Picture: foreground: Mother and Papa in the Bhajan Hall–1957
Loon Lake Retreat has turned into a lovely bi-annual time to focus more deeply on a particular aspect of sadhana. This recent retreat was a meditation on Swami (Papa) Ramdas, a perfectly realized master who attained Sahaja Samadhi—sahaja meaning a natural state, no effort is required to maintain this level of awareness, and samadhi meaning ecstatic union with God. The aspirant for this union performs sadhana, intense spiritual practices that purify the body and mind and prepares it to be in oneness with the universal Spirit. Papa had performed this sadhana to perfection, and wrote about his experiences in a number of truly remarkable books, including In Quest of God and In the Vision of God.
We connect the thread of Papa’s life as it wove itself into the life of Mother Hamilton. In 1954 Mother had attained a high state of realization, Nirvikalpa Samadhi; union with God that is unwavering and the devotee has the ability to move in this world in a normal way, but that perfect union still comes and goes. Mother knew there was a higher state for her to attain, but her guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, had left the body in 1952. With ongoing intensity for God that was like someone who could not breathe and was desperate for air, she prayed to God that either He reveal Himself to her directly or send her someone who could help her in the final mile of realization. God replied to Mother, “I shall meet you face-to-face, that our joy may be full.”
While Swami Ramdas was on a world tour, Mother came to know that Papa was to be in Seattle from a fellow minister of Master’s, who asked Mother to accommodate Papa in whatever way she could while he was here. Upon meeting Papa, it was ecstasy at first sight. Later, when Papa said to Mother, “God has come to visit God,” Mother knew it was the fulfillment of what God had promised her months ago when He said I shall meet you face to face. Thus, God orchestrated a number of events that eventually took Mother to Anandashram, Papa’s abode of bliss.
During our retreat we saw Papa primarily through Mother’s experiences as she had written and spoken about. We took those events and meditated upon certain aspects of them—for instance Mother seeing an effulgence of Light emanating from Papa’s body that went out as far as her vision could see. We focused on that Light in meditation, attuning ourselves to that very same universal Light and making it our own. It was a blissful time spent together and working individually.
I am only sorry that all could not be there who would have liked to have been. However, even now, there are no limits to our joining together in meditating upon that Light of Papa, of Mother, and the universal Lord of creation; to merge into that Light and make it our own. We are completely free to yearn for God, even as Mother felt such a great desire for union with the God and Guru. God’s bliss lives in every particle of space and lives in you. Let us take the lead from Papa, from Mother and the great Ones who have gone before us and make us know that union with the Beloved is our rightful inheritance. He awaits us that we might turn to Him so that He can embrace us and make us His own. This is the message of Papa, of Mother and Master. Be it so!