The experience of Agnihotra lifting me from my depression, while at the same time being unaware of its impact for so many years, caused me to reflect deeply about my capacity to assess my own spiritual growth.
I thought I had known what was best for me, but my internal compass was not precisely tuned enough. Relying on it exclusively had misguided me about Agnihotra's impact on my life.
A fog had lifted from my eyes, and a penetrating sense of humility set in. Even though I had thought and felt I knew what was right for me, I did not. There are truths more subtle than my capacity to perceive and understand.
How was I able to navigate through the path of spiritual growth? What could I trust?
My acceptance of my own limitations allowed the seeds of faith to sprout.
I began to reflect how my life changed since restarting my Agnihotra practice in 2008.
In 2008, I was living in Chicago so focused on my career as a lawyer, to become a trial attorney. But my legal career was a struggle to find opportunities and progress in the law firm environment. I hit a ceiling, but I had refused to accept it.
Over the next four years with Agnihotra as my daily companion, my career took on an entirely new direction, a direction I could not have foreseen at the time.
In 2009 I was laid off from the law firm. In 2010 I connected with my business partners and started a consulting company. The next two years were a struggle, forcing me to find employment in Texas. The move from Chicago to Texas was a much needed fresh start. I was working full time at the company in Texas and my partners worked on our own business part time. A month after I moved to Texas, my business started to flourish.
After seven years in my professional career, I finally began to experience success.
In 2008, if it was solely up to me, I would have pushed like a bulldog to become a trial attorney, no matter how difficult the obstacles.
Even though I couldn't point to any one thing in particular, there was a strong sense that Agnihotra was the catalyst for redirecting my career from the path of a trial attorney in Chicago, to a business owner based in Texas.
Texas was where I found my life's purpose.
