Seed of The Divine

By CK Gariyali

Shakti Durga, a fascinating Western Catholic Christian woman, gave up her lucrative legal practice for the bliss of walking on the path of love and devotion, becoming a disciple of Sri Narayani Amma. She has her ashram at Cooranbong in Australia.
This book explores how Shakti Durga became a Guru, following Indian traditions, who practises the path of devotion. Having love for Western mysticism and spiritual traditions, she is a bridge between the East and the West. She is divinely inspired to spread both inner and outer peace in the world. Her role in spirituality is expanded after meeting Narayani Amma and receiving his guidance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shanti Mission Harmony Centres Ltd.
• Release date: Nov 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393538158

CK Gariyali

Dr Chander Kanta Gariyali, a retired Civil Servant of Tamil Nadu Government, was born in 1948 into a highly spiritual Kashmiri Pundit family. She first met Sri Narayani Amma in 1996. Since then she has enjoyed enormous blessings and immense affection of Amma. One of the oldest devotees of Sripuram, she has seen it growing out of a humble thatched shrine and an 'anthill' into the magnificent Golden Temple that it is today. In 2014, due to the grace of Sri Narayani Amma, Dr. Gariyali came in contact with Shakti Durga, a disciple of Amma, engaged in spiritual work in Cooranbong near Newcastle in Australia. From the very first meeting Dr Gariyali was fascinated by the personality of Shakti Durga. It was most baffling to her that a Western woman, a leading barrister, from a staunch Catholic background, with modern university education, should get transformed into an Indian style Guru. In order to understand her she attended many retreats with Shakti Durga. While attending the Diwali Retreat at Cooranbong Ashram in 2016, Dr Gariyali was divinely inspired to write about Shakti Durga. This work records the spiritual journey of an extraordinary woman from being Kim Fraser: Barrister, to being Shakti Durga: Guru of an international spiritual organisation.

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Seed_of_the_Divine_front_compressed.jpg

Seed of The Divine

CK Gariyali

Published by Shanti Mission Harmony Centres Ltd., 2020.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

SEED OF THE DIVINE

First edition. November 20, 2020.

Copyright © 2020 CK Gariyali.

Written by CK Gariyali.

Also by CK Gariyali

Seed of The Divine

Seed of the Divine

Other Publications by Dr C.K. Gariyali:

• Universal Prayers

• Hindu Way of Life

• My Beautiful Journey from Kashmir to Kantakumari

contact details for Dr Gariyali:

[e-mail] [phone] [phone]

Publications by Shakti Durga:

• Ignite Your Spirit, 2004

• Child of God, 2006

• Empowering Relationships, 2012

• Dimensions of Wealth 2009, 2nd edition 2016

• Spiritual Mastery 2008, 2nd edition 2016

Seed of the Divine

Shakti Durga

A Disciple of Sakthi Amma

Dr C.K. Gariyali

SRI SAKTHI AMMA

Amma blessing the universe

ISBN: 978-81-246-0962-0

1st edition, published in 2019 by

Saraswati Educational, Cultural and Charitable Trust and Higher Guidance Pty Ltd.

© All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by:

Saraswati Educational, Cultural and Charitable Trust:

c/o Irrigation Products International,

2nd Floor, 4/112 East Coast Road

Neelankrai, Chennai - 600115 India

E-mail: [e-mail]

Phone: [phone]

Higher Guidance Pty Ltd

PO Box 211, Cooranbong, NSW 2265 Australia

Phone: [phone]

www.shantimission.org

Shanti Mission Harmony Centres Ltd.

45 Kings Road,

Cooranbong, NSW 2265 Australia

Ph: 02 49773300

Email: [e-mail]

www.shantimission.org

Edited by Gayatri Kamadhenu

Front and back cover by: Priyadharshini Rajkumar

Printed by:

Shailee Creations Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi

Preface

More than two decades ago, my meeting Sri Narayani Amma was a miracle. Since then I have enjoyed the unconditional love and blessings of Amma which have blossomed in many different ways. I have visited Sri Narayani Peedam regularly and seen the whole place grow from a humble thatched shrine into a magnificent Golden Temple complex. People say that:

Amma is the water for the thirsty

Food for the hungry

Shade for the heat

Light of knowledge for the ignorant

For me she is much more:

She is the essence of all knowledge

She is the source of all love

She is the sum total of all wisdom

She is the origin of all arts

She is the embodiment of all devotion and

She is the very manifestation of the Divine.

