By Swami Satrupananda
When I met Gurudevi Nirmalananda, I didn’t know about mystics. Yet it was obvious that she was having a different experience of being human than I was. Answering one of my questions, she said, “I experience more bliss than you do.” Bliss? What is bliss? I wanted to know more. I wanted to experience this “more bliss.”
By studying with Gurudevi, I learned that bliss is the experience of the knowing of your own Divinity. Gurudevi is established in this knowing. She also knows and sees that we are all the same One Divine Reality. This is true, even if we don’t know it. This was a radical concept for my scientific mind to grasp. Yet, from my own experiences with Gurudevi, I could not ignore the evidence of its truth.
As I studied further, I learned those who experience their beingness as one with the Divine are called mystics. This ultimate experience is not limited to one spiritual or religious path. There have been many mystics throughout time and across cultures. Here are some quotations from a few great mystics:
Saint Teresa of Ávila
Roman Catholic Saint
Lived: Spain 1515-1582
“The Lord is very deep within their own souls… Within oneself, clearly, is the best place to look; and it’s not necessary to go to heaven, nor any further than our own selves.”1
Julian of Norwich
English theologian and anchoress
Lived: England 1343-1416
“I saw no difference between God and our substance, but, as it were, all God.”2
Mansour Al-Hallaj
Persian Mystic & Poet
Lived: Persia 858-922
“I am the Truth.”3
“I saw my Lord with the eye of the heart.
I asked, ‘Who are You?’
He replied, ‘You.’”4
Adi Shankaracharya
Indian philosopher
Lived: India, 700-750
“I am completely full and perfect.
I am Shiva.
I am my own Self.
I am eternal bliss. I am eternal bliss.”
The mystics agree that you find the Divine within. And the Divinity you find within is not different from you.
As the science of mysticism, yoga describes in detail the mystical experience. Yoga also defines the stages and steps that take you to mystical knowing. Yoga’s practices, tested throughout time, are proven 100% reliable in taking you to this destination. Gurudevi is proof of that as a modern-day yoga master and mystic.
Gurudevi discovered her mystical reality by studying with her teacher Swami Muktananda. Muktananda did the practices his teacher, Bhagavan Nityananda, gave him. Gurudevi and Baba Muktananda followed the path defined by the science of yoga by following the directions from a Master teacher. It worked.
Muktananda describes his mystical experience as:
“He is supreme Bliss
and supreme Consciousness.
He, truly, is God,
is Nityananda, is Muktananda.”
Swami Muktananda, Mukteshwari, Verse 22
In this verse, Muktananda describes himself many ways, showing each is equivalent:
supreme Bliss = supreme Consciousness = God = Nityananda = Muktananda
Consciousness, the knowingness of your own Self, is a bliss-full experience. It is the same as the One Divine Reality, also called God. This is who Muktananda discovered himself to be inside. It is the same One Divine Reality that Nityananda found within himself as himself. And it is the same Divine Essence that you will find as your own Self.
When you discover your inherent Essence, you will make the same statement. You can personalize Muktananda’s quote:
“I am supreme Bliss
and supreme Consciousness.
I, truly, am God,
am Nityananda, am Muktananda.”
That has been my experience. Sometimes I experience myself as Bliss, other times as Consciousness. I’ve also had the experience, “I am Nityananda.” The first time it happened, I was at Nityananda’s temple in Ganeshpuri India. I was waving a candle flame in front of Nityananda’s enlivened statue. On the outside, there appeared to be two: Nityananda and me. But my experience was that there was only One. I was Nityananda waving the flame to Nityananda. The flame and the air between us was Nityananda. The act of waving the flame was the same One Nityananda. Then on the inside Nityananda said to me, “I am Nityananda.” He wasn’t telling me his name. He was telling me who I am.
The mystics promise this result from the science of yoga. When you follow the scientific formula, you get the proven results. Originally tested in India over millennia, principles of the science of yoga are now being proven around the globe.
What is the scientific formula of yoga’s mystical practices? Study with a living mystic. Gurudevi Nirmalananda has mastered the formula by following her teacher’s directions. Now she guides you along the way since she knows both the path and the destination. Then you will also discover the mystical reality: Divinity is found within as you.
1 http://daughterofthechurch.weebly.com/visions-teresa-avila.html
2 https://www.imere.org/content/mystical-experience-julian-norwich
3 https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/anal-haqq-i-am-the-truth-the-most-famous-of-the-sufi-sathiyat-ecstatic-utterances-or-paradoxes
4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Hallaj