Ashram Mission Statement
We aspire to live the Teachings of Haidakhan Baba, to share the Love of Babaji
and the Divine Mother with others, to hold this Ashram as Their Home, to serve humanity, and to be stewards and caretakers of the land.
January, 2008
Dear Friends of the Ashram,
A most blessed and auspicious New Year to all of you.
On New Years of 1984, Shri Babaji addressed those at Haidakhan with the following words. “You are all sitting in the courtyard of this beautiful cave, the greatness of which has been described in the Vedas. And you are the most fortunate ones in the whole universe - you are all witnessing and enjoying the first new sunrise of the New Year in this very holy and beautiful valley of the Himalayas.”
I feel equally blessed to have witnessed the first sunrise of the New Year in this hallowed place, Shri Babaji's and the Divine Mother's magnificent home in the Rockies. As I sat in the temple this morning singing aarati, I remembered that Mother is often referred to as dwelling in the cave of our hearts. I then looked out the window and saw our snow-clad mountains. When Shri Muniraji and Shri Shastriji first came here in 1985, I pointed up to the mountains and said they were like the Himalayas. Shri Muniraji nodded in agreement at first and then he said, no they are like heaven! Thank you, once again, to all who have helped make this Ashram such a special place. Bhole Baba Ki Jai!
As we enter the new year, we have exciting programs coming up. Our children's program, Bal Gokulam is on January 12 here at the Ashram. On the same day in Denver, we will be having a fund raiser for the kirtan hall. Then on January 14 we begin a two and a half week tour of the Southwestern U.S. in Ridgeway, CO. In February, we begin a three week tour of the Eastern US. These tours are made possible by the generosity of our devotees around the country who will host us and organize the events and by the American Haidakhan Samaj and the Ashram. Read below for the latest information.
Our evening aarati will remain at 6pm through the winter months. Morning aarati will continue to be at 7am. This month our new-moon fire ceremony is on Tuesday, January 8 and the full-moon fire ceremony is on Tuesday, January 22. All fire ceremonies begin at 10:08am and are followed by a meal. If you would like to participate by sponsoring a fire, we would like to send you a blessed item from the ceremony. They are:
$27 sponsorship - copper, brass, nickel Om Namah Shivaya bracelet
$54 sponsorship - Sandalwood Mala
$108 sponsorship - Rudraksha or Crystal-Rudraksha Mala
You can make the donation on line by just clicking here or call 719-256-4108 or e-mail the Ashram at info@BabajiAshram.org or send us a check at P.O. Box 9, Crestone, CO 81131. We are continually grateful for all of your support.
In truth and love, Ramloti
Children's Program, Bal Gokulam - January 12
On Saturday, January 12 we will conduct our monthly Bal Gokulam at the Ashram from 10am until noon followed by a potluck lunch. This month's program will focus on Lord Ganesh. It will include a story, chants, and puja to Ganesh as well as some yoga and meditation time.
Bal means Child and Gokulam is the place where Lord Krishna spent his childhood days. In Gokulam, Krishna blossomed in talent, mischief, strength and also divinity. People then realized that he was not just an ordinary boy, but an incarnation of God. Thus Bal Gokulam is a special place for children to learn together, discover their potential and really shine.
We ask that the parents remain present at the Ashram during this program. If you have any questions, please contact Cindy at 719-256-5007 or Shila at 719-256-4477.
Upcoming Western Tour
The Western Tour is just around the corner. The members of the group are: Jason Almendarez on percussion; Amulya Dawn on percussion and vocals; Ramloti on percussion, harmonium, and vocals and Kailash on harmonium, dolak, and vocals.
Moti Ma from Germany will be flying in on the 11th of January to join us for the whole tour. If you have not heard her sing and play harmonium, her lovely CD's are available in the Shop.
We are excited that Emam and Yashoda will also join us for the Arizona and California venues. Emam is a professional tabla player and Yashoda plays the harmonium and has a lovely voice. Both come with bountiful Babaji energy and have set up the two evening programs in the Bay area for us.
Here are the dates and locations for this tour. Call us at 719-256-4108 for more information, or visit our Bhole Baba Bhajan Band 2008 Tour Website for the latest info and downloadable pdf flyers. Please print flyers and give them to your friends or post them at book stores, yoga studios, natural food stores....
