Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Women of Kriya Yoga Living in Joy podcast, a gathering place for women walking the spiritual path. Here we share stories, teachings, and reflections rooted in the timeless practices of Kriya Yoga.
Speaker: These conversations are an offering from the Women's Ministry of Kriya Yoga International, inviting you to rest in stillness, awaken your inner light, and connect with a community of women to support one another in living in joy.
Speaker: Our host is Mary Dale Ma, a devoted disciple of Paramahamsa Yogananda, whose boundless love guided her to the feet of her beloved Guruji, Paramahamsa Pragyanananda, within the sacred lineage of the Kriya Yoga International Masters.
Speaker: A seasoned yoga teacher and mentor for more than 40 years, she's trained in the Krishnamacharya tradition and founded the Param Yoga Healing Arts Center in California. Through her teaching and mentorship, Marydale supports seekers in awakening their highest potential and cultivating love, compassion, and equanimity through consistent practice.
Speaker: Swami Sankalpanandagiri was born in Hungary. A spiritual seeker from her young age, she eventually found the path of Kriya Yoga and was initiated in April 2004 in Hungary. Soon after, in June 2004, she met her master, Sri Guruji Paramahamsa Pragyananandaji, at the Tatendorf Ashram in Austria. Guided by her sincere aspiration for monastic life, she joined the Tatendorf Ashram in February 2005 and later participated in the third Brahmachari training course from December 2005 until May 2006 in Baligai, India.
Speaker: Afterwards, she continued to reside at the Tatendorf Ashram, deepening her sadhana while engaging in seva. In 2016, she was ordained as a monk in the Giriri monastic order by her master, who gave her the name Sankalpananda, meaning the bliss of strong determination.
Speaker: Om and Pranam, dear friends, and welcome to you. I'm so glad that you've chosen to join us today to be a part of this sacred conversation. Before I introduce our beautiful guest, let us pause and truly arrive in this moment.
Speaker: Begin by silencing your phone and if you can, turn away from any distraction and begin to bring your full attention just here, right here, into the now.
Speaker: Allow your body to soften, your breath to slow, and if you wish, gently close your eyes and begin to feel the sweetness of your own breath.
Speaker: the quiet rhythm of your breath moving through you.
Speaker: Settling, softening, opening.
Speaker: Heavenly Father, Divine Mother, Beloved Lord, to our Divine Gurudev Paramahansa Hariharananda, our beloved Guruji,
Speaker: Paramahansa Pranjana Nanda, our Paramguru Paramahansa Yogananda, and the majestic masters of the entire Kriya Yoga throughout time, we bow to you all in reverence, in respect, in honor, in surrender,
Speaker: We are so grateful for this moment in time to come together to share the wisdom and delight of the women that are on the path of Kriya Yoga near and far.
Speaker: We thank you for this auspicious privilege and at the same time ask that you will be with us and let only truth be spoken here, moving through our hearts one to another around the planet.
Speaker: Thank you, thank you, thank you, Father, Mother, God. Aum Shantihi, Aum Shantihi, Aum Shantihi. Amen.
Speaker: And thank you, thank you, thank you We're so delighted on this day to welcome Swamiji Sankalpa Ananda to our humble home here at our Living in Joy podcast.
Speaker: Swamiji, thank you for carving out time to be with us on on this beautiful day. i know you're in Vienna, I'm in Los Angeles. And so it's a phenomena that we're able to all come together in real time to celebrate you and our path together. So welcome. And I'd like to start, if you don't mind, from the beginning. Can you tell us a little bit about your early life in Hungary and what it was like growing up in a small town surrounded by your family and nature?
Speaker: Thank you, Ma. So happy to be here with you and and with all. And it is really the grace of God and gurus that we can join together, although quite different environment and two different continents and came together.
Speaker: So my childhood was... was I really had a nice childhood. Whenever I think back, I feel I had, I was fortunate to some extent, because so it was a small town and although my parents divorced, but i had wonderful grandparents and I spent a lot of time, especially with my grandmother,
Speaker: in nature and being in their orchard and in their farm and I love to be with animals and plants to help her and she was a real grandmother who was teaching me you know cooking and also handworks like embroidery and knitting and such things and I spent all my holidays there with her they had a bakery in the town so I was as a young child already there around helping She taught me how to be polite, how to greet the people, how to be nice with the people, how to give out the bread and like this.
Speaker: And so I really had a happy childhood, to what I must say. Oh, that's so wonderful. And what a great blessing to be so close to your your grandparents.
Speaker: And as you look back on those moments, Swamiji, They were quietly preparing you for your spiritual life. And I know that when we spoke, you kind of referred to yourself as being introverted as a child.
Speaker: How did all of this lead you more towards spirit?
Speaker: To be honest, I think, you know, as our masters also says, that spirituality is something comes from previous samskaras. Like, it just doesn't come just from so nowhere. But of course, there is need for a befitting environment.
Speaker: And although my family was not ah particularly religious, but they were spiritual in their own way, as I told, like the peace of the old people on my grandmother,
Speaker: and the closeness of nature. And I really love to be silent and just read my books, be quiet. So it was sometimes also surprising for my environment to my mother and later on to even but to my classmates that I was sir not like them, you know, not so outgoing or not like, you know, how modern Western young women would live. So I wasn't like that. But nobody could understand, but I knew there was something within.
Speaker: And when I was early teenager, I started reading spiritual books. And then I, as it was a like a down in my life, I understood that that it that is the one thing I really missed or that is my past, really, you know, that it is not the...
Speaker: way as I, as usually people live, but this is something more. So I spent more and more time reading and I had a very good, you know, God and Guru's guide. Even directly I didn't have my guru yet, but happened to be that in school my physics math teacher, she was spiritual.
Speaker: And so we spent most of the math classes listening to her advices on spirituality. And she had an extended library of books about spiritual topics, so I could borrow her books, which was wonderful.
Speaker: So this is how it all started. Oh, that's, that's a beautiful story. And I know that um at this point in time, you shared that something inside of you was beginning to stir pretty much.
Speaker: And your teacher was highly influential. Do you think that there was something about her presence or words that actually started to awaken something in you? Was she that important on your path?
Speaker: In a way, yes, because it is now impossible to imagine. But if you think, I was i think i was in my early teenage, so m like around, I would say, 30 years, almost 30 years back, 28 years back.
Speaker: And that time in Hungary, we didn't have a lot of, Hungary maybe, but not in my town, not a lot of resources, you will get information. It is unimaginable now, but that time it was not there. Also no internet, as if now.
Speaker: And I know we had one bookshop in the town that I used to visit. And every, maybe once in a month or once in a few weeks, they had one piece of spiritual book. And that I always purchased. Just that you see the conditions.
Speaker: And in that desert, I would say like this, you know, you find someone who speaks about spirituality and who has a lot of books. So it was really a fountain of information for me.
Speaker: and also who guided me then further. Even essentially, yes, because after I graduated from high school, I was really perplexed what to do because ah not really any college interested me. Like I didn't feel the call to study something which doesn't interest me really. I didn't know what to do.
Speaker: And then this teacher who became my friend later on. We became friends after school and we met a lot and talked. And she told me that she enrolled to a college of, let's say, like it was called the College of Natural Sciences.
Speaker: more about spirituality, religion, and like that, and recommended me. And then instead of going to usual college or university, I enrolled there. It was a private institution.
Speaker: And I spent there two years. And that was the place where I got to know about Kriya Yoga, and like in that institute. Because again, then a new teacher I had a teacher there also, and elderly lady, very sweet one,
Speaker: who who was my teacher of comparative religion in that college. And she told us that she has a lot of experience and she has seen many paths.
Speaker: She has been in India. And she said she tells from experience that one can count on one hand today in Europe or in the West. How many masters are there who are really realized or path, who really leads to the goal? And she said one is Kriya Yoga.
Speaker: Later and I got to know she was, she's initiated. And of course, later we became also friends with her. And so it was anyhow, like it was very instrumental, one teacher and then the next teacher and, and my classmate then gave me the book, you know, which one.
Speaker: here a yogi And, and then you know then i found my task That's wonderful that you had two very influential women and that were there to guide you because your early days, you were in a Christian school. And yet, through your reading and your insatiable appetite for knowledge and spirituality, it read you to Eastern philosophy, which was very powerful for you and landed you in the arms of Yoganandaji and his autobiography of a yogi. What was it like the first time you read that book?
Speaker: It was like coming home. Like it was really because i have been, you know, like I have been reading books of spirituality since I was, I think 12 I started.
Speaker: And you know, like everybody on aura and on chakras and on reincarnation and many types of esoteric things. And the then I went to this high school, college later on, as I told you, but still I felt it was not what I really wanted.
Speaker: And then my, I spoke to my, when we spoke with my classmates and friends, and I always said that I want this realization, like something and everything.
Speaker: And then my friend told me that I give you this book to read because you always want to speak about realization. And this is about that. And when I read it, I felt this is my, this is, I can't say it is not just that this I want. I felt I came home. This is the one which is mine.
Speaker: There was no doubt about it. So after reading, you immediately felt this is my path. And what did that recognition recognition feel like inside your heart finally? Like it was it was very nice. It was ah You know what I did? i Because it was the Hungarian translation of Yogananda's book. It is translated even to Hungarian. And in the backside, there were the contact of the Hungarian Kriya Yoga group, very practical. And I called them up and I told them that when is next initiation? And they said, well, we don't know if somebody is coming in the spring from Tatendorf to initiate and like this.
Speaker: I said, I don't mind. I can go to India. I go anywhere. I want to get initiated. And then there was the grace that they told me after some time that you don't need to go to India because we got the news that Swami Mangalanandaji is coming to Budapest, to the capital of Hungary, so you can come here too to take initiation. And then there was no doubt anymore that it was my path.
Speaker: So you met Swami Mangalanda Ji and later Guru Ji for the first time. What was that encounter like to you? Did you know right away you had found your spiritual home?
Speaker: You know, when there was in Budapest before initiation, the Friday public lecture, introductory into the Kriya Yoga, we say like this in Europe. And right on the public lecture, I saw Mangala Nandaji and I saw a monk. And living in Ashram, I heard about her and I got so excited. I said, oh, this is possible because I was so, ah you know, so much.
Speaker: I wanted so much a spiritual path and also to be a monk. I was really attracted to monastic life, but ah not in the Christian way. Not that it is bad, but it just didn't feel, who it didn't feel that it was mine.
Speaker: And then then it was something like ashram and quite near. And I asked her, oh really? And you are a monk and living in Tatendorf. And how can one come? I also want to stay in ashram.
Speaker: And then she was surprised because I was just there to get initiated. I mean, fully new. And she said, and no no, you know, Kriya Yoga is teaching to live in the world and you can have a family and you can do everything in God consciousness. And one does not have to be a monk and does not need to stay in Asham. And she was talking like this because I was very new. And of course, she didn't know how determined I am or something. Then I was listening to her politely and I went away and I so i was thinking to myself, well, she says like this, but still I'm going to come to Ashram.
Speaker: And you found your way there, all right, and you're still there. That's so wonderful. Very wonderful. And you alluded to a beautiful story about your first meeting with Guruji and how he finally permitted you to stay at the ashram. Can you take a few minutes and share that story with us?
Speaker: That is very nice. So I got initiated in 2004, April. And ah the Hungarian group was very active. And that year, Guruji was to come to Tatendorf, to our ashram in June for a seminar.
Speaker: for the program. And the Hungarian group was in already preparing and discussing that they want to come out together, you know, because one of them had a summer house and in a nearby town, still in Hungary, because Tottendorf is near to the border of Hungary and Austria.
Speaker: So it was kind of cheaper and like we got accommodation there. And they were discussing to come together by car, share the car and come together and come for the program and stay in that summer house and just come daily for the program to hear.
Speaker: And of course, I was full of ears and I was very excited that, oh, they're going to the ostrom and I want to come. And so I came with them. And that time I did not know much about Guruji.
Speaker: I just came with the people like, you know, and when I came, Baba was here and I saw he was intensely looking at me. Perhaps he felt that one of his child maybe is going to come home or something. But I was ah i was very surprised and beginning little bit afraid or, you know, like ah I was very reserved and shy.
Speaker: And but by the end of the program, i and also my English was that time, you know, I had studied English before and I passed good exams, but I didn't have the practice of talking because I didn't have the environment to speak in Hungary so much.
Speaker: So I managed to call at myself and say a few sentences to Guruji in my own way. And I said that I want to come back. And then he said, okay, like just for the program, you know, like for some program or something.
