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Blue skies with soaring kites… They were there perhaps to suggest the heights we all are to achieve within ourselves and the joy that is hidden within us. The joy of ultimate and true freedom…

The picture gallery from the Berkeley Kite Fest speaks more than a thousand words. This event, organized as a part of the Realize America Day, allowed people from Berkeley to experience the heights of spiritual freedom within. Enjoy!

Today we left Ashwood camp early-ish, after a really great day before, giving realisation. We traveled for almost 9 hours, which was all fun and hi-jinks in our allocated wagons, the entertainment ranged from all out sing alongs, watching hindi movies, trying to sleep, joyful banter and some time for quiet contemplation. The scenery we traveled through was really beautiful, passing mountains, lakes and valleys, it had such a power, soothing us all. Watching the passing view I felt so blessed to be on this trip, that we’ve all been given such a great opportunite to both spread sahaj and learn, growing within ourselves and as a collective, being able to get to know everyone, it’s been such a joy.

We arrived at Oakland ashram around 7:30, very warmly welcomed, as all the local yogi’s lined up outside waving in our vans, then fed us some delicious ashram food. We had a nice evening, quite relaxed, a good footsoak, meditation, bhajans and then much needed bed.

Some of us woke up a little “early” after our first sleep at Emigrant Lake. Even though many of the boys didn’t have mats on the ground we seemed to have straight backs as long as we didn’t move around at all. A few of the musicians decided to get an early instrumental going comprising of sitar, tablas, and dholak. Meanwhile the ladies began to stir when they heard our music and one person even commented on how nice it was to wake up to it.

The crew had to hurry up and get ready for the program in Ashland so a few people put together some breakfast of eggs, fruits, and cereal. I don’t usually enjoy scrambled eggs, but these were exceptional! We are starting to become professionals at loading and unloading the van, so we were able to be on our way by 10:30 AM to the Shakespeare festival in Ashland, Oregon.

We arrived in Ashland in about 15 minutes to begin our street event in the square. The place just seemed too perfect as we looked around at all the friendly people strolling around this quant little town. After the booth was set up, we eagerly asked one lady if she wanted to sit for a few minutes and meditate. She really enjoyed the experience and commended us on our efforts of offering something free which made her feel so nice. This was just the beginning of many different open hearted seekers.

The seekers just kept rolling by and the vibrations just kept getting stronger and stronger. We set up a little area of music with sitar and tabla and it even attracted some young musicians who also played sitar and santoor. They jammed with us and played some bhajans. We had several great seekers stop by who began to play music with us including a guitarist and a mandolin player.

Two seekers, who were from South Arabia, had felt so blissed afterwards that they came back and hugged us with arms wide open. One of the young seekers was so joyous afterwards from having such a deep experience that he hugged us and just said “I love you all!” We all felt this was the most special day of the tour thus far and even though there is no established center it was well worth our time and attention.

When we were ready to pack up, the musicians who joined us invited us to come to their show in the local club. We were skeptical at first since we didn’t have transportation. But uncle Mark graciously offered to take us to the performance after dinner. A few yuvas went along to experience the show. It was a fusion of sitar, bass guitar, drum kit and keyboard. It was quite special because we were the only ones there. So we had a private concert just for us. Once the music got going, we couldn’t help hitting the dance floor. We grooved along with the band till the end and uncle Mark also showed us a few of his moves. I’m sure the band got their realization because they seemed to be having as much fun as we did. The night reminded me of all the dancing that happens at Shri Krishna puja. It was really spontaneous and collective.

After waking up on the carpet, we ate a large breakfast cooked to perfection by Aunty Roni. While some people finished getting ready to leave and some girls shopped for snacks, Yuri labored again to pack the entire pile of luggage into the car and the rest of the packing team played soccer. With much delay, our three van convoy of Mother’s love departed for a seven hour drive to the Ashland campgrpumd. (As we, the bloggers, were in the big white realize van, the following story is limited to our experiences.) At first, the girls sang to numerous songs including those of Disney, the Music of Joy and Hindi movie songs. In response, the boys argued repeatedly for an ending of the girls’ bad music. Following the singing, the girls played clapping games (I went to a Chinese restaurant…)

Then we stopped for lunch at a local grocery store to eat sandwiches, soup and Chinese food. After the exhausting meal, the girls tried to get into comfortable sleeping positions squashed in their seats or resulting to the bouncing floor. Meanwhile the boys read novels. For a second pit stop, we stopped at a gas station to wake up with Starbucks mochas and frappuccinos. We clambered back into the van for a final thirty minute drive to our destination: the Ashland camp.

Turning the last corner we saw the beautiful Emigrant lake accompanied by a water slide which unfortunately was closed. To compensate for our disappointment, we decided to go swimming in the lake after we heard that it was rather warm. Since none of our luggage had arrived, we swam in our clothes. Even though the water in the lake was warm, the ground was muddy and slimy. The girls swam to the dock and the boys played volleyball.

