Baba Sripadji and I ~*~

At the Lotus Feet of the Master   .•*•. ♥                                          

 Shyama Gori, Nitya Kishori, Pritam Jori, Sri Radhe
Rasika Rasilo, Chaila Chabilo Guna Garbillo Sri Krishna

I will not come back
Oh mighty Excellence Thakurji
Whenever I meet you face to face
you prove my helplessness
                    
The ancient tales tell the story of your sweetness
The invitation to accept it
The compassionate relationship that heals wounds

What is the logic
That makes your every decision supreme
And my every prayer a helpless question

Have you seen the silvery  Himalayas
Making gestures of affection
Laughing at the life of the mundane world

Merging into that ambrosia I cannot invite you
You always prefer the river bank from where
You can cross over with Grace when the time comes

 You were so moody in Your  Excellence
When you believed to challenge the depths to surrender
You make your unseen beckoning hands

In this inner pondering whenever I  lost my consciousness
Sometimes I am so close to you to whom I might say Friend or Celestial
Ah! it is that state of merging

I could have returned to that wealth and affection the mundane world
But by the Grace of Your Transcendent Lila I am submerged
Slowly but surely It has bound me O long before


राधे●राधेराधे●राधेराधे●राधेराधे●राधेराधे●राधेराधे●राधेराधे●राधेराधे●राधेराधे●राधेराधे●राधेराधे●राधे
Poem in a letter from Baba
Sri Vrindavan 1971

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Sravana Utsava ~ The Festival of the Rainy Season ♥ जय श्री राधे कृष्ण! ♥

The most wonderful Season of all seems to always come after the most difficult one. And it is this that makes Sravana Mas, the season of the fabulous Monsoons, so delicious and the most ecstatic event of the year!! After what seems so trying, the unbearable heat, finally we look forward to the rains, like the peacocks who start singing and actually dancing when they see the huge, heavy, dark rain clouds rolling in on the warm winds!!
No wonder it is a season like no other, with its lovers rushing out into the rains with shouts of joy, dancing!! It is the time of Sravana Utsava, the festival of the Rainy Season. And it is lushly celebrated in Vrindavan, in all of Vraj, and throughout all of India with song, dance, and swinging in the rain! The whole month of the rains, lovers of Sri Radha Krishna come to Vrindavan to celebrate. All the Ras Lila groups show up and perform their
Raslilas, the live plays of Sri Radha and Krsna enacted, to the delight of everyone that has come to this holy land. Many saints and Gurus come specially here with their devotees for this time of the beautiful Sravana Utsava.

"Sri Krishna prema mayi Radha, Radha prema mayo Hari!
Jivane nidhane Nityam! Sri Radha Krishno ghatirma mam!"

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¸¸.•*`*•☆Baba Shripadji☆•*`*•.¸¸

  
      From the first day I met him, my life became a series of incredible events  The initial glimpse was classic; beneath a huge ancient tree that had been revered with a circular platform built up around it's base sat a lone man wrapped casually in hand loomed cloth, dread locks spread over his shoulders and he was surrounded by an air of deep contentment and peace.

      Shripad Babaji was a sadhu of the old school.  Once I had asked him what he had gotten from his Guru.  Without missing a beat he answered, "Vairag" ( total relinquishment).  This I found to be true.

      Until the day he left his mortal body, Babaji was true to himself and the sadhu tradition. He actually cared far too little for his own bodily existence.  He was full of care and also careless.  His own burning desire was to make anyone around him increase their love and complete attachment to God and nothing else.  Absolutely nothing else.  None were spared that came near.  It was not always easy, not ever initially easy to understand at the time, but his teachings by actual example and situation would unfold and their meaning would be revealed sometimes even several years later.  

      Babaji called it " the wholey man's workshop", (double meaning pun intended), the living teaching as handed down from preceptor to pupil for generations. Babaji's memorable teachings live on in his beloved's hearts.      

        Shantananda Bharti

        Dharamkot, Dharamsala
           June 3,2013

                                                        ☆¸.•°*♥ हरी ॐ *ღ☆¸.•°*

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Bhagsu Naag Temple Darshan *ღ☆¸.•°*♥ हरी ॐ Holy Waterfall ~ Dharamkot ~

 

Just 2 km from McLeod Ganj, the lovely Headquarters
of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is the ancient Bhagsunag Temple dedicated to 
Lord Shiva. There is a natural stream that continually fills the pools of this lovely 
mountain Temple!

