Satsang

VOL. 26, NO. 4, NEW ERA 55,  NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 1998 

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• New Era -Vasant
• Message from Vasant
• Service Will Free You—From Vasant’s Talks in Spain
• Homa Therapy Resonance Technique -Vasant
• Fire in the Cemetery -Karen Webb
• Report from Venezuela -Maria Alejandra Mendez
• Homa Farming in Venezuela -Maria Cecilia Mendez
• Asthma Healed -Bruce Johnson
• From Vasant’s Correspondence

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We are living in difficult times. The structure of the world’s economy is changing. Forces beyond our control are influencing all of nature and of mankind. We are coming to the end of one era and the beginning of the next. Everything is more intense, more difficult, suffering more pronounced, fears almost audible. Atmosphere is filled with all this intense energy. That is why now proper meditation is vital. Sit for all the fires whenever possible and practice this breath meditation. Concentrate on the fire until it’s nearly out. Then focus on breath and use the name of SHREE or personal Mantra.

Fortunate are those whose walk through life has brought them to this point. To reach the state of “I and my Father are one” no longer takes effort but Grace. All efforts have been made in past. Of course, let us not incur debt further for karmic action taken today. All past debts have been paid. From today begin anew.

With devotion all is possible. With devotion come showers of Grace.

One reaches a point where humility dawns and every person is an embodiment of the Divine. Then it is very easy to interrelate with all types of people, high or low, rich or poor, highly intelligent or very simple. All become one and the same. 

• Weather patterns will become totally unpredictable soon. Then weather conditions become totally erratic. For example, sub-zero temperatures in very hot climate. Then very high temperatures in lands normally cold. Snow in tropical places. Drought and resultant famine in lands usually abundant in produce. Heavy rains and floods.
• Parts of U.S. as we know it will become barren. Whole cities destroyed. Earth shifts rapidly now.
• There will be plagues in Midwest of U.S. Farms will be destroyed by drought, floods, pestilence. Whole areas of Midwest become disaster zones.
• WE DO NOT PREDICT.
• In Thailand come greater plagues and destruction.
• There will be fissures in the Earth’s structure. Lands divided, split down the middle. Surface of land changes.
• Climate becomes totally erratic, unpredictable.
• Life as we know it cannot possibly continue much longer.
• Then there will be reverberations on Earth.
• Sound current will be sent by Divine Will. Then, after great destruction, there will be Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Peace, bliss, prosperity for all. Science paves the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.
• There is a time frame, like band of time.
• Point has been reached now.
• Light, all light.
• Oh! What a wondrous sight!
• There should be more ghee and more dung and more fire. The fire should generate lots of energy.
• Energies from these mantrams get locked up in the ash.
• Sounds of silence.
• These Agnihotra fires must be stronger now. We have to thrust these vibrations into the atmosphere, so the fires must be stronger for this.
• Fire temples should be made soundproof as much as possible.
• Sound therapy will be applied by our people. Sound and light therapy combined with all—music, art, vibrations. Special treatment provided by herbs needs to be explored.
• Satsang in English to Scandinavian countries. Sweden is important.
• Reasoning power is limited. There we must rely on GRACE.
• Purificatory effect of Agnihotra atmosphere on diseased patients in hospitals can easily be studied now. One can experiment with Agnihotra and heart patients. This will be the breakthrough needed.
• Homa Therapy agriculture with AGNIHOTRA. This is the farming of the future.
• Agnihotra ash heals all.
• First thing to be shown in Peru.
• Some polluted river can be another project. Agnihotra and Yajnyas performed at different locations by the river. Then, Agnihotra ash fed to the river at regular intervals. Testing of water before, during cleanup, and after. Testing of water—one very good project. One can start with a small body of water which is polluted, then a larger area.
• These experiments are not limited to South America. South America is simply “leading the way” in these experiments, but they can be done anywhere now. Certainly there are polluted waters everywhere. This is a simpler experiment, which, over time, could prove quite helpful to communities worldwide. If there are ecological groups interested, why not work with them with the fires?
• It is very important for the energy that the ghee be covered at all times when not in use. The best bowl for rice offering is copper.
• Request reports of healing for newsletter.
• As you rise higher, frequency changes. More meditation, more music and movement.
• Dance. 

