Talk with God

Out of a speach 2005, Italy

"...Whenever you read in any holy books, bible, also the Gita, it’s said Lord Krishna or Jesus went far apart in a desert corner to sit down – or on a higher mountain, to sit down and talk with God. But each one of us can also go deep inside ourself and rise the vibration in ourself, reach to the higher level and open to the conciousness of God. Let the light flow through you and become the self and you realize it!...."

Touching your Guru's Feet

Gururbrahma gururvishnu

gururdevo maheshwarah

Gurusakshat parabrahma

tasmai Shree guruve namah

“The Guru is Brahma, the Guru is Vishnu, the Guru is the Great Lord Shiva. To be near the Guru is to be near the ultimate Oneness – I adore you, O venerable Guru!”

There is a lot of power in this simple gesture:

In the West, there is often a lack of understanding about the tradition of touching the Guru’s feet.

In India one touches the feet of one’s parents, for instance, to show respect. Showing reverence for the Guru is not meant to create or increase superiority of the Guru, but rather, to create and increase humility in the devotee. Therefore, when we touch the guru’s feet, we are saying, “I am humble and I am your servant, because I am confident in myself and you, and trust in my ability to follow your guidance and excel in it.”

When we touch the Guru’s feet, we are following tradition, and paying respect in the same way that billions have done so for thousands of years.

There is power in this simple ceremony, and it is in essence a form of worship, a recognition of the Divine nature of the Guru. The reason we say that the Guru is God, is because the Guru shows the pathway to God.

The Guru becomes more important than God for the spiritual adventurer, because while God can be felt and sensed and worshipped, the Guru is there in flesh and blood, with a voice and ears and eyes, and the experience and accomplishment to be able to guide you in the best possible way. Guru's feet are a tremendously potent channel of Spiritual Transmission.

The effective Guru doesn’t give you all the answers, but helps you stand and walk the path on your own. The effective Guru can help us tell the difference between fact and fiction, between our imagination and an experience of divine grace. The loving Guru helps to puncture our egos, which keep us separated from knowledge of the true Self, and does so with love and compassion, never in a way that shames, belittles, or damages us.

The Guru carries us from ignorance to insight, but they do so as part of a vast, moving, living stream of wisdom. Touching the Guru’s feet, then, is an act of respect and reverence, but also of learning. We facilitate our own spiritual progress when we learn to be humble. Humility puts us in a place of learning. By touching their feet, we demonstrate not only that we are ready to listen to them, but also that we are ready to transform and strengthen ourselves.

The Nektar of a Guru

Here a small part of Swami Vishwananda's Speach yesterday night (July, 24th 2010)

".....Why do people go to a master and receive what the master is giving? You see, it is because the master carries the amrit, the nectar, even when you don't perceive it with the mind, but you do receive it, through satsang, through our talk you are receiving something and what you are receiving is contributing to your advancement. What you are receiving, even you receive it without knowing, is the amrit. Its this nectar that bees fly from far away and come and collect in the lotus flower or in certain flowers. Not all the flowers have the same capacity of honey inside of them, not all the flowers have the same capacity of sweetness inside and who knows that?

Only the bees know that, not the frog, the frog or the stupidity that is always thinking they know everything. They will jump up and down on the flower but they will not know what is the sweetness inside. To know that one has to dig deep inside oneself, dig deep and even deeper where one gets this amrit and is this through the help of the teacher, the Guru, that you receive this amrit so that at the end of life you can say “Yes, I have achieved the purpose of life”.

Thoughts about Gurupurnima

Give all your garbage to the Guru. ["Garbage" here means our negativity and negative qualities like hatred, envy, jeaoulsy, anger, laziness, greed.. etc] Guru makes gold out of garbage. [The Guru transforms our negativity into Love and positive qualities]

The Guru makes a fool [an ignorant person] intelligent. It is easy to make that change because everyone is made up of that one Love.

Gurupurnima is the day to feel grateful for the great knowledge you have received from your master. It is time to review how much knowledge you could ingrain in your life in the past one year. This may bring about a realization for scope of improvement which in turn will bring humility in you.

Be grateful for the way this knowledge has transformed you. Just think how you could have been without this. There is a definite change inside you. If you cannot see any change, then you haven't had a good look in yourself. Gratitude and humility together blossom a genuine prayer inside you!

