Serve your way to Bliss!

Often we say to ourselves “How to please God? In which way shall we please God? How can we make God happy?” There are many ways God is happy with, but what is the best way to make Him happy?

When do you think God is happy? It is when we are happy. God is happy when we are happy, because our happiness is His happiness, because we are part of Him. We will make ourselves happy through serving, through helping, because the greatest happiness comes from serving. The more you help, the more you make somebody else happy, the more you will see the happiness inside of you grow and grow. The less you help, the more you push yourself backwards. The more you think “No, why should I help”, the more you become untrue towards yourself. When you become untrue towards yourself, you don’t let the heart open up. The more this happens, the more you become miserable.

When you help, like Christ said, it has to be unconditional. When you help, you should forget about it.

Don’t be scared to serve, in whatever way you can, however you can, whenever you can, because you don’t know when God can come to you and in what form He can come to you. Feel blessed and feel the Love of God!

(Just Love 2. Sri Swami Vishwananda.)

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Bhakti Marga at Shree Peetha Nilaya in all areas are enormous work. And the kitchen is not an exception. We have in the kitchen a huge plan, the realization of which we are working on. And what you see in the photo, it is only a small part of the plan as it is constantly reviewed and added to!

Especially in anticipation of such a grand celebration all of the kitchen comes together to accomplish many projects, growing in unity.  Service to our Guru, this is the greatest happiness!

And so each day our team and seva helpers are busy forming something, baking something, cutting something, testing something. 

And so by tradition now, we would like to share one of the recipes we are preparing for the 10 year Anniversary.   This is a very easy recipe sesame candy that will take you very little time and yet still be tasty.

Ingredients:

350 gram sesame seeds

250 gram honey

2 tsp. lemon juice

Instruction:

1. Prepare all the ingredients

2. Tip out sesame seeds on a baking sheet and bake at 180 ° C until golden brown, aprox.15 min.

3. In a frying pan pour sesame seeds, honey and lemon juice. Mix everything until smooth.

4. and fry over low heat, stirring constantly, until the honey starts to caramelize. When the mass will thicken a little bit, turn off the gas and let sesame cool.

5. When the temperature becomes normal to take in the hand, begin to form candy.

but better to do it with ten hands....

Krishna says: "I am most satisfied when you serve My devotee. I am most satisfied when you worship My devotees".  The desire to serve - the highest blessing, and to show us how it is sacred, Krishna himself serves His devotees. Actually, there is no greater good than the opportunity to serve the devotees. Service to others, whatever you perform, you are serving the Lord Himself.

We are waiting for all of you in Shree Peetha Nilaya on the 10th anniversary of Bhakti Marga!

Candy stones recipe for Hanuman Jayanti

Ashta Siddhi Nava Nidhi Ke Dātā

Asa Vara Dīna Jānakī Mātā

Rāma Rasāyana Tumhare Pāsā

Sadā Raho Raghupati Ke Dāsā

„You grant the eight powers and the nine treasures by the boon You received from mother Janaki. You hold the elixir of Ram’s Name and remain eternally His servant.”

(Hanuman Chalisa Bhasya. Sri Swami Vishwananda.)

An incident happened during the life of Rama, when they were building the bridge to cross over to Lanka, which is Sri Lanka nowadays, or Ceylon. They needed to build the bridge to cross over, but they didn’t know how to do it. Every stone that they threw would sink. So Hanuman had a great idea, because Hanuman, you see, He was really a great devotee, actually, one of the greatest devotees because there are not many great devotees in this world. There’s Prahlad, there is Meerabai and some others but one of the main, main, main devotees is Hanuman. He came up with the great idea to write the Name of Rama on each stone and throw it in the sea. So when they threw the stone, the stone would float. Ram was looking from a distance and wondering, He approached Hanuman and said “Hanuman, I’ve been looking at you. You are writing my name on a stone, throwing it in the sea, and it floats, but when I throw a stone, it sinks.” Then Hanuman said “My Lord, it is like that. Look, when Your Name is inscribed on it, it is saved, but without Your name on it, of course it will sink, and in the same way, when You let go of somebody, of course, he will sink.”

(Just Love 1. Sri Swami Vishwananda.)

