I joined the CBS News organization in New York, a starry-eyed intern confident that broadcast journalism and working for Eric Sevareid was my destiny. Four years later the U.S. State Department lured me to Washington, D.C. with the promise of free passage to everywhere if I would apply to the Foreign Service.

A restless soul with eyes on distant horizons, the "now" was never an option. So the search for Who Am I took the long and tortuous road across oceans and continents to the top of the world, only to find the answer dwells within.

Devastating Third World poverty, political assassinations, and an emotionally shattering Vietnam War were some of the more stressful environments in which I lived and worked. But the rich diverse cultures of Japanese, European, Islamic, Southeast Asian and African peoples played a defining role in the person I am today.

It would be impossible to forget the friendship and generosity of those whose lives were entwined with mine like interwoven wickerwork–my American foreign service colleagues, and the myriad foreign nationals who opened their homes and hearts to me. How grateful I am for having known every single one of them. Clearly, The Family of Man–of One Consciousness.

My journey led me to a frozen mountainside, described in a foregoing article, where for one brief moment a mystical stranger opened a portal to an awesome spiritual experience, only to have it close for a very long time.

My journey led me to a series of spiritual teachers: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who made me a teacher of Transcendental Meditation; Siddha Yoga masters Baba Muktananda and Gurumayi Chidvilasanda from whom I received shaktipat (kundalini activation) numerous times; contemporary spiritual visionary Panache Desai.

Like most people, my personal spiritual growth is a continuous process. The Divine Creator did not begin at a specific time, nor will it ever end. As discussed in one of my articles, I believe the Divine was, is and always will be. In exploring matter and energy in the universe, quantum physics may someday prove this scientifically.

The beginning of my deepening relationship to The Beloved is now manifesting through Avatars Sri Amma and Sri Bhagavan whose flourishing global ONENESS phenomenon opens the heart to the experience of oneness with the Creator–what some people call the doorway to enlightenment.

Simply put, through the grace of AmmaBhagavan, I began to connect in a very intimate way to my own personal God within. Referred to as the in-dweller, its essence is consciousness and bliss. In the meditative transcendent state, we are in direct contact with that formless silent space of Oneness. But for those in the fully awakened state, it is a 24/7 experience.

The eternal search for Who Am I is the odyssey all humans make to become awakened and fully conscious of their innate Divinity. It is an ineffable transforming roller coaster ride home, palpable as the crimson dawn in the age of our new earth. A line from Richard Russo’s novel "Empire Falls" best describes this journey.

“Lives are like rivers. Eventually they go where they must, not where we want them to.”