2010 Self-Realization Fellowship World Convocation

Pre-Convocation 2010 – Inspirational Volunteer Meeting – July 31st

Master of Ceremonies: Brother Paramananda

(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.)

Sister Sarvamayi started the evening off with a meditation, which she preceded by thanking all the volunteers and quoting from Master: “Divine Master sent me all these souls that I might drink the nectar of her love from the chalice of many hearts”

Brother Paramananda then introduced Brother Vishwananda.

Brother Vishwananda hadn’t been to the volunteer meeting in 3 or 4 years as he’d been spending the day before convocation at the center group meeting, but chose to spend time at Lake Shrine and the Bonaventure today. He stated that the best part of the meeting comes from the sense of coming together during prayer. Brother Vishwananda’s first convocation assignment was leading a meditation. At the end of the meditation he felt like levitating after doing the first om. He also talked about guruduchina—that’s when you take kriya in India. Traditionally in India the guru lived in a hermitage in the mountains with the disciples supporting him.

Brother Vishwananda then went on to talk about guru seva—one of the greatest ways we can give to the guru is to give our love through service. In all the convocations he’s been to, Brother has never heard the word “work” from devotees. The more we serve the more we surrender. It’s a great joy to give and to serve as we’ve come to convo for oneness with God and Guru.

Brother Paramananda then introduced Swami Smaranananda, a member of the YSS board of directors from India.

Swami Smaranananda’s first convocation was in 1983. In India they hold their version of the convocation in November of each year. In India they accommodate the volunteers at accommodations just outside the ashram. The convocations are always a grand success year after year because Master takes care of 90% of the work. In India they serve 4 meals a day and approximately 1600 devotees attend. Service is required for happiness to keep us going.

Swami then told the story of a reporter who interviewed an 85 year old woman who took care of a 72 year old woman. At the end of the interview the 25 year old reporter said he hoped to see the 85 year old woman the next year and she asked him why he doubted he would see her as he was only 25 years old. Serving isn’t always a bed of roses, but the reward does come.

Swami then told the story of a man who became a priest and counselor and was told the best quality of a counselor was to listen. A woman with a chronic headache goes to the priest and complains and complains and complains to the priest. Then her headache is gone and the priest says I know your headache is gone. I listened, listened and listened and now I have a headache….
The moral is that service isn’t always easy but reward comes in the end.

Brother Paramananda then introduced Sister Karuna.

Sister Karuna said it’s always a joy to feel the transforming vibration in the hotel and other places. The success of the event testifies to the success of the teaching. Service is fulfilling to the soul.

She told of her first time serving at convocation at the Biltmore about 30 years ago. She tried to get out of it but in the end she found it was a struggle that she needed. Serving Master is not for him it’s for us.

She told of reading a book recently about a conqueror who presented a plan to a committee and they said no—then a baron came late and apologized for being late and said he’d do what the Lord needed and the Lord explained his needs and the baron said yes with all his heart that he would serve. And that’s how we serve Master with all our hearts.

She then quoted the last sentence from God Alone: “When the call to a disagreeable duty is sounded, Lord send me.” Sri Gyanamata would serve unconditionally.

Master is right by our side while we serve all week. Sister Karuna closed her portion of the evening by reading a poem from a devotee “Ode to Ushers”

Brother Paramananda then came up to deliver some remarks. “When you work you do something; when you serve you become something.” Brother works all year to be able to take over the hotel for a week.

Brother loves the spirit of family convo provides. At convocation while serving Brother noted that you have no idea how you can use God to touch someone. When we are serving we don’t know how God is using us, but God is working through us.

He then told the story of a blind woman he met at convocation in 1981. He saw her again in 1982 and she was so excited to run into him because she wanted to tell him a story. She told him how she was meditating and Master came to her spiritual eye and waved at her. Then she cried for hours. People felt sorry for her but she didn’t feel sorry for herself; after all, the only thing she’d seen in her life was her Guru.

Service is a safe place to take a risk with ego. Brother joked that nothing can go wrong unless you do something really stupid.

