With our preparations for Swami Kriyananda’s visit in July on the front “burner,” we wanted to also highlight a brand-new kind of event that is coming up next month: our first-ever Solstice Celebration—Saturday, June 22, 6 p.m. at the Ananda Community in Lynnwood. Re-reading Autobiography of a Yogi recently, we were inspired by the account Yogananda gave of how his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, would hold Solstice/Equinox Celebrations with a parade, a kirtan, a talk, and a banquet. Sri Yukteswar’s talks on those occasions would emphasize the benefits of a balanced life of self-respect, calmness, self-control, and proper diet and exercise, together with the power of kriya yoga. The ashram residents would busy themselves cooking, cleaning, chanting, and serving the local residents and neighbors who came for spiritual nourishment and fellowship. Yogananda speaks of his guru’s blessing in permanently overcoming fatigue by his willing and joyful service on one such occasion.
While we’re not planning a parade in downtown Lynnwood nor a feast for thousands, we do plan an hour-long festive spiritual service that includes chanting, music, fire ceremony, and a talk, followed by a vegetarian meal hosted by residents of the Community (the meal will be free to all!). {This event would replace the regular meditation that evening.} We hope to attract and serve folks spiritually from the Lynnwood (north-end) region, as well as our many Sangha friends from Seattle and the Eastside. There are plans to provide children’s activities so that families can come as well. With a little luck the weather might be nice enough to eat outside or even do a strolling chant or two.
The purpose of this event “coincides” with the purpose of Swami Kriyananda’s visit—to reach out more broadly to the public. Thus, like Sri Yukteswar’s celebrations, the theme will be one of world fellowship, balanced living, and the role of kriya yoga in this age. The plan is to offer this kind of celebration four times a year, at each of the spiritually auspicious solar “events.” It is a small beginning towards offering devotional services in the general Lynnwood area in addition to our weekly services in Seattle. We encourage you to lend your support with your attendance and to invite friends or family.
Together with the momentum “building” for a future Temple of Light Mandir, it seems like we are being offered the opportunity to reach out with faith, humility, devotion, and confidence in our own sincerity and in the relevance and spiritual power of the teachings that we’ve had the blessing and privilege to receive. In a new book, A New Religious America by Dianna Eck, the author traces the migration, transformation, and integration of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam into American society. She gives examples of numerous Hindu (and other) religious celebrations being paraded in the streets of cities like New York and Los Angeles, and of civic participation and even pride in honoring the religious significance of these celebrations. This is the emerging face of this new age which we call Dwapara Yuga. It will gradually give birth to the deeper understanding that individual “Self-Realization” is the underlying purpose of all religions which are but rays of the One Light of God.
