By Atul Singh

The Earth is warming and hearts are cooling. A harsh reality of our times. A hurricane here, a melting glacier there. A depressed child here, a school shooting there. Mother Earth is convulsing with her own pain and its Children are writhing in their own angst and frustration. Both flow together, tied at the hips, in the giant unyeilding river of time. This river has been flowing forever, in a sinusoidal wave of prosperity and deprivation, with crests of abundance and troughs of lack. By many accounts, the current trajectory seems to be downwards, from Climate perspective at least,. With our futures intertwined, if Earth suffers so do we. But it doesn’t have to be that way, was the unequivocal message of the Hanuman Festival, I had the good fortune to attend on July 15, 16, 17th 2022. We the people and and our benign benefactor can both do better.

The attendees, a few hundred strong, seemed  to have found a path, that they were steadfastly moving on. There wasn’t any Ra-Ra or noise of any kind, except the sounds of the rythmic footfalls of seekers, of Yogis who attended. Sure and steady steps, like those of a mountain climber. The only sounds one could hear were echoes of firm footedness and gratitude. None cared much for the destination either. Just the journey they were on. That is all that seemed to matter to them.

Spirituality seems opaque, out of reach and far off, like a frozen mountain top, from a distance. As one starts engaging, only by gentle nudge of intent, the snow caps start melting as if, and start making available beautiful fresh flowing streams of traditions like Yoga, Bakti, Meditation, even dutiful living( Karma Yoga) in which the seeker can dip his toes. Progressively as one steps in a bit deeper,  bathing away of all doubts, concerns and illusions of our limitations could happen as well. The mountain stream; refreshing, transparent and yielding , embraces us as lovingly as we yield to it. It takes us along on a long, tumbling, revealing journey to the mountain lake of knowledge and self realization and deposits us in a that lake of serenity and awareness. In that lake though we cease to be objects brought in by the stream. The Ego/I melts away, per the sages, and we become the lake itself. The lake shimmers with radiance and with it, we do too. The lake is quiet and calm, with depth and power of its own.

The way straightjackets of Doctrines maps to Religions, a pure and earnest quest for truth maps to Spirituality. Yoga, Meditation, and Devotion(bhakti) are just some of the many streams of the melting snows of Spirituality. They are an inviation into the tradition of that fantastic mountain, called Spirituality. A tradition that is nothing more than walking in the footsteps of the masters, who have gone before us so we can, for ourselves validate or discard the path we are on. How empowering can you be.

In the The Hanuman Festival I found the three streams of Yoga, Meditation and Bhakti flowing with gay abandon, embracing everyone that showed up there. There was the masterful Yoga class of Amy which was the first session I attended. She taught the class to fix the posture, with all sorts of asanas and and stretches. I sure sat up in attention. Then there was the moving rhythmic Meditation / Yoga of Saul. At first, being a little traditional, I found it to be a somewhat perplexing. Half an hour into it though, I knew what he meant. We connected, without him ever looking at me. A slow energizing dance of mevements engaing our physicality and whatever else I was carrying with myself in my being then. My emotions, thoughts, what have you.

Next day was Yashoda Ma’s masterclass in meditation. She laid the groundwork with words, with a twenty minute discussion of her experience, and perceptions about what she teaches and why. Then she got our bodies engaged with Surya namaskars for ten minutes, helped open the Pranic channels through Alom Vilom and  Kapal Bhati and then helped us focus on the root Chakra, the Kundalini, through different mantras like LAM. Once the class ended I wanted to know her more and I did. She was the real deal, having been taught by many gurus including some in India. Having been a great student and of course a great teacher, she owned the meditations she shared with us. She was not a mail man.

Then there was the jubliant, ebuliant, Ms. Hemalaya. She invited the Yogi’s to jettison all that was stale, that was burdensome, that held them back, that needed to be let go before green shoots and fresh flowers could grow in our mental and spiritual landscape. There was nothing about her that did not personify that message. Her smile, her dress sense, her abandon, the class she taught; all screamed: out with the old and in with the new! She used the energy of dance including Bhangra to get the participants to get their brains and hearts unclogged.

We heard the message of Organic India CEO Miguel who happened to be one of key sponsors on how they are making a difference to farmers in India and consumers in US while enhancing the ecology of the planet through support of responsible organic farming. We heard Manoj’s entertaining sojourns into the interwoven admixture of mythology and history that Hinduism/Sanatan Dharma is. I learnt more about the meaning of different mudras of Hanuman in one day with him than I knew ever before. And I am from India, where there is a Hanuman temple in every locality pretty much. There also was the beautiful spiritual music and soulful voices of Katie and Debra. The DJ ing par excellence on Saturday night got the whole place rocking. The overall celebration of life through dancing and singing that happened in the evening, markedly upped the fun coefficient of the whole event. And, all this came about while we also browsed the different paraphernalia that vendors had, while sipping fantastic organic Kombucha made by Rowdy Mermaid, generously shared by them as sponsors while supporting the whole cause. The food trucks by Fed and Zeal, served lunches and dinners that were delicious, organic and vegan. Add to that the fantastic key note speeches. It was indeed sumptuos affair for the body, mind and soul.

Through Yoga one learns to enliven amd engage the physical body for its uniion with the subtler aspects our oneself, as in the mind, emotions and Self, the ultimate perceiver of all reality. Through meditation one learns to use breath to to quieten the mind so it can listen more and through devotional singing one engages the emotions/heart to become available for higher perceptions. All of these are mere invitations to paths yet unwalked by the aspirinig spiritual traveller. Lets call him the Yogi. The protaganist at our Hanuman Festival. Beautiful traditions all three are, the participation to which start only with an invitation into either of them by oneself.

As is the Hanuman Festival, a beautiful tradition indeed where the invitation was for all three paths of Yoga, Meditation and Bhakti together. And the Hanuman Festival has become exactly that, a warm, knitted, comforting fabric of all three traditions, with a fourth thread of climate conciousness that started to get interwoven this time around.

Finally, let me tell you about Yoshi, who pulled this whole thing together. I found him walking about, supervising the going ons. I was curious about his background and how he came to choose Hanuman as the theme of the festival.  His Japanese heritage, having travelled globally including Indonesia etc. led him to learn about Hanuman. In many ways one could see him having imbibed the attributes of service and strength, that Hanuman epitomizes. I nicknamed him Chota Hanuman, although he doesn’t know it yet.

So that was my experience of the Hanuman Festival, 2022. I am sure I missed recounting a whole lot, missed naming many others that made a difference and so on. I hope the reader understands the intent. It is to share the experience that I had and I could recall. Many many others, perhaps felt richly blessed too.