A Pilgrimage to AVG
It all started in 2004 when I was informed by a friend about a talk on the Karma Yoga Chapter in Bhagavad Gita by Swami Vidhitatmanand in Livermore Temple, CA. After the session, as everyone else, I filled up a form providing my email address for the AVC Mailing list.
On October 10, 2005, I receive an email from Respected Sri Vijay Kapoorji on a new course of 20 classes, scheduled every Sunday starting October 16, 2005 at Jain Bhavan, Milpitas. The topic: COMPLETE INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA AND MEDITATION. In his email, Vijayji mentions, "Our lives remain unfulfilled until an enquiry into the truth about ourselves is conducted to answer such questions as: the purpose of living, nature of joy and sorrow, about the creation and creator, free will and destiny etc.
"Vedanta has answers to these, but like an advanced study of medical science one should not embark on it without 1) directly learning from a knowledgeable and experienced teacher, and 2) a structured, systematic introduction to the basics - like Biology 101, which lays a solid foundation for a lifelong learning for a joyful life."
Being a typical Indian who would love to go to a new place with a friend rather than alone, I could manage to gather four of my colleagues for the first class. As Vijayji mentions during the class, any new course will start with a "honeymoon period" and then the actual stuff would slowly be revealed in later classes, so too all my colleagues who started off the course with me dwindled to zero after some 5 to 6 classes. However, I am grateful to them for providing me an impetus to join this course. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire course in the company of other students and thanks to Sri Vijayji's Advaita Vedanta knowledge and his communication/teaching skills!
From the class, I came to know of a spiritual retreat in Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Saylorsburg, PA, Sep 17-24. Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of this institute, would be teaching during the week's retreat. I always wanted to meet a Realized Soul/Master in person, rather than be content with reading the books and video tapes compiled/edited by their disciples, which I had been doing for a long time now. Secondly, Pujya Swamiji is 75 years old (or more), and I didn't know of a better opportunity than this one! To be frank, I didn't know anything about the teaching topics when I started off from CA to PA; nor did I have much interest in them as long as Pujya Swamiji was teaching them. Moreover, once Sri Vijayji asked me to coordinate for those who will be leaving for the Ashram from San Francisco Airport, I firmed my mind not to chicken out at the last moment.
The final count of those who made the trip from SFO Airport on the Sep 16 7:00AM Continental Flight (SFO to Newark) was six -- apart from myself, Brent, Lalitha, Esther, Nita, and Kumud. Even though I knew none of them before the trip, after the trip I can surely say that it would be difficult to find a better group for a spiritual retreat. Sri Vijayji was to join the camp the next morning after having visited India.
We rented a car from Enterprise for the entire week and reached Saylorsburg in the evening, on time for dinner. The Ashram is at a very scenic location and has lot of greenery around with many tall trees. The weather is cool at this time of the year with a few drizzles once in a while. Ashram has houses as apartments, most of them being single storeyed. At the entrance is the office building, and the book store. There is the Dakshinamurti Temple which is extended to a large auditorium and the building also has dining hall, kitchen and cafetaria. The Ashram also has a library with fine collection of Spiritual books, not only of Vedanta, but also other religions, along with some non-spiritual books, such as books by R K Narayan, and others.
Because of the 20th year celebration of AVG on Sep 17th, there was a shortage of rooms. Hence, Brent and I had to share our room for a few days, and I thoroughly enjoyed his company. He is currently working for Deepak Chopra and also has indepth knowledge of Jyotish (Indian Astrology science) from his study under Hart de Fouw (who too was in attendance at the retreat). He mentioned to me that Pujya Swamiji also has interests in Jyotish, and had conversations with Swamiji when he was in AVG Rishikesh Ashram. I truly admire Brent's patience as much as I admire the happy-go-lucky attitude of Lalitha (a physician by profession), and the giggling of the ladies (Lalitha, Nita, and Esther aka Kirtan).
