Eternity

As I look back over the last three years of my spiritual journey with Swami, I find a large number of defining points that changed my understanding of the universe and subsequently how I lived my life. Swami calls these "clicks". Two amongst them, I find, have had the deepest impact on me. The first one was during one of the Tamil Shiva Sutra talks he gave in Bidadi in Mach 2008 and the other was during the first ever Kalpataru he conducted in Nov 2008. This writeup is about the first one. I am trying to dig up the video so I can do an accurate translation.. but in the interim here is what remains etched forever in my memory..

It was a couple of months after the first course I had done with Swami - a NSP in Jan 2008. The death meditation and the talks swami gave during NSP had given me certainty about the fact that life continues after death and shaken a lot of ideas I had about my life and the universe. But at one level it was still words and some parts of me had doubts.

In this Shiva Sutra session, Swami was talking about how truth can be delivered only to a small set of people as otherwise it gets diluted - like the Gita was told to Arjuna, Katho Upanishad to Nachiketa, the Shiva Sutras to Devi who was just one part of Shiva etc..

He then stopped suddenly for a few seconds as if deciding whether or not to talk about this. Then, perhaps after deciding that we were ready to hear, he went on to talk about an incident that happened in the ashram some days back.

He said that he was sitting with a few of his closest disciples in a casual mood... when he suddenly asked them if there was anything if he did that they would consider him greater than they already did. They all, he recounted, said that he was the greatest and that they couldn't even imagine anything that was greater. He then went on to ask them if there was anything else remaining with them that they could give him. These were disciples who had been with him for a long time and had given everything they had - money, time, effort etc - for the mission and the master. And so they said that all they had were His' and that there was nothing more to be given.

Swami at that point told them, "Great! Now listen to the truth... For, actually, only in such a situation can truth be told.

There is no motive for me to say this except for the fact that this just happens to be the truth. And.. ", he added "What I am saying does not need any complicated logic... or does not have any 'hidden meaning'.

What you understand with the language you learnt in elementary school.. what the words mean to you in a simple way.. is the only thing I am trying to tell you.

"And the simple truth is", he said, with slow words:

"What you feel as you...

... right now..

... is eternal.

It has no end ...

and it cannot change".

Saying this he paused.

He continued after a few seconds saying that the moment he had said this, all those disciples sitting around him started rolling on the floor with tears in their eyes .. as the truth.. and the pure simplicity of it got transmitted right into their being.

The whole hall listening to it for the second time sat in stunned silence. And his words hit me right on my head. And for someone who hasn't cried in ages, my eyes started to tear. At that point, something in me knew the absolute truth of that statement. And has ever since..

Leaving me in eternal debt and gratitude.

Mind reading.. Premonition or Chance?

I thought a lot before deciding to post this because it is a bit too personal. But then I figured it is something worthwhile to share and might help others - especially those who know me enough to not doubt my integrity or my sanity. And maybe the whole incident happened so that I might share it. So here goes..

This happened a few weeks back after I listened to this morning lecture by Swami Nithyananda on exploding the brain's potential and about how the Ajna Chakra in between your eyebrows is sort of like a cosmic internet where one can download any information if properly trained.

He was telling in the talk how the modern education system was based on the myth that everything has to be fed into the brain via the senses and hence students spend inordinate amounts of time learning facts and knowledge that they don't really need.

He talked earlier about one incident in his early childhood where some of his friends challenged him to a knowledge contest and asked him what the idol on the pavazhakundru hill in his home town was. Though he nor anyone else in the town except the priest and his family had been inside the temple (and the popular view in the village was that it was a Muruga temple) he could clearly see in his Ajna that the temple was an Ardhanarishwara temple.

Taking inspiration from that, I felt like doing a number guessing game. I went to Surya and told him that I could read his mind. I asked him to think of a number from 1 to 10 and focus on his Ajna. Which he did. I then, to his delight, guessed the number correctly as 6. But being smart kid he said that I was possibly lucky and that I had 1 in 10 chance of guessing right. I asked him to do it once more.. and again guessed it rightly - the number I guessed now being 8. This time his jaw dropped as he figured out that an odds of 1:100 was decent enough to trust me. At that point I no longer felt like guessing more and stopped.

The incident both delighted and freaked me out. Not because I haven't seen it before. Swamiji regularly has given me answers to questions the moment they pop into my head. I have a number of friends at the ashram who constantly have such mystic experiences and Siddis like levitating on cue. But I was never one of them. I always felt that it was because I did not have the ability to handle the power in some way. Which is one of the reason I didn't try to continue the guessing game. I have read enough times that these powers are not to be used frequently and that their only use, if any, is to give inspiration to people on the inward path. So I stopped the moment we felt it was clear enough for us. Surely, there would be skeptics reading this who might think an odds 1:100 is not a big deal. They would, I guess, have to wait for something that is tailored to their degree of skepticism.

One thing that I didn't tell Surya at that time so that I don't scare him out further was that the numbers actually came into my head before I asked him to think of a number. Almost as-if the whole incident was a orchestrated drama! I don't think this involved me suggesting numbers to him as a couple of years back just after my inner awakening course I had a similar incident involving 3 rolls of a die that I could correctly predict. Then too, I got the feeling that I could predict the roll before I started rolling. I had then stopped when my odds reached 1:216 which I had thought was good enough for me.

Given that I did not try this prediction stuff in between, that gives a combined odds of 1:200,000. Your own personal odds could be got by multiplying this by your trust in my integrity, sanity and 1 minus the probability that you think I am smoking something. And of course you need to further reduce this by how much this would shake you from your current belief system and ideas about the universe we live in .. and the amount of your investments based on that belief system :)

Happy wondering...

