The Japanese woman sitting in front of me in the lotus position wears a Tintin in Tibet t-shirt. I arrived early to the lecture this morning so got myself a cushion to sit on.
But as soon as I’d made myself comfortable we had to stand as Swami’s wife came in. Today is her birthday. She comes in with a younger woman – their daughter? I wasn’t sure she was his wife at first, since he was calling her by her name, Mutterjee I think, but seeing her she looks the same as the woman in the photo, though a few years older, which I’m sure he said yesterday was his wife. The photo now has a garland of purple flowers around it. She sits on a throne of cushions in front of her photo and then we’re all allowed to sit.
Swami, or the Swami (I’m not sure if Swami is a name or a title), tells his wife’s life story as she sits serenely, smiling occasionally. She was special from the start, firstly because she was born on an auspicious day. Today is a full moon and it’s the first day of our new year. And then she was born the wrong way round, feet first, which in Indian culture is very auspicious. Astrologers came to the village where she was born and told her parents that she was a special child and she would bring them wealth, which she did. Right after she was born their fortunes changed and they never wanted for money again.
When she was older and they tried to send her to school she kept running away from school and going to the ashram. She just wanted to meditate, and then she want around giving lectures and became very well known. When her parents tried to get her married she kept running away. Three times she ran away from the wedding, when the husband was there, all the guests were there, she just ran away.
I think that’s when she came to the ashram in Rishikesh and where he met her. He said around that time, when she was in her mid-twenties, she suffered a stroke or brain tumour and was in hospital for six months, and after that she lost some of her memory. He said he’s asked her many times if she has any sense of frustration, that she was on this upward path, making a name for herself, and then it all came to an end, and she’s always said no, whatever God wants for her that’s what she accepts.
He goes on for some time about the purity of her soul, the fact that he has never seen her in a bad mood, that she’s always smiling. And there are a number of rituals with flowers, waving a candle around, and then eating some kind of cake that she has made. A few people have brought garlands of flowers and they put them around her neck. She seems slightly embarrassed, but keeps smiling. The Swami has his favourite Chinese student taking photos of it all, and someone else is taking photos.
As it’s new year he goes around the room with some red paint, putting a mark on everyone’s forehead. As he does so we’re supposed to close our eyes and make a new years resolution.
This all takes about an hour. His wife and possible daughter (there is a likeness to her mother, if that’s who she is) leave and the lecture proper starts, with only about half an hour of the allotted time remaining. (Perhaps I should only donate 25 Rupees today, but the cake was good.) I wrote notes again, but now reading through them they don’t make much sense:
Most of the new age books, they don’t know. I know the answers given in the books but they don’t satisfy me. When I get a bit more enlightened I will answer. (I didn’t write down what the question was.)
Kundalini energy is the primal energy. It is in the shape of a coil. Serpent power. The coil is in the astral body so can’t be seen physically.
Our personality is bipolar. Pure consciousness is masculine, pure energy is feminine. Duality: I am different from everything. Kundalini comes up and there’s unity: I am everything: I am.
Kundalini yoga cannot be appreciated intellectually. Latent energy some day will rise. I am using 10% of my brain according to medical science. Sooner or later we will all get enlightened, by evolution, but only after a million years.
In our final 100 lives we have a genuine belief in God. Not a belief in a Christian God. That’s child’s play – no offence to anyone.
A little LSD can bring up some kundalini energy, can give that experience.
Rishikesh is where people come when they are ready for enlightenment. It is the Agnea chakra of the Indian land mass. The Ganga coming down from the Himalaya. There are places where the physical and the astral dimensions come together.
Someone said that the yogic powers look like science fiction. Yes, it is science fiction, but what was science fiction in the 19th Century is science fact now.
He tells the story of a Russion (I think) spiritual seeker called Madame Lavinsky who come to India and went everywhere with her body guard, Colonel Torry. Up in the mountains somewhere she said to him I want to go into that ashram. What ashram? There’s nothing for five miles around. This ashram here, she said, and she disappeared and then reappeared a while later wearing a garland of flowers. It was an astral ashram, which is why the Colonel couldn’t see it.
Where material science ends spiritual science begins. Where physics ends meta-physics begins.