Krow

The famous Indian Swami reported that his teacher was an incarnation of an ancient manifestation of the Hindu God Siva – Lakulish. Lakulish reportedly also performed a “walk-in” (around 1950s or 1960s?), which allowed the avatar/teacher/hindu god to personally teach Swami Kripalu. According to this tradition, the body that is chosen for a “walk-in” must be completely pure . . . or in other words, in super-deluxe optimum health, and possessed only by an extremely advanced Yoga practitioner. (As you can tell, we are delving into a topic not covered in your modern Yoga classes, which are simply based on the branch of “Hatha Yoga”.)

To sort-of digress for a second . . . not only was it once believed that very advanced Yogis could leave their bodies at will, but to stay in your body was not necessarily viewed as we see it today. Life, for Buddhists and Hindus, was viewed as somewhat expendable . . . probably due to the philosophical emphasis on the inclination of the physical body being something akin to pain and suffering which is naturally brought upon by by the aging process. Anyway, as is still taught today by some Tibetan teachers – death – for a Yogi – was a matter of “willing”, and was something quite within the “control” of the Yogi. For one example, Sogyal Rinpoche describes how – during the violent take over of Tibet by China – how some Tibetan monks who reportedly “willed” their own deaths before the Chinese military could kill and torture them. Sogyal Rinpoche talks a lot about this subject (how death was viewed in ancient Tibet and India) for those who want to study further.

Anyway, in this way, some Yoga traditions hold that extraordinary Yogis possessed suitable, pure bodies for “walk-ins”. Therefore, according to Hinduism/Yoga philosophy, assumedly a God like Lakulish does not just “hi-jack” the body of a regular Joe. But rather, the view here is sort of like how a princess cannot just marry someone of non-royal blood. A princess must marry a prince, and similarly, a suitable body for a walk-in must be very, very pure for the godly being who is about to do a “walk-in”. (After all, for a Yogi the body is viewed as quite impermanent and will decay anyway). The body of the advanced Yogi is given up by free will, and the exchange is said to take place during the final expiration of the Yogi (and first inhalation of the walk-in). If one is interested in this topic, I highly suggest reading the book “Infinite Grace” by Swami Rajarshi Muni. It also narrates the story of how Lakulish used the body of an extraordinary Yogi for his own “walk-in”. The book also describes Lakulish’s abilities such as bi-location, or the ability to be in two places at once.

As far as Drunvalo goes . . . like anything or anyone, I personally take it all “with a grain of salt”. Like any Western teacher, he lacks a documented lineage of teachers (often illustrated as a family tree) that stems back thousands of years – as is commonly noted among Tibet and India spiritual lineages. Therefore, Drunvalo lacks that special kind of tangible credential some of us (who prefer Eastern paths) are looking for.

I found only one scholarly book on the merkaba at the U of Penn library in Philadelphia. In fact, you might have noticed Wiki does not even mention Drunvalo under “merkaba”, but treats him as a completely separate entity from the ancient Jewish writings on the topic.

Anyway, my final point is that Swami Kripalvanandaji and Drunvalo both require the practitioner to have “faith” in their personal stories which tell of mysterious meetings with a god (both Siva and Thoth respectively). Needless to say, these are faith-based paths, and they are therefore subject to the criticism of those who are not prone toward such paths. These are difficult subjects to wrap our minds around . . . perhaps the mysterious forces that govern such phenomenon can never be truly known until we personally experience such things for ourselves?

Krow

Blessings.

Vito Cipponeri