2012 Self-Realization Fellowship World Convocation

2012 Convocation – “The Kriya Yoga Key to Breaking Free from the Prison Bars of Habits” ~ Brother Achalananda

Brother opened by saying that it is always a challenge looking into that light to try and see us all. Also, that he was happy that so many of us were here.

Sixty years ago our guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, entered mahasamadhi. His work was done and our work began. Brother was happy, once again, to welcome everyone here this evening in the middle of Convocation because we are all part of those who have kept the work going. Brother continued that it was always an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to speak with us, just to feel our presence and to watch, during this week, how much we relax, change and let go since things are rather tough out there. We all know that! We need things like this to bring us together that we can relax into that divine feeling. Guruji used say: “I relax and cast aside all mental burdens, that God may express through me as peace and love and harmony.” That’s what we need for a successful Convocation and that’s what the world needs to be a happier world.

Let us go back to the beginning on this planet one hundred and fifty-one years ago on Drongiri Mountain. Mahavatar Babaji, at that time, initiated Lahiri Mahasaya, then an accountant in the Military Engineering Department of the Government of India, into the sacred science of Kriya Yoga. This auspicious event did not happen for him alone. This ancient technique lost and forgotten during the many years of the dark age of Kali Yuga. Increased in secrecy due to mankind’s indifference to spiritual things, was once more being resurrected by Babaji to fulfill its role of freeing souls from avidya and maya, the individual and mass delusion.

Guruji tells this story in his “Autobiography of a Yogi”. Lahiri Mahasaya is speaking: “‘On the eighth day I fell at my guru’s feet and implored him to keep me always near him in this sacred wilderness.’ ‘My son,’ Babaji said, embracing me, ‘your role in this incarnation must be played before the gaze of the multitude. You must now mingle in the world of men. The cries of many bewildered worldly men and women have not fallen unheard on the ears of the Great Ones. You have been chosen to bring spiritual solace through Kriya Yoga to numerous earnest seekers. Bestow the Kriya key only on qualified chelas. He who vows to sacrifice all in the quest of the Divine is fit to unravel the final mysteries of life through the science of meditation.’

“‘Angelic Guru, as you have already favored mankind by resurrecting the lost Kriya art, will you not increase that benefit by relaxing the strict requirements for discipleship?’ I gazed beseechingly at Babaji. ‘Be it so. The divine wish has been expressed through you. Give Kriya to all who humbly ask you for help.’”

Sometimes there’s some misunderstanding about that particularly sentence. Babaji was talking to one who was a guru and any one in our line of gurus could give Kriya Yoga who came to them to ask for help because they could look at them and see what their state of spiritual development was and whether they were ready for Kriya Yoga or not.

Paramahansaji said that after he left the body that certain requirements must be fulfilled before one can receive Kriya Yoga. So that preliminary training is necessary to prepare ourselves for Kriya practice as found in the Lessons — Energization Exercises, the Hong Sau technique of concentration and the Aum technique of meditation. Most of us need these to be ready for Kriya.

It is easy when we read it to think, “man, I’m ready right now” but we’re probably a little more optimistic about what we can do with the technique than those that have had sometime working with it.

“‘After a silence,’ Babaji added, ‘Repeat to each of your disciples this majestic promise from the Bhagavad-Gita: Swalpamapyasya dharmasya trayate mahout bhayate.’” [Brother interjected that he hoped he had not slaughtered it too badly!] Then in English: “Even a little practice of this religious rite will save you from great fear — the colossal sufferings inherent in the repeated cycles of birth and death.”

Brother likes to read somethings from Guruji because his mode of expression, his way of saying things, cannot be equalled. Brother says that sometimes he’s taken something that Master has written to see how he could rewrite it. It is was very difficult and particularly to make it simpler. Guruji cut it down to the essentials, yet made it very understandable. So what did he say about about the goal we are all seeking?

“God can never be found through philosophical abstraction. If you have love for God and practice Kriya Yoga and meditate deeply, you will find Him. Don’t wait, for waiting is dangerous. Present good health may produce in your consciousness a happy complacency. But who knows whether or not you’re head may be on the chopping block of death.”

Krishna said, “Get away from my ocean of suffering and misery.’ He meant that we must know where we can find real happiness, which can be had only from God’s hand. The greatest obstacle on our path is our bad habits. Habit is both our best friend and our worst enemy.”

Here again, we find the dichotomy in creation. There are always pairs of opposites herein. Habit can be our best friend but it can also be our worst enemy. It’s rather obvious that if our habits are good they can be our best friend and if they are bad they become our worst enemy.

Brother shared his remembrance of when he attended Convocation for the first time in 1953. The second class was on the Hong Sau technique. At that timee was not able to take time off from work to attend the whole week. Fortunately, they gave the six major classes, six Wednesdays in a row. The very first one he went to was on the Energization Exercises and he had the feeling that when he went to this he’d find something that could help him and he did. From the very first class, what was emphasized that he appreciated so much, was that they were not told that they had to believe in anything or disbelieve in anything. They were told to practice this and practice that and see for ourselves what the teachings could do for us. Brother liked it because it was the scientific method…perform the experiment…ferret it out. He performed the experiment and in his words: These teachings work! If they had not he would not be standing in front of us right now; he would have been long gone because he was looking for something that worked long enough.

It is not enough just to read the teachings. We have to put them into practice. We cannot put them on the shelf after reading them or practicing once or twice. No! It requires persistent effort to achieve results in anything. If we stop and think about that we’re here to achieve the highest goal anyone can achieve — oneness with God and to think that a little bit of desultory practice will attain for us that divine goal is foolishness. We have to be determined. We have to mean business and we have to go at with an attitude of “ okay I’m going to give it the best shot I can. I’m am going to give it everything I’m able to do so.”

Now, we will all have our ups and downs. That is normal even when we’re on a path moving upward there will still be those ups and downs, simply because of our karma. Sometimes the karma has some logical influences and helpful…everything goes easy and nice. Other times everything is a struggle, a fight, where nothing goes easy but we must not be discouraged by that. God has given us free will; He has give us free choice and a brain to use. Don’t expect results unless we do our part.

If we don’t do that and just tag along hoping somehow that our little dips will get us there, we may become sort of like the eternal bridesmaid. The one who never quite catches the bouquet but is always left wishing she’d been in a better position. Bad habits are anything that keep us moving away from God; good habits are any thing that keeps us moving toward God.

What exactly is a state called a habit? We all have them. Do we ever stop to really think how we develop these habits? Often they become so easy to happen us that we’re not even aware of how it happened. It is just simply repetition. We keeping repeating some action, some thought, enough times then it becomes very easy to do. If that were not the case, if we did not have that habit pattern that God has allowed us to have, think how hard it would be to accomplish anything because every day we would have to learn everything over again. We’d have to start from scratch.

No, it becomes automatic. The subconscious just picks it up and does it. We don’t even think about it. Otherwise, like a baby when it first starts to walk and fall. Notice how interested it is in getting up and walking. If it falls down it’s not the least bit discouraged. It gets right up again and starts trying again because it wants to walk because that give it an opportunity to explore its new universe in which it’s found itself. It is very simple in that sense but it does require attempt after attempt sometimes, where other times everything just falls into place. It is all very natural and before we know it were doing something even if we might not want to.

Habits are necessary but we can misuse their power. A habit is like a parrot. It can be taught to say good words and sing pleasant songs and it will repeat them over and over again. If it is taught to swear, the same result. It will repeat them over and over again. It might be very embarrassing when guests are around. A dark cloth may have to be thrown over its cage so the parrot will thinks it’s nighttime and go to sleep in order to get it to stop. That’s what we want to do with bad habits. We want to put them to sleep and then they fade out.

Guruji has said that in ancient India there are teachers who specialize in training the young and that it’s very important to understand the predisposition of the child’s nature in addition to providing proper education and environment. In other words, they want to know how far that soul is along, so they can determine what they were meant to do. Sometimes when we come back into a family…we pick a family for some reason…it may be that certain habits we have fit very well with that family and they are very easy to pick up on again. Whether good or bad maybe certain habits, because of the nature of our parents, are very difficult to acquire because of the vibration that is in the home is against it.

If we are honest, we can all admit that we have created some bad habits in past lives that we haven’t quite yet gotten rid of yet this time. There is still some work for us to do. Older people reflect the inner influence of their past life habits just as children do but with children it is more obvious.

“When persons who were spiritually inclined in the past take up the spiritual path, they keep on going with youthful enthusiasm to the end. Others who have brought with them anti-spiritual habits will not take to the spiritual path in spite of repeated urgings, unless in this life they wake up and begin to realize that God is the only source of happiness.”

Here’s a devotee’s story that brings this out exactly. This person wrote: “I guess you’ve heard many times before what I’ve been saying. I really dragged my feet applying for Kriya. I didn’t feel ready for that type of commitment — ready spiritually. Also, I was lazy in practicing meditation and my Energization Exercises. I knew that Kriya was a terrific technique but it seemed far away. Fortunately for me, I had SRF friends who had Kriya. Although private about it, always shared with me how the technique was changing their lives. In time and with some prodding, I slowly dedicated myself to my meditation practice and finally applied for Kriya. To make a long story short, I am flying high and the shoe is now on the other foot, so to speak. At this time I am encouraging one of my friends to make her own commitment. Boy, what a show! Thank goodness for friends helping friends.” Of course, not forgetting the help of the Friend of friends — God and Guru!

These are old bad habits that have been established in our lives and we need to get rid of them because they’re obnoxious. They can be buried very deep inside an individual. Some habits are so deep that Brother calls them pranic karma. It is something that we have worked on for many incarnations and is now very deep inset in our habit patterns. We know it’s going to require a lot to undo and get rid of them. Others, they are very weak and it is very easy to just forego them and be done with them.

On the other hand, if some individual has had a bad habit, like drinking alcohol to excess in a past life and perhaps even became a drunkard comes back and takes one drink, that old bad habit will be reestablished with just that one drink. We can never be sure, which is why we should be cautious about these things. We never know if we were one of these people who after one drink can become an alcoholic or if we try drugs once, we become a druggie. We don’t plan on it but it was a habit and the moment we stepped into it’s clutch, so to speak, it had us right then and there.

When we understand that we have to realize that we can’t just go acting as if there’s no big deal about trying things. Many times when we’re young we start testing things out. Guruji talked quite a bit at one time about our modern age and everybody needing to be trained because there’s so much temptation placed before them.

He said: “All parents should train their children to develop a taste for better habits and consider more seriously the responsibility of guiding their children. Many bad habits are imposed on them in the environment of the schools. Influenced by their children, they feel they have no choice because they will tend to listen more to their peers’ guidance than they may to what the parents give.” All parents have their work cut out for them. If someone doesn’t join their crowd, like drinking or smoking or whatever or something worse, then they be made fun of or are called sissies or all kinds of other things, if they don’t want to be part of the crowd, so to speak.

That, unfortunately, brings many children into bad habit patterns. Guruji talked about that because in the early days, he had some married couples with children in the ashram in Encinitas. He was testing that out and he would tell those young children when they went to school not to be sissies. Not to let other people tell them what to do; not to go along just because they suggest doing something that was wrong. He also would tell them not to be a doormat. “Dare to be different– to say no when others try to persuade you into the wrong ways.”

Brother said that his family moved around a lot. His father worked for the railroad and often they’d be moved to different places. In the sixth grade he went to three different schools in two different cities. Everything from a huge school in Tacoma, Washington to a one room school in Montana with one teacher for all the grades but there weren’t that many grades because there were only about six students in the whole school. That was quite an adjustment. From there the family moved to a place on the other side of the divide called Huson. There were only a few houses around..maybe six or seven houses in the area and some farms. He, along with the other children, were bused to school to a place called Frenchtown because of the many French Canadians who had settled there.

The teacher Brother had taught the fourth, fifth and sixth grades, so she had to divide her time among the thirty or so students. She would take one grade and work with them while the other two grades work on whatever assignments they’d been given. Unfortunately, Brother said he had developed a bad habit of interrupting the teacher with questions. He’d be doing his thing and have a question and, although, she was teaching another class, he’d just holler his question out at her. She kept telling him not to do that; to stop doing it but he’d forget. Then one time when he did it and she told him again not to do it, he immediately did it again. Well, that did it!

The teacher jumped up from her chair and headed for Brother with fire in her eyes. He was in the next to the last seat in his row and his friend sitting behind him got so scared when he saw her coming that he jumped up and ran out the back door just in case she might include him, Brother guessed.
Brother said he sat there calmly and when the teacher got to him she grabbed his shirt by the collar and shook him so hard that the shirt collar was torn half way off. Of course, that was noticed by his parents when he went home that night. He was asked to explain what had happened, which he did. His parents were different then from what many are today. His father looked at him and said: “If this happens again, you’ll not only have to put up with her disciple but when you get home you’ll get my disciple on top of it.” Brother could tell he meant it.

His father supported the teacher’s efforts to have the right kind of classroom and proper behavior and that’s what we all need to do. In other words, his father was saying for him to show respect for his teacher. So often today we don’t see that sort of thing. We don’t see the respect that should be given to teachers…maybe all of them don’t deserve it…but we have to learn to respect everyone. The sooner we can do that the sooner we will find that our lives become more harmonious. So we need to learn to do that.

Guruji told this story. He said: “I know a young couple who were married just four weeks ago and already they are unhappy and coming to me for advice.” [Brother interjected that he could hear some chuckles from the audience. It can be quite a change, can’t it!] “It isn’t academic education alone that makes one live happily. It is how-to-live education. How to develop a harmonious moral life, stronger will-power and spiritual understanding that will bring happiness. The women in this country have much devotion and spiritual inclination but as mother’s they do not properly train those ideals in their children. The boys would be wonderful if taught how to develop their won’t power. When we say no to temptation we must mean it. Refuse to surrender to temptation’s silent call. Mindless weaklings are always saying yes. Great minds, however, are full of no’s. Weak wills become doormats. Everybody walks all over them and tramples on them for good measure. They deserve this treatment because they give into their weaknesses. If it happens to us, we need to remind ourselves that we deserve it and we need it.”

Now, boy that’s a hard one! The first time Brother had to face that he thought, “oh, man! what is there in me that is attracting this particular behavior from people because I’m not very happy about it? It is not very nice.” So Brother said he asked himself that question. It was very interesting and immediately he knew. Sometimes it may take week or so before we get it and sometimes instantly we see what we’re doing wrong and we see what we have to change. Then we can start doing something about it. We can start changing ourselves.

We need it and we deserve it! Why? We need it so we can overcome it and move on beyond that karma. Get rid of it! Get rid of it! We deserve it because it is not someone else’s karma that we’re working out. It’s ours! It’s kind of hard to accept in the beginning. Brother said he had to relearn that lesson about four times because he’d forget. That’s the way of the mind. Even when we learn something, some things the mind will forget. Brother said his mind kept forgetting and he had to keep going back through the same procedure over again. Also, he thinks he’s more or less got it or at least hoped he had.

We’ve talked about being able to say no when temptation looks at us. Dr. Lewis used to tell a story about a man, quite a bit overweight, who was walking down the street and passed by this bakery shop. There in the window was this wonderful chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and he thought: “Huh! I’m a free born American and I can walk in there, buy that cake and I can enjoy that cake.” Which he did! He didn’t have to, of course. He acted like he was being pulled by his nose by that chocolate cake. He couldn’t say “no”. He allowed himself to be controlled by his feelings, his taste buds in this case, and instead of saying, “no, that would not be good for me” he ignored that and went ahead and bought it anyway.

We should avoid catering to our likes and dislikes. We don’t understand how much they keep us caught up in this drama. The great yogi, Patanjali, when he was writing the “Yoga Sutras”, was an expert who understood all these things. In the first quarter of the book he went over the eight-fold path. In the second quarter he starts out with something completely different. He takes the last three niyamas…this is the only place where he mentions them twice…and tells what they are: self-surrender is one; meditation, in other words, self-analyzes, self-study on how to develop these things; and mentioned about the five kleshas. Kleshas is a Sanskrit word which originally meant: pain, misery, affliction. During the passage of time it came to mean those things that cause pain, misery and affliction. What are these five kleshas? A shortcut to the whole problem is…where we start, where we get, and what we have to do to get back. It really is marvelous the way Patanjali did it all.

The first kleshas is called avidya — “vid” means knowledge and when an “a” is put in front it means: not knowledge, ignorance, an ignorance so deep that we have forgotten who we are. We don’t know what we are. Immediately when that happens the second one automatically kicks in, almost simultaneously, you could say. This one always has to be the first one because at the moment God separated the soul from Himself, through maya, we feel that sense of separation.

Immediately when that happens the second one kicks in — asmita. It comes from asmi. Asmi means “I am.” I am this pure consciousness. Asmita means: “I am this. I am this.” In other words, it makes us think we are the form that we inhabit and that’s what we are. That’s delusion, not truth, isn’t it? It’s an appearance caused by God’s delusion and it’s a cause of pain and affliction. Even then it wouldn’t be so bad if it stopped there but it doesn’t stop there.

The next two that come along are: Raga and Dvesha – attraction and repulsion or, as we say in everyday common language, likes and dislikes. “I like this so I want more of that. I want a lot more of that. I can’t stand that. I don’t love you anymore” — likes and dislikes. That puts the flash on the whole problem, so to speak. That really hits hard. We get caught up in it because our feelings are aroused and into it. That’s what makes it so miserable.

One further step is Abhinivesha — literally clinging to life. What did Patanjali mean by that? He meant hat we think that this physical life that we have in this form is the highest form of life we can experience and so we feel no more desire to try to go to something higher. We may not even be aware of something higher. It is quite common in some people.

So step by step we came down into delusion. How do we go back? The first step to getting back is that we have to overcome that last kleshas, which is clinging to life. We have to say, “Heh! This life is not such a big deal.”By this Brother said he was not telling anyone to commit suicide. For us not to get that idea. But there has to be away to get out of this life and it’s hard, of course, to go back. We want to melt therefore. We want to melt from clinging to life back into likes and dislikes. Then as we work on overcoming likes and dislikes, we can melt back into asmita and then melt that back into avidya and then melt that back into God. By overcoming each kleshas, we can melt back into the other one. By this step by step process, we can go back. It sounds very short but as we all know, it takes a heck of a long time. The smallest things, sometimes, can keep us from making the spiritual effort we should, even practicing our Kriya, for instance.

Brother recalled that when he was first moved from Mother Center to the ashram in Hollywood, quite a few years ago, while still serving in the print facility. He was just living in a different ashram. He’d come from an ashram that was pretty silent to one that was pretty noisy. In fact, it was one of the noisiest ashrams. There were all kinds of noises going on there 24/7. There are big hospitals and other big building around that have air conditioners that never turn off. If one cracked a window the noise was right there.

Brother struggled to deal with that noise. Noise is very distracting. It is the hardest one to shut out because hearing is the last sense that we can shut out. We have to go very deep to get beyond it. Due to the noise he found that he wasn’t doing all his Kriyas at night. He was getting sloppy and finally said: “Okay, this is enough.” He made a vow to himself that he would do all his Kriyas and if he should miss some for whatever reason, he had to make them up the next time. He gave himself that much slack. But, hey, missing a few at night meant getting up earlier in the morning so he figured he may as well do them at night, right? It sounded reasonable but he found it wasn’t so easy because he was doing a lot of Kriya. Sometimes he found himself doing his evening Kriya and as soon as they were done, he started on his morning Kriya. He persisted and never missed. He always did them.

Then one time after he’d been doing this for about seven, eight or nine months…he’d forgotten exactly…one night he was one hundred percent rebellious. When the time came to meditate he said, “Man, I’m sick and tired of this. I’m not going to meditate tonight.” Even as he said it he saw his body get up, walk over to his meditation corner, sit down and start meditating. Now, that’s good habit!

We can create those good habits that help us to meditate. We have to take a lot of disciple to ourselves to do it because otherwise the body will come up with every excuse in the world and a few more. The body always wants to do everything the easy way. That’s it’s nature. It is by nature lazy. Sometimes we have to get serious, that is, mean business with whatever and make it do what it should do.

Guruji made an interesting statement about these things that we have to overcome and that seem to be quite a struggle for us. Brother always liked this quote of Guruji’s, “Danger and I were born together and I am more dangerous than danger.” It is true! Remember that.

When is a slave a slave? A slave is one who cannot give up doing something. He becomes a slave to it. He finds that it is stronger than his will power and he always gives into it. It becomes stronger every time he gives into it. It becomes stronger and he becomes weaker. Every time he resists it, he will become stronger and it will become weaker. If we find that we’ve lost control we’re stuck, aren’t we?

This story is about a fox that lost it’s tail in a trap. He called a meeting of all the foxes and told them how wonderful it was not to have to bother with a tail any more. However, a wise old fox asked this question: “Mr. Fox without a tail, would you advise us to cut off our tails if you still had yours?”

What’s the moral of that story? If someone wants you to copy their bad habits just say, “No.” Don’t do it! Remember Guruji said earlier that we need more power in our no’s.

We know that Guruji had tremendous will power. There’s no doubt about that! He tells a story that when he was a youth, still fairly young, he used to like a particular vegetable that they have in India. It is a small, little vegetables called patel, similar to a small cucumber. He liked them so much that he ate them morning, noon and night. He always ate them. One time a friend of his said: “You’re always eating those things. You must be a slave to them.” Master answered: “I’m not a slave to them. I just like them!” But then he thought: “Well maybe, who knows, maybe I am a slave to them.” So he said to himself: “Okay, no more patel for one year.” He followed that.

After several months, his friend invited him over to his house for dinner and along with the food that was served were patel. Master ate none and his friend asked if he wasn’t going to take any. “I thought you liked patel.” Master said: “I did like them. I’ve given them up for a year and so I no longer have a taste for them. Besides, you were just trying to test me.”

People will often try to test us, you see. That is the way this world is put together. To be honest with you, it’s a set up! There was a Sufi saint, a very interesting saint, who made this statement: “O Lord, Thou hast taken man and Thou hast bound him hand and foot and Thou hast tossed him into the ocean [that is, the ocean of delusion] and Thou hast said, ‘Take care! Take care, lest thou be wetted by the water!’”

Do you want to know the other version? Remember the Christian version about the fall. Our ancestors were in paradise and they fell. Do you know where paradise is? It is not someplace on this earth. This is paradise — the consciousness within the spiritual eye. It wasn’t down in the senses. Our ancestors were liberated. They fell because they got caught up in material procreation. They were given the power to create children just with the power of the mind. Man and woman could come together and with the power of the mind create a child. They both had these qualities but then they fell into this lower form.

The Indian scriptures have something similar. They say that when God first created all the people. Again, they were in paradise. So what were they doing? They were all just sitting around among the trees meditating and God said that wasn’t quite what he had in mind. So He threw the delusion on them deeper and the fun began!

We can change a habit in an instant if we are determined enough and believe we can. If we one hundred percent want to do it and not just say we want to do it. Brother went on to tell a story relating to himself that he knew some of us had heard before.

He said that he was generally a very happy person. Many years ago when he was still out in society there was a time when he became very despondent and had terrible, horrible moods to the point where he finally said that he was not going to commit suicide but knew why people did. In other words, he gone and done what the world tells us to do…the new cars and all the new other things…and to do this or that and one will be happy. He had them but he wasn’t happy. He was miserable but he didn’t know why. “What’s wrong? If this is all there is to life, it’s a dirty gip.”

Then about that time he started going to Self-Realization Fellowship [SRF] and things gradually started to change. He eventually started meditating and things got a little better. Eventually he joined the ashram but he still had not completely overcome the moods. He occasionally still got one.

He’d been in the ashram for maybe a year or so, when he came down with one of these horrible moods, walking around everywhere spreading gloom and darkness wherever he went. As he was walking from one print shop to another he had to walk by Brother Dharmananda. They’d become friends before while working together in the world and then he followed Brother into the ashram. Brother Dharmananda knew what he’d gone through and as soon as he saw Brother come by he just looked up at him with a big smile and said, “Hello, Smiley.” Brother said it felt as though someone had put a knife into him and twisted it. Brother didn’t answer but was sure thinking. “How dare he call me, Smiley? He knows I’m not smiling.”

Brother walked on about four or five paces and suddenly stopped. He thought: “Wait a minute. He’s your friend. He’s not trying to hurt you. He’s trying to help you.” Then for the first time, Brother, asked himself a question that should have been asked years ago. “Why am I in his horrible mood?” Right away an inner answer came back: “Because you like it!” That was not what Brother expected. Then inwardly again he said: “What! I enjoy being miserable?” The inner answer that came back was: “You must. You’ve been holding on to it tightly for three days now.” That was a revelation to Brother and somehow he knew intuitively what to do. He looked into the spiritual eye and with every ounce of will power, with every ounce of belief that it would succeed and with every ounce that he would not cling on to this. That he would completely let go of it now, God, and he mentally shouted: “Get out! Get out and never come back!” That mood was instantly gone and he’s never had another one.

This is not an easy thing to do. Brother said that he’d only been able to do it three times in his life. To change a habit pattern like that is not any easy thing to do but we can do it. Even if we can’t change it that way, we can change it through persistence and just keeping at it. We can overcome these negative things that make our lives miserable. We don’t have to dwell on this.

Krishna said: “Get out of My ocean of suffering and delusion.” We get caught up in the drama and we want to stay there. As long as we are here, we cannot help it. We are mentally caught in the drama, unless we have nirvakalpa samadhi, which is why we, the ministers, say practice Kriya because then we’re out of the drama and can move onto another whole stage of the drama. But as long as we haven’t got that then we still have to deal with all these things. Kriya gives us the way to overcome all these things if we but practice it.

Another story Brother wanted to shared again because, frankly, he enjoyed the remembrances in retelling it. It was again back during that 1953 Convocation. After it was over he bought three tickets to the India day that was going to be at the Mother Center the next day for himself and two other engineering friends of his, one of whom was Brother Dharmananda. They went there, attending everything. Brother was down on the lower level, the tennis court level, and the friend from work who got him started in SRF was there with his wife came over and said: “Rajarsi is on the upper landing giving people blessings. Why don’t you go up and get his blessings?”

Brother’s thought was “blessing, blessing, what’s that? It doesn’t sound dangerous. Maybe I’ll give it a try.” He told us that we needed to remember that he’d just taken six classes, right? He headed for the stairs and came up to the landing. Now he was where he could see what was going on. It may have been about twelve feet from where the road started. He could see this man with his back to him and realized that had to be Rajarsi. He started walking up stairs and got about half way to him, when Rajarsi just suddenly turned around and looked right at Brother. Their eyes locked. Brother said he froze and they just stood looking at each other for a while. When Rajarsi turned around Brother’s feet came unglued and he walked up to the edge of the road to see what the drill was. He saw that everyone was going up Rajarsi with their hands in the pranam position. He got in line and went up to Rajarsi, who took his two hands in his left hand and touched him on the spiritual eye.

Brother continued that he knew enough to look there because he had started the techniques already. He never saw any lights or heard any sounds or anything like that. In fact, the best way, he said that he could explain it was that he felt like he was a lump of dirt. A great soul like Rajarsi acts like a flawless mirror and that reflects back at you what you are. Brother said, obviously, there was a lot of work that needed to be done by him.

When he opened his eyes, Rajarsi’s face right there in front of him. He’d never seen a face like that before. There was so much love coming out of that face. There was so much peace coming out of that face. There was so much joy coming out of that face. When Rajarsi let go of his hands, Brother could barely walk. He said he could barely stagger much less walk right then. He continued along for a few paces and stopped thinking, “I don’t know what that man has but one thing I do know, I want it!” Brother realized he had something that he very much wanted.

There was an old man standing off to one side about six feet away from Rajarsi. He could hardly stand up. He would sway from one side…Whoops! to the other… Whoops! Even though Brother had just had the experience of barely being able to stand after being near Rajarsi, he didn’t connect it to that. He looked at the man and said to himself, “That guy’s drunk! He’s drunker than a skunk!” Well, he was drunk all right but he wasn’t drunk on alcohol. Two years later Brother found out who that little man was. That was the first Brother Sarolananda. He was a great boxing devotee. He was just standing there beside Rajarsi absorbing those bliss vibrations until he could hardly stand.

So we were advised that if we wanted to get drunk to get blissed out on meditation practice and devotion to God. Don’t get blissed out or try to get blissed out, on that phony bliss by taking something that messes one around because there are always bad things that come back to us in this life. It’s never just the easy thing to do.

Rajarsi was such an example there that Brother wanted him to hurry up and talk. Brother was completely nonplussed because he’d just seen what tremendous power Rajarsi had…the tremendous state that he had. Yet, when he got up to give that talk, Brother could hardly listen to him. He was so humble, so simple and so sweet. He just kept saying all the time, “What Master has done for me! What Master has done for me!” He did not praise himself or anything. When Guruji met him, he gave him Kriya Yoga the first night and he said he never saw him after but what he was in God-consciousness. Guruji used to call him Saint Lynn right to his face because he knew that it wouldn’t mean anything to him. He was beyond all of that.

This is what we’re looking for. Basically, it is just evenness of mind and when we can that evenness of mind… Patanjali talks about that, too, in the opening chapter of the “Yoga Sutras.” That’s exactly what iit says: “Yoga is perfect evenness of mind.” That means what? That we can bear insults and not be disturbed. We can have praise heaped upon us and not be puffed up or be bothered by it…evenness of mind. If we cannot keep an even mind, we are shown that we still have a lot of work to do.

Swami Sri Yukteswarji said, “Kriya Yoga is an instrument through which human evolution can be quickened. The ancient yogis discovered that the secret of cosmic consciousness is intimately linked with breath mastery. This is India’s unique and deathless contribution to the world’s treasury of knowledge. The life force, which is ordinarily absorbed in maintaining heart action, must be freed for higher activities by a method of calming and stilling the ceaseless demands of the breath.”

Breath is the cord that ties the soul to the body. If we want to go deep in meditation, go breathless. We say, “How can I do that?” We may already have done it for very brief periods of time and not be aware of it or we may have done it longer. Brother said he didn’t know but he does know what happened to him and the first time it happened it scared the bejeebers out of him. He’d only had Hong Sau for two days. He was sitting meditating after he got home from work one night and all of a sudden he realized he was not breathing and said, “Oh, I’m not breathing. When is the last time I took a breath?” He didn’t know because there is no sense of time in that. It is interesting how our conditioning will take us out of all that because we have to breath to live forgetting that he was doing very well without it. So he tried to breathe. He fought and struggled to take a breath and finally he was able to and that beautiful state was gone.

To himself he said: “You idiot, what have you done?” He then tried to meditate to get it back but, of course, he couldn’t. He could have stayed longer if he’d just calmly enjoyed it. Then he thought that if it ever happens again, he’d be the coolest cucumber in town. He meant that he wasn’t going to let anything bother him — that he was just going to perfectly relaxed. Yeah! Then he found out it wasn’t that easy. The ego fights it. The ego doesn’t want us to obtain that state of consciousness because then what happens to it. It has all kinds of tricks to keep us involved in the drama. Eventually, we overcome that.

Guruji wrote: “Untying the cord of breath that binds the soul to the body, Kriya serves to prolong life and to enlarge the consciousness to infinity. The yoga technique overcomes the tug-of-war between the mind and the matter-entangled senses, and frees the devotee to reinherit his eternal kingdom. He knows then that his real being is bound neither by physical encasement nor by breath—symbol of mortal man’s enslavement to air, to Nature’s elemental compulsions.”

There are interesting things in this, you know.

From the AY: “Master of his body and mind, the Kriya Yogi ultimately achieves victory over the ‘last enemy,’ Death.”
From Shakespeare’s Sonnet 146: “So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men, And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.”

From St. Paul in Corinthians: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

As Guruji said, “God is Love; His plan for creation can be rooted only in love. Does not that simple thought, rather than erudite reasonings, offer solace to the human heart? Every saint who has penetrated to the core of Reality has testified that a divine universal plan exists and that it is beautiful and full of joy.”

We need to remind ourselves of this because we are going through a changeover from one yuga to another now and it could be a very bumpy road. The quicker we change the sooner we’ll be through it and move into the higher age. If we resist and cling to the old stuff and don’t change, it will go on.