On the night of Sep 16th I first met Swamiji in his dwelling place along with others. This was thanks to Ms. Shrimati, a regular at the Ashram, who informed us during the dinner of Pujya Swamiji's 8:30PM Satsangs when he is in town. Since Sabeer Bhatia was one of the guests for the celebration the next day (which I came to know later), he too was present at the Satsang as a listener. It is quite amazing to note that with Pujya Swamiji's easy accessibility, it makes it all the more easy to meet gurus of other fields. Anyways, my interests were in spirituality and hence I wasn't totally awed on this occasion. Other than sharing greetings, I didn't have much to say to Mr. Bhatia, a very down to earth fellow.
The 20th Year Celebration was conducted very well, which started with musical concert by Sri M. Ramachandran, a devotee of Swamiji (we had two more opportunities to listen to his concert during the retreat) and ended with Pujya Swamiji's post-lunch Satsang session. Participants were asked to write their questions which Swamiji promptly answered with his wit and short stories.
The next day we had the retreat starting off with Abhiseka to Lord Dakshinamurti at 5:45 AM. Sleep shouldn't be a priority for an earnest spiritual seeker. We can learn this from Mr. Guptaji, the person incharge of microphones and recordings, who at a ripe age (with no disrespect to him, if someone drew his caricature, it would be a close resemblance to Prof. Calculus from Tintin comic book with some looks borrowed from Getafix, the Druid in Asterix comic book) is one of the most active persons in the Ashram, second only to Pujya Swamiji. However, there is no restriction at the Ashram to anyone, and it is left to the seeker to chart his own course. I found most of the retreat attendees to be ardent seekers, and I managed to attend this daily ritual for a few days more than I would have imagined, that too after a full bath on all occasions! This might be largely due to the soundness of the sleep in the ashram with a feeling of freshness in the morning. Timings for other regular aaratis are 12:20PM in the afternoon and 6:00PM in the evenings.
From 7:00 - 7:30 AM, Pujya Swamiji conducted Guided Meditation everyday, which was followed by Breakfast, and Gurukula Seva until 9:00AM. Daily from 9:00AM-10:00AM was a class on Overview of Panini's System of Sanskrit Grammar by Pujya Swamiji. It was good that I didn't know of the retreat topics beforehand and hence, I had not formed any opinion on my making any headway into the Paninian world of Sanskrit Grammar! Swamiji's lucid teaching style and command over English language, along with his experience and knowledge beyond the subject matter made the introduction to Panini a breeze for everyone. It is noteworthy to mention that there were non-Indians in attendance who didn't have any experience with Sanskrit or any other Indian language. But still, they manage to get a glimpse of Panini's ingenuity in Pujya Swamiji's words. More than once, Swamiji eulogized Panini to be a "Genius" marvelling at his ability to have the entire language construct in mind before starting with the first sutra (Grammar rule)!
On the first two days, from 10:30 to 11:00AM there was a music class by Pandit Mukesh Desai, a student of the well-known Pandit Jasraj. He also lent his voice to sing enchanting Bhajans from 7:30 to 8:00 PM on these two days. I know of atleast one American who bought his music CD from the book store after hearing him during the retreat. So, with Sri M. Ramchrandan's mesmerizing Carnatic voice and Panditji's Hindustani raagaas, someone new to Indian music would definitely have learnt a note or two! On other days, there was Vedic chanting class conducted by either Shri Suddatmaji or by a Swamiji of American origins (I don't remember his name though I have a clear recollection of his chanting voice and his erect seating posture while chanting.).
At 11:15AM everyday, there was one hour lecture on Gajendra Moksha by Swami Tatvavidananda, disciple of Pujya Swamiji, who is the best I have known so far in terms of command over Sanskrit language and his recollection of Sanskrit slokas and sutras. His exposition of this Srimadbhaagvatam story from a Vedantic perspective was totally overwhelming and touching. He had a lot to convey to us in a short time, and there were many an inspirational quotation with Vedantic thoughts that I noted down in my diary during his talk -- "To know God is to deny God", "Trying to find a cause for a situation is to escape from it", "By changing the outer, inner transformation can't happen", "Anything is pleasant only when I accept it", "A bubble can't know the ocean but can lose itself to the ocean, and with that become the ocean", "You can describe things in Light, but can't describe Light", "An iota of experience is stronger than a ton of precept", "Knowledge can't be gained in the future", "Knowledge is a timeless journey into a pathless land", "Anything limited in space is necessarily limited in time" (Sage Kapila), "When you watch the mind, you rise above the mind", "Truth reveals itself; Knowledge happens", "Words can only signal the Truth, Words can't describe the Truth" (example given was of person's shadow).
