Vidhi's Khadi Chuan/Akshara Abhyasa

I had never heard of anyone in my family having his/her Akshara Abhyasa done earlier, neither did I have the privilege to attend one. But I do recall seeing a video of this ceremony being performed by Gurudev for a disciple's child in Puri. That I believe, must have left an impression on my mind. So, when I got to know a couple of months ago, that Gurudev would be visiting Hyderabad in June, I had this sudden desire to have Vidhi's Akshara Abhyasa. I wrote to Gurudev expressing my desire to have this ceremony done in his presence. He readily gave his consent over email.

The ongoing year is the 125th birth anniversary year of Paramahamsa Yogananda. To celebrate this occasion Kriya yoga initiation programs have been planned for the entire year across the globe. Hyderabad was chosen as the venue for initiation on the 11th of June.  Though Gurudev had given his confirmation, we still did not know when he would be available  and where we could have the ceremony done. On the 10th of June, a Kriya yoga talk/meeting had been organized at Sathya Sai Nigam hall in Hyderabad. Gurudev was also an invitee. So we decided to attend the event and sort out the details with him. We arrived early and took our seats in the hall. The moment Gurudev entered the hall, a big crowd of people surrounded him and by the time he got to his seat, there was a long line of people waiting to get his blessings.

We too joined the line and waited for our turn. I was thrilled with anticipation. I was about to meet him after a gap of several months. The line was moving slowly, but we dint have to wait too long, as the moment he saw us, he ushered us to come to him. Gurudev was very happy to see Vidhi. He asked to me to sit beside him on the empty seat. Samarpanananda baba was sitting on the other side. Mind reader that Gurudev is, before I could ask, Gurudev had already checked with Samarpanananda Baba and asked me to come to Kalinga hall ( the venue for initiation) the next day at 11 am. I thanked GOD and Gurudev and went back to my seat.

The next day all of us - Mother, Saurav, Vidhi and me reached Kalinga hall at 10:45 am. The initiations scheduled for that day were still mid-way. We sat at the end of the hall. Gurudev , Samarpanananda baba and 4 other yogacharya's were  seated, on the stage spread apart. Each of them was surrounded by a group of 4-5 people, who had come for initiation. From where I sat I could see Gurudev's smiling face. It had a definite glow and his presence was radiating a warmth all around. I found myself thinking - " How fortunate are these people who are getting initiated in his presence". It was a pleasure to see him perform the initiation. Gurudev must have initiated lakhs and lakhs of people, but here today, he still went about it with so much love and sincerity !  I had so much to learn.

As we waited our turn , at the back of the hall, Vidhi grew restless. She broke loose and started exploring the hall, moving randomly and smiling and talking to people around. This is when Gurudev spotted her and then waved at us, asking us to come up to him. We went up and then bowed at his feet. He smiled and asked us to sit down and make Vidhi sit on my lap. Knowing Saurav's love to click snaps, he directed a volunteer there to capture snaps of the proceedings and asked Saurav to sit beside me.

Mother handed over the new slate and chalk to Gurudev. Taking a pinch of haldi from a container, Gurudev smeared it on the top of the slate. He applied tilak on our foreheads, including Vidhi's. Then, after an invocation to Lord Ganesha, Gurudev wrote "AUM" in devanagiri script and handed over the chalk to Vidhi to follow suit. But to Vidhi, the concept of writing on a slate seemed very strange and so she refused to hold the chalk :). It was quite an effort to get her to write and in the process Gurudev wrote down the first letters in Hindi, English, Oriya and Bengali. In the end we did manage to have something on the slate with Vidhi partially holding the chalk. I was feeling relieved and grateful about the fact that, Vidhi did not cry during the entire process and neither was she frightened at the sight of Gurudev sitting beside her. Infact she had taken a liking to him and had looked at him intently as he performed the ceremony.

Before leaving, I thanked Master again but he waved me off, refusing to take any credit or acknowledgement. He enquired about our plans for the day and then as we took leave, ushered the next group to come over and resumed the kriya initiation activity which had been put on hold temporarily for Vidhi's khadi chuan.