Speaker: And, uh, Then I went away and I was in Hungary, but I was not in peace because I wanted to, I was thinking of Tatendorf all the time, the ashram, and I wanted to come to ashram back.
Speaker: And the I managed to, I got the information that if I want to come, that time it was, I had to write to the office here and I wrote to Nisangha Nandaji, that time Anneli Zema, she was the secretary general here.
Speaker: And I think it was Guruji had to permit it, so I wrote to her, but also for Guruji that I have this desire, I don't have desire for worldly life and I want to join.
Speaker: and But because Guruji was in India, Nisangarandaji replied me, Baba is not here now, and later on he will give reply. So I had to wait a couple of months because Baba was not in Tatendorf and...
Speaker: And then after quite a few months, I got to reply that I should come to Tatthendorf and keep in touch with Tatthendorf and Mangala Nandaji. And that also Guruji was to come to Hungary in that November for a short program and to come there and then i can see him there.
Speaker: And ah so I came in the summer already with other Kriyavans to come to the ashram and help around here just to spend a few days with Seva be around.
Speaker: And in November, when Guruji came to Hungary, i I went there to the program and I just bowed to him and told him I want to come to Ashram. And Baba asked me in a very, you know, like it as if he would ask a child and to which Ashram you want to come, where you want to come. And I said, Baba, Baba, I want to go to India.
Speaker: And Baba told me, he said, first you come to Tatendorf, then you go to India. And then, but it was, you know, it was enough for me. But then again, a few months passed and I had not really a reply, you know, if I can really join or what is going to happen.
Speaker: But then was Christmas time and I came to Dalsham again. First Christmas in Tatendorf. And that was the last Christmas Guruji spent here. Hmm. And then already it was announced that there would be a third Bravanchari course in India next year.
Speaker: And I was very interested to go there. And the i mean, belongs to the story, you know, there are no coincidences that the just in that seminar was also our Swami Swatantaranandaji, that time Daya, also a young lady like me, coming to he she just came back from India where she stayed in her own And immediately became friends, you know, as if the old karma, you know, coming back because we knew that after a few months we both will start staying here and, you know, we will be so close together. And so we both wanted to go to the Pramachari calls and I told Guruji I would like to go there.
Speaker: And Baba said, he said, did you register? I said, not yet. He said, at least you should register. So I felt it was okay from his side. So I registered in the office and then I told him, but Baba, still then I want to stay here in the ashram.
Speaker: And he told me, look, you are already here. And I said, oh, I didn't, you know, I have, I didn't say nothing to my mother. So I have to go back, tell to my mother and come back. And he said, okay, you go back, tell your parents and come back to your mother and come back.
Speaker: And then, so this is how it, how it started. So I was supposed to come back in March, but I already came back in February. And, uh, after my birthday and my mother brought me with her car and, uh, it happened that coincidence Guruji was just here, i just a few days, I think in between.
Speaker: And so when I arrived, he was just also there. So it was, it was very nice, a special blessing. Very beautiful story. Beautiful. And it was wonderful that your mom is the one who took you to that's, that's very powerful. I think the surrendering of her child into the arms of Baba.
Speaker: I'm sure you have beautiful memories about that. And what was it like for you to actually leave your home and step into ashram life in Austria and then later into India?
Speaker: I was very happy, not because living my home, but because found my path. Like I was dreaming of this since young age to find a but way like a monastery or ashram that I could stay or that I could live for God. And it was ah my mother's surrender there was interesting.
Speaker: Because I felt she was struggling because she was a typical, very caring mother. Like she's a kind of mother, you know, who cares the whole family and cooks and bakes and wants to have grandchildren around and children around and family around.
Speaker: And, but one night I had a dream that somehow there was a, and I felt the blessings of the masters that they somehow had somehow helped her to understand that it was good for me. And next day, surprisingly, i am she came to me and she told me that, well, you know how much I would have loved that you have a family and grandchildren, like I will have grandchildren and you will have children, but I feel how happy you are there. And if you are happy, I'm also happy.
Speaker: So that was beautiful. That is very beautiful. it chokes me up a little bit. a mother's love. It's beautiful. And it had to really impact you to know that you had her support going forward. That's that's very big And so now you are on your way. You went to the ashram. You went to India for Brahmacharya training. How did you adjust from the rhythm of everyday life to the rhythm of ashram discipline and seva and all that goes with it?
