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This
article is an excerpt from Master Charles's autobiography,
The
Bliss of Freedom: A Contemporary Mystic's Enlightening
Journey. It's reprinted here with permission.
In this
excerpt, Master Charles describes his first contact
with Swami Muktananda, the world-renowned Indian mystic
and teacher who was to figure so prominently in his
life.
IT WAS AN EARLY SPRING DAY IN 1970, shortly before my
twenty-fifth birthday, and I was visiting friends who
had just returned from a business trip to India and
other Far Eastern countries. While sharing their travels
with me, they talked about having met an enlightened
master in India. They seemed most devout as they described
the encounter, for he had impressed them with his illumination,
and they had experienced deep spiritual inspiration.
They
asked if I would like to see a photograph of him. When
I agreed, they handed me a small card designed like
a temple with folding flaps for doors. I opened it casually
and looked at the black-and-white photograph of the
man inside. If I had a million words, I could not adequately
describe the magnitude of what I experienced over the
next few hours.
As
I focused on the photograph, my eyes seemed to lock
in an open gaze, and my whole body followed, relinquishing
all volitional control. The photograph dissolved into
a whirlpool of scintillating, hallucinogenic energy.
I was immersed in a rose-and-blue-colored magnificence,
permeated with minute particles of dancing, diamond
like light that slowly moved upward and entered the
area just above the center of my eyebrows.
A
multitudinous explosion erupted from the depths of my
being and reverberated through every dimension of my
perception, as an intoxicating bliss saturated me from
head to toe. The most sacred peace filled all and everything.
Time was suspended within an all-encompassing stillness,
and from the subtlest dimensions an ethereal and heavenly
music softly echoed-violins, harps, a lone flute, and
the tinkling of a thousand glass wind chimes sounding
within the harmonic oneness of an angelic choir.
I
experienced a divine, awe-inspiring, yet totally nurturing
contentment beyond all contentment. Wave upon wave of
undulating ecstasy radiated outward to infinity. Everything
within this shimmering reverberation was disappearing,
all form dissolving into itself, a reflection of hallucinogenic
light within an ocean of delight.
I
continued to observe my two friends, but their bodies
had become multidimensional. I could see to the utmost
core of their beings, which in each case was a small
point of iridescent blue light. Luminosity flowed in
all directions from these points of blue light, manifesting
as their forms, and intermingling with all other forms,
as they blended one into each other.
All
and everything manifested as a merging sea of blissful,
luminous energy, joyously delighting within itself-the
most beautiful reality that one could ever imagine.
That was divine existence, absolute, free, and independent,
celebrating itself for the sake of itself. This was
the one without a second, a pure awareness through which
an other-worldly voice reverberated its truth: "I
am one...I am free...I am all that is."
Suspended
within this awareness beyond all time, I merged in it,
flowing, floating, dancing, delighting, enjoying the
freedom of oneness as I remained a quiescent witness.
My mind was stilled in awe of the heavenly majesty.
Bliss consumed every cell of my being. The loving voice
again reiterated its affirmation: I am one... I am free...
I am the play of consciousness...I am all that is...
I am... I... I... I..." The ethereal echo gradually
disappeared as it was reabsorbed into the fullness of
its all-pervasive unity.
I
remained within the ecstasy of its incredible reality
for what seemed like an eternity, and then ever so gently
it diminished, contracting itself and condensing into
physicality. The energy released itself through the
space between my eyebrows, and like a whirlpool wound
its way back into the photograph in my hands.
My
body unlocked, along with my gaze, and everything seemed
to return to normal, yet I was never to be the same.
For I had come face to face with the divine. I had scaled
the heights of the ultimate reality that I considered
to be God alone, Source alone, and nothing else could
ever take its place.
Copyright 1997 Synchronicity Foundation, Inc.
Master
Charles is the founder of the Synchronicity Foundation.
For more information about him, click
here.
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Master
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Our
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My Life With a Contemporary Master
By Alan Scherr
After
practicing Transcendental Meditation for 25 years, this
former college professor met Master Charles, a contemporary
Western disciple of Swami Muktananda, and was plunged
into an extraordinary state of blissful awareness beyond
anything he had known before. This experience was the
catalyst for a remarkable journey of surrender; the
author soon learned he had been found by something he
hadn't searched for; and two years later he and his
family moved permanently to Virginia to live and work
with Master Charles. This autobiographical article describes
these experiences in detail.
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