How the menu works

The menu is the same on every page of the site, on the public pages, in the Sangat portal and in the admin desks. What it lists depends on who you are, so a guest, a member, a volunteer and an administrator each see their own.

Three rules

• You only see pages you can open. The menu is built from the same rules the site uses when you open a page. If a page is not for you, or your branch has switched that feature off, it is not listed. Nothing is greyed out and nothing is locked behind a label.
• There are never more than five main items. However many roles you hold, the header shows five at most. A volunteer who is also a Regional Admin still sees five, not more. Extra tools open inside a panel under one of the five.
• The phone bar never changes under your thumb. Once you are signed in, the five places on the bar stay where they are, whatever your role.

On a computer or tablet

The header reads from left to right: the wordmark, the main items, search, the Akhand Sadhna dial, the light and dark switch, and your account menu. If you are not signed in, the account menu is replaced by Sign in and Start here.

The wordmark takes you home: the public home page if you are a guest, the portal if you are signed in.

Choose a main item, or hover over it, or move to it with the keyboard, and a panel opens with the pages under it.

Your account menu holds your profile and settings, sign-in and security, notifications, your data and choices, Help and Sign out. The footer on every page also has a Help link.

At the top of the footer on every page there is a slim row of fifteen small glowing icons, one for each of our initiatives. Each icon is a link to that initiative’s page, and its name shows when you point at it or move to it with the keyboard. The glow rises and fades slowly along the row, and it stays steady if you have asked your device to reduce motion. On a phone the icons wrap onto a few short rows above the phone bar.

On a phone

At the bottom of the screen there is a bar with five places.

• If you are signed in: Home, Satsang, the dial in the raised centre, Community and Me.
• If you are a guest: Meditation, Visit, the dial in the raised centre, Stories and Menu.

Me opens a sheet. From the top it lists My sewa (only if you are in a team), then your desk (only if you are staff), then Practice, then your account links. For a guest, Menu lists Service, About, Sign in and Start here.

Every button on the bar is large enough to press with a thumb.

If you are a guest

You are not signed in. The five main items are:

• Meditation: start here, what meditation is, what Brahm Gyan is, and the science.
• Visit: free events, finding a centre, and visiting the ashrams online.
• Stories: real stories, pages for children, and news.
• Service: the charity work, volunteering online and giving.
• About: who we are, our founder and how to contact us.

Next to them you will see the dial, the light and dark switch, Sign in and Start here. There is no My sewa.

If you are a member

Signing in gives you the portal as your home, and three main items:

• Satsang: programs, the Sangat Calendar, Thursday Bhajan Sandhya and event albums.
• Practice: your practice, the Rudri Path, fasting and vrat, and Aarogya and Dinacharya.
• Community: the community pages, discussions, messages, the ashram directory and our initiatives.

If you are a volunteer in a team

Being in a sewa team (sewa means selfless service) adds a fourth main item, My sewa. It lists only your own teams. Under each team you see My shifts and the tools that team has been given. Nobody else’s teams, and nobody else’s names, appear there.

If you are in two teams you see My shifts once at the top, then a section for each team. A third team adds a third section. It is still one main item, so the limit of five holds. See “My sewa: your teams, shifts and tools”.

If you are a coordinator or a preacher

You see the member items and one more, Desk, or Region desk if your role belongs to one branch. Its panel lists the desks you may open, and only those. If you are also in a team, My sewa is the fifth item.

If you are a moderator

You see Satsang, Practice and Community, plus Desk. Its panel has two parts: Moderation, with the queues your scope has, and Desks, with the desks you may open. A moderator for one region sees only that region’s items, and the region’s name appears as a small label.

If you are a Regional Admin

You see Satsang, Practice and Community, plus Region desk. Its panel gathers the regional console, content, people and teams, programs and money, and settings, as far as your branch’s features allow. The branch you look after is shown beside it. A Regional Admin opens only their own branch.

If you are a Super Admin

You see Satsang, Practice and Community, plus Admin. Its panel holds everything a Regional Admin has, then every branch, then the platform desks that only a Super Admin opens, then safeguarding and privacy. The header also gains a control to choose which region you are looking at, and a way to see the site as another kind of person sees it.

A moderator who is also a volunteer and a Regional Admin has the fullest menu there is: Satsang, Practice, Community, My sewa and Region desk. That is five, and it stays five.

If something looks different

• A page you expected is missing. Either your role does not open it, or your branch has switched that feature off. Ask your coordinator, or your Regional Admin, which it is.
• My sewa is missing. You are not in a team yet. A coordinator or a team lead adds volunteers to a team.
• Your menu changed. The menu follows your access, so it changes when your role or your teams change.

Related guides

• The Akhand Sadhna dial
• My sewa: your teams, shifts and tools
• Roles and teams: who can do what