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At the Feet of the Master

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • 1. Introduction and Foreword
  • 2. Life before meeting THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM
    • a. Childhood and Upbringing
    • b. Some turning points in life
    • c. Going to America for Education, Job & Living the American Dream
  • 3. Meeting my Master August 9, 2003
    • a. Life in Oklahoma Just before meeting my Master
    • b. First Brush with Divine Meeting the Master
    • c. The first ASP
    • d. Master's first visit to our home
    • e. Post ASP Experiences at home
  • 4. Early Days of the USA mission
    • a. Starting the mission in Oklahoma City
    • b. Juggling a lot of balls
    • c. Preparing for Swamiji's 2nd trip and finding help/support to spread the mission
    • d. Decision Time Dilemmas and the so called jump
    • e. Move to Bharat
    • f. Mission in 2004-2005;
  • 5. Forming of LA Ashram and Nithyananda Mission in USA
    • a. An Awesome month with Swamiji in Los Angeles area
    • b. Los Angeles Ashram Inauguration
    • c. 18 days of Bhagavad Gita
    • d. Coming together of Ashramites & Core Devotees
  • 6. Mission continues in Bharat 2005
    • a. Mahaparinirvana Day Enlightenment & Passing of Sri Nithya Arunachalananda
    • b. Nithyanandam & Jayanthi Celebrations
  • 7. Mission During 2006
    • a. Shiva Sutras Discourse series commences in USA
    • b. Second World Tour in 2006: France and Guadeloupe Tour
    • c. Los Angeles Sanyas Initiation
    • d. First USA Kumbh Mela September 2006
    • e. Teachers Training Camp Buckhorn September 2006
    • f. Inauguration of Nithyananda Gurukul, October 2006
    • g. Preparing for dozens of Temples
  • 8. Mission in 2007
    • a. Ardh Kumbh Mela in Allahabad the largest gathering of Humanity in the world
    • b. USA Tour 2007
  • c. Inauguration of Columbus Ashram and Vedic Temple
  • d. Vedic Temple in Los Angeles
  • 9. Miracles of the Master
    • a. Our Personal Healing Miracles
      • i. My cure from diabetes
      • ii. My coffee addiction
      • iii. Miraculous disappearance of tumor like mass
      • iv. Healing research and openness to scientific study and scrutiny
    • b. Thiruvannamalai and darshan of Arunachala
    • c. Complete stilling of the mind at Skanda Ashram
    • d. Darshan of Masters
      • i. Paramahamsa Yogananda's darshan to a longtime devotee
      • ii. Mahavatar Babaji's darshan
      • iii. Osh's Darshans
      • iv. Jesus Christ's Darshans
      • v. Internet Darshans
      • vi. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's Darshan to the Old Lady at Dakshineshwar
    • e. Mystery of the 100 ton rock
    • f. Shiva appears in Bidadi and One month of Shiva Sutras at Bidadi Ashram
    • g. Homas & control of rain and wind
    • h. Banyan Tree DNA
    • i. Earthquake in LA area September 2006
  • 10. My Journey, My Transformation
    • a. My Demeanor before meeting Swamiji: Intensity with Irritation

The Phase of resisting the Master

  • b. Surrendering I and Mine
  • c. Intense Awareness and Living in the present moment
  • d. Living Enlightenment & The Alchemy
  • e. Depiction of four states of my transformation
  • 11. To a seeker (from someone who did not even know what seeking was!)
  • 12. APPENDIX 1 "Spirituality and Corporate Productivity"
  • 13. APPENDIX 2: Swamiji's First World Tour of 2004
  • 14. APPENDIX 3: Swamiji's Second World Tour of 2004
  • 15. APPENDIX 3: Swamiji's Second World Tour of 20041 above

Chapter 3: Meeting my Master – August 9, 2003

1. Introduction and Foreword

Nithyanandam Paramasukhadam Kevalam Gnanamurthim Dwandwa dheetam Gaganasadrusam Tatvamasyadhi Laksham Ekam Nithyam Vimalamachalam Sarvadisakshibhootam Bavaadhaatam Triguna Rahitham Satgurum Tam Namami

English Translation

I honestly do not know where to start and what to write. As I started contemplating what to write about these incredible five years I was at the feet of my master, I wondered. Should I write about the master, his incredible compassion, all the miracles that happen so casually around Him every day, the incredible dimensions of Him, His teachings? Should I write about my journey, where I came from and all the dimensions He is giving me an opportunity to live first hand? My mind is racing in all directions wanting to write everything about this exciting journey. I have no idea where this book will take me. But I know for sure He is again giving me an opportunity to discover myself, understand where I came from, where I am going and most importantly have fun while at it.

I feel I should write about all the dimensions of life I am able to live simultaneously at the feet of my master. This life is incredible in terms of the freedom it has given me. Imagine living intensely with no pressure, absolutely no worries because you know you have been taken care of. I feel so light in my mind and body these days. I feel as though an incredible burden has been taken off my shoulders. For this no words can express my gratitude to my Master THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. Thank you Swamiji for taking care of me!

I am hoping for those corporate types or professionals out there who are struggling like I was, that this book show how simple the path of spirituality is, how exciting this journey of self discovery is if we are open, and how we can have it all. When my mind was contemplating taking the so called jump, I went through the logical analysis which said, "Why should I get into this now, let me do this after my kids grow up and finish college?" Then I looked around my relatives who also contemplated this, maybe 10 years before I was confronted with this decision. And now they say, "Oh, it is too late for taking such a drastic step. Also, we are expecting our first grandchild, let us take this jump later" (it is really not a jump as I thought it was, it is also not a feeling that we are giving up something. It is really a jump into liberation, a jump into an intense lifestyle which I found so much more fulfilling. I will discuss more on this in later chapters.)

As Swamiji teaches us, Quantum Spirituality is the process of living all dimensions - material and spiritual - all at once. Through His grace I am a living example of personally living all these dimensions at once and with intense passion. If I can do this, so can you. Please keep an open mind as I share my life, my triumphs and tribulations during this exciting journey of self discovery and transformation.

As I started writing this book, I wanted to share my day with you. Today is May 12, 2008. It is 9pm in Baltimore. I am sitting in my hotel suite waiting for the next couple of weeks of my life to unfold in the outer world. I am currently on the board of a chemical company, advising them on strategy and optimization of their global assets.

