An Awe-inspiring Sojourn in the Lap of the Himalayas 1

Do the stones of the Himalayas store the eternal wisdom of the past? Do the stones reveal those secrets, those are entrenched within, belonging to the ancient sages and monks?? They do! In the mountains, it is said that the stones vibrate the chants of Mantras too, precipitating the skies and space to vibrate!! Intoxicating! Invigorating!! Energizing!!! The mountains know many things from the dawns of the past while the river Maa Ganges flows infinitely through the past dawn to the present, glorifying the spiritually charged evenings, and in the process extracting the stimuli from those ancient Rishis. Those who know the language, do understand what the she speaks while roaring down the mighty Himalayas. Rishikesh… a holy place on the banks of the river Maa Ganges, holds many secrets, secrets of the past… to be used for the future prolongation of the mankind. Those who have visited the place, even once in lifetime, will never forget the vibrations of pure consciousness dwelling over the forbidden Himalayas and the tremors, the pulsations, the chanting of hymns created both in the mornings and evenings, even today. Otherwise known as the abode of Gurus and Gods, Rishikesh is a recluse’s heaven.

In this serene atmosphere of love and beloved, of Gurus and Gods, one International Seminar on Kriya yoga was held from 3rd of October to 13th October 2017. More than one hundred Kriya Yogis from different countries across the globe participated in the seminar along with a few Indian Yogis. The venue was as serene as the place:”The Kriya Yoga Ashram” in the laps of ‘Tapovan’, literary meaning ‘the land of austere penance’.

The day started from 4 am in the morning to be followed by Aarati, Prayers, and meditation. A small discourse by Pujya Swamiji preceded the meditation and then the Divine Guru guided the participants to elevate themselves from the mundane thoughts of worldly affairs to the divine realms of spiritual kingdom through the special techniques of Kriya meditation. The flow of divine energy thus created, subjugated the banal stupor, creating a void full of nothingness and peace and beyond.

The forenoon session was mainly spent in analyzing the ‘Yoga Sutra’, by Sage Patanjali. The ancient shlokas written in Sanskrit in most concise manner was consecrated in the lights of Kriya for the easy understanding of the European disciples in a very lucid manner followed by the Bhagavad Gita and the Sacred Shri Shri Chandi. Correlating all these scriptures in terms of meditation specially enunciated and revealed by Shri Babaji Maharaj, and enlightened by Shri Lahiri Mahashaya, followed by Shri Yukteswarji and Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Shri Hariharananda Giriji  and Swami Shri Prabhujee is not an easy task. These are the hymns of the glory, of an ancient history, intangible and self-contained like religion, rebelling to be translated into another medium: especially into words that are their worst enemy. Illustrating different stories from Jatakas and Puranas, Swamiji made it decipherable to the foreign as well as the Indian disciples.

The afternoon was mostly sacrificed to learn the techniques of the Kriya Initiation. Deciphering the meanings of the Sanskrit Shlokas, used to initiate a new entrant into the kingdom of heaven, to the understanding levels of the disciples could only be done through the divine grace of Gurus and Gods. And thus streams of wisdom overpowered the fallacies in the shortsightedness of illusion embedded with blind beliefs from the very beginning of their being and brought forward a new level of awareness among the disciples.  

The evening was captivated in enchanting guided meditation by divine Swamiji preceded by evening Aarati and prayer for Gurus and Gods. The evening discourses again unfolded many secrets of the Universe of Nada Brahma, the primordial sound. How the vibrations of AUM reverberates in the cosmic elements and how the elements of the Panchatatwa pervades the specks of the cosmos including the human body. And wherein the passage to the Kingdom of Heavens lies, inside the best and the most profound creation of the God, the human being and the techniques to approach and conquer it. The (Nada) sound which is everything, pervades everything and beyond.  

As the Natya Shashra propounds:

“From the Sound (nada) comes the Shruti (the interval)
From Shruti comes Swara (scale)
From swara comes Raga (motif)
From Raga comes Gita (song)
And the soul of the Gita is Nada.”  

And what is Nada?   

“There is no song without the Nada
Nor any music without it
There is no dance Without Nada and
The whole creation is filled with
the essence of Nada.”  

(From Brihaddesi of Matanga)

Thus the evenings turned into the nights of respite from the divine ‘Dawns of the Past’ filled with erudite wisdom to the tranquil serenity of the ‘Dawns of the Present’ with a never ending flow of the divine nectar, that continued to torrent, gratifying the thirst for knowledge of the disciples across the world, from the lips of the divine Guruji.

It is true, indeed, that the mountains of Himalayas do store the wisdom of the past for those who believe and reveals too, for those who practice Kriya surrendering everything before the Guru!