Send me your comments. As always, send me any personal abuses via email.

Inception

A few nights back I had the weirdest of dreams. I wake up from sleep inside my dream in a strange building. And in front of it is a huge and very ancient multi-storied temple with the ground floor housing the temple pond.. unlike any I had seen before. I wonder why I am there. I look around and find a number of others waking up all through the building that I am in and asking each other the same question. They are all bewildered as to why they are here and how they got here. Someone suggests we contact Swamiji Nithyananda but we are not able to reach him.. and someone else says that the rumor is that he is on the way to here as we speak.

I then walk through the temple and suddenly a thought strikes me that perhaps this is a dream. I try to find out some anomaly around me but can't find any. I meet someone in the temple and ask him if this is a dream. He tells me that it is. And I ask him, "If it is a dream, why does it feel so real?".. and he does not reply and says, it is just so. I continue on my unsuccessful quest to figure out why this is a dream and not real. I touch the walls of the temple and everything around me and they feel solid. I can feel my breathing. This can't be a dream I say. I spent a bit of time after that wandering around and feeling the reality of the place. I then get home and meet my son Surya. I ask him the same question and he too replies that this is a dream. I ask him for the reason and he says that it just felt so. Then I sense someone enter the house and suddenly in mid sentence, I wake up!

My entire dream and the quest is so fresh in my memory - as was the realization of who I was and the fact that I had indeed been dreaming. That moment of waking up is strongly etched in my memory. A mixture of amazement and unexpectedness - almost an anti-climax. I was trying to figure out in the dream whether I was dreaming or not.. but I could never imagine what waking up would be like. I wonder if this is what the enlightenment experience would feel like.

I wonder...

Inner awakening - Rude Q&A.

All the rude questions you wanted to ask about IA but never found the words to express..

If you know me personally, it is quite likely that I have mentioned this course (Inner Awakening) to you. Let me start with a strong testimonial and go into the why, what and hows later on.

If there is one thing that you want to do for yourself or anyone you know - take this program! It will take you to the next level of whatever you want to do - be it money, health, relationships, career or spiritual growth. It is amazing. It is too good to be true. And I am not exaggerating. Don't miss it!
So, now that I have gotten that out and have you all either excited or puzzled (or maybe revolted in the case of individuals who don't know me well enough and feel they are listening to a car salesman), let me tell you what this is all about. Again, this is purely my opinion and experience. If it differs at anypoint from what you read on the official site (http://www.innerawakening.org), please rely on the facts mentioned there.

This is a 21 day transformational retreat. It is happening in Bidadi near Bangalore in India. The dates are from the 1st to 21st of December, 2010 8th May to 28th, 2013. And it is about awakening and about transformation. It is conducted by Paramahamsa Nithyananda who, in my opinion, is the greatest expert on the human mind and consciousness in the world today. In the 40 years of my life, I have had my share of spiritual courses, books, teachers and what not. So I don't make that claim too lightly or in ignorance (well not too much ignorance at least).

Here is Swami's introduction to the first IA in 2008 that I attended and testimonials from some of the folks who did the course with me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GFkrv5lIyE

So, what is this course about?
It is about making yourself complete. What it is to you will depend on what you find lacking in yourself and it is different for different people. Some people become healthier, others get out of depression, addiction or other emotional problems. Still others find success in the outer world and a some get meaning in life and answers to questions they have about themselves and the world they live in. And more likely you will find improvements in all these areas.

This sounds like one of the fake medicines that are advertised to cure all diseases from common cold to cancers.. How does that work?
It is more like a broad spectrum antibiotic and addresses all dimensions of your being. The course has intense physical yoga to tune your body, deep meditations techniques to still the mind, processes that will balance and clear your emotionalal blocks, very powerful lectures that will remove many fundamental misconceptions we have about life, the universe and everything and so on. It is a one stop integrated course that will put you ahead in your quest within. If you haven't started, this is a great place to start. If you are already on the path, this will lead you further ahead in the places where you are blocked or need help.

That's still a lot of mumbo jumbo. What (tf) *exactly* does the course do?
All of our problems - even the ones we think are caused by the outer world and by other people - have roots inside us. Transforming those roots is the best way to get rid of your problems. Most of us have a blueprint that drives our lives. If you are on the other side of 30, you have possibly seen yourself run into the same kind of problem over and over - with different situations, people or organizations. We have long standing issues like phobias, chronic fatigue, relationship problems etc. The blue print limits your possibilities in life and soon enough you feel the world to be constraining and hence depressing. The blue print comes from our past through wrong learning codified in the memories which have strong emotional attachments to them (called Samskaras in Sanskrit). These are stored not only in the brain, but also in our body - in the way we move, our physical postures and so on. Clearing out of these limiting patterns in a large part of what happens in this course. And this will directly expand what the world can offer to you.

Here is an amazing introduction to the NSP (Nithyananda Spurana) program where he talks about engraved memories or engrams and the different layers of the being where the different kinds of memories are stored. This is the first talk of the first course I did with Swami.. so it has been very special to me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRCoB8uyahQ




I am perfectly fine as I am. Why do I need to transform?

I would ask that to the people around you. In all likelihood they would disagree. If you are married, in all certainty they would disagree :) Jokes apart, it is great that you feel you are fine. And thats the best time to learn. Life is expansion. And whichever dimension you are expanding in, you can always use the extra energy that comes from having a thorough spring cleaning of your body and mind that the course offers.


I am already developing myself in the gym, going to a shrink twice a month and taking a personality development classes. Why do I need any old world stuff?
Whenever you learn something, it makes sense to learn from the best authority in the world. If you want to learn computer science, go to MIT, Stanford or Berkeley.. or maybe even Wisc Mad :). Learn martial arts at the Shaolin temple. Likewise, the Vedic schools in India have spent thousands of years understanding the human mind, its problems and solutions to those. Each generation has hundreds of researchers analyzing, re-verifying and updating the knowledge. As such, it would make sense to at least look into some of this before you trust your local shrink with your mind and life.

I have tried many of these before and they haven't worked for me. Why should I believe that this one will?
Well *something* has to work at some point. There is a good likelihood that this will work for you. If you are so certain that nothing will, you wouldn't be hanging around. Personally, I went to the course thinking exactly this - that this is going out to be one more failed attempt. But I was pleasantly surprised. And I have found this to be true with all the 100 odd people who did the course with me. Everyone one of them felt it was awesome and almost all of them said they would bring their relatives and friends for the next course. Thats a darn good success rate by any standard.

Can you be more specific as to what you personally got out of the course?
If I were to do a diff between my state before and after, here are the biggest changes I see in myself. I used to be very fearful of the world and others. I now genuinely like most people I meet and I seldom worry constantly about things. I also realized how a lot of my fatigue and lack of energy was related to fear and have been able to be free of it for most part. Like I said before, many people may not have this problem and hence their changes would be in different areas. During the first couple of weeks of one of the courses I lost 20 pounds of extra weight that I had put on! Not that it matters as an achievement, but I can touch my head to my knee when bending while sitting or standing up - something I could never do before and burnt me up when whenever I saw others with nimbler bodies do. Oh.. and the biggest change is that after the course I can sit quiety for and hour or more without needing to jump up and run or scream out :) It is surprising how much of healing the power to do that alone does to a person. I quit my job and parodoxically made more money in the process.. Something I would never have had the courage to do before. And there is more.. But maybe I'll do a separate blog post on this where I don't have to skimp on the poetry and keep it all so terse.


How does this course compare to other similar courses? Should I shop around?
By all means do. But personally I haven't found one that is comparable. Many of them require you to go through numerous preliminary courses spanning months or if they are honest even years. Or they address just one aspect of growth - either spiritual, psychological, materialistic etc. And hence the benefits they offer are limited and easily reversed by the problems you have stored in the other parts of youself. Again, I am not putting down any other course. Clearly I don't know all the ones that are offered in the world. If you do have someone you know who can vouch for them, please go ahead and give it a shot.

This course is taught directly by an enlightenened master and not his disciples twice removed. Those of you who are in the know would realize that this is a very rare opportunity. The course is not just a set of techniques that you can learn out of a book but a process where your problems are cooked in the intense energy of the master. This might sound too mystical to those of my friends who haven't experienced such things. But I would request you to take it on my trust and give yourself a chance to experience what it means..

All this is great. But seriously .. 6000 dollars? Your'e kidding right?
For most of us in the modern world, the cost of trial and error far exceeds what it costs to go to the best one around the first time. I have recommened this course to my brother, cousins, my mom and many friends. All of them who took the course have the highest praise for it and thank me regularly for the referral. My cousin had just finished an MBA from Wharton and he said that he got more from this course for 21 days and 6000 dollars than he did during the 2 years of his MBA spending a 100,000 dollars. Even if you are in India where the income levels are not as high as they are in the west, the course costs a lot less than an average car.. and is much much more useful than a car is (and less polluting to boot).

For some of the people, I personally guaranteed them their money back if they didn't find the course useful. In fact I told a couple that I would refund their money if they did not think this was the best thing that happened to them in their life. So far I haven't had any requests for the money :)

And I was debating the wisom of putting this out in a public page.. but what the hell.. If you know me personally and really need this guarantee, give me a call and we can talk.

Do you get any commission out of the fees we pay?
No. I don't.

I am interested in the course but I have a strong revulsion to anything that is religious. I'd rather go to a place that is more.. well.. 'secular'.

Religion I feel - more in the west than in India - is a subversion of spirituality by people who wanted to use it to control others by fear and greed and to some extent by others who were ignorant of the real reason why things were said. True Spirituality is all about finding joy in life. Guilt, conditioning, heaven and hell have no place in it. The organization that runs the course is a research lab where many of these ancient techniques are researched and verified before they are thought to you. So you get the best of the old world wisdom combined with modern science.

God is found in the deepest parts of the spiritual science. God is both a technique that helps you go beyond your individual programming and a goal of a state that is free of all of the wrong notions that have been fed into us. Here is a great article from a friend that talks about both God and the Guru. It explains things in a poetic way that cannot be retold without taking away its beauty.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/ma-nithya-vibhooti/god-is-not-an-old-man-with-a-beard/451191084442


I heard from a friend that there is some scandal that the Swamiji is involved in. Is the ashram a safe place for me to go to?

Thats a lot of bullshit by people who are scared or jealous of the popularity of the Master and the exponential growth of his organization. We could go into all the gory details of who started all this and why and how. But this article to too big already. So ping me if that is a big concern. Otherwise if you know me well enough, take my word and ignore the propaganda. There is no place on earth that is safer.

Should I wait 6 months and do it later? December May is too close.. and I don't decide on things that quickly.
Maybe procrastination is your problem. If you don't sign up now, you never might get rid of it. I did the course in a group of 100 people. The next batch had 300 and then one after was quite a bit more than that. At this progression, it would be in your best interest to do the course earlier and get more attention in a smaller group. So don't wait.

I am all excited now. But I don't have the money, the vacation time, childcare, the flight tickets and what not..
Many times, having the right intention makes things happen. Almost miraculously. All the so called rational people who take offense to mystic phenomena, please skip this part and go directly to the next question. Intentions have a lot of power. More so when they come from someone who is at very different frequency of existence. Go to the following page for more information and submit your intention to get it blessed - Get Blessings to Attend Inner Awakening

I skipped the previous question. I am all set to be there in December!
Awesome. You won't regret it. You can sign up at http://innerawakening.org/registration. There is limited accommodation in the ashram so they have decided to give it to the folks who signup early. So don't procrastinate :)


If you have any further rude questions to ask, don't hesitate to contact me. I can put you in touch with people at the ashram who can give you clearer and more authentic answers. If you think the question or comment is of wider interest, go ahead and comment on this page. If you want to insult me or have some personal remarks, send me mail :)

Go to http://www.innerawakening.org to find out more about the course. They have a great ebook that gives all the details about the course that you can download from that page..

Here is a video playlist that is a good introduction to Swami Nithyananda. It is from a talk given to a wide audience in Bangalore in Dec 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ0kOjLgc9c&p=2F125317305BFE09&feature=BF&index=12

More videos at http://www.youtube.com/lifeblissfoundation

.. Scroll to the end for further questions from readers..

Love you all.
Ananda Mokshapriyan

Questions from my Facebook comment stream:

Navneet Nair Why does the course cost Rs 2.5-3 Lacs? You can't put a price on inner transformation, which is why in the path I follow, teachers never charge any money for the teachings even though I would pay in gold for all the teachings I received from my masters. So it is not a question of whether or not a course is worth the price, it is a question of whether the practice is right.

Great question Naveet.

I have to admit that many years back I had the same attitude towards money and missed a lot of opportunities that I was presented. It took me many years to understand what money actually represents. I am not sure if I can consicely describe that journey without losing a large number of people. But it will help you get a more holistic answer if you look into your own ideas about money and why most people - especially Indians - have a very negative view of wealth.

In the context of this course, Swamiji has presented a number of reasons why the course is structured in this way. And I am sure that there are a countless unsaid reasons. Firstly the course sponsors the various charitable activities, ashrams, their research and the temples that are run by Dhyanapeetam (http://services.dhyanapeetam.org/). A majority of the activities of the ashram are free. This course is specifically meant for people who cannot afford (in a lot of different ways - like time, mental setup, commitment etc.) the free offerings.

In earlier times with the Buddha and others the Sangha was sponsored by Kings. Now that the so called secular goverments in India don't sponsor inner research and given that in a democracy each individual is to whatever fraction a ruler, the burden of sponsorship falls on individuals. (Funnily, I have only seen people who can actually afford the course complain about it. Many others who cannot afford, accept the fact and put their efforts into making use of what is available to them).

Thirdly a payment structure makes the whole system scalable and this can reach a lot more people. The choice of whether to go with a fixed price, variable price, shareware, govt/corporate sponsorship or maybe even a ad-sponsored model applies to all organizations and companies. I have seen organizations that rely on donations stagnate or grow too slowly. Again I am sure there are exceptions to the rule and each organization has their specific approach, ideology and vision of how many people they want to reach.

Finally, in my unofficial understanding, I feel that the money acts as a barrier to entry that makes sure you are earnest enough to come in. Different organizations place different pre-requisites (like time, money, habits to follow etc) for their offerings - either explicity or implicity. In my experience, I have found that the folks who pay get much more value from this and similar courses than those who came in sponsored. And to go out on a limb the reasons might not all just be psychological but more mystical and metaphysical.

And to go further, I have seen enough and more cases where people magically get the money once they set their intention on attending.

Here is a great video I found many years back by OSHO that talks about why bliss is sold and as always the masters have a great way of expressing things. OSHO on selling bliss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRo_L1RiGWw

Apurv Gupta AC - why don't you tell us about the free courses that you refer to?

Hi Apurv, here are some of the free offerings from Dhyanapeetam that I know of. You should check out their site at http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/ since they add new ones at times..

• ASP - Ananda spurana - http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/web/asp.asp. This is a 2 day meditation course on different chakras and the link between various emotions and how they block them and meditations to cleanse the chakras. Typically held nowadays on every weekend at Bidadi (and many other places too)
• LBT - Life Bliss Technology - http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/web/Anandayogam.asp - This is a 1 year program and is a residential program that provides training in both spiritual and management and other skills. I think they now offer a 2 year LBT too.
• Kalpataru - 1 day program - http://dhyanapeetam.org/web/en-kalpataru/. This is held in a variety of places around the world. The link has the schedules.
• NSP - Nithyananda Spurama program -http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/web/nsp.asp. Goes deeper into various layers of the mind and the techniques of unclutching. Typically the ASP is a pre-requisite (though depending on the people attending they sometimes waive the requirement).
• FIMT - Fellowship in Meditation Therapy - There used to be a free 3 (or 6?) month program called FIMT for people wanting to becomes Spiritual healers. I don't find the link on the site anymore. So maybe it has been discontinued.
• And always, people who want to join the Sangha full time and spend their life on learning the science of enlightenment, get all their needs and their families taken care of.
• Apart from this, there are numerous videos of talks that have been uploaded onto youtube including many from previous Inner-Awakening programs. People can go to http://www.youtube.com/lifeblissfoundation or search for "lifeblissfoundation inner-awakening" on youtube to find them.

If your question however was "Why did you not send links out to the free programs and only to the IA one - which seems to be very expensive" here is my answer to that..