After the end of the celebration of Rama Navami the idea came that in the next year we can try to make cookies in the form of stones with the name of Rama.  I shared this thought with Bhagysri, to which she replied: “ Why wait so long. After a week will be Hanuman Jayanti. Then you can do.”  Upsss ... it's only a raw idea, and not really supported by the recipe, I thought. But Try your best and god will send help always. Evidently the Lord also liked the idea, because the recipe and design idea "came" very quickly. And today we can share with you this recipe.

Ingredients:

680 gram white chocolate  (chips preferably or blocks cut into small pieces)

400 gram sweetened condensed milk (1 can)

pinch of salt

3 pieces Oreo Cookie + 3 pieces for coloring

1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder, optional

1 drop red food coloring, optional

   

Instruction:
1.  Prepare all the ingredients

2.  Oreo cookies grind into crumbs in a blender. Crumbs must be very small. 

3. White chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and salt heat in a medium saucepan over low heat. Use a wooden spoon to stir frequently until melted and smooth.  

Note: Just heat the mixture until about half of the chocolate is melted. Remove it from the heat and let it sit for 2-3 minutes, then stir vigorously. The chocolate should melt from the residual heat. This should keep the cocoa butter from seeping.

4. Turn off gas flame or remove from heat. Stir with cookie crumbs. Stir just to combine.

 

5. If you want your stones to have different colors, then divide the mixture into four bowls.

Leave one bowl alone. Add another Oreo cookie crumbs to one of the bowls. Add the cocoa powder to another bowl, cocoa powder added a brown tone. Add one drop of red food coloring to the last bowl, this red food coloring gives a nice delicate shade of pink.

You could make your rocks any color you'd like. 

6. Press a piece of plastic wrap down onto the paste in each bowl and allow it to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes, until it is thick and no longer sticky.

7. Pinch off pieces of the paste and shape into rocks. Roll your candy into various shapes and sizes.

8.  Press the stamp into the candy stones with Lord Rama name.

 9. Now you can decorate and create decorations with the finished candies as you wish.

This will keep at room temperature for several days. Keep stored in an airtight container if you'd like to keep it longer.

Enjoy!

Jai Gurudev!

We are looking for Crystal Chandeliers

As you might have seen at Navaratri in the tent and now also in our Light Hall and Darshan Hall - we found some old crystal chandeliers and installed them there. 

We think that they give a really nice light and flair for all the celebrations which are happening in this areas.

As some of you already asked me if you can bring an old one from their auntie or grandma? -  Yes, please bring! We are very happy to install them because they give a really nice sparkling light!

Please just send me an email (drishti at bhaktimarga dot org) - best with a picture - and bring it, if possible, next time. 

Thank you!

Shiva's Trishul

For a while we had the idea that it would be nice to put an XXL-sized Trishul on the wall of Guruji's home. 

Kalpit and Shankara (from the U.S.) where responsible for the construction and they have done their job really well!

Sina has painted the drum and covered the whole construction with golden folio (metal rescue blankets).

To do all this doesn't feel like work at all  - it is huge pleasure as we were really looking forward to seeing a little smile on Guruji's face and wanted to make Him happy! 

Finally, yesterday the moment came: Kalpit brought the big Trishul out of the pool area and imagine - at the right time! ;) "Out of nothing", Guruji popped up and was giving some instructions: "A bit more to the right..., higher...!"  - and, yes, He was happy!!!

Now Shiva's Trishul is on the facade and leaves a really big impression! 

Hara Hara Mahadev!!!

Musical Workshops during Christmas and New Years Celebrations

Today we had a program with the kids here in Shree Peetha Nilaya. Mira was taking the lead and she was preparing them to sing on Christmas day.

Even though they were of different nationalities - Russians, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Polish - and despite the fact that they were singing an English song, which none of them understood, still there was no problem in guiding them to sing in tune and in joy. The children easily understand the language of the heart irrespective of the language they speak.

Next Monday there will be another Manjira Workshop here in Shree Peetha Nilaya with Nikhilananda.

This workshop is very popular as within three hours the participants learn the basic beats and you can apply it immediately during our temple prayers and simple bhajans. People show very quick progress with this workshop. This photo was taken in one of the recent workshops.

The workshop will take place on Monday, December 29th from 10-13:00. Please register directly with Nikhilananda.

