Category: Swami Ritavan Bharati

…Tāre tut tāre ture svāhā:

With this prayer for you and your loved ones in all parts of the world, together let us cultivate serenity. In these times of adversity, the teachings of the Tradition continue by way of the power of your ascetic endeavor (tapas). Let us loosen the knots of the heart to remain full of hope (smriti). Come to the awareness of this moment and remain the observer. Come in-touch with the power that emanates when you have gathered all forces and rest in stillness. Where fears and worries appear, let-go and let the spiritual forces rise-up in your mind.

The quest remains, the teachings continue, the blessings flow, all from that spiritual core of our being. Let this opportunity be a willful event for purification. That is the ideal of titiksha–forbearance. This is our lesson, and this is our test.

As you experience hardships and challenges, remain aware of your spiritual strength, through your disciplines of ahimsa, satya, santosha. Let your mind smile.

Cultivate this awareness drop by drop, moment to moment. Recognize this source within, and thereby, recognize these natural forces of patience, forbearance, tolerance. Such sentiments arise from your purified and pacified mindfield showing their fruits in goodness, satiety, kindness and compassion. Let it be a process of a different kind of awareness and a renewing quality of our selves.

Let us have a moment of silence, offering our prayers and our japa for the well-being of all.

Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

SRB
Rishikesh, India

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Spiritual Action Plan for the Sangha:

Together, on behalf of the Lineage, let us dedicate our prayers, japa and actions for the well-being and benefit of humanity. Please continue with your daily meditations offering the fruits of your yoga with the sentiment of “namah”, not mine but Thine. In addition to your mantra japa, and your Saumyā-Tārā verse and mantra purascharana, may I request that you use your time wisely for your inner life and your spiritual renewal and rejuvenation. The following are suggestions for our global Sangha members:

1. Daily meditation (same time and place)
2. Offering the fruits of your japa and meditation
3. Along with your personal mantra, and the Saumyā-Tārā mantra japa dedicated to the Sangha, you can add the Maha Mrityunjaya mantra for the well-being, healing and liberation of all.
4. Begin the habit keeping some minutes of centering awareness and japa at your Full Moon Meditation Time on a DAILY basis. You can use a minute to mentally recite 3 Saumyā-Tārā mantras and 3 Mrityunjaya mantras; or 15 minutes to recite 21 times these mantras, and again offering the intention for the well-being of all plus any other intentions.
5. Maintain your observation of the Full Moon Meditation Time each month in your home or wherever.
6. Also practice Svadhyaya, a deeper contemplation of your spiritual aims and goals.
7. May the fruits of love, kindness and compassion be your solace.

These and others may continue to be shared by spiritual guides for the community.

With blessings and gratitude,

Swami Ritavan

Om tryambakaṁ yajāmahe sugandhiṁ puṣṭi-vardhanam,
Urvārukam-iva bandhanān mṛtyor-mukṣīya māmṛtāt.
Om namaḥ śivāya. Om namaḥ śivāya. Om namaḥ śivāya.
Om śivoham

I am Śiva, know yourself to be the everpure, everwise and everfree, nitya śuddha, nitya buddha, nitya mokṣa.

We now find in this matrix of time and space, find this Self,  the pure Self, that has taken on the ignorance, taken on the illusion as ignorance, and the samskara of many bodies again and again, where in this mandala of universe you now find yourself the bound and ignorant jīva as you sit here at this place, at this time, draw yourself to yourself and with the prayer, mukṣīya, mukṣīya, mukṣīya, you are searching through the layers and layers upon layers of that illusion. Now sit still in the very centre of the mandala that you know yourself to be. In that stillness a settling of the mind. A relaxation of the body. An intention to know yourself. Śivoham. I am Śiva.

Resting in the moment and observing of passing of moment to moment. In this way becoming aware of your breathing, a gentle rhythm, a smooth flow of exhalation followed by inhalation. Mind-stream and breath-stream flowing as a single stream of awareness. That stream, that pathway now from the navel to the nostrils and nostrils to the navel, gentle flow and deep and diaphragmatic breathing. Within this stream along this pathway, you are pulled, pulled to your centre. Draw your mind’s awareness to that point between the two breaths that now expands into a cave like presence, entering that cave, with all humility and sincerity, with a sentiment of namaha, leaving all attachments behind, all that is of name and associations, all that is identified with wealth and the pursuit of those desires, all that is associated with kin and clan as family and all other identities and associations.

Enter into the darkness so as to observe the light. Observing a candle like flame of a pure white nature. The very flame draws you, pulls you, and you sit before that light.  Now gather those associations that are still remaining.  The very attachment to the body as the tattvas and thereby take sandalwood paste associated with the earth, prithvī, and the earth like identities that you carry. Making an offering of sandalwood paste on the altar in front of you where the white light is witness.

Next take a kalasha of milk representing the jala or liquid. That which flows in your personality. It finds restrictions, blocks, yet as water it flows through, around, above and below and thereby offering these with the sentiment of svāhā.

Next lighting a deepak and placing the flame that represents the agni. That agni, that fire like presence within your personality, you make an offering svāhā.

Next lighting the sandalwood sticks of incense. That vayu in the form of a gentle waft of smoke, where all the vayus of your personality, all the wind like attributes are now offered with the sentiment of svāhā. I surrender.

Gathering multicoloured flower petals, representing the akasha where flowers open into that space, you the personality has matured and opened, yet you are bound, break loose those fetters with the flower petals offered and the sentiment of svāhā.

