A scene about enlightenment from the novel: Romancing the Truth by Sanjay Grover

“Well, I have bad news for you all, who are yearning for union with god. There is, in Truth, just the One!”Vivek stated with a sweep of his arm. “The idea of two becoming one is a fallacy, for there is no two to begin with. The analogy of a drop merging with the ocean is wrong, for there is no separate drop, nor is there an ocean. There is only the water vapour. The individual drop, the seeking stream, the vast ocean are all an illusion! Everything is the vapour! Who are you right now, if not That?” Vivek asked mildly, looking towards the glass door that carried the AoOa mantra. “I am That, you are That…”

“Hi, I am Prashant!” interrupted a man who suddenly appeared at the door. “I hope I’m not late,” he said. He entered and spontaneously prostrated on the floor to pay his obeisance at Vivek’s feet. There was a hushed silence. On standing up, Prashant was shocked to see Vivek, in return, prostrating at his feet. Vivek then stood up and pointed towards the door. Prashant, yet to recover from the shock, stared dumbfounded at Vivek, unable to comprehend why he was being shown the door. Dejected, he turned to go when Vivek gave him a hug and gently said, “My child, read the AoOa mantra: I am That, You are That, All this is That, And that’s that!

“I am That; you are That; so why should That prostrate before That!” Oh, all this, simply and gloriously, is That!” laughed Prashant, suddenly getting the cosmic joke. Ecstatic, and oblivious of all, he started dancing with self abandon, as he repeated over and over again, “Oh, I am That, and That is me!” 

After dancing for a few minutes, Prashant stopped and hugged Vivek. Vivek hugged him back tighter, then patted him on his head as he led him to a chair. A beatific smile played on Prashant’s face that glowed with a mysterious aura. Tears rolled down his cheeks to reach his lips. As he tasted his own salty tears, he felt he had enjoyed the sweetest water ever. A sudden hush filled the hall, like a divine spell. CC sensed a certain sacredness, as a palpable, deep calm and peace descended on the place.

The dishevelled Prashant again suddenly burst into laughter. “Ah, what a Leela! What divine play! The one and only That, sharing itself as the lover and the beloved to be able to experience love; then experiencing the joy of non-duality that it itself is when the lovers unite! What a joyful divine game,” he exclaimed, his voice hoarse with awe. “Oh Leela! Oh Leeelaaaa!! Oh Leeeeeeeelaa!!! Oh, the ecstasy of knowing oneself as love! Knowing oneself as bliss! Knowing oneself as immortal! Knowing oneself as All! How obviously ingenious – the singular, through duality, experiencing its own non-duality!”

Some guests thought that Prashant was a hysterical man trying to get attention, but CC realized that the Gold Brick had hit Prashant on the head. He had been shocked into awakening. Prashant had been collecting nuggets of gold and fusing them into a brick, but it was now that the Truth had hit him – the gold brick had hit his head. This awakened him to the truth that there is no true ‘I’ apart from the formless essence. His second-hand knowledge had become first-hand experience – intellectual knowledge had turned into experiential knowing!

“He’s tasted the durian,” CC was awestruck. The new guests wondered what he meant, while the others smiled.

 “Is Enlightenment so sudden! Like a lightning strike!” Andrew gasped. He was one of the rare few to have witnessed someone becoming enlightened, and had got the goosebumps. “Then the One week Yearn is indeed a long time…”

“He’s thunderstruck,” Aruna declared.

“What Thunder?” asked a guest who overheard her.

“It’s the lightning strike of profound clarity that occurs when all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fall into place,” Aruna explained. “The thunder may feel like a bolt from the blue, but it is usually preceded by months, years, or even decades of painstaking exploration,” Aruna added. “Just as death is a process and an event, enlightenment too is a process and an event, for enlightenment also involves death – the death of the ‘I.’ The process of preparing the ego to die involves time, but the moment of death is the instantaneous Aha or Eureka moment!”

“Yes, the Yearn Quest is the EABS before the leap; CeLiberation is the EABS after landing in higher orbit; and Enlightenment is the leap that you all just witnessed,” Vivek remarked.

“So, CeLiberation is an after-effect of enlightenment, rather than a side-effect,” Matt commented with a laugh.

“And enlightenment itself is a side-effect of getting Swatted,” Vivek commented mysteriously.