Allahu Akhbar!
God is great!
Yes.
Didn't think I'd stay up writing another update so soon but a day like today demands it. Yesterday I left off with a plan to hit Santa Fe for a true New Mexican lunch, and then on to Taos to find Ronda, whom I've been tracking down for years.
A little backstory. Right at the end of college I noticed a little store across from Wegmans in Ithaca advertising aromatherapy. Curiously explorative, inside I found out about the world of essential oils. The idea that the essence of a plant could be captured was just magic to me. Thus began a long and intensive exploration of all things related to essential oils, which went hand in hand with my deep rooted obsession for the finest of incense. In this little Ithaca shop I purchased my first clay diffuser. It was a nice diffuser and one that I held sacred, as it was a companion for me during the initial phase of my experimentation with meditation. Driving across the country to California, I took great care that this diffuser would not break. One day while repacking the car on the way to Taos, I took out the diffuser and laid it on the side of the road so it would be safe. We took about 10 minutes to pack the car, during which not a single person even came close to the diffuser, thus I was shocked to find it sitting cracked in two, exactly where I left it.
Woh to me! I was on a mission now to find a new one. I asked all around Taos where I could find an aromatherapy shop and was directed to go up the stairs of a certain gallery to a room with no signage and no indication of what might lay behind the door. This is where I met Ronda. Rather I should say, inside the mostly empty wooden room I found a glowing angelic being whose name was Ronda. It was as if she was waiting for me. She took me over to the small section of wall which had anything on it and proceeded to show me the finest essential oils I've ever come across. Ancient frankincense, aged Egyptian amber, Linden blossom & mandarin were just a few of her fantastic scents. Her custom blends were also Divinely inspired and I grabbed a whole bunch up. Then came the mammer jammer. The oil to end all oils. The true, the one, the only - the rarest of the rare - Oud. Yes, Oud. You may know it as agarwood, or else aloeswood. What is it? There is a certain tree which grows mainly in southeast Asia. When this tree dies or is weakened it gets taken over by a type of fungus which feeds upon the tree's sap. The fungus grows on the tree, and as it ages it forms a most fantastic and intoxicating scent. This is Aloeswood. The best Aloeswood is gotten from trees which have fallen and been buried underground for hundreds of years. This kind of prized Aloeswood, called Kyara, is worth it's weight in gold. Oud is the essential oil of Aloeswood, and has long been considered the most precious, rare and prized of scents. Ronda proceeded to give me one drop ($30), which has lasted in fragrance to this day. How to describe the scent of Oud? Nearly impossible. The mind cannot understand it, and thus is inclined to come back and smell it again and again. A little bit on the skin can be maddening. It's like an ever deep black hole emanating a hint of deep, earthy, woodsy mystery.
Yes. I wanted to find Ronda again. She was a marker on my journey, and I wanted to pay her tribute.
So I left Albuquerque with directions to the finest unknown restaurant in Santa Fe where I might find some real Southwestern cookin. All was going well until following the directions I was given I found myself heading deeper and deeper into the mountains, all amidst a spontaneous and heavy snowstorm. By the time I got myself fixated, Guadalupe's cafe was closed and would only re-open for dinner. It was 3 O'clock, snowing heavily, roads were slushy and I needed to rethink my plan. I decided to visit the Annapurna cafe, already knowing that they would have fantastic chai and wireless internet access. As I walked in, the caretaker of a small giftshop struck up a conversation with me. It's apparently clear to New Mexicans that I'm an out of towner. Not sure what gives me away, but wearing jeans & a sweatshirt is likely a good beginning point. So he strikes up a conversation, and when he finds out I'm heading to Taos, he and the only patron of the shop try in their most spiritually sensitive polite way to convey what a pure dumbass I am. I keep insisting, because I'm on a mission after all, and they keep persisting "You are a dumbass. Stay in Santa Fe." What are you looking for anyway? the guy asks me. Ronda. Oils. Full circle. Connection. "Well," he tells me, "there is apparently a lady in town who has some of the best oils around, including a large selection of Oud." <ding,ding> It must be Ronda I think to myself, who else would have it so? And in any case, all my internet sleuthing only led me to conclude that neither Ronda nor her shop exist any longer in Taos. What was I going to do, walk into the center of town in a middle of a snow storm and ask around for her? (Yes. Dumbass.) Ok then, let's see who this lady in Santa Fe is, after all, oud is oud and that's all I could, should or would ask for in an aromatherapist. Ok, do we know her name? No. Her address? No. Her shop name? No. What do we know then? We know that his friend Peter (who just left the place a minute ago) knows who she is, but we don't know how to reach Peter. "Peter? I have Peter's number" says the lady who just walks in. Well, ok then. Now through Peter we know this lady's first name (Christa) and her business name. Oh, but her website is down, and there is no address for her. Well, that's no troubling matter for this internet sleuth, who has wasted many a year of his life tracking down people on the internet in order to avoid facing real life. It wasn't easy, but I came up for air with her full name and her phone number. Wasn't too hard to reach her, and yes, she could see me today. Plus, as a bonus point, Doug (the helpful shopkeeper), the lady who had Peter's number & I all realized that we had seen each other at Ammachi's ashram back in California sometime back. We were not strangers after all.