Having offered all the tattvas, you are no longer bound in these elements, nor their psychological associations. A pure sentiment of svāhā, thereby rising and once again merging into the central stream. Here a gentle push on an upward journey on an inward flow.  Here a gentle pulling upward, upward, to your yajña centre. Here observe a crystal like presence like the crystal lingam, radiating and illuminating in the form of pure light and thereby a crystal-like light is observed. This crystal-like light your mind, and you sit before the lingam observing the light like a mirror observing your mind. Here the memories of the past, here the expectations of the future are illumined as you open your mind to those groves of habit patterns and samskaras and vasanas and to the desires that remain unfulfilled as expectations, thereby in observing the bondage, observing the attachments, observing the illusion in the unfulfilled desires and the pains and pleasures that remain. Remembering mukshīya, you draw your sankalpa, you draw that power of iccha shakti into a resolve. May I be released from this illusion, O mind. You are an instrument of my bondage, yet you are an instrument of my freedom and thereby you now see the purity of the buddhi as it reflects the light of the soul, the atman. Observe yourself as Śivoham, I am that Śiva, ever pure, ever wise, ever free.

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Editor’s Note:

This is a transcript from Shivaratri, 4 March 2019, which took place during the 2019 Sangha Gathering at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama.

Swami Ritavan Bharati:

Sarva maṅgala māṅgalye śive sarvārtha sādhike,
śaraṇye tryambake gauri nārāyaṇ namo’stu te.

Gurur brahma gurur viṣṇur gurur devo maheśvaraḥ,
guruḥ sākṣāt paraṁ brahma tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ.

Ity-uktā sā tadā devi gambhīrāntaḥ smitā jagau,
durgā bhagavatī bhadrā yayedam dhāryate jagat.

By way of Mother Divine’s grace for each and every one and the Guru’s blessings, the Ityukta [mantra] continues to be now our mission. When we have understood that mantra we become the listeners. Again it is a verse from the Caṇḍī. It simply says thus the Divine Mother spoke, but it doesn’t say what she says. So this is the way by which we are training our higher faculties and in that way serving the Mission.

As you review in your mind this past week, the core of the yajna, some celebrate it as spectators appreciating the beauty, appreciating the sentiments that poured forth; some let those sentiments go deeper and experienced that unique devotional quality of bhava, that deep bhavana began to mature. For those of the meditative way of listening through the mantra, the mantra spoke, in the very process of that word became more and more subtle. Even today you could hardly even recite as the pandits recited the mantra for they had elevated or made more subtle that spoken word that merges into the mental word. That mental word again through your deep meditations matures into the pure light, the pure inspiration, that slowly guides you to the saintly revelation, so however you participated in the havan it is more than form, it is more than ritual. Each form has the three layers of meaning, the bhautika, the devaka and the atmika are all forces each having a layer or level of consciousness as a reality. For the bhautika simply all that is a physical form and substance.  The devika of the more internal flows of that consciousness, and the atmika, the deepest layers, all very clear levels of reality that you are aware of as you deepen your meditative lifestyle to the point that that atman is maintained as a presence each and every day, each and every action, each and every word until the very thought patterns are no longer simply the waves of the conscious mind, the vrittis. By way of memory, smriti, by way of nidra, finding those deeper sources of the awakening states of the deeper levels by which you listen, by which that listening becomes the thought patterns of your daily life, and in this way we say you are in tune, you are in harmony, you are in unity, and that is your samadhi state, that is the most natural way. And if, if you take on the resolve as we have had for Swamiji’s message to us, the message of the life and the life style of the satya yuga, that natural state of mind, the samadhi mind, will be the level of mind that you operate on.

So simply now at this point go back to the verses and contemplate and come back to your meditation each and every day to renew, go back to the well and drink. Be nourished for the day will be filled with challenges. How would a satya yuga participant live that life, whether it is behind a computer or in many other jobs, all of which are simply the culture, the profession, the matrix that we find each in, ourselves in, understanding by way of our karmic debt and by way of our dharmic debt, that we maintain that satya, the truth.

So the yajna was to give you this momentum, this aspiration, and remember it is beyond the ritual. Please, please, know that these divine forces are as much alive as you would look on the ground and see others and understand the entire lifespan of that person. These layers of the divine forces are fulfilling their debts at their bodiless level, and thus we have called them, and through the Pandits, through the Pandits, by way of the Pandits, we now have received the blessing, the fruits of the yajna. Yet on behalf of all of you I simply bundle it all up and have given it to the lotus feet of the Guru so I am sorry you can’t claim. I know you sat many hours, I know you said the mantra many times, thank you for your contribution.  But no doubt Guru’s grace will be more and more abundant than you can ever imagine, so not to worry.

Please take this love back to your families, back to your associations in the work place with friends, back to your communities, that they can be grounded in your peaceful mind to which you say what is one peaceful mind. It is like a magnet, and though the forces may not give you name and fame nor abundance of the prosperous, you will be able to feel that gift by which through your life you are giving back, though this brings to a conclusion a very important part of the reason for which we are here, the yajna, the prayer of the Saumya, moonlike mind, a dedication to the Mother Divine and to Guru’s feet.

We will continue with the theme of our day and the Grace of our day with the Shivaratri as I introduced this morning.

Om Namaḥ Śivāya, Om Namaḥ Śivāya, Om Namaḥ Śivāya, Śivoham Śivoham Śivoham.

One way in which Sarasvati has come back to us is by way of knowledge, by way of those expressions of knowledge. Again upon coming you received in your little bag the video, some booklets, Swamiji’s gift. Yet we have other gifts and we will continue to expand these gifts to humanity by way of video, audio, by way of a written book, and so we are very pleased to fulfil one of Swami Veda’s requests. Bring my teachings. He never really said my teachings; he always said Gurudeva’s teachings, Swami Rama’s teachings, for he did not claim any teaching that he simply owned, all came through him, and he is simply passing that on as a debt to the lineage by way now of each of us. Thus the written materials, we will today release the lectures as edited books now of Swamiji, Swami Veda, in the Chinese language, in the Korean language, even in the English language. We have a special book, by a special and devoted sadhaka that has matured now and because he is so creative, he couldn’t just write a nice 2-3 hundred page book. He wrote a thousand-page book. I will ask him, if he is here, to say a few words. In the meantime, though I would like to first bring John [Sellinger] forward to introduce the books that we have as well as Shi Hong to provide the books that we have in the Asian languages.

