Babaji at Eastern Wyoming College Last October Babaji was invited to speak at Eastern Wyoming College, a two year college in Torrington, WY, over a period of four days. This unusual opportunity was made possible by the enthusiastic effort of our sangha brother Tadrupa, a mathematics professor there, and a grant from the local Humanities Council. What made this an …
Navaratri Retreat Notes & Reflection
Navaratri Retreat in Seattle With 20 people in attendance, last October’s Navaratri Retreat was one of the largest we have ever had. At the first class, Babaji looked out at the overflowing classroom, stating, “Vedanta is a great science, therefore it needs a great alliance!” This retreat marks the first of 7 retreats to be centered on the Goddess Upanisads. …
Tidings of the Great Ones
Tidings of the Great Ones Namaste to all, and Aloha from Hawaii. As we have concluded the year 2015, we should remember that the auspicious winter period always provides us with an opportunity for deep reflection. Many of the greatest souls of our lineage, and to my thinking, of all time, were born over the winter months. This year, a …
SRV Winter-Spring Retreat 2016
Sri Ramakrishna & Kundalini Yoga March 17 to 21st Seattle, Washington One of India’s most popular and controversial of all yogic pathways, and probably its most mystical, Kundalini Yoga is both time-tested and verified by the luminaries as being a definitive method for the attainment of full Enlightenment. When expertly guided and properly applied, the awakening of mankind’s innate spirituality …
SRV Sangha Life
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And Mother Claps Her Hands
And Mother Claps Her Hands In India the relationship with the spiritual teacher is the greatest in life. In the West the teacher simply gives intellectual knowledge. The guru, however, teaches us and leads us into spiritual knowledge as a living link in the chain of divine truth. Swami Vivekananda once said, “my guru is my nearest and dearest relative …
Teachings from the Summer Retreat
Teachings from the Summer RetreatSelected Teachings of the Dharma Babaji took up the verses of the Bhaja Govindam stotram as the central text of the Summer Retreat. The first 12 verses are ascribed to Shankaracharya and each of the others were written down through the centuries by the heads of the maths he founded. The stotram is full of Vedantic …
Manasana Book Release at Opening to Life
Manasana Book Release at Opening to Life Once again the Opening To Life Studio in Portland, Oregon, was filled with the blessing of Babaji’s teachings, and a new book was launched into the world: Manasana: The Superlative Art of Mental Posture. Babaji spoke to us of taking up a posture in the mind in order to master one’s awareness and …
Hawaii 2015
d-OM-inoes
This month one of our sangha families from Portland came for an extended visit to the Big Island, where our Hawai’i center is located. Their older son, Mikah, has been taking classes for a couple years in Portland, and got to have classes at the Hawaii center too. The first class, after a little puja with flower and food offerings, focused on Om, or more precisely, AUM.
Mikah learned that the three letters of AUM stand for our waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states:
- In our waking state (“A”), a lot is happening! Our mind is connected to our physical senses — our eyeballs, ear flaps, tongue, nose, and skin, our hands and feet — and so we experience a lot of things while we are awake.
- When we dream (“U”), our physical senses are turned off but our mind is connected to our inside senses — our dream senses! We walk with dream legs on dream land, we swim with our dream body through dream water, we use our dream eyes and ears to see and hear things in dreamlands, we even fly through dream air.
- Then we enter deep sleep (“M”), everything we experienced in waking and dream become like seeds, even our waking and dream senses, and earth, water, fire, air, and ether all become seeds. It is very peaceful without anything happening for awhile.
But then we begin to dream and all those seeds start to sprout, and when we wake, they are all on the outside again.
A Seva & Sadhana Summer!
A Seva & Sadhana Summer! Many thanks to all those who took up seva projects this summer at the Portland SRV ashram. After three years at this location, it was time to do a deep cleaning and sorting. Appreciation goes to Svabhava and Lavanya for organizing the effort. On that main Sunday in July, the entire first floor was …