After four months of epic adventures and transcendent moments of eternity, the journey In the Footsteps of My Master throughout India has led me home. It is here at the YSS Ashram in Ranchi, where Yogananda received his calling to go to the West, that this stage of my spiritual pilgrimage comes to a close, and from where I will make a new beginning in the ever-turning wheel of awakening.

It is not where I planned to conclude the journey, but the lineage of Great Masters – Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar, and Paramahansa Yogananda – took control of my trip months ago. They led me where I needed to go, and when I needed to be there. This has happened so many times, and with such success, since they first called me on this journey last September — when I was just starting the Wheels of Awakening motorcycle pilgrimage — that I surrender to their will with ease. They do a much better job managing my life than I!

In many ways, Yogananda would have been happy living the life of an illumined yogi in a remote cave high in the Himalayas. The sacred mountains called to him throughout his youth, and many times he tried to answer that calling. God and the Great Ones had other plans. At Ranchi the final call was made to him to depart for America immediately for his chosen mission: to spread the liberating technique of Kriya Yoga to the West and to showcase the unity between the teachings of Jesus Christ and Bhagavan Krishna. And although he came to love America and its people, India forever called to him.

On March 7, 1952 he entered mahasamadhi (an illumined yogi’s conscious exit from this world) after delivering a speech honoring India at a banquet for the Indian Ambassador to the U.S. at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. He concluded his address by reciting his poem “My India,” ending with the lines: “Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves, and men dream God—I am hallowed; my body touched that sod”.

I find it ironic that my path goes in a separate direction, from West to East, and that I land in this very spot. I feel that I could easily have spent the rest of my life being a beach yogi meditating on the rocks in California. My last four years in Santa Barbara were a lifelong dream that God fulfilled for me. But rather than being an end, that was only the beginning: it is where I found Yogananda, but I have so much more to do. In so many joyful ways, this trip has shown me that again and again.

India opened her heart for me; I yearned to respond in kind. The Indian people embraced me like a long-lost brother who has finally arrived home.

I often think that I must have lived in India in a previous life: the connection is that strong. As crazy as it seemed — when I uprooted my life in California in 48 hours and traveled cross-country to dump the few belongings I still had — I had to make this journey.

In California I was still fighting with the universe. India and her ancient teachings taught me how to dance with the universe.

Dance, my children, dance!!

I thank those friends who have followed my trip here through the blog entries. I have felt you with me every step of the way! That is no exaggeration. You kept me going, kept me writing, kept me forever dancing! Thank you.

And now to finish the book. The first draft is almost done, and it should be finished sometime in the summer: In the Footsteps of My Master: Dancing with the Universe.