About Ashrams
March 11, 1996
Dear Parents,
By God's Grace here all is fine and going on as usual. Hope you are all well there.
Yes, your Shasta house sounds like a real, quiet ‘ashram’. Indians are used to living in the midst of overcrowding and activities, so every Indian ashram seems to be like that. I remember a quote from Ramdas – “Better not to stay in an ashram. Ashrams don’t make saints, but saints start ashrams!” Ashrams seem to be places for worldly people to have satsang for a few days. Ashramites seem to be (generally) for people who want to spend their life doing service, not meditation. You’re probably better off in the nice, quiet Shasta home! Still it’s nice to visit India where the holy inspiring vibrations of saints cannot be denied. Although Jnaneswari has assigned a busy schedule for me, I feel inspired by her company and by the holy place. I do my best to find time to be alone. Once a month, as per tradition, for four days ladies shouldn’t go into the Mandir, so I use that time to lock myself in the room and stay in silence & resting.
Love,
Divya
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Farmers Have Come
April 2, 1996
Dear Parents,
Divya conveys her namaskars. Here, it is starting to boil – but it’s not yet very hot for me. However, several residents have left for the summer, saying they cannot bear the heat. We seem to be settled here to enjoy God in the form of oven rays, inside and out.
Everything is going on quietly here, not many visitors and residents are also leaving. Yesterday the school children left on summer holiday. One SRF devotee has come here for a month of meditation (an Indian). Too bad – right at the three months of the year when the farmers have come to collect fruits from the mango and cashew nut tree groves, which occupy ¾ of the ashram. She tries to sit in the wide open beautiful nature to meditate, but complains that no matter where she goes, the village farmers are there - loudly talking, shouting to locate other members, plucking fruits in far off areas, staring at her, shaking trees and filling their baskets with fruits. In this season there is no escape from the jungley workers. One can only see the noises as God – then all seems quiet as usual! When the mind is calm, outside also seems calm. When the mind is restless we also recognize only restlessness outside. (Farmers are only here March to June every year).
May God bless us to completely purify our hearts and minds, then the Blissful reflection of God will be the only thing we recognize everywhere, at all times. Hope all is well there!
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu.
Love,
Divya
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Experience the Latent Divinity
May 15, 1996
Dear Parents,
Excuse me but, for hundreds of years people have been talking of and worrying about “massive changes” that never come. Of course, slowly big changes come but they creep up so quietly that we hardly notice them. Yes our lives are changing slowly, due to new inventions and changes in the world, but it is nothing like the serious life-disrupting upheavals that some people expect. Life goes on. We will survive and adjust; or die and go to heaven or be reborn again – so what is there to worry about? Our only work is to see all as God, as His Play, and keep our inner center of peace unchanged.
Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with the neighbors. There is nowhere in this creation that is free from outside disturbances! Everywhere there is some imbalance; this is the nature of creation. In the world there is clashing amongst personalities and in the forest there are mosquitoes, ants and snakes. As long as the ears work, noises will be everywhere. I remember often those golden words, “Lord, change not others, change me.” The only way to get peace is to adjust and be happy.
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Letters from Shanti Ashram, India
SpiritualI lived in India from 1984-2005, and wrote to my parents regularly about my adventures in Indian ashrams. From 1984-1993 and again 2001-2005, I was living in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, and I am adding all of those my "Letters from India" book, whi...
