Maha Shivaratri

I'm going to come to India in February. Visit Haridwar, Rishikesh and Uttarkashi. I would like to Dhyan-celebrate Maha Shivaratri! .. In which of these cities, temples, peeth most strongly manifested the presence of Shiva? Perhaps in other holy places of Uttarakhand. Thanks! And I'll be very grateful for advice and hint, especially if it is personal experience.

At Kashivishwanath in Uttarkshi - midnight puja is as good a choice as any, we'll be there, because it's just down the hill. Then again other's may say Hardwar, or whichever location resonates with them personally. It's more an internal experience than the theatre of external manifestations, isn't it?

Yes, perhaps the most sacred place Kashivishvanath if compared Temples Rishikesh, Hardwar and Uttarkashi. I was there in the autumn. Where is the best there is the presence of the energy of Shiva. And if there is an internal experience of dhyana then can get non-dual perception of Shiva. Then all the external manifestations performed as his lila.
And who's visited the holy place of Neelkanth Mahadev?

Did someone call for me? Search for the Kailash within. That's where I reside.

Adiyogi

P.S.: Not entirely kidding; good luck with your India visit

Are you referring to the Neelkant temple in rishikesh?

Don't know about 'manifestation/energy' thing, but in northern India varanasi and haridwar(and Ujjain in central India) are the most prominent temples where you can see a lot of activity/rituals during this festival.

I know little to India ... and as I understand, as you open your India, so India will be opened to you. And the main problem who comes to India is the ability to open up and perceive all properly. Because it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the true dharma from its beautiful imitation.

Paleface to
... and a little personal question ... if this is possible.
In some places in India you have the most powerful resonance?

Did someone call for me? Search for the Kailash within. That's where I reside.

Adiyogi

P.S.: Not entirely kidding; good luck with your India visit

Very good, I appreciated the kidding! ... Yes, perhaps modesty is the first step on the path to enlightenment.

Speaking to personal-resonance . . . for me it has happened nowhere else as much, in such tangible ways, in such mysterious ways as in Varanasi.

Yes! and without a doubt the most personally palpable and energetic experience was near to Hampi, on the Anegundi side of the Tungabhadra river.

Specifically at Pampa Sarovar where there is a large pond filled with lotuses, and the small Temple to Pampa Devi (Parvati) who is intimately linked to Hampi and the founding of the Vijayanagra Empire.

Pampa Sarovar is one among the five holy Sarovars installed by Brahma where Shiva and Parvati are worshipped. The others being Manasarovar ( in Tibet), Bindu Sarovar and Narayan Sarovar in Gujarat and Pushkar Sarovar in Rajasthan. The pond is surrounded by an other wordly amphitheatre of large boulders.

We went there on psychic instruction of my senior Guru, Swami Vidyaranya, to locate the site of his original stone kutir where he sat in sadhana 700 years ago; unsuccessfully at first and second tries, we subsequently found it and also found worked stone lying in undergrowth of a very ancient date. I have never found anyone or anything written that confirms this, but that doesn’t matter. The Pampa Devi in the Temple is the deity which he cared for in Puja over many years.

Vidyāraṇya also known as Mādhava Vidyāranya is variously known as being realised, a kingmaker, the patron saint and high priest to Harihara Raya I and Bukka Raya I, the founders of the Vijayanagar Empire. He was also the 12th Jagadguru of the Sringeri Peet from 1380 to 1386 A.D.

Vidyaranya, literally means 'Forest of knowledge' and Vidyaranya was an exponent of the Advaita school of philosophy, besides authoring several works which are published to this day including, Pancadasi, the life of Sankaracharya, and the Sarva-darśana-saṅ̇graha (Compendium of Speculations), a compendium of all the known Indian schools of philosophy. To quote Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the work sketches sixteen systems of thought so as to exhibit a gradually ascending series, culminating in the Advaita Vedanta (or non-dualism).

So we had these links to Vidyaranya, which is why that location resonates more than others to us. But what happened physically? Well it’s all about energy, and in that Temple the very columns buzzed and one need only place the hands close to them to feel it flowing into the body, psychically other stuff unfolded..

