Following a Feeling

Last fall I was walking around the parks and streets and saw a large group of people coming out of the Renaissance hotel in Great Hills. I had not been inside that hotel for years. But for some reason I was “drawn” to go and check it out. There inside were yogini’s in whites; they were “Sat Namers” from the Kundalini/Yogi Bhajan group whom I studied with many years ago. In fact, I had gone on their first India trip in 1971 with them.

I looked closely. Oh my. There was Sat ji that I hadn’t seen in years. We had met at a one-week meditation course in Phoenix and then ended up doing lots of classes together. We had both thought of each other often over the years but completely lost touch.

My next question was Krishna. A woman that had changed my life. So I asked Sat ji to please give my number to Krishna, who is one of the big leaders of this spiritual organization in LA and known and respected around the world. That was last fall.

Today while I am driving to Whole Foods, I get a call from… Krishna.

Spiritual Journeys

Krishna and I had started our spiritual journeys together and turns out she is writing her memoirs and is putting our story in the beginning and had been thinking of it long and hard over the last year. And just because I had taken that stroll and “listened” to the beckoning to check inside the hotel, we got united today!

She and I had met at a yoga/meditation week at the Holy Man Jam (ring any bells?)

After a week of silence at the retreat we shared that we both had some big decisions to make. We didn’t share details.

So on a spiritual lark, since we had such a deep-felt but silent connection during the week of meditation, we decided to do something very far out. We decided to do a 10-day fast in Left Hand Canyon outside of Boulder Colorado, in silence, on water and lemons and meditate to find our answers. I had one of those old Volkswagen Campers where the top lifted up to give height for the upper bunk, and we took off.

For 10 days this woman and I who did not know each other really on the physical plane, journeyed on the spiritual plane. We had a tarp for a tent.
We had a bag of lemons we keep cold in the creek. We did asanas in the morning, meditation several times and day and peacefully said nothing.
I had no idea what she was trying to figure out in her life and vice versa.

At the 10th day. We turned to each other and smiled, and sat down.
Okay, she said. She was older so she took the lead. “I am going to tell my story and what and how this time of silence said and guided me.”

It turned out that she was a big actress (had just finished a major film with Rod Steiger) (PS I was a minor actress and had just finished working with Katherine Helmond) and she was deciding if she should ditch the stage for God. As it turned out, I was deciding if I should ditch the stage for a career in nutrition and alternative medicine.

Well, I am sure by now you know how we decided—together—to go.
It was after all the same question. We were both at a cross roads in life. One road for both was the theater. And the same answer rang clear for both down the second path… service.

This spiritual union/ jump-started both our lives.

That is what she was writing in her life story when Sat ji told her she and I ran into each other and gave her my number.

And today we connected!!!!!!

She had gone on and become a major spiritual leader of our generation. I went on to get my master’s degree in nutrition, then the dual naturo/chir program/write books/Tulane/research yada yada. The beat goes on.

On the phone today, we laughed and laughed and connected immediately like no time had passed and even threw around ideas of teaching some fascinating spiritual/health/hormone/nutrition classes together.

Coming full circle.

PS She was only named Krishna many years after I had met her and lost touch with her. And I was only named Devaki many years later after living with Swami Satchitananda. Devaki, in Indian mythology and religion, is Krishna’s mother!