Hi Everyone,
It has been a wonderful and awe-inspiring week. I live out here on the West Coast and woke up Saturday morning feeling like something good was happening. It was the morning that Swamiji gave his heart-opening and soul stirring talk in Rome. I think everyone here at Ananda Village felt a calm sense of rightness in the ether. We all heard Swamiji was very happy with the evening and all the preparation. There have been several wonderful written accounts posted on this blog site. Hopefully you will see some of the amazing photos taken by Andrea Roach.

While things were awesome in Rome, over here the bloom cycle of the tulips, crabapple trees and cherry trees were incredible. Perhaps they were responding to all the great energy in the universe. What ever it was we were treated with spectacular show of color.

Crystal Hermitage was featured in our local paper and one Saturday the Crystal Hermitage staff hosted two-hundred visitors from the near-by towns. Eighty of those people stayed to eat lunch at The Expanding Light. It sounded like every one there had a good time, looking at gorgeous gardens and eating in a restful rejuvenating environment.

Scaffolding

The Expanding Light staff and saintly volunteers have recently been beautifying our lovely retreat center. The efforts started with a group of talented devotees led by our local Vastu expert Mandala Skillman.
I talked with Mandala one day and learned about the level of her committment in enhancing the vibrations of The Expanding Light.
For years we have mostly had off white walls: nothing wrong with it, but with Mandala skills she

Mandala takes a quick break to pose for my camera. She is the brains and heart behind The Expanding Light color improvements.

artfully picked colors that would be uplifting and calm and enhance the harmony of the inside colors with the outside view. She seemed to have a small army of dedicated souls that put up an amazing array of scaffolding and then caulked all the cracks, and painted

Test colors are painted on either side of the rock wall

the ceilings. The finished product is lovely! It is soothing and uplifting, warm and inviting. Well Done.

The colors here will harmonize with the colors outdoors and with the Guest Services building that you can see through the window

The Expanding Light Temple was also painted, it is beautiful and elegant. I hope to share with you soon a photo of that room. There have been several workdays at The Expanding Light, it will soon be iris season. I hear big rumors of work being done on the amphitheater. I will try to check in on that project.

Come Join Us!

This is a big year. One where we have already seen Swamiji’s beautiful talk in Rome reach out to so many. Other great events are still to come: Swamiji’s birthday at the beautiful Crystal Hermitage, Large public events in Palo Alto, smaller events in LA in July, Ananda’s 40th anniversary celebrations in August and the deeply moving celebration of Swamiji’s 60th year of discipleship. Whew, what a summer.

We should all be praying for each other and especially Swamiji. I pray that Swamiji continues to be in bliss, that he arrive and enjoy his stay in the US with great health and vitality. I pray that you all are happy, healthy, feel bliss and that I see you at one of these events.
Bless you all.

It is Saturday night, April 19, just past 10:30 in the evening. We are with Swamiji in Rome, Italy. The long-anticipated event, the launch of the just published Italian version of Swamiji’s Revelations of Christ as Proclaimed by Paramhansa Yogananda is now an event recorded in the ether for the ages.

It was a triumph, success on every level. The hall was full. The music was heavenly Swamiji’s health has been very good. He was strong, blissful, and inspired from start to finish. About 700 people came, and 500 copies of the book were sold.

Now here is the long version.

The event was held in Theater Valle, a very prestigious location, right in the heart of old Rome, just a few blocks from the Pantheon. The theater is over 300 years old. (Before there was a United States of America, Romans were attending events in Theater Valle.)

The theater holds about 700 people, and it was full. The “footprint” of the theater is an oval, not that large: only about 20 rows, and 15 seats across. The rest of the seating is in five tiers of boxes, each holding about 4-6 seats that rise up in a curved wall from the ground floor. It was extremely picturesque to see the devotees in each box leaning out from the railing to see the stage below.

The stage was adorned with a very large picture of Master on one side, and an equally large picture of the cover of the book on the other.

The background of the book poster was a lovely shade of apricot-orange, which exactly matched the color of the Indian style shirt that Swamiji wore over Western trousers, personifying in his very appearance the East-West message of the teachings of Jesus proclaimed by an Indian Master.

The event was scheduled for 4:00 in the afternoon. Events of this type are commonly held in the afternoon.

One of the props from a play that is also using the theater now is a set of marble stairs placed right in the center of the stage. They were too heavy to move, which turned out to be no problem, for they made beautiful risers for the choir.

In front of the steps, on the side next to Master’s picture, the musicians were set up — keyboard, harp, flute, violins (2), and cello.

On the other side of the stage, next to the photo of the book cover, there was a large straight-backed upholstered chair for Swamiji. It was a heavy printed tapestry with carved legs. The front edge of the stage was also elaborately carved, so the chair fit well the motif of the theater.

There were huge flower arrangements at each corner of the stage. Not the usual bouquets, but an unusual array of tall exotic flowers. Around the back, behind the risers, there were large green plants, with bright pink flowers at the base.

Swamiji, as I said, was dressed in a soft apricot orange that matched the book cover. The singers and musicians wore the usual Ananda rainbow colors that the choir wears for performances.

Even if the stage had been bare and everyone had dressed in sackcloth, it would still have been a spiritually unforgettable evening. But the exquisite attention to detail, the creativity, the refined expression of beauty all added greatly to the uplifed feeling of the whole program.

