Ashram News

Namaste and Greetings to all

Here we are again, in the middle of the powerful Himalayan winter, each day spreading around a little more its mantle of cold, intimate, austere, profoundly silent and introspective atmosphere. During this time of the year body and mind are put to a test, called to respond actively to the challenge of an often harsh weather, especially in the first hours of the day before the sun comes from behind the mountains gracing us for a few hours with his light and warmth.

And to show our gratitude we offer everyday our pranam to the rising sun just outside the meditation room during the Surya Namaskar after the morning asanas.

Lately the Master has put a lot of emphasis on practising with regularity the asanas, pointing to the importance that this part of daily program deserves and that we sometimes tend to underevaluate.

It is good for the body, it is good for the mind and it is preparing our being for all the tests we will have to face as we advance in our sadhana.

The main event of this time has been Priya’s birthday celebration, with our usual program of Puja, chanting, kirtan and reading from spiritual books or quotes of the Master.

We have had also beautiful trekking in the nearby mountains, where the Master usually graces us with talks and readings that in these amazing scenarios take an even deeper impact on all of us.

Recently, during a work meeting, following the request of a disciple, the Master talked to us about the importance and meaning of food and proper diet in the Ashram, describing to us the privilege, of which we are at times not so aware, to be provided with a natural, mostly organic and healthy food unlike most other places out there in the world.

But most important, besides that, is the field of energy, the atmosphere where it is cooked and served. It is Ashram food, blessed by the energy of the Master, consecrated by His presence and protected by the mantra we chant before each meal. It is no normal food, it is food for the body and the soul, a pleasant daily medicine.

He also explained that the indian spices, sometimes looked upon with sort of suspicious eyes by the non indian disciples, are not merely for the sake of taste but a combination of herbs for digestion and general health, as also the western world has started to discover and accept.
Food, obviously, was only an excuse to expand our view and consciousness, bringing in the crucial importance of the right attitude, be it cooking, offering, serving, giving, ultimately any act of our life.

With humility, that is the most powerful antidote to our arrogant and demanding egos, with gratitude, with sacredness. To be able to live together in harmony, in love and care, to respond to life in the best way even in the most trying situations and help each other on this journey, so tremendously beautiful and difficult at the same time, towards the realisation of the Truth, the discovery of the Divine presence inside all and everything.

The blessing of life with the Master will never be underlined enough, because in the end He is the food, the medicine, the practice, the light, the only cure of any illness, the dissolution of illusions. He is the purest manifestation of God in life, working and giving against the darkness and ignorance of all egos, the delusions of our minds, in spite of the reactions and hostilities He has to face when trying to change our wrong identifications and selfish behaviours.

Alone and unfathomable, yet inside all of us, so far and yet closer than our own self. Because when you look into the eyes of the Master what else can you see, other than the unfolding secret of all life and beyond?

Goodbye and God bless

01/01/2025