Kriyaban

I only have one day left to leave for Puri, and I am spending the afternoon in the garden of the Dakshineswar ashram reflecting after yesterday's impactful day. I am so happy with everything that has happened that even the birds, when they sing, seem to say "Guruji, Guruji."

Even so, I allowed myself to say goodbye to the Kali Temple in the morning. At the temple, as I mentioned before, the lines to offer flowers to Goddess Kali are enormous, and this made me question the meaning of the offering beyond what I can understand until today. God wanted to resolve my concern: "offerings serve to open the heart"...isn't that beautiful?

In the afternoon, reviewing the days in Calcutta, there are two things I forgot to share and I take this opportunity to tell them now. One is that Santi told me that Yogananda was Arjuna. He told me that, after the insistence of a devotee for the master to reveal his past lives, and his refusal to do so, he finally agreed and told it. It seems amazing, doesn't it?

The other thing I wanted to share are the two books I bought at the house of the levitating master.

Books of the Levitating Saint: his life and compilation of wisdom

One contains short wisdom phrases and the other is about his life, they are in English and are worthwhile.

On the plane trip to Puri, I have a kind of "feeling" about how Kriya Yoga operates on karma. We already know that Kriya, among other things, "burns karma," right? Well, I had the visualization that, as it burns and solves the "emotional knots," every time an emotionally charged moment is remembered, one can experience how the emotion has disappeared, leaving only the visual memory. This leads to the fact that, increasingly, emotionally charged memories, when they wish to present themselves for whatever reason, are more distant in time, gradually approaching childhood. Kriya Yoga forever!

The plane trip lasts only about 45 minutes and I got up very early, but it is being quite productive. Reading Janakananda's book, I discover a gem: a paragraph from a letter that Yogananda wrote to Janakananda while traveling to India. He reminds him that if he wishes to be in communion with the saints and benefit from the attributes for which each of them is characteristic, he should concentrate on the Christ eye while visualizing the saint's image in it. After a while, he should move his attention to the heart and evoke those attributes. With practice, little by little, the clarity with which we visualize the saint in the Christ eye will awaken, and with a bit more practice, we will come to see the saint with open eyes; moreover, we will live being able to enjoy and benefit from the corresponding attributes.

……

I open my backpack, lay out the sleeping bag, place the deodorant and soap bar on the shelf, the master's picture on the table, and the pajamas and shower slippers in their place...I am in Puri.

This YSS kendra is different. It is small and very humble. Until now I have stayed in rooms prepared to accommodate between two and four people, but traveling at this time of year I have always been alone. These rooms have about 6 beds per room and the space is limited. Here I am sharing with a man of about sixty who seems to live here almost permanently.

YSS Ashram in Puri

The atmosphere among the people living and staying at the kendra is very pleasant. The guy who runs it, Maheswar, is charming and the cook is great. At mealtime, we all sit on the floor next to the kitchen and eat together. The atmosphere is very family-like, and combined with the humility of the kendra, it gives it a very cozy touch.

Eating in Puri's kendra "dining room"

Again, and not to break the habit, I arrived here on the day of the three-hour meditation; I am a champion of coincidences. But before anything else, taking advantage of having landed very early, I am going to visit Yukteswar's ashram, where his tomb and his house are located.

I venture out and start walking trying to follow the path as close to the beach as possible. Yes, Puri has a beach, and I, who have always lived near the sea, find that this positively affects the energy with which I walk.

To begin with, I must say that here in Puri, the pressure exerted by the surroundings on your head is much less, despite the fact that the noise of the rickshaws is still present. With the sea, the energy is not trapped, and therefore, the environment "breathes" and decompresses more. This is noticeable and adds a slight beat of joy to my walk, like Michael Jackson.

In Spain, we go to the beach to relax, sunbathe, swim, etc. Well, in Cádiz it works differently: there they bring the tupperware with breaded pork and spend the day, but in general, the beach for us is associated with bathing and tanning. Here, the beach is not experienced like in Spain; people do their everyday things on the beach, from selling and buying to eating, meeting, etc., but always dressed and never in swimsuits. It is a multifunctional space where cows have their place for contemplative action and camels roam to see if they can catch a tourist who wants a different experience in Puri. The feeling you get, after all, is that "you can't deny that India is alive."

The beach in Puri

I must remember that, if it weren't for the fantastic Google Maps App, it would have been almost impossible to find Lahiri's house in Vanarasi and the same here, trying to reach Yukteswar's ashram. Amen Google Maps!

Yukteswar's ashram opens at 3:30 PM and it's 1:30 PM, so I look for a nice place to have a cappuccino and discover a terrace with a sea view to enjoy. It's like being at a beach bar in Castelldefels, but with Yukteswar's tomb just around the corner. The "beach bar-Yukteswar" combination almost seems perverse.

