Blessings & Messages
Valentine’s Day – The Meaning of True Love
True love cannot be bought, bribed, begged, manipulated or forced.It can only blossom from deep within the heart. This is the time of year when, all over the Western world, people celebrate Valentine’s Day. It’s not a tradition celebrated in India, but nonetheless it is a wonderful opportunity to discuss love, as the entire holiday…
Continue ReadingThe Meaning of Ganga Aarti
Each evening as the sun’s last rays reflect off the boundless waters of Mother Ganga, we gather for Ganga Aarti. This divine light ceremony is filled with song, prayer, ritual and a palpable sense of the divine. The “aarti” – an ornate oil lamp, lined with dozens of flames burning in pure ghee – is…
Continue ReadingDiwali Blessings – Let Us All Burn Like Diyas – Giving Light & Life to Others
The meanings of the auspicious holiday of Diwali are innumerable. Whether one looks at the story of the return to Ayodhya of Lord Rama or the victory of Lord Krishna over Narakaasuras or the fall of Bali, Diwali is a holiday which symbolizes the vanquishing of evil by good, the return of righteousness and divinity.…
Continue ReadingShake It Off & Step Up
There is a story of a farmer who had an old mule. One day the mule fell into the farmer’s empty, dry well. As the mule cried for help, the farmer assessed the situation. Although the mule had served the farmer faithfully for many years, the farmer decided that neither the mule nor the well…
Continue ReadingWho Is Saint & Who Is Sinner?
There is a wonderful story told of two monks who had renounced the world and taken vows of celibacy and simplicity and pledged to live, unattached, in the jungles for the rest of their lives. One monk was older and the other was relatively young. They were wandering in the forest one day and they…
Continue ReadingThe GPS System For Our Lives
These days in the West all the new cars have “GPS” navigation system where the computer in the car gives directions on how to reach your destination. As you sit in the car you just enter the address of where you are going, and throughout the journey a pleasant woman’s voice guides you: “Take a…
Continue ReadingMy Guru – His Holiness Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji
I was 25, a Stanford graduate and Ph.D. student. I was a scientist, an academic, a straight A student. I thought I understood it all. Or most of it, anyway. And then I entered His room, in a far off corner of the world, 7000 miles from home, as a river worshipped as the Mother…
Continue ReadingGuru Purnima Blessings
There is a famous story in our scriptures of Eklavya who dreamt of becoming a great archer. He went to the best and most famous Guru of archery, Dronacharya, and humbly begged Dronacharya to teach him archery. However, for various reasons, Dronacharya refused. Unfazed, resolute in his devotion, Eklavya did not despair. Rather, he went…
Continue ReadingRam Navami Blessings
Ram Navami is the birthday of Bhagwan Shri Rama. On this beautiful birthday of Bhagwan Rama, let us ask ourselves the meaning of his birth. What lessons do we learn from the Ramayan, from the glorious example of Bhagwan Rama’s life? Bhagwan Rama exemplified the perfect person; he showed us how to embody the divine…
Continue ReadingTo Give is Divine
A small, impoverished boy was standing barefoot on the New York City streets, looking wistfully in the window of a shoe store. A well dressed woman, walking down the street, saw him and asked him, “My child, why are you looking so sadly in this window?” The small boy looked up at her and replied,…
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Hollywood to the Himalayas is the enlightening memoir of Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji, a reluctant spiritual seeker who finds her true self and lifelong calling when she travels to India.
