Radical path to wholeness

Positive Chronicles - Radical path to wholeness

by Anuradha Vashisht

Disillusioned with conventional medicine and years of battling sickness, a woman embarks on a pathfinding journey towards physical and emotional wholeness. Her experiments with the body’s natural healing system are inspiring and radical

 

On the sixth morning of October 2003, I woke up with a heavy feeling in my body. By afternoon I was moving towards high fever. Into the third day, I lost all sense of time and body. My head, torso, legs, eyes, all shrunk into a ball of intense pain. By the fifth day, the fever rose to 106 degrees. The body felt lifeless and raising even a hand required Herculean effort. My body organs seemed to have suspended their functions. The mind slowly slipped into a dull state of thoughtlessness so desirable during meditation, but now, things were different.

I made a last-ditch effort to connect with the Supreme Power and tried to pull at my breath. If I am able to focus on my breath, I thought, perhaps I’ll lose the sense of pain. But even the slightest effort was a drain on my energy, and I slipped into semi-consciousness. In this state the realisation came that I was not even in control of my breath. As awareness of the pain grew, I learnt to focus on it. I started to observe it, feel it, understand it, and as I knew the cause of this temporary suffering, even love it.

Past experiences with natural healing now came to my aid. Far from being lifeless, I knew how intensely alive each cell of my being was as Mother Nature carried on repair work within. Trillions of stabbing throbs were proof of this. I let go in complete surrender and just flowed with the experience.

A medical practitioner happened to walk into our house at the time and learnt that I had not taken medication for the fever, nor got any tests done. She was aghast: “How could you do this? It could be viral, dengue, anything. This is dangerous.” When friends learnt about this, they unilaterally passed their verdict: “This is madness. She needs to be locked up.”

Trust in nature
I was not out to prove anyone or anything wrong or right. I was merely living my conviction that the healing power resides within. I fully understood this healing mechanism that would help me recover from the worst of physical ailments, and this was only a fever.

This fever came as an opportunity to help rid my body of all the toxins accumulated over the years, and take me on the path to real health. Having faced terrible physiological problems since childhood, and having taken a lot of medication that I now deem poisonous, it was only natural that my body today reacted in this manner. It was the effect of what it had been subjected to for so many years. And I knew that as I lived out the cause, the effect would wear off, naturally.

The most beautiful part of this experience was that though I momentarily lost consciousness a couple of times, and was unable to respond to my surroundings and loved ones, I was acutely aware and receptive to whatever was happening within and without. And I was constantly secure in the feeling that Mother Nature would take care of me. Never once did a feeling of helplessness creep in, since I trusted myself and the Supreme Power from whom all wisdom flows.

For the five days when the fever was high, I lived on a few drops of water. The temperature dropped to normal on the seventh day, and I took a bit of green coconut water. Thereafter, I gradually rebuilt my health and strength by taking only natural and easily digestible foods like coconut water, seasonal raw vegetables and fruit that were least suspected of being chemically contaminated. As I rapidly moved ahead on the path to recovery, there was a deep sense of joy at triumphing against all odds.

Quest for wellness
I would like to share how this journey began. Four years ago, waiting in the visitors’ hall of a premier heart institute, I was anxious and troubled. Hours after my mother was ‘checked-in’ for angiography, I was still clueless about her state. The next 20 hours were a nerve-wracking lesson in the functioning of what I now call ‘health-destroying institutes’ (hospitals). Horror stories about the experiences of other patients further depressed me. It was only late into the night that I was able to scream my way through and get mother’s angiography done.

Next morning, I saw no trace of emotion on the surgeon’s face as he explained to me, with mechanical precision, the delicate condition of my mother’s heart valves: “One valve is 80 per cent blocked and needs immediate replacement. Another is also not functioning properly, but whether we change it or not we can decide once we open up the heart. And she is also diabetic and hypersensitive. This is quite serious.”

“You were not serious about things yesterday?” I blurted out. He started at the unmistakable sting in my tone. “Well, we can only take on a limited number of patients in a day. What you faced were mostly administrative problems; nothing to do with us. Now the decision is yours. Every day is crucial,” he replied.

My knees felt weak and a cold sweat trickled down my spine. Rarely had I felt so helpless. I had to take the decision now. “I may or may not seek a second opinion, but I am sure this is not the place for her. Kindly discharge her. I take the responsibility.” I tried my best to put on a brave front.

For another year-and-half I visited several heart specialists. My marathon ended at AIIMS in Delhi. Two days in ICU and a series of tests later, the cardiologists were convinced that though the symptoms were serious, as mother’s palpitations increased into occasional passing out, the tests did not indicate anything definite. In any case, she needed to take her daily diet of 18 tablets, and the surgery could wait.

Turning point
I was furious. Can machines really measure human suffering? I felt helpless, as I could see no solution. Homoeopathy, acupuncture, reiki, herbs, among others, provided no permanent relief.

As I saw mother’s condition worsen, I fervently searched for clues to the mysteries of health and disease for something that could clear all my doubts. Shortly after my mother told me she had lost the will to live the way she was—dependent, fighting osteoporosis, diabetes, hypertension, insomnia, angina, aortic stenosis, valvular heart disease and what not—I saw a ray of hope.

I met Acharya S. Swaminathan, who introduced me to the laws of nature that govern our lives, and taught me how their violation results in physical and mental suffering. He told me that disease is nothing but absence of health, often triggered by faulty lifestyles. Most importantly, he revealed that as long as we seek external cures, disease would return, and in worse form. One has to go beyond remedy-mindedness, bear the consequences of what one has brought upon oneself, to regain the original state of health and happiness that Mother Nature has bestowed upon us. Meeting this man was a turning point in my life.

The day after we met him, my mother threw away all her medication and sought help from the healing power within. It needed tremendous willpower to stand up against the medical science that holds the world in its grip, especially with a chronic heart problem. But she was firm. And I resolved to support her.

