Birthday of Lord Rama

During Ram Navami Swamiji spoke about the effect of the name of "Rama". "The name of RAMA is very special. Because it is said, that just by mere chanting of the name of Rama, if one at the end of life chants this Divine name, one gets liberated from the cycle of life and death. That's why this name is called Taraka Mantra, which is a mantra that can liberate someone. That's why you see in Hindu tradition, when someone dies, they always chant the name of Ram. "Sri Ram Sri Ram Sri Ram." The word Rama in itself is the fullness of two divine names, which is RA, which is taken from "OM NAMO NARAYANA", and MA comes from "OM NAMAH SHIVAYA". So from the combination of OM NAMA NARAYANA and OM NAMAH SHIVAYA comes the name RAMA. This mantra is not that easy to chant actually, if at the time of death you have not learned to practice chanting. At the time of death very often you are so attached to the world, to things or to people, that to free yourself, even if you are well aware that you should not be taking birth, it is difficult. Because the power that is generated at this time is so strong, that if you don't have the divine name, the last image you have in your mind, you will incarnate as that.”

3rd Darshan March

Because of so many guests we decided to celebrate the Darshan in the "Red Hall" .
This time it was not planned to have a live stream, but Swamiji asked Kuru at the beginning for it, so quickly they managed to install everything:  HERE is the link!

Radiating Joy

In his last Darshan speach Swami Vishwananda told following story:

Swami Vishwananda: Once somebody went to a Saint, and said, “Dear Saint, tell me how would I love the same way you love?" He was a doctor. The saint closed his eyes and thought for awhile and said, “My dear Doctor, I know you treat a lot of people, but all that you do, you treat people but you always take money. So, do one thing: once a week, treat for free whoever comes to you; give your treatment for free."

So the doctor listened to the Saint and he practiced what the doctor said up to two months. The saint approached him again and said, “How are you?" He saw that the doctor was radiating so much joy and happiness, he said to the doctor, “You seem very happy nowadays." And the doctor said to the saint, “Yes, dear Saint, I have taken what you have said to me and I have practiced it. Once a week I have given free treatment to everybody who comes and truly this has opened my heart and this has made me really feel a great happiness inside of me."

Holi Festival, 2nd Part

Dear readers, actually we wanted not to speak about this crazy second part of Holi, but it was tooo good not to share:

It was arround 4pm, and it was said, that Holi is finished now, everybody took a shower and we started to clean the entrance hall.

There was somebody bringing white flour from the kitchen and a crazy battle startet- even drums where played: We hope that the pictures give you an impression of our great fun!

Darshan Live Stream Saturday 13th

LIVE STREAMING  (part 2)
We are happy to let you know, we will attempt again this coming Saturday to transmit to you LIVE via the internet the next DARSHAN.

We will again start at around 6:30 pm CET* with our evening prayer, then shortly after 7pm, we get ready for Swami's Darshan.

CLICK HERE to get to our LIVE PAGE

Shirdi Sai Baba on the wall

On Swami Vishwananda’s twenty first birthday on the thirteenth of June, we went to Mauritius, the island in Africa where Swami was born and grew up. There, Swamiji materialized a golden Narashimha murti. One morning he called us into his room, “Look what appeared on the wall! He exclaimed. “It is like a shadow.” I told him, “It is Shirdi Sai Baba sitting and blessing with his hand!” Months later, Swami was in our house in Nairobi and called us one morning into his room, “Look what appeared on the wall!” He said. I told him, “Again, it is Shirdi Sai Baba sitting and blessing with his hand, like a shadow.”

Later, we sold our house in order to move into a bigger one. The new people of the house painted this wall white. One week later they called us and said, “You know this wall with the form of this holy man. We painted it several times in one week and finally it had completely gone, but today it has come back again the same as before.” “Well, you can believe what you want”, I told them. “But I would suggest you leave it as it is; if Sri Shirdi Sai Baba wants to stay in your home let it be, it is a blessing for all of you.

Kajal and Sanjit – Nairobi - Kenya

Darshan Live Stream online!

Dear friends, dear family


BREAKING NEWS - we are happy to let you know that for the first time tonight.... we will attempt... to transmit a.... Darshan LIVE - VIDEO & AUDIO! God willing of course, hopefully our internet connection will remain stable.

