Great news for our Spanish-speaking friends. We are strating this week a new blog in Spanish to report on our Kriya Yoga programs and retreats, Ark of Love charitable activities, and storytelling and concerts around the world. Our Brahmacharini Priyananda is taking care of this new baby (congratulations for learning the art of blogging so quickly!). She has already posted a few sample entries, and will be adding new ones regularly, as well as gradually adding selected translations of this English blog. Please come and visit “La Red del Amor” here.
Beloved Souls,
Hari om from Curitiba, Brazil… where I just reached a few minutes ago!
We had a wonderful program in Buenos Aires with extremely well-attended lectures, retreats, Kriya Yoga inititaitons, and stress-management workshops. Congratulations to all divine organizers!
Today we present the sixth installment of our Yoga Sutras series. This week: The breath metaphor found in the episode of Jesus in the boat during the storm on Lake Tiberias.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Beloved Souls,
Hari om from Cochabamba, Bolivia!
With our little group of 20 people we just returned from a marvellous retreat/pilgrimage in the Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca on the theme “Lifting the Veil of Maya”. A full report accompanied by some stunning photos will be posted soon.
With all these events far from any internet or telephone connections, our bi-monthly podcast is about 10 days late this time, but at last here it is!
Today we present the fifth installment of our Yoga Sutras series. This week: Yoga Sutra 2, Chapter 1 (continued). How to uncloud the four inner instruments—mind, intellect, ego and chitta—through mastery of the breath, as pointed out by the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Dear Self,
Hari om from Lima, Peru!
Today we present the fourth installment of our Yoga Sutras series. This week: Yoga Sutra 2, Chapter 1. The definition of yoga. The four levels of consciousness. How to translate the untranslatable Sanskrit word “chitta” The metaphor of the blind mind, intellect, and ego as portrayed in the characters of the Mahabharata epic.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Yesterday at 1 pm Malena Huguet received the formal initiation as a brahmacharini (noviate) into the monastic order of the Kriya Yoga lineage at the beautiful Eco Truly Ashram in Chankay near Lima, Peru.
Swamiji surrounded by the new Brahmacharini Priyanananda and Brahmachari Devananda (who received the brahmacharya initiation earlier this year in Haridwar, India)
The ceremony took place at the end of the 8-day “Friends of Humanity” training, and was attended by all Friends, as well as her family, many local kriyavans and the residents of the Eco Truly ashram.
Swamiji garlanding the new Brahmacharini after giving her new clothes and new name.
Born in Peru, Br. Priyananda has long cherished the dream of entering a monastic order while serving children and women in need - a dream now fulfilled by the grace of God and gurus, as she will continue to serve in our growing Ark of Love projects in Lima.
Swamiji surrounded by Br. Priyanandaji and Br. Devanandaji (who received his brahmacharya initiation earlier this year in Haridwar, India)
Please join me in praying to God to bless His new child and help her fulfill her triple vow of poverty, obedience, and purity, for the service of all of His creation.
Thank you very much. Jai Gurudev!
Humble,
Swamito
Dear Self,
Hari om from Lima, Peru!
Six extremely busy weeks have flown by in Colombia, sharing lectures, initiations in Kriya Yoga, silent retreats, satsangs and meditations, Ayurvedic cooking classes, stress management workshops, peace concerts and storytelling events with the most incredibly loving and sincere souls in Bogota, Cali, Popayan, and Medellin.
I am now starting my month-long tour of Peru which will include all of the above activities, plus our second annual “Friends of Humanity Training” in the lovely Eco-Truly ashram just outside of Lima, on the beach.
There are still a couple of places left. If you want to participate in this free training, please go our web page for details and send an email to informes@arcadelamor.org
Today we present the third installment of our Yoga Sutras series. This week: Yoga Sutra 1, Chapter 1. The six different meanings of the word “atha” corresponding to the six desirable spiritual qualities.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Beloved Self,
Hari om from Lima, Peru.
Some good news: ALL past messages and study materials that were sent to all kriyavans and friends since December 2007 are now online (in English, Spanish and Portuguese) in a new section called “Monthly Lessons”. You can freely browse and download all of these materials here.
Happy reading!
Humble,
Swamito.
Dear Self,
Hari om from Medellin in Colombia.
The programs in Cali and Popayan were absolutely amazing - packed with Ayurvedic cooking workshops, lectures, initiations, concerts, storytelling events, satsangs and guided meditations. God bless this beautiful people, so earnest and devoted to their spiritual practice!
Today we present the second installment of our Yoga Sutras series. This week: The metaphorical meaning of Sage Patañjali’s miraculous birth; The structure of the Yoga Sutras.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Hari om from Bogota… en route to Cali, in Colombia.
