Deeksha: An Evolutionary Perspective
by
Kiara Windrider
A great tide of change is sweeping
across the planet. As in nature, this
tide does not follow a linear path. High
tide is followed by a low tide, as night
follows day. Dark Ages and Golden Ages
follow each other, and each out-breath
of Creation is followed by an in-breath,
where all Creation returns to Source.
We are experiencing on Earth a
massive environmental and human crisis,
a reflection of the collective shadow of
an unenlightened humanity. What does
this mean from an evolutionary
perspective? Are we evolving or
devolving? We can focus on the global
crisis as the end product of long
centuries of human ignorance, arrogance,
and greed, the final chapter of an Age
of Darkness. We are certainly
de-evolving from this perspective,
despite all the seeming advances of
modern civilization. However, the same
global crisis can also be seen as a
reflection of a much bigger cyclical
process, a pro-evolutionary process
directed by a vast and benign
intelligence whose goal is to create a
new species of humanity far beyond our
current consciousness and capabilities.
Sri Bhagavan, an avatar in India,
insists that we will shortly be entering
a Golden Age, following an unprecedented
process of mass enlightenment which will
take place sometime in the next few
years. When people ask me to define
this, my definitions always change
according to the context. What does
‘enlightenment’ mean in an evolutionary
context?
I do not see enlightenment as merely
an individual phenomenon. The ‘deeksha’,
which is an avenue for enlightenment
offered by Sri Bhagavan, is an
evolutionary cosmic energy whose purpose
is to work with the biological
intelligence inherent within our DNA in
order to create a new species of
humanity. It comes from a vast avataric
consciousness which interfaces with the
collective consciousness of humanity,
whose purpose is to activate a
possibility that has not existed in the
human species before. Enlightenment is
not just a spiritual awakening that
affects individual human lives, but a
genetic and cellular shift that affects
our entire species and its role in the
planetary and galactic ecosystems.
Whether it is a response to the
crisis of our times, or whether the
global crisis itself is only a
reflection of a larger evolutionary
cycle, I believe that we are going
through a mutation in the human species
that will enable us not only to survive
the current crisis but to actualize our
full divine potential.
We can choose our perceptions. If we
see the global crisis only as a
planetary threat of extinction arising
from centuries of misguided human karma,
we are obviously in a pretty messy
situation, and won’t survive very long.
If we also see this as a necessary
aspect of a larger awakening, a far more
hopeful picture arises. What does this
mean in practical terms?
I remember once as a child watching
in awe as a crane operator used a huge
wrecking ball to demolish an old
building. He would swing the ball way
out to one side, and then it would swing
back with great force to bring down the
walls. Evolution is like that too.
Nature is trying to program us with new
information and create a new earth. But
for this to happen, the foundations of
the old self, or the old earth, need to
first collapse.
How does this relate to enlightenment
through the deeksha process? Too often
when people receive a deeksha, their
expectations of enlightenment as being
equivalent to states of bliss or cosmic
highs get in the way of a fuller
experience of ‘oneness’, which by
definition transcends the duality
between light and dark. The dark night
of the soul then follows in order to
shatter these expectations and create
room for greater expansion and oneness.
Whenever I give deekshas to people, I
warn them beforehand that they are
likely to experience manifestations of
their shadow self, and possibly a ‘dark
night of the soul’, as an integral part
of the expansion process. I tell them
they could experience great states of
cosmic union, heart-opening and joy, but
this could be followed by a time when
they feel adrift and alone in a desolate
world of spiritual dryness and emotional
deadness. In this state nothing seems to
make sense anymore, and even the
connection with divinity feels forever
broken. We must not expect the process
of enlightenment to be just bliss and
light. ‘Endarkenment’ is equally an
aspect of awakening consciousness.
This is well understood in a country
like India, which is perhaps why
enlightenment happens so much easier for
many Indians. For many Westerners,
however, who are conditioned to perceive
the world as light vs. dark, or good vs.
bad, and who expect that enlightenment
will mean an instant end to all
psychological suffering, this idea that
enlightenment can have its ‘dark’
aspects can be a little more
troublesome, and leads to many
unfulfilled expectations.
There is a model that was developed
by John Lilly, one of the early pioneers
of the ‘consciousness movement’ in
California. He spoke of a scale of
consciousness with a baseline of zero,
and which went up to +1, +2, and +3
representing increasingly ‘higher’
states of super-consciousness. Below the
line, there is -1, -2, and -3,
representing correspondingly ‘lower’
states of un-consciousness. The
interesting discovery he made was that
in the process of awakening,
consciousness did not move up in a
linear fashion from -3 up through 0 up
to +3. Rather, after going up from 0 to
+1, it would drop down to -1, and only
then go up to +2. Then it would drop
down to -2, and then suddenly move
straight up to +3! The greatest heights
followed the greatest lows.
