If you are having trouble viewing this in your eMail program, click hereAshram Mission StatementWe aspire to live the Teachings of Haidakhan Baba, to share the Love of Babaji
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March 15
April 26 May 17 June 14 July 12 |
August 9
September 13 October 18 November 15 December 20 |
This year the magically beautiful festival of the Divine Mother is from Saturday, April 5 through Sunday, April 13. Spring Navratri is a celebration of nine days that we set aside to honor the Divine Mother.
Each day there is a fire ceremony, special pujas, readings and discourses on the Sri Mad Devi Bhagavatam. We also read 700 verses praising Mother and sing lots of chants.
It is such a special time, we hope you can attend. Call the Ashram at 719-256-4108 or email us at info@BabajiAshram.org to reserve space in the dorm.
The weekends always fill us quickly so be in touch soon if you wish to attend.
As we travel around the country showing images of Babaji, His Ashrams in India, and this Ashram too; people that have not seen the new kirtan hall are amazed at the beauty and size.
We are pleased to let you know that through your generosity, matching pledges, monthly tithes, and all of your shop purchases, we continuing to pay down our kirtan hall loan. 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.
On the 16th of February we had our monthly children's program Bal Gokulam. We celebrated Lakshmi and it was truly a day of Joy and Prosperity. The Ashram driveway melted and it was finally possible to drive cars up. We had 17 children present which is the biggest group we have had and the temple was filled with happy and smiling children and adults.
We were also blessed with the presence of Jeremy, her 2 year old daughter Laurel and their newborn baby girl Faith who was on her first outing since her birth on the 13th of January. Baby Faith received Mothers blessings and a mala on her first visit to the temple.
We enjoyed yoga, meditation, visualization and singing bhajans together. The story of Lakshmi being born from the sea of milk was very inspiring and we learned how Lakshmi particularly loves to visit homes that are clean and people who are not lazy! When asking the children what other kind of prosperity there are besides material riches they answered: happiness, peacefulness, love and joy.
We also performed a puja to a Lakshmi murti. This ceremony is always very exciting for the children and they are very attentive in taking part. Afterwards, we enjoyed an abundant lunch together.
Our community's midwife Alisha was present with her daughter Bella. Alisha expressed very well the impression of the day with words. "It is so beautiful to be here in the temple and see all these children that I have helped come to this world receive all this love from everyone present and from the Mother."
Love and Blessings, Shila
Another great and very successful tour for the Bhole Baba Bhajan Band. Here are reports from the Band members followed by a photo essay.
Being on board the Bhole Baba Bhajan Band bandwagon is an experience unlike anything I could have predicted. Every day is a new journey, a new home, a new state, a new crowd and many new lessons to learn. As someone who loves music and has spent my whole life playing music and going to concerts, I am particularly taken with the power of kirtan. I am a religious studies major at Colorado College in my 3rd year. I have written an independent study to allow me to take a block away from school to travel around with this wonderful little band of ours. I am focusing my study on the usage of devotional music within the religious experience, primarily within the bhakti yoga tradition of Hinduism, although I am doing a little bit of research concerning music of worship within other religious traditions as well.
On this tour I am seeing the power of music in action everyday. It is very beautiful to sing to a crowd and watch eyes light up with joy, hands begin to clap, voices ring out and bodies rise up and begin dancing together. In all of this I see our audiences as well as our band radiating and soaking in Love, bringing it in as well as sending it outwards. I end every program feeling so much more blissful and conscious of the present moment than I was at the start of the evening. As Ramloti described it to me, this whole tour - from the shows, to the hours in the van, to the blending up of green smoothie together - is an intense sadhana. It requires patience and sacrifice, but like all spiritual practices, its return is many-fold, multi-dimensional and well worth the work.
I have truly fallen in love with these beautiful Sanskrit mantras. Every bhajan holds something different for me, carrying me to a new realm to connect with its own individual delightful touch of the Divine. Sanskrit, like Hebrew, is an incredibly holy language. Just the mere vibration of Sanskrit words resonating in one’s head has transcendent powers. Even as a band of Westerners, performing primarily for audiences of other Westerners, the power of this language and music is still just as palpable. Despite all of this not being our native cultural tradition, I witness the overflowing joy as we are able to connect with the Divine and bathe in these gorgeous and loaded words together, and this is what matters.
