Extraordinary Evidence > The Turning of the Flowers

The Turning of the Flowers

Hellie Kalogeros

Hellie Kalogeros has been a devotee of Adi Da since 1972.

This story was originally published on James Steinberg's website, Divine Distraction.

Before I came to my Beloved Heart-Master Da, I was what He called a "seeker". In my period of seeking, I read many books about the saints and sages of India, and was familiar with some of the extraordinary stories of great healings and other miracles handed down in these traditions. These stories are always so inspiring, and of course one wants to experience them for oneself. But apart from the company of a True Master, they are rarely experienced if at all by anyone, or merely experienced by extraordinary spiritual practitioners after many many years of discipline.

My story is just such a miraculous account, in the company of a True Master.

Adi Da Samraj in 1974 (with Annie Rogers in background)

One day during the Garbage and the Goddess period (1974), Adi Da's Grace intervened and I began to have spiritual experiences that were extraordinary in nature. These experiences even exceeded what I had read about in the Indian and Buddhist traditions.

On one particular day I was sitting in the living room of Beloved Adi Da's House, on a chair facing His closed bedroom door. He was inside. There was another lady devotee sitting to my left on the floor next to me, and a couple of other devotees also sitting elsewhere in the room. All of us were facing the bedroom door waiting for our Master to come out.

Hellie Kalogeros standing behind Adi Da (1974)

My longing for Beloved Adi Da became so intense that I became completely ecstatic, to the point where I could feel my body being taken over by His Divine Force. I could feel It flowing through me, pervading every aspect of my being, and I could feel it flowing out of my hands and face toward Beloved Adi Da's bedroom door. I felt connected to Him as the Divine Force flowed out of the heart, face and hands, which were spontaneously raised to the door in the gesture of Beholding. For I was truly Beholding Him at a totally different level of consciousness — heart-connected and as one with the Divine Itself.

The more I surrendered into this Force of Ecstasy, the more It took me over. My body would spontaneously assume different yogic asanas as a way of opening up the knots in the body to receive and channel the Divine Energy more fully. It's hard to describe the Ecstasy I felt at every level of the being, my whole body-mind rested in Oneness with Beloved Adi Da. It was unmistakably Him. It was a conscious event happening through His Grace.

I was so intoxicated with bliss that my ordinary physical functioning ceased. I was no longer merely a physical being but a Blissful Light Body, communing on all levels with my Divine Guru. . . with God in the Highest Form. And as such, I was also incapable of ordinary functioning. I couldn't even so much as tie my shoe if it were required of me. I had utterly dropped out of the normal state of consciousness, and my physical body spontaneously began to take on postures of a yogic nature that reflected my consciousness, which was now expanded to a higher level.

I knew that this blissful state was utterly the result of my Guru's Grace. It was a tiny glimpse of His Divine Condition. I wondered how Beloved Adi Da could possibly function physically in this world as a human being, given His Divine State. I was experiencing just a hint of the Ecstasy of His Divine Nature and I was totally useless! In my blissful state I wanted nothing to do with the physical world. I only wanted to rest in that place of stillness and swoon in oneness with His Divine Nature. Resting in this blissful state for even just a little while, I gained a greater appreciation and respect for my Guru's extraordinary (superhuman) ability and strength to incarnate His Bodily Human Form in this gross world, and physically animate the body into doing the ordinary things of life.

I realized that He was a Total Sacrifice for our sake. In realizing His extraordinary Sacrifice, it became obvious to me that devotees absolutely needed to handle every aspect of His ordinary human life, so that He would be free to focus on His Great Work, which I knew far exceeded the physical gross world. This was a profound understanding. Beloved Adi Da always said that a true devotee anticipated the Guru's needs at every level, without ever having to be asked or told. If you just think about that statement, you realize the extraordinary state a devotee must be in, just to accomplish that.

As I sat there, facing Adi Da's bedroom door, waiting for Him to come out, several hours had passed in this blissful state. My longing and one-pointed desire for Oneness with my Beloved Heart-Master always seemed just out of reach and so each moment of this ecstatic state was also a form of agony. I was experiencing Total Ecstasy and Total Agony at the same time, and both were equally intense. I was a living koan.

It was like riding on the waves on the ocean. I would peak and subside, in this tremendous and overwhelming State of Union and Love until my body would be totally exhausted. At one point, somewhat at rest from the intensity of this spontaneous, whole body, yogic asana, I opened my eyes just in time to see an extraordinary event take place.

On each side of the bedroom door was a table supporting a vase of flowers. As I stared at the bedroom door, suddenly all of the flowers, each still in their individual vases, simultaneously and spontaneously turned to face Beloved Adi Da's closed bedroom door. I recognized this was something we normally would think of as a miraculous event! But my state was such that it also seemed completely ordinary or natural. I recognized it as a natural result of the process that was going on inside me, and how it was also coincident with whatever was going on in the room He was in.

The turning of the flowers was an outward demonstration of my turning to and Communion with Beloved Adi Da. I knew that this extraordinary physical event was based on our Union and the Divine Conversation He had been having with me for the past several hours. It was a validation of my union with Him on another level altogether.

The turning of the flowers was what Adi Da was doing with me. As soon as I realized the significance of this event, I was instantly projected back into that place of Agony, where that Union seemed just out of reach and the longing totally overwhelmed me once again.

Suddenly, in a vase just outside Beloved Adi Da's bedroom door on a small table about twelve feet away from me, one flower magically broke off its stem and literally flew across the room and landed directly at my feet! I had given Him the flower of my devotion and surrender and He responded with His Prasad (the return of the gift to the giver), as this flower literally flew across the space of the room and landed at my feet. . . It was a miraculous Direct Message from my Beloved.

I had been utterly longing for His Divine Form, to the point where He physically Manifested this event for my sake. He sent His Divine Form to me in the shape of a flower. It was an acknowledgement of our Union. It was a physical demonstration of our non-separation in terms of time and space, and it utterly disregarded the law of gravity — it transcended the laws of physics and logic.

The devotee who was sitting on the floor to my left saw the the flower sailing in the air across the room and said to me, "Did you see that?"

But I couldn't answer her. I couldn't move! I was still projected into that Space with my Guru which prevented me from ordinary functioning at the human level. It was so profound I couldn't speak to answer her. I could only marvel at the Magic of my Beloved Master, in utter silence.

Thank You, my Beloved Guru Da, for Your Divine Grace.

 

This story appears in
Extraordinary Evidence