Entries Tagged as 'Yogananda'
August 19th, 2010
A Talk given by Dr. M.W. Lewis in San Diego on August 9, 1953
Are Miracles Possible Today? Yes, miracles are possible today, if we conform to the law, the Law of Miracles. Not too many years ago, if you told someone that machines would be flying around the way they are now, they wouldn’t believe you. But when we conform to the law, and offset gravity, then those things, which are seeming miracles at the time become facts, and realities. So miracles are possible, if we conform to the law.
At this time I’d like to just give you the definition of miracles: “A miracle is an event, or effect, in the physical world, beyond, or out of the ordinary course of things; deviating from, or transcending, the law of nature.” I’ll give one or two illustrations just to show you how a miracle means that some other law entered the picture, rather than the ordinary physical law with which we are familiar.
One example
One winter’s evening in Boston–where we have lots of ice and snow–I was driving fast to the center meeting in a borrowed car–my sister’s car. She was in the car, and one other lady, Sister Yogamata, who both are still living. And as we came up over the incline on this bridge–narrow bridge covered with ice–halfway across the bridge was this car that had skidded. And it stayed there, blocking the road.
Ordinarily, according to ordinary laws, there was no way of stopping. But I remember somehow just feeling in my heart, “Well, here’s the borrowed car; I am rushing to do God’s work; and look what’s going to happen.” As I came up over the bridge, it was just like a big giant stood there and just pushed. And that car stopped within just two or three feet of the other car. In other words, another set of laws was brought into play.
Both of the people are living–you can ask them. All felt the intercession of God’s higher law, which prevented that accident; because the pranic force of God’s great Power and His omniscience is everywhere, if you appeal to Him. His Power does not need wires, or instruments of hands and feet, or machines. It can work according to higher law in the way in which we would call a miracle.
Another example
One other instance comes to my mind, which you read of in the last Self-Realization Magazine. I wrote about the sound of the voice in my father’s home that spoke to me. When I was a young fellow, into lots of mischief, doing lots of things I shouldn’t be doing, this voice came right out of the ether–distinctly, loudly, not from any point in space, but from all around–and told me to behave myself and be a good boy. And not only I heard it, but others heard it in the house; showing that the ordinary law of sound, of speech, was superseded by a higher law of God’s omniscience. And so, there you have in a few words two illustrations of what a miracle is, of what miracles are.
Perhaps the greatest miracle is what we have right with us now. How, from the one great Light of God’s omniscience His Mind, His Thought, has produced this universe upon universe, with all its various and multitudinous manifestations. From light; because science has proved–those of you who are familiar with it–that matter resolves into energy and finally into light. And they have also now brought it back the other way–produced from light, energy and matter.
So that’s the greatest miracle, and that’s what we have to deal with in this subject: “Are Miracles Possible Today?” The entire phenomenal world is under the law of polarity, of duality. It’s that duality that has caused all the trouble and all the delusion–the duality which comes from the characteristic of the Light of God.
This subject is a little scientific, so I shall have to refer to a few references. I will try though, not to make it too boring. But just never mind–grasp the important parts, and remember that Jesus didn’t say, “Now you must know all about the Law of Miracles.” He didn’t say, “If you want to enter the kingdom heaven,” which is a miracle. No. All he said was, “Be like little children.” Be humble. You have to get above outward consciousness, above ego consciousness, then you can enter the kingdom of heaven. So if these scientific facts are too much, just forget them. In your heart, feel the Presence of God, and you will get the same result. You will know “the Light beyond the atoms,” from which all things have come.
Science and religion together
Duality, as I have said, is based on the electromagnetic phenomena of light. This cosmos, is simply the varied expression of that Light. The various things, which you see–this solid pulpit and all the things, automobiles, this church, this microphone–everything, is simply made from that one great Consciousness of God. The first manifestation of which is that electromagnetic force of Light.
In the beginning God created light (Genesis 1:3). First, “the Spirit of God moved” (Genesis 1:1). That’s the Thought of God. Then His Thought produced Light. And from that Light all things are made. Science is finding it out, now, that everything can be proved–that we come from that One Light. And so, the thing is that this varied experience we know as the cosmos is the different expressions of the Light. But in that Light–and this is the important thing–is the omniscience and the intelligence of God. So you can see, now, if you are going to perform miracles, what you’ve got to do. I’ll come to it in a minute.
