A weekend in Skanda Vale and Mohanji’s presence without presence

By Arun Vathavooran, UK

I feel a deep connection with Skanda Vale (a spiritual centre and monastery located in Wales) and Mohanji. I don’t see many differences between them and see both as my right and left eyes, or my mother and father. I have been a regular devotee/pilgrim of Skanda Vale for the past 18 years and have had the blessed opportunity to see Guru Subramanium while he was in his body. 

I met Mohanji for the first time (in this life) in 2015 in Skanda Vale but realised my connection with him in 2016 when I had the blessed opportunity to participate in the Kailash yatra with Mohanji. In those early days, I had a burning question in my mind, “Am I running from one Master to another?” I had an intuitive feeling that both were definitely connected and that I was not running away from one to the other. As days went by, I slowly realised my deep connection with Mohanji as well, and the question disappeared from the conscious mind. Initiations came one after the other. I was busy with my sadhana and serving the world. I also continued to frequent Skanda Vale regularly as usual with my family. 

On one occasion, Mohanji had mentioned to me in a conversation, “Skanda Vale is your home”. I had asked him for more clarity, and he explained that my primary connection with the source (Lord and Guru Mandala) is through Skanda Vale. He said that is the case for me, and it will remain that way. I was happy that Mohanji had confirmed my deep connection to Skanda Vale. 

The Skanda Vale ashram has temples for Lord Murugan, the Divine Mother and Lord Vishnu. My connection to Skanda Vale originally started as a devotee of Lord Murugan, but slowly I realised my connection with the Divine Mother as well. However, I wasn’t that connected to Lord Sri Ranganatha (Lord Vishnu) at the start. This is possible because I come from a very orthodox Saivite background and had always worshipped Lord Shiva, the Divine Mother, Lord Ganesh and my beloved Lord Murugan. I remember going to a Maha Vishnu temple time to time as a kid, but the worship of Lord Vishnu was never a part of our daily life. 

However, since my connection to Mohanji, many concepts in my mind have started to fall apart one by one, and I have begun to connect to Lord Sri Ranganatha as well. Further, I started enjoying doing meditation in the beautiful Ranganatha temple as well. It has become a favourite place for mediation and Kriya when I stay at Skanda Vale. This beautiful temple has become the commonplace that I visualise when Mohanji says “Visualise a calm and serene place” in meditations. 

Mohanji visited Skanda Vale in 2018 and presided over the prana prathishta (ritualistic installation of idols) ceremony of Lord Dattatreya and Nagaraja (Cobra). Needless to say, doing Kriya in front of Lord Datta has become one of my favourite activities while at Skanda Vale since the installation. I have also started to connect to Nagaraja and worship this deity for two reasons.

The first reason is that Mohanji installed it, so I looked at Nagaraja as Mohanji. The second reason being, I have understood from the feedback from a Mai-Tri session that a Naga Devata is always protecting my family and me as a guardian. Whenever I go to Skanda Vale, I go and offer fruit to Nagaraja and use it as an opportunity to express my gratitude to the Naga Devatas.

I have come to understand that the Nagaraja in Skanda Vale has various significance. Worshipped as a deity, the Swamis chant the Naga Gayatri during the puja. His presence gives protection, preventing any negativity from entering the area.

Om Sarparajaya Vidmahe

Padma Hastaya Dhimahi

Tanno Vasuki Prachodayat 

The founder of Skanda Vale, Guru Subramanium, had received the authority from Lord Murugan to establish Sanathana Dharma in the west. He received this authority from a temple in the Sri Lankan town of Badulla where the snakes guard the sanctum of the temple. Guru Subramanium describes his experience in his autobiography entitled “Living with God” as follows (vol 2, chapter 8, pp110), 

“As I sat there, I asked the Lord (Murugan) whether he would come and be with me. He appeared and simply said that he would. He then appeared again, but this time accompanied by a three-headed cobra, and the cobra began asking me questions.” – Guru Subramanium

The way I understood this was that the three-headed cobra which accompanied Lord Murugan in Guru Subramanium’s experience was an integral part of Lord Murugan, and the Nagaraja idol in Skanda Vale represents this aspect of the Lord. However, I always worshipped Nagaraja as a combination of the Naga Devata and my beloved Guru Mohanji.

Recently, I have had a beautiful experience that somehow became the revelation to the question I had mentioned at the beginning of the blog, which was deeply buried in my subconscious mind. I went to Skanda Vale with my family and had messaged Mohanji about my trip. He replied immediately saying “Go ahead, please give my love to all there, I shall be there too, spend enough time with Datta. You will feel me there. Blessings.”

On the first day, I got up early in the morning as usual to practice Kriya. I had a shower and went to the shrine of Lord Datta at exactly 4:30 AM. As I walked towards the Datta shrine, I had to pass Nagaraja to enter the temple where the Datta shrine is located. As usual, I stopped in front of Nagaraja with the intention of saying a quick prayer of gratitude. As I stopped, even before I closed my eyes, I felt a jerk in my lower back and felt a sharp movement from the root of my spine to the upper back. I instantly recognised that this is Mother Kundalini playing and closed my eyes to say my prayer. As I closed my eyes, I felt that Mohanji was saying inside me, “If your Kundalini responds spontaneously, you should pay close attention to the place”. I stayed there for a few minutes worshipping and expressing my gratitude to my beloved Guru and the Naga Devatas and walked into the temple to practise Kriya.

My Mohanji Acharya sister Moushumi also joined me, and we practised Kriya there in front of Lord Datta. Shortly after starting Kriya, I clearly heard someone open the door of the temple and walking towards me, but I didn’t want to open my eyes during Kriya, so I ignored the sound of the steps that came close. It was an amazing Kriya experience with a lot of energy. At the end of the Kriya, Moushumi asked me, “Did you hear the sound of the door opening and a person walking nearby?” I agreed. She further said she had opened her eyes to check, but to her surprise, no one was there. Mohanji’s promise the previous day came to my mind immediately, “I shall be there too; you will feel me there.” Mohanji always fulfils his promises. 

I then went to the puja in the Murugan and Shakti temples with this beautiful energy and feeling the presence of Mohanji with me, followed by my breakfast.

At 9:30 AM, I went to the Sri Ranganatha temple for the puja with my family. This puja includes a prayer for Nagaraja as well. When we assembled in front of Nagaraja, Swami started the puja. I noticed that he recited a mantra for Mahavatar Babaji during the Nagaraja puja and paid more attention.

Om Skanda Avatharaya Vidmahe

Shiva Tatvaya Dhimahi

Tanno Babaji Prachodayat 

Listening to this beautiful prayer brought goosebumps, and I felt that the answer to my long-standing question about the connection between Skanda Vale and Mohanji had been revealed to me. (Mohanji’s deep connection to Babaji can be read in the following blogs). 

Mohanji’s words about Babaji flashed in my mind immediately, “Boganathar was well aware who his disciple was when Babaji approached him in Kadirgamam as a little boy. Later, Boganathar used his disciple (Babaji) as a model for making the Navapashana vigraham (idol) of Lord Murugan in Palani, a temple in South India. It was indeed Lord Murugan who took an avatar as Mahavatar Babaji.” The circle closed within my mind with this revelation, but Mohanji wanted to make it unequivocally clear in my mind, so he had arranged other events. 

On completion of the puja, we as a family received blessings from the Lord, had prasad (sacred offerings from puja) and walked to the children’s play area so that my kids could play. On my way, I bumped into one of the monks at Skanda Vale. I immediately told him that I had felt Babaji’s presence at the Nagaraja shrine. He responded instantly saying, “I think you are right, the way I understood this is that Babaji is a very powerful Master beyond forms, but he can take any form to reach out to us. He took the form of the three-headed Nag when the Lord gave authority to Guruji to establish Skanda Vale.” This was a reconfirmation for me of what I felt. I understood from these words that the integral part of Lord Murugan that accompanied the Lord in Badulla when he gave the authority to Guru Subramanium was indeed Mahavatar Babaji himself. 

