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Answers:
a) Who lives in the Ashram?
Their background!
People of all nationalities
live in the Ashram. Those that live in the Ashram live by the
eternal spiritual Values. Many of them have come to the Ashram
as children
and while yet in their teens. From their previous lives, they
have inherited classical Hindu Nature and Hindu Samskaras. By
Swabhava they are real Brahmins. It is the repeated opinion of
the Experts in the field that
they recite Vedic Hymns and other sacred Hindu
texts better than the best of the Brahmins of South,
North, East, West of India (see the statement of Vedadarshanacharya
Mahamandaleshwar Sri Swami Gangeshwarananda and others, SupplementThree). They have brought
pure hearts and innocent natures, and are made Hindus by special
purificatory Vedic and Tantric and Pauranic Rituals. They are
given Upanayana sacrament and are made Brahmins. And they are
given Sannyasa Diksha and are made Monks and Nuns of Adishankaracharya's
Saraswati Order, belonging to Sri Sharada Pitha of Sringeri.
We have our special predilection for our Kanchi Kamakoti Pitha.
Our lives are conditioned to highest purity as we are rooted
in the worship of the supreme Divine Mother, Srividya. The life
in this form of Worship, Vidya, requires from us uncompromising
inner and outer purity.
b) Who lives at Omkarananda
Ashram Himalayas
Only Indians and Indian citizens
of Western European lands are living in the Ashram here: they
are all Sannyasis and spiritual aspirants. All of them are highly
educated and specialised in various educational and engineering
fields. They are all direct disciples of Swami Omkarananda and
have been with him since the late 1960s.
The Ashram has some rare jewels
such as the most loved and respected Sage Prabhuji Acharya Surya
Prakash, the ever-serving and dynamic Mother Usha Devi and the
saintliness-incarnate boy of many talents Siddharta whose Bhajans
sung by himself in a pure classical style keep the audience spell-bound.
The guests that come to participate
in the Ashram's spiritual activities are lodged and given food
free of costs.
c) Are there
both boys and girls living together in the Ashram?
The Core of the individual
spiritual disciplines in the Ashram consists in Sri Vidya Upasana,
a form of divine Worship and Yoga-practice that requires unconditional
inner and outer purity; it raises the consciousness of the Sadhaka
into the realm of the timeless and the spaceless; it settles
in every part of his or her body the Divinity, the Infinite and
the Eternal. The consciousness of the differences between sexes
or boys and girls, which is so characteristic of even very noble
human nature, falls away. All life is divine; moral norms, principles
and character are fully fulfilled and transcended. In spite of
such purity, the girls in their periods segregate themselves
from the rest of the community and stay away from Temple Pujas.
It can happen that here and there is a weak soul. The omnipresent,
omniscient and omnipotent Divinity knows many ways of withdrawing
such a soul from such environs.
In Omkarananda Ashram boys and
girls are full of Satwic Nature and dominated by Adhyatmika Buddhi.
They are really Devaganas. They are fully occupied every day
with the practice of Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga.
They are experts in the performance of Pujas, Hawanas, Abhishekas.
The boys look upon and inwardly adore girls as direct incarnations
of the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful Divine Mother. And
girls look upon boys as embodiments of the Divine Mother's all-seeing
Presence. Thoughts bound up with body-consciousness are foreign
to them. The strict rules of a life in Srividya govern their
daily life and conduct. We have boy-Sannyasis and girl-Sannyasis.
The atmosphere in which they live is charged with deep spirituality.
The Prana-pratishtha Devatas of our Ashram Temples constantly
watch over them and protect them from all sides. See also the
answer to the Question 7 b.
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