Since the moment I experienced the Gyan (Enlightened Awareness), I feel the whole universe has been in my favour. My Simran (prayer) is already complete. In the Bible, Jesus’s guidance on prayer is ‘Hallowed be Thy name’. Since my experience of the Gyan, wherever I go, wherever I am, I say ‘thank you’ for everything all the time.
This Gyan is everything. It lacks nothing; it needs nothing. You see Him. Sorry not him or her, but it! You are it! So it is good to pray and it’s important to appreciate the Gyan for this God is everywhere.
Prior to this, I used to project my thoughts outside. I thought of my Father in Heaven, and imagined Heaven to be far away in the sky. But after experiencing the Gyan, I look within myself, behind me, and all around me. It is everywhere. It is here and now. Everything we need, everything we want, everything we pray for is here and now. We just need to tune into it. It is all-pervading all things and manifests in all things. When we pray, let us think about ourself here now, with gratitude
There was once a caged pet in Africa. As there was no way the animal could escape, it decided to play dead. The moment people thought the animal had died, they released it from the cage. Similarly, the moment I had the Gyan, I felt as though I died. There is no more of me. I am no longer walking, but walking is happening to me. I am no longer speaking, but words are being uttered. This body stands. I am completely free from all thoughts and doubts because of the realisation of the Formless.
Moses said in the Old Testament, ‘no one has lived and has seen God’. This is one of the most misunderstood statements. Moses was not talking about the dying of the body, but the relinquishing of one’s ego. Gyan is the moment when the ego dies, and you never die again. As long as the ego lives, there is suffering.
We are suffering from a different type of oppression, and the oppression which is not spoken about in the world. We seek liberation not just from a physical prison, but from everything that holds us down. What holds us down, are all the things that appear to be.
Once upon a time there was a man who wore a different mask every day. Each mask expressed a different emotional expression – sometimes joy, sometimes sorrow. Some masks conveyed fear and worry. The man was fascinated by the masks he wore. People reacted differently to the different masks he wore.
Then the yearning arose of wanting to fall in love and get married. When he saw a beautiful lady, whom he wished to marry, she ran away from him. He suddenly recognised that it was because of the mask he was wearing, which deterred her. He shouted aloud, ‘please stop, stop; this mask is not me!’. But it was too late – he had lost his chance, having become too engrossed in the masks, and losing sight of his real self.
Having learned his lesson, the man went to the river and leaned over to observe his reflection. Seeing himself again after so many years, he gained an inner feeling of peace. Then he asked himself ‘am I joyful or am I the joy?’ He realised he was the joy behind all the masks he had once worn. The masks he had used were just aspects of the passing personality. This personality caused so much suffering to the man. It has always been so! The personality – that separate sense of self, which we regard as our qualities and characteristics, is so often the trigger for problems in relationships and the world at large. Another word for it, is ego.
Sometimes calling it ego makes it less meaningful for us and abstract. But calling it personality allows us to identify it and recognise it. It is this personality which is stopping us enjoying joy, which is what prevents human beings from reaching harmonious oneness.
Our personality is shaped by the world – it is what we think about ourselves and what we believe others think of us. If we are able to drop these labels, step aside from ego and rise above the limitations of personality, we will experience the joy that is always within.
Having transcended these limitations, we can dance with the secret that remains, dance with the unnameable, dance with the formless and dance with that which we truly are. It is when we drop this ego in every shape and form, that the formless Nirankar prevails in life
Albert Winners, Birmingham
