Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Season 2 of the Women of Kriya Yoga Living in Joy podcast, a gathering place for women walking the spiritual path. These conversations are an offering from the Women's Sangha and Ministry of Kriya Yoga International in the lineage of Paramahamsa Pragyananandaji and Paramahamsa Hariharanandaji.
Speaker: Our host is Mary Dale Ma, a devoted disciple, seasoned yoga teacher, mentor for more than 40 years, and founder of the Param Yoga Healing Arts Center in California. Welcome beautiful souls to Living in Joy.
Speaker: i am so grateful that you've chosen to join us today as we once again gather in sacred friendship, reflection, and love through the voices of women walking the Kriya Yoga path.
Speaker: Today promises to be a gentle unfolding, a remembering, a conversation about devotion, destiny, surrender, and grace.
Speaker: Before we begin, let us all arrive together in this space. If you will, and you feel comfortable, go ahead and gently soften your gaze, perhaps even close your eyes for a moment and join me in a nice deep inhale. Exhaling with ha. Again, deep breath.
Speaker: and relax. ah
Speaker: Allow your body to soften, your mind to quiet,
Speaker: your heart to open
Speaker: Beloved Father, Divine Mother, Sri Gurudev Paramahansa Hariharananda, Beloved Guruji Paramahansa Prajnanananda, our Paramguru Paramahansa Yogananda, and all the Radiant Masters of the Kriya Yoga Lineage, we bow to you in gratitude.
Speaker: for this sacred gathering. May this conversation unfold in truth, humility, wisdom, and love.
Speaker: May we listen deeply. May we feel the living presence of you our beloved masters, among us. May we remember that there is no sincere prayer that is ever unheard.
Speaker: Om Shantihi, Om Shantihi, Om Shantihi. Amen.
Speaker: Beautiful. There comes a moment in many spiritual lives when the outer search quietly begins turning inward. We may travel through careers, countries, relationships, responsibilities, and countless experiences, and still feel that something essential is calling us home.
Speaker: And then, sometimes quite unexpectedly, grace arrives. A teacher appears, a path opens, a recognition occurs so deeply within the soul that life is never the same again.
Speaker: to Today, we're blessed to sit with a woman whose life beautifully reflects that sacred unfolding. Let us warmly welcome Yogacharya Devjani Mohanty.
Speaker: Welcome, welcome, welcome Devjani. Pranam, pranam everyone, pranam. Pranam, we're so, so happy to have you on this day. and it's it's truly a blessing and a joy.
Speaker: and um what I'd like to do, if with your permission, is just encourage you to share, as you did with me, about your incredible upbringing. as yogis, we know that an auspicious birth is the result of good karma from the past. And gratefully, you gave me a glimpse of how very precious your childhood was And I would really love for you to hold our hands now and allow us to journey back in time to what it was like for you to grow up in Odesha, India.
Speaker: Thank you. Thank you, Mary Dilma. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my words and thoughts together with you all.
Speaker: I grew up in Orissa from my childhood. um I was born in Puri, a very sacred place. My mother's family is from Puri too.
Speaker: So from childhood, every summer vacation during this June, July, when there's school holidays, we used to go visit our grandparents, maternal grandparents.
Speaker: And their house was um just opposite to a big, huge pond, which our name is Narendra. And that was the pond.
Speaker: um During this summer vacation, Lord Jagannath used to um take a parikrama and the water because this is summer and people used to put sand loot paste on him, on his body, because they treat him just like, you know, their own. to have the cool cooling effect.
Speaker: So experiencing that from the childhood, I was ah really, really fascinated with, you know, what's going on with so many people and, you know, so much of festivities. It's like a big fair.
Speaker: And where my uncles, where my grandfather's house was, the next door was a um it's a mat, like it was a different set, it's Vaishnava.
Speaker: Sampradaya, it's like they worship Radha and Radharani and Lord Krishna. So um I used to get up four o'clock in the morning with their kirtan and bhajan with the beautiful gant sound and this bell sound and sacred bhajan. So I used to see, oh gosh, then I didn't know what was it. I said, oh, it's so noisy, but slowly, slowly it got into me and That's where every year when we visit my grandparents' place, um I get exposed to their vajins, their singing, their loving nature. And the most beautiful thing is the amazing prasad.
