Part Four — The Link and the Spark
Had Hanaû been changed by entering a vortex for the second time? When he had fully immersed himself into the vortex for the first time, he had lost his precious sense of a personal self and found out that having one was a joke. There was no such true thing or True person that was apart from the One Being that animated us all. He was still laughing from that first immersion. He had entered a vortex for the second time to retrieve Sudra. He had witnessed her unveiling of herself as True Heart and the activation or return of her bhavas. He so delighted in Sudra’s purity and innocence and thought, “So She has found a way to return to us.” He knew he would see her again and perhaps be a part of her story—he so hoped he would.
Monkey had been watching Hanaû every day since the momentous day when he (and Coyote) had witnessed the strange event at the vortex. His friend Coyote had gone off to follow his inclinations with the infamous master trickster, Yakataboof. He had heard rumors of their exploits. He, on the other hand, had followed his attraction to the curious fellow Hanaû, who reminded him of someone he used to know—someone he still had the unfinished business of being attracted to. He watched Hanaû from the rooftops or from his favorite perch on the old palo verde tree that peered into Hanaû’s living room. He saw Hanaû playing his wooden flute and dancing around the room with an ecstatic grin on his face. Monkey was attracted to Hanaû’s happiness, and his happiness triggered a reminder in Monkey, and he thought, this man is my very happiness. This feeling—that his happiness was derived from the flute-blowing, dancing man, confused Monkey as he always considered that his happiness came from his sense of play. How he loved to play! He was not a trickster like his friend Coyote. He was a player! He loved to play, and his sense of play told him that this man, Hanaû, could play like no other! He did not know how to reveal himself to Hanaû. Would Hanaû want to play with him?
Hanaû was aware that he was being watched by a wonderful, playful spirit that was in the form of a monkey. He, too, was also very attracted to him. He had felt that somehow his experience at the vortex was initiating this new turn in the page of the story and that he and Monkey would serve a purpose that they were being drawn into. Today, after he finished his dance and wiped his flute clean, he opened the door and simply called out, “Come in and let’s get to know each other face to face.”
Monkey looked around. “Yes, I am talking to you,” called out Hanaû.
Monkey jumped down from the tree and walked upright right into the room where Hanaû extended his hand. They shook hands, but Monkey couldn’t stop himself from growing into the size of six-foot man and wrapping his hairy arms around Hanaû. He wouldn’t let go and Hanaû began to laugh and said, “Yes, my friend, I feel the same way, it’s been such a long, long time, but I can’t quite remember how we know each other, can you?”
Monkey unclasped Hanaû and stepped back. He shook his head and spoke up, “I am here to serve, and my work always take the form of play.”
“Mine too,” quipped Hanaû, “Let’s begin the play then. Any clues as to what games we will be playing?”
Monkey was silent for a moment as he considered the answer to Hanaû’s question. He lit up when the answer appeared. “We are in a play with the Truly Inspired,” he replied.
“Yes!” Hanaû clapped his hands. “Let them appear!” Hanaû jokingly commanded as he and Monkey slapped their palms together.
