Question : What is the message and main teachings that you are bringing today to the spiritual seekers of America?
Sri Anandagiriji: I have come to bring neither a new teaching nor a new philosophy of life; we already have received a huge number of teachings from different Saints, Sages, Mystics, Philosophers and great thinkers from different schools of thought. The world is full of philosophies, religions, esoteric teachings (revealed to the world), spiritual practices, techniques of self development, etc., that set forth beautiful theories and ideas of how we should live or what do we have to do, to find true "Happiness" in our lives. The question that I ask you is that after so much reading and listening to different teachings, is there any real change in our lives? Or, are we just changing techniques and philosophies, that keep us in rapture for a period of time, and after a while we find them impossible to follow and practice? Giving up finally the possibility to attain a real and deep change in our lives?
Question :If you are not giving us a new teaching or technique, what should we expect from Foundation for World Awakening?
Sri Anandagiriji :We, as a spiritual movement, ask you two questions:Are you suffering? And, Do you want to be free from this suffering? If your answer is affirmative to both questions, we embrace you, and then our Foundation can help you.What do you mean by "suffering"?In many moments of our lives we found ourselves experiencing feelings of boredom, loneliness, depression, pain and conflict in our human relationships, lack of motivation, and sometimes meaninglessness in many of our daily activities.These feelings make us suffer, because they come generally with anxiety and uncertainty, and we don't know if we will ever be free from these emotions and feelings.Inside of us questions arise like: Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? Will I find happiness and love in my life or is it just a dream? Where am I going? Is there any hope for a change or do I have to give up? What is living? Do I do what I really want, or do I feel like a slave of the impositions of society? Will I ever experience the real psychological and spiritual freedom? And so on and so forth...
Q:What would happen if somebody comes and tells you that he has none of these questions, because he feels happy and in peace and that he has found everything he has searched for?
Sri Anandagiriji : Not everybody is a spiritual seeker in this world. The truth is that only a selected group of people are in a real search in their lives. We as human beings are suffering from a severe illness, which is not necessarily lack of love, hatredness, pride, greed, envy, covetousness or egoism, but we are suffering with an even greater illness, which is "lack of awareness" of what is happening inside us. Most of us walk in the streets without knowing, why we are going to our jobs, from where comes our urge to success, why should I go to the shopping malls every weekend, what makes me buy the latest car model that just appeared in the market, what is it that moves me everyday to action, why should I keep myself constantly busy, etc. If everything is fine and if I were really happy, for sure I would not have the necessity of keeping my mind constantly busy with ideas and projects for the future. If we contemplate for a moment we will see that real happiness and joy is only found in the present, but constantly we keep ourselves busy doing things for acquiring happiness and peace in the future, we are running after a moving train, which we can never catch.The sincere spiritual seeker, first of all, is aware of this issue and feels the urge to find a way out of this stressing and anguishing situation. He has begun to see the lack of love and peace in his life, the lack of harmony in his family and personal relationships, and the lack of truthfulness because he is always involved in lies and hypocrisies in order to be accepted in this society. In the beginning, a spiritual seeker feels disgusted and sick of everything, and this is what really transforms him into a real and deep seeker of meaning, into a "Spiritual Seeker".
Q :Then what are the main characteristics we should have to be called Spiritual Seekers?
Sri Anandagiriji : As I said before: First of all, the real seeker is recognized because he does not accept simple answers but wishes to hear something that really convinces him, and wants to discover by himself what he has been taught.Secondly, he is aware of the fact that he is suffering, because he has tasted it in several ways, he is tired of it and wants to be liberated from it (feeling of loneliness, feeling of not belonging, nonsense, lack of true meaning in life, depression, decay, or the constant conflict created by following values other than the ones accepted by this society).And the last aspect that characterizes a spiritual seeker is that he takes the challenge, no matter what happens to him, to find the way out of his suffering.
Q: A lot of people are searching for some kind of change in their lives, and many, who have found answers in different teachings feel that they are becoming better human beings, and feel secure about the knowledge and the path they have chosen in their lives. May we say that these people are transformed and that they are freed from their suffering?
