Jai Sivananda. Jai Vishnudevananda. Anandi Ma Ki Jai. Jai
Bharat. Jai to all the devotees of 2307 Baynard Blvd. (the Sivananda Yoga
Center of Wilmington, Delaware and all the Sivananda devotees in this world
& the next !
This project of pictures and CD and DVD'S was needed as I was in Val Morin this
summer for a week and I thought it strange that people would pranam Swami
Vishnudevananda and they would ask at dinner if I knew him. When I came
along in 1980 everybody knew Swamji and he knew us. Also four women from the
Middle East saying the Universal Prayer together on stage at Yoga Camp was priceless ! Over
50 pictures have been put on my website. These pictures were taken between
1982 - 1989. If we saw Swamji 3 times a year we were in heaven ! Swamji's
body was moving a little slower but he was full of fire. Everything he said
in those years has come true. I also have a photo of Swamji fire walking!
I also have a photo of the Kavadi ceremony! You will get hooked in by the
picture - it's a real eye opener!
Swami Sivananda Photos Available
Photos available! But, they are just too big to upload
and download over the web. I have those on CD - just email (gregg@japanesemassage.net)
me and I will mail it to you! The photos are in PDF format and are 8.5 by
11 and 11 by 17.
CD and DVD offerings
The cassettes were recorded on a $30.00 Radio Shack recorder,
that's it. I recorded these for my own listening. I have 206
mostly 90 minute cassettes tapes from 1982 - 1989 of Swamji's lectures,
kirtans etc. ATTC by itself is 78 CD'S ! Some are the CD's are very good. Sometimes not so good as the recorder
might have been far away. Sometimes headsets are needed; but they are
vintage Swami Vishnudevananda in all his glory, his majesty, trying, just
trying to give us the teachings of Master Sivananda.
DVD'S
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I have 3 Sivananda videos I converted to DVD.
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Rishikesh - Silent, most have seen.
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Rishikesh - Swami Chidananda narrarates.
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DVD is of Swami Radha and Swami Chidananda talking about Master Sivananda.
This was done by some of Swami Chidananda's disciples in Oregon. I tried to find
them after 25 years. Ha! My favorite.
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Swamji's Berlin Wall expedition. The quality is not very good but there are
shots of Swamji that will help you identify the man on the CD's !!!!
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Yoga and Prison - Ron Cooney and Lisa Earl. I met her at the Ashram, a very beautiful
woman, quite strong in her resolve.
Along the way in the 80's someone gave me :
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2 different Meditation shawls ( clothing) of Swami Vishnudevananda.
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Bharat gave me a beautiful picture of Master Sivananda. He took it off the
wall from the Center. He just went over to the wall, lifted it off the wall and
gave it to me ! It's big. I'm trying to get that copied as we speak. None of the
usual printing shops have a big enough copier to duplicate it !
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Sister Veggie from the Divine Life Society in South Africa gave me a piece
of Master Sivananda's dhoti that Swami Krishnananda had given her.
I never asked for any of these items, they just came to me. I have made small
pieces of Swamji's meditation shawl and have given that away in my mailings.
Kind of neat. Swamji is in my heart so to have a piece of clothing wrapped up in
a closet doesn't mean much, I like it, but I'm giving it away now.
This project is not about me, but I need to explain to you a
little about myself - I don't want any profit from this, but I just want to
break even! This project will cost $15,000. I don't believe it either ! Money I don't have.
I just put it on a credit card as I'll deal with it later. Feel free
to send me any donations. I take credit cards too - anything helps! I'll work to get this
project to you and ask for God's grace so :
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You can have all the pictures I have.
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Soon you will be able to have all the lectures and kirtan from my website for
you enjoyment (= I POD etc.)
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This month I'll be making MP3'S to download on my website. I just bought a
Mac to get that done. I have no idea how to use it.
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I need to find out what it takes to download everything to my website. I have
no idea.
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I work at DuPont a chemical plant in Texas. I work 12 hour shifts. I have 14
days off a month = I need to sleep, it's not as good as it sounds !
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Look at www.japanesemassage.net go through all those pages as that has been
my Karma Yoga for the last 12 years. Last month in my Bodywork business (my
part-time seva), I worked 71
hours/clients by myself. People fly in from the U.S. and abroad to visit my
office.
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I hope to have everything on the website in a month.
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My first series will be Swamji's Karma & Disease it is 18 CD's. That will be
installed on the website first.
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I have the TTC lectures and the ATTC lectures of 1982 & 1984.
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The ATTC the lectures are numbered with the verses if you have an M&M, you
can learn Sanskrit too !
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I have a lot of Kirtans, and Sunday night Prayers.
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Swamji, talks about Master Sivananda, Rishikesh and about
himself, and you don't want to miss it!
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I have archived 20 of these CD'S so far. The
plan is to have everything transferred to CD and every subject will be
indexed so it will be easy to find.
Who is Gregg Hill ?
I currently will retire from DuPont (a big chemical company) Dec. 31, 2006. I like to teach what we are doing to the body when we are doing
Asana's and Pranayama. I've spent $140,000 USD to learn how to give a 1 hour massage ! I would take in $40,000 + a year from my massage practice then go take a seminar. One year I took
21 trips! I bring a massage table to the seminar and we talk a little then go
into the audience and see what we can find. Swamji said, "Serve those in front
of you one at a time." Sivananda said, " Serve them to the clients' satisfaction.
" That statement really changes everything ! I've done over 6300
sessions and I've had the same office for 12 years. When I got this office
on Richmond Ave., I didn't even know where the street was! I said "Yes" to
the office, and I didn't even know where it was! And my office mate ended
up being a Playmate Bunny but by then I already had a new office on the next
floor. When my office mate, brought in a liquor cabinet and told me she
was a Playboy Bunny, I decided it was time to get a new office, so I moved to
another floor! (Ha)
What I would like is to use everything I was given, when that's done, we'll ask
Swamji for more (realizations) He'll deliver. He always does. There are so many
people that don't come around to our centers anymore but love Swamji and Master Sivananda - tell
everyone about the website.
When the Yoga community starts to hear about these CD's
and pictures, the yoga community will get
better and smarter at Yoga! Swamji told many Yoga parables - they are easy to
remember and teach.
I'm going to India in January to
www.isvin.com in Trivandrum. I hear it is close
to our Ashram. I'll then go to Rishikesh and then through Europe. Find a way to
get me in front of a Yoga audience and I'll share with you what I know. $140,000 is 5000
hours of training in bodywork, look at my resume page. So many yoga people in the USA are hurt! Sleeping prescriptions in the USA
- 52,000,000 a year! Folks, we have problems! Swamji said, "Any and
all of the yoga practices, after you finish with them, they are pleasurable."
Sincerely,
Gregg Hill
Gopal from Delaware, ( now in Texas, 3 more months! ) Swamji & Elvis are alive in Houston Texas
.......... believe it
Some of my own personal teachers and friends:
His Holiness, Swami Sahajananda Maharaj, of the printing press in Durban, South
Africa (Divine Life Society)
I spent 4 months as a very untrained but sincere
worker in the printing press assembly of hand made Sivananda books. Not being a
disciple of his I was around him from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. In 4 months I
joyfully had one afternoon off. Many days it was just the two of us, If I made a
mistake or had a shortcoming it was dutifully pointed out. That's Prasad ! The
first day in the press I saw a machine malfunctioned, I told Rajan, the machine
operator, and he had to go tell Swami Sahajananda to get it fixed. I was frozen
in place as I really didn't believe I was in South Africa in an Ashram printing
books. Swami Sahajananda came and fixed the machine and then scolded Rajan for
his lack of attention. Then Swami Sahajananda came up to me and said, " I hope
you came over here to do more than just stand here ." ( I had been in the
printing press 15 minutes) I attended private Catholic School until 12th grade.
Then I was an Infantry Paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. Scolding
weren't usually a problem I had a few ! After he said that to me I thought he
was a little heavy about the situation. Well, unknown to me I was standing with
flyers, for an upcoming event, that had Sivananda's face on the cover. The
flyers were up to my ankles, you couldn't see the floor as there were hundreds
of Master's face everywhere ! Those 4 months were very hard, yet very beautiful.
We would talk to each other, me listening, sometimes he would answer the same
question 3 different ways going deeper. When I first arrived, He told his people (staff) told him they had a project
to do and they really didn't want an American with
them. He put his tools down, took his glasses off and said, " He has been a
disciple of Master Sivananda many, many lifetimes. he can do whatever he wants."
The work of the Divine Life Society in South Africa has always been very dear to
me.
Ruby Blue, Swami Niladevanandaji.
I met her when I was in Satsang in 1980 . I
offered her a place to sit down. She answered the questions I had about TTC exam
! I passed ! We have been friends ever since. I heard everything about Swamji
and the Sivananda family from her.
Bharat, Rupal, Meeta, and Ajay
In 1980 I went to Bharat's Gajjar's Yoga class ( to
meet woman) after being with 16,000 paratrooper's that had only 12 woman, the
"eye candy" in Yoga Class sounded like a great idea. Bharat could put his feet
behind his head, I wanted to do that. Bharat has 20 patents all over the world.
His most famous patent is the knitting machine for Spandex ! The Yoga class
always had a Pranayama, Meditation, Speak up time, Talks about karma,
Reincarnation etc. I disagreed with just about
everything he said! I was invited to a Satsang and accepted a few months later. They
gave me some kartels and looked at me like "get going" (in a nice way) . It
was pretty wild, I thought. Bharat's wife was the best. She was very active at
the Center and was very keen as she could speak a few minutes and everyone knew
what she was saying. Bharat and Rupal Gajjar and their family have had a Yoga Center
since 1966. The Center was closed just a few years ago as Bharat is 78 ! He
still has a TV Yoga show and a prison program that you can read about in this
website starting back in 1984! Bharat and a few disciples, close friends of
mine and helped this project and it will succeed for sure. Bharat told maybe 6
of us in 1980 that one day everyone would be taking Yoga ! The only place we
could teach was the Unitarian church ! Now look !
Sita
One of Bharat's disciples, Sita, is a public school teacher
- and in the
early 80's would teach Yoga in the hallways !
Gayatrima
The other disciple Gayatrima, now residing in Boston, was a student
of my yoga class who would always ask pointed questions. Nicely, I would give
her a Sivananda book, which led her to Bharat and Bharat led all of us to Swami
Vishnudevananda. Gayatrima was with Swamiji the last three years of his life.
Swamiji led us to Master Sivananda.
I want to see everything I have given away
or at least grant anyone free access to the pictures and lectures of Swamji.
