A journey from Calabasas to Srirangam

[Guest guest]

Dear Haribhakthas

 

Benjamin, born as a Christian, had deep interest towards Hinduism since

childhood, what may be called as samskaras of previous birth. Though he

is not born and brought up as Brahmin,now, by practice he is more than

any average Brahmin. He had his thread ceremony a year ago and now

everyday he spends more than an hour in " Ganesh Pooja " . He spends daily

several hours at Hindu Temple, Calabasas, CA, praying God, cleaning the

temple premises, helping the priest and other temple staffs etc.

 

During Mahakumbhabishekam of the temple, Shri Shri Puttige Swamiji

introduced this satvik soul to VMS(Viswha Madhva Sangha) team. We had

a nice session listening to the wonderful experiences of this devotee

who by his own intuition underwent cultural transformation. Here is the

story of his self awakening, a journey from Calabasas to Srirangam.

 

On Oct 11, 1969, in a private high School in NY, Benjamin, the young

boy at 16, was looking forward for the great moment of his induction to

Meditation. The teacher did 'upadesha' to him and initiated him to

meditation. Within 5 minutes, Benjamin was stumbled with the flashes of

'Kundalini' and realized that he is at the door of an entirely a New

World which is full of bliss and pious. At that moment itself, he

decided to dedicate his life to preach and practice spirituality. In

last 30 years he might have missed meditation just for 4-5 days

maximum. Benjamin doesn't have more words to describe the power of

meditation. He says it if life;It is wonderful. It's style and approach

is something unique only to be experienced and not to be explained.

 

Benjamin's interest in mediation was of so intense that he mastered

everything quickly and became teacher at the age of 18. Since then,

last 25 years he is teaching meditation, conducting class and camps. He

has got hundreds of students worldwide.

 

About 6 years back Benjamin's interest turned to Astrology. One of his

teacher in Toronto, Canada, told him that " Jyothir-vidya " is a living

entity and if it is treated as divine, it would return the treat in the

same tone. Benjamin has strong faith and belief in these words and has

bundles of unique experiences as a proof for " Jyothir-vidya's " divine

power. He got motivated to start a cyber media to be in touch with all

those who are interested in Astrology by means a email list server.

Presently there are more than 300 members worldwide exchanging their

ideas and experiences and thus broadening the knowledge base.

 

Benjamin started visiting the Hindu temple of Calabasas 10 years back

and established close relationship with the chief priest Shri

Narashimhan who later became his mentor. Benjamin visited India thrice

with Narashimhan. Srirangam is Benjamin's favorite place and he

participated in several homas there, had his thread ceremony and got

inducted to Hinduism. Every visit to India boosted his spirituality and

'sadhana'. Now he is a dedicated volunteer of the Hindu temple and

spends all his spare time in temple.

 

Few years back, Benjamin got a desire to do pooja to Lord Ganesh at

home. Referring few books, he came out with his own method of doing

pooja. Later he approached Narshimhan and got confirmed that his

procedure was correct. He started pooja at small scale but was not

very regular. Sometimes back an astrologer from Bombay, a friend of

him, came and stayed at his home. He did his routine daily pooja at

Benjamin's residence. Got inspired by this, Benjamin started doing

pooja to Lord Ganesh daily. Recently he bought idol of Goddess Laxmi

and started worshipping that also. Whenever he misses pooja due to some

reason, Benjamin says that he will immediately receive some kind alert

signal.

 

Let us look into his unique experiences.

 

* During his recent travel to India (March 2001), in the Airbus,

Benjamin opened his palm pilot and triggered his astrology software.

The prediction was that it would be a good trip but anticipated problem

with automobile. Benjamin turned to his mentor Narahsimhna and

cautioned him that they have to be very careful while driving in India.

Everything went on smoothly for two weeks and they have almost

forgotten the prediction. Next day while driving, they suddenly found a

man lying on the road: The prediction proved to be true.

 

* They performed several Homas in Srirangam and after coming back they

performed Homa here in the temple. They informed many through email and

20 people participated in the Homa remotely, sitting at their

residences. They had unique experiences and proved to have positive

effects. Then onwards they repeated this many times and now every month

they care conducting Homa and people from all over US participate

remotely.

 

* Recently one of their member family had health problem. The husband

had tumor and had to undergo critical surgery. They performed special

pooja at temple. The wife prayed God for the good health of her

husband. They went to hospital for operation. After preliminary checks,

X-ray was taken to decide about the operation. The doctor was taken

aback looking at the x-ray results. He called another specialist and

X-ray was retaken again with special care. Surprisingly the same

result, showing no tumor. The doctors had no words to say. The tumor

was cured with out any medicine or surgery. The couples came back with

more faith and devotion and offered special pooja at temple.

 

* When he was in India, Benjamin stayed in a priest's house whose

forefathers were also priest since 17 generations. He participated in

their activities and lived as a member of their family. After two weeks

he went to another city and had to stay in a hotel. As soon as he

entered the room he felt quite uncomfortable and felt as if he was in

an unusual place. He felt like running back to priest's house. He could

not tolerate the bad vibrations in the hotel.

 

 

Benjamin's few words for youngsters are

* Believe in God. It is an experience; It can not be explained. Love

God. God can be in any form.

* Do prayer with profound faith. You will see wonders. It is not a

miracle. It always happens. We need to have strong faith.

 

Working as a teacher in Calabasas's private college, Benjamin teaches

web design and interenet technology but his goal in the life is

" SERVICE " .

 

Question: How do you feel in this country after visitng India three

times and stayed there for several weeks?.

Ans: It is like Sita in Sri Lanka. Srilanka was golden city and Sita

had all luxury waiting for her. But she felt it was a golden prison.

Similarly we have lot of luxuries here: clean roads, clean weather but

it is empty. We don't feel homely. India is our home. That is the

place to live.

 

Question: What is your approach for " Sadhana " ?

Answer : Serve people. Service is first step towards God.

 

 

On the occasion of Mahakumbabshisheka His Holiness christened him as

" Anjaneya " , a true representation for service and appreciated his deep

interest in service.

 

Anjaneya can be reached at bencollins and more details about

his activities may be viewed at www.puja.net. Anjaneya maintains two

mail servers Jyothish-list and yagya-list and any one who wants to join

this list may send email to him.

 

It was a wonderful experience for all of us to listen to him and we

realized once again how fortunate we are for having born and brought

up in Madhva families in India.

 

Shri Krishnarpanamastu.

B.Gopalakrishna

 

 

 

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