A natural recovery
My mother began her natural recovery by fasting on green coconut water. She spent the next six days in quiet meditation, listening to devotional music, occasionally playing with her grandchildren and reading books on the radical natural system of health enhancement that she was following.

On the seventh day, after the vital power within was sufficiently relieved from the activity of digestion and assimilation, it started throwing out accumulated toxins. She had a bout of vomiting, which continued for two days. In this period, the healing power threw out a clot of blood, which no surgeon in the world could have removed. Thereafter, she started feeling better and lighter.

The next three days, her body demanded no food except an odd green coconut. Then came her real test of endurance. For four days, the body refused to accept even water. There was terrible suffering as the healing energy carried on its repair work. Pressing my hand to her chest, I felt a terrible pounding. But there was no let-up in her determination. “Do not take me to a hospital in any circumstance. Now, even if I die, at least the pyre would receive a pure and cleansed body,” my mother told me cheerfully. She had totally surrendered.

Now, most of the times, she was consciously listening to her body. At no point she thought of giving up, nor did she lose her mental calm or faith. After more than two weeks of fasting, her body demanded food and she was given a few sips of diluted orange juice. Having carrot juice and fresh, raw salads, she regained her original strength over the next four weeks. But the repair work on her heart continued for a longer period. Today, she eats little cereals and pulses and plenty of raw and lightly cooked vegetables, coconut and fruit.

Two years hence, she no longer takes any medication, is free from diabetes, osteoporosis and heart disease, and has a sound sleep every night. She is happy and is able to help others through her experience, mainly because she stuck to her resolve.

The triumph
As my mother was going through her recovery process, I had already brought in reforms in the family. Studying natural hygiene deeply, I banned all refined, processed, tinned and packaged foods in the household, including sugar. I sought the help of natural elements—sun, air and water—to build the health of my family.

Soon my first test came. My six-year-old daughter came down with high fever, and I resolved not to give her any medication. I explained the concept to her, and she immediately agreed to go on a fast. For the next two days, this little child took nothing but a few teaspoons of water. I was constantly with her, giving her moral support. Forty-eight hours later her 105-degree temperature returned to normal. During this period, I resisted all pressure to go back to a system which I am convinced is faulty in its denial of our innate healing energy. I had also left far behind that terrible feeling of helplessness.

In all three cases I’ve described here, it demanded tremendous willpower and determination to ignore the conventional thought process and go down a less-trodden path. But I can say with confidence backed by experience, as well as deep study, that my conviction has made me stronger, richer and healthier.

Personal Growth - In silence, find the self

by Anuradha Vashisht

We have to penetrate the cluttered noisiness of our mind and the world around us to reach where absolute silence alone remains. When we know silence, we shall know ourselves

 

What is silence? And what is our connection with it? Silence could have a different meaning for different human beings. While to a child it could mean minimum of noise that doesn’t break Mom’s disturbance barrier, to a mother silence becomes an urgency difficult to maintain as she goes about her daily chores over the sleeping infant. Between lovers silence could vary from an affectionate communion to going speechless with emotion over inability to express their hurt. In couples it could mean a sulky standoff or a cold war or a mutual understanding as they feel totally at ease in togetherness. To a warrior or a soldier, silence could be both a premonition of a looming attack and a truce with the enemy.

Is silence mere noiselessness? Can absence of noise be called silence? When a teacher raps her class to hush and says, “Silence, please!” Does she mean silence or merely asks them to sit quiet? There have been times when I have encountered silence in the disturbingly chirpy sounds of birds at dusk. There were moments when I glimpsed deep silence among the blaring horns of the rush hour traffic in the Capital. Ever heard the silence in a musical note?

Silence, it appears, has no persona of its own except what one’s mind gives it. Thus we have bestowed many adjectives on silence. Stony silence, disturbing silence, deathly silence, impregnable silence, hushed silence, pregnant silence, musical silence…. But this is only in the material world. When we rise above the earthly silence, we move towards a silence that needs no adjectives. It is just silence—deep, enriching, absolute. This silence alone has meaning, where one becomes silence itself. Rest all becomes redundant.

It is amazing how eloquent could silence be. And humans, it seems, have an intimate connection with it. It keeps coming to us in many mysterious ways. Somewhere deep down, in the farthest recesses of our consciousness, we have a deep connection with it. We are unable to understand it or reach it, probably because between silence and us we have erected multi-dimensional walls. We almost try to deny silence, which is the core of our being, even defy it. In fact, most of us seem to be quite uncomfortable with noise. We seem to fight silence, even defeat it, as we announce our arrival in this world with a loud, piercing wail.

Beyond mind’s chatter
Just as we have to penetrate the heart of darkness to see the flaming light, we have to penetrate the cluttered noisiness of our mind and the world around us to reach where silence alone remains.

But why silence? According to Yogiraj Nanak, who has founded the Adhyatmik Sadhna Sangh in west Delhi, the essence of life is ever flowing and eternal. If we want to express it in its entirety, or even try to do so, we can succeed only to a limited extent. When our senses, mind and intellect fall short of expressing all, another expressive channel called maun (silence) opens up. “If the speaker can communicate through the silence and the listener can listen silently, it is the most powerful means of communication. And in spiritual learning, it plays a dominant role,” he says.

He explains that a quiet communication is most important where two individuals are burdened with different sanskaras (inherited traits, impressions, memories) due to bonding with a particular religion, ethnicity, culture or country. In which case, the connotation of a word or its sentiments remain tied to sanskaras, however subtle the words may be.

In his booklet, Maun Samvad (Dialogue in Silence), Yogiraj Nanak says: “Life’s essence cannot fully blossom into words. Maun has the essence, which always exists in the present, and is free of ahankar (ego). The speaker’s or the listener’s ego (‘I know this’ and ‘I don’t know this’) always takes him to I-ness instead of Be-ness and Is-ness. Once freed from ego, what remain are purity, beauty and the nectar of peace and solitude. The power of peace thus obtained is so strong that our life within remains unshaken by the storm and stress without. In short, maun calms the mind and thus fills the whole life with peace.”

