Path of the Spiritual Warrior: Agastya Cave

The following is an excerpt from Lindsey Wei (魏诚灵）‘s forthcoming book ’Path of the Spiritual Warrior: Life and Teachings of Muay Thai Fighter Pedro Solana‘ to be published by Purple Cloud Press by mid-October:

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In the morning we were to gather for coffee and cookies at Kru’s and then head the countryside in his truck. I woke up feeling quite sick and nauseous. I wasn’t sure if it was jetlag or adjusting to new food and water in Thailand. We were headed to a small traditional mountain village about 40 minutes away. Kru’s plan was to show us the place where he intended to open a temple to Agastya.

I was excited to go into the mountains and see the place where Kru had been inner guided to create a place of worship and healing. The Nadi leaves had written of it. However, I felt extremely uncomfortable the entire time while students and Kru chatted over coffee. I felt a mix of nausea and anxiety. A thought crossed my mind that I had experienced the feeling before in thick energetic fields, as well as when I was unable to accept something that had happened or was happening. I paced around looking out at the sunrise and trying to breath in and out. I realized I had forgotten my notebook in my room at the guesthouse and decided I could bike back quickly while they were talking and still be ready to go on time. Riding the bike helped ease my nausea and I appreciated the fresh wind on my face. When I got back to the school, 10 minutes later, they were loading up into the truck. They offered me a seat in the cab but I opted to ride in the pick up bed so that I wouldn’t feel confined and carsick. It was a beautiful ride into the jungle and I started to feel much better.

We drove up the windy switchback roads with giant bamboos arching across large old banyan trees gripped in vines. We arrived in the village just as they were beginning their new year’s festivities and were dressed in traditional clothing, playing games and enjoying festivities in the village center. Kru walked me over to the side of the slope where there was a view out to the next ridge. “There,” he pointed, “where the dead tree rises above the canopy and the live banyan tree next to it, on that peak is where we will build the Agastya Temple.”

“How did you choose the place?” I asked.

He grinned and said, “I was led there.”

We set off on foot up the village road, passing by drying coffee beans on stilted platforms off of stilted huts. Then we cut off onto a mountain trail through the coffee planted

slopes. We tasted a red coffee berry and I remarked how thick and tall the bamboos here grew. We reached the peak of a small hill and came to the old banyan tree which we

had seen next to the dead standing snag from afar.

The banyan tree is sacred in India as well as many Southeast Asian countries as it is believed that spirits, gods, and ancestors like to hang around these trees, causing the tree to emit a strong spiritual energy. In Hinduism, the leaf of the banyan tree is said to be the resting place for the god Krishna. Krishna speaks of the tree in the Bhagavad Gita saying, “There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down, the Vedic hymns are its leaves. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas.”

The upside down tree he speaks of is the reflection of a banyan on the edge of the water. The reflection represents the material world resting upon the waters as an illusion, a shadow of the spiritual world which would be the truth.

Kru kept asking us how we felt, so we wandered around a bit, sensing and taking in the energy of the place. There were 5 of us, students of Kru, and Kru himself. We sat around the banyan tree and Kru said we could find a place to meditate with the cushions we had brought while he set up a small altar to Agastya. He brought the framed picture of the ancient sage from the altar at the academy. Agastya sat upright in lotus with topknot on his head, long thick beard, shirtless with rosary beads around his neck. Kru had brought a candle, incense and phuang malai the Thai flower garland offering. We settled into our lotus positions for meditation and listened to Kru, kneeling before the altar at the base of the banyan tree. He prayed out loud that Agastya would guide us if this place was meant to be a place of worship and healing. A place to help raise the vibration of humanity. He asked that Agastya would bless us with a clear sign for us to understand what we were meant to do.

I listened to the prayer and closed my eyes entering meditation. Almost as soon as I closed my eyes, things began to happen.