lost tribes

 Now is the time to open your heart. - Alice Walker, the author of Colour Purple has held me captivated for the past few hours. Read her spell bound as she took me deep into the land of shamans, the concept of "ethnobotanist" plant healing from the jungles of South America, where there are herbal intoxicants used as a medium to free the spirit - called Ayahuasca -vine for the soul (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0603/features/peru.html) MUST READ!

The above link, delves well into explaining one of the experiences that someone goes through through energy healing. But that is not what I wanted to delve into. Alica Walker, in her book travels through some memories of the native americans, the shamans of South America and the Hawai culture.

To me the very terms seem so incredible. The fact that you need a term like native americans or abrogines to refer to people who were native to the land they belonged to. For me it is akin to someone coming to India, wiping us all out and then our nation being home to white skinned people and the scattered population left being called native Indians. ! what a joke that shall be.

A native american, in this tale comes every Thanksgiivng to this guys ranch in utah. The ranch is super duper massive, covering acres and acres of land. The native american has only one request, to get water from one spring on their land. Each year he appears, knocks on the door, is driven to the spot, half fills his jug and thanks them in a solemn manner. Years pass, the ritual carries on with his grandson now assisting the old man.

When asked Y he needed the water, the answer was always the same : For ma bones 

With time, a mining company discovers coal deposits and the spring is dug up to reveal a lake, the exposed lake soon dries and there below the land there was a huge deposit of bones belonging to his ancestors. he would take the water from the spring, to another deposit across the ranch, pray to the bones buried there and sprinkle some water.

People mock at these ancient lores. Death is the end there is nothing more once we die, are often lines we hear. i for one dont believe. The distressing thing is the mass genocide over the years have made these ancient customs so hidden that other than scattered people who struggle hard with their inner faith to take up the profession, the shamans, the healers, the excorcists are all becoming rarer as diamonds.

am writing this in the wake of an sex -escapade of a swami in south india. As a lawyer, am not sure what is crime is? Sex? is not a crime. Mis representation at best, but that only holds true if he advocated everyone to embrace celibacy. if that was the way it was to work for everyone. Osho said the reverse and he too was banished.

Something in this book has made me want to be there experiencing this healing for myself. When and where and how i dont know. But to explore the inner deeper side of South America is a wish that has been there for a while.

Is consuming external substances the best way to do something like this? Probably not. But then again guess it is the manner and intent that makes the difference. All i know is that somewhere retreats like you clean you from inside, making a lot of everyday feel trivial.

Am in that zone now. Quiet, calm and collected. Not morose just feel like a very slow painter on the wee end of a large huge canvas. Have no rational reason but get a sense that I am closing the lid on a lot of relationships, friendships, thanking them casting off the last lingering thoughts and once that is done, only and only then shall new ties be formed.

For once, there is no haste. only chaste ;-) hehee

Sadhguru

Sadhguru, hmmm am at a loss of words when it comes to describing what and who he is and what he means to me. 

Am a spiritual junkie, name it and have done it, tired it. Done Reiki, Art of Living, Pranic healing, EFT, Kaya Kalpa Yoga, Hatha Yoga from two different schools, the Kriya Yoga as espoused by Yogananda and the list shall hopefully carry on, but from all these experiments what remains with me is what I learnt from this man.

Am a believer, of the world of energy, of the limitless universe, of sidhas and saints, that there are realized souls. That the world that we live in is a superficial one, an interesting one but there is a far deeper land that awaits us, and it is totally upto us to reach into it or skip it as a  result of calling all this hocus pocus, religious crap or choosing to be an atheist or the host of other labels that you may choose to ascribe to be scientific n rational.

All I know is that when I close my eyes, breathe as prescribed, something happens. I slow down, the edge of tension that seems to shadow me daily, slips off like water and am left calmer. Everything seems all right, the world seems all right, its larger, subtler and quieter. This is yoga for me, this sense of calmness is what remains and the emptiness seeps out. 

Wish I was a better more disciplined practitioner than a talker. But the time for that shall come, in this lifetime, yoga will continue to play a critical role in my life. The gut says so.

Isha foundation is his center(http://www.ishafoundation.org/).  A regular lad, he was a rebel drove a motorbike, studied married did all the stuff that we all do. Yet in his eyes he always saw a reflection of some hills and assumed that is how everyone saw the world. Hilly. Till one day, he saw the Vellagiri hills that’s when he knew. The term “sadhguru” means the one who knows or gets realized without the painstaking process of reading all the texts. His knowledge from the past lives, where he was a disciple of a saint came to him, and he then knew that the reason he had come to earth was to consecrate the DhyanaLingam. (to read more seehttp://www.dhyanalinga.org/ )

That is the theory, pointless unless there is a personal experience. Went to the isha ashram last year, he was conducted a Satsang. 2000 people from as far as Lebanon, were there to hear him, to be in his presence. The cynic in me was sort of rolling my eyes at the “be in his presence” bit, but liking the overall feel of the place I went.

What happened next, there is no logical explanation for, everyone was fed, roomed and given the best facilities free of cost. We all flied into the large garden waiting for him to commence his discourse. He arrived to the sound of music, everyone was still and quiet, he whispered into the mike, just blew into it…..and…….pop went some people. He said Om, pop went someothers, people were yelling, hooping, flinging themselves, were senseless, their energies not within their control. 

It is not something that makes sense when you read it. The best explanation is that their kunadlini (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini) was rising, heightened and hastened by his presence,  and they were living the brief minutes of ecstasy when nothing else matters.

The noises that they made, were uncannily similar to the ones people make during an orgasm. Tantric sadhus believe that sexual intercourse is the easiest available source for humans to get a mere glimpse of what nirvana/bliss/dhayana is about. When the self dissolves and all you can think of is nothing can only be.

I sat there, eyes closed, heard and sensed everyones whistle singing. Gender, class, race, education were not any bar to who went into a trance and who did not. I did not, but at that point of time all I wanted was to be able to yell and loop without being aware that is what I was doing. Wanted my brain to permit me to loose control, wanted the soul to be in the driving seat….. someday the ego shall not be so edgy.

Yesterday, was Mahashivratri. They say if you stay up this night, and say shiva’s name even by mistake, that which is not possible for you shall become possible. Went to the isha gathering, surrounded by hundreds we meditated on the name of Shiva, we heard the thunder of Sanskrit chants to the beat of drums, and I glimpsed a truth larger than me.

In life, whenever am low. I pull out my yoga mat, sit and breathe there. Have been doing this for 4 yrs. This simple act, lets me release my doubts and know that in the infinity of life, all is well, everything is whole and complete and this moment is perfect as is.

Acceptance and surrender, the jewels I wish I wore more often.