From 3:00PM there was an hour and a half time allotted for Yoga exercises followed by Tea/Coffee Break. At 5:00PM there was one hour class on Essence of all the Upanishads by Pujya Swamiji, and rephrasing an earlier mentioned quote, I can only say that words can't describe the Vedic knowledge that was shared by Pujya Swamiji. It was simply phenomenal! There was not much time for such a vast topic, especially with minds like mine in the audience, however, Swamiji did his best. His House allegory was too good, and conclusions he derived from it was beyond me. I noted down a few points in my diary which I hope to decode at my leisure.
"Where is the House? Are the Walls, Ceilings, Floors, etc a House? If they are constituents of and not the House per se, then isn't House simply a name for a form of a Non-House, which in turn (if we use the same logic regressively) is made up of Non-Wall, Non-Celings, Non-Floors, etc? House is a concept revealing an attribute of Non-House. Then what is the difference between the Non-House, the Non-Wall, the Non-Roof?" "Non-Subject is the locus for the attribute which is the meaning of the Subject, which is the meaning of the Object, which therefore is the Non-Object" (neti neti) "Locus of the Subject is before I say, 'I am'" "Tableness, Roofness, etc are attributes of 'What is' which is non-space and non-time. Therefore any particular experience, feeling, cognition, recollection, perception reveals the non-object 'What is', which is Non-Dual" "'What is' (let's call it SATYAM) is not subject to negation. SATYAM is the locus of subject 'you' and the object you confront is within (you)"
Eventhough a serious topic was being taught there were many occasions when the entire audience would go wild with laughter, thanks to Pujya Swamiji's witty remarks and funny facial expressions: "Between the House and the Non-House, what is the distance? You can't even scrape it off like a lottery ticket!" "If you can summarize Pope's 4-page lecture (the one which had a huge effect in the Muslim world) with more than three sentences, I would love to hear it."
"The plane has taken off. Announcement in the plane: 'This is a Computer speaking. This plane is being piloted by a Computer. So no human error is possible... So no human error is possible.... So no human error is possible.... So no human error is possible.... So no human err... Please fasten your seat belts and have a safe flight!"
(While disregarding blind beliefs) "A man falls off a 500ft precipice, and just when he has fallen 50ft or so he grabs a creeper. He makes an attempt to climb up but then considering the strength of the creeper, he is afraid to even move, lest the creeper is uprooted resulting in his demise. With no other way out, he calls for God, 'Where are you, O Lord!' He hears a heavenly voice from beneath, 'I am here. Leave the branch and I will catch you.' The man responds, 'Is someone up there?'"
I remember this one from Swamiji's Panini class. He was very much interested in teaching us Sanskrit, more than we ourselves were in learning. This could be attested from his comment in the middle of the class when he adjusted his seating posture by folding his legs and exclaimed, "Please fasten your seat belts..." which was followed by bellows of laughter from everyone.
There were occasions when Pujya Swamiji would belie his age with his sharp memory, and it was quite a fun. For example, he would remember where he had ended a topic the previous evening, and start off the next day with the word, "House" and that was enough for everyone to be on track with a smile on their faces!
As I mentioned earlier, it's quite easy to approach Pujya Swamiji, and also to have private conversations with him. However, we need to be considerate about his age. I had a couple of occasions to talk to him, one of which being a private chat. Since, I came to know that Swamiji had interests in reading horoscopes, I showed him mine (knowing my time of birth, I printed it off at the AVG office) and was happy about it! It's all providence when things happen the way they happen. That's all I can say :) To add to this, I would also thank Sri Vijayji for this opportunity, as eventhough providence makes it happen, one shouldn't forget the Gurus on the path....
From 8:00 to 9:00 PM there were Satsangs with Pujya Swamiji wherein you could ask your questions and get it answered from him then and there. This was quite an opportunity, to not only ask your questions, but also to hear questions that can come to minds of other seekers. Swamiji had answers to all, sometimes the wittiness was as profound as the knowledge. When asked "What is the difference between Buddhism and Vedanta?", he retorted "What is the difference between Zero and Infinity?"
