A Power of the Self that guides and teaches

Recently, and in fact over about the last 2-3 years, I have had a series of experiences which have led me to the definite conclusion that there is a power, a divine power of the Self, that guides and teaches us when we try sincerely to tread the path of yoga or divine realization. The more effort and energy one has put into the the path, the more particularized and intense the level on which this operates.
I know this is by no means a new idea, and of course, in the past I had had the idea that this is so based partly on my own life and partly on teachings recieved from 'outside'.
But what has been going on with me over these last years and esp the last few months, has led me to an actual realization of this truth, and a clear view of how it has been working in the background of my affairs, even against my own volition at times, for my advancement on the spiritual path.

For several years prior to the time mentioned above, I had been practicing forms of yoga, and studying yoga philosophy, as well as having come into personal relation with a spiritual teacher.
In many ways, all seemed to be going well, but for some reason, or for a number of reasons, I became somewhat distracted, and began to have many doubts.
These doubts began to grow, and to undermine my whole position in many ways. I don't think I need to go into the datail of the nature of these doubts, becasue it is only an underlying principle I want to try to illustrate here.
My own uncertainly became almost unbearable. What had seemed like light and bliss now began to sear and burn. The flames were fanned by the influence of other people, who although they are good people, were simply not in a position to understand what was going on in me.

Anyway, the result was that I began to feel I had taken a wrong direction with the whole yoga thing, and that I had better find something else. Perhaps part of me felt that the path is too demanding - as I say, I don't want to go into detail, and mention this because it shows that in effect, the ego and the old self was re-asserting its influence, but actually in a very subtle way, because the mind is very clever, and can find any number of reasons to support the will of the ego when the ego is in control.

Last summer/autumn, things got really intense. The light began to dawn on me, but somehow I had got into something I had to follow to the end. And it was still only a faint glimmer which my mind didn't want to listen to.
I ended up suffering a series of misfortunes of a quite extreme kind. I won't detail everything but here's an instance: I had an 'accident' whilst helping to erect a marquee. An ex-Hare Krishna devotee who was working with us dropped a 4 foot steel bar and it hit me on the head, nearly knocking me unconscious, and causing a large and painful swelling to the temple.

Somehow I knew this was because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and in turn this stemmed from my generally 'lost' condition - although at that point I wasn't fully admitting that to myself.
An even worse thing was to come. I became totally infatuated with a woman I met who was right at the end of an unhappy relationship, and had several months of intense twists and turns over it before it became clear to me that I was simply wasting my time and being used as a pawn in someones game. I went from feeling an intense but misplaced love, to feeling extremely empty and foolish.

I reached a very low state in some ways. My own inate self discipline just barely kept me going for a while.

It all turned around quite quickly. I simply realized at a certain point that my problems were coming from my move away from specifically the path of yoga and my own spiritual mentors. I recalled the brief flashes I had during the negative period, and realized how I had been closing myself off. There is no end it seems to human folly.
Over a few days I went through an entire reversal of my feeling, from a growing sense of despair and feeling lost, to seeing how all of this is simply a part of the process. I had a kind of big laugh with God and the Divine Mother over the whole thing.
Although I can't say without going on and on, I can see where my problems were coming from which made me deviate in the first place. It is all the ego and its conditioning.
I now feel that I've crossed a definte line with all this. I feel re-united with the energies I was accoustomed to feel previously, I feel re-integrated and perhaps on a new level, where I can be stronger, and not be susceptible to the same pitfalls.

So you should know - even when you can't feel it, even in the dark moments or times of life, times of despair or exhaustion, the divine is always there within and without - supporting, guiding, helping, giving light, love and always to our greater or ultimate good. If this were not so, we would perish immediately.
The more you aspire, the more the divine takes care of you. Even at times when one has completely forgotten everything!

 

Just read that through, and perhaps I didn't make it clear enough - I feel that the whole episode I spoke of was a neccesary part of the overall process for me. As if I had to try the experiment to see 'how it would be if I reject that?'

But it was also as though everything that ocurred was arranged exactly to show me what I needed to see in order to be able to move forward.


What is the nature of this guiding power? It is God, it is the Mother, it is the Self. It is part of what we are - the entire basis in fact of our being.
We are it and it is us - and it wants us to know that, not be deluded by the petty desires and fears of the lower nature and the ego.

