Before I began, I just want to apologize in advance for the grammatical errors and poor sentence structure. I find that unedited (or barely edited), raw material, makes for a better read!
One of the things I realized looking back at some of the spiritual experiences in life is that you may not “jump” into meditation right away. Meaning you may not start to “meditate” after you read a spiritual topic, listen to a spiritual discourse, watch a Youtube video, attend a workshop, listen to a Saint, read about spiritual experiences, or anything else for that matter! Guess what? That’s ok! You know what? It basically took me over one and a half years, to figure out that meditation (i.e. to meditate) is a part of “Samarpan Meditation”!!!
Sometimes you may have a spiritual experience in life without figuring out what happened! You may even go through a series of spiritual experiences without even realizing it! Then one day, you look back, and you see the many small, random dots. You realize that those small dots were actually not random at all. They were, in some inexplicable way, connected. They were in fact not small dots. Each small dot, that you thought was a small, simple, occurrence, actually had a large impact on bringing you to where you are today. They were spiritual experiences! You might even look at yourself and shake your head in disbelief and say “wow”.
In this short piece, I will share a few of my small dots. When I look back at some of them, I’m just like “wow”!
We will start this story by going back a few years.
It was, perhaps 2011 or 2012. Life was normal. Like many other people, I was a big city living, young, ambitious mind. I had a lot of financial and physical fitness-related goals. I did have an underlying interest in the area of yoga and spirituality; however, it did not hold any priority in my life. In other words, as far as spirituality was concerned and as far as I was aware, there was nothing I was searching for.
Looking back around this time, perhaps I did have a curiosity. I didn’t realize that at the time. I wasn’t specifically searching for anything, but, I did have a curiosity in the area of yoga and spirituality.
Sometime in either 2011 or 2012, I heard about Samarpan Meditation. My Aunt (who helped take care of me as a child and whom I respected and loved) had been talking about yoga, meditation, religion, and such topics. In fact, we were talking about spirituality. If you had asked me at that time, I would not have classified it as spirituality. It was. We were talking about spiritual matters.
Anyhow, she told me about some great meditation or yoga workshop that she attended. She mentioned a family friend (another beautiful person whom I had come to know over the past few years and respect). This family friend had told my Aunt about some wonderful workshop and she had attended.
When I asked her what it was about, she had so many positive things to say about it. One thing that she said that stuck out and that actually caught my attention, and my interest, was something along the lines of, “Son, he (she was referring to Swamiji) will take you to your Guru. He will actually connect you with your Guru. You will see a vision your Guru in the full form”. I thought to myself that, that does sound intriguing!
Life continued over the next few months. Then, my Aunt told me about an eight-day Samarpan Meditation workshop taking place. I thought that I was short on time and was not be able to go. She encouraged me and said to just come on one of the days. She told me again about how great it was. She told me that during the workshop, you can feel “cool vibrations” of energy and that it is an amazing experience and that I should definitely make time and attend.
So, on either the third or the fourth day of the Workshop, I met up with my Aunt outside of the home where the workshop was being held. As soon as we walked in, we were warmly greeted by a very nice man and woman. I felt very welcome and happy meeting them.
I think there were about 25 or 30 people attending this session. The Workshop was delivered in Hindi, with concurrent English Translations in the form of subtitles. Although I was born and raised in Canada, I had a basic understanding of spoken Hindi (which came from watching Hindi movies growing up. I understood some of the spoken Hindi portions of the discourse with the help of the English Translations. Towards the latter part of the Workshop, everybody chanted a Mantra. My initial reaction was that of surprise! I thought, “what is everyone doing” and “I’m not doing any mantra”. I also thought that perhaps I missed the first few days of the Workshop, so maybe this would have made more sense to me! So, I sat and listened to everyone recite the mantra.
During this last part of the workshop, I absolutely felt that the temperature of the room turned cooler. I figured somebody must have turned the air conditioning on. I don’t think I heard any mechanical noises that would have indicated that the air conditioning was turned on. But I specifically remember, the temperature of the entire room, went much cooler, a little bit before, during, and possibly a little after the mantra was recited.
I went home and life, again, went on normally. A few months went by.
My Aunt forwarded an email to me, which was sent to her by a Meditator, containing a link to a Samarpan Meditation website. The link went straight to a webpage containing a complete 8-day workshop. The running time of each of the days in the workshop was about 2 hours or so. Each day was split up into four or five 30 minute clips. I listened to half an hour or so on the first day of the workshop. I enjoyed what I heard and thought to myself that I would like to hear more. Without realizing it, this is probably where my interest in Samarpan Meditation began.