Speaker: I think as children, are all attracted towards the sweet. So what attracted me was the sweet nature. So that probably what was the purifying for me slowly, slowly. And also my mother's family, they come from a very beautiful lineage of Raya Ramanandh's family.
Speaker: So Raya Ramanandh is one of the prominent devotee of Lord Chaitanya. So he was the one who was given the opportunity to see what actually Lord Chaitanya was, the combination of Radharani and Lord Krishna.
Speaker: Coming back from that family, of course, there's something in the lineage, something in the blood that would skip few generations and come some other second generation or third generations. So I was blessed with that loving and um devotional atmosphere while growing up during my childhood. But I took it for granted because when you are given an ample, you don't realize how precious it is.
Speaker: I never knew that that would shape my way different way where I would embrace it. at the later part of my life.
Speaker: So- And you mentioned you mentioned how you can still taste the childhood Prasad to this day, which really touched me. um it truly was an incredible birth and childhood that you were blessed with. Thank you so much for taking the time to share. is there anything else you'd like to add about um your childhood, your grandparents, your parents, their influence?
Speaker: i As I said, my mother's family was from a um they they coming from a very, um what do you call devotional family. So devotion was there right from the childhood.
Speaker: And as we as I used to travel to visit my grandparents' place every summer vacation, so car festival all and but which is a Pheatra, and going to temple, mixing with all the activities and looking at the um all the rituals um was ah really, really very inspiring. And also it was amazing. And I can't really explain it, how you'd feel it is. It was like um the whole atmosphere is uplifted with different dimension.
Speaker: And I never understood then as a child what it is because we just took it for granted this this is what happens. But later when I was away from Odisha in my adulthood, then comes to my 30s, my 40s, and then I realized what a privilege is I was given while growing up.
Speaker: And now i can't even you know I can't even go and visit the temple without any um crowd. So it's so much crowded now. It's really, really hard to even have the darshan.
Speaker: But then we were given the darshan in the in us in the in ah innermost chamber of the temple. so And also my my father, he comes from a ah family where um they were very much like um ah devoted people, but they are more like Advaita Vedanta. like they They believe in everything.
Speaker: My mother comes from from a um devotional family. My father from like, you know, they believe in everything. They believe God's presence everywhere. So it's a it's a mix of two that brought me to this path.
Speaker: And my father was like, um
Speaker: years back, I think in ninety s 92 or 93 when they visited me in Sydney, he used to go to his bedroom and close the door for at least one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening and won't come out. I would i used to ask mum, what is dad doing inside?
Speaker: Then she would say, you know, he's he's praying, he's doing his yoga. I said, if he's doing his yoga, um why is he closing the door? So I used to go and peep because, you know, in Western houses, there is no peephole in the door. So it's locked, it's locked.
Speaker: so So then he needs to come back. um After dinner, I just ask him, um what what are you doing there for one hour? Are you praying for so long?
Speaker: He said, no, I'm just ah doing my meditation. I said, what is this meditation? said, can you teach me, please? Then he used to say, I can't teach you, but if you pray really hard, your teacher will come to teach you.
Speaker: But we pray hard. I said, ah then he said, well, when you come to India, we'll we'll see, you know, I'll take you. Then I said, when we go to India, it's once in a year. 15 days with my parents and 15 days with my in-laws where there is time to go and look for gurus. I said, it's not it's not under my control that I'll go and look for guru. But if guru finds me, guru would find me. So when I ah really didn't know that he had taken initiation from Gurudev and
Speaker: Yeah, um that was when Guruji was a brahmachari in Iktosha Raji's ashram. So it so happened that Guruji, during his travel to Australia in the 90s, I missed out, I think, twice because of whether or maybe I was not, my time was not right. Maybe I didn't mean men to. But in 2012,
Speaker: Well, now let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's keep that a little bit. So I'm very excited to hear that your father was a Kriyavan. I did not know that. And then that was very precious.
Speaker: And I know that it had to be hard for you when the time came for you to leave India. But it is a remarkable experience. gift that you were able to live in England and Japan and eventually ended up in Australia.
Speaker: Share with us how moving through different cultures and environments shaped your understanding of life, identity and spirituality because it was a big shift for you.
