Meeting The Masters

Bharat Thakur We just call him Bharat. He spent 14 years of his life as an ascetic having been raised by his guru in the Himalayas; and returns to the world ranking at #90 in the Forbes List most successful businessman in the Arab world. He has several products in the market and has over 200 yoga centres in different cities in India and abroad, and he holds art exhibits of his paintings attended by royalties. Known to be the yoga teacher of the Bollywood stars, Bharat to me is simply this roaring energy who showed me the stars within. It was around 2014-15 in Bangalore, when I was invited by a kindred friend and colleague to meet Bharat. Both she and her husband are devotees and her sister-in-law works with Bharat's team. As in most gurus, the waiting is a pattern. They are unpredictable moving targets and known to be walking contradictions; but I was prepared for it, so nothing surprised me nor upset me. Some people in the audience started complaining, even when th...

Bharat Ma (Mother India) has always been an energy of Home for me, since I was a child in the Philippines. Apart from the SRF masters, the only Hindu god I knew was Bhagwan Krishna then, because of the posters sold in the streets of my country and the presence of the ISKON monks in our lives as I was growing up.  Having been named after the Mahavatar Babaji's sister, Mataji, I longed to see the H imalayas to find her one day. I had no clue if this dream would ever be realised. But in the year 2000-2001, I found myself in India with my mother for the first time, to meet a breathing Kriya Yogi guru by the banks of the Ganges at the Sangam in Allahabad. This trip was triggered by my mother's near death experience. This was her last wish. As fulfilled, she is still strong, inspired and alive up to this day (2017) leading anyone who comes to her in Kriya yoga back home. During this visit, at the ashram we met Shveta who was also there for Kriya yoga. I traveled alone to Banaras ...

July 7 to July 10, 2017. Shirdi, Maharashtra (India) My family (husband, daughter and I) arrived in Shirdi on 07-07-17 (auspicious spiritual numbers) at 7 pm.  The days and hours prior to this trip already started with miracles on the way to meet Baba, who is known for this type of blessing.  Our plans to visit Mohanji's Pune ashram and the Pranic Healing Center in Pune were all unusually blocked. The phone numbers of those centers won't ring even if other people said they could get through. We had no phone to use since we could not get Indian simcard with the new Modi administration requiring Adhar registration cards. We were one day old in the country. The e-mails from work that we were expecting so we could go straight to our destination - did not come. I had no answer, so I seeked the energy of the masters, specifically Mohanji, hoping for some guidance. I went to find some wisdom online and the first line that caught my attention was: "Let's go to Shirdi!...

Guruji. My mother was warned. It was the year 2000. Her cardiologist couldn't guarantee that her next heart attack could still spare her. We have been camping time and again at the ICU in the past years. "If this will truly be your last, what is your last wish in life?" I asked my mother a tough question after coming back from the hospital. Without any qualms, she emptied all her savings from the last twenty years or so, and we hopped on the plane looking for a guru in flesh to teach her, what she believed was worth dying and living for - Kriya Yoga. Never been to India, my mother and I, complete strangers in this familiar land, stood still at the Delhi airport not knowing how to find this village and person who could fulfil my mother's last wish. She had nothing to bank on her return. No more savings, no pension. It felt like a one way ticket. All she wanted was a kriya diksha, to bring to the afterlife... Eighteen years later, now in her ...

Sri M. "Prabhu!!!" I strangely exclaimed inside my head as I was flipping through the pages of his first book, "Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master." "Who is this guy?" I thought. I wasn't halfway the book yet. "Prabhu..prabhu.." I would catch myself surprisingly whispering to myself every now and then advancing through the book. I went to the extent of finding the audacity to sort of just "close my eyes" and write him an e-mail asking about it, as if my insignificant question is even worth his time, while he takes care of hundreds of thousands of his devotees,along with his massive projects of creating free schools, building free medical clinics and reforestation in the villages of India especially in Madanapalle. Ignored it was, expectedly. The last time I heard that word was when the ISKCON group camped at our home over the hills when they were doing their "padayatra" here in the Philippines, along with thei...