Now, this Light, and the delusion; if you become one with this delusion, if you attach yourselves to this delusion, you have to obey the laws of delusion. Isn’t that so? If coming up over that bridge, I had forgotten all about God, or wasn’t trying to be in His Consciousness, I’d have followed the laws of this delusion, and we’d had a nice smashup. But somehow, by the grace of God, a higher law worked, and I was guided–not by outward laws, but the higher law. And so, if we cling to the laws of this delusion, we’ll be governed by that; but if you cling to the higher law, you’ll be governed by that higher law. Then you can produce miracles.
And so, that’s just what the saints did. The saints have shown, by their lives, and in spite of this delusion in which they found themselves–in spite of being in the world–they lived beyond the world, above the world. And they have shown that instead of being governed by the laws of this life, with the necessities of life, and being governed by the laws of the paradoxes and the injustices of life, they rose above that and took a long range view, and were governed by the higher law of God’s omniscience. They put the tremendous faith they had, in eternal things; in the value of eternal things; not these worldly things. That’s an important point.
So, likewise, Self-Realization will teach you how to contact the eternal things of life, that you may be guided, not by worldly laws, and outward laws, but by higher laws of God. And so, miracles occur when you get out of this dream of God, and are governed by higher laws.
Transcending limitation
Now, the manifestations of electricity and gravity are known. Scientists know all about them, but how about the Force itself? How about electricity and gravity itself? No. You have to know the Sole Operator, if you want to know that. You have to rise above these trillions of manifestations in this life. If you want to know what electricity is, you’ve got to know the Operator Himself. You’ve got to know the omniscience of God. In that omniscience is the Power that has made universe upon universe. But greatest of all, in that omniscience is His divine love. That’s the greatest thing.
Now, you have to know that. If you want to know how electricity works, you can. Follow the scientists if you want to know what electricity is; what gravity is; what the power that holds the atom together is. Then you’ve got to be one with that Power, which is the atom itself; which is the Force which holds the atom together; which is the Force in the atoms of life, from which all things have come. And so, as I have been pointing out, you can see that we must get above outward things and know the Sole Operator. Know the man, or the one rather, who has made all these things. We must know His omniscience and His love.
And so, I will hurry along, and say this; that delusion, and outward consciousness, can be removed only by merging in the omniscience of God. How to do it is the point. By being in, going through, being one with, and passing through the Divine Eye at this point [between the eyebrows]. That is the Door from outward laws to inner laws, and the omniscience of God.
On the other side
On this side of the door what do you have? You have insecurity, paradoxes, injustices, uncertainty. On the other side what do you have? You have the peace and the security of God, and you can then be subject only to God’s Laws. That’s why the saints say one thing when they get beyond the door on the other side. The yogis you know “sail their consciousness into the omniscience of God.” That’s beautiful; yogis “sail their consciousness,” float it “into the omniscience of God. And in that omniscience you are subject to the laws of God, which are just, and which are exact, and which are eternal, and which are not subject to duality. That’s the important thing.
Now going on a little further to just a little bit about creation. Remember, the greatest miracle is creation. When you think about it, how, from this one Force of God’s Light, these things come with solidity, and all that. It doesn’t seem possible. But they have proved that the light atoms, from which all things have come, are made of nothing but free electrons, or the Light spoken of in Genesis, “God created light.” And there is a certain reason for that, which I will tell you in a minute.
Now as regards Creation, “…and the Spirit of God moved.” In other words, God created things first in His Thought. Then He condensed that Thought into Light, as spoken of in the Bible. Now that Light is made of free electrons. This is very important. There is no duality yet. But those electrons have a dual personality, a dual character. This is important. They have one characteristic of a particle, and the other characteristic is of a wave. And that gives them the characteristics of light. First from His Thought He condensed this substance known as light–just free little electrons. But those electrons have two characteristics: one is that of forming particles, the other is the wave action.
Now matter itself has those two characteristics of duality: one of forming particles of solidity; and the other the wave action–or light. Light and shadow come, because light is made up of the electrons with those two characteristics. That’s a very important point. And from that comes all the dualities.
Let there be Light
Now going on with the creation. From His great Thought and Consciousness, God first created Light. Then the Light was further condensed into atoms. And the essential part of atoms is Light. Light atoms is the substance from which even solid iron is made. That doesn’t seem possible, does it? From the Light atoms everything is produced. Then those atoms form into particles.
