Sister Jenna is a spiritual mentor, the founder and director of the Brahma Kumaris Meditation Museum and the host of America Meditating Radio. 

We spoke about her meditation practice, her understanding of the obstacles that impede our progress toward peace, and our ability to see the divine in one another.

“Many of us have had this experience of divine light, but we didn’t choose to hold onto it. We allow it to just come and go.” 

“I don’t want to waste my thoughts anymore on anything that isn’t supporting the establishment of a better world. I don’t want my thoughts to go into any area of my past that I have no control over. I don’t want those thoughts to hold me hostage and take me away from the real purpose of my birth at this time, which is to co-create a better world in companionship with God and God’s children. 

I’ve grown more into letting go and allowing my practice to educate me more and more each day. And I think my teachings of Raja yoga meditation, which is taught by my community, the Brahma Kumaris. I have learned that it is essential for me to begin to remember the nature of my soul’s existence, which is very detached and yet very loving at the same time. 

And that’s an art within itself that you can not be so deeply entrenched in something and yet be so loving about that thing and give your all to it without the expectation or the drainage of saying that it should be this for you when you’re done investing your energy in it. It will be what it is meant to be. And I think that if my practice of being loving and detached will continue to help me to navigate this particular space and time I’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine if we did that actually. 

So in my tradition of the Brahma Kumaris, which has been led predominantly by women, when the founder Brahma Baba had his download…imagine in the thirties, in the land of Pakistan, before the separation of Indian and Pakistan, this man is searching. He’s looking for some meaning and all of a sudden he gets this enormous experience of light energy through him of God’s light. And it’s telling him, “You’re a soul. I am the Supreme soul. I’m Shiva. I’m here to liberate you from your sorrows.” I mean, what would you do? What would you do if that knocking happens on your conscience? 

I suspect that many of us have had this experience of this divine light, but we didn’t choose to hold onto it. We allow it to just come and go. And we carried on with what we always were doing. And with Baba, he didn’t. He held onto the light. And as a result of holding onto the light, the people in his community saw that light through his physical presence and knew there was something happening because he wasn’t the same man they saw yesterday and he wasn’t the same man that they saw a week later and two weeks and a month later. What was that light that they kept seeing? 

The majority were women that started with the tradition and the movement. They just built it without thinking it would become a global impactful movement, shaping millions of lives around the world. It’s over 80 years now, it’s been in existence and it’s been quietly guiding souls internally to access that link to that light. So that it’s not just one or two people that get a call, but anyone can get the call. 

The question is, do you answer it? And do you establish a relationship with it? So in theBrahma Kumaris we teach a philosophy known as Raja Yoga and it’s one of the highest forms of yoga. It invites you to turn inwards and to look at the soul and investigate the way the soul feels and what it’s going through and imagine what the vision is that’s pulling you. And there’s a really deep recording and especially ancient souls that have been traveling for a long time, that they believe there is a golden ancient world coming. 

And they’re seeing that inside of themselves. And as a result of seeing that golden age, they know they have to make a change inside of themselves. They have to become golden age before the world can become golden age. So the whole teachings of the Brahma Kumaris is where the teacher is. God, the Supreme Baba became the instrument to be the catalyst, to remind us of how to make the connection. And every student…over a million of us have a direct link and a direct access to source. And we are using that connection and relationship to transform the memories and the impressions that we’re carrying in our personality that might be getting in our way. 

There are certain energies that are—I call it algae. It’s an acronym that I know is our shadow, our blockage, our limited belief systems, A for anger, L for lust, G for greed, A for attachment and E for ego. 

This is the reason why there’s so much injustice in the world. This is the reason why there’s so much division in the world. This is the reason why there’s so much violence in the world. This is the reason why there’s so much hatred in the world. This is the reason why there’s so much fear. 

World leaders can solve this problem in a heartbeat, but until they get that algae out of their personality, it will not allow them to speak the truth, to help their citizens to follow their lead. And it’s interesting that if the citizens have the recording of algae, even if the leader speaks the truth, the citizens will not be ready to receive it. 

The algae’s blocking out the truth. So in the teachings of the Brahma Kumaris and meditation, it’s offered that individuals have to look inside of themselves and begin to recognize their own limits and their own blockages. And by doing that, you get to understand what another fellow brother must be going through. And with that, understanding it emotes, compassion, patience, understanding, perseverance, determination, it emotes service. How can I be of service and help my brother? Not how can I be an instrument to take my brother down and destroy him? Because I think he doesn’t belong on the planet. It won’t let you think that way. 

I think all of us have a specific time in our journey where we will say yes to the light. Some of us say yes to the light because of love. That love is so deep and so compelling. You will not exchange it for anything in the world. And then some of us hold onto the light when there’s tragedy—for example, when 9-11 happened in America, people were praying like you wouldn’t believe—people even questioned God at that time. Why would they let something like that happen? 

Well, go back to the Holocaust, go back to the days of slavery in the middle east, in Africa, in India, go back to atrocities throughout time. Whenever you witness atrocity, there’s one level where the individuals involved with initiating the atrocity are definitely not in remembrance of God and the ones who are experiencing the brunt of that atrocity are praying to God so much to get them out of that suffering. 

So it’s interesting that we either remember God out of love because we know it’s the greatest force on earth, or we wait until a tragedy occurs to remind us the importance of this remembrance of God and this connection to God. And I don’t speak of God in a religious terminology. So please don’t think I’m advocating religion here. And I don’t think anyone in the world should ever be insecure or resistant in sharing about these three letters, G-O-D, and if the word even initiates some sort of a resistance in you or discomfort, then just do G-O-O-D and you’ll be okay. 

It’s interesting that those that are initiating violence and fear are in an absence of that remembrance and connection and the call and the light. And I’m sure that even after they go down that hole, they’re having snippets and moments of being given opportunities to make a turnaround. But because at that moment, their soul is in a weak state of its power in terms of virtues and qualities, it doesn’t know what to do. So it just keeps going down that road until it reaches a point where it can’t go down that road anymore of despair and it has to, it must, and it will, turn back to God in order to change its ways.” 

“There’s a way to encourage souls to move towards that light. You have to become that light. You have to be committed to restoring your own inner dignity and power and truth and purity and wealth of spiritual presence and wisdom. You can talk all you want to talk. That’s what people do a lot nowadays. We’re talking right now, but together, as we look into each other’s eyes, we’re also having a very mystical and beautiful experience, which maybe our words will never be able to describe what we’re feeling, looking at each other. 

And so what we’re feeling in each other’s energy in each other’s presence, words can never supplement. And so I feel that if each individual on the planet became committed in believing there is a better way of existing and they stay consistent in building that vision of their better self…just imagine a human being that carries an aura of self-worth and dignity, not because of the name brand clothes that they wear or the way they put on their makeup or their haircut or the car they drive. But their self worth and dignity is being nurtured by the choices that they make, that they don’t give sorrow, but they also no longer choose to take sorrow from anyone. 

And so when you start to raise your energy inside, where you look into the mirror and you’re not trapped in the label that you see, the color of the skin, the color of your eyes, the quality of your hair, but you look into the mirror and you see the soul that you are behind your eyes. And you begin to ask, how are you living? What is your contribution to humanity? Who have you helped today? 

When individuals can feel the energy from a person who lives like that, it will make them a better person and it will give them the courage to want to be better. I think because we are not seeing a lot of examples of the sacred or the beauty of God’s divinity, even in some religious individuals, people question their motives, they question the way they run their churches or their congregation or their organizations. And they question their integrity and their worth. And it’s valid. 

So at the end of the day, can you see God in that child? Can you see purity in that person? Can you feel your peace? Can you? Because if you can, it will urge the other person to want that too.” 

___

“I think it’s important that when we say working on ourselves, it involves other people. It’s not an isolated affair. When you find these windows throughout the day to just be inside of yourself and you observe the way that you felt when you stood in front of this person, or when you were in a meeting and you ended up feeling so frustrated, because nobody took your idea or you were on the train and somebody took your seat and you felt algae instead of your truth. That’s the work. The less you feel algae, the more sacred and the closer you’re getting to God. 

The drama put the algae in us. We’re not to be blamed. It’s like an actor who goes in for an audition. And the script already has the character written in the script and what that actor will do in that drama. So it’s not like the actor comes in, the actor gets the script. And what I have learned and understood is the drama of life has inserted algae in the story, because if we were always just loving and happy and peaceful and pure, what a boring existence that would be. I mean, how much happiness can you have without a little bit of drama . And so the drama has scripted us to experience algae, which actually made us invest a lot in our five senses and to understand what the humanness of life can be. 

But it reaches a point that algae will also exit the script. It won’t stay forever. And this where again the intervention of God’s light says, I think you guys have played a lot with this now. You must be tired of this algae, aren’t you? And then it gradually starts to leave the script. And that algae will come again to give you some excitement and some drama. And that will also leave you at some point when you’re also exhausted of that.