Swamiji felt that the message he had to deliver needed to be received first in the heart. So for this reason he decided to open the program with 30 minutes of music from the Oratorio.

Narya (Paolo Tossetto) played the role of host with grace and dignity. After he welcomed everyone, he introduced an official from the City of Rome, the one who, last year, had been instrumental in awarding Swamiji the “Julius Caesar Medal,” the equivalent of the “Keys to the City.”

That man spoke of what a great honor it was to welcome Swamiji, it was a privilege for him, and for the whole city of Rome. There was no further award to give Swamiji as he had already been given the best the city could offer. But Rome did give its official “stamp of approval” to the event as something of cultural benefit to its citizens.

(An important note: Of course, all the proceedings, including Swamiji’s talk took place in Italian. I can follow the general flow of ideas when Swamiji speaks, but I don’t speak Italian. So details will have to come from others. And if someone offers another version of what was said, believe him or her, not me.)

The theater doors opened at 3:00 and about 3:30 the instrumentalists began to play. So by the time the program began, the theater was already vibrating with exquisite music played by angels.

Kirtani was the choir director. With her shoulder length white hair and pale pink dress she was like a beam of astral light moving in harmony with the music.

The choir (about 25 devotees) sang with seemingly effortless perfection many of the choir pieces from the Oratorio. There were a few solos and several ensembles as well.

I thought later how beautifully all the singers, and Ananda speakers, like Narya and others, reflected Swamiji’s own vibration of humility, naturalness, ease of expression, impersonal warmth. It was all the same uplifted vibration.

In the course of the evening, about a dozen individual singers stepped out from the choir, either as soloists or in small groups. Some of the ensembles included devotees from four countries. Master’s ideal of world-brotherhood exemplified in music. Some of the songs were in Italian; most were in English.

Each individual singer was an impressive combination of individuality and impersonality. The performances were original in the true sense of the word: emanating from the origin point of each singer’s being. It was God enjoying Himself through many.

Helmut (from Germany, living at Ananda Assisi now for many years) sang Thy Will with such purity and feeling, you could see it was hard for some of the choir members (and the audience, too!) to master their own feelings enough to go on to the next song.

Zoe (from England, also living at Ananda Assisi) sang I Am Thine, Mary Magdalene’s song about the “joy of redemption” as Swamiji explains it. Again the purity of her voice, her childlike joy in singing it, accompanied by the harp and the crystal clear notes of Bhagavati’s flute communicated perfectly God’s unconditional love for all of us.

Swamiji’s chair was placed a little to the side, where the audience could see his profile and he could see the choir. Watching him watch the choir was as inspiring at times as seeing the musicians and singers themselves.

There was no sense of personal involvement from Swamiji, no sense that he had played any special role in what was happening in front of him, just support and appreciation for all those performing and joy in the music itself.

By the time Swamiji got up to speak, because of the music, the hundreds of people in the theater had already come together in the vibration of Christ and Master. It was a seamless transition. We were with Swamiji from the first word.

Swamiji started with a few beautiful slides of distant galaxies projected on a very large screen on the back wall of the stage. One of the important purposes of this book is to give people a concept of God and Christ that is in harmony with the vastness of creation as science has shown it to be.

From this starting point Swamiji went on to talk of God (online audio of his talk at the end of the article) as an infinite consciousness, not the human figure portrayed on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He explained how Jesus being described as the “son” of God can only be symbolic, not literal.

Later, to illustrate this point, Swamiji sang a verse (in Italian) of the Thunder of AUM song that is part of our weekly Festival of Light. Hearing Swamiji singing this familiar lyric and melody in an entirely different context was an important reminder of how much meaning is embedded in our weekly ritual and how deep it can take us spiritually if we open ourselves to it.

Swamiji spoke of finding the Autobiography and meeting Master.

As often happens when Swamiji repeats the first words he spoke to Master, “I want to be your disciple,” his voice was choked with feeling.

So many things in life become less meaningful with familiarity and repetition. Living with Master, Swamiji explained, was just the opposite. The more he has come to know Master, the deeper the experience has become. “I lived with a Christ,” Swamiji said.

We tend to think of Jesus as someone in the distant past. It was thrilling to hear Swamiji speak not of history, but of his own experience. We often use the words “direct disciple” to describe Swamiji. When Swamiji spoke those words, I had a tiny glimpse of what “direct disciple” actually means.

Swamiji’s message was one of hope for every soul. “A saint is a sinner who never gave up.” When Swamiji said this, I felt he was giving us not only faith in our eventual liberation, but also the strength and courage to persevere until that destiny is realized.

In the days before this program, Swamiji had said several times in the course of various interviews with radio and TV and journalists, that his message, and the message of this book is not an intellectual one. It is from the heart.

What Swamiji gave us in his talk today was not just ideas, but the experience of truth behind those ideas.

Swamiji’s theme was joy. When he spoke of how too much emphasis on yourself as a sinner often becomes an excuse to keep on sinning, the audience broke out first in laughter then in applause. The audience laughed easily and several times applauded when Swamiji made a point they particularly enjoyed.

Christ’s greatness is the divine destiny of all Swamiji said. All suffering ends in joy. Everything in this world is divine. Even the worst criminal is a child of God, equally loved by Him. No matter what we do, we cannot separate ourselves from Him. We belong to Him. He is our Divine Friend.

Swamiji spoke for about 40 minutes. Afterwards, there was more music. Swamiji sang a solo of Children of God. Then he stepped into the choir for Christ is Risen. Then Thy Light Within Us Shining, in English, then in Italian.

Swamiji was presented with a few awards from yoga societies and other spiritual organizations. Professor Lazlo, the founder of The Club of Budapest presented Swamiji with a certificate of special membership.

The Professor is a well-respected scientist, with a deeply spiritual viewpoint. Swamiji has contributed chapters to several of his books, and the Professor has visited Swamiji several times. He is about the same age as Swamiji. Both are slender and perhaps not as stalwart and physically vigorous as they once

The two men stood on the stage together, both heads crowned with white hair that created in the light a bright aureole around their heads. It was profoundly moving to see two men of such accomplishment and devotion to truth, both having spent a lifetime sharing their wisdom and experience with others.

One can only hope that, at that stage in our own lives, we will be able to look back on a lifetime so well spent.

Several notable guests were invited to the stage to receive from Swamiji a copy of the book, a CD of the Oratorio, and a long-stemmed rose.

Then, when all the ceremony was done, Swamiji stood at the microphone and sang Peace. His voice was clear and resonant. The choir (of angels) joined in. Swamiji invited us all to sing the last Amen.

And then it was over.

Swamiji wisely decided to exit out the back door of the theater. If he had gone out through the crowd he might be there still.

Before he could go, however, there was one last interview. One of the major television stations had asked to have a few minutes with him. So the huge poster of the book was brought in as a backdrop and Swamiji sat in front of the cameras for a few minutes answering questions: “What is the message of this book?” “Who is Paramhansa Yogananda?” “Tell us about the communities you have founded.”

There has been a great deal of very good publicity, good questions from sincere journalists. The positive effect of this event will be reflected not only in book sales but in increasing appreciation and understanding of Ananda and Swamiji for a long time to come.

Swamiji spent all day before the program mostly alone, taking his meals in his room. Around 1:00pm, I went to make sure his lunch arrived as ordered.

In the usual way I greeted him, “How are you today?” But the question was entirely superfluous! His aura of joy was tangible as soon as I opened the door, and his beatific smile erased any possible doubt. His eyes were shining with joy.

I thought of those words from The Festival of Light that describe the beginning of this great mission of Self-realization.

“Jesus appeared to the great Master Babaji…..”

And then the call to action, “Let us together, in Christ love, set lights ablaze on that high altar once again.”

Well, today, in Rome, the lights are blazing!

In Master,

Asha

Click the player button below to listen to Swami Kriyananda’s talk, simultaneously translated from Italian into English. MP3, 32MB

During his lifetime, Paramhansa Yogananda exhorted his students to create spiritual communities, places that would support their spiritual lives. As he put it, “Environment is stronger than will power.”

I moved to Ananda Village 3 years ago, and rarely leave it. I run errands in town on occasion, and visit family or go on pilgrimage a couple of times a year.

When I do travel, and see places like those I used to live in, I sometimes make new discoveries. On a recent trip away from Ananda, a few things struck me.

Looking for joy in all the wrong places

First, I was amazed at how crazy most people seemed. They seemed to seek happiness mostly in ways that can’t bring them anything more than fleeting happiness – they seem to seek it in things, in other words: money, property, relationships, and so on. This is pretty crazy! Things are unreliable. They are in constant flux; they are no one’s friend.

That I found such a way of life perfectly normal several years ago underscores the truth in Yogananda’s statement, quoted above.

Good conversations come from being interested

Dog grooming is not one of my usual interests, but something I discovered on that recent trip was how to have fascinating and even inspiring discussions with others, on diverse topics. The secret was to approach the subject from their point of view.

In fact, my cousin recently started a dog grooming business. Canine-hair care was an unknown art to me, but after making some effort to find what my cousin liked about it, it became interesting. In fact, it has a lot of spiritual lessons!

She told me, for instance, that if certain ferocious dogs sense fear in a groomer, they’ll take advantage of him or her and refuse to cooperate. So my cousin simply makes up her mind not to be afraid! With this act of will, she’s able to handle the trouble-makers even when others aren’t. Her technique is reminiscent of Sri Yukteswar’s sage words: “Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.”

After talking for a while, we concluded that we are each doing that which is helping us to grow. Several years ago, I wouldn’t have been so open to her reality, or enjoyed it so much!

This openness is something I’ve experienced from others at Ananda, thanks to Swami Kriyananda’s leadership and example.

Swami Kriyananda enjoying a conversation with a member of Ananda

Universal friendship

I lived in a suburb near Seattle for most of my life. Day in and day out, I’d see lots of people that I didn’t know and never would.

Today, though, most of the people I see are friends, Ananda members that I know: people who I live with, sing with in the choir, or serve with in Ananda’s outreach ministry. Some of my closest friends are also my co-workers.

Swami Kriyananda has made “People are more important than things” one of the key principles that guide Ananda. When I first encountered it in action, it took me off guard. Two Ananda Seattle members were helping me to find a job. I had only recently met either one and felt that I was being a burden. Seeing this, one of them said to me, “This is just what we do for each other.”

I’m deeply grateful to have lived in a place that strengthens the feeling that “all the world is my friend.” It may have had a hand in the following story.

I’ve been using a specific practice on recent trips. It is, while around strangers, to single someone out, and find the place inside myself where I would truly give time, attention, and even my life, to him or her – in the same way that I would give to a brother or a life-long friend. (It’s easy, because I’m very unlikely to have to actually do anything!)

It is rewarding and freeing in its own right – I’ve felt a sincere love for others that I hadn’t experienced before – but I wasn’t expecting any outward results. Things have happened, though, which make me think that this technique has an effect on others, too.

When I practice it on trips, people I don’t know act kinder towards me – even on days when I’ve forgotten about this altogether. We all want friendship and respect, and respond positively towards people who offer it to us.

One day, at a website-related conference, I was attending a meal with hundreds of people I didn’t know. I tried to practice this technique, but was also quite timid, and didn’t introduce myself to anyone! After that, I prayed to Divine Mother to be guided to the right people. Paramhansa Yogananda has taught that we attract friends by giving friendship.

The next time I sat down, it was next to someone who meditated every day. He also lived 5 minutes from the headquarters of Self-Realization Fellowship, which was founded by Yogananda. After we discovered our shared interests, we had a wonderful conversation about meditation and other spiritual topics.

After writing all of this, I realized that Swami Kriyananda teaches a similar technique, a purer one, which relates to others not from the level of the personality but from the level of the soul.

He writes in Revelations of Christ:

“God is in every person you meet. It would be a good practice, while walking down any city street, to look at every passerby and think of him or her as God in that form. Then tell yourself, ‘He (or she), too, wants what I want: happiness.’

“He/she may visualize that fulfillment as a new job, or a raise in salary, or a wife or a husband, or children, or as any of the innumerable things people yearn for everywhere on earth, in the expectation that they’ll find happiness through them. Look at them more deeply, however, and remind yourself, ‘What their souls really want is divine bliss, which is only masquerading as human happiness. In that yearning, they are all my brothers and sisters, even if in their present intentions they are misguided.’

“Talk to God about them in your heart. Ask Him to bless them. In time, with this practice, you will come to think of all life as a great, glorious symphony, blending all creatures together in wonderful, flowing chords, rhythms, and melodies of divine aspiration.”

(This is continued on page 436 of Revelations of Christ.)

God’s free gift of love

I’ve also seen how much we all need divine teachings, and, most importantly, need to see them in practice.

In this way, trips away from spiritual community are a blessing, and even a necessity, an opportunity to share the treasures of the spiritual path. Jesus said, “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

A favorite past-time of mine in crowds (one mentioned above by Swami Kriyananda) is to pray for God to bless everyone around. I recommend it also for use in any environment with a negative magnetism – it helps protect you from that negativity, and can become a real joy in itself.

Though it didn’t happen in a crowd, there’s a small example from my own life of the effect that God’s blessings can have, through this technique.

I follow some blogs related to my work with websites. One day, one of the blog writers apologized for something and said that his week had been going very badly. I wrote and told him how his blog had helped The Expanding Light (Ananda’s meditation and yoga retreat), and tried to pray for him as described above.

My email was very short, but he wrote back and said it had “made his day.” And I felt a blessing come back to me in return.

This is all to say: wherever we live, if we experience peace or any divine quality, we can share it. It’s not necessary to be overt: a calm gaze, a kind word, or your loving presence itself can be an inspiration.

“I wasn’t sent to the West,” Yogananda often told his audiences, “by Christ and the great masters of India to dogmatize you with a new theology. Jesus himself asked Babaji to send someone here to teach you the science of Kriya Yoga, that people might learn how to commune with God directly. I want to help you to attain actual experience of Him, through your daily practice of Kriya Yoga.” - Paramhansa Yogananda

The final marble statue which is of Jesus just arrived last week from India. Our line of masters or gurus is 5 deep (Jesus, Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Yukteswar and Paramhansa Yogananda) and Jesus holds pole position as you can see from Yogananda’s comment above. He is viewed by Yogananda devotees worldwide as a great Master of yoga.

Marble statue of Jesus to complement other Ananda yoga masters.

Which is the reason we returned to India to commission the same artist in Jaipur, India to hand-carve this statue of Jesus sitting in meditation. He is sitting in lotus posture with hands upturned. The facial features were drawn from a photograph of the Hoffman painting similar to the one which many of your meditation altars. Funds were donated to Ananda Village as our annual community Christmas gift by its members and it just arrived last week.

See previous posts for information on the other statues of the Masters.

Earlier this year, I took a 17-day (Feb. 10 -27, 2008) trip to Kerala, South India, specifically to an Ayurvedic Health Resort called Somatheeram (translation “Moon-Seashore”).

This trip was sponsored by Ananda’s Expanding Light Yoga and Meditation Retreat near Nevada City, California and led by Gyandev and Diksha McCord—it was their third year to take folks on this healing retreat, and they did a great job as tour leaders. There were 28 of us on the tour. I was able to join the group as an extra staff person, an opportunity for which I will be forever grateful. It was a never-to-be-forgotten experience.

I would highly recommend this Ayurvedic Retreat for anyone, for reasons I will describe below—but most especially if you are interested in healing yourself of anything and while enjoying a vacation in a tropical paradise, experiencing the lovingly spiritual vibrations of South India, and being pampered head-to-toe with unique Ayurvedic treatments.

