The Atma Jyoti Blog

The third post in the series “Creating Your Happiness” by Paramhansa Yogananda

If you have given up hope of ever being happy, cheer up. Never lose hope. Your soul, being the reflection of the ever-joyous Spirit, is, in essence, happiness itself. If you keep the eyes of your concentration closed, you cannot see the sun of happiness burning within your bosom, but no matter how tightly you close the eyes of your attention, it nevertheless remains a fact that the happiness rays are ever trying to pierce the closed doors of your mind. Open the portals of calmness and you will find a sudden burst of the bright Sun of Joy right from within yourself.

The joyous rays of the soul can be perceived if you interiorize your attention. This can be done by using the architect of your mind to enjoy the beautiful scenery of thoughts in the invisible, tangible Kingdom within you. Do not search for happiness only in beautiful clothes, clean houses, delicious dinners, and soft cushions and chairs. These will imprison your happiness behind the bars of externality or outwardness. Rather, in the airplane of your visualization, glide over the vast tracts of Fancy, beholding the limitless empire of thoughts. There behold the mountain ranges of unbroken, lofty, spiritual aspiration, for improving yourself and others.

Glide over the deep valleys of Universal Sympathy. Fly over the geysers of enthusiasm, and the Niagara Falls of perpetual wisdom, plunging down the hoary crags of your Soul’s peace. Soar over the endless river of intuitive perception, to the Kingdom of His Omnipresence. There, in His Mansion of Bliss, drink from His fountain of Whispering Wisdom, and quench the thirst of your desires. Dine with Him on the fruits of Divine love, in the Banquet Hall of Eternity. If you have made up your mind to find joy within yourself, sooner or later you will find it. Seek it now, daily, by steady, deep, and deeper meditation within, and you will surely find everlasting happiness. Make a steady effort to go within and you will find your greatest happiness there.

In that land of everlasting Christmas and Christ-Omnipresent-Festive-Consciousness you will find Jesus, Krishna, the Saints of all religions, and the great Guru preceptors, all waiting to give you a floral reception of ever-new, everlasting happiness.

Celebrating the birth of omniscient, omnipresent Christ-Consciousness in your consciousness, on the joyous Christmas festivity of your inner awakening, you will find the unbroken happiness of your dreams.

On the Christmas tree of Christ Consciousness hang your material desires, to remain forever. Give unto Christ all the gifts of love and devotion. Let Him, on the Christmas morn of your spiritual awakening, break open the gorgeous presents of your heart offerings, sealed with the tears of your golden joy and bound with the cord of your eternal fidelity to Him. He accepts only the gifts of sacred soul-dreams, and His acceptance will be His greatest gift to you, for, if He gives anything, to anyone, He gives nothing less than Himself, and in giving Himself He will make your heart big enough to hold Him, then your heart will throb with Christ in everything. Enjoy this festivity, the birth of Christ, in your mind and soul, and in every living atom.

Many people pride themselves on their logical thinking. But the spiritual realm trancends mere intellection and logic. This story we came across recently is a good example of the limitations of reasoning.

The Unexpected Hanging

A murderer had been found guilty of a particularly heinous crime. The judge sentencing the murderer decides that death is too good for him; he wants to make him suffer. He passes his sentence, “You will be taken from this place, and hanged from the neck until you are dead. Before that, though, you will suffer anguish, waiting, never knowing whether this will be the day that you will die. One morning, sometime in the next week, it will happen, but until it does you will live in fear.”

The murderer leaves the courtroom with a light heart, knowing that the sentence handed down to him cannot be carried out.

He reasons like this:

Suppose that on the seventh morning I am alive. I will know that that is the day that I am to die. But the judge said that I would not know the day that I am to die. Therefore I will not be hanged on the seventh day. The sixth day is the last day that it could be.

But in that case, if I am alive on the sixth morning then I will know that it is the sixth day on which I am to be hanged. But the judge said that I would not know the day that I am to die. Therefore I will not be hanged on the sixth day.

He continues, applying the same reasoning to the fifth day, and then to the fourth, and so on, concluding that he cannot be hanged on any day according to the judge’s instructions. The sentence handed down to him cannot be carried out.

He is hanged on the morning of the third day, much to his surprise.

More on the Mind: How to Misuse Your Power of Thought

Some people are virtually obsessed with the miraculous, and then there are people who are just as extremely non-involved in the miraculous–neither believing nor being interested in the subject. At least the people who are interested in the miraculous are investigating for the truth. Blind rejection is just as superstitious and ignorant as blind acceptance. Yet, sad to say, it is currently considered sophisticated to not believe in the miraculous.