I'm already inside the ashram and God has wanted me to coincide with the arrival of a woman from Mallorca. She is here because since she read the master's book, The Autobiography of a Yogi, she is in love with Yukteswar and doesn't want to miss the chance to visit the ashram.

The place is certainly special. When I approached Yukteswar's tomb, I had a feeling of reverence and respect, but quickly stood up thinking: how little sense it makes to come all this way to kneel before his tomb if the best way to revere him is to bring him to my mind in meditation, that's where I can talk to him and even feel his blessings.

Place where Yukteswar's tomb is located in the Puri ashram

Unfortunately, that same afternoon the meditation hall was not available, so I postponed that moment for the next day.

The next day, with the excitement of a small child, I head back to Yukteswar's ashram. I take a rickshaw, and this time I decide to do something different to see if I can improve my negotiation skills. I build the following theory: if I ask for things in Hindi, instead of English, they might look at me differently, like a foreigner who has been here for a while and already knows how much things cost, so maybe they will decide to give me a more realistic price. So I retrieve the list of words I learned in Hindi from the family I traveled with on the train from Varanasi to Bodh Gaya, and prepare to board the rickshaw practicing a "how much does it cost?" and a "it's very expensive." I don't need to know more, in fact, when I made the list, it never occurred to me to know how to say "this is very cheap."

It seems to have worked and I was able to travel at the price I wanted from the beginning. As a theory, even if it worked once, it is not enough; it needs to be tested several times, but for now, I am happy. Alright!

Some improvised works in Yukteswar's ashram have it closed for perhaps a couple of days, so I take advantage of the time, and in the same direction as the ashram, I head to the Jagannath temple complex where Santi told me the energy was incredible. And it was, the energy is incredible, it is a pity that foreigners cannot enter, but just from the outside, the central tower already has me hypnotized. So I decide to sit where I can and enjoy the energy that the place exudes.

Jagannath Temple

I could talk for a while about how one interprets and feels the energy of places. The fabric drawn by the multitude of aspects involved in it is really complex: your emotional state, your openness of heart, your expectations, etc. There are many things that can condition the experience of visiting a sacred place, but without a doubt, the excitement with which we face the moment is always very special.

Below, I attach a copy of the technique, mentioned earlier and that Yogananda told Janakananda, about how to tune in with the saints and benefit from living in communion with the attributes of each of them.

Whenever you wish to communicate with a saint, first transfer their image to the spiritual eye, then relax and concentrate on the heart, trying to feel some of their main characteristics. For example, of Swami Shankara, think of wisdom, of Lahiri Mahasaya, think of joy, wisdom, and devotion, of Yogananda, also think of joy, wisdom, and devotion, of Sri Yukteswarji, think of wisdom and a calm perception of bliss. Then, lose yourself in that perception, and the soul of those individuals will possess you. You will act, reason, think, and feel like them. Sometimes this can last for hours or days. When this is perfected, you will finally see them with closed eyes. When you can do it at will, you will see them with closed eyes. This is the mystery of inner communion with the saints. Practice this with unfailing fervor until you are sure of this communion.

TotaPuri. Among the list of things to visit in Puri, the Totapuri temple was one of them.

Totapuri was Ramakrishna's guru and here, Ramakrishna is very well known and revered, he was even in charge of the Kali temple for a while, where he received his enlightenment from the Divine Mother in the form of Mother Kali. The Kali Temple is also the place where Guruji sat to meditate in front of the image of Mother Kali and received the same grace.

The fact is that it has been a surprise, there is nothing like having no expectations. I have been meditating both in the chapel where his marble figure is and in the meditation hall. I have to say that the energy I returned to the kendra with has been fantastic and I think it is a powerful place. On the way, I took the opportunity to confirm that the works in Yukteswar's ashram were finished and decided to meditate again in the chapel where his tomb is. So, after all, I returned to the kendra almost levitating.

Experiences like this contribute clearly and significantly to the sharpness with which concentration is rendered in meditations; this is a proven fact.

Tomorrow is my last day and I will spend it with Michael, a Frenchman who has just met Yogananda and is in India a bit like me. People mistake him for a Baba because of how he wears his hair and beard; it's very amusing how he often twists the ends of his mustache, making it very French. During the day, we will take advantage of the time to meditate at Yukteswar's ashram, return to the Jagannath temple to "recharge our batteries," and in the afternoon we will visit the Hariharananda temple, all with the help of our dear Tofal, loyal rickshaw driver.

Totapuri Temple

On my last day, I was able to do everything planned the day before. The visit to Yukteswar's ashram was finally very nice, as was the interaction with the monks. I leave the place with a very good feeling and, again, I take the opportunity to grant the last wish to a devotee sister: to place her rose petal on Yukteswar's tomb.

We ate on the terrace of a restaurant overlooking the Jagannath temple and then took a rickshaw to Hariharananda's ashram. I have to say that my theory of asking for things in Hindi is fallible; as an improvised theory, it had many points to fail. When I shared it with the locals at the kendra, they told me that instead of saying "it is very expensive," I was saying "you waste money," so possibly the karma dumped on me after using it a couple of times may have something to do with the short duration of the success of my theory.

Hariharananda has his story and it is interesting for a devotee of Yogananda. It seems that while Yogananda was alive, the property of Yukteswar's ashram was SRF's, as he ceded it to them, but the maintenance was granted to Hariharananda. When Yogananda died, Hariharananda claimed ownership of the ashram and SRF embarked on a lawsuit to recover it. SRF lost the lawsuit and since then, the Puri ashram has been managed by the gurus descending from Hariharananda's lineage. For all this, although mutual respect seems to prevail, this matter adds a bit of a bittersweet taste to the whole. However, in 2024 I have heard that SRF did not give up on their attempt to recover what was theirs and has finally won.

India, although it is the cradle of all things religious and spiritual in the world, is not without its "quirks" in this regard. As it happens in any field where different factions are disputing the pie, with religion, here in India it happens more or less the same. Perhaps the "struggle" for ownership of the "most authentic," "most blessed," "best," etc., is not tinged with bad manners, but it exists, and I think everyone believes that theirs is the best.

Sri Yukteswar Ashram

Tofal, every time he crosses paths with me on the street while carrying someone in his rickshaw, without stopping the engine, throws his hand at me looking for the typical American handshake, and I think he likes to show others that he is "friends" with a foreigner.

In the first phase of adapting to India, I could identify how the sweat from my armpits started to smell like curry. In the second phase, I began to notice that my head moved "like a spring" for anything in a conversation. Now, in the third phase of adaptation in India, I start farting shamelessly while doing energy exercises in the garden; and that's what a diet based on chickpeas, rice, and potatoes does. We'll see where all this ends.

I have also noticed that the concept of "respecting the queue" does not apply to Indians. They cut in line blatantly; for them, it is normal, as well as using the horn continuously to warn each other of their presence while driving. Since they don't use turn signals, somehow they have to warn each other, right? India is huge, and the number of people living in it is even greater. I have the opinion that, although in the most important cities the level of "civilization" is increasing, the territory is so vast and with such a volume of rural areas and irrelevant cities that, overall, this "advance" ends up being diluted. Quietly, here, in most regions, they are as we were in Spain in the 40s and 50s, but with cell phones and electric rickshaws.

After practicing Yogananda's technique mentioned earlier, I can say that it works very well, the sensations it leaves you with are very pleasant and you can live with them for a while. Yogananda says that the more you practice it, the longer the effects last, in fact, it is a technique also used in Buddhism.

I am at the airport, ready to leave for Chennai. I found out two days before leaving that there are two Yogoda ashrams in Chennai. As you can imagine, I had no idea which one I had booked. Thanks to "asking around," I was told at the ashram which one is mine and, fortunately, it seems to be the coolest of the two. One is in the city of Chennai and the other is on the outskirts, integrated into a forest. Just thinking about it, my mouth waters with the thrill, and with all this coronavirus stuff, I am taking advantage of the anti-pollution mask that Santi gave me in Calcutta. Still, I checked online the size of a dust particle versus the size of a virus, and the ratio is 500 to 1 micrometers (approx) respectively, so the mask is not the most ideal, but hey, better something than nothing.

Useful Information

Transport:

Flight from Calcutta to Bhubaneswar (Puri); cost: 23€. Taxi from Bhubaneswar airport to the kendra in Puri; cost: 1400 rupees.

Accommodation in Puri:

Contact and reservations: ysdk.puri@gmail.com

Contact person: Maheswar. Contact phone: +919778363452

Website: https://puri.ysskendra.org

Recommended donation: voluntary, not defined.

Things to visit:

Sri Yukteswar Ashram, Totapuri Temple and Ashram, Harihanananda Ashram, Jagannath Temple complex (foreigners are prohibited from entering), Konarak monument, Bhubaneswar Temple, King of Lingas Pagoda, and Suria Temple.

Important:

If you haven't read the Considerations section yet, don't forget to do so. In this section, you will find very valuable information that can save you many headaches. In particular, there are details related to credit cards and mobile phone use that are essential.