Light, love, power, and joy are among the latent qualities of the soul. This human potential can become actualized in a group receiving Higher Guidance. With the steady nourishment of these soul qualities, a loving environment is created that empowers the group to achieve its higher purpose.
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Soul Community is the seventh of ten phases in our journey.
The quotes below reflect our experiences.
“Our group union is an experience of the indivisibility of true Being. We came together to rekindle the Soul of the World and we now know this is possible.”
“Like many of us, I’ve always had an inner awareness of the new era and the new world. That has been my guiding star, no matter how hard others tried to convince me it was only a naive and beautiful dream. My heart and soul always knew it was real even before I encountered kindred souls. Entering our group, which became my true home on this Earth, brought outer confirmation. What we are working toward is a divine Idea, a beautiful seed that lives in every soul.”
“After a relentless thirst for truth, I discovered a circle where I found my place—a community of souls united by mutual respect and appreciation for diversity. We speak different languages and come from different social backgrounds, but we understand each other because we are merged in the soul’s unconditional love. We have a mutual desire to foster the common good and spread the higher truths that will undo the devastation of a world based on division and competition. This shared purpose has fused us into a collective soul, vibrant with joy, an expression of the human future based on justice and love.”
“If we can point to that part of each of us that is our ‘best and highest self’ and explore together what it feels like to experience that, we can open the door to the joy of the new world.”
“Our common intent is to live in a society that is based on trust, love, and compassion, one that is faithful to the divine evolutionary purpose. The group might be defined as a bouquet of flowers varying in color and design, and emitting a fragrance pleasing to those who seek as we have sought.”
“How is our group life different from life in ‘the old world’? We experience joy in one another, there is a constant flow of love, a sense of being part of a shared identity—a unified Being. There is a growing sensitivity to and resonance with one another and with our Elders, so that we think similar thoughts about what needs to be done and act freely to fulfill the needs according to our own gifts and capacities, all the while being attentive to our Guidance.”
“Ancient memories from eons ago have awakened in me and every time I’m with the group, I feel I’m in the right place at the right time. Life has acquired flavor and meaning. I finally feel free to express my true self and share it with a family of sisters and brothers. Every aspect of myself has blossomed.”
“One of the great learnings from our experience is that the more we are identified with the soul, the more we recognize that everyone in the group shares the same noble goal of serving the Ashram’s plan, and the more we want to support and nurture our sisters and brothers as we work toward the goal.”
“I have come to know that I am more than this body and that I am part of a conscious universe. To be alive in this universe and to be in relationship with others who are serving in its evolution, brings great joy and great love.”
“The harmlessness experienced in the group is like fresh air from the mountaintop. It stimulates me to be harmless in my thoughts and words, in my emotional reactions and physical actions. I have found my place on this planet through this work.”
“The group has cemented my previous spiritual learning into a living experience, very different from the cerebral exercise of gaining knowledge. It has allowed spiritual love, peace, and joy to enter my heart through the growing awareness of my soul.”
“We have been evolving organically and in ways that are new for most of us. In our work, everything is done with sensitivity and patience. We freely express love, gratitude, and appreciation, affirming and empowering one another. There are no demands placed on anyone for anything; there is a voluntary stepping forward to offer talents and gifts that can serve the whole.”
“We are individual creators within a collective that we have chosen to be a part of. Each participant becomes a donor to the life of the group being.”
“Now that I can see myself as a soul more than a personality and have experienced being part of a congregation of fellow human beings committed to service and self-perfection, I am convinced that humanity will evolve into a new race.”
“My identity with the group soul and the experience of unity have brought deep joy. The lack of criticism and the love shown to one another in our work give us glimpses of what the coming world will be like.”
“As a group we are allowing each other’s radiance to become a part of our own, and so it becomes a part of all those we meet. What we contribute to the group through mind and heart, through flashes of intuition and illumination, becomes field notes of our journey together. It is a journey we have committed to in service to those in need, and this sometimes includes ourselves.”
“There is a joy beyond words that comes from accomplishing a spiritual goal that serves a higher purpose—in cooperation with kindred souls. It is the pure joy of the soul.”
