My Mother Finds the Mahanta
A Healing after Death Allows a Son's Heart to Mend
By BN
When I first joined Eckankar, my mother was very distraught. She was convinced that because I had been baptized in the Christian church, I would eventually return to it. She refused to see the joy I had found in the teachings of ECK.
I gently tried to explain that I had outgrown the teachings of her church. I said it was fine that we now differed in our beliefs. But she would have none of it.
The last time I visited her, two months before she passed away, she said, "You're a good man, and you have a lot of good qualities. I hope you live a long life, because when you die, you're going to hell."
The day after Mom died, I went to visit her inwardly during a spiritual exercise I'd learned in Eckankar.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, concerned and surprised. "I'm not your mother anymore."
"I just came to see how you are."
She frowned. "I'm supposed to be with my friends now."
"I know. It's OK," I assured her.
Her expression altered to one of delight. "Did I do a good job? Did I make it hard enough for you?"
"Yes," I said, slightly amused, understanding that this had been our spiritual contract. "You did fine."
She darted a glance at her group of friends. "What are you doing here?" she asked me. "You're a beyonder. We don't have much to do with beyonders."
As I wondered about the term beyonder, instantly, I knew it was a term used in her world for Souls who travel with the Mahanta.
"It's OK," I said again. "Go be with your friends."
Although I looked for her in dreams and contemplations, I didn't see my mother much after that. Clearly, my mother and I had finished our contract.
Then one day, as I was traveling in the heavens during my spiritual exercise, Mom came to see me.
"Guess what!" she cried.
"What?"
"I'm planning my next life, and I'm going to be an ECKist!"
I was surprised. She had been so opposed to the teachings of Eckankar during her life. Mom smiled at me and flitted away, intent on the details of her own existence.
I finished my spiritual exercise, musing over the experience. As the love of the Mahanta washed over me, I realized something important about Mom's resistance to the teachings of Eckankar during her life.
Because I had allowed her space and freedom to believe as she chose, she had been touched by the Light and Sound of God. It had awakened her spiritually.
Excerpted from the 2006 Eckankar Journal, copyright © 2005 ECKANKAR. All rights reserved.
