Dr. Chintamani Yogi ji’s visit to Los Angeles, California

 

By Prem Guragain, Anaheim, California

 

 

BACKGROUND

 

I have known Dr. Yogi since 1988 when I used to visit Hindu Vidyapeeth and Matribhumi Sewak Sangh in Kathmandu. At that time, I used to be a Science teacher at Martyrs’ Memorial High School in Gyaneshwore, Kathmandu. During that time, under the guidance of late Dr. Bihari Lal Shrestha, we used to have get together (Satsang) every week at his house in Jawalakhel. Late Dr. Shrestha was very enthusiastic, humble person who always had smile on his face and would never look down at anybody because he was a doctor. Being one of the most renowned and respected bone specialists as well as a Professor at Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj, he would mingle with all kinds of people and one could never tell how successful medical doctor he was.

 

I had a good friend of mine Bamdev Yogi who used to teach Art at the same boarding school and because of him, I came to know Dr. Yogi. Chintamani sir (as we all call him), was always enthusiastic, energetic and was the anchor for all the programs that were conducted by Matribhumi Sewak Sangh and was the founder principal of Hindu Vidyapeeth established in 1985. I had always enjoyed the intellectual talks by Dr. Yogi. It was as if he was born with the talent of speech delivery. He would give so many examples to prove a point and even the layman could understand what was the message behind his speech.

 

I had always loved to associate with Dr. Yogi and the other regular attendants of satsangs at late Dr. Shrestha’s home and once I was fortunate to attend a camp with Dr. Yogi and many other Matribhumi Sewak Sangh volunteers. The camp started early in the morning and with a strict discipline, it would be conducted in a scientific manner that would help the attendants to develop mentally, physically, spiritually strong so that one could be a responsible citizen and would carry out the future responsibilities in real life, without loosing courage and patience. Even though it has been such a long time, I still remember every moment as if it just happened yesterday. The satsangs had so much impact on one’s life that it is almost impossible to forget even after decades have passed by.

 

After I went to South India for my Engineering degree and came back to Nepal, I had not kept in touch with Dr. Yogi. We went our way and when I came back to Nepal after my study, I was busy with Faraday Academy of Computer Education (FACE Computer) in Putali Sadak and then left Nepal, pursuing my future career. I had lost touch with Dr. Yogi, Matribhumi Sewak Sangh and Hindu Vidyapeeth but I always wanted to get back to at least one of those camps and wanted to experience the same kind of spiritual feelings that I had when I first went in late 80’s. The timing was not perfect until I met Dr. Yogi again in November 2008. This time, something urged me strongly, to find out about Dr. Yogi and visit him. This time, before I went to Nepal, I did all kinds of search under his name and tried to find out what he was still doing. After a long search, I found out the address and phone number of HVP at Balkumari and paid him a visit.

 

I went to meet Dr. Yogi at HVP and had some talks. I was very happy and excited to see the same smiling, happy, friendly face after decades. He asked me to join him for dinner, an invitation I gladly accepted. We sang many songs - those we used to sing in camp (“Sangha mero jeevana ho sangha mero prana ho…. Sanghe shakti kalau yuge…”) and some others. I had forgotten to pray before eating food (could say because of American lifestyle…) and was very happy to chant mantra (“Bramharpanam…”) again with Dr. Yogi.  After the dinner, we talked for a while and I left his school. He introduced me to the children there and asked me if I could tell them something about America, American life and any advice to them for a better future. I spoke for a few minutes and was so happy to be able to encourage small children, to become the best they could be in their life but not to forget our own culture, value system and the best part is the Nationalism. Hindu Vidyapeeth, under the guidance of Dr. Yogi, has done so well in preserving Nepalese culture and at the same time, students are so smart about what is going on around the world.

 

I went to Saturday satsang at Shanti Sewa Ashram and enjoyed every bit of it. They are doing great job at the Ashram, under the leadership of Dr. Yogi. There, I met a blind young man, who could sing so well and many other young people who were eager to show their talent in various fields. I came to know about the Children Peace Home in Dang and promised Dr. Yogi that I would like to be part of the supporting group. In a very small way, I could be part of few children’s lives so that they would have a better future. I felt as if I found a platform to be able to provide services to our own community and instead of blaming the whole world for the complexity and all the negativity, it would be better being able to provide a small helping hand to solve the problems. “Ocean is made by each drop of water and when millions of Nepalese hands unite from around the globe, we have a HEAVEN ON EARTH: i.e. Nepal, our own motherland.”

