His Holiness Swami Vidyadhishananda was graciously hosted by the International Siddhashram Shakti Centre in Harrow, London on Saturday, 1st April 2023. He offered chanting and a discourse, and was felicitated with a Certificate of Excellence by the World Book of Records for his matchless contribution in promoting Vedic heritage, universal peace and philosophical nuances of Sanskrit scriptures.

We share our soulful gratitude for your participation and presence during 2022 – a year when the Nonprofit has been rebuilding the foundation of its mission: in-person fellowships.

For the first time since 2019 we were able to host His Holiness Swami Vidyadhishananda at fellowships outside of Santa Barbara, including Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and
Carmichael in Northern California. Sadhvi Girija taught in-person workshops on Himalayan breathing in Santa Barbara and Houston. We appreciate that so many of you joined
us for this more intimate return to in-person fellowships.

In September we released a meditation e-course, Learn Mindfulness Meditation on Udemy.com, a global learning platform. This coursework’s high quality along with
its ratings have earned it a place in the Udemy Business Collection, a privilege reserved for the top 3% of courses.

His Holiness and Sadhvi Girija visited Northern California in November to look at potential properties and an offer was made on one property. While the purchase did not go through, this recent experience prepares us for swift action in 2023 as more properties come to market.

Your physical presence means so much as we continue rebuilding our in-person programming. Please save these dates for a return to in-person retreats in 2023:

1. Guru Purnimā Retreat – Camarillo, CA | 1st – 4th July
2. Initiation Meditation Retreats – Nevada City, CA | 10th Sept – 7th Oct

Our Nonprofit remains ever steadfast in its commitment to your spiritual wellbeing. May you keep this organization in your prayers. Thank you for your continuing support.

We convey our heartfelt gratitude to you, our donors and well-wishers, and acknowledge your unwavering support. This Annual Gratitude Report has been prepared in a new format for the first time this year with the goal of giving you a visual understanding of our Nonprofit’s impact.

Much like in 2020, our ability to host in-person events this past year was severely limited. We appreciate that so many of you joined us in fellowship online. Our Academy app and Sambhala ecoursework curriculum continued their rapid development despite the untimely loss of our beloved head of the monastic council, His Holiness Swami Sharadananda Giri.

As your participation binds us together and builds momentum in 2022, let us nurture our Nonprofit in the following ways:

1. Remember our noble Nonprofit in your prayers
2. Subscribe to Hansavedas Academy and download the app
3. Follow the articles and event postings on our main website, hansavedas.org

Our Nonprofit remains unwaveringly committed to your spiritual upliftment. Thank you again for your continuing support and benevolent participation.

Namaste Precious Friends:

Divine grace palpably enveloped us throughout 2020 as we responded to unfolding challenges to making our esteemed institution sustainable and yet charitable. We cannot aggressively approach meditation; likewise, we cannot fearfully approach crisis. Both need calmness, which is bred through patience. As we learnt this past year, fortitude yields patience. When individuals like ourselves are being squeezed and challenged, we learn not to give in to pressure nor give in to the fear. Instead, we rise to the challenge and continue to serve under the divine guidance of our extraordinary monks.

Grassroots participation allowed the Nonprofit organization to continue to serve uninterrupted throughout unsettling and unpredictable times. Together we begin 2021 hand-in-hand with hearts connected. The lessons that we learnt while making our esteemed organization stronger will stay with us. We are now better prepared for harder times.

Along with so many others in Southern California who went into lockdown, we were forced by local regulations to close the Hansavedas Meditation Centre and offices from 13th March to 1st June 2020. However, our hearts, prayers and devotional service to earnest seekers continued to remain open. While the shelter-in-place order was enforced, we sought to provide uninterrupted solace and moral strength by immediately connecting with our community through live programming. In such a time of need, we remember God’s grace and acknowledge the futile nature of material vices – and instead, embrace the fruits of staying connected with our satguru, His Holiness Swami Vidyadhishananda, the spiritual founder of our Nonprofit.

Since this past summer, the publications on our Hansavedas Academy mobile app learning platform (hansavedas.academy) have expanded at a rapid pace. Of the 270 audio and video recordings that have been added since the inception of our multimedia platform in 2016, over 100 were added in 2020 alone. Our mobile app now reaches over 280 subscribers in 30 countries. Our initial goal of reaching 500 subscribers continues to gain momentum, and our guided meditation recordings have cumulatively been played nearly 110,000 times and attest to the extraordinary value of our online content to seekers worldwide.

This exquisite collection of wisdom teachings is produced at the highest quality possible such that while listening one feels they are at the feet of our beloved living saint, His Holiness Swami Vidyadhishananda. We seamlessly completed upgrading the backend of our online multimedia platform to a new hosting service for ease of use by our devotees, which is now the Hansavedas Academy.

This was a much-needed change to a steadfast platform that has been the supporting technology for fellowships and group meditation in City Centres around the world – enabling our communities to continue participating in the wisdom teachings through online learning and practice. Our guided meditation recordings posted on our Academy were played over 35,000 times in 2020.

In the absence of in-person events, online fellowship is a way for us to remain connected with the lineage of meditation masters and our saintly siddha monk who is present among us. Our devotees availed themselves of the many opportunities to remain connected. Our Hansavedas Meditation Centre in Santa Barbara anchored an unprecedented 74 online fellowships. An additional 290 online fellowships were hosted by our City Centres in Texas, Illinois, and New Jersey, whose blossoming coordinated efforts provided these additional opportunities for our sangha to remain connected.

Indeed, in 2020 our esteemed platform provided:

• • 384 fellowships – an average of more than one per day
    • 20 in-person fellowships (1st Jan – 12th March)
    • 364 online fellowships (13th March – 31st Dec)
  • 79 fellowships guided by HH Swami Vidyadhishananda – over 1½ per week on average
  • 32 special fellowships (including workshops and retreats)
  • 81% of our public events were offered free
  • A total of 11,071 participants attended fellowships
  • A total of 481 special public events have been hosted since the inception of our Nonprofit, which is an average of 2.6 special fellowships per month.

Remaining operational during this time required swift action from our volunteer Board of Directors, who quickly applied for grants and funding through the CARES Act. Our Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) grant and Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan have both been received and forgiven, totaling $43,600. This helped to support our operational needs in 2020. We have a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan of $150,000 outstanding and will repay this when the situation improves.

The year 2020 was a pivotal time for Hansavedas, in which we precipitated technological developments that were already underway – responding earnestly to the many requests of our seekers. Our Nonprofit hosted its first live broadcast on Facebook during the lockdown period, holding seekers worldwide in a divine embrace. During these live events, His Holiness guided meditations to attune our inner focus, and taught a healing protection Sanskrit mantra that harnesses the power to invoke inner strength and moral courage. Devotees around the world participated synchronously, and with this momentum of participation these events became a month-long series of live transmissions via Facebook. The wisdom shared during these broadcasts supported participants in maintaining a positive attitude with faith in God and Guru’s love and protection.

Our livestream fellowships withstood the disruption caused by local ordinances and continued without fail throughout 2020. Among these divine moments of blissful respite with our satguru were extraordinary revelations pertinent to the current times. His Holiness revealed to us insights on the global transformation as interpreted from Vedic Jyotisha, the mysterious whereabouts of the greatest Siddhas – Sri Tryambaknath Mahavatar Babaji and Maharshi Mahatapa, and the magnificent heritage of vegetarianism as a foundational spiritual principle. Dissemination of such wisdom is attainable only by the discourse from a great seer.

Also held via livestream was a special Memorial Fellowship honouring His Holiness Swami Atmananda Giri, dearly known as Prabhuji. As part of the Monastic Council, he helped structure the foundational curriculum and safeguard the Hansavedas Maṭha – a rare books library situated in the holy city of Varanasi, India. His brother monks are still adjusting to this colossal loss. Prabhuji’s presence and the gift of wisdom will carry on as we build upon his legacy, both in India and in the West.

Among the many technological firsts of 2020, our esteemed dharma platform hosted the Guru Purnimā Full Moon Retreat online, enabling devotees and their families to gather from around the world on this most auspicious occasion to honour our beloved spiritual lineages. The retreat was ceremoniously opened with a message in Sanskrit and Hindi by His Holiness Swami Sharadananda from Varanasi.

The weekend retreat wove together a truly global participation. From the courtyards of ashrams in India came the sublime chanting of Vedic priests from our sister institutions; from living rooms across our City Centres of Houston, New Jersey, Chicago and Santa Barbara, Guru Vandana was offered. With the capacity to broadcast the ceremonial offerings with a close-up perspective, many devotees wrote afterwards that it was a highly immersive experience.

On the birth anniversary of the head of our meditation lineages, celebrated as Sri Krishna Janmastami, we hosted a meaningful two-day online workshop on higher yoga and yoga philosophy. Workshop participants had the opportunity to immerse themselves in a devotional understanding of the Supreme Personality of Godhead following a unique Q&A-style session. Before the workshop began, participants were invited to complete an online quiz, through which they could imbibe chaste spiritual philosophy of the Sanskrit heritage by attempting to answer the questions. His Holiness then answered each question during the online workshop. In addition to sublime devotional music and an extraordinary teaching by His Holiness about the nature of our hearts, a complete yoga-vinyāsa class was guided by Sadhvi Girija during the morning session.

Also held online for the first time was our annual Sattwadharman Benefit. Our sangha made the most of the circumstances to come together around a new format for this annual benefit. Over 40 magnificent works of art were displayed up close and personal – on screens at home – and, in a new feature this year, devotees were invited to learn in-depth about the curatorial and production process of the Fellowship Archives in a documentary featuring His Holiness Swami Vidyadhishananda.

Proceeds from the online art auction are sustaining the 100 boarding students at traditional accelerated learning schools situated on the premises of our sister institutions in Varanasi, Haridwar, and Prayagraj. Sattwadharman attendees witnessed the students’ daily life and their spiritual progress preserving the Vedic tradition and serving the greater community. The feedback from participants around the world was overwhelmingly positive; devotees who are typically unable to travel such a long distance to attend the event in person cherished the special opportunity to experience the virtual event live.

Thanks to new contributions to the property fund during Sattwadharman and throughout 2020, we have raised 83% of our $1M goal for a down payment on our Nonprofit’s first property. With this goal now within close reach, we have intensified our search for a suitable property by adding a specialty broker to our property search team. We are now more hopeful than ever that the sacred place to establish this citadel of dharma shall emerge. Details about our efforts and progress to procure a property can be found at our Himalayan Legacy capital initiative website: hansavedas.org/property-purchase.

Creating a meaningful online learning experience in lieu of our annual in-person Meditation Retreats was an opportunity for breaking new ground on our online education platform. The hundreds of hours that went into creating the first Online Meditation Retreat – held for our Layayoga initiates – have paved the way for future online retreats. For the first time ever, every single active initiate was able to convene for the annual retreat – a testament to the potential for technology to serve humanity in positive ways.

With this momentum from the Meditation Retreat, we are expanding our accelerated online learning platform, Hansavedas Sambhala Curriculum – a structured graduate-level university coursework for learning and practicing spiritual disciplines that celebrates the advent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in human form, Lord Kalkideva. In addition to our monks and yogic adepts, the curriculum will endeavour to present expert chanters, devotional singers, music maestros, professors of Sanskrit language and Ayurveda. With diligent work, we will see the release of a few introductory courses in the first half of 2021.

Our collective effort on Giving Tuesday to obtain matching funds from Facebook resulted in more than we could have hoped for: 45% of donor contributions received matching funds, based on Facebook’s matching structure in which 100% of each contribution was matched for the first $2M transacted, and 10% of each contribution was matched for the subsequent $7M transacted. This matching structure was different than in previous years and would have presented a greater challenge to our efforts were it not for the expanded grassroots participation by devotees – the number of donor participants increased from 210 donors in 2019 to 297 donors in 2020. Even though only $14K were matched due to the new tiered structure, we were nonetheless able to raise a total of $114K during the Giving Tuesday event, including the matched funds.

Giving Tuesday is part of our year-end holy giving prayer circle, Sattwapathin, during which devotees request special prayers for their family and loved ones. These requests for blessings and healing prayers are being continuously offered to the Meditation Lineage Altar by His Holiness.

Throughout this tumultuous year, we did not forgo our diligent metrics reporting. Our efforts were rewarded yet again with the annual Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar’s platform for reporting on US-based Nonprofits. This accolade is only awarded to the top 0.6% of the 1.84 million US-based Nonprofits reporting to GuideStar. Indeed, our Nonprofit is the only Sanskrit-based organization disseminating the Higher Yoga and Vedic dharma to receive this highest accolade for operational transparency. Our Nonprofit’s profile page provides the details of our metrics: guidestar.org/profile/20-3478668

Rooted in the wisdom teachings of our noble platform, our Nonprofit remains unwaveringly committed to spiritual upliftment in the face of what has been undeniably a most challenging time for all of us. Grassroots participation is what binds us together and sees us through these challenges – let us continue to nurture our Nonprofit in the following ways:

1. Remember our noble Nonprofit in your prayers
2. Follow the articles, posts and publications on our website. Our web articles, events and announcements are now regularly posted at facebook.com/hansavedas
3. Subscribe to Hansavedas Academy online learning platform and use the app.

Thank you to all our supporters whose dedicated contribution and benevolent participation continue to support us in these challenging times.

We, the ardent servers,

Minakshi Acharya                                                    Radhika Pathy
Secretary                                                                   Treasurer

We heartily welcome your participation at our upcoming Fellowships and special events in 2021. Be sure to sign up for our mailing list to receive invitations and registration links directly to your inbox.

For other events and livestreams, check our events calendar which is updated throughout the year when additional events are added to the calendar.

14 May 2021, Friday
Hansarūpin Foundation Day

14-16 May 2021, Friday – Sunday
Hansarūpin Foundation Day Online Fellowship & Workshop

25 May 2021, Tuesday
Full Moon Birthday of  Paramahansa Hariharananda

23 July 2021, Friday
Guru Purnimā Full Moon

23-25 July 2021, Friday – Sunday
Guru Purnimā Full Moon Online Retreat

28-29 August 2021, Saturday – Sunday
Online Workshop to Honour Sri Krishna Birthday

29 August 2021, Sunday (PM)
Sri Krishna Birthday

23 October 2021, Saturday
Sattwadharman Online Benefit & Art Auction

30 November 2021, Tuesday
Giving Tuesday

If you haven’t already done so, please follow us on Facebook to stay up to date as new events are added throughout the year.

Houston residents have the rare opportunity to experience an enchanting evening of art and culture offered by the Guidestar Gold and top-rated Nonprofit, Self Enquiry Life Fellowship. The annual benefit auction, known by its Sanskrit name Sattwadharman, takes place on September 29th and features a limited release of 36 rare meditative vintage photographs and antique altar paintings from the Nonprofit’s archive collection.

This special event makes it possible for historians, art connoisseurs, and Indic Studies specialists as well as spiritual seekers to access sacred art prints not easily available elsewhere.

Each piece of art presented represents the Indic ethos that the light of divinity is ever-present, reflecting in all beatific forms. Historic photographs and paintings, which captured the essence of meditative calm and mysticism, have been preserved by the Nonprofit for the purpose of inspiring the community with a form of art that merges historicity, timelessness and the sacred.

The Nonprofit’s archive features photographers from the 19th century who captured the nuances of Indic philosophical roots and the spiritual depth of architectural and natural wonders. A thematic portfolio of eight photographs focusing on work as worship is included in the auction.

“These photographs are living symbols of the capacity of living illumination….They offer us the light of time and history, the light of intelligence and wisdom and craft, and the light of inner conception.”

“Elizabeth Stewart”

“Art Historian and Art Appraiser”

All the artworks are analyzed alongside Sanskrit literature by the Nonprofit’s Vedic monks who rely on their meditative understanding to select a particular portfolio. This process honors what the photographers would have seen, creates a coherent storyline, and connects the art to Sanskrit lore.

Releases are preceded by meticulous remastering which allows for a beautiful reproduction that aptly represents the original mystique. Each antique photo is digitized, cleaned and tone-adjusted; rare painting relics are repainted, corrected according to ancient texts, and digitally reproduced as fine art prints.

The remastering process for the Sacred Painting series is a unique artistic endeavour, breathing new life into rare art relics. An old-world painting is scanned and re-sampled before undergoing initial digital restoration. Thereafter the image is printed on canvas and painted with oil or acrylic, bringing the original to life, while also accentuating subtle nuances. The painted canvas is re-digitized for final micro level detailing.

The Sacred Photo series feature photos from the earliest days of photography. The photographs, many of which are over 150 years old, are scanned and brought into the digital artistic space for adjustments, correction of damage, and re-envisioning based on the Sanskrit lore or storyline.

These rare artworks take on the form of living altars in our homes, emitting an aura of divinity and uncovering the rich lore of sacred times and spaces. Art historian and appraiser Elizabeth Stewart notes, “These photographs are living symbols of the capacity of living illumination….They offer us the light of time and history, the light of intelligence and wisdom and craft, and the light of inner conception.”

The benefit dinner and silent auction features sublime Sanskrit chanting by His Holiness Swami Vidyadhishananda, spiritual founder of the Nonprofit, who will also deliver the keynote address. The evening includes rare video footage of traditional whole-brain accelerated schooling in India recorded at the Nonprofit’s sister institution. A healing vegetarian dinner will be served.

Sattwadharman takes place on Saturday, 29th September at 4pm at the VPSS Vallabh Hall in Houston. Proceeds from this benefit event support Self Enquiry Life Fellowship’s heritage projects on the revival of indigenous knowledge, accelerated learning curricula, and value-based educational publications. For more information visit hansavedas.org/benefit

For more information about Self Enquiry Life Fellowship’s vintage photography and sacred painting projects visit the “Projects” tab at hansavedas.org

Article by: Minaxi Acharya and Vasuki Prasad

His Holiness Swami Vidyadhishananda was graciously hosted by the Hon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2nd March 2017 in Delhi. This meeting happened despite the extremely tight schedule right before the Hon. Prime Minister’s campaigning trip to Uttar Pradesh on the eve of the state assembly elections, which then ushered in a fresh mandate and a new state government.

What follows is a description of the meeting itself followed by editorial comments to elucidate the greater context around the plight of longstanding indigenous education. This article focuses much-needed attention on the dire situation regarding the fading institutional support for the infrastructure of Sanskrit studies in India.

The article is divided into three sections followed by a list of references that pertain to the second section. In the third section, we reference a proposal with imperative first steps to guard against the rapidly approaching extinction of Sanskrit schools in Uttar Pradesh.

The Honourable Prime Minister (PM) came across as someone in charge, full of conviction and courage. What impressed His Holiness was how the PM Sri Narendra Modi was genuinely dedicated to ardently serving both motherhood and motherland. In that sense the PM stood tall as a genuine server filled with an unshakable faith and a steadfast interest in reviving India’s multifaceted standing. He appeared to be focused on his resolutions and someone who will not vacillate but make careful decisions with a vision in mind.