There you have the creation in a few words. But remember that the electrons have that dual personality of forming particles, solid substances, and the wave action of light. From that we get this world of light and shadows. This Dream of God, this Cosmic Delusion, and everything in this world, whether it be a good or a bad automobile, a person you like or don’t like, health or sickness, or wealth or poverty–all those opposites come because those little electrons have that dual personality; and from the atoms of light, all things have come.
This light that I have spoken of is the essence of the atom. The electron microscope has proved that atoms are formed from light, and then from that, due to the intelligence of God, all things are made–though how He does it is beyond us. And so, we have in a few words, the story of Creation from the standpoint that it is made from Light. There is no material universe–it is simply light and shadow.
Now light is the essence of the atom–free electrons with their dual characteristics, plus the Will of God, made the atom. Remember, the energy that holds the atom together is nothing but what Einstein is trying to prove in his “Unified Field Theory,” that the atomic energy which is in, and which has made and sustains the light atoms, is nothing butt he Thought of God. Mind Stuff, triggered by the Will of God, produces His Thought. That is Einstein’s “Unified Field Theory,” which the Master spoke of in that little poem “Thy Secret Throne.”
Thy Secret Throne
Behind the screen
Of all things seen
How dost Thou hide–
Elude the tide
Of marching human eyes,
That ’round Thee rushing hies?
’Twill not be long
Ere will be known
Thy hiding place
By children with Thine eyes and grace.
Sage science splits
Each atom knit
By Thee, to find apace
Thy hiding place.
Is heart of atom–electron,
Thy secret throne?
Deep we bore
To find Thy art, and lore
Of doings all sublime;
E’er hidden betimes.
Yet Thy abode
Seem far remote;
’Tis still to find
With deeper mind.
So you can see there, step-by-step, how the yogis knew years and years ago. Now science is saying it–that it comes from the one omniscience of God, nothing else.
And we have proof of this, which I will not go into due to the shortness of time. There are certain equations which show these things. One is that only a material body whose mass is infinite, could equal the velocity of light. What does that mean? In simple terms it simply means that you and I must expand our consciousness to the omniscience of God; then, as God does, we can do.
Now that’s the key to the Law of Miracles. The key to the Law of Miracles is to be the omniscience of God. Be that Light. Then you’re not subject to the light in this shadow world–to the law in this shadow world–you are not subject to that at all. You’re subject to the laws of omniscience, which means that your consciousness is everywhere, and that the Force of the Universe is your consciousness. Because Jesus said, “These things I do ye shall do and greater things, because I go to my Father” (John 14:12)
Next: Are Miracles Possible Today? (Part Two)
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Tags: Dr. M. W. Lewis · Yogananda
July 31st, 2010
Long before it became popular, Yogananda began collecting and composing short affirmations and reflections, to be pondered on a daily basis for the elevation of the mind. Below are some quotes for reflection which he collected for the month of August.
- For it is only the finite that has wrought and suffered; the infinite lies stretched in smiling repose. –Emerson.
- Ever seek to promote the good of others; the best riches are universal benevolence. –Hindu Scriptures.
- Annihilate the selfhood in me: be Thou all my life. –William Blake.
- Nothing lessens misfortune like patience. –Ibn Gabirol.
- Seek bliss in both worlds by serving Him, Put away the tale of love that travelers tell; Do thou serve God with all thy might. –Rumi.
- Happy the man who can endure the highest and the lowest fortune. He, who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity, has deprived misfortune of its power. –Seneca.
- They are beggars that can count their worth. –Shakespeare.
“Learning, without thought, is a snare; thought, without learning, is a danger.” –Confucius.
- The student who daily recognizes how much he yet lacks, and as the months pass forgets not what he has succeeded in learning, may undoubtedly be called a lover of learning. –Tsze-hia.
- The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. –Marcus Aurelius.
- If this birth really happens no creature can hinder thee, all points thee to God and this birth. –Eckhart.
- Learning, without thought, is a snare; thought, without learning, is a danger. –Confucius.
- When you have accepted the Light oh Beloved, When you behold what is veiled without a veil, Like a star you will walk upon the heavens. –from the Masnavi.
- Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. –Jesus Christ.
- You cannot run away from a weakness; you must ‘ sometime fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand? –R. L. Stevenson.
- He is richest who is content with the least; for content is the wealth of nature. –Socrates.
“The sage attends to the inner and not to the outer; he puts away the objective and holds to the subjective.” –Lao Tse.
- Forbearance is at first like poison but when ingrained in the nature it becomes like honey. –Sadi.
