Truth Transforms

Paramahamsa Nithyananda

-Staff

By Staff

Monday, October 20, 2008, 12:14

I was twelve years old when I had my first spiritual experience. It was Buddha Purnima day (the day Buddha got enlightened). I sat on a rock below the Arunachala hill, deep in meditation. It was dusk. I was searching for the source of my thoughts within me. Suddenly, I was jolted into a grand experience. I could see 360 degrees around me even with my eyes closed!

Normally, we have only 120 degrees vision. But now, I could see all around me and above me and below me as well. I lost my identity; there was no 'me'.Everything was 'me'. I was the stones, the hill, the trees, and the sky. Everything in me vibrated with the feeling 'I am the universe'. I felt the whole Existence with the same sensitivity that I felt for my body. I was in complete bliss. Within 3 or 4 hours after the experience, I started moving and walking. The inner ecstasy continued for 3 days. When I came out of it, my first thought was that a ghost had possessed me.

It never occurred to me to connect it to a spiritual experience. I ran to an elderly sanyasini (female ascetic), who had a small ashram near the rock. She took care of me for a few days. She convinced me that I was not possessed by any ghost but possessed only by God; that it was a spiritual experience. I however never went near the rock for the next 3 or 4 months. Soon, I was longing for the experience again. When I came out of the fear I started meditating earnestly. The search had begun. The longing to know the 'truth' took over me completely. I started to chase it.

I was about 13 years old when I ran away from home to North India in search of Truth. I had to come back after a while though because I was too young to cope with the hardships of such a life. But the urge to know the truth was so strong in me that I soon left home again. And this time for sure.

We cannot handle too much of truth. We can handle small doses well. Deeper truths start transforming us. The ground on which we stand moves away. None of us really want to know the truth. Honesty and truths frighten us. We cannot accept the truth and so we pretend, fantasize, and lie. We hide from the true self within ourselves. We know that we are not what we show ourselves to be. We even lie courteously. Understand: only truth leads to enlightenment. Truth transforms us completely. When we invite truth into our life, we invite bliss.

Listen to Paramahamsa Nithyananda Jain Sutras-Establish Yourself In Satya