Month: December 2023

Embarking on the sacred mission of love, serve, and remember, our Ashram has been trying to bring transformative changes to the lives of many for more than two decades through its diverse charitable endeavours. We are thrilled to share with our spiritual family a brief overview of some of the activities we have undertaken.

Our initiatives include:

1. Social welfare projects
2. Women empowerment project
3. Sadhu seva project
4. Covid welfare project
5. Supporting Sanskrit education
6. Education welfare project for economically weaker sections
7. Infrastructure development of schools
8. Free distribution of books and educational materials
9. Adolescent resource centre (ARC)
10. Free yoga meditation sessions in schools
11. Animal welfare
12. Support to Rural Development Institute (RDI), HIHT, Dehradun
13. Support to KHEL charities, Dehradun
14. Supporting Nava Prabhat Public Charitable Trust, Odisha

Our social welfare project extended a helping hand and financial aid to those facing adversity, transforming the lives of many who were navigating through financial hardships. Our efforts were not limited to financial support only; we also distributed essential items like blankets, quilts, mattresses, furniture, and electrical home appliances to more than 400 families to provide comfort and warmth to the marginalized during severe winter months. Our medical care project provided financial support to many underprivileged families for their critical care.

We created a beautiful space for fitness and fun for families in our local community by building a small public park that is also equipped with some exercise machines. We provided critical support to our nearby local community of 40 families whose homes were flooded during the heavy monsoons this year, offering them with basic sustenance materials and a supply of groceries.

In our efforts to support rural women on their journey towards financial independence, we were able to train 68 women at our various sewing centers. This opened new avenues of income generation through tailoring. We also encouraged and trained a community of women in a rural area in Dehradun to grow organic turmeric, and helped them in selling their cultivation of about 200 Kg of organic turmeric.

In line with Swami Rama’s instructions, we continue our support for the Sadhus in Gangotri as well as in other areas by providing them with necessary and required grocery items, vegetables, woolens, heaters, water heaters, solar lights, medicines, quilts, shoes and everything else they might need to survive the harsh winters in the Himalayas.

During the Covid-19 lockdowns where millions suffered across the globe, we offered essential grocery items to more than 1000 families in Rishikesh who lost their livelihood. We also offered our support to more than 500 front line workers by offering them 5000 N-95 masks and hand sanitizers. We also extended financial aid to those families who lost their
only earing member and to those children who were unfortunately orphaned because of the pandemic.

As we know, our beloved Swami Veda Bharati loved the Sanskrit language dearly, we are doing our small bit to preserve this ancient language in the changing times. We have supported four Sanskrit schools by helping them develop their infrastructure (hostel buildings, classrooms, furniture etc.), by providing books and uniforms to the stude

nts, and by also sponsoring teachers’ dakshina. More than 300+ students studying at these schools have been benefited by these efforts.

We also have an educational welfare project to help students from economically weaker sections in Rishikesh and nearby ar

eas. In addition to supporting their school fees, we also provide resources tailored to meet their educational needs including books, notebooks, stationary, uniforms, yoga mats, etc. This project has benefited more than 800+ students in 20 schools across various districts of Uttarakhand.

In addition, 1500+ students have undergone transformative training through our Adolescent resource centre (ARC), which sensitises them about physical and emotional changes that they are going through. This includes sharing age-sensitive and culturally appropriate knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene, personal hygiene, gender roles, physical and psychological well-being, etc. They also receive personality development, effective communication, life skills, and time management training. All the students under the ARC training also learn yoga meditation within the Himalayan Tradition, including joints & glands exercises, hatha yoga, diaphragmatic breathing, relaxation, and meditation.

We are happy to share that apart from taking care of the beautiful cows in our gaushala, we have also extended support towards other organizations who are dedicated to taking care of stray animals, including sick, abandones cows and dogs. One of them houses more than 250 abandoned, sick, paralyzed and old dogs, including 25 receiving intensive care in their dedicated Special Care Unit.

In addition to our internal charity projects, we have also extended financial aid to our sister charitable organizations including the Rural Development Institute at HIHT, KHEL Charities and Nava Prabhat ashram in supporting their mission to serve the society.

In our journey of selfless service, we seek the guidance of our Guru and lineage, expressing heartfelt gratitude to our benevolent family members whose generous donations have been a constant source of support.

The solar principle can be contemplated as the energy of creation, sustenance, and dissolution. Without the energy of the Sun, nothing can be created. It is also considered as the prana force flowing through all the living beings, sustaining life. Sun is also the fire of dissolution, dissolving all darkness through its light of inspiration, destroying ignorance through its light of wisdom. The Shanti Mantra prayer­—tamso-ma-jyotirgamaya—is a prayer to the Divine to lead us from the darkness of ignorance towards the light of wisdom. The Sun is also the fire of purification. We may contemplate upon what is it in our lives that we want to create, sustain, and what is it that we want to remove or dissolve from our lives?

