Exploring the Spiritual Realms

Yogi Ashwini talks about the need to have a guru to get enlightenment. He had come to Kochi to conduct a workshop

By Shevlin Sebastian

Photo of Yogi Aswini by Melton Antony 

A few years ago, Seema Kalra, a Delhi-based trekker, along with her husband Rajesh went for a trip to Kailash Manasarovar. She took several pictures of Kailash and the mountains. When she returned, she decided to show them to her guru Yogi Ashwini and her friends, all of whom practised meditation at the Sree Aurobindo Ashram in Delhi.

So the group sat in the room and Seema switched on the projector. The first and second pictures were fine, and then, suddenly, in the third frame, there was this glowing face. “He had sharp features, a milk-white complexion and shoulder-length black hair,” says Yogi Ashwini. “He was looking straight into my eyes and I shivered.”

Immediately, Yogi Ashwini prostrated himself on the ground. “Later, when I drove back home I was crying throughout,” he says. “The energy which radiated from the photo was phenomenal.”

For the next session, Yogi Ashwini asked Seema to bring the CD again, so that he could show it to more people. But when the CD was shown, that image could no longer be seen. "Unfortunately, nobody else had seen what I saw,” he says.

Soon, the others started saying, “Yogi has seen Bhagwan Shiva.” And they were trying to visualise how he looked like.

Yogi Ashwini is the son of Iqbal Krishnan, one of the first advocates on record in the Supreme Court. He grew up in Delhi. Apart from doing a masters in economic management from the University of Delhi, he represented the Union Territory in athletics and rowing.

His turning point came when his mother died because of ovarian cancer at the age of 58. “I was very close to her,” he says. “Her passing away was a shock to me. I realised that this there is something beyond life.”

Thereafter, Yogi Ashwini went on a spiritual search. Apart from meeting Grand Master Choa Kok Sui, of the Pranic Healing Foundation, Yogi Ashwini wandered about in the Himalayas, befriending the sadhus. He even flew to the Philippines to meet an occult master who told him that in his past life he was a warrior in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan.

“I had lived a violent life,” he says. “When you have that kind of karma, killing people, and causing sorrow to so many, you have to pay the price. My mother’s death was karma playing out in my life. I have realised that the reason behind every good and bad event is karma."

Meanwhile, at some point in his search, Yogi Ashwini threw himself at the mercy of the divine within and met his Guru. He went into periods of silence and did intense sadhna. Finally, it led to a spiritual breakthrough.

He says that in this troubled world, there is a need for people to delve into their spirituality. “If you want to explore the realms which are beyond the physical, if you want to interact with yourself, if you want to experience the presence of gods and goddesses, if you want to manifest them, then you can come to me,” he says.

Yogi Ashwini says that it is important to get the right guru. “All genuine gurus have common traits,” he says “He collects nothing. A guru does not sit with the prominent industrialists only. The guru has no barrier between himself and the people. The guru exudes the glow which yoga is supposed to give you. What the guru says happens. In the presence of the guru you get elevated. The guru spends more time in causes, than in building institutions.”

He gives some examples. “Ramakrishna Paramahansa never built an ashram for himself,” says Yogi Ashwini. “That was the case with Guru Nanak, Raman Maharishi, Shirdi ke Sai Baba and Satyanand Paramahansa. The more you have, the more you get attached to it.”

Yogi Ashwini came to Kochi recently to hold a workshop on anti-ageing kriyas and healing mantras like the sanatan kriya.

“The Sanatan Kriya consists of purification techniques which ensures the free flow of praan (life energy),” says Yogi Ashwini. “As a result, the practitioner radiates good health and glow. The Universe sustains because of a balance in nature. The smallest imbalance can be disastrous. The same is true for human beings. Any imbalance causes physical, mental, emotional or even financial distress. The purpose of the kriya is to bring the body in a state of balance.” 

Meanwhile, several devotees flew in, from Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi to be part of Yogi Ashwini's workshop. They included journalist Shivan Chanana, film editor Simrandeep Kaur, marketing executive Nikhil Singh, country manager of IBM, Sandeep Sharma, and businesswoman Benu Malik. The local representative was Dr Prasan Prabhakar, the owner of the Laxmi Hospital at Mattancherry.

“Yogiji has a spiritual aura about him,” says Benu Malik. “I came to experience that. I feel so peaceful and happy when I am in his presence.”

Simrandeep says that after she started doing the Sanatan Kriya, she stopped drinking and smoking. “I feel peaceful nowadays,” she says. 

(The New Indian Express, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram)