Urban Devi Autumn Women's Retreat
Urban Devi Autumn Retreat 2020:Welcoming TransformationA ladies-only retreat**SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2020 AT 7:30 AM EDT – 5:30 PM EDT**http://bhakticenter.org/urban-
A Possible Alternative for Ayodhya?
--by Rukmini Walker
This week The Times of India’s headline story was that the Indian Supreme Court has decided to send the 70 year old Babri Masjid Ayodhya litigation case to mediation. This is a very wise decision on their part.
I’m reminded of the biblical story of King Solomon. Two different women were both claiming to be the mother of one baby. How could such a difficult case be decided? The wise king suggested that they cut the baby in half, and give each mother one half of the baby. The actual mother, out of her genuine love for her child, cried out, “No! Let her keep the baby! But just let the baby live!”I am an American woman, who has a great regard for India both her culture and her many religions. I’ve been a practitioner of Bhakti Yoga for more than half my life. This past week, I’ve been a delegate at an international conference honoring Mata Sitadevi in the holy city of Varanasi.
India has always been revered by the rest of the world as the Land of Dharma. Traditionally, as a place of great religious tolerance where so many religions of the world have found a hospitable home. Often when even their own places of origin are no longer hospitable to them. India’s great long standing tradition now stands in jeopardy. 
In order to satisfy all parties, this sacred 2.77 acres of land will somehow have to be divided into tiny parcels. The mediators will have to be as wise as King Solomon! How will it be possible to satisfy everyone?May I offer one tiny, humble suggestion? As the little spider in the Ramayana tried her best to kick up a few grains of sand to help the great Bhakta Hanuman build the bridge to Lanka. Would it be possible for the sacred land to be left intact by creating a beautiful peace garden there to celebrate the glory of God? There are so many sacred trees and fragrant flowers mentioned in holy scriptures that could be planted. Around the perimeter could be typical Indian pierced stonework inscribed with uplifting verses from the Gita, from the Koran, the Bible, the Guru Granth Sahib and other scriptures of the world.Such a garden could be a kaleidoscope of beauty, colors and harmony meant to show the world an example of unity in diversity. Over the centuries so many invaders came and stole the wealth and jewels of India. This most precious jewel India’s gift of dharma could shine so brightly and light the world in a setting such as this!
Rukmini Walker is a disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. She lives in the US, in Washington, DC.
Mantra: Sounds Into Silence
The DC premiere of the film, Mantra, Sounds into Silence is on Sunday, July 8th. My son, Gaura Vani was interviewed in the film and he will be leading kirtan at the theater after the film. There are a few tickets still left. I hope you can join us! Click here for ticket for the Silver Spring, Maryland showing.If you do not live near by, click here to schedule a showing in your own town! 
Vaishnavi Retreat Oct 5-7
VAISHNAVI RETREAT
A BHAKTI INSPIRED RETREAT FOR WOMEN, BY WOMEN
OCT 5-7 | Cobb, CA
A 3-day interactive retreat to celebrate and connect with other women of Bhakti and spiritual seekers alike in a refreshing, supportive environment. Through illuminating classes and seminars, meditative japa and kirtans and spirited festivities, this retreat’s purpose is to inspire you to progress in your spiritual journey back to Godhead. Both body and soul will be nourished with pure Krishna prasadam, sanctified vegetarian meals prepared and offered with love.
Visit https://www.vaishnaviretreat.com/ for more information and to register.
India Kirtan Adventure 2019
Join me and my son, Gaura Vani, for our next India Kirtan Pilgrimage! Jan 2019. Click here for more details.[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]⭐️ SIGN UP BEFORE SEPTEMBER 30TH AND GET AN EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT OF $200! ⭐️ [/perfectpullquote]
Urban Devi Discussion Group
a women’s discussion groupdates – sundays, april 22, may 6, june 10, july 15, august 12time – 2:00pm – 4:00pmlocation – the bhakti center / 3wadmission – free of chargeTopic: Discussing Visakha Dasi Latest Book: Five Years, Eleven Months and a Lifetime of Unexpected Love
Urban Devi is a monthly interactive women’s discussion circle exploring the intersection of the devotional wisdom of the Bhakti tradition and the lives of women in the 21st century. Sessions begin by Rukmini sharing her thoughts on a devotional verse, song, or commentary, as a stimulus to the open sharing of ideas, struggles, inspirations and hopes.
WHAT TO EXPECT
- wise, kindhearted & experienced group leader
- wisdom from the bhakti tradition
- friendly sincere seekers
- group size approx. 15-25 ladies
LA Times review of Mantra: Sound into Silence
'Mantra: Sounds Into Silence' examines the quiet power of shared singing
For those who have been moved by a unified "om" at the end of a yoga class or harmonized in church, "Mantra: Sounds Into Silence" will resonate. This documentary examines the quiet power of shared singing, looking beyond religion and focusing on the connection between those who have found solace in mantras.
