Rajesh, a young Indian man in his early thirties, has been a guide for the Oneness University for the past 11 years. As a guide, he has made a commitment to go out into the world and share his wisdom with others for the purpose of helping them find inner peace and happiness. He has a demanding schedule which requires him to fly to many places around the world, but he does this without complaint and always seems to have a ready smile for anyone he meets along the way.
On his last visit to Bali in July 2008, the Bali Advertiser met up with Rajesh at Orchid Villa, where many foreigners gathered to hear his teachings and receive Diksha. He had already been teaching at several villages throughout Bali, as the main purpose for coming here was to bring the Oneness teachings to the local people.
“Bali has been a spiritual place and has a close connection to India. Another thing that we are doing in Oneness is to help rejuvenate every faith in the world, because we don’t believe that all people should come under one faith or one God. We believe that every faith has something beautiful to offer to all the people in the world. The people, who follow a particular faith, should have a discovery of their faith so that it becomes truth in their life. In today’s world, we don’t need new teachings or new religions; all we need is a discovery of our own faith and our own God. So…we believe that the spirituality in Bali is still alive, and we can help the people here discover their spirituality and their God, so that they can grow in their life and in their connection with their divine.”
Oneness holds the belief that ultimately there is only one absolute God, but in connecting with the Divine and to have an intimate relationship, we create our own personal God, through which communication takes place.
According to Rajesh, the Oneness philosophy is not a cult or a religious movement which requires anyone to believe in a guru; it is simply a course which helps people to move forward in their lives and discover happiness. Their goal is to help people get connected to the divine in whatever form they are comfortable with. For example, if someone is a Christian, they will assist him in finding a connection with Christ; if a person is Moslem, then they will help her become connected with Allah and so on.
“Oneness focuses on helping people to become happy individuals. We believe for that to happen, there should be a growth in their consciousness. This will lead to a different perception of life,” says Rajesh.
Everyone strives to be happy in life, but what does that really mean? According to the Oneness philosophy, a happy individual is someone who experiences reality as it truly is. This means that people can enjoy life in all respects, whether it is within their relationships, careers or state of health, every aspect of life should be complete and experienced fully.
“The way that we help with this is through teaching, exercises and also what we call the transfer of energy which is the ‘Oneness Blessing’. The blessing is a transfer of divine energy which effects a neuro-biological change in your brain, so that you start experiencing things differently,” says Rajesh.
When asked how Reiki, another popular practice which involves channeling Universal Life Force energy compares to the Oneness Blessing (Diksha), Rajesh explained that during Diksha, the person giving the blessing isn’t channeling any energy; they don’t even have to focus on what they are doing. The Diksha giver only has to place his or her hands on top of the person’s head, and the blessing will occur naturally.
Diksha has a kind of scaffolding effect. In other words, one Diksha blessing will build on the next one and so on, taking the recipient on a journey towards awareness and transformation.
In this practice, it is believed that if a person has continuous exposure to Diksha over a period of time with the intention for personal growth, than change is possible and it will most likely occur.
“Our focus is on direct experience rather than having teachings. In order for anything to become your truth, we believe this can only happen through a direct experience and you need power for that experience. The blessing gives you that power – it is awareness,” says Rajesh.
The founders of Oneness University: Sri Amma and Sri Bhagavan have been offering Diksha since 1989. The first blessing flowed from them and it was transferred to everyone in their presence. They are considered to be one single consciousness in two bodies with the sole purpose of facilitating the awakening in all beings. Considering their revered status, it is surprising that they are actually on the periphery of what is becoming a world-wide movement. There is currently a following of 100 million people in India alone.
“The Indian culture has always been associated with reverence and personal connection. Amma and Bhagavan have helped a lot of people; so many people have experienced miracles in their lives and unexplained coincidences. In many cases, a manifestation of Amma and Bhagavan can happen to an individual, so physically they could see them. Or, they could also have mystical experiences in their heart. For many people in India Amma and Bhagavan are more than gurus or founders of the Oneness movement; they are more like family members who can help them with every aspect of life,” says Rajesh.
There are currently two Oneness universities: one is based in India and caters mainly to people who come from Europe, Latin American and some parts of Asia and the second Oneness university is in Fiji and accommodates those from Europe, Australia and East India.
In order to become a ‘Diksha Giver’, the person must be initiated by the guides at Oneness University through a level one course. After this, he or she becomes an ‘Initiate Blessing Giver’. When the person completes the level two course, then he or she is initiated as a ‘Principle Blessing Giver’. The main distinction between these two levels is that the ‘Principle Blessing Giver’ is more spiritually evolved and should have already helped many people.
Rajesh beautifully sums up the essence of the philosophy behind Oneness:
“We would like to work with all people who are interested in making this planet a better place – to awaken humanity to a different reality. The way that we are going today, we might destroy ourselves very soon. Our relationships are going very bad, and also the way that we are growing in the outside world, meaning the physical world, which has become quite small today; everything is accessed so quickly and communications are also fast, but still in our inner world we are fragmented. We are also dividing our outside world. Earlier we used to have families, but now we don’t have families; we only have individuals. That’s the way it is going even in India. We used to have traditional family structures, but now we only have micro-families. This is not a good sign for the world, because it’s not going to help us to live as one family or one humanity.
“All this talk about oneness or peace in this world is not going to happen by predicting a nice picture; it has to happen from an inward experience, because man is divided within – there is conflict within. If the individual can become one within himself, only then is it possible to experience oneness with the outside world. Otherwise, all oneness that we speak about is just words or concepts that we try to live up to for some time and then it will vanish. The changes have to happen within each individual; the perception with which they see themselves and others.
“The Oneness movement helps you to become one within and to move to a conflict free zone in your life. Only then do we experience reality as it is possible; only then is it possible to enjoy life and our relationships. Whether those relationships are with your spouse, your parents or your children, it is possible to experience the other and have a loving relationship only when we are undivided within, or when you can love yourself. A person who loves himself or herself can love the whole world. Now people are trying to find love in others. Love in situations, love in people, and love in what they get from others or trying to get love by transforming others. It doesn’t happen that way. Love can only happen when you love what you are. From there love extends to everything else in this world, because the world is just a mirror of what we see, so there is nothing else out there other than your perceptions.
“So we are helping this; we think we can make a difference in the lives of people and we have made a difference. Many people have been able to move from a state of conflict and having bad relationships in their lives to a state of being able to love oneself and be comfortable with who they are. Suddenly they are able to see that the people around them are not the cause for their suffering; immediately with that realization, the relationships between them and others changes.”
On November 23rd ‘Diksha: for Health, Happiness and Prosperity’, a special Oneness Bali event, will be held at the Bali Classic Center near the Nyuh Kuning Banjar five minutes from central Ubud from 4-7pm. It will be conducted by Sri Vimalakeerthiji, Senior Oneness Guide and prime disciple of Sri Amma Bhagavan. Everyone is welcome to this free event. Key topics will include: how to discover the divine in your heart, discovering love in your relationships and discovering the joy of living life. For more information please contact Bapak Ngurah on: (0361)971-231.
