“The discriminator gets a gift that keeps on giving: a simple love that reveals itself as a beautiful, part-less, solid never-ending subtle sense of bliss and peace that cannot stop ever because it is Mother Naiure herself revealing her majesty through one’s seemingly limited self.”
Hi Ram me again,
I thought I would give you and the sanga a brief autobiography of an apparently flawed human being apparently becoming a beautiful impersonal eternal light that he always already was and, of course, is.
When I was around the age of 20 or was it 21? I was living at a guest house, which took in guys on benefits, and next door to me was a guy who was twice my age. However, he was one of us – a misfit on the periphery of non-dual thought that we poor silly westerners are sometimes subjected to if we begin to see through the material realm. Anyway, he loved Roger Waters “Amused to Death” and would play it incessantly, which I enjoyed immensely. He also – and here’s the point – had a book called Awareness by Anthony De Mello, an enlightened Jesuit priest who saw through the usual Christian tamasic dirge. He promoted becoming what Christ is, rather than just following and hoping for heaven in an unreal tomorrow that never comes.
I voraciously read this small collection of spiritual nuggets and accidentally stole it from my friend who was a sort of seeker but didn’t have a burning desire to know, as I did.
From here I discovered Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta, and even the guru du jour that was Ulrich Tolle but who changed his name to Eckhart to sound more spiritual like the Christian mystic of the same name. And none of this sufficed, of course. However, I was never fooled by any of them as I have been given an extremely discriminatory intellect from Isvara and knew that there was something missing from the teachings of these great men.
So, around 2008 I came across an interview with you, as I have already said, on Conscious TV and this seemingly insignificant act was the “entering of the stream” that our good friends the Buddhists talk about. I tried Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism for a time but was never the meditation type because I was always a discriminator, which as you know, obviates the need to meditate because as the self I am meditation itself.
Anyhow I immediately began to devour ShiningWorld as it was back then and loved it. I even took a trip shortly afterward to the Motherland herself, India, which as you know is also known as Bharat, “the land where one revels in the light,” to visit my favorite saint/sage Sri Ramana Maharshi. I could feel “his” incredibly pure being in Madras, a hundred fifty miles away, where I was staying at a four-star hotel, no less. What a guy he was!
And so over this 15 or so years I have had more awakenings than one could shake a stick at and many many false starts. However, once dispassion (viragya) is established through incessant discrimination (viveka) the whole spiritual business implodes and one finds oneself free from the need to look anywhere for any type of joy, peace or love because the ever-present all-seeing-knowing eye/I is love and freedom itself.
The discriminator gets a gift that keeps on giving: a simple love that reveals itself as a beautiful, part-less, solid never-ending subtle sense of bliss and peace that cannot stop ever because it is mother nature itself revealing her majesty through one’s seemingly limited self.
Self-realisation was quick, self-actualisation less so…and painful to the poor jiva. But if he or she perseveres then s/he is rewarded with ongoing love and peace that is indescribable and yet so simple. This non-event, as you are fond of saying, only happens to a person who then knows what it truly means to be alive here in this awareness as awareness. It only happens to ome who knows there is only one body, appearing as many. Who knows that we are all truly one and the same being. Om namo Narayanya.
Thank you Ram for appearing on earth to teach this one the way back home. Much love to one and all. Love to Sundari and may you have many more joyful satsangs at your Spanish abode.
PS: I met you once in 2017 and hope one fine day to gather the funds for a trip to Spain to visit you and Sundari and enjoy a satsang. Here’s to that lovely thought from Bhagavan.
Ram: As it says in verse 71 of the Narada Bhakti Sutras, “The ancestors (of self-actualized people) become joyful, the gods dance and the earth is protected by a good master.” This eloquent testimonial, the word of God, no less, needs to visit the world once more. It brought tears to my eyes. I too hope our paths will cross again one fine day by the grace of that one benevolent deity that is non-different from you and me. You are welcome anytime.
Om and Prem
Ram