Satsang Volume 44 No 5

Agnihotra in Australia

Lee and Frits Ringma

March 2016 North New South Wales and Queensland
In March this year Lee and Ana Ringma took to the road to share the graceful healing and blessed relief that Agnihotra and Homa Therapy brings into people’s lives. We drove up the New South Wales coast starting from Om Shree Dham in the Hunter Valley NSW, giving Agnihotra workshops all the way up to Brisbane Queensland across to Toowoomba and then down the New England Highway. Highlights were well-attended workshops in Wingham, Byron Bay area, Toowoomba and Armidale.

In Brisbane, a spontaneous workshop took place at Ricky and Salima’s place. Their 11-year-old daughter Maitri loved Agnihotra so much that she now has her own pyramid and practices the Fire alongside her parents. The family have recently moved to Arizona, U.S., and are performing Agnihotra there. It is fascinating to see how things flow on. For example, at the workshop there was a Scottish visitor who has since taken Agnihotra back to Scotland.

A flow on from the Wingham workshop was having a stall at Enviro Fair Taree, as well as 2 well-received radio interviews.

While in the Byron area conducting workshops we stayed in Mullumbimby in the home of Agnihotri Oni Blecher, who kindly offered us her home while she was away. Every morning Ana and I would perform Agnihotra outside in the garden. A Japanese family lived upstairs. The reality is that they left Japan to protect their child from radioactivity from Fukushima; i.e., they are environmental refugees. Fascinated by Agnihotra, they requested Agnihotra ash as an antidote for radioactivity.

There was a well-attended workshop in Toowoomba, hosted by Jannelle Brae, Natural Therapist, where 15 new people took up Agnihotra. Janelle has been performing Agnihotra for several years and is excited for Toowoomba that many people in the area have taken up Agnihotra.

A young woman travelled all the way from Brisbane to attend, and has been performing Agnihotra with great benefit. Here is her testimonial:

“I can definitely say that I am developing a much more intimate connection with nature, myself and the people around me because of Agnihotra. It amazes me that a small practice that doesn’t take long (and that we can easily fit into our routines) has such profound benefits on so many levels. I believe it is a practice that a lot of people will gravitate towards as the awareness spreads. I am deeply grateful for being introduced to Agnihotra.”–Mai Hawthorne

Another testimony reads:
“Agnihotra has changed my life in such amazing ways. Firstly I noticed my sense of wellbeing and calmness changed within the first 24 hours of performing Agnihotra. I managed to continue with my Agnihotra as much as I physically could (not twice a day every day – but close). I noticed my entire family seemed calmer and more grounded than usual.

“One week later my husband, who used beer to relax after his stressful days every day 7 days a week, tells me that he’s taking a break from drinking for awhile! I was astounded. Six months on, my husband decided to give up smoking cigarettes, and now after 3 months stopping (after 25 years of smoking) – he proudly claims he is a non-smoker.

We live in the bush and all of the humans, animals and even the land seemed to have a ‘content glow’ about them. It feels so beautiful. I also noticed the potted plants that I was using the ash on, were absolutely booming with green leaves and shining like never before. They look sooo happy !

“….When performing Agnihotra I feel a deepened spirit-earth connection and am ever so grateful for the benefits that my family and land receive.” Anonymous, QLD

The Homa Therapy Retreat was lovingly organized by Tina Gough, Energetic Healer and longtime Agnihotri. It was hosted by ‘The Sanctuary,’ a bush sanctuary and healing retreat. Delicious organic vegetarian food was provided. The owner attended the workshop and took up Agnihotra to support nature as well as his own spiritual practices. Several organic farmers also took up Agnihotra to support their farming practices. A highlight was Agnihotra sunrise with steaming breath in the tipi, followed by Om Tryambakam Homa in the retreat hall with crystal bowl sound healing. It was a beautiful transformative experience for all.

July 2016 South Coast and Victoria
Frits and Lee travelled a 3500 Km round trip down the beautiful South Coast to Victoria, conducting Agnihotra workshops along the way. Their daughter, Ana Ringma, and visitor from Peru Tania Gutierrez, kept the Fires going at Om Shree Dham, looked after the cows, maintained cow dung cake production and looked after the veggie gardens. This enabled Frits and Lee to do Agnihotra outreach work to bring the healing balm of Agnihotra to many and to nature.

Departing from Om Shree Dham, the first stop was at Narooma Ecotel where we did the next morning sunrise Agnihotra. To our surprise, 5 people braved the cold in the early morning to attend and 4 of them took up Agnihotra! Narooma Ecotel is an enterprise set up by Stina Kerans and partner. Their passion is to create living structures that nurture community and environment- www.ecotel.com.au, www.sunvillages.com.au.