John:

I am going to announce a few of the culminations of publication projects which we are happy to release today.

Shi Hong has had a team which has been working very hard to translate some of Swami Veda’s works so in a moment he will announce those things.

Today we had intended to release our beautiful second volume of the series on silence, and I am told that the book coming from the printer is half way between here and Haridwar (laughter), so being Shivaratri there is a lot of traffic, so it is in a traffic jam. I hope very much it will arrive in time for anyone who is leaving tomorrow to pick up a copy, so please check this afternoon in the bookstore, and if it has not arrived yet this afternoon, please, please, please check tomorrow morning first thing; it will be there. So please take a copy with you before you go. This is the second in the series on silence by Swami Veda. The first one was titled, many of you I think have a copy. If you don’t have a copy please take that, I will just hold that up, that is the first volume.

Silence, the Illuminated Mind, that is the first volume that we released about a year ago. That is the book on the subject of the symbolic, philosophical, spiritual significance of silence itself. All lectures transcribed and very lovingly edited from Swami Veda.

The second volume which is coming out is Silence, Light beyond Mind. It is a book about the practice of silence and how to approach the practice of silence and deepen it. It contains many meditations into silence and lot of practical advice given by Swami Veda to disciples over years and years and years of guidance.

If you don’t have the first volume, please get it from the book store, and the second one is coming soon so take one home with you.

Anyone who hasn’t received a conference bag for the Sangha Gathering, they are available from the AHYMSIN Office so you can find Pierre [Lefebvre] or Divya [Gupta] in the AHYMSIN Office. It contains several booklets that are on themes prominent to the Sangha Gathering, contains a video collection of Swami Veda and audio collection of Swami Veda, and the shawl which goes with the bag. Anyone who has not received these please speak with Pierre or Divya in the AHYMSIN Office.

Shi Hong:

It is very becoming that Swami Veda’s new book Silence Two is released today. Before Swamiji finally walked into the Meditation Hall, it was like 30 minutes, and I was standing at the door looking this way, and it was silence, and it was a beautiful view. Everybody was in a meditative mode, and I think it is so very becoming that we have this book on Silence when we are all practising that already.

Today we would also like to briefly mention that Swami Veda’s wishes that his writings and also Swami Rama’s writings be translated, especially he emphasised the Asian languages. It is probably that the Europeans can read English, but the Asians probably have more problem reading the language first hand, so we set out to do the translations of Swami Veda’s work, and so far we have done ten and there are four more coming, and I am also very pleased to let you know that our sisters in Korea, they have so far translated six books of the lineage in the Korean language and they are all here. What we are particularly proud cannot hear this sentence……

We are truly proud that we released three books of Yoga Sutra. These are three chapters of Yoga Sutra in Chinese language. This was not based on Swami Veda’s thick telephone book style of Yoga Sutra. This was based on his lectures in 2006 and 2007. More accessible and, of course, much easier to translate. So we have translated those three chapters, and at the end of each book we have a CD of Swami Veda’s recitation of yoga sutras in Sanskrit language.  So that is a real treasure.

How many languages did Swami Veda speak with various fluency, 17, but in one of his languages, he said he could not speak the most important 3 languages of this civilization and he said he felt deprived. This was Swami Veda, he felt deprived. Which are those three languages.  Chinese, Tamil, Greek. So even Swami Veda can sometimes run out of languages to express, so we are here to fill that gap. Of course, he could have learnt Chinese Mandarin, but he decided after one night he tried with a tutor to try to guided meditation in Mandarin and tutor was teaching him but then he couldn’t manage because the language has so many variation of tones, and Swami Veda has trouble with intonation of this particular language, not the fault of the teacher who taught him. Not me.

But we are here. These are the books of our love and devotion to the lineage, to our teachers and also to our readers. Of course we are not promoting books, unless you want to read Chinese and Korean. No, we are not promoting books.  What we are hopefully promoting is sadhana in doing the work, spreading the teaching. If you can translate Swamiji’s book, his lectures in a foreign language, please try. The person who is going to benefit the most is the translator. Really, really it is a sadhana, and the person who does the translation will benefit the most by far.

What if your language is English and you don’t know another foreign language? Yes, please do the transcription. The first time I did the transcription for a Buddhist Master 120, 60 minute cassettes, of his lecture on one Buddhism sutra. It took me about 7 months. After I had done that, I really came to learn that I know a thing or two about that particular sutra. All these others, yes, I have read it, but gone. So even if your only language is limited to the English language, please consider doing the transcription and do the editing. It is a tremendous way to benefit yourself, and if you are interested and want to do that, please report yourself to John.

Swamiji’s vision was to publish one book a month, of Swami Veda’s work, and we are kind of behind. We are lacking the resources. Primarily it is the people, it is the people. So please do consider doing that sadhana, and you will benefit and your lineage will benefit, and this will be a very good offering to the Gurus. Thank you.

Swami Ritavan:

Also we should mention that for the Italians that are here, you have been doing those for decades, so again thank you and the Hungarians, within 15 years they have done 30 books. So they are very ambitious.

I would like to call Pawan [Misha] to introduce his book:

Pawan Mishra:

Just listening to Swamiji and just being here in this gathering I feel one thing that has not been written in this book. I must run to the press and edit, but I will tell that at the end.

Right now just a simple introduction. This book is known as Living Hanuman. [Possible publishing date: 19 May 2019] Most of us here have heard about Hanuman, the Monkey God? Not monkey God, God as a monkey, God disguised as a monkey, and he is not also so disguised, our mind which is called the monkey mind. Hanuman represents the monkey mind and when it is surrendered with all humility and flow at the lotus feet of his Guru, this monkey mind, this monkey becomes a monk with a key. That is the journey from human to Hanuman.