Hamsi, a rather tall man with very long fingers, was a truly inspired man. His long fingers moved easily into mudras of his choosing. Of course, the mudra of illumination traditionally known as the Hamsi Mudra was his favorite. He knew all the traditional yogic mudras, which numbered almost 400 mudras. He had also invented several of his own. They required hands matching his own, with long, thin fingers. Unfortunately, yogic practitioners with smaller, stockier hands could not manage his truly inspired mudras. His mudras, if done correctly, could even eradicate old age and death. The testament to the power of his mudras was evident, as no one could guess his age accurately. He was close to his 250th birthday, which landed on the full moon in July this year. If one were to guess his age, most people would have guessed about 35 years old. He never revealed his true age to anyone. Though technically a very old man, he lived with the grace and vitality of a much younger man. Over his long years on Earth, he had taught a few eager disciples the traditional mudras and waited to find a worthy disciple to teach them his own truly inspired mudras. Only one man had been given the privilege. That man was Yakaboobis—yes! Yakataboof’s very dear teacher. It was a very fruitful association for Hamsi, because his disciple had given him a very wonderful gift on the day of their parting. A gift he would always treasure and keep close to his heart. It was a pendant carved out of wood which depicted the Hamsi mudra with a slight twist—the raised, pointed index finger had a carved star swinging from its tip. And on the star the name Hanaû was inscribed. Yakaboobis would not tell Hamsi the meaning of the word Hanaû, he only told him, “You’ll see, one day—it will be a most fortuitous meeting.” Hamsi, who had lived to bear witness (and perhaps affected as well) 250 years, had his hunch about when that fortuitous meeting would occur. The mudra of intuition and really good hunches revealed that in a week’s time many unusual and interesting events would occur. The mudra of the divine feminine kept reoccurring in his dreams. He set about on his intentional route and his hands spontaneously moved into mudras at each rest stop along highway 123XYZ. He was 50 miles outside of the town of Moab, meditating, when he saw from the corner of his half-closed eyes a monkey, and that monkey grew to 12-feet tall and was doing a mudra that was as old and aged as they come—the monkey was pointing at him! Hamsi opened his eyes and blinked them to see if the apparition of a 12-foot monkey would disappear. It did not, but it did shrink down to the size of an average man’s height.
The monkey (to Hamsi’s surprise) could speak: “Hello sir, my friend and I have noticed you and we believe that you are a truly inspired one.”
Moving from behind to stand beside the monkey, a man was smiling at him. Hamsi knew instantly that the fortuitous meeting that he had been waiting for was now occurring. He touched his pendant and said, “We meet, you are Hanaû, aren’t you? Please sir, who is this magical monkey that is your companion?”
Monkey (almost) never revealed his name to anyone. Hanaû wasn’t even aware of it. Hanaû looked towards Monkey and wondered what Monkey would reveal, and he was very surprised at what Monkey revealed.
“We’ve met, sir, many years ago, when you were very young and just starting your path. I appeared before you in another form and showed you the mantra of play.”
Hamsi smiled, “Is this true? Then I remember it as a dream of my childhood, a wondrous creature appeared to me, and we had the most fun—the most fun adventures.”
Monkey laughed, “Yes, but sir, it was not a dream—our play and all play is very real!”
Hamsi reflected on that, “Yes, the play—the mudra of the play has always been one of my favorites. But I still don’t know your name. Would you be willing to share it?”
Hanaû nudged Monkey as he too wanted to know his companion’s name.
Monkey took a step forward and leaped and jumped over both men’s shoulder and landed on his tip toes. “I am Gada.”
Hamsi smiled and extended his hand. Gada shook it and Hamsi moved his hands into a mudra—a mudra that interlaced the little and ring fingers and extended the middle fingers upward. He then formed two interlocking rings by touching the tips of the index fingers and thumbs on both hands. “This is the mudra of your name, which represents stability.”
Gada laughed when he learned that his name meant stability. Hanaû smiled and nodded, “I can see that my friend Monkey—I mean Gada—loves to play, and play is the real stabilizing factor.”
Hamsi added, “Yes, work is only a minor aspect of play—it is play that moves the creative force into life. What is it, or who is it that brought us together and that we are to play in?”
Hanaû thought, this man is surely an inspired one like ourselves, “What is it that we can do?” he asked.
Hamsi’s hands moved into another mudra. Gada and Hanaû watched, fascinated at the sheer grace in the movements of Hamsi’s hands. With his palms facing each other, Hamsi joined the tips of the ring and little fingers. He then folded his thumbs into his palms and covered them with the index and middle finger.
Gada looked towards Hanaû and jumped up and down. “Yes! It’s the Shakti mudra,” he declared.
Hamsi nodded, “The Shakti mudra is the mudra of inspiration. The Shakti will show us the play and what we are to do.”
“Time to get a move on!” Gada exclaimed.
“Where to?” asked the two men. The three beings were silent, and Gada spoke up, “I know, the Shakti of our knowing is showing me a place where we are going to meet a girl—a young girl. We need to go to Rainbow Bridge.”
Hanaû spoke up, “I know where that is, it’s not that far from here.”
