Divine Guidance

Om Swami says on his ‘about page’ “ ..Like a honeybee takes nectar from a flower and goes back to its hive, take knowledge or wisdom from any source but go back to your inner voice. Discover your own truth, walk your own path.  That alone will set you free” This has been so true of my own life.

Divine Guidance always leads a soul that is yearning for God.  The Divine is always there waiting, prompting and leading us in our journey.  You see like a mother she cares for her children, so tries to warn them and lead them into correct paths.  We need to be told about these helping hands, they are signposts.  If we follow them, they lead us very gently step by step.

There is a desire in us all for wholeness, completeness, perfection, wellbeing, harmony of body, spirit and mind. We all want to be happy; we all want the best for our children etc., we all want peace and to live in a harmonious world.  To enjoy anything in life we need to have wellbeing.  This helps us become better students, better mothers, better husbands, and better at what work we take up in life.

Life is also a journey; it is leading us somewhere to become deified, divinities, gods, beatitude.  We all of us have the seed of the eternal within us, and it knows the way to our true home.  It has all knowledge.

The angels, deities, devas, gods, goddesses, whatever you wish to name them want to help us, so maybe someone will invite you out, give you a book to read.  These answer questions that are arising in the heart.  These we can call ‘promptings of the soul,’ of the spirit. Christians would call it the Holy Spirit, others the eternal, the Mother Goddess, Shiva etc., signposts.

Sometimes we ignore such opportunities, but since the Divine is all compassion, all love, we keep being offered these lifelines.  You see, like a mother she cares for her children and wants to protect them from all harm.

It is only when I look back, can I see how invisible guidance was there and it has come in many guises, like a golden thread.  I am sure you are all familiar with such happenings.

I remember that night when looking up at the night sky in the back yard. I was twelve years old. It was full of stars; I felt very insignificant and had begun to wonder why I was here?  What was the purpose of life?  I wanted to find this kingdom that the Gideon New Testament mentioned.  I was given this New Testament at school.  The paragraph that really meant something, that spoke to me was “Seek first the Kingdom of God.”  So, there was this desire to know more.

Many such ‘promptings’ came my way and I went into a lot of religions.

Sometimes we have inner experiences, sometimes people experience states on waking and going to sleep, of a glimpse into another world.  These ‘glimpses’ allowed me to penetrate the depths of scriptures in these various religions.  They were all talking about the same: inner realization.  But I found that the inner meaning was very much obscured, and a worldly interpretation given, and that the very act of purporting a certain ‘religion’ seemed to build walls that stop them from seeing that they are all describing the same journey to the same eternal city.  There is a Holy Mountain, but it is not physical.  The external Temple, initiations, practices, point to reaching the top – but it seems people make it a material concrete reality, whereas it is only a symbol pointing to ultimate reality and the Absolute.  We need the symbol, but we must not lose sight of what it is pointing to.  All the external appearances in a religion are indicators on a map showing the way to the destination.  There are many paths to reach the top of a mountain.

The inner promptings led me to many religions, and this reminds me what Om Swami says about collecting nectar and as I mentioned in the opening paragraph,  I can identify with that.

One has to be open to the ‘inner promptings’.

I can hear people asking, “One has to be open; can’t that be dangerous?”

Yes, that is why one needs guidance.  One needs to be able to learn and distinguish what is called ‘discerning of spirits,’ that is what is truly coming from the soul and what is coming from the self.  One needs a teacher, a guide, philosopher, friend, a Guru, someone who has had genuine experiences and living a genuine life.  There are many false paths and many false gurus, spiritual teachers and guides who promise you the world, but not help the soul.  One needs to be led to holiness, and not un-holiness, so one needs teaching.  Again, the signposts are there – intuition.

Intuition is something we all have.  It is knowledge that comes from the Divine. It does not come from the self and we are all born with it.  Sometimes we need to have the courage to follow intuition.  Sometimes, what we come across is what we term ‘ism’ which is what the self has made, and it becomes an obstacle.  God is saying ‘come to me, I am beyond all religion.’  But sometimes ‘isms’ trap us into seeing themselves as different or the only true one, or the only one, and put up a barrier wanting us to follow the ‘ism,’ and dogma and doctrines from man and not from God.  This is what kept driving me forward, searching deeper and deeper.  The materialistic mind cannot lead someone to spiritual things.

A guide, who has no idea of where they are going themselves, cannot lead anyone anywhere. They make dogmas and these dogmas put the soul into chains instead of liberating the soul, it becomes bound.

Only God knows the right time, but there comes a time for harvest in nature and there is also a harvest for us when we become ripe for the resurrection of the soul, for the soul to be restored, awakened, and become deathless and immortal, but one has to ‘renounce everything,’ so that in turn, one can lead others to the same summit.

It was Divine Guidance, that has brought me this far, her nurturing, her love and compassion, her patience, her constantly prompting me, ‘Come, come, I will lead you, I will take you by the hand, you are my child, I love you.  I will restore you and make you truly alive.’ Divine Wisdom: our bride.  She restores our true rhythm of soul and puts us in rhythm with the Divine rhythm where all beats as one.