Over the next year and a half, as time permitted, I would randomly listen to bits and pieces of the workshop. I would lie down on the ground floor of my office during my breaks at work for 30 minutes, sometimes 45 minutes, sometimes an hour. Now, the workshop was 8 days, maybe 16 to 18 hours in total. I did not actually listen to the workshop in chronological order (i.e. Day 1, then Day 2, then Day 3). Like I did not listen to it in any special order or format. It was very random. Here and there, maybe once a week here, maybe twice a month there, I randomly listened. Whenever I had half an hour or 45 minutes at work to take a break, I would randomly select a portion of the discourse, lie down on the ground on my back (face up), close my eyes and listen. The discourse was in the Hindi language. Now I would say my Hindi was “below average” to “average”. Each time I sat down, I would understand bits and pieces of what Swamiji said. The more I listened, the more I slowly, slowly picked up and understood, the more I enjoyed it. The feeling was like, “Yes! I get it”. I TOTALLY understand what they are explaining! It was like everything resonated with me. The words, the stories, the tidbits, the explanations. It was as though Swamiji brought to words, “things” that I knew on the inside. It was as though, whatever he was saying, I knew. Yet at the same time, I didn’t even know that I knew these things!
I felt like hearing more. I felt like learning more. I had so many questions! There are so many cool things that Swamiji talks about. Will these things happen to me? Is there something I’m supposed to do? Where do I get the answers?
Then one day in late 2013 (possibly November or December), the Family Friend I mentioned earlier, he came by. We chatted a bit. We had a good chat about Samarpan Meditation. I bombarded him with questions! Before he left, he looked at me for a moment. He was thinking of something. He asked me to wait. He went to his car and came back and gave me the recent 8-day Samarpan Meditation Workshop that was broadcast live around the world from Shirdi. Up to this point, as you know, I had been randomly listening to the 8-day Workshop from the website. So, I asked him if I need to listen to the workshop in order? Do I need to listen to “day 1” then “day 2” then “day 3” and should I listen to it over 8 days?
He said you don’t have to. You can spread it out over one or two weeks if you want. He said, but don’t listen to it one day and stop for two or three days! He said to keep some consistency. He said listen to it regularly each day and listen to it over a few weeks if you want. I thanked him and we said our good-byes.
As soon as he left, I thought to myself that I can do this over 8 days. There is no reason I can’t. So I made the decision that no matter what, I will listen to the full 8 day discourse over 8 days, in order.
Over the next 8 days, I listened to the full 2013 8 days Samarpan Meditation Shridi Mega Workshop. I spread out the discourses spread over the course of the day. I loved it! I had more questions. I was ready for whatever I had understood from the discourse to happen to me! Yes, you might be thinking, “expectations”! But I say no! It was not expected! It was more curiosity and excitement about the neat experiences that happen in spirituality. You notice I haven’t used the word “meditation” right? Do you know why? Because, up until this point of the story, I had not figured out that part of “Samarpan Meditation” is “meditation”! Meaning, I did not catch this part over the past year and a half of listening to Samarpan Meditation discourses! It was at this point, as I listened to this 8-day discourse I figured out that after taking the 8-day Workshop, I needed to meditate for approximately 45 days.
So from what I understood, I needed to meditate for 45 days after taking an 8-day Workshop and I was set for life. Now, I had a wish, a desire to attend one of the Samarpan Meditation 8-day Workshops. I had no idea how this would happen. Actually, I didn’t think it would happen anytime soon. Do you know how you sometimes “know” that something is “not plausible”? Like I mean that you know from the inside that something is just “not possible”? I also knew, there is no way that I will be able to attend any 8-day Samarpan Meditation workshop anytime soon.
I really wanted to attend. But I thought oh well. Let’s see what happens.
Guess what happened within a few weeks?
I attended my cousin’s wedding a few weeks later out of Canada in the first week of January 2014. As soon as I came back, I found out that there was an 8-day Samarpan Meditation Workshop being held in either February or March of 2014! I thought to myself, wow! This is unreal! Do you know how they say “it was meant to be”? This was “meant to be”. This is totally how it felt. I felt “this is for me”. “I have to attend this”. I told my Mom about it and she was happy to join me for the 8 days.
Before talking about the Workshop, I would just like to mention that at some point around this time, I had two beautiful spiritual experiences while sleeping. They were not dreams! They were both spiritual experiences. You see, you “feel something different” with spiritual experiences. Both of these spiritual experiences were very profound.
