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| Shortly after I arrived in NY, I started tyring to contact the Siddha Yoga meditation group in Albany. The main web site didn't list any centers (or meditation groups) in NY other than Manhattan and Rochester. I knew there must be others and so I called the ashram in S. Fallsburg. I learned that there was a center, separate from the ashram, in S. Fallsburg and got the phone number. However, the phone number had a message which only gave the schedule for the month. However, there was the Gurugita chant that Sunday, September 6, 2009, so I decided to make the trip (two hour drive) so that along with enjoying the chant I could meet someone who would know about the chanting and meditation group in Albany (assuming there was one). As I got close to S. Fallsburg I drove several roads (shown above) which I had driven with the kids in the ashram Children's Program on their swimming outings. That was just weeks after I got my CDL so I could drive the bus and I was way stressed to be driving a bus in pretty busy traffic on the narrow roads (or so it seemed to me driving a bus). After driving a moving truck for a year and a half and then the Habitat for Humanity truck (all built on the same standard truck frame), it didn't seem so bad. I arrived at the S. Fallsburg center (shown here) a little early at 8:15AM, but there was only one other person there and no one unlocked the door. Doh! We must have had something wrong. |
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| She suggested I could check at the Welcome Center at the ashram to see if they knew what was going on. On the way there I passed what used to be one of the three main facilities of the ashram, Sadhana Katir. The entrance is shown above. It used to be where most of the visitors (such as myself) stayed. As the ashram is closed to casual visitors now, they have sold that facility to a Jewish religious group. For almost ten years I had visited the ashram every other weekend and stayed here (along with doing lots of work there as well). It was a little sad to see it 'repurposed', but it is still being put to good use. I went on to Atma Nidhi which was where the main kitchen and most of the administrative functions had been. The ashram has long had a policy against taking pictures, so above is also a picture of the entrance to Atma Nidhi from the road. I parked in the usual parking lot and went in to the Welcome Center but it wasn't open. However, Narsima, an old friend and fellow bus driver from years before, was now doing security and I asked if there was better contact information for the S. Fallsburg Center. He was a little cross with me for coming to the ashram even though I knew it was closed to casual visitors and that made me sad. It had felt like home for so many years. Oh well. He did give me a sheet which, along with having an old and non-functional number for the Center, had a number for a chanting and meditation group in S. Fallsburg. I drove past Anugraha the other site for the ashram where most of the spiritual practices were performed (now closed to most of the ashram residents it seems) and took this picture of the entrance. Sigh! |
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| I called the number for the chanting and meditation group and actually got a person. It turns out that once a month the chant the Gurugita at a person's home at 10:30AM and that was where the chant was this morning. It is at a lovely facility shown here and above. I was able to do the chant and met several people I had known previously as well as others I hadn't. I also got contact information for the Albany chanting and meditation group though they seem to have stopped meeting for the summer and haven't started meeting again as yet. It turned to have been a very trip though there had been trying moments. Later that week I planted the 1.5 year old apple tree I had grown from seed and now found a home for it in Barbara's yard in Copake, NY. |
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This page was last updated on September 14, 2009.
