‘Sapta Shring is a physical representation of the Divine Power’

Sapta Shringh is part of a long line of mountains stretching north into Gujerat and south joining the Western Ghats. The mountain of Sapta Shringh itself stands over 4,000 feet, a 'Shakti Peeth' sacred to the Divine Mother for thousands of years. Its origins as a Shakti Peeth go back to the ancient sage Markendeya, who performing tapas on the adjoining mountain, realized the primordial rock of Sapta Shringh which majestically faced him, to be the Divine Power made manifest. This vertical sliver of rock which rises from the 4,000-foot plateau is nearly two miles long and seems to be tilted slightly as if listening to Markendeya's hymns of praise and longing. The temple of the mother is plugged into the rock like a light bulb in order to manifest light to the devotees.

It was also where Matsyendranath, the founder of the famous 'Nath' tradition, did penance. The Naths produced such exalted saints as Jnaneshwar Maharaj, who is one of the most important figures in the Marathi mystical tradition. It is significant that the Naths are exponents of the science of Siddha Yoga, one of whose adepts was Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa, who was later to become Laxmi Narayan's guru.

So it was that in about 1953 destiny finally brought Laxmi Narayan to the long, winding, three-and-one-half-mile path leading from the plain to this same mountain of Sapta Shringh and up to the 4,000-foot plateau, or ‘gadh’, with its stupendous view of the plains stretched out below. Mounting the last 200-odd steps leading up to the temple, he finally stood in front of the Divine Mother. As he gazed at the red, eighteen-armed figure a flower decorating Her detached itself and fell, striking him. A profound experience occurred in which he recognized the image he had seen so many years before as a child.

After all those years of seeking, Laxmi Narayan had come home. He was to remain in Sapta Shringh for 27 years. In the past a huge boulder had detached itself from the towering rock and crashed down to the plateau. It was from this rock that a cave had been fashioned, and here Laxmi Narayan now lived and meditated on the Mother whose form loomed above him. This cave, called Nagendra cave, stands a few yards from the perimeter of what later became his ashram.

The process of transformation from the human earthly consciousness to divine consciousness now began in earnest. About his actual sadhana with its hardships, joys, disappointments and eventual realization we can only guess, but the utter simplicity of the first three years he spent in Nagendra cave can be inferred from his own brief description.

My habit whilst in that cave was to go to the Ganga Jamuna pool which was one-half mile distant to take my bath and bring two buckets of water back to the cave. Any excess was used on the tomatoes I had planted. A tiger used to come and sit on one of the rocks near the cave. In those days tigers roamed freely.

His food often consisted of fruit and leaves. It was for Laxmi Narayan the time of his great penance. Having found his true Mother in the Divine Mother Herself, he surrendered himself to Her, mind, body, and soul, as Markendeya had done before him on the neighboring mountain thousands of years ago. From his very occasional remarks about those days, we know he often addressed his burning devotion to the Divine Mother in the form of the "Kunjika Stotra." This hymn of praise to the Divine Mother is revealed by Shiva to Parvati, in which he explains that for one who has no knowledge or means of puja or ritual at his disposal, it is enough merely to recite the Siddha Kunjika hymn, which is itself complete as the key of liberation. Once Swamiji mentioned how one day the sound of the omnipresent cosmic vibration-nada- revealed itself to him and indeed, never left his awareness.

Perhaps his realization and experience at that time expresses itself best in his own comments on the true significance of Sapta Shringh, about which he would say the following.

Christians go to church, Muslims go to the mosque, so we should also visit the Divine Mother at least once a month, on the full moon day.1 One life force works through the body, speaking through the mouth, smelling through the nose, hearing through the ears, seizing through the hands, and excreting through the anus. Similarly, in the world, different places represent different manifestations of the one divine power or spirit. Sapta Shringh is the abode of Raja Rajeshwari, meaning king of kings. The yogis know Her to dwell within and call Her Kundalini. The Nath Panthis gave the mountain the name Sapta Shringh, symbolizing the seven chakras (energy centers) through which Kundalini passes. The seventh chakra is called sahasrar, the thousand-petaled lotus, and when she reaches there, a nectar falls. This is symbolized by the half moon on the statue, and the snake at the top of her head is Kundalini. When the individual soul drinks that nectar, it becomes immortal, returns to universal consciousness and never again suffers in the cycle of birth and death. Shiva, the supreme consciousness or plenitude, dwells in the sahasrar, and when the individual soul re-unites with Him, it attains moksha or liberation.

The mountain of Sapta Shringh is a physical manifestation of the divine power, the Shakti. If you look at a Shri Yantra, you will see that the bindu (point) in the middle and the various geometrical points are represented physically by Sapta Shringh as the central bindu, and by the various mountains in a fifteen-mile radius, which represent the geometrical points of the yantra.