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Path With a Heart

Ask the Spiritual Explorer

Dear Spiritual Explorer: I would like to give my girlfriend a necklace that shows her how much she means to me. Can you suggest one?  Ronald M., Durham, NC

Heart Story Necklace

Dear Ronald: I suggest the Heart Story Necklace at Ma’s India, a beautiful amalgam of brass, copper, silver and gemstone that will surely delight her.  I also love that this necklace is called heart story  because it will convey to your girlfriend the story of your heart.  This necklace also reminds me of the many ways in which the word “heart” has come into the usage and parlance of everyday speech.

Know that every time I see the words heart-filled, heart evoking or heart opening, there is an immediate attraction to the event or happening it might describe. I personally in my life have believed that a path that has heart within it is always a good path, no matter its form.

When I was younger, like many other fellow aspirants on the path, author Carlos Castaneda captivated and ensnared a whole generation of us in writing extraordinary books regarding his apprenticeship to Don Juan, a sorcerer.  Don Juan, a very wise man, among other things, would speak to Carlos of a path with heart.

“Look at every path closely and deliberately, then ask ourselves this crucial question: Does this path have a heart? If it does, then the path is good. If it doesn’t, it is of no use.”

And again:

“The question is one that only a very old man asks. Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. All paths lead nowhere; but one will have a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it.”

I hope that your relationship with this woman you have chosen is one that will continually open your heart to new possibilities.  Good luck to you. Spiritual Explorer

If you have a question you would like to ask, send me your question. Ask The Spiritual Explorer

What’s a Poorna Kalash?

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Dear Spiritual Explorer: What is a poorna kalash? Rae Coffey, Pittsburgh, PA

Short Description of Gods and Goddesses

Dear Rae: I didn’t have to go far to find out what a poorna kalash was. I found the definition in Short Description of Gods, Goddesses of Buddhism & Hinduism. It means “full vessel,” and is a water vase full of the characteristics of goodness. When religious ceremonies are held, a poorna kalash is kept at the center.

I have read a lot of spiritual books as your Spiritual Explorer, but I have to say that this spiritual book has definitions and descriptions that I have not seen. For a very small spiritual book, it is full of obscure references not found in larger spiritual books. For instance, there is a description of a little known, but significant at least to aspiring Buddhists, of the God Biswapani who is believed to be in contemplation while awaiting the reincarnation of Manushi Buddha. I also am in awe of the description of Uma Maheswara, another name for a goddess who was the consort of Shiva. For a small spiritual book, there was a very complete description of the characteristics of Uma, especially that she was the representation of a peaceful aspect of Shiva and Parvati.

Always wanting to know the differences between Mahayana, Hinayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, I found it in this very small but informatively written spiritual book. Lest I not dangle the answer, the major difference between Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism is the latter’s adoration of the precepts of Bodhisattva, the being who desires the enlightenment of others and foregoes his own until others achieve the blessed state.

Another interesting description in this spiritual book was about the “swastika.” Of course, we are all aware of the negative association with this sign during World War II when Hitler commandeered this symbol as his own. In truth and fact, it represents the esoteric doctrine of Buddha.

Both Hindu and Buddhist symbols and descriptions are amply presented in this small but very interesting spiritual book. Spiritual Explorer

If you have a question you would like to ask, send me your question. Ask The Spiritual Explorer

Loving Meditation

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Dear Spiritual Explorer: I try to meditate, but at night after coming home from work, I just want to sit in front of the television set and “veg” out.  Larry P., Milwaukee, WI

Meditation for the Love of It

Dear Larry: You need to read Meditation for the Love of It by Sally Kempton. She has more than 20 practices that could make meditation less formidable and more accessible to you. Admittedly, if you have not meditated before, it can seem like a daunting thing to do. I think sometimes it’s like a diet; you just have to bite the bullet and after a while it becomes natural to you. Of course, I am only referring to non-starvation diets that cultivate awareness, discipline and loving oneself as their main focus.

Meditation is supposed to be a “natural” practice. It’s only in modern time that we are so beset by outside stimuli and peer pressure that we foolishly think rushing around and asking for advice from everybody is the thing to do. Actually, as many wise people have figured out, it is the meditative state that is natural and need to be cultivated. Looking for wisdom or the solution to a problem? Just get quiet and it will soon come to you.

The problem with beginning a meditative practice is that you hear many naysayers saying how off-putting meditation is. But I think that if you say you’re not going to turn on that television set for 15 minutes or one hour, that is your first step.   You don’t even have to adopt a meditative posture; it is enough to say that you are perhaps just going to take a few deep breaths and relax. As Sally Kempler says, it is one of the most loving things you can put into practice. And that’s how meditation should be viewed, as the most loving and kindest thing you can do for yourself.

I promise you that you will return to this meditation book again and again for encouragement and insight. Congratulations on writing me; that is even before the first step. Spiritual Explorer

If you have a question you would like to ask, send me your question. Ask The Spiritual Explorer

A Bracelet Built for Two

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Dear Spiritual Explorer: I’d like to buy my boyfriend and myself a matching bracelet. Katy P., Minneapolis, MN

Ganesh Mantra Bracelet

Dear Katy: I love our newly added unisex Ganesh Mantra Bracelet, so you and your boyfriend can wear the same item. If he desires to choose his own mantra, inscribed on each one of the bracelets, he can choose amongst the Kali, Durga and Hanuman Bracelets.

It is customary to chant a mantra 108 times at one sitting. Of course, if one wishes to do more chanting of mantra, that is fine also. Once I read a book called “The Way of the Pilgrim,” where the central character wished to have his mantra recitation synchronize with the beating of his heart. In questioning other spiritual aspirants about the desirability of this expression of mantra chanting, it was met with exclamations of surprise which quickly changed to expressing a desire to have the same.

Someone once said that mantra chanting unifies us within, and when there is oneness, there are no obstacles. How true that is! How many times do we see that when we are agitated and our minds are operating at high speed, obstacles seem to appear out of nowhere to confound us? When we become quiet within ourselves, our obstacles seem to disappear magically. And yet what appears to be magical is inherently simple. That is why mantra chanting is truly a simple exercise.

The Ganesh Mantra Bracelet is also a healing bracelet. The mantra Om Gum Ganapatayei Namaha translates to: May our obstacles be removed. It is composed of five metals, to-wit: brass, copper, gold, copper and silver. A Hindu name for this combination is commonly known as Panchdhatu, and it is said that a blend of these five metals maximize one’s chances for overcoming challenges.

Enjoy this wonderful, powerful mantra bracelet. It is truly an attractive addition to both your sartorial and your spiritual life. Spiritual Explorer

If you have a question you would like to ask, send me your question. Ask The Spiritual Explorer

A Pocket Deity – Saraswati

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Dear Spiritual Explorer: I love to carry little totems and memorabilia in my pockets for good luck. I am a musician; can you suggest one for me? Ronald R., Wasilla, AK

Saraswati Pocket Statue

Dear Ronald: We have just the one for you at Ma’s India. It is the Saraswati Pocket Statue. Saraswati is the goddess of music, knowledge and art. Saraswati is depicted playing her instrument, the vina. You will probably be interested to know that the vina represents the rhythm of music that is considered symbolic of all human emotions and feelings.

As a musician, I am sure you would like to know that a vina, also spelled veena, is an Indian stringed instrument, with four main and three auxiliary strings. Appearing in many ways, one type has a lute like body; the older type has a tubular body and a gourd fitted to each end as a resonator.

In Hinduism, Saraswati represents intelligence, consciousness, cosmic knowledge, creativity, education, enlightenment, music, the arts, eloquence and power. Hindus worship Saraswati not only for academic knowledge, but for divine knowledge essential to achieve liberation in a lifetime. Similar to a musician who attempts to bring about a certain mood through his playing, Saraswati’s instrument is but another means to attain a certain mood or enlightenment.

Having spoken with other musicians in my lifetime, I am aware that in many cases, it is also their attempt to bring joy, happiness and enlightenment in their fashion also to their listeners. It is a noble profession and secularly comparable to what Saraswati’s desire is also. May you share in her aspirations also. Enjoy the statue of Saraswati. Made of a beautiful pseudo-marble composite, it is both beautiful and easy to care for. Spiritual Explorer

If you have a question you would like to ask, send me your question. Ask The Spiritual Explorer

Finding Imagination Through Journaling

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Dear Spiritual Explorer: I have begun to think about creating something in my life and don’t know where to start. The world  is sometimes full of too many possibilities. Ray S.,Dallas,TX

Impossible Things Happen Journal

Dear Ray: I know exactly what you mean; when I was 31 I had those same thoughts and feel sometimes that I frittered many years away trying to find my place in the world. However, it was a different time and there didn’t seem to be as much emphasis as there is now regarding settling into something you want to do early in life. It seemed like more people frittered and fretted for a longer time. However, if I were to do it all over again, I’d get a journal and start writing in it, expressing some of my ideas and thoughts. And the journal I know I would get would be Angi Sullins and Silas Toball’s Impossible Things Happen Journal.

Their journal is full of inventive artwork capable of not only recording your thoughts and feelings, but stimulating your brain, with a quixotic mixture of fantasy and “screwballness’ to make you want to explore the inside workings of your mind. It’s what I would call an “interactive journal,” one not content to merely have you place your thoughts into a journal, but one that also encourages your expanded thoughts.

Of course there are those amongst us who will probably just use it as a straightforward journal of ideas and thoughts and perhaps be content to not be exposed to the other side of things within their mind. To them a journal is but a journal. But for those of who like to live on the wild side and think out of the box, this journal is a pure delight and adventure.

I personally began to journal many years ago and know of people who have journaled their whole lives. How wonderful for them that they can look back upon years of thought and life. Some of us have forgotten decisions or moments in our lives which could have been very rich had we had access or known of the true value of journals.

This is a five by seven journal ready to become your best friend and confidante. Enjoy this journal; let your imagination run and may your creativity blossom. Spiritual Explorer

If you have a question you would like to ask, send me your question. Ask The Spiritual Explorer

Incense Better Than Drugs?

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Dear Spiritual Explorer: How is incense so evocative? Are there parts of the brain that become excited by it? Randall M., Sebastian, FL

Nag Champa Incense

Dear Randall: I must say I never asked myself that question, merely being excited to choose a particular brand of incense, (in this case my favorite Nag Champa Incense), sit back in my quasi-yogic position (in a straight up chair because of my knees) and hopefully wait for some form of enlightenment. Of course, waiting for enlightenment is as I have read, the worst thing one can do, because apparently the ego resides in the waiting. I have been told that perfection in the spiritual world is an accident. I think what they mean is that if one gets enlightenment similar to the Buddha story where he finally declared a time out and drank a measure of soup — word has not come back as to what kind it was—it is an accident. However I am also told by would be pundits and there are many of them (you can usually find them hanging around posh yoga studios ready to give advice on almost anything, including incense) that the accidental happening is usually preceded by years of various austerities and practices, accompanied by many incense lightings.

As I lit the Nag Champa incense and felt myself immediately relax, I actually thought the incense had similarities to a drug-induced relaxation. Drugs act upon our biological nervous systems, in many ways mysterious to us, to produce certain feelings, not unlike what is evoked through this Nag Champa incense. The main difference is that Nag Champa incense is composed of woodsy and other natural perfumes that not only excite the olfactory senses, but also is also able to relax the nervous system in a much healthier fashion. I also suggest the extremely favorable ancillary gift to not wake up after a night of ingesting the smell of incense to wonder how one has landed at a particular place with somebody who doesn’t look at all familiar. Do addicts know about incense? My editor immediately advises me that they certainly do as they use it to hide particular strains of marijuana and other illegal ingested substances. Is it true, I ask my naïve self, that instead of downing downers, one can easily light an incense stick? It certainly seems cheaper and less risky than heading out to your neighborhood drug dealer hoping to score.

On a less controversial note, I have also been told that the smell of incense reaches back into long forgotten memories of times when as more primitive people we lit fires and sat around inhaling twigs, leaves, herbs and found a measure of peace within that memory. Those incense memories are still residing in our limbic system, awaiting to be awakened together unfortunately with some other primitive urges which we can hopefully tamp down as they emerge, I say lightly.

Try your Nag Champa incense and allow the scent to waft back into a long forgotten time when you were at one with yourself, content to smell something wonderful as you embarked on the journey into something deep within yourself. Thanks for writing, Spiritual Explorer

If you have a question you would like to ask, send me your question. Ask The Spiritual Explorer

The Passing of My Guru, Ma Jaya

Ma Jaya

My Guru Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati left her body on April 13.  Thursday, April 19, was her cremation. As she was being cremated and our satsang gathered at our sacred dhuni to chant, the major chant asking that she fall into God’s hands effortlessly as a cucumber, fully ripened, falls into the ground. The dhuni is a square shaped fire pit where ceremonies and various pujas have been held. Its purpose is to incinerate the sacrificial wood that is placed there as we throw rice into it. With the throwing of rice, we are actually attempting to renounce obstructions or grievances in our lives that we no longer wish to carry. Such things may be anger, sadness, despair or anything that we feel might stand in the way of our spiritual progress.

Escaping for a moment from my own sadness, I looked around to see my fellow gurubais, spiritual brothers and sisters, in various stages of mourning for their guru. I was both impressed and so proud at the steadfastness with which they carried on to perform the various rituals needed at this special time. At this three and a half hour ceremony, each person performed their specified duty with great devotion and earnestness.

During times of mourning, there is a great opportunity for closeness, and that has occurred here amongst us at Kashi Ashram also. It is my prayer and hope that we continue this intimacy. Our guru has always asked us to relinquish our pettiness and smallness, and for these moments in time, I feel we are following her wishes.

