“I’ll just walk around the mound and continue my walk, I thought, but I knew that wasn’t an option. So, I stood observing it and felt it observe me. Then, I saw an opening, a four-foot-wide entrance into the planet itself. I tried to see in, but it was pitch black. It was the same blackness that was behind the medieval wooden door in the council chambers. Through a magnetic pull, radiating from the opening itself, it invited me in. From where I stood, I could resist its tug on my body, but I knew if I stepped closer, I would be swept inside. I stood observing, resisting its pull.
Then from the top of my lungs, I screamed! Not Yet!”
“My eyes closed without any effort of my own. A deep sense of peace washed over me. There was solace in knowing that all the pieces of myself were coming together. As my eyes opened, I was once again standing in front of the opening to the earthen mound. Within reach of where I stood, I saw an envelope perched on the root of a plant. I picked it up. It was sealed with wax. It looked to be from another time, another century. The wax seal was marked with the letters, RD, my initials. Then the voice inside said, Raga and Dvesha…is The Raga Dvesha lesson so important to my evolution that my own name has held a clue for me my entire life?”
“What a wild ride, I thought, I’m sitting in the Vatican archives among ancient writings that most people don’t even know exist! I realized that as I viewed the first documents, I was comprehending both classical Greek and Latin. How could this be? Was it part of this dream state? ‘Or the siddhis of Pada Three,’ came a whisper.”
“Now, in this dream, I walked closer to St. Veronica, moved to my knees, then lay flat on my belly in yogic pranam, a gesture of surrender. This scene was familiar and eerily comforting. As I lay there, I heard a voice. I looked up. The statue of Veronica, now animated, was speaking to me. “We all need compassion,” St. Veronica said to me. “Learn to first give it to yourself, then you will be able to give it to and receive it from others." I was mesmerized and speechless. She continued. "Let us all light a candle of love for the world and illuminate the darkness surrounding so many,” she paused. Then, with a hint of a smile, she added, “Tatra sthitau yatnah abhyasā.”