When I agreed on to be on the Vedic Atom I freely, and willingly made a pledge, a commitment to Maharishi to take direction from him. The mission of the Atom was to establish a Capital of the Age of Enlightenment in cities assigned to the Atom.
The process of forming an Atom took several days. It was like a sorority rush of everyone jockeying for which team of ten women they wanted to join. Right from the get-go, I felt the rumblings of my ego, "Pick me. Don't pick her. She is my friend. She is not my friend. I like her. I don't like her. I don't know her. I want to be with her. I don't want to be with her." It was a nutty process but looking back on it, I see it as the beginning of the grandest life lesson in detachment I have ever experienced. I'll put it on a par with raising children or experiencing a challenging relationship. You learn to observe the needs of your ego over the needs of other egos and you either pick your battles or let it go. The Vedic Atom was my mirror. Whatever I said or did, thought or felt was a reflection me looking at myself and owning whatever I saw. Who was that pretty girl in that mirror, there? Who could that attractive girl be? Just little ol' me clinging to my ego's small self, believing my "reality" was the more important than anyone else's was in the whole wide world. Every time I emerged from the mirror, I felt another layer of ego had been stripped away. After the snake sheds his skin, he is all shiny-new and feeling a little raw. As I've said, it wasn't easy. I ended up on a team of perhaps the most experienced and brilliant TM teachers I have ever had the privileged to know. Maharishi knew most of them personally from previous courses and wanted our team to have the most sought after TM center in the country, PAC Pal. After we formed our teams, about 10 or 12, we had a big send-off celebration in the dome where we actually made a pledge. Part of the pledge was "to agree on everything." I took this impossible task to heart and decided to give it my all. Simply put, it was a prescription for surrendering your ego or drive yourself crazy resisting the process. By the time we completed the formation of the Vedic I knew exactly the nature of my commitment. I could have backed out at anytime. But I didn't. I chose to follow my heart into to the mystery of "I don't know" and what an amazing journey it was.
