“We’ll never get all this work done by the end of the week,” I lamented to Jyotish. In 1982 Swami Kriyananda had asked us to lead Yoga Teachers Training, which was held at the Meditation Retreat. Because we’d need to be available for the students, we realized it was necessary to move to the Retreat—six miles away from our home at Ananda Village.
After looking at the few available houses that might work for us and our eight-year-old son, we decided that the best option would be to renovate Swamiji’s original dome-home. His dome hadn’t been regularly used for several years after Swamiji moved to his residence at the Village, Crystal Hermitage, and was in serious need of restoration.
We realized with amazement and gratitude that the whole project was done.
We had five days to make whatever changes we could, leaving us a few days to prepare for the three-month-long course about to begin. This was cutting it very close indeed.
Jyotish had some experience in building domes, and he evaluated what needed to be done: “First, we’ll need to clean the interior and remove all the styrofoam triangles that form the inside walls. Then we’ll have to insulate, and cut new triangles out of sheetrock (about 60 equilateral triangles four feet on a side). These will need to be nailed into place to form pentagons and hexagons, and all the seams taped. The next step is to plaster and texture the interior to create a unified surface. Finally, after that dries, we can paint it.”
Thus, my lament: in five days? With just the two of us doing the work?
Nevertheless, we set a project schedule with daily goals and began work on Monday morning. By noon when we took a meditation break, we looked at what had been accomplished, and saw that we’d completed only about one-tenth of our goal for the day. Picking up after lunch, we didn’t have much hope of finishing, but all we could do was to keep going.
Then something remarkable happened. We continued working in the same way with no extra help, but somehow we slipped into a different flow. The work seemed to happen effortlessly, not in a normal pace of time, but in a “timeless” zone. By six o’clock that evening, we’d completed the day’s goal.
The same thing happened the next day: by noon only a small fraction of the job was done, but by the end of the day it was finished. In this way, we arrived at Friday afternoon and realized with amazement and gratitude that the whole project was done. And it was beautiful!
Krishna’s words from the Bhagavad Gita came to mind: “To those who worship Me, I make good their deficiencies and render permanent their gains.”
Whatever our goal—whether renovating a house or achieving liberation—if we do it step by step with the thought of God, and don’t worry about the enormity of the job before us, the seemingly impossible can happen.
With heart’s gratitude,
Nayaswami Devi
The Novak family.
25 Comments
Wonderful! How energy helps!
Dear Ji’s
I am feeling happy and Confident that I will stay in this Path for ever, with the Guidance from you Ji’s are so Inspiring and touching me Conciously.
With Gratitude
R Sundararajan
Dear Nayaswami Devi Ji,
Thank you for this lovely and encouraging article :)
With the grace of God & Guru, we strive to follow this , one step at a time with the thought of God.
Lovely picture of Novak’s family :)
Aum….Prem
Wonderfull story, thank you.
So Sweet! Aum, Peace, Amen
Thank you! How totally encouraging and inspiring…you and Jyotish’s persistence and Krishna supplying your deficiencies.
What a good reminder. I truly love these weekly posts,,,thank you both very much. Love & Joy, j
Thank you dear Devi. Your writing brought back beautiful memories and hope for my efforts in life. Sending you and dear Jyotish love and gratitude. Mariana
Hi Devi,
Thank you. That is just what we need to hear. We have some big deadlines to meet in Yogananda Gardens in the coming year. Check out our latest pictures from the current Shrine. Master seems to be telling us that he is pleased so far. Even in a statue he is so beautiful! Love to you both. Byasa and janakidevi
Dear Devi,
We have a couple of building projects we could really use your help on at The Expanding Light. Can you come back to the Village to work on that? Love and blessings.
I enjoyed this article very much. It reflected my own experience, that whenever I serve in an aspect of God’s work where I am insecure and lack expertise, I find that there’s an extra, special help. It happens with singing Swami Kriyananda’s music, with working in photography and web design, where I am definitely not a visual person, and in writing and editing. People who shirk from getting involved with service, thinking, “But I’m not experienced – I don’t know how to do it,” are missing a great opportunity to find themselves working hand in hand with God.
By the way, the photo of Jyotish was taken by yours truly. It shows Jyotish building a new “dome home” at Ananda Village after the forest fire that burned 21 of our 23 homes, in 1976.
Go with God, Jyotish and Devi!
“I’ve printed the Bhagavad Gita quote and taped it on the wall in front of me. What a great reminder. Thanks, as always, Devi!”
Thank you, Devi; what a beautiful & inspiring article—& timely, too! (Or timeless) Thanks so much to you both for writing these. In joy & love, Dambara
Many thanks for that inspiring story and the quote. I shall copy it and put where I can see it frequently. It comes at the perfect time as I’ve been feeling rather overwhelmed with things-to-do and so, it lifts me up just when I needed it! I’ve been writing a book for over a year now and this last month I’ve found myself procrastinating a great deal — I’m 90 % done but somehow hesitant to finish that last 10%. Fear is for sure part of it. Again, thanks for the perfect message!
