Interesting account of a spiritual seeker
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 3 years before Jul 15, 2016
rishi 3 years ago
http://www.indiadivine.org/exposure-to-the-tantric-path/
Alfredo 3 years ago
A very Indian story...worthy of the book "A Search in Secret India" by Paul Brunton.
colleen 3 years ago
As an observer from the West, I think it has some unusual twists.
rishi 3 years ago
Yes. If you have lived and traveled around India, it would be far more easier to understand and connect to the story. For many people, the narration might sound more a like a tale than a true biography.
I am more than inclined to believe every incident of this story; having lived most of my life in India and having witnessed a few spectacular incidents myself.
I was very much interested to know as to whether the author did progress spiritually beyond what he has stated. Was he able to find a guru in the Himalayas. Did he reach some degree of spiritual attainment? After some inquiries, i managed to find out that he was living as a common house holder, unmarried. I wanted to know more about his experiences and so i sent him an email but so far it has not elicited any reply from him.
I would like to hear from you about what parts of this story you find unusual.
From a spiritual point of view, i found it very instructive.
How and why?
It seems to me that the author did reach a certain degree of spiritual attainment in his previous lives.
That much is evident from his psychic abilities. Also, he seems to have a complex karmic past. Several Spiritual guides try to channel his energies in the right direction but his logical mind and lust prevent him from moving forward.
He has witnessed quite a few incidents to convince him of the presence of a higher force but lacks the intensity to pursue a single path.
A guru shows him the path but he does not have the single mindedness to follow the chosen path.
Does it not seem plausible that most of us spiritual seekers would end their lives in a similar state of frustration? There is every chance that we would end our lives in this physical body being stuck, unable to make any progress because of our own limited intellect and the conclusions that we draw from our faulty logical mind.
Which brings the following questions to my mind:
1. How important is the role of complete surrender to a guru or a higher power in order to make any meaningful progress in your spiritual life?
2. Is it possible to advance spiritually based on conclusions that are drawn from your experiences alone? The scriptures say that unless a person attains some degree of enlightenment, his intellect is more of a hindrance in his spiritual quest.
3. Is it possible to make spiritual advancements easily in certain eras but impossible to do so despite your best effort in other ages. Is the general consciousness of the whole world related to how much one can spiritually advance? For instance, in the last few centuries, spiritual advancement would have been close to zero for most souls because of wars throughout the world. But now, there are more and more people who are able to attain enlightenment and help others in their path.
To that end, i am eternally grateful to Michael, Alfredo and others here, for the information provided in this forum by them is likely to help several other people long after we have left this body
colleen 3 years ago
I find it interesting and instructive to learn what conjures up fear in the various traditions. In Western modalities, women do not evoke fear in most circumstances, though it is certain that they are capable of harm, it is just that Westerner tend to see things statistically, and men tend to be stronger and more likely to be considered dangerous. Sexual undertones are also different, subtly and not so subtly. There is a seeming dichotomy in the male psyche about the female persona: angel/devil, virgin/vamp, and so it is difficult to know as a woman, how you are being perceived and what motivates action toward you.
MiBeloved 3 years ago
rishi Wrote:
How important is the role of complete surrender to a guru or a higher power in order to make any meaningful progress in your spiritual life?
MiBeloved's Response:
Generally speaking having a guru or being inspired by a divine being is absolutely necessary to make progress but they are exceptions in history where someone got enlightenment without any obvious input from someone else.
See my book, Spiritual Master which describes the probabilities for this.
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rishi Wrote:
Is it possible to advance spiritually based on conclusions that are drawn from your experiences alone? The scriptures say that unless a person attains some degree of enlightenment, his intellect is more of a hindrance in his spiritual quest.
MiBeloved's Response:
One advances spiritually in real terms when one can transcend the materialistic plane of existence and its supportive astral levels. During the effort to do this, one may come in contact with higher planes which are beyond the materialistic plane and its supported astral levels.
However to integrate these experiences over into the physical world, one has to use the intellect.
There is yoga for reforming and calibrating the intellect. That is buddhi yoga which is sketched by Lord Krishna in chapter 2 of Bhagavad Gita.
As soon as the yogi can master this buddhi yoga, the undesirable aspects of the intellect will no longer be present in his life.
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rishi Wrote:
Is it possible to make spiritual advancements easily in certain eras but impossible to do so despite your best effort in other ages.
MiBeloved's Response:
It is possible to make spiritual advancement in all eras, provided one has some good luck, provided the providence leaves the channel open for the specific individual.
The idea that it is easier to do it during a certain era, is based on statements in the Vedic literature but such information has to be qualified by explaining the particular circumstances.
There are statements which say that the easiest way to become liberated is available in this era by chanting the holy names of Krishna. Yet when I lived in a Hare Krishna ashram, I found that this was not happening, where people were chanting as advised and enforced in the sect and still the sect leaders were being mowed down by immoral or criminal activities and by social deviations, circumstances which distracted them effectively.
In the Vedic literature in reference to the first Age, the Satya Yuga, the time (yuga) when people were reality-perceptive (satya), some persons who did yoga and also chanted and did deity worship (archana) manifested asuric temperaments (criminal tendencies).
The other thing to consider is that even though in the Satya Yuga, a group of people were perceptive of reality, still at that time they were others, like aborigines who were totally oblivious of it.
Suppose I was born in a Satya Yuga era, then suppose my parents are not in the Vedic caste system. They are outside of India where the advanced souls were, then what?
There is a story in the Puranas about Manu, where he was meditating standing still on one toe (or foot) with arms outstretched, somewhere in the Himalayas. But then some cannibals saw him and considered his presence there to be their good luck because human meat was part of their diet.
These cannibals were killed by Manu’s son who was called Hari. So if I recall this correctly, I think that this was in the Satya Yuga. Even if it was the Treta Yuga, still it shows that not everyone was reality-conversant at the time.
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rishi Wrote:
Is the general consciousness of the whole world related to how much one can spiritually advance? For instance, in the last few centuries, spiritual advancement would have been close to zero for most souls because of wars throughout the world. But now, there are more and more people who are able to attain enlightenment and help others in their path.
MiBeloved's Response:
In so far as one is under the influence of social events (political and social history), one is restricted for advancement. This is because the social and political circumstances impose itself on those who are attracted to it.
If there is a war in the area where one lives, that might cause stagnation because of not being able to execute a full yoga practice.