I left our Bidadi ashram on May 11, 2008 after a long day, working with several ashramites, to start archiving works of Swamiji so that His endless teachings can be preserved to eternity.

Simultaneously I started developing my thoughts and powerpoint slides on the global supply chain strategy I was going to advise on for the next three weeks. I will be spending time in North America, Europe and Middle East with the company I advise. Also, since I was going to be off for three weeks, there were issues pertaining to creating video content for You Tube clips (several hundred video clips of Swamiji's talks are culled and posted on Youtube.com for free viewing) and development of strategy for publications to effectively spread Swamiji's message, to name a few. This day, like every other day, is filled with its challenges of electricity failure, computers crashing etc. But this is where the fun starts. I will discuss more on living all these dimensions in the following chapters.

The mission has grown in leaps and bounds in the last five years. It is incredible to see the transformation in all of us and the millions of people all over the world experiencing spiritual awakening. It is quite amazing to see that the mission that started barely five years ago has rapidly spread to 35 countries with 1,200 centers and several upcoming ashrams. During this short period, Swamiji has spoken thousands of hours delivering breakthrough messages. So many profound truths have been delivered in a manner that each of us can understand, digest and more importantly incorporate in our everyday lives. This kind of growth and explosion into every dimension, from purest advaita to complete devotion, cannot be fathomed by the ordinary logical mind.

It is very simple and starts with a simple decision of saying 'no' to the logical frame of mind and taking a plunge into this journey of inner science and transformation. Besides all this, being in the presence of an enlightened being is a true gift; it is a once in a lifetime (actually many lifetimes) opportunity to enter the space of a living enlightened master.

Nithyanandam!

Chapter 2. Life before meeting THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

Sometimes it is hard for me to think about how life was before meeting my Master THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. It feels like it was only the other day I was the Vice President of Global Supply Chain at a Fortune 500 company, pushing a business unit to transform itself. Along the way I was stressed out since I felt that it was 'me' who was doing the pushing. Now I realize that even large corporations who spend millions of dollars a year transforming their organizations can learn real basic truths as all of us have, during our spiritual journeys.

One will find streaks of these truths in successful turnarounds in major corporations as well! Transformation of an organization can only start with the transformation of the individual. If I did not transform personally, how can I in turn contribute towards the transformation of the organization or corporation? I now see why it takes so long for successful companies to transform and why so few are truly successful at it. I now realize that all of us live (and torture ourselves) with basic emotions and our same old mental set-up. Until we can breakthrough these barriers through personal transformation, it is hard to sustain the transformation. I now know that the pearls of wisdom Swamiji shares with the world can be applied to all spectrums of transformation – the individual, the group, the organization, the country and humanity. However, all of this can only happen through the individuals!.

Years seem to pass by so fast while living around the Master. There is so much going on every moment, so muchwith intensity, so much passion and living in the present moment. You really do lose track of time. We can recall all the times when we were stuck with spending time with a boring person, when we would keep looking at the watch every five minutes to see when the meeting would be over. Time would never seem to pass. On the other hand if we were meeting someone whose company we truly enjoy, we feel hours have passed without even we realizing it. This is what I mean by saying that years pass by so fast while living around the Master's abode.

Yet it is only now when I sit back and reflect at this incredible journey, I am realizing that while time just flew by, I have lived and done so many things which would have taken decades of time earlier in my life. I note with great gratitude that I am several times more productive at work being at the feet of the Master. And one very BIG difference – in the usually, all of this gets accomplished through incredible amount of long hours, stress, tension, and worries, where as in the integrated lifestyle with the Master, all of this and more gets accomplished with no stress, with complete awareness, with incredible efficiency and besides all, with joy, bliss and intensity. I will share more on my demeanor and state of mind before meeting Swamiji, in the next chapter.

I wanted to take this opportunity to briefly talk about my background, family and life before my journey of personal discovery, the period I would like to refer to as 'Before THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM' (BN)! When I sit back and reflect on this life, as mystical as it may seem, I now understand that the Master was always with me, pointing me to learn from my life's situations, helping me to use these experiences in life as the guru and preparing me right from my childhood to make the so-called final jump into the inner world and ultimate liberation. For this I am eternally grateful to my Master, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

a. Childhood and upbringing

I was born in an upper middle class family in Kurnool in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and was the youngest child in the family. My family was from an agricultural and business community in Andhra Pradesh. My father, Dr. Satyanarayana Murthy was a brilliant physician. He was an intense person and served as the Principal of Guntur Medical College in Andhra Pradesh. There were three elder sisters and me.

My grandmother from the father's side, an extremely intelligent lady (most women from the part of AP I am from tend to be quite shrewd. In fact she ran her own money lending business where she made a decent profit lending to villagers at the rate of 2% interest per month!) prayed to all gods that she should be blessed with a grandson. So when I was born, like most people from Andhra Pradesh whose names are a mile long, I had the fortune of being named 'Vallabhaneni Venkata Siva Rama Krishna Chowdhary'!!

My father was born in a lower middle class family in a village in Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh. He used to walk almost 10 km by foot to attend school and always worked hard and was at the top of his class in school and medical college in the subsequent years. He was intense and had a lot of career desires and aspirations. However, he always taught me that money was not everything and that we need to look beyond fame and fortune. I am grateful to him for having instilled these values in me so early in my childhood. If it were not for this I would have had to struggle in the later years while taking the decision to explore the spiritual world as well.

My mother, Sujatha Murthy hailed from a very well educated upper class family. Her family was also from Andhra Pradesh. They came from a wealthy agricultural background. My grandfather from my mother's side served as the Chief Engineer of Southern Railway under the British Government. He was in charge of laying most of South Bharat's rail lines and building of railway stations in South Bharat. Grandfather's position with the British resulted in the family traveling all over South Bharat. They lived in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu when mother was growing up. My mother would tell us stories of their travels in luxury rail coaches, with butlers and all the paraphernalia typical of an officer of the British Raj. They lived in Erode, Tanjore, Madras (now Chennai), Vijayawada, Trichy and other towns, as grandfather was busy building the South Hindu rail system infrastructure.

My grandfather, Parvathaneni Sivalingiah Chowdhary was quite a character. He set out to study Civil Engineering at Cambridge University in early 1900's. In fact, he lived in England for almost eight years. I understand he was quite happy living in England and refused to come back immediately after his engineering education. My mother's side of the family was large – they were six sisters and one brother in all and when grandfather left for England, he was married and my great aunt was born. As a result of his extended stay in England, there was a large age difference between my grand aunt and other siblings in the family.

