Swami WebLog

There is a commercial complex near the bridge and there I met Kurt. He has a music shop where he gives music lessons and, also, astrology readings. His astrology is Western. We traded readings – Eastern and Western. He is a very special person with a light, sweet energy – like a deva which I think in the West they call an angel. He has had a hard life, also, with many difficult relationships. In this we are similar. And he is also a yogi. There are pictures of him doing yogasanas on the walls of his shop where I believe he also lives. I have been helping him a little bit in his place and he has been teaching me some things about American music of the 60′s and 70′s which I like very much. He is also a fan of some Hindi music which I know like the back of my hand. We can speak endlessly and there is no doubt that there is some past life connection between us. He has a spare van that he does not use and he has allowed me to sleep in it. It is a very big relief not to be sleeping in the dirt under the bridge. I do miss the sound of the creek – but the flow of grace continues to carry me.

Om.  I have been studying this science since I was a very young child. I learned from my father and my father learned from his. This goes back in my family at least 9 generations. The chart above represents a map of a soul. One’s current state, one’s potentialities, one’s past and one’s past lives are all available in the information stored in this simple diagram. The idea is to bring more awareness to one’s life so that one can live more fully and more happily. Thus it serves the entire Universe. Please contact me if you would like more details or to set up a consultation via funonearth@gmail.com.

A single astrologer who studies the course of Destiny, who is familiar ith the special features of times and climes, can achieve what a thousand elephants and four times as many horses cannot together do.
- Varahamihira

Since I have been living under the bridge, I have been drinking coffee. I have never taken coffee in my life. I was brought up to believe that any stimulants would lead to illness. This may be correct. But I have enjoyed going to Cafe Mimosa in the mornings. The atmosphere is cozy. I cannot afford the food here, but the coffee is not so expensive. I live under a bridge and I drink coffee.

The person who serves me the coffee is Mariella (above). We have spoken for some time. She is very nice, very sweet, Mexican. She asked me some questions about choices she wants to make in her life – a new car, finding a boyfriend, etc. – and I told her the best way for me to answer was to look at her stars. We did a reading for her after her work. She loved it. She was amazed by the things I told her about her family, her mind, her soul. It is all there. The choices she asked me about are clear. There is no doubt.

Mariella told me she would recommend me to her friend who is looking for an astrologer. She asked me why I did not put a sign up and take it seriously as a job.

Later I looked for local astrologers and was amazed at the prices they are asking. $108. Even $250. This is more than any Indian astrologer. I could not charge this much.

My father began teaching me astrology at the age of seven. It is part of our system. My father taught me the calculations by hand, but now I use the computer. The signs are there: I have a computer (in fact that is all I have); two readings have materialized from nowhere; I need a job; there is interest. People seem to need this work. They like the Indian-ness of it. Also, there is prediction, which in Western astrology is not very strong. Certainly, there is so much suffering in this place. This can possibly help the people. Therefore to practice it would be dharmic.

And perhaps it will be a way for me to survive that is not yoga. After the experiences of the last months, which lead to disaster, I do not want to teach yoga. Also, there are so many yoga teachers here. Everywhere you look, another poster for a yoga teacher. I have not yet seen a poster for our Indian astrology. I’m sure there is, but I have not seen.

You know you are in trouble when you find yourself doing this …

The answers are not so helpful, in fact. Or perhaps I am not “Feeling Lucky”.

Last night there was a fight down here, with broken bottles. It is impossible to stay clean here.

Speaking of shrines – here’s another improvised one, also in Topanga. This one on the stage at the Topanga Community House. I attended this event, for Guru Purnima, because I saw the flier below at the grocery store.

Guru Purnima is a Hindu festival that I have celebrated all my life. On this day, always a full moon in July (“Purnima” = full moon), we make offerings to teachers of all sorts. It was not clear on the poster that this particular function was for the Guru Satya Sai Baba.

This did not bother me. I meditated on my father. My father officially became my guru when I was four and I studied with him intensely until the age of 20. Now he will not speak to me. In fact it was he who purchased me a one way ticket to America. I might speak to him, but my ego is quite large as well. I would prefer not to speak with him for some time, until I have made something of myself. Then I will speak to him. It is a long story. I disagree with his conservative ways which I believe, often, are empty of meaning. And empty of love. On this day, I felt a huge amount of love in my heart. A beautiful gathering in the mountains of California.

At the event, I met an Indian lady, I will call her Banita, who was clearly in distress. I told her I could read her stars and she agreed. My laptop was with me, as always. Saturn in the 8th house was there, scorching her marriage in a cauldron of transformation. We spoke for some time. I made $20. This is good because I was down to $6.

So I now have $26. 2 + 6 = 8. Once again, the number of transformation. And this has manifested at a festival honoring the Guru, who is the master of transformation. I am reminded again and again: I must change something.

Every day, when I leave and enter the bridge, I see the words below. But I do not know how to do this. I am sure I am being given more specific signs, but I can’t yet read them.

There is a lady also staying down here whom I will call Margie. She has not yet allowed me to photograph her. She is a very nice person and from the moment I came has shown me generosity, including allowing me to use her cooker to boil water for tea. What is remarkable about Margie is that she has a meditation or yoga practice. The image above shows where she sits when she does her practice, both in the morning and the evening. Sometimes the candle is lighted. Her eyes are closed and her lips move slightly. She is speaking, but the words are silent. I am reminded of the following from the Rig Veda:

Drunk by what proceeds in silence
We flourish on the airs, pranas:
You mortals merely see
Our physical bodies
– X.136.3

Margie’s physical body is, indeed, very dirty. I have been bathing, at least, at the beach. Margie knew her birth time and allowed me to cast her horoscope. It is a very tough chart on the material level. But the spiritual is indeed exalted. She has the ability to communicate with higher energies. In India, for millennia, people have gone to caves in the mountains, or the places where rivers meet, to meditate and transform themselves. Perhaps this bridge by this creek-bed is such a place.

Om.

This is where I slept last night.  Under a bridge in Topanga Canyon, California.  There are other souls here as well.  Some migrant workers, Mexicans I believe, and two addicts of one kind or another, Westerners, one with a guitar.  It is reminding me of the Kathputli colony under the bridge in New Delhi.  But because this is America, not Kathputli, there is wi-fi under here.  A blessing!

I have counted. I have exactly $38 to my name.  3 + 8 = 11.  Eleven (11), in our Vedic tradition, is a number of struggle, but also great gains.  Therefore I believe that, though the going might be tough, I will prevail.

The story of how I – a priest and yoga teacher from a well known lineage – got here is long.  Some problems have arisen.  This is for later.

Now I am concerned with now, and this will also be the concern of this web log.  We will see where it brings us.  I am eager to explore the world above.