We are blessed to have the essence of the Goddess amongst us in a living, breathing form, interacting with us, humility personified.

In 2014, in Australia, my second home, with the grace and guidance of Narayani Amma, I discovered ‘Shakti Durga’ her disciple in Australia, who is flying the flag of Peedam high and spreading dharma in the world.

Shakti Durga is a fascinating Western woman. She was a successful attorney who was born into a well-to-do family, with a Catholic Christian background and a modern university education. Two decades ago, she gave up her lucrative legal practice for the bliss of walking on the path of love and devotion. In 2013, when she met Amma, she recognized Amma as the ‘Parameshwari’, the ‘Universal Mother’, and knew Amma as her Guru. Since then she has become an ardent follower of Amma and has dedicated her Ashram at Cooranbong in Australia to Amma.

This book explores how Shakti Durga became an Indian-style Guru who practises the path of devotion. What made her chant mantras and study the Vedas and the Upanishads? What made her perform abhishekams and fire pujas? While doing all this Shakti Durga retains her love for Western styles of mysticism and spiritual traditions. She is a bridge between the East and the West. She is divinely inspired to spread both inner and outer peace in the world. She believes that her role in spirituality has further expanded after meeting Amma and receiving Amma’s guidance.

Dr C.K. Gariyali

Acknowledgements

At the outset, I wish to thank the Almighty for the presence of Sri Narayani Amma (also referred to as Sri Sakthi Amma) and Sri Shakti Durga in my life, who have blessed my humble efforts. I wish to thank senior and junior disciples of Shakti Durga who agreed to be part of this effort, namely Parvati, Ganga, Stella Maya, Nataraj, Shanti Dharma (Angela Grevet), Shanti Dharma (Sandy Macken), Sarva Devi, Jagatambe, Chamundai, Radha Gabrielle and Shivani.

I profusely wish to thank the family members of Shakti Durga: her parents Marie and Reginald Fraser, her brother Stuart Fraser (Brighu), daughter Gayatri and her partner, the spiritual Father of Shanti Mission, Shiva, for making this book possible.

I wish to thank Sri Narayani Amma for permitting me to use material from ‘Connect with the Divine’ and from the website of Narayani Peedam. I also wish to thank Shakti Durga for permitting me to use materials from ‘Letters to Initiates by Shakti Durga’ as well as from the Shanti Mission website. I wish to thank the Government of Uttarakhand for giving me information on the temple of Maya Devi. I have gathered information on Sai Baba and Master Choa Kok Sui from Wikipedia and I wish to thank them.

I am immensely grateful to my Australian friends Radha Gabrielle and Sandhya, and my Indian friend Jammuna, for reading the manuscript and making valuable suggestions.

I gratefully appreciate the efforts made by Adi Dass in proofreading the manuscript and Prema Raphael in arranging the photographs.

I finally wish to thank Vedanta Dev and Shivani who made my stay in Avalon House and the Retreat Centre in Cooranbong memorable while I was writing this book.

The book has been most lovingly edited by Gayatri Kamadhenu, daughter of Shakti Durga, a highly spiritual and blessed soul.

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

1. The Beginning of My Journey with Shakti Durga

2. Narayani Amma

3.Kim Fraser

4. Becoming Shakti Durga

5. Conversations

6. Shanti Mission – Harmony Centre

Epilogue

Annexure

Glossary

1

The Beginning of My Journey

with Shakti Durga

Returning from Australia in 2013 I was on my routine visit to Sri Puram, the Golden Temple, to pay my respects to Sri Narayani Amma. I have known Amma and enjoyed her love and affection for over two decades. Whenever I am in India I make my courtesy visits to Amma and spend a few blissful days in Peedam. This time when I met Amma she suddenly said:

Do you know a group of men and women visited Amma from your city, Newcastle? Do you know them? There is an Australian Guru, a lady, leading them. They even have an ashram. They have become Amma’s devotees. They are going to visit again. Have you ever met them?

