Moksha

Day 170

“To see and live from a higher context, we must begin to see that change is not threatening, it just is. It is the movement of Life around the constant and permanent presence of our Higher Self, our God Within. It is seeing and living from the perspective that everything is perfect and was created in love to lead us back to our Source, regardless of appearances.”

– Peter Santos

My dad didn’t have a particularly easy life, he lost his father at 13 years old, and as the eldest son in an Indian family, with 3 younger siblings and a mother to take care of, he quickly became the man of the house responsible for building a better future for his father’s family. He had a dream of living abroad, and once he was grown, he got married and brought his wife, his mother and all of his siblings, along with their families to Canada. And then he had 5 daughters to add to his responsibilities – that alone would be enough for most men!

Like I said, he wasn’t interested in money, he spent his life in community service, and the pursuit of higher learning. There were a few occasions in his life that most people would have lost their faith and given in to baser instincts, but my father held his composure and stayed firm in his faith that God would take care of everything. He was a devotee of Lord Shiva, and it was at those times that he turned inward, to prayer, to calling upon the Higher Self with the mantra Om Namah Shivaya – the calling upon Shiva, to aid in the destruction of the ego.

He was an exceptional person; it’s not easy to be in such control of our emotions, and I was certainly no exception, especially as a young adult, but when I got angry, he wanted me to do the same. My dad often used poetry, anecdotes, metaphors and similes to teach life lessons and get his point across – picture Shakespeare meets Dr. Seuss.

He would quote thinkers like Leo Tolstoy, or recount the wisdom of various philosophers. He would recite Urdu poetry from his favorites like Mirza Ghalib and Bahadur Shah, or share stories of Indian folklore. The symbolic tale of how Lord Shiva drank the poison from the sea in order to get to the sweet nectar was one of his favorites as a way to demonstrate that we face many obstacles on the path to enlightenment, and sometimes you have to go through crap to get to the good stuff <insert record screeching sound here>. Wait, what?? I’m supposed drink poison to reach enlightenment??

Hmm. Maybe I’ll pass on enlightenment.

Seriously, it takes a really special person, or rather, one has to reach a heightened state of consciousness to get to that point. That’s why my dad said “the one who drinks the poison is the one who is called Shiva.” Shiva is the embodiment of enlightenment, the state of pure bliss. He is Purity. He is Perfection. He is God.

That is the state we strive for, to call upon our God Selves – a state of ‘Moksha‘, a state of freedom from ignorance, of self-realization and self-knowledge, a state of complete surrender. I wouldn’t say my father attained total enlightenment, but he’s the only person I know who’s even come close; he certainly showed symptoms of enlightenment – it was evident that he operated from a place of higher consciousness.

The Twelfth Insight, from the third sequel to the Celestine Prophecy, The Twelfth Insight: The Hour of Decision is about recognizing the presence of this higher self within, and then making a conscious effort to stay in that state through a practice of love and acceptance of everything, just as it is.

The Twelfth Insight: The Sensation of God’s Presence Inside Us

“Actively receiving the integrating perception of Divine embodiment. This feels as though you walk with the Divine Presence on the inside and the outside, so you feel it looking through your eyes and shaping your thoughts.

Armed with Divine confidence, we begin to take the next step to self-knowledge. We experience times when a greater sense of Divine begins to dwell within us. This indwelling feels like a sense of God’s presence. We still have our personal identity but this status becomes subservient to a complete consciousness of love, patience, and openness to action. For this presence to remain or get more powerful, we must be totally transcendent of our “Control Dramas,” or moments where we do not act on our intuition of other people’s best interest. In this sense, Divine presence is always there, unless our bad habits put distance between us.

Simply put, the process is this: when we’re not in the flow, we feel disconnected and either anxious or frustrated. So we distract ourselves with various compulsive activities designed to make our misery go away. It could be anything from over-shopping, compulsively watching sports or celebrities, and actual addictive behavior, from sex to drugs. Everyone knows what his or her vices are, including you, and transcending them keeps you in touch with the magic of Synchronicity.

Feeling God’s familiar presence, you will sense the flow of your destiny unfolding (at any age) and move into sincere awareness of the distractions and addictions your ego has always devised to sidetrack yourself.

The presence then becomes non-dual, existing both within and outside of us at the same time. When we are acting in Karmic alignment, it brings us an even greater, intuitive knowledge that animates the truth we tell to others. This enlarges us beyond our wildest dreams, providing we always act in harmony and recognition of it. We must never walk into a room without consciously realizing how His presence moves into the room with us. He keeps us in a relative zone of near miraculous helping. Furthermore, by getting into alignment with this design, you set the stage for the complete integration of all the insights and for sustained higher consciousness as the levels work together automatically.”

– James Redfield

This ultimate state of consciousness, where we let go of our egos and fear, and surrender to the guidance of the Universe comes with the awareness of Who We Really Are – Divine Beings with an unfathomable capacity to love, and to lift each other up to heights beyond our wildest dreams. When you get to that point, you emanate pure light, and see the beauty and perfection in all things. You live in a state of abundant joy – that’s Heaven on Earth.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!