Newsletter #65, by Denise Crisanto-Clark (30 September 2013)

Samarpan Online Group Meditation Newsletter

TOPIC FOR THE WEEK –The Little Red Robin

In the beginning things were challenging, due to the fact that through the awakening of one’s soul the ego starts to die and one starts coming face to face many personal weaknesses. Most of the time I was ok, and people were starting to appear in my path keen to learn meditation; but sometimes I felt overwhelmed by recurring waves of bad habits, thoughts and fears from the past. At times I felt alone as I had no Samarpan friends I could share my time with, meditating, talking about spiritual path, etc. It is during one of those moments that I reached out to Swamiji saying ‘Swamiji please help me from this feeling of despair’, that a little red robin appeared above, flapping its wings and flying above my head. In that instant my heart leapt with love and happiness, it was Swamiji making himself present, letting me know He was with me. I instantly knew and felt totally better in that second, I felt a surge of peace and tranquility; Paramatma was there, with me at all times.

The next time this happened was when I was talking to a lady sadhika before meditation, she was telling me how good she was feeling with this new meditation. Out of the blue she said ‘Swamiji is happy with the work you’re doing, don’t worry about anything’; the little red robin appeared before us and sat on the tree opposite us. I thanked her and told her Swamiji was with us. The little red robin visited us for 2 more weeks a few minutes before our meditation group. We felt so happy and guided.

On another occasion my mother was undergoing surgery, so I was walking outside the clinic while she was being operated. I stopped for a minute and imagined the doctor was Swamiji, so I said ‘thanks Swamiji, I know you’re in there with her’. I opened my eyes and the little red robin was standing on a hedge only 2 metres from me! I knew once again everything was ok. On another occasion I had to take an important decision, so I was asking Swamiji to let me see a signal, that I wasn’t sure how to distinguish between the voice of my soul from the voice of my mind. A while later while I was sitting looking at a beautiful river outside of the city, the little red robin appeared and started flying up and down, in a way I had never seen before. It was making so much effort to make itself be seen by me that it was quite funny… the little bird was making so much effort for me to understand that everything was ok. My mind wanted to follow my thoughts, and at the same time the bird was trying very hard as if to say – ‘hey, look! Don’t listen to those thoughts, look at me, everything is ok!’ The amazing thing was that this was an area in which one doesn’t really see these little robins, this was a more of a wild area for different types of birds!

Things started getting better for me, my spiritual state was improving, so I stopped asking and I was only thanking and being grateful to Swamiji for everything at all times. That’s how I knew Swamiji is always there. One day now in 2012 I was walking back from a meditation group and I felt so happy, looking at the birds, the sky when the little red robin made its presence to assert that happiness. I said in my head ‘yes Swamiji, I know you’re always there, thank you for everything’.

Last week a group of us 10 sadhaks went to the beach to read Swamiji’s messages, meditate, be in silence. Before we began a session I closed my eyes and said ‘Swamiji this is your work, these are your words, I leave it to you’ when I opened my eyes the little red bird was near us on a tree, showing its chest and accompanying us. I smiled instantly so I told the group about this anuhooti. Later on we went to a different area of the house where we prepared a space for our next session. I was reading sadhaks some words and suggestions that Swamiji had once told us for how to improve our sadhana. While I was reading Swamiji’s words, one of the girls said ‘Denise, look’; I turned around to see the little red robin behind me. She said while I was reading Swamiji’s words the bird was moving its beak as if speaking.

My latest experience a few days ago was that I went to see a doctor to have a little healing done on my foot. Of course I wanted to best treatment possible, so I imagined Swamiji walking in the hallway near the doctors, then I lift up my head and next to me on the wall there was a painting of…. a red robin!! I smiled once again at the magic of having a Satguru, and thanked Him – this anubhooti has helped me surrender each time more and more.