January 14 - Ridgeway, CO - Chipeta Sun Lodge Kiva - 6 pm. Call 970-626-5007
January 17 - Espanola, NM - Northern New Mexico College - 7 pm. Call Dr. JeffreyHawkins at 505-747-2256 for info. January 18 - Santa Fe, NM - Yoga Source, 901 W. San Mateo - 7:30 pm. Call 505-982-0990
January 19 - Sedona, AZ - Verde Valley School - 7 pm. Call Zirque at 928-301-7276.
January 20 - Scottsdale, AZ - Hindu Temple of Arizona located on Thomas & Hayden - 11 am. Call Kamal at 480-225-8251.
January 22 - Los Angeles, CA - 140 S Norton Ave, LA 90004 - 7 pm. Call Eve Jones at 323-461-5774. January 24 - Berkeley, CA - Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave - 8:30 pm. For more info go to Emam's - Website at www.emam.us
January 25 - San Rafael, CA - Open Secret - 923 "C" St. 7:30 pm. For more info go to Emam's - Website at www.emam.us
January 26 - El Sobrante, CA - Fire Ceremony & Aarati - 4669 Elmwood Rd - 11 am. Call Saradambe at 510-220-2748
January 27 - Reno, NV - Yoga Loka - 6135 Lakeside Dr. #121 - 6 pm. Call Jonas at 775-303-5699
January 29 - Fort Collins, CO - 3506 Limestone Court - 6 pm. - Call Preety at 970-225-3817
January 30 - Boulder, CO - Call Makhan at 303-257-8219
Upcoming Eastern Tour
The dates and places for the upcoming Eastern tour sponsored by the American Haidakhan Samaj and the Ashram are coming together. The members of the touring group are: Kailash on harmonium, dolak, and vocals from Crestone, CO; Jason Almendarez on percussion from Houston, TX; Frances Frischkorn on percussion and vocals from Colorado College; Ramloti on harmonium and vocals from the Ashram; and Prakash on percussion from Santa Fe, NM. We will be doing a high-energy tour of kirtan, dancing, and Babaji slides called Alive with the Divine. Below see the dates, locations, and contacts so far. Call us at 719-256-4108 for more information, or visit our Bhole Baba Bhajan Band 2008 Tour Website for the latest info and downloadable pdf flyers. Please print flyers and give them to your friends or post them at book stores, yoga studios, natural food stores....
February 14 - Columbia, MO. Call Melinda Staley for time and location at 573-499-0070. February 15 - St. Louis, MO. at Yoga Source, 1500 S. Big Bend Blvd. Call Brad at 314-322-3129 for more info. February 16 - Lexington, KY. February 17 - Atlanta, GA. Call the Karin Kabalah Center at 404-320-1038 for time & directions. February 19 - Gainesville, FL.
February 20 - St. Petersburg, FL. Call Jeffrey and Sharda at 727-363-0800
February 21 - Plantation, FL at 1501 S.W. 52nd Terrace. Call Bob at 954-792-0936.
February 22 - Boca Raton, FL. at Yoga South, 3500 NW Boca Raton Blvd #731 (Boca Design Center) - 7:30pm. Call Sula at 561-573-7416.
February 23 - Jupiter, FL. at Transformational Studies Inst., 108 Intra Coastal Pointe Dr. 7-9pm. Call 561-744-9123 ex 2 or 3. February 25 - Buckingham, VA. at Satchidananda Ashram - Yogaville, IYA jyoti - 7:30pm. Email jyotima@yogaville.org February 26 - Washington DC.
February 27 - New York
February 28 - Cranford, NJ. at Sciascia Chiropractic, 1130 Raritan Rd.- 7:30pm. Call 718-448-0687,
February 29 - Shrewsbury, MA. at 19 Sinclair. Call Nirmal or Indira at 508-754-1242.
March 1 - Shrewsbury, MA. Fire Ceremony at 10am at 19 Sinclair. Call Nirmal or Indira at 508-754-1242. March 2 - Cleveland, OH, Call Kali Devi at 216-295-1129 for location & time.
March 3 - Omaha, NE. at Omaha Healing Arts Center. Call Sandy at 402-397-8018-
March 5 - Colorado Springs, CO. at Shrove Chapel at Colorado College. Call Frances at 434-466-6936.