Speaker: And this is even before you became a monastic. Hmm. It was, a again, from my family upbringing, I was accustomed to get up early morning because my grandparents used to get up, you know, they had to, because of bakery also duties. And I think old people, our old people were used to get up early. So I was, ah even my parents, because of jobs. So I was i was only always an early riser. It was not really a problem.
Speaker: And... the There was, I think, not really some difficulties I had, but I had to learn that was more about office tasks or PC, computer, Seva. I was not too used to it, but slowly everybody helped and I got into the practice and now it is going.
Speaker: That's great. So you've become a very flexible yogi on the path in the process. And you shared that you were initiated as a brahmacharya in 2012 and then a monk in 2016. That's a very profound evolution of the soul. How did these milestones, both of them transform you inwardly and outwardly?
Speaker: it was em it was more like a confirmation. Like a confirmation from goddess God and Gurus for your path. That, the you know, you have been threading that path and that the and that that is that is the right thing to do.
Speaker: I was sure about it. And also I felt, I just felt that love. And especially ah after monk's initiation, I felt that surrender, that complete surrender.
Speaker: Because and monastic life, it is not just about initiation, but it is about maintaining. It is a, you know, we have the ancient monastic order and it what we speak about, like obedience and simplicity and really to live this, lead this life.
Speaker: And I have, somehow I have this inner feeling that masters protect, you know, that you are protected and they, take care of everything. So I, since then, I don't feel I have to think a lot what to do, or I have to plan for myself because all is being done.
Speaker: And just to, just to accept it, to surrender. And many times it, I got confirmed in my life, whenever I followed what the past, the master's shown me, or what the,
Speaker: I was supposed to do, i was benefited. And whenever I put my own ideas or ego, I always had trouble. so So I can say my own little experience that it is just just to follow, nothing else.
Speaker: Well, it sounds to me like Guruji certainly saw you for who you were from that first glance. because he gave you the name Sankalpananda, meaning the bliss of strong determination.
Speaker: And he saw that in you, but he also saw the softness and your the softness and strength and your ability to surrender to God and the masters. It's quite a beautiful combination. And i just would be interested in how given that name by Baba.
Speaker: How has that impacted you from the start? And how does that name continue to guide and remind you in your day to day life?
Speaker: When during the monks initiation, was thinking what name Baba might give me or what would be. and the And when he pronounced Sankalpa Nanda, or he said, i felt, yes, this is the one, befitting, because it has many meanings. And one is also, you know, when we do puja, we say a pledge, a Sankalpa means the pledge, also a And so I love to do puja.
Speaker: I have been in kaitu kind of charge of puja in the ashram, along with others. And second thing is I felt myself to be dedicated to the masters and to God.
Speaker: So it also is a challenge for me. Because i do have some determination, but to be even stronger determined and more determined, you know, to follow the path, like a this is never-ending challenge.
Speaker: this is This is just to go on. And as Guruji once told us, name doesn't mean you are something. It means that is the direction you have to follow. That is the one which can unfold in you if you practice by the blessings of God and gurus.
Speaker: Wow. That's beautiful. Very powerful and empowering at the same time. And I can see how it could also be a little intimidating on the day to day. ah But in that, with that name and with the steps you've taken and with the surrender to the path and to God and gurus, your story has always shown that you have a very creative nature and um you also have used that creativity
Speaker: melded it with your spirituality and now beautifully create this coexistence with them, taking it out into the world by developing craft soaps, embroidery, handmade goods in the service of hand in hand.
Speaker: um Can you first tell our listeners a little bit about what Hand in Hand is and then share with us how your creativity has impacted the organization and even been a form of devotion for you? This is a good question. So handin Hand in Hand is an organization founded to help people you know, especially the children in India, the orphan or semi-orphan children in India.
Speaker: And we have Balashram and we have many institutions. hand-in Hand in Hand was founded in Europe because when there were, I was that time not in the ashram, but I heard the story. When there were ah nature catastrophes in India, our ashram or New ashram Europe wanted to help.
Speaker: And of course, money was most needed. So you need to donate in an organized manner. Then Hand in Hand Europe was founded. And then later on, I think Hand in Hand USA also came in existence.