 

TRIP TO USA – STOP IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

 

Before I came back to USA, I had requested Dr. Yogi to stop in Los Angeles area since he was running a Summer Camp in Texas and most probably, he would be flying through Los Angeles, California. He told me that he would try to organize accordingly because his time was valuable and was not sure if he could stop in LA area. After some changes in schedule, he accepted our request and there started our journey towards spirituality, more deeply and reminded of us that we still have enthusiastic Karma Yogi like Dr. Yogi in Nepal who has no selfish desire but to give and give and give the wisdom that he had been collecting for decades, like a huge tree proving shades to hundreds of people who just sat under it, after a long day’s walk on a hot, sunny day.

 

Together with my brother, Bimal Guragain, we went to pick up Dr. Yogi at Los Angeles airport on Thursday, June 25th, 2009. From Los Angeles airport, we went to Bimal’s house where accommodation was arranged for Dr. Yogi. We had dinner, talked for a while, and I left Bimal’s home to my home in Anaheim, California.

 

SATSANG IN SEAL BEACH, CALIFORNIA

 

The next day, we had planned to meet American friends in Seal Beach, California. Part of Dr. Yogi’s schedule of events. I told Dr. Yogi that I would come next day, would pick him up from Bimal’s home and would bring him to my home, we would have lunch and would drive to Torrance to pick up Burt and Marsha and drive with them to Seal Beach to have satsang at Diane’s home. Since this was the second year they were all meeting, everybody was very much excited.

 

On Friday, June 26, 2009, I picked up Dr. Yogi from Bimal’s home at 10 AM and we went to our home. My wife Brinda had prepared delicious lunch (I am being prejudiced here). We had lunch at our place, Dr. Yogi played with my son Prateek and then he had few minutes’ rest. After that, we left my home at around 2 PM, picked up Burt and Marsha and went to Diane’s home in Seal Beach. We had great food and great satsang at Diane’s home. She is such a great spiritual lady and has a great serving heart. She had prepared all kinds of homemade food and all were so delicious and healthy at the same time. Dr. Yogi had talked about different types of Koshas: Annamaya Kosh all the way to Ananadamaya Kosha and their meaning and how to control our Anna (“Food”) so that we can experience bliss all the time (I have uploaded the part of the conversation in youtube: ….) After couple of hours of satsang and tasting of great food, we left Diane’s home, dropped Burt and Marsha at their home and came back to Bimal’s home. Since we had three satsangs booked for Saturday, I left Dr. Yogi to relax and take a rest for tomorrow and went back home.  More on this satsang here: http://abc4all.net/yylla.htm

 

THREE MORE SATSANGS

 

On Saturday, June 27, 2008, we had three satsangs confirmed: One in the valley area, north from Los Angeles organized by America Nepal Society, California (Hosted by Arjun Tripathi and Gokul Poudel at Gokul Poudel’s home), second one in Artesia, organized by America Nepal Ekata Samaj (hosted by Bimal Guragain) and third one was organized by Guragain family (hosted by our father, Mr. Dilli Ram Guragain, former Chairman of Morang DDC).Early morning, we drove to valley for the first satsang. We had great time, listening to Dr. Yogi and everybody who came there, were very excited and wanted to spend more time with him next time he is in Los Angeles. Few of them had heard his speech in Nepal on TV and loved it since then. After this program was over, we came back to Artesia to conduct second satsang of the day. In this satsang, we had Mr. Veda B. Joshi (Founder of America Nepal Society, California; one of the oldest Nepalese organizations in California), Shanti Ram Dhakal and Balaram Thapa from Nepal America Ekata Samaj, Dipendra K.C.who knew Dr. Yogi from Nepal as his brother had invited Dr. Yogi to be a chief guest in their boarding school, called Suryodaya Boarding School, Rajendra Siwakoti whose wife Sangita loves bhajans and had been arranging bhajans at their home in Alabama and had moved to California now and many others. Everybody got so excited after Dr. Yogi’s talk, bhajans and beautiful slokas from scriptures. Dr. Yogi has tremendous power and charisma to get the attention from the crowd and has a special way to deliver the message so that people would not forget his spiritual message even after they left him.

