Sri Ramana 144th Jayanti Retreat

Dear Devotees:

With the Grace of Bhagavan Sri Bhagavan’s 144th Jayanthi Retreat was held at the Courtyard Marriott in Tampa, Florida. Dr.Anand Ramanan, President of Sri Ramanasramam, also joined us.

🙏🏽Retreat 2023🙏🏽

So, after a long gap since 2019, the possibility of a retreat came up. Of course, we were all elated.

Everyone worked with feverish enthusiasm and yes, Diana, the one who was the most enthusiastic engineer of this event literally fell sick the day before the retreat and we missed her dearly. Mathy opened her house for all of us to the point where we now know where to look for snacks, tea, plates, board games and candies.😜  Dr.Samy picked our brains with puzzles and often shared his words of wisdom. We all feel we have imbibed his ‘Arupukottai’ pride. We may not know where it is on the map, but we know what ‘Arupukottai’ means to the new ‘Old hall’. If you sense some cryptic message in this, you need to make that trip to explore its meaning.😁

The temple event was a beautiful evening where one of the youngest rithviks^[1] was from our own Bhagavan satsangh family. The songs that the children rendered after the pooja were heartfelt and soulful.

The Old Hall program kicked off well and Swami Bodhananda’s discourse on Upadesa Saram^[2] was filled with fervor, humility and a sharp sense of humor. Once the morning session got over, there was a seamless start to the brilliant discourse by Hari Moorthy^[3] at the Marriot. The logistics of making that seamless transition given the time and equipment constraints would have been daunting but for the enthusiastic team work of the satsanghis. No task was too big, none too trivial. Everyone lent their time and muscle to make it happen. Once the retreat moved to Marriot, we felt that even the staff there were literally placed by Bhagavan. Those working the front desk, cafe, and lobby were particularly very helpful and at least one became curious enough to learn about Bhagavan’s teaching and had questions for us by the end of retreat. The commercial space that usually hosts worldly events transformed into our own samadhi hall/meditation hall charging with His energy. The second half of Swami Bodhananda’s lecture happened at the Marriot and it was followed in the afternoon by the audio visual treat of our own Swaminathan on Thiru Gnana Sambandhar^[5] and Bhagavan. The evening transitioned smoothly with Veda parayanam, reading, chanting and bhajans. We were spellbound by Dr.Samy’s history^[6] of the new old hall in Tampa and captivated by the President Anand’s account of the 100 years of Sri Ramanasramam. Every picture tells a story. Every brick and tile has a reverence that makes Sri Ramanasramam what it is today. We owe so much to the many sung and unsung heroes that have given us this great heritage.

After a few bhajans and songs we rang in the new year with Aksharamanamalai.

The next day started with Veda Parayana, chanting of Aksharamanamalai and Ramana Satguru bringing the retreat to its conclusion.

At the very end, Shridhar chose to address the ‘youth retreat’ because we were thoroughly humbled by them. At the beginning we had many ideas of how to engage them in activities since we have all not met each other in well over 4 years. What a surprise! They literally carried the show. They were making signage, moving furniture, shopping, and lugging the required materials, cutting fruits, engaging each other and ever so mindful of the satsangh etiquette. Their enthusiasm and maturity humbled each and every one of us. Bhagavan’s Grace was shining through each and every one of them. They did not end up having a separate retreat, instead they infused their energy into this one retreat.

We rejoiced, reflected, and renewed ourselves and we thank Bhagavan for making this happen.

Blessed were the Tampa days;
Where we steeped in His Grace.
In the silence and every phrase,
we shared a very sacred space!
Chanting and singing His praise,
we welcomed a new year in His warm embrace!
At His feet we forever seek solace;
Looking forward to happy days!
  

om namo bhagavate śrī ramaṇāya