Speaker: But so it is a very beautiful thing to help others, to help help the children, to help the poor and the needy. And ah it just ah it just came together with my own ideas or as you said, creativity. I love to do handy handcrafts. And also nowadays I am very inspired to be a tool in God's hand to help protecting nature, to make people more ah conscious of the environment and of zero waste and to use natural products.
Speaker: At the same time, we have beautiful garden here but full of herbs and flowers. And i when I came here, I saw so many herbs and flowers that are useful, what to do with them.
Speaker: And it is a nice then to process them as a soap or to make some product from them. which then kriyavans can take at home.
Speaker: So it's a service to the kriyavans because they can use these beautiful things from the garden, which is good for the health, good for the body. At the same time, it's a seva to help create funds for the children.
Speaker: And I must say people buy the products more when we say it is made in the ashram and that it is for in hand, for Balashram.
Speaker: and ah And I love to do it. It is a nice time pass, you know, because what the I remember one of Guruji's lecture, he said, if you work already to have change in work is a rest.
Speaker: So after just coming from the office, you know, or spending hours with some administrative work, it is a refreshment for me to start something else, to do something creative.
Speaker: So I have been enjoying doing this and I hope by Guru's grace, clear of answer, also the children are benefited. You know, as I was listening to you, Swamiji, it I could see the hand of God in your life from the time you were a little girl with your grandmother in nature and um supporting and honoring everything in God's creation. learning these skills, honing them, being exposed to, not being afraid to work and to be a part of something greater than yourself and how you
Speaker: always longed for spiritual understanding and development. And your path has just been such a a clear path all the way. And you started out by saying how blessed you were by having a beautiful childhood. And it seems that you have continued that. And now you have ah a very auspicious and beautiful adulthood. So you you truly are blessed.
Speaker: a great example of living your Dharma and we're very blessed to have you with us. um And I know for ah for all of us, we tend to have something in particular that we do to bring balance to our inward life and to our outer life when we are active in seva and community. Is there anything particular that you do yourself and your practice that you kind of covet and go back to on many days? What do you like to do for yourself to keep your inspiration, your dedication and find that sense of balance? Is there a special prayer, maybe a chant that you do or going to nature?
Speaker: that really feeds you. So what I really found is, this is what Guruji used to say, and I found it so true in my life. And I have observed others also, to really to have a balance between seva and meditation, seva and sadhana.
Speaker: Otherwise, it is, ah if one only meditates, one easily slides into you know, depression or other kind of things, it doesn't work. And if one only does seva, it brings restlessness, as Guruji said. And for me really helped that I have my daily duties and do it wholeheartedly at the same time to do my meditation, my chanting, my readings. Especially meditation really helps me. Like the daily meditations is something I couldn't live without. And if i by chance ever would miss it or couldn't do it, I really miss it.
Speaker: But particularly about Seva also, what I found is a great help really to have an exchange. Suppose I have mental work, like computer work or something, but then I love to rush out and start cleaning or cooking or, you know, to have a balance.
Speaker: That really helps me to keep keep the mind in in cheer, to be cheerful, to be happy and to have a good good balance of mind. Well, for someone that didn't understand my question, you certainly answered it exactly perfectly. and I appreciate that so very much. So it's all about balance. And that's that's a great message for all of us, Swamiji. And now for women listening who may feel a deep longing for something more in their lives, perhaps they're standing right where you once stood.
Speaker: and maybe even there's a curiosity in them or an uncertainty, what words of encouragement would you offer them? i would say examine your heart and really honestly and sincerely to see really what one wants because neither spiritual life nor any any other commitment in life can go without complete dedication.
Speaker: Like what I did really, i was, i never was afraid to be honest to myself. I just tell you one crossroad in my life when after, as I said, after graduation from high school, I was sitting there with the book that all the colleges and universities were listed.
Speaker: And i had a I had good grades. I was from a good school graduated. So I could have done some higher studies. And I was sitting for days and days and days. And I was really crying. And because until I recognized I want none of them. I don't want any of them.
Speaker: It is not that you think you should not study, but it was my crossroad to say, I must be honest to myself and I have to search the one which I really want to do. And then then, as I told you, in my path started. So...
Speaker: If one is at the crossroad, really to think deeply where I can dedicate myself or to have this intuition where I am really at home. And do not hesitate to choose that path, whatever it will be.
