Mahasamdhi Retreat In Pune India March 5-8th 2010

Ananda Yoga & Meditation Center of Berkeley
2228 Sixth Street Berkeley, CA 94706 ananda@anandaberkeley.org

You might enjoy seeing my pictures from the recent Mahasamadhi Weekend, held out on the new land near Pune last week. I came down to help on the land for a month, and it has been a wonderful change of pace. I've always loved camp life!

We had a truly wonderful and inspiring trip to India. Our time there was quite busy with many activities -- classes, satsangs, and meetings with people in Gurgaon and Noida in the north, and Pune in the south. We also had the chance to have heartfelt visits with our friends who live there.

Swamiji is doing quite well and seems to be using every possible moment to be serving others by teaching, writing, counseling, working on movie scripts, and recording more Gita shows for Indian TV.

As you may have heard, his plan now is to travel to Italy at the end of April, and spend May and June there. He'll be busy with book launches in Milan and possibly Rome for the Italian edition of Autobiography, leading programs in Assisi, and working with an Italian director interesting in working on films based on Swamiji's and Master's lives. He'll also travel to Seville to have a satsang with the Spanish devotees and visit the tombs of two Spanish saints and kings, Ferdinand III and Alphonso X.

At the end of June Swamiji plans to come to the US, and be here for the July 4th anniversary weekend, the Sevaka Retreat on July 5th, and Spiritual Renewal Week, August 8-15. His departure will be at the end of August to be back in Pune for his spiritual anniversary on Sept. 12.

The Pune community is a testimony to the grace of God and Guru and the strength and dedication of the devotees there. They have braved seeming insurmountable barriers to create the beginnings of the first Indian World Brotherhood Community. So much gratitude and appreciation is owed to Jaya and Biraj (Wayne Palmer) particularly who have headed up the project and have dealt with problems that make the hair stand on end.

The result is a community of thirty acres with accessible water, a beautiful completed house for Swamiji, nearly completed kutirs for Dharmadas, Nirmala, Lila, Miriam, Lakshman, Biraj, and Lahari, a tenting area for guests, a Retreat kitchen and dining area, an thatched-roof, open-sided temple, some indoor dorms, a shower house, vegetable gardens, landscaping around some of the buildings, and an area for the monks to live complete with a brick pizza oven (thanks to Robbie from Italy.)

We were there for the first public Retreat weekend for Master's Mahasamadhi, and about 60 guests attended from India, Europe, and the US. The small band of monks and nuns living there organized and carried off the weekend beautifully. It was a great joy to meditate together in the thatch-roof temple, share simple meals in the dining area, and be blessed by Swamiji's presence at satsangs.

Watching these young people working so hard in the dust, heat, and chaos with utter joy reminded us of the early days of Ananda. One could truly feel Master's loving, joyful presence on the land, the souls serving there, and the beautiful community that will emerge in the future.

It's wonderful to be home. Thanks to all for continuing to make Ananda Village a showplace for Master's vision.

Ananda Sangha of Berkeley 2228 Sixth Street Berkeley, CA 94706 ananda@anandaberkeley.org 510-540-6267