We spent a week with Swami Anubavananda (the Happy Swami) in Kaivalyadhama in December and didn’t take even one picture of him. His tour was taking him to Panaji (Panjim) in Goa and Sri Sailam south of Hyderabad. Petra asked him about the tour and he offered to set up places for us to stay at both stops. We took him up on it and went to both places the second and third weeks of January 2015. This page shows you our wanderings in Sri Sailam south of Hyderabad. Click here to see our week in Goa.
His talks were on various Vedantic topics: The Soul and Beyond in Kaivalyadhama, the Shiva Sutras in Panaji, and various topics on Creation in Sri Salam. We like him and have learned a lot from him.
Known also as the Happy Swami because of his theme of “Be happy,” Swami Anubavananda is based in an ashram in Mumbai but travels around the world, including the United States. Most of the time, he is on the road. We have heard him before in Kaivalyadhama in 2012 and in Varanasi in 2014.
His conclusion to his studies and meditations on the Upanishads is that we have “Nothing to do and nowhere to go.” So, just be happy.
On Swamiji’s web site, www.behappy.org, you can view many videos of his talks. It is a good place to spend an afternoon or evening.
Swami Anubhavananda sitting in a cave near Sri Sailam where a woman sadhu lived and meditated for many years. We visited it one afternoon. (22 Jan 2015)
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We came across this reservoir to visit the cave. I suspect it was not there when the sadhu was in the cave. (22 Jan 2015)
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Some words from Swami Anubhavananda |
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After God created the world he felt he wanted to be part of it. So he entered the world in the body of man to observe the good and bad experiences.
You can choose to just recognize experiences or identify with them. You can experience misery without being a miserable person. Spiritual practice is learning to “dis-identify” with the experiences. You are just in the body of Mr/Ms so-and-so.
When you laugh at your own experiences, life is lighter.
Multiplicity appears to exist but it is only an appearance. God is one.
The awake mind, the dream state, and the deep sleep state all are dreams. So get out of the dream.
Spiritual practice is dis-identifying with you mind.
You see what you have trained yourself to see. Move your vision from the relative to the absolute. For example, empty yourself in the room you are in (even remove memories) then sit there.
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Swaniji spoke in the building to the right of the temple here at the Sri Sailam Ashram in the village of Sunnipenta, some 240 kilometers (148 miles) south of Hyderabad. (21 Jan 2015)
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The walls above the windows in the lecture hall had many saying and pictures like this one.(18 Jan 2015)
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In the ashram we ate off traditional banana leaf plates with our fingers. Notice the water on the table. One sprinkles water from the water glass on the leaf, rubs is around to “clean” it, and then shakes it off on the floor or rubs it onto the table. This is Petra's breakfast: rice, opma, and yogert. (21 Jan 2015)
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Swami Anubhavananda rests in the temple complex of Sri Sailam, site on one of the 12 holy Shiva Lingums. (21 Jan 2015)
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Petra sits with Bhanu at our hotel in the village of Sunnipenta. During this Panaji-Sri Sailam trip. we traveled with Bhanu and Mohan, a retired couple from South Africa who were also there to listen to Swamiji. They are third generation Indians. We enjoyed each other's company and had a lot of good conversations. We even shared a cab 240 km back to the Hyderabad airport. (20 Jan 2015)
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Mohan, Bhapu’s husband, in Sunnipenta near Sri Sailam. (20 Jan 2015)
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Petra buying fruit in Sunnipenta. (21 Jan 2015)
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One of the main streets of Sunnipenta in the early morning. The water in the street is from everyone out spraying water on their porches to clean the night’s dirt from them. We walked this street four times a day to and from the lectures at the ashram. (24 Jan 2015)
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A boy in a kiosk standing next to a chicken ready to be roasted or fried. (21 Jan 2015)
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A woman along the road in Sunnipenta asked me to take their family picture. (21 Jan 2015)
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