It’s cheesy, but what else are we going to do in life?
Tally ho!
After Goa, I set out to find my Nadi leaf! I’d forgot where I first heard about Nadi leaves, perhaps it was on my last trek through India/ Nepal 6 years ago or perhaps earlier. The story tells of a sage/guru Agastya Maharishi who transcribed a conversation (5000 years ago) between the Hindu gods Parvati and Shiva, in which the request was asked, “Tell me the story of all my children”. That conversation was eventually transcribed onto thousands of palm leaves in the ancient Tamil language. An individual who feels inclined to search out their leaf, will find an astrologer who can interpret the appropriate leaf. On it will be their current life situation, the past lives, the current life’s past, their future, the circumstances surrounding their death in this life time, their future life, and their enlightenment.
So in researching this topic, an individual will find a lot of information pointing in different directions. The best lead I had was that I should go to Banglore, the actual main reason I decided to travel south after Dehli, not because of Goa, that was just a bonus 🕺.
My doctor in Dehli told me of a friend he had in Banglore that could give me more info. After repeated follow ups, he told me that actually his friend had no idea, but he, my doctor, did a google review search in the area, and gave me the name of place to go.
I took an overnight non a/c sleeper bus to Banglore from Goa. I could open the window. It was amazing.
I arrived in Banglore and checked into a “hostel”. Actually it was more like a temporary residence for mostly young men studying for their masters. It was also open to backpackers. I had 3 long term roommate residents in my room. The spacious room had a private bathroom and a study room. In a separate building was the kitchen/dining room where 3 meals/ day were provided to the residents, although as a short term visitor, I could only have breakfast.
After arriving at 6am. I checked into my hostel and headed straight to the astrologer’s office/ home. I was really excited. I thought, “He must know I am coming. I’ve been wanting to do this for years. He will have a red carpet rolled out for me”. Upon arrival at his place, I did not find a red carpet, but there was a red door mat!
As I eagerly awaited to see him outside his office, I suddenly got a sensation that I can best describe as a ‘crystal high’. This is the best way I know how to describe the situation and it won’t make any sense to the individual who has not worked the energies of crystals but it is the sensation you get when holding onto a piece of quartz crystal for a long time. I felt light headed. I could feel the space around my body and especially my head as a definitive bubble. My aura? Perhaps it was lack of sleep or the combination of that with the fact I hadn’t eaten since the afternoon the day before. In any case the sensation was just like a crystal high and it hit almost immediately upon being told to have a seat and wait outside for the astrologer to get ready. If you believe in/ know what the crown chakra is, then I would describe it as something activating up there. My interpretation of that is the presence of high truth. I believed there was something sacred about this space/person/ the events about to transpire.
The astrologer, Guruji, calls me in, takes my thumb print, and leaves the room. He had a kind and patient persona about him. Thirty minutes later he comes back with a leaf bundle. My instructions were simple, answer y/n to the following questions. If there was a leaf that produced in succession all y’s, then that was my leaf. This is the indexing process, the lengthiest part. He went through each leaf, reading aloud in Tamil then translating to English. He makes various statements. If I said “no” he would skip to the next Nadi leaf. Every statement must be true, then we would have located my leaf. He began. Some of the statements were immediately very specific and accurate. For instance, my mother’s name, my birthdate, and my disposition on marriage. Amazing, but unfortunately for as specific as the agreements were, they were all accompanied by a false statement. What I deduced from the experience was that people who share similar thumbprints have surprisingly specific commonalities.
Sadly my leaf was not in a bundle he had. He said he would visit his ashram in a few weeks to exchange his bundles for new ones and that we would continue our conversation virtually in the future. I left his office in a ‘crystal high’ daze, and hungry. I walked toward a major street to call a taxi back home and, randomly on the way, saw a curious site, a pair of pitch black chickens. Every part of them was black.
I came to find out later that these are Ayam Cemani chickens. The most expensive chickens in the world. They are black inside out. Their bones and flesh are black. They are status symbols in some countries and are believed to bring good luck, guard against supernatural forces, be a purification vessel, absorb negative energy, and associated with spiritual communication abilities.
I was a bit dissatisfied not finding my leaf so sought out another astrologer. This next one was younger. As we went through the indexing process, he seemed a bit more frustrated. Perhaps it was due to my not easily understanding his accent, or that he had to explain his statements in more detail. Some of the statements were quiet broad and undefined. It turned out he didn’t have my leaf either. I couldn’t find any other suitable astrologer in the city. Upon some overdue research, I came to find out that actually the main place, and birthplace, for Nadi leaf readings was a place called Vaitheeswaran Koil.
It was a 9 hour bus ride away. I booked an over night bus and was off. The journey to the departure point was a bit disorderly. According to the app in which I booked the bus ticket, the departure point sent me to a location that in a dark alley, with no signs of a bus stop, located next to a major street. I asked at a nearby petrol station. A taxi driver joined the conversation I was having with the petrol attendant. He offered to take me down the road to the supposed location. He dropped me off in front of another petrol station and assured me the bus would stop there. There were many buses passing by. None were stopping at this point. I was a bit distraught at this point, as the departure time was nearing. Fortuitously, three young ladies/ angels, offered to help. They called the customer service number, which only could have been done from an Indian SIM card, and likely could have only been understood by someone who spoke Hindi. They walked me around the corner to another busy street to another bus stop. There after some time, a tardy bus arrived. I was so grateful that the universe sent the timely necessary help I needed to get me to the proper departure point, because there was no way I’d have made it there on my own.
I made it to Vaitheeswaran Koil the next day at 5:30am. Surprisingly there were people out and about. It was a small town with a surreal quality to it. I checked into a desolate hotel, walked around a bit, then returned to nap. The town’s center is the large Vaitheeswaran temple. There is a purification pond in the temple that is reputed for curing all diseases for those who bathe in it. The water was a bit unsanitary looking, nonetheless, there were people bathing. I stuck me feet in for a moment then pulled them out almost immediately, fearing I’d get some kind of infection.
Using a variety of means, I began my search for an astrologer. This part was exhausting. There were a lot of scammers about. At one point, I was in one astrologer’s office who supposedly found my leaf. At that point though, I had divulged so much info about myself through the y/n question process, that when he had found my leaf, I had no reason to believe that what was being said was anything other than regurgitated info. I explained to him that I didn’t believe he had my leaf and walked out. That was kind of a surreal moment too. He potentially had my leaf in hand, but my intuition was completely unconvinced.
I went back to nap at my hotel and resumed the search that evening. I found one astrologer who seemed somewhat convincing other than the fact he was trying to discretely snaffle more money from me (unsuccessfully) at opportune moments. It was not to say that his reading was not accurate, because objectively, a lot of the indexing process was spot on. Despite this, the quality of his reading was debased by his pilfering attempts.
Its like making a palatable delicacy with high quality ingredients then ruining the whole thing by squeezing a bitter lime over it. Tragic.
I left his office with a sense of alleviation, not because I had confidence in his reading and that I found my leaf, but because it was over. I could, at least in some superficial temporary way, let it go.
Chasing after some item that supposedly has your whole story/ destiny on it can be cumbersome and an easy/burdensome attachment to acquire. I emerged, in a kind of blissful, relief. I wandered aimlessly back into the Vaitheeswaran temple, looking at the details on ceiling, watching people make offerings, and watching the men in ceremonial garb play loud instruments as they paraded through the temple. It was kind of like another world, an older time.