I have written here Living Hanuman, is a journey from the self to the Self and this is the self of Hanuman. From the self to the Self the journey is not always in a straight line, sometimes not even in the right direction, but it is a journey nevertheless, and I am tracing this journey to a very famous hymn called the Hanuman Calisa. It is a hymn of 40 verses written about 500 years ago and most of the billion plus Hindus who follow Hanuman chant it, at least once a day or once a year or whenever, but at least they have heard it and little children like yourself, have you heard of Hanuman Calisa? Pawan asks a young girl sitting in front, in Hindi. The girl replies yes. The little children know about Hanuman Calisa, and this book went for editing to one of my friends, and her 11-year-old daughter, she picked up this fat book, and she found it interesting, so I felt I have done my job if an 11-year-old can pick up a thousand-page monkey book like this.

This is a book offered at the lotus feet of Swami Veda, Swami Rama, and the whole Guru Tradition. Hanuman also stands for, or represents or is a synonym of our breath.  The breath that you are always supposed to be aware of. This whole book, you could replace Hanuman with breath, and it would read the same. So it is a book about our breath, awareness on the breath, practice of the breath, so the entire teaching of our Tradition is set inside this book. You will enjoy – there are sections about unifying different streams of world religion with the thread of breath. You will find that interesting, and in my book you will find quotes in Korean, in Chinese, in that script, in Hebrew. I have put it in there so a little effort to at least somebody who understands only Korean will at least get one line written in Korean.

One thing that I think I must include in this book which is not yet is about our mantra. Saumya saumyatarasesha…..you all have heard this.  Swami Veda’s description, explanation on this mantra says there is a mystic syllable missing or left like that which is saumya saumyatara ashesha, sesha is how it is written, but Swamiji says ashesha, remainderless, that without a remainder, that without a residue.  We can talk a lot about it but just to understand what happens.

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Editor’s Note:

This is a transcript of the session on 4 March 2019 at the 2019 Sangha Gathering at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama in Rishikesh, India.

Saumyā saumyātarā śeṣa saumyebhyas-tvati-sundarī.
Parāparāṇāṁ paramā tvameva parameśvarī.
Tāre tut-tāre ture svāhā.
Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākāraṁ vyāptaṁ yena carācaram,
tat-padaṁ darśitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ.

And with the sentiment of svāhā, making that mental act of surrender, of dedication, of re-initiation to that light of lights within, that source of love that radiates in all your thoughts, words and deeds, reminder of which is breathed through you, from Mother’s grace, through her shakti, through her prana. You, on all levels of your personality, you enact your karma yet you know yourself to be the atman. Atma-tattva-avalokanam, that thought you carry with you always.

A very good morning, (phone rings) the nada, the sound comes in many forms. The question is are we listening or do we react into speech. To simply say, what is most dominant on those waves of your mind? So, it will be no doubt coloured with those emotions that you have had building up following those pathways of the habit patterns, but we as meditators have listened to that subtler nāda, that vibrates, that sings within us. So, we are not reactors to the situations around us, we are actors with an intention and that is the beauty of all of us as meditators.

Today, I am introducing the theme of the vision of AHYMSIN. AHYMSIN, ‘A’ Association, ‘H’ Himalayan, ‘Y’ Yoga, Meditation, Societies, meaning all of us. This is a society. Each of you are the society, for that social network of the internal and external merge of the spiritual and the worldly are that in which you integrate, and, in that way, the society begins with each and every one of you. So, if we then think of this as the future, no doubt we must be present in the now, and in this moment that leads to the next moment, we carry that fullness that beauty. That intrinsic seeking of that understanding for a purposeful life. In this way, each of you are AHYMSIN and each of you are the future.

I look out at Ilaria [Sarri] and Antonella [Panzani] representing our Italian Society, a very old one established by Swami Rama himself.

Along the way, Helen [Choe] has developed the most expansive and most beautiful way in which she has trained yoga teachers, and they have the entire country practicing yoga. Hansa Helen is known as the Mother of Yoga in Korea. She gave birth to this movement, to this understanding, to this flow of grace. Swamiji so much loved to go to Korea. He loved even lying on the mats that are heated. He loved the food. He loved when they danced in their native costumes.

So, each of you are bringing your culture. Each of you are bringing your unique traditions into a flow of a spiritual, a spiritualisation of life as culture, as society, as family and as the atman, radiating through each and every one of those.

Again, when we think of future, we think how will we be helped, how will our sadhana progress, how and in what way and through what means, will this treasure house give us what we need. Treasure house meaning five thousand lectures of just Swami Veda himself, many hundreds of lectures by Swami Rama. By 1975, we had collected one hundred and fifty cassette tapes of lectures by Swami Rama in Minneapolis. He was coming so often, doing retreats with us, and beginning to plant the seed. So many resources and we are hoping to get these into the ways and means that will educate, not only us that still listen on a tape recorder or put in a CD to listen, but we have the smart phones that always will carry a message. So, in whatever way, through YouTube or the WeTube, we will be united. Let us know that efforts are being made, but more important these need to be physically translated into your own languages.

We have twenty-six countries represented among all of us today, here. Twenty-six. And though we say there is mother tongue, somehow, Mother has many tongues, so each of these languages will need to be the expression of the language for those that you serve. Beginning with yourself, to continue building the repertoire of this understanding, this knowledge base.

Now where will we focus? Again, we come back to the tradition. A Śrī Vidyā tradition, Mother Divine tradition. A tradition that is based on the Yoga Sutras, a tradition that is based in the Tantras. All sixty-five of them for the sixty-fifth is the Mother, the Śrī Vidyā tradition. So, we will continue to promote and develop and, in that way, meditate on the subtleties of these teachings.

We have greetings from Bettina Bäumer, who many of you know as a Shaivism expert. She has just left Varanasi. She has a little kuṭīya [Ed: cottage / retreat] in the forests here, where she meditates, but she said to give all the sangha members her greeting, her love. And we hope to have her back soon. We are making plans for next year now. We also have nearby Dr. Frawley. Dr. Frawley too has been here and has given many talks. An author of so many books. Again, a way by which the tradition among us and among those that share in that knowledge and who have been touched by Swami Veda want to give, want to serve.

And so I hope this sentiment grows within, even more so than what all of you have given. That we expand our capacity. Capacity to what? Swamiji only gave this short little succinct message; let every person feel loved.

To the leaders he said that; don’t just conduct a meeting, be lovable in your collaborations.

To the teachers: don’t just teach a class; when those students leave, have they now felt something by which they will leave that class feeling loved.

So, we have everything, and, in that sense, we are so fulfilled, yet we constantly pursue that which is a seeking. So, we honour the fullness, we honour the seeking and, in that way, grow. The seeking is to fulfil your karma. Each of us understands the roles that we have, the duties that we perform, so we seek to fulfil.

And in that way nourish others. But also, in your meditations recognise the fullness.

As I touched on last night, the very fullness that is peace, śama, the very fullness by way of the iccha shakti in that dama, that sense of living a purposeful life and in that way you will take control of your life. That is your responsibility. Titikṣā that inner strength, uparati, moving up, moving forward, seeing the next horizon, that śraddhā, faith, is so core to a belief that I am on the path that I am destined for. This is my destiny. And yet there are interests, there is one path. Yet there are dabblings and other practices, there is one anchor to your spiritual life. Realise that and have faith in that. So, the entire life matures now, as vairagya, nonattachment, svāhā each and every moment with that exhalation. Each and every moment with that prayer of ‘May I offer myself for the benefit of others, and in that way loving’.

These are the tools of our faith and our practice. And also honouring your societies and cultures and your religions to the degree that they too speak to the fabric of your personality by your upbringing, by your interest. We live in a harmonious way, without the separations, for all streams will come into the main river that flow to our ocean of life as samadhi, as moksha.

Some of our members and many others that you know have left the body within the past year. They have received their destiny of moksha by way of their samadhi, by way of their departure, they have fulfilled that dharma for this life, and we can remember them with respect, we can remember them with gratitude that they have served, they have smiled and they have left. What more can each of us expect of our own selves? So, though our expectations somewhat get elevated, simply be who you are with full sincerity and truthfulness.

Other than our international network, we are establishing more and more inroads into our own mother country of India. So beautiful to see these little groups now forming in Bangalore and Mysore and in Mumbai and Pune, some in Chandigarh. A number of ways in which we continue to expand in the very home of yoga. It is almost becoming so commercialised that the Ministry of Yoga now in India thinks this is the next best thing to attract tourists, will say ‘We are the birth place of yoga; you should come’, but who gave the Beatles the message they should come 1968? Was it the ministry department? So, we are all called at the times we are to set foot in the sacred land and to live, to return to a sacred land for this mother earth is our sacred land.

Now here in Sadhaka Grama, as you heard Vijay [Dhasmana] say yesterday, there is a sense when you enter an ashram that it is a special place. The people are committed for a special reason, call it spiritual or simply self enhancement for those that are in the business world as Vijay in that sense was speaking to. He uses this lecture to not only inform the students of the university, Swami Rama Himalayan University, but he takes this message in a course called ‘The Art of Joyful Living’ that they give to doctors, health professionals around the country. So, we understand how an ashram is so near and dear to the spiritual traditions that have gone on for millennia. Jesus himself gathered his disciples. Jesus himself established that which became what is now known as the mystical body and in that society, in that organisation, the tradition carries on. So here now at Sadhaka Grama, we are focusing as the international headquarters for AHYMSIN, it is more like your home so we don’t want to make it so institutionalised. It should be a caring place, a beautiful place, and I think you are feeling that as you have been here over these past days.

Many of you that are teachers are coming to serve; sometimes for a couple of weeks or a month, but I’m needing teachers here, to supplement the base teachers. Our Geeta, Adhikari, Ram Prakash the core of our teaching, for many many sadhakas, students, that are coming as guests. Yet also we need the mature teachers that you are to bring your decades of experience, so we can provide some, let us say, additional levels of teaching.

Also, we need the initiators here. Now, I am also in Swamiji’s footsteps of trying to visit the various centres so when I am not here, people are still coming, people are still seeking the initiation as they have been prepared, as they have now been qualified as adhikarin. So, we need the initiators. Fortunately, Yoong spent three months here recently in this year and in that way served in so many beautiful ways.

So, you will continue to have the travelling teachers coming into your region, to your centres. You will continue to have support of publications as well as audios that will come in various forms. You will continue to have a strong base here to come back to, to refresh, to rejuvenate.

It takes your faith and it takes much effort.

As you have seen, it is a large campus, and now after twenty years there are many needs that the physical environment has to which we are now addressing and to which we want to develop even more. We shouldn’t brag that it is a five-star ashram, but at the same time we want to maintain the intimacy and the calibre of the beauty that Swami Veda so wanted, for he himself, as well as his master Swami Rama, appreciated the aesthetics of beauty. In this way, I will now ask Rabindra [Sahu] to come forward to give a little more detail, let’s say, to the way in which Sadhaka Grama will proceed with the future.

Knowing this, knowing your individual communities that will also need support that will also need teachers, we will continue to work together, share together, train those teachers, expand our initiator base and prepare persons to enter the stream, a living stream of our tradition, for we say, from the source.

Om hiraṇya-garbhād ārabdhāṁ śeṣa-vyāsādi-madhyamām,
svāmi-śrī-rāma-pādāntāṁ vande guru-paramparām.
Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ.

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Editor’s Note:

This is a transcript of a talk given by Swami Ritavan on 2nd March 2019 during the 2019 Sangha Gathering at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama.

Recording started with Guru Prayer and Peace Prayer.