In the 10-day Vipassana course, participants observe silence for eight days. Says a Vipassana meditator: “Silence is the medium that takes us forward on the journey from the apparent self to the real self. When we are silently observing the body, and observing the mind, this something that is witnessing is silence—the real Self. We are constantly allowing in the garbage through our five doors—the senses—and we are constantly reacting to it. Silence takes us beyond the sense experiences to the real experience.”

Osho too describes the importance of silence in our lives beautifully: “Only silence can be heard and understood. Words can be heard but only superficially, and can be understood but only intellectually. Silence is heard existentially and is understood from your innermost being. It is a total understanding… Silence means you have put aside the whole furniture of the mind—the thoughts, the desires, the memories, the fantasies, the dreams, you have all pushed aside. You are just looking into existence directly, immediately.

‘‘You are in contact with existence without anything in between you and existence. That is silence. Silence is usually understood to be something negative, something empty, an absence of sound, of noises. This misunderstanding is prevalent because very few people have ever experienced silence. All they have experienced in the name of silence is noiselessness. But silence… is overflowing with a music that you have never heard before, with a fragrance that is unfamiliar to you, with a light that can only be seen with the inner eyes. It is not something fictitious; it is a reality, and a reality which is already present in everyone—just we never look in.

The silence within
And how can we look in and reach the silence within us, touch the silence of our being? To reach the real silence, the absolute silence, we need to transcend the silence of the body, the silence of the heart and finally the silence of the mind. Thus before we merge with eternal silence we shall need to reach, touch and then transcend the silence at the physical, emotional and mental levels.

How would we know the silence of the body? No, let me put it differently. What would disturb the silence of the body?

Most immediately, any sickness in the body would disturb its silence. The disturbance is directly proportional to the level of physical suffering. A patient howling in pain could shatter even the physical silence in a hospital.

An inability to feel comfortable with your body can also disturb its silence. The fidgetiness, the restlessness we see in the majority of people these days indicates how far removed they are from the silence of the body. Rarely can we find people today who can sit still or calm in one place for a considerable period of time. The problem of hyperactivity is increasing alarmingly in children particularly. Some people constantly need a prop for their body like smoking, moving their bodies to the beat of real or imagined music, shuffling feet, shaking a leg while sitting in a chair, swaying their body, inane scratching, constantly doing something with their hands, asking for tea or coffee to get over boredom, and so on. The inability to connect to the silence of the body makes us find excuses to keep on indulging in some inane physical activity or the other. There appears to be some difficulty in being comfortable with one’s body, just being with oneself.

Most of the physical activity like the one described above is also an expression of the clatter in the mind. Boredom and silence are two ends of the same spectrum. But while boredom pulls you down, silence releases you.

Towards tranquillity
At the mental level too, primarily two things disturb our silence. One, a never-ending caravan of thoughts passing through our mind removes us farther and farther away from the silence of our being. As they say, a single thought can disturb the silence of your mind the way a small pebble thrown into the silent lake is enough to create thousands of ripples and disturb its tranquillity. Secondly, the cacophony that we have surrounded ourselves with also ruffles the still pool of our existence.

Our heart is another playground where hide-and-seek is played out every moment of our life. Interestingly, it is the heart that takes us away from our real Self at the narrow spectrum, and also introduces us to the Supreme Self at its broadest spectrum. Meera, Kabir, Tukaram, Guru Nanak, the Sufi saints, all climbed through their hearts’ broad spectrum to reach the silence of the heart and then transcend it. We continue to linger at the narrow spectrum, holding tightly to our overriding desires for colas, pizzas, latest gadgetry, NRI spouse, bigger house, zanier car, power, ambitions for our offspring… the list is endless. When we push the desires out of our heart, silence will show up.

Thus we have to work at all the three levels and then transcend them to reach silence. How do we do that?

At the physical level, first, work to free your body of all encumbrances. Fast at least one day in a week. Fast only on green coconut water or diluted raw vegetable or fruit juice taken about four times a day. The best is to fast only on water—but do that once a month. For physical problems, build up your own immunity by depending upon nature alone, which means out go drugs and medications.

At the emotional level, live by genuine needs and not by desires. We will realise how needlessly we buy and consume. If new, upgraded brands are launched every month, we need not go for them with the same alacrity. Have we ever realised how much burden that puts on Mother Earth? We have inexcusably disturbed, in fact destroyed beyond repair, the silence of our environment. My first mobile phone handset is now three years old. I never felt the need to change the model, since it serves its purpose perfectly well. It gives me the basic mobility and the convenience for others to reach me whenever necessary. The desire for novelty factor is an expression of boredom. Movement away from boredom will take us towards silence. The simpler our life is, easier it is to be always surrounded by silence.

Intentional silence
Meditation, of course, is the failsafe way of knowing silence. It stills the mind and takes us towards no-mind awareness. Sages, saints and gurus have highly recommended maun vrat (intentional silence), where the seeker goes into silence for an extended period of time. It is part of quite a few meditation courses conducted by masters. Yogis and sages of yore went into silence (maun) with a full awareness of the concept, which is only superficially understood by a majority of seekers today. Here, silence is observed at all levels. Foremost is the silence of the five senses, the withdrawal from all sensory desires. That is how maun vrat blends so well with upvaas (fasting). At its subtlest and the most refined level, silence is knowing and knowing is silence. The clue here is not to deny yourself the sensory experience but to enter it, witness it objectively, and attain the wisdom of knowing its transience. For example, if we try to deny ourselves a delicious meal laid out in front of us, it is most likely that our mouth will still water. If we observe and absorb its smell with a focus on our breath, let the salivary glands work and exhaust themselves, in a few moments we will succeed in lifting ourselves above the momentary experience and almost have a feeling of satiation. But we need not do this every time. Similarly, if we dispassionately witness all our desires and cravings, a time will come when we shall be able to distance ourselves from them, and we will reach a beautiful sense of calm and peace, a stillness of desires.

To begin with, allot a time and place to yourself, where once a month, and if possible, once a week (increase the duration and frequency as you move on), observe complete silence. It should be complete in the sense that during that period surrender yourself totally to your intention. Merely keeping mute is not maun vrat.

According to Shama Sharma, who has practised guided spiritual maun off and on, it is more important to keep internal maun rather than external maun. For someone in maun who cannot give up the desire to communicate with the external world and keeps doing it either by sign language or by involvement in other activities, cannot find the bliss that is in real silence. When she recently took a 40-day maun, she would break the silence whenever she felt the real urge to communicate verbally, though such moments were rare. “At such a time my mind would create more noise than my spoken words. So it is better to get over with what’s bugging you and then carry on,” she says.

So if we intend to keep silent for two hours, but all the while we are thinking of what we are going to do for the rest of the day, or what are we going to cook for dinner, or what jobs need to be finished, that is no maun. To reach internal maun, complete withdrawal from the world and from all external experiences, to whatever degree possible, is important.

But again this is only the beginning. Absolute silence is arrived at after successfully crossing over all thought walls, which might seem difficult but practice makes it possible. Silence comes with stillness of the mind and heart alone. Silence is losing self to timelessness.

To make it happen simply, and effortlessly, begin by listening to the silence of the sun, the moon, the earth, the mountains, the sky. Have we ever noticed how silent they are? And yet they communicate so much, give so much. When we start observing silence in the most unlikely places and moments, stillness will start happening on its own, effortlessly. The icing on the cake comes when we are able to glimpse silence in the gaps between each of our thoughts, as the masters keep urging us to do. Then we will know that we are arriving home.

But why do we need to go into silence? Why do we need to know it or to reach it? Because when we know silence, we shall know ourselves. When we reach silence, we reach the supreme power that is often called God. Silence is shoonya, the no-mind state which every yogi, every sincere sadhak aspires for. Silence springs forth from the ultimate union.

From silence alone do we move to our pure and real potential. Stillness of body, mind and spirit conserves our energy. A single useless thought can burn up more of our energy than what a mason spends in building a wall. A single moment of unbridled passion may destroy much more of our energy than what we can build in a month’s regular and sincere meditation. Imagine how much good work we can do in the world, with all that energy at our disposal? How come true saints and gurus are able to do so much for the community and humanity? Their silence moves and inspires others to do it. Through silence one gets access to all creativity.

The journey towards silence is a constant economising on thoughts, on desires, on passions. It is also a journey towards higher awareness. In the womb of absolute silence resides all creation.

Mahavatar Babaji - Vision of Yogiraj Gurunath

Who is Shiva Goraksha Babaji

by Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath

In his hands he holds the evolutionary lightning of life and death. He is the head, the heart, the seed and the soul of undying knowledge. It is from him that all ancient avatars, prophets, heirophants, and divine incarnations have sprung. It is about him whom legends are rife the length and breadth of India.
People know him by many names, and yet he is called the Nameless One. He broods over the infant humanities from eternity to eternity. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but he shall be in the here now, eternally to stay. The limited vision of sages, siddhas, philosophers and yogis cannot pierce his transcendental star. His spiritual stature is inconceivable. He is the collective Elohim, the spiritual essence of the nine Nath Lords combined. He is the great sacrifice who in a countless supernovae explosion infused every atom of creation with his spirit of livingness, wisdom and truth to redeem not only humankind but all life and matter to their pristine state of consciousness.

Shiv-Goraksha Babaji is regarded as a manifestation of Lord Shiva himself. He has bestowed upon humanity the practices to evolve human consciousness, in particular, the divine alchemy of Shiva Shakti (Kundalini Kriya Yoga), which exercises a double action to hasten the evolution of the self soul. This expands the self consciousness and burns away past evil karma.
Shiv-Goraksha Babaji is the founder of the Nath Tradition. He reveals himself to only a few he chooses and usually remains invisible, guiding humanity through his disciples. He has revived the ancient science of God realization in modern times. His mission continues to manifest through the work of his disciples.
There is a great mystery and a sacrifice to the ninth level of Divine Awareness which is self born. This is the state of Brahma Nirvana from which the ineffable Shiva-Goraksha-Babaji descends to redeem humanity yet maintains his state. How this is possible is known only to Him. He is the collective consciousness of the seven primordial sages of the fire mist born at the beginning of Time.
He is the total light of the highest Elohim; and yet in his unfathomable compassion has left behind a finite portion of His Infinite consciousness to evolve humanity into the likeness of Divinity. This finite and immortal portion of His Divinity manifest amongst the haunts of men from time to time as the need arises. Throughout eternity this Eternal Now watches over the evolution of humanity till it is liberated. Truly called the Visibile-Invisible Saviour of humanity, the great sacrifice!
Babaji is ever the same. He was never born and therefore can never die. They call him aja (the unborn). But from time to time this compassionate Lord of irradiant splendor does manifest for humanity to do what needs to be done. Pulling the veil of Maya by his own will he takes a form of Lightless light to incarnate amongst the haunts of men. He guards, guides and enlightens their consciousness as per their evolutionary blueprint.
His deathless body of lightless light may take any form through which he can express and show himself to the faithful from age to age. He took the form of Adi Nath Shiva himself, and of Rudra of the Ancient of days. He came recently in 500 B.C. as Kal Agni Nath, then as Dakshin Murti when he initiated himself. Then he manifested as Gorksha Nath in 70 B.C. at the time of King Shalivahan and Chowrangee Nath. In the same ever present immortal body he manifests as Shiv-Goraksha-Babaji in the ninth century A.D. during the time of Guga Nath, whom he empowered to have complete mastery over the Nagas and ultimately be worshipped as a Naga God.
Goraksha Nath is himself shown in the supreme samadhi sitting as Nagaraj upon a Yogic throne under which the Nine Nagas, Vasuki, Ananta, Takshaka, Varuna, Padmaka, Sankhpala, Kulika, Mahapadma, and Karkotaka. This Lord of karma and destiny, Shiva Goraksha Nagaraj sat upon his throne of nagas for 12 years to withhold the rain and create a drought to give the people of Nepal their Karmic retribution, thereby evolving their souls.

• The snakes, which were subdued to form the asan throne were:
• Varuna, white in color weaning a sevenfold jeweled Nagahood;
• Ananta, carrying a jewel in a lotus in his hands and took his position in the center of a dark blue hue in the east;
• Padmaka, the color of a lotus stalk with five hoods in the south;
• Takshala, the nine hooded saffron colored in the west; Vasuki, the seven headed green took his position in the north;
• Shankha pala, yellowish in the south-west;
• Kulika, the white with thirty heads in the northwest;
• Karkotaka, the half human with snake tail of a blue color in the southeast, and
• Mahapadma, golden colored in the northeast.

When the souls of Nepal had been purged of their sins Matsyendra Nath appeared in Nepal, then Goraksha Nath got up to greet him; the Nagas were released and copious rainfall was had.
It so happened that the great Matsyendra Nath journeyed to the Himalayas and there did intense tapa and meditation. The Adi Nath Lord Shiva was pleased, appeared to the Nath and asked him what he needed. The great Yogi asked Shiva to give him a disciple greater and more perfect than himself. The Lord answered and said, You are already perfect and have attained the final enlightenment. But Matsyendra Nath insisted so Lord Shiva said that he would himself manifest as his disciple. Then from the Heart of Adi Nath the Eternal Shiva Goraksha Babaji ensued an irradiant flame of splendor and the Mahavatar Shiva Goraksha Babaji was manifest in the spiritual realm; ready to inhabit a grosser body.
So Matsyendra Nath gave to a woman wanting a child some holy ash (Vibhuti) from his bag. The spirit of Goraksha was in the Vibhuti but the unbelieving woman threw it into the dirt and the dung heap. Unperturbed by this act, the spirit of Goraksha still grew and when Matsyendra Nath came to the place and called to the woman she was sorry for what she had done and told him her story.
Then the Lord of compassion Shiva Goraksha arose from beneath the dirt and mire of our earth to cleanse and free the earth and its people from the same dirt and dung which covers their souls. To give us the radiant love and nectar of the Divine through Kriya Yoga Meditation.

Mahavatar Babaji - Immortal Enigma

By Amodini Gaganavir Mahavatar Babaji, a Himalayan mahayogi said to be about 1,800 years old, is the founder of kriya yoga. The world first heard about him courtesy Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi. Today, many cults are growing around his enigmatic persona. Mumbai-based Dr Ram Bhosle claims to have lived with him for six years. Legend has it that the remote parts of the Himalayas are home to many rishis, tapasvis and siddhayogis—Eternal Masters engaged in singular methods of sadhana or disciplined practice dedicated to cosmic exploration and in guiding the destiny of humanity through the ages. They live in rough-hewn natural caves under glacial conditions. Some have ashrams amidst verdant greenery, located at a vibrational frequency at variance with the 'normal' three-dimensional one to keep intruders at bay. Their abode has been verily named Shambala, Gyan Ganj, or Siddha Loka. In this phantasmagorical world of accomplished yogis, anything is possible. A siddha sadhak (realized master) may simply choose to take the form of an ancient tree to meditate undisturbed for hundreds of years. Others, when they venture beyond the confines of their rarefied sanctuaries, may fly through the air as themselves, or change into swans, geese, eagles, or even into animals, fish and insects. There are many creative ideas for teleportation, with some just travelling on beams of light from one place to another! Exalted as these beings are, a distinct feature common to all is their complete identification with India and her Vedic heritage. When people attain a certain level in their sadhana, they automatically lose their narrow personal bonds of family, language, caste or province. Then the old terrain of the Motherland takes over, so that it matters not whether it is Kabir, Lahiri Mahasaya, Shirdi Sai Baba or Ramana Maharshi, they all belong to India. And they converse with each other using an argot common to the wandering sadhus (monks). Thus it is that the venerable heritage of Gorakhnath and Machhindranath is claimed for its own by Garhwal, Konkan, Bundelkhand, Mewar and Coorg, and many a little girl in the remotest village of India is put to sleep to the refrain of "Chalo Machhinder, Gorakh Aaya...."

With his lithe and youthful figure, Mahavatar Babaji (whose feats have been reported by Paramahansa Yogananda in his Autobiography of a Yogi) is one such eternal master. He is the man with the 1,800-year-old immortal body. He's also the founder of kriya yoga, a discipline involving purification of the body-mind organism through breath control techniques to aid longevity and spiritual evolution. 'Mahavatar' means 'great incarnation'. He is also known as Mahakaya Babaji, the word 'Mahakaya' describing his immortal body. In some circles the Hare Khan Baba being referred to sounds suspiciously similar to Mahavatar Baba's persona. TAMIL INCARNATION Babaji comes with sanitized packaging shorn of ash, rudraksha or kumkum tilak. Of course, there have been many Babajis over the decades claiming to be the Mahavatar. There's a free-for-all on the Internet with the various Babaji Web pages multiplying rapidly to a current count of several thousand. Yet, the Self-Realization Fellowship established by Yogananda in California almost sounds as if it holds patent rights over the 'Babaji lineage'. After conquering the West within decades, it's time for Babaji to return home to capture the interest of Indians who are still obsessed with pot-bellied gurus. A new international group called the Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas with a base of sorts in Pondicherry recently held kriya yoga seminars in major metropolitan cities across India. The Babaji they're selling is the same kriya yogi, but he's now positioned in a new Tamil incarnation as Babaji Nagaraj and never mind that he's been a permanent resident of the Himalayas for 1,800 years. A book claiming to present new information about Babaji, written by the Canadian guru and chief of the Kriya Yoga Order, Marshall Govindan, presents startling claims about the Tamil origins of many ancient rishis and siddhas, including Macchindranath and Gorakhnath. Welcome to the club! Tibet too claims them for its own, and the Gorkhas of Nepal and India claim to be the original descendants of Gorakhnath. The seminar is a casual affair, particularly since the group of two conducting it has no organizational set up. There is very little planning. In two days, you are to learn 144 kriyas or breathing techniques, 18 yogasanas and numerous chants. That's instant evolution. Devote 20 minutes daily to this and you zip past 50 lives' worth of karmic atonement and time! Or so claims the venerable lady acharya from California. The 60 participants in Mumbai are administered a battery of short written assignments, duly checked by the acharya, or head, in the course of the seminar. Gleanings of wisdom pepper the proceedings. Participants are told that Sri Aurobindo was close to attaining an immortal body during his lifetime, but for the fact that he did not practice yogasanas. The acharya presents charts on the macrobiotic diet, the staple no-nos of which are chocolates and meat. All this and more is discussed over a period of two days, inaugurating the advent of yet another New Age cult in India.

