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Almost from the start I was aware that I could not grasp Swami with my intellect. The deeper the relationship, the more I sensed unknowingness. The path to the incomprehensible includes the humbling of ego and mind. Releasing thought and ego may be frightening, but unless we give up aachment to this aspect of the external world we will not fully release into the infinite.
As my inner life opened, I found that the repetition of the Gayatri mantra produced an inner light. The Gayatri mantra invokes divinity, expresses adoration for God in the form of light, facilitates meditation on His divine radiance, and then prays for divine light to illumine the mind and dispel the ignorance. Since the experience of releasing and expanding into the light became so intense, I was very interested in Swami’s description of an illuminated mind and if it had anything to do with this experience.
The Gayatri Mantra and Light
During my June 2001 trip to Swami, he unexpectedly asked me my age. I would be 65-years old in February 2002, and he instructed that I return at that “diamond jubilee birthday” time. Thus, I arrived at the ashram a few days before my 65th birthday.
Tension increased when, on my birthday, I was seated behind a large pillar and Swami was out of view on the other side of the pillar. I could faintly hear him speaking and laughing with his students. Oh, how I wished to be one of those siing at his feet.
A few days later Swami invited Sharon and me in for an interview, along with an Indian couple and their two teenage sons. Swami sat the young men in front of him
Goddess Gayatri
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