Beyond the Mystical, Back to the Ordinary

Though not a stranger to the mystical side of life, I revel in the “ordinary”. By truly embracing the ordinary, we begin to glimpse how extraordinary life can be.

In a world where many people perceive little but pain and drudgery, it can feel like respite to seek something beyond our normal. Whether it’s visions, otherworldly encounters, or extra-sensory perceptions, our minds are expanded in that moment to accommodate more than we ever thought was possible.

Each person’s story is unique to them, and there’s little to be gained by questioning someone else’s truth as a spectator. There is truly a lot more that exists outside our mental comprehension than we realise.

In a sense, it’s good to talk about and normalise mystical phenomena so that eventually we treat them as the sunrise — with respect, perhaps even admiration, but never as something alien and beyond our accessibility.

My own journey has taught me that all is within the realm of possibility. Such experiences may come to us naturally as a catalyst for progress — an opening of the heart, healing old wounds or gifting us with greater understanding of life. We can absorb their lessons, share them if it feels right, and gratefully let them go. The difficulties arise when we get attached to our experiences and try to hoard them or wear them as badges of honour.

If mysticism becomes a touchstone for genuine spiritual living, or if we become too enamoured by otherworldly incidents rather than accepting them as pleasant side effects or blessings for our efforts, we can miss the underlying message entirely.

It will become ever easier to appear realised by carrying immense power that isn’t settled in ordinary human life, or stabilised by a purified heart. That can be a dangerous combination.

Another concern is the message we send out to people; are we helping people embrace the beauty of living their authentic lives, or subtly planting the idea that supernatural ability is a prerequisite for spiritual attainment?

Even those with an abundance of spiritual gifts may not be completely free of their judgements, making them very much normal human beings still refining, still figuring things out. And this is a good thing — being human isn’t less than!

If we inadvertently push the mystical beyond the scope of our human existence, we reinforce the idea of a boring, “ordinary” life we all must live being inferior to the magic and wonder of the otherworldly. This fragmentation of the mind can become a great hurdle on our path, easily steering us off course to seek out such experiences as an escape, rather than allowing them to be an integrated part of our humanity.

Spiritual powers don’t always signify enlightenment

Potent meditation techniques can lead to developing psychic capabilities, also known as “siddhis”. There’s no guarantee which siddhis will emerge, if any at all, and making them the primary goal of spiritual practice can stagnate our progress. Also, without sufficient grounding and maturity, these gifts can be misused to harm or manipulate. To intentionally control or manipulate others, even for apparent good, could potentially lead to serious karmic consequences.

I am reminded of the old wizard, Gandalf, who refuses to carry the ring of power due to the fear it may corrupt his good intentions — rendering him a benevolent tyrant imposing his own will on the citizens of Middle Earth.

Funnily enough, it was the hobbit, Frodo, who became the unlikely hero by virtue of his ordinariness. He was simple-hearted enough to not succumb to the ring’s influence. He didn’t want anything grand: just for his home and hearth to be safe, and his people to be well.

Risks aside, it’s useful to remember that all such phenomena and abilities operate in the relative realm of energy, whereas the ultimate goal of spiritual realisation concerns itself with unified consciousness or pure awareness.

The highest purpose of these openings is to transform our mind: gradually refining and expanding it so that we may realise ourselves as souls — or consciousness.

For me, mystical occurrences are nothing more than helpful aids, arriving on their own time to further our soul’s evolution. That said, our human potential is far greater than all these dazzling, marvellous experiences put together.

True transcendence imparts the greatest gifts of all. While humanity has spent millennia fighting and destroying one another over the illusion of power, the real treasures are far quieter:

Steady peace of mind, unconditional love, and the absolute soul freedom borne from embodying both.

If we have these gifts, we’d be at the zenith of human existence — essentially divine. This is mysticism at its purest, leading us to the inner union with our own divinity.

The less glamorous hallmarks of a spiritual life could be:

Are we moving towards greater inner peace, healing our own wounds and emerging stronger from it?

Are we expanding our capacity to love those who seem to wrong us?

Are we honestly able to let others be as they are without even privately condemning their life choices as we hold our own?

Are we comfortable living an embodied life, balancing the material and spiritual harmoniously, not trying to escape or reject one or the other?

Are we ordinary enough, and have we tamed the ego enough to not need any validation of our specialness? (We are all special, but this is a unique need for the little self to feel inherently superior).

Is every atom in our being filled with conviction in all that’s good in the world, even if everyone were to disagree?

The interesting thing with all the above examples is that no one need ever know. The most enlightened sages could be sitting in solitude in a busy metropolitan apartment, or singing their heart out on stage, playing video games, writing a novel, training for a marathon, suiting up for work.

They would be ordinary people living ordinary lives, all while burning within by the light of their soul. The irony is that even if they prefer to remain incognito, the soul’s light is hard to dim.

And once that inner light begins to radiate, there’s an inevitable spillover into our field. That overflow is a gift that keeps on giving, and it becomes truly selfless when there’s not even any self-awareness of the impact made.

Whether it’s 10 or 10,000 lives that are touched, the matured soul no longer cares, because it knows the number was never the point.

All this alchemy happens within. An entire spiritual saga can unfold quietly — in this body, on this little blue marble. These ordinary tales may not be the ones that pique our interest, but they’re the ones that are changing the world, one soul at a time.

Kiruthika Rajeswaran