Sri Gurudev Rudrabhayandanda’s First Visit to Malaysia

Gurudev's Visit & Workshop From 13th to 23rd June, 2008

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.

Non-Violent Action as Spiritual Practice

By Daniel Pinchbeck
In Common Ground


This spring, New York City hosted a series of events to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s movement of satyagraha, “truth-force,” the use of non-violent activism as a political technique. Gandhi has become one of those saints from the distant past whose name is frequently invoked without thought to the nature of his achievements. When we consider the violence saturating the world today, it is remarkable to recall that satyagraha triumphed over the British Empire, winning independence for India. This victory required great sacrifice and acceptance of privations, violent attacks and imprisonment on the part of many thousands, Hindus and Muslims alike, who joined his movement.

Gandhi’s spiritual practice of active nonviolence is very different from the passive doctrine of ahimsa, “nonharming,” that has gained popularity in the yoga community of the West. Ahimsa is ideally suited for a situation where nobody is seeking to cause you harm. If you find yourself in imminent danger, or caught in a larger system of oppression, different measures need to be taken. Techniques of satyagraha can include protests, strikes, work stoppages, slowdowns, civil disobedience and so on. “No government can exist for a single moment without the cooperation of the people, willing or forced, and if people withdraw their cooperation in every detail, the government will come to a standstill,” Gandhi noted.

Gandhi believed spiritual concepts had no value unless they were directly applied to our situation on the earth. “Without a direct active expression of it, non-violence, to my mind, is meaningless,” he stated. The New Age movement in the West has allowed for a convenient schism between personal practices and principles. Among the privileged elite, many people who profess spiritual beliefs succeed within a system that violates their ideals. Among people I know, it still seems “cool” to be a yogini and vegan while modeling for cosmetics companies with shoddy environmental records, or practice Buddhist meditation while writing ad campaigns for corporations that use Third World sweatshop labor.

At St. John’s Cathedral near Columbia University, an evening was dedicated to satyagraha and climate change, featuring music by Phillip Glass and Odetta. The suggestion of this event was that the nonviolent methods developed by Gandhi could be used to oppose governments and corporations that have failed to address this great threat to humanity. Such a movement does not seem to be arising at this present time, and instituting it presents unique challenges.

While racism or imperialism are obvious enemies, many of the issues facing us now are more intangible. As Buckminster Fuller wrote, “No human chromosomes say ‘make the world work for everybody’ — only mind can tell you that.” It would be reasonable for people to demand a far more equitable distribution of wealth and resources, reduction of labor time, immediate world peace, public oversight of science and technology, and a rapid transition to sustainable practices and alternative energy sources. A global “Marshal Plan” to reduce carbon emissions and stabilize the climate system is needed, along with a deployment of techniques to reverse pollution of the biosphere. The universal nature of such demands makes them seem unrealizable, although their logic is not hard to grasp.

When we consider the digital networks that spread information and ideas across the planet instantly, the chance for a global satyagraha movement to arise cannot be dismissed. The vast protests against the Iraq War in 2003 appeared suddenly, and disappeared just as quickly. Another inciting event, such as a war or tactical strike, might incite a wave of popular resistance that would not end after a march or two, but swell into a real movement of civil disobedience.

Nonviolence can only succeed when peace is converted from a passive wish to a constant activity. As Mark Kurlansky writes in Non-Violence: The History of a Dangerous Idea, a well-organized nonviolent movement poses a greater threat to an oppressive power than any other form of resistance. As appears to have happened recently in Tibet, oppressive regimes will seek to provoke nonviolent resistors into violating their creed, so they can take drastic reprisals. “History teaches over and over again that a conflict between a violent and a nonviolent force is a moral argument,” Kurlansky writes. “The lesson is that if the nonviolent side can be led to violence, they have lost the argument and they are destroyed.”

We now know the earth’s climate system does not change slowly, but goes through radical and sudden breaks. Glaciologists found that “roughly half of the entire warming between the ice ages and the postglacial world took place in only a decade,” writes Fred Pearce in With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change, with a temperature increase of 9 degrees during that time. In the past two centuries, humanity has increased levels of carbon in the atmosphere by about a third. Our continued tinkering runs the risk “of producing a runaway change — the climactic equivalent of a squawk on a sound system.”

