Saturday, July 16, 2011

Return to India - Part 1

My daughter Gita and I returned from India last Tuesday, July 12. The 3-week trip went well on every level, though it had its challenges on every level too. Tomorrow, Sunday, July 17, I will offer a slide show presentation of the trip but I thought to use this blog for more personal reflections than a slide show would allow.

Nowadays many people visit India and it becomes increasingly accessible and (relatively) comfortable each year as India continues its explosive entry into the 21st century. Even up and into the Himalayas the development is intense: the mountain-clinging dirt roads (still very dangerous) are being paved, bridges replaced or added, electricity goes practically to Mt. Everest along with the ubiquitous cell phone towers, and hotels and guest lodges multiply like spring wildflowers. I don't know how many pilgrims ascend to these mountain shrines during each season (May-October) but it's many, many thousands. We were never alone. (One is never alone in India, at least physically. Even the path up Mt. Everest is said to resemble a parking lot, at least during the limited climbing season.)

We went by car belonging to our guide Mahavir Singh Rawat and driven by his driver Sitendra (having a driver for one's car is very common in India). The higher one goes and the deeper into the Himalaya the more likely the road regresses to dirt and rock. This is true also when one leaves the main "highways." We saw young men, two astride a small 125cc motorcycle, blasting up the mountains from the hot Indian plains far below to some of the highest shrines, along dirt, rock and rutted roads oblivious to the simple fact that one badly placed stone could send them hurtling down the precipitous cliffs in a nanosecond! (Imagine young men in their twenties in America heading off on pilgrimage together to visit ancient shrines high in mountains, eyes bright with joy and devotion?)

Ours was not a trekking holiday, nor yet sightseeing in the usual way. My daughter Gita had returned a year and a half ago from an Ananda group pilgrimage to India but she did not have the time to accompany the group into the Himalayas. Mahavir, the guide, mentioned to her that he did guided tours for individuals and small groups, not just the larger official Ananda tours. So upon her return she asked me if I'd be interested in returning with her. As I had been to India three times including (35 years ago) an extensive visit (including to other parts of the Himalaya), she could be sure I would say YES! And, of course I did. But it took some planning for we needed to use up whatever airplane miles we could muster to afford the trip. So Padma, my wife and resident booking agent, handled the flights. Gita had or researched the contacts with the families in and around Calcutta who are related to Yogananda and his life there; and Mahavir outlined the traditional "Char Dham" yatra (pilgrimage) to the four very sacred Himalayan shrines.

I admit that some deity or another veiled from our minds the obvious intensity of that itinerary which in retrospect meant some some 15 or 16 very long days of driving on mostly dirt and rock roads on treacherous mountain passes and cliffs. It meant stopping before nightfall at whatever available pilgrim style lodgings were at hand, and and where showers, hot water, (Western) toilets, towels, soap, toilet paper and mattresses were scarce or nonexistent but flies, cockroaches, large flying beetles, and mosquitoes formed local welcoming committees. I've never had chapati and dal three times a day for several weeks. It can wear on you.

But none of these considerations were uppermost. This was an opportunity for Gita and I to spend quality time together in an energetic commitment to the quest for Self-realization. We meditated together each day; chanted together walking or in the car; were enraptured by the stunning and ever changing beauty of both the lower and higher Himalaya, and entered into the pilgrim's way of devotion through "puja" and "arati" (traditional and ancient Hindu rituals) at sites held sacred for millennia by the presence of great rishis down through the ages and the devotion of millions of pilgrims seeking divine consolation for their world-weary hearts.

Lastly, for me this "Return to India" completes a cycle of spiritual seeking that began in India for me in 1975 but which, at that time, could not be completed because I had not yet found my spiritual path and guru (Paramhansa Yogananda). So, in going back now, at age 60, I went seeking to contact the spiritual roots of both India's timeless tradition and the prior incarnations of Paramhansa Yogananda and the line of gurus who sent him to the West.

Mountains have kindled in human hearts a yearning for the heavenly realms (whether as a place or state of consciousness, or both) since time immemorial. In India, the bounty, beauty and grandeur of nature is not seen merely as the product of impersonal random geologic forces but as the obvious result of the interplay of Divine forces personified in the gods and goddesses in interaction with the rishis and avatars. An unusual rock formation, for example, comes quite naturally with its own story. Do we not teach (in metaphysics) that all matter is created, sustained, and dissolved by its most elemental substance: consciousness? Is it not more reasonable to assume that a "cathedral" like Yosemite Valley was formed by conscious Divine beings than to say it "just happened?"

This trip was a pilgrimage and a true pilgrimage is a journey within. Perhaps in the next blog or two, I can share with you at least some aspects of my inner journey and its evolving realizations.

Blessings, Hriman

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Off to India

I am leaving this afternoon for a 3-week trip to India. My daughter and I will have the blessing of Ananda's Himalyan tour guide, Mahavir, for a personal tour of four Himalayan sites sacred to Hindus for thousands of years. In addition, we will end our trip in Calcutta at the boyhood home of Paramhansa Yogananda, and a visit to other blessed sites associated with his life story there in and around Calcutta.

