What a week! (part 1)

A personal travel report by Swami Kuru

Guruji spent the whole last week in the UK, and what a week it was! 

When some of us back in April were looking at Swami’s calendar, we were tempted with the idea of going. It seemed like a promising proposition: Not too far away from Shree Peetha Nilaya, many devotees who are ready to offer accommodation, a rich combination of events, starting with a Satsang on Monday (see blog post), and ending with a Darshan on Saturday (see blog post), and inbetween the main event, the glorious and powerful festival of Narasimha Chaturthi (see blog post) at the Bhakti Marga Sri Lakshmi Narasimha temple in Feltham. We felt that it would become a great week, and as it turns out, the week became even richer, and exceeded all our expectations.

The week began with a Satsang that took place in East London, Monday evening, light drizzle outside, in a “cool” location, literally, cause the temperature in this former church was quite low, and the atmosphere was a bit cool. Also, Guruji seemed toned down a bit, somehow less forceful than usual, as he was attuning himself to the many newcomers - amongst the estimated 150 guests - who met him for the very first time. I felt transported 10 years back, and reminded of Satsangs in earlier times. Guruji patiently and gently introduced the new visitors to the basics of his teachings as he would answer the questions that were posed to him.

One of the topics Guruji covered was that of chanting mantras, where he explained that the mind is like a tree full of birds, symbolising all the different thoughts that are flying in and around our head. When we stand below the tree and start clapping, then the birds will fly away. When we chant the Divine Names, it is as if we stand below the brain, the tree, and we start clapping, and make all the thoughts go away. When we sing the glory of God, the vibration of the Divine flows through us. The more we chant the Divine Names, the more the Divine qualities within ourselves start to reflect to the outside, and we get transformed.

Next day, Narasimha Chaturthi, contrasted strongly. Now the vast majority of the visitors who squeezed themselves into the packed full temple house in Feltham were no “newbies”. Guruji was in full force as he poured litres and litres of abishekam blessings over the great Murthi of Narasingha Dev. Again I felt pulled back in time, in the many more intimate moments that took place in the temples and private homes of Mauritius, Switzerland and UK in the early years of his mission, and also in the first Ashram in Steffenshof, before we moved to Springen. Many who had witnessed other Chaturthis in Feltham before, said that this time topped the ones before. It is not possible and important to compare, but it suffices to say, that it was a powerful night, with powerful chanting, and bestowing powerful blessings from Lord Narasimha to those who were fortunate to be in His presence. And for sure, out of his unlimited mercy, the blessings were extended also to everyone who was not there, and even to those who do not know Him or are not interested in Him. Also a nice bonus, this year, Swami Vishwananda’s dear friend Dr. Satya Narayana Das joined Him for the feast (his first visit to London since 1978!), and wonderfully explained the tale of Lord Narasimha and his great devotee Pralad. Amongst many things, he explained that true devotees, such as Pralad was, are fearless. Every opportunity they receive is to praise God. And that our life is meant to serve the Lord – full heartedly! The Night ended late, and it was the first of 5 long or rather short nights, with little sleep, and the strong sense of intimacy of a spiritual family, one of a kind, that of Sri Swami Vishwananda. Not only devotees from the UK came, many from other countries, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Germany/SPN, Greece, and even the US. Unfortunately, at Shree Peetha Nilaya, and also elsewhere, such nights are rare, and all the more we appreciated them, being aware of their precious nature.

Wednesday was the most laid back day, due to the intensity of Narasimha Chaturthi the night before. We had the privilege to enjoy a Satsang by Satya Narayana Das at Feltham. Many of the numerous visitors who came, heard him for the first time, and received valuable insights from the treasure box of his accumulated wisdom for the spiritual path. Dr. Satya Narayana Das (SND) is one of the world’s greatest vedic scholars, and it is always a great joy to hear him speak.

One question was about the Lord’s own abode, which is called Vaikunta, his eternal place in which he resides. Does, when the Lord comes on Earth, the place where he stays, become also Vaikunt? SND explained that God comes with his own abode, and whilst the place where he stays on the physical plane is material in nature and stays material, it becomes a place where Vaikunta becomes manifest. Actually, Vaikunta is always here, but we are not attuned into it. Most of us normally watch the “material channel”, because the mind and the senses are drawn to that frequency, but if we tune into the “Vaikunta Channel” and we change our consciousness we can attune to the higher consciousness.

There again lies the importance of chanting mantras, as they act like a remote control to attune to the frequency of the Lord.

He went on to explain that when the Divine descends (which is what the term “Avatar” means), then He overpowers all the other channels, then the Lord desires that everyone sees him, whether or not we have done sadhana. He makes himself manifest in the material world. 