        

The evening satsang was also at Bimal’s home. This time, it was our family alone and couple of other families (our relatives). My father Mr. Dilli Ram Guragain wanted to host the evening for Dr. Yogi since he was impressed by his encouraging and enthusiastic talks and the message was so clear in his talks about “fixing one’s family before trying to fix the outside world”. In all his talks, one message was always clear, “Please do not get so busy amassing dollars that you forgot to take care of your health and your children. What benefit it is to dig the whole mountain and end up getting a mice.” Everybody who attended the satsang was so much excited and at this meeting, we promised Dr. Yogi that, “We start a monthly satsang; we start running Sunday school for children to teach them Nepalese language and our culture and we will conduct a Summer Camp for Children in 2010 under Dr. Yogi’s guidance, similar to that of Dallas, Texas.”  My youngest brother Sanjay Guragain took the videos of the program and has already uploaded few clips in youtube. He just finished his Masters in Computer Science and was very much impressed by Dr. Yogi’s spiritual talks. We also had my younger sister Radha Sapkota and Gopal Sapkota with their children: Sanju and Santosh Sapkota at this satsang.We were moved by his bhajans, beautiful discourse and the way he made all of our family members to stand up and dance in bhajan. We felt the total unity in the family and this is the only place where grandfather and grandmother are sitting together with their grandchildren. As Dr. Yogi says, “Satsang is the only place where the whole family sits together and sings as well as prays together.” This is absolutely a truth. As it is said, “The family that prays together, lives together”.

 

SAN DIEGO,CALIFORNIA

 

We kept him until late at night as we didn’t know how quick it was 12 AM. After the satsang, I left for home, promising Dr. Yogi to return back next morning since we had to go to Gopal Yogi’s home in San Diego for satsang. Gopal Yogi is Dr. Yogi’s brother and had been organizing such satsangs in San Diego for the past 2 years already and this one is the third year. Dr. Yogi, Bimal and me went to San Diego and enjoyed the satsang at Gopal Yogi’s house and came back to Los Angeles in the afternoon, promising to pick Dr. Yogi back next day because we had more satsangs for Monday and Tuesday.

 

               

 

On Monday, June 29, 2009, I went to pick up Dr. Yogi from San Diego. We had program at 7:30 at Yuba Raj and Sabitra Oli’s home in Norwalk. They had special request to Dr. Yogi and had called everybody in LA area to come and join the satsang. I brought Dr. Yogi to their home and satsang started at around 8 PM. The home was packed with curious audiences who had missed previous satsangs and this time, they wanted to meet and hear from Dr. Yogi. It was a beautiful Satsang at Oli residence and Dr. Yogi honored Sabitra Oli’s mother there. Everybody loves Dr. Yogi because of his innocent conducts and sweet nectar like words he extracts from the scriptures, for layman to understand the meaning of them. Dipendra K. C. was the announcer and at the end of the program, Nepal America Ekata Samaj honored Dr. Yogi with the plaque, by Shanti Ram Dhakal (Chairman) and Uma Thapa (Vice-Chairman). After the satsangs, Dr. Yogi provided everybody with the bibhuti and Prasad from Pashupati Nath. He gave this to everyone at all the satsangs. People loved to receive blessings and prasads from Dr. Yogi. After photo session, we had dinner at Oli residence. I dropped Dr. Yogi at Bimal’s home and left. Next day morning, Dr. Yogi was invited at Nirmal and Sabina Ghimire’s home for lunch. Sabina Ghimire is my youngest sister and my brother-in-law Nirmal Ghimire is also from the same place as Dr. Yogi (i.e. Parsa, Dang) and Nirmal Ghimire had already attended one of Dr. Yogi’s satsang in New Jersey before and he really loved it. After the lunch, Dr. Yogi went out with Nirmal Ghimire. They had great time in Long Beach, on the boat for over an hour as a sightseeing.

    

On Tuesday, June 30, 2009 evening, we had satsang at Mr. Veda Bhakta Joshi, one of the oldest Nepalese (in terms of number of years being in America) in Southern California, a great social worker. He had invited Dr. Yogi for dinner and satsang and had invited his family members and other friends to attend the satsang. We reached there at 8 PM, had dinner and Dr. Yogi mesmerized the public as before. The setting was so beautiful for satsang as there is a Shiva temple, Ganesh Temple and Joshi dai has a beautiful water fountain outside. When we listened to Dr. Yogi, it gave us the feeling of being in a very quiet place, away from city noise and other distractions. I have known Joshi dai for over a decade and this time, I was happy to do satsang at his home with Dr. Yogi.

