by MSS Sat Hari Singh Khalsa, Boizenburg, Germany & Guru Ram Das Aquarian Academy
2023 (Third Quarter)
Sat Nam,
I’d like to talk about our experience in Germany. As a part of the former Guru Ram Das Ashram and Sangat in Hamburg, we were searching for more than 20 years for a Home for the Teachings. We projected always for the combination of a beautiful Gurdwara with a Yoga Centre.
In 2016, we had been alerted that in the countryside of East Germany a former Synagogue (founded in 1799 and being used until 1886, and then a Freemasons Centre until 2011) remained empty and was being put up for sale. With my pension fund, we could purchase it, and with the help of the Yogi Tea Foundation we were able to finish a big renovation two years later.
The Guru Ram Das Aquarian Academy was founded in 2016, and before it really started off Coronavirus and the allegations put us on hold.
We did what we always did, but we needed a new way of doing it. We experienced the Online Zoom connection with the Sangat—near and far.
We did know that the key to keep the Sangat together, as much as it is the key to keep ourselves together, is the daily Sadhana. Accordingly, three years ago we started offering a live daily Aquarian Sadhana. Between 10 and 35 people participate every day.
On some Sundays, the whole Ukraine Teacher Training Sangat join in with 50 to 90 students.
In addition, we offer Kirtan and Ra Ma Da Sa healing every evening, and an Online Gurdwara on Sundays.
At the time of Winter Solstice, we organized worldwide chanting for 24 hours on Zoom, with more than 20 musicians from all over the world and hundreds of participants.
This altogether is not a sensational report; this is just the basics of what we think we can do to uplift ourselves and others, even in these strange times, with the help of digital technology. For ourselves it is a fine discipline, like the reading of the daily Banis. For the Sangat at large it may be reminder to keep up.
Sat Nam,
MSS Sat Hari Singh
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MSS Sat Hari Singh Khalsa is an ordained Sikh Dharma Minister and one of the pioneers of 3HO Kundalini Yoga in Germany. He began studying Kundalini Yoga in 1980, as a member of the first 3HO ashram in Hamburg. In 1986 he published the first German translation of Japji Sahib, the morning prayer, which is also the source for many mantras used in Kundalini Yoga. MSS Sat Hari Singh is also one of the founders of the Golden Temple Tea Company, the home of the famous Yogi Tea.
