Mt.Tammany Hike

Sat 15 Jun 2019

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from: Hari Moorthy 
  to: Dennis Hartel 
date: Mon, Jun 17, 2019 at 1:06 PM
subj: Hike, Bears, Satsang and a weekend of Sadhakas

Namaskar Dennis

We had a great time in NJ this past weekend with Bhagavan’s Grace.
We planned a hike to Mt.Tammany a number of weeks ago with NJ Satsang group.
At the last minute, a number of them couldn’t join owing to various works
that seemed to have come along. Instead Bhagavan executes His plan by sending
Arthur, and Suresh to this hike. A number of constraints around when 
we should go and be back all dropped away of their own accord, which is an act
of Bhagavan’s Grace.

Eight of us started out in a single van from NJ on Saturday morning.
The topic on the way to the climb was Major Chadwick, with readings from
the book on his first meeting with Bhagavan. Segments of this book read
by Swami in the car completely erased any burden that a trip following a
huge and slow truck on a single lane road for about 50 miles would have posed.

Upon arriving at the parking lot, Lavanya fed us a slight snack of bread sandwiches.
Suresh and Arthur also arrived within 20 minutes and the hike began around 12 pm. 

It was just a beautiful Satsang on Bhagavan, His Grace, Arthur’s story,
Lavanya’s dream and all. We were mostly led by Rishabha who had taken an
instant liking to the rocks on the mountain, and seemed to have a very
familiar time with it all. The hike isn’t paved and largely had disheveled
rocks with many segments of steep climbs. Along the way, Suresh’s presence
attracted a mama bear[1] and a few of its cubs for our darshan. 

When we had gone on the same hike, a year ago, it took 3 hours with plenty of
gasping and some couldn’t finish the whole hike to the peak. This time we were
up at the top within an hour and a half. We didn’t rush at any point, took
plenty of rest along the way. Every hiking member felt the ‘presence’ for it
seemed very easy to be at the top. We were given a beautiful breeze at the top.
And, we sat at its peak[2] overlooking a beautiful river flowing 2200 ft below.[3]
Another conversation on what brought Swami and Suresh to Bhagavan ensued.

After an hour, we climbed down and arrived at the parking lot circa 3:30 pm.
Lavanya gave us all some home cooked Rotis and Subji - the first real meal of
the day for most of us.

We drove back to assemble back at our home for dinner, where Lavanya served us some
Channa and Rotis around 8pm. The evening discussion was around Bharathiyar, Shankara
and Bhagavan’s influence on his devotees. It was a day to be remembered
for it felt like being a fish in a Grace filled lake. 

The next day, we had an early morning homam organized by Lavanya. We were
blessed for it had Suresh and Arthur in attendance. Around 11 am, we had our
monthly NJ satsang. Both Lavanya and Sangeetha sang some beautiful songs.

The entire day was spent with that of meditation, prayer and Sri Bhagavan’s Grace
 was there for all his children.


Some photos from the day are attached below.

In Bhagavan