User:Reddevimandala/Luba Evans

Luba Evans (Saraswati)

Luba Evans(Saraswati) is a founder of New York Tantric Meet Up, Boston Tantric Meet Up, Galiana Meditation Retreat and the international movement Tantra Without Borders – entities that reflect her vision of personal growth, healing and spiritual realisation.

Saraswati’s qualities encompass a lifetime of experience with wisdom and compassion, in a style that combines many ancient teachings and genuinely new insights into a synthesis that is uniquely her own. Students say that her mesmerizing voice, her exotic accent, her connection to the source “immediately places them into primordial states of consciousness”.

Saraswati is an artist, a weaver, a yogini, an authentic tantrika, an exquisitely powerful woman that radiates her creative shakti throughout the world.

Saraswati runs regular classes in New York and New England, together with intensives and residential retreats for open and ongoing groups at Galiana. She also teaches in Europe and India, serving a global community of students.

“I am here to to help restore the ability to feel and love, maximize our potential as human, rejuvenate, heal, may be even shift to a whole new dimension of possibilities. Life is sacred. Every moment of it is priceless.” Saraswati

Maternal Lineage Luba Evans was born to a lineage of independent, resourceful, and accomplished women. Her maternal grandmother was a professor of chemistry, Soviet factory constructor, esteemed community spiritual advisor, and a smoker of crude Belomor papirossen. Her paternal grandmother sang opera and held an artistic salon in her living room.

Luba: I had such an enormous quest for love, love which changes hormones, shifts reality and solves everything, love being the most and the only important thing. Love to a man.

She thought that her greatest talent was to love fully and to merge completely. After years of self-inquiry she realized that her true quest was to discover oneness for all. She was looking for a spiritual path that would help her and others to shift into the feeling of unconditional love.

The Temple of Barnes&Nobles When she first came to the US she thought that Barnes&Nobles was the biggest gift that she could receive. She called herself Agent Red and made a vow to herself that she will read every book in the Psychology, Philosophy and Religion section if that will be necessary to find the answer on how to find happiness for herself and others. It turned out that it was not necessary, and in fact it would probably be utterly unhelpful but in the process she put together a hefty collection of incredible books. As Luba moved and made her home in different locations around the world, she brought these books with her. They are her real foundation. It is telling that if she doesn’t unpack them, she doesn’t intend to stay long. She is unpacking them at Galiana for the first time in 7 years.

All Roads led to Tantra After years of exploration of different flavors of spirituality, mostly buddhism, raja yoga and ayurveda in US and in India, she came to tantra. Tantra was an ever changing mysterious beauty which allowed her to embrace everything, including her deep appreciation for the mystery of femininity, motherhood and deep sense of eternity.

At a young age Luba made the commitment to herself to learn how to overcome suffering for herself and for others.

"I realized what kind of love it is that moves everything. It is the love of the mother of the word, to the flesh of her flesh. By perceiving yourself as a mother of the world one can feel the love that lifts all veils of separation."

First Teaching Luba’s first memory is of sitting in the kitchen with her grandmother’s housekeeper who was undergoing hardships with her partner. The four year-old Luba (in Russian, her name means Love) returned every complaint with a suggestion for how the housekeeper could empower herself to improve her romantic situation. Although the advice probably did not make any impact, it was Luba’s first teaching experience– the first of many to come. She continues to help broken hearts and soul-searchers to find their own inner strength and peace.

Mirrors, the first teacher Luba: I would look into the endless reflections of me for hours and say “I love myself, and I love all of those, of mine…”

Another early memory is of her peering at the infinite reflections of herself in a wardrobe’s three-part mirror.

The endless images in the mirror allowed Luba her first mediation on eternity through the eternal reflections. Even now mirrors continue to play an important role in Luba’s life.

Luba: A good teacher is a pure mirror who can reflect the images of those around her without adding her own projections. Evolution of consciousness means becoming aware of one’s own projections; it is the process of returning consciousness to its original purity and eventually to the natural state where there is no separation between subject and object – just a continuum of consciousness.

In each human relationship, we reflect one another. We learn through these reflections and projections. We learn about the world, the design of human beings, the universe, and ourselves. Gradually, as we come to the understanding of the nature of our projections and relax our fears, we return to pure love – and then we really start living our life as a masterpiece.

The Dream of Galiana The concept of the Galiana retreat came to the fifteen-year old Luba while reading the book Spanish Ballade by Leon Feihtwanger. In the story, Galiana is a palace constructed by a Spanish king to create a place where his beloved feels at home. His beloved was a young wise woman who tried to unite many different religions. It was an oasis where the king and his lover found so much peace and love that he ceased to wage war for seven years.

Like the original Galiana, Galiana Meditaion Retreat will become a sanctuary for men and women to heal wounds, achieve spiritual and physical peace, and find forgiveness within themselves. When people have a sanctuary to open their hearts it is easier to bring out their internal god or goddesses, which every single being has within. This process is contagious; the sparks from one open heart ignites others.

Galiana will be a place for people to create and share a pulse that they can carry with them wherever they go and share with whomever they meet. It will be a place for the souls to clean their mirrors and reflect the light without obstruction.

Luba’s friends Sveta and Ron have been with her on every step of the creation of this magnificent project. Ganesh was always there as well, removing the obstacles. You can find his journal here.

Masha, Paul, Vlad and Meera, as well as a team of 30 volunteers have been providing relentless selfless service, support and making the impossible possible to manifest this dream into reality.

Luba’s philosophy on religious or spiritual thought is that major concepts are similar within many different platforms. She says, “you just have to be a good translator to find the equivalences.” One of her first jobs in the US was being a translator, and this experience, just like many others are invaluable on her path. In her “previous life” as she calls it, she worked at Dunkin Donuts and in a financial consulting firm. She was fired from both of these establishments and since then has created entities with the focus on human interaction and trust.

Motherhood is central to Luba’s worldview. She became a mother at the age of 17, but even before her daughter Masha entered her world, many boys and girls sought her out as a guide. For her, motherhood signifies the total ability to sacrifice anything without question for the happiness of one’s child. Motherhood is being strong and honest, taking responsibility, guiding through gentle correction, and signing the universe of your children into existence with joy. Masha is Luba’s paramount creation and biggest teacher; she is the purest mirror of her reality and consciousness. In this generation of children, Luba sees a lot of beauty. She hopes for all people to peer into the reflections of our children and learn.

P.S.S. Saraswati is a name Luba adopted after one of her trips to India in 2006. In Sanskrit, Saraswati is the Goddess of wisdom, education, music and speech, the path from the throat and the third eye. She symbolizes the ability to express what one intuitively knows through wisdom. She is also the invisible river, one of the three great rivers – Ganga, Jamunda and Saraswati. It is at the crossing of these rivers that hindu sadhus go through renunciation and rebirth. She is also the protector of the arts and sciences, favorite goddess of hindu musicians and artisans.