In January
of 1981, I was stunned to learn that I was God. This shocking pronouncement
was delivered to me during a personal interview with the great Indian
saint, Sathya Sai Baba. At that time, he further informed me that
everyone else was also God.
Of course,
I didn't have the slightest clue of what it actually meant to be "God."
So I promptly set myself upon a journey to discover the truth of this
profound mahavakya -- this Great Assertion -- that God and I are One.
It is a proclamation which masters of yoga, and its underlying philosophy,
Vedanta, have been sharing with their students or devotees for millennia.
(Most
Westerners think of yoga as being merely a morning-TV routine of stretches
and poses, or asanas. But a serious few know yoga to be a timeless
spiritual science of the highest order.)
The results
of my investigation were, quite frankly, completely unexpected ...
and as shocking to me as the pronouncement which had prodded me further
toward what I now understand to be Self-realization.
Let me
relate some highlights of that journey, with the promise that, by
the end of this tale, you, too, will have attained the cherished,
though elusive state known as "enlightenment." That is, if you will
accept that "attaining enlightenment," "being God" and "becoming Self-realized"
are one and the same condition.
An outlandish
promise? Perhaps. But prepare yourself: Enlightenment is probably
something much different from what you now imagine it to be, just
as it was for me ... and for most other people with whom I've shared
the following, illuminating information.
Like
most of the students I've taught since 1986, not only did I have no
idea what that exalted state was about; I was completely in the dark
as to how to attain it. Praying seemed essential; and so did "being
nice," as every religiously-oriented person surely knows, right?
But
whatever "it" was, I felt certain that attaining enlightenment about
my own Divinity would undoubtedly be akin to having a sacred vision
... an epiphany. I could almost envision a burst of brilliant White
Light, accompanied by heavenly music and a chorus of angels heralding
The Event!
However,
I would learn that, from yoga's standpoint, enlightenment has virtually
nothing to do with many of the religious principles and practices
most Westerners hold as sacred ... at least the yoga I've come to
know.
In fact,
I would discover that enlightenment has little to do with anything
that most of us consider to be "spiritual."
But
I'm ahead of myself. As other Serious Aspirants have done throughout
the centuries, I turned to the writings of respected teachers -- first,
to such Swamis as Nikhilananda and Yogananda, as well as to the published
discourses of my own teacher, Sai Baba (and later, to other great
Swamis, like Jyotirmayananda, Rama, Vivekananada, etc.).
Each
guru was quite clear: Enlightenment and Self-realization were definitely
possible, and to be pursued at all costs. Less clear, though, was
how this state would be known when I had "attained" it.
The fact
that this is supposedly an intuitively-deduced condition was not at
all satisfying to me. If these great teachers of Timeless Wisdom were
truly Self-realized beings -- and I had no doubt that they were --
why couldn't they be more clear and precise about what this profound
phenomenon actually was?
Perhaps
it was more a problem of semantics, and the fact that English wasn't
their native language ... or was it that they were indeed holding
something back? A carrot, maybe, to keep me plodding along the pathway
like some hardheaded mule?
So,
grumblingly, I read more. I studied The Bhagavad-Gita incessantly,
it seemed, as well as The Upanishads and most of the other great scriptures
of yoga-Vedanta. But still nothing akin to a religious epiphany occurred.
Only confusion.
But in
1985, destiny finally called, and I attained enlightenment ... at
a traffic light, some three miles from my house. The light had just
turned red as I drove up. A moment later, it seemed, the car behind
me honked -- the light was now green!
Impossible!,
I thought to myself. I knew that stop signal to be a particularly
long one; yet it had obviously been green for a while, since the driver
behind me was annoyed at the delay and trying to get me to ... wake
up? Had I been asleep? Something had obviously happened. I had somehow
... lost my mind, for a few minutes!
Half
a mile later, I suddenly got it! I now completely understood what
the saints and sages had meant in another of yoga's great, descriptive
adages: One without a second. I realized that I had just experienced
the Self -- and that its "form" was simply a chunk of "lost time"!