Gada returned to his usual monkey size and then he appeared in the form of a man. Hanaû noticed Hamsi’s amazement at Gada’s change. He winked at him as if to say, that’s only the beginning of Gada’s play—of his powers. Hamsi was well pleased with the fortuitous meeting and now the fortuitous play was in motion.
Gada insisted on driving, as he knew the way. Hamsi and Hanaû held on as Gada hugged the curves at top notch speed. When they got to the lake, they realized renting a boat was necessary to get to the Rainbow Bridge Arch. Gada declined the boat ride, “I’ll meet you there,” and he jumped into the water and swam at a ferocious speed. He reached the shore and there was no one about. He resumed his monkey form and jumped from rock to rock. He saw no sign of a little girl and when Hamsi and Hanaû arrived, he met them shaking his head, “I’ve looked everywhere,” he said.
Hamsi sat down. His hands felt like they were on fire, and he could not form any mudras with them. Hanaû felt the place to be a vortex, and wondered if there was a specific place to enter it. He wondered if the little girl they were to meet would show them how to enter the vortex. He called out, “We’ve come to meet you here, but we do not know how to enter. Could you show us the way?”
A hot, dry wind picked up and began to swirl around them. Gada delighted in it and danced in circles as it engulfed them. “Come,” the wind moaned, “enter here through the rainbow.”
Hanaû asked, “Where is the rainbow?”
The wind chuckled, “Your own body is the rainbow,” it answered.
Hanaû knew what the wind meant, and he sat perfectly still, and he could see the aura of the place. On the rainbow arch, he saw a rainbow split apart and he heard the laughter of a little girl.
“Up there, we’ll find her,” he pointed.
Gada asked, “Are you sure? I’ve already looked there.”
“Let’s try,” urged Hamsi, and the two men and the monkey ignored the prohibiting sign that read, “No climbing on Rainbow Bridge. It is an indigenous sacred site.”
They veered out onto the bridge and Hamsi’s hands unlocked and he was able to do the mudra of location. This time the three of them heard the laughter of the little girl and they spontaneously together laid themselves down on the arch. Hanaû closed his eyes and when he opened them, the girl was standing over him with a smile on her face. “My Papa,” she said, “You have come. Why have you brought the other two—the monkey and the man with long fingers?”
“They are your friends too,” Hanaû replied.
The girl laughed, “Papa, why have you left me here? I have been waiting for you for such a long time.”
Hanaû knew his heart must speak, “I have been waiting for this day for a long time too, my heart has been longing for it. I had to learn the ways of men before I yearned to find and live as my own heart. I have so missed my little girl.”
“Papa, it is your girl. You must call me by my name for me to appear. Call my name in the sweet way you used to call me when we lived together in the rainbow.”
Hanaû sighed very deeply, and he called out to the girl, “Yipit. Yipity do, come play with me.”
Hanaû sat up. He saw his companions in a deep yogic trance. “Yipit,” he repeated, “please come play with me.”
Hanaû saw a form appear. She appeared in a most delightful form—her smile and the laughter that came from her lips made him feel known and accepted in a way that only true innocence could make one feel. She ran to his arms and he hugged her and she whispered in his ears, “Papa, take me with you, let us never be separated again.”
Hanaû replied, “Yes, my dear Yipit, you can always stay in my house—in my heart. Your love, your innocence will show us her face.”
Yipit laughed, “Yes Papa, we are all growing, growing so fast, faster than even Monkey when he doubles in size!”
Hanaû opened his eyes. He felt himself; he felt her with him. Gada and Hamsi opened their eyes and sat up.
Hamsi’s hands moved in the mudra of reverence: palms touching each other, and he bowed towards Hanaû. “She is with you now, isn’t she?” he asked.
Hanaû nodded. Gada jumped to his feet. “I saw her too!” he exclaimed and clapped his hands together several times. “She was playing with me, she jumped on my shoulders, and I showed her the world as we flew all around the great mother Earth. She pointed to a place where she told me we must help to call forth the opening.”
“This time, I’m driving!” exclaimed Hamsi, and his hands held an imaginary wheel as he shot a glance at Gada.
Gada laughed, “This time, I am taking the boat with you two and,” he added, “the little girl.”
