Summer Camp 2013 - Series 1

Shri. Pattabhiram lecture session on 'Love & Family Life'

Summer Camp at Ashram is always been one of the highly anticipated event for all the family members of Sadhana Sangama, as it provides a means to come together, spend an eventual week at Ashram to unlearn toxic habit patterns, thoughts & activities and to learn Satvic fruitful teachings from the great Masters.

This year Summer Camp at Sadhana Dhama had presence of highly enthusiastic and motivated participants from different parts and the message we got this time from the Masters is highly valuable & need of the hour as it was on the topic “Love & Family Life”.

We here humbly present the coverage of this year Summer Camp to all the readers in series, so that it benefits the Sadhakas who could not attend the camp and also for Sadhakas who were part of the Camp, to recollect their Golden memories. 

The Camp started on 19th of May evening with Guruji & Jyothi Ma inaugurating the camp with lighting the lamp by chanting Guru Vandana & Shanthi Slokas followed by Guruji’s Introductory talks which set the goal of the camp perfectly in midst of gentle breeze as a welcome sign from the Mother Nature.

OM POORNAMADAH POORNAMIDAM

POORNAAT POORNAMUDACHYATE

POORNASYA POORNAMAADAAYA
POORNAMEVAAVASHISHYATE

OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIH

Guruji then started his session with a meditation session as He emphasized that meditation is the only space where inner union is possible as it is the very purpose of family life. Guruji guided meditation helped the participants to drop all the activities which are going on deep within that are controlled by us, so that in the very silence one can experience the union within. 

Guruji during the Meditation session guided the participants with the following Prayer:

The entire message for a family man is how to bring that union deep within. There is freedom, there is beauty and there is oneness with everything.  Let us feel that fragrance deep within, the harmony, union and joy.  Whatever comes in the way consciously drop, detach. Don’t try to fight with anything.  Feel the presence of Himalayan masters, let us connect with Gurudev and let us offer our humble sankalpa yuktha prathna, that one week, we are going to be here together. Eh! Gurudev, bless us, intensify our sadhana, strengthen our conviction to carry on the spiritual blessings of the Masters,  bless us to find out the purpose of family and to strengthen the family institution so that all the members of the family and the society will grow beautifully & completely. 

Prayers to lord Ganapathi, lord Hanuman, & the Divine Mother to bless all the Sadhakas were also invoked. 

Post Meditation, Guruji made us aware of the purpose of this year Camp and what we as Sadhakas have in store which is going to be tremendous value add if practiced sincerely. Following is the brief synopsis of our beloved Gurudev’s intro talk which itself is a great insight for all of us:

Friends, we are going to stay together for one week, to meditate together, understand together, learn together - what is family, what is my relationship with family and how to use family as a very powerful ground to connect oneself with the divinity. The entire family revolves around Shiva Shakthi Bhava. Shiva & Shakti, one is the light and another one is the energy.  As we see combination of Electricity & Electric wire which are both needed, so is Light & Energy.

When there is perfect harmony & beautiful relatioship between these two, then one merges with the other, one becomes the other, and in that union there is presence of the divinity.

We are going to discuss these in detail in next few days, but I want you as a sadhaka, to hold on to these two words Shiva and Shakthi and the union of these two.

Life is nothing but relationship. You cannot stay without relationship. So one has to find out what is this relationship & from where this relationship is emerging. So sadhana is not merely doing something mechanically, sadhana means enquiring also. Infact sadhana means, a means to enquiry. Sadhana means whatever I have enquired when I start experiencing it, that is sadhana.

How one can bring this Shiva Shakthi Bhava? Shiva means, auspiciousness, managalamaya, anandamaya, where there is absolute freedom, joy, happiness & satisfaction, that is Shiva. Shiva means, manifestation of that eternity, which is nothing but perfection & happiness. Now what is family then? Family means how I can make this consciousness as energy to organize to create and to build up something called family. So family beings with you, not with your husband or with your wife or with anybody else, it begins with you.

