LATEST NEWS / ACTIVITIES JUNE 2023
KARUNA DHAM YOGA RETREAT (INCLUDING BOARDING AND LODGING)
Karuna Dham is showing humanity how to make one’s life a success.
The essence of Yoga is to appreciate and link with The Creator of everything- isha vashya idam sarvam. Just as we wash, eat, sleep, work to keep the body fit, a perfectly balanced, material and spiritual life, automatically also revolves around The Creator – God. Like when one gets up, he does Surya Namashkar, then meditation, devotion or bhakti yoga, ashtanga yoga, he eats but after offering the food to the Lord. How to do service and make income in the spirit of karma yoga. For pro-creation, in the Bhagavat Gita Krishna says “I am that sex life which is not contradictory to dharma. Even while sleeping practice Nindra yoga”.
As Shrila Prabhupada would often say “ You do not have to give up anything just add Krishna to your life”
At Karuna Dham the Yoga Retreat Package including boarding and lodging will enable the members to practically witness, participate and learn the above yogic practices for the soul. For the body, Living in harmony with Nature includes organic farming, self-sufficiency, off grid energy, forestation, bio-architecture housing, sustainable living and the like. A perfect balancing of material and spiritual and energies.
Tree Plantation Update
Last month we slashed all the grass and bushes which were smothering the small plants which we planted last year and the year before. Near the dormitory we found several lime trees with fruits were covered by bush. So gradually we are slashing the whole area to give the trees planted a few years back some light and air to grow better.
The rains have already started and we are waiting for some contributions to Karuna Trust to plant another 500 trees. Preferably they should be planted before June end so that they get good rains until December.
She is so tolerant and also the trees are so tolerant inspite of us cutting them for our selfish needs still continues to give oxygen and help us in many ways Thanks to trees without them nothing can be possible and at the same time without all your contribution this wouldn't be possible.
Thanks to all the support and love that all of you have showered on KarunaDham.
Who ever would like to support us more please donate by using this link.
http://bit.ly/karuna-dham-trees
We need all your support to make this a success. Thanks to all!
Adi Shankaracharya & His Students Story
"Adi Sankara was walking through the market place with his disciples,
They saw a man dragging a cow by a rope,
Sankara told the man to wait and asked his disciples to surround them,
“I am going to teach you something” and continued...
“Tell me who is bound to whom? Is the cow bound to this man or the man is bound to the cow?"
The disciples said without hesitation “Of course the cow is bound to the man!. The man is the master. He is holding the rope. The cow has to follow him wherever he goes. The man is the master and the cow is the slave”
“Now watch this”, said Sankara and took a pair of scissors from his bag and cut the rope,
The cow ran away from the master and the man ran after his cow. “Look, what is happening”, said Sankara
“Do you see who the Master is? The cow is not at all interested in this man. The cow in fact, is trying to escape from this man,
This is the case with our MIND,
Like the cow, all the non-sense that we carry inside is not interested in us. WE ARE INTERESTED IN IT, we are keeping it together somehow or the other. We are going crazy trying to keep it all together under our control,
The moment we lose interest in all the garbage filled in our head, and the moment we understand the futility of it, and replace it with higher taste, it will start to disappear. Like the cow, it will escape and disappear”
Temple Construction
THE PERFECTION THAT WAS ATTAINED IN SATYA YUGA BY MEDITATION, DHYAN, IN TRETA YUGA BY TAPASYA OR AUSTERITIES, IN DWAPARA YUGA BY YAHNA OR TEMPLE WORSHIP, THE SAME PERFECTION IS ATTAINED IN KALI YUGA BY TAKING THE NAMES OR HARI.
Since one year we are working on make a flat plot 40 feet by 60 feet on a beautifull location above the restaurant to build a Temple. The work has been going with starts and stops due to labour and sometimes rains. Also the back wall to dig is full of stone and takes quite some efforts to dig out. However about 20% is raining and we are trying to get more labour to finish it as soon as possible.
The chance to build a Temple for the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna comes once in a million lifetimes. Here is your chance to build this beautiful Temple for Sri Sri Radha Madanmohan at Karuna Dham, Kodaikanal.
» More information: http://bit.ly/temple-construction
Prakash's Sunrise Timelapse
Animal Pic Of The Month Monitor Lizard
Karuna Dham Gets Signs!
Yoga and Meditation
A two week workshop on spiritual energy just completed. A group of 12 international students including some local guests got together for this program. Orel from Shivananda Ashram held 2 hour sessions of meditation and yoga daily in the morning and evenings. In the day they did some karma yoga , service in general Satsang and with bhajans in the morning and evenings.
To top it all the restaurant served nutritious yogic food! Everyone liked it and had a good time. We want to hold such sessions regularly.
Fencing
Since the past few months Bison have been coming into our residential area. One morning when Prakash went to the restaurant to take photos of sunrise, he was greeted by a Bison nicely sleeping there! They trample over the kitchen garden so we have fenced the boundary with the forest with a diamond mesh fence. The whole thing costed about Rs. 28,000/- . Half of it was paid by the Guest Room income and the other half by donations to Karuna Trust. Now we can comfortably grow veggies and spices around the restaurant and residential area and are busy planting and growing plants already.