Because I have been teaching yoga, meditation, and all related topics for over 30 years, I was somewhat familiar with Ayurveda (translation: “knowledge of life”), the primary healing and dietary branch of the yogic sciences. I’ve had my “doshas” diagnosed and special Ayurvedic diets recommended. I’d heard of the special oil treatments and massage that Ayurveda recommends and the “Shirodhara or oil-dripping-on-your-head” treatment, but had never experienced those delights before this trip. So although I knew a bit of what to expect, I was still not sure of how I’d feel about having Ayurvedic treatments every day. Still, the friends I had talked to who had been on this retreat had raved about it, so I figured I’d like it, too. In reality, it was far beyond my expectations, to say the least.

Most of our group flew from San Francisco to Trivundrum, South India, with a stop in Singapore. It’s a long trip, but much more fun when you are with a group. We arrived at night, so it was difficult to see just exactly what the surroundings looked like. We were greeted by the friendly and efficient staff and given fresh coconut juice (in the coconut!) to drink with a straw—very refreshing after all that travel. We went to bed hearing the ocean roar and awoke to the sound of rain on the roof (the only time it rained while we were there).

Kerala is the name of the state in South India where the Somatheeram Ayurvedic Retreat is located, right on the Arabian Sea. Kerala means coconut palm, and I could see why when we got up the next morning. The palms were very tall, slender, and lovely, and they were everywhere, blowing in the warm breezes! In addition were riots of colorful flowers blooming in profusion and washed clean by the rain. The property is landscaped and maintained beautifully. Along every walk-way, there were carefully labeled pots of live herb plants, many of which were used in our healing treatments. I’ve been growing and using herbs for many years, so this was a special treat for me, though certainly many were new to me. The sounds of crows (“caw! caw!”) was omnipresent and often very loud, along with the cries of many other sorts of tropical birds. It sounded like the background sound track of a Tarzan movie. The weather was clear, warm (in the 80’s) and quite humid. It was cooler and ocean-breezy in the mornings, when we did our yoga and meditation sessions outside, under the palm trees and overlooking the ocean.

On our first morning, we came together for an orientation on what to expect from our treatments and an introduction to the staff and the doctors. We also had a blessing and puja (special fire and other offerings ceremony) performed for us by a young Brahmin priest. That afternoon we had our first personal evaluation with two Ayurvedic doctors and were given a dosha diagnosis and treatment schedule for the rest of our stay. In our tour package were included seven Ayurvedic treatments of 2 hours each. I took only my 7 as I felt I needed to have spare time to help Gyandev and Diksha as needed, or just relax if not. Most of my fellow retreatants added on more treatments. My friend, Suzanne Ilgun got the prize for the most treatments taken, one a day and doubling up for two a day on the last few days. She looked so fabulous at the end of the retreat, having lost 10 lbs and looking so rested and relaxed with a “Kerala glow” all around her. She was impressive!

What were the Ayurvedic treatments like? Ayurvedic healing treatments are ancient. Some form of Ayurveda has been practice in this area of India especially, for over a thousand years. The traditions are old indeed! The area/climate/temperature/humidity etc are said to be absolute perfect for healing to take place. The humidity is high, but that is essential to the “sweating-out-the-toxins” part of the treatments. Once you are “diagnosed” and “categorized by dosha as predominantly vatta (airy), pita (fiery), or kapha (earthy)” by the doctors, you are given some herbal remedies to take orally, daily, usually before and after meals. Some tasted OK. Some were tablets and easy to take. Some tasted like something I refuse to describe, but I took them anyway (mostly). I’m sure they were doing me good, because I felt better and better every day. And then you are turned over to a primary therapist (male for the men, female for the women) who takes care of your treatments every day. You are taken to a treatment room, which is quaintly attractive, as all the buildings are there. Primarily brick with palm-thatched roofs. Simple but very nice, clean, and comfortable.

Here you receive a 2 hour (for some slightly longer) treatment by 1, 2, 3 or 4 highly trained therapists. Now everybody was having different treatments of different types, some more strenuous than others. We really had fun each evening at dinner comparing our “treatment experiences” and laughing a lot at each person’s descriptions of them. I was having a “Rejuvenation Program” which was a lighter sort of treatment series. Others were having the “Purification Program” which was longer and more complex, as I had it described to me by others—it included dietary recommendations for every meal. Everybody I talked to seemed very happy with what was going on in their individualized treatments. I should mention that we had several men on this trip with us and they felt greatly healed and benefited by their treatments—it’s not just a “pampering girly” thing going on here, believe me! It involves deep healing techniques for men and women alike. Besides our group there were other guests also, primarily from Germany, Russia, Italy, and other European countries. I think we might have been the only Americans there!

Here is the main theme of the treatments: OIL, OIL, and more OIL! Literally gallons of herbal oil (usually sesame or coconut oil base) were being used on you. They make all this oil at a nearby facility, which we toured one day as part of our experience—very interesting to see how they do this! The oil was warmed to a comfortable temperature and slathered on in amazing quantities. Massages were quite different from the kind we are used to in the West. Lighter strokes (sometimes with more than one person working on you), not so much digging into the muscles. But very thorough and it really felt wonderful to me. They use their hands, obviously, to massage you all over, but also their feet. They treat your eyes, your ears, your nasal/sinus cavities, and other body parts I won’t mention. I drank cups of warm ghee (clarified butter) and herbs before treatments, and warm herbal water or coconut juice after treatments. So you are definitely being treated both inside and out. After two hours or more of treatment, you are give a clean cotton robe to wear to your room and told NOT to shower off the oil but rather sit out in nature in your hammock or rest somewhere shady and calm for an hour, to let the oil soak in more deeply and to reap the benefits of the treatments.

