The Vision

When a student sincerely takes one step towards God, the Guru will rush 1000 more to meet him. Bhai Gurdas

It was a typical summer day in New York City. Everything was in its place.

The August humidity soaked my shirt with sweat as I trudged along the Upper West Side on my way to visit a friend. Reaching his 118th Street apartment beyond Columbia’s back gates, I stopped in the lobby waiting for the rickety elevator to take me to #63, caught my breath, and reflected for a minute.

Royall was moving on with his life. He almost had his doctorate and his path to academia was clear before him. And I, the young graduate was taking over his apartment. A step up for both of us. But my path was far less clear. Or was it?

We were sitting on the floor, Japanese style, across a low round table as we often did, chatting over a cup of tea. I don’t remember what we were talking about or that there was anything remarkable about that point in the conversation, but then I blinked. And in that split-second, a tall, bearded figure stood before me.

I was face to face with the One who had been speaking to me all my life. A diamond-like light radiated from His head and His eyes literally held the universe. He held up his hand and said, “Don’t be afraid.” It is startling to say the least when someone invades your consciousness.

I was in another dimension, with a Spiritual Being standing as clearly before me as my friend had been before I had been whisked away. Any initial surprise just melted away. He drew me out through his eyes and toured me around the universe. The space within me expanded to regions previously totally unknown and unexplored. I felt like a baby wrapped in a blanket of light, held up to play with the heavens.

He made me feel like He possessed all the wisdom that I could possibly want to attain and as a role model was everything I could ever aspire to be. He brought me back, showed me something like an atom, and said, “Meditate on this”, then left.

I opened my eyes to be greeted by my friend in our familiar surroundings, having no concept of how long I had been gone or where indeed I had been.

I was totally at a loss for words. One second, we were absorbed in conversation, the next I was somewhere else. I truly didn’t know what to say, as I myself had no idea what had just happened. So, I thanked Royall for the tea and left.

I made a rough sketch of the Being in my diary then spent the next month trying to find someone who could explain this vision to me, to see whether it fit some sort of archetype, but to no avail.

While anyone I consulted marveled at the experience, they could only suggest that it was very much mine alone and pointed to my personal quest.

I began to see the world differently. I remember noting what
became a favorite phrase, “there is no such thing as coincidence.”

Random events started to take shape and the puzzle that had been my life started fitting together. All I knew was that my course had been set and each day was bringing me closer to leaving everything that I had known all my life for my journey into the unknown. Yet each day I felt more comfortable and confident that what lay ahead was more secure than the life I had been given so far. So the thought of giving up a life of relative comfort never even entered my thoughts. Besides, I figured that if I took the time and money allotted for graduate school and spent it in ‘practical research’, I perhaps could glean something of benefit for both myself and America.

I badly needed and wanted a discipline, one that would bring me and keep me close to Truth and give me the power to maintain my integrity in the midst of this corrupt world. Further, I wanted to find models of how to rebuild a sense of community in a society that had broken down all the basic social institutions, and divided and politicized itself so no common sense of social responsibility remained and no common standard was visible.

I loved children, and I had taught at summer camps. I knew I could teach. But before I returned I wanted to learn for myself and learn to be a teacher of men. I had to be able to face the responsibility that society demanded. And I was not ready at all. I also knew that unless I could find something I loved enough that I was willing to die for, life had little meaning.

From “A Path to Follow, a Life to Lead,” by Ralph Singh, Sterling Publishers