Guided to Go to India – How Guidance Works

Anandamayi Ma

Guidance takes us out of the box

One day, while actually hosting a retreat myself, my mind opened up to an experience–a lady, Anandamayi Ma, was standing in front of me, with lots and lots of yogis or swamis behind her. I could see clearly only her. The rest of them I could only see as silhouettes in orange robes. My heart was open. The experience was strong and compelling. My mind was lifted out of any doubt or questioning–I could feel the light. The lady said, “Come to India.” I knew it was given for both Ken and I. While being in the experience, this direction made sense and felt clear. I felt touched on a deeper level. I felt trust. 

The only purpose of guidance we receive from Jesus, Holy Spirit, is to expand our mind and lead us out of the limiting self-concept we have made for ourselves. This means that a guided step can challenge us because it pushes the boundaries of our self-concept. I never actually thought about going to India. Even though I always felt touched by the devotion that India has been symbolising for thousands of years, I somehow thought that you go to India seeking your path of spirituality. I know that A Course in Miracles is my practice and my path, therefore I didn’t need to go to India seeking something or someone. Yet, I clearly received a message, “Come to India.” It must be that I do not know what anything is for. 

“The concept of the self embraces all you look upon, and nothing is outside of this perception.” (ACIM, T-31.V.15:6-7)

“You will make many concepts of the self as learning goes along. Each one will show the changes in your own relationships, as your perception of yourself is changed. There will be some confusion every time there is a shift, but be you thankful that the learning of the world is loosening its grasp upon your mind. And be you sure and happy in the confidence that it will go at last, and leave your mind at peace.” (ACIM, T-31.V.16:1-4)

Guidance is leading us out of selfishness. It softens and loosens the hard edges of identification. Body, personality self, the sense of separateness, believing that we, as a person, have control – are rough, what seem to be the solid edges, that we identify with. This is also selfishness and our craving to take credit for everything and make everything about the personality self. Guidance loosens these rough edges and as we follow, we see the Spirit at work. As we learn to recognize the Spirit – the presence that encompasses everything, the edges of ego identification, separateness dissolve. The sense of “I” dissolves into a presence that is open, expansive and ever-expanding. 

Surrender

There is nothing to push and nobody to convince of anything. You can be humble and ask to be shown with a genuine desire to be directed and willingness to follow even if it challenges and makes the personality self uncomfortable.

Once I “came out” of this experience, I shared it with Ken. I felt quite awkward as the sense of light that the experience was accompanied with faded. Now I was feeling how out of the box the idea of going to India was. To my surprise Ken listened to me with openness and we prayed, “Okay, Jesus, we are willing to follow. Make it really obvious.”

• Later we realized that we received the first sign for India even before I received the guidance to go to India. (Jesus isn’t bound by the idea of time and uses guidance to unify our perception and undo the belief in time.) As we were on the bus on our way to the location where we were going to host this very retreat during which I received the guidance, we met a guy who was from India. As Ken and him engaged in a conversation, they discovered that he actually knew Ken’s uncle. (This kind of connection gets your attention, doesn’t it?) Towards the end of the conversation he said that we definitely needed to go to India.

• After we finished the retreat, we moved onto the next invitation. One day we were walking through the town with our new friends and decided to sit in a cafe. We walked in and spontaneously chose a table to sit at. I sat down and saw a badge on the floor next to my chair. I picked it up and looked at it. It had “India” written on it with a plane. We were amazed at the directness of this sign.

• During our almost 2-years of travelling together, India and Indian food never appeared on our path. Now, after we asked to be shown and guided clearly, people started to invite us to Indian restaurants. During one of these visits at one of these restaurants, our friend said that she went to India when she was 28 years old and it transformed her life. I am currently 28 years old and Ken knew that it was Jesus emphasizing the guidance in his mind.

• During this period, the presence of Anandamayi Ma was intensified in my mind. Sometimes intensity was almost unbearable. All I can describe it as is that it was an intense feeling of being called. One day I was sitting in the garden and I saw Anandamayi Ma in my mind again. She was standing in front of me. She looked at me and then walked away telling me to follow her. This very scene repeated in my mind over and over again. It was her telling me to go to India (and ultimately to go to God). Then I looked around, there were beautiful, small, white flowers on the grass and as I looked at them, I could feel Anandamayi Ma’s presence so strongly behind the grass and these flowers. These kind of experiences with her continued, until we were convinced that we were to go to India. After moving in the direction of India, the intensity of Anandamayi Ma’s presence disappeared from my experience.

Ken Being Open To Hear Guidance Through Me

Sometimes guidance comes through others. The more you practice following the guidance and observe your thoughts, the more you will see that the ego wants to take credit for and is possessive of even the guidance. It wants to use it to strengthen the personal sense of self. The ego says, “I as a person want to hear guidance!” However, Jesus wants to show us that everything is the mind and through receiving guidance from different “directions”, our perception merges. We can hear His Voice and His messages echoing in everything and through everyone. Only credit belongs to the Spirit.

