Return of the Ring

You may think of Tolkien when you read the title, but this story isn’t fantasy. It’s true.

In August my husband and I traveled to Houston, Texas, were we were initiated in a type of yoga called Kriya Laya. It’s not as mysterious as it sounds. It’s really a more gentile or forgiving form of the popular Kriya Yoga brought to the West by Paramahansa Yogananda. Many have read “Autobiography of a Yogi.”

Our teacher, Swami Vidyadhishananda, a Himalayan Monk, is in fact in the lineage of Yogananda. His teacher was Paramahamsa Hariharananda and his teacher was Sri Yukteswar who was also Yogananda’s teacher.

The day before my birthday Chris and I took initiation. The ceremony was more special than we thought since husbands and wives got to do it together. Swami said it was like a re-marriage, and it was. Over the course of the days after our initiation we practiced our yoga/meditation and on the night we left we celebrated in the home of one of the devotees the birthday party of Lord Krishna. There were music and dance performances. Our teacher spoke. There was a vegetarian feast afterward. Some were fasting and broke their fast at midnight.

An altar of fruit and flowers was prepared for Lord Krishna. We all sat huddled together cross-legged on the floor. The altar was just inches to my left. I hadn’t brought fruit or flowers. But I started thinking of how pivotal this was in my life and wanted to put something on the altar. I thought about our re-marriage, about my birthday being in August, and about Lord Krishna’s birthday being in August. I slid off my birthstone ring, a peridot heart, which I wear as an engagement ring. Hearts have always been the symbol for Chris and I. It all seemed to fit. With a rush of love I anonymously laid it down on a tray beside some fruit. I really didn’t know if this was proper or not. I don’t profess to know much about Hinduism. For me, seeking and learning about God, in whatever form God or love is presented, is the ultimate religion and above any dogmas. I’m really just at the kindergarten level in all of this.

Now, don’t think I’m so totally unselfish. If I were a truly giving person perhaps I would have laid my wedding band down as well, but I didn’t. I’m not writing this to be glorified in any way. It’s the glory of the miracle that happened I’m writing about. I didn’t think much about the loss of the ring, except for when I would out of habit occasionally push my thumb over to absent-mindedly move it back in place, as I often would do since it was always a little loose on me. I thought the ring would merely get thrown out. Monetarily it had very little value if any at all. The only value the ring had was its significance in our relationship.

A couple of months passed. The phone rang. The call was from Geeta in West Virginia. The cleaning people had found the ring in the home in Texas and given it to the owner who was trying to trace the owner. No one who had been at the party from Texas had claimed it, so they the only place left to ask was in West Virginia. There were two women from West Virginia who went and myself from Kentucky. I was the last one they called. I felt so bad that they went through this trouble. When Geeta asked if it were my ring I stuttered and say well yes and no. It was mine, but I gave it as an offering, at the same time thinking maybe how stupid this might have been. She put me on speakerphone and told me to repeat the story. I think someone had tears at the other end.

I really didn’t feel that the ring was mine anymore, and I didn’t know what to do in this instant, but then she asked if I wanted Swami to bless the ring. Now, I was dropping a tear. I said, “Wow, yes, that would be great,” or something to that effect.

A week or so later Geeta let me know she had the “blessed ring.” I actually tried fasting a few days before getting the ring, thinking this might purify me a little. Along with it was some precious ash which I’m stingily using just a speck of at a time. When I first put the ring on I felt a vibration I can’t explain – something really light. I wear it intermittently on both my finger and on a change where it touches my heart.

Right before we left for Lord Krishna's Party.