Doing the free programs requires going through the chain of pre-requisite programs and following through as and when they are announced. I was trying to get a bunch of people to go for the 2 day course.. but somehow they thought it below them to go to an introductory course and learn from one of the acharyas as opposed to Swamiji himself :) The 1 day Kalpataru program is pretty compressed and works only for people who have some degree of faith to go through the program without too much of negative questioning. It is my experience that the english educated city living people with a over supply of the "I know it all" feeling who have been thoroughly brainwashed by the media and their so called education (which is most of us) need a much stronger dose to get cleansed. Also, doing the complete 21 day program is more effective and easier for people who have regular jobs or need to travel to India (which again is the bulk of people on my facebook list). Most of the free courses are in Tamil or Kannada as many who opt for the free programs are not english literate. IA however is conducted in English since that seems to be the demographic of the people who can pay for it. That also makes it possible for them to provide better facilities and food for the course tailored to the requirement of people from outside India.

The Goddess who replies in writing

This is a wonderful article shared by a friend. The original post is at the following url:

http://manithyasudevi.blogspot.com/2010/10/interactive-goddess-beautiful.html

I am reposting the article here verbatim with pictures from the Dhyanapeetam site:

http://dhyanapeetam.org/web/photo-gallery-of-recent-events-pictures/post-release/nithyananda-ashram-updates-2010-july-21-and-sowdeshwari-ambal-visit/

Interactive Goddess :
A Beautiful Pilgrimage to the Temple of Chowdeshwari

- Ma Nithya Sudevi

In Karnataka, South India, there is a beautiful temple to a goddess called Chowdeshwari. Here, both practicing Hindus and reverential seekers from around the world are welcomed in to have darshan (see, pay respects to, and receive blessings from) Chowdeshwari Ma. But she is no ordinary temple deity: Chowdeshwari interacts with those who make the pilgrimage to see her. Of course, there is no such thing as an ordinary temple deity- all aspects of the manifest and unmanifest divinity are unique and beautiful... and of course, on a subtle level, each one interacts with those who make a sincere attempt at connection. But nevertheless, Chowdeshwari is a rare and amazing example of interactive divinity.

Her name first entered my consciousness at the beginning of the Living Enlightenment Program. Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam ashram was buzzing with her story; it seemed everywhere I turned, someone was talking about this miraculous Devi.

Chowdeshwari is famous in India for her writing. Not the writing which she did while living in human form on Earth, but the writing which she does now, through her idol, in a temple near Bangalore. Her energy is so powerful that she literally writes in response to questions put forth from seekers. The Q&A process is incredible: two illiterate village men hold her while the visitor asks a question. (The question can be posed in any language- Hindi, English, Tamil, Japanese...) Sometimes, as the question is being asked, Chowdeshwari flips over, tapping the head of the querent with the top of her head-dress; other times, she rests her head in the visitor’s hand, or she will simply look on and listen. When the question is complete, she sets the top of her head dress on a table, which is covered in a thin layer of rice flower. In the flower, with the top of her head, she begins to write. The two village men hold her firmly, as she shakes, jumps and thrashes from side to side. The results of her movements are perfectly formed words, written in the local dialect- Kannada- in the flour. Amazingly, the words written always answer the question asked, even though the men holding Chowdeshwari know nothing of foreign languages.


The reason her name started to spread like a wild-fire of enlightened excitement around the Dhyanapeetam ashram is that dear Devi Chowdeshwari is totally and completely in love with our guru, Nithyananda! Shortly after the scandal, she began shaking and jumping one day, even though nobody had asked her a question. Her handlers lifted her to see what she had to say, and she quickly flipped into the rice flower to make a request: she wanted to see Nithyananda. She was insistent- she had to see Him soon. So, her temple priest contacted the ashram, and made the arrangements. First, Nithyananda Swamiji paid a visit to her temple. She was thrilled to see Him- absolutely ecstatic; He invited her to Dhyanapeetam. Promptly, she accepted the invitation. (Truly, she accepted; of course, it was her priests who made the travel arrangements, carried her in the car, etc. etc., but when a temple deity is as animated as Chowdeshwari, once she makes up her mind about something, they honour her decision, and comply.)
Once she was at the ashram, Chowdeshwari only wanted one thing: to be around Swamiji. Everyone who was there at the time describes it the same way: it was as if Chowdeshwari was a love-struck teenager, and Swamiji the object of her affection. She insisted on being carried around Him wherever He went- sitting next to Him, walking next to Him, not letting Him out of her sight... she even wanted to sit in His car as He drove from one place to another. Some ashramites describe the scene as somewhat comic- she, a goddess, was acting the way program participants and visitors to the ashram act when they try to follow Swamiji everywhere! To see a deity act this way is just unheard of! A goddess acting like a school-girl!
Anyhow, beyond the humor in the situation, Chowdeshwari’s visit brought everyone a deep level of comfort at exactly the time when it was most needed. Swamiji was out of jail on bail, but the charges illegally filed against Him had not yet been dropped, and public opinion of both Him and His organization was quite low. Many ill-informed locals actually believed He was guilty. So, when the famous, beloved and highly respected Chowdeshwari not only insisted on going see Him, but also declared her love, and wanted nothing but to be near Him, all were forced to re-examine their stance on Nithyananda. People can lie; deities cannot. If Chowdeshwari insists on Nithyananda’s innocence, then He is innocent. (When asked, she stated in her rice flower, that Nithyananda committed no crime; He will be free; all charges will be dropped; Dhyanapeetam will succeed!)