- Stand ever firm within, resolved to do or die; So, living, earn renown; or dead, the starry sky. –Panchatantra.
- There never was a false God, nor was there ever really a false religion, unless you call a child a false man. –Max Muller.
- You will find that when you cease to take thought for your own deliverance, God will take thought for you; and when you cease to help yourself eagerly He will help you. –St. Francis de Sales.
- Uncertainly I steer through complex ways My soul from masquerade to masquerade. –R. J. Freeman.
- The best path through life is the high road, which initiates us at the right moment into all experience. –Amiel.
“God was made man that man might become God.” –St. Augustine.
- Wisely and slow: they stumble that run fast. –Shakespeare.
- Those who worship the Merciful One are they who walk on the earth gently, and who, when fools speak to them, say “Peace.” –Koran.
- God was made man that man might become God.–St. Augustine.
- The sage attends to the inner and not to the outer; he puts away the objective and holds to the subjective. –Lao Tze.
- When all thoughts, all words and all deeds are given up unto the Lord, and the least forgetfulness of God makes one intensely miserable, then love has begun. –Narada.
- The superior man can be high without being haughty. The inferior man can be haughty if not high. –Confucius.
- To learn and discern of his brother the clod, And his brother the beast, and his brother the God. –L. Adams Beck.
- Pain melted in tears and was pleasure, Death tingled with blood and was life. –Swinburne.
- We will have no thirst for yesterday, no thought for tomorrow. –Vachel Lindsay.
- As thrills of long hushed tone live in the viol, so our souls grow fine with keen vibration from the touch of noble natures gone. –J. R. Lowell.
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Tags: Practical Wisdom · Yogananda
July 12th, 2010
Part 14 in the Commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
Sutra 2:1. Austerity [tapas], self-study [swadhyaya] and resignation to Ishwara [Ishwarapranidhana] constitute Kriya Yoga.
First let us define Kriya Yoga as Patanjali means it. Because many have read Yogananda’s autobiography they assume Patanjali means the method Yogananda named “Kriya Yoga,” but this is not at all so. The yoga methods which Yogananda taught in America were never called “Kriya Yoga” before that time, but were always referred to as “the Yoga of Shyama Charan Lahiri” or simply “pranayama.” Because the first was awkward to keep saying (or writing) and the second was too general, Yogananda realized the need to give the practice a distinctive name. Since the main effect of all pranayama is purification, he reasonably decided on Kriya Yoga. (By the way: Since this is so, those Indian teachers who denounce Yogananda as having altered the practice, claiming that they teach “the original Kriya Yoga,” are proved by simple historical fact to be false. For if they were really in the traditional line of Indian teachers they would not call it “Kriya Yoga” at all. As my friend Durgaprasad Sahai, a disciple of Swami Keshabananda written about in Autobiography of a Yogi, told me: “I practiced that yoga for twenty-five years before I ever heard it called ‘Kriya Yoga’–in Yogananda’s autobiography.”)
A Brief Sanskrit Glossary defines “kriya” as: “Purificatory action, practice, exercise, or rite; movement; function; skill. Kriyas purify the body and nervous system as well as the subtle bodies to enable the yogi to reach and hold on to higher levels of consciousness and being. And Kriya Yoga as: “The Yoga of Purification: ‘Austerity (tapasya), self-study (swadhyaya), and offering of the life to God (Ishwara pranidhana) are Kriya Yoga’ (Yoga Sutras 2:1).” It is this process that Patanjali is speaking about in this and the next sutra.
Kriya Yoga consists of three elements: tapas, swadhyaya, and Ishwarapranidhana. I have written about these in The Foundations of Yoga, and will include the relevant sections later on when we are considering yama and niyama, so now brief extracts will suffice.
“Tapas literally means ‘to generate heat’ in the sense of awakening or stimulating the whole of our being to higher consciousness.…Basically, tapas is spiritual discipline that produces a perceptible result, particularly in the form of purification.…whenever tapas is spoken of it always implies the practice of yoga and the observances that facilitate yoga practice.”
“Swadhyaya means ‘self-study.’ This is usually interpreted as the study of the sacred texts which deal with the nature of the true Self (spirit) and its realization.…But it also means keeping a careful watch on the ego-based mind so as to be aware of its delusive and destructive tricks.…In swadhyaya we look at and analyze the mind in the calmness and intuition born of meditation.”