On this trip I was given the great blessing of being given a new name by Muniraji. He named me Prema – the one who gives love to all. This naming was a very beautiful experience for me and has helped direct my own personal spiritual path in that being Prema is a goal and a reminder to me about the importance of and the courage and grace required to give unconditional love. I feel very blessed to be on this tour, meeting so many wonderful people along the way, experiencing and sharing the great beauty and happiness in chanting bhajans! Bhole Baba Ki Jai! - Prema
What can I say? There were so many differences about this tour than the famous West Coast Tour. I am most grateful for all of the beautiful Babaji devotees that I have met along the land of America West and East. It is just so beautiful to know that each place that we stopped there was always those individuals who was greatly moved by the chanting and such a thrill it was to be able to share this with them on both West and East side of this country. A bit like spreading the Love, Joy and Peace with the entire World as the Energy continues to expand, expand and expand. And who knows, there may be more expanding in the near future.
The cities and new experiences along the way have been more than a memorable occasion but a treasured time with great friends and great company. Waking to do yoga was one of the big relaxing experiences. It was nice to see all of the band members doing yoga, maybe not at the same time but together none the less. Thank you to everyone who came out and experienced a kind of loved that moved, and to my fellow travelers who were kind, patient, and FUNNNN!!! Thanks for showing me New York and teaching me to surf. Love you all!! As a team we worked together to accomplish something long, bbeautiful, and powerful, and it is as a team that we, the followers of truth and students of life will continue to succeed.
Bhole Baba Ki Jai!! Jai Maha Maya Ki Jai!! –Jai Shankar
"Follow that car", seemed to be the more appropriate way to get to our final destination compared to the battles fought with Mapquest directions. Besides these "little" challenges, usually on the last ten miles of an eight hour drive, it was amazing to observe how five people with suitcases, music equipment and green smoothie gear can manage a 6,000 mile road trip without any major incidents. Any challenges along the way, were usually forgotten by the time we were received by our gracious hosts. Everybody was so happy to see us and went out of their way to make us feel at home. Within minutes we "moved in", just to do the same the next day, in some other city, hours and hours down the road. The highlights of these days were of course our daily Kirtan in the evening, where everybody had their chance to express themselves and were able to breath in Baba's atmosphere more fully. It was so amazing to watch everybody's energy shift instantaneously, as soon as the chanting and music started. Everything that had been uncomfortable or challenging was forgotten within minutes. What a precious gift Kirtan and chanting really is. It was the most fun I had in a long time, even though i still would like to have a little talk with "Mr. Mapquest". Bhole Baba Ki Jai! - Prakash
The Eastern Tour was great. The people we stayed with were very nice and accommodating. I enjoyed visiting and traveling through places where I had lived and been before even if it was a quick visit. It has been a healing tour for me as my health was suffering, and I needed a break from my real/fake life. We drank lots of green smoothies, took walks and did yoga, all good things for my health. It has also been good for my mental and spiritual health. I am realizing what is important to me in life, and people are more important than things, stuff, visions and dreams. When it comes down to it, without connections to others, none of the other stuff means anything. I am shifting my perspective from an outward one to an inner one. It is time for me to connect to my spiritual nature and have a new relationship with life. This tour and Baba have helped me with that. It has been for the people in all the towns that we have traveled to and for all of us on the tour. And we raised money for the Ashram as well, but that is a secondary purpose. Bhole Baba Ki Jai! - Kailash
Another great three weeks driving around with five of us in the van bringing a lot of energy and joy where ever we stop. I am always surprised by how many hosts that we hear from who miss us after we leave their homes. I begin to realize how much these visits mean to the devotees around the country to be able to bathe in Baba's energy for those few days. Once again,
I am so grateful to Kailash, Prakash, Jai Shankar, and Prema for sharing their lives with me and taking time from their lives to go on this venture. Thank you to Jonathan and Premanand and the rest of the Ashram crew for taking such good care of the Ashram while we were on tour and to everyone for sharing your beauty and love of life with us! Bhole Baba Ki Jai! - Ramloti
Lots of fun, high-energy chanting, and meeting many new friends at every stop. the children that joined the programs were a great addition. Aarati and fire ceremonies at different Babaji centers around the country were very full of devotion and love.
March 6- Maha Shivaratri with all-night chanting and fire ceremony March 7 at 10am.
March 15 - Bal Gokulram, children's program from 10am until noon followed by a potluck.
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.
We have been singing a lot on these tours and have recorded some of the evenings. We are going to work on a new CD for the shop from the various venues. The title of the CD will be Bhole Baba Bhajan Band - East and West! It will sell for $18. Look for its arrival soon.
We have also had great response from the new aarati CD. After years of playing aarati together and many requests, Premanand on dollak and Ramloti on harmonium, have made an aarati CD. It sells for $18 and comes with an optional free aarati book which it follows exactly.
For those of you that still use cassettes, they are all on sale for only $6. Call for selection. We also have the wonderful video, Have Guru Darshan on sale for only $10.08.
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.