Swami Ritavan Bharati:

On behalf of our sannyasins, our residents, our sadhakas, of Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama, the home of the sadhakas, and on behalf of Shi Hong, Senior Vice President of AHYMSIN, we welcome you. Each and every one, we sincerely open our hearts by way of inviting you back home. Back home, to a homeland of our lineage.

We have just conducted the ritual, a sacrament, a reminder of a relationship where that presence of the very life force, that light, that love, is an embodied, is a blessed one. And in that way, it is a connection to Mother Divine, in all her beauty and benevolence. And so, from that relationship, a living relationship, alive with beauty and wonder, that womb by which the perennial wisdom flows. By way of in that life force, a transmission, through śeṣaḥ, as identified by Patañjali, Vyasa and all the Masters, Saints and Sages that have been imbued with this transmission of light, of love. And into each and every one of your minds and hearts that transmission of mantra, a living seed by which a relationship is recognized, is supported, and matures in your daily meditation. So we began our homage to the lineage over these next eight days, over these nearly 200 hours, over these nearly and more than 200,000 breaths. Enjoy that connection. And this will prepare the next ritual, the next sacrament for tomorrow when we invite the rest of the divine forces that will be with us over the week. Again, not merely in simple form, not merely by name, but by a presence, a divine presence. Now what is the symbol of that, what is the proof of that, by way of our own Master. Swami Rama has said, my love is the revelation that the divine is within me. Simply that. My love is the revelation that the divine is within me. That enlightened, that embodied and enlivened spirit is our connection and is our lineage. So once again, the purpose for your visit is to reconnect, re-examine, examine in the sense of your daily reflections of your life, of your relationships, of your spiritual journey, and your meditation having let go of all the samskaras, the remembrances, the hopes as well as the fears and worries, and simply in that space of emptiness, that place of the connection with divine will, for you find that satiety, you experience that santosha, perfect contentment, and in that way love flows. You realise that the divine is within; you connect with the lineage that is alive and traces its aliveness back to the golden womb, the perennial wisdom.

Along the way we will have many opportunities for reconnecting our social bond, our relationship of knowing where we have come from, what work we are doing, what challenges in life we are having, to share. To share intimately as kalyana mitras, noble friends in kindness and compassion, and so keep that in your heart, that maitri, that karuna. There is a sense in being in a family that is supportive and is encouraging you to continue on the spiritual path no matter what difficulties you experience, hardships that were endured, losses that bring sorrow. Let us empathize. Let us open our hearts to compassion, yet know in the deepest of the deepest, your purpose of life is moksha.

To untie these knots of the bondage, where samskaras have created those habit patterns by which our personalities are so attuned that change is very difficult, that the emotion seems to just be there and we have no control. Recognizing a relationship by which the tools of yoga, the sentiments of your sadhana will make changes in your life, revelations and transformation in your personality, and thereby a connection with others that will be kind and compassionate. So resolve to begin here.

This is your both home where you can be free, [and] it is your testing ground so that you can learn, try out, and in that way leave with the abundance of tools for your spiritual journey. Not only do we have amongst ourselves, as you look around you see many familiar faces, our family is vast, entire globe all the continents, I heard we set up another centre in Antarctica recently. So your family is one that encompasses the globe; in fact even in coming here, you have come from all parts of the globe. And so in that way, we honour both the vastness of this relationship and the power that it carries in the very need of humanity in this day and age.

And that is why we have given a proclamation or declaration of our sangha to be the sentiments of Swami Veda has revealed in The Perennial in the Millennium. Already this is two decades old, but has it been understood and has it been practiced and has it been growing as the sentiment of each and every one of us that becomes a relationship with others and thus that mind field continues to be the support that this collective mind field truly needs at this time and in the future? I would invite you to take a number of the paragraphs in The Perennial in the Millennium to contemplate. You will have time during your visit, make time before you sleep, make time, to contemplate, what is truthful and helpful for humanity, by way of your own spiritual practices.

An example, occupations which we both treasure and abhor. “Occupations and the economies will be pursuits to add to the earth’s green mantle, to help all to savor the opportunities for beauteous creativity devoted to granting comfort to the relatively deprived. Nor shall any fetus suffer from the absence of micro-nutrition, nor shall a single seasoned aged elder curl up to sleep hungry, alone, and uncared-for. There will be no wasting of the surplus and thereby no dearth of the essential” for each and every one.

It is so valuable because it is the measure of humanity in the Satya Yuga. You all know as a Kali Yuga, this happens, that happens, and everyone says it’s the yuga, the Kali Yuga, and they blame it. This is the way humanity is. But Swami Veda again and again said we are in the best of times, if you make your mind pure and your heart free to accept truth and to slowly make the changes in your own habit patterns that will then begin to affect slowly the entire humanity, and thus we can live in the Satya Yuga now if we so choose. In supporting that the little booklet, you will receive: Peace, Poverty and Planet: One Aspect, One Face. Please do reflect, contemplate. And during some of these sessions together, there will be opportunities to share those contemplations.

A third little booklet you will have in your welcome packet is Smriti Yoga. Smriti simply means remember. And it is part of our theme of Love, Serve, Remember, that we have as the dictum of Swami Rama. In that remembrance, Swami Veda has written numerous ways it can be understood. The smriti of spiritual practices, which as you know include japa, especially of specialty mantras, Gayatri and, of course, the Saumya mantra that we will introduce for sangha time and for the next three years as an observation and practice of the special mantras.

There will be many other opportunities to understand the scope of our tradition that provides for the spiritual practices. For the essence of your sadhana so you can apply and understand the progress that you have made and will make. Now, to the theme of our community as it is described the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies, that Himalayan is the name of the lineage, the name of the tradition, the name of the perennial way in which knowledge and wisdom flows through transmission. The yoga is the practice, the application of that wisdom knowledge, and in that way meditation is essential.