Speaker: um When we went to London, my husband was an international banker. So he had these you know postings, three years, three postings, overseas postings.
Speaker: So when we went to London, that was in 81 or 82, I had my young son with me. So very much, and it's a new culture, new place. Everything is new. There was no help.
Speaker: So I was completely uprooted. I felt little uprooted from my comfort zone. But that time also where we lived, um in the weekend, we used to go to the temples also there. There was one temple. um Little far, but you used to go occasionally, but we used to travel.
Speaker: i Like in London, I didn't have much experience of experiences of kind of any meeting any spiritual person or meeting any discourses.
Speaker: Traveling was hard. And with the baby, with a small baby, it was also hard for me to go out, leaving the baby. So that was not much that happened in London, except just being with the family and looking after the family and mingling with others, knowing the other culture.
Speaker: But we then we came back to um India for a short while, for a six or eight months when I had my second son. For six months we lived in India, then traveled to Japan.
Speaker: So in Japan, we stayed in a city called Kobe. It's an international city where we had the all the international schools for children and all the Indian government officers had their place to stay there.
Speaker: So we don't feel left out of the country.
Speaker: That was correct in Japan was really nice because their culture is more like um um praying to the ancestors, praying to Lord Buddha.
Speaker: Praying was much more, I felt the spirituality and the atmosphere is more like how I grew up.
Speaker: They are, or they, every kind of, you know, suburb is to have a temple. Temple means their way of well what they worship. They worship Lord Buddha, they worship it their ancestors, but they go put the incense sticks and they pray for their wellbeing, their family's wellbeing and for others.
Speaker: So, and all the all the functions there, annual functions were always combined with worship. So that's what I enjoyed there three ah three years and...
Speaker: their culture, their language and um their softness, their um embracing nature. Really, um I enjoyed.
Speaker: It was a little hard for me to make friends because I didn't know how to speak Japanese. And then also people were not speaking English as much. So I joined YWCA to learn Japanese and also private tutor came to teach me.
Speaker: So by second year, I was fluent in Japanese, so could make friends and get into their culture. attend their tea ceremony, their ladies get together because they are a community. They don't want any foreigners to get into their household, looking into their lifestyle and all. But I got a friend, met a friend, met a friend who was really, really very happy to help me out with conversation. And she was also kind of very happy that I could speak to her
Speaker: in English, that's so that whole conversation would get, you know, improved. The spoken language would get improved. So I enjoyed my stay in Japan.
Speaker: Wonderful. Then from there to here, to Sydney, to Australia. Great. that was in 1989? That was in 88. 88. Yeah. you've been quite time. that was in eighty eight eighty eight yeah so you've been there now quite a long time And I know while you have been in Australia, your spiritual practice began to take some wings and you were becoming more involved with the Vedanta Center.
Speaker: Yes. um When we arrived here in 87, sorry, 88, sorry eighty eight um There was, again, I was a little, the children were small. So I was, for a couple of years, I was very busy in looking after them and then um the household, then the family.
Speaker: Slowly, when I came to know about different organizations here, spiritual organizations, whenever you used to get time in the weekend, um you used to go and visit.
Speaker: But the shift came, know, when I was introduced to one of the organizations called Siddha Yoga Organization.
Speaker: So there I used to go and um participate with their Aarti, evening Aarti, Guru Gita chanting on Sundays. The family also used to go because the boys were a little grown up by then. So we could leave them home and go during the weekends or during the weekends either of they're okay with their homework, they used to come and join.
Speaker: i actually um encourage them to come with us, even if it's for one hour to come with us, just sit down and you know feel the atmosphere.
Speaker: Then, um That went on for a couple of years. I was going to the temples, normal temples and you know other organizations, but there was something lacking in me. Like, you know, it was okay for me, but it was I was not feeling any completeness within me.
Speaker: just Just to keep it a practice, I used to go and attend the functions. Any visiting monks come to Sydney to attend the lecture in the town hall or any other public places.
Speaker: Then came the Vedanta Center.
Speaker: Vedanta Center came in, I think, 99 or 2000.
Speaker: And I was the one of the devotees who were there with this visiting monk. He was in his seventies then.
Speaker: So we used to go and sit down in the rented place and to listen from him, his talks. Sweet month, like a fatherly figure to me. So then he encouraged to come and attend Gita classes, Vedanta classes, Upanishad classes.