So in Gurupurnima we remember all Gurus of the past.

An Acharya (teacher) gives knowledge and Guru gives height of awareness and makes you alive. An Acharya gives information, Guru gives intelligence, an awakened intelligence.

The mind is connected with moon. Full moon is completion, the pinnacle.

On Gurupurnima the devotee wakes up in full gratitude. The devotee becomes like an ocean moving in itself.

It’s the time to come in fullness. It’s a time to celebrate ! Don’t miss this auspicious opportunity.

Satsang Rap

"So many questions...."

Short extract from a satsang (3.2.2008, in Split, Croatia) given by Sri Swami Vishwananda with a photo slideshow and accompanying music. Dharmananda arranged the clip and composed the music for it. It was first shown publicly on Swami's 32nd birthday on June 13 2010 in Springen, and was received with much enthusiasm.

Now you can have the Satsang Rap on DVD (8,-€) There are 3 versions on the DVD, each one is 7 min.:

1-without undertitle, 

2- with english and 

3- with german undertitles.

You can see it again and again and it helps a lot to come in a good mood! Order per e-mail (hemamalini@bhaktishop.de) or click here to order in the shop.

Mauritius

We got some pictures from Mauritius- here the nicest one:

Next Tombola Drawing

For the next drawing on August 13 you can win again special prices. This time the 1. price is a T-Shirt from Swami Vishwananda, which he bought and was wearing during the pilgrimage trip to Israel last year. 2nd price are Padukas which Swami bought in India. The brass padukas are 14 cm long, there are only a few left in our Bhakti Shop. 3. price a CD to choose and prices 4 and 5 will receive a book.

All participants of the Tombola get the chance again to win the main price on the 3 monthly special drawing on September 13 which is a three day trip to Konnersreuth/Therese Neumann in October with Swami Vishwananda. The pilgrimage trip takes place from October 1 – 3.

With love from Springen
Your tombola team, Dakshini

Tombola drawing

On July 13 the first Danya Lakshmi Tombola drawing took place in our Shree Peetha Nilaya Center. Our teenager Devi (Sathyananda´s daughter) did the drawing of the first round:

1. Price (Guruji´s socks) : Shalini (RUS)
2. Price (massage with sound bowls): Birgit Baur (D)
3. Price (CD) : Dayakari (D)

We decided to include to more prices at each drawing:
4. Price (book): Yagnavati (CH)
5. Price (book): Birgit Baur (D)

Congratulations!!!

So Cute!

This young boy of two will probably be a big music star one day.

Towards the end of an enchanting summer evening Darshan with Sri Swami Vishwananda on July 3 2010 in Springen, Germany, he got more and more into the groove. He started to climb on any instrument and musician he could get a hold of, tested various microphones, and finally ended up spontaneously directing the final Bhajan sung by Swami.... J J J

By the way, on his t-shirt he was wearing a cheeky quote in German which means: "When God created me, he just wanted to show off"

Silent Auction on Darshan

On the morning before darshan we had the idea, that from now on, there could be a "silent auction" with one of Swamiji's items at each darshan. We were very quick -  one of us went to Swamiji and asked him. He immediately said: "Yes, do it!" and gave his favoured sandals.  He used to wear them in India, in Jerusalem, in Mauritius, in Brasil, Russia and many more countries.

During the darshan there was a list lying out on the shop-table where people could sign in and give their bid.

At the end of the darshan the sandals went for 3.000,- € to a happy new owner! The money will be used for construction.

We will see which item Swamiji will give for the next "silent auction" at the darshan on 24.July in Springen town hall!

Tombula Reminder

There are still some free tickets for our first tombola drawing on the 13th of July! Main price in this month are Swamiji´s socks. The drawing for our special price (every 3 month) will take place on the 13th of September. You can win a very special pilgrimagetrip (1.-3 october) to the birthplace of Therese Neumann to Konnersreuth (Germany) together with Swami Vishwananda. The sigmatized saint lived in the last century and got even more well known through a chapter in Paramahamsa Yogananda´s "Autobiographie of a Yogi"

You can order the tickets at tombola@bhaktimarga.org or you can contact Dakshini (0163-2347257