Introduction to blog 13 – My Personal Journey in Om Divine Grace Yoga.

Blog thirteen is continuing the topic of the Post-Enlightenment  part of my Om Divine Grace Yoga spiritual journey, after India.This period post-India is spread over 58 years.  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 also become a book when all the blogs are complete.

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.

Post – enlightenment – Paramhansa Ganesh Giri

Continued….

Ganesh Giri is my name as a swami, or holy-man. This was the name I used in India and that time is written about in my previous books. The Giri part of my name means “mountain”. This is the place I am sitting wherever the body is, and represents my journey. (As in going up the mountain). In this identity I am on the peak, and look down on my small ego personality. Even so at times the surroundings seem precarious and steep. Luckily as a Capricorn I have am also a mountain goat and thus well equipped for the terrain! Perhaps this was a design from my Deity to me as my birthday gift. I feel safe, but knowing that if I do go back down, I go back into fears, anxieties and depressions. The days of should and must seem to be below the clouds which shroud the lower slopes.

I have learnt that I don’t need to justify why I would want to be in a certain spiritual space with a certain spiritual identity. That identity is both enmeshed in my reality as an English man called Raymond and as a monk in India. I can identify with the holy man persona, because I’m seeing more and more that we are all Divine as well as human. Why not also have a spiritual name?

I had a long run of forty plus years in the Western world with an identity mostly as a “European New Zealander”, (as per the cultural line in the census forms). Also after all, Ganesh Giri only got a few years of use!  So, this is a claim of independence based on my search for release from all the attachments.

These attachments do not go away except that in the holy man identity they are covered over by the light of Truth, whereas in the Englishman identity the Light is covered over by the attachments. This dual identity seems to me to be a more realistic situation in the long run. This is identity made at a higher level as something that I am party to by Divine Grace coming down into my “realistic” life, as I rise up to the Higher Rooms through self-surrender. This is a wonderful creation then, where the Cosmic Conscious can then fully manifest in me through the grace of the Divine Goddess.

Historical data leads to historical expectations, but I refrain from probing more than one day at a time. The historical future is the hysterical future! No more prescriptions for life let alone for medication. The new life is not a new consciousness but rather an acceptance of consciousness as it really is. Acceptance of myself as it really should be, as one investing in Truth.

Is this not freedom? As it is about being and not doing, I am released from the need to prove that I am indeed a Giri, the mountain man or rather the Giribaba as the “old” wise man on the mountain. I don’t need to sit there cross-legged in ochre robes because the first part of my given name from my holy man days is Ganesh. (Lord of the Gunas). Genesh as a Deity is the “overcomer of all obstacles”, and in Hinduism is invoked before other prayer/religious activities, or to be successful in any human undertakings.

Previous writings have talked about Gunas, the qualities of nature, and Ganesh for me simply implies control over my human life aspects. As it is the qualities of nature that function in all life at all times, those qualities never the less do not impinge on the True Self of consciousness, which is transcendental. Consciousness is the witness of all, and all means whatever we are up to.

This could mean technically, theoretically, that it is ok to indulgence in less than pure activities. I know though that the ego personality with the defects of character wants to remain wallowing in addiction, depression anxiety and fear, which are engendered by live with the darker qualities for nature. (Tamasic/Rajasic).

All the things that bring fun and enjoyment are not necessarily benefiting any of us. Nevertheless we can’t and we don’t want to be living a boring colorless life with no fun. Therefore the spiritual changes occurring must be naturally easy and be what is desired, (if those changes are to stick).

This is why it’s easier to wander along the flat rather than to start climbing up a mountain. It’s hard work going up the slopes and the further up we get away from civilization the less amenities we find. In India some of the yogis I found on mountains lived a very sparse life. They may had have had tea leaves, and collected water from springs. But if you wanted milk in your tea you’re out of luck.

Don’t even ask for a cappuccino!

Tara Goddess

We have discussed a lot of issues which may be still seem to be going round and round in circles! I do not practice a wide range of spiritual path ways, even though I am multi faith and have had quite strong connections with a variety of religions and spiritual groups.

I am a follower of the Goddess and I practice kundalini yoga. I repeat mantras which represent the centers of the body, and also represent certain Goddess forms, (which are not separate from the whole Shakti form). I repeat mantras both to engage in the spiritual path. Also because of my own personal sense of desperation!

They give me something indescribable, but help me clearly to thrive. The bottom line is that I need both my prayer to my Goddess and repetition of mantras for my own sanity. The Goddess takes various forms but it is the same Divinity that is also the Cosmic Consciousness. There is no real separation. Chakras enable the Goddess Shakti, (power), to flow up and down as the Kundalini through each center from the crown of the head to the base of the spine.

My inner spirit guide was, I think, a reflection of me in my monastic type personality. It seemed to sit on my shoulder in a position and presence such that I have some form of “conversation”, as and when needed. It seemed a both male and female energy, as a “reflection” of myself, and didn’t intervene so much. More being the voice of wise counsel. This is an energy seemingly separate in some way, and it was something I value strongly.

Whether it’s real or not, who knows?

For some reason a few years ago this spirit energy took a new direction as a new energy came to me. This new female energy presented a before my brow area, and went down to sit on the right side of my heart. This is still the Goddess energy.

I meditated to find out what name this energy had, and it came to me as Tam.

I researched this name, and it is a core name for Tara Goddess.