We also received Shirodara, the most commonly known treatment of Ayurveda, wherein a light stream of oil is poured slowly on your forehead for quite a while. It is blissful! You really do go into an altered state of consciousness with this one. All of it was a treat for me to experience, as well as being rejuvenating. I felt strongly that the doctors, treatment personnel, and all the healing staff members really know what they are doing and are very good at it and professional, too. Plus they are very kind, friendly, loving, caring, and always sweet as can be. Treatment sessions always began with a short blessing ceremony and lighting of incense by your primary practitioner. It’s pampering of body, mind, and soul like none other.

These treatments were the FOCUS of most of our days, but many other fun things happened too, a few of which I will describe. But first let me tell you what Somatheeram looked like. As I mentioned, it is located right on the Arabian Sea. The primary buildings and individual cabins are placed on many levels on the steep side of bluffs overlooking the ocean. Therefore, you are always feeling ocean breezes and hearing the sound of the sea. The cabins or resident rooms are new, but built to resemble the local and ancient architecture. They are made of red brick and often round in shape. They have thatched coconut palm roofs, ceiling fans, and excellent ventilation and kept spotlessly clean. Most have a hammock outside and spectacular beach views. They are set among palm forests and brick or stone walkways.

As I mentioned, everything is beautifully landscaped with tropical flowers and plants, meticulously maintained and kept tidy by a friendly grounds crew. There are many steps to climb to go from your residence to dining room to beach to sadhana area to treatment centers to swimming pool, but this is very good exercise (makes you sweat!) and very much a part of the healing process. The dining areas (there are more than one) are open and breezy, partially indoors and partially under the sky. There is entertainment almost every evening during dinner consisting or dance, music, chanting, plays, and so on.

The food is very, very good. It is served buffet style. It is fresh and delicious. It is primarily vegetarian and Indian style, but at dinner there is always one entrée which has meat or fish in it. If you don’t care for what is on the buffet, you may order whatever you like from their menu. There is room service—allowing you to have anything you want delivered right to your room.

The beach is an inspiring place to spend time and I did so every day, usually at dawn and/or dusk. The water is beautiful, though the crashing waves were a little too rough for me to venture out too far. The strongest swimmers in our group cautioned us to be very careful of the surf. On the way down to the beach closest to our resort is a Christian shrine with statues of Jesus and also St. Thomas, who brought Christianity to this area of India in about 50AD. There are always people there kneeling in prayer in worship. An inspiring sight! And there are often special processions to the shrine with music and singing. Christianity, Indian style, in a rainbow of colors.

Many of us might have been content to hang out and eat and sleep and do yoga and swim and walk on the beach and have our Ayurvedic treatments—sounds nice, doesn’t it?—it was! But there were other fun things we did—side trips and such. I mentioned our trip to the facility where all the herbal oils and medicines were made. But our first outing was to a nearby cove/beach area called Kovalam—about 30 minutes away. It was a georgous crescent shaped beach and a sort of shopping boardwalk all along the beach. This was a majorly good shopping area and people, including myself, found beautiful things to buy at really inexpensive prices. Also just outside the gates of our resort, were many nice shops also, including friendly tailors who would make you whatever clothes you wanted in just few hours—difficult to resist!

One day we went to downtown Trivundrum to a fancy department store named Parthas, where many beautiful shirts, saris, punjabis, and so on were purchased by members our group. My two favorite outings were the tropical delights of our houseboat ride on the inland waterway system of Kerala and our day-trip to the southern tip of India, Cape Comorin/Kanyakumari, and a temple on a rock island where Swami Vivekananda swam out to and meditated on for many days before coming to America in 1893—combined with a visit to a huge Hindu temple complex, Suchindrum, built in honor of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

We happened to be at our resort on the night of the full moon, so we had a kirtan (group chanting session) out on the beach that evening. I led it and I so much enjoyed chanting in that enchanted place with the ocean sound of AUM playing along with the harmonium.

As I mentioned above, we had a pretty location to have sadhana (Energization, yoga stretches, and meditation) outside on a lawn, under the tall coconut palms and overlooking the beach, every morning, 6:30-8am. Sadhana was optional, as was everything, but most of our group attended and enjoyed it very much. This really added to the healing dimension of the whole experience.

Diksha gave some great morning classes on the teachings of Ayurveda, which were very helpful in letting us understand more of what was going on as a part of what we were experiencing in the afternoon treatments.

When it was time for part of our group to leave for New Delhi for a week at Ananda India headquarters and part to go on back to the US or to other travel destinations, we found we had grown very close to each other and were a bit sad to be parted. We had laughed together and shared so many unique situations—making new friends or deepening already existing friendships.

Should you consider going on this retreat with us next year? Absolutely and without question! Ask anyone who went. I know that they’d recommend you do it. Being in Mother India is an experience not to be missed, no matter what part of the country you choose to visit. But Kerala and the Ayurvedic Healing experience are—well, I’m running out of good descriptive adjectives, so I’ll just stop now. Questions? E-mail me any time!

Long ago, I began mingling with the people who are part of Ananda and noticed several things: the joy in their eyes, the easy way they spoke of God, and the emphasis they placed on energy.