Don’t think that the bit we do is not important. Guruji used to say that one moon gives more light than a thousand stars. Meaning that one person with some realization can offset the negative influence of a thousand ordinary people. Don’t think our little bit does not help. Every little bit helps to achieve the balance.

Guruji said two things: “To many people have forgotten God.” Look around you; we’ll see it. Many young people out there today are not only immoral, they are amoral. They have no conception of morality.

The other things is that we have to learn to be more sharing and that is usually easier done when we have to. It is very interesting. People who are very poor will often share more than people who are very rich because they know what it’s like.

Brother closed with these words from the last chapter of the Autobiography. Guruji wrote: “The blessed role of Kriya Yoga in East and West has hardly more than just begun. May all men come to know that there exists a definite, scientific technique of Self- realization for the overcoming of all human misery! In sending loving thought vibrations to the thousands of Kriya Yogis scattered like shining jewels over the earth, I often think gratefully: ‘Lord, Thou hast given this monk a large family!’”

And those other great souls on this path who have gone beyond…Daya Mata and many others. We now have some more people up there that we can depend on getting some good vibrations from to help us on the path.

We are part of that family of Guruji’s and how thankful each one of us should be that be that he has welcomed us wholeheartedly and completely into this family of Self-Realization for our liberation and salvation. We must not let maya cheat us. We must make the effort.

Remember, Kriya Yoga plus devotion works like mathematics. It will not fail!

Jai Guru!

Keep on keeping on!

2012 Convocation – “Life’s Greatest Adventure – Teen/Young Adult Class” ~
Brother Ishtananda

Greetings and love to all of you. It is so nice to see so many of the old souls in young bodies interested in deepening their spiritual lives.

This afternoon’s class will be about some of Gurudeva’s spiritual concepts that would be good for you to have early in your spiritual life and that in counseling Brother is aware that even long term devotees often do not understand. The title of the class is “Life’s Greatest Adventure” and, of course, that greatest adventure is the spiritual path. As mentioned, we need to be clear on some of these concepts to go deep into the spiritual life.

When Brother was given the topic of the class he was reminded of the scene from the “Wizard of Oz” where Dorothy, Tin Man and Scarecrow were going down the road and when they come to a fork in the road. Dorothy asked the group: “Which road should be take?” The Tin Man replied: “It doesn’t matter which road you take, if you don’t know where you’re going.” Hopefully, by the end of this class, you’ll know where you’re going and which road to take, if you’re not already clear on that.

Let’s start out by talking about what it is you want from this adventure in life. Ask yourself that question. We all know what the correct answer is. The correct answer is: “I want God.” Many of us here would say, “I want God, but I want a few other things, too.” Is there anybody in that situation? Well, there are a few other things we want, like maybe a job or to get into a certain school or a relationship. What if I told you that you really don’t want these things and you really don’t! And if you’re thinking: “How does he know what I want?” Trust me, I do!

Think of these things you want. Why do you think you want a job? Why do you think you want to travel? Why do you think you want a committed relationship? You want the job because it gives you a sense of security. You want to travel because it gives you a sense of freedom and enjoyment. You the relationship because you want to feel that love in the relationship.

So think about that. It is not these things that you want. It’s the feelings that you think you will have when you get these things. Am I right? It is really not the people, places and things that you want. It’s really the feeling that comes when you get those things.

A simple example: Let’s say you really wanted a new iPad. Brother said that he was really enjoying his, so that’s why he’s using this as an example. You really want a iPad but you can’t afford it. Then for your birthday your parents give you an iPad. How do you feel? Really happy! Let’s look at that. The iPad is just a bit of metal and plastic with a computer chip. Does it have some inherent magical happiness vibrations to it? No, it’s just this thing.

If we really look at what is happening it is really interesting. Master calls it contrast consciousness. You don’t have something you want and you’re unhappy because you don’t have it. Then you get it and then you’re happy. There’s the contrast consciousness. I didn’t have it and I was unhappy; now I have it, so I’m happy. Let’s look at what is really going on there because this is such a setup the way God designed it, if you think about it.

Master tells us that the inherent quality of our soul, the inherent quality of our consciousness, is pure joy…actually bliss or ecstasy. We have that within us but why are we not experiencing it? It is because it’s native to the transcendental calmness-consciousness of the soul but our minds are usually vibrating with so many thoughts and feelings that it cannot register that bliss in that calm-consciousness.

The mind is busy trying to figure out how to get an iPad or whatever the desire is. The mind is busy trying to figure out how to get this…maybe through work or something or maybe by asking for this… It is busy trying to get it or busy brooding over the fact that it doesn’t have it. What happens when the desire is satisfied? Well, the mind is no longer busy trying to figure out how to get it or brooding over that it doesn’t have it because now the desire has been satisfied. So what happens?

The mind just settles down. When the mind settles down like that, at least a little bit, a spray of that joy from the soul comes through. You see how that works! Brother repeated that it is such a setup! “I didn’t have the iPad and I was unhappy. Now I have the iPad and I’m happy”. So obviously it was the iPad that made me happy. The iPad did not make you happy. It just served as a means to quiet the mind a little bit so some of that joy of the soul could come forth.

It may not even be the object that you wanted and it is certainly not the object that made you happy. The object just served, as Master calls it, as a pickax to pry a layer of your consciousness so that some of the joy of the soul could come forth. If you really think that it’s the people, places and things that are really going to make you happy, at some point, you’ll find that you’re sadly mistaken.

This is what happens to people throughout their lives because they think it’s the “thing” that’s going to make them happy. They keeping going from one “thing” to another “thing” to another “thing” because once they get this “thing” the mind quiets down and they feel a little joy but it doesn’t last. Then they create another desire so that they are unhappy so they can feel happy when they get the item.

The following quote of Master’s has had a very special meaning for Brother over the years. He feels it is one of the most motivating quotes that Master made. Master says: “Do not permit life to cheat you. Know what you really want. Know what you really want is that feeling of love and peace and joy, which is really the presence of God within you.” Know what it is you really want! Go after it directly. Don’t keep trying to pursue it through these indirect means.

One of the reasons Brother so much wants the concept of what you want understood is because you are going to have desires. We are all here on this human plane and we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have desires because desires is what causes us to reincarnate. We all have desires. However, as mentioned at the beginning, once we’re on the spiritual path we feel like, “Yes, I have a desire for God but I also have a desire for things.” We have a conflict going on inside of us. We have this desire for God, yet we have desires for objects and things.

Recently, at Hidden Valley there was a devotee, a young man who during counseling asked Brother if having ambitions was in conflict with his desires for God. Brother asked, “Well, what kind of ambitions do you have?” They were good ambitions. He wanted to teach at a university; he wanted to be financially stable; he wanted to have a committed relationships. They were all good things and yet, this concept of having desires other than the desire for God was creating a conflict in his mind. Brother wants everyone to understand that it is perfectly natural and that we should try to fulfill all your good and noble desires. There is no conflict in that but be aware how much and what they are able to give you.

Don’t put yourselves in that situation where you say, “Yes, I want God but I also…” Brother said that when he hears, “Yes, I want God but…” it reminds him when he was in the Postulant Ashram with Brother Premamoy, who was the house brother to all the monks at that time. He would be explaining spiritual principles to the postulant monks and often times one of the young monks would say, “Yes, Brother, I understand but…” Finally, Brother said, “Don’t be ‘but’ disciples.” Don’t say, “I want God but…” Just say simply I want God because I know in that desire everything else I crave will be satisfied.

This is the first point that Brother really wants everyone to understand: that what you really do want is God and that it’s perfectly fine to try to satisfy all the other desires. The real desire is for God.

In the West Master called his organization Self-Realization Fellowship. Understanding who you are and who you are not is the second point that Brother really wanted understood.

Who is this Self, with a capital ‘S’? The real Self is who we really are. Well, we can’t really can’t say who the Self is because we are limited to the confines of our minds, mental concepts. The Self, the real Self, is far, far beyond the ignoble concepts.

Brother started talking a little bit about the self that you really do know…the little self, the personal self, the ego or the pseudo soul. When you think about it, this personal self is really just a constructive thought. Think of what you are. “Well, I was born on such a such a day in such and such a place. I went to school at so and so. When I was thirteen I had this skating accident. When I was fifteen I met so and so. We were together now and then. I moved to so and so.” This constitutes your life story. This is who you think you are, right?

It is, again, such an interesting concept if this who you think you are. The behavioral psychologist, B. F. Skinner said, “We’re the sum total of all our past experiences.” He probably didn’t realize he was talking about experiences from incarnations. That the little self, little personal self, the ego, is that sum total of all your past experiences. So when you create this life story from all these memories, you see how ephemeral that is. It’s just a bunch of connected, related thoughts and that’s who you think you are.

Master said, “Ideas are finite, they are fleeting, moving along and changing in time and space. But their underlying substance, the enduring consciousness of one’s existence, which perceives and cognizes the idea…is constant.” So these ideas that we have, as Master says, “…are fleeting.” They are changing all the time.

Recently, Brother was talking with a young man who was trying to decide whether to take a job in another country or not. He was trying to decide whether to get into a relationship at this time. He was trying to figure out how to resolve something with his parents and he was going on and on about this. Finally, he said, “I’m really having a hard time dealing with all I’m going through.” Brother’s response was that he was not really going through any of this.

The young man was quiet for a while and then finally he said. “What do you mean?” Brother said, “Well, think about it. Investigate. Who’s going through this? Who do you think you are? You are not your car; you are not your partner; you are not your thoughts; you are not your feelings.” Again, he was quiet for a while and then said, “I’m scared. That’s really scary. I’m really nothing.” Brother’s reply, “You’re absolutely right. You would be nothing! You would be nothing but who you really are–pure, perfect, contented bliss-consciousness.”

This is something you need to look at early on so you don’t go through life thinking that you’re all these memories, all these thoughts that you’re not. You’ll get to a point where you’ll see how silly it is to think that you are a bunch of related thoughts, when you’re in reality that underlying eternal consciousness that makes you aware of all the thoughts.

Are we really a part of that Divine Consciousness now? Master is very clear about this. He says, “…we are as much a part of Him [God] now as we ever will be. All we have to do is improve our knowing.” Think of that! God–ourself–our God-consciousness within us is as perfect now as it is ever going to be. It contains all the divine qualities, as divine as they are going to be, right now!

Our beloved president, Sri Mrinalini Mata, talking about the spiritual life said, “It is God seeking God. It is God seeking God.” It is a beautiful concept.

St. Francis of Assisi expressed the same thing in this way: “The One you are looking for is the One who is looking.” It is beautiful, isn’t it? “The One you are looking for is the One who is looking.” You are nothing else but God-consciousness now. It is not something that is going to be grafted on from the outside. It is right there! It is the core of your being!

You may say, “I don’t feel like it’s God within me.” Master explains why we don’t feel that it is God within us. He said that because we are identifying with something that is not ourselves, our real selves. We have allowed the consciousness to become identified with the mind, the body, the external world and it is through this identification that we think we are all these things.

Some years ago, when Brother read the LA Times, he’d read the Children’s Section. He thought it was the only section worth reading. The children would submit riddles and artworks. There was one children’s riddle that always stuck with him and he asked if we knew the answer to the following riddle: “Imagine you’re in a room with no doors and no windows. How would you get out?” “STOP IMAGINING!” Stop imagining and you’re out.

How are we going to realize the presence of God within us? Stop imaging we’re something else? Stop imaging that we’re this body, having a mind, a person having all these things, places, relationships. It is not that we should not have them but we should not identify with them to the extent that it is who we think we are. So we need to stop imaging we are all these things.

Brother shared, what he felt was a really power quote of Master’s. He didn’t know how he missed it for so many years. I few years ago when he came across it, he thought it was amazing and so powerful. Master starts out by quoting from Proverbs in the Bible: “As a man thinketh, so is he. Whatever way a devotee thinks of himself, free or in bondage, attached or non-attached, restless with passion or free of all desire, that is the consciousness the body identified soul adopts. Think of yourself as the Self.” “Think of yourself as the Self” and don’t think: “I’m restless or all caught up in these desires.” Think of yourself as what you really are. “Think of yourself as the Self” as that pure, divine consciousness that you really are.

All the great ones come for this. That is, just to try, not get us to achieve enlightenment or to create some exalted state of consciousness, but simply to realize what we already are!

There is a story of a guru and disciple sitting under a tree in India. The disciple asked the guru: “Guruji, who am I?” The guru’s reply to the disciple said: “What do you think you are?” And the disciple said: “Gurudeva, you know I do not know who I am. Why are you asking me?” The guru said: “I am not talking to you. Consciousness is called Big Consciousness about Consciousness.” He’s pointing out who he really is! That is what all the great ones come to point out to us — who we really are. They are talking to the real Me; they are talking to the real Self. They are talking to consciousness through Consciousness about what we are, which is consciousness. When we get this, this is what we really are.

In the evening classes they have a big screen on at times. You will see the speaker on the screen and he’s giving you all kinds of spiritual instructions and so forth and he holds your attention for the hour or so. Then after the speaker walks away and the projector is turned off, the screen is still there. This is kind of the way it is with us. There is a screen of our consciousness; a screen of just pure calm awareness and all of these thoughts, feelings and all that is going on is projected on that screen. All those thoughts and feelings come and go and if we turn them off, and let’s hope that we can in deep meditation, what remains is the screen–that which we really are.

Do not identify with what’s projected on the screen. Identify with the screen itself. We may think that just being a blank screen doesn’t seem very interesting. We have to remember that the screen, the inherent quality of that screen, is absolute bliss-consciousness existing forever. That’s what the screen of awareness is made of. Yet, we think we want or are interested in what’s projected on the screen. Don’t get caught up with what’s projected on the screen. Keep coming back to the awareness of what is your true self.

Someone said: “The thoughts come and go but consciousness has no where to go.” It is just like the screen. The images come and go but it, the screen, has no where to go. It is the same with us. We are just that still, motionless consciousness inside. This is why Lord Krishna said, “Be anchored in that which is changeless.” Be anchored in that which we truly are!

Most people become so identified with their thoughts and feelings, so they think that is who they are. If they are having restless thoughts in meditation, they think: “Oh, I’m restless.” If they are feeling angry. Then it’s: “Oh, I’m really angry.” They are not. They are just registering anger on the screen of their consciousness. We become so identified with it though that we think that it’s perfectly natural for the mind to be constantly chattering and for the emotions to be constantly churning. It is not natural! It is not natural at all. Our natural state is that true transcendental calmness. That is who we really are.

The second point that Brother really hoped that everyone can take home with them is this very important point: Understand who you are and not who you think you are. YOU ARE THE PURE, DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS. Again, really sit that with that thought sometime as to who you really are.

We are talking about identifying with the real self, with the consciousness, with that stillness, with that transcendental calmness, instead of always identifying with the restlessness with the personal self, the little self, the ego. How do we do this? Brother reiterated that it is such a setup the way God did things…that it really wasn’t fair at all!

As Master said, “We need to improve our knowing.” How do we go about improving that knowing? That knowing is not going to come through the mind because, as previously mentioned, the mind is limited. The pure consciousness is unlimited. So there is no way the limited human mind is going to be able conceive that unlimited pure consciousness. If the mind can’t conceive or perceive of this real Self, where is it and how is it perceived?

In one of Master’s chants he said: “…Thee I find behind the fringe of my mind…” What does it mean: behind the mind? Look at what the mind is. One person referred to it as a thought bubble machine. It just bubbles up thoughts. This a pretty good description of what the mind is. As mentioned, our consciousness is really in a motionless state, this transcendental calm-consciousness. This thought bubbling machine creates all these ripples in the center of it. What happens is we become focused on the ripples instead of what’s beyond the fringe of those ripples, that calm-consciousness.

There’s an expression: “Lost in thought.” That’s where we are the majority of time…we are lost in thought. Those ripples, those thought bubbles, coming up out of the ripples. We get so focused and so aware of those that it takes up the whole field of awareness and that’s all we see. So if we watch those thoughts then we can begin to get awareness along the fringe of thoughts and they calm down. That’s getting beyond those ripples of the mind.

In another one of Master’s chants he said, “When thoughts have gone to rest, that’s the time I see Him best…” When the thoughts have gone to rest, that is, when the thought bubbles finally stopped bubbling…when they’ve gone to rest that’s the time we see the rivers of calmness.

So now you’re probably thinking: “Well, how do I get the thought bubbles to stop bubbling?” This is one of the beautiful things about the spiritual path. There are many approaches to it depending on our specific nature. It can be through devotion. It can be through meditation. It can be through service. It can be through discrimination. It can be through surrender. There are these different approaches but they all have the same goal and that is, to quiet the ripples so that we become aware of that calm-consciousness.

There are these many approaches but this afternoon Brother wanted only to talk about two specific ones, because for him, they are very direct ways. They both dealing directly with consciousness. They are:

• Stillness in meditation; and
• Witnessing consciousness.

Brother addressed stillness in meditation first because it is one of the most neglected aspects of meditations. By neglected, he means that it is the part of meditation that is given the less amount of attention, the least amount of time.

What are we referring to when talking about stillness in meditation? Brother Bhaktananda used to really stress this a lot. He defined stillness in meditation this way: “Stillness just means being absorbed in feeling God’s presence at the spiritual eye…no thinking, no chanting, no prayer. It is in that stillness that we really have communion with God as peace, joy and love.”

The mind will tell you that you’re wasting your time. That you should be doing something here. The mind is nothing but those ripples of thought and when we realize this then those ripples are beginning to cease. Each one is going to try saving its job–anything to keep creating these ripples in the mind. “You should be praying or chanting or practicing affirmation or you should be at temple or you should be…,” anything to keep those ripples going. Those things have their place but when it comes to stillness in meditation there is no thought. No thought is lofty enough that you should allow it replace the stillness of meditation because the thought is just that. It’s a thought. It is fleeting as Master said. It is changing; it is just passing through. The stillness is constant. It is always there. The presence of God is in that stillness. Brother Bhaktananda says here is where the communion with the love, the peace, the joy and the feeling of expansion takes place in that stillness.

Those of you who are blessed to have Kriya or the other techniques of meditation use them. Use them; focus on them; practice the technique of concentration of meditation as best you can. That’s the purpose of the techniques. The purpose of the techniques is to quiet the mind so that we can get into that stillness. Use the techniques to explore the consciousness behind the mind. By explore the consciousness, Brother said that he didn’t mean trying to have some phenomenal experience but to explore the presence of God that is behind the mind. Use the techniques for that.

If you get into that stillness and don’t let the mind talk you into letting it keep it’s job, you’ll come to a place where you’ll be aware of nothing except that you exist. It is your “beingness”. It is all that you really are…pure ”beingness”! In Sanskrit it is: sat–meaning pure existence and that’s what you are. That in itself is a tremendous realization. “I exist. I always have. I exist now and I always will.”

There is a tremendous amount to explore and by explore, Brother really means letting whatever surfaces in that stillness to just let it surface. Master said: “When you go beyond the consciousness of this world, knowing that you are not the body or the mind and yet aware as never before that you exist, that divine consciousness is what you are.”

In meditation we have the techniques to help us get into that stillness, into that quietness, but it’s not so easy during the day with activities. How are we going to carry this stillness, this quietness, into activity? We can start by getting to that point of stillness in meditation and then, as you leave meditation, feel like you’re carrying something very sacred, very precious, with you out of your meditation because you are. You are carrying that presence of God, that stillness. Even though you may not be able to hold it throughout the day, if you just have that concept of trying to create a continuum from your meditations. Have that continuum of stillness.

Master said: “By yoga practice a devotee should establish himself in the perception of soul blessedness and of aloofness from the body even while he is performing his worldly activities.”

This is what Brother called the witnessing consciousness…the witnessing consciousness. There are two things that help us get into the witnessing consciousness:

A. Japa — a repetition of a devotional thought or a mantra: “Om Guru! Om Guru! Om Guru!” “I love Thee, Lord! I love Thee, Lord! I love Thee, Lord!” “Om! Tat! Sat! Om! Tat! Sat! Om! Tat! Sat!” It just a constant mental repetition that gets the mental ripples going in the same direction. It is by all going in the same direction that makes it easier for them to subside into the stillness. It is a tremendous help.

One of Brother Bhaktananda points was to chant from the heart. Repeat it from the heart! It is not just because you want this feeling of devotion. If you feel your chanting from the heart, what it does is send the energy into the fourth chakra. It helps to center the energy in the higher centers. Again, practicing from the heart.

B. Another great way to help with the witnessing consciousness is what Master told Sri Daya Mata when she would come to him with difficulties. he would tell her, “Always keep your attention here.” Meaning throughout the day always keep some of your attention at the spiritual eye. Again, what that does is to keep you from totally being thrown out into the world. It keeps the energy coming up to these higher centers.

Again, those are two great “helps” in practicing the witnessing conscious-ness.

One of the quotes of Master’s that inspired Brother in the beginning to start practicing the witnessing consciousness and to try to be aware throughout the day is from “God Talks with Arjuna”: He said, “The soul is only a witness; it does not engage itself in the operations of the human intelligence, mind, and senses. It is an observer of the workings of Cosmic Nature in the body.” “The soul is only a witness…” It is an observer; it doesn’t participate

How do we cultivate this witnessing consciousness? Say that you’re sitting outside at Starbucks just watching the people pass by on the sidewalk. Some people are more interesting looking than others but those that are interesting looking you don’t just run up and start talking to them, you know. You can sit there and just watch the people pass by. You don’t have to get all involved with them. It is the same with thoughts. You can sit back in a seat at Starbucks and watch the thoughts kind of go by. You don’t have to get involved with them. It’s like email. You don’t have to open yourself to spam. You can just delete it. The majority of your thoughts are just going to be spam, just like with email. Don’t put the attention on them. If you put attention on thought…the thought has no life of its own…it’s just a thought. As Master said, “…they are fleeting…” They will pass but if you open that thought by putting attention on it, what you’ve done is put energy to it. You’ve created life to that thought. Then it’s going to be there. Again, if you don’t give it the energy, through attention, they will delete themselves. They will just pass on because they have no existence without your attention and energy.

It is not as difficult as you might think it is because it is going on spontaneously all the time. There is a part of you that knows you are sitting here listening to a lecture. What you think about the lecture is a whole other subject but there is a part of you that is aware that you are here.

Recently Brother talked with a devotee, a psychologist. They were talking about the witnessing consciousness that he said is going on all the time. He said, “You can be having a temper tantrum and there is a part of you that knows you are having a temper tantrum.” So it is basically realizing that we should become more aware of the awareness that is aware of the temper tantrum. That’s a lot of awareness but that’s basically what it is — being aware of the awareness that’s aware of what’s going on. It is happening all the time. It is simply becoming aware of it. So it is not as difficult as one may think.

Who is the voice of this silent witness? Earlier we mentioned that Master was talking about ideas fleeting and changing and so forth but he also said that the underlying substance, the enduring consciousness of ones existence, which perceives and cognizes the ideas, is constant. This is who the witness is. It is the constant, underlying, enduring consciousness that we truly are.

A devotee recently said, “Since childhood it’s been as if I’ve been watching myself go through life. Have any of you ever had that experience? That you just kind of feel that you’re watching yourself go through all this. Well, that is because there is that constant consciousness that we talked about.– the screen.– and everything is passing on it. Are we aware? “No, it is just like someone watching me go through life.”

And you realize that the one that is watching you go through life is that absolutely perfect consciousness, Divine Consciousness, right now. Brother encouraged to become aware that the more you identify with this through meditation and witnessing consciousness, the more you will eliminate much grief and heartache in life. Because if you don’t have that awareness and you identify with your life stories, you will constantly be feeling: “Oh, I should have done that. Oh gosh, I did it again! Oh my, you know…”

The following quote by a saint made so much sense to Brother. It had so much meaning for him. The saint said, “My human nature unfolds according to its karma; I remain as I am.” It is really beautiful. It is really deep. “My human nature unfolds according to its karma; I remain as I am.” We were just talking about if you’re aware of just watching going through life we remain. That’s who you are.

So meditation and activity: those who need to come back to that transcendental calm-consciousness is the third point. That is, the stillness of our real nature, and Master has given us everything to realize that still nature is who we really are. Focus on the stillness of who we really are. As great as the witnessing consciousness in meditation is, it is only a means to the goal and that goal is the goal of yoga…union with God. When you think about union, two things are united. They are merged together.

Master said, “Religion is really nothing but the merging of our individuality into universality.” Notice Master doesn’t say destroying or overcoming our individuality. Not at all. He said, “…merging of our individuality into universality…” It is the expanding that little self into the greater Self. It is the little drop going back into the ocean. It doesn’t cease to exist; it just expands. It is the same with us. We are just expanding our individual nature back into our universal nature. It’s why we love others; it’s why we feel compassion for others; why we want to help others. It is part of our universal nature. It’s like, “I love myself in that person. I’m helping myself in that person. I feel compassion for myself in that person.” It is all the same consciousness. It is merging it back into that universality.

Brother really liked the way one hippie friend of his referred to this. They’d been together back in the 60s and, of course, the big thing for the hippies was love, peace and the expansion of consciousness. Some years ago this friend said that it was not about expansion on consciousness but it’s about contracting the consciousness. It’s not about expansion of the consciousness; it’s about contracting the consciousness. He was absolutely right.

Our real state, our real nature, is already expanded. It is the strong sense of individuality that contracts that universal consciousness that is about me, my and mine. So the more we can let go of that, then the greater the merging into the universality. Intuitively we know that merging into the Self is the goal of life. Even though we mostly know the goal of life, the spiritual path can be very subtle and this brings us to the fourth and final point.

It is a very vital and often overlooked point even by long time devotees. At first it seems very simple: “I want God so I just follow the spiritual path.” However, there are really two spiritual paths:

• A virtual spiritual path, as Brother calls it; and
• A true spiritual path.

In virtual spirituality it looks like the person is spiritual but there is no depth there because they haven’t yet totally convinced themselves that what they want, what they truly want, can be found inside. So what they do is go through the motions and doing all the spiritual things — going to temple or center, reading spiritual books, meditating — and this looks all very spiritual but what they are still looking to fulfill them is something from the world.

Some devotees, after decades on the path, still wonder why they are not deeper into the spiritual path. All the time, this is one of the reasons becauses they may not want to give up that comfort zone of virtual spirituality. They are still trying to find that fulfillment from the world while being spiritual.

We talked about how you can remember all the things you went through to create your life story. After you’ve been on the spiritual path it’s the same thing. You have evidence about reading this book, going to the youth camp, serving at this temple or center and so forth. So these memories become part of your life story, also. Because all this sounds very spiritual, the mind accepts that we’re a spiritual person and we believe whatever the mind tells us.

This is interesting. A saint was talking about believing the mind because it says you’re a spiritual person, Because you meditate, you serve at the temple, etc., the mind tells you that you’re a spiritual person. A saint said: “The mind is a cheat. The more pious it seems, the worse the betrayal.” Brother repeated the quote. That’s deviancy.

Then Brother went on to clarify that he was not saying that you shouldn’t do these things and not to misunderstand him. We should be doing all these spiritual things, like reading, serving, meditating and so forth but what he is saying is that we want to realize exactly what these things are doing and to build on them. They are helps but just doing them does not constitute true spirituality.

Again, true spirituality is seeking what you want in the place that it can be found–inside. It is not about doing all the external things, meditating, reading, that will make you feel spiritual. If you stay on the path of true spirituality, life becomes so beautiful because you can enjoy everything then. Relationships become so much more meaningful because you’re satisfied inside and you’re just wanting to share this with someone else instead wanting something from another person or wanting someone to feel this way about you. It is not about getting because you are incomplete. In your true spirituality you become a giver and givers are happy, takers are not. You become so much more creative because you’re attuned to that pure creative consciousness that is inside of you. You become more efficient because the mind is not so restless.

So if you’re really of a mind of true spirituality, you’re really living life but, if you’re living that virtual spirituality, you are just trying to live. You are just trying to get something from the world. You’re always trying! Your not living! You’re just trying to get something that will make you feel like you’re living but it never will. It can only be found in the Source.

Brother gave a hypothetical situation of a devotee, a young man, an actor, who’d belonged to SRF [Self-Realization Fellowship] for about eight years. He attended the Hollywood Temple and during an event called: “Spiritualizing Your Life in the Entertainment Industry,” one of the things discussed was rejection because it is something that has to be dealt with all the time…the script wasn’t accepted or the part was given to someone else or whatever. This young devotee was sharing that the way he dealt with rejection was that he just did everything for Master.

Much later he came to Brother for counseling. He said, “Brother, I’ve just gone to a number of auditions and I thought I did pretty well but I didn’t get any of the parts. I am so angry! I am so frustrated!” Brother’s thought was: “And you’re doing this for Master.” How many of us can relate to that? “I didn’t get the job. I didn’t get the raise I expected. The relationship went south,” whatever it is. If we allow ourselves to get upset by these things, we’re living the virtual spiritual life because we’re looking for that something outside of ourselves.

Brother said that this is something that he’s watched over the last four years and he’s found that it always holds true. If one is ever unhappy, it is always for the same reason. Check it out for yourself. It always holds true. If you’re unhappy, it’s for the same reason. You want something to be different than the way it is. It’s always the same thing! Your unhappy for that reason.

Yet, think about this. Those outer circumstances you have no control over. You have no control over how someone feels about you. You have no control over whether the traffic is fast or slow. You have no control over whether the weather is inclement or clear. Yet, you allow these things to make you happy or unhappy. Don’t put your happiness in the hands of others or conditions that you have no control over. It makes absolutely no sense. It’s ridiculous! It’s worse than ridiculous! IT’S NUTS!!! Brother was very serious about saying that it’s nuts.

Recently Brother was counseling with a man who said: “Brother, just living life is killing me.” But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Christ said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” He didn’t say it’s out there or in the world or in the clouds but that it’s “within you.”

This fourth point Brother really wants everyone to understand. That is that there are two spiritualities:

• Virtual Spirituality

and

• True Spirituality

and only the true spirituality is going to take you where you want to go.

It is difficult living a spiritual life. Brother went on to tell the audience how much he admired them for trying to live a spiritual life out in the crazy world of today.

Master said: “When you’re having difficulty in trying to change for the better, spiritual company and other uplifting influences are essential.” Brother said that one of the greatest blessings on the spiritual path has been living in the ashram because, for him, it provides the most ideal environment for accomplishing what he wants to accomplish. If there’s a movie for fellowship night for the monks, he doesn’t have to worry about how it’s rated and so forth. He just goes. If there’s some difficulty or if there’s something he’d like to discuss about his meditation or spiritual practice there is always someone senior that he can go to or someone he can associate with who can help. Even just spending time with the monks, he doesn’t have to worry whether there language is going to drag his consciousness down. Conversations may not be totally uplifting but, at least, it’s not totally X-rated. They are Master’s ashrams and they are beautiful!

Environment is so important to support your spiritual life. You may not be able to live in an ashram but you can take those spiritual principles from ashram life and create the spiritual environment for yourself. You don’t have to go to violent and explicit movies. You don’t have to use foul language to be cool. You don’t have to do these different things that are going to pull the consciousness down. Associate with those people that are uplifting to you. Even your physical surroundings keep them clean, neat and beautiful! That was just Master’s way. Use these things to support you in your aspirations for spirituality.

We’ve talked about some pretty big aspects of the spiritual path. We could have talked about all kinds of topics, like, spiritual principles on relationships or jobs or being successful or perusing your passion or whatever. However, some of those spiritual principles could have the effect of causing you to think that you are separated from God. By that Brother means what’s he’s talked about: that you’re not a good person, you’re not a bad person; you’re not a person. You’re just consciousness!

Again, Brother wants everyone to realize that and take home as to what you really are. From all the information there are basically these four points:

1. All you want is God! Not I want God, but… No if ands or buts. I want God because I know that will give me everything I want;
2. Understand who you are and not what you think you are;
3. Master has given us all the tools and teachings we need to discover that Divine Self within us. The stillness within and the witnessing consciousness are two of the tools; and a very important fourth one
4. There are two roads you can take in life: virtual spirituality or true spirituality. The choice is yours.

