Spiritual experience means experience of the Soul. rnIt is an experience through which one realizes that ‘I am a Pure Soul indeed!’ The Soul is the real Self, our very own Self! However, unaware of this fact, we have always lived in ignorance, believing that ‘I am John (the reader may insert his own name here)’
Spiritually, the wrong belief of ‘I am John’ is called ego.Ego means to believe our self to be something that we are really not. And since intellect is the light (light of knowledge) of the Soul passing through the ego, it is primarily found thinking about and working around ego all the time!
Being born as a human being, while in the stage of ignorance of Self, the ego and intellect develop. As a result, the wrong beliefs of ‘I am this, I am the doer, this is mine- this is yours, this is good-this is bad, this is useful-this is useless, etc.’ arise and grow stronger naturally. Due to these beliefs, one experiences worry, anger, fear, confusion, tension, botheration, restlessness, hopelessness, etc. And thus, one becomes more and more unnatural and keeps binding karma after karma all life.
One has always believed that the worldly life or the worldly people are causing me unhappiness and suffering; and therefore tries renouncing the world to attain the Soul which has eternal happiness. But, in reality, it is because of our own ego and intellect that we experience suffering.
Let us try and understand this through an example. Say, you overhear someone saying, “John is stupid.” Now, wouldn’t this make you angry? But as you listen to further conversation, you realize that they are talking of some other person with the name John, who hails from UK. What happens when you realize this? All your anger and worries would disappear in thin air, isn’t it?
‘They are talking regarding me’ is what triggered all emotions and made you anxious. But the moment your wrong belief gets transformed to right belief, you realize, ‘No, that’s not me. I am John from USA.’ With the wrong belief gone, the emotions based on the wrong belief die down. And as a result, you get to your natural state.
This is exactly what happens in the spiritual experience!rnYour wrong belief gets transformed into right belief, which makes you realize, ‘No, John’s not me. I am a Pure Soul’ (Self-Realization). After Self-Realization, as the emotions of worry, anxiety, fear, confusion, tension, botheration, restlessness, hopelessness, etc. die down, you get to your natural state, that of eternal bliss.
On the spiritual path, there are two options available to us:rn1.The step-by-step path on which our revered Guru can take us to the point he has reached to.rn2.The stepless path on which Gnani, the Enlightened One who has attained the Soul, takes us right upto our final destination.
One who aspires for a spiritual experience, generally surrenders to a worthy Guru and under His guidance, performs great penance to control one’s mind and overcome all emotions that arise, and follows severe austerities to tame one’s intellect and ego from bad to good, so that he reaches a stage to gain spiritual experience.
However, on the stepless path to Self-Realization, Gnani through His divine spiritual powers (siddhi), graces one with Self-Realization and saves him the trouble of tough external penances!!! He bypasses one’s existent mind, intellect, ego, karmas, etc. and directly fractures the wrong belief of ‘I am John’, establishes the conviction of ‘I am a Pure Soul’ within the seeker.
In Akram Vignan, Gnani gives us the spiritual experience (Self-Realization) within an hour. rnThis becomes possible because principally, the Soul, even when covered with layers and layers of karma, maintains its pure natural state (swabhav) always.
Hence, just like goldsmith, who has the technical expertise to recognize and separate out pure gold from amongst presence of other metals and impurities in an ornament; in Akram Vignan, Gnani has the divine spiritual expertise to recognize and separate our Pure Soul from amidst presence of ego, intellect, mind and impurities of karma in us.
After Self-Realization, remaining surrendered to Gnani and following His words, one perseveres to remain more and more in the awareness of ‘I am Pure Soul’, and tries not to become one with the wrong belief of ‘I am this body, these thoughts, words or action are mine; the emotions arising within affect me, etc.’rnThis is called inner penance, as a result of which,
•the inner weaknesses of anger, greed, pride and deceit gradually keep decreasing,
•the ego and intellect keep waning off,
•the mind, body and speech become more and more natural, andrn•our experience of the Soul keeps increasing.
Conclusion:rnThe Soul is the real Self, but one does not understand it until one experiences it.
In the spiritual experience, the confused and frightened self named ‘John’ (the reader may insert his own name here) transcends to the awareness of the real Self named Pure Soul, which is full of pure knowledge and love. Akram Vignan is a shortcut path to attain the spiritual experience.
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