This year, some members of the worldwide BMCM community banded together to ensure that 2018 was ushered in with a flood of mantrams dedicated to peace.
Being an instrument of
peace can seem a very distant goal for us as individuals, but Easwaran gives us
practical inspiration.
“My grandmother, who was my spiritual teacher, always used the tamarind tree to illustrate the power of ordinary people. The tamarind is a big tree, with very small, thin leaves. On a hot day, the people of my old state of Kerala like to sleep in its shade. The leaves are so numerous and are packed so close together that they protect us from the tropical sun just as if they were one large canopy. ‘Little Lamp, you don’t have to look for big people,’ Granny would tell me. ‘Look for little people like yourself, then band together and work together in harmony.’ So don’t be intimidated by position or power or wealth. If little people like you and me work together, we can do a great deal to transform the world.”
“Little People Like You & Me”
In this spirit of community and banding together, the mantram relay was born! In the BMCM Living & Learning Facebook Group, Elizabeth, a community member, reached out with a brand new idea:
I had an idea that I wanted to share and see if others have interest in participating. On some auspicious day (maybe New Year’s Day?), I thought it would be neat to have a “Mantram Relay Marathon” for peace and well-being throughout the world. We could take the 24 hours of that day (or the first 12 hours) and everybody could sign up for a time slot (30 minutes? 1 hour?) during which time they will use their mantram with as much concentration as they can muster for peace and wellbeing throughout the world. During “your” time slot, you could go on a mantram walk, or do mantram art, or write mantrams, or sit still and say the mantram silently in your head. At the end of your time slot, you would figuratively “pass the baton” to the person who has signed up for the following time slot of dedicated mantrams. (I think it actually would be coolest if at least TWO people signed up for each time slot, so that we each would have a partner somewhere in the world who is saying the mantram with dedication at the exact same time as we are). Any takers?
There were so many takers! The online community quickly came up with a sign-up sheet so that folks could claim a half-hour time slot, and we soon had 162 different sign ups. And they kept on coming – people paired up for every time slot, and for some time slots we had as many as five or six people signed up!
By banding together, everyone felt like they had a way to contribute to peace worldwide.
The Relay
On January 1, 2018, the mantrams started at midnight in California, Washington, and Texas. After a half-hour, the “baton” was passed to Scotland and Belgium. For 24 hours the mantram baton made it across the United States to Minnesota, North Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, Colorado, Alaska, Canada, Nevada, Tennessee, New Jersey, Arizona and Hawaii, and also to the UK, New Zealand, India, Portugal and Guatemala. Knowing that we had fellow peace-seekers writing mantrams around the world was an amazing experience.
Here are some photos and comments from friends who participated in the event:
