Dear Friends,
Just to let you know, Sadhana Devi and I arrived in Delhi last Tuesday after finally receiving permission to return to India from the Deputy Secretary of the Home Ministry, using our still active tourist visas This allows us to be in Gurgaon while the details for properly registering Ananda Sangha with the Home Ministry are worked out. Once that is done, Indian Consulates around the world can, if they choose, issue Entry (X) visas to qualified volunteers doing service for Ananda Sangha in India. Technically, I'm not supposed to teach public programs while using my tourist visa, so I must be discreet, but once the OK for the new visas is given, Sadhana Devi, I and others can apply, making all the service activities of us foreigners proper and legal. Still to be determined is whether we'll need to return to the USA to make the visa switch. I hope not.
Swamiji and many from the ashram are in Rishikesh to participate in the dedication of a Kriya Temple at the ashram of Swami Shankarananda. Representatives from numerous kriya lines are expected to be there and this is an opportunity to bring together the many branches of the kriya tree. I would have like to be there but everyone had left by the time we arrived back in India. and I was too pooped anyway. Since I was one of the few acharyas at the ashram while everyone was away, I was asked to represent Ananda last night at a discourse presented by Brahmarishi Prithriji from South India, hosted by DR Karthikeyan, on the topic of The Science of Meditation. Sadhana Devi and I went and gave our greetings. Prithriji claims to be "enlightened" and gave an entertaining talk on his version of meditation practice, which is basically watching the breath. I liked him but our traditions are rather different. I kind of had my doubts about his claim to be a reincarnation of Benjamin Franklin and of the Buddha's favorite disciple Anand.
The fun part was that it turned out Brahmarishi is the founder of the Pyramid Society in India. They are the ones who use the "pyramid hats" that I and others have made fun of for so many years. You put a styrofoam pyramid on your head while meditating for "3 times the depth." He has a big, glass pyramid temple in Bangalore and invited me to visit sometime when we are down there. I tried to keep an open mind and my opinions to myself, and I bought a hat, but haven't yet had time to try it out. It will take courage to wear the thing at morning sadhana in the ashram. Not wanting to pass on such a great opportunity, I bought one for Swamiji too.
Although we were gone for only two months, I've noticed lots of little changes. Most noticeable is the advance of the Delhi Metro system into Gurgaon, with tracks and a station being constructed about a half mile from the ashram in Shikanderpur (for those of you who know the geography). The roads have been temporarily rerouted in the vicinity of the new station while massive construction is underway, causing me to direct the taxi driver in a couple of circles when coming back from the airport Tuesday. Once the Metro is completed, probably in a year or two, we'll be able to hop on for a trip to downtown Delhi, much quicker than by car and cheaper too. At least that is what they say. Eventually, a line is planned to even go from here directly to the airport.
When I first came to India I couldn't help but notice all the construction and wrote about this in a previous letter. As time has passed, I've actually begun to see many of these projects coming to completion. Because so much hand labor is used, things progress more slowly than in America but things actually do move along steadily. This is especially so when it concerns the Metro which is run by an independent agency less subject to political pressures and bureaucracy. The Metro gets things done on time and on budget, if you can believe the newspapers. I think its true. One day there is nothing and the next, miles of roadway are walled off from view with Metro barricades while construction proceeds behind. A month or so later, steel and concrete appear above the fence.
One of the reasons for so much construction is that Delhi will host the Commonwealth Games in 2010. This a big, big sporting event and a matter of national pride for the country. India wants to show what it can do and is pulling out all the stops to clean up and modernize Delhi. I've noticed the changes, even beyond the construction. I believe the city is actually a lot cleaner now than it was when I came. The government seems to be making a serious effort to remove the previously ubiquitous rubble, debris and trash along the roadways, making the whole city much more attractive. Last year Delhi became one of the few cities in the world to ban plastic shopping bags (San Francisco is another) and the difference is apparent. My theory is that the cows can eat the paper bags, thus helping the effort. I've heard it said that the police are also driving out the homeless and tearing down some of the shanty-towns, but whether this is true or not, I don't know. If Delhi can put on the 2010 Games successfully, I expect India to make a bid for hosting the Olympics within 20 years, just like China is doing in 2008. Now, if they only had some athletes to win a medal in something. Cricket isn't an Olympic sport yet.
Keshava and Daya are due back in a day or two and will be getting things ready for our group pilgrimage to Badrinath in September. Many Indian devotees are going and I'll write next about this Himalayan adventure.
Joy to everyone,
Jaya
Friday, August 17, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Cecilia, Ahimsa Silk and AUM
Dear Friends,
I mentioned in my last letter that I would tell you something of the businesses we are establishing in India. This letter is dedicated to an interview with Cecilia Patitucci, an Ananda Sangha member of many years from our ashram in Assisi, Italy. She came to India as part of the first wave of Westerners with Swami Kriyananda in 2003/04 and has been part of theAnanda India community ever since.
Cecilia is aperson of great warmth, with a sophisticated sense of fashion, and a marvelous Italian charm, difficult to convey in print. Her story is fascinating and I think you will enjoy it.
Jaya: You’ve started a clothing business in India. How did this come about?
On the 6th of February 2004, Swami asked me if I would start a business with “khadi,” a fabric handwoven with the “charkha,” the spinning wheel. When you see a flag of India, in the center you see the charkha, a great symbol of Indian independence and one of the tools of revolution used by Gandhi. It was through the silent revolution of the charkha that Gandhi was able to call the people of India back to their historic roots of hand-weaving fabrics rather than having them imported from England.
Khadi has a big symbolism in the hearts of Indians, but it is something that has been forgotten because khadi is now considered a poor fabric, reminding people of past times of poverty. Swamiji had the idea of using khadi because he has good friends involved in the khadi movement.
I met these people and through them, I began to study. The word “khadi” has the same roots as “kare” whichmeans “making.” Khadi is about making—“handmade.” I started studying these fabrics, especially cottons, but also silks, and was inspired to create a line of clothing called the “Ananda India Yoga Line.” These would be very simple clothes inspired by the Indian dress you see on the street: a simple kurta,which is a shirt with very few buttons and simple trousers, westernized to be more easily worn. I created a line for men and for women, both in cotton and insilk, and started to promote these in Italy through our cooperative at Ananda Assisi where it was well received. Soon after, I began to learn about organic cotton.
When you enter into the khadi world, you not only meet people interested in helping weavers and spinners in the villages but also people interested in the environment. Organic cottons are those that are grown without the use of pesticides and without the use ofchemical fertilizers. I started to know these kinds ofpeople and a new world opened up for me. I wanted to work with organic cottons in order to create a yoga collection that would be extremely contemporary.
After studying, I started “Lotus Bio.” Bio because“biologico” in Italian means “organic” and Lotus because I wanted this line to have a lotus flower tosymbolize consciousness opening to help True Nature, which is God. Organic cotton is grown and dyed without chemicals. The white fabrics are the result of soaking in water,soaps and other natural elements and then exposing them to the sun. The cotton is grown in Madhya Pradesh, in central India, and the fabric is dyed in Gujarat, the land of Gandhi.
I wanted to use vegetable dyes and learned how to use these in the organic cottons but found that not every dye is good. Some colors burn the organic cotton, so I am still in the process of learning about this. We have presented these fabrics in Italy and they have been very well received.
Then another world popped up into my life. This was the world of “ahimsa” silk. Ahimsa silk is obtained without killing the worms inside the cocoons so that they can become butterflies. It is a silk traditionally grown for yogis because yogis use silk for its vibration,and ahimsa silk, meaning “non-violence,” is a pure vibration fabric.
Many Jains, followers of Mahavir, cultivate ahimsa silk in India and I met a Jain man who produces this ahimsa silk in a very poor region of India called Jarkhand, a place in Bihar. It is called Jarkhand because 60% of their land is covered with forest and “jarkhand” means “land of the forest.” This land ofJarkhand has many, many trees where this friend of mine started a social work 15 years ago to gather poor women together to harvest silk cocoons.
If you help the village women, you help the trees because the trees are needed by these women to make their living out of the silk cocoons. They are not boiled, these cocoons, or suffocated by a heating process. They allow the worm to develop naturally into a butterfly. This means you cannot reel a thread out of the cocoon as is normally done in silk production to produce a perfect, unbroken thread. You have to keep the cocoon intact so the thread will be a little thicker, not perfect, but it will have the vibrations of ahimsa.
This story or helping women, helping the trees, and helping the environment, inspired me to make a new product—ahimsa silk-covered cushions for meditation and ahimsa silk-covered cushions for the neck. These two products were marketed successfully in Italy.
I developed a fabric without color, using the color of the silk as it comes out of the cocoon, and for another product I used the blue color of indigo, discovered in India thousands of years ago. Indigo is called this in the West because it was coming from India and it became the first widely used blue dye in the world.
In yoga, blue is symbolic because it is the color of the sky and the color of Krishna, making it perfect for the meditation and yoga. Ananda Sangha now has a business called “Anjali Khadi Clothing.” I gave the company the name“Anjali” because in Sanskrit anjali is the act of offering something to the altar and this company is anoffering to God. “Anjali Khadi Clothing of Ananda Sangha India” develops the different lines of products.
Ananda India Yoga Line is the khadi clothing made ofsilk and cotton. Lotus Bio is the product line madefrom organic cotton. The products for meditation using ahimsa silk are called Ahimsa.
Each of these products comes with a beautifully designed tag showing an open lotus and the symbol of Ananda Sangha. We include the story of the product, a history of the fabric and where it is from. Customers see thatthere are people from several religions working together—Jain people, Muslim people, Hindus all working together.
I also include with each product quotations from Gandhi and Master because Gandhi saw khadi as asymbol of simplicity, purity, sincerity, calmness, and of love. He wanted to create a symbol of these qualities for everybody through khadi. This is a fabric bridge of love and peace between East and West. A bridge of qualities, the essence of India, passes through the fabric and comes to the West.
Jaya: “It sounds like a great adventure. What have been your obstacles?
It has been an adventure begun with enormous obstacles, continued with enormous obstacles, and still faces obstacles every hour. The big thing has been the transformation of a person into the symbolism of these fabrics. The obstacles were many but they showed me how to expand my heart to face them.
I’ve had to do business with people who have a very different way of dealing with other people, a different way of dealing with work, a different way of dealing with loyalty, sincerity, commitment, punctuality, and honesty. All these things made my journey extremely difficult, but I discovered there was only one thing which could be transformed, and that was myself. I realized that just as it was so immensely difficult to have this fabric cleaned, cut the way I wanted, stitched as I wanted, or altered when it had been cut wrong, I understood that it was all just a symbol of what God is doing with each one of us.
I wanted my clothes to fit perfectly, so God wants us to perfectly fit our true nature. He has to cut us many times because we are never perfect the first time. Then He has to stitch us to make the perfect dress out of us. And the stitching is painful and it has to be done many times before becoming a perfect cloth. Then He has to lean us one, two, three times because this perfect fabric, cut and stitched, is full of spots. Then He has to iron us, but in ironing you can burn the fabric.
The process of making clothes out of fabric is simply a symbol of how we have to become something beautiful for God. Clean but simple, sincere, peaceful, andessential.
Jaya: What have you learned that you didn’tanticipate?
