In the fall of 2011, I agreed to take on a big project, creating an online vegetarian cooking show. Right from the start, I prayed to God to help me. I knew that I couldn’t do it, but that God could do it through me.
I found the following inspiring quotation from Swami Kriyananda’s book Living Wisely, Living Well. I pasted it on the front of my computer. It was my guideline for the project, and it helped me very much.
“If you trust in God, you will find that, by asking Him for help, He will do everything you ask of Him provided you ask with faith. Don’t plead with Him. Say, rather, “This is what I am trying to accomplish for You. I need Your strength, and Your guidance. I’ll do what I can, but You must do the rest.”
I maintained my daily meditation practice, no matter how busy I was, and during each day, I practiced japa, repeating the name of God so that I wouldn’t forget God during activity. I reminded myself daily that God is the doer, to help me stay calm and centered
.
God’s blessings came through, and everything went well. And we had a lot of fun in the process. I’d like to share one small example of the many ways that God helped during this project.
While filming the cooking shows, I had a team of people working with me. We spent long days filming in my kitchen.
At the end of each filming day, I would meet with my assistant who helped me to get the food for the next day.
At the end of one day, as we were going over the menus for the next day, I discovered that we didn’t have beet greens. It was mid-November. The Ananda garden didn’t have any, nor did Ananda’s Master’s Market or the nearby grocery store.
I told everyone to go home, and I lay down on the floor with my feet propped on the couch. I was very tired, and had much to prepare for the next day. I remained calm, and prayed to God: “What shall I do? I h
ave so much to prepare for tomorrow. It’s already late. Do you want me to drive to Grass Valley and look for beet greens?”
I heard an inner voice saying: “Go for a walk.” So I did.
After about 10 minutes of walking and praying desperately for a solution, I heard inside of me the name: “Anaashini.” She was my downstairs neighbor. She had a vegetable garden, but she was out of town so I didn’t think to call her.
Acting on the inner guidance, I immediately went to her garden and to my great surprise, I found in the corner a beautiful fresh bunch of red and green chard, the exact amount that I needed. I didn’t know if I could substitute chard for beet greens. So I rushed to my computer and checked online.
I found that chard is a member of the beet family and is an ideal substitute for beet greens. Tears of gratitude streamed down my cheeks as I read the good news.
I thanked God for helping me again in my cooking project.
The more we live and act in this world with God, the more we are in tune with higher guidance, and are able to find solutions to the challenges that we face in daily life.
Here is the link to the online cooking program:
http://www.expandinglight.org/online-learning/vegetarian-cooking/
