The Guiding Light

My encounter with the living Spirit of Christ led me to a partial self-surrender to Lord Jesus Christ. Later on I came to realise that 'partial self-surrender' leads us to a kind of spiritual illusion. We are neither there, nor here! We land up in a 'no man's land’. It can also make us fanatically self-righteous about our religions and scriptures. This is dangerous. But I understood this fact quite late. I began to pray more devotedly. It was at this stage that my first guru, Justice Joseph Vithayathil, a retired Judge of the Kerala High Court, came into my life through a dream. The Upanishads say that a guru is brought into the devotee's life at the appropriate time by divine grace. As this was my first such experience, I did not know much about this spiritual phenomenon. But at a later stage I happened to read a book, 'Autobiography of a Yogi' by Paramahamsa Yogananda. It helped me to realise that such experiences can be quite common in our spiritual journey. 'Respond to the call as you are called' taught my first guru. I was an India Air Force officer, a husband, a father, a brother, a son, a citizen of India, and a member of the human family at the same time. I exist as a social being. I am part of the whole. The whole is in me and I am in the whole. I have to integrate my spiritual quest with all these dimensions of my total life and being. Spirituality, I came to realise soon, is not ‘religiosity’. Authentic spirituality has very little to do with one's religion and its scriptures, doctrines, dogmas and rituals. They can at the most be only 'pointers' to help one lead an authentic spiritual life which is the goal of religions. My experiments with 'practical spirituality' led me to the profound realisation that the living Spirit of Christ is the Divine Light that shines over all humankind and enlightens every human soul. 'Spirituality' thereafter became for me a life-long process of being led by this 'Guiding Light that is Christ. This realisation has over the years brought me to a simple and transparent life committed to the loving service of humankind. 'Spiritualisation of the material world' guided by the Divine Light of the living Spirit of Christ is the mission to which I have committed by this 'second life! I have initiated over the years a number of organisations, institutions and movements for this purpose. All my initiatives are now integrated into a 'Navasrushti International Mission' and brought under the legal protection and ownership of 'Navasrushti International Trust' with Sadguru Jesus Christ as its 'Guiding Light.