Like the ebb and flow of a rising
tide, we must expect that any infusion
of the light will be followed by an
equal or even stronger experience of the
dark. Sri Bhagavan speaks about the need
to explore the ‘ugliness’ of the mind as
a prelude to enlightenment. For each
person, this shadow may come up in a
different way. For those who have
struggled with loneliness, this may show
up as feeling very isolated and
vulnerable. For those who have control
issues in their lives, this may show up
as a greater need to control others or
their own experience. For those who have
experienced trauma around money or
self-worth, this may show up as
financial contraction or survival fears.
And so on.
Just like the water in a well is
connected at the underground level with
the water-table of an entire region, we
may even go past the personal
unconscious, and experience aspects of
the collective unconscious that need to
be brought forward, acknowledged, and
healed. In his 40 days in the
wilderness, Jesus was able to
acknowledge and heal his personal
shadows. During his ‘descent into hell’
in the course of his crucifixion, he was
able to acknowledge and heal aspects of
the collective shadow. If we are aligned
with the awakening of humanity into the
Golden Age, we too will be called upon
to do likewise.
It is crucial that people understand
this within the deeksha community, and
create support networks with each other,
to enable people to go through this
‘dark night’ when it comes up. It is
only when we have this support network
in place that the deeper experiences of
oneness can safely happen. What is being
challenged here is the very idea of a
separate ego-self, which is ingrained
very deeply in most of us. We will
likely go through a phase when our very
sense of meaning or purpose in life is
confronted, when we flounder in
existential emptiness, and when even our
sense of connection with the divine
seemingly disappears. It is a great
purging, and the purpose is to take us
down to the very pits of hell. From
here, suddenly, the light of grace can
illuminate all the dark corners and take
us equally powerfully to the highest
heavens. Having surrendered to death, we
discover the fullness of life.
To the extent that we are aware of
this process, to that extent we can
embrace it. Realize there is nothing you
can DO to get through it, except just to
be aware of the bigger picture, and let
it happen. In our fear of the dark side,
or if we imagine that we are somehow
‘losing’ our enlightenment, many people
try to hang on to a peak experience,
which inevitably plunges them deeper
into the pit. If we embrace our pit
experience, paradoxically, we soon find
our way out into a greater embrace of
the unified state where we are attached
to neither dark nor light, but
experience ourselves beyond either, and
therefore as all!
Many people are conditioned by ideas
of ‘instant’ enlightenment. Yes, the
deeksha greatly accelerates this
process, but nevertheless it is a
process, and takes time to unfold. Don’t
expect to live in states of perpetual
bliss, at least not at first, and don’t
expect to become an overnight saint.
This is not realistic, and is a denial
of the dark side. The dark side is not
to be feared but acknowledged, and in
this acknowledgement a deep healing
becomes possible.
Similarly in the global context,
humanity has been on a path towards
light for a very long time. But in the
process, we have denied the darkness
inherent in what Sri Bhagavan refers to
as the ‘ancient mind’, or the collective
‘thoughtsphere’ of humanity. This denial
has led to what George Orwell so
pertinently referred to as ‘doublespeak’
where lies become ‘truth’, slavery
becomes ‘freedom’ and war becomes
‘peace’. In our persistence of this
denial, humanity has become a cancer
upon the Earth. If we are to awaken, and
if the Earth is to be healed, these
denials have to be brought to light. I
believe we are collectively going
through a dark night of the planetary
soul. All of this needs to be seen and
embraced so that we can emerge from the
deep hell of our own creation into a
heaven on Earth.
We must get beyond the deeksha fad of
‘instant enlightenment’ into a deeper
spiritual maturity. I believe that this
work must go hand in hand with a deeper
psychological understanding of the
shadow, and we must learn the basic
skills for dealing with this. It is too
easy to put on an ‘enlightened’ mask
when our own stuff comes up or when we
are being put through the dark night of
the soul. We must learn that it is safe
to navigate through the darkness and
open to its gifts of light. For those
who are giving deekshas to people, these
things must be clearly pointed out so
that people don’t feel like they have
failed or fallen from grace when these
things inevitably happen.
Human consciousness is intimately
connected with the Earth’s
consciousness. As more and more people
make their passage through the dark
wildness of their souls and emerge into
the unified light, we will at some point
reach a critical mass where a collective
enlightenment can happen, hundredth
monkey style. It is possible that at
this point the ‘ancient mind’ will
itself dissolve. As this happens, it
could well lead the way to a physical
heaven on Earth as well.
However, before this happens, and as
part of the clearing process, there
could well be some cataclysmic events on
Earth. Many predict that this could
happen very soon. The extent of this
will depend on how much we have managed
to transmute the disowned aspects of
ourselves. In preparation for this, we
might find ourselves going through
valleys of deep darkness, much of which
will not even be our own. We might also
find ourselves anchoring realms of
immense light through our own bodies and
into the body of Earth. When these
things happen, let us keep the big
picture in mind, and realize that we are
being used in divine service in ways
that our minds could never comprehend
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