Siddhanath Forest Ashram Testimonial Nazila
Since I was initiated to Kriya Yoga and practicing for a while, I wanted to see Gurunath in person. I had several experiences with him although I was in Melbourne and far away from him living in Pune. In April 2015, I had the opportunity to be in the Ashram and see him in person for the first time. When I was in taxi travelling from Mumbai airport to Pune, I kept asking myself that would I have any special experience in the ashram or it may just be a pilgrimage with fun and making new friends?
The first night in the ashram was a normal night for me and because I arrived couple of days in advance of retreat there were not many disciples there. That evening I went to the temple to see the shivalinga and meditate there. I sat there and meditated on shivlinga. All of a sudden a face of an elderly man with short white beard and moustache appeared in shivlinga and changed to the face of famous ancient Scholar. I was shocked of what I saw and looked at couple of other disciples that were meditating there to find from their face if they see what I saw.
At that night I had my dinner and went to bed to sleep but I had to wake up because of severe stomach ache. I am not used to having spices in my food because I am allergic and although they made tasty dinner modified for westerners, my stomach was not happy. The next morning I was having my breakfast and all of a sudden Gurunath joined our small group. He was fun, had a sense of humor and was interested to know where I am from and we had a discussion about my origin country. I was sitting in front of him that all of a sudden the pain came back. With cold sweat on my face and pain in stomach I was thinking to leave the place and get back to my room. Without interrupting his talk or asking anything he just looked at my right hand which I put on my stomach and my pain was gone. I had no problem with eating in ashram till I left the place and really enjoyed having Indian homemade cooking of Gurumata’s recipes. I enjoyed more in ashram when I settled after couple of days. We went to bush walking in forest and I started to notice different bird species living in the forest. My favorite was peacock that you could hear their voice in early morning. Starting the official retreat, Gurunath initiated us to some ancient mediations and it was three day of intensive teaching in the morning and evening.
The last night of my staying in the ashram, most of the disciples had left the ashram. I meditated in the temple and on my way back to my accommodation, I noticed small group of disciples gathered around Gurunath, who was sitting and having friendly talk. I joined them and after a while Gurunath asked us to meditate with him. I couldn’t concentrate at all and opened my eyes to see Gurunath while he was silent and meditating. While looking at him, his face changed to famous Kriya Yoga Master and back to Gurunath’s face. It happened three times and I was shocked looking at his face changing. The next day after lunch I left the ashram and I was wondering for how long I can keep the love, lightness and happiness that Gurunath had granted in my heart. The only thing I can say is that if you go there with open heart and leave questioning mind aside just for a short time, you would see miracles happen and would not be the same person that left your home – Nazila, Melbourne