Dear All,
I write below to share experiences about a kirtan retreat that I had been to recently during the Memorial day weekend. I am hoping that this mail motivates a few people to try out spiritual retreats.Recently, I came across a few articles discussing how kirtan yoga helps
in battling Alzhiemers. I was wondering about articles like this and this.
One of the most difficult things to find is association of people in mode of goodness. As you know, there are three modes of people: goodness (knowledge, thoughtfulness and satisfaction), passion (cravings for pleasure, power and prestige) and ignorance (laziness, intoxication and violence). These are called sattva, rajas, tamas in Sanskrit. So my wife ordered me to take the family to the kirtan retreat happening at the Art of Living Center at Boone, NC. I am typically a person who does not like driving on the road. But, I reluctantly agreed as I realized that an American spiritual rockstar is attending it and I would like to get a glimpse of him. After reading his autobiography, I am inspired that one day I should meditate for six hours a day.
What is the purpose of life? The purpose of life is to reach atleast goodness via Yoga and meditation (in elementary viewpoints). Honestly, I have come to the realization that the happiness from yoga and meditation beats all the other things I have seen in life --- including luxury, charity, public service, alcohol, research, math, hanging out, sex, good food, good travel, good adventure and money. For instance, even the venerable Bhagavadgita says that Yoga is better than scriptual study, sacrifices, charity, austerity. (BG 8.28)
So, we set off on this 10.5 hours ride from New Jersey to Boone, NC, on Thursday evening with a sleep over at Washington DC. As I kept driving, I was softly sulking to my wife as to why I am made to go on these longish drives. The view of the tulips on the roadside in NC was awesome. As we reached Boone, the hills were great. There were a large number of Chirstmas tree farms that were like ornaments to the hills with their mind boggling layouts. Finally, we reached the meditation center. I was in a pretty unhappy state as I kept sulking to my wife as to why I am wasting time away driving on the roads.
Somehow, all my spirits got uplifted instantaneously just by stepping out of my car to look at the attendees in the parking lot. These Americans have completely adopted Vedic culture and there was a unique magic in watching the attendees. Purity was oozing in these people! A good number of them were trying to wear dhothis and sarees! I was reminded that, after all, the verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a moment’s association with a pure person (sadhu), one can attain all success. So, finally I decided that I was glad to be at the retreat.
My wife's priority is kirtan singing; my priority is food. I checked out the dinner hall and the organizing team cooked amazing sattvic food with love as opposed to just ordering from a restaurant. As you know, only God would know when the food in restaurant was cooked and what went into it; one can be assured that love and selfless service was not an ingredient. After the dinner, we went to the kirtan hall. This American spiritual rockstar started the kirtan slow, but slowly ramped up the tempo till the whole hall with 1500 people was dancing mad. These guys are intoxicated with love for the Supreme. I retired around 10.30pm to off-site hotel room; too bad I could not get onsite accommodation.
The next day, I woke up at 5.30am and reached the retreat center at 6.15am to catch a glimpse of these Americans meditating in the morning. They had started at 5AM! I sat down for my ritualistic Pranayama ritual, but these guys started singing wonderfully the glories of the saints of India. While I doing my ritual; I was just telling myself that the perfection of spirituality is these guys who are singing the glories of Indian saints that are melting my heart. Then they sang "wake up sleeping soul! you have slept for too long!" in melodious tunes.
The retreat started on Friday evening and went till 12pm Monday morning. The meditation session starts at 5am. We had Srimad Bhagavatam class at 7.45am. Then nice food. Then lots of kirtan all day almost continuously (except meal breaks) till 12am midnight. The kirtans start slow, but then go crazy. The crowd was mad with ecstasy and rocking. The MC was a 70 year old American whom I am wowed by. He just rocked the stage and put me to shame on my lethargy. Interestingly, I am not aware of any music event going for two days for 17 hours a day. These guys are totally crazy (in a good way)! We lifted a few guys in the dance; unfortunately we dropped one of them over a person in a wheel chair.
