Sometimes life calls for a breaking down of the old reality in order to facilitate the birthing of the new. This is not always a pleasant realization to have and yet, using the power of mantra, such a time can transform from something potentially painful and full of resistance into a supportive experience of the transcendent new.
OM NAMA SHIVAYA
As turbulence shook and rattled the cabin I chanted the Mahamrityunjaya mantra silently to myself to offer protection, to myself and to the entire plane. I had done the same thing in buses and car rides in India, when the terrain was so uncertain, when the cliffs were only inches away and I had no other way to comfort myself. We had chanted this mantra weekly during my time at the ashram and I had felt its power.
I spent four months in a yogic immersion course in India. We chanted mantras for an hour every evening and then twice per month we chanted the entire Bhagavad Gita—which took 6 hours to complete. There were well over 100 people chanting together at any given time, and during the final month of the course we had the entire village assembled, chanting together for 8+ hours per day. I’ll tell you: the result of all this chanting was transformative to say the least.
There has never been a more alive time to know Kali than now, during what Vedic texts and other ancient scriptures deem the Kali Yuga—or era of Kali, era of Vice—which is what the current 1000 years we are in is called. Kali is the fierce and Dark aspect of the Divine Feminine who is comfortable with her rage, using it to call forth great change and destroy all that no longer serves.
I stood atop the first Vishnu temple I’d ever encountered in India, in the south, in Madurai. Upon entering the temple I was greeted by a priest who offered me leaves of tulsi and a few sugar cubes as an offering. I soon made my way up to the roof of the temple, after peering into the sanctuary. Though the inside was where worshippers gathered to “see the divine,” it was on the roof where I first encountered what I would call “Vishnu Consciousness” in me.
OM NAMAH SHIVIAH
In the name of the aspect of the divine within, which is both destructive and regenerative, all-seeing and ever-present, we say Blessings and with deep resonance, we activate this attribute for the good of all.
On several different journeys, I spent weeks in the small Northwestern desert town of Pushkar, India, melting into the deeply spiritual and mystical feeling of the place. I learned while visiting that one of the only “living” Brahma temples exists there, next to the small, beautiful reflective lake sitting as the focal point of the entire village.
Om Gan Ganapataye Namah
In the south of India the temples are colored and decorated with stories from ancient Indian texts and scriptures. The spires reach up to the sky in a cartoonish display, making the western mind feel like it's in make-believe land. And it's true, that the rules of life are different in India. The collective consciousness of the country holds very different views and contrasting beliefs to what the west holds as “truth.” Therefore, reality is literally different as well.
