By Matrika (Marlene) Gast

In late fall 2009, I took a day trip to Ganeshpuri, which gave me a taste of this sacred place. It was as though I’d touched my tongue tip to a tiny serving at a glorious feast, only to walk away. Now Swamiji’s 2015 group trip to Ganeshpuri, the home of our Svaroopa® Sciences lineage, beckons.

I have begun my planning, putting it out there that I am going. Certainly, the cost must be considered and budgeted; acceptance and emotional support from family must be cultivated; logistics must be managed — passport, visa, flight reservations, possibly vaccinations, etc. But, based on my experience of travelling with Swamiji to Kerala in southern India five years ago, I know that once you make the decision, Grace flows all the pieces into place.

It was a fluke — or Grace — that gave me my eight-hour taste of Ganeshpuri. After Kerala in 2009, others in our group of 20 yogis had wisely planned to travel to Ganeshpuri for a week’s stay. I didn’t plan so well. Ganeshpuri was an accidental boon! Months before, when I made my flight reservations, I was confused about whether US time was ahead of or behind India, so my roommate and I had 36 hours in Mumbai before our flight back to the US. We hired a taxi to drive us the 50 kilometers northeast to Ganeshpuri. Recommended by our hotel, our driver cared for us like honored aunts, respectfully escorting us everywhere.

We saw uniformed school children, with shining faces and smiles, walking to classes along a dusty road thickly bordered with lush trees and trailing vines. In Ganeshpuri, we browsed in shops with cloud-soft pashmina meditation shawls, moonstone jewelry and beautifully carved murtis of deities. We had lunch, along with our driver and the other yogis from the Kerala trip, at Rosey’s B&B where they were staying. It was simply delicious — and her chai is still redolent in memory.

Yet it is the too-brief experiences of sitting to meditate in the Gurudev Siddha Peeth, the ashram founded by Swami Muktananda, and visiting the Nityananda Samadhi Shrine, that call me back for more than a taste. The quality of pervasive peace, inside and outside, is what returns to me. The Presence of the Gurus of Ganeshpuri so filled me, that in the village shops afterward I found it impossible purchase any of the beautiful wares. I was simply too filled from within on that day, in that place. There was no need. Now I want to know what it is to BE there for two weeks, with Swamiji and all of us who will immerse in practices that flow from our lineage, which arose in that place.

Of course, accounts from the yogis who went straight to Ganeshpuri in February 2013 will tell you so much more about this experience. Over the next several months, you will hear from them as we pave the way to our trip together as a kula — spiritual family — to our ancestral spiritual home. Looking forward to being with YOU there!!