Under a beautifully crafted wooden ceiling, good souls pose for a family portrait following the jayanthi celebrations
Rajen Manick sent news from one island to another:
Mauritius sishyas met at the Spiritual Park on Sunday 13th to celebrate Guru Jayanthi in a very devotional spirit enhanced by Natchintanai singing, pada puja and cake cutting for Bodhinatha. Everyone present felt uplifted. Bodhinatha sent the following message to be read to the shishyas: “Certain times of the year cause us to be more reflective about our lives. For some, it could be the new year and the idea of a new year’s resolution. For others, it could be their birthday. For married couples, it could be their anniversary.”
Bodhinatha’s Message: I often mention the importance of practice for making spiritual progress. Patanjali uses the term abyasa for consistent daily practice. Gurudeva, of course, prefers the term sadhana and stressed we are on the sadhana marga which our lexicon defines as: “Coined by Siva Yogaswami to describe the way he urged serious aspirants to follow—a path of intense effort, spiritual discipline and consistent inner transformation, as opposed to theoretical and intellectual learning.”
In Hindu organizations that focus on spiritual advancement, a trend for devotees is to be dynamic in their practice at the beginning but over the years to put less and less effort in their inner work until they reach the point where the organization is more a social group of like-minded individuals. Gurudeva strove to offset this trend by the practice of an annual rededication to the sadhana marga.
A second trend again, for those who have been with an organization for many years, is to maintain their current level of attainment without an effort to deepen it. For example, you see the inner light as a faint glow in our head and that is good enough. There is no effort to go more deeply into it.
This is where the idea I mentioned at the beginning comes into play—taking advantage of the days of the year we are more reflective about our life. On such a day, it is good to think about where we are on the spiritual path and choose one or more areas to improve during the coming year.
This is taking the idea of regular practice once step deeper. Not only are we practicing regularly, we are working on our nature. We are changing who we are. We are refining ourselves. We are committed to the serious process of becoming a more spiritual person. As Gurudeva said, even if you are a guru, even Chellappaswami, Yogaswami, they never stopped becoming a more spiritual person. Even Gurudeva kept becoming a more and more spiritual person, developing new abilities.
Have a wonderful Jayanti celebration. Om Namasivaya.”
Beautiful!