We will start at around 6:30 pm CET* with our evening prayer, then a little after 7pm, we get ready for Swami's Satsang & Darshan.:)

CLICK HERE to get to our LIVE PAGE :)

Feel free to give us feedback using the chat function (for that you need to register for free with Ustream.tv our streaming provider). For example you can tell us if something is not as it should be with regard to audio or sound, and we will try to fix it. Or else we would love to hear from you via email, so we know what you think of this new service and what can be improved.

Love and Blessings, we hope to see you soon, maybe already tonight?...

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/darshan-live

Holi- the day of colours

colours everywhere!

Swami Vishwananda found EVERYBODY!

even Krishna gets coloured:

Darshan

Swami Vishwananda spoke about Holi wich is celebrated on Monday, 1st March. It is the Festival therefore, celebrates the victory of good over evil and also the triumph of devotion. The story is:

The Demon King Hiranyakashipu wanted everybody in his kingdom to worship only him but to his great disappointment, his son, Prahlad became an ardent devotee of Lord Naarayana, Vishnu. Hiaranyakashipu commanded his sister, Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap. Holika had a boon whereby she could enter fire without any damage on herself. However, she was not aware that the boon worked only when she enters the fire alone. As a result she paid a price for her sinister desires, while Prahlad was saved by the grace of the god for his extreme devotion. The festival, therefore, celebrates the victory of good over evil and also the triumph of devotion.  It is because of this event,  Holika (a bonfire) is burnt every year on Holi eve. The burning of the effigy of Holika is called Holika Dahan (death of Holika).

Tomorrow there is also the Sri Chaitanya Gauri Purnima, which is the holy day of appearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.  It is celebrated by Vaishnavas every year on the full moon day of the month of Phalgun (February-March). In year 2010, Gaura purnima is observed on 28th February. It was Lord Chaitanya who inaugurated the chanting of ‘Hare Krishna Maha Mantra’ as the process of deliverance for the age of Kali. Sankirtana movement was started by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu which is gradually spreading throughout the world.

The power of the "Mrithjum Bagheshwar Lingam"

At Shivaratri night Swami Vishwananda said:

"...This Shiva Lingam is very special. Form the beginning itself, when we did the inauguration of the temple in Steffenshof Maha Avatar Babaji blessed this Shiva Lingam and He gave the name `Mrithjum Bageshwar???´ which means ´the Lord which is above death, the Lord of death´. And of course death is one of the- one fear that everyone have, because fear of the unknown, fear of not knowing what is the other side where we will go. But praying to Lord Shiva, especially on this day, He grant one the removal of fear from death and give you an easy passing to the other side. And as Maha Avatar Babaji has have blessed the Shiva Lingam Himself and said- I don´t know whether how many of you remember- He has said that this Ling has a lots of healing quality. Whoever chant the mritjum mantra, the mritjum- the triambhakam mantra eleven time pouring water over the Shiva Lingam, and receive the water and drink it, the illness will be cured."

Meaning of the colour white

When asked about the meaning of the colour white for Shiva, Guruji gave the following answer:

"The white colour of shiva is because He is calling all to wash their sins and that they become white without any stain so that they can reach the lotus feet of the Lord. So white means PURITY of Mind , body and spirit."

Lord Shiva´s message for mankind

Excerpt from Swami Vishwananda´s darshan speech on 5.Feb 2010
Shivaratri actually is the great night of Lord Shiva, the one which is with form and without form. What is Shiva meditating upon? It’s to remind us that we will realize our true self only when we will be in that deep state of meditation. We have not yet realized the purpose of our incarnation on Earth; we have not yet realized how great it is to have a human body, but we can reach that state. We have to really want it, but not superficially.

Very often people go on a spiritual path in a very superficial way, saying, “Let me try it. Let me see what it is about.” But these people will not reach anywhere. We have incarnated for a reason, we have a human body for a reason. But we will not find this reason until we make this body into pure love and devotion. This is where your Sadhana comes in. When you will develop this pure love and devotion, then you will really know the meaning of this human body, then you will really enjoy being in this body, then you will know the purpose of being here.
Look, whenever something good happens to you, how easy it is for you to forget about it. Good things are always happening, but when something not good happens to you, you treasure it. You treasure it with your mind. Your mind has to dwell on the Divine, not on your problems. You will solve your problems by the mean which God has given you within you, which is faith and devotion.
Actually, human being, in the ladder of creation, is the top. It’s true, because only by attaining a human body, a human life, can you really attain the Creator, actually become one with the Creator. But yet, we have to want Him. And to want Him means to devote oneself sincerely, to develop this pure love that is already there, just to let it out and let it spread around.
So through the Divine names which have been given, go inside; utilize the cosmic name of God and attain Him. That’s what Shiva teaches us.

