The Great Night of Shiva (2014 Shivaratri)

“What is Shivaratri? Actually, Shivaratri is when you forget about your mind and let your mind dwell only on the Divine. That’s what Shivaratri is, actually – it is uplifting you and really awakening what is deep inside of you.” – Sri Swami Vishwananda

The Bhakti Marga Family is excited to announce that Shivaratri celebrations will be taking place at Shree Peetha Nilaya during the new moon night of the 28th of February. Prayers, kirtan and dancing will be going on the entire night and into the next morning. We encourage everyone to come join us during this very special night !

The Event Organization Team works very hard to make sure that everyone has a good time during the events. It would help them to know how many people are planning to attend, so they can plan accordingly. If you are planning to attend, please register at the following link: 2014 Shivaratri Registration

It is Swami Vishwananda's wish to make sure that everyone, no matter who they are, gets the opportunity to celebrate God. That being said, we encourage people that are blessed to be able to donate money to do so during the event. Let us all work together to make sure that Our Family can keep celebrating the glories of God well into the future. 

Thank You!

Satsang in Belo Horizonte with Sri Swami Vishwananda

The second Satsang of this tour of Brazil was held in Belo Horizonte, with a gathering of almost 100 people.

Swamiji began by asking everybody to close their eyes, hold their hands in front of their hearts (not touching the physical body). While everyone did this, Swamiji sang the Sri Vraja-dham Mahimamrita song, enchanting us all with the Divine Names of Sri Radha Krishna. This meditation was done to open our hearts and train our awareness to feel the flow of energy and Love around our bodies, emanating from our heart. This is because the name of Sri Radha activates the heart more so than any other name of the Divine!

When it came to question time, Guruji was in a great story-telling mood! At one point he was asked, "How can we deal with the pressure to maintain a beautiful physical appearance in today's society? He answered with a beautiful story.

There was once a man with 4 wives. His 4th wife he loved the most of all. He gave her the best of everything he had and always bought the most expensive things he could find to please her. The 3rd wife was also very dear to him. She would fulfill all his wishes and she would do so very nicely. He also loved his 2nd wife a great deal. He would take her to all his parties and holidays and she was his greatest confident. He would tell her all his secrets and thoughts. Yet his 1st wife was almost always ignored by him. He barely remembered her and she had been so poorly looked after that she had become so skinny that she could even hide behind Ghandi!

So as time passed the man became older and he realised that it was very soon time for him to leave this earth. With this thought he began to wonder which of his 4 wives would join him in death. So he quickly rushed to the 4th wife and asked her, "My dear, I loved you so much my whole life and always cared for you to the best of my ability. I am soon going to die, so will you come with me?". She turned around and said "No way! As soon as you die, I'm gone!". 

The man fell back in his chair in shock. He was completely heart-broken and with great sadness he then turned to his 3rd wife. "Will you come with me?". She turned to him and said, "Ha! As soon as you die, I will go and find another husband". The man's sadness grew larger. So he turned to his 2nd wife, who he had also loved dearly and made the same question to her. She said, "Look, the best I can do for you is come with you to the grave. More than that, no". At that moment the man heard his first wife calling to him, saying, "I'll come with you!". The man was in total shock. He had ignored her for so long and yet she was the only one willing to follow him to his death. He said to her, "I wish I had known how deep your love for me was. Now it's too late."

OM Healing Organisers from Brasilia

Swamiji then explained the symbolism behind the story. The truth is that we all have 4 wives. The 4th wife is our physical body. We love it so much and we spend our whole lives giving it the best this world has to offer but at the time of death what happens to it? It's useless. The 3rd wife represents all the money and possessions you amass throughout life. You work hard your entire life to accumulate as much wealth as possible but when you die all of that goes to someone else! The second wife represents your friends and family. We spend our whole life with them, sharing everything with them but at the end of the day the most they can do for you is follow you to the grave. Soon after they will surely forget you with the passing of time. 

So who is the first wife? She is none other than your own soul. The soul loves us eternally, sticks with us through the good times and the bad times but almost always we ignore it. We don't cherish it and nourish it enough. We always realise our mistake when it is already too late and we have to incarnate again to once more try to attain this realisation that we are nothing more than this eternal soul.

