Carried by a Promise

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)

by Vic­to­ria Campbell

From Beach Metro News
Tues­day, March 22, 2011

In 2003 I was intro­duced to the teach­ings of Swami Radha.  In the 1960’s she estab­lished a yoga study and retreat cen­ter called Yasod­hara Ashram in B.C. (www.yasodhara.org).  I began tak­ing classes in Toronto with an instruc­tor trained in her teachings.

Read more…

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…

From The Spokesman-Review

Through her own life strug­gles, Mary-Ann McDougall’s inter­est in yoga as a phys­i­cal exer­cise led to her learn­ing of the spir­i­tual side of the prac­tice and into fol­low­ing a path to become Swami Radhananda.

Now she is pres­i­dent of the Yasod­hara Ashram, a yoga retreat and study cen­ter in Koote­nay Bay, in south­east­ern British Colum­bia, where she helps peo­ple find tools to deal with their problems.

Read more…

Our time in Cal­gary was full, with 40+ peo­ple attend­ing each of four events, includ­ing a read­ing at the Self-Connection Book­store, and  a Sat­sang and two after­noon work­shops at the Yoga Stu­dio. Peo­ple attend­ing the work­shops were inspired by Swami Radhananda’s courage and com­mit­ment and plunged right in to explor­ing their own reflec­tions,  find­ing  threads of mean­ing woven into their lives. A splen­did time was had by all – with par­tic­i­pants com­ing from as far away as Edmon­ton and Leth­bridge. Thanks to all who orga­nized and hosted us! Even the weather coop­er­ated with tem­per­a­tures ris­ing from the –22 to +6, with lots of Cal­gary sunshine!

(Swami Lal­i­tananda)

A Spokane yoga mag­a­zine, “Equal Stand­ing,” pub­lished this arti­cle by Satya
Read the whole arti­cle here:  http://www.equalstandingspokane.com/issue10/carried.html

An excerpt: “Every time I read Car­ried By a Promise some­thing happens-I get a mes­sage about my own life. Swami Radhananda’s hon­esty and clar­ity invite me to reflect about my own promises, chal­lenges, and learning-and to see how the promises I’ve made at the deep­est level are trans­form­ing who I am and are car­ry­ing me towards the Light.”

Here’s a pro­file of Swami Rad­hananda from the Fig Tree, an inter-faith jour­nal pub­lished in Spokane. Swami Rad­hananda was inter­viewed by Mary Stamp, the paper’s edi­tor, while we were in Spokane last month.

(by Swami Lalitananda)