Whales and Spirituality

I am still on my vacation as I write my 2nd post. I am very grateful to the universe for blessing me with so much abhndence 🙏😊🤗. I am in another island of Hawaii at a different resort than before (the one I sort of mentioned in my last post). This is more inclusive and I have had wonderful experiences here so far. 

So there is this “resort activity” called the “sun awakening ritual” or “e ala e” in Hawaiian language, that is conducted every alternate day at 6:30 am. Today I partook in this ritual and had an extremely beautiful experience. It was conducted by a lady who is a native hawaiian and grew up here all her life. She is the ambassador of “aloha” at our resort and is in charge of introducing Hawaiian culture to the visitors. 

She started by teaching me 2 basic verses of a chant that I was to repeat after her while doing the ritual. Then she asked me to pluck as many leaves as the number of people I would like to bless (to be in my life), she asked me to include my ancestors too. I asked her if it was okay if I seeked blessings from them instead, and she said sure! (I guess, however you put it, the intention is the same). So we began our ritual. We faced east and she she began chanting the first 2 verses and I repeated after her. Later she finished the remaining of the chant. Then I was asked to face the ocean (which was behind us on the west side). There was a specific way I was required to turn towards the ocean, but I do not seem to remember it right now. Then I was asked to dig my feet deep in the sand until I felt a bit warm. She said this is to feel the land and to let the land feel you. She then asked me to open up my arms and stand as if I had nothing to hide, facing the ocean and to take deep breaths and try forgetting everything else. I obliged. Meanwhile she continously chanted. Then I was asked to step in the water and release the leaves I had plucked before, one by one in water. She said, her mom  taught her to always respect the ocean and to always bring it a gift. Be it a song, a message, a leaf, or anything. I started releasing the leaves in the waves one by one. My first leaf was for the ocean itself, thanking it for affecting all our lives in ways we know and don’t know about. Then subsequently, I began releasing leaves for other people too. Surprisingly I had plucked a leaf for Swamiji too! The thing is, I do follow him, but am not an avid devotee as most of you guys here are. So I was surprised his name came up in my mind while plucking those leaves for people who I wanted to bless or be blessed by in my life. Anyway, I was also asked to forgive, but I told the ocean I was not ready for that yet. I must mention, that while doing this ritual, I felt as if the entire ocean was listening to me, the waves felt more lively!  Then, I was asked to sprinkle some ocean water on myself as a way to purify myself. Then was asked to step back without turning my back to the ocean. As soon as we reached the last step of the ritual, we saw a whale swim not very far off from the shore. The lady got tears in her eyes. She said this was a very special thing as Hawaiians consider whales as their ancestors. She said this is a sign that our prayers were being heard. My writting is not doing any justice to what we experienced at that time. But I had to try. I am very extremly grateful to have experienced what I experienced today, it was like communicating with the ocean. And whales now hold a special place in my heart.