Introduction to blog 9 – My Personal Journey in Om Divine Grace Yoga.

Blog nine is about my journey, after India, in Om Divine Grace Yoga, which is spread over 58 years.  This is Part one of that post India journey. Blog one to five contain the introduction, overview and contents of this yogic pathway. Then I move on to personal spiritual journey over 58 years, (not the broad autobiography). I have written about the spiritual content in different places my previous books. I have also written about the autobiographical content in different places my previous books. I have here revised some of that material with commentary and guidance. Om Divine Grace Yoga is designed to enable practical use by a spiritual practitioner interested in this pathway. Of course anything here can be approached as just reading matter of interest.

Historically, this pathway is approached via a Guru for initiation and guidance. In our modern world this might not be feasible or practical, given the nature of this dark era (Kali Yuga). It may not be possible to get a guru who can assist you in this area.

It is necessary now to offer this spiritual pathway and process as an option for any practitioner, desiring spiritual progress. I have therefore taken excerpts relating to my spiritual “progress”, and added additional sources to chronicle my spiritual advances over the years, which has culminated in this material. This will become a book of guidance into Om Divine Grace Yoga.

Part one of my personal journey, (starting at blog 6), is about my spiritual development in India with my first guru, spread over four years. This is continued in part two as Blog 7 with my years of pilgrimage wandering around mainly South India, and then meeting my Sat Guru. (“Truly Enlightened Guru”).  Blog 8 is about my three plus years sitting in a hut outside a small village in the middle of “nowhere”. The modified autobiographical excerpts are from my book English Man, Beggar-Man, Holy-Man. You can also read this book here on this site, under “Books”.

A lot of my guidance came from the Inner Guru, which can be accessed to get “initiation” and awakening. This component is an important part of my Om Divine Grace Yoga experience, and can be understood with the explanation of how it worked for me.  If inner Divine Guidance is received, there will be appropriate clarity. (This guidance can also be accessed via surrender to ones chosen Deity). Good intent and practice is required for good results.

After India – My Personal Journey in Om Divine Grace Yoga.

Part one

Back in England in late 1976, I was accepted to do three years training as a student psychiatric nurse. It was a new phase of my life that was to prove very interesting. After qualifying I moved to New Zealand and began a further series of travels and adventures. Wherever I went, however, I took with me the simple philosophy that I had gained from my years in India, What I had been looking for was already part of me – if not all of me.

(1977 on)

I think in 1977 I felt the dormant yogic flame that had been slowly fading, coming back into my awakening awareness. The sleeping mantras begun again to revolve in sluggish brain cells. I even took to sitting down to meditate for brief and infrequent periods.

So as 10 years had gone by in India as a monk, then 10 years passed in the West in the material net, with only the occasional “recourse” to anything spiritual. I worked &and traveled in Spain & France & had become an “intermediate” skier  in Andorra, where I spent a winter. A lot of fascinating travels.  after leaving N.Z. I was lucky to get a small inheritance, so I had the opportunity to spend some years traveling in Europe. (Some of this period, plus later years, is in my book, Om Divine Grace Journey).

Now I was at the beginning of a new phase. The next 10 years were practical, because I learnt about my own mental issues, marriage, fatherhood, relationships and career. Even though I struggled at times to make sense of it all, I feel lucky to have the great fortune to experience life in such depths.

Seems to me it all just happened! (But was Divinely guided). One of my practices since India was to keep devotion to the Goddess, where I turned to Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. All actually forms of the Shakti, that manifests in our bodies as Kundalini and works through the chakras. (This is covered in depth in Om Divine Grace). For me what happened and now happens is under the umbrella of Life and the Universe, and is Goddess driven. Thus I claim my writings, and life, are also Goddess inspired.

Over the years I engaged in extensive personal health searches both conventional and spiritual. I have both professional and personal experience of the whole gamut of psychiatry, therapy, and psychology. I am also able to say that I found a number of solutions for my issues, through all areas of my endeavors, spiritual and otherwise. I have moved past my search mode into Practical Enlightenment mode. And some mentally stability. (My opinion only)!

Just to clarify I write about Enlightenment in terms of what we can all be, and in fact what we all are all in our Truth.

Accepting one’s Divinity is part of the journey, and this is not to denigrate religions or philosophies of duality, as I encourage both a non-dual approach and a devotional one. Religion may however want to us to bow down before their gods, higher powers, saviors and avatars. (And no others!). I have though found benefit in many religions, and I believe that religion is a resources to be respected.

We probably have heard eulogies given to the scientific benefits of meditation, relaxation, or quiet prayer. Just try sit down for 5-10 minutes in absolute stillness with calm and reposed mind. Can be like trying to tame a bucking bronco. The mind is a wild animal. Or part of a relatively civilized mammal called human.

To reach a state of perfect happiness, peace or self-knowledge, and requires more application then just sitting in medication for half an hour twice daily. To get to a state of perfect yoga, one needs to be perfect yogi. Maybe ok for one who can sit in a cave for months at a time living on a very sparse diet and not watching any TV. However it doesn’t really actually matter whether one is in New York, the Himalayas, or the outback. The setting is not too important, although there are optimum environments, diets and guided practices.

Before the Big Bang: In the beginning there was the Word.

If you stay with the sacred sounds, you’re connected with all the molecules in the universe, and are at that time, enlightened as a realized human within the milieu that is life. Yes there is suffering, pain, and struggle, but that is life also.

Realization is the acceptance of life as it is, as a Divine Creation at all times and for all purposes. We at all times are part of the Divine Creation, just as a drop of water is the same water as in the sea. This is not a religious perspective: just what could be the norm of all life, including your own.

The Gunas

There is an interesting description in Sanskrit about three qualities or Gunas of nature.

