This blog is written and maintained by Tandava, but I want your input, too! Please email me if you have any comments, thoughts, or experiences that I can quote and share here. You can even just suggest events or happenings that you think deserve a mention. Help share the joy with our extended Ananda family!
This past week was Krishna’s birthday (landing on August 22 this year), and so we celebrated with a special Krishna Kirtan on Friday. We had a great turnout of musicians and singers, and used the opportunity to indulge in many more traditional Indian chants than usual, all honoring our beloved, blue, flute-playing guru Krishna.
We chanted an hour longer than usual, but hardly noticed the time passing in our absorption with the music. The altar was a gorgeous sight to behold (and you can behold it here, along with more photos, courtesy of Rani). We rounded off the evening sharing tasty prasad with gurus and gurubais and reveling in the lingering vibrations.
By the way, if you like coming to kirtans, we’ve actually started having them every Friday. They’ve been on a great roll with this new, steady flow of energy and a rotation of excellent leaders. Do come join us any (every!) Friday you can. And we’re already planning ahead for another “big” kirtan for Shiva in February, so that’s something to look forward to as well.
We held a baptism for several children of the congregation at Sunday Service last weekend. The ceremony Swamiji created for this is very simple, welcoming the souls to their new, small bodies, and letting them know they have the blessings of their whole community on their journey. We did this just towards the end of the Festival of Light, so we could treat them to an enthusiastic round of Sing Out With Joy while they were still on stage for their joyful occasion.
Here to be launched on their new incarnation, we had Amy M's young son Issa, along with Tim and Julie's twins, Carson and Drew. Photos of the ceremony are here.
Another fresh denizen of this planet who was not at the ceremony, but whom we'd like to welcome nonetheless, is Theresa and Vinicius' new baby Leo, born July 5. Here's a little peek if you want to say hello.
This past Sunday, one of the musical interludes at Sunday Service was accompanied by a beautiful new dance. Karen and Todd performed Swamiji’s “Psalm of David” from the sidelines while Rita added the visual dimension on stage. Beyond that, we’ll let the video speak for itself. Enjoy!
On Saturday our spiritual community gathered together to honor and commune with each guru in our line of masters. We are incredibly lucky to have not only one guru—blessing beyond measure in itself—but five, who illustrate spiritual qualities in different ways through their varied lives and legacies. Asha spoke in front of each shrine, helping us attune to each particular expression of the Divine. We chanted and meditated with each guru, and placed votive candles around them, offering the little lights that are in us into the blazing light of Infinity.
Jesus and Babaji, with their garlands and lights of devotion.
A beautiful new addition this year was a gazebo for Lahiri Mahasaya. We’ve had his statue for years, but it hasn’t had a permanent home, so this year’s Sadhaka training class has taken up the task of creating this shrine. There’s still painting and roofing to be done, and we’ll share a lot more about the project when it’s finished, but we had enough to decorate it up beautifully for the celebration. We also held a small ceremony, anointing the statue with Ganges water and rose petals, to welcome Lahiri into the space.
Lahiri Mahasaya in his new gazebo.
That leaves Sri Yukteswar as the only guru without a permanent shrine at the residential community (a project for future Sadhaka classes, perhaps?). But one can imagine him responding unconcernedly to the prospect saying, as he did to Master in Autobiography of a Yogi, “Do so if it pleases you.” And there’s always a certain charm to his hanging lanterns in the open air, glowing like the light of wisdom around his portrait, floating detached from “the vast world, interested only in externals.”
Swami Sri Yukteswar, and Paramhansa Yogananda.
We concluded the evening in front of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose shrine was accompanied by a photo of his disciple, Swami Kriyananda. These two great souls were the channels for bringing the teachings of all our masters to us, and for that we are eternally grateful.
This past Saturday was the birthday of our very beloved Asha. Given that Asha is the choir’s biggest fan, and that we'll take any excuse for some more fun and music, we decided to hold a summer concert in her honor. So this weekend’s Sunday service led straight into a potluck in the piazza, and the concert actually began there as well, with Dambara and Saranya performing Canticle of the Creatures before leading us all back into the temple for the rest of the show.
The choir put together an excellent program, based around many Ananda favorites (see a video of Life is a Dream). There was also a gorgeous arrangement of Shenandoah, which we've decided just needs to be adopted into our repertoire. A light-hearted interlude featured surprise, customized birthday songs in both barbershop and Beatles varieties, as well as a must-see skit demonstrating the many, many interpretations of one of our favorite chants.
