On Thursday, I will be boarding a plane to India where I will be going to see my spiritual teacher Narayani Amma.
I first went to visit Narayani Amma in 2006, the year my life changed, after a chance conversation with a friend in a coffee shop in Sydney (the fabulous now-defunct Brown Sugar cafe on Brighton Blvd, Bondi Beach…)
At the time I was living between Sydney and Paris but was about to be temporarily ‘homeless’ (so to speak); I had rented out the flat I owned in Sydney and the place I’d rented to go and stay in over in Paris wasn’t available for another 5 weeks.
I decided to use these 5 weeks to go to India. I had been there before when I had reviewed hotels for a travel website. Now I wanted to go back.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT AN AVATAR IS?
I was telling my friend this over a latte, sitting at a communal table. Also sitting at the table was someone I knew a little bit from around the Bondi traps, Nadav Kahn.
The long and the short of it was that Nadav couldn’t help overhearing my convo with my galpal about India, and he leaned over to ask me:
“Did you say you’re going to India?”
“Yes, I have five weeks there…” I replied.
“You should go to see Narayani Amma,” he said.
“Who is Narayani Amma?”
“An avatar. Do you know what an avatar is?”
Yes I did know. Nadav gave me the email address of someone to contact so I could be collected from Chennai if and when I went there.
A CALL FROM SOPHIA (GET IT?)
Afterwards, back in my flat, my mobile rang. It was a woman called Sophia who I had met at a course I had done a few weeks earlier. I’d never spoken to her on the phone before. Her called seemed quite random but I was glad to hear from you.
“What are you up to?” she asked.
“I’m thinking about going to India. I thought I would go to this yoga retreat place in Trivandrum which I heard about when I was reviewing hotels there last year…” I told Sophia the name of the retreat.
“Oh don’t go there!” she said. “It’s awful – it’s run by the faux spiritual American people who are only interested in your money!”
I was like, “Huh… OK…”
After I had chatted to Sophia, I called the airlines I was travelling with, Air Lanka. I was scheduled to stop over in Colombo. It should be easy to pop over to India from there and delay my outwards journey on to Paris.
“Hi, yes, I would like to go from Colombo to Trivandrum, please…” The lady on the other end tapped away and told me I could but there were no direct flights and I would have to overnight at Colombo airport. Moreover I would have to foot the bill for this stay.
The penny was starting to drop… I could hear Narayani Amma’s ashram calling …
“So,” I said, almost feeling I knew the answer before I asked the question… “What about if I want to go to Chennai?”
I heard her keyboard clicking and going PING!
“Ah yes, that works perfectly with your flight. It’s a very smooth connection. And the fare is on special today only.”
Ha! Sometimes the Universe makes what you’re supposed to do really clear, right?
“OK,” I said, quite amused actually. “Can you please book me on that?”
OFF TO AMMALAND…
And so it was that about 10 days later I found myself in the place I call Ammaland, where I am going on Thursday.
Amma said to me later “Some people take 10 years to hear the call but you came straight away…”
The reason I called this post “Gurus and Neptune in the 7th house” is that a spiritual teacher is very much likely to be represented as Neptune in your chart. I have Neptune in the 7th house of relationships. It’s not all that surprising that I have a spiritual teacher in India. Magical Amma and her mystic ways is still a marvellous mystery to me, even more than 1- years after our first meeting, which is also Neptunian!
FYI Narayani Peedam where I am going is the home of the Goddess Narayani; the Goddesses Saraswati, Lakshmi and Durga.
And by the way that first trip was totally life-changing in the most wonderful ways.
If you want to follow my travels, I will probably be posting on Facebook and Instagram…
Yasmin xx
