In the green-laden neighborhood of a quiet town on a winding road, in the compelling countryside of Germany, friends and devotees gathered at Anjaneya Ashram in Niederweiler to attend satsang with Ma Devaki, our spiritual elder who attended with devotion at the side of Yogi Ramsuratkumar during the last seven years of his life.

Palm Sunday, 2025

Here I am at the Casa, a Catholic Retreat Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, to spend Holy Week, from Palm Sunday until Easter, in a Catholic spiritual center run by Franciscan priests. Here I am, a practitioner of over forty years in a Baul/Hindu guru tradition, attending daily Mass, receiving communion and speaking the words of a liturgy that has been in mind and heart since early childhood. I know well when to kneel, how to genuflect, when to bow my head. And I also know how to fall into the depths of silence in between the actions. I love the songs, simple and a bit romantic as they often are. I want to bow down, before a cross, before another person, before a breathtaking tree …

It is customary in Australia to acknowledge country before any public talk. We honour the Gundungurra and Dharug Aboriginal people of the Blue Mountains and the Yuin people of the NSW south Coast where Michael Menager lives. Their songlines, stories and spirits continue to animate the sacred landscape here.