In the United States alone, tens of millions of people now practice spiritual disciplines such as Buddhism and yoga, shamanism and Qi Gong. If this conscious and privileged subset were to band together, we could apply our spiritual ideals in a social movement. We could use the techniques of active nonviolence practiced by Gandhi and Martin Luther King to confront our out-of-control military complex and corporate structure, and demand the changes necessary for the safety of our children and our own future survival.

Shower Of Blessings - My Experience With Vibbhuti

A few days ago, I had a sudden urge to visit my blog partner, Andrew Khor at his holistic centre located about 20 minutes from where I'm staying. I needed to check whether he has been furiously writing articles for Spiritual Village. I'm dying to read articles from this man who could see things that I couldn't see, hear things that I couldn't hear and feel things that I couldn't feel.

Well, the good news is he IS writing! Phew, to my delight!

Now, after a few hours of casual discussion, Andrew said he needed to experiment vibbuthi blessings on me. 'Vibbu-thi what?', I asked myself. But since he mentioned the word 'blessings', I welcomed his offer only if he blogs about the experiment in Spiritual Village. Without hesitation, he agreed.

This is Andrew Khor's writing on his experiment - on ME!. My reaction and comments on his experiment is highlighted in blue.

Shower of Blessings

Acting spontaneously, I decided to conduct a little experiment on Yap. Yap, an IT expert, was beginning his spiritual journey and had come to see me a few months ago for an aura reading.

And now Yap was in the office discussing the Spiritual Village concept with me, so I had the opportunity to use him as a guinea pig.

A few weeks ago, during a meditation, I had a visitor in the inner plains. He had very curly hair and he was wearing saffron colored robes. And he conversed with me, mind to mind. He said “my son, you can now heal with vibbhuti.”

This visitor also said that the vibhuti would not be seen by the naked eye and would be invisible. But some people may be able to smell or feel it, if they are sensitive enough.

This is quite a rare gift and without blinking an eye, I said, “ehhhh okay, I look forward to it.” For the uninitiated, vibbhuti is a word from the Indian continent. It is a Tamil word that describes holy ash.

For centuries healers and saints in the Indian continent have made use of holy ash to heal. What they do is to have a fire ceremony where they burn all kinds of herbs and wood. They then recite special prayers for healing.

When the fire dies, what is left behind is a pile of holy ash or vibbhuti.

The most recent phenomena of healing through vibbhuti is that of the Indian saint Sai Baba. In some of his centers, vibbhuti appears spontaneously on the walls. The devotees then scrape the vibbhuti and give it to people who come to seek help.

Caroline Myss, one of the people teaching about the potential of the human consciousness, wrote in one of her books about a miraculous encounter with vibbhuti.

She wrote …. "I was having a lot of trouble keeping my balance. No wonder what I did, the condition kept getting worse, so as a last resort before I went to sleep, I said a prayer to Sai Baba, “I need some vibbhuti and I need it now. I’m in bad trouble.”

The next morning I received a package from an acquaintance in Copenhagen whom I had met five years before and hadn’t heard from since; inside was a small tube filled with ashes, with a label that read, “To Caroline Myss from Satya Sai Baba.”

Since the mail from Denmark to Scotland usually takes at least several days, the answer to my prayer must have been on the way to me before I uttered the words. I didn’t know what to do with the ashes, so I took some out and being an ex-Catholic, rubbed them on my forehead.

Within hours of receiving the vibbhuti, my balance returned and I never had that problem again. I’ve since carried that tube of vibbhuti with me wherever I go."

[Excerpt from WHY PEOPLE DON’T HEAL AND HOW THEY CAN by Caroline Myss. Pg. 180-181]

So you can sense my excitement, when I was told that somehow I had received this gift.

I tried out this gift on close friends with varying results and eventually Yap walked in. Yap is a newbie in the healing world. He hadn’t been exposed to the world of energy healing. He would make a good subject.

Fortunately for us, we had Hanny Ahmad in the center at that time. Hanny is a Malay Muslim lady in her mid 30s. Short, slightly rounded and wearing glasses, but always smiling, she had gradually been improving her clairvoyant ability at the center.

So I explained to Yap what we were going to do. And he agreed. We would have an independent clairvoyant – Hanny using her 3rd eye to see what was happening. And we would also have the benefit of Yap’s own experience.

I noted the day and time – it was the 11th of April 2008 and the time was 4.30pm.

