Five Ananda Marga Acaryas were touring the West Coast from November 21 – Dec 4, 2016, introducing the public to Ananda Marga. They were: Acarya Abhiramananda Avadhuta (SSNY), Acarya Diiptimanananda Avadhuta (SOS), Acarya Anudhyanananda Avadhuta (CS S), Avadhutika Ananda Kalyanmitra Acarya (HPMG (L)), and Brahmacarinii Anudhyana Acarya (RSL Denver and Monterrey).
The Mystical Tour was an inspiration for many people: in 2 weeks more than 350 people were introduced to Ananda Marga; the Acaryas gave 8 initiations to Ananda Marga meditation, visited 25 places, and several people became sympathizers of Ananda Marga. The Facebook page “Ananda Marga Mystical Tour” had 350 likes and almost 5.000 people were reached; 3.700 people were engaged on Facebook regarding the pracar activities.
Los Angeles
The tour started in Los Angeles, where we had the help of Acarya Muktatmananda Avadhuta and brother Bodhisattva. We visited several temples, community centres and gave a class in a yoga centre in Pasadena.
The first visit during the tour was to Hollywood Sikh Temple. This is one of the oldest Gurudwara in U.S., serving since 1969. We met with Mr. S. Baldev Singh Johal (the president of the managing committee) and Dr. Amarjit Singh Marwaha. After introducing Ananda Marga to them, Dr. Amarjit Singh invited us to his residence at the beautiful coastline of Malibu.
Dr. Amarjit Singh has been awarded several awards for his work and has established ‘Sharing, Caring and Service Foundation’ that has completed various service projects in India including schools, eye camps, and food for the poor. We visited him at Malibu on the morning of Thanksgiving Day and received his hospitality and invitation to visit again. He explained his service work to us and showed us his beautiful home.
On the way back to L.A. Jagrti we passed by on the Malibu coast and did meditation. A young man came to us and learned meditation. He is a vocal artist in the area.
We went around Los Angeles and handed out flyers about Ananda Marga and interacted with the public. In Pasadena, the owner of Yoga Paz invited us to give class to her students.
After Thanksgiving Day we drove to Los Altos Hills, where we spent the weekend and reached out to the public in nearby areas.
Bay Area: San Jose and Los Altos Hills
Sri Rajarajeswari Temple in San Jose invited us to give presentation to the members of the temple and their children. This was a major event where each one of us gave 15 minutes slide show presentation on Ananda Marga meditation and spiritual practices and the children and teenagers performed beautiful Indian classical songs and accompanied on the Mridangam drum (led by Sri. Gopi Lakshminarayanan, Sharadha School of Thala Vadhya and Geetanjali School of Music.) After a full afternoon of music and presentations, everyone joined for singing and dancing kiirtana, meditation and a short yoga introduction. More than 80 people attended this program.
We also visited the world renowned Bharatanatyam teacher, dancer and choreographer- extraordinaire – Guru Vishal Ramani at the Shri Krupa Dance Company (SKDC) – the oldest Indian classical dance school in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Grass Valley and Nevada City
We visited Ananda Dhiira Master Unit in Grass Valley and gave a class at Inner Path Yoga Studio, in Nevada City. This was a small class with only two attendees but both of them were inspired and got initiation into Ananda Marga meditation after the class.
Kiirtana and Meditation Retreat at Los Altos Hills
We ended the tour with a weekend kiirtana and meditation retreat at Los Altos Hills. More acaryas joined us for the weekend as this event was followed by RDS meetings. Saturday we had Akhanda Kiirtana and Sadhana Shivir and Sunday more Margiis from San Francisco and Bay Area joined for the monthly Sunday Akhanda Kiirtana.
