Wednesday 4 December 2012
Sometimes you just have to laugh. I sat down to do my very first blog this morning in response to Mother's request to get the word out about the tour. Busily typing away for over an hour and almost finished I opened another page to find a link and.....hadn't saved a thing I wrote. So having finished laughing I am going to start again...
So where do I start? Maybe with how I met Mother and how experiencing her wisdom and energy has influenced my journey as an Ayurvedic practitioner, as a Woman and as a Soul on a journey...
I first met Mother in 2006 when she spoke at Australia’s inaugural Ayurveda & Yoga conference in Sydney. I was just opening my own Ayurvedic practice in Newcastle, Ananda Veda and so the conference was timely and inspiring. Mother was a dynamic speaker and I knew that what she had to offer was very special, as did everyone at the conference I spoke to afterwards. She was without doubt the favourite speaker of the whole 2 days.
So, in 2007 when I heard that Mother was doing a workshop in Sydney I was in the front row. At one time during the programme I found myself walking beside Mother and she spoke to me and held my hand. This experience affected me deeply and I travelled home to Newcastle knowing that something very special had just happened. Wanting to find out more about Mother’s Ayurvedic teachings I contacted her school in America, Wise Earth Ayurveda (WEA). I ended up buying some of Mother’s books and gradually started to incorporate aspects of her teachings into my life and my Ayurvedic practice.
Flowing on from this contact, in mid 2009 I received an e-mail from WEA asking if I would like to host a programme for Mother in Newcastle. With no idea of what that entailed I simply said yes. Things flowed easily and virtually by word of mouth in November 2009 Mother attracted over 100 people to two Satsangs at the New Living Yoga studio in Islington. During this visit, welcoming Mother into my home, assisting her during the programmes and getting doused by waves together at Newcastle Beach are blessings I will always cherish.
I continued to study Mother’s work, purchasing each new book at it was released. Women’s Power to Heal was a very powerful book for me and in October 2010 I travelled to America to attend my first WEA practitioner’s training in Women’s Health & Spirituality. This was an opportunity for me to gain a deeper understanding of Mother’s work, meet some of the women that Mother had trained over many years to continue her work and to step up and say I want to do this work too.
To compliment my Ayurvedic work I also wanted to do my yoga teacher training and as I left for America in October I committed to commencing my training in February 2011. Have you ever heard the saying there is a bigger plan... well I think Mother had a bigger one. At the time I was meant to be starting the yoga course I ended up in India in a room next door to Mother at an Ayurveda & Yoga Conference and then attending an intensive programme with Mother at her Guru’s ashram in Rishikesh. I didn’t see that one coming until it happened.
Although the whole India trip was a wealth of amazing experiences I would like to share with you one in particular, my first dip in the Ganges. Picture 4.30am on a winter morning on the banks of Mother Ganga in Rishikesh at the foot of the Himalayas. As I walked across the ghat (walkway) to the river’s edge in the cold darkness I really didn’t know what to expect. I was beside Mother, holding hands to keep our balance as the icy water rushed around our feet, chanting Om Ganga. Into the water, the cold momentarily taking my breath away, and then once, twice, three times under. I climbed out and what happened next will stay with me always. I felt warm. It was freezing cold, dark and windy and I was dripping wet and I felt...warm. Mother encouraged me to get out of the cold and get dressed and all I could say was, ‘but I am not cold’. I went back to my room and didn’t even have a hot shower - just dressed and went down for meditation. I still feel awestruck when I recall those moments.
So now here we now are in January 2012 and Mother will be here in 32 sleeps – and I am just as excited as a 5 year old waiting for Santa.
Easy on-line registration can be done here.
If you know of anyone who may be interested in attending one of Mother's programes while she is in Newcastle or any of the locations she is visiting please send them the above link and suggest they subscribe to my blog as I keep you up to date on the programme.
Jai Maa
Girija (Mary Woolley)
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