Satsang Letter - August 2025
In this letter, which will in future appear on a monthly basis instead of two-weekly, some chela recount their experiences during the retreat that Ma gave for her chela at the end of July and during the Bhakti Weekend which took place at the beginning of August.
Ma’s Tools
Deep inside me, Ma’s words still resonate: all the tools Ma gives us serve to attain a higher consciousness and are not intended to solve everyday problems. I realized that this was exactly where I was stuck, I was using the tools to solve problems and in doing so projected everything onto Ma, thinking she would solve all my problems. Ma is always with me as my very best friend, guiding me on my journey. It is up to me to walk the path and practice. If I use Ma’s tools to reach a higher consciousness, e.g., pausing, breathing into my heart, replacing dark thoughts with bright ones, a new perspective emerges, a new view. Just by doing that it can happen that a problem feels different. I had lost sight of my goal, just busy managing everyday life, holding on to it, making sure that life didn’t slip through my fingers, revolving around myself. A sense of relief flowed through me and gave me the courage to continue the path with my Ma toward a higher consciousness, out of love for HER.
Parvati
Meeting the Master as a True Friend
In this retreat, I experienced once again how Ma gives everything to reach our hearts:
On the first morning, Ma gave us the task of naming the room we must leave in order to meet Ma as our true friend. As I searched for a name, I experienced my inferiority and was engulfed by it. In her evening darshan, Ma said:
“Naming the room is the first step, going out and closing the door for good is something you have to do yourself.”
We had already arrived at the last evening of the retreat, and I felt a faint sense of panic rising within me. Ma also said that the retreat had only just begun and then gave us a darshan that completely overwhelmed me—I listened in amazement. Ma’s words, which connected all that happened the past few days, flooded everything that was tight and stony within me. My heart opened. I felt seen through and through. My love for Ma flooded my heart and my entire being—I could hardly believe it. Ma renewed her promise to serve us, reminded us to practice enlightenment in our daily lives, and to connect with the fact that Ma lives in our hearts and is always with us.
At the end of the darshan, everyone had the opportunity to enter Ma’s temple room and receive prasad from Ma’s hands. I made pranam with gratitude. The look Ma gave me let me recognize Ma as my true friend—it carried me through the following weeks, and inwardly I keep seeking refuge in it.
Yamuna
An inner foundation
This retreat began quite unexpectedly with a darshan by phone early in the morning in the temple. The phone rang, a chela greeted Ma, and we heard Ma’s familiar voice through the speaker. In it, I experienced this power that just lifts the veil woven from negative projections that often clouds my vision.
Ma gave us the task of naming this room within us that we must leave in order to meet our GuruMa, who embodies the inner master, as a true friend. This question preoccupies me. Ma has already shown me how to leave the room of self-pity and whining. Yet I feel stifled, as if I were still sitting in a room full of expectations: expectations of Ma, that she may provide for my enlightenment without my having to leave my comfort zone. Ma arrived at the Brindavon Ashram in the evening and gave darshan in small groups over the following days. I heard Ma say that it is important to build an inner foundation to ensure that the light in one’s own heart will never go out under any circumstances. Oh, how I long for that! I realized anew that I must and want to change, and I left this inner cluttered room of expectations, felt the door handle in my hand, and stepped out. At least for now! I experienced how this retreat, the kirtan, the silence, and Ma’s darshan nurtured, inspired, and strengthened me — and how this unusual, often uncomfortable, but so uplifting path with Ma is my inner foundation.
Bhavani
Everything comes from within me
For the first time in many years, Ma gave a retreat for her chela at the Brindavon Ashram. In my memory, I felt transported back to the times when the Baba Mandir did not yet exist, and we often gathered here for retreats with our GuruMa. Early on Saturday morning, Ma gave us darshan over the phone. Hearing Ma’s voice on the phone, her words of greeting warmed my heart, and when she talked about how the Master is my very, very best friend, I was filled with deep gratitude as I have often been able to come to her with my problems. During the darshan, Ma asked us which room we would have to leave in order to truly meet Ma as our very best friend. I had to turn inwards for a while, search deeper, to realize that I am projecting something onto Ma: the belief that the guru could do something that I don’t want, that doesn’t come from within me, that is not created by me, my inner master, my true self within me.
In the evening, Ma came, we gathered in the temple, it felt cramped, but I was happy to be allowed to meet my GuruMa in such close proximity. And right away, Ma asked me which room I would like to leave behind. I could tell her what I had discovered within me and, in conversation, I realized that my belief that the guru could do anything without my will, or would do anything at all, was a “superstition,” as Ma called it. The guru is incapable of doing that. I named the room “Superstition” and closed the door. It felt as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
The next morning, we were very fortunate to be able to meet Ma in very small groups. While the first group was with Ma, I felt a certain tension and excitement within me. I was called for the second group, and I felt a sense of joy rising within me, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, a feeling of “I wish I were in a later group”. But I was familiar with this feeling and ignored it. The chela in our small group opened their hearts, and I could identify with something each person said. When it was my turn, I addressed an inner restlessness that I experienced from time to time and which I thought came from Ma, but realized that it came from within me. It is a fear of the inner, sacred emptiness that Ma describes as the antechamber to the silence that follows this void. I want to learn to endure it, to recognize it as an important step on my path. I can practice “unintentional gazing,” as Ma calls it. We don’t do this often enough in our fast-paced world with constant access to social media. Throughout the day, I reflected on my encounters with my GuruMa.
The retreat closed in the evening of the third day when we were allowed to come into our master’s small room one-by-one and receive prasad from her. I made pranam with deep gratitude and the will and intention to take my insights with me into my everyday life, to endure the emptiness, to “gaze into thin air without intention,” to change my faith, my shradha, in order to truly meet my GuruMa as my very best true friend. As everyone accompanied Ma to the car, a chela began to sing “Sri Ma Durga” and Ma sang along. We said goodbye to Ma in the courtyard with full hearts.
Karishma
Experiential Knowledge
Sri Durgamayi Ma held a retreat for her chela in Brindavon in July which I was unable to attend. I live within sight of Brindavon Ashram. During the retreat, I was able to perceive a focus and intensity in my morning meditation as if Ma were present here and now. As soon as the retreat was over, the focus and intensity were lost and my concentration gave way to my thoughts that had free rein.
Ramakrishna
Give your best … and then a little more
It was sad that my GuruMa was not present in person. At the same time, I could see how all those responsible and all the helpers at the ashram did their utmost to contribute. All tasks were performed with the same attention to detail. Every visitor was greeted and welcomed in a friendly and attentive manner. This created a practice field during the weekend where each of the participants could meditate and reflect. And I could feel that we were all sitting in the presence and love of Ma and could just be with each other. The kirtan was sustained by the voices and loving energy of the singers. Again and again, I experienced how everyone strived to give their very best. The Indian visitors, in particular, were given a warm and heartfelt welcome, so that they could feel something that was familiar to them. What remained was a gratitude for MA, who walks this path with us all and has already shown us so much.
Chandrika
Longing
The Baba Mandir shone in all its glory in my eyes during this Bhakti weekend. It was flooded with summer light – the pujas, beautifully decorated with flowers and attention to detail, let me experience the beauty of this place. In the evening light, the garden resembled a peaceful oasis. Despite, or perhaps because of, the extensive and lively kirtan singing, I experienced a silence that makes this place so special.
And yet this silence lacked something fulfilling. For me, the Baba Mandir also spoke of longing that weekend. The longing to meet our GuruMa here. The longing to be able to immerse myself in the silence that is alive, in the presence of Ma. I experienced my own longing for this blissful silence in Ma’s presence.
Ramakrishna
Joy
Ma was not physically present during this Bhakti weekend. We sang lively kirtan. At lunchtime, lovingly prepared Indian prasad was offered; we were a group of about 60 people, mostly Ma’s chela, but also some visitors. In the afternoon, I sat down to sing in the kirtan hall and felt a great inner joy arise in me, for no particular reason or without cause, simply out of gratitude for being here, among my gurubhai who have the same goal, who are walking the same spiritual path, guided by our Ma, who was present in that moment. I thought to myself that there was nowhere else I would rather be. In the evening, we listened to the darshan “What is the Use of the Living Master,” which I had heard many, many times, and yet is always new, and which filled me with gratitude because I have had the great fortune of meeting a living Guru.
Karishma
On the weekend of September 12 to 14, we will celebrate Nirvan Divas in memory of the day when our Satguru, Sri Neem Karoli Baba, the beloved Guruji of our GuruMa, left His body.
In the presence of our Ma, we will sing kirtan and may listen to her words and receive her darshan. Festive Indian prasad will be served and in the evening, we will celebrate a grand aarti in honor of Sri Neem Karoli Baba.
To conclude the nine-day Navaratri festival, we will honor the goddess Durga on the weekend of September 26 to 28.
In the presence of our Ma, the embodiment of the goddess Durga, we will sing kirtan to the Divine Mother, may listen to Ma’s words and experience the sacred fire together with our GuruMa at the dhuni.
In the next issue, we will also report on the Seva Week, during which painting work and preparations for the installation of the new heating system in Brindavon Ashram were carried out. Due to the connection to district heating in Ulm and the obsolescence of the current heating system, a new heating system had become necessary. This was a major project for the ashram and the chela who live there and one of the reasons why the two ashrams, Brindavon and the Sri Neem Karoli Baba Mandir, were closed during the last two weeks of August.