How alive this July Full Moon, the Guru Purnima Celebrations at our Sivananda Ashram. From Saturday afternoon’s ‘Prelude’ to Sunday night’s Close of OUR Kirtan at 9.30pm, our Ashram vibrated with harmony.
Our Library quietly filled in the first half hour of the Prelude (preparing for this powerful moon) as Sobha and Chinmaya shared the impact in their lives of Swami Venkatesananda and his great “Gurudev” H.H. Swami Sivananda Maharaj of Rishikesh. Talking, reading, watch film clips, discussing, honouring the Masters whose teachings, energy and spirit inform our Ashram.
Guru Purnima – the Light of Truth Full Moon -- is the most powerful for the yogi as he honours Guru “the remover of the darkness of ignorance” -- “the Light of Truth”, our teachers.
Swami Venkatesananda said: “The light shines in the form of a human being or an animal or an object or as an event in nature or in the outer world or as an inner experience that enables me to see the answer – Truth – is the guru.”
As we moved onto the West Verandah on that cold, grey afternoon contemplating the many teachers in our lives – what meeting them had meant in our lives -- we literally raised such a fire! And sitting around it gazing into its flames like the ancients of old, there spontaneously arose the chants, the stories, the quietude, discussion, as hearts opened and minds quietened -- true satsang.
Swami Venkatesananda said, “When everything is moving fast the clouds of spiritual ignorance move in very quickly obliterating the light of truth that forever shines in our hearts. Guru Purnima is a day of re-dedication and renewal.”
Guru Purnima day is very cold, wet and very dark and still some come at 5am and enter quietly the Master’s candlelit room. The bowl is struck heralding the opening, the exquisite sound drawing us into the silence, into the rooms quiet power.
Walking meditation allows many others to join and fill the room for the next hour as the Sivananda Ashram welcomes and shelters and holds us all to the invocation of the “ Light of Truth”.
After breakfast we gather around the havan kunda for the Fire Ceremony. Chinmaya leads the Sanskrit recitation of the timeless mantras of the purifying Havan and again we are called through the ritual to connection with All that is.
People come people go throughout the day, all are welcomed and held at the Sivananda Ashram as they slip seamlessly into forming the new community, dissolving after each event and re-forming.
Our morning Workshop “Anatomy of Yogic Meditation” deeply explores and experiences one of Swami Venkatesananda’s meditations. We practice, we enquire, we experience and discuss and practice the components of classical yogic meditation – after three hours we walk together from the Yoga Hall to Venkatesha’s Room and are led by him in the very meditation meditation we have studied – the experience is deep.
After a hearty, nourishing and much appreciated lunch -- as some point out, this meditation and its exploration calls for a lot of energy.
The late afternoon Puja is in the Satsang Hall and we listen to and perform the devotional ceremony of puja – the group is small, receptive and responsive as the ancient Sanskrit floods our senses.
“Flooding our senses” is an understatement for what is about to come. The Yoga Hall is lit with many, many little lights; at the front musical instrument of every description ‘sit’ quietly, filling such a space and soon the kirtanists begin to take their place.
Chinmaya opens our Kirtan, chanting exquisite Sanskrit in the Prayer to the Guru and then reciting its poetic English translation, she speaks of the akhanda kirtan that will follow – just one mantra and many voices. But nothing could have prepared us for the experience of those three hours – seamlessly the kirtanists change every half hour or so as does the tune and tempo BUT the mantra but it goes on and on, deeply penetrating our minds and hearts, calling us back again and again to “just this”. It is sublime, integrating, refreshing to the spirit.
The Night is Enormous, the Day Sublime…the brilliance of Guru, the Guru Purnima, Jai Jai Jai
Comments