Chapter 4: Early Days of the USA Mission🔗

When Swamiji left Oklahoma He told us, 'Spread this mission everywhere and I will come back to Oklahoma very soon". The moment He left we sprang into action. Somehow, somewhere the spark was lit and we felt the deep desire to spread this message and experience to everyone we knew. In our case we are very lucky - the complete family was totally in sync with the Master. So there was no resistance or push back. All we felt was we now need to dedicate all our time and energy to spread the message.

We needed to first strengthen and solidify the mission in Oklahoma. We started meeting every weekend in one of our homes. Soon we realized that meeting in someone's home had the risk of turning into a social gathering and also people wanted to hang on for several hours after the satsang. In Oklahoma City, Bala Vikas, the childrens' weekend programs took place in the Hindu Temple every Sunday morning and the programs ended at 2:30 pm. Oklahoma City Hindu temple allowed us to conduct satsangs in the temple between 4 pm and 6 pm so that parents attending Bala Vikas could stay back and attend Swamiji's satsang.

Word of the satsangs spread across Oklahoma city and we were steadily seeing increased audience. We started satsangs with a video discourse of Swamiji. In those days we did not have many recorded discourses. The topics He spoke during His first tour of the United States were recorded and the video files were processed. In addition we had some tapes and CDs from Swamiji's discourses given in Bangalore in 2003. After 30 minutes of Swamiji's discourse we then had a 30-minute meditation session. In the early days we practiced the Mahamantra technique. This was followed by arati, a devotional ceremony of waving lit lamps to the divine accompanied by kirtan – devotional music.

Swamiji's satsangs now happen in 1000s of centers all over the world and have the same format. Discourse for the intellect, meditation for digesting and experiencing the teachings and finally arati for the bhakti or devotion dimension, which I now know is one of the very important techniques/paths for spiritual growth. Swamiji knows the human need and the essence of our being. This is why whoever comes to our satsangs or programs, leave completely fulfilled in all dimensions of experience – intellect, experience and devotion.

Soon, news of Swamiji's satsangs spread to other communities of seekers in Oklahoma City, and adjoining towns of Norman and Stillwater. We started seeing an influx of American devotees/seekers who have been practicing their spiritual path. Several of them quickly jumped in, for they realized the true value of being connected with the rarest of rare beings – a living, enlightened Master.

We now started preparing for spreading the mission outside Oklahoma. We got in touch with devotees who were managing satsangs in the west coast. There were active satsang centers forming in San Jose and Los Angeles. With Swamiji's blessings, we took on the responsibility of coordinating mission activities all over USA. All of us got on periodic conference calls to start the process of planning for the next visit of our beloved Master.

Our weekday routine at home was something along these lines. The previous evening we agreed and developed a plan of action for the day ahead. I must say I was able to spend only part of my time spreading the mission. It was only after-work hours. But Ma Sachitananda was relentless. She spent all day and evenings working on the mission. She literally picked up the phone and called every one we knew and also those we did not. She made thousands of phone calls talking to people who were associated with Hindu Temples. We started calling people in Seattle, New Jersey, St Louis, New York, Dallas, and Houston. Some people were interested, and some said no thank you, we do not believe in these Swamis! And in some cases, one phone call lead to another and this in turn lead to another contact who finally expressed interest. All we had to share was our excitement and conviction.

My work with the mission started at 6 pm every evening. During my days as ‘Mr. Corporate‘, I would typically leave for home well after 7 pm. Now with the new found understanding, I realised that I really did not require working so many hours to get the job done. I found I was able to complete all my work ahead of time and ahead of schedule by spending lesser time at work. I found that I no longer procrastinated. Decisions that I made in the company were quicker and sharper. Another strange phenomenon was happening – I did not need so much of analysis and modeling of business plans to get to the same end point. It almost seemed that there was a significant shift in my intuitive skills and efficiency.

For all my corporate friends reading this book, I have taken so many feel-good courses, courses on negotiation, team building, productivity, etc. However I found that the output I am now able to deliver as a result of my own spiritual journey and personal transformation was far higher than any of these courses. Please do not take this comment as an arrogant remark or as a remark to put down the wonderful programs of human development that exist today. However, for me, as a corporate executive, I found that the journey of my own personal transformation through understanding of various emotions gave me a step change improvement in my productivity. Please refer to the Appendix 1 where I shed light on Swamiji's teachings and rationale behind my own experience of enhanced productivity.

We desperately needed materials in terms of books and video discourses in order to spread Swamiji's mission. We had a few books that Swamiji's crew brought with them and left in our home. The most popular book those days was ‘Six Days to Total Transformation’.

In the early days of the mission, Swamiji conducted the ASP program over a period of six days in India. Swamiji conducts meditation camps over a more extended period in India. This provides an ambience for people to settle down, chill out and allow the experience happen. However, in USA, Swamiji jokingly tells us that even if god were to come down, people would say, “Please come on a weekend!” These days Swamiji encourages devotees to come to the Bidadi ashram, our spiritual headquarters, for advanced level courses such as Nithyanandam and Living Enlightenment, so they may stay for over an extended period and receive the full benefit.

In order to produce more products for our Ananda Galleria store, I would grab a quick dinner at home by 6 pm and drive to Stillwater, a University town, 80 miles away. There we set up a small DVD production facility at a devotee's store in the backroom. Here we would process video files of the discourses, produce audio CDs, DVDs and start managing shipments to various satsang centers and new centers that had started coming up. There was not much time left. We wanted Him to come to USA in early 2004. But this required us to work feverishly and identify places where we can start spreading awareness of this young enlightened master.

Most evenings when I was in Oklahoma and not traveling on business, I would drive the 80 odd miles to Stillwater, reach there around 8 pm and we would work for another 4 hours preparing video content, printing audio CD and DVD labels, producing stocks and packing books, CDs, and malas for shipment to various locations. I would then drive back to Oklahoma City around midnight and reach home by 2 pm. The next day, I would be up by about 5 am so that I could leave for work by 6 am – the same old routine – eat a bagel and coffee in the car to save time so that I could start work bright and early by 6:30 am! The reason I would reach work by 6:30 am is, it would give me a good hour and a half to reflect on the day ahead and this always tended to be the most productive part of the day. Once it was 8 am, it almost seemed that I moved from one meeting to another or some of the members of my group would barge into my office for guidance or clarification.

I often wondered if this so-called musical chairs of moving from one meeting to another that most senior managers do in all corporations is required. There are a lot of times I felt that I was not required in certain meetings, but was invited. I was especially aware of this when I started traveling with the Master and saw how effortlessly He was managing a diverse mission globally from the most intricate detail of decorating a deity at one of our temples to solving problems of a devotee to working with the publications group to healing to managing construction projects at the ashram and the most important work of all, the work of a Master to his disciples. His multi-tasking capabilities are truly mind boggling. He is an epitome of hyper-efficiency, but seeing Him in action, you see all of these aspects are being done effortlessly, in a playful manner with no stress or anxiety. I realized that this is the true state of an enlightened master.

When He talks to close disciples, Swamiji tells us about ‘karma phala tyaga’. He tells us to work intensely in the most efficient manner to generate the fruit of your activity. But then once the fruits of your actions are delivered, it simply needs to be given back to the society. He goes on to tell us not to be so fixated on the goal. He teaches us to live the path with utter intensity and passion, and not to continuously worry about the goal. Set the goal aside and enjoy the path, is His message. This is also after all, Krishna’s teachings to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita.

The Master has beautifully shown us how to live these teachings and this has inspired so many of us to also start to explore this world. Unfortunately for people like me, it has taken longer than others due to the deep (corporate) conditionings. Now I see it is truly liberating to be able to work intensely without any stress about the final result, not to constantly worry about the result. The result of not worrying has actually improved the bottom-line result. This was a difficult concept for me to fully appreciate and grasp. As a senior executive it is quite fulfilling to the ego to be working extremely hard and long hours, constantly thinking and worrying about the next quarter results. You start to believe you are delivering the results just by thinking about it. Instead, I can assure you that if you create an atmosphere based on intensity in a corporation where people are enjoying the journey and living intensely in the present moment, we will see a step change in the organization’s performance. We have seen this in action in the Nithyananda Mission, where, with a few hands and a few huts in the middle of a forest (the ashram is really a forest), this young enlightened master is running a global mission spread over 1,200 centers in 35 countries.

Ma Sachitananda was continuing her calls to various friends and families all over United States. In fact she had a very large extended family in the United States. Often it was quite amazing for me to see that in her family, they kept in touch with their 3ʳᵈ or 4ᵗʰ cousins! With all the enthusiasm and zeal, we opened our rolodex and started calling all the members of the family. Little did we realize that friends and family were the hardest to convince about exploring the spiritual path. Invariably they gave us the standard answer, "This spirituality thing is not for us," or "We are not that old yet to think of meditation," or some who would say, "We do not believe in Swamis." So after making hundreds of phone calls, we came out with a big zero in terms of who we could inspire. In fact there are some of my friends who have taken 5 years to finally come to attend Swamiji's programs! Nowadays, thanks to You Tube on the internet, we are able to give them a link so they can view the discourses in the comfort of their homes!

Ma Sachitananda then got a list of all Hindu Temples in USA and started calling them one by one. The responses she received were a mixed bag. In some cases some people expressed interest to work with us to introduce Swamiji to their community. Sometime individuals got right down to business – if we were to host Swamiji's events in the temple we need 50% of the proceeds from your meditation camps. Invariably when people proceeded on a business relationship path we dropped them, since Swamiji's mission was really based on volunteerism and not any particular business arrangement. After all, whatever funds we generated went towards serving and giving back to the society. In fact right from day one, Swamiji believed in volunteerism. Those that have been touched and transformed by the master put in their time, energy and intelligence to help spread the mission. Even to this day we do not have a paid employee in the mission worldwide.

We had a couple of breakthroughs. In Seattle we were able to reach out to a devotee who worked with a major software company and was also member of the temple board. In New Jersey another family started showing interest in spreading the message and awareness of Swamiji. Then there was Columbus, St Louis and Dallas where we started seeing openings and potential support. In Columbus, Ohio we had a contact through a relative of Priyamayi. In the west coast, in Los Angeles and San Jose, we already had a devotee base.

It is only when I started writing these reminiscences that I looked back at what all happened in the early days of the mission. The seeds of the mission were being sown all over the world by the master. It was quite interesting to see the amount of planning and meticulous attention to detail that had to be done for this tour. When it comes to organization, Swamiji is a stickler for details. He expects nothing short of perfection. At the same time He is the ultimate 80/20 CEO (80/20 is a common word used in organizations. In many situations we find 80% of the work gets done with 20% of the effort. It is the last 20% that tends to take 80% of the time. 80/20 manager therefore means someone who quickly executes with 20% of the effort and does not strive for perfection). The interesting thing is, when it comes to matters such as producing a book or releasing a DVD, He is an 80/20 person, but when it comes to administration or matters relating to the temple, He will be a stickler for details.

I can tell you, Ma Sachitananda worked relentlessly those days, day and night and ensured every small detail was taken care of, from ensuring we had the appropriate microphone/PA system to making sure Swamiji's detailed itinerary from morning till evening everyday was planned for the 100 or so days He was traveling during this first tour. She developed a tour guide and made sure someone cooked a good satvic meal (Satvic food is a style of cooking from Ayurveda. In this cooking, onions, green chilies and garlic are avoided. According to Ayurveda, these substances have a medicinal value, but are not good as a food).

Ma Sachitananda would go into intricate details of what curry to cook, how to cook, what to avoid feeding Swamiji, etc. She also made sure that all the cities had fliers to advertise Swamiji's programs. We developed a Tour Information Guide for the first time, since everyone, including us needed a roadmap of how to receive an enlightened master, how to plan for the various programs, how to publicize, etc. While Swamiji was quite simple in His needs, we wanted to make sure His programs and calendar went off smoothly.

Ma Sachitananda would organize weekly conference calls with all the centers and make sure the various venues were booked, flyers were distributed, appropriate pre-trip announcements were made in local radios, and flyers were mailed through various mailing lists. I personally did not dedicate as much time during this first trip. It was only during weekends and after-work hours I was able to work on the mission. I have attached Swamiji's itineraries during his world tours in 2004 and 2005 in Appendices 2, 3 and 4 to give you a sense of the untiring schedule. This only covers His USA schedule. When He was in India, His schedule was even more hectic since organizers were trying to utilize every minute of His time. While we took a break when we got back to India, the Master's schedule was always 24 x 7 x 365!

Swamiji started the second tour to the United States in January 2004 and it lasted until April

2004. Swamiji started from Bangalore on January 10, 2004. During this tour, He was accompanied by Sri Nithyatma Maneeshananda (then Shailendra Tiwari who was taking care of e-Mails and video taping) and Sri Nithya Sevananda (Public Relations Officer – PRO, and then named Palaniappan. He took care of Swamiji’s itinerary and running the Ananda Galleria mobile store). Swamiji first toured Singapore, Malaysia (Penang and Kuala Lumpur).

During this tour, He delivered discourses and this was followed by a weekend meditation camp on Saturday and Sunday. Swamiji himself conducted the Ananda Spurana Program. Swamiji completed His tour of Singapore and Malaysia and arrived in Los Angeles on January 22, 2004.

I received a message from Sevananda from Malaysia that Swamiji wanted us to meet Him in Los Angeles to discuss mission activities. Since Ma Sachitananda was busy organizing various programs, I promptly boarded a flight on Friday morning from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles. During the first trip Swamiji stayed at the Mayfair Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The hotel was owned by a couple of Indian businessmen who now are Swamiji’s devotees. I caught a taxi from LAX airport and proceeded to the Mayfair Hotel. Swamiji was very happy to see me and wanted to know about all that went on since His last visit.

We unpacked the luggage and started organizing books, malas, discourse CDs, DVDs, kirtans for the Ananda Galleria store. I spent several hours with Swamiji and enjoyed spending time with Him that evening.

Since we did not have any way to record Swamiji’s discourses, I purchased a basic mini DV camcorder unit that did nothing but tape the discourses. We did not have proper equipment or a proper way to capture His voice clearly into the video. So you will see that discourses recorded during this tour were of a lower quality. All of us were amateurs and really did not know the ABC of video capturing and processing to make DVDs.

The following morning, Swamiji visited one of the devotee’s home. The evening discourse was held in one of our early devotees’ home. They had invited several of their friends and family for it. Swamiji spoke on a beautiful topic, ‘From Place to Space’. The deep truths revealed here is the basis of Vaastu Shaastra, the science of creating and designing homes. This science is also the basis for Feng Shui, the Chinese system of home design. In this discourse Swamiji talked about how our thoughts can impact the space we live in. He described to us why our thoughts affect the immediate space around us. The essence of this discourse was later published in one of the Indian newspapers where Swamiji writes a weekly spiritual column.

It is also interesting to note that all of Swamiji’s discourses are never prepared, they are impromptu. It is only when you realize how so much wisdom can emanate from a young, unassuming Swami, you will realize that this is something very special, very spectacular and something beyond logic. You will realize and appreciate that He does not need preparation since all His discourses are expressions of His own personal Experience. I will describe more on this topic a little later.

Here is the summary of what Swamiji spoke in the discourse:

From Place to Space – Paramahamsa Nithyananda, Published in The Economic Times daily in Speaking Tree column

One man was telling me, "Swamiji, I am alright as long as I am outside my house. The moment I enter my house, I start feeling irritated."

Not just this one man; many people tell me the same thing. They say they are alright till the moment they enter their house.

You see, the space inside our house is filled with ether, which is a subtle form of the Existential Energy. Ether is one of the five elements that are earth, water, fire, air and ether. These five elements are all forms of the Existential Energy.

The space inside your body is called chittakasha, the space in which you are living is called ghatakasha and the space of the Universe is called mahakasha. The third that is mahakasha always remains pure. The other two get impure by our thoughts.

So understand: The space in which you are living is not just matter, it is Energy and it becomes impure by your thoughts. Every single thought of yours settles down in the energy level of your house like a cobweb. Once the energy is contaminated with these thoughts, the energy that is in the house radiates these thoughts back on us. Because of this, we feel irritated the moment we enter our house.

If you analyze our thought patterns, you will observe that the same set or the same pattern of thoughts keep getting repeated in our mind. These thoughts are our mental make-up. They are what you call our worries. They are nothing but collective negativity that we keep repeating to ourselves. But this negativity settles in the space of our house; that is the thing. We are totally unaware that this is happening.

Our irritation when we enter our house is nothing but our own thoughts being reflected on us. Instead of understanding the root cause of an unhealthy atmosphere in the house, we call experts in Vaastu Shaastra or read books in Feng Shui and try to restructure our house, or we perform fire rituals to cleanse our homes. All that is alright, but the fundamental science behind the space in our homes has to be understood.

We work so hard in maintaining our homes in a neat and clean fashion. We scrub the floors and walls and keep the best of furniture in our house and what not? We keep the 'place' clean, but what about the 'space'?

The space has to be kept cleansed. By doing regular meditation in our house, we can cleanse the energy that is circulating in it. The energy created during meditation will cleanse the space. Secondly, we should imbibe a clear and positive mental setup and stop airing repeated negative thought patterns in our house.

After Los Angeles, Swamiji visited San Diego, San Jose, Seattle, Oklahoma City, Dallas, New York, New Jersey and Columbus. Thus the divine mission of a young enlightened Master Paramahamsa Nithyananda started in USA. We feel especially blessed that He allowed us to work on this mission during the early days. It is only when I am seeing the itinerary summarized in Appendices 2, 3 and 4, everything is coming back to me. I can now recollect every day in this calendar and I tell you, every day was a special day, every moment was a special moment, that we spent with the Maser. \

Both Ma Sachitananda and us had the fortune of serving Him and accompanying Him on various tours around the world from 2004 to 2007. After this period, as the children were growing up in the Indian Gurukul, Swamiji wanted Ma Sachitananda to focus on the children's education. So starting from May 2007, she has stayed back in the Bidadi ashram.

I began to realize that WHATEVER the master says and does has a much deeper meaning and it is always for our own good, although it is not always obvious at that moment. I began to see that once the disciple was ready to take the jump and ready to undergo the ‘surgery’ (i.e., surgery to remove the ego) a whole new dimension of the master can be experienced.

In each city, Swamiji talked on various life solutions. He spoke on topics from lust, love, sex and life style to deeper truths about enlightenment, aloneness, surrender and the super conscious state. Everyday His schedule was quite hectic. In the mornings several devotees would invite Swamiji to visit their homes and bless their place and family. In those days He had the time to visit devotees’ place. When I speak to devotees, they consider this a true blessing, since, due to the exponential growth of the mission, Swamiji's schedule has become very hectic and He is therefore not able to visit devotees’ homes. After lunch and a few visits, we would return to the host family's home by late afternoon, a few hours before the evening's discourse. If time permitted we would go along with the organizer for sightseeing.

Swamiji barely had time to prepare for any discourse. In the car when one of us was driving to the discourse venue, he would ask Ma Sachitananda or me, “What am I supposed to speak on?” Then we would give Him the title and he would simply say ‘OK’ and close His eyes. Swamiji does not allow me to drive Him because I once slept on the wheel and almost steered off the road when driving Him in Oklahoma! Even now Swamiji makes sure and asks me, “Shiv, are you OK? Not sleepy?!”

I can tell you a couple of more amazing facts about these discourses. After the first tour, a few of us got together in the Bidadi ashram and brainstormed and came up with a list of about 100 titles which formed the basis of the upcoming discourse titles for His 2004 and 2005 world tours. We showed the list to Swamiji and He really did not even look at the list. He said, that’s fine. Then, just before the tour planning started, we would ask Ma Nithya Bhaktikananda to come up with abstracts. She would come up with these abstracts say 2-3 months before the discourse.

Swamiji was quite disinterested in seeing the abstracts. Months later, when we compared the abstract with what Swamiji actually spoke, it would invariably feel as though the abstract was written for the discourse. When we would ask Bhaktika about it, she would say, "I really do not know how the abstract would flow, but I would think of Swamiji and get into a meditative state into my Ananda Gandha chakra and the words would simply come!" This is another one of the many mystical, illogical happenings that one can only experience firsthand to believe.

Swamiji visited Seattle in the Pacific Northwest for the first time and I was not present during this incident. Ma Sachitananda called me one day and narrated another incident which defied logic. In the early days we would all call each other and discuss these experiences with great excitement and enthusiasm. We heard about all the experiences around a living enlightened master that one can read from the reminiscences from disciples of Ramakrishna, Ramana or Yogananda. Now seeing these events and incidents unfold in front of our very eyes was quite exciting. Swamiji would never encourage discussing these aspects and would often say, "If I start doing miracles such as materialization or teleporting, I will have a very big following, but I will be surrounded by idiots! If you want to see magic, you can go to P C Sarkar, the magician, why are you coming to me?" He would often tell us, "The greatest magic is your own personal transformation, the making of a diamond from a stone."

It was the first trip to Seattle. Swamiji, just before landing in Seattle said, "Hmmm...I am somehow feeling the presence of Narada Muni (the Indian Rishi and enlightened master who lived in India thousands of years ago) here..." Two or three days later, Ma Sachitananda along with a couple of devotees took Swamiji to Mt. Ranier near Seattle. Just when they stopped near a highway rest stop, Swamiji quickly got out of the car and walked fast towards a very insignificant area. We suddenly saw that there was a waterfall there and when we turned around and looked, there was a plaque which said the falls was called 'Narada Falls', named after the Indian ascetic Narada! The plaque mentioned that American Indians had seen this ascetic here and hence these falls were named after him.

After Swamiji completed touring the west coast, the tour moved to the central part of the United States. Swamiji conducted programs in Oklahoma, Dallas, Columbus and New York. In Oklahoma we had a large gathering of people and conducted the ASP at a hotel owned by an Indian family.

We now started seeing several people city hopping – they would attend programs in San Jose or Seattle and then follow Swamiji around to other cities! From San Jose we had Ma Nithya Dayananda Mayi (LA Ashramite, Sanyasini and then named Jyothi Sheelum), Ma Nithya Nischalananda (LA Ashramite, Sanyasini and then named Usha Subbarayalu), Ma Nithyananda Prabha (LA Ashramite and then named Sharmila) follow Swamiji around from weekend to weekend! From Seattle there was John Thomson who attended six ASP programs and followed Swamiji around. Swamiji would jokingly tell them, "You guys did not do all the meditations intensely so you have to come back to me and follow me around. At least do it intensely this time!" Actually there was always a group of people who would follow Swamiji around wherever He went, and attend all the programs!

In all the cities, the ASP programs concluded late nights on Sundays. On Monday mornings Swamiji initiated people to become healers through a technique to open the ananda gandha chakra - the point within, where pure blissful awareness permeates matter. The ananda gandha chakra is located where energy and matter meet, where gross matter and atma shakti (energy of the soul) meet. It truly emanates an aroma of happiness or bliss, both within and without. The technique of ananda gandha chakra meditation allows one to perennially experience inner bliss and be in a deep meditative state all the time. In fact the side effect of such a state is healing. This is the basis of Nithya Spiritual Healing.

By initiating healers, Swamiji is now able to reach people far and wide in all corners of the world. Today this service of free healing is provided by healers in 35 countries across the globe. Nithya spiritual healers on an average touch 20,000 people a day offering free healing services. In subsequent trips, Swamiji initiated medical research on Nithya healing system. There have been thousands of people who have benefited from Nithya Spiritual healing and now we are in the process of initiating more scientific research in this arena.

After completing a very successful tour of Oklahoma City, Swamiji and I traveled to St Louis for a day. Here he went specifically to heal a devotee's husband, cancelling one day of the discourses in Dallas. After healing him, Swamiji delivered a discourse that evening at the Hindu Temple in St Louis. He told me later that the person's cancer was advanced and wished He saw him earlier. He passed away a few months later.

We completed the week in Dallas, visited New Jersey for a week and then flew to Columbus. When Swamiji was in Columbus we came to know that our daughter, then 13 years of age, Nithyananda Sree, had attained physical maturity. In India this is celebrated since it symbolizes the transition of a child to a woman, someone who could become a mother. In India, in the small ceremony conducted for this, the child wears a sari, the traditional Indian costume for women, and all the elders of the family come and bless the child. Swamiji wanted to make sure that Sree would not miss out on this very important tradition. However He wanted to surprise Sree. He asked Sree to come along with a group of Oklahoma people who also started making the rounds from weekend to weekend following Swamiji. He said she should come with them to attend her ASP. In the meantime Swamiji went out with Ma Sachitananda and personally picked out her sari and gifts that He purchased Himself for her. They traveled all day and arrived towards the tail end of the discourse on Friday evening. Swamiji blessed Sree and presented her the sari in a simple but very deeply touching ceremony. Receiving such blessings is indeed great. It is only now we can understand the gravity of these blessings. A living enlightened master, is the rarest being and a true living sadguru and receiving blessings from Him is indeed the greatest thing one can hope for.

After Columbus, Swamiji and the crew went on to visit New York City. Discourses were organized in Manhattan. I could not make it to New York, but this was the first time Swamiji visited New York. As soon as he reached Manhattan, Swamiji wanted to visit the site of the world trade center, where three years earlier, on September 11, 2001, thousands perished as a result of a terrorist attack. Swamiji was quite serious and in a contemplative mood as he approached the site. He spent over three hours at the world trade center site in deep meditation. After three hours of silence, Swamiji told the crew that He saw so many souls in deep pain that were not liberated. Since these souls died before their prescribed time, they were caught in deep agony since they still had a desire to possess a physical body, but could not do so. He explained to us that only an enlightened master can help these souls from this agony. He told us that he blessed these souls and relieved them of the pain and suffering.

As the mission was still new and was expanding in all parts of US, we requested Swamiji to come back to US the same year. He agreed to come back in September. After New York programs, the tour ended. It was end of May, and Swamiji returned to India for a few months to attend to mission related activities and to be in Bidadi for Gurupoornima celebrations on July 2, 2004. Ma Sachitananda decided to travel to India with Swamiji. This was her first trip to Bidadi.

Swamiji, during this tour, conducted the first ever Nithyananda Spurana Program (NSP) in San Jose. He then conducted the second NSP in Oklahoma. This program is called LBP Level 2 program today. Swamiji still conducts this program occasionally while Swamis, Swaminis and senior acharyas (teachers) conduct these programs routinely. Nithyananda Spurana Program is a powerful program mainly dealing with samskaras or engraved memories. Swamiji spends a lot of time during the introduction session on how this program was revealed to Him. In this program Swamiji gives us deep clarity on the death process and why it is important to understand samskaras and karma.

In this program he sheds light on both prarabdha and agamya karmas. Prarabdha karma is something we bring down with us when we take birth. They are unfulfilled desires from our past birth which we bring with us when we take the body to live them; agamya karma is something that we acquire freshly in this lifetime through desires which become samskaras as they get deep rooted. In the NSP program Swamiji breaks all the myths about the karma theory. He tells us that karma is really the mental set-up we carry from birth to birth and not the very act that we commit.

Swamiji narrated his personal experience at the Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi. It was here that Swamiji had an intense experience of death shortly before enlightenment. Through this very intimate and personal experience he gives us a sound basis of what exactly happens when we die. He also narrates his contrasting experiences of witnessing the death of two individuals, one that happened before he was enlightened and one that happened after enlightenment.

He found that when he was near the dying person before his enlightenment, the death was extremely painful but the death that happened after he was enlightened, was painless and easy. Swamiji concluded that since he cannot be physically present at all times, the blue print of NSP were revealed to him. The essence of this program is to burn the karmas that we endlessly take from one birth to another. By making us re-live our pains, fears, sorrows, desires, guilt and pleasures and surrender them he takes care of our deep rooted Samskaras. He says re-living these fears and worries is relieving them.

In this program Swamiji gives us utter clarity and truths about the 7 Energy bodies in us. The seven bodies are - Physical, Pranic, Etheric (Subtle), Spiritual, Causal, Cosmic and Nirvanic. All apprehensions and scientific theories on this subject can be opened out in the Master's presence. In this program 7 scientifically laid out meditation techniques, one to cleanse each Energy body, designed by the Master are taught by Him. These techniques bring about great intellectual clarity for living and help us conquer the pain and fear of death, making it a celebration. Another key component of this program is the experience and glimpse of state of thoughtless awareness during one of the meditations. He says one glimpse of this state can embed this vibrant memory into our being. This can serve as the torch as we leave this body. At the end of the day Swamiji told us the essence is to relieve ourselves of these deep samskaras so that we can live this life blissfully. No doubt the program will greatly help when we leave this body, but the essence is to give us clarity to live this life blissfully.

At the end of the NSP program, in the early days Swamiji would give spiritual names to all the participants. This is one of the greatest gifts that a Master can give a disciple. In giving a spiritual name to the disciple, Swamiji looks into the depth of a particular being and gives a name that defines the easiest path that the being can take to attain liberation or enlightenment or moksha. This name is a blessing as well as a blueprint He is giving us to make this path easy, blissful and painless. Having been with the Master for the last four years, the process of giving names is quite fascinating. He told us he classifies individuals into intellectual, emotional and being level people. He then gives a name that defines his or her path. For example Sri Bhaktananda indicates the name for a male (Sri = Male, Ma = female) and Bhaktananda means this individual derives bliss or ananda through a path of Bhakti (devotion). This tradition of giving names existed in Vedic tradition from time immemorial and started with Shiva himself giving spiritual names to disciples.

Swamiji came to Oklahoma after completing the NSP program in San Jose ASP in Seattle. In Oklahoma, the first weekend camp was ASP and the next weekend was NSP. Our current organizer, Bhanu Patel and her husband Champak Patel were kind and provided wonderful arrangements for the ASP program at their hotel, Ramada Inn in Edmond. We were running out of options for the NSP program location being held the following weekend since conference rooms were completely booked in Oklahoma City. Champakbhai, within a matter of days made arrangements for his construction crew to prepare a conference room including dry walling, painting and carpeting this place. He had this place ready for Swamiji's NSP program in a record time of 3 days!

The NSP program was quite intense. The traveling group from San Jose also arrived for the NSP program! They had a strange sense of glow in their faces and talked very excitedly about this program. All of us waited anxiously for this program to start.

Prior to NSP program, I had the same recurring dream for almost 10 days in a row. I saw very intensely that my body was being carried from a location (which I now recognize is near the old kitchen/dining hall). I was dressed in saffron with vibudhi (holy ash) on my forehead. There were four people carrying my body. I saw Swamiji's face, similar features as he looks today, but was older, probably in his late 50's or early 60's, with gray hair. The body was taken to a place that I now recognize as the lake in the ashram. The dream was so vibrant that I could see and feel the hibiscus flowers that were there along the way. The body was taken near the lake and I saw Swamiji light the funeral pyre. This happened not once but for almost ten days prior to the NSP program. When I saw Swamiji I mentioned to him about this dream. He laughed and said "You will understand in the due course of time. For now realize that it is an indication that your old self is dying and after this you will become a new person." The dream was so intense and I could clearly see that the place that came again and again in my dream was the path from the old dining hall in the Bidadi ashram to the pond where the last rites are performed for close devotees and disciples. Even the lilies in the pond were so vibrant and visible to me during these dreams. Swamiji tells us not to get "clutched" to these experiences and tells us that these experiences are like a mile post which may say "30 Km to Bangalore". They only give you an indication and encouragement that we are on the right path.

NSP program was quite spectacular. Both Ma Sachitananda and I started participating in the program, but half way through the program we had to stop since we needed to help out with the meditation music and to take care of logistics. We nevertheless participated in the program wherever we could. It was only two years later in 2006 that Swamiji said we better complete the program. During this program there are several sessions where Swamiji asks participants to write down their fears, worries, guilt and pleasures. He then tells them to live them intensely and relieve themselves from these clutches. We started writing them down in Oklahoma and started making up a pretty good list, but halfway through we had to stop this in order to help out with the program. Later on in 2006 it was quite interesting when Swamiji made Ma Sachitananda and me to attend the NSP program in Bidadi where we had to pen down all of these emotions we literally could not come up with a single point. Believe me this is the honest truth. It is only then it dawned on me how blessed we are that the Master has taken care of all of these samskaras. Being around Him is like being in a fire. He will burn off whatever is not necessary. Again he told us to un-clutch from this feeling itself and live life like a leaf that is beautifully floating in the air, effortlessly moving about and enjoying the present moment.

NSP program in Oklahoma ended with Swamiji giving spiritual names at the energy darshan. Swamiji called Ma Sachitananda and myself and gave us our new names Ma Sachitananda and Sri Sachitananda. He said it means the following: Sat = Truth; Chit = Consciousness and Ananda = Bliss. He gave us blessings and told us to live all dimensions - intellect, emotion and being level and experience something that is beyond all of that. I can now see based on the path He has given me it translates to living Quantum Spirituality, i.e., living intensely in all dimensions. Initially it was a conscious act to juggle all the balls, but now, with his grace and blessings I am finding I am able to live Quantum Spirituality with no effort. I am able to simultaneously live the spiritual and material dimensions. In fact everything I am doing whether it be working on mission related work or living in the outer world, the process has become effortless and a sense of absolute clarity and passion in what I am involved with at that moment has taken over.

The day after NSP was healers initiation. Swamiji allowed Sree and Nithyanandi to come to take blessings. During Ananda Gandha Chakra initiation, Swamiji opens this chakra, by a process that he calls it is similar to gently drilling the channel so that he can connect us to that inexhaustible fountain of spiritual energy (this is the only was he can verbalize such a process. In actuality he is doing a far deeper alchemy process to allow us to connect ourselves to the super conscious energy). After blessing all of us the moment Nithyanandi came in front, his eyes sparkled and he laughed and said, "Her Ananda Gandha just opened up without my doing anything. Just my presence opened her chakra." He blessed her and gave her the healing stick and said "Start Healing dear!" She was seven years old then and became the youngest Nithya Spiritual healer!

After the NSP programs Swamiji continued with the tour. We completed the tour in New Jersey and Swamiji along with the crew and Ma Sachitananda left for Bidadi.

After Swamiji and Ma Sachitananda left for India, I tried to minimize my work related travel since the children and Ma Jesusananda were at home. By this time I wanted to serve Swamiji’s mission on a full time basis. I felt that having this rare opportunity to serve the Master was a gift and a true blessing. In the short period of time, we had experienced the space, the joy, and the vibrancy around a living Enlightened Master. In His presence, doubts would simply vanish, fears would completely evaporate, and the mind would completely still. We had experienced whatever we read about living around masters and something more. Yet, the dilemma of the mind was also getting in the way. While it did not bother me too much, I nevertheless experienced the oscillation in the mind – at time saying let us jump and not think and at other times thinking, how do we pay the bills, how can we pay for children’s needs and their education costs. I would like the readers know that I was clutched about children’s education for 1-2 years after I met Swamiji. Somehow my conditioning about education was very, very deep. I had done well in school from an academic achievement perspective, my father was a brilliant doctor and all of this weighed heavily on me.

On the day of Gurupoornima, I received a call from Ma Sachitananda. She called me and said she was in a hurry to get some sort of permission that Swamiji told she needs to get. She told me that Swamiji was initiating disciples into brahmacharya and vanaprastha sanyasa for the first time. She wanted to take this initiation. However Swamiji said she could not do it without my consent. So she informed me that she wanted to take this initiation and was calling me to get my permission. To be honest, there was no thought or any reservations I had towards this. For all practical purposes we were living the life of sanyas as far as the relationship between married couples went. Without any hesitation I asked her, “Why are you calling me for my permission? If that’s what you want to do, go right ahead”. She said, Swamiji told her in no uncertain terms that he wanted her to get my permission. The conversation was less than a minute long and I really did not think about this conversation after the call.

Later, I heard of so many cases that in a relationship where people are not allowed to follow their path since one of the spouses do not agree to the other getting involved in the mission or taking vanaprastha sanyas initiation. I feel each person should be given their own independence to follow their heart, especially in matters relating to their own spiritual path. We see so much of conflict in most couples. If the wife is falling in tune, the husband tends to shy away from Swamiji and vice versa is true if the husband falls in tune. Somehow after meeting Swamiji I felt that everyone’s relationship with their Master is the most important thing. I knew for sure this relationship with the master came from lifetimes where as the relations in this life are only 30 or 40 years old. To me, no relationship, I mean none whatsoever is more important than my relationship with my Master.

Ma Sachitananda came back to Oklahoma a couple of weeks earlier than Swamiji to commence preparations for the next tour of USA. During Swamiji’s stay in India, devotees from Brazil attended Swamiji’s programs in Chennai. They wanted Swamiji to visit Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo. So a trip to Brazil was also planned. When Ma Sachitananda returned to Oklahoma, she was the talk of the town. People questioned, how could she take sanyas when she had such small children? Anyways we did not really care about these comments since we felt strongly about it. She was quite a different person after she came back. She fell in love with Bidadi and told me, “I want to go to Bidadi and stay there for good”. I asked her, “what about the children?" She said she would like to take them there. I was not really shocked or alarmed, but I would describe my demeanor as being confused and concerned. I asked Ma Sachitananda whether she would like to go ahead if I could not make up my mind and jump, she said she really wanted to be in Bidadi in His presence.

I felt that it is really her decision to be with the master and that I had no right to prevent or stop her from progressing in her path. I told her that I needed to work through my conflicts and dilemmas. I also told her that if my mind continued to play games, she should dump me and move on since I had no right to stop one from living around the master or her spiritual path. I sincerely felt that all of us came down as individuals, alone and we will walk that path of aloneness eventually. I knew that meeting the master is a great blessing, falling in tune with Him is an even greater blessing and being accepted by him as His disciple where He takes personal responsibility over your spiritual growth is the greatest blessing of all. How could I possibly stop her, given her desire to be around Him and to serve Him? I also promised her that if my mind continued to play games, I will still send her money so that she can support herself and the kids. Little did I know when Swmaiji says I will take care; there is no need for all these financial dilemmas.

Luckily, the Master's grace instantly showered on me and within a day or two I decided there is no reason to look back. I thought what was the worst thing that could happen? When I thought of the consequences, they were not large. So luckily I could finally say a big NO to my mind and decided to plunge into this new world of spirituality. Let me state emphatically today, almost four years after I made this decision, none of my so called fears came true. When Swamiji told me, "I will take care", he meant every word of it. He told us to come now to Bidadi since after a couple of years we will be very busy with the mission. Now when I look back and see, it is so true. The first couple of years living in Bidadi and traveling with Swamiji was truly exhilarating. While we worked hard and diligently we never felt it was hard work. It was work and it was fun so the question of hard work did not even come into play. Every day was new and exciting. With Swamiji, one thing you can expect truly is the unexpected. Whether it is in His discourses or in his managing some mundane aspects of the mission, his perspective and solutions are unique, new, fresh and vibrant.

Firstly in his discourses, Swamiji is constantly delivering a fresh perspective and covering new ground. I have seen this happen time and again: just when you think what else is there to shed light on a particular subject, one would invariable see him shed new light on the topic that will completely knock you off the ground.

Secondly, in administrative and organizational matters He is able to effortlessly implement aspects that would have taken years for an organization to develop and embrace. Take for instance how inter-departmental accounting is done. Swamiji with one simple statement institutionalized a complete Activity Based Costing (ABC) and management system. He told various departments in Bidadi the concept that they serve each other and the cost of goods and services needs to be charged among each other so that a market value of the service needs to be charged. He further went on to tell all the brahmacharis who are running the departments that they need to be efficient and profitable, even though the real money exchange did not happen among inter-departmental activities. He reminded us of Karma Phala Tyaga is important, that we need to be utterly efficient in our actions and then after results are delivered, we give back all the fruits of the work to the society.

It is quite fascinating to see the dynamics in play this new cost management system had set in. Each department was looking at their costs and ensuring they did not waste resources. Every department wanted to achieve efficiency. They negotiated with each other to determine and agree upon rates the other department could charge. They demanded service. Looking at all this, any CEO of a global company can see how beautifully a complex system such as activity based cost management system can be implemented so effortlessly. This is a perfect case study for Harvard Business School! These are some small examples of something new and fresh that gets implemented with the flip of a switch in the master’s presence.

Looking back, the so called jump was one of the most exciting journeys one could take. We had the distinct honor to be around and to serve the Master. We leant everyday by looking at how He tacked the most complex of situations with so much ease.

Both the children were growing up in Bidadi ashram. Even though both of us were traveling and away from them most of the time, the support structure and the vibrancy of the environment transformed them. They were not exposed to hours of television nor did they have to face peer pressure of what clothes they should wear, how they should talk or walk. Instead they lived an intense Vedic lifestyle free from fantasies and peer pressure. Nithyananda Sree explored a new dimension and soon found her new love for writing. She now takes Swamiji’s discourses and teachings and compiles books on topics as diverse as Master- Disciple relationship, or thought for the day. As far as Nithyanandi, she is a true free bird. She has literally grown up in the ashram and is what I would call a free spirit. She is 12 years old now and has started taking her school seriously. She, along with her classmates enjoys every aspect of this lifestyle including going to the temple for guru pooja and arthi, just hanging out with other children. When I come back to the United States and meet children of Sree and Nithyanandi’s age, I always thank Swamiji for allowing them an opportunity to grow in a pure, Vedic ambiance and lifestyle. They are now growing up to be strong, confident and fantasy free youngsters. I have seen similar transformation with Chinmayananda, the son of Ma Nithya Dayananda Mayi and Sri Nithya Bhaktananda. Chinmayananda came to the ashram from San Jose a year and half after Sree and Nithyanandi. These children grew up together and now are the best of buddies. Anyone who sees them always can see the sparkle in their eyes and always comment on the tejas they radiate, all because of the grace of the master. These kids are like pioneers in that they have also given confidence for other children to come from other parts of the world to live and grow up in Bidadi ashram and experience this wonderful revival of Vedic lifestyle.

Swamiji came back for a second tour of the US in July 2004. By now I decided to join full-time in the mission. We placed our house on sale and wanted to officially quit my job as soon as the house was sold. It took us about 4 months to sell the house. During this period I would travel from Oklahoma City to various cities where Swamiji was giving discourses every Friday and would return to work on Monday morning. During this second tour only Ma Sachitananda served as the crew member. We sought help from one of our devotees from Oklahoma, who traveled and helped with videotaping discourses. Ma Sachitananda would take care of Swamiji's food and accommodation, e-Mails, organizing daily events, and run Ananda Galleria store. It was essentially a one person army and I know it required her to be intense, aware and efficient all the time. She used this as an opportunity to start recruiting volunteers to help with various chores. Thus we started getting help of devotees from various cities to get involved with the mission. Several of these devotees are now core members of the Nithyananda Mission, serving the mission as organizers and helping spread His message all over the world.

The second trip in 2004 started in New York/New Jersey area. The mission was beginning to gather momentum. Word of this young, dynamic, profound enlightened master started spreading. The first leg of the tour Swamiji visited New York/New Jersey area, Washington, DC, St Louis, Columbus, Dallas, San Jose, Los Angeles and Oklahoma. Swamiji conducted ASP and NSP programs and also conducted one day program called Shakti Spurana that dealt with the three of the gross layers of our beings to mainly focus on physical and mental well being. During this tour there were over 45 discourses delivered on wide ranging topics from general well being, to deep secrets of the mind to the death process. The discourse on the process of death, Mystery of Mysteries, is one of my all-time favorite discourses and was delivered in Columbus. It felt as though Swamiji was slowly upping the ante'. He said he needed mature disciples to deliver the sharp truth right away. Even today he tells us that while he has delivered various breakthrough messages, he has not fully opened up and delivered no frills based discourses widely. As the devotee matures so will the master deliver sharper and sharper messages! I am convinced we have not seen anything yet. I know we have not seen the iceberg, let alone the tip of the iceberg!

After completing this tour a core group of 40 or so devotees started gathering around the Master and started following him wherever he went. In order for the master to continue delivering deeper and deeper truths, he needed to have people who could teach the basic courses so that He could start focusing on advanced programs for the serious seekers. Swamiji would always tell us, “I want to give you guys so much, but you need to do the base work. By holding me to do the initial level programs, you are wasting the time of an enlightened master on planet earth.” So about 40 people wanted to serve as His mission and wanted to be teachers or acharyas for the mission. All of us gathered for an exclusive retreat in Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. This was the first teachers training for the Nithyananda Mission, a historic event by any stretch of the imagination.

Most of the attendees flew into Newark airport and drove to the Poconos. There was a group from Silicon Valley – the techie group which was by far the largest contingent with names that are now very familiar with the mission. Several of these individuals are Swamis, Swaminis, ashramites, ananda samajis or city coordinators who are continuing to help spread Swamiji’s message to all corners of the world. There was Bhaktananda (Gopal Sheelum), Dayamayi (Jyothi Sheelum), Niranjana (Mukundan Subramanian), Nishala (Usha), Ma and Sri prabha (Douglas and Sharmila MacKellor), Ma Gnanapriyananda (Akhila Balaram), Ma Swambhavamayi/Sri Swabhavananda/and Sri Pragnananda (Drs Savithri & Kamlakas Rambhatla, Niren Rambhatla), and the list goes on and on. You must pardon me if I left out someone. And then there were some who attended the teachers training and somehow did not choose to teach due to their own personal reasons. However whatever is their current involvement with the mission, one thing was clear, this was a life changing event for all. Every attendee was blessed to be at the teachers training in Pocono Mountains.

We were approaching the tail end of summer and evenings were getting cool. But day times the weather was spectacular – spotless skies and 70-75 deg F temperature. Our mornings started with a ceremonial suprabhatham, with a makeshift chariot (since we were in USA, we had to improvise and make do with a Toyota car!). Swamiji would sit on the trunk of the car and visit all the cottages where we stayed. He sang and made sure everyone was awake and ready by 6 am. These eight days I do not think anyone slept for more than 2-3 hours. His style of teaching was like no other. We would sing and play, and yet, magically whatever that needed to get done got done in terms of training, presentation and conducting of the LBP Level 1 program.

Ma Sachitananda and I could not participate in the teachers training course since both of us were busy organizing logistics, doing e mails and other activities relating to the mission. I also used this as an opportunity to start processing videos of Swamiji’s discourses he delivered during the tour.

After early morning suprabhatham, all of us gathered in the training hall and Swamiji would spend hours together talking to us, chatting and joking with us. I now know this is a technique He uses to keep the mind occupied while whatever alchemy that goes on in the presence of the master is allowed to go on. After spending hours together we would break out into groups and each group would discuss and brainstorm on approaches to present the intellectual part of the chakra/emotion in a lucid, easy to understand and jovial manner. During this teachers training we did not have any training manuals or tools. Every attendee was given the book "Six Days to Total Transformation" which served as the reference manual for the LBP level 1 program. This book was written from one of the earliest chakra meditation courses Swamiji conducted in Bangalore in 2003 over a six day time period.

The first teachers training served as a means where there were not only teachers that were being trained. Swamiji sowed the seeds for key anchors in the mission. It was here we started to see several people stepping up and seeking Swamiji's blessings and permission to take on the responsibility for spreading His mission. I know at this teachers training Bhaktananda decided to come into the mission on a full time basis, although Swamiji told him to continue with his work for some more time.

Every day after we completed training session in the morning, we broke for lunch. After lunch, training in breakout sessions continued till about 4 pm. Then it was fun and play time. Swamiji in a childlike manner would swing and slide down slides. We would all gather round the Master, sing and dance and feel the joy and bliss. We would sing kirtnas for hours at a time and play games. There were days when we would just sit with the Master for hours at a time, when he would either close his eyes or just be in silence and allow us to experience his space. This was truly nothing but the Master's compassion – to allow all of us, no matter who we were or where we came from to experience His space. There were times he would like to hear our jokes and burst out laughing. Those of you who know the Master that when he laughs you can feel that he is there intensely with the laughter. He would crack jokes himself and when we would say, "Swamiji, this is a dirty joke." He would then say characteristically, "This is just a joke, and what can I do if you make it dirty! It is you who is making this dirty; all I am telling you is a joke!"

Every evening we would proceed to the arthi ceremony at the Jain Temple. Swamiji would thoroughly enjoy the arthi being offered to Mahavir Swami and the thirthankars. He would often speak about Mahavira, sometimes relating to stories from His life and his teachings.

After Arthi we would assemble back in the classroom and would continue with the classes. We would sit hours together in the nights, mostly hearing Swamiji speak about the mission and how he would like us to grow as teachers. First and foremast in his mind was transformation of the teachers. He would say, "If you guys do not transform yourselves how are you going to be able to teach. I want you to experience the truth which you are teaching."

During this teachers training there were a couple of mystical incidents. One of the participants' daughter, a 12 or 13 year old brought along with her camcorder to record highlights from this event. However she forgot to bring her camcorder charger. By the end of the first day the camcorder was completely discharged. All of us were near the swings and slides sitting with the master and enjoying ourselves, singing and dancing. This girl brought the camcorder and complained to Swamiji that she cannot tape any more. Swamiji took the camcorder battery and held it in his hand for a moment and handed it back to her. I know this is hard to believe that the charge shot up from 0% to almost 80%! I am a scientist by education and worked in research during the early years of my career. Every grain inside me would not believe this if it were told to me. But you have to excuse me for this, but I personally saw the battery level at zero and after Swamiji held the camera I personally saw the charge shoot up to 80%. And that is not all, whenever the charge came down, she would bring the camcorder to Swamiji and he would not even touch it, he would waive his hands and the battery would again be charged. This drama went on for a full eight hours when the battery was charged and we ended up shooting the footage on video tape.

Halfway through the teachers training when we were casually having a conversation with Swamiji, Sri Swabhavananda (Dr Kamalakar Rambhatla, a physician based in Los Angeles, an early devotee and Ananda Samaji) asked Swamiji, “Swamiji you should come and visit Swami Vivekananda’s house in Los Angeles”. The discussion then went on to Swami Vivekananda and some of the incidences in his life in USA and experiences of close devotees such as Josephine McLeod. Swamiji then turned to Swabavananda and said casually, “Fool, why do you want me to go there? I was already there much before you!” None of us knew what he meant by this, whether it was a past life incident or whether he meant that He and Swami Vivekananda were one and the same from the perspective of oneness of those living in a super conscious state. He was then ending the session and said casually, “And one among you forty was Josephine McLeod who served Swami Vivekananda” and burst out laughing and left the room!

After dropping this bombshell Swamiji would not elaborate more on this! He went out for a walk at this resort and I accompanied Him. I asked, “Swamiji, are there a lot of us who were connected with you in the past life?” He said, “Shiv, how can such a deep connection happen so quickly? It is not logically possible otherwise”. That’s all he said. In the early days we would all be quite fascinated with experiences, with talks about past life connections. Although He knew who we were, where we came from, Swamiji never encouraged delving into mysteries and mystical things since he told us this is an impediment to spiritual growth. In fact he would always say, “If I show you magic like materialization or teleporting, I will have a big group around me, my business will flourish, but you business (of spiritual growth) will not happen. It is best we keep these things away. Besides if I show all this magic, only idiots will gather around me and eat my head!”

The eight days of the first teachers training passed very magically. Somehow with all the fun and games we got the job done. Most of the participants were ready to become teachers. Swamiji was extremely happy with the group. One of the central themes of the first teachers training was a (dirty) joke made by Sri Nithya Prabha (Doug MaKallor then) called the “Banana Joke” This joke was enacted during the pre-graduation dramas we had prior to the night of the graduation. I cannot write about this joke, but if you happen to see any of the participants from the first teachers training, take them to the side and ask them about the Banana joke! The reason I wanted to bring this up is all of us had a banana hat we used as the graduation gear and I wanted to give you the reason for this gear!

Swamiji handed out certificates to all acharyas and blessed them to spread His mission. When he started the blessing, he got quiet all of a sudden. There was absolute silence. He was here and yet not here. He then showered us with the following blessings. When this brief session was over all of us were spellbound. Words could not describe the moment. It is one of the rarest blessings given by a master and all of us felt so grateful for being there to be able to receive these blessings and to be able to serve our master, Paramahamsa Nithyananda.

The following was the first teachers training blessings from Swamiji:

Swamiji’s 2 minute blessings transcription here

After the teachers training Swamiji went to Brazil where he conducted the ASP (LBP level 1) program. The program was very successful and core group of devotees was forming in Brazil. I was not there during this trip to Brazil but there were interesting incidents that were narrated to me by Sevananda and Ma Sachitananda. When Swamiji landed in Brazil, the immigration officer prostrated at Swamiji’s feet (a traditional form of respect in India when we see an enlightened master). He was quite tearful and said, “Why are you coming so late to our country. You have come in my dreams years before.” There was a similar incident during one of the satsangs at a yoga studio. An an old lady came to him during energy darshan and blessings time, held his hand and told him in broken English, “You have appeared in my dreams 12 years ago. Why have you not come to see us earlier?” She said this and cried profusely. At the time Swamiji went to Brazil he was 27 years old and 12 years before that, he would have been a 15 year old boy in Thiruvannamalai. There is no logic to describe these events, but seeing this firsthand and experiencing the miracles of being around an enlightened master is truly spectacular. Swamiji arrived back from Brazil and landed in Chicago. I flew to Chicago to receive Him at the airport. We stayed for a day at one of my cousin's home in the suburbs of Chicago where Swamiji spent a day and left the following morning to India along with Ma Sachitananda, Sri Atma Maneeshananda and Sri Sevananda.

Just after Ma Sachitananda accompanied Swamiji and the crew members, we found a buyer to purchase our home. Closing was set for the third week in October. We now needed to move – lock, stock and barrel as they would say in America, after living exactly 20 years in America. I also gave appropriate notice at work. My boss, the head of the $1.4 billion per year business unit was quite disappointed that I was leaving and really could not understand. He said, “Siva, why do you want to leave? You are bright and young and you can lead this business and take it to the next level. I do not really understand all this but I wish you did not leave. Anyways, good luck to you”

Ma Sachitananda quickly came back to Oklahoma City and we started packing our items. We ordered a 40 ft container and we found out that was not enough. So we ended up leaving a lot of items behind. It was only then I realized how much excess we live with in America. There was really no need of anything but perhaps 10% of the items we accumulated over the years. And unfortunately, these items are the reason why most of us feel the bondage to our jobs, kind of a slave to our own life style. Today, I can pack up all my things into one suitcase and live and move wherever needed. This is truly a liberating feeling – not attached to any of these possessions. I cannot describe this feeling of liberation. It can only be experienced.

After packing up all the items they were sent in an ocean container. Ma Sachitananda left for India as soon as the container shipment left for India. I stayed back for a few more weeks since I needed to wrap up my work and ensure an orderly transition.

The final day of leaving the US to India was quite an elating experience. While I enjoyed and learnt a lot professionally in the US, I was finally going home. It is where I wanted to be. I landed in Bangalore airport late at night. Since I was almost 1 am in the morning when I landed in Bangalore airport, I took a taxi and headed to the ashram. I reached the ashram around 2 am. The moment I got off the taxi and started going towards our rooms (at that time Ma Sachitananda, the kids and Ma Jesusananda stayed in what we call as the eight room block at the Bidadi ashram), Swamiji came from his quarters to greet me. There was no way he could have hard the taxi come in. He was very happy to see me and said, “The moment the taxi turned into the ashram (which is at least 1 kilometer away), I had felt that you came here so I came to greet you!” I took blessings and pranams from Swamiji. I finally came home!

During the second tour in 2004, Swamiji was approached by a mind/body research group in University of Oklahoma. Several doctors in the James L. Hall Centre for Mind, Body and Spirit wanted to study the various states of mind of an enlightened being during wakeful state, deep meditation state and Samadhi state. Swamiji readily agreed to make himself a subject of this study. He underwent a series of tests including QEEG and PET scan. Researchers injected radio isotope dyes and attached electrodes to Swamiji brain to map his brain patterns under various states. Swamiji spent three full days with the researchers to study the enlightened consciousness using the latest scientific techniques and instrumentation. Some of the findings were quite astounding. Swamiji is quite keen on continuing research on himself and on the Nithya healing system. As of the writing of this book, research programs in pain management, asthma and other ailments are in various phases of planning and testing.

Today, over 26,000 people from 35 countries are touched each day by Nithya healers. There are so many testimonials of healing. However in order to meet the scientific scrutiny from the western medicine, experiments with advanced statistical tools are needed to ensure the effects are real. Swamiji for one wants to boldly pursue the research frontier. We are hoping to aggressively research into Nithya Spiritual healing as well as targeted meditations for specific ailments. Swamiji tells us that 80% of all diseases have a psychosomatic starting point. An enlightened master knows the origin of these psychological problems from the essence of the science of chakras, koshas and also what some may call as mystical dimensions including prabhdha karma which we bring with us when we assume this body. He has agreed to provide detailed understanding and targeted techniques and with the help of hundreds of physician devotees from all over the world, He is hoping to bring to the medical forefront solutions that can eventually be proved through logical system of testing from western medicine.

In addition to research on Swamiji by physicians in Oklahoma several other studies on Swamiji healing patients, his brain wave patterns, skin resistance tests were conducted. The resulting findings were in astonishing. While a lot of these results have been published and presented in mind/body forums, the focus of the research is now shifting in two broad areas – 1. Impact of Nithya Spiritual Healing on various ailments, 2. Impact of targeted meditation techniques by Swamiji such as Nithya Dhyaan on specific ailments such as Asthma, Diabetes, and Obesity.

I myself have been healed from type 2 diabetes and have been free from this disorder for over four years now. I will discuss more about this in the following chapters.

Swamiji returned to USA for the first tour in March 2005. By March 2005, Bhaktananda and Dayamayi joined us on tour as crew members. Initially Bhaktananda was working part time per Swamiji's advice and traveling on weekends to various cities. In the first tour of 2005 Swamiji toured Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, Oklahoma, St Louis, Columbus and New Jersey.

In all cities, Swamiji conducted Nithyananda Spurana program. The crowds coming to these programs have increased substantially since the early days. Also, word of this enlightened master spread to seekers far and wide. The mix of people coming to Swamiji's programs now has become very diverse – people from all walks of life, religions, races had started attending his programs.

During this first tour of the Unites States, Swamiji discourses were a lot more intense. He wanted to make sure the serious seekers are helped. You almost get the feeling that he has upped the ante’ during this tour. He spoke on moving from sub-conscious to super conscious, on Chaos (Discourse title: Chaos is order, order is chaos), Collective Consciousness, Cognitive Shift, etc. Every day when you think what deeper truths can He reveal, you will see invariably that Swamiji ups the ante’! His discourses shed a refreshingly new perspective and dimension on age old truths from Vedic tradition. They are fresh, simple, insightful, profound, but the beauty is the simplicity – you know they are being delivered by someone who has experienced what he is speaking and therefore they can be understood by anyone and everyone.

During weekend programs we now had a couple of new crew members to help out. Bhaktananda would take care of registrations, audio/video equipment, I would take care of video work and emails, Dayamayi would take care of Ananda Galleria where books, DVDs and CDs plus mala and Yantras are made available. Ma Sachitananda would take care of Swamiji's needs in terms of his stay, food, etc. We had a great time during these programs. At every NSP when Swamiji would give spiritual names at the energy darshan we invariably ran into last minute hiccups! We would scramble till the last minute and somehow pull everything together. There would be times when the printer to print people’s spiritual names that Swamiji gave would not work, or there would be problems with the names – we would have named a female with a Sri and a male with a Ma! No matter what we did, we could not avoid last minute scrambling. We now know for certain that it was the master’s lila – he is putting us all intensely in the present moment to awaken the intelligence. Every week as we went from city to city we would tell ourselves, “This week we will get it all right”. Sure enough Swamiji would diffuse this feeling of comfort in a jiffy. When we show him the spiritual names we would give him on a typed paper, he would invariably pick out the one mistake we made. He would say, “This is not the name I have given to this person. Go back and fix the problem” This is almost like finding needle in a haystack and sure enough, the master would find this without even looking at the list. So it was back to the drawing board. Ma Sachitananda and Bhaktananda were in charge of this department and every week scrambling in the last minute was unavoidable!

During these tours Master intensely worked on us. Yet the Master’s medicine for each individual is targeted and different. For some reason no matter what mistake I made, Swamiji would say, “It’s OK Shiv. Correct this next time”. He would do the same with Dayamayi. However when it came to Ma Sachitananda and Sri Bhaktananda the poison pill was different. The master would shout, “You fools, don’t you have any sense?” Let me assure you the process was a lot more intense than what I am writing here. But this is the process of boiling us, the process of sharpening the stone so that it can become a diamond. I have seen over the years that for the 100s of people for whom he has taken responsibility for their spiritual growth (i.e., Disciples), Master’s poison pill is vastly different from person to person. For some it is the kind of scrambling that he puts us through, for some it is plainly ignoring them, for others it may mean silence. I have seen 100’s of techniques he uses, each customized to produce the desired effect of awakening. When you sit back and see the Lila and the dimensions it is truly breathtaking. Sometimes when one is going through the process it may seem difficult. However every disciple going through this process realizes that it is nothing but pure love and compassion that master is showering on the disciple. He has taken on the responsibility of our enlightenment and this is the only reason he has again taken the human form.

In late May, Swamiji was invited to address the annual convention of AAPI – American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin being held in Houston. This is an organization of almost 30,000 physicians of Indian origin that meets annually. In addition to a discourse at the alternate Medicine forum, Swamiji conducted satsang each morning at 6 am for four days continuously. He spoke for the first time on Yoga through a series of breakthrough discourses titled, Yoga for Body, Yoga for Mind, Yoga for Verbalization, and Yoga for Spirit. Each morning Swamji spoke for about an hour and this was followed by 30 minutes of meditation. As the word of this young charismatic Swami spread, there was packed audience. Those who attended his morning programs were spellbound by this Master’s discourses, his sharp clarity and ability speak extempore on any and every topic. A lot of the physicians who are now active in Swamiji’s mission met Swamiji for the first time at AAPI. Also, Nithyananda Mission in Houston had its roots at the AAPI convention. We met Sri Ananda Maharishi (Prakash Morolia) who was teaching a yoga class in the conference room next door. He is now the organizer in Houston and building a large group of Swamiji’s devotees there.

After the AAPI convention we flew to San Jose and then drove 5-6 hours to Krishnalaya, a peaceful retreat center located in Northern California. We rented out this retreat for the second teachers training. The drive was quite scenic. Swamiji drove with Ma Sachitananda, Bhaktananda, and I. During the long picturesque drive, Swamiji talked and joked. At one point when we were talking about people who miss the master, He said, “I am your gate. Do not worry" It was as if he was telling us, relax, do not worry, I will take care of your spiritual growth and enlightenment.

Krishnalaya was a beautiful resort nestled in a remote part of the state near Oregon border. The resort was located on the banks of Eel River. In total we had 50 or so participants for the teachers training. By this time we had a teachers training manual and also insisted on pre-work prior to teachers training. We had a large contingent from Seattle, mostly a group of young Microsoft techies who attended Swamiji’s NSP program in Seattle. Bhaktananda was managing all the training programs and was doing the pre-screening and following up with participants to ensure attendees came prepared for the teachers training. We were doing this to ensure all those attending got done with the training aspects quickly so that they maximize the precious time they had with Swamiji.

Swamiji started the introduction session with a 3 hour talk and told us point blank, in no uncertain terms, to wake up and grow consciously or be ready to be exploited by a whole host of special interests all of whom have a personal interest to keep us in a subdued/ignorant state. After this discourse it was quite clear this teachers training was going to be different right from the word go!

By this teacher training we got ourselves more organized. Teachers were given pre-training work in terms of repetitive reading and internalization of the LBP Level 1 course materials. Swamiji was quite clear that there is as much learning (actually a lot more) that happens in the presence of the Master as it does on the technical aspects of delivery of the chakra discourses. In fact by now, Swamiji wanted all of the pre-work done ahead of the training retreat so that He could spend most of the time with the participants. Swamiji is quite clear that He first cares about the teachers’ own personal growth and transformation. He wants them to experience the truth so that they can transmit their experience to others and inspire them to start their journey of personal transformation. His model is simple, yet profound – raise human consciousness through personal transformation, one individual at a time.

The location of the teachers training in Krishnalaya was spectacular. The cottages were located on the banks of a River Eel and we were surrounded by mountains. Swamiji aptly called the river Eel Ganga. Like in the Ganges, all of us would gather near the river and those who could brave it jumped into the 40 def F water and had a lot of fun. We would complete our breakfast and head to the class. After an hour or two of the teachers training session, we would all gather on the banks of the Eel River where we erected a makeshift tent and sit down with the Master. We would sit for hours together; sometimes it was singing, dancing and kirtans. Sometimes, the Master would deliver teachings, sometimes it is a profound truth, sometime it is intense silence. But I know at every moment He was always working on us at various levels of our being – sometimes on transformation at the physical level, but most times His work is at the subtle level, the “invisible” work of inner alchemy.

Learning

Joking and having a great time!

On the 5ᵗʰ or 6ᵗʰ day of the teachers training, we completed most of the formal training. It was a cold, misty day and we proceeded to our makeshift. It started like every other day, singing kirtans, joking and having a great time! Swamiji also started singing kirtans and we spent a few hours with him. It was about 2 pm in the afternoon. It started raining quite heavily and a lot of us got wet. It was quite cold, probably in the 40’s (degree F). Then all of a sudden, I remember there was a request from one of our devotees (I think it was from Ma Viroopananda, our Columbus devotee) requesting Swamiji to give us a meditation technique. There was a sudden silence; it was as though He had instantly put us in a meditative state. We felt this silence of our mind and all of said later that every one of us felt the same, a feeling of intense silence. We had all lost track of time. I don’t know when this instruction was given, but I think sometime after a few hours all of us closed our eyes. Then Swamiji started talking – he ordered that super conscious energy and said as an enlightened master he is demanding that all the gods come down and shower blessings on this group. He invoked the presence of Devi and Shiva (the feminine and masculine aspects of the universal spiritual energy) and said, “As an enlightened Master I am ordering you to come down and bless this group”. It was quite an amazing moment. Several of us at this stage had some truly amazing experiences.

As soon as the invocation was over, Swamiji instructed us to open our eyes and look upwards. It was the most spectacular sight. All of us could see a circular area right above us where the sky was most beautiful. We saw stars with absolute clarity and brightness. They looked like grapes waiting to be picked. All around us the sky was overcast, but just overhead, there was this circular region where the stars came out with absolute magnificence and brightness. He simply laughed characteristically and said, “Enjoy the moment, the starts have come out to greet you!” He said this and walked away towards his cottage. All of us were spell bond. This was the first time the Master has shown a group of us that the cosmos is at the service of the enlightened master. This was one of the turning points of the US mission.

Words cannot do any justice to the experience. Again I am sorry for those of you who may question and not believe this, but honestly what happened is the truth. All I would ask of those of you who doubt this incident is to be open-minded and talk to any one of the attendees of this teachers training. There were 50 of us who experienced this truly exceptional moment in His mission.

When I look back and reflect, there was not a particular instance I can pin point and say “yes! This is when my understanding has happened.” The beauty of my journey is I know I have transformed, I know nothing shakes me these days, I know I do not go through a low curve in my mental demeanor, I know I am intensely living in the moment with passion, I know I can be an intense observer, I know when I make a mistake I am not hard on myself, instead, these days, I feel, “Ok, I could have handled this situation better and I will next time” and that’s it – there is no pondering or feeling of guilt, just an understanding and that’s it. It is quite a liberating feeling. Yet if there is one point I can pinpoint where there was a step change in my understanding it was at the Living Enlightenment. This was a program where there was surely something mystical, something that He did at the very core of the being. This essentially eliminated the "low energy curve" for me. I will discuss more about living enlightenment towards the end of this book.

But every time I am with him there is a new understanding, a cue from His body language, and a cue from how He handled a particular situation with utmost compassion. I am also sure there is a whole lot of alchemy that goes on "under the hood", i.e., in the subtle dimension. The reason I am sharing this I hope and wish those of you reading this will appreciate what a blessing is is to be in His presence. I hope all of you understand that He is here and now and with open arms giving us the confidence that the path of spirituality can be easy, fun, exciting, transforming. And more over if I can do this so can you. But we need to take the first step and be patient and open to the process. If we take one step, He will take hundred steps to help us on our journey. I know He has bestowed enormous grade on me over the last four years and for this, I am eternally grateful.

The day after this incredible day, we were again with Swamiji sitting near Eel Ganga. Swamiji was joking and all of us were having a good time. He asked us casually, "Should we have an Ashram in US? I think we are ready." He paused and asked, "How many of you would like to come and be a part of the ashram?" He was truly opening up His space and reaching out to the people who wanted to be with Him, to be with God. If I look back, it was nothing but the divine reaching out and asking us, "Come on here and let me show you the path and take you to the space in which I reside always." And yet, like me who struggled when he opened his space to me and asked me to jump in, several people were afraid. There were 12 people among the participants who jumped at this opportunity and wanted to take this journey. )

Swamiji was very happy this group of people wanted to be part of starting the USA mission in earnest. He quickly asked us to prepare for a homa (fire ritual) at the bank of Eel Ganga. We had a wonderful ceremony on a cool chilly afternoon on May 16, 2005. After the homa Swamiji dropped another bombshell – he said, “The LA Ashram will start before October 1, 2005!” It was already mid May and there was a little over 4 months for the ashram to start! The logical mind wanted to reason and question how can Swamiji make these statements so casually? Yet, I realized that when Master utters these words, it is simply bound to happen. So we started this exciting new chapter in our mission, now preparing the move to Los Angeles!

A

group picture of Swamiji with some of the attendees at the second Acharya training in Krishnalaya

I will talk in detail about the LA Ashram and how this came together in the next chapter. After this teachers training, Swamiji left for India for Gurupoornima. Ma Sachitananda and I accompanied Swamiji to India.