By Mandara Vishwanath
We did a little digging into the life and times of Kulkarni, and found out that she has a lot to tell the world. Her book, ‘Autobiography of an Yogini’, published in late 2012, reveals her personal spiritual experiences as lessons of life to be taught to everyone. Kulkarni knew she was the chosen one. Here are some significant moments from her autobiography.
The Girl Has No Name
“Divine mother Parvati came to my grandmother and told her that she would be born into the family as her granddaughter who should be named after her. And so I was named Padmavati at birth.” She later goes on to say that her name was supposed to be Yamaii (another name for Parvati, according to Kulkarni) because Padmavati is an alias for Goddess Lakshmi.”
Well, divine mother or not, Kulkarni was convinced she had supernatural powers.
Water Therapy
“When I was playing with my friends in the kitchen with water one tap did not work. My friends tried making it work but they failed. So I told them by accident, ‘see now I will touch the tap and water will pour.’ As I went and touched the tap, water came pouring down!”
This is the point in the book when I realised I wanted Mamta as a roommate.
Sun Worship
“And then, as an adult, her spiritual experiences grew starker, more vivid, and hypnotic.“While shooting in Mauritius at sunset, I was gazing at the sun for several minutes and saying ‘Om namo bhagavate vasudevai nama’, and suddenly the sun rotated 360 degrees in spirals and came charging towards me.”
Temple Darshan
Convinced that she was born for higher purposes than for simple human existence, Kulkarni dedicated a major part of her life to travelling to temples and mystical mountains in search of a guru who would guide her.
Her search came to an end when she found in Shree Gagangiri Maharaj.
“This was the first time in my life I was seeing a sage, before this I only saw them on television or while reading Bhagawad Gita or Ramayana. I thought, if he is indeed a trikaal darshiya (someone who knows the past, present and future), he should know what is going on in my mind. So I put my first question to him in my mind, he looked up and answered me aloud. I was taken aback. I put forward my second question and he answered again!”
Eat Pray Guru
And then Mamta writes about how you can identify a good guru:
“Remember ‘Gautam Buddha’, think of ‘Shiva’ and look at your Guru, if he resembles them in his speech, actions, behaviour then he will be above ordinary. He will have magnetic qualities, probably no speech, he will have a very peaceful personality like my sage.”
We have to admit that only the Photoshop work on this image from her book is terrifying.
So how does one find this guru who is ordained as the ‘guru of all gurus’ by the “All India Guru Foundation”?
“Simply go on YouTube and type mamtaGirjaki and you see videos dedicated to the great master. http://youtu.be/qkdyoUC4uos type this url and you can watch the SAGE and his teachings in video form”.
Of course, YouTube is very sorry that this video is unavailable. But Kulkarni will not give up. She feels burdened with the responsibility to pen down her experiences and her change of heart in adopting a more righteous way of life so that future generations will not ‘deteriorate’ in the same manner that the present generation is.
“What type of deteriorated future are we going to offer the future to come, this made me to have pen to book as many lives are already destroyed, to stop future generation not to be sweeped in extreme directions and behaviours.”
Lastly, if you have any queries, questions, or would like to share your experience after having read the book then you can just email her and she will respond to you! No, she won’t make a public appearance or tell the world where she lives, but if you email her about your spiritual experience with the sage then it is up for debate.
And for a parting note, Mamta says: “Good luck till then. Please email me on how felt as this book is still not finished. It is kept as an open debate, anyone can question, come for solution or query.”
This was really rather nice. It’s hard to dislike Mamta Kulkarni.