I had not heard the term “energy” used in so many different ways before, and in relation to so many circumstances. It took me years to understand how energy is central to Yogananda’s teachings, and now it is part of my vocabulary as well.
(I’m ready to admit I may overuse the word. My son has taken to prefacing his questions with, “It probably has to do with energy…”, accompanied by a bit of eye rolling.)

The truth is that everything has to do with energy; science tells us that everything is made of energy. Once I became aware of how energy is flowing in the body, in circumstances, in relationships and through all activities, it is a much better guide than the emotional barometer I usually use for my behavior. I have found this particularly valuable as a parent.

As my daughter works on schoolwork while stroking a guinea pig in her lap, the energy around her is uplifted and expansive. When I get impatient with her and scold, I can feel the energy get small and tight.

When I step through the door after being out, I can feel whether there were problems in my absence. When I kiss the kids goodnight, I can tell if they are relaxed and will sleep well.

Some of that sensitivity is normal Mom intuition, developed over 20 years of child-raising. But I cringe to think of the many times I let my mom agenda to get things done interfere with the happy energy in the house. I would break up a relaxed and happy scene with my directives and the energy would plummet, and then I would be hurt that everyone responded to me so negatively.

Swami Kriyananda says, “Raise your energy, and your awareness will be uplifted also. When your awareness is uplifted, you’ll feel happier.” (from Do It Now!)

I’m learning to think about how to keep energy moving upward and outward, and focus less on feelings, which are often misleading. And it’s much easier to think about how to change an energy flow than how to fix everyone’s feelings.

Last night I listened to the comfortable family laughter in the other room and then made sure my energy matched theirs before I joined in. It was a minor victory, but contributed to a harmonious evening. When I remember to pay attention to the energy, happiness flows through the house, and through my life, more freely.

In divine friendship,
Lorna

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” (Isa. 55:8)

To find God, it will help us to try to see, feel, and think of everything differently from what we are accustomed to doing. That is why, among devotees in India, much is made of the importance of bhav, right spiritual attitude. We must try constantly to rise above seeing everything in reference to our egos, and stop thinking, “My home, my wife or husband, my children, my clothes, my job, my friends, my position in the world, my reputation, my talents, my strengths, my defects, my advantages, my disadvantages.” You can see that the list might be endless. Everything that most people see, even impersonally, they tend to relate back to themselves. Even when they step out under the heavens at night and contemplate that infinite vastness, with its myriad stars and its inconceivable reaches of space, their usual reaction is to think, “How small I feel myself, by comparison!”

An artist sees a beautiful sunset and thinks, “I wonder if I could paint as beautifully?” Someone else contemplates a great deed performed by some other human being, and his first thought is, “Could I ever do that? Well, if not, here’s what I can do, probably better than he.” And so the drama plays itself out, in each scene the hero or heroine being one’s own little self and the parts (s)he plays on the stage. Every actor is the central character, even if only the butler who announces a visitor.

One time, years ago, I made a recording of some chants: traditional Indian and others also by my Guru. A young Indian tabla drummer played the accompaniment. It was very evident, later, in listening to the recording that in his mind he himself was the whole show. Someone asked him afterward, “How did the recording go?”

“Fine!” he replied. “I played such-and-such a tala (rhythm).”

If we want to find God, we must strive from the very beginning of our journey to look at everything very differently from that to which most people are accustomed. New vision will of course come to us automatically as we progress on the path, but it would help us if we tried from the start to adopt those attitudes which will come to us ever-more clearly, as the veils of maya drop, one by one, from before our gaze.

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How does the enlightened soul view everything? From the passage I quoted above in Isaiah, we see that there is much we shall have to learn, and much also unlearn.

For one thing—indeed, for much more than that: for everything—we shall no longer think of things egoically. That is, we shall no longer refer everything, or even anything, back to ourselves, unless the reference is part of a completely impersonal view of reality. To give an example: a good singer-saint may know that he has sung well, but he will never think, “I have sung well.” He will think, “God sang His beauty through me.” That is to say, he will be well aware, and perhaps even more so than most people, of the beauty itself. But he will never think he himself produced that beauty. He will see God alone in everything, as the Doer.

For another thing, he will begin to look at everything from the inside, out: to view everything and everyone in terms of the divine consciousness which resides at the center of all things.

I haven’t read these things in a book, and perhaps I should make the fact clear, lest someone wiser than I tell me someday, “You’ve perceived (this or that point) incorrectly. What you’ve said is partly true, but here is another aspect of the matter which you’ve overlooked.” That may happen; I don’t know. All I can say is that this is, so far, the understanding I’ve reached, and I think it worthwhile to share with others.

For when I think of that divine center in all things and in all people, I find that I see everything and everyone quite differently. When I relate to other people from my own center to theirs, instead of from my ego to theirs, I find that I feel toward them in a different way altogether. I understand them better. I also evoke a new reaction in them. Even strangers look upon me more as though I were their own. Somehow, they know me as their friend, someone in whom they can confide their troubles, someone they can depend on to give them support and to help them in their difficulties. I understand them from inside rather than from their mere outward appearance. Perhaps that is why, as Asha noted in her book, though I am usually intensely conscious of color, I never notice the color of people’s eyes.

When I look at things in that way, from my center to theirs, I feel in some way related to them.