Since my mother's side of the family spent a lot of time in Tamil speaking region of the then Madras state, most of the sisters spoke Tamil. Therefore growing up, we have been exposed to Tamil. Luckily this is now helpful to me, years later, to understand my Master's native language. My mother completed her B.A. degree in English from Stella Maris College in Chennai and was married to my father in 1956. Since she was brought up in a very high class society, with butlers, maids and servants, social status, money and wealth were important to her.

Growing up in a family where parents were from these diverse backgrounds was interesting. Father was quite careful, frugal and dharmic. He tried to instill a value system of hard work, whereas my mother was more drawn towards outer world comforts and desires.

My father served in the Andhra Pradesh Government services and since he was a dynamic young doctor, he was transferred constantly to many places. We lived in Kurnool and then moved to Tirupati, Kakinanda and Guntur where my dad worked in medical colleges and government hospitals as an administrator and professor of Medicine. As we were moving every few years, my eldest two sisters were placed in boarding school for a few years. They spent 4 to 5 years in Rishi Valley School in Madanapalli which was started by J.Krishnamurthi, an enlightened master who lived in Bharat and US until the 1980s. After staying home for the first 10 years of my life, I was promptly packed off to a boarding school, Hyderabad Public School in Hyderabad, in 1973. The school in those days was quite preppy and I spent time away from home ever since.

b. Some turning points in my life

When I look back and reflect on key turning points in my life which helped me in my current journey, there are a handful of incidents that come to my mind. I am now grateful for these experiences in that they helped me to recognize and not to miss the Master when He came into our lives. The following are some key turning points in my childhood and adult life before I met my Master:

  • 1. Father's death at age 48
  • 2. Elder sister's losing of her husband
  • 3. Second sister's suicide
  • 4. Mother's death in an auto accident in Haridwar
  • 5. Going to America for education
  • 6. Family, living the American dream and experiencing the depression of success

I will spend a few moments describing these events since I sincerely believe that my Master was always with me during these times in my life trying to help me internalize these experiences, and to help me look inwards. I am sorry if I may sound illogical to the logicians out there, but I too was a logician, but now I realize that every incident and experience in my life was showered on me by my Master to internalize and to not miss Him when He finally appeared in the physical form years later in 2003.

1. Father's passing away

My father passed away in 1980 at the age of 48. He served as the Additional Director of medical services in the Government of AP and was heading to be nominated to the post of the Director of Medical Services, the top medical post in the government. He was also the Principal of Guntur Medical College, a college from which a large number of Hindu doctors living in USA hail from. He was a juvenile diabetic (something which was never told to us until his passing) and died of complications from diabetes and hypertension. More than his death, my reflections of his life, and his demeanor during his life was my early guru during my formative years.

I was 15 years old when dad passed away, and then I was left to myself to discover myself. When my father was alive I had looked up to him to try and work hard and excel in my academic career. After he passed away so young, it took me 3 to 4 years to completely overcome my sorrow of not having a father to look up to. However in the years that followed, I found that there were a lot of traits I acquired from him that directly helped to me in the spiritual path. For one, my dad was never attached to money. He was a brilliant doctor and all his childhood friends were millionaires and always urged him to leave government service and build a medical practice. In fact it was he who helped them pass their medical examinations by teaching and training them prior to the final examinations. Father was quite adamant that money was not everything and that he enjoyed what he did and felt that he was able to serve the people through the government service which he could not do if he practiced in the private sector.

I also realized later after meeting my Master that I too was following the footsteps of my dad very closely and very dangerously. In fact I was working hard, with a lot of stress, with a career ambition next to none and was diagnosed with diabetes in 1995 at the age of 32. So my life was dangerously turning out to be a carbon copy of my father's. It was only after meeting my Master when I was confronted with taking the 'jump' I had a chance to reflect on what was important. Reflection of my father's life and his passing away made me realize the futility of taking one's career so seriously.

I know that so many of us meeting the Master are faced with similar decisions to make. Yet a lot of us decide that the time now is not for spirituality. We often think, let me get into this after my children complete college, or, I am too young to jump into the spiritual path, or, this spirituality thing is not for me. My father's death at a relatively young age made me wake up and tell myself that the time is NOW. It made me realize that we need to chill out and not take life so seriously. All of these experiences made me realize that the so called 'intensity' that the outside world believed in, and which I considered to be the strong point of me and my father, was really not intensity, it was indeed a weakness. It was due to deep inner emptiness and ego to prove that we are better than others. This emptiness forced me to focus on outer world achievements in the corporate sector and I got the ego boost with every promotion, as I climbed up the corporate ladder.

When I first met my Master, seeing so many dimensions that He was effortlessly and gracefully radiating, gave me the yearning that I too wanted to experience such a state. I too wanted to explore myself. Seeing Him live His teachings made me realize that I wanted to experience the space in which He was living. This coupled with the reflection of my father's life enabled me to take this journey. I will discuss more on the topic of this jump in the following chapters.

2. Elder sister' tragedy

I would say that this second incident in my family further drove home the message that life is fragile and that we need to make the best use of the time we have in the present moment. My elder sister was married to a doctor in 1978 when she was 20 years old. They were blessed with a daughter in 1981. My sister's husband was quite overweight and never took care of his health. As they started facing challenges in their marriage, he started taking to drinking. At this point I would also state that my sister too had an equal role to play in this drama. She was in her early 20's and had her own fantasies of a relationship, probably mirrored along what we see in the movies. Within the short span of three years, my brother-in-law went from a healthy doctor to an alcoholic. His food habits were erratic and he was depressed and obese. In 1981, at the age of 28, he suffered from internal bleeding of the liver and passed away suddenly. This incident happened during my first year exams while I was studying Chemical Engineering. This incident too served as a guru to me in hind sight. While I went through the incident with great sorrow, I can now say that it deeply entrenched into my psyche once again that life was too short and in that short span, one cannot miss the Master after meeting Him.