Flowers for Shivaratri

If you would like to bring flowers, please send a mail to:  prajna@bhaktimarga.org  with info about what sort of flowers and when you will bring them, so that your donation can be taken into account for our prayer preparation . Thank you very much!

Lakshmi

Shree Dhanaa Karshana Sree Maha Lakshmi Sahita Sri Kuberaya

and she told Swamiji the new spiritual Name of the Center Springen:

Shree Peetha Nilaya

Which means: Home of Lakshmi

Darshan

It was a wonderful cosy evening. Outside a lot of snow,inside a lot of warmness and love!

The youngest Devotee

Swami Vishwananda is right now in South Africa. Here a picture from his youngest Devotee.

Blog with 108 Names

There is a new blog with all the 108 names:

http://108names.blogspot.com/

An explanation of the ritual of Abishekam

During a Satsang Swami Vishwananda asked an Indian devotee to give this explanation:

Abishekam is basically a chance for us to invoke the cosmic energy into a murti, into a statue, into an idol before us. (SV.: we basically manifest). So, when we perform abishekam it´s an opportunity for us to interact and to have physical contact with this cosmic energy. The whole process of abishekam is rooted in the Indian custom of how we welcome a guest into our home. In India there is a Vedic slogan which says: “Adity deity pabha”, which means: “the guest is God”. So when a guest comes, the first thing we do is, we offer him a seat. We say: “Asanam samat payami”, which basically means: “we offer you a seat”. Next, after a guest comes to a house they probably travelled a long time, so we wash their feet. And that is: “Padyam samat payami”, which is: “we wash your feet, refresh the feet after a long journey”. Next we offer them a drink, we wash their mouth because they are probably parched, they are very thirsty after a long journey. These are the preliminary things.

Than we offer them a bath. We change their cloths and we bathe them. Firstly we use water, which is a great purifier, it cleans everything. And we wash the deity before us. Next we offer the five elements, which are milk, yoghurt, ghee, honey, sugar. These five elements are also present within our own bodies. And every time we offer the milk, the honey, the ghee, the sugar and the yoghurt we ask for purification and balance of these elements, both within us and also in the external universe. Thus, the abishekam is a chance for us to purify our own selves, our own bodies and our own spiritual being as well as the external universe. We offer ourselves before the Lord, we offer all our negative qualities and we ask for purification when we bathe the murti.

Once we have offered all these things, the curtain is drawn. This curtain represents the veil of maya. This maya is the illusion, it separates us from our own individual inner selves. The murti that we perform the abishekam with, is also this inner self that we have inside ourselves. So, all offerings we make to this external murti, all these offerings we make to our own inner higher self. The maya is stopping us from identifying who our real self is. Behind the curtain everyone is busy dressing the murtis, making them look nice and putting jewels, crowns on them, making the murti look re-presentable for the darshan. And in the meantime we are singing so our mind is kept focussed on God. Eventually the curtain is opened which means, maya has been dropped. And so you have darshan of the Lord in front of you. This darshan of the Lord is also representative of your own inner darshan of your true identity, your true self.

News from "little Vrindavan" in Portugal

Jai Guru Dev
I share with you some photos of the materialization of amrita (divine nectar) in the murti of Jesus here in Little Vrindavan Ashram of Sri Swami Vishwananda of Portugal.
This materialization began on the night of 7 January and stopped the next day.
I think that it is very important to share love
With much love. Mahesh

Krishna an Arjuna after the battle

After the battle of Kurukshetra, Arjuna and Krishna were walking together in the fields. Krishna raised his hand and said to Arjuna, “Look at these birds in the sky how nice they are!”

“Yes”, answered Arjuna, looking in the sky.

“But there are no birds”, said Krishna.

“No, there are no birds”, answered Arjuna.

“Look how nice these birds are”, said again Krishna. “They are really magnificent.”

“Yes”, said Arjuna. “These birds are really magnificent.”

“Why are you always repeating what I am saying?” asked Krishna, “There are no birds in the sky.”

“Yes, it is true. I don’t see any birds in the sky but I know that you could manifest at every moment, these birds and let them fly in the sky.”

Arjuna had total faith in Krishna and had totally surrendered body, mind and soul to the Divine. He was not trusting his mind or his eyes but he trusted every word from his Divine Sadguru.