After the satsang, we came back to Bimal’s home and since Dr. Yogi had to leave next morning for Madera where he was going to speak in front of huge gathering in a church (mostly American friends), he started packing the luggage and took a rest and I went home. I came next day morning as we had a plan to have lunch and then Gopal Yogi would drive Dr. Yogi to Madera and to Oakland for ANA Convention. Gopal Yogi arrived at around 12 noon. After promising to meet again, Dr. Yogi left for Madera with Gopal ji and his family. When we bade farewell to Dr. Yogi, I felt as if I had missed a closed friend that I have known for years. He has such a magnetic personality and charisma that anybody who comes near him, will become friend forever.

 

This is how the journey of Dr. Yogi from Kathmandu to Los Angeles, has come to an end for now. We are all very much excited to do something creative for us and our children so that we, as well as our children, remember the culture, value system and our children will follow our footsteps and see the hero in us and not in any sports or music figures because they had nobody to follow at home.

 

Here are few important things that I had observed while associating with Dr. Yogi:

 

  1. He has a loving and caring heart which he shows by listening to people sincerely and even though he is an invited guest at someone’s home, he would listen to others first, let them sing bhajans if they have their own choice and then only, he would proceed. This is a rare quality of a great leader.
  2. He is compassionate to the needy and takes his time to care about them: whether he/she is a small kid, young adult or older person.
  3. Everywhere we went, young people were naturally attracted towards the teachings and were shocked to hear the truth in a very simple manner. They were surprised why their parents had never taught them about the simple truths of life.
  4. His dress is so simple and wants to keep it that way. I was fortunate to spend almost a week with him and after a close observation, I was very happy and excited to know that he is very transparent and has the same personality either in public or in private life.
  5. His love for Nepal, Nepalese people, Nepalese culture, Nepalese value system, Nepalese language, Nepalese rituals is so obvious and wherever we go, people would feel as if the ambassador of Nepalese culture, is at their home. I always wanted to give him signal during the satsang to stop the program because it might be late at night for him but the public participation was so intense and Dr. Yogi was so excited to pour his heart into the public, I would just ignore and let him continue his speeches. I never saw him tire even after the jet lag and so many meetings one after the other.
  6. He proves Gandhi’s quote, “My life is my message.” Everywhere we went, he was busy in spreading this message and the best thing I liked about him was, “Do not preach. You do, be the best example and others will follow.” We can hear people talk all day and night long, but when it comes to the real application in life, that seems very rare. Dr. Yogi’s message is loud and clear, “Nepali Haami Rahunla Kanhaa Nepal Narahe, Uchai haamro chulinchha kahaan Himala narahe….. We have to preserve our Nepali culture NOW before it is too late.”
  7. The great characteristic of a true leader is “being able to inspire others to get into action and not just a few hours of motivational talk.” Dr. Yogi has this quality of providing everybody with self-motivation so that even after a long time he is gone, his messages are still resonating in our heart. He touches your heart with his childlike innocent smile and truthful words and discourses from the scriptures. His combination of Sanskrit, Nepali, Hindi and English words are so perfect at the moment and he never refers to any notes. According to the public needs, he has the topic ready and could easily divert the topic if he feels that the crowd is different.
  8. He never solicited for any kind of donations from anybody for any reason. People were shocked to know that they could not give him any cash even when they got tika as Prasad and the thread from Pashupatinath temple. This is very rare because every singer, guru or so called reformer comes from Nepal, they seem to be busy collecting dollars and many people are skeptical to attend their programs as they don’t know when they will be asked to drop the donations in donation box or someone would be collecting money.
  9. I never saw him criticizing or complaining against any other religions or gurus and had respect for all the religions, gurus, different kinds of songs and he would accept all of them as “the means to same path”. Everywhere, I noticed that people were asking for “some more please, some more please”. They seem to be wanting some more of Dr. Yogi’s wisdom.

 

Thank you Dr. Chintamani Yogi for all your contributions to the Nepalese community in Los Angeles area. We are greatly honored by your wisdom and the time that you invested in our community. We promise you that the seeds you have planted here, will grow to become huge trees that would bear fruits so that the whole world would enjoy them, for their own benefits.

 

-Prem Guragain, Anaheim, California….