3. Second sister's suicide

My second sister, Sunitha, was a bright girl who always studied well and stood 1st or 2nd in her class at high school. Our father never pressurized us that we needed to do well in education. However, he was a gold medalist all the way through his medical school and post-graduate education, an achievement that was rarely forgotten among the social circles. While growing up, our family friends and relatives would come and say, "Your dad is such a bright individual," "Your dad always stood first in his class," etc. Our father would only tell us, "Work hard and do the best you can in school."

But however, these comments by the society wer quite a pressure for us while growing up.

Each of us responded differently to the pressure they put on us. It is only after meeting Swamiji I realize that each of us has different prarabhda karma (the karma that we bring with us when we take this birth) and differences in our samskaras (engraved memories) make us respond to situations differently. Two of my other sisters were not at all impacted by these societal pressures. However Sunitha took this quite seriously. Just around her 12th grade, she seemed to lose focus and waivered in her studies. She did not get into medical school and had to pursue one year of B.Sc. degree and study for her medical college entrance examination. While taking an extra year to get into medical school is quite normal in Bharat, it seemed to dig deeply into her consciousness that she was somehow not good enough and not as bright as her father.

The reason I am sharing this experience with you is, this is an all too familiar incident in Bharat. A lot of kids are subject to these kinds of pressures and most parents do not even know the depth of the wounds this drives into one's self. I have now realized that I too have been pressurizing my children to excel in their education while we lived in the US.

Sunitha was in the 2nd year of medicine and I was just about to appear from my 12th grade examinations when our father passed away. She seemed to lose focus, but somehow passed medical school with average grades. While on the surface she seemed to brush off her average grades, little did we know that her feeling of 'mediocrity' was driving a deeper and deeper wedge into her self-image. She completed medicine and during the course of medicine she was treated for depression. She was given shock therapy and all kinds of medications which caused erratic mood swings in her.

After she completed her MBBS degree, she was quite inspired to pursue her MD degree in general medicine just as our father did 35 years ago. She could not get into the government college entrance exam since there were only two seats for people belonging to the forward class in Bharat and there were several hundred who took the entrance exam. She was admitted into a private college in Manipal in the state of Karnataka. Staying in the hostel all by herself, forced her into depression. She was given allopathic pills to keep her hormonal balance and when she did not take these pills, her depression would get worse. She tried committing suicide a few times – once by drinking a household chemical at home during vacation. She was immediately rushed to the hospital and treated. In 1990, when I was in USA I received a call on one chilly, wintery morning that she hung herself to the ceiling fan in her bedroom in the middle of the night. My mother found her hanging from the ceiling that morning and by then it was all too late.

Luckily in my case, I used the source of this societal pressure as a source of inspiration to perspire during my studies. I was somehow able to juggle a lot of balls and compartmentalize myself well. I would always hang out with my friends who really, really did not take to books. This was the group that took 6 years to complete the engineering degree! I am sure several of you, especially those from Bharat know of such groups in their colleges. I always partied with them all evening and hit the books for a couple of hours when I got back to my hostel room. My friends on the other hand continued their festive atmosphere 24 x 7. So I was fortunate to complete my education with good grades and a gold medal, while a lot of my friends did their 5 to 6 year stint in engineering college!

I realized what a mistake my sister made by committing suicide only after I attended the Nithyananda Spurana Program (now called NSP or LBP Level 2 program) almost 10 years after my sister's death. In this program Swamiji gives us utter clarity on death and what happens to us as we move on in our journey from one lifetime to another. Swamiji explained to us in no uncertain terms that when we take birth, it is we who clearly decide on what we want to do in this life, how long we want to live, the kind of parents we chose and the lifespan we want to live. Swamiji also told us that those who die prematurely and unnaturally will have to live without a body until their chosen time for the current life for which they came down for, expires. He taught us that people who commit suicide, unfortunately have the worst kind of pain at their being level – a deep desire to have a physical body while they do not have a physical body.

Fortunately at these programs and during other rituals, Swamiji performed shraddha ceremonies (a ceremony performed to help passage of departed souls) for departed souls. At one of these ceremonies at our old Ananda Sabha (the first meditation hall; a thatched hut which was situated in front of the current temple, in whose place the sacred bull and flag staff in the temple complex are now installed), Swamiji asked us to let him know if any of our family members departed unexpectedly and to recite their names during the ceremony. He told us that he would take care of these souls. I mentioned Sunitha's name and my mother, Sujatha's name and He assured He will take care. While I do not have a certificate proving this, I know my Master has liberated these souls and they have been taken care of. I have seen so many incidents around Him where He simply brought people from death/near death, that only an enlightened master can do.

4. Mother's death in an auto accident in Hardwar

It was October 2003. I met Swamiji in August 2003. By then I was quite certain that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with my Master, trying to help in any way I can with His mission. We started the mission in USA and have been active reaching out to various cities to spread the mission. I will discuss more on the early days of the mission in the following chapters. Actually the process of getting involved with the mission is really a process of trying to help myself. The Master really does not need our help. His compassion is the only reason why He allows the devotee to become a disciple by making Himself available.

The reason I am sharing my mother's passing away incident is to only inform the reader that after meeting the master, I was a completely different person in terms of the impact such a tragedy had on me. While I was older now, the passing of my father took me 3 to 4 years to completely reconcile to his death and face reality. However with my mother's passing the understanding of what happens at death and the assurance from the enlightened master that He will take care of that being, was enough. I for one felt that she was taken care of and felt there was no reason for sorrow since she has now moved on in her journey.

It was October 2008. A lot of experiences were happening in our home in Oklahoma. My two daughters, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Sree (earlier called Swetha) and Nithyanandi (earlier called Rithi) who were 12 and 7 years of age respectively, were deeply touched by Swamiji along with my mother-in-law, Ma Jesusananda (earlier called Swarnalata Devi) and my wife Ma Nithya Sachitananda (then Ragini). They have had numerous darshans of Swamiji at our home and His presence was with us all the time. A few hours before the accident, between 4 am and 5 am that morning, Ma Jesusananda woke up Ma Sachitananda and informed her that she had a dream wherein spirits of three ladies who she could not recognize, rose up from flames. That morning at approximately 6 am, I received a call from my cousin that mother along with two of her sisters died in an auto accident in Haridwar. The driver, after a heavy lunch, dozed off momentarily while driving and the car tumbled down a ravine. The driver of the car along with my mother and two of her sisters died instantly. My uncle, who was also traveling with them, was thrown off the car during this tumble, but managed to survive.

My first thought after this accident was 'Swamiji'. I knew he was with us and made sure that these beings were taken care of. I somehow found it difficult to cry or become emotional. I was somewhat surprised with myself. I immediately made airline reservations and left for Houston to get my Hindu visa (I had not traveled to Bharat since I was naturalized as a US citizen). I met up with my sister in Houston and we flew to Hyderabad for the final rites. After the funeral I made a trip to Bidadi, Bangalore, my first trip to the ashram, the place I now call home, to take blessings from my Master. I shared what Ma Jesusananda saw in her dreams with Swamiji. He simply laughed and said, there is truth in these dreams and visions and that He will take care. It is not that one needs to cry profusely when someone leaves us. Swamiji gave us the clear understanding that leaving this body is simply no different than hanging up the coat when we come home. Seeing this understanding translating into a very different demeanor in me as I went through this incident in my life was quite interesting. Sometimes this can be wrongly understood by relatives, since crying profusely when a departed one leaves tends to be the norm in Bharat to express love and concern.

I realized that nothing remains the same once you meet the master. I have narrated this incident to share how blessed I feel to have met Him and how just His presence washed away the deep rooted societal conditionings in me. The master is like a beacon of light that shines on our consciousness, to awaken us, to give us confidence that we too can experience the space He is living in, that we can love somebody and can let go of them when they have moved on. He has given me the direct experience to deal with tragedies in a graceful and sensitive manner.

5. Going to America for education, job & living the American dream

By the second year of my undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering in 1982, I had decided I wanted to go to the US for higher education. Most of my cousins now lived in the US. Like most middle and upper middle class families, there was a significant exodus among doctors and engineers to USA in the 70's and 80's since opportunities in Bharat were limited. I applied to seven universities to pursue my Masters degree in Chemical Engineering. I was notified of being awarded a full research scholarship at Clarkson University, a small private university in upstate New York which was quite well known for its academic excellence in Chemical Engineering.

I left home for US on August 10, 1984. Incidentally, my first meeting of my Master was almost to the same day nineteen years later, on August 9, 2003! I landed in upstate New York in a small town called Potsdam near the Canadian border. The University had several students from Bharat. An apartment was located for three of us to share. I had roommates from Bharat since it made it easy to share cooking and other chores.

Living in USA was quite a process of self-discovery. I have been away from home from the time I was 10 years old. However the social support system in terms of joint families, friends or relatives is quite helpful for us to feel secure in more ways than we think. In USA, it is the land where individuality and independence is very important. While there are so many wonderful things in USA in terms of outer world sciences, the feeling that it is only you who needs to fend for yourself causes quite a dent in one's inner space and consciousness. It is this sense that personally pushed me to complete my education as soon as possible to find a job and to start the process of getting a green card.

I have learnt a lot from living in America. Unlike Bharat, it is a land where it really does not matter who you are, what your family is, who you are connected to. If you work hard and contribute to the success of your company, you saw immediate results in terms of your career growth. This aspect has been good for me professionally. However all of this has come with a psychological and emotional price. This feeling of individuality and the feeling that you need to fend for yourself created a much insulated social system. Let me explain this to you with a personal experience.

It was winter of 1991/1992. We were living in Voorhees, New Jersey, near Philadelphia. At that time I was working for a large Fortune 500 chemical company. My neighbors were second generation Italian Americans. It was a particularly harsh winter in terms of temperatures and snow storms. One hardly sees the neighbors during the long winter months. Especially Ma Sachitananda and I, were pursuing the so-called American dream with full vigor and inspiration! She would have to travel 70 miles northbound to a major pharmaceutical company and worked in the area of information research. She was helping marketing groups in the company in the areas of how they can position their drugs for various diseases. She provided information research on the societal costs of various diseases so that they can prioritize what to work on. I was driving 55 miles to work in Delaware.

Our neighbor's father was living with them. He spoke no English. He was in his mid 60s and was an avid gardener. All he would do when he sees us is, wave at us and smile! In the following spring when he would be very active getting prepared for his vegetable garden, he was noticeably absent. I thought he may have gone home to Italy. Later in the summer of 1992, I happened to see my neighbor and asked him if his Dad was on holiday in Italy. To my surprise he said, "I am sorry to tell you, Papa passed away last winter." This incident hit me hard in that it makes you sit back and wonder how mechanical our lives are and how everyone seems to be living in their own insulated lives in this doggy dog world. Certainly in Bharat, when we were growing up, we knew our neighbors, we ate at their homes, we sometimes even slept at their homes, and we helped each other at times of need. However, as Swamiji reminds us, the Bharat we grew up in no longer exists in most of the cities of Bharat, but luckily is alive and well in the villages of Bharat.

Living and working in the US made me realize that I was fortunate to experience the best of the material and professional worlds, but this came with a heavy price – one of complete isolation where we really lived with our immediate family within the four walls of a home/palace (or prison?). We often wondered why we cannot have the best of both worlds, a system of working intensely in the outer world and a system of living intensely in the inner world. Little did I know that almost a decade after this incident I discovered that, yes, there is such a system, that both inner and outer worlds can intensely co-exist in complete harmony (or even in complete chaos with a beautiful inherent order!). Whatever I felt was missing when we lived in the US has been supplemented, thanks to the grace of my Master and his enabling to experience this beautiful zone. It is only now I feel that I am living all my dimensions and that I can be so much more efficient and so much more effective in this beautiful space.

After living in the east coast of the United States for almost 10 years, I tried a short stint with dot com companies. This was the brave new world of internet and e-commerce. We were told that the internet is going to revolutionize everything in the world. So I took the jump to a startup company in pursuit of the internet gold mine. It was the greed of stock options that created instant millionaires in the US that gave me the motivation to jump from a large multinational corporation to a startup in Chicago. Two years into this, it became clear that the internet revolution was really an evolution and that the promise land of millions of dollars of stock options never materialized.

Just around this time a headhunter approached me wanting to hire me as a senior executive for an Oklahoma-based multi-billion dollar company in the oil & gas and chemicals business. They wanted to hire an executive with experience in the specific chemicals business I worked in while in the east coast. So with the promise of the 'internet millions' behind us, we packed our bags and moved to Oklahoma City in May 2002.

a. Life in Oklahoma – Just before meeting the Master

In stark comparison to the east coast, lifestyle in Oklahoma was more laid back. I felt that people at least had some time to wake up and smell the roses. When we moved to Oklahoma, Sree and Nithyanandi were aged 11 and 6 years respectively. They were going to school and we felt it is time not to worry about the Benz we always wanted or the million dollar home we dreamt about. We felt it was time to focus on the family.