He told the story of the 1975 convocation when five major languages were represented with monks and nuns giving classes in their languages. They used the Biltmore and Hope street. The convo lasted 10 days and monks and nuns were on call the whole time. It took Brother three months to coordinate all the bureaucracy. He had to coordinate lights for people walking from the Biltmore to Hope street church.

At the end of the convocation, Ma called him on the phone. She always referred to him as Brucie. She told him that he had no idea of the karma Master took from him while he served. We become spiritually vulnerable through service. We attain freedom and happiness through serving others. When we are spiritually vulnerable we serve almost everybody else but self and because of that Master will fill up our cup and we might not always feel it but it will be there when we need it.

Brother Kripananda ended the meeting with a prayer.

Pre-Convocation 2010 – Sunday Satsanga ~ Brother Satyananda, Glendale Temple, Sunday, August 1, 2010

Brother started off the service with a brief guided meditation: May I receive the divine light constantly flowing through me. The channel is blessed by what flows through it. We can become a channel of light, and instrument that can be blessed by this flow. We pray that we might be instruments of peace, that we might be solutions to difficult problems. To lead into the meditation he chanted “Life is Sweet” a vedic hymn from ancient times translated by our Guru.

For actions to be pleasing to God we need to remember that God is the doer. We are the instrument. In this way we and the world are blessed because our actions are purified. (Refer to The Bhagavad Gita, chapter 3, verse 9). Perform soul-redeeming activities for God only. The greatest blessing we can receive is to know that we are a channel of God.

1) The first question is from New York.

“Our Guru’s teachings emphasize balance. I’m experiencing chaos and need to restore balance.”

Bringing God into your life will create a dynamic balance and will us to stay in harmony. Master acknowledged that dynamic balance is a verb. Outer chaos is inevitable and must be balanced with inner peace. We cannot control the forces—we can influence the forces. We’ve all had the experience of having a problem chewing away at you and then you have a meditation and you feel wonderful peace and then the problem is forgotten for a bit. Then you remember the problem but it isn’t as powerful until you begin to obsess again. Our struggle with meditation is to make meditation more ascendant.

Brother steps back and guards his peace; his peace is more important and the crazier things become for him the calmer he stays. He has a willful determination to be more calm, to establish a more dynamic balance.

2) The second question comes from Washington State.

“Can divine love be personal or is it always impersonal?”

The experience of love, our relationship with God can be a moment, a memory, having your heart move. We can have our heart moved and feel love. Love has a mystical source that we can tap into with God. This love is stronger than memories or objects and it lasts longer and as long as we concentrate on that love it will grow stronger because it is closer to the original source. It fades when we focus on our problems, but if we focus on the source it will stay. Brother’s source of divine love is always personal. God can be anything to us; God can be formed or formless; God can be the Gurus. Divine love can have many languages. Find out how God speaks to you through love. If you understand this you will make a personal connection with love. Out of these concepts, you can feel God’s love. Love between soul and spirit—no love can be sweeter than the love God gives to those who seek him.

“The greatest love you can experience is with God in meditation.”

3) The third question comes from Argentina.

“During daily activity my mind strays from God. How do I make God more real?”

Bring God into the moment. Pray, “Lord, I am yours and you are mine now.” We bring God into past or the future but God is in the now. If we bring God into the now, God will be with every thought, with every breath now. Make it immediate. Bring your affirmation, yearning connection with God into the present moment to make a real-time connection with God. God can be with you moment to moment—all the time. Practice the presence of the God of NOW. Let God be a part of every moment.

4) The fourth question comes from British Columbia.

“I have an elderly loved one who yearns to leave her body—how can I ease that?”

A soul doesn’t leave the body until it is ready. For comfort talk to them about the soul. People in the final stages are searching for truth they never understood. Tell them the soul lives—the beauty that awaits. Be consoling and comfort people. You are an immortal soul; you are not the body. Comfort people by talking about the soul and releasing attachments. Ask “Is there anything unfulfilled in this life?” Divine Mother loves us and accepts us just as we are.

