The “Oneness Blessing” phenomenon is not new anymore. Since this work began in a more public way in August 2003, thousands have received these Oneness Blessings, and many have become enlightened. But many have not, and questions come pouring in. What is this enlightenment? How do I know if I am enlightened? What is the ‘self’? Does enlightenment mean I will be rid of the ‘self’ forever? Who am I if I am not this ‘self’?

Some people have experiences of enlightenment where the sense of a separate self disappears, accompanied by a tremendous heart opening and a profound state of joy and cosmic oneness. Often, this is followed some time later by an equally profound crash, a dark night of the soul where one feels adrift and alone in a desolate world of spiritual dryness and emotional deadness. Must everyone expect to go through this dark night, and why does this have to happen?

Some people “break through the wall” in their very first Oneness Blessing while others receive Oneness Blessing after Oneness Blessing with no discernible shift in perception. These people end up feeling a great desperation in their quest, either feeling not worthy enough or terminally blocked in some way. Perhaps they feel that they are the one mistake God ever made and that everyone will get enlightened except for them. They either engage on a frantic quest for the ultimate Oneness Blessing, or give up in despair, wondering if the whole thing was a pipedream or a hoax.

Since Grace and I went through our own enlightenment process more than a year ago, and later began giving Oneness Blessings, we have had an opportunity to reflect on some of these questions. I have spoken before about the 3 waves of initiation, and the necessity of the ‘dark night of the soul’. Here I would like to respond from an evolutionary perspective, and provide a bigger context for our individual experiences.

Enlightenment is nothing new on the planet. In the long cycles of human history, many people have attained this state. Mother Earth has always required that there be a certain number of enlightened people on the planet in order to hold a state of cosmic balance, and even in the darkest of ages, there were secret communities that existed where those especially called towards this mission were trained and initiated into these states of divine cosmic union.

A new cycle is beginning, however. We are moving out of an Age of Darkness, or Kali Yuga, into an Age of Light, or Satya Yuga. Our entire solar system is moving into a region of space which is far more luminous in its intensity than what we have experienced before. A galactic superwave is being emanated from the center of the galaxy which is causing a shift in the base harmonic frequency of all matter, and therefore all consciousness, in this part of our galaxy. Earth is getting ready for a shift in her electromagnetic fields which will re-orient the morphogenetic fields of human consciousness from separation into oneness. The Supramental Descent that the great Indian mystic, Sri Aurobindo, referred to, is approaching.

The Mayan calendar refers to this time as the end of linear time. They pinpointed this transition as taking place sometime around 2011 or 2012. As I see it, the end of linear time refers to the beginning of a multi-dimensional consciousness where our experience of time becomes synchronistic, where we begin to transcend the boundaries of separate consciousness, where we realize our oneness with all things while still maintaining our linkage with bodies of matter. It is a time when heaven can descend on earth, where spirit can incarnate in bodies of matter. This is what Bhagavan refers to as the Golden Age.

This is a time when not a few but all humanity will step into the state of oneness. Our normal identity at this present moment in time has been as an individual self separate and often in conflict or competition with other human beings on the planet. This is about to change. Once the mass awakening takes place, our experience of self will go through a profound change. We will begin to experience a deeper oneness with the underlying web of all life. We will experience ourselves simultaneously as an individual being and also as a planetary being, a galactic being, and a cosmic being! Our human DNA will go through a profound activation where we begin to transcend the physical limitations of our physical bodies. As these things happen, all of our planetary realities will undergo a radical shift.

Many biologists today are pointing out that the way biological evolution works is through a long period of slow gradual progression followed by an extremely rapid quantum leap, a concept which has popularly become known as the “hundredth monkey phenomenon”. This is what we are likely to see in the journey of human consciousness. We have progressed very slowly over many millennia, gradually learning about ourselves and creation through the inexorable laws of karma, gradually evolving physical bodies that can serve as vehicles for a powerful divine descent.

According to Bhagavan, and confirmed by the calculations of various calendar systems, mystical research, as well as scientific research around the world, this is about to change. A quantum leap is now imminent. But in order for this to happen, a critical mass has to be reached. In Bhagavan’s view, this refers to a group of approximately 64,000 people who are anchored in the state of Christ consciousness.

This is not a lightweight proposition. Those among this group know who they are, and have come to earth with a strong soul intention for planetary awakening. They have always known on some level that their soul destiny would unfold at a certain point in linear time, and have been making themselves ready, each in their own unique way.

the Oneness Blessing is a powerful means for this awakening to take place, but even for those who know nothing about this, the awakening is happening spontaneously all over the world in all kinds of ways. My sense is that this awakening will happen in a series of waves. It starts off slowly, for there is a lot of inertia in the collective mind to be overcome. As more and more people begin to awaken, it becomes progressively easier for everybody to go even further, until a time is reached when the morphogenetic field of oneness is strong enough to push people into the experience of Christ consciousness. When 64,000 Christ-conscious beings begin to walk the planet, a quantum leap of mass enlightenment can quickly and powerfully take place. The Golden Age will have then arrived!

A major aspect of establishing this morphogenetic field of oneness, in Bhagavan’s vision, is the completion of the Oneness Temple, which is intended to greatly amplify the power of unity-consciousness in the fields of matter. Designed to hold up to 8000 people maintaining a strong morphogenetic field of unity-consciousness, this will greatly amplify the power of the Oneness Blessing for each person receiving it, and greatly amplify the morphogenetic fields of Christ-consciousness

It is important to realize that in the journey towards Christ consciousness, each of us will have to go through a “dark night of the soul”. This is a time when we will begin to lose all traces of our conditioned identities, even our so-called “spiritual identities”. We get plunged into the unknown, into the dark mystery of creation, where all our certainties get shattered. We die to the last remnants of the conditioned ego, and are reborn to the full realization of our divine self. For some people this could be a beautiful process of inner surrender and cosmic awakening. To the extent that we are identified with an illusion of the self, however, we might also experience deep whirlpools of uncertainties and fear, dryness and desolation, darkness and despair, until eventually we simply realize the illusion and step into the direct discovery of our true nature!

I would like to briefly address those who have received Oneness Blessing and are still awaiting enlightenment. It is important to realize that even though Bhagavan says this is very easy to receive in this Age, it is not effortless. Our part of it is to get to the doorway. It is then up to divine grace to guide us through.

Getting to the doorway requires a certain emotional maturity so that we can see ourselves clearly and embrace ourselves fully. We must acknowledge the places in our lives where we deny or suppress either our dark side or our light side, and then project this onto other people or circumstances of life. It requires that we notice our subconscious ideas and beliefs about God, whether we see God as someone who is critical, punishing, or judgmental, or someone who is friendly, loving, vast and beautiful. It requires a willingness to surrender to our inner divinity, and to trust the process, recognizing that our minds can only grasp a tiny fraction of the immensity of creation.

In the midst of all the human doubts, uncertainties, and fears that will inevitably come on this journey of awakening, I feel that it is important to keep our eyes on the big picture. This big picture is not another concept for the mind to get attached to but is rather a way of seeing. It is about shifting our perception from the little self to the big Self, and from the quest for personal enlightenment to the vision of a planetary awakening. It is the ability to see the universe as a great big mirror, and to understand that as we are willing to look at these mirrors clearly, there is eventually nothing left that remains unconscious. Then we no longer perceive ourselves as a pawn to be used by the universe for good or for ill. Then the universe flows through us in all its many reflections of oneness. Then we return to God on the In-breath of Creation in the knowing that we have never been separate to begin with!