-An excerpt from an interview with Ramananda John E. Welshons

NILS MONTAN: Didn’t you also meet Swami Muktananda?

RAMANANDA JOHN WELSHONS: Yes. And he was another significant influence. I first encountered him when I was in graduate school at FSU in 1977. I went to the local Siddha Yoga center in Tallahassee and saw a video tape of him. That night, immediately after seeing that video, the quality and character of my meditation experience changed dramatically. I went home and experienced extraordinary waves of kundalini energy – and shakti – that I had never previously experienced. And I thought, “WOW! If he can transmit that kind of shakti through a video, he must be a pretty amazing teacher!”

A few years later – in 1980 – I met Baba Muktananda at his ashram in South Fallsburg, New York, and went back to visit him on several occasions after that. As soon as I met him, I didn’t want to leave the ashram. I wound up staying for four days, when I had originally thought I was just dropping by. I just went up to the front desk and said, “Can I have a room. I don’t want to leave.” I just wanted to keep floating in his aura. His influence on me was profound, but primarily energetic. He specialized in transmitting shaktipat. He could awaken amazing outpourings of spiritual energy – or kundalini – just through his glance, or his touch, or his Presence. He could intuitively remove blockages in your chakra system. Being with him was like getting your atman (soul) steam-cleaned and revitalized. He was like a transmitting station for all the spiritual energy in the Universe. It was truly mind-boggling. I would have to say that he was the most powerful teacher I have ever met in physical form – and I have met some amazing teachers! Being in Muktananda’s aura was just awesome. The atmosphere at his ashram was palpable. It was like walking into a warm, thick ocean of shakti, and bathing in it for as long as you stayed.

But Baba Muktananda’s influence on me was just in one specific area – like a medical specialist you go to for a specific treatment. Meher Baba and Neem Karoli Baba are much more like “general practitioners,” and I feel them much more deeply in my heart. They are not just teachers of Love . . . they are Love. Muktananda – for me – was more like a skilled surgeon who could unlock specific energies and clean out certain channels.

-Nils Montan is a writer and social commentator who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Southern Brazil.