The Master's Touch: A Gentle Reflection
Amrita Kaur (Roberta Raymond),
New York City, New York, USA
As the taxi pulled to the Delta Departure Terminal at Kennedy Airport in New York, I watched as dozens of dark suits sporting ‘power-color ties’ and toting cell phones raced to business meetings where another deal would be closed, another dollar made... and spent. I listened to my own breath as its rhythm soothed my mind into a gentle reverie that should be the mental bill-of-fare at 6:00 a.m. I shuffled for my ticket and watched as the sky cap tagged my bags to New Mexico, while my mind continued to drift to the fantasy of expectation as I thought of this journey upon which l was about to embark. ‘The Master's Touch’, a course designed to teach Kundalini Yoga teachers, wound up being the moment in a millennium where spirit truly touches matter, where ‘The Master’, the embodiment of the most beautifully manifested meaning of spirit, was to inspire our lives to animation: the gentle breeze was to carry the tiniest seed to the fertile soil.
The course consisted of sadhana and physical training each morning, followed by several hours of lectures, dealing with the various technological aspects of Kundalini Yoga, taught by MSS Gurucharan Singh. Lunch under the dome of azure sky was the charming precursor to an afternoon of either more lectures or practicums, and the day culminated with a lecture delivered by ‘The Master, Yogi Bhajan.’
It is a lovely way to welcome a new day with sadhana, especially under a large, open air tent where one can spy the morning star paying homage to the new dawn. Japji at 3:45 began the interlude, followed by a thirty-minute yoga warm up, and ending with one hour of sadhana mantras chanted to live music. As the sun paraded her golden cloak across the horizon, one could participate in physical training, a system of cleverly designed movements and a challenging obstacle course taught by a competent, vibrant young woman, Bibi Nanaki, whose happy smile and enthusiasm carried us beyond the temptation to remain couch potatoes (turmeric helped).
The course allowed us the opportunity to learn about the technology of Kundalini Yoga from diverse practitioners including MSS Guru Singh, who taught the importance of ‘Sadhana,’ and a lovely woman, SS Hari Kirn Kaur who led a class in ‘Celestial Communication.’ It was a rare treat to hear from such competent, capable professionals as Dr. Siri Atma Singh and SS Kartar Singh, an acupuncturist and medicinal nutritionist. The spotlight, of course, focused on MSS Gurucharan Singh, who tirelessly taught us the science of Kundalini Yoga, highlighting several aspects such as the Shabad Guru and the unstruck sound. He succeeded in blending the aspects of ego and the state of attachment with variant modalities of conscious thought that can create detrimental blocks in an individual's experience of self.
However, the ‘pieces de resistance’ of the course were the lectures delivered twice daily by ’The Master, Yogi Bhajan.’ There are no words to describe the experience of watching the chrysalis explode into the birth of the butterfly, or the delicate unfolding of rose petals as the fruit is revealed. How can one describe the magical hands of ‘The Master’ as he gently smoothes the corrugated square into a wheel, as he places the fold in the cloth that lifts a flat surface to multi dimensional reality? Yogi Bhajan taught with infinite love and gentility, and yet commanded our attention with a starkness and poignancy reminiscent of those leaders who carry their battalions to sweet victory. He spoke of what it is to be a teacher, the role of intuition, complexes that plague the human psyche, resistance, projection, and a virtual ‘Sistine Chapel' of life and the quest of a Kundalini Yoga teacher.
One must truly experience these lectures first hand in order to be able to digest the topics internally, consistent with the notion of ‘experience’ in the technology of Kundalini Yoga.
I am presently planning a voyage to India, where I will perform a sadhana prescribed by Yogi Bhajan. It is with great pride that I continue the journey which just began at ‘The Master's Touch’: I am proud to be part of a legacy, a thread In the beautiful tapestry that began with Guru Ram Das and extends through my soul, and I am excited about having a practice which enriches and enhances my life. I am grateful for having a teacher and for having had many teachers who inspired me to live my dreams. Above all, I am grateful to ‘The Master's Touch’ for teaching me how not to falter because of the ego’s doubt and uncertainty, and for reminding me that ‘Sat Nam’ is truly the sound that resonates within me - that beckons me onward - to experience my own growth and to embrace the journey.
Wahe Guru!