I was very touched by the trust that it took for Ken to hear me out and be willing to follow, even though it felt quite effortless for him. He trusted that it wasn’t coming from my personal motivation or striving. The trust we give is a gift for us as well as for the other.

Visa

As soon as I “came out” of the experience of hearing,  “Come to India,” I thought, “We will see about that.” I meant a very practical aspect of going to India which was a visa. Sometimes it’s not easy for me to travel to certain countries because of the visa requirements and I went through some healing and miracles in this aspect of traveling already. So before entertaining any idea of going to India, I said to Ma, “Then you have to deal with visa requirements.” Then I checked the visa requirements and to my amazement I could apply for a visa for India online. We actually got our visas the day after we applied for them!

You Will be Told When – Don’t Delay!

Following is a very important aspect of guidance. Guidance is for NOW. The following is NOW because the miracle is NOW. If we delay following the guidance, the ego will bring up a lot of doubts and fears to the point that the step will feel pointless, crazy and even dangerous. 

I had a strong feeling that this guidance wasn’t for ANY time. It had to be followed as soon as possible. For us it meant September because until then we had retreats organised. And September was strongly in my mind. Even though at first I myself wasn’t confident about the timing, I still shared it with Ken. The more I shared, the more my certainty about the timing grew. It was for September and Ken felt it too.

As soon as we got clear that it was guided for us to go to India, we booked the flights. Oftentimes, we book the tickets without knowing logistics or how things will work out. But we know that if we follow what is given to us now, everything else will also be revealed. Guidance is as practical as it can get!

Guidance Can Come Even Before You Ask – Divine Providence!

We needed to pray on where to fly from, how much we could pay for the tickets and where to come back. As we shared all our thoughts, Ken realized that he was already told the city we needed to fly from, and it was the cheapest. Previous to this, we talked to our friends who have been to India and listened to everything that they were sharing with us carefully. We were really listening to what Jesus wanted us to hear – what He would emphasize in our mind. Our friend actually mentioned the same city to us that Ken heard before. Everything fell into place.

Guidance Is Practical, Direct & Precise

“His Voice will direct you very specifically. You will be told all you need to know.” (ACIM, T-1.I.4:2-3)

After booking our tickets, during one of the retreats, suddenly my heart opened with the idea of marriage. It seemed inspiring to me, which was very unusual. I never dreamed of getting married and I never thought I would. I just didn’t feel attracted to a symbol of marriage, and now, all of a sudden it felt inspiring. First my mind stopped on Ken and I felt hesitation thinking, “I am not sure if I would like to marry a person.” Then this feeling transformed into this deep, pure love for Ken, until it finally changed into the love for God. The idea of marriage became the symbol of a union with God. It felt so deeply loving, intimate and precious. Later I shared this experience with Ken but I don’t think we thought much about it. However, whenever I would think of having a ring, my heart would burst open. I wanted to have a ring, how unusual! I just let it be.

Later, when we went to a shop to get backpacks, guess what happened? We met a lovely lady at this shop. We told her that we were preparing for our journey to India and wanted to travel light. She had been to India and shared a lot of practical and helpful information. Towards the end she said that she would strongly recommend buying a ring for me, as apparently married couples are easily “accepted” in India and less “bothered.” I was SO impressed with Jesus. This explained why, all of a sudden, I felt so obsessed with having a ring lately. Wow! How practical, how precise! 

As we finally found a ring that would fit my quite a small sized finger, the lady said that it was a sign from God. This was the only ring that would fit my finger in the entire shop.

Guidance Isn’t Personal

After we bought the tickets and everything was set, a friend of ours from India came to our mind. We never met him in person or even spoken to, but he has been supporting and watching our journeys. After we reached out, we had a call. After each call we had, the call in my heart from Anandamayi Ma would intensify and I would even cry not knowing why. It felt very precious!

After our initial conversation with our friend, Anandamayi Ma started appearing to him as well through, for example, symbols of her photo at a location where she isn’t widely known. At the beginning, he was blocking this guidance thinking that what we received from Anandamayi Ma was only for us. But after receiving undeniable signs, it became clear that he was to meet us and visit Anandamayi Ma’s ashram together. This friend has “baptised” us into the Indian way, so to speak. 

Invitation to be Aware

Now I am actually finalising this blog from India. Miracles keep unfolding and I will be sharing with you about them as much as possible and given. In the meantime, I invite you to ask yourself: 

• What limitations are you putting on guidance? 

• Are there certain experiences you are refusing to go towards? 

• Is there anything you refuse to do or interpret as scary? 

Be aware of these! There is no need to fix them. But we need to be honest with Jesus and ask for a miracle. If we are honest in our desire to follow, He will work with us and find a way to reach us – He will find a way to show us that we are mistaken even about our fears and resistances. We have to strengthen our desire to know the truth. Once the desire to know the truth will become stronger, even by 1%, than your desire to keep living in the same ego loop and ego’s “fake” comfort, the fear won’t be able to stop you!

Blessings of miracles!

The Wandering Mystic