I was away for a month – Feb. 1st – March 1st. The intention of the trip was to dive into the profound and ancient spiritual culture of Vedic India. It was also go gain inspiration for the writing of our new record, which we had just begun before I left. Along the way I knew there would be many visible & hidden blessings for both my son & I. India (my beautiful AOA partner ), opted to stay back home this time to keep the music biz going. (We had gone there together a few years back) I was in communication with her daily – she got the play by play.

After a 14 + hr. flight we arrived in Delhi. We had a driver waiting for us who I had arranged through some friends. He was good natured and spoke English fairly well. Our accommodations were pleasant enough, comfortable and clean. We were to begin a 10+ day puja (spiritual offering) with many brahman priests the next morning. The purpose of the ancient ceremony was specifically designed to counteract malefic planetary influences and blockages. In essence it was to pacify the powers that be and usher in auspiciousness.

Our head priest Panditji was a lively and pakka (first class/fine) Siva bhakta. He also is a highly learned and respected Ayurvedic (jyotish) astrologer. He had prepared powerful lockets made of 3 precious astrological gems (according to our planetary positions) for each of us to wear. We would receive these on the last day of the puja after the final fire sacrifice.

Each day we entered the puja room around 7:30 am, which was beautifully arranged according to Vastu Shastra – the Indian equivalent of Feng Shui. Originally we were to go to an old Siva temple daily, but I figured it would be easier for us to have it all set up in the guesthouse where we stayed. That way we could easily make the early morning program w/o driving crosstown in Delhi traffic.

Each day was like going back in time to primeval India. There were 5 – 7 Brahmans’ powerfully chanting mantras in unison, offering of articles of worship, such as flowers, incense, milk for bathing the deity forms of the Godhead, fruits, grains, sandalwood and kumkum powder/paste. Vishnu & I would follow their guidelines for 4 hours. It was intense. We also made sure that we had the picture representation of my fearless partner India (the voice of AOA) present at all times, with a cord tied from her picture to my wrist. Sometimes we would forget to bring her picture in and the Brahmans’ would exclaim “where is miss India? – she must be here!” Very cool.

During the daytime we had a few free hours to explore Delhi, before returning to our evening 6:30 p.m. arati – or offering celebration which capped the days’ spiritual activities. We shopped at Riki Ram’s where the Beatles bought their Indian musical instruments (I bought a traveling harmonium), received many Ayurvedic hot oil massages and Shiro Dara (hot oil poured on the third eye for deep stress release), visited many astounding temples, sampled the local cuisine, and most mind blowing of all – stumbled upon the ancient Naadi palm leaf readers.

Historically the Naadi Shastra was spoken by Lord Siva to his wife Parvati a few thousand years ago, and transcribed onto palm leaves by the sage Kaushilka Rishi. Each leaf contains a concise description of a soul’s present lifetime, their previous life and possibly future life depiction. It also contains their previous life transgressions which have lead to difficulties in the present, as well as “remedies” to counteract the effects of these previous life bad karmas. It is literally a blueprint of your destiny. An questions regarding this can be answered in a book entitled “The Hidden Oracles of India” by Andrew & Angela Donavon – 2 English filmmakers who had their minds blown by this experience a few years ago.

to be continued in Part #2…..

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