فصل 25

25

Opening the Heart Chakra

There was no putting the genie back in the bottle. Between the retreats, my books, my classes, and the Temple, we were on the map for people into yoga and the New Age movement. Running retreats for visiting spiritual teachers must have been what we were supposed to be doing because I kept getting requests, one after the other. Before the Temple was even complete, I had accepted responsibility for sponsoring another retreat for a spiritual teacher I had never heard of. As fate would have it, this teacher would end up being an important part of my life for years to come.

Amrit Desai was different from our other Indian visitors. He had lived in America for many years and had a large spiritual community up north. When he arrived at the Temple, I was surprised by how many people he attracted. The first night’s gathering completely filled the Temple. After the program, which was very powerful, I found myself intrigued by Amrit’s energy. I wanted to understand how so much energy could emanate from a person, especially since Amrit never even touched anyone. I then got pretty brazen. I figured he was a guest in our house, and a proper host would make sure that his guest was taken care of. I took a deep breath and walked into the guest room where Amrit had gone. He seemed to be meditating, so I quietly walked over and sat down next to him.

The moment I sat down, it was as though I could feel a semblance of what he was feeling. The energy flow inside me increased significantly, and I felt as though I had been dropped into an ocean of love. It was a deeply spiritual experience. We sat quietly for a while, and then he turned toward me and said, “I never do this anymore.” He placed his right hand over my forehead, and I immediately felt a gentle flow of warm energy passing into my body. The flow was overwhelmingly powerful, and I became completely transfixed by the beauty of the experience. I could feel the energy building up within me and rising toward my heart. It filled my heart fuller and fuller until it burst open. I have never felt so much love in my entire life. I was completely overcome by the flow of energy starting from his hand, coursing through me, and then pouring out of the burst-open heart area. By the time Amrit removed his hand from my forehead, I was so filled with energy that I couldn’t move. When I finally tried to stand up, it felt like a powerful magnetic field was attached to my body. I couldn’t speak, so I didn’t say a word to Amrit as I left the room.

Over the next few hours, the force field of energy surrounding my body was slowly drawn back into my heart. I avoided touching anyone because I noticed that contact seemed to ground the energy. Eventually, the outer field subsided, but not the inner flow. A channel had been opened in my heart, and a warm flow of energy kept passing through it. Just as the powerful meditation in the forest had left a flow of energy always rising to the point between my eyebrows, so the touch of Amrit’s hand left a beautiful flow of energy always passing through my heart. It has been more than thirty-five years now and neither of these energy flows has ever subsided, not even for a moment. Sometimes they are stronger than other times, but they are always there. The simple touch of Amrit’s hand had permanently opened my heart chakra.

As the universe would have it, Amrit’s visit had another lasting influence on our lives. Just as Mataji had brought up the topic of a temple on my property, so Amrit encouraged people to come out to the Temple regularly for daily meditations. He never discussed this with me beforehand, and I just about died when he kept pushing people to do their daily practices at my place. This experiment in surrender was stealing my life. My morning and evening meditation periods were sacrosanct to me. I had no interest in sharing those periods with others. Amrit not only invited others out, he specifically told me that I should support them in their daily practices by meeting with them each morning and evening. Once again, life was not asking me—it was telling me.

I reminded myself that I had tried as hard as I could to break free of myself for years. I had resolved to find another way that did not have my mind as my spiritual adviser. Sharing my meditation time with others was just the next step in the unfolding dance with life. By now I was seeing a pattern. I was continuously being pushed headfirst into a life that centered on serving other people’s spiritual growth instead of my own. I never consciously would have decided to do this. I was not wise enough or selfless enough to make such a decision. It was simply the fact that I had resolved to surrender to life, and this is where life was taking me.

When I was building the Temple, my mind kept telling me that it was a stupid thing to do. Coming out to my place on Sundays was just a fad that would fade away. Soon I would end up with an empty building on my property. I ignored all that negative chatter and just kept building. I reflected back on those thoughts once the Temple was being used every day, morning and evening. Now, I reflect back on them even more with the gift of hindsight. Every single Sunday for over thirty-five years, seventy to eighty people have found their way out to this temple in the middle of the woods. We never advertised and don’t even have signs that show the way. Still people come, every week. Likewise, people have always shown up for my Monday and Thursday night talks, as well as for the rest of our morning and evening programs. It seems as though life knew exactly what it was doing, and as usual, my mind knew nothing.