Tag: #crystals

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Metaphysical Candy Store

The Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco is famous as the birthplace of the counterculture, and the Summer of Love. Here, you can still catch a whiff of the heady air of the sixties. With its eclectic bunch of music stores, clothing boutiques, gift shops and eateries, the place has a quaint and charming character that is easy to like.

On thriving Haight Street is situated the ‘Love of Ganesha’ store, a large gift shop that blends in perfectly with the rest of the street and its curious crowd. This is a different space, bidding you put the harried and hurried world outside on pause. A catchy chant of ‘Jai Ganesha Sri Ganesha’ plays in the background, infusing the air with an auspicious vibe. The staff seem genuinely nice, and there’s refreshing coolers and snacks on a table. Mascots of the beloved elephant headed deity dot the store, announcing Ganesha’s cheery and welcoming presence.

Owner Noot is from Thailand, and Ganesha is after all, the pan-Asian divine mascot of good beginnings. Growing up as I did in India, Ganesha was always an integral part of the environs, an amusing elephant headed deity one prayed to for good luck. Only over the years did I begin to realize that Ganesha, much like the Ramayana, is also one of India’s great cultural exports, perhaps the first Indian icon to enjoy continental popularity across almost all of Asia.

And with part of Asia always having dwelt culturally in California, it is no surprise that Ganesha has found a home in San Francisco’s Haight Street as well. The store itself feels like a slice of Thamel market, Kathmandu blended with Mylapore’s Mada Street in Chennai, transplanted to California. Lest it sound like a purely subcontinental affair, there’s inventory here from around the world, from Brazil to Mexico, Morocco to Madagascar.

The large front section of the store is also its most sought after, stocking a stunning ensemble of crystals and gemstones possibly unmatched by any other retail store in America. On display are crystals of every imaginable variety, gorgeous and resplendent, leaving you with the feeling of having walked into a crystal museum. Of high grade quality, and in sizes ranging from smallest to that of a mini-cave, the crystals transform the space into a healing, calming sanctuary. The spiritual or therapeutic uses for each crystal are labelled helpfully, and there’s certainly a mineral here for everyone.

The walls towards the middle and rear feature a sizeable and excellent collection of tapestries and rugs. There’s a wide selection of clothing, several of them handmade from different countries. Accessories are of abundant variety, including belly dance scarves, Nepali caps and hats, and spring flowers for the hats. There’s dreamcatchers and windchimes, bells and singing bowls, and beautifully ornate tote bags. Statues and figurines, especially of Buddhas, can be found aplenty.

One of the store’s highlights is a delightful little meditation tent in the back corner, inviting you to take a break, relax and meditate. The altar is decorated lovingly with flowers and candles, and totems of several healing and spiritual traditions from around the world. The ambience is truly cozy and embracing.

The malas and beads collection is notable, featuring wooden mala bracelets, seed malas, and malas of semi-precious stones. There’s a fantastic array of smudges and incense, including some of the very finest incense from across the globe, and a nice stock of essential oils. The book chest, while not extensive, contains some great spiritual reads.

The more I explored, the more I had this feeling of having stepped into a most curious candy store for all things metaphysical. Tintin could well stop here for any last-minute shopping before embarking on his adventures in Tibet. A Harry Potter would find the store intriguing, his Hogwarts school a possible customer for its supplies. Coming to think of it, Ganesha, Lord of the elements, is in many ways a Harry Potter of the sacred realms. He would be completely at home in this trove of spiritual wares, for they are the earthly conduits for his benevolent energies.

More than just a delightful store though, the ‘Love of Ganesha’ is also a mini-institution for the community. Proceeds from its business go to support initiatives in several of the communities from where it sources worldwide. For whoever who might visit, the place surely leaves an imprint of art, aesthetics and spirituality. Every good street has a temple, and ‘Love of Ganesha’ is indeed a unique temple for the spirit of Haight Street to live on.

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Embrace of Love

Nestled in the rolling hills of San Ramon county, California, the MA center is a pleasant and readily accessible haven of spiritual retreat. The landscape might remind one of a quaint little Himalayan ashram, but this lovely sanctuary lies less than an hour away from the heart of Silicon Valley.

Shaped by loving hands, the place certainly seems to be getting prettier every year. I notice new organic gardens and fruit trees. Signs strung with marigold flowers welcome us as we drive up the winding road leading to the main retreat enclosure. The center’s most anticipated event of the summer is about to get underway.

Amma has come to visit.

Several volunteers have worked long hours behind the scenes, preparing for the hundreds of people who have started to trickle in very early this morning. Hosting a retreat on this scale is no easy feat. Scores of parking assistants, kitchen staff, shop volunteers, dining hall helpers, ushers and stewards have all come together in a spirit of seva, or service, ready to help unfold the retreat.