So in short: He is not making the particular place into Vaikunta, but he is manifesting Vaikunta in this particular place. Same but not same. And everything exists already, it is a question of what we are attuned into.

In part 2 I will cover the second half of the week, in which we had many more wonderful and joyful moments in the sweet and loving presence of Sri Swami Vishwananda.

Darshan 17th May in London with Sri Swami Vishwananda

After a wonderful week with Swamiji in London, the final event was Darshan on Saturday evening. It took place in a school hall in East London which was packed full by the time Swamiji arrived.

After singing a bhajan, Swamiji gave a short talk. He spoke about logic versus the heart or intuition and how people are always very quick to trust what they can see on the outside but not as quick to trust their intuition. He told a story about how Krishna once pretended to have a stomach ache. He said the only way to cure it was with the dust from his wives feet. So He asked Narad Muni to go and ask Rukmini and Satyabhama. But when Narad Muni asked them, they both said. "Oh no! If we give you the dust from our feet for the Lord we will go to hell!". So Narad Muni decided to go and ask the Gopi's instead. Without blinking, the Gopi's said "Yes, quick quick take it". Narad Muni said "But you know you could go to hell if you do this?". But the Gopi's said "It's ok, we will happily do that for our Lord". And so when Rukmini and Satyabhama heard this, they realised what true devotion was.

In between the singing there were a few talks, one of them from Dr Satyanarayan Das (Babaji). He spoke about how we are all one big family and the universe as a whole which we are all connected to. He stressed the importance of really seeing each other as this big family and treating each other as siblings. After his talk, Swamiji asked Babaji to sing but Babaji was a little shy to sing so Swami encouraged him to sing the simple bhajan "Jai Radhe, Jai Krishna, Jai Vrindavan". It was really sweet to see Babaji singing this and actually he sang very nicely, it was beautiful!

The event went on long into the night finally finishing just after midnight. It was a great turnout of about 400 people, around half of whom had never met Swami before!

Swami Vishwananda visiting Temples in London - 15th May 2014

Thursday morning, Guruji went with Satya Narayan Das Babaji and about 30 devotees to two beautiful and huge temples in London. We all met in the morning at the Bhaktivedanta Manor in the north of London, that belongs to ISKCON, and is surrounded by very beautiful nature. 

After the reception, we went straight to the mandir, where it was Aarti time and Guruji started singing the Mahamantra sweetly. Suddenly the place was full, not only with devotees but also with many people that were around and came by after hearing His singing. The whole room was vibrating with Love and devotion for Krishna. 

After that we went to visit the cows and the garden, a part of it is dedicated to George Harrisson, since he donated the whole land to them. The garden has words from George's lyrics about devotion for God. 

Tulsi Devi and a lot of healthy happy Tulsi plants

Then we visited the room of Srila Prabhupada that was kept exactly how it was since his last visit there. 

We said goodbye and they distributed Prasad to all devotees. Guruji was happy when they explained they have a public school inside their area where the devotees' children go.

Around five o'clock everybody met at the second temple of the day, the Swaminarayan Temple of London, the biggest hindu temple in Europe. The temple is dedicated to Swami Narayan, a saint of the 18th century, and the other Gurus of his Sampradaya. 

The temple has a strong security and we were not allowed to take photos inside.  It is made of marble and wood, very beautiful and full of details. Because of their dedication the temple was finished in an amazing 3 years, which is really impressive. When Guruji came they played a video telling the story of the building and gave a tour of the temple and their exhibition about Hinduism which is frequently visited by school classes from all over Europe. 

After some photo sessions we were all tired from walking but very happy to spend a beautiful day with our beloved Guruji, visiting temples and enjoying His presence.

Two Satsang questions from Friday May 9th

Guruji gave a satsang and darshan last Friday and Saturday at Shree Peetha Nilaya.

More than 30 people were there who had just come out of a week-long silent retreat with him, which many of the participants said was very powerful for them.

Here are two excerpts from the satsang:

On the spiritual path, does God give more free will to a soul when it starts on the spiritual journey, or does the soul have more free will as it advances on the spiritual journey? Free will would be defined as the ability to make a decision or choice that can have an effect as to how fast or slow you are to achieve the final goal of the soul.

