The lecture for children about Gorakhnath

During my visit to Australia, when I was invited to participate in The Interfaith Religious Dialogue, my friend, John Dupuche (a Catholic priest and expert on Kashmir Shaivism), organized for me a meeting with children at school. This is the school for pupils who mostly from Catholic families. I was very impressed with those children, actually they are well educated and asked lots of questions about India and Gorakhnath. For my part, I gladly shared with them what I know about the Tradition and India. Generally, the school often organises meetings for children with representatives of different religions. There also were invited my friend Tenda, a Tibetan Lama, some Sufis whom I familiar with, and others. I decided to share with you my impressions in the form of photographs.

Children and teachers enjoyed our communication and they wanted me to give a yoga class on the next day. We performed a few easy asanas, breathing exercises and meditation on OM sound  Then, I explained how to perform bhramari-pranayama.

Faith in Service for Peace

The Congress of all religions (Faith in Service for Peace) passed in Melbourne two weeks ago. There were representatives of different faiths. I met with one outstanding person – John Dupuche, who wrote comments on 29th part of Tantraloka. His book is called “Kaula ritual.” It was very nice to meet this person, so positive and well qualified in the field of the Kashmirian Shaivism.

My visit to Guru Shri Shankarananda’s Ashram

A few days ago I was in Melbourne, where visited the Shiva Yoga Ashram founded by the Guru Shankarananda   http://shivayoga.org/html/swamishankarananda.html
I am happy that there are students of Svami Muktananda from Ganeshpuri (about whom I’ve heard a lot), Kashmir Shaivism practitioners in Australia.
Svamiji Shankarananda and Devi Ma were very hospitable, and all their students as well.
I was very touched by the traditional welcoming ceremony, which is not usual for Western culture.

Together with my students I attended the ceremony of Baba Nityananda Arati, satsang of Svamiji Shankarananda, where he introduced us to everyone. Then I performed agnihotra dedicated to Goddess Durga. The ritual was liked by all participants and we agreed to organize my mini-workshop on the theme of Agnihotra. Actually the very light and pure atmosphere reigns in this Ashram. Below you can see the photos of my visit to the Shiva Ashram: