My experience in the birthplace of Adi Guru Shankaracharya

Spiritual transformation and reconnection

Just one week ago, I took a flight down to Kochi to attend a four day dharmic civilisational policy workshop here in the birthplace of Adi Guru Shankaracharya in Ernakulam, Kerala. It was a spontaneous decision, but since I saw the advertisement for this workshop (organised by Brhat, please check their website) - there was a calling. Kind of like ayahuasca, in the way it called deeply from within.

The workshop itself was an enlightening experience and there are several transformations I’m currently integrating. If you follow me, you know I’ve been to so many places. Experienced so many things, but the spiritual growth I’ve experienced here coupled with the astrology and other factors, has been quite deep.

I’ll share a summary of the workshop I attended separately, which was also so life-changing in the way it made me think about approaching issues of hindu civilisational survival and making use of my own potential properly. That is much needed in current times.

However, here I will just share some over-arching points that I am integrating through being in this sacred land which is the birthplace of Adi Guru Shankaracharya.

In case you don’t know who he is, Adi Shankaracharya is known as Jagatguru, or Guru of the entire world. Adi Shankaracharya is the largest propounder of Advaita Vedanta and also established the 4 dhams (and mathas) that a Hindu must visit once in their lifetime. It is in large thanks to Adi Guru Shankaracharya that Vedic Hinduism is still alive today, who saved us from being converted or diluted and kept Hindus attached to their own traditions. He is also considered a manifestation of Shiva.

Spiritual growth I’ve experienced here

1. Now in Sanatan Dharma, we know the universe to be a manifestation of Shiva and Shakti. We worship the divine union, the source of life. And sometimes this union is reflected outside in certain ways. One way I understand this is, we are doing this to realise the union within ourselves. The aim of life is to attain moksha, when the Kundalini Shakti in the base of the spine meets Shiva at the top of the head, there is union, there is Samadhi and total oneness conciseness. Something I’ve experienced through psychedelics in some ways before, yet although the medicines have changed my life in massive ways, the power of the tradition and Sadhana is fundamental and key, as is the grace of Guru.
   
   In this place, I’ve experienced this idea of merging in perceptually tangible ways, almost constantly. It’s hard to describe a lot of these things, which is why integration is so necessary. Like the connection with the plants, like the manifestation of people outside, the sense of union which is the universe is making me realise within myself. This tangible shift in perception is something that will continue when I leave too.
   
   

2. Overall, this place has put me into a state of mindfulness without effort. As it is a university as well, with strict discipline around eating and timing too, it has forced me to simply be with myself in a better way. The energy here is palpable, when I walk, I feel it. When I eat, I am almost in a trance like state here without taking anything (although entheogens are extremely profound in their own right).
   
   In the modern world, we are always running around trying to get things done. Here, the modern world has gone somewhere else altogether. In that sense, it is similar to Kashi, in that I totally forget the outside world exists because there is a deep deep deep connection that everything is here with me now.
   
   Having said that, I do need to get back into the normal world, I can’t drift away forever, haha.
   
   

3. I think deep down we sometimes have this fear of our own power, of being ‘too spiritual.’ Or even this subconscious fear of the power of our deities, but really everything here is love. Here I have been able to connect with my sadhana in a deeper way and almost feel the energy of Adi Guru Shankaracharya, or rather do feel it, coming through and guiding / holding.
   
   So being here has cleared a lot of that subconscious fear of my own spiritual nature. I am not hesitating to get up after the Aarti. I put my mat and sit there, as long as I want. Nothing is going to happen. I can sit there for hours, Bhagwan’s love is infinite and abundant. This place has opened these various portals inside me too.
   
   

4. There is a strong telepathic communication here with everything, you know how some places, everything just flows? Like in Koh Phangan, my favourite crystal island, you think of things and they manifest. Or Kashi too, it’s almost happening beyond your control. There is a sense of surrender which is also love. This too is felt here. Things are flowing here in an organic alignment, just how nature is. The fact there is so much flora and fauna contributes too.
   
   Communication with the animals, with the flowers, with the people too. With the people I love within me also. I feel a tangible heightened sense of telepathy and an expanded state of consciousness simply being in this space.
   
   

5. Seeing as the Chinmaya foundation is also a university for traditional Vedic knowledge too, I am also being pushed by the universe to study about Advaita Vedanta. This is something I have known all along but never studied it properly or in that much detail at all, but this place (and mostly the workshop actually) has inspired me to take my intellectual learning seriously again.
   
   After finishing my college, I was mostly into the path of spiritual exploration which is a continuation of my own journey started in 2011. But I was also an economist, I loved my education. I loved it with my life. But I disconnected and now it’s been 7 years, so this place has reinstalled within me that intellectual learning and higher dimensional experience and learning are both sacred and both are in balance here. Hence there has been a deep integration of my inner masculine and feminine through this process.
   
   

6. I am shedding layers like anything, shedding past experience, shedding thought patterns. Unfolding like the lotus that blooms through the mud and claiming my divine nature in a new manner. It’s a continuous process, yet this experience of shedding is happening naturally here - supported by the divine grace of Adi Guru Shankracharya, Shiva, Parvati, more deities, Mother Nature, and this is actually his mother’s place which means there is a tangible divine mother feeling here.
   
   What may have taken me months to shed, I feel like I am transcending multiple timelines at once in one single sitting of meditation in a heightened state of awareness. This includes issues of self worth, self abandonment, playing small, fear of love, isolation, and various other aspects of my shadow.
   
   Would also like to add that the plants assist me with this work in deep ways, like the spirit of the cacao and blue lotus flower. One day I just sat and sunk my head into the earth in front of the lotus flower and surrendered. These plant spirits are real, and the connection with the natural world has been profound too.
   
   

7. This place has also supported me to come more into self acceptance. It’s okay if I’m not getting my whole to do list done. It’s okay if no one is talking to me. It’s okay if I just do one small task properly, and find satisfaction in that. It’s okay to have emotions. It’s okay to just lay on the bed and do nothing and not be stressed about it. It’s okay to flow and find structure at the same time. It’s okay to sit in the presence of God. It’s okay to open my heart. It’s okay to be myself.
   
   What happens when someone or something triggers more awakening in you, is that the subconscious mind starts to purge things. Now it’s hard to analyse everything and everything should not be analysed but rather also just felt.
   
   But what this means is that my own shadow or dysfunctional patterns are more prominent here and I’m being forced to deal with them alone. And give myself the grace of reconstructing myself, once again, in true Scorpio fashion.

I could write a lot more about this divine place, the place that Sri Adi Guru Shankaracharya was born, the place I found something so profound. The place that I did not expect to keep me yet once again in my usual style, I have decided to stay longer. There is still much further to go. There is so much to learn, do, experience and enjoy. We have a beautiful journey ahead of us. And all in all, I am deeply grateful to Paramatma, to the Divine Mother, for bringing me here, to one more place I can call home, with the grace of ancestors.

If you wish to come to this place for any course or workshop here is their website

Chinmaya Intl Foundation and here is the organisation called Brhat which you can see for their future programs. I will write my experience of the workshop in a separate article.

Love and blessings