People had asked me in the past, what will you do when your guru passes? I glibly answered, “probably the same thing you would do if you lost your spouse or dear friend.” And yet perhaps they knew more than I how deeply my guru had touched me. Our guru Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati had as her intention to have a very personal relationship with us. No matter what the occasion, whether it was ours or our family’s illness, celebration or other happening, we knew that Ma wanted to share our moments with us. As she said to us, as chelas we were very spoiled.

As it is for any chela who resides at an ashram when their guru passes, our challenge now is to connect to that deep place within us, to know that She will always remain with us, and that we will always be her children, never without their Mother.

With full Namaste and pranam, my Ma, I salute you, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, and see you now firmly held in the arms of your Baba.

Love, your Spiritual Explorer

What is the crown chakra?

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Dear Spiritual Explorer: What is the significance of the crown chakra? Bella A., New York City, N.Y.

Dear Bella: Looking at the crown chakra pendant in Ma’s India, I think I can feel the significance. The amethyst stone in the center of a piece that seems to embody chakra movement with the spokes emanating from the center makes me feel that if I just allow it to rotate, it will change my consciousness.

Crown Chakra Pendant

And that’s what chakra movement is about. If one’s chakra were to remain still and not in motion, that would indicate not very much energy happening within the chakra and thence to the individual. A healthy chakra is thought to be an open chakra, open to the universal energy available to it. If you have ever met a true healer, and there are many phonies around, trust me, you feel as if you are being healed just to be in their presence. Why is that? My surmising is because their chakras are spinning correctly. And chakras spinning correctly usually indicate an open and healed person.

Many of us unfortunately limp around with perhaps not so open chakras. The wonderful thing is that when one becomes aware of the fact that a particular chakra is closed, one can set about to open it. Now while that sounds easier said than done, it is my belief and always has been that awareness is the key to everything. If I become aware that my first chakra, for example, is lacking, in the sense that I don’t feel rooted within this world, I can take steps to change that. I could perhaps join a garden club and connect with the earth, I could take dancing lessons that would connect my feet with the floor or generally just direct my consciousness downwards to the first chakra

The crown chakra however is one of the most desirable to experience. When one’s consciousness is directed to the crown chakra, is almost a disconnect from the experiences of the body. There is an awareness that bypasses earthly concerns in some cases. My guru Ma Jaya has called this the heart space in the head. What she means by this is that true dispassion or compassion can only occur when one’s awareness is brought to the crown chakra. This is the place where Ma has said that service people never burn out. It mixes one’s heart with compassion, which allows one to serve with equanimity and true love. What a wonderful idea.

If you have a question you would like to ask, send me your question. Ask The Spiritual Explorer

Healing the Throat Chakra

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Dear Spiritual Explorer: Could you speak on the little known throat chakra? Max F.,Littleton,CO

Throat Chakra Candle

Dear Max: The throat chakra is located at the base of the throat. The color of this chakra is sky blue, similar to the color of the Throat Chakra Candle. The parts of the body affected by this chakra are the throat and neck, the arms and hands, the brachial or cervical plexus, the thyroid gland, the parathyroid gland, mouth and teeth.

This throat chakra relates to our sense of hearing. The throat chakra channels mental energy to our minds and hearts to give voice to our feelings, thoughts and experiences. This is the center for self-expression, creativity and will power. The throat chakra is strengthened and enhanced each time we express ourselves in truth and with integrity.

Illnesses associated with this chakra are communication and/or speech 
problems, thyroid and immune system problems. Other problems associated with the throat chakra are knowledge used unwisely, ignorance, and lack of discernment. An archetype is the abused child who learns to feel safe by not expressing his or her true feelings. In an effort to silence herself, she may turn to drugs, tobacco, alcohol or food, not knowing that there is a scream or a desire within the throat to express a real feeling. Someone who has overcome this block may become a true “communicator” and become well known as a public speaker, poet or strong-willed advocate.

Crystals to balance the throat chakra are similar colors of blue such as turquoise, blue topaz and aquamarine. At night as one lies down after a full day’s work, one might take one of these stones and place it in the area of the throat. Popular stones are Turquoise, Chrysocolla, Blue Topaz, and Aquamarine.

A wonderful visualization would be to imagine a beautiful, clear blue sky. Then imagine your throat chakra spinning in a clockwise direction. Then you might also place your hands over your throat while seeing the sky blue color and allowing the heat of your hand to heal your throat.

The next day you might want to try out the healing of your throat chakra by perhaps speaking your mind in a situation where you were reluctant before. If you were to lose courage, just bring to your mind again the color of the throat chakra and see it as the beautiful blue that it is. Use these techniques to balance and heal your throat chakra. Do the exercises daily. You may be surprised at the changes you experience.

If you have a question you would like to ask, send me your question. Ask The Spiritual Explorer