Sri Anandagiriji : Some of them may have truly begun the journey of Transformation. This journey of Discovery and Transformation is a unique journey, only a few ones have begun and advanced deeply towards Liberation. When we start to follow a new teaching or spiritual practice, or start receiving very profound knowledge, inside of us there begins a change. We must be able to identify where and in what level this change is occurring; only in this way can we understand if there is any change at all. At the moment when we discover a new teaching or philosophy, there starts inside of us a renovation of thoughts, concepts and creeds. Every change that occurs in the realm of the ideas, concepts, beliefs, our mental schemes, is basically a change in the level of our mind. It does not mean that our inner nature has changed or that our perceptions of life have undergone a definite transformation. Instead of it, a new idea, that can be wonderful, starts taking shape and it forms into a new mental scheme. Maybe we will see a change in our behaviour; it means we have obtained some reformation in our lives, which is very different from having a profound and real change in our inner nature.When there is a real change in the inner nature of man, only then can we call this a true Transformation.
Q: I am sure that many people who are reading this article would like you to go deeper and give us more clarity into what is the difference between Reformation and Transformation.
Sri Anandagiriji : What we know today as change and personal development is basically Reformation.Modern man has been greatly influenced by the paradigm of Science, which has come into fruition as an analytical and rational mind. We are perceiving the world, other people, things and nature from the standpoint of ideas, concepts, a mixture of concepts-ideas, or images that have been created in our minds through the past experiences that were significant in our lives. Therefore, any change that occurs in us is basically a change that manifests itself in the level of our concepts, ideas, beliefs and mental schemes.The teachings we have received from great masters such as Christ, Buddha, LaoTse, Mohammed, Sri Krishna, Confucius and many other great Saints, Mystics and Sages, have been transformed into mere concepts and ideas, and that is the reason that, despite the clarity manifested by these great beings, it was and it is so hard to put them into practice and follow them wholeheartedly. There is always a conflict between the teaching and our inner nature. The teachings may be wonderful and we see the truth in them, and we know that if we could apply these great truths in our lives all the human problems and sufferings would be solved. But is almost impossible to follow them because our nature is different, and it is not natural for us to love unconditionally as Christ did, and it is not natural for us to feel detachment from desires as it was for the Buddha.If we go more deeply we see that the inner nature of these great Masters was different, their Consciousness was different. For them, what they preached and taught was natural; it was part of their inner nature and drawn from their own experience.A real inner change means Transformation, and it is not a change in the realm of concepts and ideas but in your inner world. Your whole perception undergoes a deep change; your consciousness has been altered.
Q : Please, reveal to us in more depth the inner process that occurs in this journey of Transformation.
Sri Anandagiriji : In this, the journey of Transformation, changes in the inner nature begin to occur. At the beginning of this journey very often there is an internal crisis, because our inner structures of thought start falling, and our ideas, concepts, creeds and mental schemes change.Much of what we have created in our minds, images, conclusions, prejudices, our perceptions of the world, how we see ourselves, our friends, our family, and life itself, starts breaking down along with the security that we put on those images.Slowly we begin to see reality, as it is, without masks, without false protections, we begin to perceive things as they really are.In other words, what we start experiencing is not a growth or an accumulation inside of us, but a loosening of the attachments, images, concepts, ideas, sensations, to which we have been tied up and that has given us a false security until today. Remember, "Transformation is the journey of Liberation"; it means you begin to feel more light and free because you have given away a lot of unnecessary weight.
Q : Therefore, if we are not experiencing this process of structures falling, does it mean we have not begun this journey?
Sri Anandagiriji : Yes, that's right. That is why I have said that many who say that they are transformed and think they are spiritual beings are just fooling themselves, because they have been accumulating and building up, hence the unlearning process must be even harder.Remember, this is the journey of humbleness and humility; it is not a competition to see who is more evolved.Sri Kalki says in one of his Supreme Truths "Life is a process of learning and learning is unlearning". It means that if we are not unlearning (the falling of mental structures) everyday, Maybe we are not living at all!
