Our journey into
spirituality started in 1980 when we attended a week’s program by a Swamiji
from Chinmaya mission in the evenings in Manipal. It was an amazing experience
and we followed it up with joining and completing their one year correspondence
course which benefitted us tremendously.
We were initiated into Simplified Kundalini meditation the
next year and that brought about unbelievable shifts. Then many years went by
in ‘Grihasthashram’ duties, but at the background there were always spiritual practices
going on.
Getting serious about spiritual practices
Now for about a decade we are into ‘Vanaprastha ashram’,
slowly slipping into ‘Sanyasashram’. We have more free time now, so spend a lot
of time visiting sacred places and incorporating spiritual practices into our
lives. We get many pointers from these places and we come back enriched.
This year beginning started off with a ten days silent
retreat, which was deeply transformative.
Joining with high hopes
When we joined the Soul Coach Training program (SCTP) on March 22nd 2019 for ten days, we were expecting similar experiences, but it was utter
disappointment. Usually every Guru we have met, had something of ‘his/her own’ wisdom
nuances, but here it was only bookish knowledge, that too many of them
misrepresented and misinterpreted.
This was the program schedule for the training and we saw
that there were time slots to relax.
We reached the venue on 21st and got ready by
4.50 am on 22nd for the ‘yoga and guided meditation’ at 5 am. To our
horror, none of the organizers were in sight and the participants were roaming
around like lost souls. And there were no yoga and meditation sessions that day.
Utter indiscipline
During the first lecture it was highlighted that discipline
is very important for spiritual progress and one should ‘respect time’. But
once they started lecturing, there was no stopping, with too much repetition of
very basic unimportant details. . No clocks were present in the whole premise.
Our 11.30 tea time used to be at 12o’clock (as late as 12. 45 on one day) or still
later and the 1.30 lunch time at 2.30 pm. So we had to just finish the lunch
and go for the lecture, whereas from the time table we had thought that those
who are used to afternoon nap would get time as the earmarked time for lunch
was 1.30 to 3 pm.
6.20pm to 7 pm was supposed to be rest time, which we hardly
got, as the lecture will spill over. Then the guided meditation that should be
over by 10 pm can go up to 11 or 11.15 pm. Yet, we had to be at the meditation
hall by 5 am the next morning and wait for the masters who would arrive by 5.15
or 5.30 am.
‘Go beyond the silence’ in an atmosphere of cacophony
The meditation times used to be unbearable because there
will be continuous guidance with words with a LOUD background music, which was sometimes
shahnai tune.
Once the meditation started with the guidance of words
and just when I was going deeper, this loud shahnai tune burst forth and I was literally
jerked out.
Every few minutes, for something or other everybody was asked
to clap their hands loudly. Many members from the internal circle would share
their experiences in great detail and then all would clap.
Sattwik food
There were no fruits, no salads, even vegetable preparations
were more of gravy and less of vegetable pieces. They would tell during
lectures that good nourishment for the physical body is important, with fresh
fruits and vegetables, but also tell stories that on spiritual path, one
shouldn’t bother about food.
4 toilets and 4 bathrooms for 50 people
There were 4 toilets (total 5 but one was locked up due to
some plumbing problem) and 4 bathrooms for the ladies. The food didn’t make
bowel movements easy and one didn’t get enough time for the toilet.
Importance of Shramadan
7 to 9 am was the time for Shramadan. They extolled the
virtues of cleaning the toilets because ‘cleaning the shit of others would
clean all your inner shit.’ I was not averse to cleaning toilets and took up
the task of brooming and mopping two ladies' dormitories and cleaning the toilets with another girl.
Cramped dormitory with bunk beds
We were so efficient in our work that we could finish fast and get the bathroom for taking a good bath. Otherwise from the moment you enter for bath, there are people waiting outside and they will keep on knocking for you to come out.
Cramped dormitory with bunk beds
We were so efficient in our work that we could finish fast and get the bathroom for taking a good bath. Otherwise from the moment you enter for bath, there are people waiting outside and they will keep on knocking for you to come out.