The Hon. Prime Minister’s various duties clearly drew him in many different directions, but despite this, the expected hustle and bustle in and around him was absent. Before the meeting, his supporting staff briefed His Holiness about the Hon. Prime Minister in glowing terms. The whole ambience was filled with glimmers of the prime minister’s immense popularity.

The two of them met in private and had a rewarding dialogue focusing mainly on spiritual and educational topics. This is the first time the PM Sri Narendra Modi had met Swami Vidyadhishananda. However, this kind of meeting is very much in keeping with the Indic tradition, where a monk or a saint is graciously received or at times consulted by a statesman or a top appointee of the government. For example, the erstwhile and popular president of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who assumed charge after the British Raj ended, took audience with the then Shankaracharya, His Holiness Swami Brahmananda on 4th December 1952 (see picture below).

This meeting with Swami Vidyadhishananda was in recognition of the profound wisdom that a Vedic monk and scholar of his standing can bring to modern society through an effort to highlight India’s ancient hallowed past. Of particular interest at this meeting was the monastic insight into the continuing role of Sanskrit in defining the momentum of Sanskriti, which is the unbroken cultural identity surviving in modern India.

His Holiness disclosed at the outset that he was representing his own lineages that were a combined heritage of rishi sages and nath yogis of the Himalayan Mountains. After gauging first-hand the sincerity of responsibility the PM Sri Narendra Modi brings to his role as a statesman, His Holiness honoured the Prime Minister’s dedication with a Sanskrit verse: sevā-dharmaḥ parama-gahano yogināmapyagamya. This translates as: dharmic service for noble causes is so profound and intricate that even great yogis and meditation adepts cannot reach or access this.

When Swami Vidyadhishananda revealed that it was the sage Kashyapa rishi who requested him to accept this appointment, the Hon. Prime Minister disclosed that he himself hails from the same patrilineal family affiliation (gotra) attributed to the sage. The Prime Minister did not express any surprise or suspicion as to how a rishi of yore could communicate such a message. That a Himalayan monk would be capable of receiving such a message from the subtle world was clearly understood by the Hon. Prime Minister.

Moreover, when His Holiness mentioned that he had not come to meet the honourable statesman in order to ask anything for himself, the Prime Minister quipped back promptly, “Even if I offer, where shall you keep?” Thus implying that a true renunciate has no place to own anything, neither does such a monk desire anything for personal fame. This fortuitous beginning to the meeting fostered an unusual warmth between the two of them.

They discussed the Himalayan tradition of nath siddha meditation and if such great yogis were still reachable by seekers and trekkers. The Hon. Sri Narendra Modi spoke a few words about his wanderings in the Himalayan terrain and his call of service to the motherland. His Holiness touched upon his own meditative penance in the Himalayan terrain and how an ardent meditator can access the world of the siddhas in the middle to high Himalayan mountain ranges.

Thereafter His Holiness emphasized Sanskrit’s multidimensional role and how the indigenous Sanskrit tradition has been a common ground between science and spirituality. His Holiness also mentioned that Sanskrit literature has been a seamless bridge between faith and evolution.

Swami Vidyadhishananda outlined how he and a few other traditional monks and ardent servers were reviving the platform that the Sanskrit tradition instructs us to teach and explained how the Sanskrit heritage integrates all aspects of the knowledge base. The Hon. Prime Minister conveyed his gratitude for these works both in India and in the USA and commended the efforts to truly portray Indic heritage to the world.

The Hon. Prime Minister agreed about the tragedy of framing Sanskrit narrowly as a religious language, which has resulted in tainting such a universal heritage by reducing it to a trivialized status. Swami Vidyadhishananda pointed out the greatly diminished funding and lack of maintenance of institutional facilities for the teaching of the Sanskrit language in India, and how Uttar Pradesh could be a model to revive the root of this indigenous strength.

In this regard, the Hon. Prime Minister invited His Holiness to submit meaningful proposals to his office and even promised that he will read them personally. With humility and poise, the Hon. Prime Minister affirmed his dedication and welcomed policy suggestions from monks.