2010 Convocation – Opening Class: “Blessed are the Peacemakers” ~ Brother Achalananda

Convocation offers a wonderful opportunity to reaffirm our faith, that we are moving forward in a greater spirit of love.

Sri Daya Mata’s Greeting:
“Gurudeva used to look forward to convocation. He often said, ‘I prefer a soul to a crowd, but I love a crowd of souls.’ I will pray that you will able to lay aside our worldly concerns. As we tune in to Master’s blessing, we will uplift our mind and re-tune ourselves – and we will realize how each one of us is cherished by the Guru. Open your hearts to feel God’s presence. Apply principles of right thinking and action towards others. It’s what we do with what we hear that can transform our lives. May you feel a new determination to make positive changes in your life.”

How to Become Givers of the Gifts of Peace
Inner & Outer Peace – If we want to express the outer, we must express the inner. If you want to be a peacemaker, you need to bring peace to your own life. If we do this, then we’ll be doing our part in changing the world. It always starts with the individual. Master said, “Change yourself and you have done your part in changing the world.”

Sermon on the Mount – blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Matthew 5:9 – a greater understanding of what it means to be a peacemaker. Remember Master’s commentary: There are the real peacemakers who generate peace from their devotional meditations. Peace is the first manifestation from God. When we meditate, God’s first response is peace. The nature of God is inner peace.

Son of God consciousness makes one feel one with all beings. All of God’s children are souls and His children need to learn to live in that same consciousness. There’s only one race – the human race. Human beings have been given potentially unlimited power to prove they are children of God. We should conquer hearts with the power of love. Brotherhood is the greatest deterrent to war. Man’s power to create war is increasing, so his power to create peace must increase.

2nd Coming of Christ – Discourse 26 – All prejudices and enmities must fall away. When we are caught up in ego we are the children of man not the children of God.

Soul nature – children of God
Ego nature – children of man

Peace for the world must start with divine friendship for all. A peace that passeth all understanding – beyond words, beyond human intellect. But we can feel this peace for all in deep meditation. If we stop and look at our history, we see that it is the history of the dark ages of wars – turmoils of the darkest ages humanity knows. It takes more than a few to bring peace.

The more we contact peace within, the more we express it without. The more a person experiences God’s peace the easier it is to spread God’s will to others. We would perceive all beings as one. Not just a concept but a living reality. Expand your heart’s natural love.

Our Guru’s meditation techniques help expand the heart’s natural love. Pointers to deepen meditation so we can feel greater peace:
Posture – spine must be erect. Don’t sit with back against the chair unless it is a necessity. Posture must be comfortable so you can sit for hours and hours without moving. If you move, the consciousness goes there, towards sensation – and the mind will go wandering. Controlling the mind – sitting still, mind calms down if body does not move. Put the mind on the techniques and keep it focused there. That will calm the mind down. Why is it so difficult to control this monkey mind? Don’t be discouraged if the mind wanders – keep it focused on one technique. The deeper one goes into the soul, the more peace is felt.

Patanjali’s 5th Step – Pratyahara – interiorization of the mind. When this happens, we see our meditations change. If we keep knocking at the doors of silence, God will help us.

We create our own nightmares just as we create our own dreams of peace. We are like children. When the movie is over we watch it again and again, instead of going home. How does we break our fascination with the cosmic movie? We need to give up some things which keep us from God. We need to practice techniques. We need to attain that inner state of being.

Gita – Chapter 40, Verse 2 – Yoga is a path of spiritual action. Material pursuits are like going down blind alleys. We need to get to know ourselves for who we truly are. Inner renunciation – the ego will resist and fight us.

Even a tiny bit of these techniques of Masters’ will release us from this fear. There is no waste from effort. Every effort counts. If a person desires salvation, that is planted forever in the super consciousness. Some day, in some life, each one must take this first step.

Brother told the story of a 3 hour meditation he had prior to becoming a monastic. He went to the Hollywood Temple and it was a real struggle for the entire three hours. He stood in line to get a blessing from Dr. Lewis who whispered in his ear, “Great meditation, wasn’t it?”

Sometimes when you struggle the hardest you are making the most progress. The struggle is there for you to become stronger. You become stronger having to do something you haven’t done before.

