YOGA OUTREACH 2023

Yoga Centre Sita-Ram – Bulgaria

January

Yoga Centre Sita-Ram in Sofia created eight groups dedicated to various projects of the Yoga Outreach:

Prakriti Team – ecology and plants

Annapurna Team – food and culture

Ganesha Team – health and harmony

Devi Team – help and daan

Krishna Team – kirtan and music

Narayan Team – graphics, website and social media

Guru Bhakti Team – spiritual sadhanas and anushthanas

Give a Smile – for underprivileged children

Give a Smile

February

  • The project began to help underprivileged children by contributing to their harmonious growth by giving them time and care, talks, games and creative activities and encouraging them to follow their dreams. The project is also for elderly people through shopping for them, accompanying them to the doctor and for walks. We succeeded in assisting elderly blind people by taking them on a walk and establishing initial contact with old people in difficulty.
  • Due to the grave situation in Turkey after the earthquake, an emergency humanitarian relief was organized in Bulgaria. Yoga aspirants of Sita-Ram were also able to participate in it with first necessities.

March

  • Sevaks visited a home for underprivileged children in Bracigovo, a small town 2 hours from Sofia. During their visit they played football and other games with the children and talked to them.
  • A permanent support goes to St Nicholas orphanage at the St Trinity Monastery in the village of Navi Han.
  • Food and clothes are being distributed.
  • The support to blind people continues keeping company, engaging in conversation and taking them for walks.
  • A new initiative started looking after elderly people, accompanying them for a walk or to a doctor’s visit.

April

  • The team continues its activities in the homes for underprivileged children in Bracigovo and Peshtera. The children from Bracigovo painted wonderful flower pots and planted a flower seed on the occasion of Palm Sunday. In Peshtera the theme of the visit was Easter and the children made beautiful Easter decorations. St. Nicholas orphanage is being supported on an ongoing basis, and time and courage is given to blind and elderly people.

June

  • On June 17th, ‘Give a smile’ initiative was carried on by celebrating together with the children from the orphanage in Peshtera the International Yoga Day and coming Solstice. Collecting herbs and making a ritual wreath through which each child passed for health, strength and prosperity was part of the activity. The children were acquainted with yoga and practised surya namaskara. With ritual bread and a painted huge Sun, with a lot of laughter, joy, dances and love the clouds were provoked to disperse and the external and internal suns were called out shining in every soul, heart and deed. The day that started with torrential rain and storm ended with a clear sky, shining sun and smiling children’s faces. It was Paramahamsaji’s smile shining through the eyes of everyone and bringing joy in the hearts of everyone.

The Prakriti Team

March

  • Organized a lecture on the topic of ‘home composting’ inspiring people to produce less garbage.
  • Packed 130 fruit tree saplings and dozens of raspberry roots, seed roots and flowers. They were sent to 16 kindergartens and schools across the country which are part of The Tasty Forest, initiated by the Prakriti Team. Sevaks help plant the saplings and seeds.
  • On 23rd April, early in the morning 21 aspirants gathered and went to a place in the foothills of a mountain near Sofia. There with the help of State Forestry rangers, they planted more than 150 pine trees. After finishing the planting, they chanted the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra for the health of the forest, nature and planet.
  • 100 8 Paths to Happiness is a yoga ecology project aiming to inspire and support everyone on the long journey from Head to Heart, to find inner happiness by connecting with the beauty and wisdom of Nature, Prakriti. This project is inspired by the teachings of our beloved Masters and thematically supported by the Yoga Ecology and Lifestyle books of the Janani series. A small dedicated group of people of all ages was engaged in the project. We did that through four types of activities:
  1. Contemplating – connecting with the Water in its most beautiful form
  2. Taking care – cleaning the shore or the beach
  3. Praying for peace on Water – visiting the largest river springs in Bulgaria and chanting the Shanti Mantra from the Sama Veda, with faith that the memory of the water will bring that peace and grace to all beings it meets on the long journey to the sea.
  4. Sharing with others – the beauty of Water wisdom by image/video/poetry/text

These activities brought each of us a deep sense of purity, lightness, connectivity and inner happiness. It became our natural pratipaksha bhavana practice, with which we have sought beauty, harmony and inspiration to heal and transform into joy and gratitude the shadows of fear, sadness, and frustration we have encountered in recent years. Inspired by these positive effects, we wish to expand this yoga ecology project within the next months by including more subjects and inviting more people and children from all over the country.

  • From September to November, 1008 Paths to Happiness started a program for inner contemplation and getting to know the element Earth. Together we harvest and plan new gardens, walk in nature, contemplate wisdom, honour the abundance of Mother Earth, recharging ourselves with peace, beauty and harmony.
  • As the autumn and winter are the most suitable periods for planting age lasting trees, several members of the yoga centre took part in planting a pine forest in Plana Mountain near Sofia. Some of the youngest yogis also participated in planting a fruit garden in early December.
  • During the fall months, we have received happy news and photos of beautiful moments as children across the country celebrate the bounty they have grown together in their new Tasty Gardens & Forests. Our happiness is even greater because we know that in addition to delicious fruits and vegetables, in the hearts and hands of these children wonderful qualities and life skills are developing such as care, affection, ecosystem thinking and respect for all living things.

The Prakriti and Devi Teams

  • The teams continued with the project at the Home for Underprivileged Children. They are very happy to share how with great love, enthusiasm and joy our little friends from the Home for Underprivileged Children adjusted raised beds, filled them with fertile soil, planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, herbs, beans and many other delicious and useful plants. After watering them, hand painted plaques with the names of the planted plants were placed in the beds. Finally, the children made a schedule for the care of the plants. Narayana blessed this beautiful and happy venture with a light spring drizzle.

Devi Team

  • On 10th February, the group Devi Team was able to organize in a short time a first ‘Heart to Heart’ initiative to help underprivileged children with basic items like clothes, books, utensils and things that they themselves requested.
  • Devi team’s participants joined the initiative Give Time visiting a foster home for 20 children aged between 7 and 19 in Dolna Banya, a small town near Sofia. They played volleyball with the children and helped in organizing a team game which created a lot of fun for all. At the end of the visit, birthdays of four children were celebrated.
  • Members of Sita-Ram Yoga Center continue to support blind and elderly people by giving them company, conversation and walks and by accompanying them for a walk and visiting a doctor. The campaign for support of St Nicholas orphanage at the St Trinity monastery, in the village of Novi Han with food and clothes also continues.
  • During this month of July, the Devi Team again joined the Give Time initiative for the homes for underprivileged children in the towns of Peshtera and Dolna Banya. In Dolna Banya the team took part in the organization of a picnic, where the food was prepared by the children and the volunteers. There were educational and entertaining games and dances. The birthday of a child from the home was celebrated. The Devi Team’s participants also took part in organizing of a picnic in Rodopi mountain for their little friends from Peshtera. The children were given the chance to enjoy the magnificence of one of the most beautiful mountains in Bulgaria. The walk was an incredible experience with the breath-taking view and the joy of being in the lap of Mother Nature.
  • The participants in the initiative for support and help for blind and elderly people continue with their weekly care, companionship for walks, cooperation for medical assistance and transportation for those in need. They also visited a lonely old man to celebrate together his 93rd birthday with a cake and talks, who shared with them his experience that loneliness is the biggest enemy and it is what is killing the spirit. They also offered assistance to a sick elderly woman cutting the overgrown grass in her yard, a task absolutely unthinkable for her. And that’s the way the monthly donation of food and clothes to St Nicholas orphanage at the St Trinity monastery happened in July. 200 books were given to the Home for elderly Nadezhda. We all are happy to accept this touching self-made souvenir in return. With Best regards, prem and devotion Yoga Center Sita­Ram Bulgaria.
  • The Devi team continues to supply the children from St Nicholas orphanage with food and belongings of first necessity as well as to support and help the elderly and blind people in need. The team also managed to provide the hospice Dar in Sofia with some of the most important items for the patients there.
  • The project Give a Smile expanded its activity with support for the Home for Old People Nadezhda in Sofia. During the weekly visits the Karma yogis from Yoga Center Sita-Ram brought brightness and smiles into the daily routine of their new friends. Practices for health, sweet talks and smiles were shared. The campaign of first necessities for the orphanage at St. Trinity monastery continues, as well as the initiative for support of lonely elderlies with disabilities and children without parental care.
  • The Devi team continues its Give a Smile campaign for regular support of St Nicholas orphanage, as well as its weekly visits for sharing yoga practices for health with residents of the Home for Elderly Nadezhda. The activities for support and help of lonely elderly people, disabled people and children deprived of parental care are going on too.
  • On Christmas Eve, the aspirants made a special Christmas celebration for them. Folk music, choirs and traditional bag- pipe playing brought great joy and warmth to the elderly residents. Activities to support lonely elderly and disabled people also continued. Christmas wishes were prepared for them, which were presented with love and care.

