Mar 11th 2013
Yoga Bharati, Bay Area members attended Kriya Yoga Congress organized by Center for Spiritual Enlightment (CSE) in Holiday Inn, San Jose on March 8-10th 2013. Center for Spiritual Enlightment is a San Jose based organization that carries the lineage of Babaji, Lahari Mahashaya, Sri.Yukteshwar and Paramahamsa Yogananda. Representatives of six organizations were invited as special guests for their banquet dinner. Among them were: Br Prabodh Chaitanya and Sri Rao of Chinmaya Mission, Swami Prasannatmananda of Vedanta Society, Berkeley, Tanvi and Mihir Meghani of Hindu American Foundation (HAF) and Ashwini and Anil Surpur from Yoga Bharati and Rev. Masao Tsuruta of Seicho No Ie, the Truth of Life movement who translated the books of Mr.Roy Eugene Davis into Japanese. Yoga Bharati offered greetings to CSE and to Mr. Roy Eugene Davis, Minister of Center for Spiritual Awareness, Pheonix and the direct disciple of Paramahamsa Yogananada on his 82nd Birthday.
The detailed report follows.
Yoga Bharati members attended sessions on all three days and also their Sunday Services where they celebrated Maha Shiva Ratri and sungs chantings on Shiva.
The Meditation workshop by Mr. Roy Eugene Davis on Friday started with a small silence meditation followed by Mr. Davis’s lecture on the fundamentals of meditation derived from Patanjali Yoga Sutras. He also talked about his experiences with his master Paramahamsa Yogananda and his method of teaching, his wisdom, etc. Mr. Davis being an avid meditator and the direct disciple of Paramahamsa Yogananada, has immense knowledge on vedantic concepts, especially Patanjali Yoga sutras and he gave a beautiful account of his own meditation experience covering his master Yogananada’s teachings. His session was full of humor and we enjoyed it.
Ayurveda – This was a session by Cythia Ambika Copple of Mount Madonna Center. She covered the basis of Ayurvedic concepts – Vata, Pitta and Kapha. She gave a practical session where she gave a questionnaire and asked the audience to answer them and discuss with their neighbors about their body type.
Phil Goldberg expounded on how Indian Spirituality influenced the west. Many of Yoga Bharati members have read his book American Veda, which is a compendium of all the wonderful yogis who visited from India, influencing the culture of America. In the evening session, Dr. Christopher Chapple talked eloquently about Patanjali Yoga Sutras covering many concepts of yoga. His amazing depth of knowledge on the subject was evident from his lecture.
On Saturday, we attended the devotional session by Swami Nirvanananda and the entire audience was enthralled by the wonderful chantings of OM Namah Shivaya, and other devotional chantings. This was followed by Meditaton workshop by Mr. Roy Euegne Davis who covered some more concepts and his lineage and the master’s wisdom.
Banquet dinner: This was a perfectly organized and flawlessly executed event and we were in the most joyous and ecstasy state – time and again in the program. The Banquet was well attended by 500 to 600 people from CSE and other orgs.
The program began with the chanting of OM and prayer followed by a salad appetizer. The beautiful poem read by Patricia (Kavita) sung the glory of the Vedantic wisdom of her master lineage – Babji, Lahari Mahashaya, Sri Yukteshwar, Paramahamsa Yogananda and the current successor – Mr. Roy Eugene Davis …
White Birds fly over the river Ganges, At Sunrise, dolphins ride the waters, Maharaj Babji appears on the illumined path…. Walks along the beach at the merging of the rivers…..calls for the holy sounds of OM to form the holy science of divine oneness; place the holy text on the spotless table of your mind…. the tinkling of the cowbells….the lotus blossom that stands honorable above the mud…one day the child of your heart will arrive…. Paramahamsa – the supreme white swan across the seas….Roy Eugene Davis – the boy rides across the magnetic fields of his country towards his master and steps into his place in the holy lineage….offer nourishment for all who want to enter the center of their spiritual awareness….. Remember the forgotten language of the original sound – the pure vibration of OM that contains all breath, the word that contains all words…. articulate the ancient and profound words – Do what you know you should do.
The band team of CSE sang wonderful songs that reflected the vedantic views, the advaita concepts, the song that were pure manifestations of love and bhakti – sung in acapella fashion, in the chorus, in a festive style and in the slow and easy flowing bhakti style. The audience was in a pure bliss and multiple standing ovations were given to the team.
This was followed by dinner and then a session of greetings by various friendly organizations. All the delegates gave wishes to CSE and their good work. They specially wished Roy Eugene Davis on his Birthday. Rev. O’Brian gifted a gold plated Shri Yantra to Mr.Davis. It was a beautiful piece of art that everyone got to see and enjoy.
Below is YB’s greeting message given on behalf of Yoga Bharati.
On behalf of Yoga Bharati and Sri N.V. Raghuram, Spiritual founder and Chairman of Yoga Bharati, Our special greetings on the mahasamadhi anniversaries of Paramahansa Yogananda, Sri Yukteswar and the 82nd birth anniversary of Mr.Roy Eugene Davis – the direct disciple of Paramahamsa Yogananda.
It is indeed a wonderful occasion to celebrate the message of yoga that has inspired millions of Americans, especially when we are also celebrating Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birth anniversary – the man who brought yoga to the west.
We commend Mr. Davis for his dedication to yoga for more than 50 years. Our special wishes to the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment and Center for Spiritual Awareness who have been tirelessly working to spread global health and peace through yoga.