Welcome to Arsha Bodha Center, our beautiful little ashram here in central New Jersey.
Several people have requested a video tour of this place where I've been living and teaching
for the past 23 years.
I'm especially happy that Jim Parmiter, my good friend and longtime student, has agreed
to be our cameraman today.
Actually, it was Jim who first brought me here 23 years ago.
In the 1990's, I lived and taught in my guru's ashram, Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, in Pennsylvania's
Pocono Mountains.
Every week, Jim came here from his home in New Jersey to attend my classes.
We often hung out together after class, and one day, we discussed the possibility of establishing
an extension or branch of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in New Jersey.
We spent months talking to real estate agents and driving from place to place, looking for
a suitable property.
Then, in the summer of 2000, Jim brought me here, and I immediately knew that our search
was over.
This is what it looked like back then.
A couple had remodeled an old farmhouse on this property and lived here for 25 years,
raising their children and caring for the goats they kept in this pen.
The original farmhouse had been built just after World War II by a hard-working man who
lived here with his family for 30 years.
It's amazing to see what this area looked like in 1946.
My guru came here to inaugurate the ashram and give us his blessings.
At first, our classes were held in what had been the living room of the remodeled farmhouse,
but it quickly became too crowded.
We couldn't afford to hire a contractor at the time, so Jim and I built this makeshift
extension, but it leaked quite badly.
Students here joked that instead of a sunroom, we had a rain room.
Before long, even that became over-crowded, so we started to plan and raise funds for
building a proper lecture hall.
Fortunately, the ashram community was very enthusiastic and extremely generous.
So before long, we were able to conduct groundbreaking ceremonies and prepare for construction.
Contractors arrived with heavy equipment to level our parking lot and to excavate the
site for the new building.
Construction began shortly thereafter.
The walls of our future lecture hall went up, then it's roof, and lots of carpentry
was completed.
Inside, a temple and an altar were built, and everything was prepared for occupancy.
We inaugurated the building and consecrated the altar in 2005, just five years after arriving
here.
The name Arsha Bodha Center was given by my guru.
Bodha means knowledge or sacred wisdom, and arsha means of the rishis, the sages of ancient
India.
This turned out to be an ideal location for our ashram.
It's close to the homes of our students who live in nearby communities, and yet, it's
in this beautiful, natural setting.
To permanently preserve the rural character of this area, our local township purchased
the farmland across the street from us to prevent it from being developed into a residential
subdivision.
Other sides of the ashram are bordered by parklands belonging to the State of New Jersey.
As a result, if you come here decades from now, this area will still be just as quiet
and picturesque as it is today.
OK.
That's enough background.
Let's see the ashram now.
Just behind the house is the new building we constructed.
Here in the lobby, Lord Ganesha blesses everyone before they enter the lecture hall.
This is our lecture hall.
Over the years, this hall has become a peaceful and sacred sanctuary for so many students.
Let me show you the altars.
To the left is an altar dedicated to our lineage of teachers, our Guru Parampara.
On the main altar, deities of Ganesha, Radha Krishna, and Dakshinamurti Shiva have been
established.
We perform puja at these altars to celebrate Guru Purnima, Janmashtami, Shivaratri and
other religious festivals.
Now, let me show you the dining hall downstairs.
This is our dining hall.
After big celebrations, we gather here for lunch.
Right now, the hall has been set up for the rituals we perform as part of our annual anniversary
program.
Tomorrow, we'll celebrate our 23rd anniversary.
Now that we've seen everything here, let me show you the ashram grounds.
We're standing at the back of the ashram right now.
Our property is just three acres, but it's right next to a huge tract of state parklands
with more than 3000 acres of beautiful forests, streams, and miles of hiking trails.
I love to go for long walks on those trails.
When the weather is nice, we set out chairs and have satsang back here.
This is our meditation garden.
Volunteers planted everything here and they maintain it with love and care.
Before we conclude this tour, let me show you inside the house.
This is our library.
You won't be surprised if I tell you that I have a great love for reading, especially
Sanskrit texts and commentaries.
The small shrine below is dedicated to Shankaracharya.
This is where all our classes were held during our first five years here.
We still use it for smaller classes and for live streaming of online classes.
This amazing portrait of Swami Dayananda was painted by an extremely talented artist who
was a student here.
In the corner is another shrine to Shankaracharya, the greatest teacher of advaita Vedanta and
founder of the monastic lineage to which I belong.
And finally, this is the altar where we worshipped during our first five years here.
Well, that concludes our video tour.
I hope you enjoyed it.
If you're ever in this area, please come and join us for a class.