Opening the Eyes of the Divine

Recently my cousin from Perth told me about his daily abhishagam to his Devi statute. A beautiful annalakshmi. He told me how he bathed her, dressed her with flowers and silk sari and how he finally drew her eyes in liquid eyeliner. He said that drawing the eyes was the most significant and important part. It was opening the eyes of the divine. The Goddess will hear you, see you and grant your wishes if you open her eyes with eyeliner. This activates the statute and imbues it with life and thereby inspires the devotee and aids in intensifying one's prayer. The more one can feel the divine in his or her heart the stronger and deeper her faith. He also explained how doing this daily abhishagam has become an excellent discipline for him. It had helped him focus and direct his energies in the world much better. It had brought him closer to God through prayer. A ritual that has personal meaning and resonance can become a powerful tool for growth and transformation. When you discover and connect with a higher vibration through rituals you are more attuned to recognizing the sacred in other areas of your life. Blindly performing rituals on the other hand has exactly the opposite effect. Going thru the motions in any area of your life without connecting to it can ultimately strip any act of its meaning - no matter how profound and pure the initial intentions were. Rituals are essentially pathways into discipline in all areas of your life. They demonstrate the power of repetition and the subtle but profound changes that can arise from repeating something. Rituals if integrated intelligently in our lives can give us strength, hope and a meditative tranquility to our lives.