All in all it was a very eventful trip for me and everything now rests on me to realize the TRUTH beneath the words I have heard from the sages...
On October 10, 2005, I receive an email from Respected Sri Vijay Kapoorji on a new course of 20 classes, scheduled every Sunday starting October 16, 2005 at Jain Bhavan, Milpitas. The topic: COMPLETE INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA AND MEDITATION. In his email, Vijayji mentions, "Our lives remain unfulfilled until an enquiry into the truth about ourselves is conducted to answer such questions as: the purpose of living, nature of joy and sorrow, about the creation and creator, free will and destiny etc.
"Vedanta has answers to these, but like an advanced study of medical science one should not embark on it without 1) directly learning from a knowledgeable and experienced teacher, and 2) a structured, systematic introduction to the basics - like Biology 101, which lays a solid foundation for a lifelong learning for a joyful life."
Being a typical Indian who would love to go to a new place with a friend rather than alone, I could manage to gather four of my colleagues for the first class. As Vijayji mentions during the class, any new course will start with a "honeymoon period" and then the actual stuff would slowly be revealed in later classes, so too all my colleagues who started off the course with me dwindled to zero after some 5 to 6 classes. However, I am grateful to them for providing me an impetus to join this course. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire course in the company of other students and thanks to Sri Vijayji's Advaita Vedanta knowledge and his communication/teaching skills!
From the class, I came to know of a spiritual retreat in Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Saylorsburg, PA, Sep 17-24. Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of this institute, would be teaching during the week's retreat. I always wanted to meet a Realized Soul/Master in person, rather than be content with reading the books and video tapes compiled/edited by their disciples, which I had been doing for a long time now. Secondly, Pujya Swamiji is 75 years old (or more), and I didn't know of a better opportunity than this one! To be frank, I didn't know anything about the teaching topics when I started off from CA to PA; nor did I have much interest in them as long as Pujya Swamiji was teaching them. Moreover, once Sri Vijayji asked me to coordinate for those who will be leaving for the Ashram from San Francisco Airport, I firmed my mind not to chicken out at the last moment.
The final count of those who made the trip from SFO Airport on the Sep 16 7:00AM Continental Flight (SFO to Newark) was six -- apart from myself, Brent, Lalitha, Esther, Nita, and Kumud. Even though I knew none of them before the trip, after the trip I can surely say that it would be difficult to find a better group for a spiritual retreat. Sri Vijayji was to join the camp the next morning after having visited India.
We rented a car from Enterprise for the entire week and reached Saylorsburg in the evening, on time for dinner. The Ashram is at a very scenic location and has lot of greenery around with many tall trees. The weather is cool at this time of the year with a few drizzles once in a while. Ashram has houses as apartments, most of them being single storeyed. At the entrance is the office building, and the book store. There is the Dakshinamurti Temple which is extended to a large auditorium and the building also has dining hall, kitchen and cafetaria. The Ashram also has a library with fine collection of Spiritual books, not only of Vedanta, but also other religions, along with some non-spiritual books, such as books by R K Narayan, and others.
Because of the 20th year celebration of AVG on Sep 17th, there was a shortage of rooms. Hence, Brent and I had to share our room for a few days, and I thoroughly enjoyed his company. He is currently working for Deepak Chopra and also has indepth knowledge of Jyotish (Indian Astrology science) from his study under Hart de Fouw (who too was in attendance at the retreat). He mentioned to me that Pujya Swamiji also has interests in Jyotish, and had conversations with Swamiji when he was in AVG Rishikesh Ashram. I truly admire Brent's patience as much as I admire the happy-go-lucky attitude of Lalitha (a physician by profession), and the giggling of the ladies (Lalitha, Nita, and Esther aka Kirtan).
On the night of Sep 16th I first met Swamiji in his dwelling place along with others. This was thanks to Ms. Shrimati, a regular at the Ashram, who informed us during the dinner of Pujya Swamiji's 8:30PM Satsangs when he is in town. Since Sabeer Bhatia was one of the guests for the celebration the next day (which I came to know later), he too was present at the Satsang as a listener. It is quite amazing to note that with Pujya Swamiji's easy accessibility, it makes it all the more easy to meet gurus of other fields. Anyways, my interests were in spirituality and hence I wasn't totally awed on this occasion. Other than sharing greetings, I didn't have much to say to Mr. Bhatia, a very down to earth fellow.
