In Chennai, India about six years ago, I was in desperate need of help. I didn’t know what had happened to me, I had some sort of amnesia, but I felt very unwell and disassociated with existence. Chennai, if you never been there, well its a hectic fast moving and soemtimes dangerous city. Lots goes on there and I was the subject of an unfortunate incidence.

I had trouble even eating, every time I ate I felt really sick and my head felt like a brick, heavy, I just didn’t feel connected to the world. I kept passing out and slept or dosed most of the day and night. Eventually, I turned to the IChing or YiJing – the ancient Chinese oracle to answer my healign question.

The answer was pretty much: “you need a priest to Indentify the problem and a shaman to cleanse it”.

 

I thought for a long time where I could find a priest in this hectic bustling metropolis. It seemed so careless to the individual, filthy polluted streets, homeless destitute taking up the very pavements we should be walking on and hassle all the time as a foreigner by locals trying to blag money out of you.

 

Eventually I realised the only place I could find help would be by going to the Theosophical Society International Hedaquarters. It was a beautiful Oasis of wild woodlands of Banyan, Coconut and Bodhi trees, amoung others; with ancient stone doorways hinting at the presence of auspicious spirits and sentient beings benevolent to the good will of men and nourishing to the health of all who were open to pay quiet homage to the sheer beauty of nature here.

 

I hardly been there a few minutes when an Indian guy puleld up on his scooter and said:

“Hey hi there! Would you like me to show around the centre on my bike?”

I looked at my new found friend, James, his eyes were deep and honest, so I got onto the back of his bike and we went round the Theosophical Society grounds. It was such a beautiful time that I nearly forgot about how ill I was and desperate for help in a foreign seemingly unfriendly land.

James went to extra lengths to wangle a temporoary pass for me to see the library of amazing ancient manuscripts in the small museum there. He persauded the curator to open up the museum even though it was closed for the day and as a non member I wasn’t supposed to have a temporary library pass. But James managed to get me one.

Sitting outside waiting for me while I looked round the ancient spiritual manuscripts and scrolls. James sat there, relaxed, reading his newspaper and wearing the hat I leant him while I was in the museum, just like this picture below:

 

After a lovely walk through the forest with James talking animatedly about the Theosophical Society and the countryside of India we got back on the motorcycle and went to a nice hotel lounge for a cup of refreshing tea. I was in a short of dream state where I felt barely there at all, and had trouble being conscious in any way…

 

As we sat down on the veranda of the lounge, cooling fans blowing above and the sounds of the garden and the distant traffic. James asked me what was the matter…

I told him and from that moment on James helped me tremendously. James made sure I ate, persuading me to eat food and introduced me to delicious ice-cream that I found was one of the few things I could get down.

 

We went on an amazing trip Tiriputi, The Ventkashara Temple in Tamil Nadu – the most amazing temple I’ve ever been to and the most frequented religious site with over 200,000 visitors a month sometimes more!

We went on motorcycle rides around Chennai, trying different restaurants and James used his adept abilities to teach me how to cleanse myself and remain well and karmically more free.

One strange thing in this near-death experience that I had, because at one point, before I met James I thought I was dying. Barely conscious lying on my bed for days, barely eating, the crows gnawing at the bars of my window brought me out of my dream-state. They looked like they thought i was nearly carrion, or where they trying to warn me?

One evening, while James and I were talking about mystical matters. I mentioned that I kept a lock of crow feathers in my small bag of magic. He took one look at them, and reared back, not wanting to even go near them. I said, “Whats the matter?”

“With crows, we feed them and reduces our karma, you BY KEEPING THESE CROW FEATHERS ARE COLLECTING UP YOUR KARMA THROW THEM OUT THE WINDOW NOW!” he said.

As I started throwing them out the window onto some waste ground to the side of the hotel while James chanted mantras and cleansed the room, until the last feather was gone.

“You’re lucky you met me Caspar, you were building up your karma, now things will slowly get better for you…”

Now a strange thing happened, some time later, when I returned to that very same hotel, I was walking past the very same piece of waste land and there were many people arguing and discussing on this land and a great Bodhi tree  on this bit of wasteland was lashed with ropes and chains.

The locals and officials were arguing because finally, the property developers had won the battle to pull down this beautiful Bodhi tree and build some flats in its place – right where I’d flung my crow feathers…

I was invited to join the great ceremony, prior to the tree being pulled down, attended by at least 20 Brahmins who performed the ritual. It was an amazing ceremony…

I couldn’t help thinking that maybe that could of been me…