MASTER OF MASTERSThankfully, there's a lot more than that to Mahavatar Baba, who never left the shores of India and who's way beyond the reach of puny intellectual property rights. He's a patriotic yogi and keeper of ancient faith, whose mission for ages has been to stem the tide of barbaric conquerors overrunning India. He has often changed the course of Indian history, guided by otherwise immortal rishis, working way above insidious parochial divisions. Babaji's influence as a guru is said to have prevailed over the ages from Adi Shankaracharya and Kabir to more recent saints like Sai Baba of Shirdi, Gajanan Maharaj of Shegaon and Swami Samartha of Akkalkot. The last three were reportedly firebrand revolutionaries who were given up for dead in the First War of Indian Independence in 1857. It is said that the first was a Muslim, while the other two were Hindus. They escaped to the Himalayas for sanctuary and were later given a spiritual initiation by Babaji. They eventually returned as illumined leaders of humanity. Babaji mostly works in obscurity, even while serving as a spiritual mentor to scores of masters. He has guided the destiny of India and her people, yet he is perhaps one of the most accessible of siddhayogis to walk in our midst in recent times. Over two millennia, Babaji has continued to nurture hundreds of accomplished disciples. One such disciple is an ageing healer, Dr Ram Bhosle, who lives and works in Mumbai. He is a world-renowned massage therapist who has treated illustrious patients like Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, among others. He has witnessed almost the entire 20th century, traveling abroad 160 times. A freedom fighter, he had several arrest warrants issued against him by the British during Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India Movement and was forced to flee to the Himalayas. His escape route cut a long swathe across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Saurashtra, Sindh, Baluchistan, Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush mountains, before he finally reached the Himalayas.

MAN OF MIRACLES It was there that he chanced upon Mahavatar Babaji. He ended up giving massage to Babaji, the latter offering him safe house initially for three months, and ultimately for a period of nearly six years to-date, spread over the intervening period. Dr Bhosle's stories throw considerable light on the immortal master. Once, when the two had taken shelter in a cave for the night, Babaji asked him to go and fetch milk. A fierce snowstorm was raging outside and Dr Bhosle thought the sage had gone mad. But when he gingerly walked a few paces beyond the cave's entrance, merely out of deference to his host, he was surprised to find a pitcher of fresh milk, still warm to the touch, positioned on a ledge! On another occasion, Babaji solicitously asked if he wanted a book to read. Unbelieving, Dr Bhosle asked for Bharatmuni's ancient opus on dance, Natyashastra, which was procured for him. Babaji remarked that deep within the womb of the Himalayas was an unimaginable storehouse of ancient texts. He also revealed that four rooms in that great edifice were entirely devoted to astrology. Babaji also predicted that from 2001 onwards India would gradually return to supremacy in world affairs. Several decades ago, he had also forecast the end of all the political isms of the 20th century. Like great yogis, Babaji can supposedly materialize, dematerialize and take on any form at will. He may choose to present himself as an old man, an animal or a bird. He once promised a devotee that he would attend a feast at the man's house, but seemingly did not. When the man later questioned him, Babaji replied: "I was there. I was the dog whom you fed the leftovers." Babaji can travel anywhere in the universe. When he is too busy to do so, he sends specific instructions to his chosen disciples through birds. He's taught a chosen few how to discern birdcalls, and it may well be that the pigeon stridently cooing at your window is actually a messenger from the great seer!

WANDERING SOUL The Mahayogi can be stern when the situation so demands, even while displaying a great sense of humor and rare devilry at other times. He once instructed Dr Bhosle to perform underwater meditation at midnight in the sea off the Mumbai coastline to purify his healing energy. Often, Babaji walked by to supervise his disciple's work, treading on the waves. He would chat for a while, and then walk away nonchalantly. Babaji sometimes greeted his disciple with an unprintable epithet, as is often the custom in youth subcultures around the world. At one time, the ageing Dr Bhosle reacted with considerable anger, remonstrating that such swear words did not befit his status as a mahayogi. Babaji replied: "These words are just creations of grammar." Mostly, the language spoken by the Master is incredibly creative, drawing from a fount of inspiring, lyrical Sanskrit words lending themselves beautifully to new improvisations in Hindi. Interestingly, Babaji's entourage of enlightened and immortal disciples includes yoginis who are over 600 years old. Babaji conveys the impression that he cherishes individuality and thoughtful dissension, rather than servile obedience. The sage with the immortal body has walked the length and breadth of India and is inured to the ways of the seemingly berserk lone ascetics that are a law unto themselves. There is no field of knowledge that is beyond him and the transmutation of atoms is simply an entertaining pastime. One day, Babaji took his entourage to a crematorium. There, he picked up a skull and placing some faeces in it, he offered them to his disciples, ordering them to eat. All of them declined, except Dr Bhosle, who gingerly touched it with his tongue. To his amazement, the revolting stuff had transformed into the most delectable dish. In the 1950s, Babaji had set up an ashram in the Himalayan heights above Badrinath. He eventually closed it down. A true wanderer, he is not to be found in any one place, whether in the Himalayas or elsewhere. Yet he is very much amongst us, in Mumbai or Delhi, as much as he is in Badrikashram. He encourages disciples to strive for their highest destiny. Neither God nor an angel, Babaji is more like the atmik guru, or the inner light. Dr Bhosle sounds a note of caution—the masters are suprahuman, beyond the frailties of emotion, and they demand total commitment to the chosen path. It is of greatest importance to follow the light with determination, discernment and detachment. The wise doctor concludes: "There is no such thing in this world as miracles. Everything happens through science. Only a person who doesn't understand science calls it a miracle."