Inspired describes your experience visiting this sacred place. It is without doubt the merit of your guru, who knew where and when you send, make sure you get the maximum effect from the resulting spiritual experience. Yes Vidyaranya very famous and great, and you certainly fortunate that he is your senior guru.
When you visit Gomukha I also had strong feelings ... maybe not such a strong power, but on the consciousness as influenced Shudha Vidya.
I would like to ask ... And where do you live now is a result of the recommendations of your guru or choice based as a result of your spiritual development?

Mountains, and being high, or elevated even, does have an enervating effect which can be misinterpreted as a sort of semi spiritual experience - maybe that is nothing more than being in a different than usual environment with all those notions and myths swirling around!

Anyway, feeling energy is not such a mad idea, i.e. everything is energy, particles, atoms, molecules, just that everything appears to be solid, there's Maya for you. One's 'field' interacts with other 'fields', it's going on all the time but whether one notices or not, or even cares to notice, is a question of the sensitivity of the organism noticing!

Anyhow as you are interested in these things.. A small group of friends are now going up the Mandikini river valley, that goes on up to Kedarnath, one of the char dham sources – rather than stay Uttarkashi.

Kalimath at about 6,000 feet, is situated on a tributary of Mandikini and really is a lovely location. Kalimath is powerful, having the energy of shakti, as well as an ancient history of saints and their sadhana’s. Only Puja of the mystic symbol ‘ShreeYantra’ is performed here, the temple does not have any idol, it is Kali in the form of a large Yantra. Other ancient small shrines dot the complex and what is nice here, is that one can do one’s own havan in a huge covered havan kund.







This blog is interesting about the area: http://sadanandsafar.blogspot.in/201...asuki-tal.html

Then we plan to go to Triyuginarayan Temple. Located in the village of the same name in Rudraprayag district about 30 km before Kedarnath. A special feature of this temple is a perpetual fire, that burns in front of the temple with the flame believed to have been burning from the times of the marriage of Shiva and Sati.

The mountains create an enervating effect, but this is the first emotional impression, which can be both pleasant and unpleasant ... and false can be taken as a semi spiritual experience. And if you have a vision of this notion, and as Maya, the course comes to a full spiritual experience! Otherwise, the concept of enlightenment and moksha is only a myth and the reality will not have any relationship. But this is the energy of directed force, which we use or in the direction towards moksha, or maya. People go to visit a specially holy places, temples, peeth, to feel and to awaken in themselves the divine vibration of energy that are there. And if the person did it he was struck that divine fire which will burn anywhere ... whether it is a temple, or a bunch of garbage.

I was Kalimath and I there like very much. I visited all the temples dedicated to different gods. But unfortunately there was no time to stay there anymore. And I would go there again. Only now, perhaps it's cold and snow? About Triyuginarayan Temple, I heard that this is a very popular place for married people. And how long time you plan to go there?

It is one of those words that means the opposite to what many think it means.

Have you guys fallen into that trap, or are you saying that the mountains have a relaxing effect? That can be [mistaken for] a spiritual experience too: There are beautiful places that make me just want to lie back and soak up that energy, but a different word would apply to that experience.

I'm sure I'd find walking, anywhere in the mountains, to be enervating!

Oops, well spotted! A misusage indeed! As you say, any walk beyond a short stroll and uphill at our age, could be a bit enervating –

realising at 50 i was still a debauch and things were not going to change much, probably as i didn’t want them to change too drastically anyway, was one of the reasons i needed to shift up to the hills and get in at least a decent walk everyday up hill and down again safely while exercising those bits like the knees, calves, thighs and cardiovascular to try and stay in some sort of reasonable shape and not be stuffed after a couple of hundred Mts or so.. I’m sure you must also exercise your organism at times? Working up a light sweat around the colony eh!

Mountains and high hills, what can more obviously embody freedom and open-ness, a sort of laxative for the mind – Utopian? i guess any old fantasy is not utopian, and the common use of it is also a misuse, history is littered with the rubble of utopias that have turned into dystopias, that old promise of paradise which led to the gates of hellnagar.

There's a very excellent little book, about the deep mystery of how landscape shapes us, especially mountains, though it's not a book about mountaineering - "Mountains of the Mind - Robert Macfarlane - his "History of a fascination" is a highlander's learning worn lightly.