That was Swmaiji's main message for all present at the Satsang - "Don't waste time! That is my main message for mankind right now."

Darshan in Belo Horizonte with Sri Swami Vishwananda

Saturday's Darshan in Belo Horizonte was fantastic! The setting was a school gym surrounded by lots of trees and great weather, really setting the tone for what was to be an evening of great joy and love.

Swamiji had originally said the day before that he would not give any speech before Darshan, since he would be hosting a Satsang the very next day. However, by the time he started to give Darshan, he had already spoken for over one hour! 

Guruji told a beautiful story of Jagannath Mishra, a great Saint from India. As he was studying the Gita, he came across a passage that said "We are here on earth to serve God and He is on earth to support us (Vaham Yaham)". Jagannath Mishra was extremely surprised to read this and assumed that this was surely a mistake. So he scratched out the line 'He is on earth to support us' and replaced with 'He is on earth to be supported by us (Dadaham Yaham)'. Soon after there came a time when his family was running out of food. Such was their poverty that it had become very difficult for Jagannath Mishra to provide for his family and fulfill his duty as a householder. So he told his wife that he would be going out to take his daily bath at the river and then he would try to find a solution to their problem.

As he was out, a young boy came to his house to visit his wife with a basket filled with fruits and vegetables. He knocked on the door and Jagannath Mishra's wife answered the door and was shocked by what she saw. The boy's face was all scratched up and he looked like he had been beaten up. She asked him, "Who did this to you?!" The little boy answered, "It was your husband! I met him on the way to his bath and he told me to bring these fruits and vegetables to you here. However, he also did all this to me!" She was very grateful to receive the food at their time of necessity but she was very upset with her husband. The boy left and she awaited Jagannath Mishra's return home so that she could demand an explanation from him!

So finally, when Jagannath Mishra came home, his wife confronted him and asked him why he had beaten this kind boy who had brought them food, relaying the whole story to him. He was very confused because he had met no one on his way to his bath nor had he met anyone on his way home and he had most definitely not scratched and beaten anyone either! However, at that moment a great realisation dawned on Jagannath Mishra. That boy was none other than Sri Krishna Himself. He is the personification of the Holy Scriptures and here Jagannath Mishra understood the errors of his ways. Every mistreatment of the Gita is a direct offence and act against the Lord Himself as the scratches on the face of the boy proved. Yet the true meaning of this story lies in the fact that God is indeed here to support and carry us on our journey. The boy brought the food when they needed it most and this too despite the crimes committed against him by Jagannath Mishra. God is ever-giving and ever-caring even at His own cost for His Love is unconditional. From that moment on, Jagannath Mishra had a new-found perspective on life and the Lord!

Satsang in Florianopolis with Sri Swami Vishwananda

The second event of Swamiji's tour of Brazil was a Satsang held at Yogaluz, a lovely Yoga studio in Florianopolis.

Swamiji answered questions from the crowd of around 70 devotees for approximately 4 hours and all listened attentively. Swamiji was his usual humorous self, conveying deep spiritual wisdom in an easy to digest way. It was a really cozy room and it was so nice to have everyone seated so close to each other and to Swamiji. It really felt like a true Satsang - a gathering of like-minded individuals to share experiences!

One question asked was, "How do we settle Karma and advance spiritually on earth?"

Swamiji answered that in truth humanity forgets that we incarnate on earth to conclude karmic bonds. Instead, we spend the majority of our time on earth creating new bonds and prolonging cycles that are unnecessary. The only true relationships one can establish and nourish is the relationship to God. In that relationship none can come between you and God except the Guru. The Guru is indifferent from God. Surrender to Him is the best way to advance through karma and to advance. 

Another question was, "Did Babaji send you here on earth to do your mission?"

Swamiji said that his heart and the heart of Babaji are one. He is in Babaji as Babaji is in him. If that is the case then who can truly say who sent who?

The question was then expanded, "Guruji, will there ever be a time when your mission grows so large that we will no longer have this proximity to you?"

Swamiji said that yes, one day it will be so that the proximity we all currently enjoy would no longer be possible. However, one thing will never change and that is the way Swamiji gives Darshan. He said no matter if there are thousands and thousands of people, he will continue to give Darshan to all the same way. In fact, he has chosen to give Darshan in the way he does as an act of proximity in the first place, so that he may be close to all.

