A Better World

by Elizabeth Lowe

Beginnings

On March 13, 1938, I was born to a Jewish mother and a half-Jewish father in Vienna, Austria. This was the day that Hitler marched into Vienna, accomplishing the now infamous "Anschluss" to the welcoming cheers of the general Austrian populace.

A Nazi doctor, replacing the immediately fired Jewish woman who had been my mother's obstetrician, attended my delivery — evidence of the swiftness with which the so-called "underground" Austrian Nazi party surfaced and activated its anti-Semitic intent.

It was my parents' foresight and courage, as well as fortuitous circumstances, that allowed us to flee to safety. And so, after finding temporary haven in Yugoslavia and then in Belgium, we started a new life in New York City when I was two years old.

In spite of this escape, I had an innate sense of the horror into which I was born, and this profoundly affected my feelings and my adaptation to existence. From my teen years on, I was committed to social causes (the peace movement, civil rights, feminism, and progressive Jewish organizations).

Eventually, propelled by the same motivation to bring about change in the world, I became a psychotherapist.

A Consideration of Spiritual Life

When I first discovered Adidam and was profoundly moved by Avatar Adi Da and His "radical" message, I was reluctant to become His devotee, beset by the notion that engaging in Spiritual life would be an abandonment of the "cause" of a "better world."

Eventually, as I understood more about Him and the Reality-Way of the Adidam, I came to see that a "better world" could only come about through the radical heart-conversion that true Spiritual life is about, and this insight cleared the way for me to turn to Him for His Great Help, as His devotee.

Little did I know how this original understanding would be driven deeply into my whole being in my ensuing encounters with Him.

In May of 1992, I went on a meditation retreat at Avatar Adi Da's Hermitage in Fiji while Avatar Adi Da was in residence there. I went open and vulnerable, for I had discovered that it was my relationship to Him that made my life truly worth living. Yet I was also full of doubt about my capability to really live that relationship in His Company.

I was full of fear of who knows what: failure, inadequacy, confrontation with my "true nature," being judged...

Next: Retreat on the Island