And Mother Claps Her Hands…
Jivana
The SRV sangha had the great pleasure to receive a new Sangha brother during Babaji’s last visit to Portland. We welcome Michael Smith, who received the initiatory name Jivana.
Jivana, who grew up in Kailua, Hawaii and is currently living in Roseburg, Oregon truly exemplifies the life-giving power of the Vedanta teachings.
Jivana was serving time in prison when he met Babaji during one of his SRV prison ministry visits. Babaji’s uncompromising and straightforward transmission of the Vedanta teachings struck Jivana
like a bolt of lightning. His initial reaction was one of anger as his whole world seemed to be turned upside down. His anger continued for four months until he acknowledged to himself, “I have no more excuses. I know this to be the truth and I just have to live it now.” As Jivana put it, “once a match is struck the darkness can never be taken away.”
The teachings continued to deepen during Babaji’s two follow-up visits. He began to be grateful for everything that happened to bring him to where he was. It was what was necessary to prepare him to be ready to meet Babaji — to begin to become accountable to himself and to take responsibility for changing.
Babaji and the Vedanta teachings had now become an integral part of his life. Jivana was discouraged when he was suddenly transferred to a prison in southern Oregon that was not part of SRV’s prison ministry program. Babaji told him not to worry — that he would come to visit him. Jivana said that this scared him at first. It scared him that he had evoked such devotion from the Guru and that he felt so much devotion in return. “Everything Babaji said, he meant. He exemplifies what the truth is.”
A little less than a year ago Jivana was released from prison and moved back home with his family in Roseburg. He works and goes to college part-time at Umpqua Community College pursuing a bachelors degree. Jivana works two days a week at a veteran’s hospital helping Gulf War vets deal with substance abuse issues. He is helping to develop an outpatient program. He has already made a meaningful impact on the program and was offered a full-time position. Just as Babaji and Annapurna were role models to him, Jivana is now a role model to those veterans with whom he works. He is a living example that a life of recovery is possible and inspires those around him with his positive and peaceful demeanor. People who knew him look at him now and wonder “how is this possible”? As Jivana puts it, he was “looking for love in all the wrong places.” He has realized [come to understand] the secret expressed by Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita regarding giving up the fruit of one’s work to the Lord. He feels less driven to attain. What sustains him now is that he realizes he makes a difference just by being who he is now. “Work for the sake of work — when I do otherwise the joy in my life is reduced. I am no longer going to focus on worldly results.”
Jivana has never felt happier or more productive. The worldly riches he once enjoyed holds little allure now. He wants to live a life of service, for his community and his wife Stacey and their children.
Those of us who attended the recent fundraiser in Portland for SRV’s Prison Ministry program were moved by Jivana’s passion and sincerity regarding his transformation after encountering the teachings of Vedanta.
We are happy and privileged to welcome Jivana — Enlightened Soul — to the SRV family.