Speaker: So it was a kind of nectar for me. So three days a week, I used to go and attend the classes with him.
Speaker: Then came 2000, where I was kind of invited to this satsang,
Speaker: where I met our Sri Guruji.
Speaker: Amazing. You know, sometimes the search itself becomes a form of grace and every longing, every question, every restless moment quietly prepares our heart for recognition. And then one day the soul just knows. And for that was, I think, in April of 2000. What do you remember about your first meeting with Guruji? What happened within you? happened?
Speaker: What made you realize your search was over? um it was a Tuesday evening. So this friend of mine, family friend of ours, um called me in the weekend, told me that, Devjani, please come in the evening, Tuesday evening, and we are having a satsang. And this monk has come from Odisha and also from Ravinsha. And so you'd like it.
Speaker: So initially I thought weekdays, my God, coming back from work and, you know, make a dish and see leaves half an hour drive from me, whether I would be able to take my family together with me before the time.
Speaker: But somehow I just could manage to come home early, cooked a dish. Then two boys, all four of us went. And it was just past 7.30 in the evening and her lounge was packed.
Speaker: and there was no spot to go in inside to sit. So we enter and I sat under the steps to the ah living room steps.
Speaker: And the moment I he walked in, I looked at Guruji to me, he seemed to me as I'm looking at Vivekananda with his you know cap on, not the turban, just a small cap on.
Speaker: I just screened my eye i said, oh, maybe Vivekananda has gone so much inside me. I see see him mean you know in others also. So the satsang went on for one hour and I really liked it. It was simple, so beautiful.
Speaker: And then come then came the dinner time. So after we had the dinner, like normal way, Guruji served everybody. said Everybody has their plate. So after the dinner, I had a chat with Guruji.
Speaker: And then it so happened that the professor of economics, my professor of economics was also his professor. Some few known
Speaker: lecturers also were there when he studied. So it was a kind of, I really felt happy to know someone who went to the same university, had the same subject and the same professor. So I was really, really happy and very happy.
Speaker: So, and also for some reason, i was able to feel that completeness is slowly kind of engulfing me from inside.
Speaker: oh So I came back and in the car, i I hardly spoke. So I was just really enjoying that, that fullness of my heart.
Speaker: And that was, I think 19th or 20th of April, probably, can't remember exactly, Then came, I like,
Speaker: um
Speaker: 25th of April. In the meantime, i was kind of mulling it over like not to take the initiation. So um on 25th of April, it was a public holiday here, Anzac Day.
Speaker: So we were going to Canberra to meet our old family friend. So then when we went there, we met Guruji there. He also had come there for the evening prasad.
Speaker: And these people are from Odisha too. So I met him there again. And when I met him again, and then the this desire again came to my mind that, so take the initiation because Guruji would be leaving next weekend.
Speaker: If I have to have, I have to act immediately. So I asked my husband, Arvind, that should you take initiation? He said, yes, and I was very happy. So back to Sydney and contacted the person who was in charge of initiation program.
Speaker: Then he said, ma, Guruji is leaving next weekend. So only thing that you can have initiation is only one weekend left and Guruji leaves on Monday.
Speaker: So I said, that's fine. So the following weekend is Easter weekend and Monday was Easter Monday. Guruji was going back. So it was a good Friday holiday, so prepare everything. And then Saturday morning, we had the initiation and Sunday, the technique.
Speaker: And Monday, I think he was leaving on Tuesday. Yes, Monday had the meditation class. Tuesday he left. So from the work, I went to see him off in the airport.
Speaker: But previous night when I had the initiation, I came back, I rang home and spoke to my dad. I said, Papa, you know, I took initiation.
Speaker: He thought me being so crazy, like going here and there, I must have taken initiation from someone without kind of, you know, checking. out So he said, where did you go? Where did you take initiation from?
Speaker: Then when I said Guruji's name, Baba Pragyananandaji, Then he said, from Kriya Yoga? I said, yes. Then he said, oh, Triloki Baba is there?
Speaker: i said, yes. I said, how did you know? He said, Ma, I have taken initiation from Gurudev and Triloki Baba was a brahmachari there.