Their inspirer-in-chief, of course, is Mata Amritanandamayi, or Amma as she is popularly known. If the measure of a leader’s impact is reflected in the joie de vivre in her followers, Amma is easily one of the leading spiritual lights of our times. Over the decades, her name has come to be synonymous with her mission of selfless love and service to the world. Her following cuts across boundaries of race, religion and nationality to comprise a truly global spiritual family. Aside from her exemplary charitable initiatives, Amma is also most popularly associated with her unique gesture, the embrace of love she offers everyone who comes seeking darshan, or the blessing of her spiritual presence.

Arriving early, I still had to park a distance away, giving me the chance to enjoy a scenic walk back to the main staging area in the crisp air of the morning. The crowd gathered was numbering in the hundreds already. Friends met and caught up with one another. First time visitors were formed into their own special line, for an early chance to have Amma’s darshan and receive her hug. A jolly mood prevailed, lightening the wait under a bright morning sun.

Shortly, the lines were taken up to where alphanumeric tokens were dispersed for Amma’s darshan, by the entrance of the main retreat hall. We went in to seat ourselves. There was still some time before Amma would come in to address everyone. A documentary showcased the far-reaching impact of ‘Embracing the World’, the umbrella banner for Amma’s several charitable initiatives worldwide.  Several stalls lined the side and back of the hall inviting people to explore their wares. On offer were eco-friendly clothes, blessed jewelry, incense and fragrance, pictures, books and music. More stalls were open outside, including one that displayed a whole lovely range of crystals. Crystals seem to be an integral presence today in almost every spiritual mandala.

A vibrant market of joy got going, but we were soon back to our seats, as Amma presently made her entrance, welcomed with a traditional invocation to the guru or spiritual teacher. The assembly rose in reverence as she walked up to stage, raising folded hands to everyone in namaste. She was soon seated amidst her entourage of swamis (monks), and several kids and adults who were invited to join her on stage, making for a cute family picture.

Amma spoke in Malayalam, with one of the swamis on stage translating for the benefit of the audience. Her theme for today was one of cultivating an essential fragrance as we go about daily life. If our thoughts were selfless and our actions kind and responsible, we would bring a natural fragrance to every situation we encountered, which would also buffer us from untoward circumstances.

A short meditation later, the stage was now rearranged for Amma to commence darshan. Seating in the audience was rearranged as well, to make space in front for a live orchestra, whose talented musicians embarked on a wonderful set of chants, songs and prayers. People queued up on stage according to the sequence of their tokens, as Amma, now occupying her asana or seat, began to hug each person in turn. A light yet palpable sweetness hung in the air. As each person came up, Amma held them for a few moments in an embrace of beautiful sincerity, sharing a personal moment of spiritual togetherness. Many also sensed a spiritual transmission.

The sheer scale of Amma’s profound gesture boggles the mind. Seated untiringly for hours on end, taking no breaks, she is there to ensure each of the thousand, frequently many thousands of visitors receive the embrace they so look forward to. We were witness to spirituality in action, of steadfast intent joined with genuine love, with an intensity rarely found anywhere else.

What might be attracting these multitudes of people from across the world to bask in her presence? Amma is certainly no scholar of a sophisticated philosophy to engage the ego of erudition. Her hug is certainly no mere feel good gesture of emotion. Perhaps it is the joyous mood she exudes as much as her air of reassuring calm. Perhaps it is people getting a glimpse of their own high spiritual destiny which her presence helps mirror for them. Perhaps it is the sense of pure and timeless presence she so naturally embodies.

Among the many people in the darshan line that afternoon was Ash Kalra, member of the California legislature. It happened to be a day of statewide direct primary elections, but he was taking time out along with his deputy to visit and welcome Amma to California. Post darshan, one got to converse with him for a few minutes. Surveying the huge and joyous throng of people, Ash reflected sagely that these were precisely the types of people we needed to come out and vote. We needed the energies of love represented in the ballot, in contrast to the energies of divisiveness and hate. A lady in the audience, who happened to also be a former member of the legislature, joined in the conversation, echoing similar sentiment.

Philosopher Teilhard de Chardin has written eloquently about love. “The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.” Amma, for her devoted following, is an embodiment of the sacred energies of love.

There have of course been other extraordinary spiritual masters from the East who have made no less of an impression upon America. More than a century ago, Swami Vivekananda had captured the American imagination as he paved the way for the arrival of Eastern spirituality on Western shores. The great disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and his spiritual consort Sharada Devi spoke of dynamic will and nerves of steel, delivering a message of leonine strength and fearlessness, which he felt was the positive need of the time. A century and more later, however, the message from Amma, while of very same essence, is clearly in the spirit of Sharada Devi, of the Motherliness of the Divine.

