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This is the captivating story of a young New Zealand woman who, in 1973, threw
away a promising academic career to pursue a spiritual quest in India. For this
revised edition of her 1988 book, The Serpent Rising, Mary Garden has rewritten
the narrative in the first person and included additional perspective in hindsight,
though more is available on her website and perhaps a follow-up book is warranted.
While her quest extended over seven years, only a few of the early years are
covered in any detail. Her intended first destination was a Hindu yoga ashram
in the Himalayan foothills near Rishikesh, but instead she sidetracked to the
Sai Baba enclave, where she spent countless hours waiting for the „avatar‰ to
appear at darshan. Rejection and illness (as well as rumours of the guru‚s
predilection for male disciples) soon gave her the impetus to continue her journey
to the intended foothills but, instead, she found herself in the clutches of
one Swami Balyogi ŒPremvarni („Swamiji‰), who had not long before
founded the International Yoganta Foundation. What followed was a path that wavered
between joy and fear, bliss and denial, freedom and slavery.
This journey into deep spirituality and devotion is soured by all-too-worldly
jealousy, anger and betrayal as Mary and other women at the ashram contend with
the changing faces presented by their beloved, omniscient, „celibate‰ guru.
Was it all just a cosmic game and karma being played out, or was it a cosmic
con perpetrated by a dangerous mind/energy manipulator? Having come through it
all, Mary tends towards the latter. Spending time at Buddhist Vipassana retreat
and with the Rajneeshes on a later visit to India, she returned to Swamiji‚s
ashram to take charge of her life at last.
Her story is a cautionary tale for spiritual seekers even today, lest they suspend
their mental faculties and lose their own power.
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