Kirtan Hall Update
On our colder new-moon and full-moon fire ceremonies, we come inside the kirtan hall right after the aarati at the fire. Normally we chant around the havan kund but in the cold of winter, the warm kirtan hall is much more conducive to playing the harmonium and dollak. We are so grateful for the wonderful space of the kirtan hall and the warm temperature it maintains from the solar radiant heat in the floor throughout the winter.
We are pleased to let you know that through your generosity, matching pledges, monthly tithes, and all of your shop purchases, we have paid down our kirtan hall loan to $45,000.
In response to our request for ideas to help pay off our kirtan hall, Shashi Agarwal from Denver is having a fund raiser which includes: a yoga workshop, small fire ceremony, chanting, and lunch at her home on Saturday, January 12. We are so grateful to her and her husband, Bipin and others who have helped so much on this project. We continue to look for other ways to help pay this loan off more quickly, if you have any ideas, please call the Ashram at 719-256-4108.
We would like to encourage you to make a monthly automatic pledge to pay down the kirtan hall loan. Either call the Ashram at 719-256-4108 with your credit card number and ask us to charge a set amount every month ($108, $54, $27, $10.08....) or go to our website and ask PayPal to deduct a certain amount from your account each month, Click Here.
We want to thank you for all of your continued support in this meaningful project. If you are able to contribute to help us pay the loan off, you can send a check to the Ashram at P.O. Box 9, Crestone, CO 81131 or donate online by clicking here.
Recent Events
The Full-Moon Fire Ceremony
Two days before Christmas we celebrated our full-moon fire ceremony. It was definitely the coldest one yet this year but we still had at least 50 people in attendance. Many of them were children, who bundled up at the fire with their parents. The photo shows the children, after the fire, chanting in the warm kirtan hall.
We then proceeded for a wonderful Indian bhandara in the earth ship. Of course, we did not have room at the table for everyone, so these folks just sat on the shelf in the Maha Lakshmi Shop and enjoyed their lunch.
Christmas Day
Christmas at the Ashram was a little quieter then usual because roads from Denver and other cities were not very safe to travel on with all the cold and snow that we have had this winter. We did have one brave family from Denver and several local folks came up and joined us for Christmas morning aarati, breakfast, and gift opening.
Later in the day we went to the some of the spiritual centers to bring loaves of pumpkin bread and to wish them a wonderful Christmas. Here Shila and Ramloti are pictured with Sister Suzy and Father Eric from the Carmelites.
In this photo Jonathan and Ramloti are with Dan, Marie Louise, and Roshi Baker from the Zen Center.
The broccoli-tomato Christmas tree (at the top of the article) was made by the Cleary family, who joined us for Christmas lunch.
New Years Day!
New Year's Day still had the challenge of wintery, icy roads to the Ashram but somehow we had lots of wonderful visitors throughout the day for lunch, afternoon tea and evening aarati. Despite the cold, it was a beautiful day with blue skies and snow every where and the animals were very happy. The sense of community and the love among all of us together made it a very warm and auspicious New Year's day.
Meet Our Board Member
This month we would like to highlight the Treasurer of our Board of Directors, Cindy Cleary.
I have lived in Crestone for five years. My husband, Thomas, teaches at the Crestone Charter School and I have my own home busines. Our son Kailou is eight and our daughter Jade is five. When first considering moving to Crestone, we visited many of the spiritual centers. I was intrigued with all of the centers but kept being drawn back to the Ashram and the Divine Mother. Even when I planned to attend a meditation at another center, I somehow could not find it and would end up back at the Ashram to meditate in the temple.
The loving and inviting atmosphere of the Ashram, particularly to children and families, made it so attractive to us. Having practiced yoga for twenty years, it was very congruent with my home practice and now I have added harmonium and chanting to my practice.
My family often comes up for the new and full-moon fire ceremonies at the Ashram. I love the fire, so you can imagine how special it was for me to sit at Shri Muniraji's fire when my family and I traveled to India this last Spring. Being able to spend time in Haidakhan and sink into the sadhana there really added to my sense of connection to the Ashram here in Crestone.
I am serving on the board simply to be of service. I like being involved in as many aspects of the Ashram as possible. It is definitely our family's spiritual home and and I am so grateful for the exchange of divine energy I experience with our Ashram community .