All the participants were called ‘masters’ and ‘enlightened
beings’ and it was shocking for me to see how the enlightened ladies were
behaving. There would be dried shit on the toilet bowl, which they could have
easily washed off immediately with the health faucet. They would tear off a
long piece of toilet tissue, use just the center portion and throw it on the
floor or into the toilet bowl, in spite of the repeated instructions to throw
them into the waste basket kept inside the toilet.
Then I would find sanitary napkins inside the small bowl in
the bathroom (to keep tooth brush and paste). It was much beyond my
imagination. On the 7th day, there was demand for toilet cleaning
shramadan, so I was in the kitchen wiping the dinner plates dry. When I came
back to the dormitory, to my horror, I saw see three male participants cleaning the toilets.
Imagine men emptying the toilet baskets with used sanitary napkins! Our masters
were teaching that ‘All are One!’ The men took too much time to finish the work,
so we had to start bathing while they were still cleaning the bathrooms.
A group of 70 participants removed all the stones (to make
the land cultivable, they had to remove the stones) in two days, which couldn’t
be completed in five years. 20 truckloads of stones were cleared.
Cleaning the Goshala
Cleaning the Goshala
Psychokinesis
We were told that we will bend spoons through psychokinesis during second semester. A genuine doubt came to my mind why these enlightened masters cannot remove stones from the land through psychokinesis.
HUGGING spirituality
It was very amusing to see people hugging all the time.
During many exercises that our masters guided us, we were asked to hug. We told
the other five in our group that we are not comfortable hugging and would just
do ‘Namaste”. One girl understood, who told, ‘For whatever reasons you choose
to do that, we respect that.’ But I could see the shock and slight anger on
another girl’s face. And the hugs were not just casual hugs. The front portions
of the bodies are totally in contact, both hands tightly holding the other’s
body and they would stand like that for at least a minute.
Next day in the class the master told, ‘Some people think
hugging should not be done. But when you are high in spirituality, you will
embrace every one.’ I was glad that I was not ‘high in spirituality’. One day
our master told that the person who was doing the organizing job was carrying out such
an efficient work that everyone should (total
133 participants) hug him before going off for shramadan.
In the whole campus there were no idols (this is supposed to
be ‘Navya Takshashila'), no lighting of lamps, or even candles, and chanting of
mantras.
Numbing your brains
Lack of sleep and nutritious food, along with continuous exposure to
loud sound would numb the participants' brains and make them highly suggestible. Continuously
interesting information was being fed. Like it was a Divine land, we were
fortunate to be associated with them. Galactic stations are established around
the area and the information that was being emanated would be transmitted
across the galaxies.
Lord Hanuman considers the main Guru his ‘buddy’ and puts
hand on his shoulder. Narada maharshi appears in physical form in front of him.
Krishna and other celestial bodies roam around in the campus. So we should take
part in building up this huge campus. One of the organizers was walking around,
collecting the golden ear rings, bangles, written out checks and other things in
her outstretched pallu of sari! She told anything can be donated. This was
supposed to be a free training. There were different groups, each with a
leader. The leaders told the group members that apart from the things that were
donated, each one should contribute Rs. 1000/- each.
Ready made masters
Many of the masters taking classes had just finished the
course (20 days course and they are ‘masters’) and they would copy information
from different books and read it out from the screen. This was 12th
SCTP program and it was surprising to see they could not make professional
power point presentations. The letters were too small, the contrast was
horrible and since we couldn’t see, they had to just read them out.
There were no feedback forms for us to fill.
When questions were asked, they were fumbling to respond. One
person would just go and sit on his chair with clasped hands, looking down.
Then he would come up with some flimsy response.
Lesson for me?
I believe that every incident in life has a hidden lesson in
it. The day our master told, ‘Whatever you think of me is none of my business,’
there lit a thousand watt bulb in my
brain. It was so liberating! Throughout my life I have been a gentle and
obedient person, but this brought out a different aspect in me for the remaining
period of the stay.
Secondly, the master told, ‘You should be courageous and
speak out when you see injustice.’ And that is why I am writing this.
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