You are in a cycle and that cycle is called a trauma and you are an actor and you are playing out a part. Love it, embrace it, romance it, deal with it, but don’t waste your time being so stuck and caught up on other people’s drama when you have such a capacity to enjoy your own, 

Remember Dory, in Finding Nemo? That’s fine to be like a Dory. I remember the part where the shark was like coming after her and she just looked at him like, “Hey dude, how are you?” And it was her purity and innocence that protected her. So sometimes I feel that if you are not aware of some of the dangers, it can be unhealthy or it could be dangerous for you. But when there’s wisdom and understanding with your innocence and purity, nothing can touch you. Nothing can really push you down. You will go through challenges like everyone else, but it won’t take so much from the soul that you feel so victimized and so helpless that you don’t see hope at the end of the tunnel. 

I’ve recently learned that sometimes the people in your life who have been a quiet presence were teaching you in that silence and that there were those moments when you would look at them, you were learning some of your greatest lessons. But you were too busy in your ego or your attachment or in your duties or your personality that you were missing the greatest lesson that was being offered to you in silence. And so what I’ve been learning now is that you can learn more in the silence than you do in the sound.” 

___

“I was hoping that as a result of this pandemic, that we would’ve birthed a healthier humanity. And what it is revealing is that many of us are holding onto so many experiences. Past hurts, unfulfilled expectations of the life that we wanted to live. And what we’re witnessing is a mushroom of mental instability. And I think the silence that was offered at that time during the pandemic or at any other time was a different kind of silence. It was a silence that was void of wisdom because if I was quiet in a room and I was surfing on internet and looking at a bunch of happy people, and then I looked at my life and I see how miserable I am, it could make me mentally unstable. It could play with my emotions. And if I’m not using wisdom, I might not ever have the thought that people don’t look like that every day. That’s not real life. It’s just people, trying to project. This is how they want to feel. 

I think after very challenging times, the age of the Renaissance reemerges, and I feel that one of the things I have taken from the pandemic is an enormous amount of extra creativity, a need to co-create beauty in the world so that we can forget the sorrows of the world. 

When we talk about this G O D or G O O D, don’t feel that you have to keep putting the energy or your relationship with God into religion and squeeze him down to that. Come on. You cannot squeeze such a beautiful being into one religion and call it truth. It’s sacrilegious actually. So imagine if all faiths and all traditions educate and evolve their congregations by reminding them that their souls and that God is the Supreme soul who belongs to all souls. But the fact that you’re in my tribe, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism…then let us be the best example of this energy. Let us show the beauty of this energy and let us work together in doing that. 

And I think that when we integrate spirituality in religion, that’s what we’ll get. It won’t be that you feel insecure. If one person goes to another religion, if the Christianity goes into a Muslim mosque and sits there that he’s up to something, no, he just wants to feel the presence of the tribe. And the other way that God works through this tribe, I have friends from all over the world and all different faiths. And when I get to be in their gathering, I see how beautiful God is. So for me, God does not belong to Christianity or Buddhism or Islam or Judaism. No way. He belongs to all of them. The question is, do you, do you belong to the father? What is your relationship with God, the father? Do you have one?” 

__

“I have to say that I’ve been noticing I’m becoming a little extra sensitive to the sadness and the suffering that I’m seeing in the world. And as much as I know that it’s the drama and I know that the drama is playing out exactly as it’s supposed to. I can’t help but feel I want to do more. What can I do to help us to move from being in that mental space? I can just do what I do best. Jesus had 12 disciples and he took three years for his journey of enlightenment. And after he passed away—2000 years later—over a billion people still turn to his message for support. You don’t need a million people to make an impact. You just need a few well-intended people to do so.” 

__

“Don’t take sorrow from anyone or anything, and don’t give sorrow to anyone or anything.”

Discussion questions:

-Have you ever experienced the “divine light” that Sister Jenna talks about? Have you been able to hold onto it?

-Talk about the ALGAE that Sister Jenna mentions. What is it and where have you seen it?

-How do you practice seeing the divinity in others?

-When have you been reminded of GOD or GOOD? When have you tragically forgotten?

-When drama enters your life, are you able to remember that it is temporary?

-Have you found a healthier humanity after the pandemic, or one that is struggling? For yourself and the bigger world.

-Have you become more or less sensitive to the suffering of the world?