From Narooma we drove on to the Bega Valley to dedicated Agnihotris, Rikai and Mark Blondel. Their plans are to build a yoga/meditation retreat in Homa atmosphere with Homa veggies on the menu. As well as a workshop with their circle of friends, we had a special Fire and sound healing session down at the bubbling creek on their land. Frits performed the Homas, Lee played the crystal bowl and Mark went into a reverie of ancient tongues.

Our next stop was Lakes Entrance at the home of long time Agnihotri, Cass Roadknight. Two women took up Agnihotra in the area, one a practitioner of Orthobionomy.

The first workshop in Melbourne was organized by Zoran and Gordana in Northern Territory, Dandenong. Mostly members of the Serbian community attended. They also attended the Homa Farming Day at Marko’s luscious organic farm in Drouin. Marko is Zoron’s son. Several members of this community are planning to develop an organic farm, both in Australia and in Serbia, supported by Homa farming principles. They are acutely aware of the deterioration of both food quality and supply and deeply know that growing one’s own organic food as a community is necessary now. They also wish to bring the healing balm of Agnihotra to heal the war scars in their motherland.

Some of the activities at the Homa Farming day included:
• Introduction to patting out cow dung for Agnihotra cow dung cakes. Most people chose to do this with bare hands, knowing the healing properties of organic cow dung. In the Vedas it states that cow dung is not only clean, it is antiseptic and medicinal! For example, in World War I in Europe, cow dung poultices effectively healed gangrenous wounds. We noted that the cow dung collected contained
grain seed due to supplement feeding, making the cow dung unfortunately not ideal for Agnihotra.

• Learning Om Tryambakam Homa. Agnihotra brings in the flood of prana creating a vital biosphere, while Om Tryambakam Homa is utilized in Homa farming to add more nutritional fragrance and heightened vibration to the atmosphere. [Agnihotra establishes the basic healing cycle; other healing fires we teach, such as Om Tryambakam Homa and Vyahruti, strengthen that cycle, and are never a substitute for Agnihotra.-Ed.]
• Homa methods of planting seed. The
planted seed was watered with ash water running over the right hand. The hand of a regular Agnihotri carries a heightened healing energy. The seed is first soaked in cow’s urine which has anti-fungal and fortifying properties. In the absence of cow’s urine, we soaked the seed in ash water. When planting, we dug a hole deeper than required , placed Agnihotra ash in the bottom,
sprinkled soil on top on which nestled the seed, then covered with soil. This encourages the roots to anchor deeply, strengthening the plant as it seeks out the nutritional and pranic content of the ash.

“I came to Om Shree Dham because I wanted to improve my spirituality and to practice Homa farming. I am a Forestry Engineer and I like everything related to agricultural science and nature. My mother does Agnihotra in Peru and sometimes I accompanied her, but I did not make it a regular practice.

“The experience at Om Shree Dham gave me more than I expected. Practicing Homa Therapy and my experience at Om Shree Dham not only deepened my spirituality, it also improved my health, gave me more knowledge related to agriculture and improved my prosperity. I feel very grateful for Homa Therapy and for the Ringma family because they made me feel like it was my home.

“I stayed for more than two months here. During this time I helped with the farm work, for example, feeding the cows, making cow dung patties for the Homas and working with the vegetable gardens and fruit trees. All this work was complemented with Homa Therapy practices. I did the sunrise and sunset fire, one hour Om Tryambakam daily, the Gayatri, etc. All these activities helped me in a holistic way, the good actions producing good karma in my soul and my body. I am very grateful to God for bringing me here, for permitting me to know the Ringmas and for the good times here on the farm and in Australia. Homa Therapy has helped me a lot.”

Healing a Macadamia Tree
Our macadamia tree was attacked by a plague of some kind of mining insect that was sucking the sap out of the new shoots. Under the mulch we saw a mass of tiny insect eggs. To remedy the situation, Agnihotra ash was sprinkled around the base of the tree and watered in. Then a paste was made of Agnihotra ash, cow’s ghee and clay and smeared over the trunk from the base upwards and on any affected branches; also the cut off ravaged tips were smeared with the mix. The tree, a couple of months later, was completely free of the insect plague, had abundant new shoots despite it being winter, and was outstanding in its shiny, radiant foliage.

For more information on Om Shree Dham, please visit http://www.agnihotra.com.au.
Email: omshreedham@agnihotra.com.au