I vaguely remember the night of March 1, 1976, when Mark Griffin introduced me to Baba Muktananda. It was a leap year. Mark had met Baba on February 28, two days earlier. February 28 was the day following Mahashivratri, the Great Night of Shiva, and Mark had gone to the Oakland Ashram with a friend and mentor who was visiting from Seattle to see his Guru, Swami Muktananda, during Baba’s Second World Tour.
Even though I had been initiated into Transcendental Meditation sometime in the previous year, I wasn’t particularly drawn to Gurus. Transcendental Meditation did not significantly impact me; however, I also did not have a committed TM practice. I remember only a few details of the evening I met Baba. The Arati, the waving of lights ritual to honor the Guru and the Lineage, with the conches, drums, incense, and flames, was such a wild performance — thrilling but alien to me.
I remember laying eyes on Baba when he first walked into the room. With one glance, I knew in my heart that I had always loved him. I actually do not remember anything about going up in the darshan line to meet Baba. It’s lost in the Sands of Time and the nuclear blast wave of the Shakti. But, I do remember that after the program, I was sitting outside in the car that we rode in, and I started to repeat the mantra that was written on the mantra card Baba had given me. The mantra was “Om Namah Shivaya.”
The mantra started to vibrate inside of me immediately. My only previous experience with mantra had been the “jada” (inert) mantra of the TM practice. And this new mantra was obviously of a different order. It was chaitanya — conscious. I said to myself, “That’s some mantra.” Thus, I began my intimate relationship with the mantra and the Matrika Shakti.
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