BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:VEVENT UID:4002786@anandaportland.org DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251114T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251114T203000 DTSTAMP:20251114T205443Z URL:https://anandaportland.org/events/kirtan-at-the-temple-11/ SUMMARY:Divine Mother Kirtan DESCRIPTION:Kirtan is a shared time of devotional chanting\, with short per iods of meditation. Chanting is a spiritual practice that opens the heart and allows for an experience of deep inner stillness and connection with t he divine presence within.\n\nWe will chant together in our beautiful temp le sanctuary with the theme of Divine Mother.\n\nMother of East and West\n (from "God as Divine Mother" by Swami Kriyananda)\n\nThere are many ways i n which a devotee can worship God. In the Western World\, the Father and S on relationship between God and the worshiper is prevalent. In India\, the Mother and Son relationship between God and the devotee is preferred beca use the father’s love is conditioned by reason\, whereas mother’s love is not conditioned by anything. The greatest sinner is still a son\, to h is mother.\n\nWhen God is invoked as a Divine Mother\, the devotee remove s all the diffidence born of the consciousness of sin and thinks: “Well\ , Divine Mother\, naughty or good\, I am Thy child\, and as such must fin d forgiveness under all circumstances\, no matter what I have done.”\n\n The Form Dearest to Our Hearts\n\nThe classic Hindu symbols for the Divin e Mother—Durga\, Uma\, Tara\, Parvati\, Kali\, Lakshmi\, Saraswati\, and others—while helpful insofar as they draw our attention to different as pects of the Infinite Being\, are not the images necessarily to which feel ing most instantly responds from its innermost being\, as to an ancient me mory. When it comes to giving our unconditional love to God as our Divine Mother\, the most meaningful image will always be that which is most mean ingful\, personally\, to ourselves. Whatever image we hold dearest in our hearts\, then\, we should accept as our own. We should then view that cons ciousness as loving us transcendently\, unconditionally\, as wanting nothi ng from us in return but our own true and highest good.\n\nGoing Beyond Fo rm\n\nHinduism doesn’t tell us in what specific form to visualize the D ivine Mother. Indeed\, it tells us to go beyond images—to visualize Her with expanding love in the world around us: in the flowers\, in the sunset \, in everything that seems to us most touching\, beautiful\, and inspirin g. Then\, it tells us\, intuit Her smile behind our every lofty sentiment\ ; and finally\, visualize Her as nirakara\, “formless.”\n\nThe Divine Mother is hidden just behind the dawn\, sun\, night\, thoughts\, feeling s\, pride\, and wisdom which you daily experience. During your daily exper ience\, always think of Divine Mother.\n\n******************************* ************************\n\n \;\n\nNo experience necessary!  We will share the words to the chants\, which are usually in English and occasiona lly in Sanskrit. Our musicians use harmoniums\, guitars and a harp.\n\nPle ase come and join us for our monthly kirtans. All are welcome.\n\nThis is a free event.  Donations are appreciated.\n\n \;\n\n \;\n\n \ ; ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://anandaportland.org/wp-content/uploads/20 21/12/Mother2-scaled.jpg CATEGORIES:Kirtan/Chanting LOCATION:Ananda Portland Temple\, 4855 SW Watson Ave\, Beaverton\, OR\, 970 05\, United States X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=4855 SW Watson Ave\, Beaver ton\, OR\, 97005\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Ananda Portlan d Temple:geo:0,0 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR