Inner Guidance (20 page)

See them?”

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My panic melted away. I saw only the sheer curtains that covered the bedroom windows. The blinds were open; the room was illumined by a nearby streetlight.

There were definitely no men standing at the foot of my bed. I assumed that my daughter had been dreaming.

“No, I don’t see anyone, Honey. Are you sure you see them?”

“Yes, Mommy, there are three of them. They are Masters.”

While I was shocked to hear her tell me that she saw Masters, I was eager to hear about whatever she thought she was seeing.

“Why would you say they are Masters, Sarah?”

“Because, Mommy, they are all in light.”

This amazed me. I wanted to understand more. “Tell me what you see. Describe them to me, Honey.”

“Look, Mommy, you can see them! They are so clear.

There are three of them, and they are here to see you.”

“Here to see me? Sarah, I’m sorry, but I don’t see them. Please tell me what they look like.”

“One has his picture on the book you’re reading,”

she explained. That would be Paul Twitchell, I thought.

I had shown her his picture. To my mind, Sarah’s mention of Paul Twitchell invalidated her story. She had been told he was an ECK Master, so naturally she could be imagining him.

“OK, Honey, that’s nice,” I said. “But let’s go back to sleep.”

A
s I made my way more deeply into an understanding of Eckankar, the question of the reality of the ECK Masters continued to arouse wonder in my mind.

I had asked for more guidance on this subject. I tried to be open; I tried to listen. Yet, this was the hardest Inner Guidance_CH 16-21.p65

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Opens a Door to Spiritual Worlds

part of Eckankar for me to understand and accept.

Who are they? I questioned. Were they truly real?

How do they come to be in their position of Mastership?

These were my queries, and I asked inwardly for deeper guidance and insights into this matter.

I was about to discover a new dimension of guidance—about to see that my sincere questions to the Inner Master were opening me to a new level of spiritual awareness.

“

M
ommy, they are here to see you!” Sarah protested. “Please try to see them.”

Because of her plaintive sincerity, I decided to pay more attention. “OK, Sarah, tell me about the other two.”

“One has dark hair,” my daughter chattered happily.

“And the other is the most light of all.”

“Light? Well, tell me about him, please.”

She spoke hurriedly. “He is the most light of all! He is made all out of light, and he has a big stick made of light, and it is so big it goes right through the ceiling and out of the house!”

My pulse quickened. I remembered the date, October 22, 1981. It was the ECK Spiritual New Year, the time when that mystery of all mysteries might occur—

the appointment of a new Living ECK Master in the inner and outer worlds of God.

I certainly did not understand how a new Living ECK Master is selected. It also sounded so extraordinary. Yet, much of what I had experienced in Eckankar was far from the ordinary and quite impressive, so I held an open mind.

Could Sarah be describing the spiritual Rod of ECK

Power that is held by the Living ECK Master? If she were talking about
that
“stick,” then this person might Inner Guidance_CH 16-21.p65

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be a new Living ECK Master, and the Rod of ECK Power might have been transferred to him this very night.

Could that possibly be? And why might a new Living ECK Master be appearing in our bedroom at midnight?

“Tell me more about him, Sarah,” I encouraged her.

“He’s wearing a really big coat, and it’s made out of light too, and it is so beautiful it makes me want to cry.”

“Are they all wearing coats of light?” I asked.

I understood that through the mouth of a babe, I might be learning about one of the most auspicious occasions in all the worlds of God. I had asked for guidance and answers, and the response was more profound than I thought possible.

“No, only he’s wearing one. But it is not really a coat; it’s made out of light and has big swirls of light in it, and I like looking at it. It’s so pretty.”

Was she seeing the Living ECK Master with the mantle that is worn only by the Mahanta? I was astounded even at the possibility. “Tell me more about him, Sarah.”

“He has brown hair and looks young and modern, Mommy.”

“Modern?” I asked. “What do you mean by modern?”

“He’s wearing glasses.”

“Glasses!” My hopes were dashed. In my mind, the glasses proved that this was some sort of dream. I tried to gently explain to Sarah: “If he were an ECK Master, Sweetie, he would
not
wear glasses. He would get his eyes fixed or something!”

Sarah never took her attention off the foot of the bed. She jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow and loudly whispered, “Mommy, they can hear you!”

I laughed. She did not want me to offend them.

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Sarah once again garnered my total attention, and I decided it wouldn’t hurt to listen. “OK, sorry. Tell me all about the young and modern one.”

“He is here to see you. He is trying to talk to you, Mommy.”

Trying to talk to me? I had asked for guidance! Was this an ECK Master, in an ethereal or supraphysical body, truly trying to speak to me? Were Masters here to guide me to a new level of awareness and understanding?

I tried to fine-tune my inner and outer vision to see if I could become more aware of anything or anyone in the room. I felt as if I were squinting inwardly for a sign of anything—a flicker, or even a glimpse of what my daughter was seeing.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Honey, but please let him know that I can’t see or hear him. I am trying,” I admitted.

I strained to see but was unable to catch even the faint-est flicker of anything.

“He has brown hair,” Sarah went on. I slumped down in my bed, wearily. “I’m sorry I can’t see or hear anything, Sarah, but you sit and talk with them while I go back to sleep, and you can tell me about it in the morning.”

“Mom-m-m-my,” Sarah whined, begging me to pay attention and to try harder.

“Sorry, Honey, I can’t do it,” I mumbled, as I crumpled back into my bedding.

I
n the spiritual works of Eckankar, it’s written there is an unbroken line of spiritual Masters called the Ancient Order of the Vairagi. The word
vairag
implies nonattachment to all things, allowing all Souls unfet-tered freedom of thought, word, and action. It also sig-Inner Guidance_CH 16-21.p65

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nifies an attitude of service to all life. It is said that the head of this ancient order is chosen by God. He is the Living ECK Master and may also be the Mahanta, the greatest spiritual guide, able to work with people inwardly—in dreams, by Soul Travel, or by direct inner contact. I had been made aware of some aspects of this presence and guidance in my life already.

I had read that in Eckankar we don’t have to take things on faith; we may start there, but soon faith can be replaced by personal experience and awareness. So, in those early days of membership in Eckankar, I had made another request inwardly: If the Mahanta and the Vairagi ECK Masters are helping me and working with me inwardly, I would personally like to know more about them.

M
y telephone rang just before dawn. Sarah had awakened me at midnight, so I was still half asleep when I groggily reached for the phone. Who would be calling at this hour?

“Anne, wake up. There’s a new Living ECK Master!”

It was my friend Maxine, calling from the World Wide of ECK Seminar that was happening on the West Coast that very weekend.

“What!” I yelled. “Does he look kind of young and have brown hair? And does he look
modern
and wear glasses?!”

“Why, yes, that’s a reasonable description. Do you know him?” she asked.

Moaning loudly, I explained, “I don’t know him personally, but I believe he was here last night and I totally ignored him.”

“You saw him?”

“No,” I continued, “Sarah saw him plainly, along Inner Guidance_CH 16-21.p65

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with two other ECK Masters, in our bedroom last night.

She said they were here to meet me, but I couldn’t see them or hear anything. The new Living ECK Master was here, and I ignored him!”

“Goodness, Anne, how do you know who it was?”

Explaining what happened, I told her what Sarah had described: the big stick made out of light and the coat. My friend was in awe, as I now was.

I had read that ECK Masters can be in many places at once, that they can Soul Travel in a Light body, fully present and aware. It amazed me to think that they had visited my humble abode on the auspicious spiritual occasion of the ECK Spiritual New Year.

They were there to see me. Was it because I had asked? Because I wanted greater guidance to understand their reality? Well, they had my attention now!

If a child saw them, they knew I would accept their reality. It was both my daughter’s experience and my own, despite my inability to see and hear what Sarah experienced. I now knew these Masters were authentic.

They had been here, and their visit probably meant more to my life than I could yet understand. But of this I was confident: the ECK Masters are real; the Mahanta is real. Yesterday’s doubts had vanished and were never to return.

By now, I was beginning to understand and realize that there are eye-opening experiences available to us all—experiences that are so far beyond anything we have previously conceived that they might be shocking to many. The effect this particular experience had on me was one of greater commitment. I was determined to be more vigilant in my spiritual efforts.

Inner guidance, I realized, can be more than warnings, prophecies, and directions for living a more fulfilling life; it can also be spiritual experience that leads to Inner Guidance_CH 16-21.p65

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greater awareness of truth.

Delighted, I sensed inwardly that the Mahanta, my inner guide, was nodding in accord with my renewed spiritual understanding and desire.

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I Knew You Wore Glasses:

Inner Guidance and

Further Confirmation

The path of ECK is the path of experience. We
start out with faith, we start out with belief, but
after a time our faith and belief are replaced by
actual experience so that we know.

—Harold Klemp

Journey of Soul
27

he visit of the new Living ECK Master and

other members of the Ancient Order of the

T
Vairagi in their spiritual bodies erased all conscious doubt about the reality of these spiritual teachers. Yet when I heard that there was a major Eckankar seminar scheduled in Chicago the following spring, inwardly I knew I had to attend.

I sensed that at this seminar there would be even more for me to learn—further confirmation of the spiritual truths I was discovering. Following this guidance, I made plans to be there with my daughter.

The new Living ECK Master would be speaking, and I was eager to see this spiritual leader with whom 173

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I had already been having inner experiences. During the drive to the Windy City, Sarah began singing a little song, one she had made up months earlier: “He is the Master. He was he.” That’s what it sounded like. Other little lines were occasionally added, but it always returned to the same chorus: “He is the Master. He was he.” It sounded like a typically nonsensical song made up by a child.

But nothing in our life is there by accident; it is all connected. When we hear the spoken word, and it stands out starkly to us and catches our attention on a spiritual level, it is Golden-tongued Wisdom, a form of inner guidance. This little song, though simple, was definitely catching my attention. Was the Master trying to tell me something? Despite its monotony, I grew to like the little tune even though I didn’t understand its meaning.

During the seminar, when it was time for the dinner break on Saturday, I went to the children’s room to collect Sarah. As I entered the room, I heard an exclamation from one of the other adults: “Oh look, it’s Sarah’s mother!”

I found myself surrounded by adults who were all talking at once. One woman asked, “You personally know the new Living ECK Master, don’t you?”

Puzzled, I responded, “Actually, no, I don’t know him at all.”

Another woman offered a detailed account of what was causing the confusion. “Sri Harold, the Living ECK

Master, came to visit the children’s room. None of us knew he was coming. But all of a sudden, Sarah stood up from the children’s circle and ran to the door. Before any of us could catch her, the door opened, Sri Harold stepped through, and she leaped into his arms. She was hugging his neck and shrieking with delight, ‘I knew you wore glasses! I knew you did!’

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Inner Guidance and Further Confirmation

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