Vanya

Sannyas is a ceremony where you choose a symbolic name to guide you on the path as a truth-seeker.
Osho describes a person who has taken sannayas as a sannayasin and continues, "Sannyas is basically a rebellion about all structures, hence the difficulty
to define. Sannyas is a way of living life unstructured. Sannyas is to
have a character which is characterless. By 'characterless' I mean you don't
depend anymore on the past. Character means the past, the way you have lived
in the past, the way you have become habituated to living -- all your habits
and conditionings and beliefs and your experiences -- that's what your
character is. A sannyasin is one who no longer lives in the past or through
the past; who lives in the moment, hence, is unpredictable."

Last Friday, January 29th, there was a beautiful ceremony here at the ashram and I was surrounded by a loving community, great music and a celebration so full of life I thought I would burst!

With this initiation you commit yourself to the path of meditation and the name change is a reminder that we are not fixed to a certain personality or definition of self. I have not changed my name in the government document sense. Instead, I have chosen a name that resonates with something deeper, as a reminder to my self of who I am and what I am longing for. This name is a symbolic gesture and I am not asking you to call me by this symbol.

Within this community and along the spiritual path I have chosen and am connected to the name Prem Vanya Tarangita.

yeah, yeah, it's a mouthful but Vanya (pronounced vawn-ya) is the focal point, the other two are a combination of reminders I need to carry with me. Many women chose the word Prem, meaning "love", in front of their sannyasin identity because whole-hearted love is very much the feminine connection to self.

Vanya means a wild forest and it has many layers of importance and beauty to me, hard to put into words. Tarangita means inspired/zestful/river- a metaphor and an inspiration I love having in my life.

This may seem really confusing and I had doubts about posting this as a blog. You can read more about Sannyas at: http://www.neosannyas.org

I will finish with a few quotes by Osho to further explain the unexplainable:

“Sannyas simply means they have accepted a way of meditation and a life of joy and rejoicing. It is accepting to create your life into a blissfulness."

“The ancient meaning of the word was, one who leaves the world in search of truth. My own meaning is, one who lives in the world and yet goes on searching for truth. Because where can you go? Everywhere is the world."

" ‘…but why should I change my name?’ Why not? The changing of the name simply means you are dropping the whole old personality that was indicated by the old name, that you are beginning afresh with a new name. It is symbolic. You were not born with a name. The name was given by your father, by your mother, by your people. Now you have dropped all conditionings, why not drop the name those conditionings gave to you?"

"An open heart, a loving heart, a deep trust in oneself and nothing else is needed. You don't have to surrender to some master, you don't have to worship some God, and you don't have to do some prayer to some hypothetical deity. You don't have to go to man-made temples and churches to find that which is hidden within you."

Just open.