Speaker: I, you won't believe my little mom. My heart just had big. um I said, God. So I said this, then he said the same line. See, I told you you to pray to God. God will send someone to initiate you into right path.
Speaker: So that was my search was over after I heard from my father. Then the next day when I went to work,
Speaker: on Tuesday and went to see Guruji at the airport and did my pranam. I said, my father has sent his love and best wishes to you. He said, what's your father's name? When I said, my father's name, he said, oh, Banjo Baba. So you are Banjo Baba's daughter. i said, yes.
Speaker: So he said, I was there when he was taking initiation in... eat thiserjis asru car astro So it was, that was the culmination of my happiness. And I really felt so grounded, so grounded that it was humbling.
Speaker: It was some that I have reached home. Yes. all Yes. It took a long time. My journey is over and I also remember that all these years that i went to other places to attend aarti's, the classes, the discourses, they are also part of shaping me into this path.
Speaker: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes, and you you said so beautifully, so enduringly that when you met Guruji, you found your Swami Vivekananda in him, which is just so precious, that recognition.
Speaker: And it's a wonderful blessing. I mean... flabbergasting about your father and then that your husband and your sons also have been initiated. So your whole family is being held by the guru, which is just a beautiful thing. How did the initiation change the atmosphere within your your family and your home life?
Speaker: Was there a shift that took place? Yes, um it is always good to meditate together if both husband and wife have taken initiations. So I used to come home, first of all, look after the um meal, the dinners.
Speaker: So after the dinner is cooked, I take a shower because kids are little older, they do their homework. Then both of us sit down and meditate and we'll have late dinner.
Speaker: If the kids are hungry, angry I say that you can come down and you know have your dinner. So both, but slowly what happened, they would have a little snack. They wait for both of us. Then four of us will have dinner together. So my dinner was never before seven. It was always close to nine, but it didn't matter. like At least we could sit together and meditate.
Speaker: That's so beautiful and powerful. it It truly is. And I know that you have shared that having your strong Kriya practice is an anchor in your life and has supported you through ups and downs and challenges. Would you speak about how your practice has supported you through these difficult periods or uncertainties?
Speaker: Yes. like um life ah comes Like life life itself unfolds its some mystery, mysterious path and the situations.
Speaker: After we had the initiation one year after, it was going so smooth. Like, you was happy. The children were at school. One is, you know, doing his evening. The other one is in high school.
Speaker: there came a time where life completely changed. I lost my husband in an accident. So it was absolutely U-turn, like didn't know how to react, but for something that happened, maybe it's Guruji's blessing or Guruji's prayers in my life, his love, his caring nature.
Speaker: just lifted me from the ground and put me where I belong. eight I remember that it was September 11, 9-11, that thing, you know, that old wall.
Speaker: Guruji was here for three weeks because of this situation that he couldn't go back. And it just had happened then a month before. was devastated.
Speaker: and Guruji came and three times a day, I was on leave, three times a day, he would have the meditation sessions.
Speaker: And when I entered the meditation room, I was completely, as if nothing has happened. That three weeks actually gave me so much of strength inside because of meditation,
Speaker: in his presence and his loving gestures, his prayers for my well-being, his prayers for my steadiness, everything just put me into the right place.
Speaker: So I knew that life is not going to be the same again, but you can't really take it for granted that life is going the same every day of your life. it's It is a journey that we all have to endure, whatever comes in your path.
Speaker: So the moment you exit your life, the way it unfolds to you, I think your inner strength comes in and it just takes over. And I feel Guru's grace is the most beautiful thing in your life.
Speaker: And your loving surrender-ness, when you surrender completely with your love, with your devotions,
Speaker: someone one else looks after your life that powerful energy that grace divine grace makes your path less troublesome troubles will be there troubles come troubles go but it just doesn't affect you doesn't shake you doesn't uproot you from your path So I keep saying and to every day, everybody that, you know, if once you ask the Guru's grace, that Guru is in you know, in within you, outside you, everywhere, around you, just living in his words and Gurudev.
Speaker: It is just amazing. My visit to Gurudev on his 95th birthday, was that was i mean that four days was kind of such a blessing in my life that he could see Gurudev and his living presence on his birthday 95th birthday and I was mesmerized just looking at him beautiful eyes powerful gaze with through that gaze
Speaker: the love that it kind of transmits within you, just amazing.