One does not get a high technique like Kriya Yoga at the beginning of one’s journey, but at the end. The results will come. Once the mind is in control, we start to meditate and then the benefits come.

Don’t be overly concerned with the drama in the world. Seek the kingdom of God. Don’t worry and get caught up in the inner turmoil. Overcome worry and fear and all those things that create a lack of peace in ourselves.

Master’s work is still ahead of its time, but it’s growing because there’s a need for these teachings.

Meditation develops intuition. The more deeply you meditate, the more your intuition will develop.

We are at a pivotal time on this planet because not enough people have changed to a higher spiritual consciousness. If people don’t change willingly, events will force us to change.

Don’t get caught up in the doom and gloom of things. Just keep on keeping on, centered in spirit. The way to happiness is through meditation and being attuned to God. Our goal is to be a peacemaker first inside then outside.

2010 Convocation – “The Art of Introspection for God-Realization” ~ Brother Bhumananda

Brother Bhumananda (his name means eternal bliss and peace and he has been with SRF since 1982)

The Journey to Self-Realization: describes the life we embrace as devotees to God.

To understand the purpose of life every devotee should memorize the poem “Samadhi”. (For your convenience I’ve pasted it at the end of these notes. It can be found in Chapter 14 of The Autobiography of a Yogi.) We realize we can have this experience if we persevere. Tremendous effort is needed to find God.

Meditation techniques are powerful tools that transform our consciousness. The love of God pulls us to spirit. Maya pulls us down. To reach God we have to constantly pull against Maya. Conquer the lower self so you can free the higher self. Sometimes it feels like we have an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. It’s hard not to give into maya. We want so much to do the right thing, but in this creation of duality it’s all too easy to pick the lower choices. The battle of Kurukshetra is symbolic of the inner battle that we go through every day. We are blind to our divine nature—our connection to God. Sense tendencies: anger, greed, selfishness, and self-centeredness: all these bring us down. Virtues of the soul are calmness, righteousness and self-control.

We don’t see ourselves as we truly are because we identify with our faults. Brother quotes from the poet Robert Burns: “O to see ourselves as others see us.” Each day we consult our sanjaya, our good and bad tendencies, and we see who has won the battle—good or bad. The ability to stand aside and judge accurately—this is introspection. As a new postulant, Brother spent time at the end of each day to see if he had gone more into ego or did he grow closer to God. Guruji says keep a diary of your spiritual life. We need divine insight and introspection.

Key questions for introspection (an effective way to pull yourself out of a spiritual lethargy is to ask yourself key questions):

Review your spiritual routine.
Did you do all the techniques?
Did you sit in silence?
How deep did you go?
Keep track of your attitude and ask yourself: “how did I do today?”
Am I feeling closer to God?
What bad habits are pulling me?
Why am I here?
What is the purpose of life?
Am I feeling greater spiritual attunement with the Guru?
What bad habit is troubling me the most?
What good habit am I trying to develop?
Each day, do I thank Divine Mother for Her blessings?
Do I meditate and try to seek God with enthusiasm regardless of any tests?

Make sure meditation doesn’t become habitual and absent-minded. Have a constant awareness—think of when you drive—you keep your eyes on the road and focus all the time. In introspection when you find a bad habit look to Master’s teachings for help in finding a way to that bad habit into a good habit. Do a check-up on your spiritual, physical and mental routines during the day. If we’re fearful we need to build upon courage. Every conceivable subject we need is in the lessons.

Pitfall—when you see something about yourself that you don’t like, don’t stop there. Make it a point to cultivate the opposite good habit. Repeat the good habit. Read the teachings to understand the habit. Have a battle plan to get closer to God.

We all struggle with moodiness. When it comes to moodiness first ask yourself why you are moody? We have to understand. Ask God and Guru to help you understand. Pray and ask “Lord, make my understanding the Temple of thy guidance.” God beings to speak to us through the sweet whispers of intuition. Secondly ask yourself: “How am I living?” If we’re always in a mood then maybe there a problem with how we’re living. We punish ourselves with our moodiness.