Oklahoma City had a closely knit Hindu community where people met each other quite often and also got involved with community activities. We had developed new friends several of whom are devotees of Swamiji. Life was going quite smoothly in Oklahoma. Ma Sachitananda had developed her own social circle and was busy with the children's activities, driving them from place to place, and became a typical soccer mom. She seemed to enjoy her new found freedom, away from work. On Fridays and Saturdays we had a fairly hectic social calendar. It was either visiting someone's home for dinner or having friends over to our home. Nothing really happened at these parties.

Now if I sit back and reflect on that life, we lived the so-called American dream – a good house, nice cars, a promising career, an OK social life. But somehow there was still this emptiness inside us that was developing. As Swamiji jokingly says, "If you are in your 40's, successful and the depression of success has not yet set in, look carefully, there must be something seriously wrong!" He tells us that most people who are running behind material processions, when they sit back and reflect, realize they have everything one can hope for in the material world, yet they are still not happy. Only a small fraction of these people end up contemplating and introspecting on this… and so starts their spiritual journey.

My career in Oklahoma was going well in the corporation. I had global responsibility towards a business unit that was trying to transform itself. It was about trying to win the hearts and minds of employees to let them realize they can do it. Little did I realize then that I needed to first transform myself before I could transform the world around me. I was traveling all over the world working with diverse employees, trying to develop an operational strategy for the business unit in the manufacturing and supply chain functions. Yet when I was trying to look beyond my own personal or career gain I found other executives who felt I was invading their turf. Since most business problems tend to have solutions that are cross functional I had to stretch myself.

You are as much a doctor of human psychology when you want to be an effective manager. You need to understand what motivates people and why. You need to be sincere about change. If there is one area I would change, it is one of living by example with intense passion and compassion; it is one of understanding that the root causes of poor performance in corporations is, trying to keep one's private lives away from their personal problems and treating everyone as a machine. My experiences in the last five years have taught me that one cannot isolate corporate life from personal trials and tribulations. Unfortunately I find that due to legalities and the strong sense of individualism, and the need to give 'space', companies will continue to take much longer to transform themselves. I now know that if one can integrate both inner worlds and outer worlds, there will not only be immense wealth created in companies but there will also be significant improvement in the quality of the lives of employees.

My job for this Oklahoma-based company took me to Europe, Australia, America, and Africa. I was traveling over 60% of my time overseas. Most times I would leave home for days at a stretch – leave on a Sunday night and return home the following Friday. And when I was not traveling, it was long hours at work. I would typically leave home at 6 am, not even have time to sit down and have a decent breakfast. It was coffee and bagel in the car for breakfast so that I would not waste any time! Surely I was not waking up and smelling the roses.

There was deep rajas (aggressive restlessness) inside me to get so many things done at the same time. Now I know it was ego of the workplace. Also now I realize that I can be just as effective, or in my case, I am ten times as effective now. All that I had to do was allow my Master help me discover myself. I am hoping for all those professionals and executives out there, they discover that it is simply possible to do all this and more when you live an integrated lifestyle.

I also hope you will forgive me for saying this, but the day I dropped my analytical mind that constantly tried to analyze every little detail, and started being open, transparent and willing to learn from the master, there has been a quantum shift in my mental set up. This translated into a quantum shift in my physical, mental and emotional well being. This process took me longer than what is required. I now know that when Swamiji tells us that we can experience quantum spirituality by a simple decision, and that it happens instantly, it is the truth, since it happened to me. I also know for a fact that 99.999% of us are not ready to believe that this can happen to us because I too was one of them.

My Master has helped me immensely in that He is like a beacon of hope that constantly reminds us through His life and says, "Look! The path of personal transformation is like a jungle. You can navigate it by yourself, but why don't you follow the path I have traveled since I know I got there and so can you!"

As I indicated before, we were living comfortably, we had a nice family, a good home, good health, children were doing well, and the career was heading in the right direction. I was enjoying my global responsibilities professionally. What more could one ask for?

As we reflected on our lives I always wondered about the fragility of life. When I looked back at the incidents that happened in my life I realized that when death knocked at the door it will do so without a formal notice. I somehow started asking myself where we are running 100 miles an hour in all directions. I wondered and often fanaticized on a life that was much simpler, one where we cared for each other, where there was no need to prove to yourself, to your boss or to your corporation, where the children grew up in a pure space devoid of fantasies, peer pressure and the influences of the media. This is when we started looking into ourselves. Like most people who are beginning their spiritual journey, we started looking into spiritual books of various masters. I bought my first book on spirituality, Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahamsa Yogananda in early 2003.

When we read the Autobiography of a Yogi, we felt that those who lived with Yogananda were blessed and extremely lucky. I felt that those who have lived around a living enlightened master were really blessed and lucky. However let me be honest, I had no clue what it really meant to transform one's life, and what it means to be living around an enlightened master. In fact my wife and I went to the extent of filling up our library with all spiritual books from Yogananda to P. D. Ouspenski. We went to the extent of purchasing several duplicate copies, just in case we both wanted to read the same book at the same time! But several books were hardly opened beyond page 5! This was the level of seeking in our lives at that time!

While we were very interested in understanding why we are here, where we were heading, why we have experienced the tragedies in life, etc, we were also quite engrossed in the day-to-day grind of life, so much so that we could not see the forest from the fires. Let me be very honest and tell you, the burning desire to seek the truth did not exist at that time. In fact I can go on to say that I had no clue of what seeking really was. There was inspiration or shall I say inquisitiveness to want to know the truth. But this did not translate into perspiration to go after it. Seeking the truth and spirituality was really a fantasy when we sat with ourselves quietly on weekends. But when Monday morning came, all of this was put aside and we got consumed in our lives, our careers, lives of our daughters, their educational needs and our social lives.

So in a nutshell I would characterize ourselves as a typical first generation immigrant family living in America, fairly successful in our professions, living the so-called American dream, with young children, and trying hard to hold on to and instill our culture and values that we inherited from our own parents and life experiences.

