Carried by a Promise

In mid-November, Swami Rad­hananda and Swami Lal­i­tananda made their first trip to New Zealand and inspired many who were new to Swami Radha’s teach­ings. We were blessed to have two short work­shops, book launch and sat­sang in Auck­land. It was a musi­cal time with kir­tan (bha­jans) at the book launch and a com­bined sat­sang in the style of both Yasod­hara Ashram and the Divine Life Soci­ety. Many atten­dees were dis­ci­ples of Swami Sivananda or Swami Satyananda (a gurub­hai of Swami Radha) along­side two peo­ple who had pre­vi­ously expe­ri­enced the teach­ings at the ashram. It was very spe­cial to be able to wel­come these spe­cial teach­ers as it had been 4 years since I have been to the ashram and it has moti­vated me to offer Hid­den Lan­guage classes again in the New Year. There are sev­eral peo­ple con­sid­er­ing mak­ing the trip to Yasod­hara Ashram, inspired by the invi­ta­tion to visit in 2013 for the 50^th anniversary.

The Swamis had a taste of things uniquely kiwi, expe­ri­enc­ing the wild black sand beaches and unique native bush (for­est) as well as peer­ing into the crater of one of many of Auckland’s extinct vol­canos. They also met Swami Venkate­sananda — a con­crete glazed life-sized statue!

All of us here are grate­ful for the time spent with Swami Rad­hananda and Swami Lal­i­tananda. Thank you to all that helped the book tour man­i­fest the long trip across the Pacific to allow us the oppor­tu­nity to expe­ri­ence the teach­ings here.

Hari Om
Sarah

What a week we had with Swami Rad­hananda and Swami Lal­i­tananda! It was so rich in teach­ing and learn­ing, walk­ing the path of self dis­cov­ery as well as such good fun and a shared jour­ney that will enrich our lives forever.

We explored just a lit­tle of what is uniquely Aus­tralian with the Swamis – met some of the local fauna, trod the ground of the ancient, saw the iconic archi­tec­ture and nat­ural beauty, shel­tered from the harsh sum­mer sun and ate the local del­i­ca­cies (minus the witch­ety grubs)!

For me per­son­ally how­ever, it was the warm embrace of these beau­ti­ful women who entered our lives so nat­u­rally and per­son­ally, chal­leng­ing us, teach­ing us, learn­ing with us, shar­ing their jour­neys of trans­for­ma­tion and growth. The oppor­tu­nity to retreat together for the week­end with a rich diver­sity of women and one young man, was a taster, for many, of the value of tak­ing time to fur­ther dis­cover our Essence, to grow our self aware­ness and to enjoy the Divine within us all.

I think there are a few seri­ously con­sid­er­ing the enor­mous value of cross­ing the Pacific divide and spend­ing time at Yasod­hara Ashram. We are priv­i­leged that Swamis Rad­hananda and Lal­i­tananda brought the Ashram to us Dow­nun­der; the week filled our lives with Light.

Namaste,
Julie Pinazza
Aus­tralia

Van­cou­ver yogi­nis and yogis were happy to wel­come Swami Rad­hananda and Swami Lal­i­tananda here on Octo­ber 22 & 23. There was a great turn out for both work­shops — an encour­ag­ing mix­ture of long time teach­ers, many trav­el­ing from Van­cou­ver Island for the week­end; a group of stu­dents new to RADHA who wanted to go deeper and expand their expe­ri­ence and under­stand­ing of our teach­ings; and a num­ber of long time RADHA stu­dents tak­ing the oppor­tu­nity to once again con­nect with their own inner wisdom. .

Swami Lal­i­tananda invited stu­dents to enter into the Inner Life of Asanas and lis­ten to the intel­li­gence of the body in a day of breath, relax­ation and lis­ten­ing to the mes­sages of the yoga asanas. There was lots of space to explore and expe­ri­ence the feel­ing of joy that was emerg­ing by the end of the day.

Swami Rad­hananda helped us to light up our lives as we focused and con­cen­trated on the Divine Light Invo­ca­tion, expe­ri­enc­ing the power of breath, ten­sion, relax­ation and our abil­ity to imag­ine the Light. As the day pro­gressed we moved more fully into an expe­ri­ence of Light that revealed and sus­tained and showed how we can con­tin­u­ally bring this beau­ti­ful prac­tice into daily life.

It was a ful­fill­ing time together — a time to con­nect with old friends and new and to know the feel­ing of com­mu­nity that arises when we prac­tice together.

