Spiritual Penance

People have often asked me, “Hasan, why don’t you make some money with all the knowledge you’ve accumulated?” but I always chose to ignore them.

I’ve always felt distanced from those who prioritize money over knowledge, so when I once felt such an inclination, I walked away. I never knew why, though. I also never considered myself to be divine.

One day, I was practicing with a dear friend of mine, the astrologist Sinem Leyla who specializes in karmic astrology. She said to me, “Hasan, you’ve already attained knowledge in your previous life, much more than you have now, but you kept it to yourself. You tried to take advantage of it, and people were hurt as a consequence. You are paying your penance in this lifetime.”

Later on, I visited Ünal Uluer, and he hooked me up to a device called LIFE. I asked about my life trauma from previous lives. It seems I was a philosopher in Egypt in 1897. The device also mentioned something about pain. In addition, when Barış Özkırış drew up my astrological map, he said, “Hasan, if you kept what you know inside, you would collapse. The system doesn’t allow you to do this, so you have to share.”

When I came across all these revelations in Istanbul, one after another, they matched up with what I felt deep down. I realized why I was behaving in the way I always did.

To cut a long story short, dear friends, I’m not doing anything divine. Everything is about paying the price for what I did in previous lives. In short, I’m paying my penance. I used to carry 25 pounds of photo and lighting equipment on my way to photo shoots, often climbing up subway escalators that were out of order. On being completely exhausted, I used to tell myself, “What a penance this is. I’m in Bakırköy one day, then in Kartal at the other end of the city, and then it’s off to Üsküdar with all this equipment…”

In conclusion, my dear brothers and sisters who I’ve avoided, I felt distant because I saw my own previous life in you. Let’s remember some basic knowledge: Everything you see is you! Yes, I am! Please don’t make the same mistakes I did, because if you do, you’ll make a new contract in the afterlife and return here ruefully.

I did finally figure out the difference between serving oneself and serving others, but alas, the cheapest lesson is the one you learn from someone else.

If you prioritize the whole above all else, the rest will follow…

PS. I hope that all the spiritual brothers and sisters who I’ve hurt in previous lives will forgive me…