My final term of college, last December, wasn’t made of all the confetti and happy-dancing I’d always imagined would accompany the end of my waitress/student days. Rather, I was overwhelmed by my options, and terrified I’d fall into some typical societal routine without ever experiencing all the amazing sorts of things I always saw myself doing when I daydreamed my way through four years of blah, blah, etc.
Solution: sell my car, clothes, furniture, old makeup, and anything else someone could reasonably want to buy (thank you, craigslist), and purchase a plane ticket to India for three-and-a-half months.
Fast forward to April, and here I am at home again. I returned from my life as a temporary gypsy two weeks ago, and couldn‘t be more thrilled with the things I learned. India is made of magic, and I feel infused with the beauty of all sorts of lovely things I experienced there. Don’t get me wrong, though: I wasn’t always this optimistic.
Before heading off on my adventure, I was somewhere between an Atheist and an Agnostic. Put a Bible in front of me, my first reaction would’ve been an exaggerated eye roll. If you’d stuck me in a church, one eyebrow would’ve been permanently raised, along with the smirking half of my mouth. I am a stubborn girl. I don’t change my mind about things without good reason.
Experience has since cracked open my inflexible outer shell, and if you’ll allow me, I’d like to share a secret: God is alive and well in India. Maybe not our Western idea of God as judge and jury and terrifying lover of all, but in a Miracles-Are-All-Around sort of way. I can’t explain the spiritual changes I underwent, the people who caused them, or the overwhelming beauty of India’s faithful, nor would I want to try. Words couldn’t do any of those things justice, and if you really want to know about this stuff, go back up to the second paragraph of this article and follow suit.
There are many things that are making it difficult for me to assimilate back into my own society. Laundry, for example. It’s so easy here. In India, I had to fill up a bucket with water, drag it up the stairs to the roof of my guesthouse, scrub and beat my increasingly fragile underwear against the concrete…here, all we’ve got to do is press a button. One button, and a machine I’ve never done a single favor for washes my clothing.
An even more difficult thing to adjust to, though, is the absence of God. I could look around in India and see God’s beauty on full display. Here, I see Macaroni Grill, Interstate 5, and people who don’t speak to each other in elevators. Maybe my eyes just need to focus in on how God lives in America, but I’m seeing a lot of stuff that would fall into the selfish-non-miracle-human-behavior category.
Finally getting around to unpacking my bags, I smiled as I pulled forth a book I’d read in India - Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, a spiritual humanitarian who spent his life building a bridge between East and West, bringing specific meditation methods for the purpose of creating understanding and goodwill for what can beautifully be referred to as ‘our global family’. What a guy, right?
Later, after a sunny day spent lying in the grass in our beautiful Northwest, I thought to myself, ‘maybe God could live here’. Sun-kissed and sleepy, I returned to my apartment and visited my good friend Google. I searched for Paramahansa Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship, and was over-the-top excited to realize the existence of a Portland branch.
To give a general idea of the goal of Self- Realization Fellowship, I’ll use some information straight off their website: Through its worldwide service and teachings Self-Realization Fellowship seeks to awaken a greater understanding of the harmony underlying all true religions and awaken a fuller expression of love that unites all people when they realize their oneness with God.
Frankly, understanding the harmony underlying faiths of all kinds seems like something that should be met with a sentence like, “Wow. That’s really big of you.” In addition, love uniting all people? We (we being anything from me and my friends to Americans to World Citizens) could definitely use a bunch of that.
I made a date with myself to attend the 10am Meditation Service followed by the 11am Inspirational Service, and
I was not disappointed. I’ve been to a lot of different types of churches in my day, (don’t even get me started on the woman who made my first Catholic experience my last) and I have never seen a religious service as sensible and pure and worth going to as this one. To close the service, we combined our positive meditative energies to pray for the good of the world, and I am all about supporting that. Really, how could you not be into that, unless you’re a devout masochist?
I could describe the service in more detail, but I’d rather you just go check it out for yourself. Before you go, I strongly recommend reading Autobiography of a Yogi, to acquaint yourself with the ideas and teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda.
Everyone receives spirituality differently, so I don’t dare to go into what you might expect from a visit to the Self-Realization Fellowship, but I can tell you that I felt really clean, I guess, after going there. I felt wiped free of any arbitrary negativity that might have been tagging along with me in my mind. I felt pure, in the way that meditating and praying for the benefit of others ends up making you feel. I felt hopeful, and optimistic, and I felt like, by just being really nice to people, I could make a huge difference in the world.
What I’m saying is this: Go to India, because it will make you a better person. You can’t escape the magic; it will circle all around you like the best dance partner you’ve ever had. However, if you’re not in a place to do that right now, check out Paramahansa Yogananda. Read the book. If you’re into it, make a Sunday trip over to the Self-Realization Fellowship.
Don’t even pretend you don’t have time; we have button-press laundry, for goodness sakes.
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The Portland Center for Self-Realization Fellowship is located at 356 NE 80th Avenue in Portland. More information, including a schedule of services, is available online at www.srfportlandcenter.org.
