A Fleeting Glimpse of the Divine Mother

For years, it’s seemed that the spiritual path has been leading me closer and closer toward the Divine Mother. Without any conscious decision, I found that I was increasingly attracted to the goddesses Tara, Kuan Yin, Lakshmi, Durga and Kali. This gradual process was so spontaneous and natural that I almost didn’t notice that over time devotion to the Divine Mother had become the focus of my spiritual life. I now realize that this is the Shakti path and that Sri Kaleshwar is providing the knowledge necessary to experience the fulfillment of this path, which is to have darshan of Mother Divine. I won’t go into detail regarding this, since my knowledge of it is still developing, but I will, however, share an experience I had years ago that proved to me that the Divine Mother is real and that it is possible to know her personally.

It was 1984. I was living in Santa Monica, California with my wife, Patti. One afternoon, I drove up Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu to visit an Indian temple, built by Indian artisans, according to traditional Indian architecture. It was a Vishnu temple for the Indian community and it looked like it could be sitting on the banks of the Ganges. I used to enjoy going there to meditate.

When I arrived at the temple, the parking lot was empty and there was no one around. I wondered why the temple was so empty and made my way to the main deity, only to discover that the door to the inner sanctum, which was usually gated, was now wide open. I sat outside the door to meditate but soon felt drawn to be closer to the statue of Vishnu. It was like a huge magnet was pulling me and I couldn’t resist it. I inched my way closer and closer until finally I crossed the threshold of the inner sanctum and sat there meditating.

As my meditation became deeper and deeper, I was overwhelmed with devotion, more intense than I had ever experienced before, and felt like I was melting with the energy of Vishnu. After I while, I heard some Indian people outside and the thought crossed my mind that maybe I was about to get in trouble for being inside the inner sanctum. I went outside and saw that they were looking at me. “Oh, Oh,” I thought, “Maybe I shouldn’t have gone in there.” A middle aged Indian couple and an older Indian man with white hair were looking at me and then the husband motioned for me to come over. I thought, “Oh boy, now I’m in trouble.” He said that they had noticed me inside the inner sanctum and wanted to know why I was there. I told him the truth; that I came to the temple to meditate and that I felt attracted to Vishnu and wanted to be near him. The husband translated what I said for the older Indian man, who said something in return. Then he explained that the older man was their guru who was visiting from India and that he wanted to give me a gift. The guru looked at me and I felt a wave of bliss flow through me. It poured over me, saturating me with what I now know was divine energy. We silently pranamed to each other and I made my way back to my car in an altered state of consciousness.

I have no idea how I drove home. All that I can remember is that I was in a state of no thought and it felt like everything, including me, was on auto-pilot. Somehow, I got home and went straight to my meditation closet. I had transformed a closet in our apartment into my meditation room. On the altar was a large picture of Lakshmi that was matted with a beautiful gold frame.

I lit some candles and sat in front of the picture of Lakshmi, still experiencing intense bliss and no thought. It was the deepest meditation I had ever experienced. Even after 15 years of practicing and teaching Transcendental Meditation, I had never experienced anything this deep. My mind felt totally still, as silent as the mirror-like surface of a lake with no ripples and my body felt like it wasn’t there. An hour passed. After another hour, my wife knocked on the door and said that our friends Ganesha and Jack would be arriving soon for dinner but I couldn’t pull myself out of the deep silence. The bliss was so intense and so deep that I wanted to stay in it forever. I opened my eyes and gazed at the picture of Lakshmi. Then something happened that I didn’t expect. Lakshmi turned into a three-dimensional living breathing being. She was totally alive and sublimely beautiful. I felt huge love and sat in awe of her. After about a minute, she turned back into a two-dimensional picture and was gone, except she wasn’t really gone because the sight of her remained vividly etched in my memory and I carried deep love for her in my innermost heart.

That was twenty-three years ago, in 1984. A seemingly chance encounter with an unknown Indian guru, who gave a gift of shaktipat by a glance, had bestowed upon me a fleeting experience of the Divine Mother. Until recently, I had no idea how to regain that all too brief experience, or how to develop it fully. A major part of our education at Sri Kaleshwar’s Soul University involves learning how to attain the darshan of the Divine Mother and Father. If you are interested in this subject, be sure to order Swami Kaleshwar’s soon to be released new book, “Channels to Mother Divine and Shiva.”

About this book, Swami Kaleshwar says, “This book is based on the “Yadhruvana Veda.” It describes in a vast and beautiful way the amazing results we can receive. So far, thousands of people practiced the Mother Divine Channels and had unbelievable success. I believe any saint, any soul, on the planet who wants to connect to Shiva and Mother Divine that this is the easiest and fastest way.”

For more information on this book see the Deva Publishing website.