If you are into healthy activities, healthy diet, and engaging in spiritual practice, our nature has some “purity”. This is Sattva Guna. (Sattva means “pure”).

If we are in engaged in the world of pleasure seeking, or engaging in life for material benefit mainly we are Rajasic and in Rajo Guna.

If we are living in darkness, addictions, suffering deep mental health problems, we are Tamasik. Stuck in Tamo Guna, in the darkness

Therefore there are three qualities of nature, and three types of food, and three types of activities, and so on.

Have a guess which Guna you are sitting in!

In Sattwa Guna meditation is spontaneous and does not necessarily involve sitting in a quiet room. However it becomes also natural to enjoy contact with spiritually minded people, who also meditate, or have some devotional philosophy. Although the Realized person doesn’t feel the need to journey to anywhere on this plane or even to follow any rules, that spiritual practice usually mandates “living sanity”. Nevertheless the qualities of nature still exist, until final Eternal Transcendence. If we are in Sattvic mode we cope with life in equipoise In Sattvic mode though, we may not even be seeking self-realization or engaged spiritually, as we maybe are just happy and satisfied enough, if we are lucky to have this personality type. (Or more likely, have great karma)!

When we are in Sattvic mode we are pure, and we like activities with health giving outcomes, both mental and physical. This means also we eat simple healthy food and avoid Rajasicfood. (Think coffee here!). Alcohol is Rajasic, but alcoholic drinking is Tamasic, when it becomes destructive. Going down dark roads and you’re sick of it all? It means you’re in Tamasicmode

From a realized souls perspective the Gunas act at all times, but the soul is the witness of those activities. So from that perspective technically we can be Enlightened, and yet behave in the mode of any of the Gunas. E.g., “the drunken master”, as described in some Tibetan texts. (It’s theoretical)!

Rajasic persons like the pleasures of life: good food and wine, with “life in the fast lane” a popular goal. Then consequently we suffer physical problems from the minor, to severe, such as heart problems, money loss, addictions, and depression/anxiety. We are high sometimes and depressed sometimes. We rage and rant, fueled by desire, and aim for own personal gain. The Tamasic road though is only dark, and we may be deeply into addiction, but now at a painful level. Violent, stupid or destructive, become descriptor words.

Wisdom Now

Strangely I have felt more urge to turn to the spiritual side as a result of some destructive, negative, depressed, or addictive experiences! However life’s journey gives us experience of all the Gunas.

I was always interested any spiritual practices to some degree, and I investigated it all. He or She, God, or Higher Power. I participated in exploring Christianity, Buddhism, Baha’i etc. etc. I have no issues with anyone’s choice of faith or spiritual path. None! I could not say that I was for some years after India, properly Self-Realized, as I was predominately in the Rajo Guna state. A lot of us plough our way through this world through our respective careers, marriage, relationships, social experiences, hobbies, interests, and especially desires. So Rajo Guna often predominates.

However now my philosophy is that a native natural state, (for us all), is to be Divine. (Or at least connected). From that perspective it is relevant to talk about being Realized as our true state within Cosmic Consciousness. Or alternatively we can see ourselves as part & parcel of the Divine presence, which just happens to manifest as Maya, including our embodied form. In Truth, we are not the body/mind, and therefore are only the witness of our human state. It is the ego attachment with which we identify as Me. We then do not identify as Divine Consciousness. Technically it is not necessary to attain anything with regard to the soul and the outer world. However in so-called reality, we seem to all go on “journeys” to attain what we already have! (This is because of the ego bondage that prevents Enlightenment, until it is transcended).

The spiritual practice is being on a pathway that leaves behind the old, and gets the understanding that the body is just: “compartments and bits and pieces”. Separate seemingly from the Cosmic Reality, yet actually not separate.

Where humans have a major strength, it is in announcing ones essential: “Divineness not divine-mess”! With this strength it becomes possible to divert from, go around, go through, and go over all the human weaknesses, including addictions, mental health problems, relationship distress, and physical sickness. Even financial distress. (Or especially financial distress).

This is not a minor undertaking of course.

Turning everything upside down on its head, opens the individual to unlimited potential. The ego still wants to have a sway and say, “no, no”. This is my job, this is my partner, this is my car, etc. etc.

We can move above the level of identification and limitation and find the Truth and Reality. We can’t abandon reality, but rather need to work through it, with it, and understand it. Such that it is not ones essential self that is in the way, but ones ego based life.

So, it’s not possible then to say that anyone is ultimately bad, or hard to say something is anything as other than a part of that One Unity. Self-centered judgment is usually based on ego preferences! In saying I am not part of the Divine, I will then need constant help, support, and opportunities to get what I can or grab in the struggle to survive. And I may or may not get this from this life – ever!

Maybe initially this view of the all-enveloping Divine is just an idea of the moment, whilst starting on some spiritual path or religious pursuit. These “elevated” ideas, this kind of knowledge and experience don’t usually arise of their own. Something happened to trigger this motivation. Then there can be incentive to follow the assistance of a suitable teacher or guru, or other contact that is more than “just human being”. Maybe strong feelings of discomfort are initially engendered about such spiritual dimensions as expressed here. It is the nature of the ego to seek safety in what is known.

At some point however life stops being “what you do for yourself”, and the Cosmic Will makes things happen, whether we want them or not. We then see the chaos around in present times.

If we don’t jump out of the burning house, we will go up in flames. (Unless we put out the fire).

If we don’t see the winds of change blowing and except them, we will suffer simply by being dragged into change unwillingly.

It is a choice then to take on board the teachings of the ancient sages and seers, find the sacred and our True place in the universe, align with the divine sounds, or engage in spiritual practices innumerable. It’s always as per individual choice, even if initially this only an impulse to get a taste of some spiritual teachings and pathways.

Even religious “persuasions” may have a role to play!