“Ishwarapranidhana–the offering of one’s life to God…is far more on every level than simple religious devotion, and much more than any kind of discipline or self-denial done in the name of spirituality. It is the giving to God of the yogi’s entire life, not just a giving of material offerings or occasional tidbits of devotion to God, however fervent or sincere.”
From a strictly yogic viewpoint we can expand on these a bit. In tapas–meditation–swadhyaya takes place when we become aware of the changes taking place in our mind or see its condition, aspects, characteristics and so forth as we meditate. Also in meditation we are merging our prana–our life energies and breath with the Vishwaprana, the Universal Life Force, and ultimately with Ishwara, their source. So meditation is also Ishwarapranidhana.
Sutra 2:2. (Kriya-Yoga) is practiced for attenuating Kleshas and bringing about Samadhi.
“Klesha” means taints or afflictions. A klesha is something that diminishes or distorts our consciousness, bringing misery and pain in some form. It also hinders meditation, preventing us from rising to the state of calm, clear concentration and samadhi. Tapas, swadhyaya, and ishwarapranidhana weaken the kleshas, literally fading them out, washing them away, for they are accretions that have nothing to do with the eternal nature of our Self. Note that diminishing the kleshas is enough to bring about samadhi, which will then itself erase them completely. So we are not facing a herculean task that need daunt us. As Krishna tells Arjuna: “Even a little practice of this yoga will save you from the terrible wheel of rebirth and death [mahato bhayat–great fear]” (Bhagavad Gita 2:40).
Next: What Are the Causes of the Afflictions of Life?
Previously: Dawning of the Spiritual Light
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Tags: Meditation · Yoga Sutras · Yogananda
May 26th, 2010
Part 2 of an article by Paramhansa Yogananda from the August 1932 East-West Magazine
God made man immortal. He was to remain on earth as an immortal. He was to behold the drama of change with a changeless immortal mind, and after seeing change dancing on the stage of changelessness, he was to return to the bosom of eternal blessedness, then evil crept in, causing man to concentrate on the changes of life and on outward appearances rather than on the underlying immortality in all things, and thus made him conceive the false idea of death or complete annihilation.
Destroying the Idea of Death
The motion picture of a man’s life, his birth, life on earth, and death, seen on the screen, produces the joyous consciousness of his birth and the sad concept of his death, or end, but Satanic ignorance hides from view the motion pictures of man’s pre-natal life as he joyously began the descent from God, and the joyous return to God as he hurried back after death. Satan has made us forget our pre-natal and post-natal experiences, and by showing us for a time this drama of life and then lowering the curtain, it has produced in us the erroneous conception called death.
I am not denying the experience of the change called death, but I consider it only as an outwardly moving link in the chain of immortality, all of which is hidden from our view. To say that death or change does not exist, in unmetaphysical and erroneous. To forget this dismal, delusive death, man should behold all change as dancing on the bosom of changelessness. Man should behold the changeless ocean of Infinity as wavelets of change appearing and disappearing.
Supernatural Death Versus Painful Death
If Adam and Eve had not transgressed the wishes of God, and their descendants had not allowed themselves to be influenced by hereditary ignorance, then modern man would not have to witness the heartrending painful deaths through accident and disease.
Man appeared on earth, being materialized by God, and was to live on earth, beholding the birth, sustenance, growth, and the painless, sorrowless, return of the body in complete perfection. Than, as it is possible to watch the slow process of a flower budding, growing, and disappearing on the movie screen, so man should behold his life pictured on the screen of his consciousness through the stages from childhood to a full-grown individual, and then his disappearance unto God of his own accord by his own power of dematerialization.
Man, being out of tune with God, has lost his power of dematerialization, so he is frightened by the screen picture of life prematurely cut off even before he has finished seeing the whole perfect picture of his changeful life. This premature withdrawal of the motion picture of life produces pain due to attachment to those screen pictures of flesh and consciousness and is known in the world as terrible death by pain.
We mortals have so many misconceptions about death that it has grown into importance and has fixed in us an idea of annihilation and pain instead of being seen as a phenomena necessary in the successive steps which the soul must follow in order to return from the state of change to the changeless state. It is necessary for death or change to come, so that the soul may finish beholding this motion picture of life and be released in order to go back to the home of Immortality.