Woman who stalled Rs 5000 cr corrupt irrigation projects

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Bureaucracy hits back at Anjali Damania by taking away her 59-acre farm, but she remains undeterred. Truly, todays Jhansi ki Rani, Laxmibai.

On Friday last week, when 42-year-old pathologist Anjali Damania received a government order informing her that she had lost ownership of a 59-acre farmland she had so lovingly nurtured for close to 18 years, it just brought a wry smile to her face. What is 59 acres for a woman who has stalled irrigation projects worth over Rs 5,000 crore across the state and who has become the pivot in a struggle against a corrupt system that lets project costs escalate to help contractors make obscene amounts of money.

    The forfeiture of her farm was the system hitting back at her, hoping she would get scared and abandon the movement. But on Monday, when this correspondent met Damania at her residence, it did not look like she was afraid or was contemplating laying down arms.

    Activism was thrust upon this softspoken mother of two who till a year ago led a comfortable life, dividing her time between the farm, her medical practice and foreign holidays.

    Farmers' rights, human displacement, cost escalation in government projects and land acquisition were phrases she had read in the passing in newspapers and heard on evening TV news.

    She was just trying to save her land in Karjat which was to be acquired for the construction of a dam when she stumbled upon papers that showed how dams that would displace thousands of people and destroy acres of cultivable land were cleared in a matter of weeks. The papers also revealed how project costs were increased manifolds just days after a contractor bagged the project.

    The first set of figures that she managed to get hold were shocking. The cost of Kondhane dam, for which the government had sought to acquire her farm, had jumped from Rs 56 crore to Rs 328 crore barely a month after the contract was awarded. That's a cost escalation of nearly 600 per cent. Of course, this was done because a local elected representative demanded that the dam height be increased from 39 meters to 71 meters.

    Damania's struggle, which has spurred several activists to question cost escalation in irrigation projects across the state, started in May last year when she was told her 30-acre farm in Kondhane, Karjat would be have to acquired for a dam project. When she met local irrigation officials, they confirmed that such a project was being planned, but that the same had still not moved even to the drawing board stage. A complacent Damania went on a month-long holiday with her family.

    It was big mistake. When she returned, she found out that the project had been approved, tendered and a contractor appointed.

    Her immediate reaction was to save her farm that she had grown so attached to. Soon, project coordinators approached her to acquire the land. "They kept increasing the price thinking that I was acting like any other landholder trying to get the best deal. Frankly, I was like any other landholder, ignorant about my rights and how to protect them," she said.

    When pressure increased, Damania decided to sleuth around. She sought documents pertaining to the dam under RTI from the irrigation department. The first lot of basic documents revealed the shocking jump in construction costs. The documents also revealed that the project report was prepared, tender floated, and a contractor appointed in less than a month. This is when she realised something was amiss.

    At this juncture, Damania decided to get to the bottom of the issue and met up with several residents from other areas in Maharashtra where similar dam projects were proposed. "To my utter shock, it was the same story everywhere. Identical clutch of contractors bid for the projects everywhere. Contracts were awarded within days. At times, tender notices were published in newspapers a day or two after the project had already been awarded. Barely a month after the contract was awarded, scope of work was increased and cost went up manifold. None of the contractors were capable or technically sound to handle such huge projects," said Damania.

    This is some of the additional information that Damania was able to unearth. The cost of Kalu dam in Thane district had jumped from Rs 640 crore to Rs 1400 crore soon after the work was allotted. Similarly, the cost of Balganga dam in Pen jumped from Rs 420 crore to Rs 1,320 crore and for Shai dam the cost rose from Rs 410 crore to Rs 1,339 crore.

    As Damania began nosing around more, she started getting threat calls at her residence. Her family of stock-brokers freaked out. Her father-in-law issued an ultimatum - she would not be allowed to put everybody at risk for her work. "Fortunately, a few days later a television channel was featuring a programme on farmers' plight in a region where a big dam hadn't taken off as planned. Suddenly, my father-in-law turned towards me and told me that I should go all out after the scam and expose it to help poor farmers."

    She now began seeking documents pertaining to specific contractors and projects and it became more difficult to break through the bureaucracy. She was given lame excuses by irrigation department for not giving out documents. Her appeals under RTI Act went unheard. And when she eventually confronted Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation babus in their offices, she was told that the documents were nowhere to be found. "I just sat there and told them that I would not budge till I get my papers. I was scared that they will book me on some false pretext so I alerted my friends and India Against Corruption volunteers, who joined me in large numbers. Finally, at 7 pm the officials opened the cupboards and allowed me to take whatever I needed and photocopied them for me," she said.

    Armed with several relevant documents, she met Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in May this year, who stayed work on Kondhane dam and asked his officers to prepare a white paper on the state's irrigation projects. Work on several other dams, where she had been able to expose the nexus between bureaucrats and contractors, was stalled too. Earlier this year, she filed a Public Interest Litigation at the Bombay High Court.

    Just when Damania thought she was going strong in exposing corruption in irrigation projects, the system hit back. Damania received a notice from the tehsildar in Kondhane stating that she would have to surrender all the parcels of land that she had bought in the last 18 years. The reason cited was that since all these land parcels, barring one bought in 1994, were agriculture plots, only a farmer could buy them.

    Damania tried to prove that her first plot she bought from a cultivation company in Mahagaon, Raigad, was non-cultivated but fertile land. Over the years she and her husband had started cultivating it. "I showed them photographs of my land. I tried asking them as to why they took 18 years to realise that my first acquisition was illegal. I was obviously being targeted to get me off the case," Damania alleged.

