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10 Days with a Guru
By gia combs-ramirez | June 20, 2008
Last year, I spent a month in India, studying the spiritual healing called the Oneness Blessing. Founded by Gurus Amma and Bhagavan, the Oneness Blessing is intended to heal the brain and bring it into a state of unity and awakening. I chronicled my journey, which you can read at My Oneness Blessing Adventure.
When I went, I was looking forward to the prospect of sitting darshan with two amazing spiritual teachers or gurus. This time-honored tradition in India allows a person seeking spiritual development to sit in the energy field of an enlightened being, thereby promoting spiritual growth and enlightenment within one’s self. I was content missing the tourist sites such as the Taj Mahal, but I held a deep longing and yearning to be within the presence of a spiritual teacher.
This heartfelt longing was wordless and made no sense to me. I have always been a person who connected directly to Creator Source energy and have received teachings through my meditations and other spiritual practices. I have never been drawn to one teacher or one system of learning, because I recognize the truth in all teachings. But shortly before going to India, this wordless yearning arose into my awareness.
In an unsuspected twist, the teachers at the Oneness University announced at the end of our first week, that the program was not going to allow us to see, visit or sit with Amma or Bhagavan. After being stunned and saddened by it all, I decided to do a Crystalline Consciousness Technique group session, with the intention of getting to sit with an Indian spiritual master, which was the essence of my longing.
Crystalline Consciousness Technique is known for its rapid and accelerated manifesting, so I stayed hopeful throughout the rest of the course that something might suddenly and dramatically shift. Nothing did. I thought to myself: This might be the one CCT session that didn’t work (in five years, I’ve never had a CCT session that didn’t work). Knowing that my conscious mind doesn’t know much about my soul’s journey, I surrendered and moved on in my life.
In January of this year, I began planning the 2008 Crystalline Consciousness Technique Teacher Training. Held just once a year at the guest ranch where I live in Montana, this year’s training was focusing on deepening the understanding of CCT of already certified teachers. One of the CCT teachers was interested in exploring the metaphor of fire as the element of chaos and suggested inviting two fire masters to the week. One does an ancient ceremony from India called Agnihotra, and the other is a firewalking ceremonialist.
I left all the arrangements to the CCT teacher who had had the vision, while I focused on organizing the class. In the end I decided to have only one of the two ceremonialists and went with the Agnihotra. Strangely enough, it was only while walking to the main lodge to meet this man for the first time that it suddenly occurred to me—this was the manifestation of the CCT session I had done almost a year ago! I was about to spend 10 days with a guru and in a fantastic shift on the classic mountain and Mohammad scenario, he came to Montana!
What is Agnihotra?
Our guru, Mohan S Jadhav came to the U.S. from India as a business man. The Divine had other plans, however, for him, and he was eventually led to the practice of Agnihotra. Arising from the ancient Hindi, vedic science, that is more than 5000 years old, the practice of agnihotra is one of lighting a fire in a copper pyramid and chanting specific mantras at precisely sunrise and sunset. He’s been doing this practice for 35 years. From the Agnihotra website comes this description:
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Agnihotra is meant for all humanity regardless of religion, race, or language.
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Agnihotra is rooted in the Vedas, the most ancient science about the sciences of bio-energy, medicine, agriculture, and climate engineering.
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Agnihotra is a science of doing and experiencing immediately.
- Agnihotra helps us attain happiness, love, and total wellbeing.
The entire universe pulsates with a coordinated rhythm. This rhythm synchronizes the orbits of the
The earth, nature and human body responds to this natural rhythm called the Circadian Rhythm. We human beings align and realign to this rhythm precisely at the sunset/sunrise transition point. This accord with the rhythm brings peace and wellbeing.
A discord naturally produces stress, anxiety and an infinite cycle of strife & sufferings.
Agnihotra is the only effective tool that we have, to produce this harmony between the mind, body, and the universe.
Agnihotra is a material aid to a happy life.
An intense energy is projected from the Agnihotra pot. This energy envelops the solar system, the stratosphere and beyond.
Harmful radiation & pollutants are neutralized and transformed into nourishment on a subtle level
My First Experiences with Agnihotra
Mohan Guriji arrived the day before the CCT teacher training started. I experienced agnihotra for the first time that evening and again in the morning. Watching him light the fire connected me instantly to all my memories of fire: sitting around a campfire as a child, fire ceremony with a Navajo medicine man, watching our house burn down (which is a metaphysical experience all to itself). We chanted two short mantras exactly at sunset and sunrise, while Mohan Guriji made rice offerings to the fire. Then we went into a short period of meditation.
I was immediately struck by the power to go into a deep meditative state. The sense of “silence” was palpable and I gladly fell into it. This “silence” is the one of connection and communion to the Divine. The mind and heart are still and perfectly immersed into it. It’s a deeply restful state and indicative of a certain level of altered consciousness achieved when one has been meditating for a long time.
I was also conscious of the immediate balancing that occurred between my spiritual self and my nature self. It was a reminder of the moment of conception when my soul infused with nature in this incarnation. This point in time is one of complete balance, wholeness and unity. I felt immediately happy and joyful and at peace with myself and the world.