Meditation as dhyana was actually the first name given to a community in the US by Swami Rama. When he had come to the US, a Master looks for disciples. Disciples are looking for a Master. Somehow a match occurred. Even with a disciple having many doubts, Swami Veda met his Master. Yes, it was a couple decades after that he was looking for a Master, but his Guru said, ‘You must fulfill your own karma’. I have come when I am supposed to. Now our relationship will mature. So from that stage from that place, there is a way be which the dhyana, the meditation, took hold. First a little centre in Minneapolis where Swami Rama also was visiting, living at times. Then he said to Usharbudh Arya, our Swami Veda: You, I have given you this seed that is planted, you take and mature your centre here, I am moving on, like a swami should do.

Onward he moved to Chicago and onto Honesdale. Yet even in Chicago the first centre there was Dhyana Mandiram, which then became the next series of associations, the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, yet dhyana, the meditation is central, is essential, and in that way is the act by which transmission continues.

And you hold that as your resolve, each day that reconnection through meditation. That nurturing through meditation. That meditation at many times is simply complaining or fantasizing, yet it is your meditation for that day. And in the end, you say Svaahaa, so be it. You say Namah, I offer this meditation to you Gurudev, the light of love. And in that way you have let go. And in that way you have progressed, and in that way you have devoted your lives to live life with a purpose, so that at your last breath, your mind will smile. And that mind will take the seed of that smile, that mantra with it as it makes its transition and departs the body. So you are on your spiritual journey for a purpose, honour that purpose.

And in that way the Association of the Himalayan Yoga Societies as a meditative way will help you and that will encourage your students as you also proceed in your teachings and nurturing of others and preparing them for initiation.

In addition to this short introduction, I would like to ask Swami Prayag Giri if she has some words of introduction and welcome for you?

Swami Prayag Giri: It is wonderful to be with you all, old devotees I have been seeing since years coming here, devotees of Swami Rama as well as Swami Veda. And I am sure you will have a wonderful time this one week. To attune more and more with God and Gurudeva and I wish you all the best.

Swami Radha Bharati: Welcome home to this garden in every sense of the word, the garden that we enjoy here and the energy that we share with all the flowers and beauty that surrounds us here. The more important the spiritual energy that fills the grounds, and I see in your faces that you imbibe in the spiritual energy that is here, and we have this week to share that and deepen that together. Welcome.

Swami Tattvananda Bharati: Hari Om. Two types progress, one outside progress, other inside progress. This place for inside progress. How we do inside progress? First, do study. Then understand the difference between good and bad. Leave bad, follow good. Later do meditation, control desire, and do japa. When you progress, it means there is standard, later 12th standard, then degree, then Master Degree, then PhD. Same, step by step you will do progress inside. Outside progress, temporary happiness, and inside progress, long time happiness and good last time and good next journey. Hari Om.

Swami Ritavan: Now I would like to ask Shi Hong to address and welcome you all.

Shi Hong:

Dear Swamiji. Good morning fellow seekers, friends, welcome to the Sangha Gathering of 2019. I was given the task of saying something about what is AHYMSIN. But I found there is very little left to say after Swamiji’s wonderful explanation of the tradition. What is AHYMSIN? To a lot of people it is a rather obscure name, and in fact even within our family sometimes we also will question “What is AHYMSIN?” because when we go outside we put up the board that says “AHYMSIN” and people come up and say: “Oh, what is this? Can you explain to us?” So we went through some soul searching. Should we have a secondary title next to AHYMSIN explaining who we are, what we are, and what is it stands for? We had some sessions discussing this. In the end, we decided that nothing can be added.

This name was given by Swami Veda, and he intentionally incorporated this entity, registered in India as a society, to organize the disciples, fellow sadhakas, globally. So he gave this name AHYMSIN. What is in the name? A name is the same object that it refers to, especially for someone like Swami Veda. He who is a rishi. A rishi does not give a name randomly. A rishi gives a name that has meaning in it. So AHYMSIN, as Swami Ritavan ji just explained, his plan for us, stands for Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International. That is a long name. Whenever I translate that into Chinese language, it is almost impossible to translate it succinctly. You have to say a very long line and then still leave AHYMSIN untranslatable. So we always go through this process of explaining to people what it means. But, in a way it helps because it is a way for us to introduce ourselves to complete strangers. People come in and we start with AHYMSIN.

Swamiji [Swami Ritavan] had told us it’s the global body of Swami Veda. He created this. AHYMSIN has seven letters and stuck in the middle is the “M”. M is not just a mantra word, it stands for meditation. And that is the first and foremost means of practice in this tradition. And so Swami Veda deliberately put the “M” in the name. Otherwise he could have called it the Himalayan Yoga Tradition as it has been referred to for many decades before he created AHYMSIN; so the meditation is the main focus of this lineage.

Last December I was in Beijing having a sharing session with a group of people who are pretty much new to our tradition. Before we started the session, the night before, we had like a session open to the public. So anybody who is interested can just walk in. So I was there doing the usual thing about the Himalayan Yoga and why we were there and what we were about to share during the next two days. At the end of the session, there was a lady in the audience, apparently very well informed exposed to yoga, and a very good speaker in the English language. She turned out, as I was informed subsequently, to be a professional translator for the yoga industry in China. There are so many foreign teachers. Yoga teachers go into China, but there is language problem. You cannot just pull somebody or an English major student come out and translate yoga. This lady made a name somehow for herself as a professional translator of the yoga science. So she had translated for many, many different yoga traditions for many, many different yoga teachers. At the end of this public session, she put her hands ups and asked: “There are so many yogas. This yoga that yoga. What makes you so different?” I was taken aback. What makes us so different from all these other traditions?

