Dear Teacher, DearDirector,
I really wanted to send youthis letter in personal handwriting, but writing a hundred or moreletters would be time consuming. If I do not hear from you, you mayexpect to receive a personally handwritten one from me in the nearfuture.
In 2007 I will complete 60years of non-stop travel and teaching.
Many teachers have been teaching for the past 32years.
From some of these senior teachers, we hear : weare getting on in years; to whom to pass on the Center? How tocontinue the spirit that Gurudeva Swami Rama infused inus?
Those who are not still brisk and young alsowonder how to go into greater depth. "We do not have time to go studyin the Rishikesh Ashram for further deepening".
With a deep sharing of theseconcern, I have embarked on theLAST PROJECT OF MYLIFE. With my limited capacities (for tenthousand Swami Vedas put in a blender will not one Swami Rama make),with everyone's help, I am starting the 'Swami Rama DhyanaGurukulam'-- 'Swami Rama Institute of Meditation' at the new SadhakaGrama Campus in Rishikesh.
VERY BRIEFLY, please get yourfriends and students together, and SPONSOR a student to study andtrain with me for 3-5 (or 10 !) years at theGurukulam.
They will learn the ins andouts of meditation, the language, texts, histories of the meditationtraditions of the world. I will help link their minds to the Lineageand to the Rishis. Then, I will return them to you with theunderstanding that the purpose of their training has been to helpwith the work of your Center (and if you have no Center, just tocontinue the teaching)
We are starting the teaching onOctober 5th this year with the help of the faculty who will beworking under my direction. We do, however, plan to continue toaccept new students for a little while yet, even after October 5,2003.
The teaching has continuedunder the direction of our Gurudeva for the last 33 years in theWest. Can we ensure itscontinuity--WITH ITSORIGINAL SPIRITUALEMPHASIS--for the next50 years ?
Please do not ask me : how much would it cost?What do you think can make the project self-sustaining? In this I canuse the advice of those, right within this family, who areexperienced in these matters.
Would I hear soon from you, or do you need me tosend a handwritten letter?
Servant of the servants of the Masters
E-mail: gurukulam@rediffmail.com
E-mail: srsg@vsnl.com
For continued news andinspiration : www.swamiveda.organdwww.bindu.org
P.S. How many are participating in the SpiritualPurification Festival 2003 from your area? Please inform theMeditation Center : info@themeditationcenter.org
If it has not begun in your area, it is not toolate to start. Do remember Guru-purnima is on 13th July. It can starteven then.
Virbhadra Road,
Virpur Khurd, P.O. Pashulok
Rishikesh (UA)
India
Spiritual Guide : Swami VedaBharati
Disciple of Swami Rama of theHimalayas
|
|
E-mail: gurukulam@rediffmail.com
E-mail: srsg@vsnl.com
For continued news andinspiration : www.swamiveda.organdwww.bindu.org
these websites contain regularly updated news,inspiration and information.
Please encourage all yourassociates and students to visit daily.
Swami Rama DhyanaGurukulam--Swami Rama Institute of Meditation-- in Rishikesh, willbegin teaching FULLTIME courses in variousaspects of meditation from October 5, 2003.
It has the followingpurposes.
(1) At the age of 70 the spiritualguide feels the necessity to pass on his knowledge and skills to abatch of sanyasin (and some non-sanyasin) teachers in one-year,two-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year courses of study,discipline and spiritual practices. This consists of
(a) Teaching and demonstrating (by personalexperience) the relationships, connections and sequences of all ofthousands of techniques and methods in meditation that are known tothe Tradition (and to the spiritual guide),
(b) Teaching the history of meditation, its theoryand practice, in all world cultures and religions and preparing theguides who would teach in various languages and from all differentsystems of philosophies in a scientific manner,
(c) Guiding the study of the texts like theUpanishads, not as books of philosophy but, as works received inmeditative states and serving as guides to meditative practices andsystems.
(2) Preserving, editing,translating and publishing the previously unpublished yogamanuscripts.
(3) Preserving the 3,500 hours ofaudiotapes, 500 CDs of the spiritual guide's courses given over thelast 33 years, transcribing them ( that will be 40,000 pages),editing and publishing; this is work that will go on long after thespiritual guide's death.
The above areas of knowledge are recognized asunique to the present spiritual guide. For example in Buddhistcountries he gives only Buddhist mantras, and to the Parsees ofMumbai he gives Avestan (Zoroastrian) mantras, an area of knowledgeno other swami has. His commentary on the Yoga-sutras is nowrecognized by scholars as uniquely comprehensive and most authentic.
The present spiritual guidefeels an urgency to establish this Institute to complete the abovework as much as possible within his remaining life time, and to getit organized for the future.
With numerous schools andinstitutions teaching spiritual philosophy as well as the practicesof yoga and meditation, what is the necessity for establishinganother institution ? The brief answers to such a question are:
(1) The systems and texts of spiritual philosophyhave their origin in the profound meditative states of the ancientsages. The context and content of these can only be understood fromwithin such meditative states, and not as mere statements ofphilosophy to be propounded. For example the well known lecturers onVedanta do not guide the seekers into the systems of nididhyasana(Vedantic meditation). Those guiding the seekers at this Ashram beginwith the methods of nididhyasana and teach the texts within thatcontext. The Ashram specializes in teaching yoga as well as the worksof Swami Rama and other great yogis purely as a meditativeexperience.
(2) The forms of religion are being propagatedwidely, but spirituality beyond religion is a systematic path. ThisAshram teaches the 'Hindu', Buddhist, Christian, Mazdayasnian(Zarathushtrian) and other texts from within the meditative states,and gives their profound spiritual explanations. For example theVedas, Upanishads, Sankhya, the Bhagavad-gita and so forth are taughtas sources of meditative practices.
(3) There is no other Ashram dedicated exclusivelyto the preservation of unpublished Yoga works. Our research guideshave sound academic training in the field, enhanced by a depthachieved within their personal meditation. The spiritual guide of theAshram himself is also a capable research guide with highest degreesfrom European universities, in addition to his well known genius inthe ancient learning.
(4) The spiritual guide of the Ashram has accessto 17 languages and histories and literatures of philosophical,spiritual and meditative systems worldwide. He teaches meditation inItalian in Italy, in Spanish in Spain--and so forth. In Buddhistcountries he gives only Buddhist mantras, to the Christians thesystems in hesychasm, and to the Mazdayasnians he givesZarathushtrian mantras--and so forth. It is essential that hiscapabilities be passed on to the next generation of spiritual guidesand teachers.
(5) In the past 56 years of non-stop travellingand lecturing, the spiritual guide of the Ashram has gained theexperience of working and serving in different cultures and speakingto the people within the context of their own backgrounds, in theirterminology. It is, again, essential that his experience be passed onto those who would bring the message of the Himalayan tradition tothe world.
(6) The spiritual guide of the Ashram has 3,500hours of recorded audiocassettes of courses on all areas of spiritualknowledge, e.g. meditation practices, history of spiritualphilosophies, text interpretations, applications to daily life and topsychological concerns--and so forth. When completed, the transcriptsof the audiocassettes alone will constitute nearly 40,000 (fortythousand !!) pages. These need to be edited and published. The sameapplies to numerous CDs and other forms of recordings.
In Teaching and LiteraryWork
A hundred teachers are teaching the system of yogameditation in different parts of the world including Africa, SE andEast Asia, Europe, North and South America.
Half a dozen teachers and lecturers of very highqualifications, specialised in hatha-yoga, Sanskrit, philosophicalsystems and practices of meditation travel to different centres fromtime to time.
3,500 hours of audiocassettes and 500 CD's are inthe archives containing highly informative, as well as inspiringcourses teaching the history, texts, and methods of meditation,including interpretations of the Vedas, Bible, Avesta, Buddhist Textsand so forth.
Approximately 7,000 pages have been transcribedfrom the above audio-visual archives.
The spiritual guide has published 12 books and 25booklets. Many of the booklets have been translated into Spanish,Italian, German, French, Korean, Chinese etc. and some translationsare yet awaiting publication. For the lack of marketing avenues, allthis material is sitting and waiting.
SRSG Publications, the publications branch of theAshram, now has a number CDs available in generalmarketing.
6,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscriptson yoga have been collected in the form of photocopies andmicrofilms. These are being catalogued and edited,slowly for the lack oflarger research staff, under the directionof a profound scholar who has retired from teaching Sanskrit andIndian philosophy at the University of London, and is now dedicatingher time to the Ashram.
Students from 30 countries attend the instructionand meditation guidance offered at the Ashram.
Physicalinfrastrcture
An 8-acre site was acquired in1998 in Rishikesh, approximately 500 metres from Ganga, very close tothe ancient Virbhadra temple. The site was planned by specialistdevotees in Holland. In February 2000 the foundation stone was laid,and the following construction was completed by February 2001:
Reception building
33 self-containedcottages
Yagya-shala (place of sacredVedic Fire) which energises the entire site
Meditation Hall seating 200meditators
Main building with space foroffices, Bookstore, Communication Center, Library and ResearchCenter
Under construction (to becompleted by August 31, 2003) are :
Junior staff quarters andsenior staff quarters
Knowledge Centre and Commonkitchen
Accommodations for brahmacharisand sanyasins, and other future teachers, to be taught and trained toteach worldwide
|
Everyone of the spiritual guide's associates feels that his knowledge, experience and inspiration need to be preserved, and that he should be stationed in one place, the Ashram, and concentrate his energies in order to complete his writings, give spiritual guidance to serious seekers, and dive yet deeper into his own meditations.
|
MYLAST DREAM FOR THIS LIFE, by Swami Veda
SWAMIRAMA INSTITUTE OF MEDITATION
Copyright 2003 West-Art, Prometheus88/2003