The more that I heard about this amazing idol, the more I wanted to see her for myself! The mystical way she communicates, the love she has for the one whom I most love- Nithyananda- and her impeccable timing (to come to Him right after the scandal) all added up to a deep yearning in me to pay her a reverential visit. So, when my friend Abirami invited me to go see Chowdeshwari the day after the LEP process concluded, I jumped at the chance!

On the morning of October 11th, Abirami, myself, and our friends Mahima, Raquel and Dale piled into a cab and set out on a voyage to see Chowdeshwari. Before going, I prayed to Swamiji for something to offer her that she would truly enjoy receiving. It’s customary to go to a temple with an offering. Typically, if the deity is female, we give her coconut and other foods (in a pot called poorna kumbha- the pot of fulfillment), jewelry- usually bangles, money, kumkum and other spices, flowers... But since dear Chowdeshwari had done such good to seal the faith of those who remained with Swamiji throughout the scandal, and gave a big sign of His innocence to those who went astray, I wanted to give her something beyond the typical.

“Please, Swamiji, let me know exactly what to offer Ma Chowdeshwari...” I prayed on my mala as I perused the ashram gift shop. I bought her a small pendant with His photo- surely, since she loves to be near Him, she would love to see His smiling face on a pendant? Before putting the small token in a bag, I touched it to His padookas, energized sandals, as if taking His blessing for the gift, then went on to meet my friends for our voyage.

Somehow, though, the little pendant didn’t seem like enough. Deities are traditionally ornamented in fine jewels- my budget didn’t allow for such finery to offer her... They are garlanded in ornately strung fragrant flowers- we didn’t have time to go to a fancy florist... What could I give to really let her know just how much we, the devotees of Nithyananda, appreciate and revere her? I was still pondering that when I entered the welcome center, and saw Abirami filling out our ashram departure form. On the desk in front of her, I saw it: an envelope with the beautiful, radiantly smiling face of Nithyananda, and the words “Navaratri Dasara.”

Navaratri Dasara is the traditional Indian celebration of Devi, the goddess, which takes place over nine nights and ten days. That was it! I would give her a Navaratri card with Swamiji’s picture on it! She is Devi, and she loves Nithyananda- perfect combination. I opened one of the cards, and saw that it was actually an invitation. It said, “The disciples and devotees of Nithyananda invite you to the Navaratri Dasara celebrations at Nithyananda Dhyanapeet...” I gasped: it had felt like the right thing to give her... but was it appropriate? Who was I to invite Chowdeshwari to Navaratri at the ashram; she has her own temple! If she accepted the offer, it would be a big nuisance for her priests, and possibly for Swamiji (as she would no doubt insist on following Him everywhere!) and the media would swarm... Ah- but the media. Imagine the headlines if one of the most popular Karnataka goddesses chose to spend Navaratri with Nithyananda. (The last little bit of public uncertainty about Him would surely dissolve.) There was no time to consult with anyone from the ashram- I took an invitation, and said to my mala, “Swamiji- if I shouldn’t give this invitation to Chowdeshwari, please stop me from doing it. Let a gust of wind blow it out of my hand, or let me see a strong sign to leave it!” But neither happened...

As the five of us, Abirami, Mahima, Raquel, Dale and I made our way through the picturesque South Indian countryside, the conversation was buzzing with excited ideas of what to ask. It’s not every day that you drive through stunning tropical vegetation en-route to an historic goddess temple in which the deity will answer any question you have for her. One amongst us decided to ask about her marital future; another her education path; one her husband, another her health.

As for me, I had no question, just a thank-you, and the invitation- which stirred up a bit of controversy in one of my fellow pilgrims. “I really think you should have asked someone at the ashram before bringing that to her.” She said. “There wasn’t time. But, I told Swamiji over the mala. If I shouldn’t bring it, something will stop me.” See, many refer to the mala as a direct line to Swamiji- like a cosmic cell phone. They say that when we talk into the mala- the string of rudraksha seed prayer beads which He energizes to hold enlightenment- our words go straight to Him. Many miracles have happened by contacting Swamiji this way. I was sure that He would intervene if I was about to do something wrong after first consulting the mala!

When we got to the temple, though, it seemed our plans had been spoiled. Chowdeshwari was in silence until the end of Navaratri. We were told we could see her, and give her the fruit and flowers we had brought, but that any questions would have to wait a week- a week which those of us flying back to North America didn’t have. Resigned, we agreed that since we had gone that far already, we would at least see her and offer her our humble gifts. I said to my mala, “Alright. It wasn’t meant to be.”

We waited about ten minutes, and were led into a small room, where Chowdeshwari sat motionless, beautifully clothed and garlanded, over her rice flower tray. The man presiding over her motioned for us to put our heads to her feet, which we did, one-by-one. Burying my head in the soft jasmine flowers at the base of her carriage, I whispered, “Chowdeshwari- thank you for visiting Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam after the scandal. Since you’re in silence, I know that what I came here to do was wrong... I came to invite you to Navaratri at the ashram, but...” I was interrupted. She started to shake a little bit, and the temple guru walked in with the two men who hold her when questions are asked. They locked the door, and invited the five of us to sit on an elevated spot behind Chowdeshwari, saying, “You can all ask your questions.”

What followed was a scene I’ll remember for the rest of this life. Raquel started, with the first question, posed in English. For the sake of my friends’ privacy, I won’t reveal their questions, but I will say this: one by one, they asked what they had to ask, and without the question being translated into Kannada, these Karnataka men held Chowdeshwari on her head, and she wrote answers that exactly replies to the questions asked! I knew I was witnessing something truly out of this world.

