foreign
you see when I was say 17 or 16 16 17 I was becoming almost atheistic
I worked out in my mind that this issue about God religion it's just make believe it is also all
you know old story it's not really genuine it's not real it cannot be real it doesn't seem right
so I was actually becoming an atheist saying that I'm really kind of challenging the ideas
of religion I wasn't convinced by religions at all in this idea of a super personality called
God looking over her shoulder saying hello jobs I'm looking after you and you behave and so on I
couldn't believe that and difficulty in relating to this idea of a super personality called God
an atheist and I was studying at Imperial College studying physics you know modern
science and that's very straightforward you can use your rational faculties your common
sense to come to terms regarding the nature of reality no exaggerations everything can
be properly verified through experiments and through a very very cohesive system of thought
theories hypothesis you could relate to that it's a far better Enterprise than this Enterprise of
religion whose sale by date is gone surely so I was being kind of in that state of mind
and when I was in that state of mind at the age of 17 studying an Imperial College living
in a little room in Earl's Court students digs at that stage suddenly I discovered a treasure house
I suddenly discovered that what I was searching for kind of an understanding
about religion on a rational formal format was possible and this became visible when I started
to study the life and teachings of this modern spiritual giant of India this with a Cananda
one day middle of December when I was 17 books arrived about the stories of
ramakrishna Vivekananda in the little room that I was staying in next to the university
in the digs and in the middle of the night or whatever late in the evening I started reading the
life story of ramakrishna when I had read about 50 or 60 Pages something stirred up within me
because somehow it is as if my inheritance was given back to me and the stirring up made me
sit cross leg quietly I had not learned the word yoga and no clue what it means I never studied
or put any discipline in my life into practice and yet as if it is the most natural thing for
me to do I sat cross like on the in the bed in the middle of winter cold wind weather
and very quietly close my eyes and went into the deepest of meditation that perhaps you
only read about in books this was a very dramatic experience a 17 year old boy drawn
to the idea of spirit in a way the Catalyst was this personality called ramakrishna who
triggered a very powerful spiritual experience so this young man this young boy is sitting
on the bed suddenly let me tell you how the intense the experience and what it involves
you see you sit you somehow feel naturally kind of drawn to sit sit up straight because you are now
going to experience your your Majestic nature of the spirit so somehow something tells you
to sit up straight and not be upright so you sit up straight very firm very sure that you are now
going to hit the jackpot is to be that confidence you begin the journey when you are sure going to
hit the jackpot straight away so you sit like that close your eyes there's traffic outside Cromwell
Road a lot of traffic cars and trucks passing late in the night cold weather and suddenly at
the base of the spine you see a starring starting a beginning you never heard about it you don't
know what the heck is hitting you the moment the stirring begins at the base of the spine
slowly Your Body Sensations disappear so first thing that you feel the cold weather on your skin
and suddenly that disappears you don't feel the weather at all you don't feel hot or cold anymore
that this traffic or the noise the traffic begins to disappear very fast disappears
you are quite comfortable and yet you know you are not the body the study at the base of the spine
begins to rise very gently very slowly it is as if you're you know when you get you know foot falls
asleep you feel as if you lost your sensation so the stunning begins like that but in no time
you feel as if you lost if you like all link with your body and all the five senses stop operating
this is if you like the beginning of living this idea that I am the body and discovering
that you are more than the body you are not the body the body is then left on the sideline and
is no longer interfering with your being the first ex first time you get that experience
the amount of Freedom it offers you the thing that you shout long to shout out about is freedom
freedom I am free this limited Vision you had regarding yourself as the body has now been put
pushed aside forever you push it aside forever and now you know not you're not reading a book
or you're not yourself to believe you know you are not the body and that is such a very and a
threatening experience that it allows you to progress further in your spiritual experience
so as the starting up goes higher and higher in your backbone there is a real physical activity
taking place when you have a spiritual experience I mean when people say oh that they felt a kind of
a chill down the spine in a way they are in a way reflecting this thing with the spine or the the
column in the spine seems to have come alive in the spiritual the level of spiritual experience so
it really you get a real stirring and real kind of movement in the spine taking place rising from the
base and moving higher and higher when it reaches a certain level let's say the first first thing
you say is you are free of the body and that gives you tremendous release tremendous empowerment you
now know you are not the body in fact people who have near-death experience also have a similar
idea because for the first time they realize they continue to exist even though they are not in the
body in the bodily functions have been left aside and they are no longer linked with the body they
are quite aware of it and they feel very free the first thing that they feel is thank God we are
not tied up to the body you are not imprisoned in the body there's a first feeling you get even the
spiritual experience so you begin to feel this is the beginning and yet this is still not spiritual
just basically has told you you are more than the body and the body is your outer garment is no
longer in something that you accept intellectually you actually experience it for yourself
you see the next stage is the most marvelous stage of a spiritual experience
what happens is this you come across the most brilliant light nobody's ever told you about it
you never read it in a book but you come across the most brilliant light and you stare at the
light and the word that kind of you don't embody your words to speak but they think they're kind of
the uttering that up arises from right within your system your whole being is saying ah ah what is
this what is this that is the experience what is this what is this it is the most bewildering most
exciting most unique experience because you need to think well when you go out you know sightseeing
and you go to the Alps or the Himalayas and you see those marvelous sides and say wow what wow
this is nothing there is nothing this is where you've got the real wow factor people talk about
wow this is the real wow factor you go ah as my mentor ramco said you go Ami Ami what is
this what is this that is the experience you get when you encounter the spirit when you
encounter this marvelous brilliant light it's not a physical light it is if you
like the light of Consciousness itself you are facing if you like you're looking at yourself
so initially you feel that you are the Observer and there is This brilliant light in front of
you that you are observing but that is the beginning of experience in the next stage in
no time you realize what a nonsense you're not observing the light you are the light
and that is the most unifying most if you like exciting experience anybody can have you are
freed forever from a very limited Vision you have regarding yourself forever you are freed you come
face to face with your essential nature of the spirit not gimmicks not book learning no low
linguistic you know jargon you come face to face with a deeper reality your inner being your inner
self so if you like this is the culmination what else was experiencing at a much younger
age suddenly became culminated into this very powerful spiritual experience and you see in at
that stage in my life I had this tremendous power that I could cross my legs any moment
and go into the deep state of meditation at will you can imagine the fun we had so that was if you
like the culmination at the happened at the age of 17 I said because of the Catalyst my mentor this
ramakrishna stirred it up I feel like give me the inheritance that was already but as mine but this
gentleman was the Catalyst it's not me hundreds of people around the world have claimed that this
ramakrishna when he was alive he gave spiritual experience to lots of people even after he's gone
away he continues to give spiritual experience to hundreds of people around the world even his name
or his picture conjures of the spirit within us so this is if you like my private Journey
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