A Prayer Craving Pardon

This is taken from the book:

The Glory of the Divine Mother
Devimahatmyam

By S. Sankaranarayanan.

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Day and night I commit a thousand mistakes, O Supreme Goddess, pardon them considering I am thy slave.

I do not know how to invoke they presence and how to revoke it. I do not know how to worship thee. Pardon, O Supreme Goddess.

O the queen of Gods, let no shortcoming in mantra, ritual or devotion vitiate the fullness of my worship to thee.

If a man commits a hundred faults but utters the invocation, "O World-Mother", the status he attains, even Brahma and other gods do not attain.

I am full of faults. O World-Mother, I seek refuge in thee. Now I have to be pitied. Do as thou likest.

Devi, pray, pardon my acts of omission and commission through ignorance, forgetfulness or error; O Supreme Goddess may though be pleased.

O the lady of love, mother of the world, embodiment of Truth, Consciousness and Bliss, pray accept with satisfaction this worship. O Supreme Goddess, may thou be pleased.

Devi, though art the protector of the most occult secrets. Please accept the japa done by me. Great Goddess, let fulfillment come to me by thy grace.

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Here is also link to another english translation :

This one doesn't use all the "thou" type language. I find the use of the word "thou" in translations a bit off putting, its more harder to take seriously actually, as it just makes me think of pompousness.

http://www.celextel.org/stotras/devi/devikshamastotram.html

I like the picture below:

Petitions

Petitions are strange, its like an appeal by demons to other demons.

Instead of looking into the root causes of why beings are suffering, some just like to sign petitions, thinking that will lead to some sort of solution to the suffering beings face.

Why bother putting time and effort into appealing to beings who have no real power to end the suffering of others anyway?

This picture is from Sri Siva Subramaniya temple in Nadi, Fiji

My favourite picture from the ceiling of pictures there, mainly because I love the story behind it:

I do love this English translation of the Shiva-Tandava Stotra, I printed out awhile ago. The more and more I read it, the more and more I love to read it. A few little bits from it:

"I have a very deep interest in Lord Shiva, whose head is glorified by the rows of the moving waves of the celestial river Ganga, agitating in the deep well of his hair locks, and who has the brilliant fire flaming on the surface of his forehead, and who has the crescent moon as a jewel on his head."

"Lord Shiva whose dance of Tandava is in tune with the series of loud sounds of drum making Dhimid Dhimid sounds, who has the fire on the great forehead, the fire that is spreading out because of the breath of the snake wandering in whirling motion in the glorious sky."

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I went out of Australia for the first time recently, it was by boat, which just feels more natural to me then going on airplane. 

I liked being on the water. 

This is one of the sunsets whilst on the boat.

I miss it sometimes now I'm back on land. It was good at night time as I had the whole back of the deck to myself usually to watch the ocean, under the stars. The moon was dark the first few nights, before it started to wax.

Sydney

I didn't like the city center of Sydney very much.

It had an unclean energy to it, and I didn't feel very safe there. Dark, bleak, gloomy and badly designed.

The only thing I liked there was the Chinese Gardens.