How I met Swamiji or Paramahamsa Nithyananda
How did I meet Swamiji or Pramahamsa Nithyananda
I was attending a "wizard" camp conducted by Peak Potentials Company. It is a great camp to develop your intuition and learn about different life improving techniques. It was in 2007, upstate New York, Catskill Mountains.
One day was dedicated to meditation. The speaker had an impressive biography: first person on the planet Earth who was a guide at the three extreme challenges: Mt. Everest, North and South Pole.
At that time I was going to the Buddhist Monastery every week, sometimes for lectures but most of the time to meditate. Our Bodhi Monastery has a room where monks meditate early in the morning and after that it is available and open for public. The energy is great there. I was new to meditation but I was able to sit for 2 hours in that room. Amazing.
Anyway, his name was Martin Williams. He started explaining how our mind worked and what chakras or energy centers of the body were. We practiced meditations chosen by Paramahamsa Nithyananda for opening the chakras. I think we did four of them. In the short time, they were about 30 min long, I experienced a different depth in my meditation. I really would not be able to give this experience justice by using words. It was beyond words: the presence, the lightness in the body, the peace and the clarity of the mind. You get the idea.
Martin Williams was a very approachable, simple and warm person. There was also something distinctly different about him and the way he explained things.
I decided to introduce myself and ask my "burning" question. I thanked him for the experience and then said : " I meditate regularly but the more I meditate and study, the more depressed I feel. I feel that I am going to learn some spirituality now, then I will die and then I will be reborn and the whole thing will start all over again!!! I really do not want that!" He laughed and said:"Oh, I see. You want a shortcut to Enlightenment?" I thought for a split second, laughed too and said : "Yes, exactly. I want exactly that I want a shortcut. I also want to get all these meditations and the book you have because it was a powerful. experience for me Where did you learn all that?" Martin said: "Well, go on youtube, watch my guru, his name is Nithyananda and see if he is for you. As far as the meditations and the book, you can do them on your own. Let me give you my email address and if you have questions or need support please feel free to email me."
He was simple and smart and wanted to help!!!
I came home after the course and started reading the book. Every word made sense and I was finding answers as if the book was written for me! I did not want to bother Martin with further questions without first doing the practice so after I read the book I started doing meditations. The book is called "Guaranteed Solutions". Please get one if you have not read it yet. What a treat this book is! It was the end of August.
In November I emailed Martin and said that I finished the book and have done all meditations on my own and ...Now what?
I soon got an email from him. It said exactly this: "Swamiji is in LA now for inauguration of the Temple. The energy is amazing. Come."
I got the tickets and flew to LA.
November 30, 2007. I was sitting among other 300 people in the hall at the temple waiting for Swamiji. Then everyone stood up and I saw a very tall, skinny figure in the orange robe. He passed right by me and it felt like a dancing light breeze. He started speaking. Again I do not think I can describe that experience. His sense of humor was superb and clarity and simplicity with which he spoke on a lot of complicated subjects were amazing. But I was not able to enjoy fully!!!! I felt so tired and was falling asleep that I could not even listen! So you understand, I was always really active and evening house were never an issue for me and I just flew to listen to him!!! It felt as if I was a tight tight spring that was let go. All of a sudden there was no tightness and no need to be anything and my first feeling was that I had not slept for at least a thousand years. He was making jokes about people who came to listen to Shiva Sutras and now these people could not even keep their eyes open. I felt it was about me but I could do nothing.
We had a darshan at the end. By the way, I had no idea what darshan was so when I saw a line I decided that I was not going to wait for whatever these people were waiting. After all I had enough and it was time to sleep. I decided to ask what the darshan was and although no one could explain they all behaved as if it was something I should not have missed. I thought that it was all ridiculous but stood in line. I judged a lot while standing in that line. Some people seemed way too happy (at that time I was full of ideas of what was appropriate and what was too much. So funny now to remember all that. So difficult to live like that too.)
