Monday Nov 23, 2020

Celebration:
Satguru Jayanti November 23, 2020

Pranam to our most revered and honored Master,
Satguru Shri Mahayogi Paramahamsa!!!!

~ we bow down at your beautiful lotus feet ~

Today is the day that we hold most sacred, most holy and most dear—the day that Shri Mahayogi took on a physical existence in this world, materializing the bestowal of his eternal grace upon us. There is no greater blessing than to encounter your Existence, to be touched by the pristineness of your being, the brilliant Truth that shines forth from you—and there is no greater responsibility that we have other than to transform ourselves to align everything about our being with the Truth, with You.

To honor this holy day, we would like to share the message to Shri Mahayogi written by Karuna for this special occasion, Guru Jayanti, on behalf of the sangha in New York.

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Dear Master and Beloved Guru Shri Mahayogi,

On your blessed Jayanti this year, I wish more than ever to express my deep felt gratitude to you my Beloved Guru Shri Mahayogi. So much of what you have been telling us is finally becoming more real to me, to the point that I am moved and shaken! Your words have finally begun to feel, sound and speak to me what I could not perceive before so strongly at all, even if I thought I did. Now I realize that it is not your words that I feel closer to, but YOU! That which you are!

The way that I am beginning to understand it is that you have dedicated your entire life to bestowing Yoga perfectly unto us, your disciples, and everyone in the world now and in the future. This is so because it is already perfect in you, and naturally, this makes your very life the path of Yoga itself. And, I believe that as you emanate this Yoga, we may receive it in some form that at first may seem fuzzy and unrecognizable to us. But, with your continued generosity and pouring out of that purifying Yoga, I know now that it is possible for us to see and recognize what you are here to tell us more and more, and be able to receive it more and more. If and when we do, we can then become more able to use our own will to carve more space within ourselves and take in more deeply That which you have given us: seeking, loving, caring and nurturing It for others to experience and receive the same too. The vibration of Yoga is strongest in you, and hopefully, it will become stronger in us as we grow to be purer. Oh! Dear Shri Mahayogi! To know this to be possible and to be able to have a more solid conviction that you are That, is the greatest Joy! Thank you so very much for making It possible for us in this lifetime. Your kindness abounds!

I would like to share with you on this most precious day that commemorates your Holy Day in which you were born, a little bit of what has been transpiring in New York and how your disciples here have been changing each other and changing themselves little by little, because this process has everything to do with my current state of Thankfulness to you, and what I have to thank you for.

On the last evening before you left for Japan, answering a question about how to live through the pandemic that was nearing, you gave us a clear message about holding on to the Truth despite the waves of this ocean called life. You guaranteed us that this is the nature of the world, and that in the same way it ripples out of control, it also calms down and finds some sort of balance again. You have continued to remind us that, regardless of how the world is behaving, the Truth is always there—constant. You have been saying this all along, so the idea of holding on to the Truth as the only unchanging existence sounded familiar to our ears at least, and very poetic to our hearts.

But then the situations in our lives, jobs, families and our ability to sustain our regular routines actually began to change more and more, and they have continued to do so beyond what we thought we would experience individually or collectively. Pretty soon after, what we thought of as the guaranteed time and space to be together in practice also disappeared when asana and meditation class was cancelled. The concept of not being able to control anything started to become more extreme to everyone and all around, and to see the way our minds wanted to react, was also a perfect representation of what you had affirmed about the state of the world and the mind as always being vulnerable to conditions—changeable and unreliable, and when this is so, for all there is suffering.

Ironically, it is during this time that your sangha in NY has started to truly come together (virtually) to walk toward Yoga. The new condition in our lives trapped us with our own minds and situations, and what you referred to as the times that call for kumbhaka made it so that we could not turn away from our own karmic reality. Certainly, we did not begin to engage in this turning inwards by ourselves without being prompted or cared for. The unmatchable resolution and unending care of Anandamali is behind this, carefully leading us toward facing the trappings of our minds. Sadhya’s clarity and strength has been a firm guidepost for each of us too, helping us face the resistance and uncertainty that many times has pushed us backwards. During these long hours with the gurubai, trying to face and accept our own condition, but also to identify the truth of the teachings in us, is when I began to realize how we have always been and continue to be embraced by You, Shri Mahayogi. This embrace encompasses every one of my brothers and sisters in New York, in Japan and in Taiwan, whose inspiration has become so crucial and inspiring to us. For that, I thank all the disciples who work day after day in recording, translating and sharing your words, as well as their own learning in Yoga for everyone to be benefitted by them around the world! This work is the work of God Itself! Thank you endlessly, Shri Mahayogi.

All this has been happening all along right under my nose, but now its meaning is beginning to become clearer, and one by one, we are starting to learn from experience how to actually rely on Yoga. During these times of uncontrollable change and with the increased opportunity to introspect, we have been able to observe how vulnerable everything is, and how we truly have nothing else we can rely on but the Truth. Perhaps most importantly, we may be learning that you brought us together to learn to do just that, so that we can then live the teachings that you have tenderly planted in us for the sake of others. I would have never understood how you are able to be among us and continue guiding us through this process from afar. But now, I can understand how it is possible: because You exist, and because we exist for You, and because there is truly no other purpose. There is so much joy in this!

Though I am sure it is not experienced exactly the same way by each of us in New York, there is one thing that I am certain of: that we come together because we all KNOW, so we need to continue to come together to drink the Yoga you serve, and to continue purifying ourselves for You. As you must have heard, we meet twice a week for long hours and like good “potatoes” we try to clean ourselves off little by little. Some potatoes are really good at this, while some of us are learning the skills of “potato-hood.” But the love and care that is going into this process, the hunger for Truth that it nurtures, the way it slowly pushes us to go a little further, is definitely a sign of your loving embrace. I hope this continues to be so and that each one of us continues to allow it to guide us into a deeper connection to Shri Mahayogi, to each other, and to Yoga.

The Mission that you have been given must not be easy at all, but you have been doing this without stopping one second. I ask myself why does Shri Mahayogi do what he does unceasingly? How can He contain so much, be so vast and reach so far? The answer seems much bigger than what my mind can grasp, and possibly bigger than what my little heart can bear. Your never-ending care and liberating love toward all can be almost ungraspable but it is undeniable. I do not want to ignore it at any moment.

Being able to write to you now is an opportunity to express Thank You, and trust that you can know how I feel without boundary of space. I feel it completely and unquestionably inside. This Thank You says that I am here to receive what you are giving, and to surrender to it so that it will transform me at your wish and will. In other words, Shri Mahayogi, I wish that only your essence is what inhabits in me, nothing else, and, because I wish others to know that essence in them too, so that You can rejoice in carrying on your Mission through us, and we can rejoice in You.

On this Holy Jayanti in which we celebrate your vibrant presence among us right here, right now, Beloved Shri Mahayogi, on behalf of your sangha children in New York, I would like to say, “YES, we humbly accept and receive what you give us.” I personally vow to continue kindling this flame, Shri Mahayogi’s Yoga, in me, together with gurubai, wherever we all are, near or far, so that You reach as far and wide as Your Being is…. ENDLESS!

Jai, Satguru Shri Mahayogi Paramahansa, Ki, Jai!!!

Bowing at your lotus feet,

Karuna (on behalf of the Mahayogi Yoga Mission Sangha)