The Honeymoon Ends a Bit
Although the ceremony was fabulous, Mohan Guruji was desperate for some answers. He had no idea why he was here. The CCT teacher who had invited him didn’t tell him much about us or what we were doing during the week. Imagine you are a guru who is invited for 10 days to a group and then find yourself not really a featured attraction for that group! It was confusing to all of us. To make matters a bit more challenging, we spoke different “languaging,” and came from different teaching cultures.
I had the immediate task of altering the normal teacher training to fit in our guru and his incredible wisdom teachings (all at the last moment), but to find a balance that would honor Mohan Guruji as well as my intentions. Talk about having to stand in my own spiritual empowerment! (Isn’t there a joke somewhere about how many gurus does it take to change a lightbulb?)
The first evening of our training, Mohan Guruji was scheduled to do a new moon ceremony, followed by the ceremony for agnihotra. We all gathered and spent some considerable time figuring out the physical logistics of having two smokey fires in a log lodge wired with smoke alarms. Since the alarms were easily over 30 feet high, getting to them to temporarily disable them was not a possibility. And how were the smoke people going to handle all the smoke?
Some of the CCT teachers were also inexperienced with Indian guru way of teaching. I began calling this method of teaching “Guru Smackdown.” It’s guaranteed to let you know very publicly if you weren’t paying attention, didn’t follow his train of thought, or in anyway not be fully present and engaged with the teachings. Anyone with parent, authority, or school issues immediately got to remember them in this method.
I had a quiver of doubt (this could be disastrous!) arise. Then the ceremony started. Could it have been any more challenging for Mohan Guruji? I made him sit on the stone hearth, as close as possible to the fireplace. For a meditation cushion, he chose a piece of firewood! He was deaf in one ear and that was the ear facing us, which meant he had to turn his whole body around to hear us. Visual contact was very important so we moved out of our comfortable circle-seating arrangement and piled onto the floor in front of him.
The new moon ceremony was about 45 minutes long. After each chanted mantra phrase, we had to all chant “Swaha” as rice was added to the fire. It was a long 45 minutes. I certainly don’t know sanskrit and I couldn’t watch the energy because it was too easy to miss saying “Swaha” at the right moment. Then at one point, Mohan Guriji lost his focus and concentration. Extremely annoyed with himself, he almost became flustered. The truth is we didn’t know if he had made a mistake or not. He could have been saying “And now I brush my teeth,” in sanskrit and we wouldn’t have known. Of course, it wasn’t about making a good impression on us…but performing the mantra exactly as needed to get the desired result.
I remember silently asking why he had lost his rhythm and place and immediately being shown that he had looked at our group energy field (which in CCT is set up vibrationally for greater connection and unity) and felt that we were a cult. If this is what he truly perceived or not, I don’t know. It was an intuitive hit on my part. I, of course, immediately began obsessing that Crystalline Consciousness Technique might be perceived in that way! Later I asked several other CCT teachers what they had perceived when he lost his focus and they all had slightly different answers. The whole ceremony was not the warm, fuzzy experience I had been expecting (Mohan Guriji would have much to say in the coming days about how expectations led to suffering and misery).
Finally it was time for the sunset agnihotra. Thank heavens, indeed! I left that evening very concerned about the outcome of the next 9 days.
In the next several posts, I will continue the story of how Agnihotra and CCT find a way, and how Mohan Guriji and gia guruji create a shared dance of different cultures and healing modalities.
Note: I invite any of the CCT teachers to add their comments to the blog post so that there is a more complete picture of this amazing time and event that we were in.
Topics: Becoming a Better Healer, Crystalline Consciousness Technique, Energy Healing, Energy Science, Evolution of Consciousness, Intentions, Manifesting, Metaphysics, Oneness Blessing, Personal/Spiritual Growth |
June 22nd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I recall that moment when he lost track and then deliberately repeated the mantra he was doing to get it right.
My impression was that he had lost track because of our group energy, we were were already working in the CCT energy field as a group. That seemed to startle him, but I have no idea what it looked like to him.
I was definitely impressed with his focus and intent with his work.
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
CCT teacher trainings occur in a closed environment of conscious intention and energetic integrity, with participants I will describe as being dedicated to personal and spiritual growth, as well as service. Anything that doesn’t resonate with that high vibration gets rattled right on out, smoothly or painfully, depending on our degree of attachment. Good clean fun, I call it.
Now, imagine adding another spiritual master and the intensely powerful vibration of twice-daily agnihotra and other fire ceremonies to this environment (which, by the way, was also experiencing extreme out-of-season weather patterns) and you might be able to sense the energy.
We were, in this training, exploring and deepening group energetics. So, watching the potentially messy situation gia described, 2 teachers and no previous communication, resolve into seamless presentation, was very cool.
Personally, I had a great time. I found myself drawn to the fire ceremonies like the proverbial moth. I didn’t sleep much, and was OK with that upon surrender. Other “stuff” that arose seemed to release easily. The intensity felt like deep nourishment, because of the energetic support for transformation.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
[...] Combs-Ramirez (the new host for upcoming editions) presents Ten Days with a Guru. This article begins a series on the challenging process of including a guru and fire ceremonies in [...]
July 5th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
[...] Mohanji has an effective teaching style, which I watched in action in our group conversations at the Diamond J Ranch in the mornings before our CCT teacher trainings. I loved his way of correcting anyone who quit paying attention, the approach Gia calls Guru Smackdown. [...]