{"id":820,"date":"2014-08-20T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/?p=820"},"modified":"2014-08-23T11:54:15","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T15:54:15","slug":"echo-from-the-cave-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/2014\/08\/echo-from-the-cave-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Echo from The Cave: 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sun July 20th,\u00a02014 The Cave NYC<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

FAMILY REUNION<\/b>:<\/b><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"DSC_0004\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a blessing it was!<\/strong>\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

A few days after Gurupurnima<\/i>, an order for a SATORI book was placed\u00a0from the other side of the world\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-Australia.<\/p>\n

How did she find this book?<\/p>\n

I sent her an inquiry and she responded that\u00a0she and her family had studied Yoga with Shri Mahayogi in Kyoto after finding him\u00a0in “1989.”<\/p>\n

Can this be true?!<\/p>\n

I had heard from Shri Mahayogi before about a physicist and his family\u00a0who were originally from the Soviet Union and used to come to him to learn Yoga\u00a0while living in Kyoto around that time. However, shortly after they returned to their country, the Soviet Union came to an end and they ended up moving to Australia.<\/p>\n

Thrilled at the possibility that this could be the same family, I sent the next question:
\n\u201cAre you the same family from Russia who used to practice Yoga\u00a0under Shri Mahayogi\u2019s guidance?\u201d<\/p>\n

She replied, \u201cYes, it looks like we are that family.\u201d<\/p>\n

YES!!!!
\nMy heart brimmed and wept with joy as I thought\u00a0how happy my Master would be to hear this great news.
\nThey found us!!! \u00a0 \u00a0WE FOUND THEM!!!
\nI could not stop thinking about it for days.<\/p>\n

1989\u2026.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

It was 25 years ago,
\nbut this is not simply about the passage of time.<\/p>\n

Shri Mahayogi was living as a hermit before 1996,\u00a0the year Shri Mahayogi first visited New York at the invitation of two disciples. After 1996, we, a group of disciples, gradually began to engage more actively\u00a0in the work of preserving and disseminating the teachings of Shri Mahayogi, the teachings of\u00a0Yoga. But before then, there was of course no website through which this family could have found Shri Mahayogi again. Rather, the only way one might have had the good fortune of finding him was\u00a0by word of mouth or by happening upon the name of the Ashrama in a thick phone book.\u00a0The majority of disciples began to arrive at the feet of the Master\u00a0after we started to become more active.\u00a0So, it is indeed a rare and precious occurrence to find someone\u00a0who can share their experience of those early times and give us insight into\u00a0how Shri Mahayogi lived and what he was like 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

Out of pure excitement I sent another question,<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did you first find Shri Mahayogi?\u201d<\/p>\n

Their Story:
\n<\/b>While still living in Russia, Alex, the physicist, came across a book\u00a0by the Russian psychologist Vladimir Levi that briefly touched on the importance of Yoga.\u00a0Alex began to wonder what it was.\u00a0In Russia at that time, there was practically no literature on Yoga available,\u00a0not to mention any Yoga teachers or classes.\u00a0Even if Alex had wanted to practice Yoga seriously,\u00a0it would have been impossible to find an instructor, let alone a true Master of Yoga.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DSC_0736\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Shortly thereafter,\u00a0a neighbor gave him\u00a0a samizdat<\/i> copy of
\n\u201cAutobiography of a Yogi\u201d\u00a0by Paramahansa Yogananda.\u00a0Samizdat<\/i> is a term\u00a0that refers to banned literature\u00a0that was secretly circulated\u00a0in the former Soviet Union.\u00a0Alex attempted to learn\u00a0the practice of Yoga without\u00a0any guidance whatsoever,\u00a0and there were moments\u00a0when he overdid it.\u00a0Alex\u2019s wife, Lika, remembered,\u00a0\u201cwe nearly lost him a few times.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point, Alex and his friend were on a work-related trip to Italy, and while they were there they attempted to find a real Master. Alex found an address in a phone book, and together they bravely marched there in search of the Master. When they arrived, two \u201cvery friendly, lovely ladies\u201d gushed out of the door and tried to shepherd them into the \u201cashram\u201d. Sensing something amiss, the two hopeful seekers ran off.<\/p>\n

Later, Alex, Lika and their daughter, Valeria, moved to Kyoto.\u00a0The very first thing that Alex wanted to do upon their arrival was\u00a0to find Shri Mahayogi,\u00a0whose information, if his memory served him correctly,\u00a0he had found in the local phone book.\u00a0It was as if he was on a mission, driven by some magnetic force.<\/p>\n

Lika recalls,\u00a0\u201cWe were at a party not long after arriving and Alex was speaking with an American lady.\u00a0I remember she said,\u00a0\u2018I\u2019m very surprised that you found Shri Mahayogi so quickly!\u00a0People spend years trying to find him.\u00a0You have just arrived and already you have found him!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We offer our gratitude to Lika and Alex for sharing this story!
\nAnd, WELCOME BACK HOME!!!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The Great Story continues\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n

Of course, Shri Mahayogi was very happy to hear the great news about\u00a0this family reconnecting with Shri Mahayogi and the Mission.\u00a0He informed me that Alex had entrusted him with several items,\u00a0requesting that he keep them until he was ready to receive them again.\u00a0Shri Mahayogi held true to this promise for nearly 25 years.\u00a0Upon learning of the family\u2019s whereabouts, he sent a package to Alex right away,\u00a0returning the items that he had safeguarded for him for so long.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, I am overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

What a blessing it is indeed!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Shri Mahayogi today:<\/b>
\nShri Mahayogi still spends most of his time in seclusion today.\u00a0It is still rather difficult to find him unless one is truly seeking for a Master\u00a0who can lead them to the Realization of the Self.\u00a0However, when seekers do at last find him,\u00a0they receive a warm welcome, as if finally arriving home,\u00a0and he guides them along their path just as he has always done.<\/p>\n

-Anandamali<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sun July 20th,\u00a02014 The Cave NYC FAMILY REUNION:   \u201cWhat a blessing it was!\u201d she wrote. A few days after Gurupurnima, an order for a SATORI book was placed\u00a0from the other side of the world\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-Australia. How did she find this book? I sent her an inquiry and she responded that\u00a0she and her family had studied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1385,"href":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions\/1385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahayogi.org\/sahasrara\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}