How Reincarnation Was Created by Satan
Satan saw that it would all be very simple if the immortal children of God, after beholding a perfect earthly existence with a changeless attitude, would go back to immortality again, so Satan made imperfect patterns or tampered with the showing of a perfect picture of life before it was completed, and caused mental and bodily pain through delusion. This dissatisfaction, arising from an imperfect, prematurely destroyed picture of life, created in man the desire to see perfect pictures of life in order to behold them until completion.
Ever since, the immortal images of God forgot their already perfect immortality and began to introduce delusive imperfections in the perfect dramas of life staged on the screen of time. Ever since, immortals have been coming and going from earth by the law of cause and effect, which governs desires. Ever since, this law of cause and effect has affected free souls as the law of Karma (action), which keeps them earthbound.
This law of cause and effect, which imprisons souls on earth in Satan’s Kingdom of finitude, has been called “reincarnation.”
How to Destroy Reincarnation
Immortal souls can only expect to be free by utterly destroying all seeds of earthly desires by Divine contact with God through meditation. This reminds the soul of the unending fulfillment in the immortal inheritances of Bliss which makes desires for earthly ways unnecessary and ridiculous.
Knowledge of Wholeness
Emancipation from reincarnation is also possible by playing the living drama of a perfect life of health, abundance, and wisdom on the screen of consciousness; that is, if one can remove the consciousness of sickness and not fear sickness if it does come, and not desire health while suffering from ill health, then one can remember one’s soul, which was always well and was neither sick nor healthy. If we can feel and know that we are the children of God, and as such possess everything, even as our father, God does, although we may be poor or rich, we can be free. If we can feel that we have Divine knowledge, because we are made in the image of God, although humanly speaking we know little–then we can be free from reincarnation.
Fear of sickness and a desire for mortal health, fear of poverty and a desire for opulence, a feeling of lack of knowledge as well as a desire to know everything, belong to the domain of ignorance. Of course, if we are stricken with ill health, failure, or ignorance, we need not continue to remain so. We should strive for health, prosperity, and wisdom without being afraid of failure.
Know That Imperfections Are Dream-Born Delusions
While struggling, man must know that his struggle for health, prosperity, and wisdom is born of delusion, for he already has all he needs within his inner powerful self. It is only because he erroneously imagined, when in spiritually ignorant mortal company, that he did not have these–that is why he lacked them. All he has to do is to think right and not strive to acquire things. He needs only to know that he already has everything.
Once a healthy, wealthy, and wise prince dreamed that he was poor, and in the dream he shouted: “Oh, I am suffering from cancer and I have lost all my wisdom and riches.” His wife, the queen woke up and aroused him, saying: “Look, prince, laugh and rejoice, for you are neither suffering from sickness nor have lost riches and wisdom, but you are comfortably lying at my side in health and wisdom, in your rich kingdom. You were only dreaming about these catastrophes.”
So it is with ignorant man. He is dreaming about lack and failure, when he might claim his birthright of joy, health, and plenty as a son of the ruler of the universe. He is now living in his perfect kingdom, but is dreaming evil.
Know God First
The constant desire for health and prosperity, which is so much harped upon in modern spiritual organizations, is the way to slavery. We must seek God first and then find health and prosperity through Him. Beggars get only a beggar’s share, whereas, a son of God gets his son’s share. That is why Jesus spoke of seeking and knowing the kingdom of God first. When that is actually accomplished, then health and prosperity will be added. The acquirement of wisdom and everything else that the soul of man needs will be received as a matter of his Divine birthright.
It is best to feel by visualization and by Divine contact in meditation that you are already perfect in health and wisdom and have abundance, rather than try to succeed by begging for health, prosperity, and wisdom. In fact, man’s mortal efforts are bound by the laws of cause and effect. Man cannot get more than he deserves. By the method of begging, no human being can ever fulfill all his endless desires, but by first realizing his oneness with God, man can own everything he needs.
Man cannot have immortality by begging for it or by feeling a desire for it. He should know that he is already immortal and that so-called death is only a dream.
According to the plan of God, man should have experienced growth from childhood, and through youth to manhood, but should never have experienced death by old age or disease. Even if man becomes old, he should never die of disease or suffer painful death. In the drama of life and death, when beheld with Divine understanding, there can be no pain in death, but only the showing or stopping of the motion picture of life at will without physical or mental pain.
Origin of Pain
The outward flowing force which struggles to keep all things in manifestation saw that without pain people would not create earthly desires to hold them here, so the illusion of pain was created, which is purely a mental phenomena. The pain of ill health and death creates the desire for health and life, and to have health and life the immortal image of God must again and again return on earth to complete its slow growth from ignorance to enlightenment.
