Article published about Swamiji’s USA tour in Indiawest.com
Techie Swami Mukundananda Embarks on 7-Month US
By SUNITA SOHRABJI
indiawest.com May 16, 2011 04:35:00 PM
FREMONT, Calif. – Swami Mukundananda, founder of Jagadguru Kripaluji Yog, will offer two free weeklong programs of yoga and meditation in Southern California beginning May 15, along with a Memorial Day weekend retreat in Fresno, Calif.Swami Mukundananda – who is on a seven-month, 21-city tour across the U.S. – will conduct a seven-day workshop on the “Path to Happiness” May 17–21 at the Sindhu Center in Norwalk, Calif.
He will then speak on “The Science of God-Realization” from May 21-26 at the Ma Durga temple in Pasadena, Calif., before heading off to Central California to conduct a weekend retreat May 28-30 in Fresno, Calif.
The Fresno retreat offers participants an opportunity to live in the mode of the JKYog philosophy for two and a half days, said Swami Mukundananda on a recent visit to Fremont, Calif. “This is a very blissful environment, created without worldly disturbances,” Swami Mukundananda told India-West in an interview, before beginning an evening lecture at the Fremont Hindu Temple on the science of devotion.
“There is a spiritual high,” he said, adding, “Many people come to me saying ‘this was the best three days of my life.”
The Fresno retreat will be conducted at the Fresno Airport Holiday Inn. A special program, known as Bal-Mukund, is offered for children. “They really love it,” said the affable Swami Mukundananda, dressed in traditional saffron robes and freshly-washed long hair for his Fremont talk.
Swami Mukundananda credits his popularity in the U.S. to his technical background. The 48-year old guru graduated from IIT Delhi, then went on to earn his MBA from IIM Kolkata, where he first embarked on a quest for absolute truth and came in touch with Vedic philosophy.
After graduating from IIM Kolkata in 1984, the budding guru took up a management job at Tata Burroughs in Mumbai. He soon felt suffocated by the rigid corporate environment and the facades of his fellow employees and quit three months later to pursue a spiritual life.
Swami Mukundananda has since given several talks in corporate environments and business schools. Last year, he lectured at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University on “The Spiritual Paradigm of Management.”
And on April 28, Swami Mukundananda visited Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif., where he told his audience: “Managers, manage thyself.” The well-received talk discussed strategies for staying well through yoga, meditation and spirituality, and debated the polarity of spirituality and materialism.
“There is no conflict between spirituality and materialism,” Swami Mukundananda told India-West. “Both have a suitable place in life.”
The science of materialism acts to harness our external natures, while spiritual science is about understanding internal nature, purifying it and manifesting eternal consciousness,” he explained, adding, “Just as you spend time on your physical body, cultivate your mind, and do your work with a different consciousness.”
Swami Mukundananda’s full U.S. tour schedule can be viewed online at www.jkyog.org/2011
