Set amid the picturesque Kumaon hills of Uttarakhand, the town of Dwarahat has YSS devotees flocking from near and far in the month of September for the annual function. This year 170 devotees from all over India participated.

The five-day programme included group meditations, chanting, satsangas, review of meditation techniques, and Kriya Yoga diksha ceremony. In his welcome talk, Swami Nirvananda urged devotees to keep their hearts and minds tuned to God and Gurus, feeling their joy in days to follow. Swami Ishwarananda shared Paramahansa Yoganandaji’s guidance on keys to Deeper Meditation and Overcoming the Eight Meanness of the Heart. Swamiji dwelt on the one goal every devotee should strive to attain- God first, God alone.

To commemorate Lahiri Mahasaya’s Mahasmadhi Divas, a Prabhat Feri was taken out. The monastics were joined by enthusiastic devotees and children from the YSS primary school as the procession went around the town chanting the divine name. Lahiri Mahasaya’s Avirbhav Divas on September 30 was celebrated with a pilgrimage to Babaji’s cave. Small groups of devotees sat in meditation at Babaji’s cave for short periods, while others chanted inside the Smriti Bhavan just a few steps below the cave .This was followed by a bhandara.

The five days of fellowship saw devotees immersed in spiritual fervour and joy, participating wholeheartedly in all the activities. Deeply meditating devotees enhanced the blissful stillness that pervades the ashram. Everyone felt uplifted and transformed by the divine vibrations of love and joy. Hearts filled with gratitude and the presence of the Divine as the celebrations come to close.

“It was a  powerful spiritual ceremony where you felt the presence of God and Guru. One is immediately interiorized on this special day,” shared a devotee from Delhi who visited Babaji’s cave and attended this sangam for the first time. “ The serenity of the cave and its peaceful surroundings helped me to go deep in meditation and left me calm and peaceful. I hope to come here again and again.”

“Hearts overflowed with divine love, eyes were bedimmed with tears, as we bid adieu to our guru’s ashram,” writes a devotee from Chandigarh, “we yet carried within ourselves His immortal message for our salvation-God first, God alone!”