January 17 – 19, 2015
Last month Babaji and the SRV Hawai’i Sangha held a retreat at a new location that became an instant favorite, and which has paved the way for an annual retreat on the Big Island over Martin Luther King weekend. Over 50 years ago, Reverend King shared his dream of equality, freedom, and opportunity for all. As students of Truth, we seek to awaken from all dreams and focus on the spiritual connections crucial for samyagdrishti (samesightedness), Jivanmukti and Sarvamukti (absolute and perpetual Freedom), and Nishkama Karma and Akarma (selfless action leading to action in inaction).
At our first annual Hawai’i retreat in Puna, Babaji chose the subject of Making Crucial Spiritual Connections to help practitioners recognize the obstacles to spiritual life and the many tools, methods, and perspectives that the Sanatana Dharma provides. As he has been saying recently, spiritual practitioners have left worldly life behind, but the state of illumination has not been realized. The place in the middle is the dharma. By remaining in the dharma — study of scripture, worship of God, practice of meditation, and serving God in humanity — we keep our nose above the water of maya until purification of mind, establishment of Peace, and the descent of Grace remove the last subtle obstacles to realization. Salutations to the Seers, past and present, to the teachers who keep the Light of Truth burning so that sincere seekers might light their own torches!
The retreat last January focused on Food, Outer Cosmos (Time and Space), and Inner Cosmos, the Senses, Prana, and Avasthas (Spiritual Growth by Stages). In each of these areas, Babaji elucidated on the special connections needed to shift understanding and awareness to more subtle regions. Next year’s retreat will focus on Scriptures and the Guru, Mind, Desires, The Path, Success & Obstacles, Knowledge, and Samadhi and Rebirth. Contact us if you would like to attend the next Hawai’i retreat in 2016.
Below are a few notes taken by a student during the 2015 retreat:
FOOD
“There can be no spiritual growth without the awakening of Kundalini.” – Sri Ramakrishna
The gods are within you, not outside of you. The Trinity — Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva — is within you.
If you could view all the nerves in your brain and become aware of all the nadis in your mind, you would see it is all one big inner connection showing where all one’s thoughts go. And that is what the dharma is: the teachings and methods that explain these inner connections.
It’s not so much what you eat; it is how, or in what frame of mind, that you eat it.
The crucial spiritual connection of food is that it must first be rendered into Prasad. After that basic feat is accomplished, the raising of all types of subtle energies — mukhya prana, ojas, tejas, Kundalini — can begin.
It is not enough to bless the food you eat with mantra. This alone only leads to fine health. For spiritual purposes you are going to have to take that energy of food and subject it to sadhana. This generates Ojas, spiritual stamina. People have been blessing their food for eons but they are not getting liberated due to it. Ojas is the cutting edge. After Ojas is established, the next level is Tejas, the Light of spiritual power and the capacity to transmit spirituality. The great Teachers emanated Tejas.
People say “I’m going to start sadhana!” but they are not yet eating pure food, consciously, nor do they yet have a teacher who has conferred upon them a sacred mantra. So, “Good luck with that,” as they say. It is all ass backwards, and this is why there are so many kooks among students and teachers. It is that old problem of trying to intensify one’s efforts prior to properly managing the preliminary steps.