My Spiritual Awakening!!!!

So, it turns out we all are living in an illusion.

For the past four-five years I have been looking for answers to many questions, even questions as little as a grain of sand and as big as the universe. Questions turned to curiosity and curiosity turned to the development of my reading habit. Reading for me never started as a fun habit but a habit that I must cultivate in order to find answers to my questions and succeed in life.

Consistency in that habit made it fun for me and book by book I consumed a lot of knowledge. Starting with self-help and slowly exploring other genres I became addicted to consuming knowledge. I not only consumed but also implemented what was applicable to me.

I mentioned my reading habit because I believe unknowingly my spiritual journey had already started. Reading and hearing insights from spiritual leaders had already made an impact on me as I could feel myself being more compassionate and grateful. After reading The 5 am club by Robin Sharma I tried implementing his principle 20/20/20 rule and that is when I started meditating. Meditation for me was not easy, because stillness was never my nature, all I wanted was to be productive and sitting still was the most unproductive thing for me. Because of such nature, I never adopted the habit on a daily basis but every once in a while, like once a week maybe, to reflect on my life I meditated. It felt good and I could feel my mental health getting much better, maybe it was because of feeding my mind with positive content from books, or maybe it was meditation, I don’t know that but my mindfulness was definitely improving.

I have always wondered, I bet you too have if there really is god and is it the same as our religion teaches us? what meaning our life holds, stuff related to the universe, religion, science, and basically the answers to the question that are just based on beliefs without actual proof to it. These curiosities and access to unlimited information through the internet led me to learn about the basic principle of the Sanatan dharma which is presently known as the Hindu religion. I took an interest in finding more about the universe and how it works and to my surprise, I could relate many universal principles defined by modern science with yogic science. All I could think was

“If modern science has just concluded these things how could people from thousands of years ago know about this?”.

For example, the first planet was discovered in the year 1781, and later after some years total of 9 planets were discovered, whereas people living thousands of years ago following the Sanatan dharma were worshipping Navagraha (9 heavenly bodies) back then, and people following Hindu religion still do. Not only this but there are various other scientific conclusions that align with yogic science. Long story short, from all the knowledge I obtained I concluded that God does exist, but God is not some humanly form we imagine him to be but is the supreme energy, much greater than the energies we are.

Believing in the existence of greater energy I found out the reason behind visiting temples and worshipping. In fact, my first medium article is on the same topic I wrote about a year ago (Click Here). I found out it was actually to align with the immense energy surrounding the temple areas, people visited temples, but sadly all they did was worship and asked for something they desire. After that, every time I visited a temple all I tried to do was stand still and try my best to feel the energy around. It felt good, basically, I meditated and cultivated an inner peace that made me feel very at ease with life. Another thing I noticed in myself is my drop in emotions like anger, hatred, guilt, and cultivation of compassion, empathy, joyfulness. Cultivation of such emotions got me connected to Earth and without me knowing I was becoming an environmentalist. I was in love with the Earth and wanted to do something to save it and then rose an idea for a startup related to reducing environmental pollution (more on this later). Planting indoor plants and doing my best to reduce environmental harm had become my hobby, It feels good to serve the planet I live on.

A real spiritual experience I encountered was when I (as usual, I do when I go to temples) stood still to feel the energy around the Budanikantha (Vishnu) temple. Sometime after I stood still, I felt the outside noise dropping to null. I was standing still with my eyes open looking at God Vishnu quietly sleeping in the water. All I was trying to do was to feel the energy around there but instead what I felt was my own energy, flowing rapidly through my body. I was at ease, mind at peace, and no outer nor inner voices. I could feel my energy or say my consciousness mix with the environment I could feel me becoming one with the environment, everything was one, there was no differentiation. For a moment I got scared and immediately got back to my senses and that is when I felt I am not this body and this energy, consciousness, spirit, (whatever you want to say) is actually who I am and this has a greater connection. With these thoughts on my mind, I was in a very peaceful state, blissfully standing there with a big smile on my face and tears rolling down my eyes. I was extremely blissful just because of my being.

I have never had such a blissful experience, it was somehow similar to the stimulant of a psychedelic drug like cannabis and magic mushroom, giving the feeling of oneness but the internal peace was so much greater. I was happy, literally happy with a peaceful mind and a sense of the presence of much greater energy. This was a one-time experience I couldn’t experience the same in the days to come even though I tried my best.

The real magic began after a month when I picked up Bhagavad Gita to dive deeper into the spiritual realm. As they say, you don’t find Gita, Gita finds you, maybe my time had come. The Vedic literature represents the supreme consciousness or the cosmic energy with Lord Krishna. He is the creator of everything, the causes of all causes and Bhagavad Gita is words spoken by God himself. Understanding the nature of the supreme consciousness, I surrendered upon him. To understand the relationship with this energy meditation, devotion, yoga, sacrifices, faith various practices are mentioned in the holy book.

With thoughts only about the supreme consciousness and cosmic energy before I went to sleep, I thought about meditating. To make it more effective I searched for Krishna meditation music and planned to meditate listening to the hare Krishna hare Rama chant. Closing my eyes I slowly drifted into a meditative state, vibing with the chant I felt immense energy in front of me. I was outside of this place somewhere in the cosmic space and there was immense energy in front of me, purely human-like but the presence was so much greater. (I am going to refer to that consciousness as him because I saw him human-like, or maybe I imagined) I felt like I knew him, tears began to roll down my eyes, throughout the whole 11-minute meditative chant, tears continued. I was immensely happy smiling all along, it felt like I remembered a long-forgotten place and that place was my home.

In spite of what I learned over the years, after this experience I felt like, I know nothing (I still don’t). I believe this is my spiritual awakening and now my real spiritual journey starts. I have realized there is nothing to look for outside everything we need is found on the inside, liberation is not the way out but it's the way in.

We are spiritual beings living in this human body which is temporary but as long as we live in it, take care of it. We can exceed human potential to a much greater level, and now I focus on it. With no negative emotions, I now cultivate only love, compassion, and devotion.

Everything is connected, we all are living in an illusion, there is nothing to worry about, all we gotta do is live in this present moment and experience this human life. Spread love and happiness, become joyful, cultivate compassion and empathy, fulfill your duties towards yourself, your loved ones, and the Earth, exceed your potential, become passionate, radiate positivity, and make an impact.