Spiritual enlightenment: The enlightened mom - Anette Carlström

By Hälsa

Like a fairy tale princess she sits on a white throne and lets her loving gaze wander over everyone. Anette Carlström is an unusual mother of two children from Skåne who travels around the country to spread the message of peace, joy and love.

The light. One cannot deny that there is something different about 41 year old Anette Carlström from Skåne. It shines around her, her hair, skin and eyes. Just in time for her birthday in August last year, Anette went to India for ten days, to Kalkis Ashram Golden City in south India. Kalki and his wife Amma strives to spread enlightenment to as many people as possible around the world. Anette came home enlightened - and very dazed. She was taken by the fact that she could see and experience people’s sorrows so clearly.

- Enlightenment is a biological process. Apparently there is a physical change in the left side of the brain. I can clearly feel that something has happened with my nervous system. I can no longer think negative thoughts or feel stress. I have an area inside my head, often the size of an egg. It feels like radio waves of peace streams from that area and as if I have a motor in my heart, which sends out love and compassion. At the same time I feel unity with all.

Anettes children, soon 17 and 9 years old, thinks she has more time for them now.

- My daughter takes my hands and puts them on her stomach if she has an ache. And when the children or someone else feels bad I can stay in it, feel it, without feeling bad myself. I always know how to act. I feel strong empathy, but I don't feel drawn into the suffering, like I did before. Before I felt like I should save the whole world. Now it is just the present that is important.

Anette Carlström is since her homecoming from India a very popular lecturer in both Sweden and abroad. She has talked about her experiences in Copenhagen, Moscow, Prague, Stockholm and Gothenburg and soon also in London and St Petersburg. She has also recorded a film to further spread the message.

A Seeker
Anette has spent most of her life seeking for the meaning of life. With a background in both Stockholm and Helsingborg, she moved as an 18 year old to Los Angeles to work as au pair. She stayed for 13 years.

- I wanted to discover the world and live in a warmer climate. But I got a job at a TV-station in Hollywood as a guest hostess and started studying at a film school. I also worked a bit as a model.

The shallow lifestyle in Hollywood strengthened Anettes thoughts about what life was really about. At an ashram in Los Angeles she met a young, enlightened Indian woman whose energy took her by storm.

- When I looked into her eyes a great change happened with me. I lost all words and just drowned in her eyes. It was like coming home. Ever since then I have been searching for this state where I felt that there was something greater than I.

Wanted to save the world
In 1987 Anette married an American with Native Indian inheritance and they had a son together. They moved to Sweden and Anette started studying kinesiology. She also further educated herself in sacral cranial therapy. In 1995 she had a daughter. In 1996 she divorced her husband.

- It was tough being a single parent and having my own company. I felt I wanted to save the whole world and worked way too much. Then one day I happened to go to a course where I, as soon as I entered the room, could feel the same energy I had experienced 20 years earlier. The course lecturer talked about how one could awaken ones own divinity. In english it is called "the indweller" - the one who lives within - and in sanskrit "antaryamin".

Meeting with the guru
Kalki was the one behind the course and Anette was fascinated by his teachings. After that Anette signed up for a so called mukti course. Mukti means liberation in sanskrit. The course was given in four parts and the idea was to prepare oneself for enlightenment. For the last part she had to come to India. To prepare herself she changed her diet, fasted for ten days and did colon cleansing by eating bentonite.

- It was tough, but afterwards it felt like my brain was in crystal clear water. - When I came to India I got the chance to participate in a so called samskara shuddi where one, during three days, goes deep down in hurts and suffering. The course is led by young enlightened Indian monks and nuns, so called Dasajis. When you experience a pain completely a void is created. The pain just wants to be seen. Then that void is filled with an enormous feeling of peace and joy. Simply put, it has to be experienced, says Anette.

Then it was time for the sacred fire ceremony homa, where Dasajis sit around a fireplace surrounded by herbs and flowers that they throw into the fire, at the same time as they pray for the group. They prayed that the karma of the group would be removed by the Power of Grace that they've been given by Kalki and Amma.

The day after that Anette got to meet Kalki. She could only ask general questions about enlightenment to him.

- I asked if we could give something to people when we got back home to our countries again or if we had to be enlightened ourselves to do it. Kalki answered that we had to be enlightened to give the enlightened state and that even if we laid our hands on hundreds of people maybe only two of them would become enlightened. This is because we haven't reached the critical mass of people on this planet that are needed so that everyone can get access to enlightenment.
- Kalki said that those of you who are ready to become enlightened will be so on Sunday. Otherwise, enlightenment will come after one has returned home. He also said that the enlightened state must be given, it cannot be achieved on your own.

Filled by a golden ball
The next day 150 000 people came to the so called Diksha. Kalki and Ammas power would be transferred either through the hands or the eyes. The couple sat on stage, there was music playing and a lot of joy all around.

- A female Dasaji came up to me and laid her hands on my head. It felt as if she pushed down a golden ball inside my head. The ball expanded in each chakra and filled all of me with something so great, something I have never experienced before. It was like nourishment, like sweet nectar.

Anettes friends and families have all seen her change as positive.

- But when people say congratulations I get confused. This state is actually the most natural. There are as many experiences of being enlightened as there are humans. Some might not even call it being enlightened. But this is a state where I experience no suffering, where my thoughts don’t bother me. I use my personality, but it actually feels as if I am Nobody. And there is no better or worse, playing cards with my daughter, doing the dishes or sitting here, says Anette.

Easier to become enlightened
Now there are no more mukti courses being given in Sweden. Kalki says that they are no longer needed, since he claims that favourable cosmic conditions makes it easier and easier to become enlightened. Now he is giving enlightenment at record speed, Indians come in trucks to his ashram. It goes slower in the western world where fewer people are enlightened. Anette says that perhaps it's because we have greater material prosperity, which can fulfil many of our needs. If you live in poverty and suffering, the desire for a transformation is greater.

- Kalki doesn't care about how you become enlightened. He says you need not analyse so much "analysis is paralysis". He means that it is enough with seeing and experiencing.
- I see it as if everyone has access to the Internet, but we have forgotten to turn on the computer. We just sit there and look at it, but we don't turn it on, smiles Anette.