It was a Ekadashi day on Saturday and they served wonderful food inline with the Vedic tradition of fasting atleast from grains and beans once in two weeks.
The meditation center is in very rustic hills with lots of cow farms, horse stables, trees, and such. It is in a remote part of Boone. Luckily, it is only 15 minutes away from the town so that you could fall back on the town for your supplies and also stay in a luxury hotel. I estimate the total size to be about 200 acres. The food hall and the meditation hall can hold 3000 persons each.
There is so much strife (environmental degradation, terrorism, non-chalance) in the society today. If you think about it, civilization itself is at a risk of getting wiped out. There are noble people like Bill Gates trying. But does Bill understand that the fundamental shortage is of saintly people? We need more sadhu (peaceful) people in the world. One of the Srimad Bhagavatam classes delivered discusses this. I summarize it below. Srimad Bhagvatam 3.25.21: the symptoms if a sadhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friend to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures and all his characteristics are sublime. He is a well-wisher of all living entities. He is not only a well-wisher of human society, but a well-wisher of animal society as well.
I estimate that 80% of the 1600 attendees meditate for 2 hours a day and are by and large sattvic. I hope that one day I can say these things of the colleges I attended. Interestingly all the singers and leading personalities were Caucasian. Why are the Indian elite missing in action? While they may have justified reasons, I hope the Indian elite take up the task of leading the society with a high vision. Indians should teach the world that whatever people are doing, the self must be completely satisfied.
Oh boy what a party! What an energy! What a world view! They will go on to change the world! I postulated that this party was the greatest part in the East coast during the Memorial day weekend.
Sincerely,
Sudhakar
Well sudhakar nice but , as u r mentioning about sadhus are there true Sauhus still on this earth or just the people who call themselves as sadhus. It's amazing to know that this trip has evoked your interest on spirituality but my question is same as your. everyone should know who he or she is and what is th purpose of this whole life which God has given. Just think deep once when u sit in your meditation ask your self seek an answer trust me lot of Mis guidance come on the way of reaching your answer but you r the only one who have to identify which and wat was correct and do accordingly
ReplyDeleteAll the best good start but trust me it's a deep ocean what you is not 100% you need to search more deep into your own self
Dear Samyuktha :) ,
DeleteI agree to your point that we are the only one to discriminate if there is misguidance. There is 3 point system to know if we are being misguided .Guru,sadhu(practitioner),shastras(Scriptures). What ever guru or any spiritual organisation says should be consistent with scriptures that is shastras and should be seen in practitioner. For example in Krishna conscious life there is no meat eating principle. So most of practitioners of Krishna Consciousness I have come across do not eat meat. This is just simple example of what we hear should be consistent with what we see.As we practice ,clarity comes and so does our discrimination increases which we get to see in practitioners and faith increases and so does submissiveness.
There are 2 ways to search truths for example your question of "Who am I" . One way is to find ourselves and the other way is to listen to authority . Example is given child trying to find father . Child has 2 options ,one is to simply believe mother who is authority .Mother says "This is your father".Child accepts it . Or it can deny authority of mother and can endeavor to find his own father . It takes long time and may never find the father . Wise man follows authority to know the truth . Authority to know spiritual truth is guru who is living scriptures.
It is said our senses are imperfect . How far we can see,hear.They are limited . And what ever truth we find which may sound temporarily true is just based on speculation . Relying on self to who I am is long and is not recommended for age of Kali where life is short. So in Bhagavad Gita it is said
tad viddhi praṇipātena
paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.
Because as I stated earlier, our senses are imperfect . Spiritual master is beyond sense perception and can guide lost soul .
We don't have to get scared about submissive hearing . It starts with adho shraddha , means little faith :) .
Last point, but please know what ever we have learned so far,we didn't verify so many things. We had blind faith in teachers whose authority was scientist .When they said matter can neither be destroyed nor be created (FYI:This is true as per scriptures also).We believed .
Regards,
Your Servant,
Vilasa Manjari Devi Dasi