After getting out of the water, the girls had a “shower fiasco” while the aunties, the uncles and the cook team prepared supper which consisted of hamburgers, hotdogs and salad. On our way to have a foot soak on the dock, we were forced to dodge hissing sprinklers. The foot soak was good with the peaceful calm and warm water, but it was difficult to concentrate due to the threat of biting fish and beautiful shooting stars. Following the meditation, some people went to bed while others stayed on the dock to stargaze, and unintentionally to annoy the other “happy campers.” After a long and thoroughly enjoyable day, we all went to our respective tents, where a few last jokes were said and everyone went to sleep.

Today the whole Realize America team prepared to move to Portland, so everyone woke up early for meditation and breakfast. We spent the next few hours packing up all of our clothes and belongings and cleaning all of the rooms to show our gratitude to all of the yogis in Seattle for allowing us to stay in their house.

After finally moving all the luggages and yuvas into the vans we headed for a long drive and ended up seeing more of Portland than we expected because we got lost a few times. We made our way to the city square in the heart of Portland and had a realization program in the beautiful plaza. Immediately there were three people ready to take their realizations. Soon after we were informed by two friendly policemen that we could not continue in the square itself because we did not have a permit, but they kindly pointed out a corner just outside the plaza in which we could set up camp.

The vibrations were heavy and the people were just passing by, but after the notes of the sitar flowed into the air and the tabla drums vibrated the surroundings the seekers started to show up. Many sincere seekers came to experience the bliss within themselves and left satisfied feeling the ocean of joy. By the time we left the area was overflowing with vibrations.

We took a short drive to the house of a yogi family and all ate a delicious dinner. After a short play time the yogis retired to bed.

I don’t even know where to start! Well first of all us yuvas did not wake up for the designated morning meditation time. Auntie Janaki decided to move it back an hour. After meditation we had an hour to get ready, eat breakfast, and set up for the Puja. Since most of us didn’t have much sleep and we were a little on the left side we had an amazing Puja that cleared us out. After the Puja we all decided to have one final meeting before leaving seattle. In the meeting everyone was very open in expressing their feelings and which group they want to be in. Overall the meeting was very productive. As the meeting ended different groups went out and organized their part for the tour while other groups were doing their new assigned duties.

Around six we started heading for the program in Greenlake. When we got there we already had new seekers sitting there waiting for their lives to change forever! As Shridevi started the program, some of us left to find some more lost seekers who would like to join us. As Ajay was explaining the chakras Uncle Pramod brought some people and they were so happy to join us. Finally as Jason was explaining how to meditate we had some more people join us. In the end as we worked on the new-comers we asked them if they had felt anything and most of them were so happy that they had finally felt a connection with us and the vibrations.

The program ended around 9pm, it felt really good as we had been at the same area the previous day giving realization and postering and there were a couple people who had got there realization and come, as well as people coming from the posters. We left the program feeling really inspired and some of us where not quite ready to go back to the ashram, so the group split in two, one going back to the ashram to catch up on some sleep, whilst Auntie Patricia very generously offered to take the rest of us sightseeing. We took a very beautiful walk through Greenlake park, the evening was nice and cool and there was a real feeling of peace in the air. We then went to the Space Needle in downtown Seattle, right to the top so we could see the whole city, sea, lakes, it was very nice way to end our short time in Seattle, afterwhich we all felt now it was time to go home, so drove back to the ashram, and went to bed feeling very satisfied.

The smell of fresh dew in the air and Maya’s face looming above me awoke me with a start! Thinking proudly to myself how early I was awake I sat up smiling. “Is meditation starting?” I asked Maya eagerly. “It’s over,” Maya said shaking her head. I cried out in agony.

Two cold pancakes remained from the earlier breakfast, I smirked at them then daintily picked one up. Despite it’s cold state I just came the to conclusion it was better than no food! Everyone quickly got changed in order to be out of the door by 9:00. It was off to green lake for realization and Starbucks!

When we arrived we set up the sandwich board and some blankets, and then sat down to meditate in order to attract seekers with our outstanding vibrations. The vibrations seemed to work because a pleasant flow of people came to receive their realization. The day was cool but pleasant. We stayed at green lake for about 3 hours or so, for lunch we all went out to eat. Subway, Teriyaki, Mexican food, and organic food were our selections. It was simply amazing! I had the delight of tasting a subway Tuscan Chicken, which was absolutely beautiful! After leaving green lake we split up into three groups and went out to poster in the midst of Seattle. The day was very sunny and hot by this time, and postering was very successful. Next we decided to meet at the University of Washington to give realization. One group was tired so they went back to the ashram while the others walked around the university campus. The campus was so beautiful that we really just enjoyed talking and hanging out for a while together. After a couple of minutes we found a patch of grass to sit on and prepared to give realization again! Although we didn’t really give realization to anyone, the vibrations were so amazing for some reason and we got in some bhajan practice too. We all left feeling very amazing. Afterwards we arrived back at the ashram, had a delicious dinner, and a wonderful desert then played games such as “wuz”. The atmosphere was very light and joyful. We girls went to our room and listened to music and danced the Scottish country dancing. It was very fun!

