The Goddess Of Happiness Part 2

Premo never did go back home to the very small town of Big Trees. Never say never—likely the circle comes around to the place where she began. But for this part of the story, her relatives were with her in India. Not all of them yet—her four sisters did make their grand appearance on what she calls “the best day of her life” and she added, “thus far,” as she was working on her next plan, which was to find a way to live and play with them for all time.

“When will they come and stay with me?” Premo asked Jo.

Jo, Sri Mataji, smiled, “Oh I think there is a plan in motion. I’m sure of it.”

Premo wrinkled her brow, “What do you mean? How do I make it happen?”

Jo laughed, “How did it happen the first time?”

Premo thought about it, “I have no idea, except perhaps I was in the right time at the right place and …”

“Poof!” Exclaimed Sri Mataji. “It just happened!”

Premo asked, “Does everything really happen that way? Don’t we make it happen?”

“Did you ever imagine that you had four goddess sisters and that they would come here from the heavenly realm to meet you?”

“I see what you mean. Perhaps there is a bigger mystery or someone who comes up with the best surprises—the ones that we or I couldn’t even imagine.”

“And I know who that someone is.” Jo winked at Premo.

Was Jo teasing me? Premo wondered.

The Goddess of Happiness couldn’t believe she could be any happier than she normally was. But she was. Her well of happiness was running deeper these days. She thought of her sister Premo, of meeting her for the first time. “Isn’t she great?” She exclaimed to her mother, the Most Attractive One. “I mean, did you know we had another sister?” asked Happiness.

Most Attractive One declared, “Well, I know it now! And you remember you met your aunt, my sister, for the first time, too.”

“Yes, she is very special, isn’t she?”

“Yes, her longing ran very deep. Her love is great, is a great sacrifice.”

“What do you mean?”

“We both loved your father, Babdad. You know how I am the most attracting? Your father was the only one, the only thing that I was most attracted by. My attraction and my love for him I felt as a great pleasure that we enjoyed together. For my sister, Johnny, she experienced her love for Babdad as a great yearning that had to be fulfilled by giving her life in service to him.”

Happiness thought about it, “I think I understand. I think of happiness as being pleasurable, but I see my other sisters—they experience it differently –the Goddess of Love enjoys loving, but some unpleasurable things are asked of her at times to fulfill love. And Truth finds pleasure in being honest, but not everyone else does. And she carries the burden of always being right. And Freaky Fun is so wild and free and that is her happiness, but she scares us at times with her crazy edge and challenges.”

“And what about you?” asked Most Attractive One.

“Sometimes I can’t take suffering seriously and that bothers my sisters at times. I always want to enjoy! I guess …”

“Yes, we are, the two of us are most alike!” answered Most Attractive.

Mother and daughter felt their pleasure in each other. Most Attractive knew that happiness was what all beings wanted to enjoy, and she would attract them to her daughter, the Goddess of Happiness, so their own happiness could be felt and lived. She wanted all her Goddess daughters to be known so all girls and women could experience themselves as happiness, as love, as truth, and as freedom. She wondered what her sister Johnny Kara’s daughter Premo had to give. What gift is she? What will she reveal and give to the women of the sad place called Earth?

Premo enjoyed her life in the ashram with Johnny Kara, whom she called Jo most of the time. But of late she started to call her Mataji like her devotees called her. Mataji was a revered form of the word “mother” and she felt that Jo, Mataji, was more like a mother to her than her own mother. Mataji was both encouraging and challenging, while her own mother always criticized her for being “the way she was”. She felt Mataji’s love for her, and her love was so big that she could give it to everyone else too and Premo still felt that Mataji’s love for her was deep and that she had a lot more growing to do to be filled up by it. Her own mother’s love stung with criticism and her lack of faith in her dreams and potential. Mataji believed in Premo and encouraged her potential.

Premo wanted to be with her sisters. She yearned to be with them. Her whole body ached to have this accomplished. She felt that if she was with them, they could accomplish something— something big, something important that had never been accomplished before. She had no idea what that was. She just knew she was being drawn to it and that Mataji knew and felt this too.