Speaker: And what we have got now, Guruji is no less. I see Gurudev in Guruji, each time i look at him.
Speaker: You know the saying that, what you think, so you become? Guruji, every thought is Gurudev. Right. So he has become Gurudev for us.
Speaker: He truly has.
Speaker: So we have this loving, living presence of Gurudev in Guruji.
Speaker: Absolutely. My surrender to Guruji, loving Guruji, his love, his guidance, just has brought me this far. And I'm sure this will take me till the end.
Speaker: Well, and just listening to you, Ma, i see clearly that your whole life prepared you for Kriya at the exact right time that you and your family needed it to support you further so that you had Guru Dev and Guruji with you. i mean, it's the sweetest story and just accentuated that your father was already there.
Speaker: So it's it's very dynamic, this story and precious. And I appreciate you being transparent and brave enough to share this with us. it's um We appreciate it. We truly do.
Speaker: want everybody to know that, you know, once you surrender, nothing is yours. Let the divine look after and take over hold of you.
Speaker: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you've done just that. And I know that um you left India, you left ashrams, you left a lot of the a deep tradition of India behind you. And yet, through your association with the Guruji, you and your Kriya initiation, you have managed to witness the planting of seeds in Australia for Kriya with the beginning of our ashram there.
Speaker: And I'm sure that's been ah very poignant and important birthing for you. Can you share what that's been like for us a little bit?
Speaker: The Guruji has been coming here for last um close to probably 30 years now, 28, 29 years now.
Speaker: So ah in I think 2011 or 12, this
Speaker: sprouting of having an ashram just came into like, you know, just few, older devotees who's been with this organization for long time.
Speaker: So then Guruji used to come, used to talk to him and about the ashram. First it started with a rented property when Guru Priyama Sarbat Panandaji, they came and stayed.
Speaker: So the rented property was within a residential area. So like we couldn't have functions, the parking was difficult, gathering was difficult because of the noise and people are very vocal if it is loud, there is parking you know difficulties. So then the idea came now, now we are ready to look for an ashram.
Speaker: So I remember 2018 or 17, 18 probably, sorry, 16. eighteen or seventeen eighteen probably sorry sixteen 16 or 17, Guruji suddenly came for one week to take rest. Nobody knew.
Speaker: So within that time, our the center leader and few other older disciples, they have selected few properties that Guruji would go and look at.
Speaker: So Guru Prema, Guruji, they went around looking for three, four ashrams. And out of that, They call down two. One is the present one, another one, which is little closer to Sydney.
Speaker: But the present ashram is in a beautiful hilltop area. It's secluded, lots of greeneries, beautiful old trees, and it looks like the ashram.
Speaker: So it happened that the following year we had this... um property
Speaker: for ashram, Guruji and few other monks came from the inauguration. And for the first time, there were seven monks here for the inauguration of this property, which became such a beautiful ashram now.
Speaker: the blue sky, the star-filled sky in the night. When you stay in the astrum, it's not a huge astrum, but such a beautiful astrum.
Speaker: Astrum runs by only with rainwater, so there is no chlorine water. So you drink rainwater, you shower rainwater, you cook with rainwater, it's completely natural.
Speaker: And yeah, so, and there now the The girls who live there now, they're looking after the ashram and the garden so beautifully. It's a divine garden now with Guruji's hand touch.
Speaker: Guruji's care whenever he comes every year. His care, his instructions, just like Gurudev, divine garden. ah He goes around and gives, you know, what to be done, you know, what to be know looked after, how to look after.
Speaker: so all the instructions are there and people follow it. And the garden is closing. That is just just wonderful. I've seen many photographs and it is truly heaven.
Speaker: It truly is. And I'm so happy that it's there. I really am. And I know you, Ma, in 2023, with the blessings of Guruji, began to guide meditation yourself. How did that invitation unfold? And what did it awaken within you personally?
Speaker: When the email came as for the yoga chair training, I read it twice. I never thought that it would come to me because I never had expected anything. Never.
Speaker: I read it. it Is this my name? I said, it's my email. It must be my name there. So when I read it, I said, if it has come from, nothing comes without Guruji's knowledge, right?
