H.T. Question 5:

Who lives at the Ashram - how many Indians, how many Europeans? What is their general background? Are they disciples of the Swami, or are they more like paying guests? Are there both boys and girls living together? That is an important issue, as you know.

 

 

Answers:

a) Who lives in the Ashram? Their background!

People of all nationalities live in the Ashram. Those that live in the Ashram live by the eternal spiritual Values. Many of them have come to the Ashram as children
and while yet in their teens. From their previous lives, they have inherited classical Hindu Nature and Hindu Samskaras. By Swabhava they are real Brahmins. It is the repeated opinion of the Experts in the field that
they recite Vedic Hymns and other sacred Hindu
texts better than the best of the Brahmins of South,
North, East, West of India (see the statement of Vedadarshanacharya Mahamandaleshwar Sri Swami Gangeshwarananda and others, SupplementThree). They have brought pure hearts and innocent natures, and are made Hindus by special purificatory Vedic and Tantric and Pauranic Rituals. They are given Upanayana sacrament and are made Brahmins. And they are given Sannyasa Diksha and are made Monks and Nuns of Adishankaracharya's Saraswati Order, belonging to Sri Sharada Pitha of Sringeri. We have our special predilection for our Kanchi Kamakoti Pitha. Our lives are conditioned to highest purity as we are rooted in the worship of the supreme Divine Mother, Srividya. The life in this form of Worship, Vidya, requires from us uncompromising inner and outer purity.

 

b) Who lives at Omkarananda Ashram Himalayas

Only Indians and Indian citizens of Western European lands are living in the Ashram here: they are all Sannyasis and spiritual aspirants. All of them are highly educated and specialised in various educational and engineering fields. They are all direct disciples of Swami Omkarananda and have been with him since the late 1960s.

The Ashram has some rare jewels such as the most loved and respected Sage Prabhuji Acharya Surya Prakash, the ever-serving and dynamic Mother Usha Devi and the saintliness-incarnate boy of many talents Siddharta whose Bhajans sung by himself in a pure classical style keep the audience spell-bound.

The guests that come to participate in the Ashram's spiritual activities are lodged and given food free of costs.


c) Are there both boys and girls living together in the Ashram?

The Core of the individual spiritual disciplines in the Ashram consists in Sri Vidya Upasana, a form of divine Worship and Yoga-practice that requires unconditional inner and outer purity; it raises the consciousness of the Sadhaka into the realm of the timeless and the spaceless; it settles in every part of his or her body the Divinity, the Infinite and the Eternal. The consciousness of the differences between sexes or boys and girls, which is so characteristic of even very noble human nature, falls away. All life is divine; moral norms, principles and character are fully fulfilled and transcended. In spite of such purity, the girls in their periods segregate themselves from the rest of the community and stay away from Temple Pujas. It can happen that here and there is a weak soul. The omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent Divinity knows many ways of withdrawing such a soul from such environs.

In Omkarananda Ashram boys and girls are full of Satwic Nature and dominated by Adhyatmika Buddhi. They are really Devaganas. They are fully occupied every day with the practice of Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga. They are experts in the performance of Pujas, Hawanas, Abhishekas. The boys look upon and inwardly adore girls as direct incarnations of the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful Divine Mother. And girls look upon boys as embodiments of the Divine Mother's all-seeing Presence. Thoughts bound up with body-consciousness are foreign to them. The strict rules of a life in Srividya govern their daily life and conduct. We have boy-Sannyasis and girl-Sannyasis. The atmosphere in which they live is charged with deep spirituality. The Prana-pratishtha Devatas of our Ashram Temples constantly watch over them and protect them from all sides. See also the answer to the Question 7 b.

 

 

Continuation

 

 

Home Contents H.T. Question 1 H.T. Question 2 H.T. Question 3 H.T. Question 4 H.T. Question 5 H.T. Question 6 H.T. Question 7 H.T. Question 8 H.T. Question 9 H.T. Question 10 H.T. Question 11 Supplement One Supplement TwoSupplement ThreeSupplement Four