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Satsang with Swamiji (29th March 2008): 10th year anniversary of the Passing of Swamiji’s Parents
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the passing (within 17 days of each other) of Swamiji’s parents – Herb and Selma Kruckman – we inaugurated a beautiful small temple in the ashram grounds. Placed on the pathway between the house and the mandir, the temple houses a statue of the goddess Saraswati: the deity of the arts and learning. She is an appropriate goddess to remind us of the lives of two such creative and larger than life people as ‘Pop’ (a noted artist) and ‘Mom’ (a teacher).
Many in our community remember when Swamiji and Ma Devi undertook the epic task of bringing Herb and Selma across the world from New York to Mt Eliza, Melbourne. It is a tribute to their loving and bohemian natures that they both fitted into ashram life as if they were born to it.
Swamiji has renamed the house ‘Mata Pita Mandir’, using the names Baba Muktananda gave Pop and Selma: Mata meaning ‘mother’ and Pita meaning ‘father’. The naming of the house is very appropriate acknowledgement of Mata and Pita’s generosity in helping establish the ashram.
During Satsang we continued our honouring of this remarkable pair with an audio visual presentation, showing their arrival in Australia and the ashram in 1996, and a snippet of a film showing Herb and Selma interacting with Baba when he arrived in New York. We also had a slide show featuring moments from their long and active lives. To conclude this moving commemoration, Swamiji then chose several of the questions by Mata and Pita that are included in the ‘Satsang with Baba’ books, including a remarkable and shakti-filled answer Baba gave to Selma when she asked about meditation and its purpose.
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