It is almost fifty years as well since the Summer of Love, during which time the West has readied itself for the touch of the Mother. India has produced women of spiritual genius aplenty, but few of them have taken their message beyond its shores. In this Age of Aquarius though, it is Amma who has carried the tradition of the divine feminine to a world thirsty for love. And the crowds were there to catch a glimpse, a touch and a hug from their beloved Mother.

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Crystalline Fugue

I have always been fascinated with the potencies of sound, especially its use in healing therapies. Wind chimes, bell choirs, the sounds of flowing water, mantras and music…all of these, at some level, carry the potential for healing. Working with sound can filter deep into our consciousness, eliciting response from our own inner rhythms of body and mind.

It took little prompting therefore to show up, recently, for an introduction to healing with crystal bowls. The session was announced at Aum Aradhana, in a consecrated hall of beautiful images and sacred art. Vaidyaji Priyanka was hosting the lovely duo of Dixie and Saryon, and their ‘family’ of healing crystal bowls. It promised to be, at minimum, an interesting afternoon.

The first thing that struck me was Dixie and Saryon’s intimate connection with their crystal bowls, of which there were easily two dozen or more. You could sense the bowls being spoken to, with care, love and sensitivity, as the couple went about sounding and tuning them, while the class prepared itself into a state of quiet receptivity, eyes closed for an experience of immersion.

The notes from each bowl would correspond to the sounds of particular chakras, or the seven primary energy centers of the subtle body. As each bowl was sounded, its note, beginning at a lower octave would go on to generate overtones in the higher octaves, and sounded in succession, a concert of crystal bowls was soon in full swing. A pulsating ensemble of purest notes of sound now wafted in and out of auditory center stage, dramatically interwoven with sounds of the Ancients sung by Vaidyaji. As the voices seamlessly spoke to the bowls, the audience heard the spray of the Vedic ocean.

Like a flock of birds alighting now on one branch, then on another, then on a third branch of the legendary wish fulfilling, blessing tree (Kalpa Vriksha), the notes jumped and straddled the scales of the musical octaves. Waves of sound washed over the crystal bowls and the audience in turn, taking on a life of their own. The effect was beyond words. The sounds were doing their work of harmonization on the inner rhythms of each individual’s unique energetic constitution. Some people felt energized and vivified, while others reported a feeling of heightened balance and calm, as internal energies aligned in the different organs of the body that required adjustment and healing.  The musical ensemble then paused briefly, while the class was presently introduced to some interesting suggestions.

Saryon explained that the sounds emanating from these precious bowls frequently served as a bridge of communication with angels. Higher Beings, attuned to these sounds, would send messages of guidance and blessings, riding the waves, which could be intuited if we were receptive enough. Also, we would now complement the sounds of the crystal bowls with our own voices, for greater vibrational potency.

A second session followed, this time with several sonorous voices, led by Dixie’s, singing the mantra of Lord Shiva. As Dixie’s hypnotic chants ascended the scales, like wisps of incense rising in a quiet room, one had the feeling of angels transporting her pure vocals into the stratosphere, merging beyond into pure silence. This was the palpable experience of unstruck sound, or anahat nad, also sometimes referred to as the eighth note, or aathvan sur. The vibrations of the bowls would persist, even if one was no longer able to hear them, continuing their work of healing for a long while after. The Gurukul continued to meditate deep into the profound stillness.

Further sessions followed, where there were chants synchronized with hand gestures (mudras) from the ancient science of Kaya Kalpa, to amplify the effect of the bowls and the vocals. The vocals were poetic Sanskrit invocations to health and all noble and desirable qualities. At other times, Buddhist prayers of refuge were chanted, invoking the blessings of the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.

The class was then let on to a truly intriguing suggestion. We might think we were playing the bowls, but the reality was that the bowls were actually playing us, bringing us their gifts of healing. Interesting as it was, this shift of perspective brought in me a profound relaxation and a deep contemplation of gratitude. There was indeed an entire world of angelic forces that were transmitting through sound, well beyond the realm of intellect.

It is true that all of life is essentially an exchange and interplay of vibrations. Healing happens through vibrational harmony of the inner and the outer, the micro with the macrocosm, the best condition for which is inner purity. It is no wonder then that in all of the world’s ancient healing traditions, crystals have played a significant role. Clarity, purity, transparency, luminosity, magnificence…these are qualities nature has vested in crystals and precious stones, making them beautiful vehicles for the work of transmission and healing. Sound, and especially sound with pure intention, can impact the molecular structure of water, the body’s most abundant element, transmuting it into crystalline purity for a somatic enlightenment.

This tryst with crystal bowls was transformative, opening new vistas for awareness. Certainly, an avenue worthy of further exploration.