Guruji: You see, very often in the satsang, I encounter the same, and similar questions, about free will. You see, on the spiritual path, everything has only one free will - that's God will. He is the only one that is free.
For one to have free will, one has to be free! If one is caught in Maya in all this illusion, desire, all the anger, the trends of life, how can one be free? One is not free. So where is the free will? If one is hanging so much on life, scared to lose it, where is the free will? Is it freedom? No, there is no freedom in it.
That's why it is said that there is no free will, really, because the only free will is the will of God, which is free, because He is the only one which is free. which is beyond all the qualities that I just mentioned.
The will which He gives to His creation is the will of loving Him, because that he can't do. He can't force you of loving. Because in Love, there is the freedom. That's why it is said that true love, when it awakes, one pains for the Beloved only. is free. When true love awakes, one knows nothing else but God.
...
Coming to the question of the free will, and spirituality - the will is always there, but the will gets free when one goes deeper into the spiritual journey because it is in tune with the Will of God.

---

Swamiji asked devotees to retell a story about King Ambarisha and the Sage Durvasa, which he had told earlier this year in Brazil and in Switzerland. Many people said they didn't remember the story. One person did stand to tell the story. Here's what happened after Swamiji heard them tell it:

Sri Swami Vishwananda: After asking Padmavati and she was telling the story, I was wondering - why am I sitting here and talking? Because next week, if I would do a satsang again, no one would remember anything. It's useless, isn't it? For what? You tell me, I am asking you this question now. Especially the devotees, you know. For what? This is a question to all of you.

Ramayotee (devotee): The human mind always forgets. Already, Goethe said, 'You have to repeat truth over and over again, because the human mind always forgets.'

Audience: clapping and laughing

Sri Swami Vishwananda: That's a nice excuse! You are all happy eh? [laughing].

You see, if it was Pepe [Swami Vishwavijayananda], I would understand. If it was him, I would understand, because he has a mind like a goldfish.

Audience and Swami Vishwavijayananda: [laughing]

Sri Swami Vishwananda: In ten minutes he would forget about it.

[Seeing someone going to give Swami Vishwavijayananda a mic] Ah, you want to talk.

Swami Vishwavijayananda: We take a shower every day, isn't it? So, to clean our body. We need your words to clean our mind.

Audience: [clapping and laughing]

Sri Swami Vishwananda: Saved by Swami Pritala eh? I shall carry on then. [laughing]

---

Seeing so many people not being able to stand and tell the story was awkward and sad to go through in the moment, but by Guruji bringing up that point, it was helpful because it was a reminder of the preciousness of being with him and hearing his wisdom.

This closeness to him is a once-in-lifetimes experience, and he is giving it to us for our benefit. The more sincere we can be towards learning from him and his teachings, the more benefit we can experience.

Narasimha Chaturthi in London with Sri Swami Vishwananda

On Tuesday the 13th of May, devotees enjoyed an amazing time on the very auspicious day of Narasimha Chaturthi. This very special day venerates the incarnation of the Lord in the form of half man-half lion, Lord Narasimha, who came to the aid of his great devotee Prahlad.

Guruji as usual led the prayer but was helped by a guest Pujari who did the Kalash Puja. The small house which doubles as Sri Bhakti Lakshmi Narasimha Temple was packed to bursting point with more than 150 devotees. But no one noticed the cramped conditions as all eyes were fixed on the Lord in one of his most awesome forms. 

Swamiji was also joined by Satya Narayana Das, affectionately known as 'Babaji'. He gave a fantastic talk full of knowledge, wisdom and humour about the advent of Nrsinga Dev. Babaji drew a comparison between the demon Hiranyakashipur, who terrorised his son Prahlad for his devotion to Vishnu, and the YOLO ('you only live once') materialism of today. Materialistic people are like Hiranyakashipur because they live for things which will ultimately be taken away (money, power etc) and this makes them insecure, whereas the devotee, searching for spiritual wealth is always happy, even willing to sacrifice their body for permanent joy. But Babaji commented that spiritual people can often learn determination from materialistic people, as sometimes people on the spiritual path can quickly lose hope when they face problems. 

During the abishek the room was full of joy, which was elevated by the ecstatic kirtan that everyone put their hearts in to. After the abishek Babaji continued his talk and spoke of the intelligence of the Lord always being '2 inches higher' than everyone else. Hiranyakashipur, in his determination, did awesome penance to Brahma to attain a boon not to be killed during day or night, inside or outside, on the ground or in the sky, nor by human being, animal or weapon. Prahlad had absolute faith in the Lord's omnipresence and declared this to his demon father. Hiranyakashipur asked his son if Vishnu was in a nearby pillar. Prahlad said 'He is'. In anger Hiranyakashipur smashed the pillar. Narasimha emerged from it and he dragged Hiranyakashipur to the doorway (neither inside nor outside) and devoured him on his lap (neither on the ground or in the sky) at twilight (neither day or night) using his claws (not human, animal or a weapon). Here the Lord proved his intelligence to be '2 inches higher' than Hiranyakashipur who thought he was immortal because of the boon granted by Brahma. But ultimately the Lord always wins!