This trip is not for pleasure or for comfort but, with grace, we will be in the Himalaya where Spirit and Nature unit in a supreme union of outer grandeur and inner awakening. There rishis have lived and roamed since time immemorial. We hope to meditate in a cave blessed by Mahavatar Babaji whose deathless presence, to this day, permeates these sacred haunts.

So wish us "luck" that the mountains "come out" and that Babaji and the great ones bless us with their presence. Gita will be the photographer and I will do what I can to journal and bring back at least a "tithe" of the blessings we may enjoy.

This is, for me, a once-in-lifetime journey, though I have visited the Himalaya on a trek some 35 years ago. I think for me and for Gita it represents something beyond what we can know at this time.

See you when I return, July 12, by the grace of God and Gurus.

Joy, Nayaswami Hriman

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Rise of Intentional Communities

Tomorrow, Saturday, June 18, 2011, Ananda Community in Lynnwood, WA hosts its third annual Solstice Celebration and Open House. Tours of the Community, grounds, gardens, and farm begin at 1 p.m. and the Solstice Celebration Service begins at 5 p.m. followed by dinner. Free yoga classes, activities for children, an art exhibit, and musical performances all afternoon are some of the highlights. We expect a full house of members, friends, and neighbors.

Swami Kriyananda, founder of Ananda and direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, was present at a garden party in Beverly Hills in the late 40's when Yogananda (without warning or other context) thundered a prediction and a command that small "colonies" of like-minded people band together throughout the world to demonstrate brotherhood by example rather than only by precept. He declared that by such examples the benefits of high ideals and simplicity (I would add "sustainability") of lifestyle would produce the greatest happiness. His message of "world brotherhood colonies" was given repeatedly both before and after that famous garden party.

Yogananda also predicted economic collapse, wars, and natural calamities lay ahead as forces of enlightened self-interest struggled against established powers of exploitation and greed. Only now in the beginning of the 21st century are the issues of cooperation vs. competition, of freedom vs. exploitation, harmony vs. prejudice so heightened and intense that millions realize that courageous and bold action must be taken to avoid or lessen dire consequences for all.

In a world where a tribe, a culture, an industry, or one's livelihood can be wiped off the map by the stroke of pens, an exchange of stocks, signing of a treaty, or the impact of a satellite-guided missile in boardrooms, banks, and secret meetings, it is natural that people of intelligence and goodwill will respond by seeking an alternative lifestyle that is not dependent upon such impersonal and self-interested forces.

The time for intentional communities has arrived. In most cities we live side-by-side with people of other cultures, races, nations, and religions. It becomes difficult to hold prejudice or to entertain fears when we get to know each other simply as people. The natural races of humankind are not based upon skin color, location, or language but upon consciousness. There are those who live only the present moment, heedless of the future or the consequences of one's present actions. There are those who are self-seeking, living for future personal gain. There are those who consider the needs of others and who serve a greater cause. Finally, there are those whose sights are centered in a higher or divine reality and who live centered in the Self within.

Intentional communities tend to attract, by and large, the latter two categories of people: idealists who seek to make their ideals practical and personal. As the bumper sticker says, "Think globally; act locally." The rising insecurities on our planet will inspire people with energy, creativity, idealism and intelligence to form small communities. Hopefully most of these will not be in rejection of society at large or opposed to others, but will represent a commitment to create a sustainable, harmonious and satisfying life in cooperation with others of like-mind.

Since the end of World War II and the rise of America as a leading global economic and political power, Americas (especially) have had the luxury and opportunity to create individual and family lives that set themselves apart from others. The spread of suburban communities symbolize this "I-mine" thrust of consciousness. But this luxury to stand apart from others and from the rest of the world ended, symbolically at least, on September 11, 2001 when the world's problems and the disparity between America's lifestyle and that of others was presented like a check drawn upon the bank of our excesses.

Since then and at an increasing rate, America (and by extension other similar countries) are having to come face to face with the rest of the world and to try to integrate ourselves, our self-identity, and our behavior with that of other nations and peoples.

Paramhansa Yogananda foresaw that the time would come when humans on this planet would need to learn to live, work, and worship together in harmony. He ushered in a new dispensation of spirituality that has the potential to unite people of goodwill and spiritual-seeking under the banner of experience rather than dogma or creed. Meditation is the personal practice wherein each individual can perceive his own higher Self and from that experience to perceive that same Self in all.

An antidote and necessary balance to the crushing forces of globalism is needed today. Individuals forming intentional communities on the basis of a wide variety of commonly share interests and ideals will provide that necessary outlet for human creativity, personal commitment, and meaningful enterprise.

So, as the sun is high in the sky of the summer Solstice and as the world stands on the precipice of great changes in process and to come, we come together to celebrate and affirm the relevance, role, and necessity of intentional communities of like-minded people of high ideals and practical living.

See you tomorrow!

Blessings,

Nayaswami Hriman