How can one try to describe what Kumbha Mela is to someone who has never experienced it... perhaps in the same way that one can try to describe what sweet is to someone who has never tasted it.

I could have said that:

Kumbha Mela is the largest religious festival in the world, that it happens once every twelve years, and that it alternates between four locations where drops of the nectar of immortality are said to have fallen: Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik. I could have added that the one held at Allahabad, the meeting point of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mystical Saraswati rivers is the most important among all four.

I could have also said that over a hundred million... ONE HUNDRED MILLION people are expected during the fifty five days of the present Kumbha Mela (almost three times the entire population of Canada), or that an entire tent city has been constructed on the river bed at the meeting point of Ganga and Yamuna, in an area covering over 58 square kilometres.

It would have been impressive to say that more than twenty five thousand policemen are managing the security, or it might have been surreal to mention that the central Indian government allowed 10350 billion rupees (about 190 billion dollars) for the organisation of the event.

I could have said all these things, but I'll decide to take an other direction instead...

Continue reading...

Held at the Dunrovin Retreat Center in the beautiful St. Croix River Valley [Saint Croix, MN] July 19th - July 23rd, 2013

Guided by Swami Radha Bharati and Jim Nelson and the light of Swami Veda Bharati, the schedule will include daily meditations, hatha yoga, contemplative walks. Subtle body sessions will add depth to your silence experience. Transportation will be available for those who wish to attend the Guru Purnima celebration at The Meditation Center in Minneapolis on Monday, July, 22, 2013. Staff will provide every support to guide your experience of silence.

The location this year will be Dunrovin Retreat Center. Located along the banks of the St. Croix River the campus offers river walks and a lovely commons area for contemplative walking.

If you have questions please call The Meditation Center, 612-379-2386, or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ahymsa Publishers presents a new release from Swami Veda Bharati

Personality, the sum total of our past experiences, affects all aspects of our lives. Yoga and meditation form a process of transforming the personality so as to become more in line with one's true spiritual nature. And, since the interaction between one's personality and meditation practice is an intimate part of our spiritual path, it is very important to understand this dynamic. Swami Veda offers us a clear and practical understanding and approach to the topic in this seminar of 12 lectures including a guided meditation.

Audio download available on CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/swamivedabharati6

Lectures include: What to Do with your Mind, Your Yoga Meditation Seat in Life, Guided Meditation, I Am That - So Ham, Witnessing from Within, Realizing Your God, Dhyana - Meditation, Ever Pure, Ever Wise, Ever Free, Pain and Ignorance, Love, Not Fear, Mantra, Meditation: A Personal Journey.

Many of us know Lalita Arya as Ammaji, the Mother who welcomed us into her house and her life for so many years. Now she has given us all a deeply personal gift -- a book of poems. The book takes its title from a poem she wrote inspired by Kanyakumari. She tells us how the poem Eyeful of Sky was inspired:

"There are few places on earth where one is fortunate to witness sunset and moonrise at the same time in the sky. I saw this phenomenon at Kanyakumari, India, a sort of land's end, the apex of the triangle of the sub-continent, on whose two sides were the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and facing the vast Indian Ocean."

Indeed, there is a vastness to this small book. It contains worlds and the dots that dot the constellations of her life and the lives of people she has loved. Inside the lives of the Arya family, close friends, mountains, trees and deer, the Devi Herself lives and is very much present in this book. Eyeful of Sky spans Ammaji's life from her youth and her encounter with a boa constrictor while waiting for a ferry during high rains, all fears assuaged by a gentle, wise stranger and replaced with compassion--- to her life-changing pilgrimage in 2012 at the sacred temples of Kamakshi, Kamakhya, Guwahati, Assam and Kalighat, Kolkata.... mysterious places of the Mother Power.

It is particularly special to me because as I walk through the rooms of this book, I am going up the front walk of their old house in Minneapolis, spiritual home to so many, going up the stairs to the altar, opening the door where Shankaracharya also lives - Na me dvesha ragau... Neither attraction nor aversion have I! - and divine force fields I can almost touch but not see or name. 

This is a transcription of a talk given by Swami Veda Bharati on 22nd February 2013 at the Nurturing Spirituality in the Family Conference.

Bring your mind to your asana where you are sitting.
Turn inwards.
Relax your forehead.
Feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils, with your personal mantra.
Breathing slowly, gently, smoothly.
No break in your breathing cycle, no break in your mantra cycle.
Observe how the mind, mantra and breath are flowing together as a single stream.
Without breaking the stream of consciousness gently open your eyes.
May God and Guru bless us all.

I plan to keep it short. I will not cover everything that I am bubbling with. You can do your own research, and more than research, your own contemplations.

There are two books by Swami Rama on the subject that are available: Love and Family Life and Let the Bud of Life Bloom: A Guide to Raising Healthy and Happy Children. 

Whatever you do in life,
Whatever actions you undertake,
Whatever gestures you make,
Whatever words you speak,
Whatever glances you throw,
Whatever thoughts you think,
Whatever emotions you feel,
Establish each one's connection with the cosmic scheme.
That is called - sacrament; living sacredly. That alone is a lifelong sadhana.