CSA Report: Success!

Ananda Palo Alto’s CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture program) wrapped up its first season this Saturday, after 26 straight weeks of supplying 12 boxes of fresh produce to 23 members. We celebrated our achievement with (what else?) a potluck, sharing memories of the last six months, and making plans for next year.

Blessing the garden before the harvest.

The success of this project was due entirely to huge amounts of joyful service from a host of volunteers. Many remarked that the satsang with our gurubais and neighbors was at least as satisfying a part of the experience as the actual food we received. 

Ramani and Darlene in the garden.

Not only did we harvest from our own garden and orchard, but we also visited our neighbors around Monroe Drive, many of whom have fruit trees that they don’t harvest. So we had the opportunity to make new friends, help them maintain their trees, and share the produce with them. 

Tomato harvest!

We’re planning on expanding next year, so if you’re interested in joining the CSA, talk to Ramani and Amara. And if you like gardening, more volunteers are always welcome! Even though we had our last official harvest already, we’ll be working this weekend on taking out old plants, adding compost and cover crops, and otherwise preparing for the next season.

Darlene, Sharmila, and Amara, showing off
our eggplants, pumpkins, and Jerusalem artichokes.

More photos from the last couple months are here.

Painting the Teaching Center

With the matter of the fraudulent colors having been settled, the teaching center is now beautifully garbed in its new palette of orange, yellow, and red. Nirmoha led a team of volunteers in the painting on Saturday morning, with several dedicated souls staying well into the afternoon.

The job is mostly done now, though there’s still a bit left to finish up. If you’re interested in helping out with some detail work, contact Nirmoha.

[You can find more pictures of your paint-spattered friends here.]

Puerta de Mi Corazón

We held a discipleship ceremony at Sunday service this week, welcoming 5 new members into our spiritual family. There was a fun twist to it this time, though.

Over the past couple of years, Edwin has been teaching the introductory meditation classes in Spanish, doing a great job making these teachings accessible to more people in this area. And he just recently finished teaching his first Meditation 3 class in Spanish as well, so all the people in Sunday’s ceremony were his Spanish-speaking students.

Edwin gave the short talk that accompanied the ceremony, and while I personally couldn’t follow every word, I did like how he described the occasion as “súper especial.” No matter what language you take discipleship in, that rings true. And as the participants took their offerings to the altar and received their blessings, the chanters led us in the Spanish version of “Door of My Heart.”

Puerta de mi corazón
Tengo abierta para tí
Ven a mi, ven a mi
Una vez ven a mi

Pasaran mis dias
Sin verte mi Señor
Noche y dia, noche y dia
Yo te busco noche y dia

Asha remarked that it gave most of us native English speakers a chance to appreciate what some of our friends go through every week here, listening to services or classes in a foreign language. To push it just a bit farther, she then asked Edwin to lead the offertory prayer in Spanish. There were a lot of mumbles as the congregation prayed responsively, but the OM at the end was resounding!

(P.S. While we’re being multilingual here, did you know that the upcoming meditation class in Fremont will also be offered in sign language? Thanks to Saranya for that one!)

Celebrating Ananda

September has always been a significant time of year for the Ananda Palo Alto community, and so we like to roll a number of celebrations into one big “Celebrate Ananda” event. Some previous Septembers of note have been:

• 1980 - Purchase of East West in Menlo Park
• 1989 - Purchase of the residential community in Mountain View
• 1992 - Beginning of Living Wisdom School
• 1994 - Purchase of our Temple property
• 1995 - East West moved to Mountain View

Over 100 people attended this year’s party at the residential community, which began with delightful circle dancing created and led by Rita.






Fine food, of course, is never far from an Ananda celebration. Lunch included tofu and paneer barbecued skewers, Indonesian rice salad, Anika's mother's famous baked beans, a mixed greens salad bar, and desserts extraordinaire lovingly baked and brought in by Marie and Simoné.



The festivities also included the world debut of Ananda Samadhi Bingo. The squares were filled with spiritual qualities and names of our gurus, and completed lines were marked by cries of “Samadhi!”

Congratulations to the winners: Anika with one complete line, and Kasey, Suman, & Eric, with two lines intersecting. (Though all participants are, of course, welcome to achieve samadhi, regardless of the state of their board. Contact your guru for more information.)

Many more wonderful photos of the day here!

Fraud at the Ballot Box!

Or perhaps “discoloration” would be more accurate.

You may remember the Sunday service a few weeks ago, when we had various paint swatches up on the Teaching Center building walls, and voted on our favorites. Well, it turns out none of the yellows were qualified to be serious contenders for an outside paint job. Fine indoors, but none have the stamina to be in the cold (or rather hot) light of day. All fade in the sunlight. “People familiar with the matter” say that a key person on the Color Committee failed to do the proper research before putting the sample colors on the wall. (Unrelated note from Asha: “Oops!”)

However, the will of the people was clearly expressed: More Bright Colors. So in keeping with the spirit (if not exactly the letter) of your votes, you’ll soon see our Teaching Center adorned with the same bright colors that grace the rest of the piazza. For the walls facing into the piazza -- orange on the windowed walls, red on the big, two story blank wall. And on the outside of the building, facing College Avenue, a warm golden yellow (qualified to be outside -- we made sure this time!).

Eventually we’ll take this color scheme all around the building, using the golden yellow on the building, and the orange and red to accent architectural features, the way the doorway facing El Camino is orange now. We hope you like it!

Left: Outside wall of the Teaching Center, facing College Avenue.

Right: Teaching Center windowed walls facing into the piazza.

Left: Big two story blank wall facing into the piazza.

Right: The fraudulent yellows.

Krishna's Birthday Kirtan

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.

Of Such Is the Kingdom of Heaven

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.

Many blessings to all our small friends!