The breaking of the Ten Commandments (or as Guruji likes to call the them the “10 eternal rules of happiness”) is the source of all the misery of the world. Look at sex symbols—most of them have unhappy lives. Sex, sex, sex doesn’t make you happy. If we abuse sex or any of the senses the price is too great to pay. Yoga looks at sex in a scientific way—look at and use senses in meditation. Self-control leads to happiness.

Break moods by positive thinking. Cultivate positive thinking. Things are neutral. It’s our thoughts that make us see things as good or bad. Master says “Change your thoughts if you wish to change your circumstances.” Sometimes it’s hard to control the thoughts directly, so start doing something for someone else—get out of me me me me—get out of the little self. Try to make others happy and your own cup of happiness will overflow.

Brother’s struggle his first year in the Ashram was restlessness. Sundays were the days of silence and that was the day the negative thoughts came in. The next time you don’t feel good do something good for someone else—do something for God and Guru. Developing creative thinking also helps overcome moods. Make a list of moodbusters. Don’t’ be passive. That’s when you get dragged down. Sometimes you do everything the guru asks and you are still unhappy—when this mood hits you it’s karma from the past.

The best way to overcome karma is kriya yoga and meditation. Keep spending time with God—if we love God with all our hearts God will take away our karma. Keep on Keeping on. Your life won’t be in the doldrums forever. If you need professional help, ask God to guide you to the right therapist. When we’re in a tunnel of bad karma sometimes we can’t see the end, but the light is always at the end of the tunnel, that love and light of God. Every time we call on God to help us we are moving closer to the end of karma. Never think the deck is stacked against you. Every struggle is temporary. Mukti Mata felt she was in the presence of a God-realized Master. Master could read her consciousness and asked her to do the little things—the little acts of determination that lift us into the divine presence. To reach Master’s consciousness we make the little acts—it’s the little efforts that bring us into the divine consciousness. To struggle is to win the favor of God.

A basic rule about introspection is that it has to be a positive experience. Don’t be mean and vicious to yourself. There is nothing spiritual about beating yourself up and ripping yourself to pieces. Begin introspection with the realization that you are a child of God. Don’t judge yourself too harshly. What is past is past; correct yourself and forget the past. Don’t give any thought to the past. Sometimes under the magnifying glass of discouragement we look at ourselves as horrible. Any flaws you have are not a part of you. When you are tested, how do you see yourself? See yourself as the devotee who will never give up. When you feel angry, say “this is not me.” Forcefully disassociate yourself from bad habits. Bad habits are not your real nature.

A question asked to Ma: “Even if one is struggling, is it still possible to know God in this lifetime?” Ma’s answer: “Absolutely. Yes. Be faithful when meditating.” Make the effort to control your mind and keep the focus on God when meditating. Don’t be a slave to the mind. Work on concentration. Don’t get upset when your mind wanders. Bring your mind back. Don’t count how many hours you meditated. God is not an accountant. Forget the time and just love God. That love is a divine magnet—God must come.

We can know God in this life. If each day you practice the techniques you will realize you can know God in this lifetime. You can have dry spells. Everyone does—even saints. Keep a record of the times you have known God and feed upon those experiences. Let it last by reliving the experiences. The key to seeing ourselves in a positive light is through regularity in meditation. In the life of every devotee there are 2 absolutes: 1) we are soul, and 2) God and Guru love us unconditionally. The moment we turn to God and Guru those blessings are there. Master says it is for the sake of the unredeemed that the Guru must come back to earth.

You can have all kinds of material things but you always want more. Look instead for the wellspring of divinity in the soul. It is through the blessings and teachings of the Guru that we find fulfillment. No matter what the mistake don’t be afraid to go to the Guru and ask for help. When Judas came to Jesus, Jesus accepted him knowing Judas’ nature. Jesus accepted Judas because he was a disciple from the past. According to Master, “every soul can be rescued if the mind makes a genuine commitment.”

Begin and end introspection by affirming you are a child of God. You will realize god if you don’t give up. Always know that you are unconditionally loved by God and Guru. Meditate with sincerity and devotion.