Shibendu Lahiri My First Shaktipat photo from net This tribute is more of a public confession of my then inability to value the presence of powerful and beautiful illuminated beings, simply because they did not fit my stereotype. Take it as fiction or non-fiction, but if a story can be a legacy, then let it not die with me. Finding ourselves in Banaras, the oldest inhabited city in India, my father and I decided to be on a search for Lahiri Mahasaya's ancestral home. He was the spiritual mentor of our mentor's mentor. It was around 2001. A local guide turned into a lifetime friend, told us that his grandson is currently there. He lives in Germany and is home for only once a year for less than a week to perform a family vedic ceremony. He does not meet people because he is only home for a private function. Before long, there was an empty chair in front of us as we sat waiting inside the ancestral home of his grandfather. We waited and waited. I was expecti...

The Karmapa Lama At twenty one years old, I was backpacking alone in North India. A bus dropped me off a street corner at 2am to climb a nearby hill on a freezing morning in Dharamsala after vomiting for almost five times throughout the night. The driver decides to move my seat right beside him because the people were trying their best to sleep despite the regurgitating groaning sound I was making. Snow. I was seeing snow for the first time the next day. Someone told me t he Dalai Lama lives nearby. The next day, I set off and went down to find this place. To my surprise, the poorly lit path that I treaded that night was cliff like. I could have slipped into oblivion and even my parents wouldn't know where to find my body. Falling in line with the myriad of devotees from around town, the country and the world, without question I went along. Until I decided to start a small chat with the person beside me about the Dalai Lama. "The Dalai Lama is not here. We are ...

Sri Ravi Shankar Berlin, Germany. January 2013. A former student in an international school we taught in, in India, was so kind to want to meet up with us at Checkpoint Charlie, outside the holocaust museum. After a chat and some shawarma he recommended, we thought of parting ways, until he told us his plans that evening. He said his mother wanted him to meet her guru who is currently in Berlin, and it was for free or he got us passes, something like that. Simple and easy. All our meetings with gurus are usually preceded with intense burning of all sorts. The "chance" meeting with Amritanandamayi ma in Chennai, was similarly simple. I meet someone, she is on the way somewhere, and invites me to join her have a darshan. Seemingly plain and simple, until I press the rewind button. Only then, the adventure truly begins. Many years ago, Sri Ravi Shankar visited Manila, Philippines. My mother somehow happened to be there. As he was walking down the aisle greeting...

Swamigal. The very thought of him could bring tears in my eyes. His humility is beyond compare. He asked a very dear friend that she bring me - to him. Now that is the first, and the last. His eyes literally met mine on our very first meeting. He sat in front of me, pointed his finger between his eyebrows and said "Look into it." Nothing. I was sad, feeling I disappointed him though he showed no signs of feeling so. "Look here (pointing to his forehead), then." patiently he instructed. He believed I could see. The rest is an unimaginable and heart melting journey of patience, kindness and loving guidance of a father, a guru, a friend. I have no words to capture his essence. In over four decades in this lifetime, I have never met a Life Force so incredibly powerful in how he touches my life, and who is beyond capable in making me feel like he has full faith and trust in me. Yes, the nothing me. The me who does not even have full faith or tru...

Muniraji and Haidhakan 2003 - 2009 photo from net Around 2003, one afternoon, I saw this book lying on our coffee table in the Philippines. "I Am Harmony" was boldly printed on the cover with a sweet smiling painting of a chubby person on the cover. Intrigued by the title, I started flipping through the pages and started online researching more about the person on the cover. "It can't be.. " I thought. "Oh and he paints too?" I instantly felt connected with this expression of himself. Three long years and no sign of India in my life. I stared deeply on the cover painting and whispered : "Bring us there. I want to visit your ashram and let my daughter crawl into your cave." Then, I dropped the thought and forgot all about it and went about my life, running a school and teaching in a university during evenings while holding summer art and martial arts workshops in the summer. Life was busy. Life was normal. The next thing I kn...

Have you ever met somebody who,  like  the great Sun , could make you melt, and at the same time allow you to relax back into your comfortable self, like the moon blowing a cool breeze over the top of your head? My husband kept looking at me when I was finally sitting right in front of Mohanji. He turned to me like I was a child who was in Disneyland for the first time and said with a sheepish teasing smile: “Look, that’s your Mohanji finally right in front of you! ” S ince the top of my head felt like a hundred yarn threads were being pulled up,  I couldn’t reply in a giggle even if I wanted to.  I thought,  “He’s on it, working on me now.”. My husband could perceive every atom of my body smiling in a simultaneous sun and starstruck state. I felt my husband’s joy for me, as he had witnessed the days, nights and in-betweens that I was glued watching Mohanji’s videos online. Many times, I would fall asleep still with the earphones playing, in my ears, h...