Since age four, Urmila Devi Dasi sought to know God. At seventeen, while meditating, she experienced herself dissolving into oneness with God. It terrified her. Pulling back, she plunged into a life of hedonism, which thankfully didn't last long.
Over five decades later, she is steeped in her devotion to God as the Supreme Person with whom she has a personal relationship, whose hand she sees in every event of her life, who appears to her as an inexhaustible source of playfulness, love, wisdom, and grace, and whose presence she feels daily as a "non-satiated satisfaction." The terror of dissolving into an impersonal infinite has turned into the delight of being infinitely loved by Krishna, God who is at once completely one with her and completely distinct.
A disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Urmila Devi Dasi travels worldwide teaching Bhakti yoga. Among other books and articles, she is the author of Career Dharma: The Natural Art of Work (with Dr. Ruchira S. Datta), Krishna Meditations, and the novel Essence Seekers.
Learn more:
https://urmiladevidasi.org/
https://careerdharma.net/
Chapters00:00 Meditation at 17: Touching Oneness with God and Pulling Back in Fear
03:05 Trying to Be a Materialist - and Why it Lasted Only a Few Months
05:21 Reading Bhagavad Gita As It Is for the First Time
11:06 Possible Past Lives Devoted to Krishna
13:02 Meeting Srila Prabhupada Before Actually Meeting Him in Person
16:41 "Our existence is both the same as God and different from God"
31:18 "Non-satiated Satisfaction": Personal Experience of Krishna's Presence
37:33 The Five Relationships with Krishna - and Why She Won't Name Hers
43:46 A Day of Worship: Murti, the Maha-Mantra, and Offering Food to Krishna
49:26 God has Become Much More Personal and Experiential
55:48 Krishna's Play: "I am becoming more playful"
01:02:06 The Dance with the Ultimate: Free Will, Grief, and Accepting What You Can't Yet Feel
01:05:15 When Bhakti Feels Empty
01:18:56 Does God Really Test Us?
01:22:10 Crisis of Faith and A Realization That Came Fifteen Years Later
01:26:38 The Stolen Umbrella: Understanding Blessings in Disguise
01:33:12 Career Dharma: Finding the Work Aligned with Your Nature
01:44:22 Spiritualizing Your Work and Life: Charity, Honesty, and Offering to God
01:50:03 Vanaprastha: Life After Family Life
01:52:42 A Life of Delight
Intro and outro music by @BenBigelow3
