Dear Siddha Yogis,

Happy spring to all of you in the Northern Hemisphere, and warm greetings to everyone!

As the teacher for A Sweet Surprise satsang 2013, I am delighted to share specific guidance from Gurumayi for your study of Gurumayi's Message for 2013, Mantra Japa.

On Tuesday, April 9, Gurumayi asked me to convey this guidance to all the Siddha Yogis who are visiting the Siddha Yoga path website every day to read the Teachings on Mantra Japa. Gurumayi's guidance is for you to include one more practice in your daily study of the Teachings on Mantra Japa, and this practice is memorization–learning these teachings by heart.

I want to explain the importance of Gurumayi's guidance for us to memorize the Teachings on Mantra Japa. In the Sanskrit language, the word for "remembrance" is smarana. This is different from the ability to simply recall something. Smarana means "a constant remembrance," keeping something always in your awareness.

Applying the practice of memorization to the Teachings on Mantra Japa will support you to reach that state of smarana in which you experience that mantra japa is happening spontaneously inside you all the time.

Gurumayi requested that I share with you one more surprise: the reason it is important for you to memorize the Teachings on Mantra Japa is that these teachings are leading to an incredibly special event on the Siddha Yoga path website.

I look forward to sharing more about this with you very soon. So keep up your memorization, and have patience!

With love,



Swami Akhandananda
Teacher for A Sweet Surprise 2013