The reconstruction of the balconies...

... on the south side of the building is finished. 

Before the company removed the scaffolding, Jaitraya quickly painted the orange color on the front sides.

During summer we will paint also the sidewalls of the balconies.

The Star of Bethlehem

In the week before Babaji's birthday the idea came up to make a big star and hang it on one of our walls on the facade of the building.

So I spoke with Pramod about the idea and asked him if he can help with the construction of the star. 

He liked the idea and offered to go and buy some construction steal - and to weld it together. I should just have painted  the star, and that could have been done on the floor of the garage.

In only three hours the form of the star was made out of steel. 

I painted it in the color of the wall (first we wanted to hang it in front of the orange wall) and together with Vidya, a seva helper from Switzerland, we fixed the LED lights around the steel construction.

The day before the 1st Advent Pramod and some helpers from Czech went on the roof to hang it. 

So, sorry that I forgot to take some pictures from this moment - it was cold, rainy, windy and these three men on the roof waiting for the advise: 'higher', 'a bit more right', 'noo, more up'... 
By the way - does the moment of three men hanging the star remind you of three wise men following the star of Betlehem and coming to baby Jesus? :)

In the end the star looked beautiful and Swamiji likes it a lot!

Now we have a nice Star of Bethlehem which shows you all the way to the place where we will celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus at Christmas.

Pot-plants for Swamiji and the SPN Centre

Here is a request from Mataji Prajna, who is responsiple for all our pot-plants inside and outside the ashram:

Jai Gurudev dear friends and spiritual family,

Until now many of you have brought beautiful pot-plants for Swamiji and Shree Peetha Nilaya, beautiful orchids and other flowering plants. They have certainly  enriched the temple and the center.

The idea to bring pot-plants instead of cut flowers is also very thoughtful because they are longer lasting than cut flowers and bloom several times. For that we would like to thank all of you whole-heartedly.

However, from now on we kindly ask you not to bring anymore pot-plants as we have reached our maximum capacity. We have 40 orchids and there are also more than enough large plants. It takes a lot of time to look after them and this time pulls us away from our daily seva for Swamiji´s mission.

For that reason we make this request: Please, for the time being, do not bring any orchids or other plants. We will not accept them anymore. On the other hand, cut flowers  are always welcome.

Thank you very much for your understanding and  cooperation.

Prajna 

in the name of Shree Peetha Nilaya

Reconstruction of our balconies

As you know, we bought this property in 2008. It's an older building built in 1968*. The price was very competitive and it was clear that it gradually needs to be restored. 
The roofs we have now are solid and insulated. The next necessary step was to reconstruct the balconies. The concrete on them has already been cracked in many places. 

Rainwater was penetrating through the cracks which made the steel rust. In the winter the water freezes and the cracking of concrete continues. 

It was high time to do something with it. 

The scaffold was erected on the south side of the ashram in September. Right now the damaged concrete is being removed and the steel reinforcement is exposed. 

Subsequently, new concrete will be applied after the appropriate treatment of the steel. 

Here you can clearly recognise: before (top) and after (below). 

We believe that the work on the south side of the building  will be finished this week. Then it can be nicely painted and will look like new again!

*Sorry, I wrote 1868! Of course this was a mistake, it was built 1968 and was first time renovated 1986 - and than we took it over.

Our new "Veggie-Cellar"

The construction works here at Bhakti Marga are actually always an ongoing process: Now we are building a "veggie-cellar" outside of the Building A (temple/church- building):

As you can see, the construction company digged already a huge new hole on the back side of Building A

There will be soon 3 veggie-cellars for the fruits of the garden (potatoes, apples and, and  - its a lot what Giri produces !). 

One of our goals in SPN is to be self sufficient, and therefore it is important that all vegetables from our garden can be stored for the winter months when there is not much harvest.

Last week all the earth was brought away, stored at our parking area outside - this will go back where it was after the construction is finished, because the cellar has to be covered with earth and plants so that there will be a natural climate in the rooms (not too cold and not too warm). 

Only the entrance will be seen and the green hill covered with grass, plants and bushes will be back.

You can see the groundplan of the 3 cellars, we did apply for building permission already some time ago...

Now we finally build it :-)