I just concluded a three-week program in Bogota, and I am heading to Cali and Popayan in a few minutes. Part of the Bogota program was the Level 2 training for the “Friends of Humanity”, with 20 highly dedicated and creative students who graduated from the Level 1 training in Lima last year.
As part of the intensive 8-day training we studied Sage Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras. The enthusiasm and interest was so deep amongst the students that I have decided to put a new series of podcasts on this subject.
Today is the first podcast of our new Yoga Sutras series. This week: A general historical perspective on the Yoga Sutras; the “sutra” genre; Who was Sage Patañjali.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Hari om from cool Bogota, in Colombia.
After a week of major disruption due to moving servers AND getting a new domain name (”www.hariharanandakriyayoga.org”) the blog is finally back up! We lost three months’ worth of posts in the process, but I am very optimistic we will be able to rescue them from the ether and post them again soon.
Today is the last podcast of Indian and Buddhist Tales series. This week: How the Guru Helped the Opium Addict Overcame His Habit; The Monk and the Prostitute Who Died on the Same Day.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Dearest Ones,
Hari om from Miami again!
While in St Petersburg last week, I was interviewed on the “Our Greatest Hour” radio show by their gracious host Tammy Taylor. We talked for about an hour on a wide range of subjects related to spirituality, education, Kriya Yoga and the power of Wisdom Tales.
They have just informed me that they have now made the entire one-hour phone interview available for download here.
The sound quality is not so good, due to technical problems with the phone line I was using, but you might still enjoy it…
Happy listening!
Hari om from Miami!
We are back from St Petersburg where we had a delightful silent retreat with a large group of sincere kriyavans.
In our Wisdom Tales podcast series, we offer a second helping of Indian and Buddhist tales.
This week: Goddess Saraswati and the Gift of Knowledge; The Dream Wife; The Promise.
I am also happy to announce that I have started to link some of the wisdom tale featured in the podcast to our Storytelling Monk website, where you can read and download selected stories along with their spiritual commentary.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Greetings from St Petersburg!
I have concluded my tour of the Caribbeans with beautiful programs in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and a first-ever Kriya program in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The gentlesness and loving heart of the people was truly incredible.
I am now beginning a Kriya program in St Petersburg, Florida (details are available on the website www.hariharanandakriyayoga.org)
Free Public lecture: First Unity Church (www.firstunity.org) on Thursday July 24, 7 to 8:30 pm, in St Petersburg, FL.
Initiation in Kriya Yoga: Friday July 25 from 6 to 10 pm (by pre-registration only)
Kriya Yoga Silent Retreat: July 26-27 (by pre-registration only)
Contact: Michael and Judy Welch
Tel: (727) 542-2450
Email: DEWEY1103@aol.com
God bless you all!
Humble,
Swamito
Hari om from Santo Domingo!
We have arrived in this little island plunged in the middle of a great financial crisis, which seems to be offset by an incredibly rich spirituality and devotion. An enthusiastic crowd attended two lectures in the past two days, one on Kriya Yoga in the practical life, and one on stress management.
Last week in Puerto Rico was a wonderful place to share a long silent retreat and initiate some youngsters in the spiritual life, some as young as 9 years-old! So refreshing to see…
This week in our podcast of Wisdom Tales series, we begin a new section: Indian and Buddhist tales.
In our first installment, we will discover two classic tales: The Best Cradle, and How the Farmer Learnt Detachment.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Hari om from London… en route to Barcelona!
Just a quick note to let you know that the last installment of the Jewish Mystical Tales has been uploaded in our Wisdom Tales series.
This week, tales about self-effort; Working out knowledge by ourselves; Finding our tune in God’s Orchestra; Discovering the joy of selfless service.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Hello Friends!
I am writing from an unusually sunny London where we had a sweet little program at the house of Jenni and Nick… culminating with a beautiful Kriya Wedding for our adorable hosts! (Photos and reports will be posted later).
I am flying to Barcelona in a couple of days for another Kriya Yoga and satsangs program. Here are the details (also available on the website www.hariharanandakriyayoga.org)
Location: Vilassa de Mar - Barcelona
Topics: 1. “Kriya Yoga, Science of Peace and Bliss” (July 2 from 8 to 10 pm)
2. “Science and Spirit” (July 3 from 8 to 10 pm)
Contact: Toni Piquer
Tel: 667 34 6609 / 93 75969 18
Email: tonipiquer02@hotmail.com
Initiation: July 5 (by pre-registration only)
God bless you all!
Humble,
Swamito
Hari om from Sambalpur in the state of Orissa, the heart of Kriya Yoga. We have returned to this blessed place to be with Rajarshi Raghabanandaji again and meditate amidst the soothing monsoon rains. Such bliss…
Today we continue the Wisdom Tales series with a second serving of Jewish Mystical Tales.