Yap made himself comfortable on the sofa and we began. My method as guided by my intuition is to seek invoke the blessings of the saints and offer myself as a servant. I then invoked the blessings of the vibbhuti and used my right hand fingers to drop invisible vibbhuti over Yap’s head.

Hanny, using her 3rd eye began to comment.

Hanny:
“Andrew I see blue and white emerging from your hand and dropping on Yap’s head. Standing next to you Andrew is a man in a saffron colored robe. And he appears to have a lady standing next to him holding some flowers and herbs.

As you use your hand to drop the vibbhuti, the man in the robe is putting the flowers over Yap’s head.

I can see roses, jasmine… I also see some green herbs but I don’t know what they are… but I can smell the roses.

Now I see triangle, small triangles, they’re spinning and are on either side of his eyes and between his eyebrows. I get a strong feeling that this is to improve his intuition.

I can see colours going to his heart ….white, yellow and green…they’re expanding his heart and then going down all the way to the feet.

And now I see a lot of water being sprinkled on Yap. He is being cleansed.

(Spontaneously Yap’s body reacts to the last statement. His body appears to jerk.)
I had my eyes closed throughout. I squinted for a little while because I felt a cool sprinkle on my face. At this time, I smelt something comforting and 'flower-ish'. Like I was suddenly transported to the middle of an open and windy orchard.

I can see emerald green in his heart … meaning that he now has more compassion and somehow his intuition has been enhanced.”

As soon as both of them were done, I felt a sudden calm. I was even hesitant to open my eyes because I didn't want to leave the feeling of the breezy orchard behind. While Andrew and Hanny were discussing over the little experiment, I slowly opened my eyes and pondered over what happened. Was I really blessed by an invisible saint channeling through the body of Andrew? How will I know if this blessing actually 'enhanced' me? To be honest, I didn't have the answer immediately. But I know I couldn't forget the feeling of sudden calmness during the shower of blessings. I also couldn't forget the smell of flowers showered on me. I honestly felt rejuvenated that evening and even called out to my daughters (much to their surprise) to plant Sun-flowers together (a promise that I kept delaying). Thanks Andrew for that refreshing and spiritual experience!

By the way Andrew, you did shake my hand and congratulated me on color gold glowing on my left hand (the receiving hand). You mentioned abundance is coming! Ahem, maybe you can comment further -you know, a little time-line to help me plan my finances.

About Andrew Khor
Andrew is an ex-advertising writer. After 17 years at an international advertising agency, he started his own healing and spiritual journey in KL, Malaysia. In 2007, with help from one of his clients, Andrew started a holistic center called Khoracle to help people. Andrew is now a Kundalini meditation practitioner. He facilitates Kundalini meditation groups twice a month at Khoracle.

Andrew Khor can be contacted at http://www.khoracle.com/

About Amma - Mata Amritanandamayi

Three weeks ago, I was casually browsing through all the local newspaper's headline (I actually do that as a habit although I don't read most of the contents) when I stumbled upon a picture of a smiling Indian lady with her hands clasped in a prayer. The headline was "Time for Amma's hug". As I was attracted by the picture and the curiosity of why she is offering free hugs, I spent the next two minutes reading the full article. A tsunami of overwhelming joy overcame me and I was smiling incessantly after which I spent the next 2 hours googling away to find more information about her.

She was due to a make a public appearance a week later at a local shopping mall where she will be offering therapeutic hugs to all. Without hesitation, I rounded up my family and told them everything about Amma, the hugging saint. We blocked the date in our diary so we could all go and meet her in person. In a strange twist of fate, I didn't make it on that day. Instead I was invited to a Sai Baba's devotee house where stories of many incredible miracles happened (I will blog on this excursion at another time). My spiritual journey is just beginning and I'm blessed to be shown the many paths and the many miracles ahead of me.

The unforgettably calm and beautiful picture of Amma still lingers in my mind and I wish to dedicate this post to her.

About Amma

Amma, her full name Mata Amritanandamayi, is a spiritual guru who has endeared herself to millions of people around the world through her extraordinary acts of love and self-sacrifice. Amma has so far physically hugged over 28 million people from all parts of the world and many people have experienced healing and comforting experiences.

The below taken from http://www.amritapuri.org/amma/whois.php.

Many people wonder how a little girl from a simple South Indian village came to be known throughout the world as "Amma, the Mother of All." Motherhood, in its ultimate sense, has nothing to do with bearing a child, but with love, compassion and selflessness. It lies in totally giving one's self to others.

