Diverging Paths

Diverging Paths ii. W. L. Poonjas message to me, and to by now countless other seekers who have come to him, is simply this: that all effort and striving to become free is itself the main impediment to the direct realization of the fact that one has never been unfree. His admonishment to drop all effort, struggle and striving to achieve liberation had a staggering effect on me, as it has on many others. His example, along with the miracle of my own transforma- tion, initially resulted in a strong confidence that his teaching was absolute and perfect. Proclaiming me to be his chosen son, the one he had been waiting for all his life, he told me that I had under- stood everything that he had to teach and that I should devote my life to sharing this message of simple and direct liberation with others. Swept away by the extraor- dinary events that ensued from our first meeting I had no time to doubt, because as soon as 1 left his company after only a few brief weeks, this message of simple and direct Diverging Paths rcalizalion began lo pour out (){ inc, often with almost unbearable iniensity. The cllecls were immediate and dramatie. l-riends (ell into deep niedilalion in my pres- ence and I he message H be rat ion here and now was constantly streaming from me. The explosive transmission of this simple yet profound teaching continued unabated and its impact on others continued to astound me. I was in awe most of the time. In Europe, almost overnight many gathered around me, and the intensity of their experience inspired a large number to leave behind their former lives in order to allow nothing to interfere with the miracle of awakening that was revealing itself to them daily. My life had become a living fairy tale with no bumps, scratches or nicks. 1 was on a magical and mysterious roller coaster ride that screamed perfection. Slowly though, cracks appeared. The simple yet profound teaching of perfect liberation here and now, for any and all who would be willing to drop all striving and effort to become free, revealed flaws in its ability to address the full range of actual needs of most individuals. The initial discovery of freedom that resulted when individuals let go of all notions of effort and striving was in most, 1 discov- ered, only temporary. Whether the initial experience of Self-discovery lasted a few hours or a lew weeks, in alnuvsi every case 1 began to find that the old, ccMiditioncd and very personal relationshiji to life as a whole began to siu lace and reassert its influence once again. C^\er time it became /\m ( 'fiionc/iMoMcil Rchmoiisiup lo l.ijc unavoidably clear that far more was necessary to truly liberate an individual from fear, delusion and ignorance than my guru's simple teaching of letting go of effort. The extraordinary ambivalence of the human condition when faced with the highest possibility of perfect liberation began to reveal itself to me in all its complexity The depth of identification with false and wrong views about the nature of reality, relative and absolute, demanded far more than mere glimpses into one's ultimate nature to finally liberate the individual from fear, ignorance and self- deception. The human predicament was revealed to me to be a delicate one, and because of this it became more and more obvious that the human condition needed to be met with a teaching that would leave no stone unturned. As it gradually became apparent that my own teaching was deviating from my guru's in order to meet the needs of those around me, simultaneously I came to the painful discovery of the fact that my guru was not the man he appeared to be. Over time it became clear that in the face of unequivocal declarations of love and perfect union, my guru was demonstrating dishonesty and duplicity Eventually he would even conspire to undermine my teaching work. The entire story is told in my book Autobiography of an Awakening. The issues that eventually led to the ultimate dissolution of our relationship are many and complex. The very nature of the meaning and signifi- cance of spiritual awakening has all been brought into Di\'C}\:^ini^ Paths

question ihrougli the painful unfolding of a conflict that reveals ihc entire panorama of important questions that need to be addressed by any individual who sincerely wants U) he free in this life. An Uniomlitional Relationship to Lift