The Retreat-Vara Yajna

The retreat was held at a Community Center in Monroeville, Pa. It was called a Vara Yajna. Vara means "boon" or gift.

Vara is from the verbal root "Vri" meaning "to choose." Yajna in Vedic tradition refers to worship, devotion, and praise. In later times it came to mean sacrifice, offering or an act of worship. Very simply, the Vara Yajna was a two day retreat and at the end of it each participant made a wish.

The retreat was conducted by Ananyaji, one of the female monks of Satyaloka. I had been to numerous shamanic and metaphysical workshops, however nothing could have prepared me for the experiences there. I had labeled myself an atheist however during the Vara Yajna I not only saw the form of Divine that I relate to very clearly in my heart. Following the Vara Yajna that form, in a gesture of supreme friendship took an external form that I could see and hear and touch and relate with. The perception of this Antaryamin or Indweller's manifesting internally then externally has continued for what will be a decade this January.

There are times when the perception is that there is no difference between the external and internal-that what was once perceived as going on in the outside world is happening inside, and what was once perceived as internal is happening.