This week we blend wisdom with humor, with priceless tales such as: The merchant’s business prayer; The cowherder’s innocent prayer corrupted by the rabbi; The alphabet-prayer; Rabbi Akiva’s parable on preaching the Torah in times of danger; The Baal Shem Tov’s parable on growing spiritually; The Ari’s compassion for dumb animals and even stones.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Hari om from Bhubaneshwar, the “City of Temples”, the ancient capital of the state of Orissa in India. Today we paid a visit to Swami Shriyukteshwar’s famous Karar Ashram in the nearby holy city of Puri. Stay tuned for photos and a report on this trip in an upcoming post…
Today we go back to our first love: the Wisdom Tales series, starting with a fresh installment on Jewish Mystical Tales.
Join us as we recount this week: How the devil got hold of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings; What to do if concerned about resisting the “Evil urge”?; Why Alexander the Great had to estimate the weight of one eye.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Swagatam! (’Welcome’ in Sanskrit). Greetings from Haridwar.
Thanks to the generous hospitality of our friend Luc, we now have a dedicated domain name (www.hariharanandakriyayoga.org) which also hosts our newly re-designed blog.
Kindly note that the old blog at storytellingmonk.blogspot.com is now closed, and has been fully imported to this new location.
Thank you very much. God bless you all.
Humble,
Swamito.
Hari om from our sweltering little corner of India. The mercury is already hitting 47 degrees Celsius in Delhi, but the promise of the refreshing monsoon rains next month keeps us going…
Today is the last podcast of The Monk and the Businessman series, concluding with the fourth installment on empowerment from a spiritual perspective. This week we discuss the metaphorical meaning of Moses’ transformation from exiled shepherd to prophet. The new leader’s role and vision. From stockholders to stakeholders. New directions and new questions. Business as one of the tools to manifest the kingdom of God.
In our next series of podcast from the Storytelling Monk we will return to our beloved Wisdom Tales from around the world.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Hari om from Haridwar again!
Here our little orphanage is gradually getting in gear.
We now have four children staying with us full-time (and expecting seven more this month): Vidya (3), Vivek (8), Arshid (10), and Aman (12). Vidya means “Knowledge”, Vivek “Discrimination”, Arshid “Love”, and Aman “Peace”.
We also have one old lady staying with us: Santosh (”Contentment”).
Our other residents include three dogs (Jackie, Jimmy and Chris), one horse called Chetak (which means “horse”–how original!), one cow called Kapila (name of a great sage). We also receive the visit of many wild peacocks, squirrels, monkeys, and the occasional elephants.
And maybe one day we will have the joy of receiving your visit? You are always welcome!
We continue here our ongoing The Monk and the Businessman series with a third installment on empowerment from a spiritual perspective. This week we draw some analogies between religious and corporate structures: their rise and fall and transformation; the training and testing of leaders; how King Janaka tested his disciple Shakti.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Hari om from Haridwar!
Just back from another trip to Delhi, where I finished mixing my new double CD of fusion music which I created with Swami Chetan (an expert tabla player and wonderful composer/singer). This fund-raising CD, entitled Bhakti and Shakti: A Fusion Experience, was made to share our mutual passion for fusion – of minds, souls, and music – where East meets West, and Shakti and Bhakti embrace each other. It will be released in early June 2008 through our website’s publishing section as well through our various centers. You can already listen to some samples here.
We continue also our ongoing The Monk and the Businessman series with a second installment on empowerment from a spiritual perspective. This week: illustrations on the difference between patriarchal contract and the empowering contract, and how to to delegate and empower, with quotes from the Scriptures and examples from ancient spiritual traditions.
Finally, my 2008 tour schedule is finalized and up on our website! Click on “Tour and Event Schedules” to find out about all future Kriya Yoga initiations, conferences, workshops, retreats, pilgrimages, peace concerts, storytelling events, Ark of love activities, and more…
Happy listening, and I look forward to seeing you somewhere, somehow, sometime!
God bless you all.
Swamito
“Ark of Love Hariharananda - São Paolo“
A report by Bia Alves
A tree is recognized by its fruits, and a human being through his/her actions and attitude.
- Paramahamsa Hariharananda
Another full year of activities has been completed, and our Ark continues sailing with a lot of love.
The year of 2007 was special in the Ark of Love Hariharananda São Paulo: we improved our pedagogical project “Peaceful and loving relationship amongst beings”; we reinforced its implementation and forged stronger bonds of unity among the volunteers by introducing Pedagogical Supervision meetings; we continued the partnership with Casa Francisco and carried on our social work, every Saturday morning, in this comfortable and cozy house; we took care of 20 children age 7 to 14 years, who live in the Glicerio district in downtown São Paulo.
Our goal was to create a small theater production which was performed by the children on November 2nd, graced and blessed by the presence of our teacher Swami Sarveshwaranandaji.
Theater show.
The children, volunteers, and Swami after the presentation.
Breathing exercises with the families and volunteers.
Volunteers serving lunch.2007 in numbers
42 Saturday mornings dedicated to volunteer work.
Over 210 hours of activities full of love.
8 cultural outdoor activities with the children - museum, theatre, park…
1,780 nutritious dinners served with care
15 volunteers offering their work of love
15 families assisted by the Ark of Love
Swami Sarveshwarananda’s visit
Between 1 and 14 November we received the precious visit of Swami Sarveshwarananda. During his stay in São Paolo, he performed many different activities, including lectures, storytelling and singing events, retreats, initiations… and even the marriage of our beloved Ark sailors Joyce and Ivan!
Special - Baba Hariharananda’s 100th birthday
During the month of May 2007, we had three events celebrating Baba Hariharananda’s hundredth birthday, who inspires the humanitarian work done by the Ark of Love and the Mission bearing his name.
On the 26th, the children saw the play “The Knight and the Centipede” at the Vento Forte theater. Afterwards, we had a puja (ecumenical worship). All children received blessed roses to take to their families as a memento.
On May 27th, Baba’s birthday, a special meeting for kriyavans was held, with puja, guided meditation, readings, and videos. It was a very special moment for everyone.
On May 28th, at the weekly group meditation, we had another puja and meditation.
Ark of Love activities
The Ark of Love activities are becoming more interesting all the time! To kick off 2007, we listened to the story of Noah’s Ark and contemplated on it for a while, reflecting on the life amongst the different animals inside the ark. Between the months of March to June, we visited the Zoo and the São Paulo Aquarium and had the opportunity to learn a little more about the characteristic of many different animals, and heard some curious stories!
During the second semester, our activities at the Ark of Love focused on the production of a small theater play. We created and decorated our clay masks with different animal features; we designed costumes, self-portraits and the set for the play. We learned dances, songs and mantras. And we had some exciting rehearsals before the final presentation!
The children and Carlos, the bus driver.
At the Vento Forte theatre.
Activities at Casa Francisco.
Painting and decorating masks.
Masked Monkey.
Children at the Thai massage workshop.
Divine light
We finished our yearly activities with a joyful Treasure Hunt, where we could find that togetherness, love, peace, kindness, joy and friendship are our most precious divine gifts!
All children received clothes, books, shoes and a special mp3 player pre-loaded with various songs, stories and mantras, including a recording of themselves singing a mantra with the name of God in different religions. All generously donated by loving godparents!
The 15 families helped by our work also received Christmas packages, kindly donated by our collaborators Angélica Arbex and Antônio Couto from Lello Condomínios. The delivery of these gift baskets was done by our volunteer Ark sailors, who visited each family on December 15th.
Hari om from Haridwar again! With our little group of devoted volunteers, we have just returned from Joop village, near Champawat, where we spent 10 enchanting days in our Children’s Academy of Joy. In this extremely poor and remote village in the high Himalayas, the Hariharananda Mission established its first ever little school for poor children four years ago. Despite enormous obstacles and rigorous environment, it is blossoming beautifully under the loving care of our principal and co-founder, Mr. Ramesh Pandey, assisted by all members of his beloved family. Please visit also our photo gallery and click on School > CAF School Champawat, India. This gallery will be updated soon with new photos and videos of our recently-concluded Annual Function day performed entirely by the children.
In our ongoing The Monk and the Businessman series we begin today a new series on empowerment from a spiritual perspective. To begin with, David Fischman presents an overview of the two basic types of companies—bureaucratic-centric, and empowerment-centric, and what it means in terms of customer satisfaction, time management, and employee performance.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito
Hari om from New Delhi! After a week spent in a recording studio with Swami Chetan, I am now mixing the 20 tracks of our upcoming double CD of fusion music tentatively titled “Bhakti and Shakti”. It should be completed within a week or so. I will post some excerpts on the blog soon.
We continue with our The Monk and the Businessman series with the fifth and last installment on time management. Today: To know how to manage your time, it is important to know what is the final goal of life. A useful tool: the Buddhist practice of mindfulness—to always ask “Why?”, about one’s activities, thoughts, or words. “Out of evil cometh good”—faced with mounting stress and work load, employees and management have new opportunities to develop new processes, and grow personally and professionally.
Happy listening!
God bless you all.
Swamito