A Beautiful Week at the Ashram
by Dana Bird
From the outside, my life looks extraordinary. I have worked very hard to put all the elements in their right place; I have a wonderful husband, a successful career and we were fortunate enough this year to purchase an apartment in Manhattan, but for some reason I just haven't been happy--missing the "joy of it all". My spiritual life needed some serious fine tuning. About a year ago I read a book about a devotee's experience with Babaji in Hairakhan and was wondering how I could check out of my life for a few months to get there. It wasn't going to happen anytime soon. But as the Divine works I just followed as it unfolded; For some reason, I did not make travel plans for the holidays, a friend emailed me the link for the Ashram in Colorado and the very next day my husband said 'Why don't you do something nice for yourself and go to an Ashram or something?" He gave me the permission I thought I needed--so I knew exactly where I was going!
I was welcomed by the lovely Ramloti saying I was "awesome" for making it in before dark and one of my favorite photos of Babaji hanging in the dorm hallway made me feel right at home!! It was my first visit ever to an ashram but I had no expectations and knew it would be perfect. Although, I was somewhat frightened of the early morning schedule, I was pleasantly surprised at how little sleep and food I needed. (Though I'm still working on the limited conversation part!) There was the brightest star that greeted us every morning that kept us in awe. I felt the presence and love of Babaji and the Divine Mother everywhere, there was a lesson in almost everything I did. I learned to adore the beautiful songs from the aarti and being 100% in the moment whether it was shoveling snow or chopping veggies in the kitchen devoting all of my work to the Divine.
It was an auspicious week to be there, as I was the only visitor and was able to do some deep work with a "Reconnection" healing, I attended a sweat lodge nearby for the Winter Solstice and fully felt like part of the community when serving food after the Full-Moon Fire Ceremony, an amazing sight in itself! As my week came to an end, I was very clear that I needed to bring all of my new insights back home.
Along with several major insights, I was able to see my career in real estate with a new light; what a great service I can provide helping people find shelter, I will also become involved in more community activities helping people in need. I hope to be able to bring the same sense of peace I had during my stay to my life in NYC but it is quite a challenge, keeping up with my mantra is key.
I learned something from everyone I had the pleasure of meeting in the most extraordinary setting, I thank and send blessings to them all. I'm so happy to know such a beautiful oasis exists and I can not wait to visit again, next time it will be in warmer weather!
Calendar for 2008
January 12 - Children's Program, Bal Gokulam from 10am - noon followed by potluck lunch.
January 12 - Yoga Workshop, Fire Ceremony, Chanting, and Lunch at Sashi and Bipin Agarwal's. Call 303-523-8627 for more informatiion.
January 14 - 30 - Southwest Kirtan Tour. See newsletter for dates and locations.
February 14 - Shri Babaji's Mahasamadhi. Paduka Puja at 5:30pm followed by aarati.
February 14 - March 5 - East Coast Tour. See newsletter for dates and locations.
March 6- Maha Shivaratri with all-night chanting and fire ceremony March 7 at 10am.
April 5 - April 13 - Spring Navratri, nine days to honor the Mother. Daily fire ceremonies, pujas, discourses, and readings.
July 18 - Guru Purnima Day, the day you honor your guru. Paduka Puja at 9:30am, Fire ceremony at 10am followed by an Indian feast.
July 19 and 20 - Annual American Haidkakhan Samaj meeting. To find out more about the Samaj go to their web site at www.BabajiSamaj.org
July 21 - 25 - Annual Family Week at the Ashram
September 29 - October 7 - Fall Navratri, nine days to honor the Mother. Daily fire ceremonies, pujas, discourses, and readings.
October 28 - Diwali, the festival of lights. Fire ceremony at 10am. Chanting at 7pm.
Maha Lakshmi Shop Report
Thank you to all who purchased holiday gifts from the Maha Lakshmi Shop, we appreciate it so much. We continue to have new items arrive at the shop and still have a good supply of our outstanding murtis.
For example: Hanuman stands 23 inches and sells for $369. He is also available in standard antique brass.
These striking murtis of Lord Shiva are 23 inches high and sell for $396. He is available in black and green as well as the dark coffee color.
You can call the shop toll-free at 866-686-4185 to order or for more information. We are open daily from 9am until 5pm. We do take Mastercard, Discover, and Visa. To view items in the Maha Lakshmi Shop, please refer to our newly updated web site at BabajiAshram.org.
You may order on line through paypal or e-mail us at shop@babajiashram.org, or of course, place the order over the phone. We love to talk with you.
We thank you for all of your shop purchases as the revenue from the shop is a huge support for the Ashram.
Bhole Baba Ki Jai!
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