when i started morning class with the BKs i remember one day when i was full of the joys of Brahmin life being told by a jaded old BK, 20 years "in Gyan", that i was in the "Honeymoon Period" and that i should make the most of it, because soon enough the "free intoxication" would stop, and i would have to start working for my spiritual upliftment... he went on to explain that every BK received a lot of help from above when starting out (ie from the time of spiritual rebirth), but that, after hooking you in, and showing what was possible, the help would be removed, and the child would be left to stand on his/her own feet, and earn their own way in the spritual world.proy wrote:Please tell me more about the Honeymoon Period.
I did not fully believe what i was being told - surely i had just given up physical relationships, tobacco, alcohol, meat, eggs, onions, garlic, the works, and started keeping a "chart" of my progress and efforts, and started getting up most days for (unprecedented for me) 6 o'clock (or even 4 o'clock on a good day) for meditation and Murli class.... and here i was being told that (effectively) i wasn't earning, form my own efforts, the blasts of "super-sensuous joy" that i was regularly experiencing....
Looking back on it now, he was right - there was a "Honeymoon Period" - and many other BKs have since confirmed the same to me from their own experience. There is an initial intoxication that carries you along and enables you to make the big changes in your lifestyle that BK life demands. Later, if you are lucky, you learn to generate similar intoxication from your own efforts, but it does indeed take time. It seems to me that the Honeymoon Period highs are sporadic and unpredictable, you soar and plummet - whereas the later experiences from "standing on your own feet" are more stable and pretty much constant - you merge the divine into your everyday life, and your everyday life improves beyond recognition.
There were also, for me (and others i have spoken to) mini "honeymoon periods" when you have left for a while (a few days, a few weeks, a few months or years...) and return - everyone is pleased to see you and very loving and powerful meditation experiences return - but the joyride soon fades, and the old staleness and/or discontent that caused you to go away soon returns...
I have actually found more spiritual stability and elevation since leaving the BKs - the highs are lower and the lows are higher. The sheer exuberance experienced at times in the initial "Honeymoon Period" has never been regained, but the results of spiritual self transformation over a prolonged period of time are, for me, preferable to the rollercoaster of the early days.
