My personal Journey in Om Divine Grace Yoga

Introduction

Blog eleven is about part of my Om Divine Grace Yoga spiritual journey, after India. This period post-India is spread over 58 years. This is part three of that post India journey. Blogs one to five contain the introduction, overview and contents of this yogic pathway. I have also written about the autobiographical content in different places in my previous books. I have here revised some of that material relevant to spiritual practice and experience, with commentary and guidance. Om Divine Grace Yoga is designed to enable practical use by a 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 progress. This material will become a book.
The previous blogs about my spiritual development in India include meeting my Gurus and extensive all India pilgrimage, plus years sitting in a hut outside a small village in the middle of “nowhere”. Modified autobiographical excerpts are from my books English Man, Beggar-Man, Holy-Man & Om Divine Grace 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 three

Practical Enlightenment or Realistic Realization.

My own practice had in India led me to a state where I had the opportunity and ability to control not only major elements of my own life, but also that of others if I wished. (Through yogic powers or siddhis). Somewhat strangely to me when I had taken those “powers” from India into the everyday life of marriage, children, & career, I found that my spiritual energy seemed to have faded!
Then I developed an understanding, of my philosophy. Then realization of “Aham Brahma Asmi”, (I am the Cosmic Soul), is a completely different and more powerful awareness. This philosophy could be called enlightenment or realization. However I found that true Enlightenment occurs only on completion of the spiritual journey with all components of the worldly experience having co-joint influence.
Looking back questions arise regarding my degree of true spiritual attainment in India. I spent 10 years in India as a monk, and thirty plus years of normal life with normal struggles. Had I then attained some part of the state of self-knowledge and achieved Moksha? (Moksha is equivalent to Nirvana which is more common term in Buddhism. Moksha means freedom from the cycle of rebirth, or it just means freedom from this trouble human existence). Release into what? I had I found my own “religion” and philosophy, though only now I can say it has lasting and permanent benefit.
On leaving India I had developed a clearly defined Hindu derived Vedanta philosophical look on life which did not change with in the passage of time. This was not about having multiple gods, sitting in temples, but was about a very monotheistic outlook that was or even atheistic tin some aspects. Here I have something that is Truth Unlimited, which is unaffected or swayed by any or all religious type beliefs. It is about oneself as the Divine and about Maya, the illusory and transient suffering filled nature of Life and the Universe. Vedanta though seemingly nihilistic or fatalistic, has given me the means to develop calmness and equipoise, and helped alleviate the ups and downs of life. This then combined with my Theistic approach to surrender to my Deity, the Goddess, is the final perfection.
It’s possibly a conundrum, to have a religious devotion and a somewhat atheistic philosophy! This Higher Power of one’s deity can however be seen and experiences as an inner process, and taken as just a step towards the ultimate undefined consciousness, where no Gods or Goddesses exist. The purpose of the “belief in God: then is to facilitate the surrender process where ego identification is transcended.
I have regained a sense of control over circumstance, which is influenced and self-regulated by my understanding of the workings of karma and prarabda, about which have covered previously. This means a complex awareness of both the inevitability of some events and the endless possibility for change. Ultimately total self-responsibility leads away from the known spiritual pathways and into the depths of Divine Grace, attained through Surrender.
I had a feeling of being powerless over my human condition which seemed to prevail for quite a few years after “settling down” in N.Z. Although this was for a seemingly lengthy period I believe it gave me eventually a better understanding with better ability to be realized at all levels of the mind/body, whilst fully in the world.

Surrender

This seems also like acceptance, where we accept life “as it is” Then, we sit in our awareness and whatever happens is Prarabdha. (A Sanskrit word for the accumulated force of past karma). This where a Brahma Gyani sits. (Knows themselves, as one with the Cosmic Soul, the Brahman). Hence the word Gyana, which is knowledge of the Brahman, the Cosmic Soul. (The individual soul is called the Atman).

When you surrender spiritually, you stop making or seeking solutions to the uncontrollable. In the 12-step model its: “my life became uncontrollable”. (Hence then the need to surrender to a Higher Power). To stop seeking solutions also seems to be about acceptance. Surrender is willful acceptance and yielding to a dominating force and its will. (Which can be your own internal consciousness). Acceptance helps you accept the good and bad equally. So, surrender is also to become aware of the Divine as oneself, with the Higher Power’s energy within, and to accept it. It involves a shift in belief or approach to the spiritual journey, and is about “Who am I?”
This is a catalyst for enlightenment.

The trust, and faith that there is a Divine Force seems to be a pre-requisite for surrender. “I believe that God will help me through this”. This requires some awareness generated by questioning that goes on until a belief in the Divine co-exists with access to a spiritual guide. The act of surrender requires some practical substance also. Mediation, prayer, chanting, using a mantra etc. What is the single most powerful tool you use on your spiritual journey? You can’t think “I don’t have to do anything else”, and not do the practice required.

By turning your awareness away from normal activity and settling the mind, you can reconnect with your inner space. In the silent spaces beyond thoughts, you surrender to a Sound, the Cosmic Sound. Just as there is noise in life, so there is noise in realization. It very different though and can’t be explained, only experienced.

You submerge your ego, which remains, but is transformed into identity as the Divine, where there is the bliss of Oneness. (When you can hear then the Cosmic Sound).

If all else fails, just pray for surrender. It doesn’t probably matter to who or what you pray to, it matters only that you are willing. The intention to surrender will allow its own release. Who knows, maybe there is an old man up there sitting in the clouds! (For me it’s the Goddess, but I’m not saying my beliefs are any less “naïve”)! Anything that helps with the letting go of fear and unending desire is worth a try.

Again the small self, the individual “me,” is not capable of dropping its own sense of ego, even though the Atman is intertwined with the Brahman. (Just as water is water, whether in a drop or in a sea). Maybe the “rock bottom” of the addict or a state of impasse, or “the darkest night”, triggers some transcendence. It a pity that it may have to occur this way! A realization “I simply cannot do it, can’t win, can’t complete, can’t change the situation”.

Something has to change, even if is occurring within a state of mental disorder. Someone will come to attend to you even if temporarily, involuntary, as when mental health becomes life threatening.

If however you trust the Divine then the Divine Grace leads from darkness to light.

When we agree to participate in the process of surrender to our Higher Power or place our lives in the hands of God then we are met by the Divine Force. The change occurs when there is willingness to access and seek the Truth. This makes us available to be witnessed and to witness. We can then stop hiding, and leave the past shames and fears behind. The Divine Self as the individual soul can then be healed by Divine Grace.

The issue finally is about being at another level. This is not just about praying to seek the god, the higher power, or ones deity. It’s about being in one’s own Higher Power, being in the Divine Self, and experiencing Divinity in human bodily form.
Not just: What is this all about?
But also: What do I do (as service)?

Service to others is the life to be lived at this point!