The 20th Year Celebration was conducted very well, which started with musical concert by Sri M. Ramachandran, a devotee of Swamiji (we had two more opportunities to listen to his concert during the retreat) and ended with Pujya Swamiji's post-lunch Satsang session. Participants were asked to write their questions which Swamiji promptly answered with his wit and short stories.
The next day we had the retreat starting off with Abhiseka to Lord Dakshinamurti at 5:45 AM. Sleep shouldn't be a priority for an earnest spiritual seeker. We can learn this from Mr. Guptaji, the person incharge of microphones and recordings, who at a ripe age (with no disrespect to him, if someone drew his caricature, it would be a close resemblance to Prof. Calculus from Tintin comic book with some looks borrowed from Getafix, the Druid in Asterix comic book) is one of the most active persons in the Ashram, second only to Pujya Swamiji. However, there is no restriction at the Ashram to anyone, and it is left to the seeker to chart his own course. I found most of the retreat attendees to be ardent seekers, and I managed to attend this daily ritual for a few days more than I would have imagined, that too after a full bath on all occasions! This might be largely due to the soundness of the sleep in the ashram with a feeling of freshness in the morning. Timings for other regular aaratis are 12:20PM in the afternoon and 6:00PM in the evenings.
From 7:00 - 7:30 AM, Pujya Swamiji conducted Guided Meditation everyday, which was followed by Breakfast, and Gurukula Seva until 9:00AM. Daily from 9:00AM-10:00AM was a class on Overview of Panini's System of Sanskrit Grammar by Pujya Swamiji. It was good that I didn't know of the retreat topics beforehand and hence, I had not formed any opinion on my making any headway into the Paninian world of Sanskrit Grammar! Swamiji's lucid teaching style and command over English language, along with his experience and knowledge beyond the subject matter made the introduction to Panini a breeze for everyone. It is noteworthy to mention that there were non-Indians in attendance who didn't have any experience with Sanskrit or any other Indian language. But still, they manage to get a glimpse of Panini's ingenuity in Pujya Swamiji's words. More than once, Swamiji eulogized Panini to be a "Genius" marvelling at his ability to have the entire language construct in mind before starting with the first sutra (Grammar rule)!
On the first two days, from 10:30 to 11:00AM there was a music class by Pandit Mukesh Desai, a student of the well-known Pandit Jasraj. He also lent his voice to sing enchanting Bhajans from 7:30 to 8:00 PM on these two days. I know of atleast one American who bought his music CD from the book store after hearing him during the retreat. So, with Sri M. Ramchrandan's mesmerizing Carnatic voice and Panditji's Hindustani raagaas, someone new to Indian music would definitely have learnt a note or two! On other days, there was Vedic chanting class conducted by either Shri Suddatmaji or by a Swamiji of American origins (I don't remember his name though I have a clear recollection of his chanting voice and his erect seating posture while chanting.).
At 11:15AM everyday, there was one hour lecture on Gajendra Moksha by Swami Tatvavidananda, disciple of Pujya Swamiji, who is the best I have known so far in terms of command over Sanskrit language and his recollection of Sanskrit slokas and sutras. His exposition of this Srimadbhaagvatam story from a Vedantic perspective was totally overwhelming and touching. He had a lot to convey to us in a short time, and there were many an inspirational quotation with Vedantic thoughts that I noted down in my diary during his talk -- "To know God is to deny God", "Trying to find a cause for a situation is to escape from it", "By changing the outer, inner transformation can't happen", "Anything is pleasant only when I accept it", "A bubble can't know the ocean but can lose itself to the ocean, and with that become the ocean", "You can describe things in Light, but can't describe Light", "An iota of experience is stronger than a ton of precept", "Knowledge can't be gained in the future", "Knowledge is a timeless journey into a pathless land", "Anything limited in space is necessarily limited in time" (Sage Kapila), "When you watch the mind, you rise above the mind", "Truth reveals itself; Knowledge happens", "Words can only signal the Truth, Words can't describe the Truth" (example given was of person's shadow).
