Shakthi comes from a conservative Brahmin family in southern India. Despite her background, she was never truly drawn to rituals. Instead, her fascination with the formless aspect of the divine, or Nirgun, led her to meditation and a more personal spiritual path.
During a puja for Sri Yantra in 2015, Shakthi embarked on a spiritual journey with us to various centers, including Belur Math and Dakshineswar in Kolkata. As we were crossing the Ganges, a heavy rain began to fall, and Shakthi suddenly went into a spontaneous trance. She had a vision of Ma Kali's Vishwaroop, her cosmic form, stretched across the sky. In this state, Shakthi commented, "God is in every particle; why are we going to see her in a temple?" The trance was so powerful that everyone on the boat felt its presence. The drops of rain seemed charged with a divine blessing. It took her an hour to return to a normal state, during which she continued to repeat her realization that God is everywhere. This was later confirmed on our first visit to the temple, where Ma Kali's statue seemed to be without energy. However, on our second visit that evening, Shakthi declared, "Now she is there in her Stone Statue," and we all felt the statue's energy return.
Her spiritual awakening continued at the Vyas Gufa in Mana, near Badrinath. While in the cave, she felt a cyclical wave in her body that caused her to twist and turn to a strange rhythm. She was aware of her movements but had no control over them. A priest asked her to bow to the idol of Ved Vyasa, to which she replied, "God is everywhere and not only housed in an idol." This episode lasted for an hour and a half. After the trip, Shakthi's spiritual seeking led her to Arunachala and the teachings of Ramana Maharishi, which resonated deeply with her.
I reconnected with Shakthi in 2019 when I began working as a neurologist at Sathya Sai Hospital. She was now pursuing her master's degree in psychology, and I offered her an internship in my department. She often confided in me about her mental setbacks, and I suggested that past-life regression might help her spiritual progress. She was hesitant and fearful of the idea.
Four months ago, she started hearing the Gayatri Mantra spontaneously in her mind. When she tried to recite it aloud, she felt it was better to simply listen as it played. This brought her a sense of calm, and her life's stresses felt insignificant. One day, while suffering from a severe headache, she asked for Reiki. As soon as I began, she immediately felt the energy and knew when it stopped, feeling as if a blanket had been pulled from her body. Her headache receded completely.
A few days later, she suddenly asked me to do a past-life regression, saying the words came out of her mouth without a thought. As I began the process, with her friend as a sole witness, Shakthi immediately went into a trance. She saw a vast, endless white light, unlike the Jyotirlinga's pillar of light. She was unaware of her body and the manifest universe, feeling as though she was floating and speaking without a mouth. Her awareness felt like it was spreading. When I asked her to pray for her ailing mother, she replied, "There is no mother," indicating a state of complete detachment from worldly attachments.
Her body then contorted into an opisthotonus posture, or Ardha Dhanurasan, a deep yogic pose. When we started recording the session, she gave a firm command, "Stop recording." After some time, she sat up in Sukhasan, a pose she could not do in her waking state, with her hands in Akash Mudra (thumb and middle finger touching), a rare gesture of cosmic communion. She then stretched out her hands in a blessing posture and began giving me Reiki, instructing me to "go beyond," something I was not able to do. After more than half an hour, she wanted to come out of the trance, but she was confused and began weeping. She didn't want to return to the "mundane world," wanting to remain in the formless white light. After an hour of confusion, she returned to her normal state, with all her worldly worries and thoughts. She had no memory of the experience, only a distinct memory of a "very crisp command by some spiritual master to go beyond."