In all his long life, Hamsi had never felt such a strong force—the winds were gathering in strength, and he knew he was being blown in the direction the winds wanted him to go. His companions, Hanaû and the monkey Gada, were fine companions. He was being drawn deeper into this purposeful play. His hands, his fingers, were drawing shapes and forms and he could picture the scene they were sketching. They would find a deep hole—a natural opening in the earth. Where would this opening be?
Gada saw Hamsi’s hands move into a wave like motion. It’s the ocean, he thought, that’s where we’ll find the opening. How will we get there? The ocean is vast, and it doesn’t give up its secrets easily. He also felt the winds were blowing them and he knew that a boat with great sails would be necessary. They boarded their sailboat, a steady sure one that they rented. The set sail from the Philippines and headed east. Hanaû so loved the ocean and he felt Yipit at play guiding them in the direction of her playful, knowing ways. When they had traveled about 120 miles, Hanaû felt Yipit tugging at his inner listening. “She’s here, she’s down here—in the ocean. This place is her seat that she will rise from.” Hanaû looked out towards the vast ocean. “Down there,” Yipit declared, “deep down she will rise.” Hanaû tried to imagine the depth that the she was residing in.
“Here,” he pointed to the ocean’s depth. Hamsi and Gada looked, and Hamsi asked, “How do we get to her, how do we invoke her?”
Gada spoke up, “I have a way,” and as he jumped into the ocean, he changed his form into one of a whale. Hamsi and Hanaû exchanged glances as if to say, I didn’t know he could do that too!
Gada went deep, and then even deeper. He saw a wide long trench at the ocean floor. He sensed a strong vibration, a sound that echoed, a sound so deep that it was mantric in how it affected him. He knew he was being invoked, that she was locating him and he moved closer to the sound.
“Come let me ride on your back,” she implored, “Take me from these depths and rise me to the light where I can see the sun. It is time for me to experience my own creative impulse. I am ready.”
Gada felt her holding to his back, and he ascended higher and higher towards the sun, towards the sky. As he reached the boat where his companions were waiting, he resumed his monkey form and opened his palm and a young woman stepped from his hand and she grew in stature to the size of a normal human woman.
Yipit spoke to her in the way that the truly inspired speak to each other. “Papa is here, I am with Papa!”
The woman smiled when she heard her little sister’s words. She spoke out loud and said, “You have moved me out of my great depths. I am ready, let’s begin the play.”
Hamsi studied the woman, and his heart knew that he knew her. She had visited him many times through the depth of his own place. They had played together there on many, many occasions. He was aroused at the very sight of her.
She smiled at him so sweetly and asked him, “Do you remember me? We have swum together many times in the depths of the waves of our attraction.”
Hamsi’s arousal grew even stronger, and he desired her unlike he had desired any woman before. He felt her form as his own and she felt him as her own as well.
“Yes,” she laughed, “We are one everflowing….We have a purpose and play together. Do you know what that is?”
Hamsi nodded but could not speak. His hands were on fire with an overwhelming desire to touch her.
She turned to Hanaû, “I see my little sister is with you and she calls you Papa. I am Stard.”
Hanaû in return nodded, “I am at your service. My name is Hanaû, and the monkey/man is Gada.”
Stard laughed, “A whale, a man, and a monkey. My sister, dear Yipit, are you ready?”
Yipit appeared and delighted in her bigger sister, “You mean, we must find her, find mother?”
“Yes, we must find her. Do any of your truly inspired companions know where our journey should take us now?”
All were silent. Stard looked towards Hanaû. “You are without mind, but you know everything. What must we do, where should we go to find mother so she can be revealed to us?”
Hanaû, free from his own content, waited to hear what could be spoken. “Mother is always here, waiting to be invoked by the needing of her children.” He looked towards Yipit and Stard. “Have you need of her?” he asked.
Yipit answered, “I need her to grow, to live in and as her vast heart.”
Stard added, “I need her to know the passion play of attraction.” She looked toward Hamsi.
Gada added, “I need her affection and care.”
Hamsi’s hands made the sign of a cave. “As you came from the deepest trench of the ocean, Stard, mother waits for her reveal in the cave of our hearts.”