So very inspiring and hopeful. Just what I needed at this moment of transition for me. I have a huge house which I need to start downsizing, and it seems overwhelming, but I am going to follow your guidance and just start setting goals on the downsizing effort.
Aum,
Rashida
I found this quote yesterday, attributed to St. Francis:
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
Dear Devi and Jyotish,
I was so uplifted by your article on setting goals, just a little bit at a time. I decided I would become happy and leave the unhappiness habit behind. So I decided to meditate every evening faithfully, and set a goal especially for a certain hour of the evening. So, after my morning meditation, I had to go to Costco. While there I met a checker named Mr. Singh. I asked him if anyone ever sang to him? He was surprised, but said, “No.” So when he was done, I sang, Thank You. When I returned home I felt to pray a few more kriyas, and realized my unhappiness habit was lifting. Now I’ve got to dig in every evening!
Yes, I’ve found this to be true again and again, and it’s exhilarating. What a great incentive not to give too much credence to “known realities” and the little self!
OCTOBER 16, 2015 AT 11:14 I move to this Sr community 2 years ago and am not unpacked. Can’t get my car in the garage for all the stuff in there. This is just the inspiration I needed. I can and will let go of possessions and simplify my life. Blessings to both of you. Judith
This is a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing. I love this quote. So true when we are filled with a divine presence. We look up and say” Oh my , what just happened. “. Many Blessings , The Hollimans ” Chandi and Suryadas.
Wow, what interesting synchronicity! I just wrote an article about getting “Into and Out of Time.”
Here is the part I call “tine-stretching exercises”:
… We can also do what I call “time-stretching exercises”: stop or stretch time. I used to do that when I was about to be late for work. As I left the house ten minutes late, I would set my consciousness to be arriving just on time and refrain from consulting my watch. I would then drive and arrive just on time. I had stretched ten minutes into twenty. I had given my sense of reality to consciousness, not to my watch.
Kevin Todeschi, Director of A.R.E., experienced an even more dramatic episode of time-stretching. While he was an undergraduate, he was often pressed for study time because he was busy with a full-time job and spiritual activities as well as assignments for an 18-hour credit load. One night he was anxious because he had to study for a test. He decided that he could accomplish more when he was calmer and so decided to read a bit first in A Course in Miracles.
He relates his experience in the November-December 1992 issue of Venture Inward.
That evening I began to read at 7:59 p.m. I had checked my digital alarm clock, figuring it would take an hour or two to relax with the material before becoming calm enough to do more serious studying. I read page after page, feeling more at peace each time I turned a page, becoming quite happy that I had resolved to return to a state of calm.
Many minutes seemed to click by—even several hours—for . . I read aloud, and slowly. If something wasn’t understood immediately, I read it again. . . . I didn’t even care how late the hour, because I was getting very relaxed. I continued reading until every ounce of anxiety seemed removed from my system. Finally, I felt like my relaxed self again.
As I finished reading a sentence, once again resolving that it didn’t matter what time it was because I felt completely at peace and could study, I closed the book and looked at my clock. At that moment the digits flashed from 7:59 to 8:00 p.m.!
I blinked and stared at the clock—less than a minute had passed. It didn’t make sense. At the same moment a tremendous boost of energy shot up my spine. I got up and checked my wristwatch lying on the dresser. It registered the same hour. There could be no doubt—I had been out of time!
He had time-stretched an hour or more into a minute. He had beaten my ten-minute stretch by a huge margin—but, after all, when one is out of time, how can measurements of it matter?
Wonderful comment. Thanks for sharing this with everyone.
Beloved Soul, as you so clearly expressed the Divine Help that we are all capable of magnetizing, I am wonderfully, ever amazed at hearing from God in your forms and others, just what I need to hear, just when I need to hear it. We’ve been listening to Swamiji read from The Path and by God and Guru’s Grace I’m getting what I need at the time I need it. (I do need to go forth in ‘perfect’ faith and be open for the blessing). In Divine Friendship, always, namaste.
Thank you so much for this beautiful story about faith and sedulity, it’s just what I needed. Sometimes I feel discouraged about the great deal of job a still have to do in my inner path but your words has made me feel confident again.
In divine friendship
Gildeon Borges
Dear Devi
You get a BOOH -YAAH – for that one!
Wow! So inspiring !
Thank You for sharing that story!
Today is the Superconscious Attunement Ceremony and I’m so glad to have read this.
Thinking of You both and sending you oodles of gratitude and love!
~~~Peace, Josette
Dear Devi,
Very blessed to receive such inspiring thoughts from you.
i am hoping to meet you and Jyotish at Bangalore soon.