First of all, you learn about your own mind. You learn how you thought you were in peace and how you were not. I thought I had reached a point of joy and inner peace because I was coming to India every year for two months, going to all the spots of pilgrimage with a big inner joy, doing my sadhana and meditation, and loving India to the tips of my fingers. And then one day I began to see how my mind was agitated, how calmness was not there at all, how upset I could become with other people.
Before I had thought I was the biggest lover of people in the world. I had always been able to get through any experience just with love. Now I began to see how peace was not in my heart, how I was identified with events happening in a certain way, and how I was completely dependent on external situations in order to be happy, to be peaceful, to be joyful.
I was completely dependent on how other people behaved in order for me to love them.
I came to see that there was a big work to do in expanding my heart and calming my mind.
Jaya: So, what did you do?
I went deeper into meditation, especially becoming regular in the Aum Technique in order to hear the true sound of everything. I had to go back to Aum to get beyond the noise I was hearing every day in those noisy, burning factories with 47C, 50C degrees temperature, no fans working, all kinds of people coming, going, shouting.
I deepened my meditations because I realized that I was many times on the edge of madness, both from the craziness of the situation, of everyday fighting to have things done, and because ofthe incredible environment of heat. The heat was impossible. The first time I came was in summer and it was 47 C (117 F) degrees. The external environment was extremely difficult and the internal environment began to burn my mind and my heart. I realized through this experience that I had a big job to do inside.
Jaya: You mention the Aum technique. What else did you do?
Meditation, Kriya, the Aum technique, prayer andnever giving up. At the beginning, when I came toIndia, around Swamiji there was an enormous flow of energy poring out of him. Enormous! There was a wave of Master coming through him needed to break the ice, or maybe I should say “fire” in such a country as this.
Being with him meant having all this karma coming up for each of us and we couldn’t be indulgent. We could not take care of only ourselves because we had a job to do every day. I could not say “No.” Without affirmations and prayers I couldn’t make it. Everyday was a fight.
It was difficult just getting out ofthe door. Taxis were constantly late, one hour to an hour and a half, or not coming at all, with drivers not understanding English, we not speaking their language and getting lost. So many tears and feelings of desperation! You can only make it if it occurs to youthat there is only one thing worth it, to liberate yourself. There is only one purpose for which we are here—to get free.
I have given my life to the Kriya Yoga path and I have been able to contribute with money, so this path has been my only purpose and I never gave up. Through the money that has come through this business, we have been able to publish Swamiji’s Essence of theBhagavad Gita. We were able to do this entirely from India without other money from elsewhere. We paid for all the printing. But it has not been easy. I’ve hade verything stolen three times and I have been cheated many times.
This happened again and again but I never gave up and I learned a big lesson. It was not me that worked. That was a lesson that Swamiji helped me to understand. “Cecilia, here there is a big lesson for you. Ego! You have to learn that it is not you who is doing all this. Master will take it all from you until you understand that it is not you who is doing. God is the doer.”
My second lesson was when I felt there was no love left in my heart. I was extremely, intensely challenged by the people I was meeting every day. It was a world of men, naturally. Not only were they thinking that women are inferior, but a blond, young, single foreigner woman is something completely strange to them. I was constantly alone. I learned that if I wanted to survive, I could not try to transform anyone. The only thing I could do was to transform myself.
But how?
By expanding my heart so that I could love more.That doesn’t mean being stupid or naive, but loving more with wisdom so I would not be affected by beingc heated in such a wild way, by so many arrogant men,so very proud.
Jaya: Do you feel that you had these troubles because you are a woman. Would it have been the same if you were a man?
It is the same with foreign men but being a woman is worse. There is a different way in India of dealing with precision, commitment, client service, and time, these crucial things when you produce something. But the challenge is for you to realize that your mind is notpeaceful and your heart is not loving enough. I found myself with a mind extremely agitated and a heart not loving anymore, a heart becoming dryer and dryer.
Jaya: How did you deal with that?
I have been praying. I have a very strong faith and I am a very stubborn person. You can put me in any situation and I will continue until I do it. It doesn’toccur to me to stop. Never. If Guru gave me something through Swamiji, I have to do it. Indeed, this has been my biggest sadhana and my biggest blessing. Even up until now, it is a big fight. Every day. No question.I’ve also been learning to be detached in the good and in the bad. Before, when I would find good people, I would give them so much love but then I would be betrayed. So, learning from that has been a big thing for me. When you find bad people, you feel so much upset, but with all that very bad feeling, I was poisoning myself. Is that what I want? No, it is not!
So, I’m working on detachment, but it is a daily process only kriya can make happen. In India, everything is extreme. As there are people who are low in consciousness, there are the big yogis too. People who are foreigners come with a mind that is western and rational, a mind of details used to punctuality, and with a fractionated organization of time.
Here you must learn to be detached. In the end, you understand that it is not those outward things that are important but rather how your mind reacts to them.It is not important, the things that come or do not come, because when Master throws to you, every day for three years, fifteen examples of non-punctuality or non-precision, maybe there is a lesson in that. It is my daily work to not identify with what I do. It is a high challenge and I am still praying everyday that my life can become sweeter and softer, but I know it will become like that only when I become more peaceful in my mind and more loving in my heart.
Jaya: What do you see as the future of the business?
It is expanding. I see there are more people interested and I want to reach more markets. Now I have one employee whereas before I was alone. I want to invest in having even more people. I think it is worth it because I see that the organic world is waiting, especially in America where there is a huge, enormous market. I want to explore the production of more organic things. I want to make more clients for organic products in Italy and for khadi.
In India, I have a very good connection for the introduction of cotton products for the home. I would like to start a line of organic cotton bed sheets, cotton bathrobes and towels. I see a beautiful future for the business, but with a team.
Jaya: How would you sum up your experience?
My experience has been about making a connection with the deep reality of India. It is a reality of 750 million people living in 750 thousand villages, a reality where 75% of the population lives in an environment opposite of the big cities where we live. It is a reality of doing something connected with the soil of India, a soil being destroyed by pesticides and fertilizers, and areality of farmers forced to take out loans they cannot repay and committing suicide. We have put our finger into the villages with khadi, organic cotton and silk. We are helping poor women have something sustainable by allowing them to harvest cocoons.
Ananda Sangha has a connection with the country of India through working with the fabrics produced bythese three different realities: khadi from villages ,organics without pesticides and fertilizers, and ahimsasilk, helping both the environment and the poor women of Jarkand.
Final Notes:The above interview is condensed. If you would likethe full version, write and I’ll send it upon editing.This will be my last letter until after we return to Indiain August. Sadhana Devi and I will be in America forthe months of June and July, visiting Portland andAnanda Village and doing programs in New England.We’ll visit Lorne and Judy Dekun at Ananda Michiganand conduct a program at the Ananda Center in Maine .Sadhana Devi will spend extra time at the Village to do research for the next installment of her project about the history of Ananda, while I will help Larry andKaren Rider in beautifully green Rhode Island. By the way, Sadhana’s first book of Ananda’s history from1969-76 has been reformatted and printed in India witha beautiful new cover and real binding. If you wouldlike a copy, email her and she can bring you one.(SD: sadhanadevi@anandaindia.org) We hope to see you soon.Jaya and Sadhana Devi
I mentioned in my last letter that I would tell you something of the businesses we are establishing in India. This letter is dedicated to an interview with Cecilia Patitucci, an Ananda Sangha member of many years from our ashram in Assisi, Italy. She came to India as part of the first wave of Westerners with Swami Kriyananda in 2003/04 and has been part of theAnanda India community ever since.
Cecilia is aperson of great warmth, with a sophisticated sense of fashion, and a marvelous Italian charm, difficult to convey in print. Her story is fascinating and I think you will enjoy it.
Jaya: You’ve started a clothing business in India. How did this come about?
On the 6th of February 2004, Swami asked me if I would start a business with “khadi,” a fabric handwoven with the “charkha,” the spinning wheel. When you see a flag of India, in the center you see the charkha, a great symbol of Indian independence and one of the tools of revolution used by Gandhi. It was through the silent revolution of the charkha that Gandhi was able to call the people of India back to their historic roots of hand-weaving fabrics rather than having them imported from England.
Khadi has a big symbolism in the hearts of Indians, but it is something that has been forgotten because khadi is now considered a poor fabric, reminding people of past times of poverty. Swamiji had the idea of using khadi because he has good friends involved in the khadi movement.
I met these people and through them, I began to study. The word “khadi” has the same roots as “kare” whichmeans “making.” Khadi is about making—“handmade.” I started studying these fabrics, especially cottons, but also silks, and was inspired to create a line of clothing called the “Ananda India Yoga Line.” These would be very simple clothes inspired by the Indian dress you see on the street: a simple kurta,which is a shirt with very few buttons and simple trousers, westernized to be more easily worn. I created a line for men and for women, both in cotton and insilk, and started to promote these in Italy through our cooperative at Ananda Assisi where it was well received. Soon after, I began to learn about organic cotton.
When you enter into the khadi world, you not only meet people interested in helping weavers and spinners in the villages but also people interested in the environment. Organic cottons are those that are grown without the use of pesticides and without the use ofchemical fertilizers. I started to know these kinds ofpeople and a new world opened up for me. I wanted to work with organic cottons in order to create a yoga collection that would be extremely contemporary.
After studying, I started “Lotus Bio.” Bio because“biologico” in Italian means “organic” and Lotus because I wanted this line to have a lotus flower tosymbolize consciousness opening to help True Nature, which is God. Organic cotton is grown and dyed without chemicals. The white fabrics are the result of soaking in water,soaps and other natural elements and then exposing them to the sun. The cotton is grown in Madhya Pradesh, in central India, and the fabric is dyed in Gujarat, the land of Gandhi.
I wanted to use vegetable dyes and learned how to use these in the organic cottons but found that not every dye is good. Some colors burn the organic cotton, so I am still in the process of learning about this. We have presented these fabrics in Italy and they have been very well received.
Then another world popped up into my life. This was the world of “ahimsa” silk. Ahimsa silk is obtained without killing the worms inside the cocoons so that they can become butterflies. It is a silk traditionally grown for yogis because yogis use silk for its vibration,and ahimsa silk, meaning “non-violence,” is a pure vibration fabric.
Many Jains, followers of Mahavir, cultivate ahimsa silk in India and I met a Jain man who produces this ahimsa silk in a very poor region of India called Jarkhand, a place in Bihar. It is called Jarkhand because 60% of their land is covered with forest and “jarkhand” means “land of the forest.” This land ofJarkhand has many, many trees where this friend of mine started a social work 15 years ago to gather poor women together to harvest silk cocoons.
If you help the village women, you help the trees because the trees are needed by these women to make their living out of the silk cocoons. They are not boiled, these cocoons, or suffocated by a heating process. They allow the worm to develop naturally into a butterfly. This means you cannot reel a thread out of the cocoon as is normally done in silk production to produce a perfect, unbroken thread. You have to keep the cocoon intact so the thread will be a little thicker, not perfect, but it will have the vibrations of ahimsa.
This story or helping women, helping the trees, and helping the environment, inspired me to make a new product—ahimsa silk-covered cushions for meditation and ahimsa silk-covered cushions for the neck. These two products were marketed successfully in Italy.
I developed a fabric without color, using the color of the silk as it comes out of the cocoon, and for another product I used the blue color of indigo, discovered in India thousands of years ago. Indigo is called this in the West because it was coming from India and it became the first widely used blue dye in the world.
In yoga, blue is symbolic because it is the color of the sky and the color of Krishna, making it perfect for the meditation and yoga. Ananda Sangha now has a business called “Anjali Khadi Clothing.” I gave the company the name“Anjali” because in Sanskrit anjali is the act of offering something to the altar and this company is anoffering to God. “Anjali Khadi Clothing of Ananda Sangha India” develops the different lines of products.
Ananda India Yoga Line is the khadi clothing made ofsilk and cotton. Lotus Bio is the product line madefrom organic cotton. The products for meditation using ahimsa silk are called Ahimsa.
Each of these products comes with a beautifully designed tag showing an open lotus and the symbol of Ananda Sangha. We include the story of the product, a history of the fabric and where it is from. Customers see thatthere are people from several religions working together—Jain people, Muslim people, Hindus all working together.
I also include with each product quotations from Gandhi and Master because Gandhi saw khadi as asymbol of simplicity, purity, sincerity, calmness, and of love. He wanted to create a symbol of these qualities for everybody through khadi. This is a fabric bridge of love and peace between East and West. A bridge of qualities, the essence of India, passes through the fabric and comes to the West.
Jaya: “It sounds like a great adventure. What have been your obstacles?
It has been an adventure begun with enormous obstacles, continued with enormous obstacles, and still faces obstacles every hour. The big thing has been the transformation of a person into the symbolism of these fabrics. The obstacles were many but they showed me how to expand my heart to face them.
I’ve had to do business with people who have a very different way of dealing with other people, a different way of dealing with work, a different way of dealing with loyalty, sincerity, commitment, punctuality, and honesty. All these things made my journey extremely difficult, but I discovered there was only one thing which could be transformed, and that was myself. I realized that just as it was so immensely difficult to have this fabric cleaned, cut the way I wanted, stitched as I wanted, or altered when it had been cut wrong, I understood that it was all just a symbol of what God is doing with each one of us.
I wanted my clothes to fit perfectly, so God wants us to perfectly fit our true nature. He has to cut us many times because we are never perfect the first time. Then He has to stitch us to make the perfect dress out of us. And the stitching is painful and it has to be done many times before becoming a perfect cloth. Then He has to lean us one, two, three times because this perfect fabric, cut and stitched, is full of spots. Then He has to iron us, but in ironing you can burn the fabric.
The process of making clothes out of fabric is simply a symbol of how we have to become something beautiful for God. Clean but simple, sincere, peaceful, andessential.
Jaya: What have you learned that you didn’tanticipate?
First of all, you learn about your own mind. You learn how you thought you were in peace and how you were not. I thought I had reached a point of joy and inner peace because I was coming to India every year for two months, going to all the spots of pilgrimage with a big inner joy, doing my sadhana and meditation, and loving India to the tips of my fingers. And then one day I began to see how my mind was agitated, how calmness was not there at all, how upset I could become with other people.
Before I had thought I was the biggest lover of people in the world. I had always been able to get through any experience just with love. Now I began to see how peace was not in my heart, how I was identified with events happening in a certain way, and how I was completely dependent on external situations in order to be happy, to be peaceful, to be joyful.
I was completely dependent on how other people behaved in order for me to love them.
I came to see that there was a big work to do in expanding my heart and calming my mind.
Jaya: So, what did you do?
I went deeper into meditation, especially becoming regular in the Aum Technique in order to hear the true sound of everything. I had to go back to Aum to get beyond the noise I was hearing every day in those noisy, burning factories with 47C, 50C degrees temperature, no fans working, all kinds of people coming, going, shouting.
I deepened my meditations because I realized that I was many times on the edge of madness, both from the craziness of the situation, of everyday fighting to have things done, and because ofthe incredible environment of heat. The heat was impossible. The first time I came was in summer and it was 47 C (117 F) degrees. The external environment was extremely difficult and the internal environment began to burn my mind and my heart. I realized through this experience that I had a big job to do inside.
Jaya: You mention the Aum technique. What else did you do?
Meditation, Kriya, the Aum technique, prayer andnever giving up. At the beginning, when I came toIndia, around Swamiji there was an enormous flow of energy poring out of him. Enormous! There was a wave of Master coming through him needed to break the ice, or maybe I should say “fire” in such a country as this.
Being with him meant having all this karma coming up for each of us and we couldn’t be indulgent. We could not take care of only ourselves because we had a job to do every day. I could not say “No.” Without affirmations and prayers I couldn’t make it. Everyday was a fight.
It was difficult just getting out ofthe door. Taxis were constantly late, one hour to an hour and a half, or not coming at all, with drivers not understanding English, we not speaking their language and getting lost. So many tears and feelings of desperation! You can only make it if it occurs to youthat there is only one thing worth it, to liberate yourself. There is only one purpose for which we are here—to get free.
I have given my life to the Kriya Yoga path and I have been able to contribute with money, so this path has been my only purpose and I never gave up. Through the money that has come through this business, we have been able to publish Swamiji’s Essence of theBhagavad Gita. We were able to do this entirely from India without other money from elsewhere. We paid for all the printing. But it has not been easy. I’ve hade verything stolen three times and I have been cheated many times.
This happened again and again but I never gave up and I learned a big lesson. It was not me that worked. That was a lesson that Swamiji helped me to understand. “Cecilia, here there is a big lesson for you. Ego! You have to learn that it is not you who is doing all this. Master will take it all from you until you understand that it is not you who is doing. God is the doer.”
My second lesson was when I felt there was no love left in my heart. I was extremely, intensely challenged by the people I was meeting every day. It was a world of men, naturally. Not only were they thinking that women are inferior, but a blond, young, single foreigner woman is something completely strange to them. I was constantly alone. I learned that if I wanted to survive, I could not try to transform anyone. The only thing I could do was to transform myself.
But how?
By expanding my heart so that I could love more.That doesn’t mean being stupid or naive, but loving more with wisdom so I would not be affected by beingc heated in such a wild way, by so many arrogant men,so very proud.
Jaya: Do you feel that you had these troubles because you are a woman. Would it have been the same if you were a man?
It is the same with foreign men but being a woman is worse. There is a different way in India of dealing with precision, commitment, client service, and time, these crucial things when you produce something. But the challenge is for you to realize that your mind is notpeaceful and your heart is not loving enough. I found myself with a mind extremely agitated and a heart not loving anymore, a heart becoming dryer and dryer.
Jaya: How did you deal with that?
I have been praying. I have a very strong faith and I am a very stubborn person. You can put me in any situation and I will continue until I do it. It doesn’toccur to me to stop. Never. If Guru gave me something through Swamiji, I have to do it. Indeed, this has been my biggest sadhana and my biggest blessing. Even up until now, it is a big fight. Every day. No question.I’ve also been learning to be detached in the good and in the bad. Before, when I would find good people, I would give them so much love but then I would be betrayed. So, learning from that has been a big thing for me. When you find bad people, you feel so much upset, but with all that very bad feeling, I was poisoning myself. Is that what I want? No, it is not!
So, I’m working on detachment, but it is a daily process only kriya can make happen. In India, everything is extreme. As there are people who are low in consciousness, there are the big yogis too. People who are foreigners come with a mind that is western and rational, a mind of details used to punctuality, and with a fractionated organization of time.
Here you must learn to be detached. In the end, you understand that it is not those outward things that are important but rather how your mind reacts to them.It is not important, the things that come or do not come, because when Master throws to you, every day for three years, fifteen examples of non-punctuality or non-precision, maybe there is a lesson in that. It is my daily work to not identify with what I do. It is a high challenge and I am still praying everyday that my life can become sweeter and softer, but I know it will become like that only when I become more peaceful in my mind and more loving in my heart.
Jaya: What do you see as the future of the business?
It is expanding. I see there are more people interested and I want to reach more markets. Now I have one employee whereas before I was alone. I want to invest in having even more people. I think it is worth it because I see that the organic world is waiting, especially in America where there is a huge, enormous market. I want to explore the production of more organic things. I want to make more clients for organic products in Italy and for khadi.
In India, I have a very good connection for the introduction of cotton products for the home. I would like to start a line of organic cotton bed sheets, cotton bathrobes and towels. I see a beautiful future for the business, but with a team.
Jaya: How would you sum up your experience?
My experience has been about making a connection with the deep reality of India. It is a reality of 750 million people living in 750 thousand villages, a reality where 75% of the population lives in an environment opposite of the big cities where we live. It is a reality of doing something connected with the soil of India, a soil being destroyed by pesticides and fertilizers, and areality of farmers forced to take out loans they cannot repay and committing suicide. We have put our finger into the villages with khadi, organic cotton and silk. We are helping poor women have something sustainable by allowing them to harvest cocoons.
Ananda Sangha has a connection with the country of India through working with the fabrics produced bythese three different realities: khadi from villages ,organics without pesticides and fertilizers, and ahimsasilk, helping both the environment and the poor women of Jarkand.
Final Notes:The above interview is condensed. If you would likethe full version, write and I’ll send it upon editing.This will be my last letter until after we return to Indiain August. Sadhana Devi and I will be in America forthe months of June and July, visiting Portland andAnanda Village and doing programs in New England.We’ll visit Lorne and Judy Dekun at Ananda Michiganand conduct a program at the Ananda Center in Maine .Sadhana Devi will spend extra time at the Village to do research for the next installment of her project about the history of Ananda, while I will help Larry andKaren Rider in beautifully green Rhode Island. By the way, Sadhana’s first book of Ananda’s history from1969-76 has been reformatted and printed in India witha beautiful new cover and real binding. If you wouldlike a copy, email her and she can bring you one.(SD: sadhanadevi@anandaindia.org) We hope to see you soon.Jaya and Sadhana Devi
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Kolkata
The Ganges plain is a sea of green extending in all directions as far as the eye can see. To call it "farmland" doesn't describe it if you think of the big patchwork squares of corn and beans in the American Midwest. India's great basin is a vast land of intensive gardening, intermingled with small villages. Uncountable thousands of small patches of rice, wheat, and vegetables are quilt-like, stitched together by footpaths, and painting the landscape multiple shades of green. Here and there, the regular succession of chimneys are seen on closer inspection to be kilns for firing the local clay into bricks of which the villagers' homes are made. Water buffalo become more common as one travels east, and except for the occasional tractor, it could just as easily be the India of the British Raj as that of 2007. Only the rusting factories, coal cars and pit mines of Bihar intrude on the bucolic landscape of the lower Ganges.
Picturesque as they are, the small plots of a few square meters and up to a couple of acres are evidence India's dilemma-a dense rural population living on land continually being subdivided into ever-smaller holdings as it is passed from one generation to the next. With a high birthrate, a villager in Bengal now feeds his family on one to two acres; a difficult task when competing in a world market. When ox plows and hand labor are matched against the combines of Argentina, Australia and Kansas, what is the next generation of villagers to do? With 75% of India living in the countryside where employment is limited at best, tremendous pressure mounts to find solutions to improve the lot of those by-passed by "The New India" of Time magazine.
I came to Kolkata by train, riding the overnight Rajasthani Express into Howrah Station for a "Kriya Review" with our small group of kriyabans from last December's initiation. It's a nineteen hour ride but it is something I wanted to experience, and the price is right, less than $40 for a one-way ticket. With a busy schedule, it's hard to find time to come this far for a group of only six or seven students, but Calcutta (or "Cool-kata" as the hip radio DJ's say) has a special place in our spiritual heritage, so I make the time. We have scheduled no major program here this year, focusing our energy elsewhere, but since I'm in town, I've asked Anil, one of the local kriyabans, to help me find a venue for 2008, planting seeds for next year's crop of students. I've seen some possible spots but they are so expensive. Sigh. That always seems to be the case.
Kolkata is hot, smelly, decrepit and crowded, and highly fascinating. As chaotic as the city can be to Western eyes, it is well loved by the Bengalis. Natives who leave usually long to come back, missing the city when away. Said one, "I went to L.A. once and in five days, I was bored to death. I couldn't wait to get home." Another, "Westerners see all the beggars and say bad things about our city. Yes, in Calcutta, we have beggars but what would you rather have, a hundred beggars and one robber, or one beggar with a hundred robbers like you have in your country?" Pride, whether spiritual, ethnic or material is also a Calcutta feature. See the movie "Namesake" if it comes to your town and you'll see some good shots of the city. It's a lovely movie although some of the Indian subtleties might go right by an American audience.
There is no denying the city's vitality--people everywhere, hustling and bustling, sleeping or relaxing on the sidewalk, noisily selling their wares, arguing and laughing, driving madly about. Bengalis are a friendly, warm people although I sometimes have to work to get them to smile. I hear the local version of rap music in the taxis, intermixed with bhajans and muzak, sometimes all in the same song. The sweets here are famous, culinary specialties abound, literacy is high, thus the many bookshops, and people love reading their daily periodicals. Red banners of the Communist Party wave in the breeze, evidence that politics is a local sport rivaling the national cricket mania. The hot issue these days is whether and where to convert farmland into industrial zones for factories. Tata Corporation wants to set up an assembly line to produce a simple, low cost car for about $2500. Outside downtown, lunghis and dhotis, rather than trousers, are still common, whereas in Delhi these are becoming rare.
Bengal is a land with a long history of saints, so the population is very discerning about spiritual traditions, practices and beliefs. I saw my first naga-sadhu (naked or "sky-clad" as they say) strolling nonchalantly down the street with his long hair and wooden danda (staff). He was in great shape! No one seemed to pay any notice to him but me. Bengalis like to argue and they can debate with passion. Swami once recounted a story that Bengalis laughingly tell about themselves. It seems that in Calcutta, it is necessary to have represented on every committee a Banerjee, a Mukerjee, a Chatterjee (all Bengali names) and a Singh (Sikh). The Bengalis would argue and discuss; the Sikh would get the job done.
My friend introduced me to the city's underground Metro system. It was clean and modern as opposed to the dingy and dark I had prejudicially and unfairly expected. For those familiar with New York, it's similar although not nearly as extensive. It only costs 4-8 rupees to ride, depending upon how far you go. Pointing to the electronic schedule on the wall, Anil's son said, "You see. Our train is due at 16:52. Watch!" At exactly the appointed time and with a whoosh of air, in rolled our train. "Exactly on time, every time!" I was impressed. The doors opened and in we went. Once again, as the only Westerner aboard and standing a full head above the crowd, all eyes turned my way to watch the show. After awhile, you get used to it.
Anil took me to visit a friend of his from Dublin who, with his son, had recently arrived to serve in Mother Teresa's orphanage. Although from different spiritual traditions, I felt an immediate connection, sensing a shared interest in India, religion and service. He invited me to his room to show me something special. He reverently took from his luggage a snapshot of his son posed with a half dozen others who had previously served at the Mission of Charity. It was a typical group photo of friends memorializing an occasion, otherwise unremarkable except for one thing. There behind the group, distinct and clear on the background wall, was a bright outline image of Mother Teresa composed of light. She appeared on the wall before which the group stood, seemingly as if to give her blessings. How it came to be was unexplainable but stunning. Bryan, my Irish friend, with tears in his eyes, asked me how such a thing could be. Words failed me. All I could say was, "I don't know, but this is why people come to India and this is why they come back."
I can't help but contrast Kolkata with Hyderabad, the city where we gave a major program a couple of weekends ago. One represents the past struggling to move into the future while the other is the future. Clean, modern, and efficient, Hyderabad is the successor of Bangalore as the "Silicon Valley" of India. Bangalore, of course, disputes the claim of its younger brother to the north, but Hyderbadi's are confident that future leadership is theirs. The Microsofts, Intels and Infosys's of the world have found a place with clean streets, a highly educated workforce, and an openness to modern methods, the same indicators Ananda looks for to find people interested in what we have to offer. That certainly seemed to be the case in Hyderabad and we are hoping it is so in Pune too, where we go next week.
Our program in Hyderabad was a great success. Over the course of the weekend we had two audiences, each over 300, for free discourses, two corporate workshops (for which we were actually paid!), a two-hour radio interview, and an appearance by Nancy Rakela (Ananda Berkeley's center leader) on television leading a hatha yoga program for pregnant ladies, dubbed into Telugu. Over 200 came to the workshop on Sunday, with about half expressing serious interest for the next level of classes in May. The response was so positive that Dharmadas is returning with Nirmala in a couple of weeks to conduct a satsang and review. Small, "in-between" appearances like that are what we need to do more of, but it's hard to find the time and/or people to fill this role. Such informal visits, like my trip to Calcutta, usually don't generate much income and have to be funded out of the teachers' pockets but they are a great opportunity to build friendships. It is such personal relationships that will keep Ananda's work from becoming too impersonal and organizational as it grows. Heaven keep us from someday reverting to the expediency of simply sending out printed lessons because we don't have time for individual people.
Our weekend workshops typically last from 10:00 am until 6:00 pm with a one hour break for lunch. We teach meditation in the first half, energization/will/magnetism in the second. Audience feedback is telling us that people want more practice and less theory, more time for questions, and greater practical help about how to integrate what we teach into daily life. In answer we plan to go back to what we did last year: teaching a meditation workshop on Saturday and following with a pranayama/energization workshop the next day. This will give us more time to include the desired elements.
Dharmaraj Iyer, along with his wife Dharmini, is now heading up the Material Success department and we've invited him to accompany us on our next round of tours to lead a section on Practical Application of Yoga in Daily Life. I don't think we've been covering this topic as well as we should and this will give us a chance to figure out how we might better integrate Swami's Material Success Through Yoga Principles Course into our outreach efforts. We want to get these lessons out to people and our tours might be one solution. Vijay Girard, who was overseeing the Material Success department before, has now joined our tour teaching team, much to his delight.
Swamiji will be leaving for Italy soon and as he leaves, so too will others trickle away for the coming hot season, either taking vacations, leading tours to the US and Italy or taking this time of year to do business elsewhere. Swami is keen on the potential of a new Ananda work in Switzerland and wants to lend his energy to that effort if Divine Mother allows the details to fall into place. Being in Italy will give him a first hand view of "what is trying to happen" there. I'm sure too that the climate will be better for him than in India in the summer. From Italy he'll make his way to America where many new ventures are stirring. It's an exciting time for Ananda's work.
Here in India we are still exploring options for land with a couple of possibilities being discussed as I write this. I can't say more at this moment, but I think it is only a matter of time before circumstances come together to make Swami's dream of an Indian community a reality. In the short year I have been here, we have grown from four houses to six, from 25 residents to 40, from three Indian residents to ten. If we can find ways to employ people and generate incomes, more local devotees will be able to join us. Now, foreigners are in the majority but our goal is for this to be an Indian work, just as the work in Assisi is now a European one. The necessity to generate income is one of our big challenges, just as it was in the early days of Ananda Village. How can we create businesses and livelihoods that allow local families and devotees of average means to live a spiritual life together? Already business seeds have been planted and fledgling efforts are being made. Those of you who came to the international retreats in March were given a taste of what we are doing, but for those who were not here, I'll try to tell you more next time I write. I may have said that before but I'll get to it in one of these letters.
Much joy to all of you.
Jaya
Picturesque as they are, the small plots of a few square meters and up to a couple of acres are evidence India's dilemma-a dense rural population living on land continually being subdivided into ever-smaller holdings as it is passed from one generation to the next. With a high birthrate, a villager in Bengal now feeds his family on one to two acres; a difficult task when competing in a world market. When ox plows and hand labor are matched against the combines of Argentina, Australia and Kansas, what is the next generation of villagers to do? With 75% of India living in the countryside where employment is limited at best, tremendous pressure mounts to find solutions to improve the lot of those by-passed by "The New India" of Time magazine.
I came to Kolkata by train, riding the overnight Rajasthani Express into Howrah Station for a "Kriya Review" with our small group of kriyabans from last December's initiation. It's a nineteen hour ride but it is something I wanted to experience, and the price is right, less than $40 for a one-way ticket. With a busy schedule, it's hard to find time to come this far for a group of only six or seven students, but Calcutta (or "Cool-kata" as the hip radio DJ's say) has a special place in our spiritual heritage, so I make the time. We have scheduled no major program here this year, focusing our energy elsewhere, but since I'm in town, I've asked Anil, one of the local kriyabans, to help me find a venue for 2008, planting seeds for next year's crop of students. I've seen some possible spots but they are so expensive. Sigh. That always seems to be the case.
Kolkata is hot, smelly, decrepit and crowded, and highly fascinating. As chaotic as the city can be to Western eyes, it is well loved by the Bengalis. Natives who leave usually long to come back, missing the city when away. Said one, "I went to L.A. once and in five days, I was bored to death. I couldn't wait to get home." Another, "Westerners see all the beggars and say bad things about our city. Yes, in Calcutta, we have beggars but what would you rather have, a hundred beggars and one robber, or one beggar with a hundred robbers like you have in your country?" Pride, whether spiritual, ethnic or material is also a Calcutta feature. See the movie "Namesake" if it comes to your town and you'll see some good shots of the city. It's a lovely movie although some of the Indian subtleties might go right by an American audience.
There is no denying the city's vitality--people everywhere, hustling and bustling, sleeping or relaxing on the sidewalk, noisily selling their wares, arguing and laughing, driving madly about. Bengalis are a friendly, warm people although I sometimes have to work to get them to smile. I hear the local version of rap music in the taxis, intermixed with bhajans and muzak, sometimes all in the same song. The sweets here are famous, culinary specialties abound, literacy is high, thus the many bookshops, and people love reading their daily periodicals. Red banners of the Communist Party wave in the breeze, evidence that politics is a local sport rivaling the national cricket mania. The hot issue these days is whether and where to convert farmland into industrial zones for factories. Tata Corporation wants to set up an assembly line to produce a simple, low cost car for about $2500. Outside downtown, lunghis and dhotis, rather than trousers, are still common, whereas in Delhi these are becoming rare.
Bengal is a land with a long history of saints, so the population is very discerning about spiritual traditions, practices and beliefs. I saw my first naga-sadhu (naked or "sky-clad" as they say) strolling nonchalantly down the street with his long hair and wooden danda (staff). He was in great shape! No one seemed to pay any notice to him but me. Bengalis like to argue and they can debate with passion. Swami once recounted a story that Bengalis laughingly tell about themselves. It seems that in Calcutta, it is necessary to have represented on every committee a Banerjee, a Mukerjee, a Chatterjee (all Bengali names) and a Singh (Sikh). The Bengalis would argue and discuss; the Sikh would get the job done.
My friend introduced me to the city's underground Metro system. It was clean and modern as opposed to the dingy and dark I had prejudicially and unfairly expected. For those familiar with New York, it's similar although not nearly as extensive. It only costs 4-8 rupees to ride, depending upon how far you go. Pointing to the electronic schedule on the wall, Anil's son said, "You see. Our train is due at 16:52. Watch!" At exactly the appointed time and with a whoosh of air, in rolled our train. "Exactly on time, every time!" I was impressed. The doors opened and in we went. Once again, as the only Westerner aboard and standing a full head above the crowd, all eyes turned my way to watch the show. After awhile, you get used to it.
Anil took me to visit a friend of his from Dublin who, with his son, had recently arrived to serve in Mother Teresa's orphanage. Although from different spiritual traditions, I felt an immediate connection, sensing a shared interest in India, religion and service. He invited me to his room to show me something special. He reverently took from his luggage a snapshot of his son posed with a half dozen others who had previously served at the Mission of Charity. It was a typical group photo of friends memorializing an occasion, otherwise unremarkable except for one thing. There behind the group, distinct and clear on the background wall, was a bright outline image of Mother Teresa composed of light. She appeared on the wall before which the group stood, seemingly as if to give her blessings. How it came to be was unexplainable but stunning. Bryan, my Irish friend, with tears in his eyes, asked me how such a thing could be. Words failed me. All I could say was, "I don't know, but this is why people come to India and this is why they come back."
I can't help but contrast Kolkata with Hyderabad, the city where we gave a major program a couple of weekends ago. One represents the past struggling to move into the future while the other is the future. Clean, modern, and efficient, Hyderabad is the successor of Bangalore as the "Silicon Valley" of India. Bangalore, of course, disputes the claim of its younger brother to the north, but Hyderbadi's are confident that future leadership is theirs. The Microsofts, Intels and Infosys's of the world have found a place with clean streets, a highly educated workforce, and an openness to modern methods, the same indicators Ananda looks for to find people interested in what we have to offer. That certainly seemed to be the case in Hyderabad and we are hoping it is so in Pune too, where we go next week.
Our program in Hyderabad was a great success. Over the course of the weekend we had two audiences, each over 300, for free discourses, two corporate workshops (for which we were actually paid!), a two-hour radio interview, and an appearance by Nancy Rakela (Ananda Berkeley's center leader) on television leading a hatha yoga program for pregnant ladies, dubbed into Telugu. Over 200 came to the workshop on Sunday, with about half expressing serious interest for the next level of classes in May. The response was so positive that Dharmadas is returning with Nirmala in a couple of weeks to conduct a satsang and review. Small, "in-between" appearances like that are what we need to do more of, but it's hard to find the time and/or people to fill this role. Such informal visits, like my trip to Calcutta, usually don't generate much income and have to be funded out of the teachers' pockets but they are a great opportunity to build friendships. It is such personal relationships that will keep Ananda's work from becoming too impersonal and organizational as it grows. Heaven keep us from someday reverting to the expediency of simply sending out printed lessons because we don't have time for individual people.
Our weekend workshops typically last from 10:00 am until 6:00 pm with a one hour break for lunch. We teach meditation in the first half, energization/will/magnetism in the second. Audience feedback is telling us that people want more practice and less theory, more time for questions, and greater practical help about how to integrate what we teach into daily life. In answer we plan to go back to what we did last year: teaching a meditation workshop on Saturday and following with a pranayama/energization workshop the next day. This will give us more time to include the desired elements.
Dharmaraj Iyer, along with his wife Dharmini, is now heading up the Material Success department and we've invited him to accompany us on our next round of tours to lead a section on Practical Application of Yoga in Daily Life. I don't think we've been covering this topic as well as we should and this will give us a chance to figure out how we might better integrate Swami's Material Success Through Yoga Principles Course into our outreach efforts. We want to get these lessons out to people and our tours might be one solution. Vijay Girard, who was overseeing the Material Success department before, has now joined our tour teaching team, much to his delight.
Swamiji will be leaving for Italy soon and as he leaves, so too will others trickle away for the coming hot season, either taking vacations, leading tours to the US and Italy or taking this time of year to do business elsewhere. Swami is keen on the potential of a new Ananda work in Switzerland and wants to lend his energy to that effort if Divine Mother allows the details to fall into place. Being in Italy will give him a first hand view of "what is trying to happen" there. I'm sure too that the climate will be better for him than in India in the summer. From Italy he'll make his way to America where many new ventures are stirring. It's an exciting time for Ananda's work.
Here in India we are still exploring options for land with a couple of possibilities being discussed as I write this. I can't say more at this moment, but I think it is only a matter of time before circumstances come together to make Swami's dream of an Indian community a reality. In the short year I have been here, we have grown from four houses to six, from 25 residents to 40, from three Indian residents to ten. If we can find ways to employ people and generate incomes, more local devotees will be able to join us. Now, foreigners are in the majority but our goal is for this to be an Indian work, just as the work in Assisi is now a European one. The necessity to generate income is one of our big challenges, just as it was in the early days of Ananda Village. How can we create businesses and livelihoods that allow local families and devotees of average means to live a spiritual life together? Already business seeds have been planted and fledgling efforts are being made. Those of you who came to the international retreats in March were given a taste of what we are doing, but for those who were not here, I'll try to tell you more next time I write. I may have said that before but I'll get to it in one of these letters.
Much joy to all of you.
Jaya
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Kriya Season
Dearest Friends,
November/December is "Kriya Season" at Ananda India. This is when most of our kriya initiations are scheduled, one every other weekend from early November to the end of the year-Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai (Bombey), Gurgaon again, and then Kolkata (Calcutta) on December 30th. Each represents a culmination of one year's effort of classes and visits to the cities outside Delhi and of ongoing activities at our centers in Noida, Delhi and Gurgaon, inside the "NCR" (National Capitol Region-Delhi). Serving these groups far and near has been my main area of focus in India and I'd like to give you a deeper look at what exactly those of us who serve in this part of our work are doing.
Last year, hundreds attended our basic meditation and energization programs, but like everywhere else, large groups of beginners boil down to many less by the time Kriya Initiation comes along. Outside the NCR, only about 10% of those who started the introductory classes last year will take Kriya initiation this season, but the percentage doubles or triples within the NCR. Why? Because we can offer more direct contact with local devotees who attend regular classes and take advantage of opportunities to become involved. This is what we have to find a way to do more of in distant cities.
Last winter, Dharmadas initiated a speaking/workshop tour to four cities to broaden Ananda's reach. Before, almost all of Ananda's energy was focused in the Delhi region to launch Swami's TV program, develop contacts, establish our ashram, open our boutique and conduct local programs. Dharmadas rightly felt a need to reach a national audience because Swami's TV program is being aired across India, generating inquiries from all over. He decided to visit Calcutta, Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, taking one person to help with registration and books. As it turned out, these programs were very successful, drawing audiences of many hundreds. More teachers and a larger support team were needed to follow up on what he had started and it was at the conclusion of that first tour that I came onto the scene in December and February. Upon arriving, I went to Calcutta and Mumbai while Dhyana and others traveled to Chennai and Bangalore, each of us following up later with smaller programs for those interested in discipleship and Kriya preparation.
This first year's effort was a good start but I'm sure we can do a lot better. Last year, we were not well organized, everything was new, and we lacked local support, meaning that in spite of the large audiences, we usually lost money. You know the phrase, "It was a learning experience." For many reasons, mostly having to do with our lack of resources to properly follow up on what we started, we were unable to generate sustained interest in Kolkata and Chennai as we had in Mumbai and Bangalore. The shear dynamism of the latter two cities overcame our own lack of coordination. In both, groups formed with a strong core of local supporters and now local devotees are offering meditation classes in Mumbai every month.
I returned a few days ago from Mumbai where Dharmadas and I conducted a Kriya ceremony for 31 new kriyabans (see photo of the new kriyabans). While there, we also conducted a satsang for the local meditation group, visited our national book distributor, scouted out venues for future programs, and spent time with our local sanghis. Mumbai is a huge city where someone with energy could probably give programs every week and I suspect someday we will have an active teaching center there. It is the national capital for finance, business and culture, and of course, there is Bollywood, the home of India's film and television industry. Media gossip, scandal, and movie stars posing melodramaticly in the dailies are all a source of great entertainment for India. I've learned all about "Big B" (Amitabh Bachan to the uninitiated, perhaps India's biggest star), his son Abishekh's (voted India's "sexiest man") impending marriage to "Ash" (Ashwarya Rai, another movie star) and a host of other news bits that, along with the latest cricket match, form the national past-time and mania. Mumbai has a very different vibration from Delhi or Kolkata. It is more cosmopolitan, crowded and very busy, where tracts of modern high-rises abut squalid slums. And, interestingly, cars obey traffic rules more so than in Delhi. They stop for red lights and wait until the signal turns green. Amazing. Plus, there is much less haggling with taxi drivers because most of the cabs have meters that work properly. The meters are calibrated for 1970 fares but each driver has an official chart to translate the meter's reading into today's rates. You need to know this should you ever catch a cab in Bombey. Ask for the chart and make sure the cabbie sets the meter going before you start.
Last year we presented our programs in an area of Mumbai known as "Churchgate." This is where the British first established their fort and trading colony and is considered the traditional, tourist center of the city. The famous "Gateway of India" (see photo) is here, along with the fancy hotels, monuments and government buildings. Unfortunately for us, it is at the extreme southern tip of the city, making it difficult for locals to reach without a 1-2 hour commute. It would be equivalent to our doing programs in New York City in the Wall Street area of lower Manhattan, but without the subway system. Next year we'll continue in Churchgate but also break new ground with classes further north in the geographical center of the city. This new venture will take us into areas that are more Indian with less Western presence and without qualified Hindi or Marathi teachers, I'm wondering how it will go.
When we go to a city, our usual format is to arrive one or two days prior to the event to conduct business, arrange future venues, visit with local devotees and work with group leaders. Then, on either Friday or Saturday night we present a free public lecture at an auditorium or large hall, hoping to attract an audience of 300-500. We set up a book and registration table, mingle with the crowd, answer questions, serve tea and give our presentation. On Saturday and Sunday we offer workshops in the beginning techniques, each one lasting 3-4 hours. Typically, our workshop goes from 10 - 1:30 followed by another in the afternoon from 2:30 - 6:00 pm. Often we serve lunch. As mentioned, last year's offerings attracted anywhere from 100-200 students to each class. For advanced students we offer additional classes in Raja Yoga, discipleship, kriya preparation and the Aum technique. We fly home late on Sunday or Monday morning.
Most of these programs, with a few exceptions, were unable this year to generate enough income to break even. My job is to change this in 2007. I hope to see us expand even further but this can only happen if we cover our expenses because there are so many other Ananda India initiatives in need of funds. Using what we learned this year, I think 2007 will be different. As I devise a tour schedule and budget I can now factor in local help, cheaper lodging, reduced venue costs, and more effective advertising. We'll also raise or prices. We have been charging the equivalent of $8.00 for our workshops, and that price includes books and tapes. This year we'll charge about $15.00 (Rs.600-750) Now that we know the ropes better and have Indians negotiating on our behalf, our costs have come down. For example, last week in Mumbai, I spent one day traveling all over the city by taxi with Seema, one of our Ananda Sanghis, to find venues for our programs. She told me, "When it comes time to talk about money, don't say a word! Leave it to me." Very good advice, I assure you.
One angle we are working very hard on is to attract major sponsors in India. In Bangalore, one gentleman sponsored our Kriya visit with a gift of one lakh (100,000 rupees or about $2,300). Our Mumbai Kriya initiation attracted a corporate sponsor (Essar Group) for two lakh. In response to this generous gift we visited their corporate headquarters and made plans for a free workshop for 50 of their department managers, perhaps on our next visit in February. If all goes well, they indicated a willingness to do more. This would be a fantastic opportunity for us because Essar is one of the very largest business conglomerates in India. If we can attract such groups, it will allow us to do programs similar to what we have done already and possibly charitable programs for those who cannot afford our programs now. Sponsors sometimes see us as one way for them to fulfill their sense of social obligation to those less fortunate, a common feature of large Indian businesses.
During the coming year our intention is to visit four major cities outside the NCR: Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune. We'll not return to Chennai and Kolkata with Sangha sponsored programs in '07 but concentrate instead on two new cities where we have hopes of attracting dynamic crowds. However, I'll try to visit Kolkata at my own expense to give support to the small group we started there.
Hyderabad is similar to Bangalore in that it is a booming center of India's hi-tech industry. Such places are like the Silicon Valley in the USA with an educated, mobile, energetic population. Pune is a couple of hours east of Mumbai and less known to us, but it is from there that we have received many invitations and inquiries so we have decided to explore its potential. To each of these four cities we plan four tour visits during the year, culminating with a Kriya Initiation in the fall. If locals wish to arrange and finance additional visits, we will send teachers, ideally Hindi speakers. This will be good training for our Indian ashram members.
In the NCR, we will continue with programs in Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon as we have been doing these last couple of years, but Dhyana and I would like to branch out to at least one additional area in the NCR next year. We'll choose a place where we already have a cluster of kriyabans so that they can form a support staff and possibly form the nucleus of a future meditation group.
As you can see, we have a busy schedule, but this is only one of many energy streams that are flowing here. I'll have to use additional letters to give justice to the others: monastery, guest house, publishing, land search, ashram life, education/schools, Swami's world, our solar business, and many more. Each of us concentrates on one or two areas but pitch in to help with any/all of them when called upon. In the world of outreach, Dhyana, Dharmadas and I have been the primary teachers/organizers but many others help too. Daya Taylor does much of our promotional work. Sadhana Devi, Haridas, Roma, Deborah, and Claudio help with teaching duties. The monks run the book tables and go wherever needed. We are having Indians take on greater responsibility for tour coordination and teaching and we must increase this in the future if we are to reach the huge number of souls we who have interest.
Mumbai leaders: Yogesh, Srinavas & Satish
While I am engaged with tours and teaching, Sadhana Devi has settled into the critical position of paying the bills and keeping track of ashram finances. She sends her greetings and love to you all while I write this letter. I listen to her daily travails with the Indian banking system, vendors wanting payment and the myriad of frustrations associated with life in an economy of "black" money and "white." It is a good thing that she doesn't get ruffled too easily. She is up to her eyebrows in telephone calls and the constant tap-tap-tap on our bedroom door by someone wanting money is starting to drive me crazy. My desk is across from hers in our bedroom until we can both relocate into a space being vacated by the staff of our "Material Success Course." When they move to the basement of the new guesthouse, we'll set up a Sangha Office with Dhyana, Keshava and some of our Indian staff. The move was supposed to happen two months ago, but in India, things take time.
This morning Dharmaraj and Dharmini arrived from America. Hunter and Audie Black come tonight while two or three others from America return home. It's coming and going all the time. If you haven't had a chance to yet visit, please consider it. You can travel elsewhere in India from here or stay and experience life in Gurgaon. We'll put you to work if you like. We have recently leased another house a few blocks from the ashram where Haridas and Roma, along with Tim and Lisa Clark from Sacramento, serve as hosts of a very lovely, multi-storied house with a half dozen guest rooms for our many visitors. The best time of year to come is from October through March. April starts to get warm but isn't too bad. After that, it's HOT. Sadhana Devi and I look forward to seeing you.
While in Mumbai last spring I was shown two very sweet letters Master wrote to a disciple in India who happened to be a relative of the family I was visiting. The family treasures them, as you can imagine. I asked if copies could be made and when we visited last week those who went were given color photocopies of each letter. One has Master's signature and the other doesn't. I scanned the one with the signature and am sending it to you as an attachment to a separate email following this letter. I think you will enjoy it.
One final note. Swamiji just finished his new book on Master's interpretations of the Bible and it should be edited and sent to the printer soon. He is pleased with the result and is a wonderful work. At the same time, his health is very shaky and he is going through a physically difficult period, so please send him your prayers and surround him in light.
That's all for now. Sadhana Devi and I wish you a joyous Christmas and send you our love and good wishes. We'll be thinking of you.
Yours in Master,
PS: Soon it will be one year since Sadhana Devi and I moved to India. This has been made possible by many generous donations from friends on the East and West Coasts. If you would like to participate in our support and to that of the Ananda India Kriya Sangha through me, please send whatever you wish to Larry Rider on the East Coast or Ric Morehouse at Ananda Village. It is much appreciated and very helpful.
November/December is "Kriya Season" at Ananda India. This is when most of our kriya initiations are scheduled, one every other weekend from early November to the end of the year-Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai (Bombey), Gurgaon again, and then Kolkata (Calcutta) on December 30th. Each represents a culmination of one year's effort of classes and visits to the cities outside Delhi and of ongoing activities at our centers in Noida, Delhi and Gurgaon, inside the "NCR" (National Capitol Region-Delhi). Serving these groups far and near has been my main area of focus in India and I'd like to give you a deeper look at what exactly those of us who serve in this part of our work are doing.
Last year, hundreds attended our basic meditation and energization programs, but like everywhere else, large groups of beginners boil down to many less by the time Kriya Initiation comes along. Outside the NCR, only about 10% of those who started the introductory classes last year will take Kriya initiation this season, but the percentage doubles or triples within the NCR. Why? Because we can offer more direct contact with local devotees who attend regular classes and take advantage of opportunities to become involved. This is what we have to find a way to do more of in distant cities.
Last winter, Dharmadas initiated a speaking/workshop tour to four cities to broaden Ananda's reach. Before, almost all of Ananda's energy was focused in the Delhi region to launch Swami's TV program, develop contacts, establish our ashram, open our boutique and conduct local programs. Dharmadas rightly felt a need to reach a national audience because Swami's TV program is being aired across India, generating inquiries from all over. He decided to visit Calcutta, Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, taking one person to help with registration and books. As it turned out, these programs were very successful, drawing audiences of many hundreds. More teachers and a larger support team were needed to follow up on what he had started and it was at the conclusion of that first tour that I came onto the scene in December and February. Upon arriving, I went to Calcutta and Mumbai while Dhyana and others traveled to Chennai and Bangalore, each of us following up later with smaller programs for those interested in discipleship and Kriya preparation.
This first year's effort was a good start but I'm sure we can do a lot better. Last year, we were not well organized, everything was new, and we lacked local support, meaning that in spite of the large audiences, we usually lost money. You know the phrase, "It was a learning experience." For many reasons, mostly having to do with our lack of resources to properly follow up on what we started, we were unable to generate sustained interest in Kolkata and Chennai as we had in Mumbai and Bangalore. The shear dynamism of the latter two cities overcame our own lack of coordination. In both, groups formed with a strong core of local supporters and now local devotees are offering meditation classes in Mumbai every month.
I returned a few days ago from Mumbai where Dharmadas and I conducted a Kriya ceremony for 31 new kriyabans (see photo of the new kriyabans). While there, we also conducted a satsang for the local meditation group, visited our national book distributor, scouted out venues for future programs, and spent time with our local sanghis. Mumbai is a huge city where someone with energy could probably give programs every week and I suspect someday we will have an active teaching center there. It is the national capital for finance, business and culture, and of course, there is Bollywood, the home of India's film and television industry. Media gossip, scandal, and movie stars posing melodramaticly in the dailies are all a source of great entertainment for India. I've learned all about "Big B" (Amitabh Bachan to the uninitiated, perhaps India's biggest star), his son Abishekh's (voted India's "sexiest man") impending marriage to "Ash" (Ashwarya Rai, another movie star) and a host of other news bits that, along with the latest cricket match, form the national past-time and mania. Mumbai has a very different vibration from Delhi or Kolkata. It is more cosmopolitan, crowded and very busy, where tracts of modern high-rises abut squalid slums. And, interestingly, cars obey traffic rules more so than in Delhi. They stop for red lights and wait until the signal turns green. Amazing. Plus, there is much less haggling with taxi drivers because most of the cabs have meters that work properly. The meters are calibrated for 1970 fares but each driver has an official chart to translate the meter's reading into today's rates. You need to know this should you ever catch a cab in Bombey. Ask for the chart and make sure the cabbie sets the meter going before you start.
Last year we presented our programs in an area of Mumbai known as "Churchgate." This is where the British first established their fort and trading colony and is considered the traditional, tourist center of the city. The famous "Gateway of India" (see photo) is here, along with the fancy hotels, monuments and government buildings. Unfortunately for us, it is at the extreme southern tip of the city, making it difficult for locals to reach without a 1-2 hour commute. It would be equivalent to our doing programs in New York City in the Wall Street area of lower Manhattan, but without the subway system. Next year we'll continue in Churchgate but also break new ground with classes further north in the geographical center of the city. This new venture will take us into areas that are more Indian with less Western presence and without qualified Hindi or Marathi teachers, I'm wondering how it will go.
When we go to a city, our usual format is to arrive one or two days prior to the event to conduct business, arrange future venues, visit with local devotees and work with group leaders. Then, on either Friday or Saturday night we present a free public lecture at an auditorium or large hall, hoping to attract an audience of 300-500. We set up a book and registration table, mingle with the crowd, answer questions, serve tea and give our presentation. On Saturday and Sunday we offer workshops in the beginning techniques, each one lasting 3-4 hours. Typically, our workshop goes from 10 - 1:30 followed by another in the afternoon from 2:30 - 6:00 pm. Often we serve lunch. As mentioned, last year's offerings attracted anywhere from 100-200 students to each class. For advanced students we offer additional classes in Raja Yoga, discipleship, kriya preparation and the Aum technique. We fly home late on Sunday or Monday morning.
Most of these programs, with a few exceptions, were unable this year to generate enough income to break even. My job is to change this in 2007. I hope to see us expand even further but this can only happen if we cover our expenses because there are so many other Ananda India initiatives in need of funds. Using what we learned this year, I think 2007 will be different. As I devise a tour schedule and budget I can now factor in local help, cheaper lodging, reduced venue costs, and more effective advertising. We'll also raise or prices. We have been charging the equivalent of $8.00 for our workshops, and that price includes books and tapes. This year we'll charge about $15.00 (Rs.600-750) Now that we know the ropes better and have Indians negotiating on our behalf, our costs have come down. For example, last week in Mumbai, I spent one day traveling all over the city by taxi with Seema, one of our Ananda Sanghis, to find venues for our programs. She told me, "When it comes time to talk about money, don't say a word! Leave it to me." Very good advice, I assure you.
One angle we are working very hard on is to attract major sponsors in India. In Bangalore, one gentleman sponsored our Kriya visit with a gift of one lakh (100,000 rupees or about $2,300). Our Mumbai Kriya initiation attracted a corporate sponsor (Essar Group) for two lakh. In response to this generous gift we visited their corporate headquarters and made plans for a free workshop for 50 of their department managers, perhaps on our next visit in February. If all goes well, they indicated a willingness to do more. This would be a fantastic opportunity for us because Essar is one of the very largest business conglomerates in India. If we can attract such groups, it will allow us to do programs similar to what we have done already and possibly charitable programs for those who cannot afford our programs now. Sponsors sometimes see us as one way for them to fulfill their sense of social obligation to those less fortunate, a common feature of large Indian businesses.
During the coming year our intention is to visit four major cities outside the NCR: Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune. We'll not return to Chennai and Kolkata with Sangha sponsored programs in '07 but concentrate instead on two new cities where we have hopes of attracting dynamic crowds. However, I'll try to visit Kolkata at my own expense to give support to the small group we started there.
Hyderabad is similar to Bangalore in that it is a booming center of India's hi-tech industry. Such places are like the Silicon Valley in the USA with an educated, mobile, energetic population. Pune is a couple of hours east of Mumbai and less known to us, but it is from there that we have received many invitations and inquiries so we have decided to explore its potential. To each of these four cities we plan four tour visits during the year, culminating with a Kriya Initiation in the fall. If locals wish to arrange and finance additional visits, we will send teachers, ideally Hindi speakers. This will be good training for our Indian ashram members.
In the NCR, we will continue with programs in Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon as we have been doing these last couple of years, but Dhyana and I would like to branch out to at least one additional area in the NCR next year. We'll choose a place where we already have a cluster of kriyabans so that they can form a support staff and possibly form the nucleus of a future meditation group.
As you can see, we have a busy schedule, but this is only one of many energy streams that are flowing here. I'll have to use additional letters to give justice to the others: monastery, guest house, publishing, land search, ashram life, education/schools, Swami's world, our solar business, and many more. Each of us concentrates on one or two areas but pitch in to help with any/all of them when called upon. In the world of outreach, Dhyana, Dharmadas and I have been the primary teachers/organizers but many others help too. Daya Taylor does much of our promotional work. Sadhana Devi, Haridas, Roma, Deborah, and Claudio help with teaching duties. The monks run the book tables and go wherever needed. We are having Indians take on greater responsibility for tour coordination and teaching and we must increase this in the future if we are to reach the huge number of souls we who have interest.
Mumbai leaders: Yogesh, Srinavas & Satish
While I am engaged with tours and teaching, Sadhana Devi has settled into the critical position of paying the bills and keeping track of ashram finances. She sends her greetings and love to you all while I write this letter. I listen to her daily travails with the Indian banking system, vendors wanting payment and the myriad of frustrations associated with life in an economy of "black" money and "white." It is a good thing that she doesn't get ruffled too easily. She is up to her eyebrows in telephone calls and the constant tap-tap-tap on our bedroom door by someone wanting money is starting to drive me crazy. My desk is across from hers in our bedroom until we can both relocate into a space being vacated by the staff of our "Material Success Course." When they move to the basement of the new guesthouse, we'll set up a Sangha Office with Dhyana, Keshava and some of our Indian staff. The move was supposed to happen two months ago, but in India, things take time.
This morning Dharmaraj and Dharmini arrived from America. Hunter and Audie Black come tonight while two or three others from America return home. It's coming and going all the time. If you haven't had a chance to yet visit, please consider it. You can travel elsewhere in India from here or stay and experience life in Gurgaon. We'll put you to work if you like. We have recently leased another house a few blocks from the ashram where Haridas and Roma, along with Tim and Lisa Clark from Sacramento, serve as hosts of a very lovely, multi-storied house with a half dozen guest rooms for our many visitors. The best time of year to come is from October through March. April starts to get warm but isn't too bad. After that, it's HOT. Sadhana Devi and I look forward to seeing you.
While in Mumbai last spring I was shown two very sweet letters Master wrote to a disciple in India who happened to be a relative of the family I was visiting. The family treasures them, as you can imagine. I asked if copies could be made and when we visited last week those who went were given color photocopies of each letter. One has Master's signature and the other doesn't. I scanned the one with the signature and am sending it to you as an attachment to a separate email following this letter. I think you will enjoy it.
One final note. Swamiji just finished his new book on Master's interpretations of the Bible and it should be edited and sent to the printer soon. He is pleased with the result and is a wonderful work. At the same time, his health is very shaky and he is going through a physically difficult period, so please send him your prayers and surround him in light.
That's all for now. Sadhana Devi and I wish you a joyous Christmas and send you our love and good wishes. We'll be thinking of you.
Yours in Master,
PS: Soon it will be one year since Sadhana Devi and I moved to India. This has been made possible by many generous donations from friends on the East and West Coasts. If you would like to participate in our support and to that of the Ananda India Kriya Sangha through me, please send whatever you wish to Larry Rider on the East Coast or Ric Morehouse at Ananda Village. It is much appreciated and very helpful.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Happy Diwali
Dear Friends,
I'm writing this on the morning of Diwali, India's annual "Festival of Lights," the biggest holiday of the year. Think of it as a combination of Fourth of July and Christmas-fireworks, exchange of gifts, decorative lights on homes, and joyous "Happy Diwali" greetings to friends and strangers. Tonight's sky will be alight with fireworks and it will sound like a war zone. For those who like this sort of thing, you can buy sky rockets, bursting shells of all kinds and firecrackers sized like small grenades at the stalls all about town. You'd never see this in "safe and sane" America with its tame sparklers and overly protective culture of safety at all costs. Of course, everything here is made of concrete and unburnable, but I suspect the emergency ward will do a brisk business tonight.
Diwali celebrates Rama and Sita's return to Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile, Sita's abduction by Ravana and Rama's triumph over the demon king. By decree, the roads of the kingdom were strewn with "rows of lights" ("Deepavali" in Sanskrit) to welcome them home. Diwali symbolizes the conquest of evil by good, the ascendance of light in the midst of darkness and, on a deeper level, the return of the soul to its true kingdom in God from its "exile" in the land of the senses." It is one of the half-dozen times during the year we do the Ananda "Festival of Light" because it is absolutely perfect for the occasion. This afternoon's service was so sweet and powerful.
Diwali too is the time to worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, prosperity and abundance. I asked Wayne Palmer, the manager of Ananda's "Wishing Tree" boutique, if stores are open today. He said, "Yes, but no one expects to do any business. Everyone goes home early." I mentioned this to Sangeeta, an Indian devotee living in the ashram who used to own a shop and she said, "Nonsense. Today, all the shopkeepers do Lakshmi Puja and try for maximum business to honor her." I think it is somewhere in between. Now that I think about it, maybe our shop would do better if I told this to Wayne.
Festivals ("melas") are a regular feature of the Hindu calendar but autumn is their "high season." Perhaps it's because October marks the end of summer and the onset of cooler weather. With the monsoon ended, the months of October and November usher in some of the nicest weather in Delhi. Grass is actually green and many trees are in flower. People too are ready to burst into celebration. At the ashram we have to know the festival dates when scheduling but it would be hard not to sense something is afoot because of all the decorations, posters, and activity, not to mention the overflow of shops' wares onto the sidewalks. Like Christmas in America, this is the season for exchanging gifts and shopping.
Holiday dates vary from year to year according to the lunar calendar, but this year's festivities began in early October with Navratri (literally, "Nine-nights"). As the name says, it lasts for nine nights and is a celebration of the Divine Mother. Each night is given to worship of a certain aspect of Divine Mother. Which form receives primary attention depends on the region of India where Navratri is being held. Pujas are offered to Lakshmi, Saraswait, Mumbai Devi, Parvati and in Bengal, Kali is given a special night, but by far the largest focus throughout India is Durga Puja.
Here in DLF colony, the local Bengali community hosts a nine-night celebration at the community center to which everyone is invited. Sadhana Devi, Gyandevi and I went on the last night of Navratri to join hundreds of Indians from the neighborhood. The highlight of the evening was the Durga Puja. Three drummers established a loud, steady rhythm, accompanied by miscellaneous gongs, bells and clanging instruments. It was deafening and the incense was thick. The audience kept rapt attention and surged forward to receive the light when the pujari offered it from his multiple lamps of camphor oil. The consciousness of the ceremony was more rajasic and fun-filled than devotional, but I was much impressed by the concentration and inward focus of the pujari. He was a young man with a clear aura and very devoted to his duties. The puja lasted for about an hour, meaning that a pujari has to be young and fit to do it. My arm sometimes gets tired simply doing the Festival arati at Sunday Service and that only lasts but a few minutes.
During the nine nights of Navratri, performances of the Ramayana are staged as a prelude to the coming of Diwali, and ends with Dusharra on the tenth day. This is when large effigies of Ravana, the demon king, are erected and set afire, symbolizing the conquest of evil by good.
Do you know the story of Ravana? I have always liked it because, although evil in that lifetime, he was supposed to be a reincarnation of a celestial doorkeeper named "Jaya." Jaya and Vijaya guarded the doorway of Lord Vishnu in Vaikunta, his abode. They were cursed by holy sages because they would not let the sages enter. Vishnu had instructed Jaya and Vijaya that he did not wish to be disturbed. He said that he could not revoke the curse but he would give them a choice of being born as either great lovers of Vishnu for many incarnations or as great enemies of Vishnu for only a few. They chose the latter curse because they wanted to get back as quickly as possible to Vishnu's presence. Consequently, they took form as the evil King Ravana and his brother Kumbakarna and were killed (a great blessing) by Lord Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu himself.
In the midst of this year's Navratri, also came the birthday of Mahatma Ghandi. As you can guess, this is a national holiday to honor that heroic leader. To have such a great soul as a national icon, rather than a generalissimo astride a horse, is a mark of the greatness of India. All the newspapers featured articles about the Mahatma and explored his message of non violence, self-reliance, and "satyagraha." Swamiji was invited to a remembrance ceremony at the Ghandhi Smritti (site of his assassination) in downtown Delhi.
On the fourth day of the waning moon in the fall, this year coming right after Dusharra, Karwa Chauth was celebrated. I rather like this observance. It is for married women to fast and pray for the welfare and long life of their husbands. As always, there is a legendary tale but the idea is for ladies to prepare food before sunrise, fast during the day and gather later for a telling of the story, puja (often to Parvati) and to participate in a special ceremony when the moon rises. I'm not sure how much of this is still observed in the traditional fashion because it seems that Karwa Chauth has evolved into something of a Hindu Valentine's Day. Younger men are now encouraged (by the shopkeepers, advertisers and the ladies?) to show appreciation to their wives by the giving of gifts. One common tradition I find eye-catching is the practice of young women to decorate their hands and wrists with designs of henna, sometimes extending way up the arms. Indian women do this on other occasions too and the patterns can be really intricate. One woman I saw coming out of the beauty parlor had her hands in the air to dry with sequins or some other sparkly pieces of glass stuck into the henna. Local salons cater to this trade and seem to do a brisk business. It's really quite fashionable and much better than tattoos because the henna fades away in time.
October has also been a month for pilgrims from the West to pass through Gurgaon and have darshan with Swamiji. Groups from Italy and America have visited and it's been fun to reconnect with friends from Ananda colonies and listen to their impressions. I'm sure many of you will be hearing much more of their adventures when they return. The American group was here a few days ago telling us of their time in Badrinath (in the Himalayas, close to Tibet) where they visited a kriya yogi who lives in an isolated hut outside of town. A man of few possessions, he has a box into which he can latch himself during his winter months of meditation when the snow is heavy and deep. In this way, he can leave his physical body behind, safe from disturbance by animals, and "astrally travel" for months at a time, being with Babaji and doing whatever it is that one does in such states. Try explaining that one to your skeptical relatives. It is also in Badrinath that puja is offered to a large stone with the image of a meditating yogi upon it (with a striking resemblance to Babaji) that Adi ("the First") Shankara pulled from the local river many centuries ago. It is this area of the Himalayas that is said to be special to Babaji.
Swamiji is working daily on his new book of Bible interpretations. Unlike his experience with the Gita when inspiration flowed in a seemly effortless fashion, this work is proving more difficult for him to write. Perhaps because of this or maybe for other reasons, he has been very tired these last many weeks. Yet, he keeps to his regular schedule of writing, appointments and periodic speaking engagements. We try to record these latter events and many of his talks can be heard on the web at www.anandaindia.org.
Sadhana Devi and I are doing well since returning to India in September. She has become the ashram bookkeeper, paying the bills and local workmen while trying to keep us out of financial chaos and on the right side of the Indian tax code. She is happy to say that we have finally furnished our room. Up until a week ago it maintained a close resemblance to a concrete bunker but now, with some paint, furniture and rugs from the local shops, it is looking quite homey. A feature of buying furniture in India is that you first visit the shop, see what you like or show the man a photograph of you would like while explaining your wishes, and the fellows make it for you from scratch. Delivery time is a bit iffy, but eventually it shows up in a week or two, smelling of fresh lacquer, and accompanied by a carpenter who assembles it and fixes any defects caused by the rickshaw that transported it. When happy, you pay the shopkeeper and tip the deliveryman.
My duties here are mainly three. I am organizing a "Sangha Office" to serve our growing database of disciples and inquiries, setting up our outreach tours away from Delhi and Gurgaon in 2007, and pitching in where I'm able in response to the physical maintenance challenges of the ashram. You'll be hearing more of the first two duties in future letters, but for now I'll just mention that we plan to do major introductory programs in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune in 2007, culminating in a kriya initiation in November or December next year. We did something similar in 2006 and are now about to do initiations in Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata. If you'd like our schedule for future tours, I'll send it to you, especially if you want to help. While still months away, now is the time to book venues and arrange logistical details.
All of us serving in India send our love and blessings to you. Please know that we think of you often and hope you do the same for us. It is a joy to share Master's work with all of you. The fireworks should start soon and we'll be up on the roof with a 360 degree view wishing you all a Happy Diwali.
Much joy,
I'm writing this on the morning of Diwali, India's annual "Festival of Lights," the biggest holiday of the year. Think of it as a combination of Fourth of July and Christmas-fireworks, exchange of gifts, decorative lights on homes, and joyous "Happy Diwali" greetings to friends and strangers. Tonight's sky will be alight with fireworks and it will sound like a war zone. For those who like this sort of thing, you can buy sky rockets, bursting shells of all kinds and firecrackers sized like small grenades at the stalls all about town. You'd never see this in "safe and sane" America with its tame sparklers and overly protective culture of safety at all costs. Of course, everything here is made of concrete and unburnable, but I suspect the emergency ward will do a brisk business tonight.
Diwali celebrates Rama and Sita's return to Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile, Sita's abduction by Ravana and Rama's triumph over the demon king. By decree, the roads of the kingdom were strewn with "rows of lights" ("Deepavali" in Sanskrit) to welcome them home. Diwali symbolizes the conquest of evil by good, the ascendance of light in the midst of darkness and, on a deeper level, the return of the soul to its true kingdom in God from its "exile" in the land of the senses." It is one of the half-dozen times during the year we do the Ananda "Festival of Light" because it is absolutely perfect for the occasion. This afternoon's service was so sweet and powerful.
Diwali too is the time to worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, prosperity and abundance. I asked Wayne Palmer, the manager of Ananda's "Wishing Tree" boutique, if stores are open today. He said, "Yes, but no one expects to do any business. Everyone goes home early." I mentioned this to Sangeeta, an Indian devotee living in the ashram who used to own a shop and she said, "Nonsense. Today, all the shopkeepers do Lakshmi Puja and try for maximum business to honor her." I think it is somewhere in between. Now that I think about it, maybe our shop would do better if I told this to Wayne.
Festivals ("melas") are a regular feature of the Hindu calendar but autumn is their "high season." Perhaps it's because October marks the end of summer and the onset of cooler weather. With the monsoon ended, the months of October and November usher in some of the nicest weather in Delhi. Grass is actually green and many trees are in flower. People too are ready to burst into celebration. At the ashram we have to know the festival dates when scheduling but it would be hard not to sense something is afoot because of all the decorations, posters, and activity, not to mention the overflow of shops' wares onto the sidewalks. Like Christmas in America, this is the season for exchanging gifts and shopping.
Holiday dates vary from year to year according to the lunar calendar, but this year's festivities began in early October with Navratri (literally, "Nine-nights"). As the name says, it lasts for nine nights and is a celebration of the Divine Mother. Each night is given to worship of a certain aspect of Divine Mother. Which form receives primary attention depends on the region of India where Navratri is being held. Pujas are offered to Lakshmi, Saraswait, Mumbai Devi, Parvati and in Bengal, Kali is given a special night, but by far the largest focus throughout India is Durga Puja.
Here in DLF colony, the local Bengali community hosts a nine-night celebration at the community center to which everyone is invited. Sadhana Devi, Gyandevi and I went on the last night of Navratri to join hundreds of Indians from the neighborhood. The highlight of the evening was the Durga Puja. Three drummers established a loud, steady rhythm, accompanied by miscellaneous gongs, bells and clanging instruments. It was deafening and the incense was thick. The audience kept rapt attention and surged forward to receive the light when the pujari offered it from his multiple lamps of camphor oil. The consciousness of the ceremony was more rajasic and fun-filled than devotional, but I was much impressed by the concentration and inward focus of the pujari. He was a young man with a clear aura and very devoted to his duties. The puja lasted for about an hour, meaning that a pujari has to be young and fit to do it. My arm sometimes gets tired simply doing the Festival arati at Sunday Service and that only lasts but a few minutes.
During the nine nights of Navratri, performances of the Ramayana are staged as a prelude to the coming of Diwali, and ends with Dusharra on the tenth day. This is when large effigies of Ravana, the demon king, are erected and set afire, symbolizing the conquest of evil by good.
Do you know the story of Ravana? I have always liked it because, although evil in that lifetime, he was supposed to be a reincarnation of a celestial doorkeeper named "Jaya." Jaya and Vijaya guarded the doorway of Lord Vishnu in Vaikunta, his abode. They were cursed by holy sages because they would not let the sages enter. Vishnu had instructed Jaya and Vijaya that he did not wish to be disturbed. He said that he could not revoke the curse but he would give them a choice of being born as either great lovers of Vishnu for many incarnations or as great enemies of Vishnu for only a few. They chose the latter curse because they wanted to get back as quickly as possible to Vishnu's presence. Consequently, they took form as the evil King Ravana and his brother Kumbakarna and were killed (a great blessing) by Lord Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu himself.
In the midst of this year's Navratri, also came the birthday of Mahatma Ghandi. As you can guess, this is a national holiday to honor that heroic leader. To have such a great soul as a national icon, rather than a generalissimo astride a horse, is a mark of the greatness of India. All the newspapers featured articles about the Mahatma and explored his message of non violence, self-reliance, and "satyagraha." Swamiji was invited to a remembrance ceremony at the Ghandhi Smritti (site of his assassination) in downtown Delhi.
On the fourth day of the waning moon in the fall, this year coming right after Dusharra, Karwa Chauth was celebrated. I rather like this observance. It is for married women to fast and pray for the welfare and long life of their husbands. As always, there is a legendary tale but the idea is for ladies to prepare food before sunrise, fast during the day and gather later for a telling of the story, puja (often to Parvati) and to participate in a special ceremony when the moon rises. I'm not sure how much of this is still observed in the traditional fashion because it seems that Karwa Chauth has evolved into something of a Hindu Valentine's Day. Younger men are now encouraged (by the shopkeepers, advertisers and the ladies?) to show appreciation to their wives by the giving of gifts. One common tradition I find eye-catching is the practice of young women to decorate their hands and wrists with designs of henna, sometimes extending way up the arms. Indian women do this on other occasions too and the patterns can be really intricate. One woman I saw coming out of the beauty parlor had her hands in the air to dry with sequins or some other sparkly pieces of glass stuck into the henna. Local salons cater to this trade and seem to do a brisk business. It's really quite fashionable and much better than tattoos because the henna fades away in time.
October has also been a month for pilgrims from the West to pass through Gurgaon and have darshan with Swamiji. Groups from Italy and America have visited and it's been fun to reconnect with friends from Ananda colonies and listen to their impressions. I'm sure many of you will be hearing much more of their adventures when they return. The American group was here a few days ago telling us of their time in Badrinath (in the Himalayas, close to Tibet) where they visited a kriya yogi who lives in an isolated hut outside of town. A man of few possessions, he has a box into which he can latch himself during his winter months of meditation when the snow is heavy and deep. In this way, he can leave his physical body behind, safe from disturbance by animals, and "astrally travel" for months at a time, being with Babaji and doing whatever it is that one does in such states. Try explaining that one to your skeptical relatives. It is also in Badrinath that puja is offered to a large stone with the image of a meditating yogi upon it (with a striking resemblance to Babaji) that Adi ("the First") Shankara pulled from the local river many centuries ago. It is this area of the Himalayas that is said to be special to Babaji.
Swamiji is working daily on his new book of Bible interpretations. Unlike his experience with the Gita when inspiration flowed in a seemly effortless fashion, this work is proving more difficult for him to write. Perhaps because of this or maybe for other reasons, he has been very tired these last many weeks. Yet, he keeps to his regular schedule of writing, appointments and periodic speaking engagements. We try to record these latter events and many of his talks can be heard on the web at www.anandaindia.org.
Sadhana Devi and I are doing well since returning to India in September. She has become the ashram bookkeeper, paying the bills and local workmen while trying to keep us out of financial chaos and on the right side of the Indian tax code. She is happy to say that we have finally furnished our room. Up until a week ago it maintained a close resemblance to a concrete bunker but now, with some paint, furniture and rugs from the local shops, it is looking quite homey. A feature of buying furniture in India is that you first visit the shop, see what you like or show the man a photograph of you would like while explaining your wishes, and the fellows make it for you from scratch. Delivery time is a bit iffy, but eventually it shows up in a week or two, smelling of fresh lacquer, and accompanied by a carpenter who assembles it and fixes any defects caused by the rickshaw that transported it. When happy, you pay the shopkeeper and tip the deliveryman.
My duties here are mainly three. I am organizing a "Sangha Office" to serve our growing database of disciples and inquiries, setting up our outreach tours away from Delhi and Gurgaon in 2007, and pitching in where I'm able in response to the physical maintenance challenges of the ashram. You'll be hearing more of the first two duties in future letters, but for now I'll just mention that we plan to do major introductory programs in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune in 2007, culminating in a kriya initiation in November or December next year. We did something similar in 2006 and are now about to do initiations in Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata. If you'd like our schedule for future tours, I'll send it to you, especially if you want to help. While still months away, now is the time to book venues and arrange logistical details.
All of us serving in India send our love and blessings to you. Please know that we think of you often and hope you do the same for us. It is a joy to share Master's work with all of you. The fireworks should start soon and we'll be up on the roof with a 360 degree view wishing you all a Happy Diwali.
Much joy,
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