Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama,on VirbhadraRoad in Rishikesh,India is a leading light of instruction in scientific and systematicspirituality. It has taken shape as theservice offered to the Guru MahamandaleshwaraSwami Veda Bharati,disciple of Swami Ramaof the Himalayas.
Nowadays, various methods of yoga and meditationhave become very popular and widely available in many traditions andschools. There is always a doubt as to which of these teachings isthe correct and complete one. In fact, all of these methods areaccurate, but small parts of the vast Himalayan tradition of yogis.They are interconnected and need to be practiced in a scientificsequence.
Swami Rama of the Himalayas initiatedSwami VedaBharati into the totality of this pictureand Swami Veda is now carrying out his Guru's mandate to pass on thiscomprehensive tradition.His Dhyana Gurukulam atSwami Rama Sadhaka Grama is training future teachers who will be ableto present this knowledge in the context of all cultures andreligions.
On February 13, 2004 a Buddha statue wasconsecrated as part of the eight acre complex (that is SRSG), in thepresence of practitioners of meditation from all continents.It was consecrated by HisHoliness Sakya Trizin, a highly veneratedleader in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition underHis Holiness the DalaiLama.
Tibetan Buddhism has four major schools, of which,the Sayka School is the earliest and most prominent. H. H. Sakya Trizin is thehead of that school. He was also head of amonastery of ten thousand monks at the age of thirteen, beforeescaping Chinese occupation as a refugee in India. He was received by the students of SwamiRama Dhyana Gurukulam at Sadhaka Grama with recitations of Mahayanamantras.
H.H. Sakya Trizin consecrated the Buddha statuewith the traditional Buddhist prayers and recitations. After theconsecration, he spoke on the teachings of the Buddha, that thisteaching imparts a statement of universal truths. It is a religionthat teaches how one may be self-dependent and not seek salvationthrough the intervention of external forces. One learns to awakenone's own light.
Swami Veda Bharati gave a brief history of thespread of the ancient Indian teachings in countries like China,Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, etc. He paid homage to the ancientacharyas of India, Bodhi Dharma (founder of the ancient Shaolinmonastery), Dipanker Shri-jnana and, above all, Padma-sambhava, whointroduced this message of spirituality into Tibet.Swami VedaBharati paid homage toH.H. SakyaTrizin as one who ismaintaining the continuity of this tradition even through the mostadverse circumstances. He expressed an appreciation that, eventhrough the calamity that has befallen the Tibetan culture, thisevent has reintroduced the Tradition back into India.
Swami Veda Bharati presented an antique thang-kaand criticised those who view thang-kas as merely works of art ratherthan what they truly are--objects of religion and meditativecontemplation. The thang-ka presented has a history. It was, at somepoint, given by the Sakya Tradition to the Head Lama of Mongolia.During the Russian rule of Mongolia, the Head Lama remained a refugeein Taiwan and the thang-ka remained in his possession. Swami VedaBharati has initiated into the Swami order, one of his Chinesedisciples, Ma Tapasya Bharati, who runs an ashram of the Himalayantradition in Taiwan. One of her Taiwanese disciples was presented thethang-ka by the Head Lama of Mongolia. It was the wish of this familythat the thang-ka be returned to the Sakya tradition.
In accepting the gift, H. H. Sakya Trizinexplained that it depicted the Indian founder of the Sakya Traditionand his four Indian successors as well as the later Tibetansuccessors to the lineage.
He then released the first issue of the Swami RamaSadhaka Grama newsletter to the public.
Copyright 2003 West-Art, Prometheus 91/2004