Land of the Hamsas

[Guest guest]

Land of the Hamsas by Yogiraj Gurunath

 

I travelled from the foothills of the Himalayas , from the sacred city of

Hardwar to Rishikesh which houses the ashram s of spiritual masters like Swami

Shivananda, Dayanand Saraswati and Ramakrishna. I continued, on to Rudraprayag,

at the confluence of the Alaknanda and Mandakini rivers and from there to Deva

and Vishnu Prayag.

 

Walking on the beaten paths leading up to higher regions, suffused with

the smell of pine cones and wild berries, I felt a nostalgia which revived

yogic memories of a land far so away and yet so near. It was the land of the

Hamsas, the swans who took flight in samadhi to reach their beloved Lord.

 

Hamsa yogis are believed to exist even today in the Himalayan region and

it was to their abode in the rarer regions that I made my pilgrimage. What's

life about anyway, I mused. Suddenly I found myself in a dream within a dream

universe. The universe was but a pale phantom of a deeper order.

 

Ever engaged in spiritual practices and meditations, these yogis were

called Hamsa or Swan, represented for the inhaled and the exhaled breath of

one's self. The 'Ham' syllable is meditated upon as our breath is exhaled and

the 'Sah', as our breath is inhaled. This is a Hamsa Sadhana (practice) laid

down in the yogic book of the Gheranda Samhita. The Vigyan Bhairava text says

the opposite — that the inhaled breath is 'Ham' and exhaled is 'Sah',

but Gorakshanath put an end to the confusion saying that the mental chanting

of Ham-Sah could be done either way. He emphasised meditating on the still gap

between the 'Ham' and the 'Sah'. As the gap lengthens, our mind stills into

consciousness and the yogi achieves kevali kumbak to enter samadhi , of the

here and now.

 

I was on the path to Badrinath where I paid my respects to Sanatana Rishi

Narayan, and to the Siddha Sundernath. The legendary yogi Sundernath meditated

in a cave near the temple of Badrinath . Before I entered the cave, I saw a

Margosa tree. It was bent in the meditative posture of the yogi . This tree

usually has bitter leaves but as I plucked the leaves and put them in my mouth,

I was surprised for they tasted sweet. A similar tree with sweet leaves is to be

found near the samadhi of Shirdi Baba at Shirdi, Maharashtra.

 

I had to bend low to enter the cave. As I sat down the powerful currents of

Sundernath engulfed me. Within moments I was transported. I could not have the

much desired vision of the great yogi , but I did receive his blessings in the

form of dazzling light. This pushed my consciousness to higher dimensions.

 

When Sundernath performed tapas in a cave near Badrinath temple, the place

reportedly vibrated with his spiritual intensity. One day some miscreants came

into the cave and found Raja Sundernath in samadhi . To test his yogic state of

trance they placed a burning charcoal on his thigh. The king of yogis didn't

budge for he was out of his body in samadhi.

 

The burning coal went deep into his thigh. On descending from his

heightened state of awareness the yogi saw his thigh all burnt. With

compassion, he blessed the boys for they had created a context whereby the yogi

knew that he could never be shaken or diverted from his practice and communion

with God.

 

From Badrinath I set out, searching for the Hamsas and the land of the

Hamsas. How could these yogis survive in such cold snowy regions? The following

day I set off to Vasundhara waterfalls, Chakratirth and to the Satopant glacier.

 

 

(Excerpted from 'Wings to Freedom'.)

http://spirituality.indiatimes.com/articleshow/611578.cms