Five Steps for Creating a Lifestyle of Bliss

Five Steps for Creating a Lifestyle of Bliss
by Jagadamba Sarah Porter

On the night of my 84^th birthday (arrival day) I had the amazing privilege of witnessing the awe inspiring Tsuchinshen-ATLAS comet which is about 670 million miles long and rotates around the sun in 81 thousand years. Mind-boggling!! As I was later contemplating this experience, I was reminded of Kedarji talking about the importance and the necessity of feeling awe as an expression of God’s existence. Even though the comet is unique I recalled Kedarji’s instruction of not taking the manifest world for granted, but to continue to see it as a reflection of the transcendental. Wow!!  That means going through life in a state of continual awe and Bliss.

Later I was driving down the winding road on Haleakala Mountain of Maui, through the rolling hills of the green pastures, dotted with horses, I felt this sudden burst of pure joy. I had been thinking of how grateful I was for this beauty. I had been chanting Om Namah Shivya; I had been thinking all this is Shiva, I am Shiva. This state of delight ended, as it often did, as soon as I merged onto the main road with lots of traffic.  Kedarji points out that to live in a permanent state of constant awe, delight, joy, or bliss, requires a lifestyle that supports that state. In fact, Kedarji instructs, it is the duty of a Yogi to have a lifestyle of Bliss.

The late Paul Zweig, poet and essayist, writes of Swami Muktananda Parmahansa, in his introduction to Sri Muktananda’s book “The Secret of the Siddhas”: “I see an absorbed, vigorous man, firm in the daily delight of living according to his Guru’s instruction, even when that instruction meant reversing the pattern of a lifetime.” (p. IX)

Necessity For a Lifestyle Change

How often have any of us attempted to reverse a pattern of a lifetime.  It isn’t the easiest thing to accomplish. Kedarji instructs that for permanent spiritual transformation to occur one needs a change of lifestyle. The current lifestyle that one leads is usually one that chains one to the cycle of birth and death through the creation of more and more karmas. That was my lifestyle before I met Kedarji.

Reversing a lifestyle and creating a new one involves changing so many habits, both conscious and automatic or unconscious. This requires recognizing and identifying all the habits and choices I make moment to moment to ascertain if the choice leads me towards God or away from God. Therefore, Kedarji states one can expect change to occur over time.

Some Essential Spiritual Steps Toward a Blissful Lifestyle

For me, I envision a spiral path, demarcated with at least these five essential steps along the way to a Blissful lifestyle: the burning longing to know God, obedience, discernment, surrender, and keeping good company. There are others, to be sure, however, currently these are foremost in my mind.

In Sanskrit, the burning longing to know God is known as Mumukshutva. It is the consuming desire to know God. Without this intense desire Kedarji tells us that it is difficult to stay the course. Intention is required. This intention, held in the mind, must also be a focused, clear desire that emanates from a purified heart.

In other words, I cannot get there by merely thinking or wishing. I must feel the desire in my heart after having let go of any contracting feelings such as anger, fear, or resentment. This state of burning longing to know God occurred for me either in a past life or for sure this current one because I had crossed paths with not one but three Self-realized Sadgurus, the first being Swami Muktananda Parmahamsa. After receiving the Shaktipat blessing from him the Siddha Lineage was at my back, supporting my journey.

Even though I lost touch with him, I crossed paths with his predecessor – then again years later with his disciple Kedarji who through his own lifestyle change that he describes in his fascinating book, Vibration of Divine Consciousness: A Spiritual Autobiography, had attain Self-realization. At the mundane level crossing paths with these Self-realized beings looked like a series of accidents and synchronicities. At the transcendental level there was no losing touch; I had only concealed this Truth from myself.

However, to have this burning longing to know God was not enough to establish a lifestyle of Joy.  I would allow myself to become distracted and then become contracted; indulging my desires, knocked off the path by mundane distractions and reaching for pleasure to avoid pain. The antidote to this has been the next step – obeying the Guru’s every instruction.

Obedience means obeying the Guru’s every instruction and command. There is no picking and choosing, no excuses. For me this takes a great deal of self-discipline. Compared to some other cultures, it seems to me that our USA culture is not strong in fostering or in valuing self-discipline. Kedarji reminds us that our culture panders to our every whim, to capitalizie on people’s addictions as they reach for pleasure to avoid pain and attempt to fulfill desires that only increase after the pleasure has worn off. Those types of desires are called limiting desires because as Kedarji explains, karmic law requires every human wish held firmly in the mind and mixed with devotion must find ultimate fulfillment and binds one to karmas, unless it is desire to find God.

