sincerely, bhakti: 48: Spark of Splendor

CHAPTER 10, TEXT 41: Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.

"I love to travel, and I've traveled a good part of the world, but I am so tired of traveling right now in my life," I said to my friend Shanti. "What about you? Do you want to travel?"

"I want to travel so badly," she said with passion. "It's been a couple years since I've traveled because I've been completing my degree, but I miss it. I miss the adventure, the fresh culture, the sense that I'm being shaken out of my ordinary routine,"

I paused a moment, for those reasons were the reasons that I had burned to travel the world in my 20s. "Wow. You're right. Travel is magical. Have you seen those new Microsoft landing page image things? These amazing pictures of the world?"

Shanti paused and then nodded, "Yes! Whenever you log in to your account? Yes I have,"

"Amazing, right? These exotic images of places around the world, just so stunning and breathtaking. I feel that wanderlust in my heart again to travel the world,"

"Absolutely," Shanti agreed. "And seeing such beauty it's like, yes, like, this is God. This is God's temple, mama mana mandire, like you always used to sing,"

"Yes," I murmured. "Yes indeed."

When I was 14 years old living in Hawaii, I did not live near a physical temple of Krishna. I longed to live near one, but I could not. So I turned to a temple that I experienced every day - the breathtaking beauty of nature in Hawaii. Almost every evening I would ride my bike to the crest of a mountain to watch the glorious sunset over the Pacific Ocean, and I would sing the song Mama Mana Mandire: may You reside in the temple of my heart.

I began to realize that God's creation is His temple and appreciating His beauty is worship.

In the years that followed when I lived near a temple and also traveled the world, that song threaded its way into my life. Every time I experienced some moment of beauty in nature that took my breath away, I would sing, as Shanti reminded me, "Mama mana mandire...".

This is God. This is His temple.

So when I read this verse of the Gita this morning, 10.41, I exclaimed in delight. This verse is like an old friend, words that I've heard since I was a little girl, reminding me that even the most wondrous, breathtaking sunset or waterfall or rainbow is but the tiniest, glittering spark of God's splendor.

below are screenshots of the Microsoft landing page things :)