Question:
You had a mystical experience at a young age. Then, after 32 years of searching, you became enlightened. I would like to know if your enlightenment was a result of your practices.
Prabhuji’s Answer:
At the age of eight, I had a mystical experience. I had the infinite fortune of being initiated by existence. In the silence of the night, the moon and the stars gave me dīkṣā. However, a mystical experience is totally different from enlightenment, because you are still present as an observer. Even if you observe the light, whatever is observed is an object, while enlightenment is pure subjectivity.
Enlightenment is always unexpected and accidental. It is not an effect of a cause, nor a result of a practice. No methodology can grant it. Jesus, Buddha, Śaṅkara, Moses, and others awakened to reality under various circumstances. If we examine their lives, we will learn that enlightenment was an accident that happened to them in very particular situations: dancing, singing, walking, sitting quietly, and so on. For some of them, it occurred in the tranquility of their homes; for others, in a mountain cave, in the desert, or the forest. Awakening can surprise you anywhere. Just like falling in love, it is the same experience for all, yet everyone has their own story.
Spiritual practice, or sadhana, is not meant for the attainment of moksha. The aim of prayer, hatha yoga, japa, prāṇāyāma, and meditation is not to enlighten us. Yoga-vidyā creates appropriate conditions for enlightenment. Its purification methods help overcome obstacles or impediments to facilitate the accident of enlightenment.
We cannot force sleep. In order to fall asleep, we have to create the proper environment: draw the blinds, turn off the light, get into a comfortable bed, relax, and so on. But sleep can only fall upon us of its own accord. Similarly, there is no method for falling in love with someone. All you can do is to create the right conditions. Sleep and love, just like enlightenment, are accidents that simply happen.
Existence is extremely creative and avoids copies. Looking at the ocean waves, the mountains, and the flowers, we notice that life dislikes repetition. Different religions have created methods that mimic the circumstances in which enlightened ones awoke. If the prophet became enlightened while sitting, then the practice is to sit. If the saint found God while dancing, the sadhana is to dance. These activities, however, are not the cause. If one master awoke while sitting, the reason was not the body position or the chair. If another discovered the Divine while dancing, it was not because of the dance.
Before undertaking a practice, it is very important to put it in its place. Every religion has developed its own practices, yet followers have not necessarily achieved the coveted result. Their methods have not always been effective in transcending illusion. Jews, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists have imitated their prophets for centuries without attaining the desired divine goal. Such practices have transformed religion into a business: whoever pays with the currency of practice will receive the desired merchandise. This has turned us into manipulators and opportunists.
Religion is unveiling our true existence in the reality of the present. If the practice is aimed at some goal, it projects us toward the future. Any sadhana that seeks enlightenment, as elevated as it may be, distracts us from the present moment. The only alternative is to create favorable conditions and cultivate the art of waiting properly; not expecting something in particular but transforming ourselves into unconditional waiting. There is nothing left to do but to meditate with great trust in life. In the right moment, a ray of light will illuminate your soul. In that fatal divine accident, you will perish as “someone” to be reborn as the Whole.