It would be accurate to describe us as those who really did not understand what spirituality was. Luckily, all the experiences we faced in our lives added a dimension of understanding that: 1. Money is not the most important aspect in one's life 2. Life cannot be taken for granted 3. You can take a chance and go after what you believe in 4. A sense of yearning for what the purpose in life was. The reason I am describing this is there are many people today who are also going through their lives just as we have.

A lot of us have seen Swamiji in a discourse or attended is weekend meditation camp and felt inspired. But after a day, a week or a month goes by and we get back into our own lives, get caught up in our own world and then think to ourselves, "What that young Swami from Bharat said was true, but this is not the time for me to jump into spirituality," or "Oh, let me wait till the kids grow up and then I will jump in and discover myself," or "I really want to discover myself, but what to do, my husband (or wife) will not support me in this endeavor."

In our case somehow, all of this changed the moment we saw the Master. I cannot describe what happened or why this deep thirst for discovering ourselves has happened. It almost feels like the life experiences, the learning from these experiences, lie dormant inside us, inside every human being. I almost feel that these experiences were like a fuel that lay dormant inside us. When the Master came into our lives, all He had to do was to shower His grace on us and this lit the fire to discover ourselves. I really cannot logically describe even today why His grace was showered upon us, why this light was easily kindled in us, why the whole family was swept off our feet when we saw Him, why now the so-called American dream we were leading was not important to us anymore, why all of us wanted to be around Him, why nothing else other than the desire to serve Him mattered to us.

I do not question this anymore, because all that matters now is we are living in His abode, experiencing everyday miracles, with a deep sense of gratitude for what He has given us and a sense of understanding that this is the path that we always wanted to be in, but never knew it was so easy to have and experience. Somehow all I can think of is to say, "Swamiji, thank you, thank you, thank you for bestowing your grace on us."

First brush with the divine – Meeting my Master

August 8, 2003 was a Friday. I distinctly remember it was a beautiful early summer day. I was just informed by the chairman of the company that he would like me to develop a strategic review of the business and operational strategy for a board presentation in the coming weeks. He said that he wanted me to develop a succinct story that can be articulated to the Board. In a nutshell I was being asked for my opinion, to present my vision and mission for the company. This was a big deal for anyone who is trying to climb up the corporate ladder. So as excited I was to start preparing for this presentation, my mind was racing in 100 directions on how I would like to share my views of the vision for our business unit and more importantly how I can market myself to the senior executives of the company and to the board. So let me tell you, meeting a Swami from Bharat was really farthest from my mind.

I reached home around 7 pm that night. When I reached home there was no one home. Ma Sachitananda left a note for me on the refrigerator indicating that she was invited by one of our friends to meet a Swami from Bharat who was visiting Oklahoma City. Writing notes to each other that we stuck on the refrigerator seemed to be the only way we communicated those days! With my travels and long hours at work, I did not get to see the family on weekdays. It seems quite strange now, but I was what I call a weekend Dad – I would only see and be able to talk to the kids on weekends, since they were asleep when I left home for work and were again asleep when I returned home….

Ma Sachitananda returned home around 9 pm and was quite excited. She said that she met a Swami and that I need to drop everything and attend a weekend meditation camp. I said to her, "What kind of a cruel joke is this?" The only time I meditated in my life was when I was in the second year of college and was initiated into TM – Transcendental Meditation. And besides, I told her that I cannot under any circumstances jeopardize the presentation I was going to make to the Chairman on Monday. I told her in no uncertain terms to leave me alone that weekend.

Ma Sachitananda told me that somehow she was quite drawn to this young Swami she met and received blessings from him. She told me I should not miss such an opportunity. I complained a bit, but luckily for me I felt, if she was so excited and inspired, let me figure out how I can complete the presentation that night. I also thought, if I am not happy with the presentation, I can take some time off from this meditation camp to do the final touches to the presentation! I spent all night that day until about 4 am finishing up the presentation. I was not 100% satisfied with the presentation, but I felt it was almost there.

The following morning, on a bright and beautiful Saturday, all of us got ready quickly and dropped the kids off to spend the weekend at my older daughter Nithyananda Sree's friend's place. There were no complaints from her side because her friend's mother was also attending the course. This meant that both of them could be home alone and have a good time. Nithyanandi, who was only 6 years old, was quite happy to accompany her big sister. She was at an age when she was a constant sidekick to her big sister and loved to hang out with her. So we dropped them off and the three of us - Ma Sachitananda, Ma Jesusananda and myself (Ragini, my mother-in-law Swarnalatha and myself) arrived at the host family's home where THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM was staying. It was about 8 am. About 12 people had decided to come and 'check out' this program being offered by this young Swami from Bharat. All of us were waiting for im to start the program.

It was 9 am; there was no sign of this young Swami. Several of us were getting irritated. We had all gotten used to punctuality in America. In America, time meant money at work, and we carried this same mental set up outside work too. We were somehow continuing to behave like well oiled production machines even at our homes. Little did we know that the Master uses every technique and opportunity to break our mental conditioning. I know now that his meditation program had already started, even before seeing us. The Master had already started his surgery – he was already working on us by starting to break our mental conditionings.

At this point several of us were irritable. Someone said, "How can this Swami tell us to come bright and early at 8 am and that too on a weekend and still not show up even at 9 am?" Time passed and we were getting restless. Now I know the reason for this rajas, this restlessness - we cannot live alone with ourselves even for a moment since our minds are racing at 100 miles an hour thinking and worrying of things that we have no control of or things that are irrelevant. It was 9:30 am, still no sign of this Swami from Bharat. Some of us started complaining that people from Bharat never value time and that they need to feel sensitive about valuing our time!

It was 10 am and the restlessness seemed to have peaked by now. Just then, I started seeing from the corner of my eyes, someone in a saffron robe descend from the staircase. It was as if He was waiting for the pot to boil, and timed His arrival into our lives perfectly. He had a radiant face with sparkling eyes and a broad smile. He came down with His hands folded and acknowledged us.

The moment I saw him several noticeable things happened. There was a sudden calmness and stillness in me. It was as if all the frustrations and irritations simply vanished. It was quite incredible to experience this for the very first time in my life. I have never seen a situation where just by the presence of someone, the mind completely stills. Later I have realized all too well that this is the effect of the Master's presence. Thousands feel this presence around the world.

