40 Days till Gurupurnima

Yesterday we - about 40 of the residents and the community of devotees who live around the ashram Shree Peetha Nilaya - had a meeting about:

What can we do in the coming 40 days leading upto Gurupurnima, things that we feel will make our Guru happy and fill our hearts?

It quickly became clear, that it would be less something in the outside, but that rather an inner gift will be most pleasing to him. 

We firstly resolved to renew our commitment and enthusiasm for the daily community prayers (morning & evening), which form the foundation of our spiritual life. In conjunction with that we added some options: For example do a bigger Yagna Sunday morning before the main Sunday prayer.

Besides getting together again for the Bhakti Study Circle in a bigger round Sunday afternoon, or together watch a spiritual movie Sunday evening , there were suggestions such as:

• Say „YES“ to whatever comes (for example if someone asks you for help), be positive or at least neutral about others (i.e. not engage accidentally in „gossip“ of any sort), and SMILE :) (more often)

• doing a meditative "Parikrama-Japa (Mantra)-Walk" around the centre once a week

• eating in the next 40 days in silence during lunchtime and listening to Swami Vishwananda's discourses and satsangs

...and a lot of more suggestions were made. One of the deepest was:

Every night (between 21:00 - 21:30) while Swami Keshava brings our Krishna to bed, we want to recite the 108 names of our Guru and each time explain the meaning of 3 of the names, and meditate on them. Then we do the Evening Gratitude Prayer we used to say in Steffenshof (the former Ashram), which is a very nice way to end the day.

You can access or download the prayer via this LINK.

Flower of Shree Peetha Nilaya, 2 June 2014

One more thing: Quite a few of us are already are or will be fasting once a week (we chose Monday as the default day). Besides fasting from eating food, the fasting is more importantly about the inside, to refrain from "empty" things and from negative thoughts, so for example you if were to watch TV regularly, try to refrain doing so during the coming 40 days, and dedicate consciously more time to engaging in some type of activity that will strengthen the connection to Guruji and God. For example do Japa, learn a new bhajan, paint an icon of a Saint, do Atma Kriya, etc., if you can do it together with others, it is most powerful, but if this is difficult practically, you can also do it individually at home, and just inwardly connect with the rest of us. 

Double Rainbow over Shree Peetha Nilaya, yesterday 1 June 2014

So we would like to encourage you all to draw inspiration from our little "plan", and maybe you find also other ideas that fit perfectly with your community. Jai Gurudev! 

(written by Swami Kuru)

Peeeeaaace…be with you: Japa Walk during Easter

The Easter Days were very full, intense and many transformations and inner little “resurrections” took place in many of the devotees who visited Shree Peetha Nilaya (SPN).

Besides the church ceremonies there were also a couple of additional activities scheduled and many visitors took advantage of this possibility. One of them was an introduction into the mantra project (a simple but powerful forty day sadhana practise that hundreds of people have completed since it was launched not long ago) with a subsequent one hour japa walk around the ashram (called “parikrama”, a circumambulation).

Two dozen people participated in the japa walk, and the reactions were very positive. Some even had a kind of “high”, an ecstatic experience.

The parikrama is done in silence, and much slower than a normal walk. This makes it a meditative experience. All of the sudden you notice the details of what is hidden in nature. Everything slows down and turns into a soothing movie that presents you the beauty of life. You notice and enjoy captivating flowers, beautiful butterflies, and enchanting bird sounds in a way that you wouldn’t if you walked faster. And most importantly, it connects you to the core of the mantra itself, God inside of you and everywhere around you. There is a special way to chant the mantra that connects it with the rhythm of walking. All this and more is explained in the introduction. 

So next you come to visit SPN, feel free to join in, it is fun and inspiring! :)