It is important to recognize that you are special, the most special, the only special.

Be still and know yourself as the Truth you have been searching for. Be still and let the inherent joy of that Truth capture your drama and destroy it in the bliss of consummation. Be still and let your life be lived by the purpose you were made for. Be still and receive the inherent truth of your heart.

The most sublime truth of all has never been stated or written or sung, not because it is far away and can’t be reached but because it is so intimately close, closer than anything that can be spoken.

Who you are, in truth, who everyone is, is whole and perfect and beautiful. And if that can be recognized, then it is possible that self-torture can stop.

My responsibility is simply being who I am and not buying into any projection as real. No projection is finally real, but projection does play a very important role.

Life

Birth: Gangaji, born as Merle Antoinette (“Toni”) Roberson in Texas in 1942, America.

Realization:  Merle Antoinette Roberson (Gangaji) was briefly attending a Catholic school then a religious fire awakened in her and she fell in love with Christ. In 1972, She  moved to San Francisco with the intention of exploring deeper levels of her being. In her quest for truth, she took the vows of a Bodhisattva, practiced Zen and Vipassana meditation, and helped facilitate a Tibetan Buddhist meditation center.   But her real search ended when she is said to have attained self-realization in 1990 after an encounter with Sri H.W.L. Poonja (also known as Papaji), a disciple of Ramana Maharshi. She visited Papaji five times between 1990 and 1995, each time filled with grace and deeper discovery.

Death: Alive.

Teaching Style: Gangaji, teaches as author, speaker, sometimes considered a lay or spiritual counselor, teacher or guru. Gangaji has published a number of books and offers talks in different parts of the world, which she calls satsang. She regularly gives Satsangs around the globe. Since 1990, she has met with people in various part of the world, in what she calls an invitation to “discover the possibility of living your life in the freedom and joy of simply being.

Fame:Gangaji, an American born teacher and author, has traveled the globe since 1990, speaking with spiritual seekers from all walks of life. Her message is powerful in its clarity and simplicity. Conceptually, Gangaji’s discussions focus on the tenet that humanity’s true nature is not the body, not the mind, but forever free awareness. She marched for civil rights, protested the Vietnam war, got arrested for protesting at a nuclear power plant, spent ten days in jail. The positive Light  around her reveals that she is a teacher of great integrity and selflessness.

Legacy : Gangaji got the powerful experience and transmission of Ramana’s Light though her spiritual guru H.W.L Poonja (also known as Papaji).  He told her that You are the one I’ve been waiting for, and it made her feel very special. Papaji gave her the name “Gangaji” after the river Ganga (Ganges), and asked her to go back to the West and share his message. When She was in California she recalls “the major, the essential shift occurred”, “[her] story was gone”, and realizing how much had been wrapped up in “me, me, me”, she says she began laughing out loud. According to her, “the teaching started to happen” the next day. Since that time, Gangaji has traveled the world, holding gatherings and retreats with spiritual seekers of all faiths.

Teachings

The core message of Gangaji is that you’re not who you think you are.Who you are can’t actually be thought. Her teaching basically is about being in the moment, not getting caught up in “stories” (all the thoughts and dramas we make of things), just being in the experience. So if you feel hopeless, just be in the hopelessness, don’t try to avoid or fight it or run away from it. Then, being in that experience, look at where it comes from, what supports it. Go beneath the experience to its Source.

She says, the most sublime truth of all has never been stated or written or sung. Not because it is far away and can’t be reached, but because it is so intimately close, closer than anything that can be spoken. It is alive as the stillness in the core of your being, too close to be described, too close to be objectified, too close to be known in the usual way of knowledge. The truth of who you are is yours already. It is already present

She told that “It is time to… recognize satsang in the marketplace, on the street, and in the bedroom as well as beyond space and time… Then any meeting is satsang, and satsang is meeting in truth… This meeting called satsang is not different from the simple willingness to be.”

In her words, “The truth of who you are is untouched by any concept of who you are, whether ignorant or enlightened, worthless or grand… I invite you to let your attention dive into what has always been here, waiting openly for its own self-realization… the indefinable, boundless recognition of yourself as inseparable from anything else.”

According to her True peace and lasting fulfillment are not only our birthright, they are the essential nature of our being.

The first human awakening was before Buddha, before Christ, before any of those we have heard of. An ancient, early awakening somewhere unknown.

She told that “I am simply pointing to the stillness that is alive in the core of your being and inviting you to turn your attention to That, to let That live your life. I invite you to give your questions to That and your answers to That. Give your failures and successes, choice and choicelessness to That. Give all back to where it came from, back to before creation.

Awakening does not mean that this particular form you inhabit should or will be a saint, or a great artist, or king of the world. It means you can know without a doubt that who you are is not limited to form. Who you are is what the world appears in, what the cosmos appears in, what space itself appears in.

There is a quickening on the Earth at this time. In this quickening is the invitation to realize where you are, who you are, who one is. If you are fully committed to that realization, there is nothing that can stop you. There is no obstacle.

View Comments