I was last to go, and still not sure whether to give the invitation or not. During Navaratri, major decisions should be avoided, and travel is avoided completely; it was a potentially offensive and ignorant act to give her a short-notice invitation at that time. I thought, I could pretend to be an uninformed westerner, unaware of the Navaratri customs; but that would go against my sathya vow, the vow of speaking the highest truth.

Then, I remembered my work. Professionally, I read tarot cards for a living. Sometimes, my clients struggle before their readings, telling me that they aren’t sure whether they should ask their question or not. Whenever that happens, I give them the deck, and walk them through a specific process to determine whether they should have the reading or not, a way of asking the energies that work through the cards whether it’s in the highest good to go forward with the question. I appropriated that technique with Chowdeshwari. I asked:

“Do you know why I’ve come here?”

She replied, “Yes.”

I went on, “Should I give you the invitation that I’ve brought, or would it be wrong?”

Without my question being translated, she replied, “Please give it.”

Then I started to speak, “I’m a disciple of Paramahamsa Nithyananda...”

Before I could get even another sentence in, she started to jump and shake so powerfully, I thought she might jump right out of her handlers grip! We were all surprised by just how physically she responded to the guru’s name. I could barely finish what I was saying,
“and I’m so grateful to you for visiting His ashram earlier this year. Before coming here today, I prayed to Nithyananda for something worth giving you, and when I saw this invitation to Navaratri Dasara at the ashram, it seemed like the perfect thing to give...”

She wrote rapidly and excitedly, and the translation came as, “You have my anugraha.”

Anugraha is defined as meaning blessings and grace. It was very sweet; after she wrote, she put her head in my hands, which I had held cupped in front of her. She rested there for a few seconds, and I could feel very loving energy coming through her. As we left the temple, we were served delicious coffee, and offered prasadam. (Prasadam is energized consumable, like a blessed souvenir of the temple. In this case, it was crystal sugar candy and kumkum- the vermillion powder used for bindi, the red dot on the forehead used to awaken third eye energy.)

I felt that although a Devi cannot leave her temple during the Navaratri celebrations, Chowdeshwari had blessed me for giving her a sincere invitation to a place she loves; that she had responded to the sincerity with which the offer was extended, from one who loves Nithyananda to another.

When I returned to the ashram, my friend Sugandhi, who is well versed in Sanskrit, asked me what I had asked Chowdeshwari, and what she had replied. When I finished the story, she was thrilled, and said:
“Anugraha means blessings and grace... but it also means acceptance! As in, an acceptance to a request or invitation! She could be coming!”

Someway, somehow, Chowdeshwari might just spend the festival of the goddess with her most loved gurudeva after all. If you’re in the Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam ashram during Navaratri, stay on the alert- she might just astrally visit on the sacred Dasara day!

Posted by Sudevi at 12:34 PM

Strange experience in Thiruvannamalai

A couple of years back, in November of 2008, Surya, Me, Neeraja and my uncle and aunt from the US had gone for a visit to Thiruvannamalai.

On the night of the 10th, we spent a lot of time in the temple and sat for a while at the Kalabhairava shrine near the temple tank. I was telling Surya about the Kalabhairava temple we went to in Varanasi with Swamiji and the story of how he took away one of Brahma's heads.

The next day a little before 6 am we all started on the 14 km Girivalam or circumambulation around the Arunachala hill. A few minutes into the trek just as we crossed the South Gopuram, a small beige dog started following us. My first instinct was to shoo it away. It moved back but kept tagging along. After a while I felt sorry for the dog. After all we were in the territory of Ramana who was friends with all animals in the area. So I stopped shooing it. I figured it was hungry and following the visitors was an adaptation by the animals to get food. At a small shop on the way we got some biscuits and placed them before the dog. It sniffed the biscuits a little and moved away without eating them. Odd I thought. But maybe biscuits were not its thing. At any rate I was not wasting more money on the dog. It was Pradosham that day and we ourselves were planning on not eating through the day till evening.

After a little while, the dog ran ahead of us and we found it waiting for us outside the Dakshinamurthy shrine before Ramanashram. Having found the dog there, we went inside the temple to have a Darshan and some Vibuthi. As we resumed our walk, the dog continued following us. It did this walk ahead and stop routine in a couple of other temples on the way - including some like a Ganesha temple that was to give one a lot of wealth which I hadn't noticed on earlier trips.

I was getting a little curious about the dog as time went by. Every 100 meters or so, it would be attacked by the dogs of that territory. For a small dog, it was very brave and would snarl back. Though it looked timid, it had unusually large, sharp and menacing teeth. Most dogs got scared of that. When the attackers were too many in number it would lie down meekly and let them gather around him and bark away to glory till they realized that he wasn't planning on staying in their turf but was just a transit passenger. This ritual happened every 10 minutes and was pretty scary. After the first couple of times when my aunt - who is mortally scared of dogs - reacted strongly to the dogs, he would cross over to the other side of the road whenever dogs attacked so that the confrontation would happen away from us. This itself was very strange awareness on its part.. but at that time it didn't strike me as too odd. I had read enough about animals being sensitive to humans.. and I thought this might have been a lost pet that was trying to become friendly with us.

Half way through the walk the rest of the group had moved ahead and it was just Surya and me with the dog. Surya had by then taken a liking to the dog and named him Kala - given that the Vahanam (or mount) of Kalabhairava was a dog.