 

WOW! Absolutely BBB, I had a similar moment last night, and it is almost as if God is speaking to me through you. Thank you!

 

My Dear Jedi, I'm at a loss what to say!

I just wanted to speak of this because it's been a powerful experience of re-awakening for me - I know it is reality, but what you say just makes me feel so overawed.....and humble.

This divine path is such a wonderful and amazing thing.

Blessings.

.

 

Picking fruit off the karma tree?

You can only pick what you've earned. If the tree appears bountiful, its because you've earned it. Pick away.

The "self" is all there is. We have clothed it with beliefs. Dressed it warmly for the world outside, not realizing the self is a natural nudist.

It is happiest when it has nothing on.



x

 

Everything that happens is for the best. A sincere seeker sees it clearly. The entire universe is just God trying to say "Hi!"

 

"Two birds, fast bound companions,
Clasp close the self-same tree.
Of these two, one eats sweet fruit;
The other looks on without eating.

On the self-same tree a person, sunken,
Grieves for his impotence, deluded;
When he sees the other, the Lord, contented,
And His greatness, he becomes free of sorrow.

When a seer sees the brilliant
Maker, Lord, Person, the Brahma-source,
Then, shaking off good and evil,
Stainless, he attains supreme identity with Him."

- Mundaka Upanishad.

 

Last night I came across this - it is from Sri Krishnaprem's 'Yoga of the Bhagavat Gita'. It seems to fit in here very well :


"Before the practice of meditiation can be available to flash the consciousness now centered in the lower or personal self across the gulf which separates it from the Aatman, or higher Self, it is essential that there shall be a harmony between the two. If the self is in harmony with the Self, if it ceases to exert its personal will, if its impulses are under control and it is able to offer itself as an instrument through which the Self can work, then the Aatman is its friend, a source of inspiration and guidance, the Inner Teacher of whom mention has previously been made. But if the self is allowed to sink down in inert depression, if it pursues its own aims and stands proudly upon its own individual uniquness, then, indeed, the Aatman is felt as something hostile. No more a source of inspiration, It makes itself known as the mysterious source of misfortunes and sicknesses, of those 'blows of fate', in short, which are teachers of the Law that all life is One."

 

I like his style of expression.

 

Yes - he certainly knew how to write. Perhaps his style is a bit old fashioned, but he was the product of the english university system back in the early 20th c.

Later, he was in the RFC during the first world war, before going to India, where he met his great guru, Sri Yashoda Ma, and became the first westerner to recieve initiation into the Vaishnava lineage.
Ramana Maharishi described him as 'a rare combination of jnani and bhakta'. Sweet Mother recognized him as one 'who has totally given himself'.Timothy Leary said he was 'the wisest man in India'.

If anyone wants to know more, I'd recommend 'Yogi Sri Krishnaprem' by Sri Dilip Kumar Roy.

 

Or the sincere seeker sees it clearly that the entire universe is an attempt to hide that God.

 

Or perhaps it's our incorrect and illusory mental view of the universe that hides God - not the universe itself.
There's no one 'correct' way to express it.

 

Humans are like children who have made a fort out of an old refrigerator box. You get so involved in your play, you can't hear your momma call.

You're focused on the world inside the box you've created for yourself.


x

 

A lot of humans are more like teenagers.
They lack the straightforwardness and simplicity of children.

 

yep

 

Or is it possible that all these "God" thing is merely the effect of chemicals in one's brain... :spliff:

 

When you start to witness "miracles", the old chemical argument flies right out the window.

There is obviously something more at work than physical science can offer an explanation for.


x

 

If using a chemical helps you to find the Self, then you would know that it isn't an effect of a chemical..... if you believe in a materialist version of reality, then obviously all chemicals and drugs can do is distort the mind and consciousness. Maybe in a pleasing way, but still no more than distortion.

 

the use of chemicals to realize God puts you in an awkward position, because then you dont know whether chemical has distorted your sense of reality or whether you are actually seeing what there is present before you.

However , there are those who achieve God realization without any use of chemicals, then it is safe to assume that it is not something triggered by a chemical.

 

There are a many people atleast in Hindu scriptures as well as in other accounts who witness events outside their bodies, which shows that "God" isn't chemical. Atleast the God that I am referring to.

If you want to assume chemicals are your God because they control you, well, then thats your opinion and your reality.