Of all the many illustrations and pictures I have seen depicting the violet flame this is one of my favorites! It is ordinary yet profound in its meaning and symbolism.
First, the picture depicts ordinary people in ordinary life. No one is necessarily more important than the other in education, training, or experience. It is just a simple everyday interaction between two people.
Next, it shows the customer enjoying a generous helping of chocolate cake along with a cup of coffee (no doubt with caffeine too). I often struggle to maintain dietary balance in my life. Who wouldn’t want to have chocolate cake and coffee every day?? When I feel this way, I often think of an excerpt from the movie Awake – The Life of Yogananda. The interaction takes place between Yognanda and an aspiring student:
Paramahansa Yogananda - circa 1920
"Guruji, all my life, I heard thou canst not, thou shalt not, thou must not. These are the rules of the religious teachings that I've heard around my relatives. What I want to know from you is, what canst thou?”
He said "Well, do you smoke?"
And I said, "Yes."
He said, "You may continue."
"Do you drink?"
"Alcohol?" I said, "Yes."
He said, "You may continue."
"Do you enjoy the opposite sex promiscuously?"
"Yes."
"Well, you may continue."
I said, "Wait a minute. You mean that I can come up on this hill here, in this good place with all of these wonderful people, your disciples and the devotees, and the brothers up here, and study these teachings, and I can go back down there and do all these things?"
"Absolutely. But I will not promise you that as you continue to study these teachings, that the desire to do these things will not fall away from you."
This story is wonderful reminder that with right determination, environment and spiritual practices such as giving the violet flame we can all let undesirable behaviors fall away and replace them with more desirable ones!
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this wonderful violet flame picture demonstrates “service within service”.
Our service to life is often expressed through our job and sometimes our work can feel mundane and without purpose. Some may even see the job of a waitress as requiring little education, skill, and without a future.
However, one of the most important keys to any job or service is to perform it with divine rather than conditional love.
Conditional love typically is performed with a motive such as “I’m doing something nice or generous for someone and therefore I expect something nice or generous in return”.
On the other hand, Divine Love is expressed when you determine “I’ll be kind and considerate to someone even if they are not kind and considerate to me”.
Take another look at the picture above. The body language of the waitress is engaging, she is looking her customer in the eye, and has a smile while she is serving! And most importantly, she is performing a “service within a service” by infusing the violet flame into her interaction with the customer. The waitress is using her opportunity of service to spread the uplifting energy of the violet flame!
The Violet Flame is the Cup of Comfort
Don’t let a day go by that you do not offer someone the cup of comfort of the violet flame. It is one of the greatest gifts, if not the greatest gift, you can ever give!
Discovering the violet flame!
To begin or continue your journey of putting the violet flame into practice in your life you can visit our violet flame resources page. There you will find a free, downloadable violet flame eBook along with violet flame mantras, affirmations and meditation videos!
Until next time...
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