We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Devin ‘Deva’ O’Rourke . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Devin ‘Deva’ below.
Devin ‘Deva’ , we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?
Considering the spiritual heritage of our community keeps me humble and feeling like I will never do ‘enough’ to repay the debt of grace thats come to my own life. When I remember this I’m relieved of the burden of counting and quantifying everything and can give freely from my heart what I have to offer.
The Harmony Collective was established on the teachings of a group of saints in India known as the Six Goswami’s of Vrindavan. Vrindavan 500 years ago when these mystics were writing and teaching was a small village in rurual India. Yet these little mendicants hardly anyone knew about had this bold vision of uplifting the world in perpetuity with ancient knowledge of the soul, the self and divinity. They gave their life to that hope that their applications of universal knowledge would spread far beyond their own lands.
Most people today think you have to get rich and famous to spread knowledge like that. These men actually went the opposite direction, 5 out of 6 of them were from very wealthy backgrounds and had high positions in their society – but they walked away from it to live as servants of all peoples not just the privileged, and spend their time sharing, teaching and writing.
A contemporary follower of theirs, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada showed up in NYC in 1965, just at the dawn of the Hippy Era, carrying the essence of this message from these mendicants 500 years ago and with it he lit a fire in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of seekers from Allen Ginsberg and George Harrison at the time – to the present day where his translations of India’s spiritual classics such as Bhagavad Gita or Srimad Bhagavatam are the ethical life blood of hundreds of communities across the planet.
We at the Harmony collective are just one small flower in the beautiful and diverse bouquet of flowers. So much was given for us to be here; and we feel lucky to have the chance to pay it forward.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
The Harmony Collective began as a small ashrama for young people looking to dedicate themselves to a yoga lifestyle.
There was a healthy but naive atmosphere of escapism at the beginning – we were leaving behind the materialistic myopia of the modern day in pursuit of something transcendent. None of us had jobs, none of us thought about having families, and we lived the simple work of our mission to share self knowledge each day.
10 years later we are drowning in things of this world! Lots of families, lots of children, most of us have other jobs; we have 5 properties we use to operate a temple, a school for children, a vegan restaurant, a 10 acre farm and a yoga/studio space.
We embrace all of it and look forward to more. As we’ve grown in our practice an unexpected thing happened and we began to see that the philosophy of bhakti yoga doesn’t call us to deny or reject matter but rather to engage with it in a holy way.
We like to say ‘holy’ means ‘wholly’ – and our practice is to help us see the divine connection of all things and to harmonize all connections to support people in the experience of their own natural self. All the energy that is used today to defend and conquer and control could also be spent unifying, supporting and nurturing if people felt safe and empowered to do so.
That’s what we’ve taken as our charge in the world; to live out spiritual virtue in a way that honors the sacred in the common. If we learn to be respectful and responsible in our daily life; our inner life becomes alive with the potential of love and devotion.
If our outer life isn’t supportive of cultivating inner truth, then we’re just playing the usual rat race game but preferring to eat quinoa and wear flowly linens while we do it. If our inner life isn’t connected to meaningful engagement in the outer world, then it often just becomes another form of escapism not much different from drug abuse or media binging.
So many struggle oscilating between these two extremes in life – giving up everything – wanting it all – feeling confused and scared having to live in between both ideas most of the time.
There is a middle way. Harmony means things are different, but those differences accentuate one unifying message or image. Like a mosaic of tile whose many pieces with their different shapes, sizes, colors all come together in the hands of a capable artist to capture a singular moving expression.
So each of our efforts try to call attention to this dual opportunity of a fulfilling connection to the world around me and a deepening of a sense of the world within me.
We have our restaurant ‘Gora’s Grill’ in Ypsilanti offering plant based food everyone can enjoy and afford. Most of our customers are omnivores and working class. We have our ‘Cow Cuddling’ program at the farm in Maybee, Mi. It’s one of the most popular experiences on the AirBnB platform in all of Metro-Detroit – 300+ 5 star ratings. People drive from Chicago regularly just to spend an hour with our cows! And there folks learn it’s more valuable to ‘meet’ the cows than turn them into ‘meat.’
Our Thursday night kirtan’s offer a music mediation for 2 hours and a free, fresh vegetarian sit down meal afterwards. We’ve been offering 2-3 such meals with prayer and meditation every week for a decade.
Choices matter, and our life is a consequence of the one’s we’ve made so far. Our world is a consequence of the collective choices of humanity. I may not have all the power to make all the changes I’d like, but I do have some influence – and I want it to have the most uplifting effect it can on me and others.
Most know the importance of their choices, but it feels so overwhelming to live into that truth day to day when the world seems to be always on high alert. The Harmony Collective is here to help people bear the burden of their own responsibility; their own dharma of living and sharing a better way of living for everyone. You can’t do everything, but we will help you do what you’re able to do for yourself and others.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Hierarchy is unavoidable – make sure yours is a benevolent one.
I’ve made some mistakes in trying to avoid leadership, or shelter others from responsibility, or give people responsibility they don’t deserve or can’t handle. In each case the trust and fabric of the community was threatened. The idea that everything can be done on consensus and collaboratively and with full agreement from everyone is a dangerous fantasy. There will be people with power and influence greater than others in your organism. The key is to create structures that make sure the right people hold those positions and draw that attention from your constituents.
History Matters.
The narrative of individualism is on hyper-drive today. Everybody is trying to be somebody and is ready to disregard everyone else to get there. This makes our view of the past very self serving and shallow, and our idea of a bright future equally selfish. When you really know where you’ve come from, what it took to get there, what mistakes and what triumphs were had and by who – then you can have a healthy idea of today and tomorrow.
Self realization means self acceptance.
So many come to yoga and spiritual work with an idea that they will be magically remade into some fantasy version of themselves based on their own prejudices and a surface level reading of sacred text. This is much of what fuels religious conformity and cultish behavior – people really want to believe they don’t have to be themselves anymore and they can avoid all their inner work with the magic ceremonies of whatever group they’re drawn to. The Bhagavad-Gita is our communities ‘Bible’ of sorts – and there the message is the exact opposite. You can’t help but be yourself. All the Universe is pushing you in that direction; so stop avoiding it by trying to be someone you’re not.
When I recognized this I understood I have to be very careful not to try and fit people into a plan I have for how our community should develop; but rather shape the resources of the community in a way that helps the individuals we have grow. In sports its the difference between being a systems coach – who drew something on paper that they try to force all the players into – and a players coach – who see’s the talent of the team and then game plans based on that.
These days, its the players coaches that win more often.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
In the Bhagavad-Gita Krishna calls us to accept ourselves and take responsibility for our gifts.
In a world where most people are concerned with what their rights and privileges are relative to someone else, Krishna says to worry about what you can give rather than what you can get.
What is really yours, nobody can take from you – and the more we recognize that the more we feel free and allowed to be our authentic selves.
His first and continued assurance in the book is that out own concerns for comfort and safety can easily be met if we stop seeking happiness in them. Stuff in this world can never make us happy, but it can allow us to be stable. From a place of stability, we can step towards joy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theharmonycollective.org/
- Instagram: @harmony.collective
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theharmonycollective
- Other: https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/2910272
https://gorasgrill.com/
https://themarigoldypsi.com/