To end the concert, Rita debuted a new choreography to the song Keep Calling Him. The movements are simple and graceful, and suitable for audience participation, which let us wrap things up with a feeling of connection to everyone in the room. It’s also good to see that dance as an Ananda art form can continue here, even now that Pavani has moved to Portland.
The whole concert was recorded for a CD — contact the Sangha staff if you’re interested in getting a copy. For now, we’ll leave you with a link to all the photos, as well as a sweet poem that David G. wrote for Asha, and read at the concert.
To Asha on her Birthday
Onto the scene a cute baby did burst
The only child ever to be born mouth first
A gift to us all she’d grow up to be
A beacon of Light that hundreds would see
Her life has been filled with Swami adventures
But the birthdays add up—soon we’re shopping for dentures
But enough of that road, now’s a time just to cheer
So lend me your mind, your heart, and your ear.
We took a pen in hand to write
A poem we thought would you delight
But ne’er before had this been done
By us, for you, in birthday fun
We scratched our heads for soon we knew
Good poems there are but very few
And soon we saw a sight ‘twas sad
This one’s among the very bad
But do not fear; there’s not much more
Except the birthday wish in store
For all we really want to do
Is to share our love and prayers for you
And now here comes the final part
A thought that comes straight from the heart
We pray with all our strength and might
That Master bless you with his sight
For you’ve touched us all in so many ways
And bathed us all in Master’s rays
Our thanks run deep and strong and true
I speak for us all: love and joy to you!
This Fourth of July our extended Ananda family gathered together to celebrate true, inner freedom with a cookout at the residential community in Mountain View. About a hundred folks turned out to enjoy sunburgers, corn on the cob, baked beans, potato salad, and joyful satsang with fellow devotees. (Photos here, courtesy of D’Arcy, Dambara, and Jeffrey.)
And we can’t forget dessert, of course. The younger bodies effectively dominated the s’mores scene (above), but we also had a sundae bar to pick up the slack. Vanilla ice cream with raspberries and blueberries made an excellent combination for the patriotically-minded, but the brownies and fudge sauce were well worth altering the color scheme.
Dinner was followed by an outdoor kirtan in front of Paramahansa Yogananda’s shrine and gazebo. Along with the abundance of voices, we had harmoniums, guitars, kirtals, a flute, a drum, and shakers for the little ones. The chants naturally included “Rise in Freedom” and “I Am Free,” along with many other Ananda favorites.
Swami Kriyananda’s words from Living Wisely, Living Wellremind us to be grateful not only for the freedom we’ve been given here on earth, but also for the divine freedom that awaits all of us:
Independence Day in America: The political and national freedom celebrated this day were meant to give all men a chance to rise to their own highest potential.
Though independence has not been applied universally, it has at least been directional. It has taken time for black people and for women to win the right to vote, though that right should have been recognized and bestowed from the beginning.
It is time now to declare a new kind of freedom: freedom of conscience!
This declaration can be made only by and for the individual. Let no one pressure you into thinking or behaving as he thinks you ought to. God has a special song to sing through you. It can be offered to the universe only by yourself.
Rajarshi Janakananda was Paramahansa Yogananda's most spiritually advanced disciple, and was also extremely successful on the material plane, being a self-made millionaire and funding much of Master’s work. It was in his honor that 40 devotees gathered at the Ananda Palo Alto temple on Saturday for a joyful morning of karma yoga, beautifying the church and the grounds.
We started with a two-page “wish list” of projects, and a truly impressive amount of them were accomplished. Some of the indoor projects included cleaning carpets and chairs; building some new storage shelves; cleaning and organizing vases, candles, candleholders, altar cloths, closets, and supplies; and framing or reframing many pictures of Master and other saints. The yoga center is also enjoying a newly cleaned entrance and sparkling windows.
Outdoors, one of the largest projects was laying down a coat of primer on the teaching center walls that have yet to be painted. This necessitated, of course, the extra step of covering in plastic anything that didn’t need to be covered in primer. We also had a team of gardeners working with the plants around all the buildings, and a duo ofCinderellas scrubbing stains off the courtyard paving stones. And in the midst of all that, we also replaced the gutter downspouts, and cleaned and organized the dumpster and storage areas.
It was a beautifully productive day that left not just the temple but all of us buzzing with new energy and magnetism. Well done, all!
We chanted an hour longer than usual, but hardly noticed the time passing in our absorption with the music. The altar was a gorgeous sight to behold (and you can behold it here, along with more photos, courtesy of Rani). We rounded off the evening sharing tasty prasad with gurus and gurubais and reveling in the lingering vibrations.