Mantra: Sound into Silence
Friday March 17 in NYC! My son, Gaura Vani, will be leading a kirtan after the screening of the new movie Mantra: Sounds into Silence at the Rubin Museum. Click here for tickets.Dear Kirtan Family,The practice of kirtan has touched us deeply. It has brought us great personal transformation, giving us a sense of peace and freedom, and has helped us develop a global community of loving bhaktas who share in the joy in “chanting the names”.We are very excited to be in partnership with the new feature-length documentaryMantra - Sounds into Silence. (Trailer: www.mantramovie.com)The film will have its world debut in New York City on March 16th at the prestigious Rubin Museum of Art.Here is the part where you come in :)We are asking that you volunteer to host a screening of this film!The screenings of this film will be extremely unique. With the help of Gathr Films (the Theatrical-On-Demand® distributor) we are not simply showing a film, but creating an evening to remember. This distribution technique provides us with an option to arrange an extended event within the screening itself. The goal of the Call and Response Foundation, Georgia Wyss (the film’s director) and Gathr, is to have a 25 minute live kirtan at the end of each showing.As leaders of your kirtan community we are asking you to join us in sharing this movie across the world, starting with the people you know best: your community. What this entails, is that you register to be a “movie caption” with the Gather Theatrical-On-Demand® platform network and help bring a film/live kirtan event to your community. The process is simple.Step 1. Go to https://gathr.us/films/mantra/new-screening-request/t/mantraws to get started or visit https://www.mantramovie.com/usrelease2. Check yes on the question “I would like more time for discussion or Q&A” (aka the live kirtan following the showing) in the setup process. Please also select you would like this film “I am using this screening as a fundraiser” as we are looking to use this as a fundraiser for the Call and Response Foundation.3. Talk to your local kirtan leaders. Ask if they would lead a short 20 minute simple chanting set after the movie. Emphasize this this is not a paid gig but an educational opportunity or feel free to lead it yourself :)4. Confirm with the theater that this works for them (confirm a mic) or make your life easier and bring a portable PA system5. Contact us at Call and Response (Jen @ jen@callandresponsefoundation.org or Scott scottkirtan@gmail.com) if you are stuck anywhere in this process or have questions.The way the Gathr Theatrical-On-Demand® system works, is that when you register for a showing, they will tell you how many tickets are needed to be sold to have the screening confirmed (example 30 tickets). The number of tickets needed to be sold (ex. 30 tickets) to have a showing and the ticket price can vary from theater to theater. If you have a choice our recommendations would be with a Regal theater as they allow box office sales after the screen is confirmed.Once you do that, all of us – you, the filmmakers, the existing GATHR Films network, the artists, ALL our combined networks - will promote the screening together through our social channels. You'll be surprised how quickly your screening seats fill up. You will also receive 2 comp tickets for every confirmed screening you host.Let us know when and where you booked your screening, so we can start to direct our resources to it. If you are in our community kirtan program we’d like to collaborate to make this your annual fundraiser!Thank you so much for your help! We can wait to hear from you as to how the process and showing turnout! (and don’t forget we are always here to help if you run into a problem!)Love always,Call and Response FoundationJen CanfieldScott Whitmore
Bhakti Blossoms Book Review
by Tammy T. Stone at The Tattooed BuddhaEditor: Dana GornallAs a young, fledgling writer in high school, I often found myself penning anything from creative writing exercises to poems, songs and short stories (even a film treatment—I was ambitious!) featuring male protagonists.
I never questioned this tendency. My teachers as well, both male and female, never asked me to reflect on why I might not be writing women characters or female perspectives.It took me many years, and a male protagonist-driven novella later, to realize what seems so glaringly obvious: I had been under-examining and also not understanding or embracing a massive part of who I was, in no small part due to prevailing societal forces: I grew up in a “dead white male” world where the vast majority of authors—including those used in the school system—along with their main characters, were men. It’s not that I, myself, identified as male, but that my imagination was molded and encouraged to align with the dominant voice of many, many, generations, to the extent that it was easier for me to imagine worlds through the male experience than my own.It is no secret that the all-pervasive patriarchy—now, at the very least, under public scrutiny in the wake of the Weinstein scandal and the #metoo movement it inspired—extends to the realms of spirituality and religion, where the suppression of the feminine and women’s voices and practice has long been the norm. That’s why, before even opening Bhakti Blossoms, there is so much to admire and be excited about. Editor Krishna Kanta Dasi, founder of the Vaishnavi Voices Poetry Project, has invited 108 women practitioners of Bhakti Yoga to express their devotion to the Divine through poetry.
The four main branches of yoga in the Gita—Raja, Karma, Jnana and Bhatki—all seek, through different means, to achieve a union between people in their bodily incarnation, and the Divine. Bhakti is the path of loving devotion; the root of the word, the Sanskrit “bhaj”, means to love or worship God. As Graham Schweig explains in Bhakti Blossom’s foreword, “Bhakti is a practice that cultivates purity of heart, selflessness of devotion, and sweetness of character.”