All of these points can basically be summed up in two quotes that were mentioned: one by Master and one by Christ. “Do not permit life to cheat you.” “The kingdom of God is within you.” “Do not permit life to cheat you.” “The kingdom of God is within you.”

Brother closed by wishing everyone the best in their divine adventure.

Jai Guru!

2012 Convocation – “The Devotee’s Responsibility in Today’s World” ~ Brother Jayananda

Master was the consummate host. He knew how to make people feel welcome. Think of how delighted he must be during convocation.

This is a ponderous subject. We all know what the goal of life is. The purpose of life is to find God, to attain self-realization. Raja Yoga teaches us to bring yoga into our daily lives. We even know how on this path – through meditation, through Raja Yoga, and bringing God into our lives.

Responsibility isn’t quite the right word. You can’t really talk about responsibility as something that has to be done. You talk about responsibility as it pertains to cosmic law.

Guruji gives a beautiful definition of self-realization: “Self-realization is the knowing—in body, mind, and soul—that we are one with the omnipresence of God; that we do not have to pray that it come to us, that we are not merely near it at all times, but that God’s omnipresence is our omnipresence; that we are just as much a part of Him now as we ever will be. All we have to do is improve our knowing.”

We don’t have to acquire anything. It’s a part of us. All we have to do is increase our knowing. Evolution from human consciousness to Divine consciousness through individual effort.

Earth is a school. We bounce back and forth from the astral. When we learn all the lessons we graduate.

First responsibility – we make the effort. This is not comfortable stuff to talk about because it takes effort. “If we change ourselves, we changes thousands.” ~ Master

We change those around us and we change the vibration of the world. Change from mortals to awakened souls.

Master demands a lot. Make the effort. Find a way to keep learning the lessons in a conscious way. He asks no less then to change ourselves to awakened souls of God.

Everyone feels they could be meditating more and doing more. Re-read the story of the Sleepless Saint in AY. How can you meditate so much and not know God? God is eternity Himself.

Meditation gives tremendous happiness and well-being. This is what keeps us on the path.

One of the greatest tests is to think you’re not making progress or that you’re not making the spiritual grade. Master would always say to people who didn’t feel they were progressing, “You don’t say so?”

The truth is we are progressing. Effort changes you in a fundamental way. Afterwards you are different. Difficulties also change you in a profound way.

Brother was working with Ma taking dictation. She told him a way he had to change. “You should become a little more organized.” He told Ma, “but that’s the way I am!” She looked at him and said, “You know what Master would say to you? Master would say, ‘change yourself.’” Ma would change herself. She would perfect any shortcoming.

You just have to do your best. Work to change. Organize yourself. You have to do better. Then do better still. That’s what self-realization is all about.
Realize you won’t have to be able to do it all.

Ma would work at it. She would put reminders on her desk. She would put notes to jog her memory. When Ma left her room she would take something of Master and try to work on it that day.

This is what a saint does. Very practical and down to earth, but it works. “It is by constant effort that one grows spiritually. Otherwise, one just hobbles along.” ~ Ma

Brother Premamoy had profound insights into the spiritual path. He was a keen observer of life and people. He said, “If you don’t introspect, you cannot change.” To look at yourself, to be able to change. What is this? Why am I behaving this way? If you are clear to what your shortcomings are, the next step to change becomes clear. You know what it is you need to change, so you say “let me try this, let me try that.”

A dictionary was given to Master in 1920 by the devotees in Boston. Near the top off the dictionary, the gold gilding was nearly worn off. Someone had gone through the dictionary thousands of times. In 1927, The Cincinnati Inquirer said of Master, “Swami Yogananda’s English was perfect; thoughts flowed with ease. Adding definitions occasionally.” The newsman was so impressed by Guruji’s command of language. Guruji worked on himself.

Ma pulled out a paper with Master’s handwriting and she gave it to Brother Jayananda. “Amphibian” was written across the bottom of the page three times. That’s how Guruji learned the English language. He would deeply concentrate on it and write it across the page. Then Guruji would use the word in a service. The Divine side of Guru. Guruji worked on himself in that way. In whatever way he could improve himself.

In the desert dictating the Gita, the typist couldn’t find a word Master used. They got dictionaries and finally found Master’s word.

We have a responsibility to live a life of balance. The teachings help us to live a balanced life.

Our line of Gurus is very balanced. Lahiri Mahasaya wanted to stay with Babaji, but Babaji said no. He had to prove that he could have a householder life combined with the Divine since life is both meditation and activity.

Sri Yukteswar was a perfect balance of East and West. The spiritual oriental. To see that life was both meditation and right activity.

Master was in favor of half from book learning and half from experience – the middle path.

Master said, “Remember I am there with you in spirit.” Awaken God’s love in all hearts. Your love will grow so much that you will influence others. Do the best you can where you are and know you’re doing the best that Master wants for you. The future will take care of itself.

“Don’t’ be discouraged. Everything in the future will improve if you’re making a spiritual effort now.” ~ Sri Yukteswar

We have a responsibility to persevere on the spiritual path. It’s the whole magic of spiritual success.

Ma made a comment to Master, “Maybe I’m not cut out for the spiritual path.” He told her to get out! She was so frightened she said, “Sorry, Master, I didn’t mean it!”

We have to persevere even if it doesn’t look like things are working out. We have to stay with it. We have to have faith in Guruji. We have to make the effort even if we feel it isn’t paying off.

Story of Gandhi – “The work is no doubt difficult, but if you persevere, you will learn how to deal with peole. It is my duty to not allow you to accept defeat. Running away doesn’t help solve problems.”

Those duties that come to man in the natural course of life are what he must work on. Try to learn the lesson in each situation. Carry on the work that is allotted to you. We have a Guru who is watching what comes our way. We break a Divine law when we say we don’t want something, we want something else.

Ma told brother that “a saint is a sinner who never gave up trying.” Don’t think that you can’t achieve the same. Ma wanted him to feel the vibrations, but she wanted him to know he could experience the states of saints.

“The only difference between you and me is that I made the effort.” ~ Master said to Mrinalini Mata

We just have to make the effort.

Ma practiced Japa – taking the name of God and Guru until she would feel the presence within her. Gradual growth until you feel a deeper connection with God and Guru.

Tune in and feel the Guru’s presence and joy within. There will be a tremendous happiness in your life. You start realizing, “Hey, I can do this, too.” Then you build a personal relationship with God and Guru. That they are always with you. This is a tremendous accomplishment and blessing in life.

Look at a picture of the Guru.

Brother Premamoy – “In the beginning, you think it’s silly to talk to Master or God. Then you realize it is a tremendous blessing in your life.”

The real devotee develops the relationship with the Guru. By quieting the mind and studying the teachings. You will have accomplished a tremendous amount if you can do this.

Master was so perfect in any environment and in any situation. He always knew how to behave.

Ma said, “Yes, but he was also so childlike. He could enjoy anything, little things. Yet, such wisdom came from his lips.”

Build the relationship from the heart. You don’t build it from the head.

Practice Japa Yoga. Meditate regularly, freely, willingly. Don’t waste time. Try to deepen your personal relationship with the Guru. Don’t rest until you demonstrate God in your life.

“If you can coax God himself to answer your prayer, you are a person of destiny.” ~ Master

“My greatest prayer has been awareness. What else can I want but you?” ~ Master

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brother ended his talk by reciting Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29:
When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

2012 Convocation – Friday Evening Talk ~ Mrinalini Mata

Jai Guru! So many preparations. In India you just come in and sit on an asana. Of course, now I have a few years added to me. If I sat down on an asana on the floor, I’d be there for a very long time.

It’s been a beautiful experience again. A sea of divine souls who Master has gathered from so many countries around the world. You have made the effort and made possible your journey, your pilgrimage here to Mother Center, Mount Washington, the Ashrams, and you’ve almost inaugurated the hotel, I think. Many years ago, one of the managers of the hotel had said to Bro. Paramananda, who is the head general in organizing the Convocation, “we just love having your people here. You make a temple of this hotel. No other group that we host here in their convention. Where did you find so many persons that are so well behaved?” They couldn’t believe it. They said, “you know some of them even make their own beds.” Master’s training is noticed in the slight things you do that are thoughtful.

You’ve been here for a week now and had such wonderful discourses, been filled to the brim with Gurudev’s wisdom and love and a renewal of the importance of the sadhana he has given and so I’ve understood that since you are the ones who have received so much during this week that I could come and you could share with me. Doesn’t that seem right? And I promised not to give a long satsanga like the last time. The problem is once these thoughts, from the infinite library of the universe of God’s wisdom has been presented, streamed through all of infinity down to the very core and essence of what we all need to know and to do in order to find God, and it’s kind of a funny thing, but the other day on the radio I heard something, totally unrelated to Master’s sadhana and all the things we read in his books and hear in his recordings, but I have a strange mind in that it’s always got a spotlight out, and some little thing someone will say or I hear on newscasts or whatever, or a song comes on the radio or just a word or a sentence or a phrase will suddenly stir the heart and mind as so applicable to God and to Guru, and then my mind starts building on it and pulling in all of the wisdom and the love that I was supposed to receive from Gurudev, and this was something that I thought, well it’s applicable to Master’s teachings and to all these dear souls who’ve come to sit at Master’s feet this week, and to receive his wisdom and love. It’s something that I thought, well it’s helping me. Maybe it will help someone else to organize and to hold onto the treasure trove of wisdom and guidance that you have received this week.

I’m sure that each one of you has gathered some or a few or many thoughts or resolutions from this week of intense concentration on sadhana and on God. And got the idea that our duty is to hold onto it and to make use of it. It’s not what you read or memorize or understand but it’s what you do with that wisdom and guidance. What stirred my mind in a creative way was a new version of a very old common adage, which I’m sure you all know, and that is that there’s a glass of water sitting on a table and it was full only so much, and the pessimist walks by and sees the glass as half- empty, and then another person walks by and says, “oh that’s nice the glass is sitting there waiting for someone and the glass is half-full” (the optimist) and then he goes on his way. Then another person comes by, looks at it and says “oh, that glass is too big.” He was an engineer.

That’s kind of the way we go through life. Our attitudes about what happens to us. We’re either always complaining that our life is only half-full, or some are optimistic in the sense that they think spiritually lazy “oh my life is what it is. I’m missing so many things. I’m so deprived, but that’s alright. Whatever God gives. If he sends something okay; if he doesn’t, okay. I’ll be content’, but he isn’t. Neither of the two are content or satisfied.

But the engineer, and I think that’s what every kriya yogi is, you get to be the engineer of your life and say, “well if I feel a lack, or if I feel optimistic, but I’m not really getting it, feeling the fulfillment of that optimism then the thing is I should change the vessel. I should change the vessel in which I have all of the things that I have merited in God’s grace and blessing have given to me. Then I will be content because then my vessel will always seem full no matter what.”

There was years ago a song introduced at Christmastime. I’m sure you all know it and have heard it many times, but when you’re worried and can’t sleep and count your blessings instead of sheep then you will fall asleep. We are challenged we are, but then everyone is in today’s chaotic world. We are challenged with the chaos and deprivation, the fears, the insecurities that surround us, but we have to make our own little world of security, of joy, of satisfaction, and that means we become the engineers of our lives.

Our vessel is our environment. We can’t always. Very few have the ability, the opportunity to make big changes in the problems of the world, but everyone has the opportunity and the duty to make changes and better the vessel, the glass of their life, so that whatever we can merit or earn through good sincere honest efforts—that is what God has left us here in this world, as he said, those that are too good for this earth are inhabiting some other. We’re all still here because we have something to do.

Gurudev wrote at the beginning of his Bhagavad Gita commentary, “God will surely ask ‘ere you enter heaven, have you done the task you were given?” We always think that we will be happy or satisfied if our life could have this or that, or if we could get this or that success. Or if we had more and more friends who were supportive or family who were more harmonious. There’s always that if…then..I would be satisfied. We have what God deems best for our growth. We’re only here in this world, not to be happy in the sense of satisfied as Master used to say. Don’t expect permanent happiness in the creation the does not produce permanent happiness. This world is not our home. Our home is with God.

And though we have the responsibility that whatever God gives us, we have had a great deal of input in framing, in being the architect of our present condition, of our life, of our success, of our failure, our joys, our sadness. We’ve had much to do with it by the choices we’ve made through many lifetimes and God does not want his children to suffer . God doesn’t want his children to be unhappy or to feel unfulfilled, but this earth is a school and we have many lessons to learn because we have been truant children running away from the lessons that God and our teachers, the Gurus, the avatars who have come again and again into the world with the message this is God’s work for you; this is God’s guidance for how you are to live your life and move closer to your creator, so as spiritual engineers, we don’t have to be content with the vessel, with the life we have built around us.

If it seems half-empty or half-full there’s always something more; there’s always more desire—yes, it’s nice, but…..I should have this or I should have that. So the Guru gives us the ability, the opportunity in sadhana with Guru’s blessing and God’s grace to make of our life an environment that is conducive to physical, mental and spiritual success, fulfillment.

The tools that we have, first of all the Lord doesn’t say I’m going to give you perfect happiness, peace joy and fulfillment in this world. What does he say in the Bhagavad Gita? “O devotee get away from my ocean of suffering”

There’s such a thing when persons have done wrong and they are trying to run away from the law that if they seek to hide in a church or in a sacred place—that’s called a sanctuary, isn’t it? They’re given sanctuary and the long arm of the law doesn’t reach in. Well, I think the Guru has pointed out that each one of us has a place of sanctuary within ourselves. We have that temple within ourselves where God is waiting for us, where God is calling us. And we have only to enter in and Master gives us the way through kriya yoga meditation.

Kriya yoga in deep meditation gives us such a different wondrous perception, realization, understanding of life that even when the hard times, the dark times, and the happy times that come in a good way prove that we have in that sanctuary of divine love and wisdom we gain an understanding that makes the vessel of our life always feel full and satisfied. No matter what it seems by counting blessings or lack of them we see that we are lacking in what we should have or abundant in what we do have but don’t recognize because we want more. So you’re always going to go through life being a pessimist or an optimist. And now I hope you’ve got in clear in your mind better than I did what your attitude is to be, but meditation kriya yoga makes us wise like the engineer.

There is an answer. Why should the glass look half-empty? Why should it look half-full? Change the glass. Change the vessel of your life. Change the thinking the mind. The consciousness—and that’s where Gurudev was so inspiring. We just always feel and know that God is there, that his blessing, that his love is there. That’s the answer. That’s the answer.

And when that understanding comes, When in life and death I stood unharmed upon thy lap Oh Divine Mother, in order to. I’m sure you’ve all received your SRF magazine. That last issue, the summer I think. In that it’s hard to, for all of us it’s hard to be in this world of, it’s like demonic attacks of insecurities and fear and lack and suffering. And then we feel that security, that love in meditation. And when we go deep into meditation, into kriya yoga the love for God—it’s another world. And we feel so uplifted, so unburdened, so free. And as soon as we come out of our meditation, then the family problems come in one by one, the list of insecurities are there to be faced the world situations of so much sorrow and suffering and violence are there to disturb the peace.

Besides just kriya yoga meditation, Gurudev pointed out that kriya yoga is the highest science of scientific meditation and that it’s a part of Raja yoga, and Raja yoga is the royal yoga, the royal highway because it embraces all other aspects of God’s wisdom and the paths of sadhana that lead to God. Master was very much a bhakti, one who followed, who said with kriya yoga and meditation you also have to have love for God. Love for God, yearning for God—that’s what gives the impetus, that’s what gives the optimist the power the energy to forge through even the darkest of times and difficulties and to find the way to the divine beloved, creator of us all. And so Master’s article, extracts, excerpts from a longer talk he gave, he was focusing on the bhakti aspects of. You’ve heard our beloved Sri Sri Daya Mata say these things many times. We saw it in her life. Her meditations were deep and fulfilling. Her life was an inspiration to countless thousands. And will always be filled with the one reality that is behind everything that we don’t even like to accept, in the sense of suffering and sorrows and troubles and obstacles. God’s love is still there. Master used to say “Lord, test me with anything you want,” but Master said “Never doubt. Never let God test you with doubt” meaning that, alright I’m meditating and I have faith that everything is going to be alright. And I’m going to climb this spiritual mountain to the peak of self-realization.

Then the troubles come and you think “Oh now maybe there’s a shortcut. Everyone wants instant coffee, instant tea, instant Samadhi these days.” You can get the material things in shortcuts but you can’t get God instantly. It’s very easy as Master used to say and as Ma demonstrated it’s so very easy to gain God, to gain that divine realization. If you have one thing, you cultivate it, nurture it. That one thing in life is love. Love is the whole basis of the universe.

I have to watch it because then I get into the philosophy of it all, and then it becomes too long, but yes God set this whole creation out as a system of laws and creative principles. And that was expelling, that was coming out from him with great force. Property and the creation of the material universe and the material bodies of souls, but surely God saw that if these mortals became so enamored with the fascinating happenings and images of this creation, they’ll never come back to this.

So that divine image, that divine manifestation of God as the kutastha, the Christ Consciousness, the Krishna/Christ love of God imbues every little tiniest outgoing atom and particle of creation that is there. And that is a tremendous magnetism and that magnetism is God’s love. It’s constantly pulling toward unity and toward God. And that’s what the avatars come to remind us.

Don’t get caught in the outgoing stream of maya and delusion because it will cause nothing but misery and disappointment.

Tune in and get caught by the magnetic pull of what is right within. God isn’t off in some corner beyond the universes. Divine Mother is just…You’re nothing if not for this Divine Mother’s consciousness, that through her cosmic creative laws has allowed you with your free will and ego to create this body, to create this universe. Your glass which is half-full or half-empty (we’ve done that , who hasn’t). Master used to say “Why is it that God (people say devotees) Why is it that everyone blames God when something goes wrong in the world or in their own life?” They blame God. Why? Why would a truly loving God permit this to happen?

So much pain caused to God’s children, and Master said “you don’t stop to think—what suffers? Who are you? What are you?” We’re nothing but a little thought of God in this cosmic delusion. We have the perfect soul, the image of God within us, and in order for anything to be animated and cause an ascension of this world that image of God, that is God has to work through these physical instruments, so when the physical instrument is injured or sick or sad or caught up in the drama of the universal drama and we weep and wail that “Why God? Why?” How can you do this? I’m suffering so. And Divine Mother can only shake her hand and say “Who do you think is suffering? I am the one that is suffering within you. I am the one that feels the pain you are going through. You are nothing if I withdraw my thought of you. You don’t exist anymore. So it is I that suffers. Why are you making me suffer by wrong actions, by wrong decisions?

That’s why Gurudev, I think, Rajarsi, we always thought of him as just a divine incarnation of love. Rajarsi Janakananda, for his first successor in guiding this work, made a formal title that Gurudev is a prematavar, an avatar of divine love, so that we might all know what the love of God is.

But going back to Master’s article and why Bhakti Yoga is an essential part of the Raja Yoga path of meditation and action

“The equanimity of yoga is when your love” (I feel the universe is moving around us—I have to borrow somebody’s eyes here.) [At this point Bro. Chidananda joins Mrinalini Mata on stage to help her read the passage] She says, “isn’t that nice? You know, age has some advantages. Everyone feels sorry for you. They’re willing to help.”

Brother Chidananda reads: “The equanimity of yoga is when your love rises above all obstacles that God has put before you. In that transcendence you find him. As one great saint of India used to pray: ‘Come to me as a touch of pain, for in pain I urgently remember Thee. If I should ever forget Thee, in the thickets of joyous tears touch me with the finger of pain to wake me from that forgetfulness.’ So pain was given not as a cruelty or to destroy us, but as an awakening, a reminder that we must reach the Immutable One where all pain ceases.

“Anything that causes pain and suffering should be avoided if possible. But when it does come, unless you are able to endure without embitterment and despair, you cannot reach the kingdom of God. Look at Jesus Christ on the cross. Consciously he had to go through the dreadful sensations of pain until he had overcome the flesh.

Mrinalini Mata interjects: [then Master gives the example of Jesus on the cross—that he had to go through that suffering. That he gave his body in sacrifice for the karmic sins of others and of the world. And he went through the pain. It had to be real because he had taken that on. But then there was only when his love.]

Brother Chidananda resumes reading:

When he lifted his consciousness to God-awareness, he realized instantly that it is all a delusion; and then the arms of the Father enfolded him. This whole drama is between pain and love. Your love must be greater than your pain.”

Brother Chidananda leaves the stage

That’s so beautiful. The way Master summarizes that. That’s so much wisdom in that simple explanation of Gurudev. Let us remember, “Your love must be greater than your pain.” You will see how your inner environment, meaning your consciousness will change whenever you’re facing darkness of trials or obstacles or pain or any kind of suffering. Just remember, “Oh but lord nevermind, I love you. I love you.”

I know we all have many opportunities to practice that recently. Shortly after reading and taking in these words of Gurudev deep into my heart I had an opportunity to. I had minor surgery, and you know, Master said “if you can remove these obstacles and sources of pain, you should get rid of them.” But when you can’t and you have to go through life experiences. I remember these words, “your love must be greater than your pain.” So the unpleasant situation, I just remembered those words. All I could say was “Oh Divine Mother. I love you. I love you. You are my life. You are my love. You are the sweetness that I seek. ” This affirmation, this feeling, this realization of that love.

And I’d had a similar minor surgery, and the most painful part of it was when they injected the medication to help you from feeling pain. So I thought well, I was kind of not looking forward to that part, but I was like never mind. Master said, “Your love must be greater than your pain.” And I really held to that. And the doctor said, “do you feel this? Do you feel the sharp in this area? Mrinalini Mata said “no”, and the doctor said, “well then we’re ready for the surgery.” And Mrinalini Mata said, “you already gave the pain medication?” and the doctor said, “oh yes, it’s already done.” And Mrinalini Mata said “ I didn’t feel one one tinge of discomfort that time when it was given.” And she thought well, it’s just very small, but it’s in the little demonstrations of reality and of the truth that Gurudev has given us in the little things that make you think I can stand to cease. That I can learn to stand unshaken against the crash of breaking worlds. And he would say that, and you could feel the room vibrating, and it wasn’t going to crash, and it’s just that divine love.

You’ve all during this week gained so much that you have. I know you want to hold onto. I’m sure that each one has had one or many thoughts go deep into the consciousness that maybe we’ve made a notation about or maybe said I want to remember this when I get home. The cup, so to speak, is full to the brimming and overflowing. But then there is the next challenge is when you leave this uplifting vibration in which you have been in the presence of Gurudev and with other fellow devotees on the path with their dedication and devotion that has helped to uplift you. It’s been like a buoy that has taken you close to this transcendence that Master is referring to.

But don’t think now Oh dear I’m going back and all the troubles I left behind a week or ago, they’re all going to be there waiting for me, and I won’t have this feeling of direct contact with Guru and I felt that he was just there, and he was. I have no doubt about it. He was moving among and through all the devotees, the devotees: all of you who have come to absorb and be inspired, renewed by the blessing of the sadhana he has given, and the divine grace he has imbued, given to you through your mediations and your eagerness. Don’t think that you’re going to lose that vibration, lose that opportunity to feel that closeness to Guru.

More perhaps than most, that truly divine avatars and teachers, Gurudev has given us an infinite library of writings and his love and wisdom to light the path, to light our path. We have so many books, recordings from Gurudev, and that of his monastic disciples that are striving to live the life, sharing with you the experiences of walking toward God. So you can’t feel that you are leaving behind anything that you have gained. You are taking it with you, and it is to be renewed every day as you pick up Gurudev’s wonderful expositions of the truth, of the sadhana, and of the way to practice it, and of the blessings God and Guru are waiting, eager to give to you. That’s what you are going toward: increasing inspiration, increasing spiritual enlightenment.

There’s Gurudev’s light on the path and every word that he has uttered. If you have a question, something you are anxious about—pray and search out and you will find just the right answer that you need in his writing and his discourses, and you will know that he is with you.

I’m going to close with one story of Master, which I enjoy. It fulfills two purposes. One is to let you know or to remind you from my experience and I’m sure from the experiences of many, all of you, how much the Guru’s eye is on you, on each devotee. Also because it was a story that I told, that I shared with the monastic devotees on the occasion of Gurudev’s mahasamadhi anniversary service. When I came out of the chapel, the one in charge of the audio department and said “you owe me another recording session” and Mrinalini Mata said “oh, why?” And he said, “well, you don’t usually start talking right away in the beginning. We have time to set up the microphones and things and you started telling that story about Master before we were ready. So we didn’t get it recorded. You owe me another recording session.” So wherever you are, this is it.

It’s a very strange thing. We were looking at a…..I’m going to wind down soon (audience roars with laughter). We were looking at excerpts from a very early production of a Mahabharata that drama that had been produced in India and now we’ve been watching the full production that is so thrilling. That’s another subject.

In a little short excerpt from another version that had been produced one thing struck me, many things did, but one that touched my heart: Krishna had left the battlefield and he was very weary from the battle that had gone on all day and he was seeking a little place on the ground where he could lie down for a little rest, and this young man came and asked him a question. He said, “Krishna, Lord please tell me, I heard you talking to such and so and please tell me this great truth that you were sharing with him. Please, I want.” And Krishna said, “well, if I told him, go ask him.” And he said, “no, no Krishna I want to hear it from your lips.”

And at first I thought that was a strange reply. Krishna just shook his head and said, “no, I can never say anything twice.” And he put his hand on his head and laid down to rest. I thought that was the strangest thing. I never let anything go. My mind doesn’t until it understands. And I thought well of course I understand that perfectly because when devotees say to me, “tell us stories of Master. Tell us this or this. You’ve said it before. Tell it again.” I’m not comfortable doing so. I say it once, and it’s because there’s two aspects to memory, at least as I’m understanding it, and one is the mortal memory. When someone says, “do you remember such and so that happened on that occasion?” Well then the mind mechanism begins to drudge up little bits and pieces that relate that even, and then there’s another why you can never say anything twice, meaning exactly the same. That is because when I told that story of Master, I’m going to tell it to you. It was because the monks had just started the meditation with the kirtan, and they were playing the tablas, and my consciousness went back to it—to this particular incident with Gurudev. When that kind of memory comes it isn’t that your conscious memory is trying to pull out what you remember of a situation, but it’s like suddenly you are reliving it, and every little aspect, every detail is so vivid, and once you have told it, you can never say it again in that way because then you are just trying to pull it out of your memory. Unless something stirs the deep consciousness, and you experience it as Master says the cosmic film backward and forward. So when it is actually you’re re-experiencing it, that is the real statement and I just don’t like to try to say it again because it won’t be the same unless something has touched that divine memory that is in the soul.

So, anyways the monks had started the meditation with the kirtan and they were accompanied with the harmonium and the tablas, a wonderful rhythm. And that’s what this took me back to—one occasion with Gurudev.

Before we entered the ashram we used to go to Encinitas on Friday nights and they always had the meditation service on Friday and they’d talk about the path and Master was usually away in Mount Washington. But sometimes he would happen to come back on Friday late because he was scheduled in San Diego Temple that coming Sunday. We were sitting there in the service and I heard some rustling in the hallway—the curtains of the drawing room had been closed, but I knew that it was Master and the devotees who had brought him from Mount Washington. It was the end of the service, and one of the devotees came out as soon as the service was over and sought out the Brown family, and said “Master wondered if you could wait until after the devotees leave. He would just like to see you.” “ Oh yes, we can wait”. I was thrilled.

Anyways, we went to Gurudev’s study there in Encinitas and he was talking about many things and always about God. One of us noticed that there was a set of tablas, Indian drums, nearby in that room. Someone, one of us, asked him about them and the music and the tablas and asked “Master do you know how to play them?” “Oh yes” with a sweet smile on his face “yes”. “Hand them to me.” He called one of the other older disciples to tell such and so to bring the harmonium, so she came and began to play one of the chants: “Door of my heart / Open wide I keep for thee”

We were just taken with it because Gurudev was giving this wonderful rhythm on the tablas. He also knew that—I’m sure many of you have heard how the Indian musicians can call out the cadence and the note numbers (I see the Indians shaking their head) but his voice—it’s very melodic and very stirring. Master did that a little bit and then he began chanting “Door of My Heart”. We had a wonderful meditation with Master and after some time he sent for one of the devotees—mind you by this time it was getting late, probably close to 11, and Master never knew time (that’s probably what’s wrong with me), but he had one of the devotees bring some fruit. It was papaya. He had that wonderful papaya grove. He was so proud of those papayas. Once when they came he had saved one. It was about that big. I don’t know how much it weighed but they were delicious papayas. He served us some papaya and then said you’d better go now.

So on the way to San Diego from Encinitas. In those days there were no freeways. The road between Encinitas and San Diego was just a two lane road, both way traffic, and it went through orange groves and other fruit, peach orchards. It was very dark. We were traveling along very fast, and suddenly we had a blowout. The tire went, and my dad, he couldn’t say much out loud, but he was sure not happy. He said we don’t have a spare tire. We’ll have to just have to coast forward the rest of the way, and as we did, of course, the tire, the rubber, the tire was just being shredded and it was hitting the fender. It made a wonderful rhythm. It sounded like Master on the tablas, so we began chanting. I don’t think poor dad joined in. I think all he could think of was not tablas, but that he was losing not only the tire but probably the rim. The wheel on which the tire was probably being ruined. We had very little money to get by on so I’m sure he was thinking “How am I going to buy a new tire, a new rim in order to get to work?”

But anyway, we were just in seventh heaven. The rest of us were chanting and laughing. The rhythm was just right. We had to drive quite slowly so when we arrived at our house it must have been close to midnight. As soon as we came in the door and came inside the phone rang. I don’t know. Maybe I was closest to the phone or something. Anyway, I picked up the phone and said “hello.” There was Master’s booming voice, “Are you all alright? Are you home now?” MM: “Oh yes Master, we’re fine. We just came in the door.” And he says “are you all alright?” MM: “Oh yes Master, we’re fine.” He said, “Did you have any trouble?” I said, “well, yes a little, but no big problem.” Master: “But you had trouble. What was the trouble?” So we told him that we had a flat tire. He said, “But nobody was hurt?” MM: “No, Master. We’re fine. In fact we were chanting all the way home, Door of my Heart, hearing you play the tablas.”

I tell you that because as you’re going back to your home know that Gurudev’s thoughts and love are traveling with you. Who knows? There might have been a much more difficult situation we would have had if his loving presence, his eye had not been on us. He knew. I wasn’t about to tell him that as soon as we left you we had a flat tire. ‘Cause that wasn’t in our mind at all. We were just uplifted. But he knew and he didn’t stop questioning until I told him we had a flat tire. Just remember that wherever you travel, wherever you go (I was told that 47 countries were represented at this convocation: what a wonderfully broad-based family of kriya yogis Gurudev has; that in all these places, these corners of the world there are centers of spiritual life, powered by vibrations to help counteract the strong forces of evil and all the wrongdoing).

When Master gave his universal prayer, he said “this prayer God has given to me is the greatest prayer for this new age”. He said it should be used in all of our Temples and Centers and should be prayed all the time. And that one you know. “Lord, may thy love shine forever on the sanctuary of your devotion. May I be able to awaken thy Love in all hearts.” That is the prayer. That is the Guru. That is his words of love and blessing. He said that’s the only reason I have come. The only desire I have is to awaken the love of God, the desire for God, the experience of God in all of your hearts.

Oh Dear Ones, just know that your convocation experience is not ending. It is just beginning and you’re taking that blessing of Guru. He used to say when I’m gone I will come back periodically in the crowd and I will sit in the back and listen to all of your talks and feel the vibrations of the devotees. He said I will be there, just to see how you all are doing. How you are coming along. So you can be sure that as you went from class to class, from divine fellowship and meeting one another, and exchanging your spiritual vibrations that Gurudev was there in the midst, mingling with you all. His spirit passing through all of you. Each one and blessing you and enlightening your path. So you don’t have to sit here for another year and wait.

I understand there are at least a thousand of you who have come to convocation for the first time and a special welcome to you. I hope that as your circumstances permit that you can make this pilgrimage again and again, meeting with the members of your spiritual family from around the world.

I’d like to close with Master’s thought. Can we just have a moment of silence?

Let me just offer a prayer for all of you. “Beloved God, Our Gurudev, Our blessed Paramgurus, We thank you for this blessed path. And for the souls that you have drawn from all corners of the earth to walk this path. Fill their hearts and their minds with a great spiritual strength and with the knowing and faith that they walk in your footprints and that you are with them, enfolding them with your arms of love and blessings and divine grace. In times of trial and darkness, despair or pain, let them know that you are there. Give them great understanding that transcends the whys and the doubts. Uplift each soul that has made a pilgrimage here to sit in your Temple of souls, in this vibration of divine love that you have built with your blessing. The sanctuary of your presence, the guidance of your wisdom, and the sweetness and transcendence of your love that fills their bodies, minds and souls, and inspirits their sadhana. Bless each devotee who has come to this gathering and each devotee of yours in the far flung corners of this world who joined in this unity of spirit, answering the call of God. The love and the pull of God’s love to these souls to help one another to feel your love and to share awake in that love in all hearts in this world.”

Blessings belong to all of you who have been here this night and this week. Blessings belong to all those dear souls who selflessly give of their time and devotion to God and Guru to welcome their chelas and to serve them, during this time, volunteering so much of their time. What greater service can you render? You do your part to awaken that love of God in all hearts. Thank you for your service and for being a part of Gurudev’s spiritual family. How blessed we are to be one united in his love. United in Divine Mother’s love. To be lifted into that everlasting transcendence beyond all despair. And lessons to be learned, but well-learned. Minds of wisdom and understanding that’s taken our heart our mind and our soul and placed it at the feet of God. God Bless You.

I know how much the devotees from the Temples and far and wide, from out of state, have been inspired by your company and by the joy that you have felt. One message that came to me so many times each day, I have never seen so many joyous faces and souls. Everyone is so uplifted in this divine satsanga, in this divine fellowship, in Gurudev’s presence.

Permit me to thank you for each day, for the monastics who are hosting and others. I had the messages: “I met such and so devotees that knew me or at least knew of me and certainly knew Ma and Gurudev and brought messages of love and support for Gurudev’s work and please tell Mrinalini Mata to come to the Convocation.”

How could it not be otherwise? There were times I thought “Oh well, Lord it’s not working out. Maybe you don’t want me to go, but your love, your kindness, your many messages of love.” Let me thank you also for those, for the gifts and the remembrances that you have brought. Receive the deepest humblest appreciation. I know that it is not this body, but the thought and the spirit of Gurudev that inspires us all. And if our minds are on God and on Guru we can’t help but so deeply love and appreciate one another. So let me close by thanking the monastic teachers of the convocation. I am looking forward to copies of their talks. I will have my convocation after this one is finished.

I’ve heard so many wonderful things. I think what inspired me the most, or pleased me the most was Paramananda. He said, “each speaker gave from the sincerity of his soul and of his life on the path and each one was just so filled with the joy of sharing Gurudev’s thoughts, Gurudev’s guidance”. I know that’s what you all felt and that’s why there was such joy on your faces and among you. The contacts that your hosts had with you. How much we’ve been inspired by you and gratified that so many of you in turn have been inspired by that inspiration with divine love of God and Guru we so eagerly wanted to share with you. And so dear ones, until it’s God’s will that we meet again, you will always be in my heart and in my thoughts and prayers. I love you all. God bless you. Gurudev bless you. I know he does. Jai Guru, Jai Guru. Jai Ma, Jai Ma.

Thank you for letting me come.

As she began to exit the stage Mirnalini Mata said, “I can’t see my watch, so I think I overstayed my welcome. I love you all. God Bless you”.

Before she left the California Ballroom, escorted by Brother Chidananda, Mrinalini Mata turned to the crowd and told them she didn’t like to leave with the her back to people, so just as Mrinalini Mata would pranam Sri Daya Mata, she turned to the crowd one last time, pranamed them and said, “I love you.”

2012 Convocation – “Becoming a Giver of Peace, Joy and Loving Kindness” ~ Brother Nakulananda

A sea of shining jewels! Brother said that’s what it’s like looking out at the happy, smiling faces of all of us after such a glorious week of meditations, chanting, inspiration and divine fellowship, particularly with the two Kriya initiations that were given today. Some here received Kriya initiation for the first time; many renewed their dedication and loyalty to our blessed Guru and this path of Self-Realization Fellowship.

As he was thinking about it, Brother said how unique it is that there are thousands of Kriya Yogis here. In the “Autobiography of a Yogi” the very last words that Master penned reads:

“The blessed role of Kriya Yoga in East and West has hardly more than just begun. May all men come to know that there exists a definite, scientific technique of Self- realization for the overcoming of all human misery!
In sending loving thought vibrations to the thousands of Kriya Yogis scattered like shining jewels over the earth, I often think gratefully: “Lord, Thou hast given this monk a large family!”

Master, in his omnipresence, omniscience is here sending his loving thoughts to all of his devotees. It is such a privilege to be here to share in Master’s spirit and in his vibrations. Where else do we find such a great teacher, a God-realized soul, who has brought a how-to-live path…a very practical and also very profound one with definite techniques by which we can achieve the supreme purpose of life. It is a perfectly balanced life, too, that Master has given to us in all of his teachings…meditation and serving mankind every day of our lives.

That’s what Self-Realization Fellowship is–realizing ourselves, realizing who we truly are–the soul. That spark of the Infinite Spirit and that divine fellowship with all souls whom we meet in the world. This is self-realization fellowship! A perfectly balanced path to find God in this lifetime.

Brother began the class with an affirmation. The Self-Realization Fellowship ministers talk a lot about and give importance to meditation. Guruji has also given us a wealth of affirmations for all different aspects of life — physical, health, relationships, problem solving in life. When we repeat these affirmation that he has given to us, we are repeating truths. We may not realize it at the moment and we may not know it but we are repeating truths. The more that we repeat these truths, the more we begin to feel and realize them in our daily lives.

Brother asked us to close our eyes just for a moment and repeat after him the following affirmation that Guruji has given throughout his teachings: “I am calmly active. I am actively calm. I am a prince of peace sitting on the throne of poise directing the kingdom of activity.”

In this one affirmation Guruji has given us so much. It really encompasses our whole life. To be calmly active in all of our various duties and responsibilities that God and our karma have given to us…to be calm, to be focused…to be attentive…never to be disturbed…to be actively calm. Actively calm meaning in meditation…they are words; we are focused; we are concentrated. Then to visualize this beautiful thought that: “I am a prince of peace sitting on the throne of poise….”

Master gives us these affirmations to impinge upon our consciousness that we are a prince of peace. That God is the king of the universe and each one of us as his children are princes of peace. If we can visualize and feel in all of our daily activities that “I am a prince of peace sitting on the throne of poise directing” all my activities in life. What a way to go through life! We need to have these reminders because life is pretty tough at times, isn’t it?

Struggles, challenges and trials that we undergo in this school of life have but one purpose. That is, to bring out the hidden soul qualities within us so that we can manifest in our lives that perfect peace, poise, calmness, compassion, forgiveness, courage and faith. That is the purpose of going through all these experiences in life.

The class tonight is talking about becoming a giver of these things but that first we must feel them; we must experience them within our own beings. That is why meditation comes first. Meditation comes first because we can’t give peace, we can’t give love, we can’t give joy, to other people unless we are feeling it within our own beings. This is what meditation does for us. We learn to get in touch with that which we truly are. There is nothing that we have to acquire outside of ourselves. It is already within us. We are these princes of the universe. We just have to realize it.

The beautiful thing about these teachings. All the great teachers down through the ages don’t teach just by lectures, words and writings. Principally, they teach by the example of their lives. We see that Master’s life throughout the ”Autobiography of a Yogi” is filled with lessons that we need to apply in our own lives. The great ones have gone through all the experiences that we have gone through and are going through and will continue to go through. They come here to show us how to behave, how to act in this world.

Master, of course, was an avatar but he still had to deal with all kinds of challenges. But he got to the point where as he said, “I killed Yogananda a long time ago.” God was living in him and he was able to feel that presence of God flowing through him. He could perceive that same image of God in everybody that he met because he had that infinite Christ-consciousness. He was aware of every atom in creation. He was one with everything and everybody and so he was able, from that state of consciousness, to put into practice the two greatest commandments that Christ gave and that Master taught and lived in his own life. That is, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Master embodied that because he saw the image of God in everyone he met.

Really that is the essence of what will be talked about tonight. To become the giver is to first perceive that image of God within us and then to serve, love and to be kind to that same image of God in everybody who crosses our path in our every day life. It is God helping God. It is God loving God.

Guruji said in the ashram one time: “Christ told each of us to love thy neighbor as thyself but without soul knowledge by which you realize that all men are indeed thyself you cannot follow Christ’s command. To me there is not difference because I see each one as God’s child. I can’t think of anyone as a stranger.”

It’s that a beautiful way to go through life? To see God in everybody and that there are no strangers. What a wonderful way to go through life! In that same lecture Master was telling a story about once when he was in New York, three hold up men surrounded him. He took out his wallet and said, “You want money?” Master said he was in that superconscious state. One of the men did reach for the wallet when another one said, “Beg your pardon, we can’t do it,” and they ran away. He didn’t even have to say anything. He was offering them the money but they were aware of the presence of God within him.

He tells of another time when he was in New York after he had just given a lecture in Carnegie Hall. He said that a man approached him with a gun. [Brother interjected that he didn’t want us to get the idea that all New Yorker were like that because he’s been to New York and knows that there are a lot of wonderful, beautiful people there. Perhaps there were a few men in New York at that time who needed to be healed by Master.]

Continuing the story the man said to Master, “You know, I could shoot you.” And Master asked, “Why?” His mind was on God. The man said, “You talk about democracy.” Guruji said that obviously the man was a mentally disturbed person. The man and Guruji stood for a few moments in silence. The man then said, “Forgive me. You have taken away my evil.”

This is the essence, the epitome, of being a giver of peace…just through Master’s consciousness. Guruji said, “Those who are attuned with God can change men’s hearts.” That’s what we want to more and more do in our own lives. That is, to change men’s hearts.

On a different level but similar to Master’s, Brother shared the following story: Shortly before he entered the ashram, he was living in Venice Beach, a little city not far from the Lake Shrine. He’d been attending Lake Shrine for some time. It was a Saturday and there was an all-day retreat being held at the Lake with the different classes and meditations. He was still relatively new on the path. The retreat ended with a three hour meditation. Brother was feeling pretty peaceful, like a “prince of peace”.

After the retreat he got into his VW bug and drove back to Venice Beach and parked across the street from his apartment. As he was getting out of his car a couple of big, burly guys approached him asking if he had a match. Brother replied: “No, I’m sorry, but I do not smoke.” The next thing one of them grabbed him and put a knife to his throat while the another one went through his pockets. He took the money out of Brother’s wallet and then asked if he would like his wallet back. “That would be nice.”

Brother’s grandfather’s precious gold pocket watch was in one of his pocket but the thief didn’t remove it. He only took the money from the wallet giving the wallet back. As they were starting to walk away, they advised Brother not to turn around because they did not want him to see their faces. He doesn’t know what got into him but he turned around and said, “God bless you both.” He, then, walked across the street, up to his apartment and started to shake uncontrollably. Brother said he didn’t change those men as Master did but because he remained calm and peaceful, he, at least, didn’t get killed.

Master said, “The Self-realized yogi is a prince of peace sitting on the throne of poise directly his kingdom of activity, wholly devoted to God in heart and mind, sacrificing to Him the fruits of all his actions.”

A prime example of sacrificing all ones actions to God and Guru, keeping the mind and heart in God, was our beloved Sri Daya Mata. She so perfectly followed Master. She so perfectly expressed his will in everything she did to serve his work. She had her challenges, too, especially in the early days while building the foundation of this great work. Not everybody received her with open arms. They didn’t realize who or what she was.

Of course, we know that Master was in India in 1935 and 36. It was his wish to return to India again but it never worked out. He asked Ma to promise him that she would look after his work in India. So she did. Ma went to India in 1958. When she got there, she realized that a number of devotees were pretty much ensconced in their own way since it had been so many years since Master had been to India.

She said that the vast majority of the devotees there received her wonderfully but there was a small group who were skeptical about an American and a woman…who was she to teach them about their religion and traditions. So there were a few who were against Ma.

Ma said that she made up her mind that no matter what was said about her she would never retaliate. It was not her way and never would be. One day after a severe confrontation with one of these people, Ma went to her room and sat in front of a picture of Guruji before leaving for a satsanga that she was to give. [Brother interjected that it’s always a good idea before we do anything to sit in front of a picture of Master…with his eyes talking…whether it be a big one or a little one…asking for his guidance and protection.]

Continuing the story: Ma prayed deeply because she wanted to serve Master’s work in India. She said, “As my prayer deepened his living image emerged from the photo. Guruji blessed me and my soul was overwhelmed with the divine inspiration of his presence.” Ma went out to speak to the gathering in that inspired state of consciousness. One of the members of that group who were against her had decided to stand up and walk out during her talk, thinking that maybe some of the others would follow.

Ma looked at that gentleman as he stood up and she said a wonderful thing happened: “Looking at him, I could not see him at all. There was only the Divine manifesting in that form. Then I knew what God was trying to teach me: “behold Me in all, not only in those who love Me.” She said that consciousness has remained with her. From that moment all those so-called enemies came over to Ma and asked for forgiveness and the work in India has grown by leaps and bounds because of that example that Ma set before everybody else. She would not retaliate; she would not speak against anybody. With her attunement with her Guru she was able to see the image of God in even that person who thought himself her enemy. She was able to change him.

Ma said, “The moral is simply this: Empty the heart of wrong feelings. Let it be loving and forgiving. Don’t reason that that person was mistreating you. Everyone has had someone who persecutes him. You must expect that. But never allow the ill-feelings or actions of others to embitter you. If you do, then you are lost. You will not be able to help yourself or them. Keep your heart free and balanced no matter how anyone treats you, no matter what others do. If you give love, you will have peace in your soul.”

This is what we are all striving for…to be peacemakers…to have that love as we strive to see other people. Ma said that we can’t avoid having people persecute us or misunderstand us or judge us. This is a part of life and if we take it with a spiritually mature attitude and not retaliate, not hate, but instead send vibrations of peace and love we too can change the hearts of others.

We all go through difficult experiences in our lives, when we feel that life is beating us up, whether it is on the mental, physical, emotional, spiritual plane or in relationships. Brother is convinced that all the difficult experiences that we go through are part of the school of life that are meant, not to destroy, but to help us. To help us go deeper and deeper into our souls…to look for those soul qualities to manifest and express in our daily lives.

If we never have had a serious illness or experience how could we really have empathy for someone who is going through a serious challenge or if we haven’t had difficulty in some kind of relationship, could we really have compassion for someone who is? If we’ve lost a loved one and gone through the experience of grief, we can reach out to help others who may be going through a similar experience.

So the things that happen to us in life, the difficulties, are to bring out soul qualities like humility, compassion, courage. If we take our tests in life with that attitude, then we will be growing, by leaps and bounds, spiritually.

There is a story of a ruthless king who ruled in a very dictatorial manner. He taxed his subjects unjustly. He thought of all his subjects as just faceless pawns and that they really didn’t have any feelings. This king one day went out on a hunting expedition with the members of his court. As they were hunting the king got separated from the others and got caught in a dust storm in the desert. The king was in the desert for several days. After three days the dust started to settle down. His garments were all torn and shredded. His face was disfigured and ripped up from the fear, fatigue, and by the sandstorm. He was lost and was unable to find his way back to his kingdom.

After a few hours the king ran into a tribe of nomads and he said to them, “I’m a king.” They just laughed and said, “Sure, you’re a king!” But they took pity on him. They gave him some water and food and showed him the way back to his kingdom. He went back to his kingdom all disheveled and so forth. He went to the gates of his palace and there were his guards. He said, “I’m your king. Let me in.” They could not recognize him and replied, “Be gone. Get away from us.” Again, he said, “No, I’m your king.” They said, “Get out of here.”

So the king left. He went into the villages where his subjects were. He began to see them as people. His subjects were very kind and loving. They gave him food to eat and water to drink. They gave him shelter. After some time when he’d recovered and was in a little better shape he was able to help others. He was able to give others some bread and water. He rescued a little child form a burning building. His whole heart was changed and realized that these people were good people.

After more time of living with his subjects he went back to his palace and looked in. The first time he’d been there he’d seen there was another king on his throne ruling with the same harsh manner. This time when he looked in he saw that it was just an illusion. That king that was ruling in his stead was actually the angel of humility to teach this king how to treat his subjects. He’d gone through a very difficult situation in his life that had completely transformed him on how he should rule his kingdom.

The same thing can happen with all of us with those challenging situations that we go through to help us rule the kingdom of our lives so that more and more we can truly be a “prince of peace sitting on a throne of poise….”

Master said, “Nobility of heart and a spirit of service–to be big enough to behave nobly in every situation and to serve all–these come as gifts of Christ-consciousness. To serve all means to be conscious that you are in everybody, not just in one little body that you call your own–for we are all made in the one same omnipresent consciousness of God. You must begin to look upon others as the extension of your soul. ‘It is myself that is suffering in that body; it is myself that is filled with happiness in that body.’ Service is one of the best investments of expansion of consciousness.”

Master says that as soon as we step outside of ourselves and serve somebody else, we are momentarily stepping into that omnipresent Christ-consciousness. “The God in me is loving, helping, serving the God in you.”

A woman and her daughter were driving home from church one day and the little girl turned to her mother and said: “Mommy, there is something that the preacher said today that confused me.” Mother said, “What was that, darling?” “Well, he said that God is bigger than us. Is that true?” The mother said, “Yes, of course, that’s true but I don’t remember that.” The little girl replied: “Well he also said that God lives in us. Does He?” “Yes, God lives in us, too.” “Well, if God is bigger than us and lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?”

The Greek philosopher, Plato, once said: “Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Think about that. Be kind because everyone we meet is fighting a hard battle. We don’t know what this means to somebody else because we have no idea what they may be going through in their life.

A yogi was sitting by the roadside one day, praying and meditating. He would open his eyes and he would behold the impoverished, the beggars, the crippled people walking by him and he prayed deeply to God saying: “Lord, how is it that a loving creator can see such things and do nothing about them?” The yogi kept on meditating for some time and in the silence after a while he heard God’s voice: “I did do something. I created you.”

So that is the plan in this creation. We see so much suffering and turmoil around us and we, especially being Master’s shining jewels in this world, need to reach out and be kind. It helps us to grow and expand.

A well-known psychotherapist was giving a lecture on mental health one day. During the question and answer period, someone from the audience asked: “What would you advise us to do if we felt a nervous breakdown coming on?” The doctor responded: “Lock up your house. Go across the railway tracks and find somebody needy and help them.” That is the therapeutic way to get over our own problems by helping someone else.

In a hospital a woman who had just lost her only daughter was being consoled by a nurse. Tears were streaming down the mother’s face and nothing the nurse could say could comfort this mother. After sometime the nurse asked the mother if she could see the boy sitting across the hall by her daughter’s room. “Now that’s a story. That little boy who came from Europe with his mother several months ago. About a week ago the mother was brought to the hospital from a one room apartment. They have no family here. The little boy was been keeping vigil by his mother’s side for the last week, hoping and praying that she would come out of the coma that she was in. Well, his mother passed away this morning and it is my duty to go tell this little boy, at the age of seven, that he has no family. Would you be willing to go over and talk to that little boy?”

So this mother who was going through her own grief was given this opportunity to reach out to someone else in need. The grieving mother walked over, put her arms around the little boy and started talking to him. After a little time, she took the orphaned boy to her home. Two grieving souls were able to help one another.

Lao-Tau, the Chinese philosopher said: “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” It must be in our thinking, in our words and in our actions. If we give that love and kindness to people, more and more we will become peacemakers in this world and the more we will see the good in others.

There is a beautiful fable that Brother loves and every time he reads it or thinks about it, he finds the message very profound. It is about a monastery that after some years of having thrived in spirituality began to decline. There was no spirit there. Many of the monks had died off leaving only a few elderly monks there, who spent much of their time complaining and criticizing. The spirit of the monastery had just been lost.

The abbot was very concerned. He knew of a holy rabbi who used to meditate in a small hut in the nearby forest. One day the abbot went to see the rabbi. They spent some time reading scripture, praying together and after a while when the abbot was about ready to leave he asked: “Do you have any advice that I can give to my brothers in the monastery because we are declining. There is no spirit there.

The rabbi replied: “No, I don’t really have anything to tell you but one thing I will say is that the Messiah dwells within you in your monastery.” So, the abbot went back to the monastery and when asked if the rabbi had said anything he replied: “The only thing he said was that the Messiah lives with us. He is one of us.” The monks started thinking. “It could be Brother So and So or perhaps it’s Brother What’s His Name over there. He’s got some wonderful qualities, too. Maybe it’s our abbot. He’s the most holy of us all.” Then each one began to think “maybe the rabbi thought it was me. Could be me? Maybe I’m the Messiah.”

Gradually, as the days progressed, they began to think that perhaps the Messiah was in one of their brothers or perhaps the Messiah was within himself. Respect for one another grew as well as for themselves. The spirit began to grow and from the neighboring towns more donations came in, more young men came and the monastery started to thrive again.

It is so beautiful because of the existing truth. The Messiah does live in each one of us. Why did Guruji call his commentary of the gospels in “The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You?” The Christ is within us and we are here to resurrect that Christ-consciousness within ourselves to be able to perceive God within us and in one another.

Master said, “Have only love in your hearts for others. The more you see the good in them, the more you will establish good in yourself. Hold the consciousness of good. The way to make people good is to see the good in them.”

But it not always easy because we are put in situations in life whereby people push our buttons. They rub us the wrong way. We all think differently and that gives us an opportunity for people who don’t think like us, who don’t believe the way we do, to expand our consciousness and to see the good within them.

Daya Mata was the epitome of this. She said that from her early years she was a peacemaker even as a young girl. When children were being bullied or picked on she felt that it was her duty to protect them. One day she said that Master said, “You are a peacemaker.” She had to be to guide and lead this great work of Self-Realization Fellowship because not everybody would always understand. Ma was always striving to bring that peace and harmony.

Some years ago Ma asked us to prepare a 5 by 7 card with a saying of Master’s and her comments on it. They were given to all the monastics and Brother still has his card on his desk, looks at it and reads it every day. The quote of Master’s is: “If you all work together with love, harmony, kindness and humility, this work will sweep the world.”

Then Ma’s comments: “Those are the qualities that are necessary for our spiritual growth and the well-being and goals of SRF [Self-Realization Fellowship]. If we follow these and live by them, to the best that we can, this work will sweep the world. For it is our actions, not our words that will inspire mankind. May Master bless us all.”

Brother continues he thinks about these words all the time. When we serve together in the temples or when we’re in the centers or meditation groups or circles we work with committees and we realize that not everybody is going to think the way we do. Not everybody is going to have the same solutions to problems that we have. Ma’s way was always to get together and discuss…talk things out…never blame or criticize. Then she would always say, “What would Master do if he was here? What would Master want?” Brother said he often thinks about that.

When we’re in a group trying to solve some problems think about that. It can be in an SRF group or it can be with your family or it can be at work or wherever it may be: “What would God want me to do? What would Master do?” Think what Master would do if he were sitting right here because he is! He is omniscient. He is omnipresent.

When we’re working together in groups, always have Master there with you. There is never an excuse to be unkind to one another because then we are lowering our consciousness. Then we are not allowing the solutions to come. We should always be kind. Even in small things, be kind.

William Wordsworth, an English poet said: “The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.” Just little acts of kindness and love.

The great pianist, Arthur Rubinstein, was always fascinated by the audiences’ reactions. He was giving a concert one time, with an overflow audience. There was only the piano on the stage, so chairs were set up on the stage to accommodate the overflow. He played the concert, left the stage, came back to take his bows and finally the last time he walked out he noticed that there was an elderly woman trying to get up out of her chair on the stage to get her coat on.

Rubinstein said: “I’m from Poland and we’re taught to be kind to women. I had the greatest ovation of my life, much more than for any of my playing, by helping this woman on with her coat.” These little acts of kindness.

Master said, “One of the greatest victories over the little self is to be sure of your capacity to be always thoughtful and loving. To be secure in the knowledge that no one can make you act differently. Practice this. The entire Roman government could not have roused unkindness in Christ.”

One of the greatest gift that we can give to others is to be present, to listen. Listening is a real art. One psychotherapist said: “To be in the present with someone else is a gift. A gift of attention is perhaps the most precious and enviable of all, even though we do not always realize it–to be there, to be totally available.”

When we’ve been with someone, we know how it makes us feel when they have been totally attentive to us. In the ashram they have spiritual counselors and Brother’s counselor would very seldom give him advice but whenever he had a problem, something he was dealing with, just by listening, Brother could tell that he cared. That he was totally with him the whole time and that the counselor valued him.

Brother went on to say he’s noticed it in his own life when counseling people, as a minister, on all different subjects, even if he doesn’t say a word sometimes at the end the person will say: “Thank you so much. I feel so much better.” He was just there listening.

Years ago when the young monks being trained to speak were in the ashram chapel on a Sunday morning not too many monks enjoyed getting up to hear listen to one of the young monks preach. Whenever Brother Anandamoy didn’t have a temple service he was always there, right in the front seat, fully attentive and with a big smile. The confidence that brings is indescribable. “Kindness in thought creates profoundness; kindness in word creates confidence.” We express to somebody that we have confidence in them, that we admire them and value them just by listening to them.

Right before coming into the ashram many years ago, Brother Dharmananda, while a minister at Lake Shrine, asked Brother to give the Sunday announcements. Brother’s response was: “No! No! Please, Brother, anything but that. I’ll do anything!” Brother Dharmananda replied: “No, it will be good for you.” He knew because he didn’t like public speaking either. So Brother agreed to do it.

The first Sunday he was scheduled to be the announcement reader, he was in his VW Bug again driving from Venice Beach to the Palisades and to the Lake Shrine. On the drive many times Brother thought just to keep on going to Santa Barbara or to turn around and go back or that anything was better than having to speak in public, even getting mugged, but he knew it was his duty and that he had to do it.

In the Windmill Chapel at that time, the minister had a lectern on one side of the Chapel and the reader was on the other side in front of the altar. Brother Dharmananda advised him to just look at Lahiri Mahasaya’s picture that was on the far left on the altar. Brother said that he’d never had a deep relationship with Lahiri Mahasaya until that Sunday morning.

Brother Dharmananda began the service with the opening remarks and then said, “Now we will have our announcements.” Brother said that his heart was just pounding in his chest and his knees were shaking. Brother Dharmananda looked over at him and gave him this big smile, like “you can do it!” That was it! He had the confidence in Brother through that smile, through that look, to help Brother get through the test. That is how we need to help other people.

Master was such a great listener. Remember, in “Glimpses of a LIfe Divine” how Daya Ma talks about Master. She said, “When you were in Master’s presence, you were everything to him. There was nothing else. You were his whole world.” Ma was exactly the same way. When you were with her you were the most important person. We’ve heard again and again disciples say, “I was Master’s favorite.” Because he saw each one as his favorite disciple.

Guruji said, “When you feel like being alone, get away from people. Be by yourself. Do not keep company with people unless you are prepared to give them your full attention. In that regard, when I am with others I mixed with concentration, attention, with love. When I am alone, I am alone with my Mother.”

Master continued, “Listen. Learn to listen. That is the way to be attractive. You’ll see how your presence is in demand.” Think about that. Take that as a homework assignment. Find opportunities, to not necessarily give advice to people but just to listen…to be there…to be attentive.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis but rather the feeling of being unwanted…feeling of being unwanted. There are many people that are hungering for bread but the greater problem is that people are hungering for love.”

That was Mother Teresa’s life. She received that call from Jesus…”Come, be my light,” Jesus similarly urged Mother Teresa at the outset of her mission. “Bring me into the dark holes of the poor. Come, carry me, I cannot go alone.” So wherever she and her nuns would serve the poorest of the poor, the dying, the orphans, she would see that it was Jesus in disguise. She was serving God in all those people. It was God loving God!

Mother Teresa had tremendous challenges. She came from a very comfortable order to go into the slums of Calcutta to form an order. She was able to do so much because she relied on the presence of God. She said, “I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle, I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” Along with that kindness has to be love!

A teacher was asking her pupils: “What does love and kindness mean?” One little boy jumped up and said: “If I was hungry and somebody gave me a piece of bread, that would be kindness but if someone put some jam on the bread that would be love and kindness.” Whenever we reach out to people with kindness add the jam of love because it is love that is the whole purpose of creation.

Master said, “God is love. This plan for creation can be rooted only in love.” That love is seen so easily in young people. This is why Jesus said that when the children were trying to come to him and the disciples were keeping the children away he said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of God..”…to be very childlike.

Master had that great wisdom and power of the Universe but he was also very childlike, very pure, very simple. When he first came to this country, he asked a young Hindu college student, “What do the American people like?” And he said that the college student must have felt he was high above them because he said, “They’re just a bunch of little children.” And Master reply was, “Oh, then I’m going to get along very well with them.” “…for such is the kingdom of God.”

Little children are great teachers…out of the mouths of babes comes wisdom. Some children were asked: “What does love mean?”

• “A little five year old boy said, “Love is what’s in the room at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.”
• “When my grandmother got arthritis, she could not bend over and paint her toenails anymore, so my grandfather does it for her all the time even when his hands got arthritis. That’s love.”
• “A little six year old girls said that if you want to love better, you should start with a friend that you hate.”
• “A little four year old boy said that if you want to love better, you should start with a friend that you hate but there are two kinds of love. Our love and God’s love but God makes both kinds of love.”
• “A four year old girl says that love is when your puppy licks your face even after you’ve left it alone all day long.”
Finally,
• “An eight year old girls said that you really shouldn’t say I love you unless you mean it but if you mean it you should say it a lot. People forget!”

That’s out of the mouths of babes. Then in talking about giving kindness to one another, to people who cross our path, Brother stressed how important it was to give our love to God. Ma talks about this in “Glimpses of a Life Divine.” She says:“The greatest lovers of the world are not the Romeos and Juliets. The greatest lovers are those who have loved God — Jesus Christ, Buddha, Paramahansa Yogananda. Those are the greatest lovers of the world.” She said that we have to remember to make the effort. That we have to struggle to make time for God and that most people take everything from God and take for granted that there is nothing more to life than just “give me, give me, give me”.

Daya Ma: “I remember something that Guruji said that touched me very deeply. He said, ‘You know everybody in this world is seeking something and even God is seeking something. He owns everything in this universe. He owns us. He owns all the riches, all the wealth, all the wisdom–everything but even He is craving something. And what is it? He is craving the love of His children.’”

Ma said that when she heard that she said, “Ah, let me make up for all those who have forgotten God.” She lived her life loving God and making the effort for those who have forgotten. Sometimes when the spiritual path gets a little bit tough, we may feel a little bit dry or not feel like we’re getting results, that’s the time just to give, give and give. Everything that we offer to God, He embraces in His heart. It is not forgotten.

Brother closed with this story: Master was such a giver. He gave his whole life for this work, for all of us. He incarnated for one purpose: to bring us back home to God. He spent his whole life ministering and serving the devotees and whenever they could the devotees felt it was an honor and a privilege to serve the Guru.

On one occasion, Master said, “You are all so kind to me with your many attentions.” One of the disciples replied, “Oh, no! It is you who is kind to us, Master.” With a very sweet smile Master responded: “God is helping God! That is the fun of His drama of human life. God is helping God! That is the plot of His drama of human life.”

2012 Convocation – “Satsanga” ~ Brother Ritananda

Good Afternoon! This afternoon we have another satsanga, which Guruji defined as “fellowship with truth.” Brother said that the litmus test is if he does his job correctly or not if in fifty minutes will we still believed in the definition of fellowship with truth and to see what happens.

Q: “I often I hear people say: Master did this for me or Master did that or Master wants me to do this or that. If something happens they say that’s what Master wanted. Is this correct? How can they know it is Master? Sometimes I think that Master is talking to all these other people and not me. What if Master is doing favors for others and not me? What’s the deal of this??!!!”

A: Let’s start out with the best scenario. If a devotee is constantly saying Master is doing this or Master wanted that or so forth, the best case scenario is that the devotee is using that as a method, a methodism, to practice Guruji presence, to keep him close in thought and in their consciousness and that is something we all want to do and emulate.

The thing is that not everything in this world is what it seems and is Guruji talking to all these other people and not you? The answer is: No! We would have to be in nirvakalpa samadhi — when we have transcended the mind — and have that constant communion with God. Having transcended the mind we’re operating solely through perfect intuition, only then, and only then, can we say with perfect certainty that in each instance of our lives we can say that Master said this or Master said that or that Master was guiding us in this way.” So it is important not to read anything into this that could lead to an assumption, which could lead to discouragement. Things are not always what they seem. Our senses mislead us and assumptions, in almost ever instance, mislead us.

A woman was checking into a hotel. She was standing in line and there were people standing in line behind her. They overheard that an elderly couple, who was checking, asking the hotel clerk if they had a room with a king, queen or a double sized bed in it. The clerk responded that he was sorry but the remaining rooms available only had twin beds. The husband replied: “I don’t know. We’ve been sharing the same bed for forty-four years.” Then the wife added: “Could you possibly push them together?” Somebody in line said: “Oh, how romantic!” The wife finished her sentence saying, “…because if he snores I want to be able to punch him!”

Assumptions, most of the time, mislead us and similarly we don’t want to jump to assumptions just because somebody else says Guruji told me to do this or Guruji gave me that and then think that Guruji is talking to everyone but us. It is truth that once we enter the guru-disciple relationship, the guru does get involved in our lives — in the karma that manifests in our lives — and how we work out our karma. He even takes on some of it and burns it up for us.

For example, in the “Autobiography of a Yogi” during the time Lahiri Mahashaya was reunited with Babaji and while sitting around a camp fire in the Himalayas. All of a sudden Babaji grabbed a burning brand and struck the shoulder of one of the chelas. Lahiri Mahasaya said: “Sir, how cruel!” Babaji replied: “Would have rather have seen him burn to ashes before your eyes according to the decree of his karma?” Then Babaji puts his hand on the chelas’ shoulder healing him, saying: “I have freed you tonight from painful death. The karmic law has been satisfied through slight suffering by fire.”

Once again, when we enter into the guru-disciple relationship, the guru is always doing and acting on our behalf. At the same time, we have been endowed with free will, so he never takes over the steering completely. God and Guru will not impose Themselves. They will not impose Their will upon us and since They won’t do that and we don’t one hundred percent of the time utilize our common sense — good judgment, discrimination, perfect attunement with God’s will — very often, or most often, when events unfold in our lives unfavorably, we are the reason they do so. Not God and Guru.

It is in times like when, perhaps, things unfold unfavorably that we just say, “Well, Master wanted that.” He may have wanted something very different for us and he may have tried very hard to get us to make a different decision. So when unfavorable things unfold in our lives, if we dismiss it by saying that Master wanted that, it can be problematic. It can derail our spiritual progress if we use it as an excuse not to introspect about that incident and not take personal responsibility. Then that will hinder our spiritual development.

Sometimes we’re all like this woman who was walking down the sidewalk in a big city past a construction site. The sidewalk was covered with a scaffolding to protect the pedestrians. As she was walking through it there was a voice coming from everywhere and nowhere that said: “Stop! Do not take another step or you will be killed.” She stopped and seconds later this large concrete construction block fell through the scaffolding onto the sidewalk right where she would have been. She was shaking but she continued on her way. A few minutes later she was standing at a crosswalk waiting for the light to turn green. It turned green and she was about to step into the crosswalk and she heard: “Halt! Do not cross the street right now.” Just then an out of control delivery truck ran a red light, swerved onto the wrong side of the road and ran through the crosswalk right where she would have been. About then she was at her wits end and said: “Who are you?” The voice said: “I’m your guardian angel. I guess you have some questions for me.” The lady replied, “Yes, I do. Where were you when I met my husband?”

Brother went on to say that he was taking dictation in Daya Mata’s office one day while she was answering a stack of letters that had been written to her. One letter was from a devotee who had just gone through a difficult divorce. In the course of the letter the devotee wrote: “I don’t understand why Guruji wanted me to marry this person.” Daya Ma paused and said, “Don’t blame the Guru!” She went on to say that this was the result of a personal desire or lack of good judgment. People want to blame the Guru and not blame themselves for everything.

This is where this habit of Master did this or Master wanted that can be counterproductive if we use it as an excuse to avoid personal responsibility and to avoid introspecting deeply about the events that go on in our lives.
One of the most important points in his response to this question Brother said is that we should never compare ourselves to others. We have no idea what is going on in their lives. Talking about happiness Charles de Montesquieu wrote: “If only we wanted to be happy it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.” It is true!

Guruji said that spiritual progress is very difficult to ascertain, especially in ourselves. So when we introspect we want to analyze what we did right that day or what we did wrong or where improvements are needed or what are the obstacles to our progress and to our happiness and what we can do to overcome those obstacles. But we don’t want to waste time in trying to determine or ascertain our level spiritual progress. That’s the guru’s role.
Again, we have no idea what’s going on in someone else’s mind and lives. We barely know what’s going on in our minds and consciousness.

There were a bunch of students who were saying: “we assume other people are happier than we are; we assume they are more advanced than we are;” and that can lead to unnecessary discouragement. So we do not need to try to determine other people’s spiritual progress. That’s the guru’s job. We just need to continue to follow this soul liberating sadhana to the best of our ability. Then we can rest assured that we are progressing because we are following an omnipresent Guru, who has given us a spiritual science and effort is progress.

Our president, Sri Mrinalini Mata, when she’d only been in the ashram a few year…still a teenager…complained to Guruji that despite her best efforts she didn’t feel she was making any progress. She said, “At least I can’t detect any.” Guruji responded, “You won’t. You are not meant to but I do. If you go on meditating, practicing the presence regularly, then one day you will realize, ‘oh, look what has become of me. I have changed more than I ever dreamed possible.’”

Conway Twitty, a country western entertainer that many are possibly familiar with, was coming up through the ranks in Nashville. Many of his peers had already been discovered and were in this world of riches. He was filled with jealousy, pangs of jealousy, and asking: “Why doesn’t something like that happen to me?” So filled with that jealousy, of course, he didn’t have peace of mind and he wasn’t happy until a friend told him a story about a missionary. This missionary was returning home to the United States after spending time in China. It was during the time when most of those kinds of trips were taken mostly by boat and so he was returning to New York City by boat. There was an entertainer on the boat and as they approached the docks in New York City, the missionary saw that there were thousands of fans waiting to welcome home this entertainer and he knew there wasn’t a single soul there to welcome him home. So he prayed and complained to Divine Mother saying: “Oh, I don’t understand. I’ve given forty-three years of my life to China. He only gave two weeks and there are thousands here to welcome him home and nobody here to welcome me home. He heard the voice of God: “Son, you’re not home yet!”

The same thing applies to us on the spiritual path. Every experience that comes into our lives comes for one reason. That is, to take us to a higher state of consciousness. If we pass the trials, the blessings come to take us to a higher state of consciousness and they come because we either needed it or we deserved it to take us to a higher state of consciousness. Our response should always be the same, even if we think this wonderful blessings and experience in meditation…great peace, great bliss…is not enough. Until we have that unbroken communion, it is not enough. We’re not home. So our response as to whether it’s a blessing or tests and trials is the same if we have made the effort. Don’t be discouraged. We just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other until we’re home.

Q: “I just can’t get it through my head why Spirit, who is ever-conscious, ever-new bliss, needed the entertainment of imperfect, delusional creation??? When we come back into God, He could not possibly want anything else or need other entertainment. What is God getting out of this? He already had our perfect love and perfect bliss. Excuse my ignorance, but please try to get this point through my thick head.”

A: God did create to share His Bliss. He didn’t have our perfect love and bliss in heaven when he first created us and when he first tempted us with the world’s material temptations. We are making our way back to perfect the art, so that we can offer it to God willingly because He won’t impose Himself upon us. Understandably, this is one of the most common satsanga questions. Why creation? Why suffering?

In one the Temples Brother received essentially the same question. A devotee wrote: “Since I’m stuck in this movie show of maya. Where’s the popcorn and bonbons?” We all know there are an infinite number of events in this life that compel us to ask why. Why did God create? Why does suffering have to be such an inherent part of the soul’s evolutionary path back to God.

Guruji used to have very spirited discussion with Divine Mother on these same questions. In his talk recorded in “Man’s Eternal Quest” or “Divine Romance” he said: “This creation is the Lord’s problem. But I constantly plead with Him. Why do you have such a hobby? Why do you give us such troubles? It is indeed a funny world! But the result of our wrong actions don’t seem very funny to us. That is why I quarrel with God and scold Him. Why have you created all these terrible temptations that your children succumb to? Why have you made them so pleasurable?” The Lord says: “I made you in My image. You aught to behave like Me.” Guruji unrelentingly continued: “But, Lord, they do not know they are made in Your image.” God’s response: “Well, my saints are trying to tell them. I am not going to force them to be good.” Master still didn’t give up and said: “Why did You put us in this mess? You’ve never been in this quagmire of delusion. Why did you put us here?” This is were the Lord smiled and answered: “That is how it is and that is the way it is to be.”

End of discussion! It is not very satisfying to our intellect but that is the WAY it is! The saints and avatars have all said there are certain questions that will only be answered on the other side…in the after life. They can be answered through wisdom, through soul intuition, but they cannot be answered through words. They cannot be understood through the intellect. Maya, as powerful as it is, is finite and the finite cannot contain the infinite. That is, for example, one reason when Christ was asked by Pontius Pilate “what is Truth” and he did not answer. He kept silent and Guruji explained that Truth is not an interminable discussion. Truth is Truth. It has to be intuitively, not intellectually, understood.

Brother said that there was nothing that he could say that would fully satisfy to answer this question. There is nothing that Guruji can say that will satisfy us with an answer to this question. The answer has to come from within — intuitive realization. In the meantime, we have to have faith in God’s reasons, in God or His attitude of the why of creation until we intuitively understand the why and faith is what bridges the gap between intellectual understanding and intuitive realization.

A university student was taking his final exams before the Christmas break. In one of those final exams there was a question on the test that he had no idea how to answer. So he wrote a little message to the professor saying: “Only God knows the answer to this question. Merry Christmas!” When he got back after the Christmas break he received the graded exam and in red pen next to that answer the professor wrote: “God gets an A. You get an F. Happy New Year!” We will continue to get an F and we will be miserable the whole time, as long as we strive to understand the why of creation solely through the intellect.

Let us explore some of the reasons to help us understand the why of creation. Part of it is that duality is the reason and Guruji talks about that we cannot fully appreciate or understand, necessarily, the bliss of God, the infinite peace and joy, without having experienced the opposite.

An unknown author in what he called “You Do Not Understand” wrote:
“We do not understand: Joy…Until we face sorrow. Faith…Until it is tested. Peace…Until faced with conflict. Trust…Until we are betrayed. Love…Until it is lost. Hope…Until confronted with doubts.” There is some truth in these words and is part of the answer of why God created.

Another author that Brother came across is saying the same thing very artistically by referring to nature. He must have lived in a northern climate where there was snow. We know how beautiful it can be when spring bursts forth in those climates but during the transition between winter and spring it is not always beautiful. He wrote: “Before spring becomes beautiful it is ugly, nothing but mud and muck. I love the fact that the word “humus” — the decayed vegetable matter that feeds plants — comes from the same root that gives rise to the word humility. It helps me understand that the humiliating events of life, the events that leave ‘mud on my face’ or that ‘make my name mud,’ may create the fertile soil in which something new can grow.”

It is true that the humiliation can provide painful events in life and that the tests and trials do create the fertile soil upon which our soul-realization can blossom. This duality is referenced in all the scriptures. In Psalms it says: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” When we really honestly introspect about our lives, we realize that it is not in our comfort zone that we make the greatest spiritual progress. It is when we are pushed outside of our comfort zone that we make the greatest spiritual progress. We realize that it is the pain and suffering inherent in an earthly life that compels us most powerfully to act. “Why? What is the purpose of life?” Look for that deeper meaning in life.

It was Divine Mother who told Guruji in that vision he had after he’d seen the newsreel of the battlefields during World War I and he was disturbed about it. He asked Divine Mother why? “Why do you allow such suffering?” In Her answer she stated: “Pain is a prod to remembrance.” We realize that suffering gives us the passion to seek God.

It is like we can coast when were going downhill on a bike. It takes no effort and we enjoy that but when we go uphill we have to pedal. We have to work hard. It is the same in life. When things are going well, we coast. We enjoy that and we should. We need from time to time to relax but it’s when we go uphill and we’re faced with tests and trials and difficulties that we make the greatest effort, that we pedal hard, and it is same to fulfill the purpose of life — God-realization.

A sailor, after a year of training, was given his first assignment on a naval destroyer. He served in what is called the fire room and one of his jobs was to open and close various valves every day at a certain time. One day he went in to open a valve, which resembled the steering wheel of a car, and try as he may, he was unable to open it. He went to his supervisor, his commanding officer, and told him. The commanding officer told him to go back and keep trying. Also, that he’d send Tiny down to help him. The sailor wrote: “Soon, what appeared to be the largest sailor in the navy, loomed over me and I grinned knowing he would solve my problem. But instead of taking the valve handle into his hands and opening the valve Tiny pointed at it and said: “Open that valve right now!” The sailor said that he got the valve open.

Trying to come to grips with this question of why God created and why the suffering, Guruji is encouraging us in virtually every talk — be it a talk on diet or health or meditation or devotion — he always comes back to that cosmic perspective. One aspect of that is that we have a body, we have a mind but we are the soul and the soul as Krishna said: “No weapon can pierce the soul; no fire can burn it; no water can moisten it; nor can any wind wither it.” The soul is untouched by all the goings on in this world.

We need to take these truths and make them a practical, living reality in our lives. They are not just a philosophy but something that we should apply daily in our lives and utilize in our decision making.

Another aspect of this cosmic perspective is the cosmic motion picture aspect of this creation is God’s dreaming. In “Divine Romance” in one of his talks, Guruji said: “The more I see of life, the more I realize it is a dream. I have found the greatest assurance in this philosophy I am giving to you now. This world is a dream place, and we are all dreaming here. This life is not real; you are laughing and crying in the greatest delusion, and it is not worth shedding tears over. To give reality to our earth experiences is to invite untold misery. By identification of our consciousness with this world we see it as a place of suffering. What is going to free us from this suffering? Will money do so? Nothing material can. Knowledge of God, and realization that we are forever one with Him, is the only way to freedom. Remember this always. God would be very cruel indeed if this world were real. But He knows that when we have gone through the furnace of suffering and death enough times, we shall awaken and overcome delusion: we shall realize this earth as His dream, and reincarnate no more.”

As the soul is made in the image of God, it possess that Infinite power to overcome, triumph, over all tests and trials and difficulties. It is important to take that cosmic perspective and realize…we don’t feel it…and affirm that we do have the power, the strength and resources to overcome all tests and trials. Unfortunately, eventually, we all feel as Mother Teresa of Calcutta did once when she said: “I know that God will not give me more than I can bear. I just wish he wouldn’t trust me so much.”

Life’s tests and suffering seem so real and seem to go on forever. That also “will vanish as though it had never been” when the light of Self-realization shines in our consciousness. Until then, even though this is a path based on experience, we have to rely on that faith in helping us to maintain our peace, our happiness, our sanity, as we go through life. The saints and the avatars give us this cosmic perspective again and again. Yet, it is easy to dismiss it. Well even Guruji, an avatar, said that even in this lower age, Divine Mother is trying to get this message through many channels.

Brother went on to share something of interest from some of our peers, people who have had near-death experiences; they died and were resurrected but they got a glimpse of the astral world. They brought back experiences that support everything that Guruji is saying — that support this cosmic perspective.

Firstly, Guruji said: “It is on the anvil of this gross earth that we hammer out salvation.” We make progress in the astral world but it is more of a realm for rest after an exhausting physical life. It is on this earth that we make the greatest spiritual progress. This where we do the heavy lifting with regard to God-realization. As such, it is not just our desires that bring us back. We want to be free and after our rest in the astral world, we realize we want to go back to learn lessons, work out karma, progress and free our souls from delusion.

Another analogy that Guruji uses to describe life in this world is that it is a school. We come and we learn lessons…take tests…learn lessons…take tests until we graduate and as Guruji said: “We incarnate no more.” But until then just like when we attended college, we had some say in the classes we took and it is the same here in this school. We are not just victims. We choose certain courses, certain tests, to work out karma, to learn lessons, to progress, to free our souls from delusion.

One lady who had a near-death experience got a glimpse that gave her a cosmic perspective. She wrote of that experience: “To my surprise I saw that most of us had selected the illnesses we would suffer, and for some, the illness that would end our lives. Sometimes healing does not come immediately, or at all, because of our need for growth. All experience is for our good and sometimes it takes what we would consider negative experience to help develop our souls. We were very willing, even anxious, as souls in the astral world to accept all of our ailments, illnesses, and accidents here to help better ourselves spiritually. I understood that in the astral world our earth time is meaningless. The pain we experience on earth is just a moment, just a split second of consciousness in the astral world, and we are very willing to endure it.”

These are truths, thoughts and principles, that we can and should work with and make them a very practical living reality to help us process this pain, suffering inherent in life until we have that intuitive realization that answers all our questions as to the why of creation.

Guruji said in one of his talks: “Our purpose in life is to know the meaning of this universe. It is only a dream of God, just like a motion picture, which reveals great drama or a comedy and then is over and forgotten. So is life. It seems so real and so permanent but it will be over with shortly. All your problems and struggles will be forgotten when you leave this world for the better world of the afterlife. But do not take this life too seriously. Look behind this drama to the Master of this universe, the author of this dream play.” When we first hear this and for many years after of this concept that life is dream it is too far out. How do we make it a practical reality in our lives?

There was a young man who grew up in the West, who had a near-death experience. In the “Holy Science” where Sri Yukteswar says that when we reach the stage of the kyshatria, that of spiritual aspirant, we need the help of other men and that’s what we’re doing here — souls helping souls. It doesn’t end here. It continues in the astral world. That is what this young man got a glimpse of. He was interviewed about his experience and one of his experiences was of a spiritual support group. He was telling the interviewer how they used humor as a means of honest feedback to help each other advance. He said that they teased each other about how dramatic it all is down here on earth and how seriously we all took our lives. The interviewer replied: “You and your friends don’t think it is important to take life here on earth seriously?” The young man’s response: “Don’t misunderstand. We have a role to play, contributions to make, lessons to learn but look, Earth is a one-day stage play! We all understood that.” The interviewer said: “And your group is united in this idea?” The young man replied: “Sure! We saw ourselves as actors in a gigantic stage production.”

Again, we can take this concept but is should never make us indifferent, irresponsible or impractical but it can help us process delusion until we have that intuitive realization of what it is all about. Why is this the way it is?
Guruji has said and the saints all say that our greatest tests will prove themselves to be are our greatest teachers and that it can be hard to take.

Another man, an atheist, who didn’t believe in God or have faith and respect for his fellowman, which of course, filled him with great fears. He wrote describing his near-death experience in this way: “I went over to the other side with a lot of fears about toxic waste, nuclear missiles, the population explosion, the deforestation of the rainforest. I came back loving every single problem. I love nuclear waste. I love the mushroom cloud. It, more than any religion or philosophy on Earth, that brought us together all of a sudden, to a new level of consciousness.”

What he is referring to is true. In this lower age, religion has been more divisive than bring the world together. Crusades were fought in the name of religion. Modern day terrorism is being waged in the name of religion. For example, something as tragic as the nuclear bomb in World War II made many in the world say: “Whoa! We’d better learn to live together. It brought us together to a higher state of consciousness.” Even at this point now! Yes, it’s true that all experiences are coming to us for our highest good, to take us to a higher state of consciousness, even in these terrible tragedies.

In this cosmic perspective it is important to realize the attachment of the soul. When these people have these near death experiences, some from terrible accidents, some during surgery, some in war and so forth and unless somebody is tremendously material, that is, has this tremendously powerful attachment to the world, they will as soon as they are free of the body have indescribable peace, joy, bliss, beauty. Whatever they were ill from, they were whole. If they had suffered from a disease for years, they were whole. If they were blind, they were whole. They feel more at peace. They are more alive than ever and almost everyone single one of them says the same thing that this isn’t our home but that they were home. That they were finally home.

They are not home yet! They are closer to home but they are not home there either. They are not lamenting. They’re not going: “Oh, I just got rid of the body.” They feel more alive than ever. They feel this greater indescribable peace and bliss and so they are not suffering having lost the body. That should help us not to suffer unduly when somebody losses their life because they are immediately aware of their soul and can enjoy the greater peace, joy. bliss and happiness than is possible in this world.

Sri Daya Mata had a near-death experience that she describes in “Only Love” or “Finding the Joy Within.” Ma writes that after getting Guruji’s permission, she was taken to hospital for emergency surgery. While under anesthesia she intuitively knew that the surgeon was operating on the wrong condition. She must have clinically died because she had that experience with Divine Mother. She describes her experience as so beautiful that even the most beautiful things we see here on earth are horribly gross compared to the astral world. Free of the delusion of the body is what people experience when they pass away. They have detached from the body and we have to cultivate that same detachment by developing a process of not being torn up by it.

One last story Brother shared is about a sixteen year old young man playing first base for his sophomore high school baseball team. Up to bat from the opposing team was the catcher, a big, burly kid weighing 240 pounds. The pitcher was a skinny kid weighing about 140 pounds. The catcher hit a grounder to the short stop who fielded it and threw it to first for the out. But his throw was off target and it took him into the baseline. There was a violent collision and the young man’s neck was broken. He said: “The next thing I knew, the world, as I knew it, was gone.” He realized that he was no longer in the body but he was very much alive. He wrote: “I realized that I was not in my physical body. I felt no pain or discomfort. I felt totally at peace with myself. I was standing behind my coach and one of the other player’s father, who were kneeling over my body right on the infield. The first thing I checked for is to see if the ball stayed in my glove.”

Typical guy! He’d just died and come to the realization that he is not his body but experiencing the greatest peace, greatest happiness, that he’d ever experienced. He’s not lamenting but the first thing he checks for is to see if he made the out. That is the attachment the soul has from the years in the body. We can use that truth to help us process life’s inherent seeming cruelties and injustices until we have that realization that answers all our questions.

It is good to try to understand this intellectually but not solely through the intellect. Guruji talked about this saying: “Trying to understand this solely through the intellect will reap only doubt. You will not be able to understand God’s laws unless you become one with Him. Why waste time trying to understand them by an intellectual approach. If you are reading a novel in which the hero is being mistreated and the villain is winning and each chapter seems to contradict the other, you will feel frustrated and angry with the author. But when you read the last chapter, you are satisfied and you think how wonderful that novel was because it was so complex. Don’t try to get the answer to these truths. God is the master novelist and His creation is wonderful because it is very complex. Don’t try to get the answers to its mystery by yourself. You will be lost. When you find Him, He will give you, in the last chapter, the answer for everything you want to know and you won’t be able to question His wisdom when you hear His answers. That I know!”

Q: “Will all our meditating together this week help the situation our world is in right now?”

A: Absolutely, yes! All our individual efforts to seek and serve God and any thought or action, any God reminding thought, helps uplift the world. When the power of united effort is added into that, then yes! These types of united efforts and individual efforts, very much, serve and help uplift mankind…uplift our world. This is another one of those common questions that is received all the time. Guruji got it all the time “What can I do to help the alleviate the world’s problems?”

There are many things that we can and should do to help out. We should multi-task. We can volunteer to help out? If we can’t do that we can donate to organizations that are helping others. If we can’t that, we can always pray, which is the biggest, the most powerful thing, that we can do to help alleviate the world’s problems. That is, living the spiritual life. The greatest gift we can give to the world family is our own growing self-realization. Not in a selfish way, but again, a balanced life and a growing self-realization is doing more to uplift mankind and the world than anything else we can do. In doing so, in making the spiritual effort, we are helping God add light and love to His creation. It is very much a divine partnership. God needs our help.

A farmer had a very productive farm but he had a number of acres that were infertile because they were just rock covered ground that could not be farmed. It took five years to break up all those rocks, haul them away and till and cultivate that ground. After five years he finally had some high production yields. A friend came to visit and saw this. The friend said: “You have God to thank for all this.” The farmer response was: “Yeah, but you should have seen this place when God had it all by Himself.”

It is the same in regard to helping to alleviate the world’s problems. We can’t sit back and think that God is going to fix everything. God has no physical body. We are His hands and feet. He will fix things through us when we attune our consciousness and our will to His divine will. Our minute to minute, day by day efforts to seek, serve and love God, help God to work through us to introduce more life, more love into the world to help mankind alleviate the world’s problems with each effort. Our individual efforts and our group efforts are far more powerful than we will ever realize. They may seem so small and insignificant but that’s maya always dropping thoughts like “you can’t do anything right; why do you even try? You won’t make any difference.” Our every single effort has a much greater impact than we will ever realize. Changes on this very gross plane takes time but the impact on a spiritual level, a vibrational level, is immediate.

Those of you who have been to Mother Center know that the monks live on one side and the nuns on the other and that there are not enough buildings on the grounds to accommodate all the monks and nuns. So through the, houses have been purchased adjacent to Mother Center to serve as ashrams or homes where the monks and nuns live. They tend to all be adjacent to the property but a couple of them are about a quarter of a mile up the road near the elementary school on the hill. The nuns lived in those in the beginning and then one time while one of the nuns was walking to Mother Center she was robbed at gunpoint. It was determined to swap housed and move the nuns closer to Mother Center where it would be safer and have the monks robbed at gunpoint. Brother clarified that that came out wrong but that we knew what he was trying to say.

So it was determined to house swap and it all had to be done in one day since there were no extra rooms available. Before that happened the monks and nuns had a day to pack up their belongings and clean the respective houses. The day after the movers arrived very early. All the belongings of the nuns and monks were loaded into the moving trucks. By then it was lunchtime and after lunch everything was offloaded and moved into each ashram before the end of the day.

The nun who was coordinating this big project on the nuns side walked into one of the houses at lunch that the nuns were moving into. She happened to run into one of the movers. He was a big guy with tattoos all over his arms and legs and he was pirouetting in the living room. You know, like we do when we spin around on one foot. He said when he saw the nun: “It feels so good here. It makes me feel happy inside. I feel peaceful. What is this? What is this really happy feeling I’m feeling?”

At the end of the day when the moves were complete, the supervisor of the moving company was talking to the same nun and he said: “This move has been good for our men. It has changed a couple of people. I have never seen a few of them so happy. I see it as a new beginning.” It wasn’t the monastics intent to change anybody. They were just moving their stuff!

It was the accumulative results of years and years of monks and nuns sincerely seeking, serving, striving to love God that created this vibration that impacted, profoundly, not just one but several of these movers. That is the power of our individual and collective efforts. It does make a huge difference and helps to alleviate the world’s problems and of mankind.

Brother guaranteed that if those monks and nuns who lived in those ashrams were asked about their contribution to this vibration, they would say: “Oh, no not me. I struggle to much with……” Brother said we could fill in the blanks. It could be restlessness in mediation or struggling with a temper or whatever it is. We are sure everyone else contributes but not us. But we do! Every very single one of does! Every single effort is making a difference. Again, the greatest gift we can give to the world family to help alleviate the world’s troubles is to live the life. It’s not just a line. It is contributing greatly to the upliftment of mankind far more than we’ll ever know on this plane.

Guruji was asked this same question again and again. In the World Wide Circle booklet a devotee asked what can I do to help relieve the world’s problems. Unequivocally, his answer was: “Only spiritual consciousness–realization of God’s presence in oneself and every other living being–can save the world. I can see no chance for peace without it. Begin with yourself. There is no time to waste. It is your duty to bring God’s kingdom on earth.”

The justice system is jury based in the United States and in California everybody gets a summons to serve on a jury but you can make an appeal to try to be excused from serving. Brother read about a man who was making such an appeal and so he appeared before a judge. He said to the judge: “Your Honor, my small grocery store is the sole means of support for my wife and children. To serve on the jury would require me to shut it down and I cannot afford to do that.” The judge responded: “Mr. Jones, what if everyone were like you? How would we ever put together a jury.” Mr. Jones replied: “Your Honor, if everyone were like me, you wouldn’t need a jury.”

The more people make a spiritual effort…remember God, think of God, seek God…the less the world would need juries and the more harmony we would realize, see, in the world. The more people remember God, the more harmony and peace will manifest in our world. When we read the newspapers, the world seems to be in such chaos and, again, the thought, “can I do anything…is it making a difference?” Guruji addressed this and said: “You have no idea how it would be if it were not for humble men and women, monks and nuns, around the world seeking, striving, yearning for God…trying to love God. You have no idea how much worse it would be.”

The point is to never minimize or underestimate what our every good thoughts words, actions and every sincere effort to meditate does to help uplift mankind, to help alleviate the world’s problems.

Q: “I have attended other churches and temples with friends who belong to them and have enjoyed their meditation and services. I feel fine about this but friends have commented that this is being disloyal to Guru. My life is SRF. Am I disloyal because I still enjoy other temples?”

A: The answer is: No! but Brother said he would explain what could compromise that. First of all, as Guru has said, SRF [Self-Realization Fellowship] is a church of all religions. It is non-denominational and all are welcome. Many people apply for the Lessons and benefit from the “How-to-Live” teachings…from the Energization Exercises, Hong Sau and Aum techniques…but they don’t take Kriya because it’s not their path. They benefit greatly from all the other techniques but they don’t take Kriya Yoga. These are SRF students.

Then there are those who realize intuitively in their hearts, in their very atoms, that Paramahansa Yogananda is their God-ordained guru. That he is the channel through which they will find their way back home…back to God…and they take Kriya Yoga and establish that guru-disciple relationship. Then these are SRF members.

There are no restrictions on where the SRF members go or what they do. In the balanced path that Guruji gave us, every day during his lifetime at 4:30 he would the devotees to get out of the office, go outside and walk or garden or exercise and work up a sweat. So that is still part of the daily routine in the ashram. In Encinitas, years ago, those who were fortunate would play touch football during recreation. One day during play the football landed at the base of a fence along K Street with the side walk just outside. One of the monks ran over to the chain link fence with bougainvillea growing on it. In a gap, the monk could see a pedestrian walking by who stopped and looked at the fence and looked at the monk and said: “Is that to keep you in or me out?” It’s neither, of course.

SRF does not erect a fence around their members nor is it a mortal sin to enter another temple. Many devotees have spouses that belong to other churches and to maintain harmony and to support their spouse, they will attend another temple or church and that is not a problem. There are many members of friends who go for support to a temple or church with them. Also, their are devotees who live remotely who do not have a meditation group, so they might go to another temple or church where there are like-minded people, where they enjoy the silence and can practice the techniques. None of this a problem.

In the beginning of our search, Guruji recommended that we study and compare various teachings, teachers and paths until we find the one that is right for us and when we know in our hearts, again, intuitively, what path is right for us then he said: “Do not waver from it. Be one hundred percent loyal to it. Loyalty is the highest law.”

Guruji set the example of broadmindedness. In the SRF invocation and prayers, always included are the “saints of all religions.” SRF respects all true religions and all true teachers.

The following are some quotes to help us understand this broad-mindedness and the loyalty that’s required, especially once we’ve established that guru-disciple relationship:

“Religious prejudice should not exist in the hearts of those who follow in the footsteps of Paramahansa Yogananda but loyalty must. Respect all religions but be loyal to your own. Having recognized that the meaning of Truth is expressed in different ways and in varying degrees in all religions, find the path that suits you and do not waver from it. Honor all but be true to your own way. That was Gurudeva’s ideal and should be the ideal all who follow him.” — Sri Daya Mata —

“Many person worry about becoming narrow minded before they have learned to be balanced. Superficial seekers in their wish to appear broadminded, indiscriminately absorb different ideas without first distilling the essence of truth within them by realization. The result is a spiritually weak, diluted consciousness. I can help you more if you are not diluting your forces. Attunement to the guru comes from one hundred percent loyalty to him and his associates and activities and to willing obedience to his counsel whether verbal or written, visualizing him in the spiritual eye. Through unconditional devotion, the souls of those who are in tune with him, the guru can establish the temple of God.” — Sri Paramahansa Yogananda —

Attending other temples or churches is not a problem but if our motive is to mix and match teachings, once we have established a guru-disciple relationship, then, yes, that’s a problem. That will derail ones spiritual progress and will lead to spiritual indigestion and will compromise ones attunement and receptivity to the guru. If we go to another church or temple and we’re not grounded in our own path yet and we hear their teachings that can cause confusion and doubt. Again, it is all about motives. If we’re just going to support a spouse or a friend or to enjoy that spiritual environment, there is absolutely nothing wrong with attending other churches or temples. We do, however, want to avoid mixing and matching teachings; we want to avoid that spiritual indigestion. That’s what we have to analyze when we attend other churches or temples. This helps Brother understand the balance between broadmindedness and loyalty. “Just be openminded but not so openminded that your brains fall out!”

Brother ended by saying he hoped that some of this had been helpful and, also, that he hoped we could still believe that the definition of satsanga is fellowship with truth. If not, “Master wanted me to say it!”

2012 Convocation – “Creating Harmony: The Successful, Fulfilling Life” ~ Brother Santoshananda

(DISCLAIMER: These notes are our best attempt to capture the essence of what was said at this opening class. There is always a degree of human error involved when taking notes and we have transcribed them to the best of our ability.)

Greetings! Pranam! Jai Guru! Love, joy and harmony to all of us. Our subject tonight…the official subject of the talk tonight…we don’t usually talk to much about harmony but we know how important it is to have harmony. Brother said that he remembered that last year he gave the last class at Convocation and this year he’s giving the first class. He didn’t know if the Bible had anything to say about it. His karma…who knows? Only God knows!

Creating harmony within is in the title of the class. Master used the words: The Secret Principle of a Successful Fulfilling Life. It is his legacy. It is good to get along with people who are harmonize, who have a harmonious vibration and to live in an environment which is harmonious. It is very important to feel that we are in harmony, that we are in the connection where everything flows.

If someone is a very harmonious person you immediately feel a relieve from stress and tension, if we’re stressed out, of course. There is a vibration coming out of a person who is harmonious within. That is where harmony is most important. It is called a hidden secret because it is inside. It is within ourselves. Harmony, we may say, is an inner state of consciousness in which there is no conflict and contention within us. So we feel everything is clear, simple and we feel light, happy and may even chant and Brother started to chant “Oh, what a beautiful evening! Oh, what at beautiful Convo.”

We’re at the end of Convocation…singing this way is what it’s all about. There is a feeling which comes of itself. Paramahansa Yogananda said that he came to the West to give us the highest truth. He said that his teaching was the school of wisdom…he used the word school. He didn’t say the origin of wisdom. He said the school of wisdom because it is a process in which we learn the teachings. A learning process in which we learn to free ourselves, liberate ourselves and realize, essentially, our essential nature, which is harmony itself. It is the soul. It is what is called the image of God within us. And that is something that is important to understand. It is the whole process of the teachings. As we practice it, we create an attunement, a harmonious vibration of the soul itself.

Otherwise, if we try to create harmony without any spiritual principles, which is good in some way to move in that direction, but most of the time it is patching things. You know, scotch tape here and scotch tape there. That is why the great scientist, Albert Einstein, said: “You cannot solve a problem… [Brother interjected by commenting that this is often said and that it is a very important quote.] “You cannot solve a problem on the same level on which the problem has been created.”

Unfortunately, this is what the world is doing most of the time. That is why we are not yet in the Golden Age. We are still struggling trying to get there. We have to understand that as long as we are not able to attune our consciousness with the higher principles and to allow that consciousness to harmonize us, how can we create a better world if we are out of tune with the truth. As Jesus said “…only the truth makes us free.”

As we act and behave in our every day lives, then we can create harmony, not only in ourselves, but in the world and in every aspect of our lives. This is why Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita said: “I am the Source of everything; from Me all creation emerges.” So for us we’re attending this Convocation with the purpose of contacting the Source. Going back to the Source is what this Convocation is all about because we are so identified with the world, our problems, ego consciousness and with the eternal world, with form, the outer form, that we forget that which is essential behind the forms, which it is our soul. It is very important! And like Guruji said that we have to learn to put God first in our lives. That is the most important. This way we free ourselves from disharmony that we find in the world.

It is difficult to live in the world in a state of harmony even now. We know that we are going to be electing a new president in the United States and whether it is one nation under God…one nation under God… The way to elect these days may be not be in a harmonious way. It is reality; it is the truth! Reality, of course, is that we may not agree. Everybody has their own way in which they think things should be done. Now, of course, when we meditate we ask God to guide us and this is what Guruji commands. When asked if SRF [Self-Realization Fellowship] people vote, the answer is yes, they do vote according to their attunement to higher consciousness as to what us best for their country.

If that is not in harmony with the opinion of some others than we should have a situation in which we talk things over. We may even agree to disagree but there is no point in creating disharmony. Because if we do that, more and more, we step out of tune with the higher vibrations. The higher vibrations tend to improve not only ourselves but others and the whole country at the same time. So it is very important. This is what yoga teaching is all about. Mainly, basically, it is very simple. It is to learn more and more and more how to go back to the Source from which we all come from. It is very simple in so many ways.

It is very interesting what Master said. He said that even though we live in the world. We can’t expect harmony and perfection in our outer world because we still live in a low age. It is impossible! We have just come out of the Kali Yuga and are at the beginning of the Dwapara Yuga. We still have a long way to go to get to the higher age of the Satya Yuga, so how can we expect perfection. We have to realize that this world is not perfect and cannot be perfect unless we make ourselves perfect.

This is what Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as my Father which is in heaven is perfect.” He does not give us direct advise as to how to do it. Our Guru very interestingly said, “At the core, at the center, of disharmony you will find harmony.” At the core, at the center, but not at the place where there is disharmony. If we don’t stay on the outer aspect of what is happening but if we go at the core, the center, of what is happening, we will find harmony. We will find unity in diversity. It is deeper state of consciousness.

Behind the appearances of life, if we go to that which is essential…and what is essential is our true nature. When we go to the core it is like a hurricane. A hurricane creates destruction, disharmony, confusion everywhere it goes but at the core, at the center, of the hurricane there is a place that is peaceful, harmonious but still motion. Scientists have found out that there is still motion near the middle. But in the eye, in the eye of the hurricane there is peace and harmony. For us, for yoga, the eye of the hurricane is where. [Brother pointed to the spiritual eye.] Step out of that place and Brother said that he didn’t need to tell us what happens. We all know because we are not at the right place.

We have to learn to go back to the core, to the inner place. The yoga science explains that there are two beautiful spots, places, within ourselves, which are physiological in one way and, perhaps, not. We have to open the spiritual eye. If we remain there, as Guruji said, we are untouched in the middle of the crashing worlds. No matter what is happening around us, we remain untouched. We are in the eye of the hurricane even though around us is pain, suffering and disharmonious. At the core of this disharmony we realize that there is harmony.

This is why, also, that Jesus said so beautifully, “My kingdom is not of this world.” The kingdom of God is the spiritual eye. That is why we meditate. Brother said that he was sure that many or most of us have experienced a change of consciousness in meditation. He wasn’t saying that we go at will into samadhi but that there is a change created to the pain and suffering that we go through in life because of the change of our consciousness. Something has been changed; something has been modified and suddenly everything becomes calm that the darkness disappears because we are at the right place. The spiritual eye is the kingdom of light. Jesus said, “If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”

Even though there may be problems with the body, at least, we are attuned with that which sustains the body. We have to realign ourselves to this divine principle and then unfold in that light, that vibration. When we align our body, mind and soul, it becomes one and becomes harmonious. We may even become an instrument of God if we are in harmony because we manifest and express, more and more, our divinity, that which is essential in us.

Brother went on to say that he would like to share some words of Master about the importance of creating harmony wherever we go, wherever we are, with our family, our friends, in every aspect of our lives because harmony is the vibration which covers the whole aspects of our lives. And! Master said, “Even in spiritual organizations.” Let us face it. Let’s not hide anything. That’s what Guruji said. That’s what he said and it is very important, very important!

Master said, “…in any type of organization – any structure that has interacting parts, from nature as a whole to human relationships, to corporate businesses and spiritual societies. Harmony is the soul of organization; disharmony is death.” Ominous but it is true.

Every time there is something wrong it is bound to happen but if we make ourselves harmonious first… Brother went on to tell a “beautiful” story told to him by Br. Adolph who’d been put in charge of Lake Shrine by Master, Paramahansa Yogananda. Brother came in the 60‘s and during his first twelve years in the ashram served at the Lake Shrine. This happened after Master acquired the property and it needed to be remodeled, improved and transformed. One time in the beginning when they’d started to improve the place…as is still being done now all the time in a harmonious way. Everywhere we go in SRF we find this spiritual improvement…making better and better and better in a harmonious way.

In the beginning there were all kinds of disciples who wanted things done that way and others wanted it another way…well, we know the story, the same old thing. And there was disharmony at that time. One night Br. Adolph called Master late at night and said,“I need some advice.” Master’s response was, “I cannot give you advice now. I will come to the Lake.” And he came to the Lake. “Fine,” he said, “I would like all of you to come around me and I will say just a few words.” While looking at the Lake Master said, “I don’t care if this lake is a mud hole as long as there is peace and harmony here.” That was it! Hallelujah! That was it! What else??!!

That is it. In a few words the problem was solved. Brother said he thought that was food for meditation for all of them. But these things happens all the time in our every day lives when our egos get in the way. The question to ask is: “how can I solve the problem? What attitude must I have to solve this problem so the problem can be worked out in a harmonious way?” “I don’t care if this lake is a mud hole as long as there is peace and harmony.” It has to be first, no matter what. It is something to keep in mind because daily we are confronted by situations, problems or whatever. If we think that everything has to be harmonious first we are not going to sacrifice harmony for anything.

Guruji added a point when giving advice about where to find joy: “Build you’re joys on the sure foundation of inner harmony.” Then it will stay if it built on a sure inner foundation. Not like something that comes and goes all the time without a foundation. Guruji goes on: “Cherish no thought that does not harmonize with the love and lawful ideals of God.” Eliminate any thoughts that do not harmonize with love and the divine principles that take us away from harmony. Master continues: “Thus will your whole life be flooded with the light and bliss of the Divine Harmony.”

Divine harmony is why we are here at this Convocation this week, practicing the techniques and attending the classes. They are all meant to create that harmony within ourselves and to find that inner harmony within and, of course, then to share it with others. It is also a divine principle that Master said is unfolding in creation in a natural way. It comes by itself.

He said: “In creation all is united in a universal rhythm of harmony. The whole of creation is a divine symphony and has a divine reason of harmony, which is heard when the soul is attuned to God and His word.” Divine harmony is the Aum vibration. There is no higher vibration than the Aum vibration and when we create an attunement with the Holy Spirit in which we are baptized, born again, we even heal ourselves…even resurrect ourselves from whatever we want to. Then we are changed and transformed in a harmonious way. We realign our lives. We realign ourselves within and so move in the right direction again.

Again, Jesus said: “If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” It is a realignment and attunement with Divine Harmony. Right there, there is no separation. We are connected with the Source. This is why we do that, not only for ourselves, but also for others. This is why when we meditate…in meditation, in divine harmony. Guruji introduced this healing techniques of meditation of chanting Aum for the healing of the body, mind and soul. It is an important technique to do, to practice.

Master said that no only are we sending holy vibrations but that we are the instruments of the holy vibrations because it is the Aum that is working through us. He said that the channel is blessed by that which flows through it. Even though we don’t ask for a blessings, as we do it we feel the blessings. The vehicle is blessed…our consciousness is changed just by doing this beautiful technique.

Brother said he thought to do it now but since we’re going to do it later during the meditation but what we can do together now is to practice an affirmation for peace and harmony for the world, for ourselves, for our families and friends. Brother had us close our eyes and asked us to repeat the affirmation after him. He said to relax and feel, because it is in the feeling of the practice of these truths that we want to manifest them for ourselves and others.

Peace and harmony unto myself; unto my soul. Peace and harmony unto my family. Peace and harmony in my neighborhood. Peace and harmony in my country. Peace and harmony into the world.

With Brother we chanted Aum! Aum! Aum! Aum! Aum! and then repeated
Shanti! Shanti! Shanti! Shanti! Shanti! Harmony! Peace! Amen!

Brother continued by saying that this was something to practice and to include in our meditations, in our sadhana, in our way of practicing yoga. To include the whole world to create harmony and as we do that it is created within ourselves at the same time. It is something important to practice.

A few months ago, Brother said he had to give a talk about religion. Just out of curiosity he wanted to know how many religions there were in the world. He went to Google on the Internet and was surprised by the results. It was well over five million religions…precisely 5,670,000 religions…and it also stated that there are 10,000 major religions. Of course, some of them had three stars, some had five stars. What one can find on Google!

SRF, fortunately, only has one star! This star is beyond all stars! It is the real star! But it is interesting to see how different religions express different beliefs, different opinions about God and where He is. It is very interesting, you know, to compare religions. And, of course, SRF respects and honors all religions. Master was creating harmony among all religions, preaching harmony of all religions.

We find when we go to the Lake Shrine the different religions honored. In his dedication of the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Memorial, Master spoke of the importance of how we should all be united with the spirit of God, who is the Divine Light that shines through all. But we have to connect ourselves to the Source. However, unfortunately, Guruji is giving us the essence. How we can go to the core of all religions. When a belief system comes in between the many different forms of religions, we find opposition and all that kind of thing because we stay on the level of beliefs or concepts of religion and are not able to transcend and rise above it.

But when we meditate, then suddenly harmony is created and also harmony for all the different religions. Some religions believe that God is in the sky, way up there, and he has a big, white beard, you know. And He tells you, like in Hollywood movies…”you’d better behave now”. That is what they believe and if one is a good boy or girl, one goes to heaven after life. If not, one goes to the barbecue place!

Now, some religions, including yoga and the teachings of Master in SRF teach that God is not far away somewhere separated from us but that He is in each and everyone of us. That is the basic…to go back to the Source, to who we really are. That’s why we have to keep our focus on that which is essential. So we practice meditation and our belief system is that God is in everyone and everything and that He is omnipresent. Our concept of God goes beyond external belief because it becomes Self-realization. We realize that by ourselves within ourselves. It is all within each one. That’s what we believe.

We believe like Guruji said: “He is the nearest than the nearest; dearest than the dearest; just behind the darkness of the closed eyes there is God’s presence.” Also, that we can see Him externally as:

He hari sundar, He hari sundar,
O God beautiful
In the Forest Thou art green
In the mountains Thou art high
In the river…restless…

It is a concept that we have and this concept is something we can rely on. It is not just something that we believe but it is something that we can experience and realize. This is why we meditate…to go deeper in that realization.

All religions teach that God is omnipotent…all powerful; omniscient…all knowledge; and omnipresent…everywhere present. As the saying goes: “There is not a spot in which God is not.” That is why we chant He hari sundar for He is everywhere present in nature.

There was a missionary who went to India and he saw a young boy throwing rose petals on the statue of Lord Krishna. He went to him and said: “Oh, my dear little boy, what are you doing?” The boy said, “ I am worshiping the Lord Krishna.” And the missionary said: “I will give you one apple if you can show where me your God is.” The young boy replied: “Sir, I will give you two apples if you can show me where He is not.”

God was everywhere present for him, even if it was a statue. Behind the form of the statue there is a spirit. He was creating an attunement with the spirit. He was worshiping with devotion creating an attunement with God Himself even if it was a statue. Because matter is also an expression of God. There is no separation. Guruji said that matter has not been created to suppress God but to express God…not to suppress but to express. It’s God’s expression. It was Divine Intelligence expressing itself on all levels of life. We see that in one stanza of the Sayings of Yogananda, a beautiful book to read and study. In the Questions and Answers section Master explained when someone asked him about the creation of God saying that He is part of creation…God manifests Himself in creation. He did not say that to God matter is matter. But he said, “God appears to sleeps in the mineral kingdom. Matter is the finite expression of God.” It is always the Source that expresses Itself in creation.

One time in India, Guruji was in the temple and he was in between two pillars. He was standing there feeling the presence of God when suddenly under his feet he felt a vibration. It was a vibration of the energy of God in matter vibrating. It was God as matter vibrating through him running up his legs and he had an experience of God. Usually blessings come from the top down. God is everywhere present when we are in tune with Him. He felt the presence of God. It was Mother Nature blessings Guruji, saying, “I am here. I am here. I am still there present in everything in creation.”

It is very important to understand these concepts. Even the Lord Shiva when He would stretch He would feel the rotation of the planet Earth. Try to do it! It is an expansion of consciousness. It is the divine reality. God is present in everything. We have to be aware of that. We have to be consciously aware. It is not a belief. It is something that can be experience, Master said.

God’s presence is in the mineral kingdom and it is a blessings. Then through evolution…that’s what it is… He said that God sleeps in the minerals and in the vegetable kingdom. He dreams in the flowers. He said to remember when we see flowers, it is God smiling at us. It is God smiling through the flowers. We have to go behind the appearances and forms and attune ourselves with that which manifests and expresses the spirit, the vibration, behind the flower, which makes the flower be a flower! This is God’s expression smiling at us. One time, Brother, while walking along a path with flowers everywhere told himself that he didn’t want to step on God’s smile!

How to spiritualize our consciousness is something to keep in mind by seeing God in His omnipresence. He is everywhere present. Flowers are smiles of God. God sleeps in the minerals and Master said, “Dreams in the vegetables kingdom and awakens Himself in the animal kingdom.” It is the evolutionary process. It’s God evolution. He is a part of it and He awakens Himself in the animals. Probably some of us have animals and we know that they are awakened because it is part of the evolution.

St. Francis was one with God and he was able to contact the soul of the animals. He was able to speak to the birds, you know! The birds would come and he would gave a sermon to the fish from a boat! How were the fish attracted and how did the birds come? Because it’s the vibration, God’s vibration, because of the awakening he was able to contact the souls of the animals.

Also, there was a wolf that was causing destruction in a village. St. Francis went to the wolf and started talking to it. He contacted the soul of the wolf and the wolf was suddenly like a dog. It started to lick him and walked behind him like a new friend. St. Francis was able to contact the dog’s spirit and able to go within the consciousness of God in the animal kingdom. It is Divine attunement.

Brother said he received the following story from his family. It’s from a newspaper clipping about a cow in Switzerland. In wintertime, due to the snow, the cows live in stables. In the springtime they are returned to the pastures. So it was springtime and they all went out of the stable except for one cow. The people tried pushing the big cow but it didn’t want to go. Then a young boy said: “I know. I know.” He took a big bell and hung it around the neck of the cow. Then the cow raised it’s head and walk straight out of the stable.

The bell probably had some connection with the cow. Maybe it was the being of an ego-cow. It was the start of another evolution with ego thoughts, you know, until we become human. Here we are with a good amount of ego and that’s when we are creating our own little life here on earth as human being. Master said that as human beings we know that we are awake…we know that we are awake…but not everybody, Brother said, he was sure.

In the beautiful Engagement Calendar there is a beautiful picture consisting of three prairie dogs. One is sitting on the back of the prairie dog in front of it. The second prairie dog is half sleeping. And the first prairie dog is standing straight. It is awaken. Master said, “Remain awake! Remain awake!” Like the saying: “Don’t sleep anymore. Wake up! Don’t sleep no more!” Guruji would say and a beautiful picture with Guruji’s saying.

God’s presence is realized when we awaken ourselves and that’s the purpose of this Convocation. We’re here all together in a spirit of awakening, of realizing more and more, our divine potential. “Yes,” Guruji said, “As a human being, you are limited. But as a soul, as a child of God, you are unlimited.” There is no end. Unlimited! We are all already made in the image of God.

Master said that it is our minds that create the separation with all the false identification that we are creating in our every day lives with our own little minds — socially, economically, nationally, psychologically. All the time we are creating these psychological boundaries remaining unconscious of who we really are. To free ourselves from that is part of the process and that’s why we meditate. Unfortunately, along the way we create pain and suffering for ourselves and to other because we are out of tune with this divine principle of harmony. This is why we have to learn to expand our consciousness and to free ourselves.

If we see a brick wall in front of us and we go to a brick and put our nose on the brick thinking: “This brick is my life. This is my brick. There is my life’s story. That’s what I am! That’s what I want to be! I want to be that brick. I love that brick. I am attached to that brick.” Then suddenly a master comes and says: “Wake up! Wake up! Learn to meditate.” “Aha! okay my brick. But I’m attached to my brick. I don’t want to let go.” But then when we start to meditate and take a step backward, we see our brick and two more bricks. Stepping back further we see three more bricks. Then, stepping back again we say, “Oh, it’s a wall! Before I saw only my brick. Don’t touch it is mine! Don’t touch it.”

Now we’ve expanded and realize it is a wall. It’s the back of a single wall. It goes on for one mile, two miles. It is infinite. It has no beginning and no end. It is only our consciousness that is limited and when we become occupied with that life we repeat ourselves…the karma of this life’s application. We start to cry that our lives are about something that does not really exist. We have to learn to expand our consciousness. This is the purpose of this Convocation to expand our awareness.

How do we know that we really are awakened…not as a theory, concept or idea but as something that we can experience? How do we know? Well, this questions was asked of the students of an old rabbi. He said to the students, “What do you see first in the morning, at dawn, when you wake? One student replied, “That is when I look far away I see some animals. I see that there is a sheep and that the sheep is not a dog. So I see the difference between these two animals. It is a sheep.” And the rabbi said, “No.” Another student said, “Well, I look at the forest and I see different trees. And I see an apple tree and I know it’s not an orange tree.” The rabbi said, “No. Come close to home.” One of the others students said, “In the morning, at dawn, is when I open my hand and see the lines there in the light of the dawn. That is what I see.” Again, the rabbi said, “No, that is still not it.”

The students then said, “What is it? What is it? How will we know?” The rabbi said, “It is very simple. In the morning or anytime or anywhere when you look at the face of any man or any woman and know that they are your brothers and they are your sisters. Then you know. Until then it is still darkness.” Until we wake up knowing that we are brothers and sisters and that together we can live in harmony. That is the awakening. It is not a concept or philosophy. It is something that comes from within ourselves… our souls. We have a soul at the core. We just have to find that place and realize it. That is what it is all about.
It is not a belief. It is a realization that is why we meditate. That’s what we want, you know. Then we can sing with Master: Night has flown; Dawn has come, Wake my children wake! That’s what the path is all about. Then wake my children wake has some meaning because we want to wake up. We want to feel good. We want to feel happy. We want to know what real love is. What real joy is. What bliss is. We want to know it’s there but we have to awaken ourselves. That is the purpose of this Convocation.

Brother recalled that in S. America where he with another monk had been giving classes were in an airport as they were getting ready to leaving. They were waiting in line when some devotees came trying to get their attention. They were almost ready to show their passports when one lady came to Brother and said, “Oh, Brother, I have a question for you.” And he thought “oh, no, a question but said, “Okay, what is your question?”

“Will I find God in this life?” He said that he looked at his watch. The devotee repeated the question with such sincerity…it was from her soul. Brother said at that moment there was a shift in his consciousness and everything external disappeared at that time. He didn’t know what he was doing as he put his carryon bag to the side since that was what he wanted, too! Not just her! What she’d said from her soul awakened something in Brother to tell him what he wanted.

It is not just a theory, a philosophy, it was something that happened. He had the feeling that it was not the lady asking him the question and him answering her but it was “we” seeking God together. It is “we” here! It is not me talking to you and you listening to me but it’s “we” together here wanting God…to be one with Him. It’s what we want. It is what this Convocation is all about. That is the awakening that we are creating for ourselves and others. Perhaps, who knows, in our little way by doing that we can create a better world of peace and harmony in our humble way.

Brother concluded with these words of Guruji that are talking to our souls. It is a divine reality. They are not just words. There is a truth vibrating behind the words and when we create the attunement we feel God and Guruji’s presence to what he is saying. This is realization of God behind all appearances:

“It is You who walked in my feet,
It is You who thought in my brain,
Loved through my love,
And saw through my wisdom.
At first, I thought I saw, I heard, I felt, I loved.
Now I see It was You, not me.
At first Everywhere I saw I, I, I.
Now I see everywhere It is You, You, You
Nothing but You!”

2012 Convocation – “Mastering the Techniques of Meditation–Part II” ~ Brother Satyananda

(DISCLAIMER: These notes are our best attempt to capture the essence of what was said at this class. There is always a degree of human error involved when taking notes and we have transcribed them to the best of our ability. Please note that comments related to the actual technique have not been included as those are restricted to Lessons students only.)

If you ever go to Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands be sure to take the Kailua Highway to the North Shore past Hanalei Bay to Ha‘ena Park where the road ends and the Kalalau Trail begins. The Kalalau Trail climbs steeply so wear trekking sandals because your feet may get wet. Then climb up high over the Na Pali Cliffs looking down on the Pacific Ocean and descend down to the first wilderness beach. On the right is the Pacific Ocean and on the left, looking up the canyon, is the Alaka’i Valley full of lush vegetation and tropical trees. Out of the canyon comes a fresh water stream that forms clear pools before it descends across the beach into the ocean.

Be sure to take the small trail that goes along side the fresh water stream and the hike up into the valley. As soon as you follow the stream you will get your feet wet crossing back and forth. Then you go under the shade of the understory trees, pass through an ancient papaya grove and after another thirty or forty minutes of hiking, you’ll hearing the beautiful sound of a descending, roaring waterfall. Knowing there is a waterfall up ahead, you quicken your steps and soon you come out into a clearing that is like an amphitheater. Before you is a large green, emerald green, pool about half the size of the center section of the audience [in the California Ballroom of the Bonaventure Hotel] and falling directly down into that pool is a broad curtain of water making a soft roaring, intense sound as the water hits. Then as you look up and up and up, you see that the water is descending in a vertical fall, a straight fall, a free fall of 400 feet above into the pool.

Brother said that the reason he can describe this is because he’d been there and that maybe some of us had too. They are called the Hanakapiai Falls on the Island of Kauai. He’d been there many, many, many years ago and he remembered when he saw the falls that the first thing he wanted to do was to swim out underneath the falls. He just wanted to get his head wet and he wanted to feel the water cascading over him. While a couple of his friends were exploring the grotto, hiking around and taking little dips, Brother swam out across the pool with the intention of swimming underneath the waterfall. He said that he was young and foolish, and added, that he is older and still foolish… When he’d gotten about twenty feet away from the falls and the power of the water falling 400 feet made him change his mind. He said while treading water and looking up, appreciating the glorious sight and also the sounds surrounding him by the falling water. Then he did something “nice”. He rolled over and started floating on his back. There were little waves created by the descending water that were pushing him away from the falls. He was able to kind of let go and just float and relax. As a wave would come his ears would go under and he’d hear the roaring underneath the water. As the wave passed and his ears came to the surface he’d hear the roaring of the descending water. Brother found it very comforting and he floated there for a long time.

Then, when he came out his friends were ready to eat the lunch that they’d brought. One of them looked at Brother and said: “That was really weird, you know! You were out there floating for such a long time.” Brother continued saying that it was special to him because in this lifetime that was his first meditation. It was his first meditation! And that he didn’t feel so badly because there’s a story that Lake Shrine has. When anyone takes a tour there, one of the docents will share this story:

Bro. Bhaktananda liked to tell the story. One winter day Master came down to the Lake and a few of the monks were there. Master said: “Do you want to go for a swim?” The monks said, “No, Master, it is too cold!” But he went in with his trucks. He swam out to the middle of the lake. Then Bro. Bhaktananda would tell that Master rolled over on his back and he floated in the middle of the Lake. He stayed there a long time. The story goes that Master floated for almost an hour in the middle of the lake at Lake Shrine. When he came back in, he told the monks that while he was floating Divine Mother came to him and told him that the Lake Shrine would have blessings for many years to come.

Brother said he “hated” to say it but when anyone goes to the Lake Shrine they are asked to sit on a bench even though the signs may be saying, go ahead there’s samadhi in the lake. Brother continued by saying it is one of his favorite visualization when he walks around the lake in the evening or early morning all alone. That is, looking out at the lake and visualizing Master floating there,
Master said, “Suppose you are floating in the ocean, rocked on the bosom of its mighty vastness and when you swim ashore, you feel the whole ocean surging behind you as you walk onto the beach — this is the way I feel for God.” Isn’t that beautiful? We’re allowed into one of our Guru’s very personal descriptions of how he feels God. Out of formless Cosmic Spirit comes a great song. The song of the Infinite Sat Chit Ananda. It is the Om — the symphony of the spheres and it radiates the active intelligence, the energy of God. It brings a great creative force and it is the Om that makes God into manifestation in the very subtle realms of the causal universe and then flowing into the astral it’s vitality produces colors of light and sound.

Then finally into this physical world it flows as the outgoing current…the power flows in creation and a returning power flows back to God. It is this integrated power of Om manifesting all of creation on all its levels that creates the symphony, the chorus, of God. It is known as the Word of God. Master and all of the mystics have used the ocean or the sea as an analogy for describing the experience of God as the Word, God as Om. Maybe because of its vastness; trying to help others to understand how vast Om is and, also, perhaps because it’s sound. Master says, “Your heart is like the shore and the ocean of infinite love is breaking on the shores of your heart.”

Om is a metaphysical teaching and Om is an amazing technique. But more than this, Om is a powerful personal experience and this is what Master wants to bring to us. The last time we saw a beautiful sunset, we enjoyed the sunset but quickly looked around to see who is enjoying it with us. So an avatar who has sunsets times ten million wants to share that experience with us. Brother said he’d always loved the Om technique. That he’d always deeply enjoyed listening for Om and enjoyed the soft roar of the distant ocean. It had been a manifestation that he enjoyed but it was usually in the distance, that is, of the soft, comforting, rumbling roar on a distant horizon. One listens as a witness. But when listening with devotion and praying, asking God to bring Om close, sometimes, now and then, with God the buzzing Om does come close.

The first time that happened for Brother, suddenly the ocean was there. It was around him. He was not listening from a distance. He was in this powerful current, ocean like current…a huge wave. He was, like awe inspired, by a huge wave about too break on top of him. He could feel everything in the ether trembling. He could even feel his body trembling. It was almost like the atoms, the atomic structure of his mind, wanted to dissolve into the part. Then the power of the wave descended. It just kept crashing and crashing.

Brother said that since there is nothing else to be done but to surrender to it. When we surrender to it, we receive whatever God is giving us through the Om vibration. In this way we can begin to feel the power of the Om with us. It was only when he was preparing thoughts for the presentation that he was giving that for the first time he made the connection between his desire to slip under the Hawaiian waterfall…he wanted to feel that water pouring on him…and God finally blessing him and fulfilling that desire with the Om pouring over him like a waterfall, like a great wave.

The first verse of Master’s Om song, which Brother called the magnum opus of all his chant collection… It’s the verse, the poem, presented in the first page of Lesson #30. In the first verse Master says:

“On Shores of Bliss, Om, booming breaks;
All earth, all heaven, all body shakes!”

So there is this vibratory power of Om as hidden particles of creation and as we begin to tune in with that sound we have that power to merge with it. Sound in all it’s dimensions has a transporting power. As we listen to and identify with earthly sounds our attentions reaches up towards that source of that sound and if we are listening to sounds with our eyes closed we can almost feel the volume and the extent of that sound. So sound vibration carries with it this power to expand our attention. Just as earthly sounds expand our attention, so Om is omnipresence and when we listen to the cosmic sound our consciousness expands to embrace it. So listening to and identifying with the Om vibration has the power to transport us into omnipresence. Master said very simply and beautifully: “Om is the bridge between human consciousness and Cosmic Consciousness.”

In the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons #30, Master says, “If you were to hear a conch shell blown in a room, you would hear the sound in every part of the room, for sound vibration travels like an expanding sphere.

Brother said that he’d asked the monk from the Monks’ Kirtan Group to demonstrate this for us and that he’d like everyone to close their eyes. He said that this is a listening experience and wanted us to listen to the sound of the conch as it traveled across the room and to let the mind expand with the sound. He asked us to keep our eyes closed and then had the monks to go outside the hall and blow the conch. This demonstration is meant to show, in a small way, when we listen to sound how it carries with it a sense of volume and space when we hear it being blown inside the hall and then outside the hall. We recognize the sound as coming from a little more of a distance. Our attention also expands seeking the source of that sound. Master is making it clear to us that one of the attributes of sound is this expanding, transporting quality. As our attention expands to embrace earthly sounds, so our consciousness in mediation can expand to encompass cosmic sound.

Brother continued by reading the full quote from Lesson #30: “If you were to hear a conch shell blown in a room, you would hear this sound in every part of the room, for sound vibration travels like an expanding sphere. Om is the special vibration of the Cosmos, and if you tune in with it, your consciousness begins to expand until it takes in the consciousness of every atom of space in the entire sphere of vibration. Om is the bridge between human consciousness and Cosmic Consciousness.”

Early explores, native explores, crossing the South Pacific towards Australia could hear on the horizon the thundering of storm waves across the Great Barrier Reef and they would exclaim: “This is the voice of God.”

In Southern Arizona there is a range of mountains known as the Huachucas Mountains and they rise out of the desert like Sky Islands. This is what is called Sky Island country. There is this flat sloping Sonora down to Mexico and there is this rising mountain ranges coming out of the flat desert. As the Apache Indians were riding across in their caravans of olden time, they would look towards the mountains. The mountains have their own microclimate and there were thunderstorms going on in the mountains while the surrounding flat desert was under clear skies and high temperatures. They were going across to the mountains where the thunder would be rolling as they were going across the desert towards them, the Apaches would say: “Wa-chuka”, the mountains speak.

All creation vibrates and vibrations create sound…all nature, human civilization, elephants, rumbling whales, porpoises singing, atomic particles and at quantum speed super nova exploding. The US Voyager I Space Probe has been in deep space now for over thirty years and has been sending frequencies back to NASA from deep space. NASA has converted these frequencies into sound and in the past few years they have released a two CD set, called the “Symphony of the Planets” and when one listens to it, it is quite amazing. Brother encouraged all to listen to a sample of it on YouTube by searching for “Symphony of the Planets.” It is very unique listening. The high pitched sounds can be heard and, perhaps, protons streaking through the universe and deeply rumbling sounds that may be solar flares. Fire up the imagination because there is whole spectrum of vibratory sounds that the space probe has been picking up.

So we have sound, vibration, all around us but not only around us but within us. We have Om within us. We are a part of the Om. Our physical bodies are vibrating. Our subtle energies are radiating. Our chakras are singing. Our souls are unique instruments in the symphony of Om and we are musicians in God’s orchestra. We are all playing a part of the symphony of the spheres in God’s vibratory cosmos.

In the Bhagavad Gita, chapter VII verse 8 Krishna says: “…I am fluidity in the waters; I am the radiation in the moon and the sun; I am the Aum in all the Vedas; the sound in the ether…”

Master in his commentary says: “Meditating on the Om…the devotee feels his consciousness circling into space. Then he feels the cosmic vibration manifesting as the audible cosmic sound. It is at this time that the yogi’s intuitive spherical awareness begins to spread with the ever-expanding cosmic sound… …he finds his soul no longer confined in the little dream of sleep or in the dream of the world. Instead the yogi’s soul not only feels the cosmic consciousness in all creation, but beyond it, to the farthest reaches of the vibrationless sphere…”

So “Om is the bridge between human consciousness and Cosmic Consciousness” and to cross the bridge we need intuition. We do not hear Om with the physical ears, we need intuition. Just as members of an orchestra tune their instruments before a concert, we do the Energization Exercises to release physical restlessness, to release physical tension, to recharge and renew our live force and balance our energies. We do Hong Sau to still the body and quiet the mind and to withdraw the life force from the sensory nerves and to begin to lift the consciousness from the senses to the higher centers in the spine. In doing so we bring our vibration into harmony with the Infinite and we prepare ourselves to receive the Word of God.

Brother then went on to describe and demonstrate the Om technique as given in the Lessons and ended with a group chanting of Om.

2012 Convocation – “Finding Soul Guidance to Navigate the Maze of Life’s Experiences” ~ Brother Sevananda

Good evening everyone. Brother then gave a special greeting to those who are watching downstairs in the Pasadena Room and the mothers and fathers who might be listening in the Parents and Infants Room so that now we would all be together.

Finding Soul Guidance to Navigate the Maze of Life’s Experiences may seem like a fairly daunting title. Brother’s way of dealing with the subject could, perhaps, be boiled down to one simple word that we’re all familiar with. Possibly one of those universal words or expressions that we all first learned as a child in any language or culture. Perhaps the first word we all learned was the word ma, mom or mama and the next word or concept right behind that we might express is the word help. Once we spot her [mama], we cry and want to be picked up and gotten out of here.

In our case, tonight, is there anyone out there crying to Divine Mother for help as they try to navigate the maze of life’s experiences? Brother was reminded of an often told story, that perhaps many of us had heard before, but that it’s fun to hear another time because of the truth in it. Perhaps, we find stories humorous because of the universal truth that is rooted in the irony of any particular story.

A fellow was out walking and stumbled over the side of a cliff and as he was falling down into this bottomless chasm at the last moment he saw a branch, grabbed on to it and it broke his fall. There he was. He had avoided certain death but he was still hanging on for dear life. He was stilling hanging dangerous over this bottomless chasm. As anyone would, he shouted: “Is there anyone out there?” To his surprise he heard a deep resonant voice say: “I am here.” He said: “Who are you?” “I am God.” You can’t get any better than that! The man was thrilled and said: “Fantastic! Lord, what should I do?” To which the Lord replied: “Jump! Let go of the branch.” You can imagine there was an understandable moment of silence and the man repeated, “You are asking me to jump?” And the voice said, “Yes, trust me.” The man thought a little further and then yelled out again: “Is there anyone else out there?”

Now we don’t have to be worried about the guidance we will receive, at least not tonight. We’re safe because there is no place to really jump anyway. We can trust that we have come to the right place, to this path, to this Convocation, to the teachings of our Guru, that can guide us in every aspect of our lives. Most importantly, we have been given the tools where by we can develop our own soul insight and understanding to navigate through the maze of life’s experiences.

And, yet, all that being said is that our friends predicament on the side of the cliff is, perhaps, not too unlike our own situations when we find ourselves in our own predicament looking for a way out. Then we realize through that inner voice of guidance we received that if we’re going get out of the maze of our life experiences there is probably going to have to be some jumping involved on our own part. Some letting go of those branches that are very likely not serving that goal of getting our lives back and going in the directions we want to go. These branches may be doubt or fear or relying only on our own will or intelligence. We need to let go of these so that we might fall safely into God’s arms, into His will, His courage, His intelligence.

It happened in that way for our Guru from the training he got from Sri Yukteswar. He recalled how his first meeting with Sri Yukteswarji ended somewhat inharmoniously with Sri Yukteswar wanting Master to return to his family in Calcutta. Sri Yukteswar predicted our Guru’s return but our Master said that he was determined to do no “swooping” in that direction of Calcutta and that he replied to his Guru: “Sir, I am not returning home. But I will follow you anywhere.” That’s not exactly what Sri Yukteswar was asking him. He wasn’t asking for Master to follow him everywhere. He was asking him to return home to his family.

This reminded Brother of Bro. Premamoy, who Bro. Jayananda mentioned last night. Bro. Premamoy had been the House Brother…that’s what it’s called… The nuns have their House Mother and the monks have their House Brother. When one first enters the ashram, we get our initial training from that monk or nun who is given that responsibility. Bro. Premamoy had that role for twenty-five years. There was a real continuity in the order and that many of the monks have shared experiences of those times. It is no wonder that we tend to reference Bro. Premamoy at times. He was very influential for all of us through the years.

Just like we might say we’ll do anything to find God but not that! Bro. Premamoy used to joke with them about how they would say when they first came into the ashram: “I’ll do anything to find God. I’ll surrender my life. I’m here to surrender my life completely to God and Guru.” Then Brother would jokingly say that he could invariably see that the first bit of training, the first bit of correction, that would come their way and the first time Master would even gently put his finger on the sore spot we’d say: “I didn’t mean that!” Bro. Premamoy would then ask: “What did you mean, if not that?” It happens to everyone.

Going back to our Guru’s story. We may recall how the exchange between between him and his guru escalated from there. In the Autobiography Master writes: “‘You will come to me in four weeks’. For the first time Sri Yukteswar’s voice was stern. ‘Now that I have told you of my eternal affection and shown my happiness at finding you, you feel free to disregard my request. The next time we meet, you will have to reawaken my interest. I won’t easily accept you as a disciple. There must be complete surrender by obedience to my strict training.’”

Then look at what comes next. Master writes: “I remained obstinately silent.” There is hope for us! This is why our Guru has written all this…for our sakes to let us off the hook, so to speak, in the beginning but not indefinitely.

Then he goes on: “My guru quickly penetrated my difficulty. ‘Do you think your relatives will laugh at you!’ ‘I will not return.’ ‘You will return in thirty days.’ ‘Never.’ The controversial tension unrelieved, I bowed reverently at his feet and departed.”

Brother said that we probably can all relate to some tense exchanges we’ve had with a loved one or spouse or friend but this was between two avatars. Also, he wondered if, just like during an earthquake, the wall were shaking around them as they were having this exchange!

Then we know our Master went to Brindaban. He had thirty days to think about all this and then, of course, he did return to his guru’s hermitage and concludes the story as follows: “‘You have come.’ Sri Yukteswar greeted me from a tiger skin on the floor of a balconied sitting room. His voice was cold, his manner unemotional. ‘Yes, dear Master, I am here to follow you.’ Kneeling I touched his feet. ‘How can that be? You ignore my wishes.’ ‘No longer, Guruji! Your wish shall be my law.’ ‘That is better! Now I can assume responsibility for your life.’”

And this is a very powerful moment, in the Autobiography…a very pivotal moment…as it potentially is in the lives of each one of us. Without proper respect from us, Brother said from himself even to comment on the lives of these Great Ones. Yet in a sense isn’t, perhaps, Master’s Autobiography also our autobiography? At least the story of every souls journey and the different stages that the devotee will go through…needs to go through.

Sri Yukteswar said: “That is better! Now I can assume responsibility for your life.” Then our Guru writes: “I willingly transfer the burden, Master.” And what does Sri Yukteswar say in response: “My first request, then, is that you return home to your family.” The guru didn’t change; God didn’t change. God’s not going to change His laws in order to fit our laziness or our limited understanding. Brother said he wasn’t talking about everybody.

To make matters worse, Sri Yukteswar also added: “I want you to enter college in Calcutta. Your education should be continued.” It was this point that caused the disharmony in the beginning.

Our Master continued: “‘Very well, Sir.’ I hid my consternation. Would importunate books purse me down the years? First Father, now Sri Yukteswar!’ ‘Someday you will go to the West. Its people will be more receptive to India’s ancient wisdom if the strange Hindu teacher has a university degree.’ ‘You know best, Guruji.’ My gloom departed. The reference to the West I found puzzling, remote; but my opportunity to please Master by obedience was vitally immediate.”

This is the richness of the spiritual path and the richness of the relationship with the guru and with God. Like Arjuna and Sri Krishna. After Krishna revealed himself to Arjuna in his cosmic form, Arjuna begged forgiveness from Krishna, if in retrospect, he had ever been casual with his friend and cousin, actually. Not that we should ever be disrespectful to anyone, let alone the guru, and yet, he is the most approachable. He is the nearest of the near, the best friend, the dearest of the dear.

So in these stories we see the real life exchanges. How natural they are and how natural we can be with them. How dynamic, how wonderful, how fun that relationship can be and even how fun the path can be even in the midst of our trials and life’s experiences. What it also means in a very spiritually practical sense is that just like these Great Ones, who humbly share their life stories with us, that if we’re going to get out of the maze of our life’s experiences. That sooner or later, inevitably, we will, likewise, have to make certain changes in our lives to bring our choices in line with soul guidance if we want our lives to be different. This is that word, effort, that Bro. Jayananda was referring to last night. It is both compassionate but uncompromising at the same time.

When Sri Yukteswar says now I can assume responsibility for your life, we have responsibility, too, and that is to follow that guidance…to follow that advice. It would be illogical to think that we could just continue with whatever patterns or behaviors are not serving us…not serving our ultimate goal…while holding onto the branches of limitation. If we’re to think that just by joining an organization or that somehow God and Guru should just give us their blessings without us making ourselves receptive to those blessings.

In fact, our president, Sri Mrinalini Ma, once said that, yes, Master loves us unconditionally but we have to make ourselves unconditionally receptive and that’s a very active quality on our part. It is putting our unconditional love into action. Brother thinks that this is very much our own experience that our Master humbly shares with us. He thinks that in the same way we’ve come to the spiritual path. We’ve similarly received assurance of our Guru’s eternal affection because we’re all souls. We are all equally loved by God.

After that initial meeting the Guru, who is God’s messenger, starts making some requests of us whether it is through his teachings, whether it is through the inner voice of conscience, whether it is through a sense within, an inner guidance, we receive that we are going to get some requests that may seem contrary, that will be contrary, to what we are habitually used to doing. In that sense “let the battle begin.”

It is not a battle with the guru! It is a battle within ourselves. It is understandable that we may resist the instructions of the guru, possibly for a long time, until we can tune in with the guru or until we want to tune in with the guru and actually follow his guidance. When it begins it’s human nature that we are looking for the easy way out. The irony, again, is that the guru’s way is the easy way…the easiest way out of our troubles…but we are not able to trust that and that’s why we’re holding on. We fear it and can sense it within but our experience is that we haven’t tested it. Our faith is not strong enough yet to be able to follow that guidance.

If we need any encouragement that we are not the worst devotees in the world, all we need to do is consider the prince of devotees, Arjuna, himself because this was his despondency, his bewilderment, in the beginning. It is natural! It is natural that are going to have some unwillingness when we come to the path and look at the guru’s teachings because of what it’s going to represent. We are going to have to make some changes. We are going to have to do some jumping. We are going to have to do some letting go, not of everything, but those thing that don’t serve us in reaching the goal that we want to reach.

If we read the Gita, we see how the awareness of our willingness is a natural part of the unfolding realization of our understanding. We are starting to forget about ourselves. “Oh, that’s how my mind works! That’s why I’m resisting the instructions of the guru.”

Quoting from our Master’s Gita commentary, our Guru said: “To know that he lives in a state of cosmic delusion, is man’s first precious glimpse of truth.” So, we already have a lot of realization. We all that know that we live in a state of cosmic delusion, which our Guru says is actually our “first precious glimpse of truth.” We, also, come to know, like Arjuna, that if we want guidance from the soul if we are to develop that sixth sense of intuition. That we need to follow the wisdom of the guru, not to destroy the senses, but add to their power by going to the source and connecting to that infallible well of divine truth within.

Brother went on to share a short “aside” about this false idea of being the worst devotee, which is just not so. It will only bring us unnecessary discouragement. He remembered once in the ashram when the monastics got together at Christmas…the monks celebrate amongst themselves and the nuns themselves. The monks were all together this one year when they had a visit from a couple of the Directors, including our now president, Sri Mrinalini Ma, and she was talking to us about the Guru’s unconditional love, his infinite love, for each one of the monks. She was reading from his beautiful poem, “God’s Boatman” where he says: “I’ll come again and again, if need be a trillion times, so long as I know that one stray brother is left behind.”

Brother remembered when she finished reading that she looked up from the book and looked at each one of them and said: “But let’s not be the last one to add to his burden.” He remembered they all laughed but at the same time, he felt that he wasn’t alone in the burning of his ears. That uneasy feeling that there could be some truth in that after all.

All right, so what do we have to do to follow the Guru into the boat so that we might navigate through the maze of lives experiences? Let us now get into the method that our Guru has brought.

First of all, when we find ourselves stuck or confused or afraid or not knowing which way to turn, what’s the first thing to do? STOP! STOP! To keep running around or just spinning our wheels, so to speak, or just stressing without doing something about it? No! Stop, become calm and start to think things through more clearly. From that calmness start to develop a likely course of action. We want to transmute that worry. We want to transmute the energy of those emotions that are stirring within us to an eventual course of action.

In the “how-to-live” booklet “Intuition: Soul-Guidance for Life’s Decisions” a talk by Sri Daya Mata really has everything on this subject if we are inspired, we may really want to dive into it. The value of these classes, besides hopefully, there may be some specific points that the Guru, from his teachings, will make their mark within each one of us. We can only choose certain things in the short time we have here and omit other things. Somebody might choose other ones. The value would be if we are inspired by the Master’s words and then, of course, go back ourselves, study and apply. Guruji said once that it is not what we hear that redeems us but what we do with what we hear. If a particular subject is of interest or facing some difficult some decisions in life, Brother recommended this “how-to-live” booklet. It is so perfectly condensed in all the different forms and many more than we’re able to go into tonight.

In this booklet, Sri Daya Mata begins saying: “In learning to make right decisions, the first step I would suggest to you would be: Make meditation a regular part of your daily life.” This, of course, makes sense to us. We would expect as much for it is vital in order to have the calmness and peace necessary so that we might tune in with truth. Now notice, she didn’t say that we have to meditate for hours. Sometimes our brains jump ahead about all the things we are not doing and so forth. If we could meditate for hours, all the better, and Daya Ma would be the first one to say that or she’d say that if we could make changes in our lives so that we could start to have longer periods of meditation. Of course, she’d say that! But if we only have a few minutes, make those few minutes count and be regular. The first step might just to be regular in those few minutes…that’s what she’s saying.

She continues: “Without periods of interiorized meditation, your attention remains habitually concentrated externally in the sensory and mental impulses of the nerves, producing nervous tension. In this constant state of restlessness, you cannot receive divine guidance from within.” So we need those periods of silence, of stillness, of calmness, in order that the restlessness of the mind can slow down so that we can breath and allow mental and physical stress to dissipate, even somewhat. Then in that calmness we can begin to reason and feel what the right course of action should be.

Our Master himself said. “Before embarking on an important undertaking, sit quietly, calm your senses and thoughts and meditate deeply. You will then be guided by the great creative power of Spirit.” In fact, this is how Guruji says we should begin our entire day and not just before making important decisions. But to meditate when we awaken and, again, even if just for a few minutes, so that we might establish and keep that attunement as a background to all our days activities.

Many of the older-timers here will probably remember Mukti Mata, a disciple who came in the earlier years when our Master was in his physical form. Brother was remembering a talk of hers that appeared in a Self-Realization Magazine a few years ago in which she mentioned a devotee who was sincerely asking for God’s help and prayed: “Dear God, so far today I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped and I haven’t lost my temper. I haven’t been grumpy, nasty or selfish. But in a few minutes, Lord, I am going to get out of bed and that’s when I’m going to need all the help I can get.” There’s that truth, again, even though we’re all laughing. It’s like we know everything is fine until we get out of bed. Yeah! That’s why if we can start the day, or at least as soon as we can start our day, with meditation.

Brother went on to say: “We [the ministers] don’t minimize, just because we’re up here and don’t have families ourselves that we don’t appreciate, understand and bow you. We do! We have profound respect for how you follow Master’s teachings.” So if we can’t immediately meditate because of having to attend the sadhana of your children or whatever else, do it whenever we can find those few minutes. Try to make meditation a regular part of our lives so we can start our day a little less grumpy and a little less these other things as days and months and years go by.

Again, God’s help is there and the way to draw on that help, to make ourselves receptive, we have to create a channel. We have to make ourselves unconditionally receptive, as Mrinalini Ma said, to that help, to those blessings, to that power, to that calmness, that will transform our lives.

Another benefit to establishing this regular habit of meditation is as Daya Ma continues in the “how-to-live” booklet: “It begins to loosen those knots that tie you to a personal agenda of likes and dislikes.” Where did this come from? This is that science that is brought out in our Master’s Gita explanation in that our decisions, that our thinking, is naturally going to be influenced by our attachment to this physical form, from the results and fears and from the necessities to attend to it’s demands.

There is nothing wrong with the body. What could be wrong with the body? This is the most incredible and remarkable creation and instrument. What creates problems for us is when we identify ourselves with the physical body. “This is who I am.” That is all the ego really is. Guruji says that the ego is the soul identified with the physical body. The ego is not a horrible, terrible thing. It is the soul that has forgotten it’s real nature and has become identified with a particular form.

Patanjali states in the “Yoga Sutras” that “asmita (egoism) is the identifying of the seer of the instruments of seeing.” Just think for a moment, if we thought with the eyes or the feet. “I’m the one who sees through those eyes. I’m the one who moves those feet.” But just let something happen to those eyes or feet. If a foot is stepped on or broken or an eye is poked it’s OW! The foot maybe broken so now we say: “I’m in pain.” Only before we weren’t the foot. When did we become the foot? It happens really fast! We become the foot, the arm, the whatever it is, almost instantly. We’re conditioned. We’ve conditioned ourselves for incarnations to react and to try to avoid those pains and to seek pleasure. The consciousness is so intricately interwoven with those sensations, with the physical form, with the identification of the body.

Just look at a normal day: We wake up. Move the body out of bed and get it into the bathroom. We probably look in the mirror and go whoa! you know. We put it into the shower and get it all cleaned up. Get out of the shower and probably take a little peek in the mirror for a little relief. Now we put some clothes on it and move it into the kitchen; put some food into it…get some juice, get the coffee machine going, a bagel or whatever. We see we’re late, so we put it in the car and drive it to the office or wherever. A couple of hours later put some more food into it; get it back to the office; then put it back in the car and drive it back home. Then put more food into it; lay it down on the bed where it all started and the next day it starts up again. No wonder we’re exhausted.

The point is…there is a point here…that is easy for the soul to identify with this physical form because of all the energy that is flowing through this body. Guruji says: “Where the energy is, that’s where the consciousness is.” So if our energy is continuously or regularly flowing through these forms, out through the senses, contacting the objects of the world, then that will be our sphere of understanding. We will be limited by that spectrum of experience. We can’t help but have this as our own reality.

Then we’ll say oh! to develop that sanjaya, that divine insight, that buddhi, that pure discriminative intelligence, instead of being guided by manas, the so-called lower mind, that is dependent on the senses as Guruji says. We will tend to put all the eggs of our happiness in a temporary basket of this physical existence and then, by definition, we can’t help but feel insecure, perhaps fear or helplessness.

Back to our subject. Daya Ma goes on: “To know how to choose correctly in any given situation, we need to guide our judgements by the power of intuition. We are all endowed with a “sixth-sense” but most persons do not use it. Instead, they rely on reports of five lower senses. But those five senses do not always supply the right data upon which we can react in the right way or make the right decision. Aside from their limited scope and power, the senses (and their “master”, the ego-identified mind) interpret things according to their own likes and dislikes rather than according to what is true and ultimately beneficial for the soul. Making decisions based only on what his external senses and lower mind tell him, it is no wonder that man is so often in trouble.”

She is, again, not saying that the senses are evil. Just like the body, they are fantastic. They are wonderful! They are amazing! We have a divine responsibility to look after these physical forms, to take care of them and the forms of those that we love and are responsible for. We don’t have to starve the body. We can have fun. God created all these things. In fact, we are told that our Master was an excellent cook, as was Sri Yukteswar. We are told that Master said that he liked making delicious treats and giving them to others and then watching as their eyes rolled up in their foreheads as in samadhi.

He said: “Eat food; enjoy food — don’t let the food eat you.” That’s yoga. We feel that’s the power he is talking about. That’s what we want. So the yogic science simply points out that the senses, again, are not evil of themselves. They are just limited in their scope and unreliable as true messengers because they keep our energy and attention focused outside on the objects of creation. Therefore, they are unable to reveal or put us in touch with the Infinite, the Divine, the true expression of our nature. This is the expression of the science of Kriya Yoga, which will be the subject of the class tomorrow evening, whereby those knots of energy basically what Daya Ma talked about that tie us only to the physical body can be loosened by turning that same life force, that prana, that powers us back into the spine and the brain.

When our consciousness identifies with that spark of God within us as the soul, then our thoughts and feeling go naturally to Spirit. Then we make choices based on the intuitive awareness of the soul and not from the limited mind or ego. Then naturally our whole life will change. That does not mean that our outer circumstances will change. They might change but they could be just as chaotic as they were before.

If anyone thinks by signing on for this they won’t have any more problems, that’s an ego way, a limited way, of looking at it…the human thing. While the outer circumstances might not change our understanding will change. Our perspective on those circumstances will be different. We will be able to cope with them. We will be able to find peace even in the midst of our difficulties and even in the midst of our difficulties we may be able to bring peace to others even while we’re going through our own difficult experience.

Brother remembered back some years ago, this Bro. Premamoy mentioned previously and who has since passed on, received news from the doctor that he had a relatively short time to live. Brother’s assignment in the ashram at the time was the assistant, so to speak, to the Postulant House Brother. Bro. Premamoy was still in charge during the last few years of his life. Bro. Sevananda said that he’d never met anyone, who on a daily basis, was more calm, more intuitive, more detached, more able to live his life according to these principles. Brother was with him when they got back from the doctor and was getting Bro. Premamoy settled in his room when he saw a look of deep concern on his face. Brother said he wouldn’t say it was worry but it was definitely a deep concern that was dramatized by the fact that he was having trouble breathing, which was part of the condition.

Thinking back, Brother said that the concern was not because he was at all worried that he might experience physical suffering because of that condition but it was more that he was afraid that he might become a burden on others…to become an invalid in any way. Will all due respect, Brother hoped he was in another part of the universe right now because Bro. Premamoy would not appreciate his telling this personal story about him. Again, with all respect to him and to anyone in that situation, for us to wonder what their inner thoughts might be but at the same time whether it was or wasn’t his thought, may be something that might trouble us. And, yet, it may be an example of another branch that we have to let go, that we have to surrender that. We may have to allow ourselves to be cared for by somebody else. That it may be just part of life that particular experience is meant to be.

In any case, Brother was there. Almost as quickly as that concern was there it left him. He didn’t really say it to Brother but said it out loud: “Well, Master has never let me down before. Somehow everything is going to work out all right.” Meaning not only will God and Guru’s blessings be there as before but the blessings from following Their principles, even in times of difficulty, will be there, as well.

The condition didn’t suddenly go away. He was still breathing just as hard after he said that as he was before. But what did go away was that concern, that fear, and what replaced it was the inner assurance that it will be all right. Of course, it did work out that he ended up living almost a year after that.

Those of us who were around helping, know and will recall that he had to go to the doctor on a regular basis and each time the doctor would remark to us as to how much better he felt after seeing Bro. Premamoy. He would say: “I always feel better after you come in!” Maybe we should have sent him a bill. It’s something to consider next time. Bro. Premamoy, for the monks, was an example. He was able to give comfort to others even during his own discomfort.

Brother, then, shared a story about his grandmother, although it was risky for him to do so. Before he came into the ashram, toward the end of her life, she was not feeling will and had some tests. She was diagnosed with colon cancer and was in the hospital. Brother called her. She was just so brave about it and said, “I guess, life begins at eighty.” Brother added that we could probably tell where some of his sense of humor came from.

At soon as he was able, Brother went to visit her in the hospital…that’s the part of the dream that is not a lot of fun. We can have all the philosophy in the world but especially when it’s someone we love and it can seem harder than when it would be happening to ourselves. He went on. There she was…so beautiful, so dainty with this beautiful white hair. We’ve come along way with medicine, thank goodness, but with all the tubes and the things, he was angry. It sort of took his breath away for a moment, too. He thought, she’s like a little flower and that it shouldn’t be this way, somehow. It all happened really fast in his mind.

He sat down next to the window where his grandmother was seated and before they had a chance to say anything, she said: “There goes another one.” Brother said he thought that now she’s losing her mind but she wasn’t. What he then realized was that there was an airport nearby with planes taking off regularly. She just stunned Brother me because she said: “Every time I see a plane go by, I say a little prayer: ‘Blessed journey and safe return.’” He said that was his grandmother and that he hadn’t known that he was living with a saint, you know!

It was such a powerful metaphor and through the little window of our lives or particular experience, we really can expand fully into the Universe, into the Infinite, by not denying our own suffering if we’re going through something difficult. Ma said when we read our Master, he liked to laugh and that it is good to laugh. It does not mean we minimize anyones difficulties. Somebody may be going through something so horrific right now and we recognize that. We certainly do but at the same time, we also know, although we don’t usual share our personal stories, but everybody, this is life! And any of us who have been on this path and have applied these teachings and principles know that they are more powerful than most of these temporary situations. That’s why those situations come. It gives us the realization so that the soul can establish and assert and show its dominance over the temporary situations of life.

Brother said he was sure that we feel just like our Master felt that there has to be a better way. He argued with God that it was easy for God since He was off somewhere untouched by His creation.Our Master said that when he communed with God, the Father, and saw how and why it was he could only say: “Glory to the Father!” It is a common experience and we are all grateful. This is why these situations happen to ourselves or to our loved ones because if we are able to show heroism or if they show heroism we are inspired by that. Brother said he was so grateful because of these examples. Our Master said that we should be good photographers and take pictures of the good examples that we see around us. Then in our own times of trial we can draw on that and that is how we help each other.

If we are able, even during our own difficult times, to think of someone else, to offer a prayer for somebody else, that is really the way through the maze of those difficult experiences because they rouse the soul. That gives us just enough strength to get through our own suffering.

About twenty minutes ago Brother said he started talking about the method of how to meditate but it made sense to spend the time on the first point that Ma gave on meditation because that is the foundation for us. She said after meditating that is the time then to pray. We’ve made ourselves calm. Then pray…pray to God…pray to the Guru…pray to whatever form that is near and dear to us…and ask to be guided and led to the right thing that we should do.

In the ashram, all meetings begin, almost without fail, with a period of silence and then we pray Master’s prayer or something similar: “I will reason, I will will, I will act but guide Thou my reason, will and activity to the right thing that I should do.”

Of course, Brother said that at times he get’s caught up in his agenda and that’s not what it says. There may be is a better way and that is what we are trying to tune in with by going deeper. Master says something so profound and revealing in his commentary in Chapter IV, verse 34 of the Gita. He gives us the divine tip that we can use and that we can hold him to, as well, to get this guidance that we’re seeking.

Our Master said this: “A disciple residing far away from the guru may practice a spiritual method of communion. The guru, one with God, is present everywhere, including the wisdom-center (the point between the eyebrows) of all men. At the end of meditation each day the disciple should concentrate at the point between the eyebrows and visualize his guru. Thinking of him with love and devotion, the disciple should ask the questions he wants answered. If visualization of and concentration on the guru are deep, the chela will invariably receive silent answers to his questions in the form of accruing inner perceptions. In this way the advanced disciple can contact the guru even after the master has left the mortal flesh for invisible Omnipresence.”

Master is telling us how we can contact him and can hold him to that technique. After all, where are these great souls? Where is the Guru? Where is Divine Mother, if not right here? If not right within each one of us. It is also understandable when our Master puts before us this kind of potential and that it’s, also, natural that we it might reveal some of our fears at the same time, which, again, come from the ego or from our consciousness identified with the body. Wouldn’t it completely change our lives if we knew, if we felt for certain, that each one of us could actually contact the Guru? It would completely change our lives! It is not just theoretical. We all know this theoretically but if we actually believed that at the end of meditation we could put our attention at the spiritual eye and know that he was actually there listening and would actually respond to us. It would change our entire life!

So many of us may already have that faith but if not, that’s okay. We can ask Master to deepen our faith after meditation. “Master, help! Help me to know that this applies to me. How do I know this? How can I make this my realization?” We can do this by making ourselves unconditionally receptive. It is following what we all already know we should do in that direction and following what new insights might come to us.

The last part of this process of find soul guidance is after we have meditated, after we have calmed the body and mind and after praying to God and Guru for help and guidance for Their will to be done, then we use something like Master’s prayer. We use our reason and feeling and come up with a course of action. Then keeping that feeling of God’s presence with us, as best we can, we will then act until we achieve our objective or we modify that as we go along as insight comes to us. Then we will and act.

Master said: “Go to God. Pray and cry to Him until He shows the workings of His laws to you and guides you. Remember, greater than a million reasonings of the mind is to sit and meditate upon God until you feel calmness within. Then say to the Lord, “I can’t solve my problem alone, even if I thought a zillion different thoughts; but I can solve it by placing it in Your hands, asking first for Your guidance, and then following through by thinking out the various angles for a possible solution.” God does help those who help themselves. When your mind is calm and filled with faith after praying to God in meditation, you are able to see various answers to your problems; and because your mind is calm, you are capable of picking out the best solution. Follow that solution, and you will meet with success. This is applying the science of religion in your daily life.

Never get discouraged but that is easier said then done for all of us. Daya Ma says again in this booklet: “That faith is attunement that develops gradually.” It doesn’t come all at once. It comes gradually but come it will!

Someone once asked our Master what he considered to be the most inspiring passage in his Autobiography for the average person. A tremendous questions. The story goes that our Master reflected for awhile and then said: “These words of my guru, Sri Yukteswar. ‘Forget the past…. Human conduct is ever unreliable until man is anchored in the Divine. Everything in the future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.”

Bro. Jayananda quoted the same passage last evening that our Master considered the most important, the most inspiring passage, in his Autobiography for the average devotee. It is that important. Sri Yukteswar didn’t say one or two things will improve or a few things will improve or a dozen things will improve. He said EVERYTHING will improve. Our whole life will change. The idea is not to feel guilty and not to think of all the things we should be doing but just to be sincere and honest with ourselves with what we can do while trying to make that ever better offerings, whatever we can, with love and devotion at the feet of God.

There’s a passage in Edwin Arnold’s rendering of the Gita that expresses this point so beautifully where Krishna is explaining to Arjuna how the Lord can be found and, yet, with compassion he explains how difficult this can be. Krishna says:

“But whereso any doeth all his deeds
Renouncing self for Me, full of Me, fixed
To serve only the Highest, night and day
Musing on Me — him will I swiftly lift
Forth from life’s ocean of distress and death,
Whose soul clings fast to Me. Cling thou to Me!
Clasp Me with heart and mind! So shalt thou dwell
Surely with Me on high.

Then Krishna brings it down a little. He says:

“But if thy thought
Droops from such height; if thou be’s weak to set
Body and soul upon Me constantly,
Despair not! give Me lower service! seek
To reach Me, worshipping with steadfast will;

Then he brings it down a little further. He said:

“And if thou canst not worship steadfastly,
Work for Me, toil in works pleasing to Me!
For he that laboureth right for love of Me
Shall finally attain!

Then he brings it down one final time. He says:

“But, if in this
Thy faint heart fails, bring Me thy failure! find
Refuge in Me! let fruits of labour go,
Renouncing hope for Me, with lowliest heart,
So shalt thou come; ….”

It shows our whole life as yoga…union with God. The ups and downs, the successes and failures, dedicating all our actions and all our efforts, even our failures to Him. Because what it means is that we can all do it. We would not be sitting in this room or in the Pasadena Room or the Parents and Infants Room if each one of us didn’t have the potential to find God, to attain this realization.
As someone once said: “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” Isn’t that good! We’re perfect! We are already made in the image of God…each one of us! All we have to do, as Guruji said, “…is to improve our knowing.”

As mentioned in the beginning, we have come to the right place — to the safety and shelter of our Guru and his teachings to this Convocation where we can learn to meditate or learn the techniques of meditation or brush up on the techniques if we already know them. Also, how to develop devotion and how to combine devotion with our practice. In this spiritually charged atmosphere of this Convocation, we can deepen our faith, our realization that God is up there; He’s down here; He’s within; He’s without. He’s within every city, every country, we go back to. He is right here all the time and that He will surely help us navigate through the maze of our life’s experiences.

Brother closed with these words of the Guru. He said: “Whenever your mind wanders in the maze of myriad worldly thoughts, patiently lead it back to remembrance of the indwelling Lord. In time you will find Him ever with you – a God who talks with you in your own language, a God whose face peeps at you from every flower and shrub and blade of grass. Then you shall say: “I am free! I am clothed in the gossamer of Spirit; I fly from earth to heaven on wings of light. And what joy will consume your being!”

Brother wished everyone a most wonderful rest of Convocation and the joy, assurance and comfort that this path, in the presence of God and Guru, will bring to each one of us. Thank you.

2012 Convocation – “True Devotion: Living in God’s Presence Moment to Moment” ~ Brother Vishwananda

The first thought that comes to my mind is that at the end of every Convocation…it is really not a thought just an overwhelming feeling that comes from the heart…of something our guru, Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda taught us, That God has everything except our love. So just imagine the billions of people in the world who forget God and run around chasing after the senses and attractions of the world, that a relatively small number, just 4,000 of us…Master beloved chelas, his disciples…from all over the world gather together for one week, setting aside all thoughts and cares of the world, the challenges that we all may be facing in day to day lives and just focus on loving God. And that’s the love we all feel.

Brother said it was also difficult for him to stand there and not mention the names of Krishna, Christ, Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar and, of course, Guruji. It fills the heart with gratitude that we all know They are a real part of our lives and for Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), the instrument, that our enlightened Gurus created to spread the soul liberating teachings throughout the world. Also, for all of us here that come from the far corners of the earth to gather together for one week to fill our hearts, our minds and our souls with that joy, that love, that peace and the divine friendship that flows so freely from God and our Gurus.

So here we are, almost to the end. But if we were listening carefully last night, our beloved sangamata, Mrinalini Mata, said: “It’s not the end; it’s a beginning” if we want it to be a beginning. Throughout the week we have gathered so many blessings, increased the awareness of the Divine within us and within our spiritual brothers and sisters. Now as we go back to the world… [Brother said that he saw a few people shaking their heads.] Brother continued that what he thought he would do during this last gathering was just to share a few thoughts and principles and that he prayed could have some value. Even if it might be only one little things that we could use from Master’s teachings that would help us hold on to the spiritual treasures that we gathered during this week of Convocation.

Master used to say about meditation: “Why milk the cow and then jump up and kick over the pail so you spill the milk.” So why lose these spiritual treasures that we’ve gathered during this week. Not just to hang on to but through our efforts to build and expand on the blessings.

Guruji has given so much to us. One thought that Brother says he tries not to lose sight of, which in itself, is a great blessings. Because as we look around the world at the confusion, the turmoil, the immorality, the violence, the insecurity, very few people understand the purpose of life. Master has told us. We know that the purpose of life is to find God. The purpose of life is to find God and if we can cling to that one thought alone, how our lives will change. Because it gives perspective, power and direction to every aspect of our lives. We have a measure.

•Is this thought?
•Is this feeling?
•Is this action helping us to fulfill the purpose of life?
•Is it taking us closer to God or is it taking us away from God?

And this reflects that yoga, our practices, are not just techniques. Not just something we attach to our lives that we practice and perform a few times during the day and then go about our lives. No! It is a way of life that impacts on all levels — physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

From ancient India, from her spiritual treasures, we learn that there are three great blessings to be born with a physical body. [Brother chuckled and said that again he sees a few heads nod and said: “It really isn’t a curse.”]

1. It isn’t a curse because only the physical body is uniquely fixed with chakras in the spine and particularly the higher chakra where one receives and experiences God.
2. The second blessing is have a desire to know God.
3. The third is to have a guru, a divine true guru, who can help us fulfill that desire and in so doing fulfill the purpose of life.

Brother went on to say that he recently watched a video clip of an experiment. Using a very sensitive scanner, a group of psychologists, scientist, were able to identify that part of the brain where they feel that love is expressed…feeling. So they gathered a group of people of all ages together…the youngest was a teenager and up to the age of seventy, both male and female, from all walks of life. They were put in this scanner and asked to think about and feel what it is that evoked the most love in their lives. At the end of the experiment the man who measured the most expression, the strongest, highest love was asked what he was thinking about. What was it in his mind that it evoked this result because it was much higher than all the others? He said, “I was thinking about my wife of forty years.” And it went further than that. “I love her because she is helping me evolve. She has helped me be a better person.”

What does the guru do? A guru helps us evolve. It is the guru who should invoke the highest and purest love of our hearts. God has sent us a channel to leads us back, to fulfill that divine purpose of life — to find God.

According to Brother, he’s finally arrived at tonight’s topic. He wanted to lay a little foundation because there are so many different topics, so much information and techniques in Guruji’s teachings. It’s like a painting, if we don’t have a canvas we can’t create our own painting. So there are certain principles and certain thoughts that we should always keep in mind against which we paint the picture of our lives. Again, it is a way of life! It is not just a practice; it is a way of life.

From Guruji: “If at this moment you could completely calm your body, your thoughts and your emotions, you would instantly become aware of your true Self. Instantly! Your soul and your great body of the universe throbbing with the joy of God.” We can find God in a moment but regrettably we don’t know which moment, do we? We should all be looking for that moment and living in the moment. In this case, Brother was not using moment as a measure of time but rather as an awareness of God’s presence. Because, Master said that if we could still the thoughts, the emotions in that instant… That’s the moment we are all working for.

Guruji takes charge of our lives. When we receive Kriya Yoga diksha our real spiritual journey begins. The Guru promises to take charge of our lives and guide us back to God. In so doing he takes on the responsibility for every moment of our lives…every moment of our lives! That means that every moment of our lives is an opportunity to either draw closer to God or to be indifferent or fall away from God.

God is omnipresent. Not omni-past or omni-future. He is omnipresent. What does omnipresence mean? Have we ever experienced it? What does it look like? Any ideas? Brother said he’d give a couple of examples.

Recently he met a devotee at the Lake Shrine who told him a story of how he was drawn to Guruji. When he first came to the Lake Shrine he was a very troubled person. He was using drugs, alcohol and wasting his life. He’d reached a point where he was in total desperation…no happiness, no peace, no direction in life. He woke up one morning realizing that he had to do something. That he really had to change his life. A friend had told him about the Lake Shrine that he thought was a park. So he told himself he’d go to the park in the Pacific Palisades and relax and enjoy the environment. He’d made up his mind that he was not going to leave until he had some answers as to how he was to continue with his life.

So he went and walked around the lake. He saw the benches up above the main path and went and sat on one of them. He was trying to concentrate and really think about what he has to do to change his life. However, he was disturbed because it was a weekend and there were many people walking by. So he wandered up above into the trees. He’d been there only a short time when one of the ground’s hosts came up as close as he could get and looking up said: “Stay on the path!” Then turned around and walked away. The man was very upset. “I’ve come to this place trying to solve my life’s problems and this fellow comes along, very rude, shaking his finger at me.”

So he wandered around and eventually ended up in the Visitors’ Center where he picked up some books and started reading. He came across the words “the spiritual path”. The spiritual path! What is the spiritual path? He went to the receptionist who told him a little bit about Guruji and his teachings…about the Autobiography of a Yogi [AY]. Then he asked the questions: “What is the spiritual path?” The receptionist explained and he realized that this was the path that he was supposed to stay on. OMNIPRESENCE. OMNIPRESENCE. God is always there. God knows our every thought, our every feeling and when we reach out He responds.

A devotee, whose mother-in-law followed an orthodox teaching was very fixed and rigid in her thinking, joined this devotee’s husband and children while the devotee made a pilgrimage to India. The mother-in-law had no use at all for Guruji or any kind of exotic spiritual teachings re evolving. There was a picture of Guruji’s on the counter near the sink. One evening while she and her son, the husband, were doing the dishes she turned to her son and said: “He’s looking at me. Turn that picture around.” He turned it around. They went on doing the dishes when suddenly she picked up the picture and gave it the son and said: “Take this out of here. This Yogananda is looking at me through the back of the picture.” OMNIPRESENCE.

We’ve been blessed. We know the purpose of life. We have the three greatest blessings that mankind can possibly have. And we have a true Guru…an omnipresent Guru who knows our thought, every feeling, every emotion, every action, who can help us spiritualize our lives. Now we all know where our spiritual life begins and ends, ultimately — in meditation…in mediation.

We’ve had a Kriya Yoga initiation. We’ve had classes that deal with meditation so Brother said he would not go into particulars but just to point out the most sacred, the most important moment, in our meditations is after we practice the techniques when the real meditation begins. Again, not to jump up and kick over the bucket that has the milk of our efforts. We should sit still even if we don’t feel peace or joy or bliss; even if it’s just a little extra calmness. Even if we just feel a little more calmness than normal…a little more concentrated…that’s the beginning. For those who may be new on the spiritual path, that is the presence of God. That divine consciousness is beginning to manifest and why is it so important? Why is it so important to hang onto whatever result that we possibly have?

We follow the path of the Patanjli’s Ashtanga Yoga…an eightfold path…yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyan and samadhi. Which of the five don’ts…the five things we are to do…posture, life force control, withdrawal of the senses from the external objects, concentration, meditation and finally samadhi, the oneness with God. Brother said he would like us to note that asana, of course, is posture in meditation…that we are sitting still and closing our eyes. Otherwise, all of these take place where? In meditation! During our meditation practice. The yama, niyama, where do they take place? In our day to day lives, in our interactions, in our challenges.

There’s a story told by one of the great Indian saints. There is a belief in India that when people bathe in the Ganges River it washes away all their karma. But the saint indicated that it was a little different than that…there was symbology involved. He said that when people go to bathe in the Ganges their karma, their habits, are like monkeys on their backs that jump off and hang in the trees. When they have enjoyed their bath thinking they are pure and cleansed and come out of the Ganges, what do the monkeys do? They jump right back on.

Here we are at the end of Convocation. We have bathed in the Ganges… Brother said that he could tell by the laughter that we all knew exactly what he was talking about and followed up with: “Let me tell you. The monkeys are out there!”

One of the most important aspects of our lives in the world, of our active lives and fulfilling the eightfold path of yoga, is the foundation of yama, niyama. If the foundation is weak, we can practice the rest and maybe make some progress. But if it’s weak we will never fully be able to benefit from the practice. These do’s and don’ts may be tough. Brother reiterated that he didn’t want to get into the detail because this isn’t a class on the yama, niyamas…it’s like not steal, telling the truth…it’s the things we are faced with in every day life.

Brother shared a story of a really good example of what can happen to us if we are not practicing the yama, niyamas. He’d read a police report about a woman who was arrested for striking her son during an anger management class.

Master said: “Forget the past, for it is gone from your domain! Forget the future, for it is beyond your reach! Control the present! Live supremely well now! It will white wash the dark past and delegate your future to be bright. This is the way of the wise.”

God gave us free choice and where, and where only, can we exercise that free choice, that free will? In the moment of our lives.

Brother asked us to raise our hands if we’d never made a mistake. Not a single hand. Then we were asked to raise our hands if there is something that we’d like to go back and redo. All hands went up. Where did those things happen? In the moments of our lives. In the moments of our lives.

In those moments we have free will to make a choice. Almost without exception in our busy lives, if we’re meditating deeply…a little calmness, a little peace, a little joy…the result of the Divine presence. When we go out to face our day and as we’re trying to hang to results but not following one the yama, niyamas, is almost always at the heart of forgetting God, so we may feel angry, restless, discontented. There is a vibration that pulls the consciousness down and pulls it away.

If we’re following the yama, niyamas, this inherent spiritual vibration uplifts us and helps us maintain the attunement with the positive vibration. It’s duality in this world. It is a very vital practice for all of us. Be aware and know that the yama, niyamas are vital if we are to fulfill the purpose of life.

In addition to the yama, niyamas, we probably have the most incredible libraries of spiritual wisdom, knowledge and guidance, ever given to mankind in Gurudeva’s teachings on theory, on philosophy, on history and on this practical how-to-live teachings.

Where do we live? In the moment. We can’t live in the past. We can’t live in the future. We live our lives in the moment. Inherent in Guruji’s teachings is a higher vibration. They are not just words. His teachings, his guidance, his gold nuggets of wisdom came from his perception, his attunement, his union, his oneness with God. So study is a very important part of our need to hang on to that consciousness that we gather in our meditations. Then, if we’re living in the moment and faced with a particular situation, again, we have a choice to either be swept away by the situation or to react mechanically driven possibly by past karma or bad actions.

When we are striving to live in the moment something very interesting happens that we need to be aware of and that is this. We’re trying to hold on to our inner peace. Life is challenging that effort. A very strong situation like someone may be angry and right in our face. What do we do? Do we react? Do we get angry? Yama, Niyama… Do we get angry? If we’re striving to live in the moment even if we cannot change the outer situation…we can’t change that person…they have to change themselves… to truly stop and use the moment to ask the Master: “Guruji, I’m faced with this terrible situation.” He’s omnipresent. He’s listening. Remember the Guru is omnipresent, always there waiting to help us. “Guruji, what am I suppose to do in this situation?” We need to try to be calm and listen. If we study his teachings, there is a very good chance, that a particular quote will come to the forefront of our minds and tell us what to do. He might just tell us to turn around and run away because sometimes that’s all we can do just to get out of the situation.

What have we done when we’ve introduced this practice into our lives? Aren’t we stepping away from our ego and ascending into spirit? We’ve heard the term: “spiritualizing your life.” This is what it means. In those moments when we have free will to make a choice, to make the spiritual choice, we make the choice that the Guru gave us. We make the choice that will help us realize and fulfill the purpose of life…to find God.

Guruji’s chants are so beautiful. The sound alone is inspiring and the devotion that they evoke, the poetry, the divine images that they bring to the heart and mind. Almost invariably if we also use our minds to think about the chants, we will find that many of them also have a very deep spiritual message. “Door of my heart, open wide I keep for Thee. Night and day, night and day, I look for Thee night and day…” Living in the moment. We’re bringing in the continuity into our consciousness. We’re bringing in the continuity “night and day, night and day.” Not now and then…doesn’t really get God’s attention very quickly. It’s “night and day, night and day, night and day”…churning the ether. We can do this. Not just sitting down before our meditations or during a kirtan or a devotional gathering, but we can be doing this every moment of our lives when our minds are free. “Night and day, night and day”…hanging on, turning to God, tapping into that omnipresence.

“Listen, listen, listen to my heart song. Listen, listen, listen…” Calling, crying to the Divine. “Listen, listen, listen to my heart song. I will never forget Thee. I will never forsake Thee”…poetic, inspiring, uplifting! It’s a way of life. It is a state of consciousness. It is the consciousness of a lover of God. It is the consciousness of the chela, the disciple, the devotee who strives to walk in the footsteps of his or her omnipresent Guru.

Brother went on to read some excerpts that he’d taken from a medical report that he felt had some points relative to our lives as disciples, although it was written primarily about the US felt that it was probably true for most of the major parts of the world:

“According to the US Government Centers for Disease Control we are becoming a nation of addicts. A significant portion of our population wants to not be present for significant portions of their lives…not be present. It is critical to determine why it is happening. My theory is that Americans are on a flight from reality. Unchecked it will literally create an absentee nation unable to summon real vision to confront real life situations. Unable to summon real courage to meet challenges. [Brother interjected that this sounded a lot like scripture as though these people had some attunement with life.]

“Addicts have little or no capacity of to tolerate suffering or to see the future clearly or to summon extra ordinary creativity from deep inside themselves. Addiction clouds your experience of life or rather non-experience and even if you’re not intoxicated or distracted all of the time, use of addiction, introducing intoxicants can contaminate the rest of life, too, because suppressing your truth of who you really are, what your potential really is, including your anxiety and your resolve, is enough to tip the balance of your thinking away from introspection, away from insight and away from real involvement with your life.”

This is from a psychologist. We can see the spiritual elements that are coming in to this realization. The need to have an inner life. To be aware of the inner life because that’s where the creativity comes from. That’s where we meet our challenges, face and deal with life.

Brother’s points that he wanted to share with us from the article are as follows:

“As a nation we are drinking, drugging, gambling, smoking, Facebooking, Youtubing, marijuanaing, Prosacing, twittering, texting and cellphoning ourselves into oblivion.”

This list is from scientists in a published article in a well-known Scientific Journal. These were added to a list of addictions. Brother said that we should understand that this is not an indictment. When we walk out there won’t be a trash can with an invitation to throw our cellphones in it.

Just two days ago at Lake Shrine during the morning pilgrimage tour, a young devotee came up and said: “Brother, I have a request. My husband so much wanted to come to Convocation but he’s a truck driver and wasn’t able to. He had a question he wanted to ask. Can we telephone him on my cellphone, let him ask his question and you can answer it?” Brother said: “And we did.”

Brother shared this with us because he says that we need to understand we’re in this Dwapara Yuga, a higher age. An age of electronic discovery, the higher and finer energies that are just beginning. There is more to come. So, again, this is not an indictment but in the moments of our use of these devices or television or anything else or any aspect of our lives…it doesn’t just apply these gadgets…in the moment we need to ask ourselves is this action helping or hindering? Is the way we’re spending our time, our intentions helping us fulfill the purpose of life? Is it taking us closer or taking us further away? Is it helping us hold on to the gold nuggets, the spiritual treasures that we’ve worked so hard for in our meditations or is it distracting us and making us forget? If the answer is “yes”, then each one of us has to make the decision whether it is right or wrong.

Master even said that there is no sin! Think about that! What a powerful force that was through many centuries of our world history. The senses…sin and burning in hell…make this huge mistake that God just won’t forgive us for. But, ultimately, there is no good or bad. There are only the actions or thoughts that take us closer to God or take us away from God. When we think about it like that it is quite simple.

Sharing our problems is another way to hold on….to be in tune, to tap into that omnipresence of the Guru.

A sweet story! A devotee told Brother of her daughter in India. In the Indian educational system they have annual examinations. A major examination at the end of the school year that determines your overall result and whether or not you move on to the next grade. This child of the devotee who was very bright and had always done very well in her studies and exams, left one morning for the annual of exams. The mother’s was clearing up after the morning breakfast when suddenly the child ran back in. The mother panicked because if you are not there in time the doors are closed. The examiners actually come from outside your particular school and if you miss the exam you’ve lost a whole year.

“Why have you come back? Oh, my god! Oh, my goodness! We’ve got to get you back to the school,” the mother exclaimed. The young girl said: “I’ve got to find the pendant with my picture of Guruji. I can’t pass my examination unless my Guru is with me.” That was her connection with omnipresence. That was her reminder that Guru was with her. They found the pendant and the mother drove the daughter back to the school. The mother was just beside herself, just praying, praying, praying that the examiners had not arrived and that the exams had not begun. That’s what happened! Those poor examiners outsmarted by Omnipresence were stuck in traffic for thirty minutes. Coincidence!!!

We have a choice if we live in the moment. God gave us free will. So even with this little story we could say: “Well, it was coincidence or OMNIPRESENCE!”

Brother said he would share another little story from India. Also, that he loved these stories because they are so sweet, pure, childlike and probably as much as anything in life reflect an attitude of the child of God, of the disciple, the devotee.

One of the YSS/SRF groups in India held a retreat for children. One little boy, quite young and quite small, was accompanied by his mother. One morning when it was time for his bath he asked that instead of his mother going with him, which she always had done, he could go by himself that day. Now the children had had a class the day before in which they were taught to chant “Om Babaji”. [Brother interjected: We know from the AY when we utter the name of Babaji with devotion, we receive an instant…instant…spiritual blessing.]

They were living in dormitory arrangements with the showers down the hallway. The little boy, probably for the first time in his life, ventured out and went to take his shower. When he’d finished, he went to open the door and it wouldn’t open. He panicked because he’d never been in a situation like that before. For most of his life his mother had been there to help him. Later he related that suddenly he remembered that class and he said: “Om Babaji! Om Babaji!” This is Ashwani. I am in shower stall #10. Help!” The door opened. Coincidence! OMNIPRESENCE! We can decide.

Brother went on to say that we should make our relationship with God and Guru personal. It is personal. Guruji often compared life to a movie. Brother said he loved that analogy. Is it difficult to look upon life as a movie? Brother asked everyone to look at the monitors in the rooms and not at him. Which is more real? This rapping on the lectern? It looks the same, sounds the same, the message is the same. In his opinion, it is a good example. What do we see? Everyone was to take a picture of what they saw and he took a picture of what he saw and to compare. When asked what we saw we will say: “That’s Vishwananda’s hand.” And if all of us ask him what is in his picture, he will say that it is his hand. But are they the same? No, because we are not seeing the same thing, are we? That’s how life is. Life truly is a movie…it truly is a movie! If we’re living in the moment, if we’re striving to hang onto that inner consciousness, our true home, our true nature, we look upon life as a movie that is being played for us by God and Guru to help us to return to our divine home.

Just as we are all seeing Vishwananda’s, hand we are not all seeing the same thing at the same time. Each one of us sees a unique movie in the moment that God created just for us. Sometimes it may seem like a horror story that may be full of challenges but it is our story. It is the movie that God has created for us and if we can just stop and realize that and tell ourselves “thank you Lord, thank you, God and Guruji for this movie. Good or bad, I will enjoy it and will revel in it. If it challenging, I will turn to You to help me meet those challenges, so that I know that I am fulfilling the purpose of life. And I’m loving you, I’m loving you, my God, I’m loving you, my Guru, the channel of God, by following your teachings and applying your teachings.”

Remember the man who was scanned. What drew the highest love? The love for someone who helped him evolve. My God! What higher and greater form of respect or honor can we pay our Guru, the one who was sent by God to help fulfill the purpose of life, then to apply his teachings and to strive to use the example of his life as the model of our lives. It is one of the greatest expressions or forms of devotion.

So make our relationship personal with God. It is very intimate. Brother went on to share when he received his Kriya Yoga initiation in India from Sri Daya Mata, the ceremony was almost over. It was right before the rose ceremony, that beautiful showering of rose petals symbolic of the blessings showered upon us, all of us, by God and the Gurus. Brother remembered an inspirational story in one of the magazines about a devotee who was in a Kriya initiation who wanted some intimate, special sign in addition to receiving Kriya Yoga, of the love and blessings of the Guru. So she held her hands up like when we meditate with our hands up and said: “Guruji, if during the rose ceremony the rose petals fall into my hands, I will know that I’ve received your special blessing.” That’s what happened!

Brother said he had that thought as he was sitting after receiving Kriya. Ma was getting ready to throw the rose petals and the thought came to him that that was not his story and why did he want to relive someone else’s story? So, he decided that there was no way and he was going to toss that thought out of his consciousness. Then he decided to turn his hands palms down instead of palms up, so there would be no chance of any rose petals falling into his hands.

Ma was going around, singing “Roses to the left. Roses to the right. Roses front and behind.” Brother said he was in the third row, so instead of showering, Ma threw the petals and hit Brother in the chest and the rose petals slide down into his hands. This love of God and love of Guru is intimate. It is personal and that’s the relationship. That’s the relationship! Meditate. Meditate. Go deep in meditation. Again, pour out our hearts; commune with the Divine. And then when we climb up the banks of the Ganges in our lives, the monkeys won’t have a chance.

Make every effort that we possible can…that we possibly can…to hang on to the results of our meditations…to stay in tune with the Divine. Take every advantage of the moment to let our Guru guide us, inspire us.

In India there was a devotee who during one period of his life had an experimental farm in a village where he was helping the villagers improve the quality of their crops. He was teaching ladies to raise angora rabbits. They would cut the fur and then create the thread to weave shawls to sell for cash. He was doing very good work for a large number of people and later he shared a story with Brother of a man who had raised rice all of his life. His father, his grandfather had raised rice. For generations this family had raised rice. This man heard of this devotee who had a new variety of rice that would almost double the production. He came and asked for some. The devotee arranged it and the man went back home. The man returned after the growing season but his crop had completely failed. The plants hardly came up, let alone grew. He was highly disappointed. The devotee was panicking and said he that he was just praying to Master as to how to help this poor man. He didn’t have any idea what he should tell him to do. He said, “Suddenly, this thought came out without having time to think about what I was saying. ‘God wants you to raise cows.’”

So he helped the man by going to the bank for a loan and getting two milk cows. He taught him how to raise the cows, which started producing and how to sell the milk. The man didn’t return for about two years but indirectly the devotee had heard that the man was doing very well. In fact, he was making enough that he’d increased his little herd to six cows.

So one day, the devotee was surprised to see the man with a long, drawn look on his face and thought: “Oh, no! What is it now?” They sat down, had tea and some biscuits exchanging social pleasantries before finally getting down to business. The devotee asked about the cows and how they were doing? The man said that they were doing real well and that he was very happy with that. The devotee then asked the man if there was something he could help him with. Would he like help in arranging for more cows? The man said no that he had enough cows, a good income and that it was all he could handle in his life right now. The devotee asked again how he could help him. The man said: “I want to know how you know what God wants me to do.” Brother repeated: “I want to know how you know what God wants me to do.”

And that’s how we should live our lives. That’s how we will find God. That is the greatest devotion that we can show our Guru. What would make him happier than to see us, in every moment of our lives, doing what God wants us to do?

Guruji asks: “So when will God come to you? When your desire for Him is as urgent as the drowning man’s desire for breath, as strong as the miser’s yearning to get back all the money he’s lost and as deep as the love of the lover who is ready to die for the sake of the beloved. When you have that degree of desire in your heart for God alone, you will find Him without fail. It is the urgency of the heart, the depth of the love for God in the heart and the continuity of your search for Him that will bring him to you.”

What a lovely spiritual family we have of brothers and sisters from all over the world. From all ages and backgrounds of life. Sometimes it may feel like the monkeys have jumped down off the trees onto our backs, doesn’t it? We all have our moments. Never get discouraged. We have reached that point in our evolution where we have the three greatest blessings:

• a physical body in which the higher states of consciousness and God-realization can be experienced;
• we have a desire to know God or we wouldn’t be sitting here today; and
• we have a true omnipresent Guru.

We don’t know, we don’t remember the struggles and lifetimes we’ve spent in reaching this point in our evolution to have this great blessing of those three blessings. So we shouldn’t take our efforts lightly. We’ve all traveled far. We are much closer to the goal than we are to the beginning of the spiritual path. All we have to do is to do our best. Master never said that we have to be perfect. He just said: “Do your best!” “Do your best!” “We can do that, can’t we?” Brother asked. We can all do that.

All right! Times up… Brother went on to share part of another story from India. A young man whose name was Shuka Deva was seeking a guru. He came to a king named, Janaka. One of the test that Janaka gave to Shuka Deva was to put two lighted lamps full of oil in his hands and for him to walk around throughout the palace, observe everything he saw and come back without spilling any of the oil. Shuka Deva went around and came back. Janaka started asking him what he’d seen. Shuka Deva burst out: “O! Gurudeva, I was so busy trying not to spill a drop of oil from the lamps, I am not really sure what was there.” They went from room to room and Shuka Deva could remember little or nothing of what he saw. So Janaka said: “You have to go back.” The lamps were refilled and lit. Two attendants were sent with him to refill the lamps as they burned to keep them full. Many hours later, Shuka Deva came back and Janaka asked him: “What did you see in the first room?” Shuka Deva told him every detail without fail, as well as throughout every room in the palace. He had fulfilled the quest of his guru and he’d not spilled a drop.

In closing Brother asked everyone to close their eyes for a few moments, make a little lamp in the mind or heart. What oil have we collected during Convocation? What blessings, what guidance, what inspiration, what divine friendship, what spiritual strength, what answer to a life’s problem, what new veil has been torn aside in our meditation? And together we affirmed:

Beloved God, Divine Gurudeva, no matter where I go, no matter what I do, bless me that the love of my heart and the spotlight of my mind, shall ever keep turning upon Thee.

Beloved God, Divine Gurudeva, no matter where I go, no matter what I do, bless my spiritual efforts that the love of my heart, my every action, my every thought, my every feeling may reflect my divinity.

Beloved God, Divine Gurudeva, no matter where I go, no matter what I do, I bow to Thee, the Divine Light sent by God. I bow to Thee, Light of my life, Love of my life, Joy of my life.

“Jai Guru! I love you all!”