Satan is defeating his own purpose, for it is physical pain and sorrow which cause matter-imprisoned souls to seek freedom in God. A child’s pure soul feels very little pain. A doctor friend in an orthopedic hospital told me that children vie with each other to get their deformed limbs operated upon, whereas, adults have to be coaxed for weeks, and at the time of their operation they are usually overcome with emotion and fear.
Man has fortunately discovered anesthetics to neutralize pain. Originally man had great self-control and a mind which was unattached and impersonal, and so did not feel pain when the body was injured. He could behold his own body without pain even as one can witness an operation on another’s body without becoming mentally excited or suffering physical pain.
Although a mother feels terrible agony when her own son dies, she does not feel the same when hearing of the death of a stranger’s son. So it is that man feels the agony of accident and disease in his own body but not the suffering of others. This is only due to the proximity of continued attachment. The farmer’s water-proof, fire-proof, less sensitive child feels much less physical suffering than the sensitively brought up son of the rich. If you have no fear or nervous imagination, you will feel less pain.
Jesus was tempted in the wilderness with the wild beasts of passion and the fierce mortal desires of pain and hunger for material kingdoms, sent by Cosmic Satan.
Read Part 1 of this article: Yogananda’s Thoughts on Evil and Satan
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Tags: Teachings of Jesus · Yogananda
May 22nd, 2010
Part 1 of an article by Paramhansa Yogananda from the August 1932 East-West Magazine
“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil.” (Luke 4:1, 2)
It Is Childish to Say Evil Does Not Exist
Many modern scriptural interpreters, unable to understand why Christ Himself introduced the idea of the existence of Satan, have tried to explain away the old conception of a devil by saying it is obsolete, that evil does not exist, or that God does not know evil. Such interpreters, unable to solve the problem of how it was possible for evil to originate in God, who is only good, have gone to the extreme of denying the existence of evil. In the first place, let me say that the denial of the power of evil has some good points, although it is childish to deny the existence and temptations of evil in this world of seeming duality.
Even if the conscious evil force of Satan does exist, it could not influence human minds if we did not mentally accept it. It is better to know all the lures of evil and the ways to combat them than to be blind and deny their existence. Knowledge only, and not indifference, can produce final emancipation. The great drama of Cosmic existence has endowed man with free choice and the power of reason. Man, the image of God, has the same liberty of free choice in his sphere as God the Father has.
Why Does God Not Free Man Immediately?
If God is Almighty and knows that we are suffering, why does He, being Almighty and eternally blessed, allow weaklings to suffer from the temptations of evil?
The answer is, that after receiving independence, the Cosmic force began to fill Creation with patterns of imperfections, displacing the perfect patterns of God’s first plan. God then destroyed all Creation, as described in Genesis, but seemingly He found Himself illogically using His Almighty power in arbitrarily destroying Creation. Also, He seemed to be contradicting His own laws, inasmuch as He destroyed the power of Satan after once giving him independence of action. Then God created again and reinstated the original power of independent free choice which He gave to Satan and to all Creation. God could destroy Satan even now and free us at once from the thraldom of earthly miseries, imperfections, broken hearts, and death, by using His Almighty material force, but He would not do that because that would be taking away our independence.
Since God gave independence to man and Satan, He can free them only through teaching them the right use of their own power of free choice. God is not enjoying His eternal blessed state in selfish happiness, but He is suffering for our miserable tragic existence, delayed evolution on earth, and belated return to the paradise of all-emancipating wisdom. He is continuously trying to use the superior force of Divine Love expressed as the parental, friendly, filial, all-surrendering pure love to coax man to forsake his cooperation with evil, which helps and strengthens it to destroy him.
Man Must Make His Own Choice
Man stands in the middle, with God on one side and Satan on the other side, each ready to pull him in whichever direction he wishes to go. It is up to man to signal God or Satan as to which direction he wants to be pulled. Man is perfectly free to act without being influenced by God or Satan, but whenever he does act right, or has a pure, ennobling thought, that is the signal to God, and he is automatically pulled toward God, but as soon as man thinks or acts evil, he is automatically pulled toward Satan. However, being essentially an image of God, man can never be eternally drowned in the hades of evil.