So I stood in line and finally I was in front of Swamiji for the first time.
I wanted to ask him 100000000 questions about the Universe and my life and how to learn a shortcut to enlightenment but I could not say a word. Nothing would come out of my mouth. During Darshan you also need to close the eyes unless Swamiji asks you to keep them open. I had no idea so I was looking him straight in the eyes during my darshan and finally he said: "Close your eyes." My time in front of him was disappearing, his palm on my area of the third eye was hot. I still felt my burning questions but could not say a word. Everything seemed too stupid to ask, not clear words or thoughts or whatever. It was time for me to go and I stated walking away. All of a sudden I heard a loud voice: "Ask." It was Swamiji. I looked at him and said: "I came for guidance". I was not sure what I meant and where these words came from. "Meditate", he said. I thanked him and walked away.
Meditate! That's it?! Just meditate! - what a simple advice. I needed some kind of long explanation which would also include some story of my life and it was just that "Meditate"...
Well, I spent there another three days and these three days deserve a separate post. I met my really special friend Bhakta Swami who was my and my daughter's help and guidance for at least half a year when he stayed in New York. And as for Swamiji's advice. When I look back at my journey of these 5 years so much has changed.
By the way, I meditate now every day and it is very efficient (!), I can sometimes get to such a peaceful state of mind so quickly My practice deserves a different post too. Too many awesome memories to share.
And Martin? We met many times after that. I learned that his spiritual name was Dheera (means courage). He was our guide on a trip to Himalayan mountains, he was one of the leaders for a seven week program Living Enlightenment in Bidadi, India with Swamiji himself. He even came as a guest speaker to Sparta where I live. Guess what? He stayed at my house!
It was great writing this post because I love to share as you probably guessed already and remembering these first experiences brought so much joy to me. Cool or cool? Thank you for reading this, whoever you are!
To Be Continued: I will later tell you how the connection with him evolved and I have a post "My Guru and the Scandal" so you know how I felt about the scandal and 52 days of imprisonment for Him!
I was attending a "wizard" camp conducted by Peak Potentials Company. It is a great camp to develop your intuition and learn about different life improving techniques. It was in 2007, upstate New York, Catskill Mountains.
One day was dedicated to meditation. The speaker had an impressive biography: first person on the planet Earth who was a guide at the three extreme challenges: Mt. Everest, North and South Pole.
At that time I was going to the Buddhist Monastery every week, sometimes for lectures but most of the time to meditate. Our Bodhi Monastery has a room where monks meditate early in the morning and after that it is available and open for public. The energy is great there. I was new to meditation but I was able to sit for 2 hours in that room. Amazing.
Anyway, his name was Martin Williams. He started explaining how our mind worked and what chakras or energy centers of the body were. We practiced meditations chosen by Paramahamsa Nithyananda for opening the chakras. I think we did four of them. In the short time, they were about 30 min long, I experienced a different depth in my meditation. I really would not be able to give this experience justice by using words. It was beyond words: the presence, the lightness in the body, the peace and the clarity of the mind. You get the idea.
Martin Williams was a very approachable, simple and warm person. There was also something distinctly different about him and the way he explained things.
I decided to introduce myself and ask my "burning" question. I thanked him for the experience and then said : " I meditate regularly but the more I meditate and study, the more depressed I feel. I feel that I am going to learn some spirituality now, then I will die and then I will be reborn and the whole thing will start all over again!!! I really do not want that!" He laughed and said:"Oh, I see. You want a shortcut to Enlightenment?" I thought for a split second, laughed too and said : "Yes, exactly. I want exactly that I want a shortcut. I also want to get all these meditations and the book you have because it was a powerful. experience for me Where did you learn all that?" Martin said: "Well, go on youtube, watch my guru, his name is Nithyananda and see if he is for you. As far as the meditations and the book, you can do them on your own. Let me give you my email address and if you have questions or need support please feel free to email me."