The reaction–or non-reaction–to the miraculous depends on our consciousness. There is not just one world in which we live, but there are as many worlds as there are people living in this world. That is, each of us sees the world and experiences it uniquely, according to the condition of our mind, which is mostly determined by our state of evolution. For this reason two people can live in the same house and yet live in two different worlds.

Different states of consciousness

We say “worlds,” but what we really mean are differing states of consciousness. The world of the human being is really an interior world, since all we ever perceive are the interpretations of the mind in response to external stimuli. It is truly all in our head! In other words, it is not the condition of the body or the place where the body is, but rather the condition or placement of the individual’s consciousness. This is of course a matter of evolution, of the development of the quality and orientation or attunement of the mind.

Since this varies from person to person, there are people who live in the miraculous from day to day next door to people who experience nothing of the miraculous in their entire life (or at least do not recognize it when it occurs). My maternal grandmother stayed in her house and almost never went anywhere except to church. In my entire life I never knew her to go the few blocks to downtown. She went out of the house to work in her flower gardens, but other than that she remained in the house where she worked miracles and lived in the supernatural. Grandmother was clairvoyant, clairaudient, and possessed astounding healing powers. This she kept secret, confiding only in her two daughters about her special abilities. After their death she made me her confidant, and no one else ever knew of the wondrous world in which she continually lived.

Right across the street from her, to the south, were some typical F. Scott Fitzgerald type of wealthy people: rich, drunken, and worthless. They certainly did not live in the miraculous (unless it came out of a bottle). To the east of her lived some very intellectual and refined people, but the miraculous and the spiritual did not touch them at all. To the west of her lived one of our town crazies, who did indeed understand certain psychic principles, and whose behavior, accordingly, was looked upon as utterly loony. It indeed was loony, because her way of responding to situations was loony. But what she saw was true. Then to the north were people who moved through life like zombies

And there at the heart of it was my grandmother, in the middle of the four, talking to God, healing the sick from a distance, and even raising the dead. (Grandmother had a difficult time getting a woman she had brought back to life to promise secrecy about it.) It was all a matter of consciousness. The divine spirit was within those other people just as much as within her, but her mind was awakened to it while theirs yet slept.

Awakening to the miraculous

One of the signs of awakening consciousness is the entrance of the miraculous into the life. Yet we have to be careful, because we can become distracted by the miraculous itself and forget from whence it comes. Jesus says: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (John 4:48). He does not mean this in a mechanical sense–that a person will not believe and then suddenly upon seeing a miracle come to believe. Usually people encountering the miraculous do not even know what it is. Some, threatened by the intrusion of higher reality in their life, explain away the miracle or they deny it utterly. Not infrequently they destroy the manifestation of the miracle. This was the policy of Communism. Communism did not disbelieve in God and the miraculous. If they had not believed they would not have been so intent on destroying belief in God and miracles. You only aim your gun at a target you believe is real, and the Communists did the same. Many of them when pressured admitted that they believed in God, but hated Him. Their denial was itself wishful thinking–the thing they accused religion of being!

I knew a highly advanced disciple of Yogananda who had the psychic ability to find oil deposits just by flying over an area in a plane. He even found offshore oil for his home state of Michigan. Once he located twenty-seven oil wells in one day for a man. The drilling was done and all twenty-seven paid off. Do you know what that man then said to him? “Aw, there’s just got to be some trick to it.” Another man drilled in more than a dozen places, and except for one spot found oil each time. My friend had warned him that in that one spot he would have to drill at an angle rather than straight down. The man did not follow his instructions, and when that one did not succeed, he denounced my friend as a fake.

So what does Jesus mean, then, since people experience the miraculous but mostly do not believe? Obviously Jesus is not speaking to that level of person. He is speaking to someone whose consciousness is astir.

In a sense this passage of the Gospel where Jesus’ statement occurs is a parable of someone searching for inner healing. When such search is genuine and evokes a divine response, the miraculous begins to occur. Sometimes it is amazing the way the seeker’s life becomes transfigured receiving supernatural indications–some more and some less spectacular–daily. It is as though he walks upon a glorified earth. But in time the honeymoon is over and he has to get down to business–the work of his conscious evolution. For the purpose of the miracle was to lead him to discover the principles behind the miracle.

A message from the Higher Self

A miracle is not just a wondrous thing, a simple display of power. Rather, it is a message from God and the higher self. Messages from the higher worlds often take the form of the miraculous. The recipient of the miracle must then intuit the meaning of the event. For example, the multiplication of food by Jesus (Matthew 14:15-21) did not in itself matter. What mattered was the principle of the potential infinity of matter, which in turn reveals the truth that what we think is matter is really infinite consciousness–that everything is infinite spirit. And therefore everything is God. This is the message of the multiplication of food by Jesus.

