6-8-2015 is my birthday as per Hindu calender.So we planned a spiritual retreat on 6th and 7th at Guntur.About 20 members of 'Panchawati group' from far off places like Chennai,Bangalore,Hyderabad,Anantapur,Vizianagaram,Armoor and also from Vijayawada,who are close to me and who can sync with my ideology easily have attended this retreat.
First day began with a simple Puja. From 9 AM I started explaining the esoteric meaning of Adi Sankara's 'Dakshinamurty Stotram' stanza by stanza.This went on upto 1 PM.
This wonderful hymn to the Universal Supreme Guru,Lord Siva in Dakshinamurty form is the essence of Advaita Philosophy.Though it is a hymn of 10 slokas,it contains the whole Non-dual philosophy in those 10 stanzas.It is such a wonderful work and we wonder how Adi Sankara could summarize his whole philosophy into those 10 short slokas beautifully.
The first sloka commences by saying that the entire universe is dependent on the first cognition of your 'I ness' and ends with the 9th sloka which says the entire universe with its Eight movable and immovable entities is totally permeated with Lord Siva.
This seminal work,though short in form,is pregnant with a wonderfully grand truth which explains the philosophy of Advaita in such a beautiful brevity.
After lunch, we had a lively discussion on Astrology. I explained to them my method of Astro analysis, practically demonstrating with the help of many Astro charts.This session was so lively with jokes and laughter and went on till 5 PM.
Meanwhile, around 3.30 PM,during Sun Hora,we launched our new web site "Ma Panchawati.org". Our members Raju Sykam and Yogeshwer worked hard for the past few months to make this site a reality.
After dusk, we all meditated on the terrace for an hour or so in darkness, had a lively chatting session during dinner and went to bed.
I wanted to take the members to some place on the second day and searched for places.Jillellamudi, where Universal Mother is ever present with overflowing love came to my mind instantly and I decided to go to Jillellamudi village on the second day.
Next day, we all got up early, by 4 AM, and practiced Yogasanas from 5 to 6.30.The weather was cloudy and it was drizzling,yet the group enjoyed doing Yoga on terrace.Around 8 AM we started in three cars to Jillellamudi Village and reached there by 10.30.
The whole day was spent in the elevating presence of Sister Vasundhara who spent most of her life with Amma and served her during her last days, 30 years ago.Sister's aura is so pure and elevating that all our minds automatically became silent and we all enjoyed with rapt attention her words describing her memories with Amma. Every one of us felt blessed to be in Sister's presence.
We left Jillellamudi around 5 PM and reached Guntur by 8 PM.All the members left to their towns by night trains/buses and reached their places this morning safely.
These two days were totally spent in spiritual thoughts and meditations without any worldly thoughts.The members got an opportunity to delve deep into true spirituality and divinity.
Above all, a kind of family bond has developed among the members and they became spiritually connected to each other.We all had a very nice time laughing,joking and spending the time merrily.
'Some one at Jillellamudi commented - "We see many persons and groups coming here but rarely do we come across a lovely and disciplined group like yours'- which made me very happy.
One of the members of Vishva Janani Parshad said -' we have read your book 'Sri Vidya Rahasyam' and enjoyed it very well.
'I know nothing.Mother made me write it and the book came into being.I am ignorant.' I replied.
'Mother materialized that book not for you, but for us.' she said.
Knowing that it is my birthday, they honored me with new cloths and gave us a good lunch.All this made me feel that it is Mother who is blessing me this way, on my birthday.I felt overjoyed.
The spiritual retreat went on very well and I hope all the members had very good spiritual experiences during these two days.
I congratulate Sunil VLN for taking more than 450 beautiful snaps painstakingly and freezing the scenes in his camera.