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In the healing atmosphere of a Homa farm, it is easy to lose sight of the sufferings of humanity, which others are enduring elsewhere in the world. We have relative peace, sufficient food, clothing, shelter, entertainment. No doubt, many work hard and at times finances are tight. Still, compared to much of the world, we live in luxury, the “lap of luxury”.

Why, then, should we turn our minds to the suffering? Why should we think it is our duty to help alleviate the sufferings of others? Is there not karma, which has dealt a fair hand? Certainly that is so.

However, due to great GRACE we have been given a magnificent opportunity—to help others, to serve humanity—by offering of AGNIHOTRA. When we do AGNIHOTRA and YAJNYA our awareness is heightened and we realize what is done to the least of us is done to us. There is no separation. The “masses” of those less fortunate than ourselves become impossible to ignore.

Many of you have raised families, working hard to give them the best you could. Others of you have travelled teaching AGNIHOTRA, moving about where the need is for the work.

Let us seek within ourselves, What is the purpose in this life? What is your direction in this life? GO WITHIN, NOT WITHOUT. The answers which you seek are within each one of you. Look for ways in which you can serve others on a smaller scale or a larger scale. SERVICE WILL FREE YOU.

You are entering a period which, by Grace, is one of SWADHYAYA (self study), meditation, reflection. Do not miss this great opportunity to serve others.

It is a time for reassessment, refocussing and reflection.

Children on a farm in South America gather around a resonance pyramid. Their families are using the Resonance Technique to eradicate plant disease in their area.

Resonance technique is a part of HOMA THERAPY in which simple practices are used to heal greater areas of sick crops in shorter periods of time. It requires the same human effort and the same economic investment to heal one acre as to heal one hundred acres of sick land (around forty hectares, 40 ha.) Thus, one resonance point comprises one hundred acres of land to be healed. For it, you need to build two huts. No one will live in them. They will protect those performing the HOMA THERAPY healing fires from sun and rain, and keep animals such as dogs, cats, hens, horses, etc. from coming in. It costs practically nothing to build these huts. You may use ecological materials found easily in the area, such as mud, bamboo, straw, stones, wood, etc.

The main hut is for daily performance of Agnihotra pyramid fire at sunrise and sunset. Ideally, it should be built around the middle of the farm. It should preferably be rectangular in shape, about 3 x 4 meters, the longer side being the east-west side. The entrance must be from the west side and one should sit facing east to perform the healing fires.

Near the eastern wall and parallel to it, a hole should be dug of about half a meter deep. All this can be ready by the time the volunteers come to establish the resonance point. A new pyramid will be charged with specific fire and mantras and buried in the ground in that hole near the eastern wall. The ash produced during that fire could be given to a sick tree near the hut. The same side of the pyramid which was facing the eastern wall while the fire was going on should remain parallel to that wall when the pyramid is buried underground, to produce a similar effect as that of grounding in electricity. Once this pyramid is buried by covering the hole with earth, a column of mud must be built on top, up to a height of approximately half a meter. When the person is sitting down on the floor with his legs crossed in front of the column, the pyramid placed on top of that column will be at the height of the heart chakra of that person; that is, it will be at the middle point between the nipples at the height of the heart, at the center of the chest. Once this pyramid is activated with other specific mantras, you place the ash on another sick tree outside the hut and place that empty pyramid over the mud column, to remain there as the “resonance pyramid”, and not to be used again.

That makes two pyramids, and on the floor there are the other two. The one to the left is for daily performance of Agnihotra and the one to the right is for other simple fires performed daily there. Thus, in this hut, there is a total of four pyramids.

This is a place of silence. No words other than the prescribed mantras should be pronounced inside this hut, so there is no interference with the subtle healing energies which accumulate there. This hut is like a power generator station.

The second hut could be larger in size. It is known as the “Place of Healing”, but healings occur in the whole area. Ideally, it also should be constructed with the entrance from the west. There, a minimum of four hours daily of OM TRYAMBAKAM HOMA are performed by different people taking turns. It is best to construct this hut near the entrance to the farm, so that the public coming to seek healing, which is always free, can stay in this hut while the fires are going on, without disturbing the privacy of the administrators of the farm, the functioning of the farm, or the AGRO-ECO-TOURISM business, if it is there.

Two pyramids are placed in this hut on the floor: the one on the left for AGNIHOTRA, and the one on the right for OM TRYAMBAKAM HOMA.

So, we have four pyramids in the AGNIHOTRA hut and two in the OM TRYAMBAKAM hut. That makes a total of six. The other four pyramids are placed somewhere near the four cardinal points to the extent of the land to be healed, that is, at north, south, east and west of the farm in question. At these points, on the boundaries of the farm, a pyramid will be placed on a tall mud column so that if one is standing, the pyramid placed on the column will be at the level of the heart chakra. These pyramids are previously activated in a similar manner to the activation done to the resonance pyramid in the Agnihotra Hut. One may build small wooden boxes with a lock in which to keep the pyramids while not in use.

To heal sick plants, rejuvenate the soil and improve the quality of water, AGNIHOTRA must be performed daily at the exact prescribed time by the computer timetable given according to the longitude and latitude of that specific place. A minimum of four hours daily of OM TRYAMBAKAM HOMA must be performed and twenty-four hours a day in full moon and new moon, or as much as possible. This process should be followed strictly for a period of three months to heal sick plants suffering from fungus, bacteria, harmful insects, to control weeds, and to produce abundant, healthy crops. If these disciplines are continued, production will continually increase and quality of produce will be superior in color, taste, texture, nutritional content and there will be a substantial reduction in harvesting losses. 

In the winter of 1997, my husband, a severe diabetic, developed pain and cramps in his lower left leg and foot, and his leg, ankle and foot would swell, causing him much discomfort. In time, ulcerated places appeared on his feet and, unfortunately, these sores would not heal properly in spite of daily treatments.

Another round of visits to doctors ensued and this time it was decided that an artificial blood vessel should be implanted in the left calf, bypassing an obstructed vessel where plaque had built up.

Unfortunately, even weeks after this surgery, the incision site didn’t show any sign of healing and my husband stayed in the hospital. Eventually he was transferred to a local nursing home where, within days, he suffered a major stroke. He was taken back to the hospital and when his regular physician advised me about the seriousness of his condition, I immediately telephoned friends and relatives to apprise them of the situation.

The following day a Rudrayag was scheduled to take place at Ross Ford’s home in Baltimore, Maryland. The Rudrayag is a very powerful healing process which banishes even the appearance of disease and suffering as prosperity is ushered in. Peaceful vibrations within and outside the individual are set into motion and as the spirit is uplifted, self-realization can be achieved. Shri Mohan Jadhav from Pennsylvania had offered to perform the Rudrayag, along with other Yajnyas and I very much wanted to be present for this.

My good friend, Toby Williams, volunteered to stay by my husband’s bedside while I was away, so I left to attend the Rudrayag, armed with a special photograph of Parama Sadguru Shree Gajanan Maharaj as a young man. (Parama Sadguru Shree Gajanan Maharaj of Akalkot, India resuscitated the science of Yajnya given through Vedas.—Ed.) It had been given to me by another dear friend. Over the next several days this photograph became my constant companion as I went back and forth to the hospital at all hours of the day and night.

Monday morning, as I was hurrying to get to my husband’s bedside, I noticed the time was 10 A.M. and I silently chanted the Vyahruti Homa mantras. (At 10 A.M., many Fivefold Path teachers perform Vyahruti Homa and sit for fifteen minutes of meditation.—Ed.) Standing by his bed, I grasped his hand and as I did, somehow my purse flew open and the photograph of Parama Sadguru Shree landed on my husband’s chest. My husband held my hand very, very tightly as the nurse on the other side of the bed began to weep. The time of my husband’s death was 10:07 A.M.

My husband’s great wish was to be buried in a special veteran’s cemetery in Spring Hill, Florida, so arrangements were made to fly his body from Baltimore- Washington International Airport to the airport in Tampa, Florida. Gillian Weatherby, a long-time practitioner of Fivefold Path and a close friend, accompanied me to Florida. The day after our arrival, after morning Agnihotra, we packed our Yajnya supplies and drove to the cemetery’s office in Spring Hill to ask permission to perform some special chants, mantras and Yajnyas at my husband’s gravesite.

