Introduction to blog 10 – My Personal Journey in Om Divine Grace Yoga.

Blog ten is about my spiritual journey, after India, in Om Divine Grace Yoga. A journey which is spread over 58 years.  This is Part two of that post India journey, staring in the late 1980’s. Blog one to five contain the introduction, overview and contents of this yogic pathway. Then I move on to the personal spiritual journey over 58 years, (not the broad autobiography). I have written about the spiritual and autobiographical content in different places my previous books. I have here revised some of that material with commentary and guidance regarding the Om Divine Grace Yoga pathway. This content 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. However this material, when completed, will be packaged as a stand alone book of guidance for Om Divine Grace Yoga.

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.

The modified autobiographical excerpts are from my books English Man, Beggar-Man, Holy-Man, & Grace Dive Journey. You can also read these books here on this site.

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 two

In Auckland I also a poster advertising a week long meditation course very near to where I was living, and I decided to go as I knew that I always meditate better in a group situation. Somewhat egoistically, I wanted to see how I felt amongst total beginners, and also to find out what this particular group taught. The sessions were being run by the disciples of Shri Chinmoy, an interesting guru who lived in New York. He ran marathons, lifted very heavy weights, painted lots of pictures and at a very advanced stage of life was performing age record weight lifting.

The teachings within the group were very straightforward and uncomplicated. We were asked to try and simply stop all sorts of thoughts for five minutes or so, then we had to concentrate on breathing, draw in good clean air, and then expelled the “badness” within. Next we concentrated with open eyes on one of three objects on the table, including a picture or the guru. Surprisingly I found after so many years of no formal group practice, I meditated spontaneously and when I tried to block my thoughts, they stopped completely.

 I was not willing to truly state my attainment at the end of each meditation, when asked to describe how we have got on. Everyone was saying how frantic their minds had been. I said that my mind had felt much slowed, but that it did seem impossible to be thoughtless.

When I did the open eyed meditation I concentrated on the picture Shri Chinmoy. As I stared at the photo I became aware of a strong upsurge of Kundalini energy and certain mantra repetitions occurred in my mind. This helped my swing back to a spiritual life, and prompted me to get in touch with the Siddha Yoga group.

I enjoyed my four, weekly sessions with the Chinmoy group. I felt that they put their material over simply, but ably and I saw that some of the new students were benefiting quickly. At the end of the sessions everyone was told that they would have to enroll, to continue further.

This entailed filling up the form and having a Polaroid picture taken. The picture would be sent to the guru in New York, where he would meditate on the new student through the photo and guide them in the future meditations. Not all students were to be accepted we were told, but those who were rejected would be guided in other suitable directions.

The idea of not being able to continue with this group without enrollment did not appeal to me. I am critical about religion or spiritual groups when they are not open and free or allow unimpeded participation without pressure.

Although most churches, temples, guru, and groups that I have been involved don’t stipulate immediate “enrolment”, I know that they all tend to seek some form of commitment eventuality. Also the meditation and yoga groups derived from India can be seen as part of the Hindu religion, though a lot of the followers would not want to see themselves as Hindus.

For myself this issue is irrelevant, and I have followed whatever I wanted, and was not swayed by sales techniques of the proponents of whatever group or cult was being promoted. Make no mistake though, yoga with mantras gurus, kundalini, and chakras, are all basically part of the Hindu religion, even when they have been watered down and sanitized to meet a secular Western market. Philosophies, religious and spiritual practices should not be grabbed to become the property of any group or sect, and channeled into moneymaking enterprises. Due recognition of their source though is good.

After group sessions with Chinmoy meditation, I got in touch with the Siddha Yoga center in Auckland and began to attend their chanting a meditation sessions. They had a permanent hall installed with photos of Swami Mucktananda, (deceased) and the guru who succeeded him, Gurumayi, the “Hollywood guru”. These photos formed the temple images for worship, and indeed use of photos/pictures for worship is common in Hinduism.

The photos are taken as representing the guru who thus still “leads” the congregation and is envisioned as sitting at the front of the devotees, who seek to imbibe the atmosphere of the guru’s Shakti whilst chanting are meditating.

I found the atmosphere similar to the atmosphere I felt way back in 1972 when I stayed ten months in the ashram in India. There was a strong feeling of something in the air, hard to explain, but it was easy to meditate and chant, (the Hindu equivalent of hymns), in the peaceful atmosphere of the center. For Westerners, Hindu derived worship is not always so palatable even amongst the followers, though it’s part of the package that comes with the Eastern guru.

 I did find the chanting and other ceremonial activities to be uplifting, though I guess that the permanent followers of the center probably got more out of it than I did. I did find also my thoughts were positive about the new guru, and also I liked the meditation methods, including watching the thoughts and remaining in the true state as their witness. This is: “I am not the mind and body but the witness of all my activities and thoughts”.

The main pathway of this center though is Siddha Yoga, and the Shaktipaat of the guru. By devotion to and focus on the guru, one receives the Shakti that enters the devotee downwards into the chakras and awakens the Kundalini. In India this was very obvious & promoted heavily at the ashram. Devotees would go into trances, dance, and engage in bodily writhing and other manifestations, consequences of receiving the Shakti. When I first went to the ashram, outside of Mumbai, I thought it was “all a load of rubbish”!

After several weeks in the ashram and some brief darshans, (being in the gurus presence), I found myself dancing ecstatically and involuntarily. That is why Swami Muktanand became so famous in the West, and he set up centers around the world. People would come to him, and without even accepting him as their guru, would begin to have the bodily manifestations of “kundalini arising”. I have never seen anything like it since, and certainly not on a mass level. Fascinating!

For a while the Siddha Yoga Foundation was a major player in the world of East meets West spiritual organizations. Unfortunately Swami Muktananda, when in his 70’s, attracted a lot of negative press, due to the reports of his sexual activities with young devotee girls! Not sure what happened there, but I had by then moved on from that organization as a source of inspiration for my spiritual journey.

The people I were living with at the time were part of a somewhat different group, although connected. The guru of the group was called then Da Love Ananda. He had been a follower initiated by Swami Muktananda, and went off separately to form his own organization in America. He also became very famous also for some quite negative reasons, but also produced a large volume of works which I found very interesting.

I maintained my connection with that group quite a few years to come, as I was also had friendship connections with some members of the group. I never joined up but I did enjoy going to the events from time to time and I actually got a lot out of dipping in an out of selected works and reading what their guru said. I did not accept his writings where he just wrote profusely that he was the only means for anyone’s salvation. (He called his method, “only by me, through me”). It was a bit like Christ saying one could only come to the father through him. My multi-faith view sees this as limiting the Truth.

Over the next ten years and more I visited various groups for a while, explored Bahaism, and started to resume some of my connection to the Anglican Church. A close family friend encouraged me to attend some rather more evangelical Christian events, often in very large very well attended venues, where they had bands and hymns were on screens. Not really my “cup of tea”.

Over 30 years I developed a habit of occasionally attending a Sunday service at the Auckland Anglican Cathedral, or other venues if overseas, where I receive Holy Communion. I enjoy the ceremonials, the liturgy, and the choir. I see Jesus Christ as a holy guru worthy of my deepest respect. This is not my main spiritual path way, and I have no concerns about what others think, as I am Multi-Faith, and I do what I want in terms of my own spiritual journey. That is my business, and I have no time whatsoever for any form of fundamentalism, or even religious people trying to tell me that their religion, or belief, is the only way. Equally I accept what others follow or believe in.

Other than some spiritual/religious attendance here and there and sporadic mediation or mantra use, the years from 1990 to 2000 were taken up by my roles on a whole as a husband, a father and with my psychiatric career. (Possibly material for another book)!

Spiritual practices lead me to a space, a Higher Room, from where I am able to connect with my strengths and resilience, and any recovery needed. (It’s really about recovery from enmeshment in Maya).

We need a new word then which encompasses “perfection”, that is spiritual, (and religious if you really need it), but also acknowledges worldly, physical and mental “fullness or advanced well-being.” (Not perfection)!

It’s a place where there is a sense of confidence, capability, and ability to resolve life issues as far as realistically possible, and to feel fully spiritually developed, (or fully immersed in the spiritual journey).

It’s a place where all the issues of, Life and the Universe, have been re-identified into the Divine Truth for the human in individual form. With the personality intact! Fears are resolved and individual can sit in their own Divine Space, Higher Power/Room

Technically then what happens is simply the ongoing experiences of life which happen automatically over the course of time, as karma outcomes.

That realistically enlightened individual no longer acts to get, make, achieve, but rather will experience, (the results of past actions). Teaching or service to other may still take place as per one Deity inspired influence

My new phrase then is: Practical Enlightenment.

Also I like Realistic Realization

Now this is a sense of being, simply experiencing life, (as if the train ran out of fuel but keeps on rolling).

It may be that I became spiritual in the first place, because I struggle with life and it seems that the more I struggle and fail, the more spiritual I become or rather the more desperate! I also had a problem with living life on life’s terms & have always had an inner urge to “run”, (somewhere). This “desperation”, looking back had been with me since the age of 11. My journey then has not been only about being spiritual, but also of attending to the human struggle.

Now, being in Practical Enlightenment (or Realistic Realization) after more than 40 years since leaving India, is a relief. However it is taken me many years to find exactly what works for me, and what works for me may not work for someone else. At the time of writing, I provide some very part time professional counseling alongside my spirituality writing and Manta Art.  As a professional I know that I can’t just recommend what works for me to some of the people I interact with. However I can pass on, in my writings, the spiritual activities which have given me the spiritual enlightenment outcome.

Let go of the past.

It seems to be a normal tendency to look back and say, “oh I did that, why did I do that, what a mistake”, or even, “how stupid of me”.

In the deepest realized place it is not necessary to have examination of what happened. If you throw out the garbage, the rubbish, it’s just going out, and it’s not necessary to check every little bit in the rubbish bag.

Consciousness is the underlying substratum of “how it was, how it is, how it will be”. Something else, anything else, just does not have any great meaning. Even so we may want to live in what is a bit of a museum, and interpret things over and over.

Therefore to move into the state of realization, is to be in a place which is essentially undefinable, and cannot be connected to by words and language. (Even though religions and spiritual teachings try to).

One’s own Divinity is already in perfection, and as for what happened and will happen; it’s still within that Cosmic Consciousness.

We are what we think, and when we start think Divine, we start to move beyond “mere human”. We become what we think.

It does not mean that the world does not exist. Some philosophers and spiritual practitioners call the world illusory. (Maya). That may be just another attempt to explain the inexplicable.

When we experience the Truth of existence, the true reality, we comprehend what I call: Life and the Universe.

In the universe we can enter into a nameless space in the ether of the cosmos around us. This is also within our hearts when we meditate. The Divine is not just out there, or not just some god sitting in the clouds growing his beard!

Ideas of God again are the product of history, many religions, and many thoughts of philosophers. Some call it the great Buddhist Void, or Shunya, and in Post-Vedic times it was Existence, Knowledge, Bliss. (Sat, Chit, Ananda). The great sages, seers, and teachers say that we are in sync with the truth of God in terms of sound, (becoming form), and can go beyond sound also into the soundless etheric space, tThe Akasha. In any moment and time this present is what is available, what can be known, and this is where the mind can expand in mindfulness meditation to become united with the source of all, or one with the Cosmic Self.

It does not matter too much about negative elements of past journeys, as every experience can also be seen as part of the Divine Learning Experience, and be recognized as totally purposeful. (With no experience needing or any judgement to be added on). When we accept who we are in Truth we claim our Divinity. We claim our Oneness with the Higher Power, the Divine Goddess. (Or God, if you insist).

When we do this we can also begin to demonstrate in our practical lives more than just survival. We move past fear, addictions, depression, anxiety, and whatever it is that troubles us as a human. Again we accept those experiences of pain through mental struggles as part of Divine Learning.

But, we move beyond them!

If we continue to choose to deny our own Divinity, we are denying the Divine in all. We remain a human who wants God to fix us, or some other “version” to do so. (The Incarnation, the Guru, the Buddha, the Jesus). We want to be fixed and stay human, so that we don’t have to take on the enormous responsibility incurred when we fully surrender to Truth.

Most religions will not give you permission! (To be Free).

To embody yourself in your true identity is heretic, and certainly you are not given permission, by most of society, to be “allowed” to realize your Divinity throughout your whole physical body. Then it becomes required that you remain in fear. Fear because of separation. Where there is many there is no Unity. When we are one with the Cosmic Being we become fearless.

In fearlessness we lose our anxiety, sadness and our obsessions!