Gada jumped in delight, “I know of a vast cave. It is a place of its own ecology, a vast dwelling that contains its own environment—lush vegetation, plants, flowers, and a river flows through it. This place is the most sublime place, a truly interior place bursting with life. A place of fertility, surely if any place could be the place on earth where the mother can be invoked, this cave is the place.”
“Yes!” they all exclaimed. Mother was waiting, waiting to be revealed.
The cave of the Earth could not be entered by any ordinary means. Only the truly inspired would find the way and means to enter it. Hamsi, Gada and Hanaû with his daughter Yipit and her sister Stard knew the means and way as the truly inspired would know. The opening of the cave appeared, and they entered the cave through their loving need of her.
“My children have come,” mother exclaimed. “Is this finally the time of the great invocation?” she asked.
“Mother! Mother!” Yipit exclaimed. “Father is here, sister is here, we are all here!”
Mother smiled, “Yes, I have a surprise for you, my dear Yipit. Stard knows of what I speak.”
Stard stepped forward, “Mother, is it the time to invoke the great attraction—the greatest attraction?” she asked.
Mother nodded, “We must gather and ascend from these depths, this fertile place, and be shown into the light.” As she spoke these words, a hundred goddesses emerged and moved up from their fertile cave into the realm of life. Hanaû, Hamsi and Gada were amazed at this vision. Hamsi felt that he had been waiting all his life to behold what he was seeing now. Hanaû and Gada looked towards each other. It was a wonderful story that would be revealed when they chose to share it (and they will in necessary paper and pen time). Yipit yelled, “I will live and play as mother, all my mothers will show me.” Stard knew mother would show her how to play in attraction—how to arouse and stir up the longing in all hearts.
Coyote and Yakaboobis had watched this sacred moment appear. They watched and waited from a place where they weren’t seen or noticed. Yakaboobis understood how the goddesses had emerged and Coyote howled to affirm his knowing experience. They had appeared to bring Sudra into the play of her knowing and her work, and now they appeared and reemerged to bring the play of the light—the attracting force. Yakaboobis felt he was witnessing, he was a part of a truly miraculous time, a time helped to appear by all the truly inspired—the truly inspired tricksters and the truly inspired players. And he knew this was occurring for the broken hearted—to be mended, and for a healing that had never been experienced here before. Was it wishful thinking, was it just a dream to meet a need? Was it a trick? Was it a play of attraction?
It was time for the Goddesses to reveal through their emergence the purpose of their Divine attraction and play. It is time to hear their story.
The One Hundred (and one) Goddesses
Simply told—the Goddesses gave everyone an experience of divine ecstasy, and upon doing this they took upon themselves all the sorrows of the world’s inhabitants. Copious tears flowed from their eyes and their heart purified the world. And if this was not magic enough, Sudra appeared as the bright light She Is, and this light broke into rainbows—rainbows that shimmered as the rain of everyone’s tears dried. The world looked the same but was forever changed. No one believed in the nonsense of the suffering caused by the idea of separation from Her, from their own heart. Everyone woke up and finally saw who was behind all this sad magic—NO ONE! They laughed and laughed at the joke of it. One little girl made the whole-body mudra of heart opening and heart awareness. “How fortunate we are to live in the time of the Goddess,” she said, as she danced. One little girl and her band, her circle of the Goddesses, had the power to make the impossible possible. No one could understand how such a power, such magic, could arrive in this place. No one predicted such a momentous change, only the truly inspired, a coyote, a monkey and a man—a trickster with the ridiculous name of Yakataboof—knew. They always knew it was coming, for their service was to serve the play of the Divine Goddess. They had done their jobs well and knew Her love had no limits, no boundaries. Her love was their sustenance, their joy. She Is the link and the force of her attraction had sparked the heart of everyone to open. We are all her spark. She Is the Light and all are her Brightness of Being.
This is the story of how the world ended. This is the story of how it all begins again and again. We only always return to Her when we realize our own foolish delusion of being separate from her. Everyone has a part to play in the journey of the True Reveal. I am already happy, as She Is, the one whose heart lives us all. May you be sparked!
Santosha Tantra September 7, 2023
