The history of the Song of Vajra text embroidery

Since early childhood I have been interested in handicrafts like many girls of my age and I managed to realize my experience in handicrafts into something bigger. I met our precious Master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and heard the Song of Vajra for the first time in 2008 in Moscow. At first not going deep into knowledge I felt a strong connection with the Master. When giving Teaching Rinpoche often spoke about the importance of the Song of Vajra. Having understood the importance of this Teaching I decided to embroider the text of this Song.

But for this I required a pattern according to which I could write all the letters. My love for movies helped me with this. Once when I went to the shop to buy another movie I saw a disc with the program that allowed you to create patterns for embroidery of the pictures or photos that you like. So the process had started. One of my friends who knew about this told me that I should offer this embroidery to Rinpoche afterwards, but I did not pay much attention to his words at that moment. The embroidery process dragged on. The work was not as simple as I expected: each embroidered letter was a work on yourself, inside yourself and a small victory over circumstances and other processes.

But something changed. After another meeting with Rinpoche in 2011 in Crimea I felt some great changes inside me, as if Rinpoche’s blessing came down on me and new horizons opened. Having returned home I met a friend of mine, Ekaterina Nubaryan, and was surprised to know that we had become Vajra sisters. Katya liked the idea to offer the embroidery of the Song of Vajra to Rinpoche very much. But when the work was finished we understood it was far from perfect. We had been thinking a little and decided to embroider it on a beautiful material dark-red in color with rich golden threads. After we found the necessary fabric and some threads and corrected some letters manually, I started to do another embroidery. But later I would need some financial help in buying some materials (threads, fabric for finishing, etc.) and it became a good opportunity for all interested people to participate. Having collected the necessary money we bought additional materials that were required. The work lasted 2 years. It was not simple either. Once I had to undo a whole line – a very long process as I had to pay attention not to damage the fabric. The work was coming to an end but I had to check everything and do some additional work.

Also we wanted to learn the Dance of the Song of Vajra. And in the summer of 2014 we, the Dzogchen Community of Sochi, held the anticipated retreat on the Dance of the Song of Vajra with Ruslan Kim. Thanks to him we succeeded to avoid mistakes in spelling. Our Vajra sister Svetlana Shavronskaya told us that she was going to attend Rinpoche’s teaching in Singapore after our retreat. So we decided to give her our present to Rinpoche although it was not ready yet! Besides I did not know much about knitting, and we had to complete the embroidery in a beautiful way. We were very happy to find out that we have wonderful craftswomen, Svetlana Shavronskaya and Evgenia Edutova. So during our retreat we managed to finish decorating the embroidery very quickly and give it to be presented as an offering. We had so much joy to see at the end of one Webcast how Svetlana presented it to the Master. Rinpoche was very surprised and he started to read it and ask questions.

We were also very happy to see our embroidery hanging in Dzamling Gar! In April 2016 there was a Teacher training with Prima Mai on the Dance that Benefits Beings and the embroidery was hanging in the most honored place. Zhenya saw the embroidery and immediately took a photo and sent it to me.

All those who participated in the creation of this extraordinary present in even the smallest way bear the warmest memories of it! And send our wishes to all Vajra brothers and sister to make do creative deeds!

Svetlana Belkina,
Degyasling, Sochi
Russia