When we behold the Sun within, like fire, it burns away all the impurities that are held within us. We will be purified only after we pass through this fire. This path of purification could be an uncomfortable and unpleasant process. When we thus allow ourselves to be burned in the womb of fire, that nurtures, sustains, and destroys, we can then experience the immaculate presence of the True Self within.

Fire element defies gravity. When we watch fire, it always has an upward rising vertical movement. In every religion, fire is worshipped as it always is uplifting, and it propels us forward and upward. Without having enough fire, a rocket cannot be launched into space. To be launched to the Divinity, we also need the energy of fire.

Fire is considered as a messenger of Divinity. Fire is a messenger to the Divinity. To connect with fire, we offer ourselves completely and surrender to its power. Through this offering, we pray to the fire for cleansing and purification, so that the doors to ascension are opened.

The Guru also represents the solar principle in our lives, selflessly guiding us, always nurturing us, directing us toward the path of self-purification and self-transformation. The Guru leads us to our inner sun—the divine light within. So, the Sun is also the Guru Force. In the mythology, the Sun taught the Vedas to Lord Hanuman. We are all aware that the solar principle is invoked through the practice of Gayatri mantra, that helps purify the buddhi (intellect) and direct it towards the Highest. The Sun’s feminine (nurturance) as well as masculine (transformation) qualities are both found in all the great Masters of the world.

The Sun, like the Guru is a tough taskmaster, inspiring us to get out of our comfort zone. Even if a disciple doesn’t like it, the gurus put one through the fire of purification. Once purified, only then can we become a fit vessel to receive the grace of the Guru and the Divine that allows to be established in our True nature. We need to expose ourselves to that fire of the Sun so that it may destroy our narrow thinking, unhealthy emotional bondages, habit patterns, etc. that limit our being.

The Sun is the source of inspiration within us. Every sunrise, marking the beginning of a new day, brings with itself an opportunity and motivation to get up and to act. When we use terms like “full of enthusiasm or fire” within an individual, we are recognising the presence of the solar principle in their life.

People often complain about lack of inspiration or an inability to get out of bed. Where is that physical and mental lethargy coming from? If I was going on a holiday, I will get up early to catch my flight. But I will not be able to get up every day to go to work? Is there a dynamism or some inspiration in my everyday life? When I cook, is there an inspiration behind my cooking? When I clean, is there any inspiration behind my cleaning? When we invoke the solar principles within us, its transformative quality is extended to our everyday activities, thus little challenges that come up along the way will no longer have the power to affect us or disturb us. We would remain enthusiastic about contributing towards something beautiful and higher. When we connect with something higher in our life, then our actions become a worship. And we are able to approach life with a sense of sacredness and purity.

The Sun is one of the greatest of Karma yogis, who burns itself, selflessly serving the entire universe since the time of creation, bringing its light and warmth to all of us. It is always on time and is never late; neither it ever takes a holiday. If we truly feel connected with the solar energy, how can there be a space for lethargy and laziness within us?

In Indian mythology, Sun is also known as Lord of Dharma. Dharma can be understood as rightful living, so that our way of living is not a burden to the world as well as upon ourselves. The Sun never wavers from its own duty of bringing light and warmth to the world. It also never demands anything of us, never discriminates against anyone, and never complains. Thereby the Sun serves as a daily reminder for us to perform our duties and responsibilities in the world, lovingly and selflessly. It reminds us of our duties and responsibilities in terms of what is right versus what I like. It illuminates our path, encouraging us to live purposefully, with a higher vision.

We may begin to honour the Sun as a part of our daily rituals, dinacharya. This may include getting up early in the morning before sunrise, taking a bath, and offering our salutations to the rising Sun to express our gratitude. There are various prayers with mantras and stotras dedicated to the Sun in the Vedas.

Similarly, we see that the Sun is also worshipped in all the religions of the world. The Sun is a symbol of Jesus Christ in Christianity. In Sufism, this light is called Nur, the divine light, which also symbolizes understanding of our inner self. When we worship the sun, we attune ourselves to the highest life affirming energy and express gratitude for this perennial light of nurturance in our lives. 

“When you stand before the Sun, you should not stand just before an ordinary natural phenomenon. The whole process of yoga depends on the philosophical realization of one fact that we have spoken of repeatedly: the correspondence between the microcosm (the small world of the personality) and the macrocosm (the universe). What is in this egg, the roughly oval outline of the body in a meditative posture, is in the cosmic egg. Whatever is in the cosmic egg is in this egg also. The idea in Yoga (yoga = yoke, join) is to establish the connection between the two, to unite the two.”

– Swami Veda Bharati

Editor’s Note:

[Rabindra Sahu, Acharya of Swami Rama Dhyana Gurukulam, taught a class on ‘Attitude of Worship and Surrender in the Practice of Sun Salutation’ at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama on 21 November 2023. You may watch a glimpse of the session by clicking on the video below.]