TGR Yoga ~ The Great Remembering
I have long had a clear vision, a calling, to live to serve in some way. I believe that my dharma is to assist others in remembering and fully experiencing their eternal self. A number of my life experiences have made this clear to me. Here is the one where "The Great Remembering" took shape.
I had been living at Yogaville for several years, studying with my Gurudev, Sri Swami Satchidananda, when I was invited to take part in a four-day retreat with people who had come from around the world to share a deep inner exploration. During the retreat, we were led into a lovely breathing exercise where we ended up lying on our backs and entering a deep state of consciousness. I was taken into a samadhi stillness and lucid state in which I "remembered" this way of being as my eternal state of self. All was light and joy. All knowledge was available and there was only love for all. While in this state, which lasted for about 45 minutes, a divine feminine voice told me, "In this lifetime, you are here to bring others to this awareness, and you are to call your work 'The Great Remembering'." This was totally clear to me. Then I came back to an awareness of time, space, the room and the others present. I continued my studies and service, holding this message. Some years later, my Gurudev gave me a mantra and told me it was time for me to share The Great Remembering with all. Here is the mantra...
OM HRIM SMRIM MAHASMRITI VICCE
[ommm hreemm smreemm maahaa smreetee vee chay]
and a sense of its meaning...
OM the Absolute, Source and Substance of all Being
HRIM the bij of Existence itself ("bij" is seed); that there is form and doing; the field for the lila, the play of life, and the lila, too
SMRIM the bij of Remembrance - that quality of knowing what has been before (and, interestingly, the future, too). Repetition of this bij mantra brings heightened remembrance of the mundane things right up to The Great Remembering
MAHASMRITI The Great Remembering; a name of Goddess Lakshmi; the awakening of consciousness to know the Eternal Self, with the awareness that you are That, and all is That - Remembering your True Self
VICCE bringing from that field of all Knowledge into the plane of conscious awareness