Meditation was silent but deep and we also listened to a talk of Shri Mataji. Then we had a few bhajans which was wonderful. It all ended around 10:45 or so. Except for me who is writing this blog for y’all and a few other yuvas who went out to get food from QFC and are now making Indian chai!

Waky waky rise and shine!!! Yes, today was an early morning. We got up at 7:30 for breakfast and then we headed off to the beach for a lovely morning meditation. It was already nice and warm so the collective footsoak really came in place. The tide water was just going out, making its morning stretch out. With aunty Felicity’s guidance, we made a half circle, a bandhan, with everybody holding hands. She told us to put the fingers of our right hand in to the Sahasrara point on the hand of the person to the left. The person at the very end at the left faced her hand to the sky and the person on the very right faced his hand to the Mother Earth. This way we had a very collective clear out standing on the land of Shri Krishna. EVERY element was included! The sun on the back Agnya, the water, the earth, the ether… you can only imagine the power of the meditation! Then we had a collective shoebeating. Worth mentioning is the BIG enormous crab which we found at the beach crawling its way back to the depths of the ocean… It was a little scary… But Sopan was courageous enough to lift it up so everyone could have a good scream, haha!

During the afternoon, the boys spent time cleaning the ashram and the girls made lunch, QUESADILLAS!!!! Mmmm… After the extremely tasty and exotic food, we had some bhajan practices. After the beach, we listened to a very nice talk of Shri Mataji about bringing the message of Sahaja Yoga to Americans. She said we have to shock them with power. So we chose some a very powerful bhajan to begin with which was Mahamaya Mahakali.

In the evening, we headed off to the beach in Seattle to give realizations!!! Hurray! When we arrived everyone was feeling very inspired to give realizations as we had been talking so much about it during the seminar. The first thing we did was to sit down and have a small collective meditation. This really settled the vibrations and people just started flowing towards us! They were so lovely! It was so easy too! It felt amazing! Jason, Ajay, Chris and Nick were playing sitar, tabla and harmonium. With the 108 colors of the sunset just behind us and the sand so nice and cool under our feet… Everyone was spreading their vibrations, bringing it together, as one collective instrument.

After a short meditation, the girls went to prepare a hardy breakfast. Upon sitting down we were greeted with mountains of muffins and wondrous waffles.

The aunties along with the yuva leaders decided to shift plans and have a small seminar which had a originally been scheduled for the following day. Auntie Felicity led us in an amazing meditation which she had originally had done under the guidance of Shri Mataji herself. After we all shared our inspirations for wanting to join the Tour, some of the yuvas shared their experiences of being seekers themselves, which enlightened the other yuvas on how to connect with other people.

To distract our minds from the heat, we dispersed and entertained ourselves by playing games and practicing bhajans for the upcoming programs. After rounding up the crew, we headed to the ocean to cool ourselves down in the water and to have footsoaks. Some of the uncles had made a barbecue and we all ate hamburgers and hot dogs and it was spectacular. The yuva boys had decided to set up a valley ball net and we all joined in to play a game but had more laughs then points.

When we returned to the Ashram, we had a silent evening meditation that Jason accompanied with his sitar. After meditation Yuri had taken the responsibility in purchasing a video camera for the Tour so we could present it both to Shri Mataji and Internationally. We also discussed the upcoming plans for tomorrow which involved an early meditation on the beach. Even though we knew we had to get up early we stayed a little past our bed times. As we are writing this we wonder if we will get up in time for meditation in time?

Today was the joyous occasion of the first day of the 2006 Realization Tour!!!

We started out the day with a “wonderful” 7 o’clock meditation and some super salty scrambled eggs. The boys journeyed on to the Central Area Community Fair in downtown Seattle. Later on the girls joined them around 1:00PM. When we arrived it was excruciatingly HHHOOOTT! I was wondering who in their right mind would be at this fair much less giving realization (hint hint)… but as it turns out there was a mildly steady flow of visitors to our booth. A few times some of the yuva’s youth had to double as “seekers.”

It was wonderful to be able to reach out to a different part of the community that I personally had never given realization in. The seekers all seemed pretty happy that Sahaja Yoga had come to their part of town. It was wonderful to give these people realization. They had never heard of Sahaja Yoga or anything like it, but they were all pretty interested. As an added bonus, it was really great to see kids getting their realization and being able to feel vibrations. Surprisingly, there were quite a few of them.

To finish off a great day, we all went swimming in Nick and Chris’s pool and even got to sing a Happy Birthday to one of the yuva’s (Yuri). We continued our fun Saturday night repeating 30 people’s names one by one. We all had slightly different names by the end of the game. To conclude the night Nick treated us to some pretty wicked quawwalis and we all joined in. Unfortunately, we got a visit from the police and had to call it a night.