dena merriam

This book is told through the voice of a dancer in ancient Dwarka, a city on the western coast of India. It was on a pilgrimage to Dwarka a few years ago that Dena experienced her life. But even though this book recounts events in her life and follows her through three incarnations, this story is not truly about her but about Rukmini, the one who was working behind the scenes, as Rukmini and Shri Krishna set the framework for the era that was beginning to unfold. This narrative shows how Rukmini Mata enabled those around her to fulfil samskaras from past births―the karma one has accrued in the cycle of life, death, and rebirth―bringing closure to unfinished relationships and desires. Dena include many stories told by women to other women, recounted by those living in Dwarka in close association with Rukmini, in the hope of showing how an incarnation of the Universal Mother comes to guide an evolving humanity.

Dena Merriam began work in the inter-faith movement in 1990s as Vice Chair of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious Leaders held at the UN in 2000. She is the founder of the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW). For over 40 years, she has been a student of Paramahansa Yogananda and a meditation practitioner. She received her MA from Columbia Univ. In 2014 she received the Niwano Peace Prize for her interfaith peace efforts. She is the author of the book My Journey Through Time - A Spiritual Memoir of Life, Death and Rebirth, The Untold Story of Sita, & When the Bright Moon Rises.
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When the Bright Moon Rises is first and foremost a love story: love between the sages and the cosmic forces known as the deities, love of the sages for the people, and love between individuals seeking to express this universal force of love that exist within all of us. It is also a study of karma, the cosmic law of cause and effect. This narrative begins in Vedic India, around the 9th century BCE, with the meeting of two people and the seeding of a love that cannot be fulfilled but which comes to fruition nearly 10,000 years later during the Tang Empire in China, where they are reborn as the renown poet Li Bai and his poet wife. The awakening of her memories of previous births initiates an inner struggle that is only resolved under the guidance of her Daoist Master. This is her story.

Dena is an author, storyteller, and the founder and convener of the Global Peace Initiative of Women.  Bringing spiritual resources to address critical global challenges, such as conflict, social justice, and ecological scarring of the earth.  Over the years sshe has worked to bring greater gender balance and balance between the Abrahamic and Dharma- based religious traditions for a more inclusive interfaith movement.

The Untold Story of Sita replaces the traditional narrative of Sita's life as told in the Ramayana with Sita as she truly is -- an incarnation of the great Devi Narayani. Sita comes to Earth to join Sri Ram in setting the foundation for a new civilization at a time when humans are becoming separate from the natural world. She seeks to embed a great love for the forests and rivers, plant and animal life in the hearts and minds of the people, and to share the high spiritual accomplishments of the great women rishis and sages, many of whom you meet along Sita's journey. This is a story of a woman's wisdom, courage and strength, her love for the manifest and unmanifest worlds, and her selfless sacrifices for the welfare of all. So step into Sita's time and see what life was like during a more spiritually more advanced age, when there was an understanding of Dharma, not just as duty but as an alignment with the higher forces of love that make possible the preservation of our world.