PREMA JYOTHI - Newsletter of the Prema Trust and Sacred Earth Community – September 2026
Kia Ora Whanau,
There are times in spiritual life when we lose the connection with the Divine within. Most stories that we hear about people’s spiritual path contain tales of wonder, excitement and deep connection. But, even in the midst of such experiences, there can be periods when we wonder how we might get back to the wonder and peace, for there is simply a feeling of being disconnected to ourselves and disconnected from the Divine. The great happiness and contentment is no longer there for some reason (often unknown). There is a struggle. Most often, it is not that we have lost faith, or have turned away from the path we on, it is just that the well of bliss or the feeling of closeness has somehow diminished.
The Dark Night of the Soul
A spiritual experience where we undergo inner turmoil and doubt, the dark night of the soul is a can lead to spiritual transformation depending on our attitude. This phenomenon was originally described by St. John of the Cross, who stated that undergoing this process was a necessary stage toward union with the divine.
St. John of the Cross
Whilst we don’t all go through the intensity of the Dark Night of the Soul (like St John of the Cross who was imprisoned and experienced the separation, and then the union with the Divine), we all have times when, somehow, our connection is not there.
Last newsletter I talked about my own sense of guilt and unworthiness. The Beloved Sai helped me through this in a unique way. He took me back to a previous life and helped me undo the sense of unworthiness that I had grappled with my whole life. The details are not important, but I had experienced great highs (being in close proximity and talking with Sai in an intimate setting) but I still could not break through the darkness that often descended upon me. It was a darkness filled with anger as well as despair. However, this grace did not just happen. I had to consciously place myself in the way of that stream of Love.
A devotee of Sai, Arvind Subramaniam, talks of a time when he was feeling a disconnection with Sai. His wife suggested that he do a special sadhana which might help. He did the sadhana of reading a spiritual book (about Sai’s previous incarnation, Shirdhi Sai Baba) over seven days. Even though he didn’t think much of the book, the sadhana worked and he began to reconnect in a very profound way!
We cannot simply climb out of the dark pit. We need to be deliberate and take positive steps. No one can do this but us. Even the Divine cannot intervene. If we take one step towards God, the Divine will take a hundred steps towards us.
The Power of Positive Action
When disconnection comes to us (and inevitably in the spiritual life it will at some stage) we can find ourselves overwhelmed and wondering how we can get out of this bind that has us feeling like we have no means of coming back to ourself. Sometimes we deliberately step out of our dharma, out of our sense of right and wrong. This step is often an unconscious way of jolting us out of the place in which we have found ourselves. However, most times this will only lead to further despair. Commonly, there may be addiction involved in this step, and such addiction only serves to drive us further into a place where we are even more disconnected with ourselves.
Somehow, we have to step out of ourselves so that we can see ourselves. Again, this step involves brutal self-honesty. It is as though we must move into becoming someone beyond our normal selves, someone different. Amazingly this stepping outside of our habitual perception of ourselves, releases the mind from its preoccupation with its problems. We begin to see ourselves in a different light. We begin to see that there is a ‘me’ beyond the mental construct we have created and, ultimately, beyond the mind itself.
This creates a sense of freedom, that most self-help books in the world cannot lead us to. (That is because very few of these take us beyond the mind.) The Heart begins to open to a new possibility, one that is not conceived from mind but arises spontaneously from a deeper place, a place where the Self is our reality. Consciousness in its purity guides our life and we perceive a different world from the one that we have known. A world where there is unity in all that we experience, where we are that unity.
This process often involves some form of sadhana (spiritual practice) but it can also arise spontaneously, as in the case of Ramana Maharshi or Nisargadatta Maharaj, and several other famous cases. The means is not important, but the opening of the heart to our own reality comes in diverse ways and, I suspect, is a state that has many expressions of that reality.
How might we reconnect?
You never lose connection. Maya (illusion) weaves a spell, and you only think you have lost connection.
In reality, the connection is always there. As you begin to dissociate from the body/mind complex, the stream of Divine Consciousness is more there than not.
In the moments when you feel you have lost connection, sing bhajans (devotional songs to God), chant mantras and pray. All will be well. The sense of connection will return.
Then there is the question of faith. Not faith in some nebulous concept of the Divine, but a deep faith in your own nature. This abides within the Heart’s own field of consciousness. Remember the moments when that faith was strong and you will begin to develop that surety and constancy. In those moments, you may have experienced what the immersion in your own awareness of Oneness with all is like.
Take heart for you are that One. You have always been that One. The Divine is with you always – have no fear that the Divine Flow will rise to the conscious level in time.” Sathya Sai (inner message)
Sai indicates that one of the keys to regaining connection is faith. Baba has said that we have to have faith in God and faith in ourselves. It is not enough to simply have faith in the Divine, without also believing that we have the capacity to rise above our difficulties and seeming isolation from that Divine flow. How do we reconnect with ourselves?
We fill our lives with all sorts of activities. Our mind is always living in the past or the future, always filled with thoughts. Taking some time to move into silence in our lives is an essential step in reconnecting with our own heart. This can be best done in the morning when we wake up and just before going to sleep. It doesn’t have to be a long time, just a moment when we are still, allowing us the space to reconnect. Naturally, if we are in a state of depression, silencing our thoughts is going to be difficult. This is where the value of mantra or prayer comes in. It can be either, but turning the mind inward begins to slow down the flow of thought and we can begin to experience the silence that exists behind the words that fill the mind, the mental creations.
Consider this. We may actually have created the gulf between us and the Divine through mental constructs. We may actually have never moved away from the Divine flow; we may simply have overlaid it with our thoughts and desires. There are ways to move beyond these impediments. We can have moments of seep silence where the mind has no sway. (Not always easy.) Otherwise, we can use mantra or devotional song that we sing in our hearts. Devotion allows the mind to turn its attention to Love. It is a powerful tool whose effectiveness has been demonstrated by saints and devotees down through the ages. If the mind is filled with negative thought, filling the heart with devotion will create little room for such thinking.
We may also simply practise coming into the moment, coming into a place where past and future no longer have any real meaning in that moment. The age-old question ‘Who am I’ can bring us into that moment. The mind is stopped in its tracks as it starts to ponder that question. And the moment potentially can reveal itself in the silence that follows the question. However, this method requires a certain inclination, a certain type of approach that is insightful. For some devotion is a much surer path. For others, the inquiry (atma vichara) is more suited.
Both approaches require us to positively intervene in our conundrum. Both will turn around the feeling of helplessness that arises when we are disconnected. There may also be a third approach, the path of seva – selfless service. If we engage ourselves in helping others with the mental thought that we are serving the Divine in others (even if it seems artificial at first, the potential for the service to be divinised is always there) brings us out of our introspective feeling of disconnection. We begin to place ourselves into the flow of Grace, which can carry us back to reestablishing that deep feeling of being whole, being one with the Divine. - Satyavan