So, now a change of plan. I'm going to book myself into the local hostel, go get me some Oud, and enjoy the finest New Mexican meal for dinner. Taos would have to wait for another day. But wait, the room assigned to me at the Hostel was fittingly the "Taos" room. What a nice joke. So I'll end up in Taos anyway. And so driving to the Oud lady, I thought myself to have had yet another colorful adventure, which would all end with me sitting around the hostel lounge sharing stories with all the beautiful ladies who would obviously still be hanging out late night when I return.
Wrong. It gets even better, and this is why I testify that God is great.
Christa was waiting for me as I pull up to my destination, a small enclave of artist studios (Adobe style) sitting by a small creek in rural Santa Fe. She is impressed by my car and comes for a closer look. A pamphlet sitting in my trunk catches her eye. "Wait, I think I've met him before." she exclaims. "Who, Gurunath?" "Yes! Me & Michael met him here in Santa Fe many years ago. We were just talking about finding him again the other day. I've been all around the Kriya Yoga world and Yogananda for many years, and we want to get initiated into Kriya Yoga." <jaw drops>. Okkkk .. is this really happening again? It seems every day, everywhere I go, I keep running into people who want to learn Kriya Yoga - but people who want to learn, and have met Gurunath, and were actively thinking of seeking him out again? It's too much. I go upstairs and meet Michael (who looks like a cross between Christopher Reeve and Christian Bale, so, Superman and Batman). Michael is slightly shocked - "So you are a disciple of Siddhanath?? We saw him speak once, but there was no opportunity to get initiated then, and his presence made such an impact that I remember nearly everything he said to this day." He continued "We had a precious oil we wanted to gift him, but so many people were crowding him we didn't want to push through, so we are going to give it to you to give to him." Precious oils? My right brow raises. Yes, I did come here to see precious oils. But what's this Christa, you have *every* single precious and rare oil I have ever dreamed of smelling? Oh, and you also make them into hydrosols that one can drink (and get high), and what's that? You distill these oils yourself? Oh, and you happen to have a collection of 20 different kinds of the most rarest of rare Oud in the world? Oh, really? You want me to stay in your house tonight while we sample all the different oils and wonder about the vast and unintelligible mystery which brought us together this evening? Ok. Done. Done (and done).
What is the point of all this story really? It's really that I am just a dumbass who makes silly plans that never work out but who also happens to be studying under a great living Master who has laid a clear path of service before me. Just by choosing to take it - just by choosing to overcome the fear of taking that first step, then taking that second first step, and so on, just by choosing to do that, everyday unfolds as a miracle. Every interaction becomes a testimony to the potency of these teachings. Every moment becomes and opportunity to remember "It's not me, it's He, it's He." How many little things had to come together for this to happen? The bad directions, the weather, finding out about Annapurna yesterday, the gift shop, the lady in line, the pamphlet sticking out of the trunk. Who or what is guiding this process? It's not me. Can't be any clearer.
And so indeed we dined as the oldest of new friends on the finest New Mexican cuisine. We then immersed ourselves in the intoxication of the most amazing scents collected through the years by this most amazing interesting lady, and her partner, superbatman. Some of what we sampled? Clary sage (gets you high), aged frankincense, osha root, osis (unbelievable), pinion, jasmine sambac, several roses, aged mysore sandalwood, saffron (!), real ambergris (washed up on shore from the sperm whale), blue lotus (a miracle), and Oud, Oud, Oud, Oud, Oud. I'm going to bed tonight with a haze of Oud infiltrating my mental sphere. Tomorrow she is making up a package of these precious ones so that I can take them with me and share them with you.
Allahu Akhbar!
www.youtube.com/hamsayogi
http://www.oriscent.com/Ag
(soon to come) www.aromabotanica.com
Comments