Written by Andrew Khor on 24th June, 2008
Having prepared for Guruji’s first visit to Malaysia, we were all eagerly looking forward to meeting the man.
I can confidently say, after meeting him, that he bears no resemblance to the official write-up on his Soul Searcher website.
Let me explain. The man has four doctorates, was a critically acclaimed prodigy at the age of ten and the extent of his knowledge and wisdom is longer than my right arm.
Now that can be very intimidating.
So I was expecting a mystic who was remotely attached to the world and who probably levitated to wherever he wanted to go. And was accompanied by an entourage who probably wanted everything to be perfect.
Instead, Gurudev turned out to be a very jovial and unassuming young man who likes to laugh and have a good joke and uses the same toilet like everyone else.
What a relief.
With the blood pressure restored to normal, we could breathe easily and participate in his workshops.
In the workshop, most of us were familiar with the concept of meditation but not with Ananth Yoga. So, even though I had read about pranayama, bandhans and mudras, neither my intellect nor my body was prepared for the actual practice of Ananth Yoga which required all of us to coordinate mental and physical muscles hitherto unused.
A participant after the end of the first day said, this is like rocket science! Brains were overloaded with new ideas and fingers were twisted into unaccustomed positions.
For experienced yoga students, this may have been a cakewalk but for all of us who were new to the practice of yoga, the synergistic module of breathing, locks and mudras were a revelation. There was a lot of internal discussion and questions were rattled off at Guruji who took it quite calmly and explained everything.
The only thing is Guruji speaks softly and he has a strong accent which made it difficult for some of the Chinese speakers to understand, so there were some translations on the side.
One key tenet of Ananth Yoga is the firing of the navel chakra. In the traditional Taoist tradition, this is described as the tan tien, the centre of power in every human being.
According to Guruji, when the navel chakra is fired up, then we begin to be able to achieve deeper states of meditation and wellness. And we can progress better on the spiritual path as we will be able to receive the blessings of the navel or manipura – the city of jewels where many abilities are waiting to be activated.
One of the participants, two days after the first Ananth Yoga session wrote to us about his experience. He said that as he was about to sleep after the second day of Ananth Yoga, he saw a green like color in his inner vision and he could feel the presence of a being. He asked me who it was and I explained that different people have different experiences after undergoing a diksha.
I had learned earlier that Guruji without telling anyone had subtly initiated diksha amongst the participants. Most of the participants did not know about it but people were reacting to it in unfamiliar ways.
But the major surprise was the activation of elixir or amrita after the first Ananth Yoga session.
Amrita, after the first session! This was quite unusual. Normally it takes some time – weeks or months of practice in other kinds of yoga before one can taste the elixir. So certainly, this was quite a surprise. And it created quite a buzz among the participants.
Some of us experienced this after the first session of Ananth. It was a very metallic like taste and subsequently for me, the metallic taste became slightly sourish after a few days and a week after, the taste is beginning to be a bit sweetish.
There are numerous tales and myths about amrita in yoga philosophy and it was like through the grace of the guru, a giant hand had brought this distant myth into our everyday reality. Amrita is described as the elixir of life because of its anti-aging and health properties. No wonder so many yogis even though they are aged, look rather youthful. For me the surprise has worn off but I am enjoying the taste everyday.
We are most grateful for the presence of Guruji in Malaysia. He has brought to light the ancient traditions of Patanjali and reinterpreted them in way which is suitable for this mad and chaotic age.
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