Now Swamiji has traveled further north for the second-leg of his tour, to the city of Belo Horizonte where he will give Darshan today at 4pm Brazilian time. It's all non-stop action!

Darshan in Florianopolis with Sri Swami Vishwananda

Last night we had the first public event of Guruji's trip to Brazil. Florianopolis is the first of three cities Guruji is visiting to give Darshan and Satsang.

Darshan was held in a beautiful tropical resort as can be seen in the backdrop of Guruji's chair!

Swami Vishwananda spoke about the leap one has to make from conditional love to Unconditional Love. The 150 people present listened very attentively to every spoken word. Guruji said "If you are hungry, you will feed yourself right? So if your soul is hungry then you must also feed your soul!" The way to do that is through our sadhana. The point is you must be hungry in the first place because sadhana without this hunger to know the self and to attain the Divine is pointless. 

He then said "Find that hunger, then feed it with discipline and watch how your soul will prosper and shine through. Then you will reflect God's light everywhere you go. You will see that realisation is nothing but a change in perception. The minute you truly see the world differently and see God in everything - then you can call yourself realised."

The Brazilian devotees sang bhajans in a very distinct South-American style for hours as Guruji blessed all present and spoke to all seeking guidance. Tandav sang all his Brazilian bhajans that usually nobody understands in Springen but here everybody joined in! It was very sweet to watch them sing together about Guruji in their mother tongue.

At the end of the Darshan Guruji called all the devotees in close to remove their shyness. They were all very polite and quiet and sang very quietly so Guruji teased them a little. He asked "I heard Brazilians were good musicians and very enthusiastic? No?" Of course they felt compelled to say yes and so Guruji helped them to sing some bhajans, teaching them to sing all the sanskrit lyrics. He was very successful! By the end everybody was singing out loud with great joy and vibrancy. In that elevated atmosphere, Guruji ended the event and left the hall to loud applause from all present.

(written by Nikhilananda)

First pictures from Florianopolis / Brazil

Yesterday Swami Vishwananda arrived in Florianopolis. 

With Ram and his family he made a trip throughout the city, had some corn, 

and visited a church. 

In the evening Guruji decided spontaneously to go to the "Vrinda Ashram" in Florianopolis, a small ashram with 4 bramacharis and 4 bramacharinis. 

Other guests from them and from Guruji also came and Guruji rocked with amazing bhajans almost 3 hours long!

Brazil is calling!

Now Swami Vishwananda is on his way to Brazil

He has a long nightflight to Sao Paulo and than to Florianapolis. There will be Darshan on Wednesday and Satsang on Thursday. 

With him are Nikhilananda and Tandav. They are both Brazilians and support Swamiji with Bhajans during the events there. 

HE made it

A little story from the period before Christmas :

Some of us were busy to make the center nice for Christmas. I had planned to decorate Swamiji darshan chair in the light-hall for the darshans after Christmas .

When I came into the light-hall, I saw that the area and the frame around the church door was beautifully decorated with fairy-lights. Dakshini was there and I suspected that she did it and said, "Oh, you have made it so beautiful!" She smiled and said, "HE has done it." I examined exactly how the lights were attached and asked her how she did it. She repeated, "No, you do not understand, HE did it, He makes everything!" Now, it took a little while, very slowly I understood what she meant!

Yes, of course! We are, in the best case, just the tools in His hands, but He is the One who does everything!

I said, "Oh ... then we'll see how He makes now the decoration for His darshan chair!" And I started to work on it.

And He did also the chair so beautiful ;-) !

(written by Drishti)

T-Shirt Lila

“The Divine is far away from the mind because it is very difficult for the mind to understand the Divine. Until you have really cleansed the mind completely, until you have really purified the mind completely, it is quite difficult to understand the Divine.”

Swami Vishwananda

The above statement proved to be especially true a few weeks ago in Shree Peetha Nilaya. As the Media Team was getting ready to introduce the new t-shirt collection for the 2013 Christmas events, we asked Swami which t-shirt designs he preferred. As He looked through the selection, He made a few comments about each design, and pointed out that He especially liked the “Love” design which was shown to Him. Taking His input into consideration, the Media Team decided to order three t-shirt designs, one was a “Sri Yantra” design, another was a “Just Love and Chant the Devine Names” design, and lastly the simple “Love” design that Swami had mentioned He liked.

