From religion to spirituality

by Patanga Cordeiro

Patanga is a Sanskrit spiritual name. Some names are very short, while others are very long. A spiritual name is the soul´s mantra, and it can also give indications of the soul´s mission. After receiving my name, I changed all necessary papers and documents, as I really wanted to call myself only by my spiritual name. Life is too short. I was given the name with the following meaning:

Patanga – a rishi who was part-author of the Rig Veda.

(A rishi means a “divine seer”)  The conciseness of the meaning of my name is both a relief and a challenge. Few things to concentrate on, but much to discover.

Today I am trying to relate some of my (spiritual) experiences with my grandmother. I´ll start by briefly talking about her early life, and quickly move to the spiritual moments which I was told or have witnessed.

The guardian angel

Of my daily life

Is my one

Soulful morning song.

Sri Chinmoy 1

Not as in a flash of light, but like the dawning sun, I gradually came to realise I should embark on a journey into the unknown. A journey to discover myself and much of Grace.

Inspired by fellow students of Sri Chinmoy, this writer of yours has then been compelled from within to take part on the Self-Transcendence 10-Day Race.

That means actual 10 days of running, really. (of course you can rest, but otherwise you are running around the clock.)

by Upasevanam and Mahanidhi
Milan, Italy

According to my parents, I was a really fat but very happy baby. Love and a lot of food were the two main reasons for that! After one year things became more animated: I had learned to walk, and very quickly the well-fed, sitting and reclining "Buddha-baby" became a little weasel that kept everyone on the go while enthusiastically exploring its surroundings.

I liked to learn and was interested in everything, and therefore I was a good student. In high school, I learned about meditation from my religion teacher, a kindhearted, patient, older man with white hair. He wanted to get more than 20 teenagers to sit quietly and dive deep within. Well, that was a courageous undertaking on his part. As far as I remember he had perseverance; he tried several times but we could not or would not follow him into the world of silence. At least the experience stayed in my memory.

At university I attended a seminar that incorporated so-called nature meditation. I enjoyed these sessions. To become calm, to breathe and simply to be was refreshing. Afterwards I always felt newborn, replenished and fresh.

On my way to university I saw again and again esoteric posters (as I called them) offering free meditation classes and other events. I will go there when I have time, I decided. Time passed, I finished my studies and moved back to my home town to become a teacher. But all that did not really fulfil me. I felt confined and misunderstood by the world. For 20 years we eagerly aspire for this kind of life, the life of an adult? Great! Another 50 years and we are ready for the graveyard! Is this the only goal of our joyful expectation, then? Crazy! Such thinking was beyond me, and I simply could not believe that this would be all.

At that time I was into esoteric and Eastern philosophy. I devoured tons of books. The idea of reincarnation and karma, in particular, seemed logical and, above all, very, very just. To live only once on this earth, to take all the trouble to learn how to speak and walk for just one single lifetime and then to remain forever in Heaven or hell: that seemed like a harsh theory. The idea that the soul keeps taking on a new body again and again in order to gain experiences, to mature and finally to attain to perfection made much more sense to me!

I was equally inspired by the law of karma: everything that we do has repercussions and – sooner or (much) later – we personally receive the bill with a plus or minus balance. That means we cannot escape the responsibility for our actions, and we will definitely get good or not-so-good karma for them. If we spend our whole life killing ourselves to play the piano really well, we might be an excellent pianist or musician in our next life even by the age of 4. If we practise sports all our life and keep in shape, we will probably have a strong and healthy body in our next life. These examples are very simplistic, but they gave me hope and courage. The idea behind them gave my life a deeper meaning: once again I am on this planet to learn how to become a perfect human being, and I will come back yet again, rested, to undertake more adventures. That’s how it is!

Yes, this perspective changed my life. I knew why I got up early in the morning and why I sometimes had to deal with difficult children. I had come here to learn how to widen my experience, improve my actions and become a better person. In my favourite books I kept reading about the path of the heart and hearing that one should always follow or listen to one’s heart. It sounded great! But in practical life it was a completely different story that caused me unending difficulties.

