By Darren Taylor
Interviewed by Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna
I used to drive by Downingtown Yoga and Meditation center weekly. I’d see the prayer flags and wonder what it was all about.
Then one day I took a yoga class with Swami Satrupananda. Afterwards she asked me what I wanted from yoga. I said, “Enlightenment, of course.”
“Well,” she replied, “You’ve come to the right place.”
I’ve been on a spiritual search for years. Mindfulness, Christian prayer, power yoga, and spiritual readings have been a part of the journey. But I’d never done mantra meditation before. I had lots of questions, and Satrupananda counseled me on the next steps. This led to my first Shaktipat in May of 2022.
I began to prepare myself for this profound spiritual experience about to happen. It felt akin to a baptism: a transformative spiritual marker on my path. I wanted to do service to it, with respect. I ate a simple and pure diet that week and read Muktananda’s Play of Consciousness. In a dream, I also experienced Gurudevi giving me a shoulder slip! I wondered if this was part of the transmission of energy to come.
At the beginning of the Shaktipat retreat, my mind and body had a little resistance. “Oh,” I thought, “we’re chanting again??!” But I went with it. After Gurudevi’s first touch, I felt pulled up from my base and realigned. I could see a roadmap that Kundalini had implanted inside me. During my meditations, the physical openings were much stronger. I experienced a cleansing, a burning off.
After I got home, I couldn’t do anything but sit in meditation. I was so blissful. I didn’t want to “land the plane.” I wanted to keep flying in Consciousness. Now I’m enrolled in the “Deepen Your Meditation” class and meditating daily. I’m a divine work in progress.