Manasana Retreat Reflection by Asha
Om Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnuhu, Guru DEvO MahEshwaraha,
Om, Shree DakshinAmUrthy ki jai!
Om, Sapta Rishi ki jai!
Om, Shree Adi ShankarAchArya ki jai!
Om Shree Ramakrishna, Shree SAradA mAta, SwAmI VivEkAnanda ki jai!
I had heard about Babaji from my fellow Advaitist, Sandra, whom I had met at the Vedanta Society of Western WA about 6 years ago when I started my serious study of Advaita Vedanta [1] Although I had heard about Sri Ramakrishna Mission in Madras/Chennai when I was growing up there in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, rode a bus to school that passed by the Ramakrishna High School, started reading Sw. Vivekananda in the early ‘90s, attended CIIS in SFO in the early ‘90s, and always wanted to study Philosophy, it wasn’t until I heard Sw. BhAskarAnanda’s lecture on “Was Lao Tzu a Vedantist?” on my first trip to VSWW, six years ago, that I became fully hooked on Advaita Vedanta.
It was an amazing experience. The experience of living together in harmony, cooking together, and eating together, meditating together, studying spiritual lessons as explained wonderfully by Babaji in his humble, down-to-earth style, was a beautiful, wholesome experience.
Commentaries and gurus who can explain Advaita concepts in easy to understand terms have come down to us over the years, and the importance of having a living guru, practicing and embodying Advaita Vedanta, taking the foreign practices and making them his own sacred prayers, is impressive. I particularly feel fortunate in that I have the benefit of the vocabulary and cultural context to understand Advaita from both the Eastern and the Western perspectives… and I find Babaji’s teachings and interpretations particularly useful. I find his books quite informative and easy to read.
Living together in communion with 10 other practitioners, and living peacefully, often in silence, was just the most peaceful experience that Kurt and I have had, and we felt that it brought us closer, helping us understand one another in a deeper way.
Thank you, dear Babaji and Loke Ma.
We look forward to spending time together in the future also.
Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthihi,
Hari hi Om, tat sat.
[1] Although I had heard about Sri Ramakrishna Mission in Madras/Chennai when I was growing up there in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, rode a bus to school that passed by the Ramakrishna High School, started reading Sw. Vivekananda in the early ‘90s, attended CIIS in SFO in the early ‘90s, and always wanted to study Philosophy, it wasn’t until I heard Sw. BhAskarAnanda’s lecture on “Was Lao Tzu a Vedantist?” on my first trip to VSWW, six years ago, that I became fully hooked on Advaita Vedanta.