A Spiritual Exercise for All Religions – Greg Scott
An unusual notice caught my eye one morning as I read the Washington D.C., newspaper. A spiritual path called Kriya Yoga was putting on a World Conference of Religions.
I clipped the ad and decided to attend. “This path is celebrating the oneness of all religions,” I told my wife. “It’ll be interesting to see how they perceive Spirit.”
I called the phone number on the ad to find out about registration fees. The little notice also said, “Speakers from all paths are invited to come and share the truth of their teachings.” I asked the gentleman who answered the telephone, “Is anyone from Eckankar on the program?”
“We called the nearby Eckankar Center several times,” he replied, “but no one responded.”
“Well, if I happen to be in the area — and I’m not sure yet — I’ll be happy to say a few words about Eckankar,” I offered. He took my name.
When Friday evening rolled around, I drove home for the weekend, a hundred-mile journey. My wife asked me, “Are you going to that conference in D.C. this weekend?”
It was nearly a two-hundred-mile round trip. I said, “No way!”
The next morning I awoke with a sure conviction; I had to be at that conference. (Some people receive gentle hints and nudges from Spirit. I felt as if I had been dislodged from my bed by the largest boot in the universe.)
I invited another ECKist to share the journey, and within a few hours we arrived at the conference. As we walked in the door, I told my friend I might be on the program. Sure enough, my name was listed as a speaker. I found the man who organized the event and said, “I just got here. It’s 3:30 in the afternoon — I’m sorry if I missed my speaking slot.”
He said, “No, you’re not going to be on until the evening session.”
“What time?”
“Between 4:30 and 8:00 p.m.”
“Can you be more specific than that? I asked.
“Oh, no,” he said, “you can speak when the guru calls you up.”
So we went out and ate. Over dinner, my friend and i commented on the guru’s broken English. “I hope I know when he’s calling me,” I joked. We’d also noticed that the guru tended to put each speaker down as he introduced them, explaining their religion so it seemed less than his own.
Just as we walked back into the conference, I heard the guru announce in perfect English: “And now we will have a presentation on the teachings of Eckankar, which were brought to the attention of modern man by the great ECK Master Sri Paul Twitchell.” That was all he said.
I got up on stage and leaned over to the guru. “How long do I have?”
Again the guru addressed the audience. “Greg Scott will tell all he knows about Eckankar in ten minutes.”
I said, “that’s fine and dandy.”
None of the previous speakers had talked about the Sound and Light of God, which is the inner voice that guides us as Soul. So I spoke about how to get practical guidance by listening to the various inner Sounds and watching for the inner Light during the Spiritual Exercises of Eckankar.
Just before I stepped down from the stage, the guru turned to me and said, “Well, now, will you explain just one more thing for the audience?”
“What is that?” I asked.
“Will you give them one simple Soul Travel technique?”
“Sure — here’s an easy one. Sit quietly and sing this little prayer-song for ten or fifteen minutes: ‘HU-U-U (pronounced like the man’s name Hugh) …Mahanta (mah-HON-tah).’ Sing it softly in a drawn-out breath. Then look gently into the Third Eye between the eye-brows. Watch for an inner Light. It may be a general glow or little blue sparks. It could even look like a beam of light from an open window.” The audience chanted HU.
“Next listen for the Sound,” I continued softly. “The Music of God can sound like anything from an electrical hum to the piercing, single note of a flute. Or it may come as the voice of your spiritual guide, the Inner Master.
“Spiritual freedom comes when all limits of body, mind, and spirit are dissolved by this Light and Sound of God. Try this exercise each night — you should have results.” I left the stage.
The old guru smiled as if that were the only reason he had come.
From Earth to God, Come In Please… Copyright © 2006 Eckankar