      Bhagsu Nag Mandir is an ancient temple believed to be built in Treta Yug
(around 9,100 years ago) bu King Bhagsu of Rajasthan.  Once during his reign
there was a severe drought in his capital, Ajmer.  His subjects, represented by 
their local chiefs, threatened to abandon the kingdom if the situation persisted. 
Concerned for his people the king set out in pursuit of water.  Three days of his
quest lead him to the holy Naagdal Lake, situated at a height of approx. 18,000
ft.  This area was inhabited by the rulers of the Naag Dynasty.  The Naags are
powerful religio-mythical snakes of the King Cobra species that are considered
demi-gods and are companions, also adornments, of Lord Shiva. The lake is 
thought by the locals to be sacred and to have medicinal properties.  Being a 
wizard and adept in magic, King Bhagsu put all the water of Naag Dal Lake into
his kamandalu ( magic pot).  He then started a journey back to his province in
Rajasthan.  But it was late in the evening so he decided to stay for the night at 
the place where the Bhagsu Naag Temple is now situated.
       Meanwhile, the local King Naag Shankar and other locals were shocked
to see the lake empty within less than a few hours.  They followed his footprints
and reached the place where King Bhagsu was staying. There and then a battle
ensued between King Naag Shankar and King Bhagsu.  During the fight the
vessel containing the lake's water fell to the ground and turned into natural
streams and waterfalls.  Being a devotee and manifestation of Lord Shiva,
king Naag Shankar was a divine being and virtually invincible.  King Bhagsu
realized this after he was defeated.  he asked for forgiveness, grace, and
blessings from King Naag Shankar.  He also prayed that his kingdom be
granted water resources.  Naag Shankar gave him a boon that from henseforth
the place would be known and referred to by King Bhagsu's name first, and
subsequently by his name, Naag Shankar.  Thus, this place came to be called
Bhagsu Naag.
        In the beginning of Kali Yuga, approx. 5,100 years ago, King Dharam
Chand was directed in a dream by Lord Shiva to build a temple here to bring
prosperity to the region.  Both Dharamshala and Dharamkot have been named
after this king Dharam Chand.

A short distance from the Temple one reaches this entrance spot...and sees
that the Waterfall is at quite a distance!  It's actually this long but lovely walk
around this Himalayan mountain! Down below one can see people, among
them monks, having a holy bath in the flowing stream!!

                         Here, closer to the waterfall, are also these blue-covered huts.

When I told Swami Jnananandaji that I was 

staying this Summer at Dharamkot, just above 

McLeod Ganj, Swamiji said that he had been living

 here for some time very long ago, in his youth. 

He then told me that there was a holy waterfall 

where he used to bath and that many Tibetan monks

also used to come there for a holy bath.

  (`*•.¸(`*•.¸,♥,¸.•*´)¸.•*´) 

 ♥«•OM MANI PADME HUM•»♥
 (¸.•*´(¸.•*’´♥`’*•.¸)`*•.¸)

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A Tribute to Swami Jnanananda Giriji ॐ ॐ ॐ ॐ ॐ ॐ ॐ ॐ

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Tribute to Sant Gulab Singhji

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Sri Shunya Babaji, Emanual Sorensen ~ Viking Spirit!

                                                ... here with the cosmic dog, Sri Cho Chu Wuji!

      Sri Shunya Babaji, Sunyata Emanuel Sorensen, this is his story told to me,
over the years of his visits to us in Chandigarh in the 70's. That he was a Viking
child, of Denmark, born on Oct. 27, 1890, raised on a small farm. Little was
said about his childhood but sometimes came out in jests. And there were days
of joyous ease spent in silence near him in THAT divine consciousness.
He was always in a friendly mood and would happily answer any questions.
So one day he told of how he came to India. He said, "Before coming to
India I was a gardener communicating with plants and trees on a big estate in
England. I used to see Gurudev Tagore, the new guest there, walking alone in
the early morning before dawn.Both of us enjoying the silence we never spoke
until just near the end of his stay. He said to me, 'Why don't you come to India
and teach silence to the Indians!' So, we became friends and I begin to think of
coming to India. By the time I had reached India and Shantiniketan a year or
so later, Tagore was not there! So,I began to travel around India, alone~all one.
    I was to meet him later and he introduced me to Nehru, and the sister.
There I was a guest when I was offered some land to live on, 'The Immortal
Garden of Emptiness', at Kalimat. So, this house in the hills above Almora was
built by ones gathering all the stones from around there only! When people
ask how one lives there without electricity, I tell them that I live like the birds.
When the sun is out I come out and when it gets dark I go to bed. And there
is the dog, Sri Cho Chu Wuji!"
    After some time a friend of his, Paul Brunton, arranged for a trip to meet
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in Tiruvannamalai Ashram. This was his
"most significant spiritual encounter." He was to make three others trips there
also!
    One day Paul told Sunyata that Bhagavan Sri Ramana had referred to him
as a 'Janam Siddha', a born Mystic!
    He said," I used to sit daily in the back and just observe everything,
especially the Bhagavan Maharishi himself. And one day suddenly, out of the
pure akasha and living Silence, there sounded upon Emmanuel (his preferred
name for himself) these five words ‘We are always aware, Sunyata!’ So, you
see this is where the name came from and initiation and mantra!"

               "It is not what I say, but what 'I am' that sometimes gets across! "

         "You see, if God did not exist
                 then the whole business would have to be invented!"
                                                                            "Wu!"

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