Speaker: it's It's a blessing and guidance that Guruji has given me. So I accepted that with gratitude and grace of Guruji.
Speaker: So took the training from Atma Vidyananji Baba here and the life changed from that. So whatever I have received from Guruji, if I can do a little bit of seva for this organization, my life will be meaningful Yes.
Speaker: Doing something or helping in Guruji's work, spreading his love. That is the most that I can look into.
Speaker: Beautiful. And now beginning last year, ah you are initiating Seekers on the Kriya Path. That's such a sacred responsibility.
Speaker: How do you hold that experience inwardly? Initially, i was really not comfortable because initiating you have to be, I said, gosh, you know, Guruji has given me this responsibility.
Speaker: So in the morning after the meditation, I fervently prayed to Gurudev. Gurudev, this is your work. It's my hands. My hands only doing the work, but you be installed yourself within me so that Whatever I do, it's not to me, it's you.
Speaker: So I gave everything, like in the prayer, I said, it's not me, it's you. I'm not initiating anybody. So if I do anything wrong, please forgive me, but please let me be connected to you, be with you, you be with me as my breath.
Speaker: If you are my breath, nothing will go wrong.
Speaker: Amen and amen. So that was that was it. Initially I was a little uncomfortable, a little doubtful, but the moment I started with prayer, I think somebody just took over.
Speaker: Guru Dev, Guru Ji just took over. Yes. I truly believe that and i I have had the privilege of attending many initiations over the years and You can feel the presence of the the masters there. yeah it' It is absolutely palatable. And I think that our whole um
Speaker: team, we'll call them, of Yogacharyas in this lineage are just wonderful, wonderful. There are no mistakes, Ma. No mistakes.
Speaker: So we thank you for... for um standing up and letting go surrendering, and just allowing yourself to to be a tool for the masters. It's beautiful.
Speaker: It's very empowering as well. When you when I feel inside, i feel the the intense presence of Guruji and Gurudev within me.
Speaker: When I entered the meditation hall in Ashram, the day of initiation, could feel that it's like vibrating living energy there.
Speaker: Yes. It just has to be tuned to that. What I feel that the more I tune myself, more I empty myself, I can tune better.
Speaker: So there's nothing in me that is mine. okay so it's Guruji and Gurudev. So when i say that, I really mean it. Yes.
Speaker: We just, you know, both of them, they just take over. Yes, they do. And it's amazing to see how Kriya is taking root all over the world because of them. It's just, it's a phenomena.
Speaker: But Ma, I... know that you know our ministry exists to uplift and support women walking the spiritual path.
Speaker: What unique challenges and perhaps unique strengths do you feel women bring to spiritual life and practice and teaching?
Speaker: i think women have got this powerful insight particularly when you are meditating regularly, your conscience become clear.
Speaker: You are more focused. And what you say, you really don't make it up. It comes from, it comes within you.
Speaker: And with that powerful instrument, women are always powerful. They have got a different insight. They have got different senses. They can do many things at the same time. But when you follow this meditative path and guide others, you you become empowered with that hidden energy, matru shakti, that divine mother's energy.
Speaker: So this energy, divine mother's energy which is within all of us. it It just have to activate it, just have to rouse it. So once it is there,
Speaker: there is no doubt. When there is no doubt, there is no fear. When there is no fear, you are yourself a divine being. So then, you know, you can guide others in the same path, what you are trading on, what you are working on, and what benefit do you get working on this path.
Speaker: And people can watch you, people people can see you. If you say it, what you are, if you are that, people would believe it. People would kind of feel it.
Speaker: you say something from your heart, it goes to other person's heart. If you say something from your mouth, it goes to the ear that comes out of the other ear. So you really have to believe in what you say and that becomes your your power.
Speaker: But that comes with the
Speaker: inner experience and more meditative life.
Speaker: It truly does. And ah I believe that we surrender into becoming a true yogi. Yoga is our life. Meditation is our life. And that is thanks to our divine masters, our Guruji.
Speaker: It's palatable. And we're very blessed and fortunate to have found this path, no doubt about it. And as you well know, our podcast is called Living in Joy. I'd like you to think for a minute.
Speaker: what that really means to you after all these years of spiritual practice, service, family life, all of it anchored in deep devotion since you've been a child until now and going through the tragedy of losing your husband and yet coming out of it as a better person in many ways. ready to support others through their difficulties.
