Swami Radha - A Pathway to Liberation

Swami Radhananda - President of Yasodhara Ashram
The Power of the Devi

The asanas are a silent form of speech.
--Swami Sivananda Radha

Fifteen of us came to the Ashram this summer for The Hidden Language Teacher Training. I came to it looking for guidance in dealing with Parkinson's disease, a movement disorder I've had for four years.

The course was wonderfully dynamic and subtle, giving us the opportunity to dive deep. Daily I worked with the spinal twist, chanting mantra, relaxing into the pose, putting it into the Light. The reflections flowed - What do I twist? What am I turning towards? What's behind me? Spiraling up and spiraling down. Getting perspective.

The key words often held the clues to my questions. Once while I was in the pose, the phrase 'it's a tight squeeze' popped into my mind. I couldn't relate it to my life until two days later, when it became 'squeezing it in.' The penny dropped. I always feel busy trying to get everything done. It's not an approach that helps or heals.

It was the mantra - the words of power - that helped me sort things out. In the twist, Swami Radha recommends chanting to the right, then to the left. The result was feelings welling up, then the questions: Did the disease come because of mistakes I made? Is this a twist? Can I straighten out my thinking? Do I keep myself busy so I don't have to think about it? As I got in touch with my feelings, a certain restlessness dropped away. Movement started to come from the inside. I felt like I was finding a rhythm that lifted my perspective on the physical and took me into myself in a deep and profound way. I felt more accepting of my condition realizing that it is important to attend to the physical but keep my focus on the Divine.

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This summer, the Ashram offered The Goddess of Speech Saraswati: Writing and Yoga, a new course focused on the power of words. On the weekend of July 16 - 19, eight participants were guided on a journey through the kundalini system and learned tools to use words to access the Divine within.

"To prepare for the course, I had to re-immerse myself in understanding the power of Saraswati," said facilitator Alanda Greene, who works in the Ashram bookstore. "I also went through an exploration of how I use words."

Participants worked through the exercises for each chakra detailed in the Devi of Speech. "With each exercise, the people on the course built trust in themselves. Together we found that writing is a matter of listening to the higher intuitive voice, and refining this listening process."

The Devi of Speech, the latest in the timeless small books series, contains excerpts from Kundalini Yoga for the West pertaining to the goddess and speech. "Through dedication, humility, surrender and the sincere desire to know ourselves, we can bring the words to life," writes Swami Radhananda in the introduction to the book. "That is the promise of the Goddess."

Alanda sees the goddess Saraswati as the connection to words as a creative force, and an embodiment of compassion, quality and love. "In my experience, awareness of speech results in an inner listening and an ability to hear the words that form in the mind."

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Mantra - The Most Powerful Words

Swami Radha at 1995 Mantra pronouncement

The mantra pronouncement represented the completion of a cycle in Swami Radha's work with the teachings. Her life is an example of the power of devotion. We all have the opportunity to honour our higher selves by expressing our devotion to the divine. This year, the Ashram celebrates the Tenth Anniversary of the mantra pronouncement. You are invited to join us on the weekend of August 12 - 14 for the Celebration of Light and the commemoration of this significant event. Other events celebrating the mantra pronouncement and Swami Radha's life include:

Sept 8 - Honouring Our Teachers

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When You First Called Me Radha

In March of 2005 timeless published When You First Called Me Radha - a selection of Swami Radha's poetry. Swami Radha expresses her deepest longing for the divine in poignant poetic verse.

Clea McDougall spent many months putting this selection together, listening to and reading the words of her teacher. Below is an excerpt of Clea's commentary in the afterward from the book.

Swami Radha put this book in motion almost fifteen years ago when she started to collect, edit and record the poems she had been writing since the 1950's. These poems had special significance to her. As a very public spiritual figure and teacher, poetry was a refuge for her, a place to express her pain, her doubt, her love and longing.

The amount of questioning is the one aspect of her poetry that surprised me the most. She reveals so much uncertainty, but what it serves to do is catch up the reader in the most human side of a Divine love affair. Who of us has not questioned the purpose of our life, our connection to the Divine?
Shining through the questioning is what exists outside of the mind-the devotional heart, cosmic love-the aspect of the Divine that Radha is named after. Her heart is in these poems, a questioning heart, a broken heart, a heart full of Light.

Swami Radha's poetic voice is infused with the intelligence of a life lived with passion. All of her teachings were informed by her life experiences, before and after she became Radha. This realism is what makes them accessible, practical and also inspiring. Her poems offer another facet into her teachings, and reveal the true complexity of spiritual experience.

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Inspired Words