You connect with your universal identity by using your mind in a different way.
When you are functioning on the normal wakeful state, you simply follow the course of your daily thoughts and emotions.
When you meditate, you bring your mind to another type of activity: it is a form of inner trance that you establish.
You literally set yourself on a certain wave length and by doing that, connect with a totally different energy reality.
Call it a form of telepathic universal touch.
Telepathy is usually understood as the art of reading, listening to or communicating with someone else's mind.
Now, imagine that there are mind realities which are not incarnated in a human being form.
For instance, you can be in nature and feel a deep sense of union with the beauty which is surrounding you.
This sense of union or bliss is a connection.
It is as if your mind merges with what surrounds you.
You can as well take a trip to the Himalayas and tune into the ancient ways of the yogis.
Part of what you will discover is related with what you see and another part is related with what you feel or what your intuition is telling you.
You get feelings which could be the reflection of the "memory" of what happened in these mountains.
In other terms, you are tuning into the spirit of a tradition. This is why you might go all the way to the Himalayas to experience this profound connection.
Now, you never met Babaji physically, but you can still tune into his mind or energy reality.
This is what meditation is about: you establish a bridge or a link with another mind reality.
You have a radio. When it is off, you hear nothing.
Still, you are surrounded by radio waves.
Can you see them?
No.
Do you hear anything?
Not either.
You need to actually switch on the radio and tune it to a certain wave length to hear something.
It is like having a satellite in the sky and tuning your satellite dish in the right direction to pick up a signal.
Meditation works in the same way.
You were born with meditative abilities.
Everyone has them.
Your meditation skills can be something you never used.
The ability to use your mind in such way is still present in you.
You wake up your meditation skills by using them.
When you meditate, you wake up your universal identity.
You get closer to a part of you which is not limited by your personality.
You connect with a part of you which goes beyond the usual borders of your consciousness.
Your mind is a territory.
Your individual identity defines this territory.
Part of what you need to function as a human being is an individual identity.
You can use the words like "I", "me" or "mine".
You see a difference between you and what surrounds you. Your life territory has a very specific shape:
Your mind
Thoughts
Emotions
House
Education
Character
Etc.
All these are part of what you call: "Me"
This is your personal identity.
Now, when you connect with your next level of awareness, you get in touch with your universal identity.
Your sense of "Iamness" is replaced by a deeper and universal sensation.
You see yourself in a sea of consciousness and awareness which surrounds the planet.
You see yourself merging with a universal field of life force.
You see yourself a as particle within the vaster unified human mind.
After a while, you realize that you live with both sensations and awareness merging in you. You are both personified and universal.
This awakening of your universal identity is one of the key effects and goals of meditation.
It might be your first step on your spiritual growth.
The only thing that could stop you from seeing that is the fact that you have targets or distant future goals.
When you do, this stops you from being in the instant and enjoying the very present moment.
Sure, goals are useful but a skill which is even more useful than that is realizing the perfection of the instant.
Now, most people will realize this perfection in a second and than set up again in the course of achieving distant goals.
This is where you can miss the point because you don't need to shift that.
You don't need to be like a horse always running forward.
This is like a survival instinct or conquering force you can tame.
You don't need to be the slave of that force.
You can relax, step back and take life for what it is:
Impermanence!
After every single goal you achieve there is always a target after that.
Y es!
Pursuing new targets is exciting and creates a stream of powerful manifestation force in your being, but the moment you get enslaved by that instinct, that's when you miss the point and the real target for your life.
You need to look at life from the perspective that everything that could be achieved and done has already been done.
From that point of view, existence takes a very different colour.
It gives you the power to relax, stand still, be at peace and enjoy every single second for what it is.
Remember that within 100 years, most of what you tried to create in your life will be gone!
All that will remain is the memory of a certain experience in your own spirit which is eternal.
This is where you find this dimension of permanency and eternity.
If you stay focused on that level, you look at life like a game.
Yes!
It is a game!
This resets existence from a perspective which makes it totally real.
The usual goals are shifted and become something insignificant in the eyes of this larger scale.
The emotions and quest you go through when you engage into life from the level of physical creation are all alienating for you.
You end up trapped in a scenario where you can not win.
So, what is the answer?
What does freedom mean?
It means to shift perspective and put back what matters most in the center of your existence.
Yes!
It is that simple.
The quests and conquests are all games you play if you want to, because it is fun and gives you an energy kick, but look at it from another perspective and observe what happens when you take some distance.
The total urgency, stress and life pressure are all gone.
What remains is peace and silence.
It is in that dimension of silence that a whole new reality takes place.
This is another area where Mataji will offer you a path.
You noticed that the area of the physical senses has often been an area of internal conflict for those engaging into Yoga and spiritual practices in general.
There is a common belief that to succeed with your spiritual aspirations, you need to suppress desires and emotions.
This created a duality always and while many succeeded in putting a lid on their emotions, many more ended up trapped in an inner conflict.
At the end, many of these spiritual seekers ended up spending all their energy fighting with themselves rather than focusing on their practices.
The temptations were so distracting that many even gave up the path because of that.
This is another area where Mataji's energy will sponsor your development along that line without needing to go into suppressive states.
You want to feel united. You want to know that you can embrace a ll aspects of your being with delight without feeling guilt or shame.
The pathways of Tantra and Yoga seem to run in parallel.
They no longer need to be divided.
Any way of defining both always hits some form of limitation: it is never complete, no matter what you say about one or the other.
So, rather than saying what yoga and tantra are or are not (you probably have your own definitions or perceptions anyway, right? :)) let's see them as two spirits. Two sources of inspiration which are both separate and interlinked as well.
They are two systems that work together and in parallel.
Sometimes, you will feel that a practice leans slightly more towards Yoga.
Another time you will feel like it is Tantric.
Now, I do believe that with Babaji and Mataji side by side, these two streams get united within one unified field of energy.
It unites!
It removes differences and creates a flow of inspiration everyone can embrace.
What is T antra?
Well, here is my own definition of it: unity through exchange of life force.
Yoga and Tantra can be seen as two sets of pathways taking you to the same place.
When you connect with Mataji, you realize that what you call Yoga can include lots of lines of energy and actions which are usually not considered as Yoga.
To tell you the truth, if the word Yoga itself does not resonate in you, you can call it tantra or anything else you want.
The spirit is formless.
We give it names and by doing so, we tend as well to reduce it to something we can comprehend.
Imagine Mataji's spirit as formless and limitless.
See it as an energy field rather than a physical person.
See this energy field as a vehicle which translates absolute energy into streams which are closer to the form.
The reason Mataji can help you is because there is a mind dimension to her being.
The guidance can feel more directive and closer to you to a certain extent.
In your spiritual evolution, you are often looking for a path or a system which shows you how to manife st what you feel.
At the same time, you don't want to limit yourself within a structure which is limiting or too rigid.
This is exactly where Mataji can help you.
Especially if you searched along the traditional lines of expression and could not really connect with them.
Her force frees your mind and gives you space to be yourself.
She sponsors and empowers your being without reducing it.
You stay in charge and simply feel her energy watching over your actions and offering you clear guidance when needed.
She will as well stimulate your inspiration and imagination if you don't know where to start.
Of course we talk about the heart chakra, compassion, unity, etc.
All these qualities are part of the love experience and if you feel that love is not part of your life, Mataji offers you a path to open these channels in you.