“Mataji?” she asked, “Can you show me how I know what I know? I know I am supposed to be with my sisters. How do I know that?”

Mataji smiled and raised her eyebrows. “Your power to know—to know this is inherent in you, in your heart. We all come here with an inherent knowledge, with a knowing that we came here for a reason, for a task we need to accomplish.”

“Does everyone have this?”

“Yes, but often it stays latent and doesn’t find a way to be heard and then lived.”

“Is that because we are not encouraged to listen to our own inherent knowledge?”

“Yes, often our culture and our families want us to fit in to the normal ideas of status quo, which don’t allow for growth and change—good change that serves the hearts of all to unify and prosper.”

Premo thought about it. Is this why I had to come to India? Is this why Jo, Mataji, found me, helped me? To bring what is in my heart—to be with my sisters—forward? Yes, it had to be this way. It had to happen this way. I wouldn’t have come to know what I know without coming here and meeting Mataji. She didn’t know why, but the strange man she had met when she was running popped into her mind. What had he told her? She tried to remember, what was it? He had told me that he gave me a free pass, a ticket to ride to anywhere I want. She wondered who that man really was. Could he see what was latent in my heart, like Mataji?

Grinsgiver, Babdad as he was called by his two wives, Most Attractive and Johnny Kara, being the God of all knowledge, did know what was latent in the heart of all his daughters, as he had planted the seeds. Time to sprout and grow, he commanded. We could well imagine him with a watering can, dosing the hearts of his girls with liquid sunshine, grinning from ear to ear. “How I love my work,” he sang. And we can well imagine the flowers growing, and opening, blossoming in those tender and strong hearts. Each daughter received his nurturing and felt it as an urge to grow, to discover themselves and realize their full potential. Freaky Fun, the Goddess of Freedom, felt it as an urge to break past all limits. The Goddess of Truth felt it as a need to tell the truth, to speak dharma to all beings. The Goddess of Happiness felt it as an urge to heal the women of Earth from their suffering. The Goddess of Love felt it as a need, and urge to give whatever she could to those who needed her love the most.

And how did Premo feel Babdad’s liquid sunshine nurturing her heart? She felt it as an impulse to collect her sisters together, to empower the world and restore the feminine to its full expression as Happiness, Love, Truth, and Freedom. She was the fifth sister after all, and she would collect her sisters to bring them in the perpetual here and now on Mother Gaia. She was the completing sister in whom all her sisters’ expressions and gifts lay latent, waiting to sprout and grow and gain expression. But Babdad had to go slow, wait, and allow Premo to make her move, let her run through—let her fly and let her decide, let her choose, let her discover the how and the what to do. He knew everything and was responsible for everything, but he still loved the play, the actors (his daughters!) to come on to the stage as independent ones, to figure out their part and to play it to their remarkable best. Even though he knew everything, he was still surprised by those who had a part in his plays. Johnny Kara had surprised him with the depth of her passion—that she was willing to come down to this humble place (the Earth) and serve him here. That through her love for him she was even willing to give up her attachment to him, her attachment to her love for him, to realize herself as He is, as Source Being. And he was also surprised by Premo, who had none of the advantages of her sister Goddesses. She had endured an ordinary childhood in this realm, one in which she was not loved or recognized for her heart, where none of her strengths were encouraged or even noticed, where she was often criticized for being different—which was just being herself, which Babdad knew was pretty damn extraordinary.

Sometimes, yes, even being the God of all knowledge, people—beings, can surprise me, thought Babdad. “Premo,” he sent this message to her heart, “remember that free pass, that ticket to ride never expires.”

