Dear Friends,
We hope that you’re well. Things continue to flow smoothly here in India, with beautiful connections with devotees wherever we travel, and lots of new developments as Ananda’s work expands.
This letter may be brief since we’ll be leaving tomorrow for a week of seclusion at Abbot Mount in the Himalayan foothills, but we wanted to write before we left. In the past six weeks, we’ve been doing a lot of traveling, giving satsangs and programs in Mumbai, Pune City, Pune Ashram, Gurgaon, and Noida.
On Sept. 30 we flew to Mumbai for weekend activities including a Kriya Initiation and a core members’ program with about one hundred people. Although Ananda doesn’t have a permanent center in Mumbai, the monks have been visiting there regularly for several years, and it is one of our most dynamic areas. There is a large group of dedicated people, and they usually draw about seventy people to beginning meditation courses.
While in Mumbai, we met with Pavan and Kaveeta and began making real headway on the release of the movie The Answer, both in India and the US. We’ll share more details later on in this letter.
From Mumbai we flew to Pune, where we saw the large and beautiful new center they’ve opened there, and took part in a number of satsangs and teas. Pune is where Jaya and Sadhana have an apartment, where Devarshi and the monks live, and where Ananda Yoga Training will be based.
On Oct. 6 we drove out to the Pune Ashram for a weekend retreat program that went beautifully. Atman, Bhaktimarg, and Mark joined us there for the weekend, and they seem to be having a fabulous time in India.
On Sunday afternoon we had the first Indian private screening of The Answer, in the new temple there. The temple still is under construction, but every year more progress is made.
It was wonderful watching the movie with an Indian audience—one could feel their great receptivity, and the potential for The Answer to have a big impact here.
While in Mumbai and later in Pune, we had meetings with Pavan, Kaveeta, and Salil (the Facebook marketing expert). Then we all flew up to Delhi, and on Oct. 10 met with Pia to pin things down.
We are planning to have the U.S. theatrical release next March around the time of Master’s mahasamadhi. Then in April we will release The Answer in India. A few months later, sometime next fall, we will have DVDs and a platform from which people can stream the film.
Last Saturday, Oct. 14, we had a two-hour morning meditation at the Gurgaon center followed by a blessing ceremony for thirty new Indian teachers who have completed the Meditation Teachers Training Program. Some of them are qualified to teach the beginning levels of meditation; others will be teaching Discipleship and Kriya Preparation courses. It was thrilling to see the new wave of energy that will be moving out to serve people with Master’s teachings and blessings.
Afterwards at a Diwali breakfast, we gathered together with everyone present and saw the new website that has just been launched for the Paramhansa Yogananda Public Charitable Trust: yoganandatrust.org.
On Sunday we had a Diwali satsang in Noida, which like Gurgaon is outside of Delhi and part of the NCR (National Capital Region). We’ve had a center there for about ten years, and have outgrown several locations. Once again we’re looking for a larger space.
As we said, now we’re about to take a period of seclusion from Oct 18–26 at Abbot Mount guesthouse in the Almora district. We’ve gone there for the past two years, and it’s always a time of joy and inspiration. After that we return to three busy weeks in Bangalore, Coimbatore, and Chennai, and then we fly back to the US. We’ll write again before we depart India.
Thank you for all your support and prayers. You remain in our thoughts and our prayers as well.
With love in God and Guru,
Jyotish and Devi
Additional photos on Facebook here.