A Kriya Yogi's Kundalini Awakening in the Himalayas: A Boundary-Breaking Journey Graced by Mahavatar Babaji

Preface

What follows is a joyous struggle that begins with my love of the Himalayas and ends with my journey towards Enlightenment through the sacred science of Kriya Yoga at the cave of Mahavatar Babaji, the great saint who revived Kriya Yoga after it had lain dormant for centuries. The Himalayas entered my soul when I was young and planted a spiritual seed that has grown in dramatic and unpredictable ways. I completed some major expeditions at a young age – I trekked the Himalayas to change my life and was inspired by the sacred beauty of Himalayan temples, often hundreds of years old and always exemplifying the richness of Indian culture. Ever since, I have returned to the Himalayas each summer with an increasing and deepening focus on spirituality.

I want to take you on my first trek in 1988, when, at 18, I travelled with fellow students from the Birla Institute of Technology, in northeast India, to the desolate Gangotri Glacier. It was here that my spirit was first awakened by the sight and sound of sadhus chanting Swaha! around a huge fire, leaving a permanent impression in my mind. Swaha, from the Sanskrit, is a word chanted at the end of a mantra that literally means, well said, but is more like a joyous cry of celebration. The scene around the fire was one of the most powerful images of spiritual seeking that I have ever encountered, and suggested possibilities that inspire me to this day. The idea that there might be a better way of being, a deeper transformative knowledge, began to take hold of me. Experiences like this – there were many more to come -- led me to a spiritual quest for enlightenment that continues to blossom.

As we approached Gangotri Glacier, towering Mt. Shivling, at 6,543 meters (21,456 ft.), captivated my attention. I experienced another moment of transcendence gazing at the gigantic mountains and endless glacier so that the sense of ME and I crumbled and became evanescent, as I lost its relevance in the presence of this massive creation. This strengthened my youthful intuition into the nature of spirituality and hinted at a different way of being.

Then, suddenly, the wrath of nature asserted itself with frigid winds and piercing snow — our team soon got lost on the glacier, forcing us to retreat blindly to base camp, desperate for markers to guide us, uncertain of our fate. In a short span of time, I experienced both contemplative bliss and an animal panic that was relieved after a four-hour trek to base camp which forced me to call upon new levels of willpower that left me in extreme exhaustion.

After experiencing extraordinary states of consciousness, one can subsequently enter lesser states of mind in which the only thing that makes sense is to attempt to return to the spiritual. By 1996, I had moved to America, gotten a Master’s degree in computer science, and was professionally established in Silicon Valley in California. It was then that a severe case of influenza brought extreme fatigue and despair that precipitated an intense longing for enlightenment. So I began reading books on quantum physics and metaphysics, which offered no answers; eventually I stumbled upon Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) and was excited to learn that the path of Kriya Yoga had been given to humanity for self-realization and evolution of consciousness and to realize one’s immortality. I then began attending a local branch of the Self Realization Fellowship, a church founded by Yogananda in 1920 to share the path of Kriya Yoga. I learned Kriya meditation and spiritual practices, some verses of the Bhagavad Gita, and how to meditate on the self. I read everything that Yogananda had written: Man’s Eternal Quest, The Divine Romance, and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam were among my favorites.

I began to grasp the ancient truth that a human birth is a soul’s descent into a period of pain and confinement compared with what was accessible in higher realms. Yogananda had given me a way to understand and develop my spirituality, a well-lit path to follow. I felt so inspired that I almost ran away to the Himalayas to sit on a rock until I attained Enlightenment -- my seeking was extremely intense! The deep remembrance of the chanting sadhus beckoned me to return to Gangotri.

Following the advice of my Self Realization Fellowship teacher, I restrained the impulse to flee to the Himalayas as Yogananda tried to do, and prayed to the legendary founder of the Kriya Yoga lineage, Mahavatar Babaji, who is 2,000 years old and manifests himself to sincere seekers as a 16 year-old youth with shining golden hair. I literally cried out for him to find me a living master.

After three months, a person from the Self Realization Fellowship informed me that a Guru was in the U.S. who could initiate me into the sacred science of Kriya Yoga. In a state of elation, I intuitively knew that I had found my Guru, Paramahamsa Hariharananda Giri, (known as Baba) who had met and received direct transmission from Paramahansa Yogananda and Gyan Avatar Sri Yukteshwar Giri. I went to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where I received my first experience of cosmic consciousness at the Kriya Yoga Ashram, upon Baba’s initiation when he touched my third eye or spiritual eye between the eyebrows known as Kutastha. I lost all bodily consciousness as I experienced myself as light, sound, and vibrations as my kundalini energy awakened. This lasted for several days as I was literally falling as I walked in drunken bliss.

When I told Baba how much I wanted to run away to the Himalayas, he stopped my flight to Gangotri and said all I need is a secluded room to practice my Kriya Yoga.

Nevertheless after a few years I returned to the Himalayas to take another trek to the mythic Satopanth Tal, a lake at 4,500 meters (14,763 ft.), formed by the magnificent Swargarohini Glacier (the mythical Staircase to Heaven) and the encroaching snows of Mount Chaukhamba, at 7,138 meters (23,419 ft.). At the Satopanth Lake I experienced a huge light that pierced my third eye and I expressed a deep state of bliss.

Later I travelled to Tibet where I engaged in a long ritual circumambulation of holy Mt. Kailash, 6,638 meters (21,778 ft.) a mountain sacred to Hindus, Buddhists, Bons, and Jains, which is known to offer seekers a form of rebirth, something that I continue to prize to this day. The warmth and spirituality of the Tibetans were a source of comfort and renewal beyond words.

Of special meaning was my visit to the great Milarepa’s cave. Milarepa was the saint who spread Buddhism throughout Tibet. He underwent extreme suffering in his youth that, eventually, through his indomitable will, led to his enlightenment. I call him My Mila and have always found him inspiring.

From Tibet, I went to Gorkha, Nepal to the cave temple of Gorakhnath who is credited with spreading Hatha Yoga throughout India in the early 11th century. Soon after I travelled to the famous Neem Karoli Baba’s ashram in the Himalayan foothills. Baba, was first made famous when the Harvard psychologist, Richard Alpert, after experimenting with LSD, sought enlightenment from Indian gurus and found unfathomable spiritual insight in the presence of Baba. This led to the arrival of many more western seekers, such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Late Apple Chairman Steve Jobs, and Hollywood star Julia Roberts and other famous personalities.

Sometimes, while traveling the spiritual path, something jumps out at you and forces you to rethink everything. So it was when I travelled to Haidakhan Babaji’s ashram, in northern India, more out of idle curiosity than spiritual seeking. I suspected that Haidakhan, who died in 1984, was not a true saint, and may have been someone who attracted westerners more out of personal gain than to offer spiritual instruction – one must have both an open heart and open eyes while engaging in spiritual quests.

As I walked into the temple complex and approached a statue of Haidakhan Babaji, I spontaneously slipped into a higher state of consciousness and divine inner clarity as I suddenly saw how my ego had locked itself in with ideas and expectations. I saw how I had been chasing the spiritual for so long in search of something that always exists here and now, no matter where I was. My spiritual quests to Indian holy places were an excuse to find something that was already within.