Permission to perform any Yajnyas we wished was immediately granted; in fact, several men from the office stood by respectfully as Gill and I performed Vyahruti Homa, followed by Om Tryambakam Homa repeated twenty-one times. After another Vyahruti Homa, Gill chanted the Purusha Sukta and performed the short Rudrayag. Everything around us in this rural part of Florida seemed very quiet, except for the incessant twittering of flocks of birds flying above us. The chants appeared to rise on the smoke from the fire in the copper pyramid and reverberate in the stillness of the air. We closed with the Shanti mantras, Sapta Shloki and Trisatya Sharanagati. Needless to say, my husband was interred with the photograph of Parama Sadguru Shree next to him.

On October 11th of this year, I had a chance to return to the cemetery in Spring Hill and Shri Mohan Jadhav graciously offered not only to drive me there, but also to perform a Vyahruti Homa, Om Tryambakam Homa, and again a short Rudrayag as had been performed there a year and a half ago. The Shanti mantras and Sapta Shloki were also chanted.

Sitting by the plaque that had been placed on my husband’s grave I felt so grateful to good friends who helped and continue to help and lend their support to me again and again. I also felt happy for my husband to be in this warm, quiet and beautiful resting place where the trees were dripping with Spanish moss and the dragonflies were darting about. OM SHREE! 

In the sector of Los Cucharones, a Homa Therapy project was started on August 5, 1998. On this date my sister Maria Cecilia and I went there to train these farmers and their families for one week. In this place the main production is coffee, but there are also other types of crops, such as papaya, banana, orange, lemon, tomato and avocado. But what these farmers depend on most is the coffee.

In a part of Los Cucharones, ten families got together to make a resonance point of thirty hectares. (One point consists of a configuration of ten pyramids and a certain number of yantrams.) These ten families are small producers and they have decided not to use more chemicals. Due to their economic conditions, they could not use many chemicals for the coffee. Nevertheless, some of these people who had planted tomatoes were fumigating the tomatoes every eight days. It’s very important to know that each of these families have a different number of hectares, but only three families have large amounts of land (four to seven hectares), while the rest have one to two hectares.

During the first day that we were there, the people built one resonance column. At the moment we did Vyahruti, it started to rain. In this place there is a problem: it never rains. So Maria and I just smiled at each other when the rain began. This didn’t happen just one time. It happened the next day when we did Vyahruti Homa in another resonance column. That same day, when Maria and Humberto (the owner of a big lot of land) left, it started to rain hard, with very powerful winds. One couldn’t even see the mountain in front of us, due to the dense fog. This rain lasted for forty-five minutes.

One day, when we were doing Om Tryambakam Homa, lots of dragonflies suddenly appeared on top of our heads. The kids were surprised and so was I. That day was very cloudy, and on August 8th, it rained again for half an hour. On August 9th, the sun was very hot and intense, but at 2:10 P.M., rain appeared from nowhere. It lasted forty-five minutes.

The children who live there are very enthusiastic about Homa. The funniest part is that I would tell them to come at 6:30 A.M. so we could do Agnihotra, but instead they would come at 6:11 or even earlier. All these kids have learned the mantras very quickly. The truth is, it’s a wonderful experience to see the evolution of the children with the mantras. At first, it was difficult for them, but on the second day they were all singing beautifully. When one is gathered with these wonderful people and they are singing the Om Tryambakam mantra, you can feel your whole body fill with goosebumps. Your eyes get all watery and one can feel Shree’s Grace as never before. The happiness one feels inside is indescribable. The farmers and their families have much faith in the fire. 

Since Homa Therapy has had astonishing results in eradicating Sigatoka Negra, a devastating plant disease, in plantain plantations, Venezuela has been opening up in a more scientific level by using Organic Agricultural Homa Therapy involving a high number of agricultural engineers, forestry engineers, technicians, and officials from the Department of Agriculture in Merida, Barinas and Zulia States, and government officials in Barinas State. A very simple and easy-to-learn method using the resonance technique has given wonderful results in very sick plantain plantations in Zulia State.

