Gayatri Yagna Opening Ceremony

Yesterday afternoon the Opening Ceremony of the Gayatri Yagna took place in the tent.

There were many Gayatri Mantras and "Swahas" and at the end in the late evening, a lot of Bhajans!

Swamiji is back

Over the last few days Swami Vishwananda looked around in His Centre and was really happy about some progress, esspecialy in the garden:

Good bye India!

Last greetings from India...

this morning in Rishikesh...

...and now on the plane on the way home!

India Pilgrimage with Swami Vishwananda continued

The last days few days, Swami Vishwananda was in Badrinath together with the pilgrimage group. The temple here belongs to the hindu pilgrimage called "Chota Char Dham".

Inside the Temple there is Lord Vishnu in the form of a Saligram -

and in a form of a self-manifested deity out of black stone  - one metre tall!

(these two pictures were found on the internet- it is not allowed to take photos inside the temple) 

Now they are on their way back home: first to Rishikesh and then to Delhi.

Kenya Seva - June 17th - Joy Town

Once again about 25 of us got together on Sunday 17th June and departed Nairobi at 10.15am for a seva to Thika about an hour away at 80kph in a hired bus. Something inside of us told us this seva was going to be more special than ever. About 5 minutes into the ride, bhajans and singing started and if there was space to move in the bus some dancing would have happened as well. We took a wrong turning and had a quick tour of Thika town for 15 minutes before we arrived at Joytown Primary School for the Differently Abled.



The school motto very appropriate "Disability is Not a Inability". We are greeted by scores of smiling children, one of whom shouted for Big B as he came out of the bus. After a few minutes we started wheeling the kids to the chapel room one by one. The room got filled in half an hour with over 250 kids, and we all started with a Happy Birthday song to our Beloved.



The mood and tempo increased and more dedications were sung with all the kids joining in. They also sang a couple of songs to us. There are no words to describe the intensity of what we all felt. Strong hands quickly offloaded various foodstuff and articles donated by Friends of SVSS-K, a big Thank You to all. We started handing out gifts to these children and before we knew it was past 1pm and time for their lunch. Lunch was served and never once did we see the smiles and joy disappear from their wonderful faces.

A bright impromptu idea of planting a tree on occasion of His birthday took 25 of us, digging an inch each one after the other, another half hour.



 After a prayer to the planted tree and watering it, we were in the bus at 2.30pm, with delicious bateta vadas being gobbled down as we drove back. The way back was quieter with a lot of reflection on the wonderful time that we had and planning details for the next Seva in October, this time somewhere within Nairobi.




JAI GURUDEV

Pictures from India Pilgrimage with Swami Vishwananda

This day started especially wonderfully:

Some pictures from India came:

 Deveshananda wrote: " This was 5 min ago in a temple in Ukhimath.

The deities are appoximately 5,500 years old."

On the internet it says that: ...during the winters, the idols from Kedarnath temple are brought to Ukhimath and worshipped there for six months.

India Pilgrimage: Gaurikundh

This morning, after the early prayer in the temple in Kedarnath (4 am) the group started their way down to Guptkashi.

On the way they made rest in Gaurikundh. Here Lord Shiva cut the head of Lord Ganesha and replaced it with an elephant head.

After a short rest, they went further on to Guptkashi where they stay in a hotel. The landscape is beautiful here - it is said that it is similar to Switzerland. 

In Guptkashi there is a Vishwananth Temple. Beside it is a smaller temple with Ardhanarishwara, a statue of half woman/half man: Shiva/Parvati united.

Tomorrow, during the 7 hour bus trip to Jyotirmath, the group will have time to relax a bit. 

On 4150 m at the Ganga

News and one Picture from India: 

Message from one of the pilgrims:
Hi, we are o.k., here is not signal, so I use the first opportunity...we were by the Ganga, on the picture, about 4150m high...   here is between 0 and nearly 50 degrees.
Greetings

Om Flash Mob

On Friday 15th June a bunch of us got together in the evening at Trafalgar Square to perform London’s first ever Om Flash Mob!

 The whole thing kicked off with a truckload of children from the Tayo Youth Foundation making a grand entrance into Trafalgar Square to celebrate the release of their new song ‘Champion’ (a song about reaching the champion within). The kids attracted quite a crowd with their wonderful performance, complete with drums and trumpets!

Afterwards, the sound of “Om” resonated around the square as a group of us started chanting for about 5 minutes whist holding hands in a semi-circle. It was a beautiful experience and one that I’m sure we all look forward to repeating again in the near future. Watch this space for more upcoming Om Flash Mob dates!

[*A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, to perform an unusual act for a brief time, then disperse, normally for the purposes of raising awareness, artistic expression or just pure entertainment!]

Pictures from Johannesburg

Here you can see how the devotees in South Africa celebrated Swami Vishwananda's 34th birthday:

click here

Sri Swami Vishwananda's Birthday at Shree Peetha Nilaya

As Swami Vishwananda asked us not to make a "big thing" out of his birthday, at first we didn't really have an idea how to celebrate this wonderful day in a special way! 

The programme here at Shree Peetha Nilaya was as follows: a Yagna in the morning  - in the wet, wet tent (it was raining heavily the entire time) ...

...and in the evening an Abishekam and a lot of Bhajans for our Guruji. 

... and because it was also Vanamali's birthday- she did the Abishekam to his padukas.

Recently the idea came up that we could make Swami happy simply by making other people happy. In that spirit, we did some research and found some homes for elderly people and disabled children and asked if we could sing for the residents there.

It worked! 

We rehearsed a bit and off we went. It was touching to see and feel the joy! .... Not only for the elderly people (we saw some tears and many smiles)  it was nice - it also made us happy to feel this joy. We are now considering organising such visits more regularly!

Pilgrimage to North India with Swami Vishwananda

On Sunday morning Swami Vishwananda left Springen and went to the airport to go to New Delhi where he met all the other pilgrims. 

From there they took a bus, 250 km North to Rishikesh. The group stays in a nice ashram on the banks of the Ganga  for two nights.

Directly coming out of the mountains, the river Ganga is quit fresh and cold. 

Today the group spent the whole day in Rishikesh to take a rest, because tomorrow they go North and up into the mountains. 

Evening prayer with Swami Vishwananda

 Last week ... 

New Book: Tulsi Care

There is a new book available in our shop. It is written by a devotee who has Tulsi Devi as his Ishtadevi.

For over five years he is planting and taking care of many Tulsi plants. Now he has written a little booklet about all his experiences collected during this wonderful Seva over the years.

The whole story about Tulsi Devi and Vishnu, a description of performing Puja to her and the 108 Names of this sweet Goddess are all included in the booklet.

The book is available in the shop for 12,50 €.

Whoever wants to plant Tulsis and would like to serve Goddes Tulsi can order the booklet by sending an email to:

order@bhaktishop.de

Darshan with Swami Vishwananda in Moscow

Last night Swami Vishwananda gave Darshan in Moscow:

There where more than 1,500 Visitors. The Darshan lasted about 12 hours!

Bhakti Summer Yoga Festival

Chaturananda led a Kirtan Workshop at the Bhakti Summer Yoga Festival in southern Germany this weekend (see: http://bhaktiyogasummer.com/sri-chaturananda):

Together with Anuprabha they organized a big Om-Healing.