• Table of Contents
  • Why Heartaches? by Swami Veda Bharati
  • Streams of Negative Emotion by Swami Rama
  • Thank You for Your Support
  • What I Wanted Was Inside All Along by Randall Krause
  • Basking in the Light of the Guru-Tattva by Dirk Gysels
  • Yoga from my Experience by Cynthia Gran
  • We Live in Two Worlds by Gary Gran, CYT, DAy.
  • Dear Yoga Mentor, My Question Is…
  • Coming Attractions at SRSG
  • 2014 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of our SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

Basking in the Light of the Guru-Tattva

by Dirk Gysels

‘Please think again if you plan to visit Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama in early July. It will be extremely hot. In this heat, you may only be able to practice yoga nidra’. This was the well-meant advice of a seasoned yoga teacher. Still, my wife Silke, daughter Eileen-Tara and I decided to go. The Ashram, its yogic aspirants and not in the least Swamiji were beckoning us.

Luck was on our side. The very first evening of our arrival, we had already the opportunity to meditate with Swami Veda in the conducive ambience of his initiation room. Even 10 year old Eileen succeeded in staying on in silence for the greater part of the session.  It felt so good, it felt so right, a real homecoming. And, yes, although it was oppressively hot, fans and AC were working optimally, so no problems for practicing asana and meditation!

The incentive for our pilgrimage was the festival of Guru Purnima and the days of recitations, fire ceremonies and pujas leading up to this apotheosis.  But actually we did not come so much to celebrate, we came to take a bath, to refresh ourselves in the waters of the silent but vibrantly alive Field of meditation that permeates the Ashram through and through. For Eileen, very concretely, it meant meeting up again with Aditi, Sakshi and the other Ashram girls who, over the years, have become dear friends.  And of course the loving hugs she received from Swamiji during our visit in 2012 begged for a sequel!  Apart from that, our daughter participated in all evening meditation sessions and in the afternoon hatha yoga class as well!
‘If one is subtle, one can feel immediately whether Swamiji is on campus or not’, Swami Prashant remarked upon Swamiji’s return from a few days in hospital. And right he is: although the Field is ever present, it seems we still need very much Swamiji’s physical presence to make it vibrate even more intensively.

There was a gap of two years between our last and our present visit. The Ashram was still the same, but the people had changed: even more loving, more vibrant, more balanced. There was a kind of mellowness in the Ashram air. Was this created by the collective effort of its yogic citizens? Was it the result of Swamiji’s Silence percolating every nook and corner of the collective mindfield? Who will say?

The morning after our meditation with Swami Veda, Swami Prashant came to Silke and me.  Swami Veda had noticed some processes going on during our meditation and he invited us to consider taking up a period of relative silence, (relative because he didn’t want our daughter who was with us to suffer.)

We took up the opportunity. At the beginning, on behalf of Swami Veda, Swami Prashant initiated us in some subtle kriya to align our pranic system.  The kriya was wonderful, but complete Silence eluded me. There was Eileen to care for, but there were also quite a few wonderful sadhakas to whom I hadn’t spoken for a year!

Very likely to keep my mind busy in a profound and constructive way, the Guru-field, by means of Jagat, allowed me  to assist him in the very last redaction of the index to Swami Veda’s  Yoga Tarangini text. I became completely immersed in this terse yogic text. Though its content is far above my experiential knowledge of yoga, I could sense that through the able hands of Swamiji and Jagat, the scripture contains its own Grace which created additional clarity in my yogic life. 

I won’t go into the proceedings of Guru Purnima; this has already been beautifully described in previous newsletters.  One word though:  It didn’t feel like a group celebration, it felt like a FAMILY celebration.

And this makes all the difference. It was sweet, joyful, intimate. Also when Swamiji invited all of us in for personal blessings, it felt so intimate. It was like sitting on the lap of the Motherly Guru Spirit.

Swami Veda is such an enigma: obviously physically he is very weak, but on other levels he is by far the strongest of all of us.  It was such a blessing to be allowed to sit with him, to share the same air, to breathe and meditate with him.

Back home, during moments of meditativeness, Silke and I may feel a waft of his Silence still lingering on behind the noise of our mind. I know this Silent Presence will ever be there, it is not strange to me, it is the real Me beyond the conventional me. Thank you for this Gift.  OM GURU OM.