In May, due to the desperate situation of the attack of Sigatoka Negra, a group of farmers in Santa Ines, Barinas State, immediately wanted to apply Agricultural Homa Therapy. They tried to fight the disease through the use of agrochemicals and had no results. There was also a decrease in production. In just three months of using the resonance technique, they had better quality and quantity of production and healthy new shoots without the use of any fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, etc. I stayed at Mr. Jairo Guerrero’s farm where the first resonance point started (a configuration of ten pyramids), and from there three more resonance points of thirty hectares each were established. Owners and workers were quickly trained to do these healing fires based on biorhythms of sunrise and sunset, new moon and full moon, etc. Now this group of neighbors are independent of any use of agrochemicals, even though rough climatic changes (long summers, followed by very heavy rains) help bring more plagues and disease. Agropecuarian engineers from FONAIAP (National Fund for Agropecuarian Investigations) and MAC/SASA (Autonomous Service for Agropecuarian Sanity) have made observations before and during the project, confirming a decrease in the disease and an improvement in the production. Due to the positive results that were seen in such a short period of time, another plantain producer, Humberto Guerrero, in Socopo, Barinas (the second largest area of plantain plantations in Venezuela) eagerly started the Homa Therapy project in his thirty hectares of plantains. I went and trained the workers, who have little education, and the owner’s family, who are all cooperating in this project. The workers seem to be much happier and feel much healthier because they do not have to use chemical fertilizers and breathe that poison which goes into the air. 

Today asthma is ancient history for me. It has been so long since I have had an attack that I cannot remember the last one.

In May, 1987 my wife Anne, who has long been a spiritual seeker, went to a house in Sydney where a special fire was being maintained with Mantra and offerings of ghee. She was immediately drawn to this fire and she stayed for the whole night chanting the Mantra. She asked the man who was in charge to teach her about this fire, the Om Tryambakam Yajnya. This man was Jarek, also known as Mr. Poland, who now teaches Agnihotra with his wife, Fran, in Poland.

When she brought all the materials home in order to start practicing in our house I was less than impressed, especially since one of the ingredients is dried cowdung. In Australia it is not a usual custom for people to keep cowdung in their homes. However, she ignored my objections and began to practice Agnihotra at sunrise and sunset each day.

As the days and weeks went by I found myself also being drawn to this small fire. Inevitably I began practicing it and for several months Anne and I would take it in turns, sunrise and sunset. We both became so fond of the fire that we joined forces with Jarek to teach other people about it. After some time we started holding twenty-four-hour Om Tryambakam Yajnyas in our house.

Being a science graduate, I still found this all a bit odd, even though I had begun to thoroughly enjoy the practice.

At that time of my life I had been suffering from bouts of asthma on and off for about twenty years. Especially the winter months would be very troublesome for me. You can imagine my surprise when after a few months it occurred to me that my asthma attacks seemed to be decreasing. I discovered that I could gradually reduce the dosage of allopathic medicine which I used to reduce the discomfort of these attacks. I couldn't find any reason for this change other than the fact that I was now regularly practicing these fires.

Then I was faced with a dilemma. As none of this accorded with the science I had learned in university I was faced with two choices: either I could ignore and deny this distinct improvement in my physical condition or I could accept the conclusion that practicing Agnihotra and Om Tryambakam Yajnya had resulted in a definite decline in my asthma. I chose the latter option and I have never looked back.

Slowly, as I continued to practice Agnihotra and other Yajnyas, my condition improved until today asthma is ancient history for me. It has been so long since I have had an attack that I cannot remember the last one. I give thanks for the blessings which have come into my life through practice of Agnihotra and the other healing fires. And I give thanks to those who have been my teachers: my wife Anne, my friend Jarek and the Master, Vasant. 

Inculcate the attitude of service in all you do. Without such attitude any marriage suffers difficulties. Of course, normal things are there—desires must be fulfilled, problems must be faced. Normal likes and dislikes are there, but the very base should be secure. It should be built to last. Never take it lightly. Have respect for the very union of man and wife; truly, it is sacred.