I read that meditation is the key to the heart. It quiets the loud voice of the mind and then you should be able to perceive the soft voice of the heart. A few weeks later something happened. God knows how many times I had heard that it is highly advisable to have a teacher or to look for one. For everything it is extremely helpful to have a good teacher by our side to teach us the right technique that will help us to make progress and to experience joy while constantly improving in a particular field, whether it be playing the guitar, skiing, building houses or baking. Everybody knows from their own experience that there are great teachers and not-so-good teachers. The good ones are nice and witty, we learn faster and more, the learning process is easier, we develop interest and curiosity and it is a lot of fun! And if we aren’t doing too well one day, a good teacher will be understanding and help us with words and deeds. It was absolutely clear to me: I had to find this good teacher that fulfilled all the criteria mentioned above. I was very grateful for already having learned about and come to value some of these teachers, and they had become role models for me. Now I needed to find the meditation teacher.

A new adventure began that led me to New York. I experienced the fact that you do meet your teacher if you really want to do so, with all your heart. Then you literally attract him to you. You only have to keep your eyes and ears open.

New York turned out to be a real treasure chest of meditation teachers. On every corner there was an esoteric bookshop, a café, a restaurant, a yoga centre or a health food store, and everywhere you could find ads and information about events. I attended a free meditation class. I found the class boring, since I had been meditating for some time already. Only when the instructor started speaking about her teacher did I listen attentively. She spoke with so much love about him: Sri Chinmoy. Shortly before my departure for New York I had heard about Sri Chinmoy. I knew that he lived in New York and now I learned that he would be holding a meditation in Manhattan soon. I got an invitation with a beautiful colour photo of Sri Chinmoy. I already had one of his pictures hanging in my room – a black and white copy of another picture that was on the meditation class flier. I went to the meditation in Manhattan.

Wow! That’s the only thing I can say. That was about all that came to my mind that evening. My usually extremely busy brain had gone on a short vacation that night, and it was disconnected. At the end of the event, Sri Chinmoy handed out an orange and a message for the coming year. I walked up to the stage to receive my gifts and then walked back to my seat as if in trance.

When I arrived home, I was still 'alone' - without my familiar thought-world. My roommate looked at me, surprised, and asked if everything was OK. I just nodded and disappeared into my room. Something had happened and it felt good! Yes, it really felt good! I didn’t want to make a hasty decision, so I bought – besides books by Sri Chinmoy – very inspiring books by other meditation teachers. Nevertheless, The Wings of Joy by Sri Chinmoy became my absolutely favourite book.

A few weeks later I went, as I did every Sunday, to my favourite restaurant in Queens, Annam Brahma, where everything is homemade – even the delicious chai, an Asian spiced tea. Disciples of Sri Chinmoy run the vegetarian restaurant, and I told them that I also wanted to become a disciple. My heart was jumping with joy when I said it.

Thus my decision was made, even though it wasn’t really a decision any more. Day by day it became clearer to me that Sri Chinmoy was the one I was looking for. When I looked at his picture I felt a warm glow around my heart, and the same thing happened when I read his books. My adventure was over, but a new and equally fascinating one had begun: my life as a disciple of Sri Chinmoy.

It was in 1980 that my parents and we three children became students of Sri Chinmoy. From the perspective of a child it looked like this: I remember that my parents were going to different spiritual groups and they often took me along to these meetings. I was always very impressed by the atmosphere, the light-coloured clothing and the many nice people. Nevertheless, I sometimes started crying without any apparent reason. Something didn’t quite seem right, I guess…

We became vegetarians and went once a week to one of the small and, at the time, few health food stores in our town. One day, my father was magnetically drawn to a book entitled Meditation that was displayed in the window of a bookstore. My parents were so thrilled by the simplicity and truth of this book that they mailed the postcard (inserted in the book) to the indicated address. We were informed that there was a couple with a child in Augsburg whom we could contact.