I paused a little. So I stood back and then a thought came to my mind. I said I cannot really say how we are different, but may I put in a way that I say why we are the same? We are not different. If in your yoga tradition the primary means of practice is meditation, and all these asanas, pranayamas, study of the texts are ways to facilitate a better meditation, then we are not different. We are the same. If your yoga tradition has as a mission, to set out to relieve the pains and sufferings in the world and bring people to recognize the divinity within, then we are the same. If your yoga tradition comes from a long long long tradition handed down by guru to disciple, guru to disciple for thousands of years nonstop, and is not a recent invention by a suddenly enlightened being, then we are the same. If in your yoga tradition there are classes to be taught and each of those classes is an inspiration, some kind of an initiation, and it is not just a transmission of techniques, it is not just a transmission of intellectual knowledge, then we are the same. So I told her in conclusion, I could go on for quite a few more “similarities” but I think that is probably enough to tell how we are not that different from the other yogas, provided that the things I have just expressed are also what you believe in. If so, then we are the same. We are not that different.

So that is in a way, to summarize my personal take of the tradition that is long established, following flowing down all the way from the Hiranyagarbha to Patañjali, to Vyasa to Swami Rama. And then to Swami Veda who founded AHYMSIN in 2007 and had it registered in India. He served as the first Spiritual Guide. And in 2015 when Swami Veda left his body, he left instruction very clearly that Swami Ritavan is his successor of AHYMSIN, as the Spiritual Guide. So this is the lineage, this is the tradition that we follow and please do not deviate from that. Let’s keep it, this purity. Let’s not digress into something very fancy but not true to our lineage or not true to the pure yoga tradition. For instance, one of the things Swami Veda has left as a standing instruction to all of us is he said: ‘When I am not in the body, please do not make the ashram into a therapeutic or ayurvedic centre. Do not make this ashram into a stress management or sleep enhancement kind of institute. No. Keep it pure.’ Hopefully, during the time we are all here, we can sense that purity of this lineage, of this tradition. And hopefully when we go back we bring it back with us and we spread it around with our friends, with our family, with fellow seekers.

Having said that, I remember it was in 2010 when I was asked to join an AHYMSIN meeting in Malaysia, and at that meeting Swami Veda said: ‘What makes us different?’If you want to say, you can say three things.

One is three-minute meditation. Do not underestimate the power, the effectiveness of a three-minute meditation. This is what we emphasize a lot.

Another unique feature of our lineage according to Swami Veda is the full moon meditation. Please keep it as much as you can and encourage your friends to join because that is the opportunity where all sit together at the same time. We may be physically apart, but we all sit together at the same time. Previously it was Swami Veda who would always sit with us, and now it is Swami Ritavan who will sit with us at each and every session globally.

And the third thing Swami Veda said makes us different is silence. He is a master of silence. If you look through his lectures, there are so many materials, so many sessions, so many teachings he gave about silence. Now that is an irony. He spoke so much about silence, and we already come out with one book, very lengthy book which it takes a lot of many hours to read. That book called Silence. And a next book on silence, Silence II, is on its way. So, it is a way for Swami Veda [to] say, keep it with us, make sure that we do understand and do appreciate silence as a practice. So do set the time regularly during the year, during the month, even during the week and make that a silence moment. That is the moment that truly belongs to each one of us, to yourself, to myself.

So finally, I would just like to share is that we are all here for one purpose and one purpose alone, that is our own spiritual progress. And hopefully we can all reach the destination of moksha. It is all about each and every one of us. Swami Veda again and again said ‘Your personal progress is of the utmost importance. But, you will progress more if you will help others progress. You will progress more, and that is how we achieve progress, and that is the teaching Swami Veda has given to us specially in that little orange book called Sadhana in Applied Spirituality. The real sadhana, he taught us, is in everyday life, and it is not just sitting for fifteen, thirty minutes, one hour, two hours a day with eyes closed. We have to bring apply the teachings and apply those into our daily lives. He said, ‘That is the real sadhana.’ and I would very much encourage if you do not yet have a copy of that book, please do get a copy of that book. I have many friends, many friends, who had told me personally, they said sometimes they went through a problem, an issue, they did not know what to do, and so they went to that book to turn the pages and unexpectedly the answer was right there. Very pertinent to the situation the person was in at that moment. Previously they glanced through ‘ya, ya, ya right, that is nice.’ But at that very instance, they turned a page and said, ‘Ah’. And that is his / their ah-ha moment, and that is the blessing Swami Veda always gives us. He said ‘May your problems not be answered. May your questions not be answered. May they be resolved.’ And I struggled very hard when I translate that line into Chinese for my friends. He did not use the word ‘dissolved’; he said ‘resolved’. So how we resolve the question? It is the grace that he has given to us, the blessing that he has given to us.

And with that, I conclude my short address. Thank you all for coming and hope you will enjoy your stay here and I would like to particularly thank the people who have been working so hard in preparing this unique event. It is quite a task for those people to put this so nicely.

[Missing the beginning parts of Swamiji’s closing.]

Swami Ritavan:

So practice both. And those 200,000 breaths, a few mantras there. Yet where is that doorway to infinity. It is in between the two breaths. Ah, ha, you have a half million opportunities to merge infinity. So enjoy.

Also, in preparation for Silence Day on Thursday, it is the routine of our ashram to have Thursday, Guru’s Day for silence; again, for the sangha we have identified Thursday for the day of silence, and you will have more information on the observations as well as the Akhanda Japa that we will have for that day.

In the meantime, today, Tuesday, Wednesday, meditative voice. Some of you were here when Swamiji had given those classes and seminars. So what is the meditative voice? The voice that is pleasant. The voice that is sincere, truthful. The voice that uses a measure of appropriate words: not less, not more.

So again, practice your silence with meditative voice. A voice that comes from a joyful heart. A voice that has a rhyme and a rhythm that flows with the breath. That integrates the prana body so as to not bring excitation of the nervous system and thus bring forward the problems of the mind. So let it be pleasant.

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Editor’s Note:

This is a transcript of the opening talk on 25th February 2019 at the 2019 Sangha Gathering at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama in Rishikesh, India.