Speaker: How have you been able to embrace and continue to live in joy day to day?
Speaker: Once you lose that fear that you are alone,
Speaker: the knowledge of
Speaker: divine comes in, like, you know, divine protection comes in and you feel that, you know, you are protected. When you have got this divine protection, what do you fear of?
Speaker: So for me and for others, if we can get rid of our
Speaker: kind of, you know, restricted life that I am small, know, I can't do this, I can't do that. So we are constricting ou ourselves, limiting ourselves with our body, mind and our thought processes.
Speaker: Once we get rid of that, thinking that helping others or showing the right path, the path you follow that you have believed in can give you so much of peace and florist life in a different way, you can show that to others with convince.
Speaker: You convince others that this can be possible. This is possible. And when that comes in, gets grounded in you, you can encourage, you can show the path to others. It's more like be vocal, be the guide, and also spread the same thing that you have received from your gurus and from the divine, that it is possible.
Speaker: And that is our that is our instrument, a kind of royal instrument. Kriya Yoga is As Guruji, Gurudev always say that, you know, it's kind of instrument that takes over other instruments. It gives you that speed which others can't give you.
Speaker: So with that instrument, what else do you need? You can be the living example for others. People see how you live, people see how you behave, how you act, how you react.
Speaker: So you are you become the living example for what you say. yes So if you can do that, there's not much word to say. So people feel, people will see, and people will follow.
Speaker: Like Guruji an example, like living example in front of us. So what is the example that I can say? You know, we have seen Gurudev, we have seen Guruji.
Speaker: Two blessed Paramahansaj in our life. What other examples that we can have? yeah There are many in the history, but the these are the living ones.
Speaker: pass us We know who guides us. They're the light. They're the who can guide us on our onward journey, upward journey in our day-to-day journey.
Speaker: So for the living podcast, for the podcast, I would just say that when people listen to us, They also should feel that what you are saying are true.
Speaker: You have lived that life and what you are but kind of, you know, um explaining or projecting. So unless you live that life, you can't project that life to others.
Speaker: So it's more of a sincerity. Sincerity, love and your surrenderness to your gurus with love.
Speaker: What a wonderful, wonderful message to all of us. It's a perfect place for us to close with reflection. Devjani Ma, and thank you.
Speaker: not only for being here today, but for openly sharing your wisdom, your tenderness, humility, and your devotion with all of us. it's It's been our joy. Your journey reminds us that the sincere seeker is always being guided, even through uncertainty, movement, responsibility, and longing. And when the soul is truly ready, grace does appear, doesn't it?
Speaker: We bow to you, Ma. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Jai, Guru. um but um and say God bless you. God bless yeah all of us.
Speaker: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, and you as well. I'd like to close with a beautiful reflection from our beloved Guruji. that fits from our conversation today. It's a powerful reminder, if you will. He he has written, that meditation is the journey from movement to stillness, from sound to silence, from limited identity to infinite presence.
Speaker: So may we all continue that sacred journey inward. And with that, our beautiful listeners around the world, we thank you for joining us for another sacred conversation. And we invite you to please join us again and again as we continue celebrating the voices and the journeys of women walking the path of Kriya Yoga.
Speaker: Remember that you can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and we warmly invite you to subscribe, share, and help these offerings reach hearts everywhere.
Speaker: Until we meet again, may God and gurus bless you. May Divine Mother guide you, and may you live in joy. Shantihi, Om Shantihi, Om Shantihi.
Speaker: Amen. Jai Guru, everyone. Much, much love to you. Thank you. This podcast is brought to you by the Women's Ministry of Kriya Yoga International. You can learn more about the ministry at our website, womensministryofkriya.org.
Speaker: Kriya Yoga is a powerful meditation practice that awakens constant communion with the divine through the science of the breath. Handed down from teacher to student in an unbroken lineage of enlightened masters, it transforms body, mind, and heart, helping us be calmly active and actively calm.
Speaker: Today, this living tradition welcomes seekers everywhere through the guidance of Paramahamsa Pragyanananda, the principal disciple of the great master Paramahamsa Hariharananda. To learn more about Kriya Yoga, please visit kriya.org.
