What does Kirtan do to your heart? Greetings Dear Bhaktas! We asked Jai: What does Kirtan do to your heart? You can read or listen to Jai’s answer: “Every time I sing kirtan whether it is a large group, or a small group, or just by myself at home, I feel a [...]
Greetings Dear Bhakti Family, One of my favorite things about our Kirtan Camps and workshops is to sit with a group of bhaktas and share my thoughts and experiences about the devotional path. I love responding to everyone’s questions and hearing what each person has to share. So, I thought of opening the ‘e-floor’ to [...]
Last June, Nubia, Ezra and I went to the Himalayan foothills in India to our Guru’s ashram to spend a little time with our Indian mother. it was an amazing trip on many levels, but there’s one aspect that I’d like to write about now. Every afternoon, as the sun began to slip behind the [...]
Kirtan is the calling, the crying, the reaching across infinite space -- digging into the heart's deepest well to touch and be touched by the Divine Presence. Kirtan is singing over and over the many names of God and the Goddess, the multi-colored rainbow manifestations of the One. It is said that there is no [...]
“Of all the human-built places Shan had experienced in the extraordinary lands of Tibet none moved him more than the simple wooden cells he sometimes discovered in the country's remote regions, in the few structures remaining from earlier centuries. Here men and women had sat through the centuries, engaged in exactly the same pursuit, with [...]
One day several years ago, I found myself sitting in the courtyard of my guru's ashram in a small North Indian village, taking the sun, drinking chai, and watching a family of monkeys dance around a few bags of rice, trying to grab some tasty morsels for their breakfast. Bells were ringing in the distance [...]
Message from Rama to his wife, Sita, to be delivered by Hanuman, the Son of the Wind, while Sita was being held captive of the demon king, Ravana (from the 'Sri Ramacharitamanasa' of Tulsi Das): “The reality about the cord of love that binds you and me, dear, is that my soul ever abides within [...]
In 1943 Maharajji came to Fatehgarh, where there was an old couple whose son was away fighting in Burma. When Maharajji came to their house they gave the little they had to Maharajji . The had only two cots. Maharajji said, “ I'll sleep now.” They gave him one of the cots and a blanket. [...]
My guru, Neem Karoli Baba, would frequently send his devotees away, often with the simple word “jao”, or “go”, sometimes giving some direction or suggestion, but more often than not just telling us to leave. Other times, we would arrive for darshan in the morning only to find that he had disappeared in the night, [...]
These excerpts are believed to be from Tulisidas' last poem. In 1607 A.D he had a severe cancer-like pain in his arm, and his whole body started festering with terrible boils and sores. In sheer despair he prayed to Hanuman for his recovery; hence, the Hanumanabahuka. This, it is said, stilled his suffering. Thereafter Tulasidasa [...]