Hari Om
Swami Jyotihananda

On the first week­end of Octo­ber we had the plea­sure of host­ing Swami Rad­hananda for a book read­ing at Lotus Books, a sat­sang and a 3 hour work­shop, “Yogic Tools for Trans­for­ma­tion.” Approx­i­mately 20 peo­ple were present to hear her read from her inspir­ing story of per­sonal change, com­mit­ment and devo­tion to her teacher, Swami Radha. I per­son­ally enjoyed learn­ing about her process of review­ing her jour­nals and see­ing the ‘threads’ that were there all along. She encour­aged all of us to keep a jour­nal of our own sto­ries. With­out jour­nal­ing, this book would not have been pos­si­ble! The work­shop took us on a per­sonal jour­ney that was truly amaz­ing in its sim­plic­ity yet pro­found­ness. It was such a plea­sure to have her in our pres­ence, guid­ing us in using the yogic tools that trans­formed her into Swami Radhananda.

Joanne Bel­langer

 
Swami Rad­hananda speaks to the power of ask­ing hon­est ques­tions and leav­ing space for the answers to arise. This was recorded dur­ing her book tour at a read­ing in Spokane.

Swami Rad­hananda was inter­viewed on Dristi Point, a community-based, vol­un­teer orga­ni­za­tion that broad­casts a weekly radio show.  Lis­ten to Rad­hananda talk­ing about her rela­tion­ship to her Guru, Swami Radha, her expe­ri­ences with the Light and the new life that opened as she grew in her com­mit­ment to a spir­i­tual life. Swami Rad­hananda also speaks about mantra, ini­ti­a­tion, and what it means to wel­come Divine Light into your life.

Down­load the audio

by Swami Radhananda

When I started the book tour in Jan­u­ary, I found it a leap to read my pri­vate reflec­tions out loud. It was chal­leng­ing to stand up in front of an audi­ence and read what was essen­tially my diary from twenty to thirty years ago.

But as we con­tin­ued on the tour I started to see how the book took on a life of its own. Dif­fer­ent peo­ple com­mented about the con­nec­tions they made to their own lives — per­haps reflect­ing on their divorce, or won­der­ing how to care for their chil­dren and have a spir­i­tual life, or find­ing out what it takes to live a com­mit­ment. Each per­son expressed a response to a dif­fer­ent part of my expe­ri­ence and  said how it inspired them! Amazing!

That’s when I real­ized it wasn’t my book any­more. It was there for peo­ple to  make their own, tak­ing from it what they needed.

The process of writ­ing and pre­sent­ing Car­ried by a Promise has been a gift. I’ve looked deeply at my whole life and can accept all of it. I’m also blessed to have the gems writ­ten down because it’s so easy to for­get. Now that I’m read­ing it over and over, there’s not much chance of forgetting!

Yoga is inquiry into the ques­tions: Who am I? What is life? Why am I here? Through these reflec­tions I have gained so much.

Thank you to every­one for your heart­felt response. I was touched by the enthu­si­asm that we met at each place along the way and by see­ing how oth­ers would remem­ber their promises, too.

An atten­tive, diverse group gath­ered at Banyen Books on 4^th Ave in Van­cou­ver last night to hear Swami Rad­hananda read from her book, Car­ried by a Promise, and to reflect on her path. Swami Rad­hananda spoke from her expe­ri­ence with sin­cer­ity and pas­sion. Asked if it was dif­fi­cult to give up every­thing and become a swami, she responded that it wasn’t. “When the time is right, every­thing just opens up,” she said. “What is unnec­es­sary drops away.” The Banyen staff were gen­er­ous and wel­com­ing and the book­store pro­vided a warm and won­der­ful atmos­phere for this inti­mate gath­er­ing of peo­ple inter­ested in a higher pur­pose in life.

On Wednes­day evening, Swami Rad­hananda was wel­comed to Lad­ner by Irene Scarth and her ded­i­cated stu­dents and col­leagues in Lad­ner, where the group joined in with their own per­sonal reflec­tions. “What is the ques­tion in your life?”  Swami Rad­hananda asked.

Some­thing to reflect on for everyone!

(by Swami Lalitananda)

Mid-March found many of us in Cal­gary « car­ried by a promise » not only of the even­tual arrival of spring, but of the arrival of Swami Rad­hananda and Swami Lal­i­tananda, as they make their way across the coun­try for the release of Swami Radhananda’s first book.  We were most for­tu­nate that both promises were kept.  Wee hints of spring-like weather were sent in the form of a lovely weekend-long Chi­nook.  Then, we were all blessed with four amaz­ing days in the pres­ence of the two swamis, dur­ing which time we were led through book read­ings and sign­ings, work­shops, and sat­sang. Read more…