Best of all, perhaps, when I ponder the vast drama that is life, I see more clearly, in such a way as to fill me with love and bliss, that it is God Himself who directs the whole show. Through all the ups and downs of life—the joys and the sorrows, the victories and the defeats, the fulfillments and the disappointments—I feel as if life were a great symphony. Marvelous chords emerge. The dissonances resolve in exquisite harmonies. The melodies, from sobbing grief to upward soaring in joy: all of them give expression to the overall wonder of the great story of adventure and love. And I know that, for everyone, it will all end in thrills of ecstatic bliss and undying gratitude for everything that ever happened.

The countless stories, both short and long, of friendship, romance, tenderness, misunderstanding, enmity, revenge, and reconciliation: all—all these work out innumerable tangles, to emerge in a beatifically divine simplicity and delight.

It all seems almost impossibly complex. And yet in fact it is all so completely, so fundamentally simple as to make one, after years of struggling on the path, shake his head in wonder and ask himself, “How could I have failed to understand?” It all becomes so utterly obvious! Of course what we all want is eternally the same, one thing: not money; not power; not the Lethe of alcoholic forgetfulness; not sex; not self-importance; not respect and deference from others. What we all want is Bliss. It was bliss alone we sought in all lesser fulfillments. The reason everything has disappointed us and has proved itself at the end of each episode to have been no fulfillment at all, is due simply to the fact that those denouements were all dancing at our periphery: none of them sprang from our own center; none of them resonated with who we really were and are, inside.

When disappointment or pain come to me, now, from any source whatsoever, I remind myself that my center lies elsewhere—that indeed, since my true center is omnipresent, my reality comprises vastness itself, of which the center is the calmness in my own heart. Thus, I have undergone the sort of pains that make most people shudder—in the dentist’s chair, or in the intensive care unit of a hospital after major surgery—and all I feel is bliss. What happened to my body never happened to me: it was a mere incident in an infinite, timeless reality, like a fleeting ripple on the great sea of life. And though I cannot claim to be conscious yet of my actual oneness with that Divine Sea, yet the mere affirmation of it as my deepest reality has enabled me again and again to be calm in the midst of any turmoil that surrounds me.

I see all life now as a dream. For such is its fundamental “reality.” The entire cosmos is God’s dream. Nothing is real except in His consciousness. Living in that thought, even without the final realization of its truth, helps me to perceive with conviction that this is all I am, and all that life itself is.

I see someone fulfilling some ambition and think, “That is how it will be, when I find God! It will be a surcease, a release and relaxation from all striving—but it will be eternal, and will not last for that mere moment which human fulfillment brings, and which is always followed by boredom, disappointment, failure, or (sometimes) by great sorrow. In God, fulfillment itself is final, complete, and eternal!”

If I see two human lovers joyfully united at last, perhaps after numerous trials, I think, “Yes, that is what it will be like in God: divine unity in the very perfection, for eternity, of all love!”

I remember watching Walt Disney’s cartoon movie, “Cinderella.” Indeed, I have watched it many times, and always my reaction has been the same: soaring devotion to God in the thought of all the trials, sorrows, betrayals, and disappointments of life, and how they must end—not in that ephemeral embrace of human love, but in the perfection of union with God—He who embraces our souls and unites us to Him for eternity!

If I see people exulting in some worldly gain, whether success, or fame, or anything else, I think joyfully, “Oh, how wonderful it is to contemplate that zenith of all longings, knowing that, in having Him, we’ll have everything!”

And if I see people suffering, or weeping with the pain of bereavement or of some other personal disaster, or with some unexpected personal suffering, I think, “How wonderful it will be for them at last, when they realize that all this was a dream!” And I long to help them to see it as such indeed—to show them not merely how to escape their present suffering, which in this world of dwaita (duality) is only temporary—but how to escape every possibility of ever suffering again.

For the more one learns to see things in an impersonal and divine way—and this has to be God’s view, whose consciousness is omnipresent and omniscient, and for Whom time and space don’t even exist because past, present, and future, and also here, there, and everywhere are all one reality—the more one realizes that the greatest service one can render anyone is the knowledge of his own Divine, Inner Self. That alone, through eternity, has been, is, and ever shall be our sole reality.

Trying to see things with divine vision means to view everything, even if only in imagination, as an ever-changing play of light, shadows, and color on the cosmic screen of duality.

It means to contemplate the vastness of the universe and to tell oneself, “At my own deepest center, I am in touch with all that. I am that! Whatever happens in the most distant galaxy happens in some way also to me!”

It means to see the inconveniences of life—the bothersome insects, the excesses of heat and cold, the physical discomforts, the disintegration of everything we love and appreciate in this world—and to think, “I am grateful! These things help me to keep in mind constantly that my home is in Him alone.”

It means to see life’s countless joys and sorrows, and to think, “How wonderful is this drama, that after all the suspense, uncertainty, and tragedy man endures, it all ends in a way so supremely and utterly satisfying! There is no other story even imaginably comparable to the one God has written for each of us!”

Life’s bubble-existence makes us experience either a constant renewal of disappointment, suffering, and pain, or else ever-new joy in the discovery that it has always been Him alone we ever wanted and loved. He alone can—and will, eventually—grant us all that we ever wished for in life.

And so we should view birth, life, death, tearful comings together and partings, laughter and sighs of sadness, and through all of them let our hearts soar upward in song, knowing that all of it has been for a supremely good reason: it all has a wonderful purpose! Life itself should be, therefore, a song of constant gratitude and bliss.

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