If we look at Amma's life, this is what we see—someone who has offered her every thought, word and deed for the benefit of others. Giving is the essence. It's just that when the homeless come crying for shelter and Amma gives them a house, we call her a "humanitarian." And when the sorrowful come crying for emotional solace and she gives them love, we call her a "mother." And when those thirsty for spiritual knowledge come earnestly seeking and she gives them wisdom, we call her a "guru." This attitude of selflessly serving all creation, knowing others to be extensions of one's own self, Amma refers to as vishwa matrutvam—universal motherhood. And it is to this pinnacle of human existence that Amma is trying to awaken the world through her life, teachings and darshan [divine embrace].

Questions about the nature of the soul, the universe and God; about dharma, love and family life; about meditation and other spiritual practices…. Amma has been clearing the doubts of sincere seekers on such subtle subjects since her youth. She never had a guru nor studied the Vedas, yet she speaks on the truths expressed within the scriptures with wisdom, clarity and true insight. Hers is not an academic knowledge, but the knowledge of one who is ever-established in the Ultimate Reality. It is for this reason that Amma's simple childhood home has become the spiritual home to thousands—an ashram where aspirants from around the world reside in order to imbibe Amma's wisdom and realize the Truth that is their real nature. The seeker is instructed as per his level—from the child to the sannyasi [monk].

Seeing the whole world as an extension of her own self, Amma is ever ready to forego her own body's needs in order to bring a smile to someone's face, wipe their tears or to simply listen to their sorrows. The sweet manner in which she laughs and jokes with people, shares in their success and failure has endeared millions to her throughout the world. In fact, many see Amma as their lifelong confidant and friend. Giving darshan in this manner is verily Amma's life—day after day, week after week, year after year. In fact, Amma has been doing so since she was just 17 years old, and she has been known to sit embracing people continuously for as long as 22 hours. Amma is able to make such a personal sacrifice because in her arms people feel safe, feel comforted, loved, feel that finally they've found someone who knows them through and through. And with that feeling they get the strength to move forward in life, and this, Amma feels, is infinitely more important than her physical needs. Be they young or old, sick or healthy, rich or poor—everyone receives the same unconditional love. Amma turns no one away. The atheist has just as much a place with Amma as the devotee.

For Amma, Advaita [non-dualism] is not a mere philosophy, but something to be lived. As such, Amma's every thought, word and deed resound with that greatest of truths: Everything within and without is divine. Accordingly, Amma oversees a massive matrix of humanitarian activities. Hospitals for the sick, homes for the homeless, disaster relief, orphanages, hospices, free pensions, suicide-prevention, employment programs… the list is endless. Influenced by Amma's example and experiencing her pure love, thousands upon thousands of people from around the world have been inspired to take up a life of service—giving whatever time or money they can spare in order to help others. It is the seed of love Amma has planted within them beginning to sprout that has brought this about. This has been Amma's vision from the beginning. Amma says, "In today's world, people experience two types of poverty: the poverty caused by lack of food, clothing and shelter, and the poverty caused by lack of love and compassion. Of these two, the second type needs to be considered first—because, if we have love and compassion in our hearts, then we will wholeheartedly serve those who suffer from lack of food, clothing and shelter." This is the secret behind the success of Amma's charitable mission and how its expansion seems to be constant and without end. And the brilliance of Amma's grand scheme is that not only are the downtrodden uplifted but also the volunteers, as the selflessness of their actions purifies their minds, helping them to gradually progress along the spiritual path. Amma's charitable social services cross all barriers of nationality, race, caste and religion, and have drawn the attention of the world community. In 2005, Amma's organization, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, was given special consultative status by the United Nations.

Humanitarian, Mother, Friend, Guru, God…people see her differently. Amma has offered herself to the world. In reality, Amma is beyond all such roles, knowing her true nature to be the true nature of us all—the blissful divine consciousness that pervades this universe. But out of her infinite compassion, Amma comes down to the level of whoever is standing before her—the poor, the lonely, the seeker—in order to give what is desired, what is needed. It was for this purpose alone that Amma was born and for this alone that Amma lives today. In fact, Amma has said that she wishes to be lovingly caressing someone, consoling them and wiping their tears even when she breathes her last.

-------------------------------

More Information about Amma:

http://www.amma.org

http://www.amritapuri.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Amritanandamayi