Eternal Hades Is Impossible for Man
No matter how persistently sinful man is, he can never suffer eternal punishment. Evil promises happiness and results only in unhappiness. As soon as man realizes this, then he begins to wish for emancipation and for God. This wish for goodness and freedom serves as a portal through which God is again invited to come into the life of the prodigal son and lead him to the abode of freedom. Even fathomless evil cannot destroy man’s soul, for he is essentially immortal and eternally good.
Evil Is a Temporary Parasite
All evil is a passive graft, a temporary parasite on the tree of life which can be amputated by the knife of wisdom possessed by man.
Whenever man initiates good actions, he is proceeding toward a paradise of Bliss, hidden in the womb of eternal futurity.
God Coaxes Through All Good–Satan Tempts Through Evil
God is coaxing us with an array of limitless good happenings and is influencing us for our own welfare, whereas Satan is tempting us with pleasant-looking but fleeting happiness-producing patterns of evil. Satan’s patterns are temptations because they are deceptive contrivances created to consciously delude us by promising us good and giving us evil instead.
According to the dual conception of good and evil (God and Satan), it becomes easy to understand why there is so much good, together with so much evil. The sky and earth are full of the productions of God’s patterns of perfection and Satan’s patterns of imperfection to influence man. The beautiful sunshine, clouds, and rain are created by God to benefit man. Cataclysms, earthquakes, and floods were created by Satan to make man uncomfortable.
An eternal display of goodness is materialized in Nature and the life of man, proving that God is trying to impress man and influence him to use his free will and return to the abode of Bliss. Satan, through deceptive, apparently pleasant contrivances of temporary happiness-yielding acts, greed, and lust is trying to keep man tied to this misery-making limited earth. Jesus, as a manifestation of God, came to speak of the eternal kingdom of Heaven, upon whose threshold no sorrow can tread. Jesus taught that permanent happiness can only be found in God. Satan deludes man into seeking permanent happiness in impermanent material things.
Next, Part 2: Immortality vs. Death
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Tags: Teachings of Jesus · Yogananda
April 18th, 2010
An article by Paramhansa Yogananda from the October 1939 Inner Culture Magazine
Intuition is that directly perceiving faculty of the soul which at once knows the truth about anything. Unless you have the power of intuition, you cannot possibly know Truth. It is the knowing power of the soul without the help of the senses or the mind. Intuition can give you knowledge about things which your senses and understanding can never give. Intuition does not depend upon any outside data whatsoever.
Intuition Means Soul-Perception
Intuition means “soul-perception.” It shows the difference between true and false reasoning. Errors are made by people who fail to distinguish between a real “hunch” or intuition, and their conceptions born of intellect, experience, or blind belief.
Many books and courses of study are prescribed for students in school, but nothing is taught them about concentration and the development of the sixth sense–the all-knowing faculty of intuition. Many people make mistakes in everything, from the study of health and business up to the study of philosophy and religion. Thousands of people make wrong investments and take wrong paths because their minds are not scientifically guided by intuition.
By the development of intuition one can outgrow the law of cause and effect in one’s own life. Intuition tunes the mental radio so that it can intercept all vibrations of future happenings which otherwise are deflected by diverse currents.
Developing Intuition
Pure reason and calm feeling lead to intuition. Therefore, the first requisite in developing it is to calmly reason and calmly feel everything. Intuition is developed by exercising common sense, daily introspection and analysis, depth of thought and continued activity in one direction, calmness, and, best of all, by meditation, holding to its calm after-effects. This is the only way. You then begin to perceive everything which is within as well as without.
If you can produce a perfect state of calmness in concentration and meditation, when you have a deep problem to solve, you will be able to solve it. If you hold to the calmness that comes after meditation, then you will be guided aright. Intuition guides your reason. When you have developed intuition, you will stand firm in your knowledge, though the whole heavens and the universe rise up to defeat you. Whenever you want to intuitively solve a problem, first go into deep meditation or silence. Do not think of your problem during meditation, but meditate until you feel that a sense of calmness fills the inner recesses of your body, and your breath becomes calm and quiet. Then ask God to direct your intuition so that you may know what you should do.
First, try to find out the truth about simple problems; then, when you find your intuition working infallibly, use it in finding the solution to big problems. For example, suppose two propositions are given you about a business matter; both propositions seem very attractive, but both cannot be right for you. You are obliged to decide between them, and you can decide rightly by your intuitive sense. Supermen continually use their intuition in everything they do, and thus accomplish the seemingly impossible.
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Tags: Practical Wisdom · Yogananda
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