Hi Friends,
I am starting this thread as I wanted to share my experience with my Guru (how I met him and some experiences there after). Would love to hear from you about yours.
It was through a friend that I came to know about Swami Subhadranand Ji. Was a co-incidence that a friend wanted my help to convince a common friend to meet her Guruji and get some medical problems treated. That discussion lead to talks about the 5 elements, yoga and kundalini and also about her Guru. I talked with the gentleman over phone and requested him to meet me. He is in northern part of India and I am working at the southern end. A flight of roughly 3 Hrs and 1 Hr journey on the road got me to his city. Till then I was wondering how crazy could a person be so as to travel such a distance without even knowing whether it was worth it. Every passing moment was a torture when thinking about the time and money spent to meet someone I had not heard about before.
I met Guru ji the first time on Gurupurnima. Had prepared a list of doubts to discuss with him including a question "what should a deciple do if the guru is fake"
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. I had thought of exploring the option of deeksha (if I thought it was a good idea post meeting him). I was in for a surprise when I met him. Was expecting to see someone clothed in some religious attire, basking in the attention of a lot of people with an attempt to create environment of holiness around him through words or gestures or using other means like incense sticks, lighting of lamps or candles etc.
He was different. There were definitely people there to seek his help, however, there were no pretensions at his end. He was clothed in simple attire of Kurta Pyjama and seemed to exude a message – this is what I look like, take it or leave it. I was perplexed at that time as he didn’t fit the description that would be used to describe any guru these days. However, in retrospect, why should he fit such a description? Such environment is required where a guru would need additional assistance to affect followers. He doesn’t need any.
I had jotted down a lot of questions to ask Guru ji and I did just that when finally I had an opportunity to talk with him separately. Post discussion, which had questions and answers from both sides, Guru ji decided to make me a disciple and gave me the deeksha late afternoon. This was through taking of an oath followed by 10 minutes of meditation sometimes during which he momentarily touched my forehead (between the eyebrows).
I was expecting something grander like blinding light or instant mystical experience but didn’t feel anything. Was asked to do meditation for some time in front of him and did not get any grand experience. When asked, he told me and another disciple that the guru has to moderate the arising of kundalini to ensure the body is able to cope up with the rising energy. Unbridled rise would momentarily provide a phenomenal experience, however would damage the body the recovery of which would take a lot of time. Experience would come to us based on the level of readiness of body as long as we meditate regularly and have patience.Guruji instructed to meditate at least two times a day without fail for one hour each. Any non compliance to the frequency should be followed by fasting the next day to introduce discipline.
Same day, late night, felt a burning sensation at the lower end of the spinal cord. It remained there for some time. I dismissed it then to know later it was the kundalini which had got activated and would prepare my body to bear its stronger version which would activate the chakras also.
A few minutes in my first meditation session the next day I felt something below the lower ribcage pull at my breadth. Realized I was not breathing and whatever was left inside was being pulled at with a throbbing motion. Was in two minds i.e. to continue or to come out. Feelings of self preservation took over and I came out of the meditation using the steps that were taught by guruji. Called up guruji and told him about the two things i.e. burning sensation as well as the pulling of breadth. He laughed and said “that’s it? You are scared just now? There are lot more things that would happen due to it. Don’t worry, have patience and go through all of it. There can be a lot of other experiences in which the body would react in different ways and it is part of the kundalini awakening. Body would adapt. Go with the flow and do not resist what happens automatically. Opposition to it can be counter productive â€. Besides this he also told me to be prepared as at times the body would get into uncomfortable state but would recover. That’s the way body adapts to the energy of kundaline as well as the kundalini acting on the body as well as the karmas of the person. His last lines were "A guru is not one who makes disciples but gurus". I hung up the phone, humbled and with food for thought.
After this there were multiple sessions in which stomach would contract automatically. Contraction went along with the back bending forward half way to accommodate the contraction. Also felt strain in eyes especially the weaker of the two eyes. Called guruji to discuss the experience. Was told that this was normal and shouldn’t be the cause of worry. The strain on eyes would stop over period of time.
Couple of sessions later one day once the contractions spread from stomach to chest, from where it spread to back muscles to shoulder muscles and went up to the neck. Once the contractions moved from stomach to chest I briefly had a feeling that I would suffocate. However that feeling passed soon enough. There were contractions in the evening session also however these were limited to stomach only. In the evening session momentarily felt awareness in the entire spine starting from lower point all the way to the head. This was a momentary event and I almost missed it. By the time I was about to go to sleep felt that the spinal chord was burning from the lower tip to the mid of the spine (behind solar plexus). The burning sensation remained for quite some time. Slept through it and could feel a little of it when I woke up next morning.
This was followed by sessions in which a lot of different types of bandhs were coming into play automatically. This was started by Moola Bandh followed bhy Uddayan Bandh and later Jalandhar Bandh. Out of these Jalandhar Bandh was the most common occurrence. The concentration improved over time and the bandhs have also changed. All for the preparation of the body.
In two month of having got the deeksha I had gone through the above body preparatory activities as well as more like the stretching of back to make spinal chord flexible, various forms of neck activities, ujjayee, kapalbhati and more. Remarkably I never had an idea that my body would be doing all these things on its own, as it sees fit within its limitations. Nor I ever thought I would be getting into yoga. Last two weeks of second month I had observed that the physical movements/ stretching in the body have decreased and emphasis is more around movement of neck and tongue in various ways as well as inhaling, storing and releasing breadth at different times.
After experiencing Moola Bandh, Uddayan Bandh and Jalandhar Bandh together in the third month, fourth month onwards I have started experiencing movement of prana in the spine as well as better concentration. There is also a presence of prana accumulation at the moolathar chakra which can be felt as slight burning sensation.
Around 6 months after having met him there was this brief period wherein I got very impatient and was wondering why I am not making a lot of progress in raising the kundalini and it taking a lot of time for body to get prepared (I know - how stupid of me to be so impatient with the above already happening
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). He arranged to answer the question through a dream customized for me. Next morning was pleasantly surprised to find out that he was calling me and on greeting him over the phone hist first question was "so what happened last night". Enough to get me zapped. Never looked back since then and have been practicing regularly.
It is getting close to a year now. I have had many more things to experience since then. These would continue with the combined grace of both God and Guruji. However I believe the above is a sufficient summary of my experiences to give you a better idea.
Anything that you could share would be great.
Take care
