An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

Living
Prayer
. I had already been taught the technique of 
Sanyama
as described 
in Patanjali’s 
Yoga Sutras
. It is a most delicate process that requires 
deep inner silence. Patanjali lists various concepts and objects and tells 
you what will happen if you perform 
sanyama
on them: for example, 
if you perform 
sanyama
on the Pole Star, you will cognize the structure 
of the universe. (A simplistic analogy would be that the sutra or con-
cept is like a computer program, and 
sanyama
is the process of insert-
ing it into the Cosmic Mind – and, as when you run a program, 
something happens – you get a result.)

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Religious and Spiritual Experience
66
So I performed 
sanyama 
on the Jesus Prayer. Instantly, my aware-
ness was filled with a vision of a rose against a dark background. The 
rose was perpetually burning – but was never consumed. I remained 
rapt for I don’t know how long.
When I re-emerged, deeply moved, into ‘normal’, waking state 
consciousness, the mind resumed its customary analytical interpretation: 
yes, the rose is a universal symbol in the west (the eastern version is the 
lotus); yes, I was reminded of the Cosmic Rose described by Dante at the 
end of 
Il Paradiso
; yes, there was the burning bush in the Bible. 
I suppose the vision could be seen as a symbol of Divine Love – forever 
burning but never consumed or exhausted. I concluded that I had been 
privileged to experience a Platonic Form. I had put in the program and 
the Universal Computer had responded. 
57
Various religions include meditation as part of their practice, a good 
experience for members of different traditions to share. Here is the expe-
rience of a Christian among the Brahma Kumaris,
We were in Mount Abu in India at the H.Q. of the Brahma Kumaris. 
We were about 50 people all meditating with a leader and encouraged 
to do this with our eyes open. I was very deep in meditation when all 
around me the bodies of the others seemed to disappear and all I could 
see was a wonderful light around each person which would, I suppose, 
be their aura. I kept opening and shutting my eyes to make sure I was 
not dreaming. Afterwards I described this to the senior Dadi who smiled 
and said I had been blessed but should never try and seek such an expe-
rience again. I felt I had been made aware of another dimension to life 
which was very powerful and outside normal consciousness. (005443)