Q : As this process of unlearning begins to occur in our lives, when does this unlearning process end or, we must be completely void? And if it is so, does it mean that we should lose the notion and memory of ourselves?
Sri Anandagiriji : The answer to the first question is yes. We must be completely void and until this occurs we should go on unlearning what we have accumulated in our lives. Our purpose of incarnation in this planet is to begin our Spiritual Awakening, and there is no other reason for being here. I see that you do not understand the unlearning process, and I am going to explain it further. If we go deeper into the world of memories, feelings and experiences of the past, we will see that the remembrance of some past experiences carry with it a strong emotional charge and others do not. This emotional charge affects us now in the present. Through our life we have had positive and negative experiences that made a strong impact in our memory, like the first years of our life, childhood, years at school, University period, etc. These past experiences determine our present conduct and behaviour, and how we perceive the circumstances of our daily life. To be able to experience the present as it is, without an emotional charge from our past, and to feel really free in our daily decisions, we must be liberated from our past experiences that carry a strong emotional charge. Therefore, the unlearning must occur at this level, this does not mean you would forget who are your parents and your friends, and that you are going to lose your memories; but you are not going to be attached to them. Attachment to these images that are charged with strong emotional feelings is what keeps you enslaved, and keeps you away from freedom and from being spontaneous in the present. Through this unlearning you are liberated from your past traumas and bad experiences such as fear, anguish, creeds accepted blindly by you and that you have never questioned, and ideas of ourselves that limits us just to certain activities, which makes us feel we are not able to realize our real self, and does not let us apply the whole creative potential that we have inside of us.
Q :If I am aware of the necessity to begin the journey of Transformation, what is the next step I should take?
Sri Anandagiriji :After being aware of the necessity and the desire to change, you should see that every intent and effort to change your inner nature might just produce reformation and not bring the true Transformation into your life. If we go deeper into the nature of our mind, first we will see that our mind is constantly planning and programming events, keeping under control and order the situations and events that are going to occur in the day, in the week, in the month, in the year or even in the rest of our life. If a change must occur in our inner world we must realize that every change in our feelings, perceptions and emotions have the characteristic of being natural and spontaneous in nature. Every experience is spontaneous; it is not planned or organized. I do not plan to get mad at my wife, husband or friend, neither do I plan to feel glad or happy today. I do not program to feel depressed on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and be happy the rest of the week. Therefore, the nature of the experience and of the inner world (feelings, emotions, sensations and perceptions) is spontaneous and natural.After seeing the necessity of a change and Transformation, I should also realize that the key to success is not in my hands and in my own efforts, because something spontaneous must occur, an extraordinary experience must occur, a transcendental experience, a divine and mystical experience must be given to me to get the state of Transformation and Liberation.
Q : What is a mystical and transcendental experience?
Sri Anandagiriji : As we said in the beginning, we are suffering and searching for a meaning in life because we have not had this mystical experience. Our life is boring and we are always having the feeling that something is missing for us to be complete. Constantly we feel emptiness in our hearts and a feeling of alienation and loneliness. We may be with a group of friends or at work and feel that we do not belong to this place or to this group of people. In other moments I may be in a family party and still feel I don't belong here either, even though we are together there is something that divides us and makes me feel separated from others. I may be in a wonderful and beautiful place; in a mountain with vegetation around me and birds, wild animals and a pure river with crystal water flowing through it; but while I am there observing the landscape and the whole place I feel fine just for a moment, after a while I feel I am just passing by this place, I am a visitor, a pilgrim that always must go on in his way, again getting in touch with this sense of not belonging. There is something that does not let me engage with others and with the rest of the world. I may share certain things with others but there are so many things inside of me that I have never shared and I do not know if I ever will. This feeling of being individuals and of being separated from others is born from the lack of this transcendental and mystical experience. This makes us lose the experience of union and communion with others. So experiencing this union and communion with others is a transcendental and mystical experience. There are so many kinds of mystical and transcendental experiences, in fact they are unlimited and the main characteristic is that they are unique and very different from one person to another.
