Bharat Ma

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 Himalayas 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 and left my mother in her care. There I met my husband to be as well, clueless that we would eventually get to know each other. At that time, our paths just simply crossed for a few hours within 3 days. In this trip, we also met a new friend of my best friend, Kulbhushan. We stayed in his house and he showed us around in Chandigar in Punjab to meet his relatives.

I returned to India the very next year (2001-2002) this time to bring my father to our guru and Banaras to visit the samadhi of his guru Lahiri Mahasaya. Instead, we met his grandson Shibendu Lahiri who was there only for a week from Germany to celebrate a vedic ceremony. I brought my best friend with me. She and my father went home ahead back to the Philippines while I stayed behind to travel for another three months or so in north India. My father and my best friend, who knew Kulbhushan first, finally met. In Dharamsala, I met the Karmapa Lama and I traveled in Rishikesh and Haridwar, both pilgrimage areas along the Ganges. In Shimla, I met the Himalayas and the beautiful red trees.

In 2006, I was already married and had my 2.5 year-old daughter Aaliaa Srishti, who had already met Master Jimmy Galez and Father Benny Arguelles, who are spiritual friends of my father. We returned to India, but this time in the south for a four-year teaching job (2006 - 2010) at Kodaikanal in the Palani hills in Tamil Nadu. I felt alienated to be so far from Banaras and the Himalayas. Little did I know, that we were in the land of the Mahavatar Babaji's birthplace and the hills where his guru Siddhi Bhogarnath made Lord Muruga's mandir. There we met the Sathya Sai Baba just a few meters away from my workplace, visited Haidhakan Babaji's ashram and cave and met Muniraji personally, his disciple, during a havan that he conducted.

After our Europe and Africa stint, where we met Sri Ravi Shankar in Germany and Geshe Pema Dorjee in Norway, we once again returned to India in 2013. This time for a 2-3 year (2013-16) teaching job stint in Bangalore. Here we met my coordinator Miss Aruna and her family along with Miss Shagufa and her family too, who have become our loving spiritual friends from the south. While in Bangalore, we traveled to meet Paramahansa Nithyananda, Sri M in Madanapale and met Rashmi, Bharat Thakur, Divya Babaji and our very own Swamigal, who turned my life around in my 40s. We passed by Auroville on our way home to visit the samadhi mandir of Sri Aurobindo and the mother.

This time, we return to the north again after almost a year in the Philippines. After flying in from Delhi and Pune, we went straight to Shirdi the very next day. Our trip back to India was filled with blessed experiences, as was our year back home with my husband picking up on his passion in Pranic healing and with me, enjoying sharing meditation and starting off artreach projects in the country.

En route to India, we were given many opportunities to love and be loved. We constantly meditated with others and Rahul was healing a few during our short stay in Manila to process our visas. We had friends unexpectedly providing us homes and resources for travel. We met people at the airport doing the same thing and even during our stop over flight in Malaysia.

On our first night in Pune, we decided to explore the streets at night looking perhaps for a more affordable place to get dinner apart from the dine-in resto at the hotel. By a pile of garbage, in the dark of night, there was an old man, with the back of his head with matted hair facing me , who was with a young man, smoking. The smell was so strong, it could only be weed or bidi. On that evening walk, I only got myself a much awaited and missed Pomegranate, it was so plump, red and juicy that I just needed to get one for myself. We don't have them in markets in the Philippines; but I fearlessly felt I had to go near those two men. I touched the young man's shoulder to offer him the fruit which he took with a gentle quiet stare. My daughter looked at me in questioning silence. I replied in words: "They needed that vitamin C more than us, and after all, we simply gave it to our other selves." Aaliaa, my daughter giggled and replied "of course." My husband spoke no words and remained in silence. Upon returning to our room, there was a moment of quiet, and I thought of Baba smoking his chillum with his disciple. At that point, the idea of going to Shirdi started seeping back into our consciousness again.