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