Friday…..Day 2, Summer Solstice…..

by Mandeep Gaygoat

Well had a very rough night’s sleep, the wind was howling. To sleep in these basic conditions, one has to be a hardened camper!! Really not sure how Sangeet did it. She was having the cold shower at 3am when the outside temperature drops to it lowest, I was frozen!

Once I did manage to get up, still feeling like I needed a lot more sleep. I tried out the showers, apparently if you stay in the showers long enough the water is supposed to get warm……this is so untrue, I had my arm under the shower for at least 15 minutes the water remained cold, very cold!! Okay now we have an issue I need at least one warm/hot shower a day, preferably as soon as I awake…I washed my main parts (I will let you figure that out!). Headed over to the main shelter.
Breakfast was being served.

There is a solstice diet, which was designed by Yogi Bhajan (except for lunch).

The Solstice Menu

Breakfast

2 Oranges

2 Bananas

Solstice Potato Soup

Lunch

Hummus
Quinoa
Tabouli

Dinner

Mung Beans and Rice

Beets and Carrots

Solstice Hot Sauce
Golden Milk

Yogi Tea

Naturally, the lines for the portable restrooms move along quickly!

Golden Milk is milk with turmeric paste dissolved in it, and it is served at night after White Tantric to ease muscles sore from long hours spent in meditation. This is what Yogi Bhajan had to say about turmeric: “There is nothing more effective than turmeric to clean your body and purify it. There is nothing more precious on this earth but turmeric. Turmeric, it solves every problem which cannot be solved.

After breakfast we had the karma sewa meeting. On registration the participants can choose what karma sewa they would like to do.

What is Karma Yoga?

Karma Yoga (also called Seva) is a necessary aspect of Kundalini Yoga. It is based on the law of Karma: “Everything you do, comes back to you tenfold”. This is true for all your negative actions, but also for whatever you do positive and selflessly. Without Karma Yoga, there is a risk that doing yoga just for yourself, instead of slowly dissolving the ego, hardens it and leads to narcissism. Karma Yoga supports the creation of community and leads to friendship, love and group consciousness.

My karma yoga was security, we had to monitor traffic coming in and out of the solstice site, also have a walk around the area making sure people are parking where they should…

At the beginning of the meeting we did the global sardhana meditation.

What is the Spirit Voyage 40 Day Global Sadhanas?

The Spirit Voyage 40 Day Global Sadhanas is an opportunity for you to come together with a global sangat (spiritual community) representing over 75 countries and numbering over 20,000 participants. For 40 days, led by Spirit Voyage, a community comes together to all practice the same Kundalini yoga meditation, mantra or kriya. Participation is free. The Spirit Voyage 40 Day Global Sadhanas are a place for you to come home to yourself, to feel connected to a community no matter where in the world you are, to get the inspiration to stick to practices that you might not otherwise try, and to experience the incredible power of Kundalini yoga for yourself. They are gifts to you from you, and each has its own special gift to unwrap. During the Spirit Voyage 40 Day Global Sadhanas, people from different nationalities, races, faiths, genders, sexual orientations, and walks of life lay all their differences aside and celebrate their similarities as beings of light and as people of love.

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”https://www.gaygoat.com/wp-content/uploads/my-music/02-Humee-Hum.mp3″]

The above play botton should start the Humee Hum track, if you are having issues please do comment with the operating system and which explorer you are using. Thanks in advance for your help.

The theme of this years summer solstice was ‘Recognize the Other Person is You’

For your information here is the information on the meditation

Ram Das Puri

After the meeting we went to Dr Sham Rang Singh Khalsa’slecture on the kara. We first met the Dr in Nevada City. The lecture was very good.

Due to stomach issues I am unable to eat the solstice food, luckily there was freshly cut watermelon, in this heat it was great to eat that. Temperature during the solstice event was between 90 to 100 degrees F.

Now time for my security sewa, I was given a radio, which was probably a big mistake. I kept trying to order pizza. Also kept saying there is a taxi waiting for Jesus. As you can tell my security sewa did not last long! Time to find another sewa group!

In the evening there was an international party, this is held by one of the sangat members, they cooked a fantastic dinner, also hosted the party at their home where around 300 solstice members attended. This year we were also blessed by 25 yogis from China and 25 from Taiwan. One of the Chinese ladies gave a demonstration of Kung Fu and Thai Chi.

The party was fantastic. Great music and amazing food.

For email subscribers
International Party

International Party (2)