AN AERIAL VIEW OF SRI PURAM: THE STAR PATH WALKING MEDITATION AND GOLDEN TEMPLE

I was surprised, I really did not know any devotee of Amma in Newcastle, nor had I heard of any ashram there. There is a Hindu Temple in Cardiff and there is a Hare Krishna Temple in Cessnock, but nothing in Newcastle. When I asked Amma for more details, even Amma did not know anything more. It was soon after the first visit of Shakti Durga to the Peedam so no one in Peedam knew much except that a small group had come from Australia somewhere near Newcastle. They were not even able to give me a name, an email ID or a phone number to look for them. However, they were fascinated with the personality of the lady Guru. I felt Amma wanted me to find them and connect with them in Australia.

I promised Amma to come back to Newcastle and search for the Australian lady Guru and her ashram. I did this, but could not find anything. It was because I was searching only for Peedam and for Narayani Amma devotees and not for Shanti Mission which is the name of the ashram in Cooranbong. I was disappointed and in the end, I almost gave up.

The Rooster and the Red-headed Artist

One day I was visiting an art exhibition at Bolton Point Community Centre, next to my house. I particularly liked a painting of a colourful bird, a ‘Rooster’ and tried to locate the artist. A beaming lady with a broad smile and curly hair appeared. I invited her home for a chat and a cup of tea. She turned out to be Radha Gabrielle, a devotee of Shanti Mission! Among many things we talked about her fascination for India and spirituality, and we also sat together by the lake on Bolton Point and meditated for a while. She informed me that she goes for a Peace Angel meditation on Thursdays at Cooranbong and, as I did not drive, even offered to take me. I lapped up her invitation.

The meditations were conducted by a very special, spiritually inclined person known as Anandanetti, who drove every Thursday all the way from Sydney to conduct the meditation in Cooranbong, at Shanti Mission Abode of Peace Temple.

A Shanti Mission retreat group in Peedam with Amma in 2018

I felt blessed as I love meditating in a group. It is believed that when one meditates in a group the collective benefit to the individual, the group and the community at large gets enhanced by a hundredfold or more. I decided to attend Anandanetti’s meditations regularly along with Radha Gabrielle at Cooranbong. In India, we are used to silent meditations. No one talks. We close our eyes and sit quietly, looking inwards, emptying the mind, gently sending the thoughts away. Here it was different.

Visiting the Realms of Angels

Cooranbong gave me my first experience of ‘guided meditation’. Anandanetti’s meditations were angelic and very mesmerizing. She is the founder of ‘Peace Angels’ and enjoys a deep inner connection with the angels. At times, it appears that the angels are at her beck and call and that she can summon them in no time to benefit all those who are seated before her.

Shakti Durga with Anandanetti creator of the Peace Angels

We all know that we are supposed to have guardian angels but we hardly ever invoke them and seek their intervention in helping us to remove the roadblocks in our path or to protect us. At least I never did.

This was my first introduction to the realization that angels are not just a concept hidden in myth, but that they can be real. There are different types of angels and each one has a particular role to play in human welfare. Anandanetti interspersed her meditation with music and chants to ‘Ganesh’, the elephant-headed God, like om gum ganapataye namah. These meditations were a blissful fusion of the Biblical angels being invoked by Eastern chants like Gayatri-Mantra and Shanti-Mantra.

On the journey to meet the angels, Anandanetti took us through nature, through jungles, trees, mountains, gardens and cascading waterfalls. These meditations were like making short visits to paradise. I am grateful to Anandanetti for introducing me to the realm of the angels. I loved her meditations but there was something else which I found on the very first day of my arrival there.

