Good tidings to you at this auspicious period of “resting”, receiving the gift of void – emptiness. What is this incessant urge, desire, and need to fill? The art of fulfilment is the art of giving. Through giving you receive. By emptying you create the “space” – the opportunity to receive and thereby to be nurtured.

May this be a natural pause in life. Witness and experience the transition between the exhalation and inhalation, where the “two” meet as “one”.

Let this One be celebrated as the all-expansive absolute reality.

So let us remember our treasured maha-vakya, and contemplate the great sentence: Om Kham Brahma where “kham” is experiencing the pause, the shunya, nil, void, neither “is” nor “is not”. Beyond duality, this transcendental becomes the revelation of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, the Sat, Chit, Ananda of Brahman. Let Brahman alone be the fullness you seek.  May your embrace of the “pause” reveal a new moon of consciousness as you meditate at the solstice of your life-breath. From the “pause” of New Moon today, let the year flow into the Full Moon of Enlightenment.

Om Kham Brahma, Om Aham Brahma.

Editor’s Note:

Swami Ritavan Bharati, the Spiritual Guide of AHYMSIN and Ashram Pramukha of Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama, has shared that the New Moon Meditations will continue in 2023 as before. We will continue to use the Saumya-Tara Mantra for the New Moon Meditations.

You are lovingly invited to sit in meditation for an hour wherever you are, in your home or with friends. Total beginners and longtime practitioners, non-initiates and initiates are welcome. If you cannot sit for the entire hour, sit as long as you are able; as Swami Veda has said, “Let the quietness of the mind continue even after you rise..”

New Moon Meditation Schedule in 2023:

Swami Ritavan Bharati will join the New Moon Meditations at 6 PM IST from Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama. As much as possible, you are invited to sit for your meditation and connect with Swami Ritavan, members of the AHYMSIN Spiritual Committee, the Ashram community, and others at the same time.

Saumya-Tara Mantra (2019-2022)

She, of the lunar aspect, moonlike, peaceful and kind, is even more beautiful than all lunar-like forces and peaceful entities combined in the entire universe.

Thou are the supreme Lady. Thou alone art the supreme Lady who transcends all transcendent realities and immanent forces.

I prostrate to the Liberator, Mother of all the Victorious Ones.

Saumya-Tara Mantra Recitation by Pandit Priyadarshan (Pierre Lefebvre)

For more information about the current three year sangha practice, please see:

• “Sangha Practice for the Next 3 Years” by Swami Ritavan Bharati
• “Advancing Guidance in Yoga Sadhana” by Swami Ritavan Bharati
• “Saumya Mantra Explanations”
• “The Importance of the AHYMSIN Community Saumya Practice” by Swami Ritavan Bharati
• “Three Year Mantra Practice, 2019 to 2022”
• AHYMSIN March 2019 newsletter

You may contact the AHYMSIN Spiritual Committee at adhyatmasamiti@gmail.com for further guidance. You may also want to read more about the global Full Moon Meditations.