Lexy,

(Probably just national karma related to the treatment of the Irish.)

It is pretty interesting how so many of us tapped into that bliss experience early on in the process.  It is impossible for most of those that experienced it to pass it off as delusion (didn't really happen), even though it happened so many years ago.  I think we experience those events as 'states' (temporary) and try strive to ingrain them permanently into the vocabulary of our experience as 'stages'.  Then we become endlessly frustrated when it doesn't happen that way.  Losing access to those feelings is something like being jilted by a lover, along with all of the attendent feelings of rejection, anger, etc.  Many of us thought the lover was Maharaji, instead of realizing that he was a (focal) part of the strange equation that mysteriously opened up those feelings to us.  Clearly we experienced those feelings (along with the symptomatic clarity / altered perception) as being 'within' ourselves.  For many of us, these were pretty new feelings.  Also for many of us, access to those states disappeared along with our (and at the same time as) Maharaji myths, maybe adding to our negativity (we didn't just lose our guru, we lost access to the inner beauty that seemed to come out of nowhere, give us hope and enjoyment).   But once you really see the myth behind the man, whaddya going to do?

Clearly, that bliss stuff is damn good, but, from what I can see so far, not a state we can expect to stay in.  We were also much younger and not so weighted with responsibilities and making a living and all that / this (my thinking I had it made if I had enough money to get through the next week and put food on the table made it much easier to enjoy the fullness of the moment and the smeeling of roses).   But that doesn't mean that we cannot any longer access it (blissful highs), though.  Definitly gotta get rid of the monkey (guru intermediary) in the middle, though.  I even had to consciously 'unlearn' my favorite meditation technique (the breath thing, a universal favorite) to move on and deepen my own experience.

Anyway, hope that made a little sense.

Cheers, Mike

PS, I don't believe in 'realized souls'.