Swami Sadyojata visits Fontainebleau

Sunday 20th April saw a very special satsang with Swami Sadyojata, Director (International Relations), and a senior teacher in the organisation. Swamiji's had just flown in from Morocco, and had earlier attended a South Asian Peace Conference in Oslo with Guruji.

There were about 40 people in the satsang. Though many who had done the course in Fbl could not be there, it was nice to see many who had not been initiated into AOL yet. Swamiji charmed us as usual with his simplicity. When he walked into the room Alexia's 6 year old daughter asked her mother, "Is he Jesus?"

He taught us the 8 Ways of Being Happy as told by Guruji. All 8 are equally important and to be consciously practised everyday.

1. Smile

2.Sing aloud

3.Do some spiritual practices, like yoga, meditation, pranayam

4.Take a walk by yourself. This does not include walking to work or for some errand. Consciously take some time out to walk by yourself.

5.Have a goal in Life. Could also be a spiritual goal about wanting to know the Truth, knowing yourself etc

6.Do some Selfless Service.

7.See your life in the context of Time and Space. Billions of years have gone by and billions of years will come. So your life of 50,60, 70, 80 years is but a blip in the cosmos.

8.Have Faith in God, Divinity, Universe, Nature or a Higher Self.

How does one overcome life's obstacles and problems?

He said, imagine that you are on a motorbike, and a huge truck is right in front of you emitting clouds of exhaust fumes. You could do one of 3 things...

1. Stay behind the truck and breathe in the pollution, all the time complaining how terrible your situation is. (Some people go through life continously cribbing yet never coming out of the misery).

2. Stop your motorbike and wait for the truck to go away. (Some people hide or run away when faced with a big problem). But that doesn't help either, 'cause a bigger truck might come in front of you.

3. Overtake the truck and forget about it altogther. For one to be able to do this 2 things are necessary...the bike has to be in a good condition, and the rider needs some skill. If you are lacking in any one of the 2 above, it would be difficult to overtake. The bike here is our body-mind complex that needs to kept healthy with yoga and meditation practices. And the skill is the Grace of the Divine, which flows to one who has gratitude.

The next day, we took him to visit the Fontainebleau Chateau, and later Swamiji, Serge, Deepali, Camille and Stephane stopped over at my home for lunch.

Urvi and Swamiji feeding the fish in the Chateau lake

Lunch in my home

Swamiji was giving a lecture on the Vedanta on wednesday at Paris Sorbonne. I was really upset that I could not attend. On Thursday around 12 noon, Stephane called to say that he and Swamiji were passing close to Fontainebleau on the way to Lyon...would it be possible to stop over for lunch at my place??? Wow, I couldn't believe what I was hearing!Later Steph said that my longing was so great that they could not help but come once more.

Either that, or he was really hungry :)

April Thrill

Our course in April was from the 18th to the 21st. I could not be there all the days this time, so asked 2 of the course participants to write in their experiences.

Traditional Sunday after-lunch Chateau tour

Bria, 18 years


Spring brought together 8 chirpy chappies ; Caroline, Alexia, Laurent, Linda, Barbara, Katy, Patricia and Bria to attend the ‘stage’ from the 18 - 21 April. Under Stéphane’s guidance, the stage was rythmed with laughter from Stéphane’s stories and adventures, jokes from our own Mr Picard (Laurent), much reflection and sharing (about cholestérol, fish in the sea, our lives….oh and of course Sri Sri’s knowledge).And with or without runny noses we all managed to forget our stress, step away from our everyday lives and through the power of breathing and meditation; get answers to our troubles, existential questions and the way to a peaceful and happy life.

It was also during that week-end that most of us met Swami Sadyojata, a friend of Sri Sri and an impressive ‘sage’ who came to Fontainebleau especially for us, and who taught us the 8 important ways to find peace of mind and how to deal with our problems by overcoming them (a well conditioned motorbike is the trick). With our family and friends we sang in his company a few Indian songs.

At the end of our journey it was, as Patricia said “like having the key to a treasure box!” :)

(From L to R): Alexia, Caroline, Laurent, Stephane, Katy, Barbara, Patricia, Bria, Valerie and Linda

Visit this blog next week to read Caroline's entry...