SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

The Golden Age begins with each of us - it begins within each of us. There is a sure, definite path which we can follow to realize the totality of our potential - the path of Spiritual Awakening. It is at once man's oldest and his newest preoccupation. We need only look at recent medical research in life-after-death experiences, and studies in the New Physics, to realize that science itself is now confirming the insights of the ancient prophets and mystics. The language and symbols may change as time passes, or as we move from one culture to another, but the underlying truth is the same. The talks collected here fall into three parts. Part I, "Eternal Science," deals with the fundamentals of spirituality. Part II, "Crucible," examines the daily discipline necessary for success on the spiritual path. Part III, "Alchemy of Love," considers love as that alchemy which alone transforms the human into the divine. Finally, Part IV comprises questions and answers which explore related issues. If some of the chapter titles appear to be unusual for a collection on mysticism and spirituality, there is an unusual explanation. I made my first tour of America during the summer of 1978. A two-month program of lectures was planned, but much to the dismay of those traveling with me, the suitcase filled with all my notes, articles, and manuscripts - the material for my lectures - was lost by the airlines! With talks scheduled for almost every night, what was to be done? As I then remarked, "The choice is to turn and flee, or to plunge headlong into the program." Relying on the grace of the great Masters, Hazur Baba Sawan Singh and Sant Kirpal Singh, I decided to take the plunge. According to an old tradition in India, parents are honor-bound to preserve the purity of their daughter up to the time they give her away in marriage. So I prayed to the Masters to preserve their own honor, and they came to my rescue. Because of these circumstances, the themes of the talks often suggested themselves by the accidents of the moment. On one occasion, as I walked to a hotel lecture-hall a marriage party was in progress, and the result was "Eternal Spouse". On another, the hotel's air-conditioning failed, and the guests squirmed in discomfort. This mechanical breakdown became my point of departure for "Air-conditioning". This collection of talks also includes several delivered in India, and these too follow a similar pattern of development. After particularly heavy rains, floods destroyed much property and tragically took the lives of many people in Delhi. Witnessing the extent of this disaster on the way to deliver a weekly discourse, I spoke of the "Boat of Naam". I am indebted to Vinod Sena, Ruth Seader, and Jay and Ricki Linksman for preparing this volume for publication. Some of the chapters contained herein have previously appeared in periodicals, and I am grateful to Malcolm and Kate Tillis for reviewing those chapters. Thanks are also due to those who assisted in transcribing, typing, typesetting, paste-up, or proofreading. They are Jamie and Martha Smith, John and Isabel Wolf, George Barham, Ron and Valerie Tarrant, Sandy Glassman, Dale and Marsha McCurley, Alex Vafiadis, John Servidio, Jonathan and Douglas Kruger, Chris and Katie McCluney, Jane Disinger, Georg Koester, Meena Kumari, Joanne Wiemeyer, Mary Paton, Eliot Rosen, Ed Wallace, Julius Burt, Bruce Dodd, and Sham and Sunaina Bhatia. - Darshan Singh