An Enlightening Experience
written by Jon Locke
It all began when a friend of mine gave me a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. I read the entire book from cover to cover the first night. I was so fascinated by Yogananda's description of Miracles and higher states of consciousness he experienced in India and in the United States after he traveled over here that I couldn't put the book down. The next week I left for California with my last paycheck in my pocket. I drove all the way to Yogananda's Hermitage/Retreat in Encinitas, California. I was a printing press operator at the time and it just so happened they needed a printer at SRF. What luck! It all seemed predestined.
One weekend I went on a retreat in Encinitas. I asked one of the monks if anyone there believed in UFOs. I was always talking about life in outer space when one day a monk said to me, "I don't know much about UFOs, but if you take a walk on the beach maybe you will meet someone who can tell you about them." "I said, "Are you sure? I don't know anyone around here. And I'm too shy to talk to strangers. Are you sure I'll meet the right one?" The monk replied, "I don't know. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. Why don't you just take a walk and see what happens?" Putting on a pair of swim trunks and sandals, I started out to the beach for a walk. Soon I saw a mound of sand on the beach, which I thought would make a good place to sit awhile and meditate in the sun. Yogananda had said that people born in the west did not have to learn the pose; it was good enough to sit in a chair. without any strain. Usually the lotus posture was difficult for me, but that day, I managed the perfect lotus posture quite comfortably.
I sat in silence for awhile...I don't know how long. Soon a slender man walked toward me and sat down in front of me. I said hello. He said hello. He looked about 27 years old with a scar on the right side of his face about 7 inches long. His demeanor was very humble and trustworthy. I asked him if Mt. Palomar was nearby to which he said was correct. I asked him if it was true about the reports of UFO sighting in the area. He did not answer my question so I asked another. "Do you believe in life in outer space?" He simply replied that he did.
Suddenly occurred to me that he had not actually spoken this to me, but rather he had spoken through quite lips, which could only mean that he had been communicating to me telepathically. I had heard that some yogis can read your mind. From my studies in the monastery I thought of how he also fit the description Yogananda had given in Autobiography of a Yogi of the Imperial BABAJI.
The Imperial BABAJI has retained his immortal body for 2,000 years. He appeared to a few people in the Yogananda's book so I felt privilege. I asked him if I could touch him to prove he was in the third dimension with me. He said nothing so I took it as a positive answer and pressed my right forefinger lightly onto his right knee. The impression went in a tenth of an inch and I dared not press further. I told him, "I believe you are BABAJI!" to which he did not reply. I took his silence as a positive answer. I was certain that he could read my mind, I decided to communicate in the same fashion. I asked him if I should stay in the monastery or leave to go out into the world? He did not reply . I felt intuitively it to mean he would not interfere with my free will. The choice to leave or stay was my decision alone.
I was too dumb to ask any really significant questions so I am sorry to disappoint any readers. Finding myself without words and remembering the Bible verse, "God knows what you want before you ask him," I asked BABAJI to transmit to me anything he thought I needed. I remained silent and do not know what happened for the next few minutes. What I do remember was BABAJI saying, "I have to leave now. Don't try to follow me. You won't be able to." With that he got up and walked away, disappearing into the crown on the beach.
I continued to study Kriya Yoga and Hinduism as taught by Paramahansa Yogan anda at Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles, California, during the time between 1967 and 1969. Upon returning home I moved in with my parents and created a meditation area setting up an altar with Yogananda's picture, a candle and an incense burner. There I continued my Kriya yoga meditation morning and night.
One summer morning I was returning home from my usual walk around the block and the closer I got to home I found myself feeling more elated as each moment passed. At first I could only describe it as feeling very young, like I remembered as a child. I was joy, bliss and happiness all rolled into one. As the Hindus would say it was Sat-Chit-Ananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the goal of every human. I had entered into the "anandamayakosha" or the last sheath which covers God in the UN manifest form which is called the Peace.(Ananda is a Hindu word for Bliss or Joy.) Most yogis get this bliss by meditating deeply and leaving their body, thus freed from the encumbrance of the physical, the yogi is then able to expand into the astral, or feeling, body or even further into the causal body where pure thought is a joy. In my case, I was blessed to experience these things while in the physical body . What I am describing is a constant state that excised even while driving a car, doing my homework or carrying on a normal conversation with people. I had heard that when this experience comes upon you that you should not retire and do nothing, but continue to do the normal routines of your daily life. "Spiritual experiences are not incapacitating."--Autobiography of a Yogi. As Sri Yukteswar told Yogananda after his first experience in Cosmic Consciousness, "Now go sweep the floor", and handed him a broom. I had attained the highest state of Nirbakalpa Samadhi, the state of unbroken communion with God.
This state lasted for three days and nights. At first I did not know what to expect. Yogananda taught me to enter all states of consciousness so before I put my body to sleep the first night, I wondered what it would be like to watch myself dreaming . I found that I could stop my dreams and run them fast forward or backwards like a VCR. I was curious about the Void of deep sleep so I ask Consciousness to send me there. Before it did, it asked me, "How long do you want to go there?" I wondered, "What if I go there and I don't come back.? Maybe it would be wise to give it a time?" I told the Consciousness (which was my consciousness at the time because I was merged), "Call me back in five minutes." I went into the void which turned out to be just that, nothing and five minutes was enough of that. I experimented on myself for three days and nights. My body lay on the bed asleep but my mind was awake. Although I don't usually sleep on my back, I have heard it is better if you wish to enter higher states of consciousness. It was during the first night that I thought, "If God is Omniscient, and if I am in contact with God then I ought to be able to ask any question I want and find out the answer!" I asked God all the chestnut questions philosophers have kicked around for years. "Who am I?" The answer was, "You are." I asked, "What does that mean?" The answer was, "You just ARE." Next Question: Is God real? The answer came back to me: "Are you real?" When I asked it "How do I know this is the highest state of consciousness, It replied, "Notice the Joy. It is always getting better. What could be better than always getting better?'"
During the next three day, I told all my friends what was happening to me. At the same time I realized that on one could really understand this phenomena without having experienced it themselves. As a result, I began to distance myself from negative friends and seek out those who would enjoy the seeds of knowledge and grow them in the fertile soil of their minds.
I must say here that these are the same experiences available to Christians when they attain the gifts of the Holy Spirit. See John 14:12. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my Father."
"To him or her that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." May God bless us everyone.
I could not close without mentioning that when you have this experience, and I believe many thousands of people are going through it right now due to new energies flowing onto the earth, you will know it is so great and overpowering that you could not have earned it no matter how hard you tried to meditate or pray or give money to charity, or do good works you couldn't earn this Bliss. (I spell it with a capital B because just as the flame is inseparable from the fire and thus is the same as the fire, so is the Bliss inseparable from God and the same as God.) That is why is written, "Not by works alone lest any man should boast, but by the grace of God are we saved." New Testament.
In God's Service, I remain your friend,
Jon