The t-shirts were on sale during the Christmas events and turned out be very popular with the Devotees. With the exception of the “Love” design, all of the other designs completely sold out, and we didn’t have any left over to sell after the conclusion of the Christmas events. This was somewhat surprising to the Media team, and we wondered how it could be that we sold all of the shirts except the one that Swami Himself said He liked. It would be one thing if none of the shirts sold well, but for every other design to be completely sold out, and for almost no one to buy the “Love” design didn’t make any sense.

As human beings usually tend to do, we started to rationalise as to why this happened. We said to ourselves, well the design is too plain, the design is too confusing, the colors don’t look nice, etc.. As we started to make excuses as to why the “Love” design didn’t sell well, Swami who always mirrors our thoughts, reflected back exactly what we were feeling. Swami started making comments such as “why did we get this design it’s too confusing,” and “we need to be more in touch with what the Devotees want in Europe.” Naturally, since Swami had confirmed what we were thinking, we concluded it was indeed a mistake to order the shirts, even though Swami himself had originally given His blessing and said He liked them.

The story could have ended there, but fortunately for us, God had other plans. It just so happened that during the end of the year celebrations, 12 Mauritian (Mauritius is the Country where Swami was born) Devotees where staying at the Ashram for a few weeks, and were scheduled to leave at the beginning of the New Year. As their stay was coming to an end, one of the Media Team Members thought it would be a good idea to give the t-shirts we hadn’t sold to the Mauritians as a going away present. The night before the Mauritians were scheduled to leave, Swami gave them a gift bag, with a few things they could take back with them including the t-shirts. After the gift bags where presented, a few of the Mauritians wondered if there where extra t-shirts they could take back to Mauritius and distribute them to the Devotees that couldn’t afford to make the pilgrimage to Shree Peetha Nilaya. After the Media Team had counted all of the Devotees in Mauritius that wanted a shirt, and couldn’t make it to Germany, the number of Devotees matched almost the exact amount of shirts that weren’t sold during the Christmas events.

If we had sold additional t-shirts with the “Love” design during the Christmas events, we wouldn’t have had enough to give to the Mauritians. The following day, when the Media Team was analyzing the series of events, we realized to our surprise that the “Love” design had the exact same colors as the Mauritius flag.

The “t-shirt lila” taught everyone in the Media Team a few valuable lessons. If the Guru gives His blessing for anything, whether it’s for something simple as a t-shirt design, to find a life partner, to have a child, to receive a job etc… then one shouldn’t worry about the outcome, one should have faith in the blessing and be firm in the fact that everything will happen exactly the way it should happen. The second lesson we learned is that we can’t possibly begin to understand the Divine with our minds. When we perceive something with our minds, and try to rationalise why certain things should be a certain way, we lose our connection with the Divine. As Swami once said, “the mind always wants to understand something and wants to understand it quickly. Well, there are certain things that the mind can’t comprehend and for that there is another sense to understand it. The sense is the soul itself”.

Hopefully with our Guru’s Grace we are able to understand with our hearts / souls and not our minds, and to follow in the footsteps of the disciples of Jesus. Jesus said to them “blessed are your eyes, for they see and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have NOT seen them, and to hear those things which you hear, and have NOT heard them.”

“Nothing is coincidence. When people are saying a coincidence is happening, it’s not a coincidence. There’s no such thing as coincidence. The Lord plans everything in a way that when you are surrendered you know His plan even before you try to think about it. He will place it here, inside of you. Then you’re guided, and He guides you in every step. He brings you where you have to be.”

Swami Vishwananda

(written by Chidananada)

Darshan in Innsbruck / Austria, 20. January 2014

Here some pictures from the Darshan in Innsbruck /Austria and some short news:

Sri Swami Vishwananda spoke about Radha Rani and how her name has an effect on our hearts. He told also some stories about her and her life in Vrindavan and her love to Lord Krishna.

The Bhajans were wonderful, "Mira Maharani" sung amazing, Innsbruck "rocked to insane levels"!