In the first one, I was sitting with a group of people facing in one direction. In the direction that everyone was facing, a “Saint-like” person was sitting teaching everyone meditation! I felt so amazing! I felt so positive! I was so happy! It’s a bit hard to explain the feelings with words. My inside was glowing.
In the second one, I was meditating alone for a very long time. During this time, I felt an indescribable, unseen, “flow”. It felt as though “something” that I could not see, was “flowing” through my body. This “something” was “flowing” through my entire body. I could not “see” anything with my eyes. Just “feel”. This experience was out of this world. I felt even more amazing, positive, and happy.
I knew that something beautiful was going on or in the works.
So my mother and I attended the 8-day discourse together here in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada in 2014. First and foremost, my mother had some very profound spiritual experiences during the Workshop which was actually my most powerful and influencing experience. This is because her experiences gave me reassurance. Next, during the workshop, I felt great. I felt fresh. The sessions were held in the evening. After I got home from Day 3 or Day 4 of the workshop, I lay on my bed. I lay on my back, face-up, eyes closed, just as I used to lay down for a year and half-listening to those discourses. Within ten minutes of laying down, a black and white image of the Spiritual Master Shirdi Sai Baba Ji came in front of me. It was as though, somebody with an “unseen hand, drew the image” of the Spiritual Master slowly in front of me (again my eyes were closed!). I thought “wow”! Okay, this is good! Swamiji did talk about spiritual experiences such as this one! Although I must admit, at that time, while I did indeed feel connected with Shirdi Sai Baba Ji, I had not “expected” to see him! This experience gave me a reassurance! “Something” is happening.
After the Workshop completed, I had understood that I needed to meditate for the next 45 days and that was it! I would be “done the process”. I made a mental note on an approximate day that the 45 days would complete and began the day after the workshop. The days went nicely. Everyone that attended the Workshop was given a CD to assist them in meditating at home. Some beautiful experiences took place. I was very “alert” as to possible experiences! I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I gathered a few things in my mind in the workshops as to some of the experiences that take place. Partly, I was excited to experience them and partly I wanted to make sure that “I was doing it right”! One thing definitely worth mentioning is that when these 45 days began, I was really looking forward to the completion of the 45 days to see what happens. Do you know what happened? Slowly, as the days went on, I noticed myself paying less and less attention to that. Actually, it might have only been the first week or so that the time period of 45 days was in the back of my mind. Its importance decreased really fast.
After a few weeks of meditating, something started to happen something happened one day about halfway through the meditation session. I was sitting as usual with my legs crossed, hands on my knees, palms facing up and eyes closed. In this position, my body started to feel an unseen, almost magnetic, pull. I was sitting there and my body automatically started to fall backward. I thought wow! Super! Something cool is going on! I’m sitting here not moving anything, and automatically I feel a magnetic, energetic push. This experience happened almost daily for two weeks or so. Sometimes my body would fall all the way back towards the ground as I was sitting. I enjoyed it. I had no idea what exactly was going on, but I loved it! I knew something was going on!
Then, after the two weeks or so, I had another beautiful spiritual experience while sleeping. I saw Swamiji, smiling, and very happy! I was overjoyed by the experience. Do you know what happened after that? My body stopped automatically, magnetically move back during meditation. At first, I was a little disappointed. I thought, hey, why did that cool experience stop? What happened? Why? Do you know what I realized? I realized that whatever subtle spiritual process was taking place in my body for those two weeks, took place. After that, the experience I had, seeing Swamiji smiling and very happy was the “completion” of that subtle process.
Now, I don’t remember when, but at some point, 45 days or so after the Workshop, I realized that the actual “45 days period” has ended! Yet, on the inside, I felt that whatever was suppose to take place over the 45 days, has not yet happened. Another two weeks or so (after the 45 days) must have gone by and I felt that whatever was suppose to happen during the 45 days has now happened! 55 or 60 days later!
Did I stop meditating now that I was done as I had planned to when the 45 days were over? I did not!
I continued the Journey.
It’s a beautiful one.
I will leave you with the possibly the most profound, life-changing, thing for me that Swamiji has said many times during his discourses.
I think if you adopt this, you are set for life.
Loosely translated, he said: “Yes, there is. There is a Universal Consciousness. Yes, it flows through each and everything in this Universe. It does. So what? Out of all the ways possible ways that Universal Consciousness came to me through a certain Medium. So yes, there must be a Universal Consciousness. But for me, my Guru is everything.”
