"You are very lucky to have arrived in such an auspicious day" everybody at Santosh Puri Ashram kept telling me this again and again. Indeed I was very lucky, I had arrived at the ashram in Haridwar the same day of the celebration of Mataji's and her daughter Mandikni's birthday. Mataji (Narvada Devi Puri Ma) is the guru or spiritual guide of Shri Santosh Puri Ashram.
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| Flower Yantra |
The regular daily schedule at the ashram was adjusted to make all the preparations for the birthday celebration. All of the ashram guests gathered at one of the halls and we started to collect flowers to create a yantra (a geometrical figure used for concentration ) in the floor. It was a really nice activity, working shoulder to shoulder like in a community collecting flowers, removing the petals and placing them in a nice arrangement as instructed by Ganga, Mataji's son.
By the evening the mandala was finished and later on we all met again in the hall with a few more visitors that came specially for Mataji's birthday celebration. The celebration started with some chantings and at the same time each one of us started to light up a few of the candles that we had placed earlier on the yantra.
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| Mandakini lighting up some of the candles |
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| Dinner time! hmmm yummy |
After chanting for some time we walked one by one around the flower yantra collecting some petals and then placing the petals on top of Mataji and on top of Mandakini. And to conclude the celebration we had a special delicious dinner. It was a beautiful celebration, definitely a great day to arrive at the ashram.
I thought the celebration was so beautiful because it was Mataji's and her daughter's birthday but later on I found out that any guest staying at Shri Santosh Puri Ashram receive exactly the same celebration during their birthday. So if you happen to be in Haridwar during your birthday it might be a good idea to stay at this ashram and enjoy a nice celebration.
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| Mataji and her daughter Mandakini |
You can find these and more pictures on my Instacanvas photo gallery:
instacanv.as/path2yoga. To know more about the ashram you can read my previous post: Shri Santosh Puri Yoga Ashram in Haridwar, India
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