“Free will is essential to our group life. Our Elders set the example and never give orders but offer loving support that allows us to respond as our own intuition suggests. We act organically, according to subtle currents of love and sensed common purpose, sharing responsibility for our assignments, self-allocating tasks, and inspiring one another. We are already living in a new world of human possibility."
“I feel a river of loving energy flowing constantly into and through our group, radiating love to all. I’ve experienced an opening of the heart that breeds goodwill, right speech, loving kindness and compassion.”
“I have experienced myself as the One Self and realize that the way I interact with life is literally ‘me’ interacting with ‘myself’. Knowing this changes everything. When groups of people come together, knowing the divine truth about themselves and ‘others’, we begin to create the New Earth. The birth of a new humanity—based on truth, trust, love, peace, integrity, kindness and respect for Earth and all Her kingdoms—becomes a glorious inevitability.”
“Many aspirations have been affirmed and realised in the past few years. I find myself more comfortable sharing creative efforts, such as poetry or art. There’s a confidence in the group as well as in our Elders that has generated greater trust in me.”
“Through our experience, a fire ignited in my heart and head and gradually everything else in me caught fire—a fire of presence, joy, resonance, authenticity and courage.”
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The Bliss of Shared Soul Purpose:
An Essay
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you really are.” Carl Jung
There may be nothing more satisfying to an awakening soul than to become part of an integrated group of souls who share common values, ideals, and a vision of the future. This is so particularly where the group purpose is anchored in love, and truth, and guided by the integrity of the soul. Great strength and power lie in group communion in this time of unprecedented world upheaval.
In a community of conscious souls, certain fundamental truths underlying many religious and spiritual teachings are mutually recognized: the existence of the soul, and of a kingdom of souls inhabited by Those Who have transcended the earthly planes, and the existence of a divine plan that propels human and planetary evolution.
As the soul gains resonance with the subtler realities behind these truths, it is drawn irresistibly to others of similar resonance. In mutual response to enlightened teachings, and by the law of magnetic attraction, a soul community is formed. This has been happening in recent times via the Internet. Members of such groups may never have met physically but under the loving guidance of wiser Beings— ‘graduates’ of the school of life on Earth’s material plane—these groups can become harmonious, integrated forces with the capacity to foster change in the world.
A group of awakened souls has the potential to create an energetic field that nurtures soul qualities such as love, peace, joy, kindness, trust, and mutual respect. Increasingly aware of being part of One Soul, group members organically discover their natural role in fostering the shared group purpose and this enables all to become ‘who they really are.’
Working with kindred souls toward a common purpose accelerates the spiritual growth of everyone involved. This is especially true when a group is guided and encouraged by Those who watch and wait for human beings who are ready to play a part in building the new world. As the flower of the group soul unfolds its petals, the healing love of the group pours out into the world in fulfillment of a higher purpose. According to the wisdom teachings, we live inside a universe that is a vast reservoir filled with loving energy, and the Divine Purpose is to manifest this Universal Love within the world of matter.
In soul communities guided by enlightened Teachers, an environment of trust is established that encourages open sharing among members when exploring deeper, more intimate aspects of soul living. Mutual trust fosters the ability to break through outworn personality patterns forged over lifetimes. Living in a flow of unconditional love makes it far easier to release ways of perceiving and reacting to life that no longer serve.
As the individual soul emerges into conscious awareness, the locus of one’s reactions to life shifts from the solar plexus to the heart. In a soul community pervaded by love, members are helped to transform instinctual patterns of response into their higher expressions. In turn, the shift in the vibrational frequencies of the group field evokes a greater flow of love and light from the spiritual realm. The mind alone cannot pierce the veils between the visible and invisible worlds; only purified hearts find access to the higher worlds.
The teachings of Agni Yoga encourage us to consciously contact and invoke the presence of this greater Love by dispelling outworn thought forms so that we may become transparent transmitters of a higher vibration of Love. In this way, each of us acts as a focal point that both generates and circulates the energy of love.
Soul communities infused by spiritual love can become a healing force for our planet. Working towards the manifestation of a new world imbued with truth and beauty, such groups can help release human consciousness from binding attachments to the transitory things of this world, liberating the energies needed to create a thoroughly new experience of being human.
“Let your thoughts fly ahead of you and prepare new beautiful dwellings.” 1
1 Agni Yoga, Supermundane