The Upanishads, the ancient vedic texts by the sages and mystics that happened as revelations, say that for the person who is initiated, the whole world is heaven.

Understand the word ‘initiation’. It does not mean doing some ceremony or ritual. Initiation means that ‘click’ happening in you. When a master expresses the truth, if the click, the realization, happens in you and if you suddenly feel, ‘O god! What he says is right. I was always thinking exactly this. He put it in the right way,’ that is what initiation is. If you feel whatever I am speaking is what you always thought about but I am verbalizing it and properly putting it in words, the initiation has happened.

Please understand, only after all the preparation is done and only when you are in the state of high intensity, the truth uttered by the master just clicks. When the master says there is no need for any seeking any more and just liberate yourself right now, you will be able to do so only if you have done enough of seeking and created the intensity. That is the paradox!

The technique is to get the right attitude of intensity. Actually, if you have high intense energy, you will automatically have the right listening. You will be just waiting to catch one glimpse. You will be just waiting to listen. You will be just waiting to imbibe. That is why masters speak again and again and again for years over years. I started speaking only a few years ago. Buddha spoke for over forty years. But the message was the same. His first sermon and the last sermon are almost the same. You may then think why thousands of disciples sat everyday and heard the same sermon again and again. Because the click happens only when you are in intense energy. Only with intensity it clicks. You just catch the flame and the awakening happens.

For the spiritual experience to happen, two conditions need to be fulfilled. One is that you must be completely open and available to the surroundings. The other is the intense energy field. Sometimes even if you are open, if you are not in the intense energy field, the first cracking of the coconut of your ego does not happen. The first spiritual experience is just like breaking open a coconut. Once the first opening happens, it is not difficult to break the rest of the coconut. The first opening needs an intense spiritual energy field.

These two factors are what resulted in my first spiritual experience. I was open and available to the surroundings; and I was in the intense energy field of Arunachala. Fortunately, I was attracted to the beauty of that hill. Normally, if you see a hill or a river or an ocean every day, you will take it for granted. Somehow I never took that hill for granted. I never thought I knew about it. I was continuously open, available. Understand, being open and available every time, seeing it every morning with the eyes of freshness or with the mind of openness is what I am calling ‘being open and available’. Many times, we completely close ourselves to the society. We just come to some conclusion, some understanding and after that we never update our understanding or our effort with the result.

Every day, the Arunachala hill was living for me. Everyday it was never the same old hill that I saw yesterday. I had a very funny routine. In the morning when I got up I would not open my eyes. I would slowly walk from my room to outside the house holding the parapet wall. I would come out and stand in a place from where I knew the hill could be seen. Only then I would open my eyes so that the first thing that I saw in the morning would be that hill. Somehow my brothers knew that the first thing that I wanted to see was the hill. They would want to have fun teasing me. When they knew that I was out from my bed and slowly walking, they would come and stand in front of me. If I opened my eyes and did not see the hill and instead saw their faces, I would go back and lie down again. I would lie down again, sleep for half an hour, then again get up and slowly walk back to see the hill and open my eyes. Only if I saw the hill the first thing in the morning, I would carry on with my routine. It may look funny and superstitious but I always felt I took birth, I took this body, because of that attraction and pull that hill has got for enlightened beings.

There is a very beautiful verse in Tamil that describes the hill as ‘the hill that attracts enlightened beings around it’. The hill is especially respected for attracting enlightened beings not only from this planet earth, but also from other planets and spaces, towards planet earth. I never took the hill for granted. It was an ever-living presence.

One day I was trying to sit and meditate. It was a full moon day (Poornima) and the moon was rising as the sun was setting. I was just sitting on a rock on Arunachala hill, trying the meditation technique that the disciple of Ramana Maharshi, an enlightened master Annamalai Swamigal had initiated me into. I was sitting on the rock trying to find the source from where the feeling of ‘I’ was rising. On that day I was sitting for a particularly long time trying to find the source in a deep way. Suddenly something happened and I felt like I was being sucked inside, pulled inside. I was sitting with closed eyes but I saw very clearly that something opened inside. The moment that opened inside, I was able to see whole 360 degrees around me. My eyes were closed but I was able to see complete 360 degrees, whatever was happening in all the directions – front, side, back, up, and down. Not only was I able to see, but I was also able to feel very clearly with the same intensity how we all feel alive inside our skin, that I am alive in everything I was able to see. I was able to see whatever was around me, all the plants, rocks, trees and everything. I was able to feel that I am alive in everything. In the same way you all feel you are alive inside your body I felt alive with the whole cosmos, with the whole Existence.

Till then I was just a mere body. After that, I realized I am body also. Understand, ‘I am body also’. It was a very deep experience. If it was just a word or imagination, it won’t have that much impact on your inner space. It was an intense conscious experience. You see, now you know you are inside your skin. You will listen to anything as long as it does not disturb you. Naturally you know how to protect yourself because you are alive inside and that is your conscious experience. No matter however many people teach you that you are not just your body you will only listen but you will not allow them to work on you! Because your conscious experience is your body. My experience that ‘I am this whole Existence’ became my truth. That is why I started living according to that. People are surprised that I lived such a strong intense life in such a young age. They feel that it is very difficult and unimaginable. It is unimaginable for you because it is not your conscious experience. It was easy for me because feeling the whole cosmos is me became a very solid experience.

source: Living Enlightenment