If you experience, Shiva Bhava in you and that becomes the Shakthi, the energy and that energy starts relating. And in that relationship there is no complaint & competition; there is only learning, understanding and the concern. It means, family life is nothing but the tapas (austerity), it’s not just you enjoy and extract, and demand and fight and then divorce. All those things are nothing to do with family. We always fight, we complain, but here, in this space, if I experience, how to translate the Shiva into Shakthi, then it becomes the tapas (austerity). Then it starts moving from yourside to outside. It’s not from outside to inside. it’s from here (inner) to outside. 

So I have to go back to myself, for that I need a base, our rishis have given the base, Shankaracharya has given that base, that is Shiva Shakthi Swarupa. So again family means, it has to start with you. It means, enriching, empowering your inner dimension. If you do this, then you can see, experience, the entire kula (family) of the universe. In that you see, the family which is very close to you also. Otherwise, Just merely getting married, does not make you a family man.

So friends, next few days, let us work on this concept. Shiva Shakthi Swarupa. How I can translate the Shiva into Shakti. Shakthi means manifestation, Shakthi means movement. So how I can push this forward? To do that, one has to find out what is this Shiva & Shakti.

Don’t drop it, by saying Guruji, it’s too difficult. I know it’s difficult. Whole life is difficult. Tell me, what is not difficult in you. Working in Kitchen, going to office, keeping your back straight, listening, taking care of family, sending your kids to school, the whole life is difficult only. So now if you are intelligent, select those difficulties which are going to help you a lot. Everything is difficult; earning money is difficult, getting sleep is difficult, because of too much food, stomach is full, so digestion is difficult..., so every second, we experience this difficulty. So why we accept only few difficulties to carry on, and few (Sadhana) we don’t even take a chance to understand ?

Going to office & taking care of kids is also difficult activity, getting up early to sit and meditate at home is also a difficult activity, both are difficult, Right? If the whole life is difficult, if you are intelligent, select those difficulties which will create an opportunity in you, to empower you, enhance and merge with the cosmos, do that.

Life means difficulty. Morning till evening, you slog, whole day you slog, and you have accepted that difficulty. When you have accepted that difficulty, you accept this difficulty (Sadhana) also. As you would get the fruit if you accept that difficulty, you would definitely get the fruit, if you accept this difficulty (sadhana) also.

But the problem is, we accept that difficulty, and we don’t accept this difficulty (sadhana) completely. That’s why our sadhana is not moving, progressing. To learn the computer & other modern technologies, how much time you have really given.  You spend so much time there;  but you don’t get this feeling that you are wasting your energy there. But here in the sadhana, "oh, I have to give 10 mintues, 15 minute, 1 hour for Sadhana… No Time Guruji…", full of complaints. So difficulty is something which is common everywhere. Even sitting here listening here, is also a difficult activity.

So this one week friends, together let us try to explore, how I can, share Shiva Bhava that is there in me, as Shakthi and share with everybody. That is the beginning of family. For e.g. if you are staying in a community, how I can share completely. Sharing means, I become sensitive, I try to understand the others person feelings, I try to see the difficulties, I try to see the short comings. With all that, I give love. He is the real family man. It means Grihastho Dhanyaha, our rishis have made it very clear. Grahastha means Dhanya, because it is a great tapas (austerity). At present, Grihasthashram is not becoming tapas because we start expecting too much, without contributing anything.  That is the modern trend.

We expect, but we don’t contribute. Ask yourself, how much you are really contributing. In what way we are contributing, not just, providing some money and building a house that is not the contribution, not at all. How much space you have provided for others, where others can come and rejoice in that space that is there in you? This if you start working at it, we realize, we have not created any space, but we are trying to provide material things, hoping that is going to give this, which is not so.

So let us begin the enquiry, with this simple statement, Shiva Shaktya Yukto. Shiva and Shakthi, both are in us. Shakthi means expression, manifestation, Shiva means Ananda that is there in me. What is Ananda, Anada means non conflicting emotion, where there is no conflict. When the mind goes through non conflicting state, it experiences Ananda.  So manifestation of this Ananda is Shiva Shaktya Yukto.

Dear Sadhakas, with this great message from our Gurudev, let us contemplate on Shiva Shaktya Yukto for few days, till we come back with more updates on the Summer Camp...

Till then, At the lotus feet of the Masters, Vande Guru Paramparam....

- 'Bansuri'
(the messenger)