India...

Mother India, or Bharat as she's more commonly called over time by her own people. Or Hindustan by the Muslim population. First entered my life in the mid 80's via the tv show That's Incredible, when a yogi curled himself up in a box on national tv and stayed in there the whole show, coming out easily and without any issues at the end, then I wanted to know who he was and where he was from.

Then it creeped back in in the late 90's when I read Shirley Maclaine's book that I'd purchased in the mid 80's, not sure why I didn't read them back then... But she practiced yoga and yoga came from India, so my mind wandered. I had only a few years before had a guy I was dating try to get me to come to his yoga class and for some reason that did NOT make me think about India, lol, again, not sure why.

Now I've been coming here for almost 6 years and studying her philosophies for the last 19 years, the gods, Sanskrit, the scriptures. But only been coming for almost 6 years, 14 years after I finally started practicing yoga in fact, odd...

I've had many experiences, written about them here on my blog and on my Facebook page many, many times. so they are not the point of this treatise. The point is, well, maybe I don't know. Or maybe it's that I'm about to leave India for a good long while, longer than I have in the last so many years and my experiences here are in the forefront of my mind.

Lately the experiences I've had here have been more intense, more full, more evolutionary.

This round I've been here since last November, and by the time I leave next month it will be ten months in a row. Two in Goa and the rest here in Mysore with the occasional trip around.

In February in particular I went to Kamakhya, in the state of Assam, and that trip changed everything for me. It made me more interested in real tantra, the path, not the perceived notions that the Americans have of it. But the real path of it. Finding a real lineage and studying under it, so I have been. That also I'm not here to discuss.

Some years back my friend gave me a card he'd discovered at a famous south Indian temple, Meenakshi, of the Goddess Prathyangira. I'd never heard of her. Most people haven't heard of her, she's a tantric Devi who covers two sides of the spectrum. Most are either on the Vishnu or the Shiva side, but she transcends them both and is a large part of the Shakta path. So covers all the bases.

A great Goddess with a male lion head, a female human body who rides a male lion and has several of the navagraha as her accoutrements, including Rahu and Ketu who are often thought of in a malefic way. But her, not to her, they are her earrings hahaha...

Some interest was drawn up on this one, not often I'd never heard of a deity and knew nothing about them, nor could find an awful lot of information out there. In searching I found one temple in Tamil Nadu, with a 30 foot statue of her at its entrance, but never did anything about it. So this time in Mysore met a girl who's mother worships her, then we chatted, found out said temple was only just under 4 hours away and decided to take a day trip to see it, and feel her energy.

We did, and it was intense and we all had odd things happen to us after the temple experience, even the driver. So left it alone, then I'm at a local Bhairavi temple I just started reoccasioning and at the door noticed a flyer ad for a local Pratyangira temple having full moon ceremonies. Took a pic of it, forgot about it again and then remembered it one day, seemingly randomly, although not so, and googled it. Found out it was only 25 minutes away out in the country.

One day my friend Ross and I went to see it and found it to have a very strong energy and being in the jungle was also surrounded by that lovely natural energy as well. We were invited to their full moon ceremony that was to be in just two days, so I went back with two other friends, Ross wasn't able to make it back unfortunately.

I just came from there again and it was very powerful, a good friend even notes each time that I go that I'm calmer and more fun. I feel a strong attraction to the guruji there as well, he's an interesting guy who has lived quite a life and we agree on many things. So I also believe his energy and holding of the space to be a very powerful experience for me at this time too. I'm enjoying this.

The point of me writing this is that India, over time, although she affected me instantaneously, has now been affecting me more deeply in a cumulative way. The power here is very palpable and in its weight has been drawing my awareness to a deeper and deeper place. Waking me up also in more varied ways than ever. I suspect it will even more before I leave in the next month.

I look forward to leaving and seeing if I'm able to maintain this level of awareness, openness, love, peace and energy while I'm gone. I know it is possible, and in this time left here will attempt to learn how to make it a possibility that it stays with me. This I want to bring to all my interactions with myself and with others. I want this to lead me through to the next stage of life and to be where I come from in all occasions, in all relationships.

I love you Maa, thank you and may you always be with me so that you may always be with everyone I come into contact with and embellish our interactions to a divine level.

Namaste...

Shifts...

Lots of good going on lately, not only good, but making peace with whatever comes up has been very possible for me lately, so mostly it all seems like good. Much is coming from each thing, growth comes in all ways even ways we can't expect or are able to put words to. These shifts have been more subtle for me lately, but none the less profound.

Yesterday we went to Nanjangud to the Srikanteshwara temple there, a Shiva temple. It also houses Vishnu, Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Parvati, and many others including a third son of Shiva that I've never heard of before. It's a 40 minute drive there after eating breakfast, but we'd done the drive a couple weeks back on the full moon and it was so crowded we couldn't even go inside the temple, so toured around the grounds, worshipping at a Hanuman area, a naga area, some trees, the Ganesh temple. It was nice, but we all felt a need to go back to be inside, so it was nice and it was empty probably because today was the new moon and today would be busy there. Had a profound and deep calming experience, even on the drive back and the rest of the day.

Then this morning went up Chamundi Hill which seemed deserted, but once we got there the free line was exponentially long. So we went and purchased tickets to walk in the front door and did, then we saw that it was all backed up. It was earlier than I usually arrive there, being a new moon (amavasya called in Sanskrit) there took a bit longer to allow devotees into the inner sanctum, so we waited. Then once they began letting us in, damn, I've never encounter such a push in my life. There were hands in my armpits, cocks pressing against my ass, boobs pushing into my sides and back, someone was even holding my hand part of the time so they didn't fall over which also helped me not to fall over. Insane, BUT an experience one can only have here in India and one that I will cherish and tell stories about for a long time. Once inside we were shoved through quickly and didn't have much darshan, but it was still profound in its own way.

There is the Mahabaleshwar temple up there as well, going inside there was deep and calming, then we went down the backside of the hill to the Jwalamukhi Tripura Sundari temple in Uttarahalli, only one of its kind in India from what Google says. It was busier than last week, but so nice and fulfilling. She's meant to be Chamundis sister, some call her Kali, as she sucked up all the blood as Chamunda was killing the demons, which is Kali in the stories. She's a powerful energy in her temple, and I'm glad I finally went after avoiding it for 2 years.

Upon finding out that I'll be leaving India for an indefinite period of time, going to Tucson in October to begin Mysore program there, I realised how much I'll miss all these things that are peculiar to India only, and so am embracing going to temples even more than I already have. In fact I've found myself going to record numbers of them each morning and night, absorbing all the energy and experience that I can, so I can stock it up and take it with me when I leave. It's been great and I am loving it.

I seem to be just writing what my day consisted of, so I'll stop now and let you move on about your day, enjoy my friends!