(This site is still under development. A blog with daily Inspirational Quotes from our Spiritual Master Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj and more youth stories are coming soon. Check back often!!!)

Swami Prakashanand SaraswatiI remember so vividly the feeling I had when I visited the Barsana Dham temple in Austin in 1999. A year earlier a teacher from Barsana Dham had come to my city and was invited to stay at my house and she gave me a small brochure of the temple as a present. For an entire year I clung on to it, and yearned, and repeatedly asked my father to take me there and eventually he did.

Although I was raised a Catholic, my parents had been interested in the teachings of India since long before my birth, which eventually led them to Shree Swamiji in 1992. In 1993 I first met Shree Swamiji personally, when he visited my city. I was just a kid at the time so I didn’t really know anything about religion and I wasn’t particularly drawn in any particular direction. I did notice that there was a great kindness in his look, softness to his voice, and fatherliness to his behaviour which put me at ease. Shree Swamiji visited my region once every year or two and I met him each time, and although it was a casual experience in meeting him, my sister and I would cry for days every time he left. We didn’t know why or how, but it just happened. (Left: Shree Swamiji getting ready to board a plane back to Austin.)

There were plenty of books on spirituality in our house which had built up over the years and I eventually started reading books by Edgar Cayce and others. Those spiritual books really didn’t mean very much to me and didn’t really apply to my life in a meaningful way. Eventually, for the first time, my curiosity led me to start reading ‘The Shikchashtak’ by Shree Swami Prakashananad Saraswati, and what I read in that book in terms of the devotion to God moved me to my very core and by the last page I had already decided that my life was solely for the realization of God. When you start a religious journey, you are required to have a certain level of blind belief. But for me, there was no 'leap of faith' required because I felt I was ‘experiencing’ Swamiji’s teachings and words in a way more profound than I ever dreamed possible, there was no ‘religion’ to follow because loving God is itself the religion, and experience of the love of God itself is the reward. It was a year or two later that the teacher from Barsana Dham stayed in my house.

So anyway, the moment I entered Barsana Dham, the one who I had met a few times in the past as ‘Swamiji’, I met again, this time as ‘my Swamiji’. He was sitting with devotees at Barsana Dham and I felt such shyness for some reason. During our audience with him I just kept beseeching in my mind that I hope he doesn’t talk to me or ask me anything or pay attention to me. In his own unique way, Shree Swamiji simultaneously fulfilled my wish of not putting attention on me, and his own wish to put attention on me - as he threw chocolates to all the kids, he inexplicably turned his body and looked the opposite direction and tossed the sweet to me, over his shoulder. In this way Shree Swamiji ignored me by looking away, yet put me at ease in a way only a true master could. From that day onward, during my time at Barsana Dham, he did this every day until eventually I felt more at home. It was one incident which made me appreciate his depth of compassion and how the spiritual master can behave in order to remove the seemingly irreconcilable spiritual obstacles of his devotees. On this visit to Barsana Dham, I was so inspired by the spiritual atmosphere there, that I told him that my life was only for devotion to God and asked if I could live in the ashram.

I have been attending Barsana Dham for many years now and each time I go there I appreciate more and more the depth of spiritual vibrations there. Shree Swamiji didn’t let me live at the ashram way back then, and instructed me to finish my education. Shree Swamiji's blessings have taken me in so many directions in life and now I have almost finished a Masters degree in I.T. Most importantly, Shree Swamiji’s blessings have taken me directly to India, to the lotus feet of our supreme Spiritual Master, Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj. And for that, I am eternally indebted.

Reflecting on my own memories of Barsana Dham from my youth, I was really curious to know what kinds of experiences the kids who attend Barsana Dham today are having so I requested them to write about their experiences (Read those experiences here). The response was overwhelming and I decided to create this website. It was inspiring to see the youth take such an active role in their spiritual development in a modern commercialized world where materialism has become the de facto standard. It seems that in general, youth today either take no role in their spiritual development, or take a passive role by coming to the temples and churches out of obligation without any real appreciation for the underlying principles. But here, it was truly heart-warming to see such an enthusiastic bunch of kids who take such an active participation. For this, the community must give credit to Barsana Dham and Shree Swami Prakashanand Saraswati for teaching and engaging the next generation (“the generation y”) in such an effective and meaningful way through family camps, Sunday classes, and many other fun activities.

Normally the word ‘religion’ evokes the sense that if you follow a set of practices you will be qualified to receive some kind of reward in the afterlife. But what I have learned from the teachings of Shree Swami Prakashanand Saraswati is that the rewards are in this very lifetime itself. Authentic spirituality has many side effects – purity of heart and mind, clarity of thought and spontaneous evolution of many of the virtues such as truthfullness, compassion for others, selflessness. Religious discipline can be a blueprint that can be applied to every aspect of your life, from your academic studies to your family life. The style of devotional meditation at Barsana Dham is extremely relaxing and peace-inducing. The timeless ideals and stories from the scriptures and from the lives of historical saints can help us and inspire us in so many ways. But these are just the mere side-effects of something much greater.

Most of all, authentic religious and spiritual practice brings you closer to God, and unfolds in your heart and mind an ever-increasing awareness and experience of devotional love for God of a soul-touching kind, and ultimately reveals the absolute Divine love of your beloved God forever, which is the final, and eternal goal of our soul.

I hope you enjoy reading the inspirational stories from this website. And if you have any stories of your own, I will post them too.

Webmaster,
ILoveBarsanaDham.com
Email: BarsanaDhamFestivals@GMAIL.com