Chapter 10🔗

Ananda Darshan

(Special Feature)

The Master is one with the universal consciousness. He is the formless in form. He is Existence itself. Out of deep love and compassion, through Ananda Darshan, he opens Himself completely to all, to experience the universal consciousness through him.

The Master's compassion and divine love is felt by one and all with tremendous intensity. The Master radiates the existential energy around him at all times. At the time of darshan, he simply makes himself available with all vulnerability, to instill the divine energy into each person; to plant in each one the seed that can flower and radiate His own fragrance, the fragrance of Existence.

If only we are receptive to the energy, it can penetrate and transform us at the being level. If we can be silent within, free from the grips of our mundane logic, free from thoughts and words, we can simply be a drop in the ocean of bliss that is created here.

The only thing that is expected in return for the unconditional love of the Master is a trusting and receptive approach from our side. If we can just drop our mind for these few hours and fall in tune with the mood that is created, we will be paying our deepest reverence to all of Existence.

There is kirtan (music) and dance during darshan time. The ecstatic presence of the Master and the energy released during exchange of words, we will find that something in us starts to respond. To millions of people, the darshan is a transforming experience.

People around the world who have enjoyed the blessings of Ananda Darshan carry wonderful reminiscences. People have had many visions, many instances of healing, many intense spiritual experiences and many ailments pulled out of them at the time of darshan.

The energy is perceived by different people in different ways. There is no need to hanker for any experience during darshan time. We need to just allow whatever is happening to happen. Then we will be creating a space in us to receive the darshan. Energy is intelligence and it knows what to do. There is no need to have any expectation. There is no need to expect experience of any light or emptiness or feeling the energy or anything.

Just being in a prayerful mood at this time is enough; it can transform us more than words can say. Prayerful does not mean asking for things; prayerful means just feeling a deep gratitude towards everything. Of course, the Master always says that we can ask what we feel like after getting the darshan, before we get up to leave. He says we could ask any question that we have in our mind, any problem for which we are seeking a solution.

But the moment is so overwhelming and beyond the realms of mundane matter that it becomes difficult to ask anything at all. The moment we are in an asking mood, we miss the whole thing. For us to ask anything, our mind has to step in. And when our mind steps in, we have missed the whole thing.

There have been numerous instances of people saying that when they go near the Master for darshan, He simply places His hand exactly in the area of pain or problem in their body. They are shocked. He places His hand exactly in the area that needs to be addressed, even without them telling Him anything. The Master comes out with His love for us and addresses our untold problems.

When questions are asked at darshan time, the Master answers with absolute compassion and concern. His answers are different to each person even if the question is the same. It is then that one understands that each being is different, each one's path is one's own, each of us is connected to the Master uniquely, directly and independently. The Master looks into the being of the person and answers the questioner, not the question! For those with complete trust, He simply says, 'I will take care...' These words are not a consolation or for making the person feel good; it is a promise by the Master. It is the assurance of Existence. People shed their anxieties and depression relaxing into this assurance from the Master.

For those few moments, if we can forget our prayers and place our trust in Existence, we can experience more healing and expansion than we could ever imagine possible. Just a little faith that Existence knows what is best for us is enough. If we approach Him with this attitude, we will be able to receive what the Master is trying to give us. It is a tremendous moment for everyone.

Darshan time is a wonderful opportunity to move from communication to communion with the Master. In all the lectures, we keep asking questions for more and more intellectual clarity. us and touch us at the seed level and transform us in ways that we don't even know.

Just to be present and watch the Master at the time of darshan is an ecstatic meditation by itself. It is a rare opportunity in one's lifetime. It is not worth getting caught in any other detail at this time. Just to be present, aware, without greed but total love and gratitude, is enough.

The Master is so beautiful to look at, so graceful, mesmerizing, as always, and more so during darshan time. He shines forth as an ocean of compassion, so fluid and receptive to the helpless pleas and silent calls of the thousands gathered. Each one receives a brush of the Existential energy that stirs the soul, making it soar to merge with Existence itself. One has the potential to lose one's identity and merge with the One.

The Existential energy simply expresses itself and flows through every inch of the Master's form. Just watching Him at this time can bring to us faint glimpses of the divinity it beholds. The more we allow ourselves to dissolve in the whole thing, the more we will resonate with it and the more we can be awakened to the touch and flow of cosmic energy.

This is the time to break our pseudo-identities and social conditionings and celebrate. This is not the time to fasten our seat belts and sit back. The energy will touch us, but we will not be as open to receiving it!

Just being near the Master at this time can cause dissolution into Him. Like a river merging into the ocean, we merge into the Master, who is the oceanic Existence, the formless in form, the universal consciousness. That is why one feels so relaxed and

Generally speaking, we are not integrated as we think we are. We are really fragments fighting with various aspects within ourselves. While one moment we want one thing, the next moment we want something else. While one moment a particular emotion arises in us, the next moment the opposite emotion surfaces. We are quite chaotic within ourselves although we may appear calm from outside. Darshan time is the time to drop this inner struggle and allow the Master to take over and integrate us. He knows us and He will do what is needed if only we relax and let go. Darshan time is the time to put aside all our learning, all collected judgments and all conclusions about ourselves and open ourselves to the transforming love of the Master.

With every darshan, the Master lights our Being. The real transfer from Him happens at this time. It is the ultimate that He gives to us. He gives us His own Light. Once He lights us, if we allow, we can carry it as our torch wherever we are, wherever we go, in whatever we do. Just one touch is enough; it is an opportunity to know without knowledge, to experience without explanation.

And if the energy has touched us deeply, our life can be transformed forever. A space will be created in us where awareness can enter and dissolve all our questions. There are many doors to the Divine. Once you enter, the experience is the same. The darshan opens out all the doors that are there. It is an invitation to the ultimate experience. Each one's door is different, but which door doesn't matter, as long as you have found one.

The energy released during darshan time is so intense that it can kindle our intelligence to take us from intellect to intuition. We are mostly caught up in deep unconscious mental patterns of our minds, which pull us repeatedly towards familiar habits of thought and action that result from unconscious reacting. With the power of intuition, we have the ability to tap into the energy of our being and harness it in intelligent, creative decision-making in any sphere of life. The energy at darshan time is such that it can open up this intuitive power in us.

We may not understand the depth of what happens during Ananda Darshan or the tremendous gift that is given to us, but we can try to be open and enjoy it and accept it with openness; the rest will happen automatically.

Ananda darshan is one time when we can come close to the Master, when we can feel His love through physical nearness, feel the direct transfer of energy from Him. The darshan can destroy all that we are not, all that is causing illusion in us, all our borrowed desires that are causing us misery. Darshan time is a tremendous opportunity to become one with the universal consciousness, to dissolve into the ocean of bliss!