Within Bhakti, he goes on to explain, the Vaishnava tradition revolves around devotion to the Divine as Vishnu, or Krishna, and highlights the Bhakti practice as a yogic path.
Though this devotional yogic path is thousands of years old, the voices of its women practitioners have been all but obscured. Devotional poetry written by men abound, from the Sufi traditions’s Rumi, Kabir and Hafiz, to the Hindu trandition’s Rabindranath Tagore, Ramprasad and Sri Aurobindo, but Bhakti Blossoms represents the first coming together of women devotees in Bhakti yoga in expression of their spirituality and devotion through this rich and impacting medium.Many of the poetesses featured in the book are new to poetry, and for many, English is not their first language, but it is no exaggeration to say that the primary language here is love, and the book is tremendously affecting as a result, a real balm for our times and gift to pore through.The book is divided into nine chapters—Bhakti, Divinity, Guru & Sanga, Our Selves and Others, Maya’s Magic, Prayers, Seva, Divine Nature and The Holy Names—that speak to the multi-faceted and fascinating qualities of the Vaishnavi devotional pathway. The chapter introductions do the poems that follow a great service, helping readers understand the specific individual flavors of the spiritual experiences to be presented. From there the individual poetesses reach out through the page, embracing the reader as a result of they themselves having opened up to their own expressivity in devotion.[perfectpullquote align="left" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]As I read each poem in this book, I am transported into one woman’s journey—her contentment, happiness, bliss, struggle, self-reflection—in her relationship with the divine, and the cumulative effect of reading the poems in succession is striking.[/perfectpullquote]
There is simply great power in the collective voice.
I think of a mosaic, or a woven textile, or a string of pearls, in which each part gleams with beauty and clarity, only enhanced by the role it plays in creating a larger totality. As I read each poem in this book, I am transported into one woman’s journey—her contentment, happiness, bliss, struggle, self-reflection—in her relationship with the divine, and the cumulative effect of reading the poems in succession is striking. I am reminded of the bhajan (devotional song) performances I’ve attended and often listen to, in which holy words are repeated over and over, their power increasing with each repetition until the song rises to a crescendo that leaves me simultaneously shattered and feeling utterly whole.The poems in this book have a similar effect; each one glistens, helping create a momentum that potentially sweeps the reader into a universe where light, inspiration, and selfless love prevail, even in the context of the shadows and struggles that are a natural part of the true human and spiritual experience. The poems themselves, without generalizing—for each speaks so directly from the heart that generalization is impossible—are inspired and completely honest, and they touched me to the core. In her introduction to the book, Krishna Kanta Dasi alludes to the many flower metaphors that adorn the Bhakti tradition, one of them being, “the tighter the bud the more resistant we are to Bhakti, the more our petals open, the more awake our heart is to receiving and reciprocating the love God has for us.”As I read this book, often devouring pages at a time, this metaphor came to mind as each poem felt to me like a petal opening—by turn hesitant, gentle, unsure, questioning, vulnerable, brave, exultant, inspired, emboldened. It revealed not only the author’s exquisite relationship with the Divine, but the capacity each one of us has to open our hearts more, to not be afraid, to surrender to what lies behind the veil of our senses, to be a flower, which protects itself and hides when it needs to, but which so willingly opens at first opportunity, unfailingly, as long as it exists.If this sounds overly poetic, this is what the book inspires! Sitting down with Bhakti Blossoms is like sitting down with a steaming cup of tea on a rainy day, or in an orchard under a bright, midday sun: it is comfort, community, love, passion, strength, devotion and faith. It is inspiration in a world that desperately needs it; it is hope for a future guided by the feminine principles of receptivity, intuition, communion, creativity and generation.From a spiritual perspective, it is a reminder not to jump over our own humanity—our glorious triumphs and also failures, our doubts, fears, joys and sorrows—on our “way up” to enlightenment, but to live, experience and also attempt, at every turn, to give expression to our beautiful humanity as an integral part of the spiritual journey.It is also—in the sheer feat of its coming into being—a politically-engaged assertion that women’s voices will not be silenced. But nor do they aim to dominate. Instead, they rise in chorus, guiding us on a pathway to that which is larger than all of us.These are the guides we need, and I am so thankful for their existence.Available at Amazon.com.
India Pilgrimage
Have you always wanted to go to India, but had some trepidation about embarking on the journey? If so, this is the trip for you!
Let go of your fear and know that you’ll be in the best of hands with Gaura Vani and Rukmini! Both have multiple years of experience (more than we can count!) and have actually lived in India in the past. Be assured that you will be taken care of, you’ll always feel safe, you’ll stay in lovely accommodations, eat delicious food and visit places that will give you a deep and profound experience of India…not just the “tourist version”. If you want to see the sights and hear the stories and chant along with the Kirtan that bring the feeling of Bhakti alive then we invite you to join us!
We promise you will come back home with an open heart and a new perspective on life!
The link HERE will take you to the information form. Contact vrindarani@gmail.com or +1 (240) 447-0245 for further questions.
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