Mohanji had arranged further confirmation as well. We then went to the Maha Abishekam and puja to Lord Shanmuga in the Murugan temple and had lunch at the temple as usual. I happened to speak to one of the senior Swamis of Skanda Vale at lunch. After discussing various topics briefly, our conversation went to Babaji. I shared that I had felt Babaji’s presence in the Nagaraja shrine. He simply responded, “Babaji and Lord Murugan are not different; they are essentially the same”. This was the final confirmation to the question that was deeply buried in my subconscious mind; the connection between Skandavale and Mohanji. 

Mahavatar Babaji is an incarnation of Lord Murugan. Babaji was also present (in the form of the three-headed cobra) while the Lord gave Guru Subramanium the authority to establish Skanda Vale. Mohanji is deeply connected to Babaji. My love and devotion to Lord Murugan and then to Mohanji when I met him is a perfectly normal progression in my spiritual journey. I felt immense gratitude to Mohanji for clarifying every aspect of my question, as soon as I became eligible to understand his revelations. 

Pranams at your holy feet, my beloved Guru Mohanji. 

Moushumi Patankar, UK

I went to Skanda Vale recently. I knew that Arun and his family would also arrive the following day. When he arrived, the first thing he told me was that the next morning (on Saturday) he was going to do Kriya in front of Lord Datta and invited me to join him. Well, that’s always my favourite place to do Kriya. I told him, “Yes”, but couldn’t do Kriya on Saturday at that time. Till the afternoon, I was super busy with some work or the other. By 3:30 PM, I finished my work, freshened up, and started Kriya around 3:50 PM at my favourite spot. During the Kriya, I heard the door of the Vishnu Temple banging very loudly, but I didn’t open my eyes. I continued with my Kriya and soon forgot about this door banging incident. Later that night, I got a WhatsApp message from someone, “Do Kriya in front of Datta with Arun.” I knew that I had missed doing Kriya with Arun that morning, and somehow Mohanji was telling me through someone about this. Well, we decided to do the Kriya early the next (Sunday) morning.

Early (Sunday) morning, we started free flow Kriya (without an alarm). It was pitch dark, no light, nothing. Just Datta in front of us (that’s what I thought)! As soon as we started Kriya, I again heard the sound of the door opening and closing, then the sound of footsteps. I was a little scared and told myself; perhaps it’s the wind (I remember closing the door tightly). I heard footsteps behind me, and I opened my eyes. I was looking at Datta and felt soothing energy and a voice saying, “Who else will be here?” I closed my eyes and started Kriya, and in a few seconds, the sound of the footsteps vanished. At one specific time, I heard a small bird tweeting, and that was the exact time to move on to the next step of the Kriya. After some time, I heard the sound of fish swimming, jumping in the water (there is a small pond with fish in it), and again, it was exactly the time for the next step in the Kriya. It was beautiful how nature was also assisting us in our spiritual practice.

When Kriya finished, I asked Arun about the footsteps, the sounds of the bird and the fish. He had the same experience too. While talking he mentioned that he did Kriya with me on Saturday afternoon as well and experienced the same incident of the door banging loudly. We both did Kriya at the same time, at the same place, and had the same experience!

Later that day, I was talking to someone from Skanda Vale, and I mentioned this experience. I already knew the answer, and this person confirmed my thoughts, “Who else? It’s Mohanji! He is always here, every moment!”

May Skanda Vale, Datta, and Mohanji always be with me!

|| JAI BRAHMARISHI MOHANJI||

Edited & Published by – Testimonials Team, 17^th September 2020

Disclaimer:

The views, opinions, and positions expressed by the authors and those providing comments on these blogs are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions or positions of Mohanji, Mohanji Foundation, it’s members, employees or any other individual or entity associated with Mohanji or Mohanji Foundation. We make no representations as to accuracy, completeness, timeliness, suitability or validity of any information presented by individual authors and/or commenters on our blogs and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries or damages arising from its display or use.

We reserve the right to delete, edit, or alter in any manner we see fit blog entries or comments that we, in our sole discretion, deem to be obscene, offensive, defamatory, threatening, in violation of trademark, copyright or other laws, of an express commercial nature, or otherwise unacceptable.

— Mohanji Testimonials Team