Has anyone had any spiritual experiences?

[stonehearted]

What was the effect of the vision on your understanding, and on your faith?

 

BTW: Cool name. When I taught at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, CA, I had two or three students named Xochitl. It's one of my favorite "material-world " names.

[Xochitl]

Okay, my understanding was changed primarily through the understanding of guru-tattva. Before my vision, I chanted 16 rounds daily and followed the regulative principles (only because it was convenient) but I didn't have faith in the Holy Name, I didn't understand Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and I didn't understand the necessity of the spiritual master or the proper mood of approaching one (although somehow I was in search for one). I can not explain this situation to anyone besides myself, because it was equally strange to me as it may sound to you. I hadn't solidified myself in Krishna Consciousness or made a commitment rather; that is to say, I could easily change "religious beliefs" just like one would change his underwear, as my mother would say. When I absorbed Bhagavad-Gita through the sense of sight(I have no other way of describing this phenomenon), I realised guru-tattva and accepted Srila Prabhupada as my eternal spiritual master within my heart. Upon accepting Srila Prabhupada I was easily guided through the many sections of Absolute Truth and realised Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His variegated energies, potencies etc as Himself. The best gift of the Gita was my knowledge of Sri Guru, Krishna says to Arjuna, "Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. These self-realised souls can impart knowledge because they have seen the truth." Srila Prabhupada is imparting this knowledge to us exactly how Krishna gave it to Arjuna, there is no doubt about this fact within my mind. That is why Bhagavad Gita with Srila Prabhupada's bhasya is known as Bhagavad-Gita As It Is.There is simply the requirement of submitting ourselves before Srila Prabhupada just like Arjuna submitted himself to Krishna in order to receive this knowledge. If we submit ourselves to guru we will also see the truth, there is no necessity to go out searching and wondering "Is it true?" because through Guru we can realise Krishna. It is so.

[Ravindran Kesavan]

 

That were definitely spiritual experiences and not simply a product of the brain????I have to understand the sources of those experiences and thoughts, whether they are authentically spiritual or just a result of brain chemistry.

 

Honestly, the more I ponder this, the less I become convinced in any God, Self, soul, spirit, etc. Which is all the more depressing and disheartening.

 

Dear Guest,

I dont know what exactly you experienced. But going by your description, I gather it is not a regular normal kind but a spiritual or mystical kind. That is why your doubt arises at the first place. Since I dont know the content of your experience let me just offer you a logic.

 

You argue that your experience could be mere product of brain chemistry. Which experience is not? Everything is product of brain chemistry and physiology. Is your seeing the sun not invole brain processes? The visual sun or the colours you see in the flowers on your garden are responses of your brain (to ecectromagnetic waves). There by do you deny the true presense of the sun or flowers? No! ( I suppose) Then why do you reject your experiences of soul god and the like as nonexistant simply because they involve your brain processes?

 

What I am arguing is that by mearly showing that behind an experience there is brain chemistry and physiology is not a sufficient argumrent to infer that what you experience is an hallucination. You experience everything in the world by this process only. There is no experience that is appart from your brain's involvement . Brain is the instrument that is precisly meant for creating experience. And in any experience you will find its concrete physiological and chemical process.You need to establish something more to show that it is all halucination. -You need to prove that those things you experience do not exist in reality. A mere fact that there is brain chemistry or physiology behind it will not do, as all experiences are of this nature only.

 

One way to test that what you experienced is real or not is through experimentation of the scientific kind. Let me explain. How do the scientist know for certain that therir theories and picture of the universe are true and not the product of their imagination? How do the atomic physist know for sure that his atomic model is a real fact ?( no one has seen the atom not even by instrumentation. There is no such microscope that can magnify an atom to the level of visibility) The proof lies in that such model works in reality. Besides it can explain otherwise lot of unexplained phinominon , it can also be used practically.The scientist can build atomic reactors as well as atom bombs by the knowlegde of this model. That is the proof.

 

Similarly if your model is working , if you could explain otherwise unexplained phenominon and do things otherwise not possible - say siddhis - if you are powerful as a result of this knowledge - then it is real. The fundamental difference between illusory knowlegde and real knowledge is that real knowledge works in reality- it has power- illusory knowledge doesnot - it has no power. This is the difference between madness and genious. A madman might hallucinate and delude that he can blast the earth by moving his finger, but actually he cannot do it. But a scientist or technologist can actualy blast the earth by moving one finger - by pushing a button.

 

If you have genune siddhis then it is likely your knowledge is no illusion. No madman has any siddhis - (a mad man is powerless and helpless). It is now just a matter of clearly conceiving and systematising it. For which you need to work, like a scientist.

 

I have had similor experiences and doubts like you. wWhich I resolved, through systematic regorous invistigation. I can perhaps help you to desolve your doubts. Please do feel fgree to discuss.

 

Regards,

K.Ravindran