Discovering Your Divine Blueprint: Can You Hear The Whispers of Your ‘I AM?’
From Desires to Destiny: Unlocking Your Path
You’re on a path — but not just any path — your path is unique, with secrets and possibilities hidden beneath the surface. And guiding you? Your ‘I AM,’ your Higher Self. How can you connect with your I AM, and how does it guide you? These questions and others will be answered below.
“I am teaching you that if you can learn the everlasting impact of your inner voice, you shall be talking to God all the time and be normal and happy.” — Yogi Bhajan
Your Essence and How It Talks to You
No matter what life throws your way, a spark is always burning within you. It’s your essence, your ‘I AM.’ It is much bigger than your ego self, which is infinitesimally small in comparison. I AM is much wiser and more powerful than the personality or ego self. I AM existed before you came into the body and continues after the body. I AM has no name, no form, and no structure. I AM exists in complete silence but has much to say. How does it get the message across?
I AM urges you through desires — not just any desires — the deep kind tied to your life mission.
Desires Get a Bad Rap
Desires often get a bad rap. In many old religions and spiritual traditions, they were thought to cause suffering. In some Western religions, they were even considered evil. But what if there’s more to the story?
The Vedas, the world’s oldest spiritual texts, have a take on desires that might surprise you. According to the Vedas, desires are integral to your spiritual journey. How? Read on.
According to the Vedas, desires hold a sacred significance that is often overlooked. Your Higher Self, or jiva-atman, communicates with you through desire. In fact, the fulfillment of basic desires facilitates your spiritual path. You fulfill your purpose for this lifetime by moving through and fulfilling authentic desires.
The Vedas call the four basic desires Puruṣārtha. They are:
- Artha: Artha refers to wealth, prosperity, and pursuing material success. It plays a vital role in well-being and meeting your basic needs. The purpose of Artha is to provide a solid material foundation necessary for a fulfilling life.
- Kama: Kama represents the pursuit of desire, pleasure, love, and sensual gratification. It encompasses aesthetic and sensual pleasures, including art, music, and sexual love. All of these are seen as natural and essential aspects of life. The purpose of Kama is to enjoy life and fulfill your desires in a balanced and ethical manner.
- Dharma: Living your Dharma means understanding and embracing your unique purpose or true calling in life. This is crucial for leading an authentic, fulfilling, and purposeful life. Living your Dharma enables you to express your true self, appreciate the richness of life, make positive contributions to the world, and find inner peace and happiness.
- Moksha: The ultimate goal of human life, Moksha, is the liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth (samsara). It signifies spiritual liberation and realizing one’s true nature as the jiva-atman (Higher Self) and its unity with Brahman (the ultimate reality). Achieving Moksha involves transcending the ego, realizing the impermanent nature of the material world, and attaining eternal peace, bliss, and oneness with the divine.
By Fulfilling Puruṣārtha Desires, You Support Spiritual Liberation
According to Puruṣārtha, fulfilling each primary desire helps support other desires, eventually fulfilling the ultimate desire of Moksha or liberation. Artha supports the spiritual journey by ensuring that basic needs are met, allowing individuals to focus on higher spiritual goals without being burdened by material concerns. Kama contributes to a well-rounded life, creativity, pleasure, and beauty, enriching your experience and supporting overall well-being. Dharma is the foundation upon which the other Puruṣārthas rest. It involves living by cosmic laws and your life purpose. Moksha represents liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth, the ultimate spiritual goal. Pursuing Dharma, Artha, and Kama, when done in harmony, supports your journey towards Moksha.
Recognizing, Intending, and Willing Authentic Desires Lead to the Fulfillment of Your Destiny
An ancient Hindu text, the Brihedaranyaka Upanishad, says something profound about desire.
“You are what your deepest desire is. As is your desire, so is your intention. As is your intention, so is your will. As is your will, so is your destiny.” Brihedaranyaka Upanishad
Finding and Fulfilling Your Destiny (Dharma)
You are born with a unique purpose or calling in life. Due to our conditioning during childhood, most people have lost touch with the inner voice that guides them toward their destiny. We are conditioned by the beliefs of our parents, peers, and teachers to become something that may or may not have anything to do with our purpose for being here.
Susan’s Story
One of our spiritual students, Susan, was an ambitious woman who strongly desired to become an attorney, or so she believed. Her father had repeatedly told her from a young age that she needed to become a successful lawyer to be happy, and she took on her father’s belief without question.
She earned straight A’s throughout high school and university, leaving little time for dating or socializing. She worked her way into one of the best law schools. After graduating, she aced the Bar exam and joined a prestigious law firm.
When I met her, her life was in turmoil. She had only worked a year at the law firm and quit. She had a natural talent for writing and excelled as a budding attorney. Her ability to craft compelling legal briefs in a short amount of time was impressive. However, she found the monotony of writing dull legal briefs that did not capture her interest and the constant stress at the law firm unbearable.
She left the law firm in New York and moved back home. All hell broke loose when she informed her family she no longer wanted to be a lawyer. They could not understand why she had quit.
On her first evening back, her father, mother, and older brother, a successful attorney himself, sat her down to talk with her. To her, it felt like an intervention. They asked her what happened and suggested she should see a psychiatrist.
The worst moment came when they asked her about her life plans. She revealed that she had always been passionate about writing and wanted to travel the world to explore and write about all the mysteries she would find in her travels.