Speaker: Because it is your life, you have to live it. It is not for others. So you have to be honest and feel what is yours and just follow that. Thank you. Those were such wise words. Being in integrity with oneself then leads us down the proper path. So I really love that. And your life has been a demonstration of that, Swamiji.
Speaker: And now, if you had a chance to speak to your younger self, the one still reading spiritual books under a tree in Hungary, what would you tell that little girl?
Speaker: but I would say don't waste time, come to Kriya Yoga directly. Because, you know, i when I came, I found that sometimes I see teenagers getting initiated, but, you know, I had to i had to get at least 21 to get in my adulthood to come myself because nobody brought me here before.
Speaker: I'm grateful for that, but I think I could have come even earlier. That's so cute. I remember being with Guruji back in the beginning and saying to him, My only regret is I wish I was younger so I had more time to be with you. So I certainly recognize that. And my my joy is for men and women to find their path early on and to to go for it. So, and now as we close from this wonderful gift of conversation and sharing that you have um given us in such a transparent way
Speaker: What brings you the most joy on your path today?
Speaker: really sadhana, I think. And what changed in the beginning when you come or beginning when you start practicing, one does make differences between seva and sadhana. And I found also that one has maybe liking for certain tasks and dislike for certain other things.
Speaker: But that changes. As one meditates, one feels that all is about the same, you know, because the joy comes really from within. It doesn't come from any task or anything you do.
Speaker: So if you have this and if we have this joy, we are able to maintain it after meditation, that joy of, you know, being for God, then it doesn't really matter what one does. If one is in the kitchen or one is in the computer.
Speaker: I tell you honestly, I love cleaning toilets the most because it relaxes my mind and I can watch my breath, which is more difficult when I'm on the computer. So I think just to experience this, that no matter whatever one does or wherever one is, joy is to come from within, from nowhere else.
Speaker: Beautiful. And how do you see your journey continuing to unfold in the years ahead? This is is, gurus can tell.
Speaker: I think what I experience, or as we know in life, when... Master seeing that the child is somehow struggling to grow up.
Speaker: then or managing some things, then more and more responsibilities sometimes come. So that happened to me, you know, as you are in Ashram, slowly you get more and more responsibilities of different kinds.
Speaker: And the then the gurus unfold you the path where you can serve the best or how they can best use you as their tool. So I think it will just continue on this vder serving in serving the community, serving the Ashram,
Speaker: serving the Korea ones of Europe or wherever it is, wherever it is it is needed. And one thing I would share for the closing is that the what I found particularly what I saw from Guruji, that although he's so much there for himself and does his deep sadhana, but he's always there for others. And this, I had the feeling he wants from us too, that a long bit personal sadhana.
Speaker: to live a community life, to be there for others, to be a mother of the community. Because once you become a monk, you become a you have this universal motherhood, what you experience.
Speaker: Even without being a monk, one can have it. But it doesn't mean that you you you are done with the family. It means you get a much bigger family to take care So I said it was important that along with our own sadhana to be there for the community and to be the mother, to try to be a mother or a father for for the community and dedicate some time for others also. so Oh, that's exquisite words. Swamiji, and we thank you so much for gracing us with your light, your story, and your example of steadfast devotion. Guruji Baba has written that the real religion of each person is to love God and to love God's creation. As you have shared your story, it has reminded us that love is the thread that weaves through every practice, every act of service, every breath,
Speaker: When we love God through all we do and extend that love to the world around us, life itself becomes a living prayer. And you're an example of that, Swamiji. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and wish you all blessings and much, much love.
Speaker: Thank you, thank you, thank you. And to you, our listeners, if this conversation has touched your heart, we invite you to continue the journey with us. You can watch Living in Joy on our YouTube channel or listen wherever you are. um You can also tune into Spotify or Apple Podcasts. And we would really appreciate your thoughts, your reflections. So please, Like us, subscribe, and share your comments. Because after all, it's your encouragement that helps us reach more souls walking this sacred path of love, awareness, and joy. And that's really our commitment. It's to each one of you. So until next time, may God and the Gurus bless you and guide you always. Love, love, love.
Speaker: Om Shantihi, Om Shantihi, Om Shantihi. Amen. 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.