The talk nicely set the context for darshan of Lord Narasimha in his 'Ugra' or fearsome form, at this supreme moment of protection of Prahlad, his great devotee. Many people were dancing and there was a tangible energy in the darkened room. 

Swamiji then sang many bhajans and everyone joyfully sang with him. At the final darshan of Lakshmi Narasimha, Swamiji performed flower abishek and also excitedly threw petals over everyone in the temple! The evening ended around 2am with Prasad.

Swami Vishwananda's Satsang in London, 12th of May

Last night was the first event with Guruji in London, a Satsang in East London. It was great to see many of our fellow devotees from other countries who have travelled to be at the events with Swamiji this week. Likewise, it was also really nice to see a lot of new faces among the 150 odd people present. 

Before Swamiji's arrival, there were a couple of brief talks from Swamini Karuna and Hazel Courtney, a highly regarded journalist in alternative health and spiritual issues. Hazel, who met Swamiji for the first time last year, spoke about Him as a Spiritual Master who was "born knowing". It was a very interesting talk which gave the crowd a great introductory insight into Swamiji and His mission. 

Finally we all began to sing "Narayana Jai Govinda Hare" and within a few minutes were greeted with Swamiji's arrival. As usual, Swami started with singing some bhajans. And as is Guruji's way, He encouraged everyone in the audience to join in by helping them to recite after Him. Soon the whole crowd was happily singing and clapping away!  

The evening was filled with lots of interesting questions and we were all very grateful to hear Swamiji's answers peppered with humour. One very nice moment was when Swami asked everyone to give their opinion on 'what is the soul'. Swamiji really liked the answer of a newcomer - 'a Iittle bit of God' - Swami laughed and quickly said 'but not a little God, that is very different'.

Live Stream Narasimha Chatuhurti (May 13th, 2014)

Narasimha Chaturthi, taking place on May 13th, 2014, will be celebrated in London at the Bhakti Marga Temple with Sri Swami Vishwananda as well as around the world in other temples

We are excited to let you know that a high quality live stream of the Event can be accessed through the below link. The live stream will start at 5:00 P.M. United Kingdom time.

Live Stream Link:

http://demo.streamingwizard.com/clients/4100/

Maha Lakshmi Yagna - Day Two

The second day began with the usual rituals - the Guru Stotram and the Guru Puja

By the time Sri Swami Vishwananda arrived, the kundhs where all ready and prepared to begin with yet another day of intense Yagnas dedicated to the Divine Mother.

On the second day Swamiji invited everybody to come to his kundh in the front - the 1008 names of Maha Lakshmi were chanted once again but Swamiji had to add several more rounds to allow everybody the opportunity to sit with him at his main kundh.

Way after the usual lunchtime had passed (Swamiji was asked by Bhagyshri if we should serve lunch during the ceremonies - he refused: "We should fast for Lakshmi today...") the Yagna came to an end and several different gifts were offered into the fire such as flower petals, coins and a beautiful sari for Maa.

At the end of the Yagna, Swamiji asked the devotees present who would be willing to offer some jewellery made of silver or gold for Lakshmi. In no time a big tray was filled with all sorts of jewellery and was offered into the fire.

When the Yagna was finished, Swami Vishwananda performed Abishekam with the new Lakshmi murthi which arrived from Chennai two weeks ago, preparing it to be installed in our temple at the ashram. She was incredibly sweet and her love permeated the entire tent, leaving everyone present with a real sense of fulfilment.

Next on the programme was the Pada Puja to Sri Swami Vishwananda's feet, done by Swami Paranthapa from South Africa. It was a great blessing for us all and a fitting end to the 2-day ceremony.

In the end he gave another talk about Lakshmi - 

"Lakshmi and Narayana go hand in hand, but they are not the same. She is always sitting at the feet of Narayana, showing Her devotion and Her surrender to the Lord - to the will of the Lord. She is ever ready to bestow what the Lord asks for, without any questioning.

In that aspect She is showing how we should surrender to God. She helps us to reach the Lotus feet of the Lord, to receive His grace and attain Him. Whoever asks with a pure heart will receive Him. She is the spiritual wealth, the spiritual giver."

In the form of a procession, Swamiji carried the freshly inaugurated Lakshmi Murti to our temple, where She was welcomed by a lot of devotees with an aarti and joyous singing.

The day ended with a deep silence and meditation together with Swamiji, reflecting on all that had passed during these 2 days, all the blessings we had received and all the Love that he continues to give to us, event after event after event. Our deepest gratitude to Swamiji and Maha Lakshmi!