Such a miracle leads to the intuiting of a principle. So when we study a genuine miracle (for there is also mere coincidence and trickery mistaken for the miraculous), we find that it is a revelation of a truth of the higher worlds, of higher life–a revelation about ourselves. A real miracle demonstrates a principle that we can thereafter work with for practical insight and objective results. We learn something practical and demonstrable from it.

This being so, the miraculous must not be seen as just a supernatural fireworks display, but rather as the writing out of eternal truths, principles of eternal life. Jesus rose from the dead to demonstrate immortality, not for people to be impressed with his uniqueness or power. He was not displaying his power and mastery in a flashy way, but showing that death is a dream, and that life is the reality.

When Jesus healed, He showed that the disease or infirmity was a dream, and that health was the truth. Jesus walked on water and changed it to wine to demonstrate that we do not understand the nature of matter, and that there are powers beyond gravity which can cancel out the “natural” laws of gravity.

Certainly all of Jesus’ miracles were done out of compassion. He alleviated suffering because of His merciful heart. But all His healings taught something. For example, Jesus said to the palsied man: “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5). Then He healed him, showing that illness comes from negative karmas–sins. He was also teaching that a momentary cure is not sufficient. If we do not eliminate the past effects of negative action which produced the disease–as well as the propensity to future negativity–we will get the disease back; if not in this life, then in a future life.

Realities behind appearances

Being the teaching instruments of God, miracles should be studied to learn their meaning. God produces miracles in the world to demonstrate the truth behind the appearance. Also miracles teach us that there is a reality behind every appearance, that phenomena are just that–appearances. If we would be wise we must not let our lives be ruled by appearances, but by the reality behind them. To the ignorant appearances veil the reality. But to the wise appearances reveal the reality. Miracles, too, both veil and reveal. As the Odes of Solomon say: “Behold! the Lord is our mirror. Open [your] eyes and see them in Him.”

Read more commentaries on the teachings of Jesus in these articles:
• What Did Jesus Really Say in the Sermon on the Mount?
• The Kingdom of Heaven According to Jesus
• What Jesus Really Means by Meekness
• When Craving is a Good Thing
• Mercy and the Law of Karma
• Clean to the Core of Our Being
• The Spiritual Process of Making Peace

Keep up with new articles as they are posted. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.

This article is a continuation of a series Paramhansa Yogananda wrote during the depression about “Creating Your Happiness.”

Happiness is a will-o’-the-wisp which most people follow, and which oftentimes leads them astray until they drown in the marshes of suffering. Most temporary, easily attained, so-called happiness is nothing but suffering in disguise. It may be pleasant to the palate to eat a great deal at the table, but remember that such procedure is very likely to have many unpleasant after-effects, such as acute indigestion or stomach ache, so also is it with immoderation in your natural impulses. They generally give you sense pleasure in the beginning, but ultimately they produce satiety and unhappiness.

The greatest way to create happiness for yourself is not to allow sense lures or bad habits to control you, but rather be a stern, iron-like ruler of your habits and appetites. Remember that just as you cannot satisfy your own hunger by feeding some other person, so you cannot be really happy by trying to satisfy only the over-demands of your senses.

Too much luxury, instead of producing happiness, drives it away from your mind. Do not spend all your time in finding ways and means which you think will make you happy. Be contented always, equally in your struggle for prosperity, and also in your attainment of it., You can be a King of Happiness in a tattered cottage, or you can be a tortured victim of unhappiness even if you live in a palace.

Happiness is a mental phenomenon exclusively. You must first establish it firmly within yourself, and then with an undying resolution always to be happy, go through the world seeking health, prosperity, and wisdom. Remember that to battle failure and sickness and to seek success ever with a happy attitude will bring you far, far nearer to your desired goal than if with an unhappy mind you try to gain your heart’s desire, no matter what that desire may be.

“Bread the men of the world seek after–
Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God,
And His righteousness,
And ALL THESE THINGS
Shall be added unto you.”

Read the first article in this series, Creating Your Happiness.

Read new articles by Paramhansa Yogananda as they are posted. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.

Paramahansa Nityananda
One of the most valuable pieces of spiritual literature on the Atma Jyoti website is the Chidakasha Gita by Paramhansa Nityananda. Nityananda was one of the most remarkable spiritual figures of the early twentieth century in India. Nityananda was renowned for two outstanding traits: his utterly miraculous way of life and his great compassion on all suffering humanity, especially the poor and helpless. Even today, nearly fifty years after his leaving the body, hundreds are fed daily in his name. A brief life of Nityananda can be found here.

The Chidakasha Gita is a transcription of random teachings of Nityananda, given when he would walk unannounced into a house, sit down, and begin speaking. Though the devotees did the best they could, writing frantically in hope of keeping up with his words, the resulting records are often disjointed and sometimes make no sense since something is missing. This of course is a defect of the transcribers and not of Nityananda who was speaking spontaneously in spirit consciousness without interest in polished expression. Nevertheless, a devotee collected these fragments and had them printed under the title of Chidakasha Gita. [Chidakasha–from A Brief Sanskrit Glossary: “The Space (Ether) of Consciousness.” The infinite, all-pervading expanse of Consciousness from which all “things” proceed; the subtle space of Consciousnesss in the Sahasrara (Thousand-petalled Lotus). The true “heart” of all things.] They have been translated into several Indian languages as well as English.

Swami Nirmalananda has attempted to separate them under different subject headings to make it easier for students of spiritual life to examine these valuable teachings.

Our friend Kumuda (Sharon Janis) of Spiritual-Happiness.com has recorded the Chidakasha Gita according to topic and made it available for listening on her website. She has also made her recording available for purchase on CD or as a MP3 download, as well as other spiritual recordings. They are well worth listening to.

Below are some excerpts from the Chidakasha Gita on our site:

Bhakti

• It is not bhakti to give a man some money or to give him a meal as charity. Bhakti is universal love. Seeing God in all beings, without the least idea of duality, is bhakti.
• Bhakti in the beginning is selfish. Afterwards, there is no selfishness in it.
• A vessel without water is of no use. Bhakti is water; intelligence (buddhi) is the vessel. He who has no subtle bhakti is no man.
• Take ten men; their bhakti is not of an identical nature. When ten people are going on a journey, if one of them sits to take rest, the remaining nine will also do the same. Likewise, one man is inspired with bhakti; other people, by seeing or hearing him become also bhaktas.
• Bhakti is the state of eternal bliss.
• Bhakti (devotion) is nothing but love a man manifests towards an object. A man should believe that thing as great by which, because of his faith, he has been much benefited. This belief should not be relaxed. There is not a single thing without bhakti. All animals have bhakti. Just as water flows in different directions, so also is bhakti of different types. All animals have a right for bhakti. Bhakti is in all objects. Bhakti should be absolutely pure. Bhakti should be realized in the sky of consciousness. Bhakti should be internal and it should realize the subtle. Then a man becomes desireless and sorrowless. This state is eternal mukti. Let mukti be entered into by the path of sushumna.

God-vision

• You must see that God Who is in the heart-space. Yes, you must see Him. You must see that Krishna who is eternal bliss (Nityananda). It is delusion to regard stone as God.
• All tattwas have one root tattwa called Parabrahman. When this is realized, it is called jivanmukti. You must see the river at its source and not after it merges into the sea. You should see the mother root of a tree. All the trees have one mother root. So also, all have one and only one God. When you have realized all as one, homogeneous, this realization is mukti.
• One who has become one with the Supreme has accomplished the object of his birth. One must concentrate his mind on the Supreme. One must become one with the Supreme. Wakefulness, dream state, and sleep state must melt in the Supreme and become one.

Mind (Manas–Buddhi)

• The glass of a chimney lamp, when covered with carbon, is not transparent. Similarly, the carbon of the mind should be removed.
• Just as camphor is consumed by the flames of fire, so also, the mind must be consumed by soul fire.
• There are matches in a match-box. Fire is produced only when the match is rubbed against the side of the box. So also, the manas is the match; buddhi (intelligence) is the side of the box. We should rub the manas against buddhi and then we get the kingdom of atman which is the same as the liberation from the cycle of birth and death.
• Buddhi is the king; manas is the minister; manas should be subordinated to buddhi.
• Your mind should not flicker like the reflection of the sun in the shaking water.
• The sea water is boundless; the tank water has a boundary. Our mind must be like the tank water. Mind is the cause of good and evil. A man may be good and bad according to his good or bad thoughts. God does not do good or evil to any man. The reason is, intelligence and knowledge are the divine faculties in man. A man protected by good thoughts cannot be harmed even by a cannon shot. Without yoga, liberation from karma is impossible.
• Mind is the creator of ideas. When the gross ideas are suppressed and the man lives in the subtle, this state is called nirvikalpa samadhi or samadhi without ideas. Just as we teach a bird how to talk, keeping it in a cage with its feet bound, we must keep our mind in our buddhi. A man must learn for himself.

Read more of Nityananda’s Chidakasha Gita.

Find definitions to any unfamiliar terms in A Brief Sanskrit Glossary.

Listen to the Chidakasha Gita online.

Keep up with new articles as they are posted. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.