Who am I?

“Your mistake lies in your belief that you are born. You were never born nor will you ever die, but you believe that you were born at a certain date and place and that a particular body is your own” Nisargadatta Maharaj

As we take birth into this world – at the beginning there is no identity at all just a sense of presence.. this pure presence is radiated by every child before they begin to learn how to communicate. Through language the mind comes in to interpret everything absorbed by the 5 senses and gives it some form of meaning. Over time – we are all conditioned to believe that we are a body with a sense of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. We begin to develop a memory with a record of everything that we have picked up from the exposure to our environment being upbringing, schooling, university, work, media, internet etc and over time a whole identity is created with a collection of memories.

This identity belongs to the body which is time bound – it only exists until the body lives. Actually it doesn’t really exist at all – it’s merely an illusion – a mirage. Just like how a rope can be mistaken to be a snake – this body too is mistaken to be real. Imagine yourself playing a game like Grand Theft Auto – where you have forgotten that you are not the character in the game and believe it to be real. Same way we have forgotten that everything we experience in this life is merely a hallucination projected by our senses. In Hinduism they refer to this as “Maya”.

It is important to acknowledge the fact that this identity that is being played out with eons of conditioning and patterns is basically rubbish. The belief that one is a body – that is anything other than God – Source – the One Infinite Creator is not true. Even the very quest of self realisation establishes the existence of a seeker which is really just another identity. It is important to disassociate with all these identities playing out and stop entertaining all the mind games which come with that.

By acknowledging all this rubbish (the identity) that one believes to be true as bullshit; one is free from having to bear all the burdens of personhood. One can drop all the luggage which one is holding on to for no reason and just be free.

The fool who knows he’s a fool is that much wiser. The fool who thinks he’s wise is a fool indeed ~ Buddha

New Years at Confest

From Ulluru Brett, Hannah and me soared towards South East of Australia to Deniliquin to celebrate New Years at an alternative bush camp out festival called ConFest.

Unlike most music festivals ConFest has no loud speakers and all the fun is purely acoustic. If you are really crazing to get into them beats then they have a silent disco which is surprisingly a lot of fun!! Otherwise people mostly dance to hundreds of people drumming along on their Djembes.

This gathering is held twice a year – one during New Years and one during the Easter break. I normally go to the Easter one but this time it just made sense to make our way to Confest to celebrate New Years.

Sri Aurobindo’s Dream – Auroville

Auroville has been in the making since more than 40 years and is founded in the memory of legendary freedom fighter Sri Aurobindo. The birth of Sri Aurobindo takes place in Kolkatta in the year 1872 after which he spends a significant part of his early life in UK. After coming back he is based in Vadodara where he works as a personal assistant to the Maharaja of Vadodara; whilst being a writer where he writes a series of articles to a weekly in Pune called “New Lamps for Old” expressing very revolutionary ideas. Sri Aurobindo infact is a revolutionary and ends up in jail for being so where he begins to practice Yoga and Pranayana which initiates some kind of an awakening within him.

This awakening is expressed by Sri Aurobindo via his poem Adwaita:

Adwaita
I walked on the high-wayed Seat of Solomon
Where Shankaracharya’s tiny temple stands
Facing Infinity from Time’s edge, alone
On the bare ridge ending earth’s vain romance.

Around me was a formless solitude:
All had become one strange Unnamable,
An unborn sole Reality world-nude,
Topless and fathomless, for ever still.

A Silence that was Being’s only word,
The unknown beginning and the voiceless end
Abolishing all things moment-seen or heard,
On an incommunicable summit reigned,

A lonely Calm and void unchanging Peace
On the dumb crest of Nature’s mysteries.

Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo makes his way to Pondicherry in 1910 where he spends most of his time meditating and “establishing himself in awareness, which he termed ‘supramental’ and to assist everyone around him to achieve this level of awareness” (Dua, 2004). Mira Richard also known as Mother – joins him in 1914 and devotes her life to Sri Aurobindo, Auroville and of-course to enlightenment.

Founded on February 28, 1968 – The Foundation of Auroville – a township named after Sri Aurobindo is a living embodiment based on the ideals of Sri Aurobindo.

Today earthlings from all over the world gather in Auroville to reside in the awareness that Sri Aurobindo writes about in his poem Adwaita. These earthlings are known as Aurovillians where they have found a nest around the Matrimandir. The Matrimandir is a golden circular dome surrounded by twelve petals. Inside within the center is a big crystal bowl on which one ray of sunlight enters from the top of the dome that allows the Matrimandir to be lit up with natural lighting. When you enter this divine space it’s meant to be pin drop silence where all you can hear is the inner stillness of peace and serenity if the universe wills it. Its architecture is based on sacred geometry and it resonates a really intense energy (in my experience) which is radiated for a circumference of upto 5 kms around the Matrimandir.

Auroville – Matrimandir

Google Maps view of the Matrimandir

Being the idealist that I am; discovering Auroville – is a dream come true.  As a student of Global Studies – my dream is to see a world where all is one – where we are not identified by our religions, our nationality, our skin color or our wealth. Most people would argue that this dream cannot be true and is quite unrealistic. Like John Lennon’s legendary song – “Imagine” I guess I am a dreamer and am so very delighted to have found in my dream a place like Auroville.

An Initiation

So it is the end of the year of 2010 and my boyfriend Brett’s birthday is coming up and I am very keen on making a visit to Auroville as I had heard that it a place that attracts many spiritual seekers. Brett and me thus find ourselves in a car being driven to Pondicherry from Bangalore – I really would not recommend this drive to anyone as the roads happen to be really bumpy and a single lane highway with way too much traffic. This is back in 2010 so maybe it’s different now.

Pondicherry being a colony occupied by the french in the past still retains its french charisma from those colonial days where even now the streets names are french.  We spend a night there and the next day we make our way to Auroville. As we register ourselves to visit the Matrimandir – the gentleman notices Brett’s date of birth on his i.d and tells us that if you happen to be in Auroville for your birthday you have the privilege to go and meditate in Sri Aurobindos private chambers. Brett is really determined to do this as he knows that it is meant to be and it makes sense why we are here now  (I swear I never planned for this).

So the next day we make our way to Sri Aurobindos personal chambers and while we are waiting on the stairs outside his room for the doors to open – the healing has already begun for Brett where he begins to feel all forms of intense energies. We are then escorted to enter Sri Aurobindo’s room – where we spend about 15 mins sitting down silently and meditating. Once we get out it seems like Brett has received a direct initiation from Sri Aurobindo because he is completely knocked out – he is feeling nauseous, light headed, hot and cold at the same time and a range of other sensations. We head back to the hotel room and he starts purging and his body temperature is high, body is tense and everything is coming out.. from everywhere…  Looking at him I sense that he needs some healing or a massage or something that can help transmute whatever he is going through and so I start surfing the web for healers in Auroville and I find out about about this place called “Quiet Healing Center”. I ring them and explain to them what Brett is going through and they tell me that they have a couple of healers and masseuses coming in a various times and they recommend one who is does deep tissue massage as well as sound healing with singing bowls and vocals that can help Brett. Sounds too good to be true and divinely perfect so I go ahead and book an appointment with this healer and a room for ourselves to stay there while Brett’s “processing” is being complete.

While Auroville happened to be a very powerful experience for Brett – for me I find myself basking in waves of intense electric energy where I am just soaking it all in. It is similar to an experience of receiving pranic healing or reiki but ten times stronger than any healing I have ever received in my entire life.

Locals on the beach outside Quiet Healing Center.

 

Bibliography:

Dua, Shyam. The Lumunous Life of Sri Aurobindo. Delhi: Tiny Tot Publications, 2004. Print.