India is a mystical, magical place.  During my first trip in 2006, I felt as if I was standing at the intersection of time watching the past and present meet... Tuk-tuks sharing the roads with cows, oxen, trucks, camels, elephants, cars, motorbikes carrying a family of four, buses filled with people packed in like sardines, the honking horns, and the endless sea of people...  And somehow it all seems to work - a flow of drivers and walkers weaving in and out of traffic seamlessly, automatically. 

I think of India as the spiritual heart of humanity. Attending to one's spiritual practice is an integral part of daily life for millions. Acknowledgement of the "sacred" is a part of everyday life.  That is the larger context.  

The land at Oneness University is special.  The Oneness Temple is located on 40 acres of pristine forest at the foothills of the Vellikonda range on the eastern coast of South India, 80km north of the city of Chennai. Now called Golden City, Sri Amma Bhagavan located the Oneness Temple there because the land itself has little or no karmic damage. Several powerful, earth gridlines or ley lines converge there.  And, it has a high concentration of enlightened Beings in residence, both incarnate and discarnate.

All of these factors work together to produce tremendous energies.  The Oneness Temple was also constructed using the principles of Vaastu (similar to Feng Shui) and Sacred Geometry.  These sacred design principles incorporated into the Temple's structure allow the progressive increase of higher energies of Grace  vital for the awakening of mankind.

The Oneness Temple is erected over ley lines that enrich the energy field and magnify the experiences each of us has.  The temple is known to be on sacred ground.  However, this sacred ground isn't just at the temple.  It is also apparent on the residential campuses.

REASON #2
I remember walking along the pathway between the dormitories on GC2 campus and the meditation hall  and being overcome with the feeling that I must stop and sit for awhile.  I sat on one of the marble slab benches and as my feet met the ground, I could feel love coming up from the soil and rushing up through my body.  Stopping there for the love from the soil and the grass, even for just a few minutes, became a part of my daily ritual that year.

After that I saw the towns people differently.  Mostly women worked there, day after day, pulling up weeds by hand or with some small crude hand-held tool. I realized that they were sitting on that sacred ground daily, soaking up that love, and their karma had made it possible for them to be caretakers of sacred ground.

I always opt to take care of my own laundry, which means filling a bucket with water and detergent in the shower and washing clothes by hand.  Hanging them to dry in the morning, after the dew has cleared and taking them off the clothesline before nightfall.  One afternoon, while we were in class in the meditation hall, the sky darkened with clouds and a heavy down pour of rainfall.  It had rained a lot that year making it difficult keep clean clothes.  

"Oh God, please don't let my laundry get wet," I said, realizing that it was too late and wet clothes were an inevitability.  Still, at the break, I hurried back to the dorm to check on my clothes.  My Divine said, "you don't trust."  I mumbled something back, like, "well I'm working on that and I need your help."  As I rounded the corner behind the B Block, I saw wet clothes on the line, but my clothes were completely dry.  "Thank you father... Thank you father," I called out as I quickly gathered the clothes and took them to my room.

Then there are the night skies.  The night skies are filled with orbs, angels, and beings delighted to share the energy and the love.  They also are filled with stars that respond when you speak to them. More on this topic next week.  I love the fact that at Oneness University, I get a first hand experience of how this life is really quite malleable. 

My colleagues and family members have asked on several occasions - What is it about India?  Why do you go there every year?  Is the food good?  What about the poverty - isn't that hard to handle?  Do you stay in luxurious accommodations?  How can you stand that heat coming from the mild climate of the San Francisco Bay Area.  

I always smile and tell them that I don't go for the food or the accommodations.  I also tell them that I do have challenges with the heat - for instance, my feet swell and that can be uncomfortable. I choose to stay at the GC2 campus, sharing a dormitory-style room with 8-11 other women.  You can hardly call that luxurious. I also tell them that poverty is relative.  There are many people who don't have the material comforts of the west, but have an abundance of grace and kindness.  Yet, to be honest, it is sometimes difficult to imagine living in the conditions with which some of those who are materially poor have to contend.  It gives me gratitude for what we have here.

REASON #1

I go because my heart propels me.  After I became  a Oneness Blessing Giver in January 2010, every time I heard someone mention that s/he was going to Oneness University in India, a little voice inside my head said "I want to go."  In March that year, Michael Clingerman mentioned at a Sunday night Blessing circle that he was preparing to go to India in two weeks.  There it was again the voice saying - 
"I want to go." So I spoke with him at the end of the evening to find out how one does that.  He sent me to the Oneness University website.  And from 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., I read about the courses and completed the online application, signed up for Skype and sent e-mails to everyone I knew, asking for recommendations.  

12 days later I was at Oneness University for the first time.  

Despite this call of my heart, I also was confronted by my cultural conditioning, so my time there wasn't a smooth ride.  But I had several profound experiences.  I'll share one now and others in the weeks ahead. 

We were being taken through this ancient spiritual process called Agni Sara Kriya, which fires the kundalini energy to burn off charges (residue from trauma) in one's energy field.  The energy was very strong and as I went with the breathing patterns, I found myself becoming aware of a snake making its way from my belly to my throat.  For a moment, I thought it was the kundalini, which moves in a serpent like motion up the spine.  Then I realized it was not coming up my spine but up the front of my body and in my throat.  As you might imagine, this very real feeling of a snake in my body was horrifying.   I didn't know what to make of it; and quite frankly I was to embarrassed to mention it, while others shared their beautiful mystical experiences the next day in class.  

After class the following day, I went to one of the senior guides Kumarji and asked why there was a snake in my belly.  My distrust wanted me to believe that these people were doing something bad to me.  At first Kumarji said he didn't know.  But I demanded an answer - What was that?  Kumarji gently replied, "Maybe you had a trauma with snakes in your childhood."

Moments later, my mind was flooded with the images from when I was four years old.  I was living in Mississippi with my grandparents on their farm.  They had gone to pick cotton and sat me on a tree stomp around the bend instructing me to stay there until they returned.  While I sat on that stomp, a snake began slithering in my direction.  I was so frightened, I jumped down and ran to my grandmother.  When they went back to kill it, the snake was gone. 

Snakes were everywhere on their farm.  In the tall grass, one had to walk through to get to the outhouse. In the chicken coop looking for eggs.  My grandmother was said to be such a markswoman that she could kill a snake without breaking an egg.  Mind you, I am not advocating killing snakes, just sharing the way it was then.

I was so traumatized by these experiences that when I was growing up, if a person mentioned the word snake, or I saw a picture of one in a magazine or book, I would have nightmares about snakes that night. 

During Agni Sara Kriya, that trauma was released from my body in the Oneness Temple.  Thanks to Sri Amma Bhagavan, the Oneness Guides, and the Oneness Temple for creating the right conditions for me to let go of this snake trauma.