ECKANKAR, Author at ECKANKAR Hub site

The Divine Imagination of Australian Bushmen

By Sri Harold Klemp

The Australian bushmen, or aborigines, are a native people concerned with preserving nature to maintain a balanced life within it. They kill for food only when necessary for personal nourishment, and to do so, they use the creative imagination.

Long ago, the aborigines used the divine faculty of imagination in inventing the boomerang as a means of winning their prey.

A bushman would carefully fashion the instrument, then decorate it with paintings of the animal or fowl to be hunted. He went so far as to draw the detail of the prey. If it was a bird, he carefully described in picture form the type of bird he was hunting and how many he intended to catch. In other words, he clearly defined the object of his hunt by drawing pictures of it on his boomerang.

By being so direct, he was bound to get the food he needed to bring back to his family. Much of this understanding has been carried forward to the society of the aborigines today.

This is the use of the creative imagination which is the Divine Self within each of us, the God spark, or Soul. When the creative imagination is working in us, then life is happy and right. You wake up in the morning and everything is rainbows and sunshine. This means you are living and operating under the hand of God.

* * *

This positive, creative nature may find expression in countless ways: cooking for loved ones, the needy, or as part of one’s profession. It may be in planting a garden and taking care of it. Or you may read a bedtime story to your child, grandchild, or neighbor.

You may put your love into starting a business. Or sewing clothes for yourself or others. It may be in stopping to chat with a neighbor or friend or dropping someone a note marking a special occasion. Or sharing another’s grief.

Ways upon ways.

As a matter of fact, most people express these positive and creative traits every day—but they do so unconsciously.

Doing something for another on a daily basis reflects God’s love for you. It’s the standard outside yourself.

What, then, is your mission?

It is to search for and discover your creative talents. For in finding and doing something of a positive nature, you love God.

God’s Love in a Rose

Gifts of Inner Guidance

By Eva Sutter

My mother-in-law wanted to visit her ninety-year-old cousin, Lucie, in the hospital. As she was about to leave, I felt a nudge from the Inner Master to suggest she take a rose with her. But she said no, thanks; it wasn’t worth it, because Lucie wouldn’t even notice.

Again, I felt the inner nudge. I put a small, portable vase and pruning shears out on the counter and said, “All you need do is cut the rose you like.”

Soon I saw her walking down the hallway and out the door, a rose peeking out of her purse.

When she returned, her eyes were sparkling. She said Lucie’s sister had been at the hospital and was so touched by the rose’s beauty that she had cried. She thanked my mother-in-law again and again.

A week later, Lucie’s sister called to say Lucie had translated (died). She said the rose had lasted an incredible eight days at Lucie’s bedside.

I realized that by listening to the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ’s nudge, I had served as a vehicle for God’s love to bring comfort, via a rose, to this family during a difficult time.

Participating with the ECK in this way is so humbling and so awesome. I am so blessed.

Dream, and It Might Come True

Gifts of Inner Guidance

By Peggy McCardle

This is the third year I’ve had my perfect job. It’s the most interesting and rewarding job I’ve ever had, because I asked Spirit to help me dream it up!

Four years ago, I taught speech-language pathology at a university, and I was fairly successful at it. Life was good.

One weekend I was about to enter a ten-kilometer race. I got out of the car and jogged over to the table to pick up my racing number, and I tripped over a speed bump in the parking lot. A simple little fall.

As I fell, a pinpoint of pain started in my heel, shot like lightning up my right leg, and exploded in my hip.

I don’t remember it hurting much, but I do recall wondering why I had fallen.

A few X-rays later, I discovered the fall had fractured my hip socket! I was in traction at home for six weeks.

Every day, I practiced the Spiritual Exercises of ECK. I had a lot of time to look within and think.

My husband’s job was ending in six months. We knew one of us had to find a job in a city where the other could also find work. Our small town had nothing further to offer my husband in his chosen profession, and I realized I wanted to move back to the East Coast, where my family lived.

My Perfect Job?

I began to imagine a game—like deciding how you’d spend a million dollars if you won a sweepstakes. This game was called My Perfect Job.

I asked the Inner Master, “What if I could design my own perfect job? What would it look and feel like?”

Over the next several weeks, I decided my ideal job would be in a large metropolitan hospital, where I’d diagnose children’s speech problems. The hospital would also have a medical-school affiliation so I could do research.

I knew, as I dreamed, that such a job didn’t exist. Or if it did, I didn’t know where! But it was such a fun game to play.

Over and over again, I focused on the image of my ideal job, releasing it to Divine Spirit, the ECK, each time. Thy will be done!

As soon as I was up and around on crutches, life got busy and hectic again. I forgot about my game. I sent out a few job inquiries and even applied to a hospital in the Washington, DC, area.

A few weeks later, I got a notice in the mail, describing a job at a large medical center. I called the hospital, but I had a sinking feeling that the job would involve adult patients, because it was a military medical center.

Imagine my surprise when the personnel director said, “I don’t even have a job description to read you yet. It’s a brand-new position in pediatrics, though, working with children.”

Inside, I shouted, “This is my dream job!” I just knew it.

The next week, I flew there, interviewed, and got the job. It had everything I wanted—and lots of things I hadn’t even thought to ask for.

That’s the way Spirit works, when you dream with detachment. “Thy will be done.”

I guess folks get tired of hearing old clichés such as “Everything happens for a reason” or “Look for the silver lining.” But when things get rough, I remind myself I got the best job I ever had as a result of what everyone thought was the worst thing that ever happened to me!

I’ve learned to relax in the arms of Spirit. And to dream with love and a light heart.

Why Do We Have No Children?

Good Karma, Bad Karma, Beyond Karma

By Anthony Enoma

Karma and reincarnation are two important aspects of the teachings of Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ. But I was having difficulty in accepting both of these spiritual principles. I had my doubts about them and wondered how they worked.

Then I got married. My wife and I shared a warm and deep love and were very happy. We wanted to start a family. But after many years of marriage, we remained childless.

This became a real problem for us. Over time, our relationship grew strained. We quarreled and fought constantly, and we couldn’t agree on anything. After our arguments, my wife would cry for hours. I knew the underlying reason for all this fighting was really about our childless situation.

Finally I decided to ask the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, my inner spiritual guide, to help me understand why we were unable to start a family. Then I waited for an answer.

For three years, I didn’t receive a reply. I began to wonder if the marriage was a mistake. Finally, I told myself that if I didn’t have an answer by the end of the year, I’d have no choice but to end our marriage.

Shortly after that, I had a dream.

I am a king. Powerful and feared, I order people killed at the slightest provocation. I also have several wives, some of them stolen from other men.

One day, my men steal a female trader from a distant village from her husband, and I make her my wife. (I recognize her as my wife in my present life.) She stays with me in the palace for three years, then she escapes.

Furious, I declare war against her husband’s people. During the fighting, her husband is killed, and my wife is returned to my palace.

But our relationship is loveless. There is no peace or harmony for either of us, and she vows never to have any children.

When I awoke from the dream. I knew the cause of our problem. My doubts about karma and reincarnation were gone. I realized my wife and I had been together before in a past life. Now we had come back into this lifetime to work off that karma.

My attitude and behavior toward my wife changed dramatically. I was more understanding and compassionate, and our relationship again grew in love.

Shortly after the dream, my wife became pregnant. When our lovely baby girl was born, we named her Ikponmwosa, which means “Thanks to God.”

This experience taught me important lessons.

I learned that the problems we have in this life may come from a past life. When we are ready, the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, the inner guide, is always willing to help us see how our actions created our present circumstances.

I also learned that Soul can never die. It lives forever. Reincarnation and karma are gifts that help Soul gain in experience so It has a greater capacity for divine love.

Chubby-Cheeks Karma

Good Karma, Bad Karma, Beyond Karma

By James Potter

When I was a small child, I had chubby cheeks and could surreptitiously store food in them like a squirrel or chipmunk.

I realized this physical attribute could work to my advantage at the dinner table. When Mom served vegetables that I despised, I would pack the fare into my cheeks and pretend to swallow it. Then I’d hurry off to the bathroom, spit the food out into the toilet, and hastily flush.

This activity went on successfully for months, until one summer evening. I stealthily stuffed a plateful of beets into my cheeks, excused myself from the table, and ran out the front door with the intent of concealing the evidence behind some bushes.

In my haste, I tripped and fell onto the cement walk and began screaming bloody murder! My mother rushed out and saw a gory scene—red ooze issuing from my mouth as I lay there bawling. “Oh my God! He’s bitten off his tongue!” Mom screamed as she raced to my side.

But Mom’s mood suddenly shifted when she realized the hemorrhaging was beet and not blood. Her exasperation was evident. Yet she was kind when she scolded me and told me to never do this again. Thereafter, she never forced me to eat a plateful of beets.

Now here is where the wheel of karma completes its turn, impresses its message, and collects a debt.

Many years later I was dog sitting my daughter Sabina’s golden lab, Schubert. Suddenly he displayed serious discomfort. Blood was flowing from his mouth and gums. Time to panic!

I called my wife at work for help. Luckily, she was in the neighborhood and came to my rescue. She took one look at Schubert and saw the reason for my panic. She quickly called Sabina. Fortunately, Sabina was only minutes away. She rushed home and took Schubert to a veterinarian just one block from our apartment.

The doctor examined Schubert and then quickly returned to the reception area. “Who fed the dog beets?” he asked. Well, it seems my daughter had cooked some beets for breakfast and gave some to Schubert as well. Dogs and beets do not mix, and the doctor advised Sabina to refrain from any further beet treats for Schubert.

This experience jarred my memory of when, years back, I had given my mother a severe shock with my ruse to discharge a mouthful of beets into the bushes.

Maybe Divine Spirit has a sense of humor. In any case, It has an uncanny way of making a point and teaching a lesson. Deception as seemingly innocuous as spitting out beets will come home to roost—even if it is sixty years later, as karma has no statute of limitation.

Lesson learned and fully appreciated.

Danger Offers Lessons

Good Karma, Bad Karma, Beyond Karma

By Uwakwe Onwuchekwa

I’m a truck driver. One day while traveling north in Texas, I was pulled in to an inspection station. After a complete inspection of the truck and trailer, the officer let me know they found three violations—two involving the brakes and an oil leak from the engine.

After explaining the violations, the officer advised me to fix them as soon as possible. Then came the big surprise. She said, “No ticket was issued.” Not even a warning ticket! I was blown away. This was unheard of, in my experience.

But instead of just saying thank you to the officer and accepting the gift, I started complaining to her about the mechanic at my workplace. After all, he had inspected the truck that morning. As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized I’d turned a happy situation into a negative one. The complaint was unnecessary, and I instantly knew it.

I left the inspection station and resumed my trip. But within minutes I looked back and saw a thick cloud of smoke between the truck and trailer. I pulled over to the side of the road. My drive-axle tires were almost in flames! This could have been a very dangerous situation, as I was hauling acetone, a highly flammable chemical.

My spiritual realization from this experience: My complaint to the officer was anger, and anger burns like fire. I’m grateful for the clear lesson in self-responsibility.