I’m enrolled in at an intensive course for business executives at Sri Bhagavan’s Oneness University located in Varadaiahpalem, a village in Chittoor district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India.
At the end of the second week of our course, we went to the famed Oneness Temple. This real life edifice looks like a sparkling white marble castle straight out of a Disney movie. It took several years to build and cost $17 million US dollars. At its grand opening in the year 2008, half a million visitors streamed through its walls experiencing states of ecstasy so blissful that when they refused to leave, the volunteers and monks had trouble evacuating them so that more people could enter.
121 of us marched up the Temple steps barefoot draped in white robes and prayer shawls. It felt like a living river of disciples. We chanted the Moola Mantra as we stepped and our voices echoed as one throughout the marbled fortress. The Moola Mantra is known to change every few months at Oneness, each one an upgraded version of the former. The purpose of the change is to increase the power generated when it is uttered with a clean heart and pure intention. The Moola Mantra in Sanskrit as of today is:
OM Shreem Sarveshwaraya Namaha.
Salutations to All That is.
OM Shreem Param Jyotiye Namaha.
Salutations to the Supreme Light.
OM Shreem Param Premaya Namaha.
Salutations to Sacred Love.
OM Shreem Param Kaarunyaaya Namaha.
Salutations to Sacred Kindness.
OM Shreem Param Pavithraya Namaha.
Salutations to Sacred Sacredness.
At the top floor of the temple, the most sacred of objects is located. It is the Golden Orb, a solid gold ball of about 36 inches in diameter upon a throne. It is said that the energy of the Phenomenon is held in that ball. When people are allowed to touch the Golden Orb upon completion of the 3 week course, they often fall on the ground in ecstasy, lose consciousness, have vivid wild visions, feel immense power or experience the flowering of the heart.
In Oneness, if you are Christian, you will experience the Phenomenon or divine grace as Christ. If you are Hindu, you will experience the Phenomenon as the pantheon of ancestors or gods such as Krishna, Ganesha, Vishnu, Kali, Lakshmi, Rama or others. If you are Muslim, you will experience the Phenomenon as Allah. If you are Buddhist, you will experience the Phenomenon as Buddha. Very often, people experience the Phenomenon as their own soul.
When the 121 of us arrived at the top floor of the Temple, we did a series of rituals including chanting, praying and laying prostrate towards the Sri Yantra which is a sacred geometry pattern made from precious gems that is embedded on the floor underneath a towering spire that is the roof of the Temple.
Beautiful music came over the speakers. We were instructed to stand up, close our eyes, raise our arms and begin spinning in a clockwise direction as fast as we could for a prolonged time. It felt like an hour, but it was most likely a shorter time period using a sacred number, such as 21 minutes or 49 minutes. After this, we were instructed to spin in the opposite direction, counter-clockwise. Many people did not make it that far. Vomiting ensued immediately. Crying, wailing, laughing and fits of bliss caused people to fall on the ground. A few were having what looked like epileptic fits, although they later reported remembering nothing but feeling joy. I managed to see blurry glimpses of this when I occasionally opened my eyes.
I made it through the entire episode, somehow. I was so dizzy at a certain point while I was spinning that I became terribly nauseous. Certain that it was from the chocolate I ate the day before and the coffee blended with ice cream today—I regretted not fasting beforehand. I sought the Divine for help and kept chanting over and over for 49 consecutive minutes or however long it lasted, “God help me.”
Because my plea did not seem to be working in English, I switched over to Portuguese, “Deus, me ajuda! Deus, me ajuda! Deus, me ajuda!”
Several minutes later that changed to, “God is helping me.” Then, soon it changed again to, “God is helping me win the Pulitzer.” I no longer cared what I was chanting, as long as I just kept chanting, I knew I could get through the gross sensations in my stomach.
I felt utterly helpless in my nausea. Then, I heard the voice of the Divine, “The reason you feel this way is because your body is burning trash. You have been eating trash.” By trash, the Divine was referring to the amazing gourmet cuisine of curries, noodles, rice dishes and deserts prepared for us by the cooks at Oneness University. It was far different fare from my normal diet of organic vegan and mostly raw food. But I figured that taking this expensive course was a splurge, both financially and gastronomically. So I ate with gusto.
But I felt so sick, while I continued to spin my body like a whirling darvish, that I immediately began apologizing to my body. “I’m so sorry. I poisoned you!” I placed my hand on my tummy and realized that it was boiling with acid and the food I had eaten this past week. Again and again, I apologize to my body. As I touched my mid-rift, I realized that my body was quite feminine. Not only feminine, but kind of sweet. I could not believe how callously I had fed her.
The Divine continued, “Your body feels nauseous because it is literally burning the trash you put into it. Your body is a trash burning factory.” This made me feel so horribly ashamed of having been so disrespectful. Images appeared in my mind of the oceans, seas, rivers and forests. God was showing me that just as man pollutes the earth, so had I polluted my body.
The Divine mocked every excuse I had when I ate those things. I heard in a ninny-like voice imitating myself, “But I like french fries. I wanted to eat those things.” Then I heard a chorus of supporters, people around me with positive body consciousness encouraging me not to judge or criticize myself for what I choose to eat and discouraging my holier-than-thou perfectionist attitude towards my diet.
The Divine responded, “As though—that were an excuse to pollute your body.” Again, it showed me an image of mankind polluting the oceans. “Just because you want to eat something, so you would give up being holy?”
A wave of nausea hit me and I vowed to practically never eat again. I was dry-heaving. “You poisoned your body,” the Divine accused me.
Then the Divine showed me the body of Jesus. Jesus was almost naked, stretched out before me. He had a beautiful body, a very attractive sexy body. The Divine said, “Is this what you would feed Jesus?” Then, poured onto Jesus’s naked body all the things I had eaten in the past few weeks. The Divine poured coffee and milk onto Jesus’s torso, then french fries and curry which I knew had butter in it. Then, some cake and pasta.
I realized that, “No way, holy moly, would I feed Jesus any of those processed dead foods!” Instead, I would feed him only living foods like raw organic vegetables and fruits with no sauces. No coffee. Just pure spring water from coconuts or streams coming down from the mountains.
The Divine repeated over and over again, “You have the body of Christ. You have the body of Christ. You have the body of Christ.”
The Divine said, “Your body is not your body. Your body belongs to the Divine. Just as you would not feed Jesus this food, why would you feed it to yourself? Why would you pollute yourself? You do not see the dasas polluting the Temple. Your body is a vehicle for grace. Just as you would not pollute the earth or her oceans, do not pollute your body.” 
