Today the bags have our famous (see the latest ADVOCATE) Cake Diva brownies, to accompany a hearty ham (oop’s) and swiss on gourmet rolls (compliments of the Back Door Bakery), oranges, bottled water, and a sampling of bathroom sundries. In addition we carry dog food for our homeless canine’s who to some out their only true friends, so much crime is committed by the homeless on each other for any avaiilable monies usually for drugs that on the streets dogs are truly man’s best friends. In case I haven’t mentioned it lately, that’s where my own dog, Phoenix came from, a garbage strewn backyard, hit by a car, a dehydrated pup, barely alive, under a plastic tarp, now a full grown Jewish American Prince.
Since his old haunt behind the dumpster was fenced in, Renoldo waits for us on the street corner to give us his forwarding address, a spot on a patch of dirt adjacent to the Hollywood Freeway. “We won’t forget you” I assure our old friend. The cops continue to play havoc with the homeless, as the city gentrifies, new apartment houses being built in former run down areas, we lose our old friends. The last home for our oldest friends Louie and Irma was on a bluff behind a billboard. Now it’s been plowed over, and somewhat like under the boardwalk in Coney Island, where you lived with Big Henry and friends, it’s filled in, no sign of life. Thomas, our mayor of the Doughnut shop, wearing his identifiable two hats, takes seven sandwiches. and is our disrtbutor, for the six other people who check with him daily for street gossip and provisions. Adjacent to the tennis court, on a patch of green is Jack, his two shopping carts, mostly fuilled with books, is always reading. “What are you reading Jack?” I ask, he turns the book toward me, it’s “Alice in Wonderland”. I share with him it was the first book I think I ever read. He reccomends “The Time Machine” , “by Wells” I ask, yes “that’s H.G. Wells” he answers. Is there anything so sweet as serving others who are in need?
A quick turnaround and I’m back at the Ashram, almost barricaded, as the area prepares for Gay Pride weekend. I guess I’ve celebrated Gay Pride in a way I never thought imaginable before I met Ma, before I was saved for her. Tomorrow I once again go to inner city, to George Washington Prep high school, smack in the middler of the ghetto, and speak to the kids about homophobia, kids who think; I’m weird, in league with the devil, a sinner, with “too much fruitie in the bootie” with the bright light of compassion, still blessed with the desire to serve, trying to make this world a better place, I simply bothered to care. I take that energy over the phone waves from you and keep it glowing in my heart, that has untangled the mess of karma from previous lifetimes to learn to live the best life I can. To tell the truth I almost feel I’m doing just that. I’ve to my great surprise, revealed that hidden power within, and it scares me a little, but I know you have brought my true self to the surface of my being. At almost 73, it’s about time! I can’t wait to see the guru in the flesh, in L.A. in two weeks, and maybe get a hug or two!
With love always, your son,
Guru Jaya Das