Gregg Hill Gopal's Blog (23)

After 30 years I went to Rishikesh, India. I wish sooner but just to sit there on the banks of the Ganges, it all made sense. A place to visit for sure.

Swami Vishnu said Master celebrated the various Religion’s Feast days, spoke English, and gave…

Just a few hours a night. Master would come out of his Kutir promptly at 0400. Swami Vishnu had to be there to walk with Him. After an Assassination attempt, ( a man with an axe) Swamiji and another slept down by His door to ensure nothing happened. Swami Sahajananda said, “ I think Gurudev would snore”, He said,” A lot of saints did.”…

He left the Ashram 2 X. Once for a weekend and He came back or they talked Him into coming back then another time He left for a year on His terms. He thought the Ashram was full of losers etc. He was Master’s personal assistant. When He did come back He wanted His personal assistant job back and Master pointed over to the new man currently in that position and said He was…

Sunday night completed 9 days of The Divine Mother’s worship. We had the perfect Swami Vishnudevananda style celebration. Gajananum from the Devananda Yoga Center in Berkeley, CA did an outstanding job. The food was perfect. Narayan and Hari Das took care of the details.…

I think He had a very hard life. Quite a task to bring Yoga to the West. Look at ALL the Yoga there is today. It’s everywhere. In the 1980’s the only place you could openly teach was in a Unitarian church. In public institutions they had to give you space. Swamiji wanted practitioners not preachers. Everything He said has come true except Nuclear war. I was quite fortunate to…

I thought I could e-mail to mailing list the short lectures “snippettes” This action filled everyone’s mailbox and I have stopped this action. You never know until you try.…

One day Swamiji tells every problem the Camp has, for example, water pressure, Kids camp space etc.

He laughs when telling about how the smokers wanted a “smoking court” where they could sit down and smoke across the street outside the Camp ! He…

Swamiji while walking to school if He saw a Frog in a snake’s mouth He would tap on the snake’s head with a stick to free the frog. He knew it was nature’s way but not while He was there and He could see the frog in distress.

One day at Yoga Camp…

Ruby Blue met Swamiji as she came to Yoga camp in 1967. Swamiji was changing the oil of vehicle. He comes out from under the car wipes His hand off on His shirt puts His hand out to greet and says, “ Hi, I’m Swami Vishnudevananda. She said, “ He was genuine.”…

10/2/2010 Excerpt from my daily blog: www.swamivishnudevananda.com…

----- Forwarded Message…