13 Aug - Swamiji prepares to introduce the participants to the Brahmacharya Training Program. The program started with Ananda Darshan (wherein He gives a touch of the Divine Energy to each one present).

Swamiji explains the Muladhara chakra, the root chakra or Energy center in our body from where the inner fire arises, the inner fire that is closely associated with our emotions and the fire that we need to learn how to handle through the Brahmacharya training program. Here, he explains the four stages of fantasy that locks the Muladhara chakra.

An intense discourse is delivered by the Master looking fresh and relaxed as always.

An informal session with the Master outside the Ananda Sabha. Swamiji stressed the need to create more ashrams and centers to spread his message of meditation and inner bliss. In response to his call for those ready to step out and create ashrams in acquired lands, more than 90 percent of the participants raised their hands enthusiastically. A list of the names was made and told that they would be trained specifically for entrepreneurship in tune with Swamiji's ideology to be able to administer the new ashrams.

A morning meditation after waking. Sleeping in the same room allows the Master to work on us intensely while we sleep. The participants sleep in the Ananda Sabha, the meditation hall along with Swamiji. In the picture below, they have woken up, showered and been to Guru Pooja under the Banyan tree, after which they gather once more, to do the Nithya Dhyan -a comprehensive 41-minute meditatation that cleanses the vital energy centers and energy bodies in one.

Seen below is Pancha tapas - a meditation sitting inside a circle of fire. This meditation is done to attain immunity from 64 fevers. Every emotion in us causes the temperature within to rise. Fear, anger, anxiety, lust - all are among these 64 fevers which cause changes in the body temperature. When this happens, we do not know how to handle it and we react to it through our behavioural patterns. When this happens, the fire that rises creates energy blocks in our system instead of being handled appropriately and dissipated. The Pancha tapas is done by visualising intense fire like that generated from a 1000 suns with intense cooling like that generated from a 1000 moons. It is done by losing body consciousness with just an intense awareness of the fire within and without. This meditation strengthens the immune system and enables us to handle the change in temperature, the fire that arises, in the correct fashion. It causes us not to react but to handle things effectively. This way, there are no energy blocks created and the system is integrated and strong. Seen below, is one of about six times the participants meditated in the circles of fire. The size of the circle is measured precisely with the height of each individual with their arms stretched straight up over their heads.

Part of the training program was sending out the participants to beg for bhiksha (alms), like a wandering mendicant. Here, Swamiji sends out each one to beg, giving them each a bhiksha bag to hold for alms and a danda (stick) that measures 6 feet, the height of the Master and symbolising the presence of the Master continuously with one. He explained that this begging meditation needs to be done with tremendous awareness, as a mere witness to what is happening. He explained that whether the person drops in alms or not, one is merely to witness and move on, untouched by it. This is an effective ego-slashing meditation that puts one in the middle path away from the extremes of worldly happiness and sorrow, both of which are dependent on outer world happenings.

Swamiji drops in the first alms - a few scoops of raw rice and some cash in each one's bag, thus initiating the begging meditation and making one feel abundant before even starting!