Premo ran every morning on the paths of the garden ashram. Her running was still developing. From time to time, her speed almost lifted her off the ground. Today she had a lift off. It was unexpected. She felt herself lift off the ground and she was running above the ground. She couldn’t believe it, but it was truly happening! She tried to go higher but she didn’t know how to propel herself upward. She wondered if she could float and stopped her forward running motion— and she didn’t fall back to the earth, she floated! What a discovery, she thought. How am I able to do this? she wondered. She thought of going higher again and she began to rise higher and higher until she was above the ashram gardens. She could see Mataji sitting with her devotees. They were chanting Om and the mantra Sring for Maha Lakshmi. There was beatific smile on Mataji’s face. She wondered what Mataji was experiencing—she was delighted! She thought of her sister, the Goddess of Freedom, and Freaky Fun appeared before her in a body of shimmering light. They landed together on a top branch of the old fig tree.

“Freedom!” exclaimed Premo. “How are you here?”

Freedom laughed, “I can duplicate the body of an earth being for a while and I can appear as an astral form.”

“What?” asked Premo.

Freedom laughed, “How did you accomplish your flying? People on Earth don’t just go around running with a flying lift off.”

Premo scratched her head, “I don’t know how it happened. How am I doing it?”

“Let me show you,” Freedom extended her hand to Premo. When Premo grasped her hand, she saw her body shimmer like Freedom’s.

“Wow, am I like you now, an astral form?”

“Yes,” Freedom answered. “Now we can go anywhere and do anything we can think of. What would you like to do?” she asked Premo.

Premo, of course, wanted to see all her sisters again, but instead, another idea occurred to her first, “Can we meet mother Gaia, the Earth?”

Freedom was surprised at Premo’s request. “I personally haven’t met her yet, but let’s give it a try.” The two sisters linked arms and chanted Ma Gaia, and their subtle bodies appeared before a tree that was standing on top of the Earth. Their hearts called out to Mother Gaia and the tree lifted up its roots and twirled around faster and faster. As the spinning decreased, Premo and Freedom could see the form of the mother Earth appearing before them. She was full and round and her body shined with green luminosity. Her hair was strands of rivers flowing, and her breast contained the heat of active volcanoes. Her body moved and changed like the Earth itself. She was the dance of the Earth and creatures made their way to her, passed into her and dissolved into her, and appeared again as new forms. When she opened her eyes and looked at the two young Goddesses, a call was felt by the two women.

“I am delighted to meet you two. I have called you here. Please introduce yourselves.”

Freedom stepped forward and folded her hands to mother Gaia, “I am the Goddess of Freedom, and this is my sister Premo.”

Gaia smiled, “Good to meet you, and your sister Premo, what is she the Goddess of?” asked Mother Gaia.

Premo stepped forward, “I am not a Goddess. I live on the earth.”

Gaia studied Premo’s face, “Not a Goddess, are you sure of that?”

“Pretty sure,” Premo answered.

“Hmm,” answered Mother Gaia. “I have called many to come to the heart of my abode, but only the two of you managed to find your way here.” She looked at Premo again, “So you are not a Goddess? You are from my own being, made up of my earth elements. I am glad one of my own has finally heeded my call and has come to meet me here. There is something the two of you can do for me. I need your help.”

Premo was astounded that Mother Gaia had called her and that she needed their help. “What can we do?” asked Premo “How can we help?” Freedom also nodded in agreement.

“There is a rumor going on that I am in my last cycle, that conditions created by human beings are destroying my viability.”

“Is this true?” asked Premo.

“Yes and no” answered Gaia.

“What do you mean?” asked Freedom.

“The nature of my destruction has always birthed new life. No being can truly destroy another, only change can occur. You two can help with creating another kind of change that has never been seen before. Are you with me?” asked Mother Gaia.

Both women nodded yes. Mother Gaia called them to her arms and whispered into their hearts. “Free the women of Earth. Free the women of Earth, free the women of my heart.” When Premo heard these words whispered into her heart, tears ran down her cheeks. Freedom also felt Gaia’s words ring deep and true in her heart. Their hearts sang yes and Premo found herself sitting once again on the top branch of the fig tree with her sister Freedom. Both stared into each other’s astonished faces.

