Mathew: Dearest James and Sundari, I have a secret to tell you…

I know something else that God can’t do… here it is…

Inadequately, I express my thanks to you for the enormous contribution you’ve made to my life. This is an understatement of the highest order possible.

If God took the sharpest minds of this and other worlds and combined their talents to create the greatest poet of all times and places, they still couldn’t conjure words that would adequately express my gratitude to you. Words just simply can’t go there.

To me, Vedanta and the beautiful sampradaya that has purified and protected it is the greatest achievement in human history.

Without you I probably would have missed it or at best only discovered it in years to come, despite my growing frustration at the train wreck that is the modern spiritual scene.

Your smackdown of moronic spiritual teachings is priceless and among my very favorite parts of your teaching.

After starting with Conversations with God and Eckhart Tolle, both of whom were very helpful in the early stages, plus a few other modern teachers, a huge amount of progress has been made with Vedanta as taught by you in the last 12 months and especially the last two months.

Its superiority over anything else I’ve seen spiritual or material is stark, stunning and remarkable.

Tamas totally dominated this life and turned it into a veritable fear extravaganza. It was like tamas said “Let’s test the limits with this guy, let’s have some fun and see how much fear one guy can deal with without his head exploding.”

But Isvara obviously enjoys a battle and put enough sattva in there plus a huge desire for freedom. Sattva versus tamas for 12 years starting at age 22. Very little rajas except for that most pervasive of desires for the feminine form.

Somehow I kept my life on the rails, just.

Tamas won the early rounds convincingly but sattva just kept shining, small at first, like the sunrise with just a ray of faint dawn light, but it was there.

And now here I am, under the tutelage of a teaching genius, the light of Vedanta shining on me and increasingly from within as I slowly realise who I am.

It’s not midday yet but the sun is making its way now. Sure, it’s very hard work, brutal sometimes. Fear, depression, guilt, shame, regret and a few other emotional monsters are formidable adversaries, even against the power of Vedanta. Facing them down is neither glamorous nor sexy, and odds are low that my religious life will serve as the inspiration for the next James Bond movie.

But it’s beautiful, beautiful work, and increasingly I realise what a remarkable privilege it is to be here.

It is the deepest honour of my life to go through the Vedanta process and I thank Isvara every day for your service to this world and that you came into my life.

I have no questions at this point. I know what needs to be done. I still have a lot of work to do, and it’s time to get back to it.

An infinite ocean of thanks and gratitude to you both.

* * *

Mathew: Hi, Sundari. Thank you for your reply.

The brilliance of Vedanta continues to fill me with awe. It is, as the saying goes, the perfect machine. It is working like magic in me, guiding me back to safe harbour after a decade or more lost at sea.

I fell in love with Vedanta on my first reading of How to Attain Enlightenment. Immediately I realised that this teaching and this teacher was special, sacred, genuine and powerful, and far beyond anything else I’d seen. And that it would work if I listened carefully and applied the teaching.

The work continues but it is my joy to do it.

The biggest change lately has been an increased focus on the devotional aspects of the teaching, the area in which I was weakest. It is wonderful to spend more time in prayer and devotion, and I have set up a little altar now.

My life is a Vedanta life now. No doubt, more challenges will arise and we’ll see where Isvara takes this life but wherever it goes, the ever-deepening knowledge of who I really am will be going with it.

I won’t take any more of your time. I know how incredibly busy you are.

My deepest thanks, gratitude and love to you both for everything.

~ Mathew