The Bhagavad Gita

Nights were an adventure in consciousness and as I awoke in the morning a sense of gratitude flooded over me. Sleeping was not the same to me for I was having new experiences and seeing differently; there were lovely colors and forms, music of surpassing beauty, and I saw thoughts as living things more real than physical matter.

When he materialized before me in the morning, Rama Sandlob affirmed meditation was the key to all I sought. "The soul must retrace its steps, but the way, though narrow and straight, should be joyous. Presenting oneself to God each morning with thanksgiving for the gift of consciousness and a prayer for direction is the way. Then, through meditation, will come the guidance, the incentive, the power and joy," were his words.

He instructed me to hold Christ before me, restrain my mind from entertaining thoughts, direct it to a point between my eyes and hold it there. To encourage me, he made reference to an incident in the Bhagavad Gita. It was when Krishna had just advised Arjuna to practice restraint of the mind: Arjuna thought over his instructions and answered that he believed it would be easier to restrain the wind from blowing than the mind from wandering. "Yes," said Lord Krishna, "this is so; nevertheless, if you persevere you will succeed."

Then Arjuna thought about the disciplines set before him and how all his earthly ambitions had to be abandoned. What, he asked, should be his fate if he spent his life in the effort at self discipline but failed to achieve the purity necessary for union with Krishna? Would he not have lost everything, he asked, having renounced earthly goals on one hand and failed to attain the prize of overcoming death? The Hindu manifestation of I AM answered that his effort would not be lost. He would be born back into the earth to a family well advanced in spiritual knowledge, be awakened to the spiritual insights he had previously attained, and go on. Thus he would advance from one life to the next, laying up divine treasures, treasure in heaven, until at last he recovered all his God-like qualities and was restored to at-one-ment with his Maker.

Instructions for meditation were contained in the Gita and, although details were lacking, said Rama Sandlob, had I made application with perseverance, they would have shown me the way to rebuild my atrophied soul faculties while I yet lived in the twentieth century.

"David," said Rama Sandlob, "we are going to help you now to reawaken skills in meditation you learned in Egypt with Amenhotep IV, in Greece under Pythagoras, and in Palestine as the pupil of an Essene teacher for almost two years starting just a few months before Jesus began His ministry."

"How can you do that," I asked, "since in this life I have done so little? I read the Gita in my study of religion and found the teachings fascinating, but to practice them is quite another thing."

"From your interest in psychical research, David, you are familiar with accounts about persons who suddenly acquired abilities which ordinarily take years to develop. Speaking in foreign languages, sometimes in ancient or lost tongues, was not uncommon among certain religious sects. You also heard of persons who acquired overnight the ability to play a musical instrument or sing with outstanding virtuosity. These phenomena were recorded but not much understood in your times. Educators could hardly give recognition to these possibilities without altering established theories about the mind and its source."

"This is true, sir," I said. "These phenomena attracted my attention because of my interest in improving education of children as well as improving my own mind. I satisfied myself that some cases of `speaking in tongues' were not meaningless babble. I found genuine cases of individuals speaking a language to which they had never been exposed. However, to my knowledge, they were never able to tell what they had said. How could there be value for one to experience this babbling even if it was genuinely a strange language?"

"To awaken formerly acquired abilities in you, David, it is necessary that you believe in such possibilities. What you have said about persons unconsciously speaking languages which they learned in earlier incarnations is true. There may be a value to the soul, even when no one can tell what they said, because the experience serves as a release on an unconscious level. The point is that such memories exist which, potentially, may become conscious memories. Languages often filter through from the soul's record because, as with musical aptitude, it is the soul that has been conditioned to give the automatic responses."

"Well," I said, "I see why language is most likely to show up but why is there no recollection of the meaning of the words?"

"There is recollection, David, but it is below the level of the conscious mind. If there were no inner recollection of the meaning of the words spoken, there would be no emotional release for the individual. The memory of a life becomes a built in portion of the soul after death but consciousness as a personality disintegrates in the process. This shift makes the entire experience of a life shrink into just a page of the great volume which is the soul's records. Then what was the unconscious mind during life takes over as consciousness. The loss of the conscious mind is related to the disintegration of the astral body, and many factors enter into this process. Individuals deeply attracted to loved ones, parents who have a strong desire to serve their children, political leaders who yearn to guide the people rightly; these may delay the loss of conscious memories because desire holds them in the astral after physical death. To experience rebirth there must be a release from the conscious connection with memories of former earth lives unless one is free from personal desires. Memories are not lost but filed away by the soul on microfilm you might say. The separation of the soul from its astral shell is related to the dispersion into nature of the elements of the physical body and for this reason it is helpful to cremate the body or feed it to the birds as certain religions taught. When one departs the physical body, he is no longer able to derive satisfaction from eating and drinking and bodily associations. Depending upon the development of his mind and the use he made of his opportunities in earth, he may find himself in a hell of burning desires from his earthy thinking or in a heaven of gratification of his longing to express beautiful ideals and serve mankind in a spirit of selfless devotion. You will learn that things are neither all black nor all white after death but an infinite number of shades of heaven and hell are possible. There is a progression in this interim state from the painful toward the better experiences that one has created by his thoughts during life. Thoughts must be relived after death and judged."

"Please, sir, you are taking me into deep water and I'm not sure how what you are saying is even related to meditation," I said.

"All that we are telling you now, David, you have experienced many times. We are preparing you to recognize what you will see when you move into the consciousness in which you may contact this information. Through meditation you may have access to the microfilm viewing equipment so that you may examine the records of your own past."

"What an exciting idea!" I exclaimed.

"It can be humiliating and painful to the extreme, David."

"Hmmm," I responded slowly. The two of us remained still while Rama Sandlob gave me a chance to think over the implications of his last words. Without my knowing when or how the thoughts were entering my mind, I began to understand what such a review of my past might bring. Times of silence with Rama Sandlob were, if anything, more educational to me than when his words came like conversation inside my head.

"How can I prepare myself to endure such an experience?" I finally asked with a new respect for the ordeal I had chosen to undergo.

"You have been in the process since your first came into contact with Dr. Karoll and his family, David. As you put the false I in its place, you will be able to bear seeing what pride, selfishness, and self-aggrandizement have led you to do. Your experience with Alice in the air car en route to this retreat was an important step in making preparation."

Simply the mention of this experience caused me again to be overcome with emotion almost to the same degree. Tears began to stream down my face as awareness of my unworthiness and of the love for me and forgiveness of Christ all flooded my mind.

I didn't know how long I wept this way. When I descended from this mountain top of awareness, I found myself alone in the Meditation Dome. Then I felt Rama Sandlob's blessing and remembered his promise to be with me the following day.