*Swami Probuddhananda in Europe: a spiritual tour of Love and Truth.

* The arrival of Swami Probuddhananda in europe meant a victory for spirituality o ver social and political order and regulations. The difficulties in getting the visa gave us the clue of a big opportunity waiting to happen. Such was the faith that his friends from Sadasiva Yoga Centre (Nieves and Juan Antonio) had in Swa miji, that after many complications with his visa, they did not step back. Nor d id not yield until they saw the approval from the Spanish government of a positi ve response for Swamiji's first visit to Europe. This approval was also possible due to the untiring collaboration of Alejandro Torrealba (Acharya Dharmamitra D hiraji) from Milarepa Centre in Las Palmas.

On his arrival he headed to Barcelona where Paula Esparza welcomed him in her ho me. A set of meetings in Happy Yoga, a known Yoga Centre of the city was organiz ed along with daily talks in Paula's house. Each day people added to the group o f listeners eagers to hear Swamiji's sweet words on Vedanta, while pure love and devotion towards his master Bhagavan was always present.

Swamiji's enormous heart made everybody feel love, easiness and trust regarding his message. The simple way he expressed the highest truth of Self Knowledge mad e them think it can be possible for them to proceed on towards the Self, to real ize the Truth.

Each meeting Probuddhanandaji explained the main ideas regarding spirituality, G od, Self, Vedanta, Guru, Knowledge, mantra, divine love, etc., to people of diff erent levels of knowledge and involvement with those ideas. He also commentated some verses of the Bhagavad Gita, and texts like Vivekachudamani. The sessions w ere presented in a dynamic way with moments of meditation, open questions and ch anting. Swamiji expressed himself in English, nevertheless his message was possi ble to received for Spanish speakers thanks to the invaluable participation of K ojima Halliday, also a disciple of Bhagavan. Kojima played a vital role in Swami jis visit, not only as a translator, but also as his brother and companion.

Every moment was spent with spirituality in different places, situations and aud iences, from 5 people to 90 people. In Spain meetings were held at Happy Yoga Ba rcelona, Tara Yoga Center Las Palmas, Milarepa Buddhist Centre Las Palmas, Geeta Ashram Las Palmas, University of La Laguna Tenerife, Sadasiva Yoga Centre Tener ife, Geeta Ashram Tenerife and in Holland at the University of Tilburg. Private house meetings held in Spain: Barcelona and Las Palmas and in Holland: Sprang-Ca pelle, Amsterdam, Arnhem. Each program had an average duration of 2 hours where the audience barely moved from their positions. On one occasion its duration was of 4 hours and nobody left the room before the session ended.

The Program in the University of La Laguna was of great significance. It was an invitation from professor Francisco Diez de Velasco, director of the department of History of Religions. It was held in quite an impressive place, a conference hall in the shape of a pyramid. The audience was around 35 people and each of th em listened with attention to Swamiji's words on Vedanta. He talked in a profoun d yet simple way about this philosophy being part of our very human existence. S wamiji made it clear that we can approach this Truth, supreme love, knowledge, b liss, and we can go beyond the limitations of our minds and mingle with the infi

nite. It seemed obvious for all that it was not a lecture from a professor who g ives theoretical concepts, but that they were in the presence of someone that wa s talking about a Truth he knows. He combined the comments on the scriptures wi th simple examples for people to comprehend, then answered questions and ended t he session with meditation. Swamiji prayed on behalf of those who wanted to know the Truth that they would find their Master.

The program ended with professor Diez de Velasco giving thanks for this wonderfu l conference and people started clapping vigorously. It was as if western academ ic knowledge was showing gratitude to the Knowledge of the Self. Swamiji also ex press his gratitude and afterwards people remained in the hall talking with inte rest to each other and with Swamiji, finding out about the future events during those days. It was a beautiful evening.

This was without a doubt a spiritual tour, every day had been spent in talks, ga therings and speeches. It was clear how people had opened themselves up and had felt Swamiji's love and big heart. It is not that Spain or Holland was an easy f ield to spread this message. People have worries for politics and economics and move around with their busy lives like in many places, but there was a subtle im pact and a channel of communication was definitely opened.

Thank You Swamiji for inspiring us with your love and words on Bhagavan and Veda nta. With love, Ainara