Somewhere a little before the mid point, he suddenly went off into a narrow path that led away from the main road towards the hill and the rougher "inner path". Having been used to the follow-kala routine by now, we went along to see where it was going. After walking for 5 minutes or so, we came to a small lake and the path got less defined and more thorny. Since we were not wearing slippers our speed slowed down considerably. After a little more time, a number of other dogs started gathering around us in a distance and it looked like a showdown with Kala was going to happen again. I got scared and decided to get back to the road. As we walked away Kala tried to stay put indicating that we should follow him.. But when he realized that we were not staying, he ran ahead of us, stopped and then amazingly did a full sashtanga namaskar to the hill - with both his front and back legs flat on the ground. I have never seen a dog do anything like that before. He stayed that way till both me and Surya did the same.. and then he trotted back on to the road.

By that time I realized that this was no ordinary dog.. But my logical mind came up with numerous other possibilities such as that it belonged to a local swami and hence was just following the path taken by that person etc.. And we walked on..

It was now four hours since we had started. Once more we tried getting food for Kala. This time we got some chappathis. But he wouldn't touch them. The fights with the local dogs kept happening on a regular basis. Another strange thing that happened was that he would be totally pissed off by monkeys and crows. Whenever any of them came near us he would bark at them and drive them away for a 100 feet or more. I still don't understand why he did this.

Then at one point we saw that he wasn't following us anymore. We looked around and couldnt see him anywhere ahead or behind. We traced back our steps to the Kubera Linga temple. And there we realized that the abhishekam was going on and they had had a screen in front of the deity. We had left the temple earlier because we were getting late. But Kala has stayed on outside. He was not let into the temple.. so it is unlikely that he could have seen that the screen had been drawn in front of the deity. But as soon as we came, the screen was opened and we could see the deity. And when we left this time, we had Kala tagging along right behind!

I was now worried about Surya getting too attached to the dog. I was also thinking that as we got into the bus, the dog would try to follow us back to Bangalore. But then I had learnt enough over the last year not to worry too much thanks to the wisdom of my Guru Swami Nithyananda whom I was totally hooked to. We walked the next few kilometers back to the starting point - the north gopuram of the Arunachala temple. Just as we came close to the main gate, Kala walked under a small deserted stall and lay down quietly. He wouldn't come out even if we called. We realized that it had been 6 hours since it had taken any food or water and bought some other food. Again it didn't touch it. In awe we went to the temple to tell the others who had gone ahead about what happened.

I have no idea how to explain the incident or what it meant. Later on I read a story about how in Ramana's life there was a dog that used to eat from Bhagavan's plate. And how one day it committed suicide by jumping into the well because one of the disciples had criticized it for eating from his plate. Bhagavan apparently chided the disciple and said that the dog was a Siddha who had taken birth just to be with him. So perhaps Kala was another such being that was hanging around Thiruvannamali just to go around the hill.

I have heard about such strange incidents happening around there in books. But having seen it first hand was something indescribable for me and Surya. It makes us realize how little we know of the amazing and mystical world we live in..

Why do I have a new name?

Ananda Mokshapriyan

Well.. a lots of things have changed over the last couple of years for me. I have different interests. Many a times, I am blissful for no reason. I think differently.. or rather I think a lot less than I used to. I feel I look quite different too - especially after doing an intense 48 day yoga course recently. The name is perhaps the simplest of the changes. But one that is most noticed.

Goes on to show how deeply our sense of self - which in turn is built mostly on what we think others think about us - is tied to some random set of characters.

My new name was given by my Guru, Paramahamsa Nithyananda. And a spiritual name, Swami says, serves two purposes. For one, like I said before, it breaks old conditionings that are subtly held together by your name.

Secondly it is both a statement of who you are.. and your path.

Who we are... Thats an interesting topic. In life, we are often at conflict with ourselves. Our biggest object of fear, if we are honest about it, is ourselves. We want things that are contradictory. And this in turn is because many of our wants have been fed into us by parents, siblings, peers and mostly by us slurping up all the programming and insecurities fed to us by advertising and media. The upshot of all this is that we keep undoing any progress we make towards desire X in the morning when we pursue desire Y in the afternoon.

We want to retire, we want to be rich and famous. We want to smoke.. but want health at the same time. And so on. This leaves us with a feeling of frustration. And many a times, even if we manage to strike off desire X from our to-do list, it doesn't leave us as elated as we thought it would because of the other conflicting desires that were put down to get this one done and more importantly because desire X wasn't even really our own desire.

The Vedic tradition postulates - and this agrees quite nicely I presume with what many of us experience - that each of us is born with a set of desires that is innate. And that satisfying these makes us feel good as opposed to the borrowed desires that makes us feel dull and empty.

What the Guru does, is to meditate on your being and pick out what your core is. And this is part of what constitutes your spiritual name. Apart from describing your basic nature, it is also a path that can take you deeper than your basic nature. To an unconstrained state of freedom where we can perceive the universe in a true way without the limitations of our individual programming.

As I contemplate on my new name, I realize how true it sounds to who I am. Ananda means bliss. Moksha is liberation. and Moksha-priya is one who loves liberation. Ananda Mokshapriyan is one who is blissfully fond of liberation. When I scan through my life, it is obviously to me that I have always tried to break free of things that bind me and do my own thing. Maybe most of us do it. But it has been a very violent need in me. Most of my decisions in life were taken so that I could be free of situations and constraints. And while I have often sought freedom from the outer world, what I have seen of late is that being free from the compulsions of the mind - wanting praise, doing better than people around me, being scared of failure etc - brings me greater happiness.

So looks like this is my path.. and my goal. Becoming free and realizing my freedom.

It feels great to know about yourself... and it is nice to have your name remind you of it constantly.