Shakti Durga, Anandanetti and Ananda Maya performing Abhishekam to Durga

Finding Sri Narayani Amma in Australia

As soon as I entered the temple I was shocked to see the picture of Sri Narayani Amma in the temple. It immediately dawned on me that this was the place Amma had referred to. Amma had finally led me to the place with the help of the smiley curly-haired artist Radha Gabrielle, the painter of the ‘Rooster’. I felt gratitude for Amma for introducing me to this spiritual oasis in the middle of Australia where I had been longing for the spiritual companionship of fellow travellers on the path.

Meeting Shakti Durga

I immediately wanted to meet the Australian lady Guru about whom Amma had mentioned. I was informed that her name was Shakti Durga and that she was abroad. However, Radha Gabrielle promised to bring me to Cooranbong when Shakti Durga returned. I finally met Shakti Durga during a Sunday Satsang in the temple in Cooranbong Ashram. She had a glowing face and was looking resplendent in a red sari. She was guiding meditation, singing, playing harp, doing abhishekam to the Goddess, distributing tirtham and giving blessings. An inner source of energy was flowing through her which kept her going all through the morning. The whole temple was vibrant with energy which was engulfing the devotees present.

Shakti Durga playing her harp in California

During the blessings, I mentioned to her that I was a devotee of Sri Narayani Amma for over two decades and that it was Sri Narayani Amma who had told me about her. She immediately invited me for tea which I had along with her parents. I was delighted to see her humility as well as the respect and love she showed to her parents. Her positive attitude, her energy and her informality were remarkable. I felt like spending more time in her company, wanting to know more about her.

I started attending Sunday Satsangs which were very soul lifting. I was fascinated by her unquestionable and extraordinary devotion to Narayani Amma. It was amazing to see her follow Sri Narayani Amma’s methodology to worship the divine through abhishekams and fire pujas. I was fascinated by the fact that a Western woman could be so much at ease with an Indian or Eastern way of thinking about or appreciating the Divine.

Worldwide, there are various schools of thought expounding the way one could appreciate the Divine. However, in India, the most popular and easily understood by the masses is the school of devotion (bhakti). The Bhakti school is equal to what we call in the West ‘praise and worship’, or ‘devotion’. In the Hindu tradition, there are many elaborate rituals and ceremonies that assist one to cultivate that state of oneness with the Divine through bhakti. Sri Narayani Amma follows this method and Shakti Durga has been inspired to follow Sri Narayani Amma.

There are sixteen methods, mentioned in the ancient text which can be used for the appeasement of the deity. These are called shodasha upcharas or sixteen offerings to the Divine. The first one of course is abhishekam which is done with water, milk, yogurt, ghee, honey, sacred ash, panchamritam, sandalwood paste and vermilion, which are in turn poured over a statue or murti that represents a particular aspect of the Divine. The remaining fifteen are offering to and adorning the deity with flowers, ornaments, fine clothing, fruits, coconut, prasad, camphor, incense sticks, oil lamps, fanning, the chanting of mantras, playing musical instruments, singing and dancing. I have seen Shakti Durga giving shodasha upacharas to the deity probably without even being aware of it.

In India, using images and statues is the most popular way of connecting with the Divine for the common man. Once the Divine is invoked into a statue or image, it is no more considered an ordinary statue or image, it is a symbol of the Divine and is charged with divine power and energy. Whilst it is still a statue, perhaps made of metal or stone, it now represents the God or Goddess it depicts, and becomes a doorway to access that flavour of energy. To make this type of practice understandable to the Western mind is a very difficult thing, but Shakti Durga’s strength has been in making it acceptable to her disciples with ease, grace and certainty about its benefits.

I felt it was not possible for her to do this unless she had some prior knowledge acquired in her past lives. I wondered if she had ever been born in India in her past lives and had some awareness of that. How did all this knowledge come to her so suddenly and so easily? How could she chant mantras with such perfection? Where and when did she learn all this? I decided to ask her about her previous incarnations.

Who is Shakti Durga?

Finally, during a group session I asked