Her father and brother argued with her, telling her that she would regret it because, as an unknown author, she would not be able to support herself. Realizing that they would never accept her decision to follow her passion, she left devastated and brokenhearted that her family would not support her desire.
But she knew deep down that she had to follow her calling. She couldn’t stand the idea of going back to her old life.
Several years later, my wife and I ran into her at the Oaxaca airport in Mexico. She had just returned from Japan, where she had lived for several months. She supported herself by teaching English to Japanese Attorneys while traveling to the many ancient temples and shrines to explore and write about their mysteries.
We asked her why she was in Mexico and how she was doing. She said she was there to explore the sacred sites and pyramids of the Toltecs and write about what she found. She said her time in Japan had been amazing, and she was finishing up a book on the mysteries she had discovered. During her time in Japan, she earned only a week’s worth of her previous salary as a lawyer in several months. And, instead of regretting the day ahead of her like she used to, she woke up every day with excitement for what new mysteries life would bring her.
When I asked her where she would go after Mexico, she said she didn’t know. However, she mentioned that she would feel an urge from within when the time was right. She added that everything worked out beyond her greatest expectations every time she followed those inner urges.
Characteristics of Urgings from Your I AM
Your I AM, your Divine Self, is the center of everything. It is a powerful force that constantly pulls you towards something. You might wonder what that something is and why it matters. This force can be intense and persistent, and if you listen to it, it has always felt like a part of you.
The fulfillment of acting on a desire from I AM is more than getting what you want. It’s about transformation, about becoming more of who you are. You may not believe that following your desires will lead you to fulfill your destiny, but by taking action on your urges, their purpose will open up to you, just like Susan in our story.
“Each of us has an inner teacher, a voice of truth, that offers the guidance and power we need to deal with our problems.” — Greg McKeown
The Journey Towards Life Purpose
Imagine a canvas — yours is vast, a blank space where every brushstroke defines who you are. It’s a space where choices become art, and decisions paint the story of your life. But as you stand before it, brush in hand, how do you choose what stroke to take?
You began by listening to your authentic desires. Your life’s purpose isn’t just about finding the path laid out for you. It’s about connecting with your Divine aspect and listening to its guidance. It’s about creating it with every step you take in alignment with that guidance.
Your Unique Gifts Lead You to Your Life’s Purpose
Start by deep diving into the core of who you are, uncovering the talents and gifts that have always been part of you. Everyone has a unique set of gifts. In Susan’s case, it is the gift of expression through writing. What is your gift?
Some people may know their gifts but not use them, while others may have suppressed them for so long that they are dormant and must be rediscovered.
Your gifts are the tools you need to fulfill your life purpose. The deep desires from your I AM are the guideposts showing you the next step in realizing your life purpose.
Discerning Authentic Desires from False Ones
Understanding your desires isn’t straightforward. There are authentic and false desires, and telling them apart is key. But how? Society, your past, and even your emotional wounds cloud the picture. There are ways to clear the fog and see your desires for what they are.
- Authentic desires are often long-standing. They have been with you for a long time.
- Authentic desires are persistent. They may fade away but will return, urging you to choose and act.
- Authentic desires are deep, and following them leads you down a path of growth and evolution.
- Inauthentic desires are often fleeting and demand instant gratification. However, when they are fulfilled, they rarely lead to long-lasting fulfillment.
- Desires from I AM come from deep inside. Other desires may be authentic, such as the desire to eat or have sex. These types of desires are physical desires from the body. They are real and need to be fulfilled, but unlike desires from I AM, they frequently come and go. The same is true for human desires such as relationships and family. These are authentic but differ from the urgings that come from I AM.
Desires Are The Language of I AM — Listen and Act
The I AM, your Divinity, communicates with you through urgings and deep desires. These urges aren’t just fleeting thoughts. They’re the compass that points you toward a life of authenticity, fulfillment, and purpose.
When you feel an urge from deep within, acting is essential. Often, these urgings require you to make a choice. These choice points are like forks in a road. One way leads you away from your life purpose. The other puts you closer to the reason you are here. Sometimes, they are small choices and very significant at different times. In the case of Susan, she made the difficult choice of leaving the law firm and following her passion. When she did so, her life changed forever.
Don’t Wait. You Rarely See the Ultimate Destination, But the Journey Is Worth It
When we know we need to make a choice, it is not uncommon to hesitate and try to determine precisely where each path leads. Life rarely shows you the ultimate destination. In fact, the destination isn’t determined until you actually make a choice. You must make the choice before there is a destination. You will be continually waiting to know what the destination is. In the meantime, windows of probabilities are passing you by. You may be static, but life rarely is.
When you choose and act on the urging, your I AM will give you more guidance. The more you take advantage of this guidance, the more you will receive.
By following the desires of your I AM, you honor the very essence of your existence. By embarking on your path of Dharma, you maximize the opportunities for personal growth, expansion, and spiritual evolution—your purpose for being here. This doesn’t mean challenges won’t be sent your way—they will. But you will have the tools to take them on and ultimately have fun doing so.
So, take a deep breath. Can you hear the call of your I AM? It’s there, a gentle tug at the edge of your consciousness. Step forward with courage and hope. The journey toward a life of purpose and fulfillment is just beginning. Will you take the next step? The choice is yours, and the path is waiting.
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