The hall was packed full - more than 700 people came to have darshan from Sri Swami Vishwananda. Everything was very well organized by the Innsbruck team and the event lasted till 4 am early  next morning. 

Darshan in Munich, 19th of January

Last night there was the next Darshan on Sri Swami Vishwananda's Tour of Germany, this time in Munich. More than 500 People where there and the most of them came for the first time to see Swami Vishwananda. The room was packed full.

Swami Vishwananda gave a long talk and told 3 beautiful stories, all covering the theme of surrender to the words and guidance of the Guru. He told the story of Ekalavya, a low caste boy who wanted to learn from Drona Acharya (The Guru of the Pandavas) how to become an archer. The problem was that Drona Acharya was exclusively the teacher of the royal warriors only and so he was unable to teach poor Ekalavya. To overcome this problem Ekalavya created a murthi of Drona Acharya and prayed to it to receive all the learning he yearned for. Such was his faith that he did indeed obtain all the knowledge from the murthi and became the greatest archer in all the kingdom, even greater than Arjuna himself! 

So soon it came to the time for the Guru to take his Guru Dakshina for the teachings he had imparted on to Ekalavya. So Drona Acharya came to him and told him that he would only accept one thing as Dakshina - the thumb of Ekalavya. This would make it virtually impossible for Ekalavya to ever string a bow again and therefore all his learnings would have gone to waste. Yet such was his surrender and complete trust in his Guru that without even thinking once, he cut off his own thumb and offered it at the feet of his Guru. 

Swamiji said this story shows us how sometimes one is unable to understand the ways of the Guru or the decisions and actions he takes, but one thing is abundantly clear - never judge Him or try to fathom Him with the mind. Instead, focus completely on your state of surrender and make it so complete that it never falters. It cannot be that one day we feel this dedication and surrender and the next day it's all gone. We must be more like Ekalavya and surrender to the Lotus Feet of the Master without any thought, doubt or question!

(Thanks to Anubhraba, Ratnamanjari and Naamdev for the pictures and to Nikhilananda for this nice report!)

Darshan 17. January in Friedrichshafen

Last night Sri Swami Vishwananda gave Darshan in south Germany, in Friedrichshafen near the Lake Constance.

He started the evening with some Bhajans and afterwards he gave a long talk:

...about the ego and that there are not friends or enemies, but the ego makes our outside world like this - and he told some nice stories about Krishna with examples.

He also said that if one makes God himself a friend, then he will be it - and then, when God comes, he does not come from the outside towards us, but he comes from the inside out of us!

The Darshan started at 17:00 and as there where more than 400 People, the evening ended with an Aarti ceremony at about 23:00

Prayertimes

Question:

Is the time for prayer or meditation very important?

Sri Swami Vishwananda: 

"Time for prayer or meditation is very important. Because, you see, why you have set a certain time is not only for you to be present at that time! If you are thinking you are going to meditate now at seven o‘clock, when you say the time you set for prayer or your meditation, there is also the Deity coming! 

For example, we go to the temple to pray at 6:30 - there, of course the Lord has also manifested Himself at that time. He also waits for you the same way you probably wait for Him! Because you see, He longs for you! I don‘t know whether you long for Him. This is a relationship, where you put time! 

He is there, sitting and waiting for you! Then you come at 7:00 - so half an hour He was tired, waiting for you. So, that‘s why time is very important."

Shree Peetha Nilaya, Springen, Germany, 21 September 2012

Darshan in Berlin, 11th January

For the Darshan in Berlin Swamini VishwaDayaMati found a very nice place called "Logenhous" with space for 400 visitors.  It was possible to go there already the afternoon before and start with the setup of the music system and the soundcheck.

Subsequently, all helpers went to a pizzeria (12 apostles) and we had a lovely evening in the presence of Sri Swami Vishwananda.

We knew beforehand of 350 applications (180 "first comers") and it was clear that the room would be full. There were over 400 visitors and the darshan lasted about 5 hours.

After Swami Vishwananda came in, he began to sing and interrupted several times his Bhajan and encouraged again and again the visitors sing along loudly. He spoke about prayer, singing for God and the direct conversation with God.

Swamiji had to leave right after the darshan to the airport because at the Ashram in Springen our 12 visitors from Mauritius where waiting to say goodbye to him - they flew the next morning back home.