During the early days of being associated with THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM we needed to be in His physical presence to feel this calming of the mind. Now, just the awareness of the presence is enough to have a similar effect, wherever we may be. It is fantastic to be physically near the Master, but somehow, with the growing intelligence and maturity, we are able to experience this state even in His physical absence.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM very beautifully described this to us one day. He said, "Do not reduce me to this six-foot Nithyananda. Living enlightened masters are absent in their presence and dead enlightened masters are present in their absence." If you sit back and reflect on this profound truth you will start to appreciate His presence everywhere and in everything. There are so many pearls of wisdom that the master casually tells us. We never know when the next profound truth will be delivered.

The second profound experience (at that time I did not realize this and brushed it off as a stray thought of the mind) was there was a voice, really it was not even an audible voice, it was more of a deep thought that arose from my heart region. This thought or voice or whatever you want to call it simply said, "The Master has arrived." I considered myself a fairly logical person. I was a scientist and researcher and then a person who resorted to facts and figures to come to a conclusion based on data and logical analysis of data. While I consider myself an emotional person by nature, I was also trained to be analytical as it relates to my profession. I wondered, how in the world can one describe the sudden calming of the mind and this voice emanating from the core of my being?

I was confused but somehow felt happy and in an upbeat mood from the moment I saw Him. The next thought even before the meditation camp began was, how can I be around this young Swami? How can I serve Him? It was really my ego working - I am sure that unconsciously I was thinking how this hot shot corporate guy can help this young Swami with spreading His teachings in the United States. Little did I realize that by allowing us to help Him, He was in fact creating a space for us to explore and explode in all directions. Nevertheless thoughts were rising in my mind. I want to jump in and be with Him full time. How can I make this happen? Who will pay my bills? Maybe I should wait till kids grow up?

c. First meditation camp

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM conducted His first meditation camp in USA in Oklahoma City. This was called Ananda Spurana Program (ASP, and now called Life Bliss Program Level 1). The program was based on cleansing and unblocking chakras or energy centers. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM spoke beautifully on the seven chakras and their influences on various emotions. His clarity, intellect, sense of humor, ability to connect to anyone and everyone regardless of their cultural or ethnic background, was amazing. I felt, how can this young Swami who had never been to USA, had never studied English (THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's education was in His native mother tongue, Tamil) and just started speaking English, could effortlessly connect with our problems and challenges. How is he able to joke and laugh and relate with all of us so beautifully? Little did I know at that time the infinite nature of super conscious state of mind, or shall we say the mindless state!

As I began to travel with THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, I realized that THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, whenever he travels to new places or new countries, makes it a point to understand where the general consciousness of the society or people resides. He may occasionally browse through a magazine from that country while on the airplane or take a walk on the beach where He sees the people, their attitudes and demeanor, and gets a complete blueprint of where the people are suffering and stuck in their ways. It is quite amazing to then see how He delivers appropriate discourses or teachings for the specific audience. Even in a particular city you will see that depending on the audience coming to a discourse His message changes.

He shed more light on this process in a recent discourse. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says that all of us emit auras. There is a real science that correlates the aura of a person to the state of his mind and consciousness. Auras have been scientifically proven through techniques such as Kirlean photography. In fact, research in countries such as Russia indicated that diseases such as cancer can be diagnosed through Kirlean photography, even months before clinical diagnosis. Enlightened masters have the ability to get a sense of the collective consciousness of the groups attending the discourse by sensing the collective aura in the group, so they may address the needs of the group of people through their talks. However, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is very clear that the Masters do not intrude into people's private space in any manner through this.

I have now attended well over 200 satsangs where THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM delivered discourses formally. In every satsang, people have invariably come and told me that it felt as if THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM directly spoke to them individually and answered their questions even before they formally raised the question to Him. It is quite amazing to see this happen!

The two days of Ananda Spurana program (ASP or Life Bliss Program - LBP Level 1) went off like a breeze. We participated intensely in the meditations. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM taught us techniques from various traditions – from Zen Buddhism, Tantra, Kashmir Shaivism, Christianity and Sufism. Just as I described above, we found that the message He delivered during the ASP meditation camp was sharp, to the point and He answered all our questions without our asking. During the breaks between the meditation programs all of us would compare notes and one common denominator in these conversations was that He seemed to be directly talking to me.

There were lots of experiences people shared during this ASP. We had the fortune of doing all the meditation programs personally conducted by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. These days due to the size and global nature of the mission, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is only able to conduct advanced level programs and let acharyas (teachers ordained and personally trained by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM) conduct the classes.

There were powerful techniques from various traditions taught in the meditation program. During the first day of the program, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM worked on lower level chakras or energy centers in the body and gave us an incredible clarity as to why these chakras are locked and how we can help unlock these chakras. He also gave us new and fresh insights into emotions, why we have them and how we can deal with these emotions. Once the intellectual clarity was provided, He gave us the experiential portion in the form of sharp meditation techniques.

During these discourses THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM gave numerous examples of how these emotions result in psychosomatic disorders which then translate into diseases. He explained to us that almost 80% of diseases have their origin in the blockage of chakras. For those who had specific ailments, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM would often prescribe practice of specific techniques for 21 days to relieve and unblock the chakras. Those wanting to gain more insights into these programs can read the book, 'Guaranteed Solutions' written by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM or can attend the LBP level 1 classes that are being held all over the world on a routine basis.

During the third eye (ājña chakra) meditation, the experiences were particularly intense. During this technique I saw the distinct image of an older looking rishi in the place of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAMIn case of my mother-in-law Ma Jesusananda, she had an intense darshan of Jesus during this meditation. After the meditation when THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM asked each of us to narrate their experiences, he told her, "Ma you were a Christian in your last birth and so He revealed himself to you." Again I must say these incidents have to be experienced and to a non-believer, I apologize if these statements have disturbed you. However I would like to state that whatever I am writing here is the truth and it reflects the true experiences with the Master.

At the end of the second day after all the seven-chakra meditations were completed we had the energy darshan. Energy darshans are wonderful opportunities of experiencing the divine energy. The Master is a pure embodiment of super consciousness. It is out of His pure compassion for humanity that He comes down to the human experience level so that He can relate with us, interact with us, with the hope that we will allow Him to help us help ourselves. During energy darshan, touches our third eye so that the transmission of light could happen. We were blessed to have this divine touch. It was as though I had finally come home. The program ended around 6 pm in the evening. We took THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's blessings and quietly drove back home. These two days were like no other experience in all our lives.