Conscious Choice: A Lifelong Journey

March 2000

A Lifelong Journey

by James Faber

Vancouver, British Columbia, is a long way from India, but as a young boy Arran Stephens would look through his great-grandfather’s autobiography, which detailed the man’s travels through colonial India in the mid-1800s, and dream about the mysteries it held. Years later Arran Stephens would find himself in India on a journey of his own.

Journey to the Luminous: Encounters With Mystic Adepts of our Century, is the fascinating story of Stephens’ personal quest for spiritual enlightenment. The book beautifully details his experience of initiation with the perfect living adept Sant Kirpal Singh while traveling as part of his chosen entourage, as well as experiences with other mystic adepts, including Sant Darshan Singh and Sant Rajinder Singh. Journey to the Luminous also contains more than seventy-five intriguing photos and illustrations, mostly from Stephens’ unique personal collection.

"The book is about that light that we all possess," says Stephens. "A true spiritual seeker is like a flame, and it requires oxygen. The more the oxygen comes, the brighter that flame glows."

Journey to the Luminous was a lifetime in the making for Stephens, but becoming a published author is only one of the many accomplishments in his extraordinary life. Stephens is credited with starting the first vegetarian restaurant in Vancouver, starting the first natural foods supermarket in Canada, and growing his company, Nature’s Path, into the largest organic cereal producer in the world.

Stephens was raised on a sixty-acre organic berry and vegetable farm in the forests and mountains of Vancouver Island, where he learned the virtues of sustainable agriculture and caring for the soil from his father.

"I have very fond memories of growing up on our farm," says Stephens. "The nurturing advice my father instilled in me was to‘always leave the soil better than you found it.’"

When he was thirteen, Stephens’ family moved to Los Angles, where his father would pursue his dream of being a songwriter. The move was difficult for the family, but especially for a teenage farm boy who was suddenly introduced to a whole new way of life in a big city.

At age seventeen, after two years as a street kid struggling to survive as an artist painting and writing poetry, Stephens decided he was tired; he’d had enough of this world. He swam into the ocean off Venice Beach and attempted to drown himself, but something happened while he was under the water. In Journey to the Luminous he explains, "As I slipped beneath the waves, inexplicable serenity began to glow within, coupled with an urgent beckoning to discover life’s purpose and begin anew." He pulled himself out of the ocean battered, but not beaten.

From Venice Beach, Stephens traveled with a friend to a monastic retreat called The Fountain of the World. One week after arriving, he had an experience that changed his life. "While gazing with closed eyes into the dark void," he says in Journey to the Luminous, "I became cognizant of a comet-like light speeding from the distance straight toward the center of my head, growing brighter and brighter with every moment."

While spending time in New York preparing some of his paintings for an exhibition, Stephens’ quest for self-realization was re-ignited. As a spiritual seeker thirsty for knowledge, he longed for a living master who could teach him. This master was Sant Kirpal Singh. In January 1967, Stephens left for India to learn from him. During the first seven months Stephens spent in India, he began a journal of his travels and experiences.

"I had no intention of writing a book," says Stephens. "Shortly after arriving in India I was advised by Kirpal Singh to keep a diary. I kept this diary as a labor of love so I wouldn’t forget the lessons I learned." These diaries eventually evolved into Journey to the Luminous.

Before leaving India, Stephens spoke with Sant Kirpal Singh about right livelihood, a way to earn a living without compromising ethics, and shared his idea for a vegetarian restaurant in North America. The Master gave his blessing, and in the fall of 1967, after returning to Vancouver, Stephens opened the Golden Lotus — Vancouver’s first vegetarian restaurant.

"The Golden Lotus was a place where people could come and hang out, eat good food, and find some refuge from junk food," says Stephens. In 1978, the Golden Lotus’ name was changed to Woodlands, but remained in the family until 1995.

Walking the Path together

While back in India in 1969, Stephens was approached by a friend with the idea of an arranged marriage, and with Sant Kirpal Singh’s assurance, he agreed.

"I’d say our marriage was divinely arranged," says Stephens. "At one point I was scared, but surrendered and trusted the judgment of my teacher. It was an absolutely sublime experience for me, and we fell in love." After a one-day engagement, Stephens and his bride Ratana were married on Holi, the day of an Indian festival that celebrates the triumph of good over evil. Today, the couple remain happily married and blessed with three daughters, a son, and a grandchild.

In 1971, Stephens cofounded LifeStream, Canada’s first natural foods supermarket. "Starting LifeStream was quite an experience," says Stephens. "That LifeStream store was jam-packed with customers right from that very first day, and just blossomed from that time on."

The store soon expanded into production and distribution of a variety of organic products, including bread and other baked goods and stone-ground flour.

"We were part of a societal paradox that was a shift taking place in North America away from junk food and toward a sustainable future," says Stephens. In 1981, LifeStream was sold due to partnership differences, but was bought back from Kraft Foods in 1995, and was eventually incorporated back into Nature’s Path.

In 1985, Stephens and Ratana started Nature’s Path out of the back of their restaurant, producing organic manna bread from an ancient recipe found in an Aramaic manuscript, "The Essene Gospel of Peace." The company experienced tremendous success and also started a new line of breakfast cereals. In 1990, Stephens took another risk when Nature’s Path opened North America’s first organic cereal plant. The risk paid off, and with the opening of its second plant in Blaine, Washington, last year, Nature’s Path became the most modern and most comprehensive natural breakfast cereal maker in the world.

Nature’s Path has received many awards, including the National Natural Foods Association People’s Choice Awards in 1994 and the Million Dollars Achievement Award for outstanding achievement in business in 1996. The company was nominated for the Ethics in Action Award in 1997.

"There were a lot of firsts involved," says Stephens. "I’ve just had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time."

The Journey Continues

Journey to the Luminous is heartfelt and elegantly written, and has something to offer every reader regardless of religious belief.

"This work has come forth through me," says Stephens. "The purpose of this book is to spread some perfume of the Divine into our day-to-day life — not only in my life, but I think there are enough universal chords in the book that those who will read it may find its meaning in their own lives."

Stephens considers the memories, experiences, and message of the book a priceless gift, and therefore donates all net proceeds from its sale to charity. The book can be found at major book stores and on-line at Amazon.com, or through the Nature’s Path web site. For more information on Nature’s Path and Journey to the Luminous, visit Nature’s Path.

Journey to the Luminous: Encounters with Mystic Adepts of Our Century, by Arran Stephens, 1999, Elton-Wolf Publishing: Vancouver, B.C. Paperback, 370 pages.

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