    Of course, all her arguments were rejected. On Friday, she received a final order stating that all her land had been acquired by the state.

    Damania's resolve to fight against corruption hasn't diminished. She still continues to dig up documents on various other under-construction dams in the state.

Karoly Takacs - A Wonder Shooter

In 1938, Karoly Takacs of the Hungarian Army, was the top 25 meter rapid fire pistol shooter in the world. He was expected to win the gold in the 1940 Olympic games scheduled for Tokyo. Those expectations vanished one terrible day just months before the Olympics. While training with his army squad, a faulty hand grenade exploded in Takacs’ right hand, and the shooting hand was badly injured.
Takacs spent a month in the hospital depressed at both the loss of his hand, and the end to his Olympic dream. However, Takacs did the unthinkable; he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and decided to learn how to shoot with his left hand! His reasoning was simple. He simply asked himself, "Why not?" Instead of focusing on what he didn’t have – a world class right shooting hand, he decided to focus on what he did have – incredible mental toughness, and a healthy left hand that with time, could be developed to shoot like a champion.
For months Takacs practiced by himself. No one knew what he was doing. Maybe he didn’t want to subject himself to people who most certainly would have discouraged him from his rekindled dream. In the spring of 1939 he showed up at the Hungarian National Pistol Shooting Championship. Other shooters approached Takacs to give him their condolences and to congratulate him on having the strength to come watch them shoot. They were surprised when he said, "I didn’t come to watch, I came to compete." They were even more surprised when Takacs won!
The 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled because of World War II. It looked like Takacs’ Olympic Dream would never have a chance to realize itself. But Takacs kept training and in 1948 he qualified for the London Olympics.
At the age of 38, Takacs won the Gold Medal by beating the then reigning world champion and setting a new world record. Four years later, Takacs won the Gold Medal again at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

Winners always search for a solution and losers for an escape. Winners in every field have a special trait that helps them become unstoppable. At the setback point when most people would have quit, and they would have probably spent the rest of their life feeling sorry for themselves, winners not only don't quit but more importantly they recover QUICKLY. Remember, when a boxer gets knocked down, he has ten seconds to get back up. If he gets up in eleven seconds, he loses the fight. Next time if you get knocked down, DECIDE you will act like a winner to recover quickly as you can’t let circumstances keep you down. At times life is hard but you can't let it beat you down...because you are always a winner.
Failure is only a fact when you give up. Everyone gets knocked down, the question is: Will you get back up and how quickly?

Logic vs Intution

When reason fails, only intuition can work - Osho talks on Madame Curie

When reason fails, only intuition can work.  And all the great scientists have become aware of it: that all their great discoveries are made not by reason but by intuition.

                     Madame Curie was working on a certain mathematical problem for three years continuously and the more she tried, the farther and farther away the solution seemed. She tried every possible way, but nothing was working, nothing was happening. And there was somewhere a deep, tacit feeling that "The solution exists. I am not struggling with something absurd." This tacit feeling continued all the time as an undercurrent; hence she could not drop the effort either. She was getting tired -- three years wasted for a single problem. But deep down within herself somebody was saying, "The solution IS possible. This exercise is not futile. Go on." And she went on stubbornly, she persisted. She dropped all other projects, she forced herself totally into the one problem. But the more she tried, the more impossible it became.
One night it happened, almost as it happened to Gautama the Buddha; of course, the problems were different, but the process was the same. Buddha had struggled for six years to attain enlightenment and he had attained nothing. Then one night he dropped the whole effort, went to sleep, and, by the morning when the last star was setting, he became enlightened.

That night Madame Curie dropped the idea, the whole project -- she closed the chapter. "Enough is enough! Three years wasted is too much for one problem." There were other problems which were waiting to be solved. It was finished in her mind, although the tacit understanding was still there just like a constant murmur. But she had followed it long enough, it was time. One has only a limited time; three years is too much for one problem. Deliberately she dropped the idea. As far as she was concerned she closed the whole project. She went to sleep never to be bothered by that problem again.
And in the morning when she got up she was surprised. On a piece of paper on her table, the solution was there, written in her own handwriting. She could not believe her eyes. Who had done it? The servant could not have done it -- he knew nothing of mathematics, and if Madame Curie had not been able to do it in three years, how could the servant have done it? And there was nobody else in the house. And the servant had not entered in the night -- the doors were locked from inside. She looked closely and the handwriting resembled hers.
Then suddenly she remembered a dream. In the dream she had seen that she had got up, gone to the table, written something.... Slowly slowly, the dream became clear. Slowly slowly, she remembered that she had done it in the night. It was not a dream, she had actually done it. And this was the solution! For three years she had been struggling hard and nothing was happening -- and the night she dropped the project, it happened. What happened? She became relaxed.

Once you have dropped the effort you become relaxed, you become restful, you become soft, you become wide, you become open. It was there inside her, it surfaced. Finding the mind no longer tense, it surfaced.
                      She had come to the conclusion from some other door which was not reason.  It was intuition.  But first the reason had to be exhausted.  Intuition functions only when reason is exhausted.  Intuition has no process; it simply jumps from the problem to the conclusion.  It is a shortcut.  It is a flash.
                We have corrupted intuition.  Man’s intuition is almost absolutely corrupted.  Woman’s intuition is not corrupted as much – that’s why women have something called a “hunch”.  A hunch is just a fragment of intuition.  It cannot be proved.  You are going to take a flight and your woman simply says that she is not going and she will not allow you to go either.  She feels as if something is going to happen.  Now this is nonsense.  You have much work to do, everything is planned, and you have to go – but your woman won’t allow it.  And the next day you read in the newspaper that the aeroplane was hijacked, or it crashed and all the passengers died.
                    Now the woman cannot say how she knows.  There is no way.  It is just a hunch, just a feeling in the guts.  But that too is very corrupted, that’s why it is just a flash.