From 3:00PM there was an hour and a half time allotted for Yoga exercises followed by Tea/Coffee Break. At 5:00PM there was one hour class on Essence of all the Upanishads by Pujya Swamiji, and rephrasing an earlier mentioned quote, I can only say that words can't describe the Vedic knowledge that was shared by Pujya Swamiji. It was simply phenomenal! There was not much time for such a vast topic, especially with minds like mine in the audience, however, Swamiji did his best. His House allegory was too good, and conclusions he derived from it was beyond me. I noted down a few points in my diary which I hope to decode at my leisure.
"Where is the House? Are the Walls, Ceilings, Floors, etc a House? If they are constituents of and not the House per se, then isn't House simply a name for a form of a Non-House, which in turn (if we use the same logic regressively) is made up of Non-Wall, Non-Celings, Non-Floors, etc? House is a concept revealing an attribute of Non-House. Then what is the difference between the Non-House, the Non-Wall, the Non-Roof?" "Non-Subject is the locus for the attribute which is the meaning of the Subject, which is the meaning of the Object, which therefore is the Non-Object" (neti neti) "Locus of the Subject is before I say, 'I am'" "Tableness, Roofness, etc are attributes of 'What is' which is non-space and non-time. Therefore any particular experience, feeling, cognition, recollection, perception reveals the non-object 'What is', which is Non-Dual" "'What is' (let's call it SATYAM) is not subject to negation. SATYAM is the locus of subject 'you' and the object you confront is within (you)"
Eventhough a serious topic was being taught there were many occasions when the entire audience would go wild with laughter, thanks to Pujya Swamiji's witty remarks and funny facial expressions: "Between the House and the Non-House, what is the distance? You can't even scrape it off like a lottery ticket!" "If you can summarize Pope's 4-page lecture (the one which had a huge effect in the Muslim world) with more than three sentences, I would love to hear it."
"The plane has taken off. Announcement in the plane: 'This is a Computer speaking. This plane is being piloted by a Computer. So no human error is possible... So no human error is possible.... So no human error is possible.... So no human error is possible.... So no human err... Please fasten your seat belts and have a safe flight!"
(While disregarding blind beliefs) "A man falls off a 500ft precipice, and just when he has fallen 50ft or so he grabs a creeper. He makes an attempt to climb up but then considering the strength of the creeper, he is afraid to even move, lest the creeper is uprooted resulting in his demise. With no other way out, he calls for God, 'Where are you, O Lord!' He hears a heavenly voice from beneath, 'I am here. Leave the branch and I will catch you.' The man responds, 'Is someone up there?'"
I remember this one from Swamiji's Panini class. He was very much interested in teaching us Sanskrit, more than we ourselves were in learning. This could be attested from his comment in the middle of the class when he adjusted his seating posture by folding his legs and exclaimed, "Please fasten your seat belts..." which was followed by bellows of laughter from everyone.
There were occasions when Pujya Swamiji would belie his age with his sharp memory, and it was quite a fun. For example, he would remember where he had ended a topic the previous evening, and start off the next day with the word, "House" and that was enough for everyone to be on track with a smile on their faces!
As I mentioned earlier, it's quite easy to approach Pujya Swamiji, and also to have private conversations with him. However, we need to be considerate about his age. I had a couple of occasions to talk to him, one of which being a private chat. Since, I came to know that Swamiji had interests in reading horoscopes, I showed him mine (knowing my time of birth, I printed it off at the AVG office) and was happy about it! It's all providence when things happen the way they happen. That's all I can say :) To add to this, I would also thank Sri Vijayji for this opportunity, as eventhough providence makes it happen, one shouldn't forget the Gurus on the path....
From 8:00 to 9:00 PM there were Satsangs with Pujya Swamiji wherein you could ask your questions and get it answered from him then and there. This was quite an opportunity, to not only ask your questions, but also to hear questions that can come to minds of other seekers. Swamiji had answers to all, sometimes the wittiness was as profound as the knowledge. When asked "What is the difference between Buddhism and Vedanta?", he retorted "What is the difference between Zero and Infinity?"
All in all it was a very eventful trip for me and everything now rests on me to realize the TRUTH beneath the words I have heard from the sages...
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