Premo spoke up, “We must help, you are the Goddess of Freedom, how do we do it? How are the women of Earth imprisoned? What did Mother Gaia mean?”

“I don’t know,” answered Freedom. She did know what Mother Gaia meant, but she did not know what to do about it. She did know that her other sisters, the Goddess of Happiness, the Goddess of Love, and the Goddess of Truth—they would need all their help, they could only do it all together.

The chanting, Sring! Sring! Sring! drifted up to the fig tree. Premo found herself running again and as she ran past Mataji, that beatific smile was still on her lips.

The Goddess of Freedom moved on the winds of change. The promise that she and Premo had made to Gaia, Mother Earth, burned within her. Free the women! Free the women! She had to see for herself why the women of the Earth weren’t free and she needed her sister, the Goddess of Truth, to show her. Truth would know, she would show her.

“That is what Mother Gaia asked us to do,” concluded Freedom, “Do you know what she meant by it?”

The Goddess of Truth nodded her head. Could her sister, in her travels and appearances on Earth not notice how the women of Earth suffered under the rule of men? Surely she must have seen that women weren’t given the same status and opportunities that men on Earth had, that they were ignored by history and often persecuted for their capabilities and talents.

Truth showed her the book she often carried with her. Curious, that Freedom never asked her what was in it. She never asked because she thought it was a book of philosophy, abstract concepts, moral judgements of what is right and wrong. She didn’t want to be bound by any idea. She was freedom after all, and she only wanted to be free to move past all ideas of good and bad. She had to move and to dance and only the winds of change got her going. “What’s in this book, sis?”

“Look, turn to chapter 1”

“Freedom turned the pages past the long table of contents. Gee, she thought, this book must have over 2000 pages in it and it’s only book one.

She read out loud, “With the idea of other, self-interest arises and gives rise to power-dynamic, hierarchical relationships.” Freedom wasn’t sure what that meant and continued to read, “This led to the invention of man over women, and the creation of religious myths that hold women responsible for the fall from God.” Freedom still wasn’t following, “What does all this mean, sister?”

Truth couldn’t believe that Freedom couldn’t put 2 and 2 together—she could be so naïve in all her crazy free ways. “It means that a system that has been evolving and is now in place holds women subordinate to men’s self-interest.

Freedom thought about it. “What are men’s interests?” she asked.

“Let me show you,” and Truth began to flip the pages of the book. Images of war, lust for greed and power, and domination over others, ugly images of the worst that has come about because of self-interest. Images of women being raped and beaten, used as sex slaves, women denied education, struggling for sustainability, for the lives of children, women pregnant and abandoned. Freedom couldn’t take much more. This was a terrible story and a terrible history. She closed the book. She turned to her sister, “Is this, all this ugliness a result of selfishness, of self-interest? Is this why Mother Gaia asked us to promise her to free the women?”

“Yes” answered the Goddess of Truth.

“But do the women of Earth know that they aren’t free, that they have been bound by the selfish interests of men?”

The Goddess of Love was standing by the door. She had heard most of her sisters’ conversation. “They know that they aren’t loved in the way they should be loved—in the way that love gladdens the heart. They have lost their faith in love and hope to win at the games of self-interest. They plan to win at the game, and strategize like men to be in the winning circle, to prosper above others.”

Freedom couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Why didn’t she see this when she spent time dropping in on an Earth experience?

The Goddess of Truth spoke up, “We only see when it is the time for us to see.”

“We only feel when our hearts yearn to mend and to give again. Only love gives and is free of all the consequences of self-interest,” added the Goddess of Love.

Freedom looked at her two sisters. She felt so grateful to be with such wise, loving sisters. I’m so dense at times, she thought. I should pay attention to the Truth, and to Love—my sisters can show me so much.

“It’s getting so heavy in here!” laughed the Goddess of Happiness. We have each other, we have the truth, we can love and our sister Freedom always gets us moving, we can find a way to help Premo to free the women of Earth. And,” added the Goddess of Happiness, “have fun while we are doing it!”