A common
yogic term for this mind-free condition is "Pure Consciousness" --
the eternal state beyond all thoughts and time. And it had just happened
to me!
I inadvertently
burst out in a gale of laughter at the utter simplicity of it, all
... so much so, that I had to pull the car off the road until the,
well, humor of my "enlightenment" eased. Was that truly what I had
been searching for all those years ... or, indeed, as Vedanta claimed,
all these lifetimes?
It seemed
so simple -- yet as I considered The Experience, it seemed to meet
all the necessary criteria for enlightenment. In the first place,
this "No-Mind" state, as I began calling it, was non-dualistic: Of
course I had no memory of what had actually occurred during the experience,
itself ... nor could I ever.
Otherwise,
it would mean there had been an "observer" somehow watching the phenomenon
of my "being God" as It took place. This would then make the experience
"dualistic." and thus invalidate it from the scriptural authority
I was using to confirm my admittedly outrageous conclusion.
And while
I never envisioned the fabled Self to be a segment of unaccountably
lost time, I immediately understood that Brahman (the Self or God)
and I are One (as proclaimed in The Bhagavad-Gita, 2:30) and that
My Self, and the Self of all, are identical (BG 5-7, 18, 19). This
is scriptural authority of the highest order. And I could point to
numerous other shlokas or verses from that, and other, great yogic
texts to justify that same conclusion to which I had leapt.
It seemed
logical that my No-Mind experience matched all other such experiences
undergone by every other being, human or otherwise, who has ever lived.
There can't be a difference between these phenomena -- no mind is
no mind. Hence, there was the necessary Unity between myself and all
other creatures. That No-Mind experience linked us, all.
As I
would shortly discover, my No-Mind experience was not unique -- far
from it. Upon beginning to share my surprising insights to small groups
the next year, I soon discovered that everyone seemed to have had
this experience (and frequently under equally peculiar, or even bizarre
situations), though most were at first reluctant to discuss it.
In fact,
over the years of our classes in what has become known as Neti Yoga
(a Westernized version of jnana yoga -- "The Way of Ultimate Wisdom"),
not a single student has not remembered having experienced the No-Mind
state. Perhaps surprisingly, by far the majority of these experiences
occurred -- as did mine -- while driving. Not just riding in a car
-- actually driving it!
Let's
try to understand this phenomenon a little better. If we think of
the mind and our thoughts as a movie, this No-Mind state would be
like the blank screen upon which the flickering lights of "reality"
dance and play: "It" is always present behind the scenes, but almost
never experienced directly. It is timeless, Universal and beyond birth
and death, according to yoga's various scriptures.
Another
way of looking at this phenomenon is as "the space between one thought
and another." The analogy is sometimes used that, if thoughts were
clouds, Pure Consciousness is the "clear, blue sky" behind and between
each "thought-cloud." For most people, the mind is constantly "on,"
and so the "blank space" between thoughts usually lasts only for microseconds,
when it occurs.
If we
could just deliberately capture this experience between thoughts or
beyond the mind -- even for a moment -- then we would gain a reassuring
peek at our own, eternal Self, whenever we wished. But while we each
have such No-Mind experiences at least several times every day (namely,
during the grey area between being awake and being asleep), they are
usually accidental, pass within moments as the mind "returns," or
occur without our consciously attempting to "induce" them, such as
during "day-dreams."
However,
in the process of meditation, those few accomplished meditators who
can reach the deepest stage, which is known as samadhi or nirvana,
are actually forcing open the shutters from this window to immortality.
They are literally erasing the mind-stuff, if only for a few minutes.
In that light, a mother hen, sitting motionlessly upon her nest of
eggs for the weeks until they hatch -- typically without even blinking
-- puts even the best meditator to shame with her No-Mindedness.
Infants,
too, seem to experience this state for long periods at a time, until
their physical needs bring them back to awareness.
Other
than his or her intention, then, the only difference between the meditator
inducing samadhi, and the everyday person experiencing "accidental
samadhi," is that of knowledge. Knowledge of what this mind-free experience
actually means and implies.
Or perhaps
not. Most meditators to whom I've spoken have as little understanding
of the significance of that State-beyond-mind as do those of our students
who have unwittingly experienced this "involuntary nirvana."
Of course,
broody hens, awakening sleepers, comfortable babies and lapsing drivers
are not the only ones who have unintentional No-Mind experiences.
This perplexing phenomenon also occurs under deep hypnosis, perhaps
during drunkenness or inebriation, or sometimes when we are profoundly
relaxed or intensely concentrating. Indeed, it can occur at any time,
and under a wide variety of circumstances.
Metaphysical
events and even health problems can also cause the time-free state
of Pure Consciousness to reveal Itself. UFO abductees often claim
"lost time" experiences during their ordeals. Comatose victims and
sleepwalkers, too, are in the No-Mind state, as are people in the
throes of grand mal epileptic seizures.
In other
words, virtually anything which can cause the mind to somehow stop
its thinking process naturally causes the "clear, blue sky" of Pure
Consciousness to be exposed, however briefly.
But for
enlightenment to truly occur, both knowledge and the experience are
vital. Knowledge, alone, merely adds to our mass of infoglut. And
the experience without the knowledge of its significance can be absolutely
traumatic.
For example,
one fellow in our first Neti Yoga class had taken a "bathroom break"
at his office; then, a few minutes later, found himself seated back
at his desk, with no recall of what had happened between the middle
of his urination and when he returned to awareness.
Fearing
a brain tumor, he was relieved when the company's doctor discovered
nothing to be physically wrong. Yet until that class session when
he gained his enlightenment, he had quietly feared that this event
was a precursor to perhaps a life of Alzheimer's Disease in his later
years.
But I
don't even need to leave my own home to find other, interesting tales
of Pure Consciousness. My wife, Barbara Gail, has also had several
No-Mind experiences -- one traumatic and at least one that proved
extremely illuminating. Like mine, and many of our other students',
her first such experience involved driving; in her case, from Pennsylvania
to Washington, DC, during her college years.
She had
begun her trip in a state of agitation, about some matter or another.
She arrived at the outskirts of our nation's capitol, several hours
later, to "awaken" to the fact she had driven hundreds of miles with
virtually no recall of her journey! She was deeply disturbed, to say
the least.
Her second
experience with Pure Consciousness occurred much later, after years
of involvement in yoga, and under less hazardous conditions. It was
as she was lying in bed, not quite meditating, but more contemplating
yoga-Vedanta's premier mahavakya, I am God.
As she
relates it, first the room and her surroundings began to disappear;
then so did her limbs; then her body. Finally, she "watched" as her
mind, too, disappeared. Then blankness. Some time later, she actually
observed her mind returning; and the rest of the process, too, as
it reversed itself.
It was
a profoundly meaningful experience for her.
Fortunately,
all of us seem to be able to recall at least one No-Mind experience,
accidental or purposeful, if my informally-gathered data and statistics
are correct. So this is why I feel comfortable promising anyone "instant
enlightenment" ... even those who seem to have paid no "dues" to receive
this Highest Knowledge.
However,
enlightenment is not the end of life's journey. As the great spiritual
science that it is, yoga's goal is mental upliftment and, eventually,
complete mind-transcendence (and not just for a moment or two, either).
To accomplish this, yoga prescribes a variety of vital practices and
processes which, as they are mastered, lead the yogi or yogini to
the equally mysterious (and equally misunderstood) state of absolute
detachment, commonly called "liberation."
In Neti
Yoga, attaining enlightenment -- or, if you prefer, experiencing Pure
Consciousness, being God, realizing the Self or entering accidental
samadhi ... and knowing what it means -- is an important mile-marker
along yoga's ever-narrowing pathway toward that noble goal of liberation.
And having now received this enlightening knowledge, the end of your
own journey has come into sight. Enjoy!
