AHYMSIN Newsletter, Issue - July 2023
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Dear {subtag:name}, |
Guru Purnima Message 1984~ Swami Rama
This day, Guru Purnima, is celebrated with great encouragement by aspirants who follow the spiritual path. No matter which path is followed, whether it is raja, bhakti, jnana, laya or any other path, all celebrate this day. This day of Guru Purnima reminds us of our spiritual awaking and to be on the path sincerely, regularly and making efforts to attain the goal. Guru is a fountainhead of knowledge, spirituality, and wisdom through which flows the knowledge that is traditionally handed down from generation to generation. This day reminds one of his goals. Let us rejoice this day and make a firm resolution and obtain our goal, which is peace, happiness and bliss, and serve others selflessly, and love others selflessly. Love all selflessly. May you love all and exclude none. OM. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti |
Guru Purnima 2013~ Swami Veda Bharati These are sacred days in succession. Buddha-purnima, full moon celebrating Buddha’s enlightenment around June; guru-purnima, full moon celebrating and honouring the universal guru and the individual guru, around July; rishi-purnima, the full moon celebrating the rishis, the ancient sages of yore through whom the knowledge of the Vedas was revealed, around August. The guru tradition is a universal in all ancient cultures. Buddha’s last teacher was celebrated Arada Kalama who taught him Sankhya-yoga. Jesus has St. John the Baptist. The Incarnation Rama has to be reminded of his divinity by the sage Vasishtha (read Yoga-vasishtha). Krishna the teacher of Bhagavad-gita had three gurus… Even Gilgamesh of the Sumerian-Akkadian epic has Utnapishtim. The Sufi tradition pays homage to its peer-o-murshid masters. Anyone seeking to progress in any field seeks a mentor. Modern day Catholics have spiritual directors for study and contemplation of texts like Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. So in all ancient traditions of Africa, New Zealand, American Indians, and you name it. Seeking a guru, therefore, is an innate part of our nature; part of our spiritual urges. Many resist this urge out of ego. They think ‘I can make it on my own’ and sooner or later they stumble or become disappointed or confused as to their path. A guru may appear in an embodied form or in a disembodied form, for a guru is one who infuses into our individuated consciousness the divine consciousness. Consciousness has no form. Our Gurudeva continues to guide thousands from his bodiless state. The body-bound do not understand this. |
News from the AshramDear AHYMSIN Family, As Guru Purnima approaches, we share some news with our global spiritual family. Guru Purnima celebrations at SRSG
The blessings of the Guru Lineage are evident during our Guru Purnima celebrations here at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama. As you all know, Guru Purnima celebrations at the ashram span over 9 days with akhanda patha, 24 hours non-stop recitation of the Guru-Gita, daily pujas, and yajna with the Akhanda-manadalakam-mantra. This year, the Guru Purnima is on 3rd July, 2023, and we will have the purnahuti of the 9-days long akhanda patha and the yajna. Swami Ameyaananda Bharati
On the auspicious day of the Devashayana Ekadashi, 29th June, 2023, our beloved mother Swami Ameyaananda Bharati left her body. Swami Veda Bharati’s Mahasamadhi Celebrations
In timeless remembrance of our beloved Swami Veda Bharati on his 8th Mahasamadhi Anniversary, Swami Ritavan Bharati has lovingly guided us all to offer japa at our dear Master’s lotus feet as our homage to his eternal love and teachings. This is a very special time at SRSG, one brimming with our dearest Swamiji’s every loving presence. One can feel the Grace of the Lineage in the Meditation Hall, Initiation Room, and all around the ashram as we are moving closer to the conclusion of our 9-day long Guru Purnima celebrations and beginning of our Mahasamadhi day celebrations. At the Ashram, we will be taking a collective sankalpa for a mahapurashacharana (counting the number of syllables in a given mantra and doing that many hundred thousand repetitions for each syllable) of the mantra—Om Shreem Gurave Namah on 3rd July¬. The practice includes 700,000 repetitions of the mantra, along with a daily one-hour long fire offering (yajna) offered by the ashram residents. As we are coming together to pay our homage to our dearest Swamiji, we are also very grateful to Swami Ritavan for his continued guidance and blessings in all our practices. We lovingly invite our international family members to also join us in this offering from their own centres and homes. May these auspicious days deepen our connection with one another and strengthen our collective resolve to walk the Path of Love, Serve, Remember as guided by our Gurudeva Swami Rama of the Himalayas and our beloved Swami Veda Bharati. Om Shreem Gurave Namah. |
The Role of Guru in One’s Life~ Dr Stephen Parker (Stoma) Remember, it is the Guru’s presence in your mind that takes form as your mantra. Your mantra is not just a tool for meditation, even though everybody talks about it that way. Mantra is the vibration of the presence of the Guru-shakti in the core of your mind. At initiation, it is planted as a seed, a bija, which is what the word bija actually means. As the mantra-seed takes “root” it leads your awareness into subtle depths of the mind through the process of japa meditation to finally blossom as the fruits of meditation with samadhi. Your mantra is guiding you into those finer and finer experiences of Guru’s subtle presence. In my meditation, as the process of mantra japa deepens, I stay focused on the nasagra point. Once sushumna is awakened then I just sit there and watch from where the iccha-shakti of my mind gives me an invitation. That subtle presence of the Guru tells me where to go in meditation, whether to go into a chakra, whether to work with the sushumna-stream in spinal meditation. I just wait for that inner guide that leads the meditation to where it is supposed to go, and that is perfect, just perfect. That’s what the mantra and the japa of mantra is intended to do for you. That “seed” grows as the relationship with Guru, with that inner guide and voice that is beyond words. It leads you to what you need to know and where you need to grow. So, sooner or later the words are going to disappear and you will be left with just a feeling, you follow that feeling and it begins to become certain vibration, you follow that vibration, and gradually that refines down into a point, into a bindu. A point of both immanence and transcendence. So this is how the Guru leads us in our meditation practice, this is why the Guru doesn’t need to be a person in a physical body. |
The Teacher’s Scalpel~ Mokshadeva (Randall Krause) A spiritual teacher is like a physician, helping cure one of a disease. Sometimes, the physician must take a scalpel and cut out an abscess or use a hot needle to cauterize a wound to bring a person back to health. The job of a Yoga sage is to remove the scum of his disciples’ false identifications with their ego identities, so they can find the clear light of the Infinite within. Although Swami Veda was the kindest and gentlest of human beings, he would not spare the rod if that’s what his student needed. One time, early in our relationship, I attended one of his talks. He was on a stage, outside, and everyone else was sitting down below on grass listening. At one point, he said something like “I am an anthill to my Master’s Himalayas. I have so far to go to become enlightened.“ After his talk, when he took questions, I raised my hand and he called on me. “You said that you have so far to go until you reach enlightenment. But what about me?” I said that last sentence almost with a whine. |
Zoom Workshops on
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Online Guided Full Moon Meditations~ with Swami Ritavan Bharati and other Mantra Initiators To celebrate the global Full Moon Meditations, HYMNS (Himalaya Yoga Meditation Network Society) in the Netherlands has set up online guided meditations with Swami Ritavan Bharati and other mantra initiators via zoom. These guided meditation sessions are being held to bring closer together our family members from Europe and African regions and will be held at 9 – 10pm CET (Central European Time). The first session will be on 1st August 2023, guided by Swami Ritavan Bharati. The other sessions will be guided by mantra initiators of the Global Sangha. The meditation will be guided for the first ten minutes or so. After that, we will continue in silence with our mantra. You are all lovingly invited to sit in meditation for an hour wherever you are, in your home or with friends, and connect with the collective mind-field of the Guru Lineage and the Sangha, and thereby deepen your meditation. Kindly Contact: info@yoga-hymns.nl for registration and more information. |
Swami Rama Dhyana Gurukulam
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Global Meditation ReminderFull Moon Meditation New Moon Meditation
You are 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…” Global Meditations Schedule |
Upcoming Events~ Specialty Retreats with Senior Teachers HYT-TTP Level 1 & 2 Retreats with Senior TTP Faculty Sun Salutations as Worship with Pt Priyadarshan (Pierre Lefebvre)
Mauni Amavasya Silence Retreats at SRSG with Swami Ritavan Bharati Intensive Meditation Retreat with Swami Ritavan Bharati
Entrance to the Subtle Body Retreat with Swami Ritavan Bharati HYT-TTP Level 1 & 3 Retreats with Senior TTP Faculty
~ Dive Deeper into Philosophy with these Retreats Guru Disciple Relationship with Rabindra Sahu Art of Spiritual Learning with Rabindra Sahu
Navaratri Retreat – Cultivating the Divine Feminine with Swami Ritavan Bharati and Rabindra Sahu Choosing a Path with Rabindra Sahu
Narada Bhakti Sutras – Treatise on Love and Surrender with Rabindra Sahu Navaratri Retreat – Cultivating the Divine Feminine with Swami Ritavan Bharati and Rabindra Sahu
~ Retreats for Beginning, Refining, and Advancing in your Practices |