This was the beginning of countless meetings, sometimes in Augsburg, sometimes in Munich. I was 7 years old at the time. I will never forget counting on my fingers how many times I had been to Augsburg already. My heart was jumping with joy every time we met. And I loved this family: Projjwal, Karali and Aruna. Most of the time I was playing with Aruna while the others meditated or were absorbed in obviously deep conversations. But when Projjwal and Karali came to our place (and we children really should have been in bed by then), I listened to the conversations, sitting on the bottom of the stairs. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I loved it. I loved the people, I loved the vibrations, I loved the conversations, I simply loved everything… and I was always filled with deepest joy.

Some time later, our family picture was sent to New York so Sri Chinmoy could meditate on it to see if we were meant to be his disciples, and soon after my father travelled there for the first time. He brought back my first 'real' sari. (Before that, we were only wearing curtain fabric!) I will never forget the indescribable joy – almost delight – I experienced!

A few months later, our Master visited Switzerland. That was the first time I saw Guru. He walked by me and smiled. I was a little surprised because his skin colour was unfamiliar, but his smile immediately won me over. Then Guru gave prasad to the children: a plastic heart. This heart is still my little treasure. When I stood right in front of Guru, he brushed my hair to the side and looked at my name tag. He asked me all kinds of things. I did not understand a word, but Projjwal, who stood behind Guru, answered Guru’s questions. I did not want to ever leave Guru’s presence.

I had a happy childhood, and this happiness continuously grew thanks to the incredible grace that allowed me to come to Guru in my childhood years. At that time, Guru showered us children with outer attention and gifts. The teenage years were not always easy, but I knew: “Guru comes first in my life – always. And this truth protected me during all my school years – and still does today! In my almost 30 years as a disciple I have had so many inner and outer, challenging and happy experiences. My life is rich, inwardly rich. And I am infinitely, infinitely grateful to Guru that he brought me to him.

by Shashanka Karlen

At the age of 18, I left college. I was very critical of the development of society, did not get any inspiration from school and was quite into drugs. I was wondering what life was all about, but did not get any satisfactory answers from people I talked to.

I worked for some months at the central post office in Zurich and then went travelling for six months to India, Nepal, South East Asia and Australia. My travels showed me that there are very different lifestyles and attitudes towards life. I was not consciously looking for spirituality at that time. Certain drugs seemed to show me that there are other worlds of perception. Once in Western Nepal I rented a small boat with a friend. The sun was setting behind the mountains and there was a beautiful glow of light. I was quite captivated by it. Suddenly I felt a very strong inner voice calling, "This is where I have to go, this is where I have to go, this is where I have to go." I did not pay too much attention to the experience then and continued my travels.

After my return and several temporary activities (military service, English language course, work at the post office again, travel to the Philippines), I finally decided to live in a tent in the forest in order to be as far away as possible from the society that I did not really want to support.

This is when God said "Enough!". I went to a Madal Bal health food store in Zurich, run by Sri Chinmoy's students - I was looking for a book on macrobiotics for no particular reason. I remember telling Shikha, who was managing the store at that time (1981), "I am out of everything." We had quite a long conversation and I finally decided to read the meditation book by Sri Chinmoy.

I quite liked it and everything somehow seemed to make sense. I found many answers to my questions. But I was quite critical because of some experiences I had had with disciples of another path who had wanted to sell me their books in an aggressive manner. So I said to myself that, before entering more closely into a group, I should read books by another Master.

I went back to the Madal Bal store and bought a book by Sri Aurobindo. I read only a short paragraph every day because it was difficult to understand, but I slowly realised for myself that there were two things I needed in life to become really happy: meditation and a spiritual Master. I then thought that I would have to go to India, as in my opinion all the Masters lived in India. I went to another bookstore and searched for a book about spiritual Masters in India. Interestingly enough, none of the descriptions really appealed to me.

I continued to go to the Madal Bal store about once every two weeks and one day Shikha said, "Why don’t you come to a public meditation in the Centre on Saturday?" I went, and the moment I stepped into the Centre I felt: "This is it." At the end of the evening I applied to become a disciple of Sri Chinmoy.

Some months later I had a very clear and deep dream which I felt was my initiation. Deep inside me a light started to glow and then started to grow in circles very rapidly until my whole being was only light, the most brilliant and almost blinding light.