Reminiscences on Swami Prabuddhanandaji Mj - Part 10

10 SHANTI ASHRAM

Somehow I was blessed to attend the Shanti Ashram retreat in 2011 which was the second time for Tirthankar and mine, one and only. As usual, we went to the center first and met with Maharaj. Next day we started for the Shanti Ashram.

At Shanti Ashram, Maharaj gave the opening address. Revd Swamis, Tyaganandaji, Prasannatmanandaji and Prapannanandaji maharaj were the other swamis attending besides Swami Vedanandaji.

Each of the swamis expounded on Swami Vivekananda’s 4 yogas except Raja Yoga. After all the swamis had completed their talks the audience was allowed to ask questions. I had the following question on Karma Yoga: “ Yoga means union with the divine. However, in Karma Yoga, it was mentioned that one need not even believe in God. In such case, how does one connect to divine?” At the end Maharaj got up and said simply: “ One may not call it God but what else is there? They also connect to IT. They don’t use the name God or Brahman.” …. Simple and to the point.

10.1 How caring he was..!

There were a large number of devotees and during lunch we didn’t want to disturb him as all the swamis were congregated under one tent. So we sat some ways yonder as we were almost done one lady walks up to us and enquires our name. She informed us that Maharaj had sent her to look for us (in that large crowd) and to invite us to join him with the other swamis which we politely declined and also to make sure we had enough to eat during lunch..! Though he was not doing so well yet he did not forget us in that big event. This left us misty eyed and a feeling of so loved..!