Breaking out of this entrenched pattern required something radical. My Guru’s instruction for me was radical. It required that I rearrange my precious daily schedule so that I could follow my Guru’s instruction. Doing so gave me the embodied experience of putting my spiritual aspirations as my top priority. I have had to educate my family about my meditation times, setting boundaries when necessary. Now my daughter apologies profusely if she accidently interrupts my meditation, whereas my son simply tells me when it is time to meditate. Using the risk/ratio method that Kedarji teaches, I found that over time I began to see the difference in how I felt when I exerted the effort to maintain my spiritual practice and when I failed to organize events resulting in my missing meditation and other practices. This discernment was a crucial part of developing a lifestyle of Bliss.

Discernment in Sanskrit is Viveka. We make numerous choices throughout the day, big and small, from spending money to choosing which email to read. For each choice, one should ask, is it moving me toward God or away from God? Every morning at the end of my meditation I inwardly ask Kedarji to direct me so that my will is aligned with His will.  Throughout the day I must listen inwardly for the messages that will keep me aligned with His will. These messages may be about small mundane matters, such as ‘move your laundry basket to the garage this morning.’ I did not heed that subtle message, and my new silky purple blouse ended up getting splattered with bleach, removing the color here and there.

Numerous times during the day I do listen and I will be reminded to do something and then I always say, thank you Shiva. In fact, it seems the more I say thank you Shiva the more inner messages I receive and the more support I experience. Another example: I was in the ‘pre-op’ room getting ready for my stem cell procedure for my knee. Various health care providers were surrounding me, one putting on a blood pressure cuff, another inserting an IV into my other arm, and another putting on compression socks, all at the same time. I felt invaded. I realized that I was attached to ‘my space.’  Then the subtle message arose – seek Joy. I had been reaching for irritation. As instructed by Kedarji I immediately turned my gaze inward, took three deep breaths, said my Mantra, and pictured my Guru. And indeed – Joy welled up within me. I had surrendered.

Surrender. Kedarji instructs us that surrender is an absolute necessity to break attachments, limiting desires and false notions. Surrender is also dedication of one’s body, mind, senses, and all action to the glorification of God.  It is doing my spiritual practices as instructed by my Guru. This does not imply giving up ones will or being enslaved. It is the act of engaging one’s will so that it is aligned with God’s Will.

What helps me is to make all my acts a blessed sacrament. When I go through my day consciously saying, Kedarji your will is my will, please teach me; please instruct me; please show me the way – then I feel inspired from within. I say thank you Shiva to avoid having my ego grab the credit. I offer all at the feet of my Guru.

Using discernment, I am more aware when my thoughts have ‘gone to the dark side’ and I am trying to control outcomes or am critical. Then I offer those thoughts at the feet of my Guru. Disciplining myself to follow the commands of my Guru is surrendering my ego at his feet. Surrender is a practice; it takes love, patience, humility and reverence to stay the course. It also takes a burning longing to know God. It also requires keeping good company.

Keeping good company is illustrated by the three aphorisms often uttered by Kedarji and his Guru, Swami Muktananda: “by company we rise and company we fall, it only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole basket; one drop of sour milk spoils the whole batch.” For example, I had a friend who introduced me to Kedarji. She was very enthusiastic about him and the path of the Siddhas. However, after she returned from her second trip to his center she started complaining about him. He had given her instructions she didn’t like and instead of attempting to understand and embrace his instructions, she attempted to discredit him, spreading lies about him.

She attempted to persuade me to leave Kedarji. Up to that point I would often go along with her latest spiritual interest. However, I had thoroughly vetted Kedarji before I decided to follow him. What she said did not ring true. Even though I try to avoid confrontation, I wanted to stand up for my Guru. So, with a pounding heart, I firmly set a limit. I said I didn’t believe what she was saying and to stop talking about it. It broke our friendship, even though several years later she apologized and admitted she had spread malicious gossip. Had I not set a firm limit she would have continued to attempt to undermine my relationship with Kedarji.

Keeping good company also includes being in the physical presence of a Sadguru as much as possible, which is why people are willing to travel to Kedarji in Ohio from such places New Zealand, Italy, Canada and Hawaii. In addition, keeping the company of people in the spiritual community of the Guru is keeping good company. Inner company includes my thoughts. Witnessing awareness makes it possible to monitor my thoughts and stop any thought that is contracting my awareness; For example criticisms or comparisons. These are effective ancient practices taught by Kedarji.

These are five essential steps that I take with increasing measure, as I continue, with Kedarji’s leadership, to change my lifestyle to one that is totally grounded in the spiritual values and practices as taught by Kedarji and the saints and sages of our Siddha lineage.

Sarah Porter, PhD MS MPH RN CHTP/I is a certified healing touch instructor, teaching in Hawaii and Japan. She has over 15 years of Healing Touch practice and 30 years of practice as a psychiatric mental health nurse and clinical specialist with a holistic perspective. She is the co-author of the book, “Women’s Health and Human Wholeness”, emphasizing the necessity of bringing wholeness back into the health care system. She also serves on the Board of Directors for our school