Funny as it sounds eating an egg was a major step for me in recovery and breaking free from the Radha Soami Satsang Beas belief system.
My family and I regularly travel to a place in New Zealand called New Plymouth to visit my parents which is about 5 hours south of Auckland on the West Coast of the North Island. There are a couple of cafes that we stop at to break the journey. Now if you have ever had the unfortunate opportunity of eating out with a satsangi you will appreciate how tiring it gets when a meal is ordered. The poor cafe attendant is first questioned about the ingredients of every single vegetarian item, revealing that egg is in just about everything. Eventually, something is found that is egg free and cheese free (as most cheese has animal rennet) but just to be sure the chef is now called in to confirm that the vegetarian food you are about to eat is completely pure and not cooked in the same pan as meat. By this stage, your wife and kids are totally embarrassed as everyone in the queue thinks you're completely bonkers. My poor wife and family had to endure this experience countless times both here in NZ and overseas when we traveled. I feel totally embarrassed and ashamed of myself now when I think how selfish I was ( Matt 15:11 ).
It gets worse. While we were just starting out dating it happened to be Summer's birthday. So we went out to a fancy place called the Auckland Sky Tower which is 220 meters high with a revolving restaurant. Summer looked at the menu and asked would I mind if she ordered the smoked salmon entree? To which I replied, "go ahead but I won't be kissing you tonight". She said years later it felt like I had just slapped her across the face and she realized then and there that if we were to stay together she would have to be a vegetarian. I can't believe we are still married after so many trying years.
So you can imagine when I announced to my wife during our journey to New Plymouth, that I'm leaving Sant Mat, she thought I was joking. That was until reality hit home as she watched me eat my first mouthful of eggs hollandaise. Then her jaw dropped, eyes widened and tears started flowing.
From there on I had to force myself at first to eat more eggs and eventually fish but I felt freer with each forbidden mouthful from the invisible chains that had bound me for 12 years of spiritual imprisonment. I actually went a bit crazy on cakes for about 6 months eating everything I desired and there was a list I had in mind. Eventually though once the pendulum had swung back I reached my equilibrium again. The same thing happened with alcohol starting with red wine and then white but now I have the occasional beer and that's about it.
The whole Radha Soami Satsang Beas vegetarian teetotaller life style seems completely strange to me now. I mean if the meditation practice actually yielded results then I guess these sacrifices might be justifiable but I spent years scratching a stone wall. That's just plain mean and very hard on other non-satsangi family members.
Praise to Jesus Christ who found His lost sheep - Luke 15:1-7
Click here for Book by Sean Patrick
My family and I regularly travel to a place in New Zealand called New Plymouth to visit my parents which is about 5 hours south of Auckland on the West Coast of the North Island. There are a couple of cafes that we stop at to break the journey. Now if you have ever had the unfortunate opportunity of eating out with a satsangi you will appreciate how tiring it gets when a meal is ordered. The poor cafe attendant is first questioned about the ingredients of every single vegetarian item, revealing that egg is in just about everything. Eventually, something is found that is egg free and cheese free (as most cheese has animal rennet) but just to be sure the chef is now called in to confirm that the vegetarian food you are about to eat is completely pure and not cooked in the same pan as meat. By this stage, your wife and kids are totally embarrassed as everyone in the queue thinks you're completely bonkers. My poor wife and family had to endure this experience countless times both here in NZ and overseas when we traveled. I feel totally embarrassed and ashamed of myself now when I think how selfish I was ( Matt 15:11 ).
It gets worse. While we were just starting out dating it happened to be Summer's birthday. So we went out to a fancy place called the Auckland Sky Tower which is 220 meters high with a revolving restaurant. Summer looked at the menu and asked would I mind if she ordered the smoked salmon entree? To which I replied, "go ahead but I won't be kissing you tonight". She said years later it felt like I had just slapped her across the face and she realized then and there that if we were to stay together she would have to be a vegetarian. I can't believe we are still married after so many trying years.
So you can imagine when I announced to my wife during our journey to New Plymouth, that I'm leaving Sant Mat, she thought I was joking. That was until reality hit home as she watched me eat my first mouthful of eggs hollandaise. Then her jaw dropped, eyes widened and tears started flowing.
From there on I had to force myself at first to eat more eggs and eventually fish but I felt freer with each forbidden mouthful from the invisible chains that had bound me for 12 years of spiritual imprisonment. I actually went a bit crazy on cakes for about 6 months eating everything I desired and there was a list I had in mind. Eventually though once the pendulum had swung back I reached my equilibrium again. The same thing happened with alcohol starting with red wine and then white but now I have the occasional beer and that's about it.
The whole Radha Soami Satsang Beas vegetarian teetotaller life style seems completely strange to me now. I mean if the meditation practice actually yielded results then I guess these sacrifices might be justifiable but I spent years scratching a stone wall. That's just plain mean and very hard on other non-satsangi family members.
Praise to Jesus Christ who found His lost sheep - Luke 15:1-7
Click here for Book by Sean Patrick
