In the previous, second chapter, I wrote about my experience of oneness with Brahma, which also led me to know all four his personalities. The realization of oneness with God always goes hand in hand with a commitment to service, because oneness is never given for free.

Hinduism encompasses even more aspects of the divine than this. Here, the experience of oneness with the Trimurti signifies the realization of Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. Each of these is such an extraordinarily complex divine aspect that no one can aspire to fully experience — that is, to achieve unity with—all of their personalities; yet even partial experience is perfectly sufficient, because thereafter the divine aspect grants the path of grace leading to it, and the nature of that realization determines the type of service. In other words, if someone has experienced unity with a subset of Shiva, they are also in unity with the whole, but while remaining within that specific subset, they will perform their service in that particular field.

Shiva

I did not begin my realization of Shiva recently; I have simply pieced together the mosaic in this lifetime. Countless yogis have revealed Shiva’s innumerable faces and personalities— I am familiar with these from my studies — but I wasn’t drawn to any of them on their own, so I did not know how to approach him. Shiva, as a whole, attracted me to an extraordinary degree, but he was incomprehensible to me. At this point, I must necessarily highlight the role of Mahavatar Babaji, who, as an incarnation of Shiva, made my task significantly easier — one might say he organized the realization of Shiva that suited me. This meant experiencing unity with Anantasesa, the Serpent King. He is the force of consciousness that regulates Shiva’s inner (kundalini) energy. Everyone who has ever worked with kundalini energy belongs to him, and he is responsible for the further development of these yogis’ consciousness. In addition, I was given the gift of insight into another aspect known to few: Sadasiva, Shiva’s hidden personality, who is responsible for the reabsorption into creation. This gift (siddhi) means that my assigned role extends to serving these two aspects. Over time, this service will lead to the realization of the given aspect — that is, immersion in oneness with it — provided that I succeed in maintaining a pure consciousness throughout the service.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Immersion in the aspects of God listed above is possible simultaneously only if one knows the Supreme, since each is an expansion of Him. Thus, service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead also leads to the realization of service to the sub-aspects. Vishnu is the absolute supreme aspect, but He Himself never enters creation in His full extent; He enters only in parts. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is an essential part of Vishnu. The Supreme Self is the collection of atmans; they emanate from Him and begin their process of self-realization within creation. He is identical with Krishna, but before that He had countless incarnations in various cultures under different names.

My connection with Krishna dates back to a previous life, but I had to repeat it in this one as well, which took place in Mathura (Krishna’s birthplace). Although I was extraordinarily drawn to Krishna, I still felt that the form of realization would be different for me—not the one presented, for example, by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). And indeed, Krishna Himself led me to the realization that I must serve Him in His Narayana form. Narayana is identical with Krishna and encompasses the entire creation in all its planes. The divine incarnation who is responsible for the entire Universal Christ Consciousness project, who initiated the process of grace so that the eighth Manu would begin his activities earlier than Brahma had originally planned—and who revealed Himself to me as EYA — is the incarnation of Narayana. In Sanskrit, the name Narayana means “the eye that guides and leads to the goal,” this is why He is often symbolized by an eye (the eye of God). Thus, it was not Brahma, who is responsible for creation, but the Supreme Person above him who intervened in the order of creation to bring about change and reverse the outflow of creation toward return.

Margaret Rhasoda Varga
guru of UCCM
Budapest, Hungary