Penukonda and Sri Kaleshwar

"A young man will come - at the turn of this millenium - with a special relationship to Mother Divine. He will live by the holy mountain in Penukonda. The Mother, Adishakti Parashakti, will receive his worship and answer his prayers. He will be an incarnation of love who will bring Her energy to the world. He will come to take care of the planet and bring extraordinary knowledge and light. To see him once will be a blessing for a person's whole lifetime. If you have faith in him, you will automatically receive the shakti from him. He will spread the supernatural power channels to every soul who is interested, and will bring Jivamukti to the world."

This prophecy of Sri Kaleshwar's coming to Penukonda and his divine activities to bless the world was written by the sage Vibrahmhendra over 400 years ago in a palm leaf book called The Kalayana. The Kalayana accurately predicted events in India and throughout the world. It is held as a national treasure of India and only parts of it have been released to the public.

From the time of his birth in 1973, in a small village in Andhra Pradesh, Sri Kaleshwar was an unusual child and was often misunderstood by his parents. For the first seven years of his life, he didn't talk and often survived on only a drop of water. He has said that he was absorbing energy from the cosmos. Although his strange behavior worried his parents, saints would come to his home and tell his parents that their child had a great spiritual destiny.

When Kaleshwar was 14 years old, while studying in an abandoned temple, Shirdi Sai Baba, who had left the body in 1918, appeared before Kaleshwar in the physical and transformed a bowl of rotten food into a delicious meal. Kaleshwar had been Shirdi Sai Baba's disciple in many past lives and on that day Shirdi Baba was returning to awaken his student's divine energy channels. Kaleshwar refers to this pivotal day in his life as his "enlightenment day." Afterwards, the miraculous powers that he had developed in his past live's started to return and Kaleshwar began to heal people. His world mission to heal the world began to manifest.

Guided by Shirdi Sai Baba, Kaleshwar discovered in ancient palm leaf sacred texts specific sadhanas (spiritual practices), coming from Mother Divine and the angels, that had been recorded by the great maharishes. Kaleshwar entered into a period of intense research, practicing these powerful sadhanas and consulting with hundreds of saints throughout India. This was done to test the practices that he would later give his students, not to attain enlightenment for himself, as his abilities gained in past lives had already returned. Kaleshwar was testing the "sacred formulas" involving how to use mantras and yantras that the ancient sages had recorded in the palm leaf books in order to validate their effectiveness for his future students. The purpose of these practices is to awaken the infinite capacity of the soul and to open the channels to Mother Divine so that one can bless the world with Divine energy.

Kaleshwar's mission is to revive this ancient knowledge and to create masters with miraculous abilities who can use this miracle energy to heal the world. He feels that, because the world is in such dire need of this divine knowledge, it would be a spiritual crime to keep it secret. He wants everyone to be able to directly experience the Divine and smell the fragrance of God.

Sri Kaleshwar created his ashram in Penukonda, a sacred power spot where the saint-king Krishnadevaraya established his fort and palace. Krishnadevaraya ruled all of south India and at that time was the wealthiest king in the world. He also built the palace and temples at Hampi, which are a national treasure of India. Krishnadevaraya's life was transformed by a brahman priest, named Tenali Ramakrishna, who taught the king how to open his channels to Mother Divine. After this, Krishnadevaraya built 365 temples, including some of the most famous temples in India, like the Temple of Lord Balaji (Vishnu) at Tirupti which is currently visited by eight million people a year.



Today the small town of Penukonda has streets where cows and goats roam free. As you enter the town you pass through the tall stone walls that encircled Krishnadevaraya's fort. In the center of town is the gate that was the entrance to his fort.



Nearby is a statue of Krishnadevaraya on his horse.



Penukonda sits at the foot of a sacred mountain that is a place of natural high divine energy. During Krishnadevaraya's time, thousands of saints and sages gathered there to share wisdom and meditate in huge caves within the mountain. Many attained mahasamadhi there. The mountain emanates very powerful and transforming energies that facilitate spiritual practice.



Throughout the ages, many great saints and sages came to Penukonda. Today, many temples can be seen along the mountain ridges and at the top of the mountain there exists the ruins of a temple to Mother Divine.

Kaleshwar built his ashram directly on top of Krishnadevaraya's fort. The entire ashram is surrounded by holy sites. Penukonda mountain looms above the ashram on the west with all it's ancient temples and caves.



On the north edge of the ashram are the ruins of Krishnadevaraya's palace.



To the east of the ashram rises the tower of the Gopurum, which was the main entrance to Krishnadevaraya's temple.



To the south of the ashram, a steep mountain rises that in ancient times was frequented by very high Divine Souls. On top of the mountain there are ruins of a large Mandir (temple) and it is said that many Divine Souls frequented this mountain.



Sri Kaleshwar has built his ashram according to the priciples of Vaastu, the ancient science of building in harmony with the forces of nature. When he first began his ashram, Kaleshwar lived in a small open-air thatched roof hut that he was allowed to build by the landlord who respected him because of his healing abilities. Soon his reputation began to spread and people began coming from a far to meet him and receive his blessings.

Kaleshwar's mission is to create masters not students. To this end he is working with relatively small numbers of people from around the world, although his miracle powers are so dramatic that he could easily attract millions. He sometimes performs these miracles in small groups, not to attract fame but to increase certain individuals spiritual faith and inspiration. As Jesus said, "Unless they see signs and wonders, they will not believe," and "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these."

Each master has a unique mission. Some have millions of students. Some live high in the Himalayas and have very few, or no students. Kaleshwar, rather than being a master of the masses, is working intensively with smaller groups to create masters, Soul Scientists, who will go out into the world to heal people's souls. Kaleshwar says that nearly everyone in the world suffers from heartbreak. Heartbreak takes many forms. It can be the romantic heartbreak of being disappointed in love. It can be the heartbreak of losing a loved one. It can be the heartbreak of losing one's spiritual teacher or the heartbreak of having practiced spiritual disciplines for 30 years with no or little results. It can even be the heartbreak of living in a world where injustice, poverty, disease and violence result in the daily suffering of billions of people.

Kaleshwar says that the knowledge he's bringing to the world is not his knowledge. It's the spiritual wisdom of soul development recorded by the ancient sages of India and preserved for the world. He is not teaching a religion either. His religion is the religion of love. He says, "Religions are different, languages are different, but the language of the heart is the same. My language is the language of the heart. God has only one organization and that's love. I'm going to that point, only there. The love oranization - the religion of love."

Bowls of Beauty

Every day when we go to the Mandir there is a beautiful arrangement of flowers in the bowl in front of the door to the Mandir. Seeing the mandala each day is a wonderful surprise and one of my favorite moments of the day.

"Earth laughs in flowers."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson



"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us."
- Iris Murdoch



"The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers."
- Basho



"A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books."
- Walt Whitman



"When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other."
- Chinese Proverb

My first job at the ashram

Soon after arriving at the ashram, I was given my first job. I was asked to chase monkeys. Yes, chase monkeys. It instantly occured to me that I now had a new job description to add to my resume. Meditation Teacher, Arabian Horse Photographer, Computer Consultant on Wall Street and now Monkey Chaser. At an ashram, everyone does seva (selfless service) and chasing monkeys is just one of the many forms that seva can take. Actually, chasing monkeys is very important because there are zillions of them. Basically, we are living in their home and they make us pay for it. I was one of a band of four intrepid monkey chasers along with three new German friends. My best weapon of defense againt the wily critters was a water pistol. Monkeys hate water and just aiming the day-glo orange water pistol at them was enough to make they run for high heaven.



The monkeys travel via the tops of the ashram walls, which serve as super highways for them. Sometimes you see twenty or thirty of them traveling together. The father monkeys are the biggest. Some of these alpha males get to be pretty large and they can be tough. The mothers often have their young clinging beneath their stomachs, holding on for dear life.



While the monkeys can be cute, they can also be a nuisance. They have to be chased away from the Dhaba because they'll steal the food right off your plate if you aren't careful. They are fast too. Leave your plate unguarded for a minute and your pancake, chapatti or banana is history. One friend was reading the newspaper one morning with a plate of bananas sitting on the table behind the paper. Suddenly, he dropped the paper and saw a big male monkey right in front of him holding his bananas. The friend was so terified that he flipped over backwards in his chair and the monkey took off with the bunch of bananas.



Once a monkey takes something, you don't ever want to try to take it back. Once something is there's, it's there's. You don't want to mess with a mad monkey.



Sometimes monkeys break into our room. If your apartment door isn't locked or closed tightly, watch out. One day, Tara and I were studying and suddenly I heard Tara shriek. I looked up and saw a tail sticking up over the dresser. At first I thought it was the friendly cat that sometimes comes to visit. Then it reared up on its hind legs and I saw a big male monkey standing just inside our door. The thing about monkeys is that they are very crafty and really brazzen. Our visitor was casing out the apartment, looking to see if there was any food he could grab fast and make a speedy getaway. I picked up a pillow and started yelling but he just stood up as tall as he could, opened his mouth wide and snarled at me. That's their way of saying, "I'm tough so don't mess with me." He was probably trying to buy some time, in hopes there was something he could snatch. All it took was my threatening to throw a pillow and he beat feet fast. Another day of adventures with monkeys.

Exploring the ashram

Tara and I decided to go explore the ashram that would be our home for the next year. First, we headed over to the Dhaba, which means restaurant, to have breakfast. The Dhaba is more than just a restaurant. It's where our meals are served and where we eat under a bamboo thatched roof. It's also where we can buy much needed items like laundry detergent, toiletries and chocolate. Oh yes, chocolate, the staff of life. Arriving at the Dhaba, we enjoyed our first breakfast of pancakes and other delicious Indian breakfast dishes.



Also, outside the Dhaba, flowers can be puchased. Flowers are an important part of daily life in India. They are used by women to decorate their hair and are offered in temples. The fragrance of jasmine and rose is a wonderful way to start the day.



We discovered that the building next to the Dhaba was the first apartment building to be built at the ashram. Another four storey apartment building is under construction now. Nearly eighty percent of the University students are women. Sri Kaleshwar is intent on making masters with miracle healing power and, if the demographics are any indication, the world will soon be blessed with many women masters.



While eating breakfast, we met a few of the other students. Some were going to be at the University for the full year, like us, and some were arriving for the two week Guru Purnima program. Guru Purnima is one of India's most important festivals. It's the Day of the Guru, which is always celebrated on the full moon in July. It's the time of the year when many followers of Indian teachers come to India to be with their guru. We were glad to have arrived at the ashram in time to take part in this very special event. Many of Sri Kaleshwar's long-time students were arriving from around the world.



Most people arrive at the ashram via rented car. It takes about three hours from Bangalore and costs about $50. A new international airport is nearly completed that will be closer to the ashram and a new highway is under construction that will lessen traveling time from three to less than two hours.



After breakfast, we headed off to see more of the ashram. Walking along the side of the gardens, we passed the thatched-roof open-air hut where Sri Kaleshwar first lived. Next to the hut is a beautiful statue of Hanuman and the swing which is Kaleshwar's favorite place to sit. The monkey god Hanuman was the faithful servant of Rama and represents perfect devotion and service. We learned later that Hanuman is Kaleshwar's favorite spiritual character and that Hanuman is very important to the town of Penukonda. There are nine Hanuman temples surrounding Penukonda, guarding it on all sides.



When King Krishnadevaraya built his fort and palace at Penukonda, he placed Hanuman on all sides because Hanuman is a powerful protector. Hunuman still holds a special place in Sri Kaleshwar's ashram and stands next to his favorite seat. Pausing for a moment to pay our respects to Hanuman, we then moved on past Sri Kaleshwar's dhuni (sacred fire), past the Shiva Cave, where in his youth Kaleshwar spent a lot of time meditating, and approached the Mandir (temple) which houses the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple on the ground floor and the Jesus Temple on the second floor.



The Mandir is a beautiful building. You feel an intense sacred energy emanating from it. We had seen photos of the Mandir but this was our first time to experience it. We had heard stories about how when the first westerners came to the ashram, nearly ten years ago, other than the thatched hut, the only other building was the first floor of the Mandir. The whole area was a cobra-infested jungle. Everyone slept on the terrace of the Mandir and shared with Swami the only bathroom that existed. People who were there told us that at night, while they were sleeping, the Indian staff would walk around them banging the floor with sticks to scare away the cobras. The ashram today is a far cry from those primitive days and we haven't seen a cobra since we arrived. As we approached the door of the Mandir, we felt the divine energy that it houses vibrating deep within.



Entering the Mandir, we saw at the other end of the spacious room the larger than life marble statue of Sri Kaleshwar's master, Shirdi Sai Baba. Although Shirdi Baba left the body in 1918, he came to Kaleshwar in the physical when Kaleshwar was a young man and guided his spiritual development thereafter. Kaleshwar refers to the day that Shirdi Baba came to him as his enlightenment day. He attributes the ashram's amazing growth to Shirdi Baba, who was a great miracle master.



In India, as in other countries around the world, statues of Divine Souls are worshipped as living beings. They are bathed and dressed each day and revered as being alive. While this may seem strange to some westerners, in fact, even though these Divine Souls may have left their physical body, they are still alive. Having attained enlightenment, they realized the infinite eternal consciousness and continue to work to assist beings everywhere. At Shirdi Sai Baba's samadhi (tomb), many miracles are still reported due to the potent divine energies that emanate from it. The bones of a master are powerful objects that bless the world.



Shirdi Sai Baba was a great miracle master who expressed a universal spirituality like Sri Kaleshwar. He remained free of sectarian boundaries and lived a simple life. The many miracles surrounding his life were so great that to this day he is revered throughout India and the world. Before he took on the terminal illness of his closest student and intentionally left the body, Shirdi Sai Baba made Eleven Assurances. The third of those assurances is, "I shall be ever active and vigorous even after leaving this earthly body."

First morning at the ashram

After a good night's sleep, I awakened with the words "united in purpose," running through my mind. As I entered the waking state, a soft breeze blew through the window and those words, "united in purpose," repeated over and over. I wondered whether they were left over from a dream that I'd been having and pondered what "united in purpose" meant. I asked myself what my purpose was in being here. Why had I come all the way from America to this ashram in south India? What had led me here? I thought back over my life and reviewed the many twists and turns that it had taken. It seemed like it really was a long and winding road that had led me here. I thought of the many places that I'd lived; Ohio, New York, Iowa, Arizona, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and many more. Faces of people I'd known flashed through my mind; friends, family, lovers, wives. I thought of all the things I'd done; student, house painter, TM teacher, Arabian horse photographer, computer consultant on Wall Street, assistant to spiritual masters. It felt like I'd already lived many lives within the last 58 years and I asked myself what the unifying thread was that united all these experiences. The answer came from deep within me that it had been the spiritual quest. In all these places that I'd lived, and throughout all the experiences that I'd had, my soul had been searching for greater light and wisdom. Something within me longed for the answers to the questions, "Who am I? Why am I here and where am I going? Sometimes I'd made wise choices that had led me closer to the Light and sometimes I'd made foolish choices, taken detours and gotten lost for a while, causing me to suffer the pains of soul sickness. Ultimately though, my soul always succeeded in guiding me back to my path toward the Light and now it has led me here to Penukonda.



I went to the window and looked out at the ashram garden with many students sitting under trees, meditating and studying. A strong feeling of unity rose within me and I knew that all of us were indeed united in purpose. Each of us had his or her own unique story. Each of us had lived lives full of people and places. Each of us had made choices and experienced the consequences of those choices. We'd all experienced great joy and we'd also all experienced disappointment. Whatever our unique karmas were, we now had one thing in common. We all were here now. We all had made the choice to come to Penukonda to study Soul Science under Sri Kaleshwar. Our souls had guided us here to pursue this path of spiritual study so that we could unfold the infinite capacity of our souls, to heal ourselves and learn how to teach others how to heal their own souls. I felt incredibly grateful to Sri Kaleshwar for inviting us to spend one year here in this beautiful ashram to learn the ancient spiritual wisdom that the sages and saints of India had preserved for the benefit of the world.

I remembered something that I'd read in a book that I'd brought with me and searched for it in our suitcaces. Finding it, I thumbed through the pages and found the words of Bolenath:

"If you do not understand the simple matters of life,
Then you live in great ignorance.
Have you ever asked yourself,
"Where have I come from."
Where must I go?
What am I supposed to do here?
What am I supposed to know?
Have you ever tried to understand what love is all about?
Have you ever known what compassion is?
If you have not contemplated and experienced these things,
Then you are living in great ignorance."

I thought of all the spiritual teachers I'd had in this life and felt deeply grateful for everything that they'd given me. I felt each of them still with me, their precious spiritual wisdom alive in my heart, and thanked all of them for their loving kindness.

I remembered how when Tara and I traveled for two years with Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche as his attendants, he demonstated through his daily life perfect dedication and total commitment to assisting all sentient beings. During all the time that we were with Khenpo Choga, which was pretty much 24 hours a day for nearly two years, I never asked him a single Dharma question. I didn't have to. He was the living Dharma. To be with him was to experience the Ways of the Bodhisattva and to learn first-hand how to use every moment to assist others. When he became sick from over-exertion, he wouldn't stop touring and teaching, saying "If I die tomorrow, at least I teach today." We watched him sit teaching with sweat dripping down his face and blood seeping through his robes and were in awe of how deep his commitment was. When finally he was close to death, I prostrated before him with tears streaming down my face and begged him to take a break to rest and recuperate. That was one of the moments of my life that I'll never forget. To serve a true Boddhisattva like Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche was an opprtunity that to this day I don't know how I deserved.

I remembered how, when we were burnt out from exhaustion, Yuan Miao had taken us under her motherly wing and showered us with her unconditional love. She healed us, allowed us to live with her and blessed us with the Divine Mother's love. She showed us a way to assist people through a universal spirituality that knows no boundaries. The first day that I met Yuan Miao, I asked her whether she taught Mahayana or Vajrayana Buddhism. She looked at me with eyes full of infinite love and said, "I teach the essence of Vajrayana but it's the essence of all religions. What I teach is Universal. If you have true compassion, you want to help everyone."

Yuan Miao had always told us that when you experience God, no mater what form you see God as, it's always in the central channel. So, when she sent us out into the world to teach, saying "You have guru karma that you must fulfill, we felt that Kriya yoga, the spiritual science of purifying the central channel, was something we needed to learn. Miraculously, we were quickly guided to Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath. I fondly remember our time with Yogiraj and how he fully expresses the life of the Nath Yogis. He isn't merely a teacher. He's a true Master who shakes and wakes you. His dynanism and irrepressable joy are proof that the ancient tradition and practices of Babaji's Kriya Yoga are alive and flourishing in the modern world.

Now, our souls have guided us to study with the miracle saint and Siddha master Sri Sai Kaleshwar. Our hearts have opened to him as they did with all our previous teachers. I see this as the natural progression of all that we've learned and done before. Sri Kaleshwar's mission is to create masters not students. His religion is the religion of Love. What we've come here to learn is not different from what we've learned before but is rather its fulfillment. All the teachers that we've been so blessed to be with and learn from have contributed a piece of the puzzle of life. To each one we offer our deepest gratitude and undying love. As Khenpo Choga said when we asked for his blessings to study with Yuan Miao, "When you meet another Buddha that you love you don't stop loving the one before."