Living the Dream in the Himalayas

Reflections from the First Nivrutti Retreat at SRSRC

तूने है इक सपना देखा, देखा जग-कल्याण का
मैं भी बनूँ तेरे स्वप्न का हिस्सा, तू कहे ढल जाऊँ वैसा..!

You have envisioned a dream, a dream for humanity’s welfare
May I too become a part of this vision, moulding myself as You say!

Dreams do come true. Both ordinary and extraordinary ones. While ordinary dreams restrict themselves to the circle of greed and self-interest, the extraordinary ones dare to envision a change that impacts the world. But there is another, lesser-known category of dreams – revolutionary dreams. These dreams do not concern themselves with the limited and meagre demands of the world. Instead, these are born as answers to a prayer for the infinite that every heart utters, knowingly or unknowingly. These dreams do not come true, they are willed into conception and eventual reality by the Ultimate Truth, the Beloved whose longing for us becomes the origin of our journey back to Him.

Sri Guru’s dream to build SRSRC was one such revolutionary dream – a dream that aimed to provide seekers with the opportunity for Nivrutti: a sacred time for solitude, reflection, and meditation, at a sacred home away from our busy and fleeting shelters. While it became a reality during the inauguration ceremony in November 2025, February 2026 saw the first-ever pilgrimage to our new home where a small group of seekers were blessed to live the dream with Sri Guru.

On the very first evening, Sri Guru laid out the perfect Dincharya for the pilgrims – a routine that included all key dimensions of the path to sacred union – Dhyan Yog, Gyan Yog, Karma Yog and Bhakti Yog. Yes, there were fixed time slots allotted for each of them. But in reality, they overlapped freely, as they should in a seeker’s journey. After all, how can meditation be separated from devotion, especially when it flows in Sri Guru’s aura every morning? How can one be anything but meditative when Sri Guru speaks not just through words, but also through her eyes and her very presence? And how can one stay away from selfless service, when the void within is filled to the brim by the matchless alliance of Yogbal and Mother Nature’s healing powers?

During the eight days of Nivrutti, Sri Guru’s passion to live this dream and her love for humanity radiated through the cloak of invisibility that is Her silent service: through her presence in the morning YogaYog and meditation session – hours that are otherwise strictly reserved for her personal Sadhana; through mystical words on the nature of Punya that implored us to be wary of every hidden desire; through reflective worksheets and discussions whose purpose, as Sri Guru kept reminding, was not to lend more knowledge, but to infect with the contagious madness of Love; through her tears that actually made each heart glisten with Love’s intoxicating purity; through 142 questions and answers that carry the blueprint of SRM’s foundation; through her childlike excitement while revisiting Raj Katha – stories and learnings from Param Krupadu Dev’s exemplary life; through Garba and Sufi whirling on Apoorva Avsar under a night sky full of celestial spectators shining brightly in awe and admiration; through the extreme care with which the living facilities have been designed and built to ensure Nivrutti is not something that seekers do here, rather something that simply happens with each breath; and not least through her commitment to spend a movie night with all the seekers, despite circumstances that deserved her attention and presence to be elsewhere. Love has infinite faces. And if you ever get the opportunity to attend such an intimate retreat, at such a spiritually charged place, with such an invigorating Presence, you might also get fortunate enough to witness a few of them. 

This was merely the first of many, many more Nivrutti retreats to be held at SRSRC. In Vachnamrut 128, Param Krupadu Dev writes on the rarity of exactly this kind of a place – “…वैसा स्थान कहाँ कि जहाँ जाकर रहें? अर्थात् वैसे संत कहाँ कि जहाँ जाकर इस दशा में बैठकर उसका पोषण प्राप्त करें?” (Where can one find a suitable place or saint to nourish the spiritual state within?). Wherever He is today, He must be smiling knowing that seekers in the present era have an answer to both these questions.

Dreams do come true. Both ordinary and extraordinary ones. But it is only the realisation of such revolutionary dreams that is venerated in the scriptures of the mortal world and celebrated in the timeless scripture of the immortal world: the Beloved’s Heart. Just how blessed are we to be a part of one such dream?