In my third satsang with Gangaji on Maui in 1993, I sat on the floor right in front of her and raised my hand to speak. “Gangaji,” I ventured timidly, “when I turn my attention inside toward the discovery of who I really am, I touch upon something so bright and so beautiful I feel like I can’t contain it.” Her gaze was so direct and so loving, I felt stripped naked to the core. She said, simply, “You can’t contain it—it contains you.”
Reality had suddenly flipped inside out. It was as though the body/mind/personality I had always believed myself to be took a back seat to the vast infinite awareness that was opening up inside me faster than my mind could track. It was, in fact, impossible to think a single thought. I saw with absolute clarity that this ground of being that was revealing itself to itself inside me was actually who and what I am. That who I truly am is what sustains this body and mind while remaining completely independent of it, incorruptible, eternal, and free. I understood all of this in a split second without mentally understanding a thing.
“In those few timeless moments of looking into her eyes, I experienced what I can only call “eternity,” and I knew it to be myself.” —Shanti
Shanti Einolander met Gangaji on Maui in 1993, and later travelled with her to India where she met Papaji. After the life changing moment that she describes here, she has played many roles as volunteer and a staff member of the Gangaji Foundation. Today she is the editor of Freedom Inside, the bi-monthly newsletter that goes out to prisoners, and content creator for Edovo, the online platform available to prisoners via ipad.
