October 27th, 2017 – feel free to share and spread awareness that people don’t need to pay for self knowledge

In the beginning of 2017 I started my spiritual journey with little foundation. And living in middle America doesn’t help with the fact that there is very little masters, guru and yogi around. You can’t just walk into a coffee shop in the suburb and expect to meet a guru, who is experienced and knowledgeable in eastern spiritual uplifts. Moreover you can’t go over and asked them to be your guru, remember the U.S is a capitalist country. It means people charge for water and the air you breathe. Mostly the air you put in your tires when it goes flat.

In my search, I was kicked out of a spiritual seminar because I could not afford $325 dollar to enroll in the Inner Engineering spiritual package, supposedly taught by a learned teacher who went to Isha Foundation. Under the guidance of Shuduguru. It was not that, I wasn’t willing to give homage to this spiritual insights. My decision was weighed by the many circumstances in my life. It was a Thursday night, people whom are like me in the United States lives pay-check to paycheck. Most of us own student loans up the rack. Who lives in a family of four with young children to support and taxes to pay. The nice lady asked again, “manh, the registration is 325 dollar if you want to continue with the seminar.” Humm,.. tomorrow, was going to be Friday and the first month of Fridays was bill day in my household. Contemplating and calculating all the numbers of my bills pinned on my bulletin board at home. I politely asked if I can leave my info and left quietly.

As I was driving home, through the entire drive I was filled with sadness. It felt like a water-falls of tears inside my heart, flowing with the weight of disappointment. I remember literally saying to myself, I paid for my schooling. I paid for my dreams, I paid my healthcare providers and now I have to pay to find my soul and myself. Soon I will need spiritual insurances.

I was thinking to myself, what was I doing? And thinking about the people who were there. The circumstance in their life that had lead them there to believe that it was okay to charge people for what God gives freely. It reminded me of a quote I once read, “ What God gives to men is free, what men takes and sell to another man, will be a fee.” With this realization, my mind went back to replay the scene when I had arrived at the hotel. The volunteer asked for my name and pulled out a three pages list filled with names. I was stunned, did not expect that. In that moment I gasp, and thought to myself, “Oh, so this is how heaven’s list of names looks like.” Apparently my name was not! on the list because I was told during the first break, that I had to click on a link on “meet-up,” when I’d RSVP for the meeting and pay for a registration fees in-order to get my name on heaven’s list. Meetup is a website people go to host public meetings. Most arrangements are free and held at public places like well known restaurants and libraries.

Such sadness was how people capitalize GODS from humanity. In that moment I thought about a phrase a colleague once said,”I was thrown from heaven’s door, came upon Hell but Hell did not accept me. So I walked the ground of this earth in endarkenment.” such poetry was the expression of his life. That resonated all too well with me. Was this my experience of such expression, it may have been so.