The first unexpected impression on arrival to India was a feeling of displacement, or rather, shifts in time. Time had changed in all senses: from almost surrealistic time zone shift (not for 2 or 3, but for 2.5 hours from Moscow time) up to sensation of change of an epoch in general. And it is not to say that you moved to a specific century. Here is a cocktail from all times: primitive simplicity, medieval way of life, elements of modern civilization and some incredible power of that bright future. But the main feature of the local time is the nonlinearity of its flow. On the one hand, it is senseless to plan anything here as the spontaneity of what is going on lies beyond any predictions.
On the other hand – time is so condensed, that events of one day could suffice for weeks or months of the usual life. It concerns not only quantities of the occurred meetings, trips, acquaintances and impressions, but more importantly - the power fullness of these events, their significance and magnitude.
There is a long list of those who it was the good luck to communicate with for two weeks of the seminar. First of all, it's Guruji Sri Matsyendranath Maharaj owing to whom all this magic became possible in general. Extraordinary light, soft and profound person, who delivers a true delight to communicate with and his presence alone let you feel the subtle vibrations of space you share with him. Travelling with him across India, listening to his reflections, and even being next to him, you feel some kind of calmly bliss which Apostles should have felt following their Teacher on the Holy Land.
Owing to the huge respect that representatives of different Traditions feel towards Guruji Matsyendranath, we had the fortunate opportunity to receive darshan of his teachers - Sri Mithleshnath Maharaj in Gorakhpur and Sri Devnath Maharaj in his Ashram where we were hospitably accepted as guests within several days.
Sat-sangs with Guruji Devnath have made a lasting impression on all participants of the seminar. It was seemed that issues of our concern we posed to Guruji, did not only find their answers, but as if dissolved and disappeared in clarity and depth of his most unexpected answers.
It is possible to tell about meetings with the legendary Master of Kriya-yoga Rakesh Pandey in the sacred City of Varanasi where the bulk of our seminar have passed, and about conversations with the world famous expert in the field of Kashmir Shivaism and Tantra Mark Dichkovski, who could enchant not only by the reasoning about meditation, but the charming sounds of playing sitar also.
But even the most colourful stories about these and other numerous meetings cannot transmit the powerful energy of direct communication with Masters, nuances of techniques they revealed owing to which the yogi practice became true sadhana. It is impossible to tell about all events of those two weeks in the short note, therefore I will share one more general impression.
On my returning back from India my friends met me with the playful offer to deliver a lecture "Varanasi - a city of contrasts". Reflecting on this topic, I realized that one of amazing feature of India was just the full absence of contrasts in general. Habitual stereotypes of the person of our, let it be relative, civilization crumbled from the first days of staying, like the house of cards.
In India, things that we are accustomed to consider opposite coexist in united time and space surprisingly organically. When, for example, you see the usual humdrum washing in ten meters from the funeral fires on the Coast of Ganges River, you understand that there is no boundary between life and death at all. The young snow-white dressed schoolgirl riding the bicycle with the background of ditches and ruins; Guruji, magically combining extra momentary reasoning about the transcendental things with the skilful use of hand-held camera or mobile phone; the improbable filth and shocking "aromas" of the streets...
...And nevertheless the praying condition of everyone, when for dialogue with God you don't need to go to temples (which are everywhere here) - the meditation is possible in any point of space: in sacred waters of Ganges River, among mountains of garbage or in front of an iron door of the locked container – all is sacred in the divine world. Castis omnia casta..
Here it is the embodied Advaita itself to which the sonmas of practising yoga aspire so much. Do visit India and you will feel that there is no place to seek for – in real life everything is already united, and the life itself is this Universal Unity, i.e. Yoga.
Viveknath
2008 г.