The signs to India

The journey to the Holy Shiva Festival in Southern India.

During an amazing energy balancing I received in Zimbabwe from the Male Ascended Masters and then Female Ascended Masters, I realised that I had been absorbing various energies of sacred sites and indigenous peoples, as I had proceeded around the world on my workshop tour. Beginning with taking on the Jewish energy (and perhaps also Muslim/Israeli/Christian) when I was in Israel all over Easter and Passover 1995 going to many holy places such as Jesus’ birthplace at the stable and his Ascension point on the Mount of Olives, Galilee, the holy Sepulchre Church in Old Jerusalem for the Easter Sunday Service, etc. and then the Chinese energy in Hong Kong, Indonesian energy in Bali, aborigine in Australia, Maori in New Zealand and the African in Zimbabwe. Also one of my first encounters as I arrived back in the UK was with a full blooded Red American Indian.

A few months after my receiving those codes, I was at home and turned the TV on. There was a show about India and I found myself interested in watching it. A few days later, a friend, and a day later a stranger, told me about their recent trips to India. My daughter was backpacking through India and Nepal at the time, meditating with Tibetan monks at Daramsala, etc. I hadn't heard from her for months. Suddenly she rang me and mentioned that in 3 weeks she was going to the Holy Shivratri festival. This is held in only 12 towns of India and as she was near the south, she intended to go to the holy town of Gokarna on the ocean, a temple town in Karnataka. It is a Hindu pilgrimage referred to in a number of Hindu historical literature pieces. The main deity is Lord Mahabhaleshwara, a form of the Hindu god Shiva.

Backpacking is travelling on a shoestring, so no luxury.

My daughter and I went to the Holy Shivratri festival in Gokarna in Southern India. We caught, no perhaps ‘fought’ is a better word, our way onto a bus to Gokarna at last, amid hundreds of others fighting to get on as well. We even managed a seat, which was an ultra miracle. The journey was about 6 hours in the Indian heat of 37oC, but it was OK. It cost about 25 pence. Anyone who has been to India, especially at festival time, will understand the stamina needed to actually get on one of the buses with hundreds jostling for seats - and the joy of being packed in a bus sweltering heat with Hindi music blaring - along with the odd goat and chickens. Fortunately, an angel stepped in (an old Indian man) and saved us two seats on the bus. The bus trip was an adventure and I accepted it as such, but I must admit was not looking forward to the return journey!

                                                                                                           Cafe kitchen Gokarna

So, we finally arrived in the packed town which was roped off to all car traffic. Regardless of the large numbers of people, I felt incredibly peaceful and was so very happy to be there. From the moment I entered the Holy Shiva town (there are only 12 in the whole of India) I knew I was in the right place and was in total joy. I immediately noticed a circle of eagles in the distance to the left of the town.

As I entered the gates of the town I began exchanging energy with the Sadhu's - the holy men in orange who had come into the town for the Holy Festival of Shiva’s Birthday. You can imagine the lack of accommodation in such a place with thousands arriving for the festival. People we asked along the road confirmed this. We just walked quietly in trust, passing monks and absorbing the energy of this devotional place. Miraculously, the first place we asked said that although all their rooms were full, we could have two old iron beds from the cellar they would put up in their outdoor restaurant. We grabbed them with thanks. It was actually hilarious sleeping there. As we climbed into our old iron beds with rock hard lumpy thin mattresses out under the stars, to sleep on for the princely sum of 25 rupees (40 pence) a night, we waved goodnight to people still eating.

At this place I asked a French boy where the beach was as it was nearly sunset and I wanted to watch the sun set over the ocean. He told me there was a nice temple up on the hill that had eagles soaring over it (bingo!) and that would be a good place to watch the sunset from. I went down to the beach and saw the temple up on the hill, but knew that was not the right time to go. Staying in trust that I would know the right time to go, we spent the next few days being part of the festival.

I sat with the Indians and the Holy men on the beach and shared this sacred space and time. I was dressed in a white sari, wearing white the entire time there as I k new it would assist the transfer of energies. Perhaps the monks thought I was a Christian nun as they apparently wear white in India as they treated me with great respect. Interestingly, many locals were also impressed with the fact that a western mother and daughter were travelling together which apparently a rarity.

The next morning I walked to the beach again to watch the dawn and had the most amazing time with the Indians and Holy men. I was the only Westerner there and was being acknowledged by them for being a part of their festival and for dressing correctly (arms covered, etc.). Many westerners do not respect this part of their culture. I had a great exchange with the holy men, some of whom I think must have felt the energy of the Masters with me. I was getting lots of Holy Blessings from them. As I stood on the beach, sharing this special beginning to the holy day of the 17th February (Shiva’s birthday) I knew that I should go to the temple that night for the sunset.

      The Sadhu's

The first night we headed to a cafe and noticed an olive skinned, long haired chap in a loin cloth. I was to see him several times in different cafes over the coming days, which was amazing as there are many cafes and thousands of people.

Each morning I awoke early and I headed off to meditate with the monks at dawn on the beach. I sat quietly behind them, all of us facing the rising sun over the sea. They accepted me there. One morning a dog came close to me. Sadly, dogs are not considered worthy creatures and stray dogs barely survive and live in constant fear. It took a while but slowly I convinced him I wasn't going to kick him. I coaxed this skinny cowering dog onto my lap and started gently patting him. He was on guard ready to vanish in a moment but was so appreciating the warmth and love. I had my eyes closed in meditation and was allowing light to flow down through to this beautiful creature. I don't know how long I had my eyes closed but when I opened them the scene surprised me. Every monk on the beach had turned around and instead of facing seaward were now watching fascinated at my stroking a dog. I kept stroking the dog gently and wondered if somehow the monks were learning something by seeing, perhaps for the first time, someone treating a dog with the same reverence as they give cows in India.

The next day it felt right to go to the temple for sunset. A few dozen people sat outside the temple on the ground, facing the sea. A magical experience. My daughter and I sat on the hill to watch the sun go down and the energy was amazing and I just merged with everything. We settled ourselves down. I closed my eyes and began my meditation. As I mentioned earlier, we all carry codes in our subtle bodies and we pass these to people and places. For about 10 minutes I felt codes moving from me out to someplace. As I stood up to leave, I discovered the guy with the loin cloth was sitting right behind me. He was the one meant to receive those codes and they had now been passed to him. We spoke. He said he came up here every night of the Festival, because it was such a special place. I didn’t tell him anything about the exchange, as it didn’t feel right to do so then. We all left the temple area.

  The Temple in Gokarna

However, that evening I ran into him yet again as we watched the holy temple cart procession go past and he and I both went and put our hands briefly into the flames carried through the town and blessed ourselves with the holy fire. Turned out he was English but was very brown like a native as he'd spent years backpacking around India. Then we sat and I told him what had been passed to him. He understood completely and we talked for many hours. He told me that he was about to do the walk of the 7 Holy Temples across India. Not many people do it. I know that one of these temples is at the Source of the Ganges River. Now he knows that he is carrying something else special on his voyage. I never asked his name and I guess we will not meet again until the road is finished, but I thank him with all my heart for being in the place he agreed to be, at the moment that was right.

Another thing my daughter and I did was go into the inner sanctum of the main Shiva temple in the town. Only one day a year, Westerners are allowed into the inner sanctum and may touch the Lingam, the sacred stone under the ground. It is said to be a meteorite and you have to dive your hand down into a hole in the ground to feel it. We did it. Quite an experience, as hundreds of hands are all trying to reach this stone at the same time. Many people travel to these holy towns for this festival and queue for hours and hours. First they have to get blessed in the Ganesh temple, so they are pure enough to be allowed to touch the stone in the main temple. Then they queue again for entry to the main Shiva Temple. I chose the right time to go and we only queued for 10 minutes or so.

As we left the town on the Sunday to head for the bus that would take us back to Arambol in Goa, where we were staying, a guy approached us. He asked if we wanted to go to Anjuna in Goa (a few miles only from our destination) as he had a Taxi and would only charge us 400 rupees. This is less than ST£8.00. What a miracle. Apparently he had driven some Japanese people down the night before - at full price rate. He had arrived in the town at 2am and had gone to sleep, hoping that in the morning he could find someone who would add a little more to his money. He lived in Anjuna and had to go home anyway. This was wonderful and we had a very comfortable air conditioned taxi ride home. This only took 4 hours back and he ended up taking us right to the ferry at Shorelim - leaving us only a very short journey home.

Some of the learning for me being in India for me was to help move me out of a comfort zone, I hadn’t realised I was in a comfort zone or had given much thought to. In Goa I was staying in a bare room with an iron bed with a very thin hard mattress consisting of hard lumps of kapok, complete with bed bugs, cockroaches, mosquitoes, etc. Lots of open sewage and livestock everywhere. No shower anyplace and a communal pig toilet out in the compound. I won’t go into a great description here, but there is a wooden shed with a raised cement slab above ground level. It has a hole and a short chute in it. There are pigs underneath and they eat everything as it drops. You can hear them (and see them if you look). They are free to come and go. When they see anyone walk to the toilet, they run to it.

I think i this is quite a remarkable cases of synchronicity.

I was in Goa in southern India and had been backpacking through India. I’d been in the village for just 2 days and was staying one more. I would have an early swim (my shower!) and then go to the village Well and draw up some drinking water and hair washing water in a goatskin bag hanging there. Also used this water to scrub clothes on stones.

The beach was usually deserted but this day there was a cow (it’s God, you know!) and a white girl sitting on the sand reading a book. I went over and said hello – to the girl, not the cow! We started chatting. She was from the USA and said she was on her way to England. I told her I lived in England. She mentioned spiritual interests and I said I was into that too. We chatted for a while and she mentioned she was going to England to see a particular person to get some help with the mathematics of some light essence products she’d produced. I mentioned I knew a bit about mathematical values and maybe I could help? She said ‘Thanks anyway, but I know I need to see this person’. She said she had their address but hadn’t been in touch yet - and would probably just arrive on their doorstep. I asked her if she recalled where they lived. She fished out her address book and I looked the address. Yep. She was coming to the UK to see me. She had some products she considered extremely important to get precisely right, and was bringing them to the UK to get the mathematical percentage of workability of each one – and see what/if anything - needed changing. She had the products in her room in the village. We went there and did the work. She said she’d now return to the USA, as she didn’t need to go to the UK anymore. Don’t you love this universe!

The other thing I realised was I had a resistance to going to India. I had been aware of this for a long time. In fact I’d had it ever since I went to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) back in the 60’s and received my first culture shock. I felt I never wanted to go to India again. The surprising thing was that I knew I had this resistance, but had never bothered to handle it and just let it go on. Amazing really! While I was in India, I totally let go all resistance to that country, to the extent that I would be quite happy to go back anytime. I also quickly checked to see if there was any other country I had any resistance to. I saw one other country, a belief I adopted when visiting there in the 60’s. So, I let that one go too. These resistances were never to the people of these places, for I have no problem with loving all nationalities. It was just some considerations about the country and way of life.

So all in all, India was an experience for me, a great learning and I am grateful for having been entrusted with these codes I took there. These mathematical codes collected from person to person and from sacred sites around the world, were continuing their ever expanding journey, now destined for the holy places across India. From there, they would in turn no doubt, be passed to others, moving gently across the world spreading truth, love, harmony and balance as they raised the light vibration of each location.

Sandy Stevenson

1995