He was simple and smart and wanted to help!!!
I came home after the course and started reading the book. Every word made sense and I was finding answers as if the book was written for me! I did not want to bother Martin with further questions without first doing the practice so after I read the book I started doing meditations. The book is called "Guaranteed Solutions". Please get one if you have not read it yet. What a treat this book is! It was the end of August.
In November I emailed Martin and said that I finished the book and have done all meditations on my own and ...Now what?
I soon got an email from him. It said exactly this: "Swamiji is in LA now for inauguration of the Temple. The energy is amazing. Come."
I got the tickets and flew to LA.
November 30, 2007. I was sitting among other 300 people in the hall at the temple waiting for Swamiji. Then everyone stood up and I saw a very tall, skinny figure in the orange robe. He passed right by me and it felt like a dancing light breeze. He started speaking. Again I do not think I can describe that experience. His sense of humor was superb and clarity and simplicity with which he spoke on a lot of complicated subjects were amazing. But I was not able to enjoy fully!!!! I felt so tired and was falling asleep that I could not even listen! So you understand, I was always really active and evening house were never an issue for me and I just flew to listen to him!!! It felt as if I was a tight tight spring that was let go. All of a sudden there was no tightness and no need to be anything and my first feeling was that I had not slept for at least a thousand years. He was making jokes about people who came to listen to Shiva Sutras and now these people could not even keep their eyes open. I felt it was about me but I could do nothing.
We had a darshan at the end. By the way, I had no idea what darshan was so when I saw a line I decided that I was not going to wait for whatever these people were waiting. After all I had enough and it was time to sleep. I decided to ask what the darshan was and although no one could explain they all behaved as if it was something I should not have missed. I thought that it was all ridiculous but stood in line. I judged a lot while standing in that line. Some people seemed way too happy (at that time I was full of ideas of what was appropriate and what was too much. So funny now to remember all that. So difficult to live like that too.)
So I stood in line and finally I was in front of Swamiji for the first time.
I wanted to ask him 100000000 questions about the Universe and my life and how to learn a shortcut to enlightenment but I could not say a word. Nothing would come out of my mouth. During Darshan you also need to close the eyes unless Swamiji asks you to keep them open. I had no idea so I was looking him straight in the eyes during my darshan and finally he said: "Close your eyes." My time in front of him was disappearing, his palm on my area of the third eye was hot. I still felt my burning questions but could not say a word. Everything seemed too stupid to ask, not clear words or thoughts or whatever. It was time for me to go and I stated walking away. All of a sudden I heard a loud voice: "Ask." It was Swamiji. I looked at him and said: "I came for guidance". I was not sure what I meant and where these words came from. "Meditate", he said. I thanked him and walked away.
Meditate! That's it?! Just meditate! - what a simple advice. I needed some kind of long explanation which would also include some story of my life and it was just that "Meditate"...
Well, I spent there another three days and these three days deserve a separate post. I met my really special friend Bhakta Swami who was my and my daughter's help and guidance for at least half a year when he stayed in New York. And as for Swamiji's advice. When I look back at my journey of these 5 years so much has changed.
By the way, I meditate now every day and it is very efficient (!), I can sometimes get to such a peaceful state of mind so quickly My practice deserves a different post too. Too many awesome memories to share.
And Martin? We met many times after that. I learned that his spiritual name was Dheera (means courage). He was our guide on a trip to Himalayan mountains, he was one of the leaders for a seven week program Living Enlightenment in Bidadi, India with Swamiji himself. He even came as a guest speaker to Sparta where I live. Guess what? He stayed at my house!
It was great writing this post because I love to share as you probably guessed already and remembering these first experiences brought so much joy to me. Cool or cool? Thank you for reading this, whoever you are!
To Be Continued: I will later tell you how the connection with him evolved and I have a post "My Guru and the Scandal" so you know how I felt about the scandal and 52 days of imprisonment for Him!
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