Imagine a place where you could take your family that would bring a person having no knowledge of Veda to a deep appreciation of the depth and breadth of Vedic knowledge and what it can offer the world. All that rolled into a fun-packed, fulfilling vacation, it will be a spiritual “Disneyland” of sorts. For an evening’s entertainment, you could choose between a visit to the Gandharva school of music to listen to an evening raga, a pulse evaluation by a Vaidya, a visit to one of a number of Vedic temples, listen to the pandit boys practice their chants, or any number of presentations, including an astronomical exploration of that night’s sky. That’s not all.
What is Vedic cognition? How did the universe manifest? What is the seamless interface between modern and ancient Vedic science? How is it possible that pujas and havans actually work? What is cultural integrity all about? What is enlightenment? Answers and explorations of all these questions and more would be at the visitor’s beck and call.
The Vedic answer to Disneyland would be a profoundly enriching, even transformative, experience while being delightfully entertaining for the whole family.
This place already exists in the mountains of North Carolina, USA. It is called Mount Soma, home of Sri Somesvara Temple. Yet there is much work to be done. The sthapatis have provided the plans for a perfect Guru Shala, complete with five temples: Shiva, Krishna, Durga, Ganesh, and Surya. A Vedic University is just underway. The Maharshi Maheshananda World Peace Project (MMWPP) has already begun as well as the Maharshi Maheshananda Veda Pathashala (school for pandit boys). A Narmadeshwar lingam will soon be installed in our Ganga, known by the locals as
Maynor Creek.
Such an enlightened city is a beacon light for the entire world. It is not enough to have one temple or even multiple temples. All levels and aspects of life must be addressed to provide conduits of harmony to radiate to all — a real United Nations, not just one of politicians, but of business leaders. A place where these leaders come to organise and bring prosperity to all people everywhere. Housing for people of all income levels. An ashram for the inwardly inclined.
A place where young pandit boys become universal men — not compromising, but instead enhancing their cultural integrity. They will learn to seamlessly interface with all cultures, while breathing life and integrity into each. Not a mixing of all the colours of humanity’s pallet into a dull grey, but an enhancement of the vibrancy, integrity, and nobility of each colour, each culture, throughout the world. The shastras say that such a place has the potential to transform the world. Let it be so. Now is the time.
Hands must reach across the oceans to unify humanity. Being in the West, Mount Soma creates a bridge between continents. In India, it would be lost within the garland of temples. Only in the West, and only by one who knows and loves both East and West, can such a place be created. As Maharshi Maheshananda, founder of Mount Soma, said, “The knowledge is eternal, yet it must eternally be expressed in new ways to be received by the people, the mentality, of that time. Today, the simple truth is that the Western scientific mentality dominates the world. If spirituality does not make sense to people, they reject it. If we allow this to continue, we will lose our children, and our children will lose the great gifts the Rishis have handed down through the ages. Fortunately, we live in a time when science has advanced enough to embrace what Rishis have been saying for thousands of years. It is ours to bring that understanding forth.”
Maharshi Maheshananda, previously Dr. Michael Mamas, was born and raised American, and was transformed through his ashram years. His spiritual understanding and ability to teach was recognised in 2007, when he received the title Adhyatm Vidhya Visharad from Bhagavan Yagnyavalkya Ved Tatavagyan Yogashram, the Sanskrit College at the University of Gujarat.
(www.mountsoma.org and www.srisomesvara.org)