Yoga for Everyone

  • On 26th March, the first presentation of the series Yoga for Everyone was shown at the Vivacom Art Hall Oborishte 5 in Sofia. At the beautiful cultural monument, the presentation was translated into Bulgarian, then Swami Shruti Gnana spoke on yoga vidya. This was followed by a practical session of asana, pranayama, relaxation and a simple concentration practice. The event was open to all.
  • Sannyasi Devashakti, a judge and yoga teacher, started to give free yoga classes in the building of the law courts for her colleagues – judges and other staff.
  • On 27th and 28th May, the Bulgarian Yoga association and Sita-Ram Yoga Center organized a program with Swami Anandananda Saraswati from Italy. The message of Yoga for Health, Happiness and Harmony was experienced through practices and lectures, and the teachings of the Satyananda Yoga tradition were alive and filled the hearts of all present.

Guru Bhakti Team

April

  • On 22nd April, Akshay Tritiya, yoga aspirants from different Satyananda Yoga Centres in Bulgaria organized an event called Ananda Kirtan. The kirtan group of the Sita-Ram Yoga Center performed kirtans wholeheartedly with love and devotion. It was in a large public hall in the centre of Sofia which was easy for everybody to reach. In the beginning the life of Paramahamsaji was outlined and it was followed by three and a half hours of kirtans. The Ambassador of India to Bulgaria also participated in the event and paid his respects to the great spiritual master, Swami Satyananda Saraswati. All participants received as prasad a photograph of Swami Satyananda with a poem on the back, The Day of Freedom. More than 200 people were present who felt the energy, presence and inspiration of the three masters.
  • On 9th July, the kirtan group of Yoga Center Sita-Ram performed a special kirtan event at Oborishte 5 Hall in the centre of Sofia. The event was dedicated to the Centenary Celebration of the birth of Swami Satyananda Saraswati. The kirtan session was open to everyone who wanted to experience the energy, the bhava and to honour Guru and God.
  • Regular gathering and sadhana was conducted every month on 4th, 5th and 6th for Guru Bhakti Yoga.

Endings and beginnings

On 5th December, the year-long sadhana of Guru Bhakti Yoga was completed by the devotees. Dedicated aspirants gathered to celebrate the highest attainment of a siddha and yogi – the Mahasamadhi of Sri Swami Satyananda Saraswati. The final event of the Guru Bhakti Yoga Sadhana was more than auspicious. It started with a letter of dedication for everyone present: to follow the path of light and positivity, with the mandates given to us by our Master Swami Niranjanananda. The sadhana was filled with luminosity all around which reminded us how powerful light is when it comes together. This was our sankalpa for the next year – to keep the light and to be together for one idea and a mission.

Report

  • Оn 26th December, the aspirants gathered to remember Swami Satyananda Saraswati’s birthday. We celebrated in his honour with mantras, kirtan, satsang and cake.
  • From 29th to 31st December, spiritual seekers of the yoga centre participated in the auspicious occasion of the Satyam Poornima program, which was conducted at Sannyasa Peeth. All the power that flowed during this event touched every aspirant with the great power of the Guru.
  • In the early hours of 1st January 2024, devotees gathered to participate in the special sadhana, live streamed from Paduka Darshan. Once again the power of the Guru and Hanuman had a physical manifestation at the Yoga Centre Sita-Ram. In 2023, on 1st January, during the chanting of Hanuman Chalisa, an electric shock shut down the entire electrical system of the centre. In 2024, on 1st January, during the mantra chanting a picture of Swami Satyananda and Swami Niranjanananda placed on a bookshelf flew out and fell to the ground. Miracles are happening and the energy of the Guru is alive in every nook and corner of the world.