One Journey Home: An Ocean of Oneness

About the Author

Julia Marie Hall was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, in Northern California, USA. Her normal upbringing and typical American life trajectory were obliterated, completely altered on her first trip to India when she was 39 years old. Her Life’s Purpose budded and flowered. Presently, Julia continues to live her daily life according to Divine Direction, going where she is sent by the Divine One, whenever she is sent there, and for whatever sacred purpose. She is truly “at Home” wherever she is having found by God’s Grace, Inexhaustible Peace, Joy, and One Love Divine within her own Being.

Preface

The Divine Mother woke me up this morning. The Radiant Face of Mata Amritanandamayi Ma, called “Amma” of Amritapuri, Kerala appeared before my Inner Vision. Amma spoke one word, Her heavenly tones ringing sweetly: “Write!” She instructed.

I opened my eyes, still lying in my bed. The warm tropical morning embraced me: birds singing their songs in natural harmony, the sun selflessly shining tentative early rays of light, the abundant flowers lending their profuse perfume to the air. I sat up and breathed in paradise, perfection. This beautiful morning darshan (viewing of the Divine) happened in October 2024. Just days earlier, I had finished an official ashram writing assignment given to me directly by Amma. I was then living in an ideal writing setup: by myself, in a safe and lovely flat in the Sri Lankan beach town of Unawatuna. While Amma only spoke one word; I intuitively knew exactly what She wanted me to write next: my own Soul’s many adventures in India and elsewhere. I started writing this book on that day itself.

What follows is a collection of some the lessons learned of from my journey’s adventure towards the Supreme Soul, reflecting the Inner Journey as well as the external adventures with the Saints, Sages, and recognized Divine Beings that I have been guided to visit for the purpose of absorbing, imbibing, practicing and sharing their Universally Relevant Messages and Lessons. I was inspired to write down and share portions of this book with certain individuals along the way; some of these prose chapters existed in preliminary, non-public form and were saved on my computer. This was in no way, shape or form the completed manuscript and book that you now hold.

I finished the initial version of this book in early January 2025, by God’s Grace. This Prose Collection is an exact excerpt of the prose contained in the Complete Collection of One Journey Home: Ocean of Oneness. Another book of the Poetry Collections excerpted from the Complete Collection is also available. Amma Herself blessed a printout of the manuscript copy of the Complete Collection of One Journey Home: An Ocean of Oneness when I returned to India and Amritapuri. This book exists because Amma, The Divine Mother Wills It. My journey contains the Divine Guidance of many Masters’ Presence, not only Amma. In Truth, they all speak of the same All-Inclusive Message, that of One Love Divine. There is no other; there is only One. An endless, infinite Ocean of Oneness.

I have a confession to share with you. Very little in my personal or professional background adequately prepared me for the complete and total immersion in The Ocean of Oneness that I experienced on my first trip to India in 1999, over 25 years ago, when I was 39 years old. I took rebirth this lifetime in San Francisco, Northern California, USA in a classic upper middle-class collection of suburbs, located in Marin County, CA, just over the infamous Golden Gate Bridge. I had a loving, supportive mother and father and three siblings: an older sister, a younger sister, and a younger brother. I socialized with friends, was supported in receiving a great education, lived in lovely homes, and went to Christian (Lutheran) Church most Sundays with my family. Later, I was married and moved to Southern California with my husband. Ten years later, we divorced; we had no children. With the exception of my infrequent, yet persistent mystical and spiritual inclinations, beginning in childhood, nothing in my seemingly normal daily existence consisting of both “saintly and sinner” experiences prior to my inaugural trip to India foretold of the complete submersion of my small self (ego) and emerging True Self (Soul) that spontaneously occurred.

As a college English/Theater Arts Major who became a professional writer/editor/copywriter and NGO (non-profit) Manager, I was blessed with developing the technical skills of writing in my chosen career path. I come from a family of writers and voracious readers; my father had a PhD in Speech and Communication. Out of six, two parents and four kids, four of us are published, each in a different field of expertise. Still, this unique and perfectly fitting background in no way fully prepared me to describe the Spiritual Expansion and other-worldly experiences that I have been blessed by God’s Grace to know from occurrences that I have personally undergone. How do you express the Inexpressible, the Wordless One? By God’s Grace and continuous blessings only.

There is a common saying: “If you take one step towards God; He will take a hundred steps towards you.” Your own soul’s desire for the Inexhaustible Wisdom, the Existence of the Supreme Soul within you led you to this book by whatever method God chose for you. I can give you an assurance that there is something, some facet of God’s own Gems contained in the following pages that your Supreme Soul will find beneficial as you move forward with your own spiritual adventure, by God’s own Grace. This book is written to appease the thirst you have about your own Soul’s Perfection, as we humans are blessed with the composition of all three: body, mind, and soul.

Yes, most likely you are busy with a multitude of pressing and practical worldly commitments, both personal and professional, so who has the time, the focus for anything else? Time, mental satisfaction, bodily perfection, money, social status, a job promotion, a bigger house/car/wardrobe, a flawless relationship, your child’s marriage, the stars’ alignment, none of these can quench your spiritual quests and desires. None of these perishable “things” can provide the Nectar, the effervescent, Imperishable Elixir that refreshes your True Self, your own Spark of Divinity.

I know that your expedition Home is unique; your path to Paramatma, the Supreme Soul is yours alone. It will not be the exact same path as mine, nor as any other person’s route Home to The One Without a Second. Yet, we all share the same destination, in this lifetime or some other. We all are experiencing the adventure from small, ego-driven self to the Divine Self, the Spark of Divinity that all beings, animate and inanimate possess without exclusion or exception. Whether you acknowledge this or not, this Imperishable, Eternal Truth remains: we did not take rebirth for any other reason than Self-Realization.

I share my pilgrimages to places known and unknown with you, pilgrimages to external and internal locations. This humble rendering of the Immeasurable Treasure within is meant to share, to inspire, to Unify us as All as One.

With blessings Infinite and Immortal of One Love Divine,

Atmanika Omkara

(Julia Marie Hall’s Spiritual Name. It means: The Grace of the Divine Soul, the Essence of Om)

“If you see darkness everywhere, there is no point in blaming
the darkness of the world with the small light within you.
Instead, you should light the candle within you
and spread the light.
Don’t feel daunted at the thought of dispelling the darkness
of the world with the small light within you.
If you simply light it and move forward, it will shine its light
at every step of your way, and it will benefit others as well.
So, My Children, light the lamp of love within you
and move forward.”

Amma