As well as my described previous devotional practice, because of my engagement in Buddhist type meditation with a group, I am aware of the Buddhist Goddesses including Tara, the mother Goddess of all the Buddha’s. I did not previously know that her sound representation is Tam. This sounded to me like a chakra seed mantra, as all the chakras have seed mantras associated with each center. Those seed mantras are ascending: Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham, Aum.

I don’t use a these mantras for my kundalini or chakra meditation, as I use other seed mantas as described in Om Divine Grace. (Relating to specific Goddess forms).

Tam although sounding like it another seed sound, is a Divine sound that emanates from the heart of the Goddess Tara.

This is not associated with a chakra center, although the Tara seed sound is Triim. This sound and form I experience as emanating from my heart area. (Slightly to the right and slightly outside the body, but attached by “energy cords”)

Tara is another form of the Hindu Goddesses with which I am very familiar, but Tara is more popular in Tibetan Buddhism. So Tara is a Goddess form, which some Tibetan gurus say is also to be visualized as standing level with the eyebrows, or the third eye.

The Tam or Triiim sound is to be visualized emanating from to Goddess, who is seated on a Lotus, and takes a beautiful young girl form. There are White, Blue and Red Taras.

 I am inspired by this Shakti power, whatever form she takes, and hence continue to say, (as in the previous book), my writings are: Goddess inspired. Now I incorporate some of the seed mantras of Tara into my daily practice. I put myself into the stream of the Divine Grace through my spiritual practices, but I try not to expect any specific outcomes. This is an outcome of a lifetime!

Fear

There is suffering when there is duality.

Where there is another there is fear.

Life is driven by an underlying fear.

Fear of death, of suffering or of life itself, and fear of God.

This is the pain of life the Buddha talked about: “all life is suffering”.

Whatever and wherever the journey or pathway to freedom, one thing is clear,

So life is just a sideshow, which is ultimately totally illusory.

Except for pain!

So it’s all Maya! Illusory like a transient dream ending in death.

We need something that works to enable the transcendence of this Maya.

We have to replace it with Truth.

A problem occurs for most of us, because that’s not how it works, and that’s not how it happens.

If the spiritual progress is limited due to limited action, then perhaps only small corners of the darkroom will be lit up. Thus fear will still be on the agenda. Although it will still have learning purpose. The process is about release, ultimately from all the darkness. Thus we return in circle to the beginning of the discussion regarding surrender and acceptance.

To worship destruction and darkness in any way seems counterproductive perhaps to the general Western mind. To many in the East, it is very much this God as Destroyer that is sought to gain safety and security. In the Divine Soul, there is no fear, nor any destruction of anything, because fear is just a human creation. This is the outcome of being engaged in in the human condition, and excepting separation from the encompassing universe, whilst not recognizing Divinity. (Either as one Deity or as the impersonal Cosmic Consciousness). To accept & move past fear requires the acceptance of destruction, & see its true place in the Cosmic Creation.

Pain and suffering makes all the theory irrelevant, and can make all our spiritual or religious and therapeutic endeavors almost seem pointless. There is a line of queuing thoughts that like to give fear permission to exist in oneself. However it’s not possible to say fear: “you’re out of here”. Positive visualizations, however well-meaning, deeming that I am pain-free, just don’t work often. Know the type of visualization that already has cognition of ourselves as potentially Divine. Then there is some traction!

Scientists may talk about the function of molecules constantly re-arranging themselves to form things, including humans. Within that concept, see it as a video, film, or play of whatever it is going on, or however you perceive or describe it. It’s the process of one’s thoughts and understandings about Life and the Universe. This includes the thoughts: “I am depressed. I am an addict. “I am a powerful leader”, etc. Maybe there should be no problem with just accepting that I am a Divine being really, as why would anyone want all those negative fears, anxieties & doubts? Doesn’t make sense! Well possibly it takes time to see it this way, & make the necessary corrections.

There needs to be a move past the ides that enlightenment equals: “you are getting what you want, being happy all day and night, and can sort out anything”. In Buddhism and Hinduism there are fierce goddesses, depicted in temple icons as cutting off human heads and drinking their blood. Nobody seems to be getting what they want, & yet millions are devotees of the destructive Goddesses, because they do seem to be getting some of what they want. Otherwise why would they worship that way? There are these forces of destruction that epitomize the nature of this cosmic reality, which in error some religions seek to minimize. “Oh no, our God is not nasty, He’s kind and loving”. Other religions embrace the Cosmos of Destruction.

Many prefer the more benign & amazing visions, such as of Mary, Mother of God, described as happening in Medjugorje. Or descriptions of someone getting a fantastic vision, being reborn in eureka moments, or having some other transformative experience. To have enlightenment, the dark side must be something understood, and life as it is in its grossness, transcended or transmuted. This is Alchemy, being one and the same time able to transcend and enjoy the true spiritual meaning of anything that lies here and now and beyond. Thus the chaos makes sense. Thus the pandemics make sense. Thus even all the wars of history make sense!

This is also about encountering your true self which seems covered in the fear and the suffering. The human ego is in a position to overcome. Go beyond, though, under. Here lies surrender and acceptance, which is generated through the spiritual practice and selfless actions. Knowing the true self would lead also to a space where each moment will bring whatever experiences we need to when they are needed. (Even the fear loaded ones)! Thus life as lived, as also the learning journey, even if yet there is no spiritual clarity. So if one cannot understand the purpose of pain, dig a little deeper! Then one can understand, pain, death, world chaos, and drill right down to the minutia of personal life.