Brother ended the class by asking all to visualize Master in the spiritual eye and visualize bad habits melting away and good habits becoming stronger.

Master’s poem “Samadhi”

Vanished the veils of light and shade,
Lifted every vapor of sorrow,
Sailed away all dawns of fleeting joy,
Gone the dim sensory mirage.
Love, hate, health, disease, life, death,
Perished these false shadows on the screen of duality.
Waves of laughter, scyllas of sarcasm, melancholic whirlpools,
Melting in the vast sea of bliss.
The storm of maya stilled
By magic wand of intuition deep.
The universe, forgotten dream, subconsciously lurks,
Ready to invade my newly wakened memory divine.
I live without the cosmic shadow,
But it is not, bereft of me;
As the sea exists without the waves,
But they breathe not without the sea.
Dreams, wakings, states of deep turiya sleep,
Present, past, future, no more for me,
But ever-present, all-flowing I, I, everywhere.
Planets, stars, stardust, earth,
Volcanic bursts of doomsday cataclysms,
Creation’s molding furnace,
Glaciers of silent x-rays, burning electron floods,
Thoughts of all men, past, present, to come,
Every blade of grass, myself, mankind,
Each particle of universal dust,
Anger, greed, good, bad, salvation, lust,
I swallowed, transmuted all
Into a vast ocean of blood of my own one Being!
Smoldering joy, oft-puffed by meditation
Blinding my tearful eyes,
Burst into immortal flames of bliss,
Consumed my tears, my frame, my all.
Thou art I, I am Thou,
Knowing, Knower, Known, as One!
Tranquilled, unbroken thrill, eternally living, ever new peace!
Enjoyable beyond imagination of expectancy, samadhi bliss!
Not a mental chloroform
Or unconscious state without willful return,
Samadhi but extends my conscious realm
Beyond the limits of the mortal frame
To farthest boundary of eternity
Where I, the Cosmic Sea,
Watch the little ego floating in me.
The sparrow, each grain of sand, fall not without my sight.
All space like an iceberg floats within my mental sea.
Colossal Container, I, of all things made.
By deeper, longer, thirsty, guru-given meditation
Comes this celestial samadhi
Mobile murmurs of atoms are heard,
The dark earth, mountains, vales, lo! molten liquid!
Flowing seas change into vapors of nebulae!
Aum blows upon the vapors, opening wondrously their veils,
Oceans stand revealed, shining electrons,
Till, at last sound of the cosmic drum,
Vanish the grosser lights into eternal rays
Of all-pervading bliss.
From joy I came, for joy I live, in sacred joy I melt.
Ocean of mind, I drink all creation’s waves.
Four veils of solid, liquid, vapor, light,
Lift aright.
Myself, in everything, enters the Great Myself.
Gone forever, fitful, flickering shadows of mortal memory.
Spotless is my mental sky, below, ahead, and high above.
Eternity and I, one united ray.
A tiny bubble of laughter, I
Am become the Sea of Mirth Itself.

2010 Convocation – “Skills for Healing and Spiritual Well-Being in a Materialistic World” ~ Brother Chidananda

Connecting to Divine health is the first skill. You can’t find these skills through the Internet. The world today tries to make us forget this. We need to go beyond information to find sacred knowledge. We need to find a way to access sacred knowledge. The world today is a very toxic environment. Environment is stronger than will power, but we can’t use this as an excuse because we won’t get anywhere. We can’t get caught up in victim consciousness—Our potential is vastly greater than we think.

Yoga teaches that it is the nervous system in our bodies that can be a barrier or a portal. It is up to us to choose. It’s not up to our environment. Brother asked why hospital workers don’t get diseases they are exposed to and he said it’s because their will is stronger—they are in the hospital but not of the hospital. Disease can’t take hold in a host that doesn’t accept it. Don’t permit disease to take a foot-hold. This is true of emotions too. Anything that creates a state of dis-ease. We usually think of toxins as physical but they can be so much more.

According to Guruji, there are three types of diseases: 1) physical: disease, dying; 2) mental: worry, fear, anger; 3) soul: ignorance of our true relationship with God.

According to Sri Yukteswar “wisdom is the greatest cleanser”. And cleanser is needed from too much immersion in the material world. We are constantly barraged by mass media with materialism unless we are actively discriminate. We need a spiritual technology that is more powerful than material technology. Inner warrior qualities are needed to fight materialism.

Yoga is that technology. By concentrating within we can access this infinite power and we can tune in with God’s power and resources. Don’t indiscriminately accept what the world offers. But with the science of yoga we can learn to make our nervous system transparent reflecting the light of the soul inside each one of us. This is the process of detoxing.

The nervous system is neither purely physical or emotional. Both mental and physical toxins affect the body as the body and mind are linked. Purifying can always have an effect on either type of toxin—they are in a symbiotic relationship. By keeping our emotional life calmer through meditation we will experience a better life and see a beneficial effect on the physical body.

The Fall 2007 issue of SRF magazine has an article by Guruji on healing: 1) exercise until the body breaks out in a light sweat; 2) stretching; 3) right diet; 4) periodic cleansing; 5) right posture; 6) breathing to purify the blood and clean the mind.

About diet:

Brother started off by mentioning the classic “stress diet”
Instructions for Stress Diet

BREAKFAST:
1/2 grapefruit
1 slice whole wheat toast
8 oz. skim milk

LUNCH:
4 oz. lean broiled chicken breast
1 cup steamed spinach
1 cup herb tea
1 Oreo cookie

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK:
The rest of Oreos in the package
2 pints Rocky Road ice cream, nuts, cherries and whipped cream
1 jar hot fudge sauce

DINNER:
2 loaves garlic bread
4 cans or 1 large pitcher Coke
1 large sausage, mushroom and cheese pizza
3 Snickers bars

LATE EVENING NEWS:
Entire frozen Sara Lee cheesecake (eaten directly from freezer)

If your health permits it do a cleansing diet. Bro. joked that “after 40 you can be your own doctor or your own enemy.” If you can do a 9 day cleansing diet, it will add to your even-mindedness and meditation. Purification (the stopping of grossness) is one of the spiritual skills for manifesting the nervous system. All religions teach this: lent and Ramadan were two examples given.

Observe the Sabbath. This doesn’t have to be on a particular day. Spend the day deepening your sadhana. Have a long meditation, fast, introspect, read Guruji’s writings. Recharge your mental, physical and spiritual batteries for the week ahead. Discourse 32 in The Second Coming of Christ discusses the Sabbath. Gradually the nervous system will become more and more transparent.

How can we restore transparency over the nervous system. Sri Daya Mata (whose name means mother of compassion) and Brother Premamoy (whose name means the monk who is permeated with divine love) were two of Brother’s spiritual advisors. The talked about the amount of loving kindness you express in daily life. It determines how advanced you are on the path to progressing spiritually. The essence of compassion lies in the recognition of how hard it is to be good.

The source of emotional toxins comes from a lack of love and compassion. Instead of dealing with these toxins, we project them outward to others and create toxic environments. According to Guruji, when you see others as souls you can break the cycle of pain. See the divine soul in every person and then you will begin to see the divine in yourself. Brother quoted Emerson: “If we meet no Gods without, it’s because we harbor none within.”

It’s easy to get discouraged on the path. We’re not stuck with the body and the personality that we have. Every 6 months every cell in our body is replaced. We are not static. We are constantly rebuilding; If we don’t like the pattern we have great ability to change.

Information is the level of reality that our waking consciousness deals with. Jesus said “take up your bed and walk.” This is the sacred knowledge—this is the higher level. The intellect cannot understand sacred knowledge. Sacred knowledge reorients the nervous system. I am made in the image of God.

“Wisdom is not assimilated with the eyes but with the atoms—not with your mind but with your being.” –Sri Yukteswar.

Make a personal effort to assimilate ideas. Don’t crave quantity. The world encourages in us a craving for quantity and variety. Instead take our truths and practice one at a time and go deep into it. One of the downsides of our world is the sheer ease of finding information. Because of how much knowledge we have—we gain an indifference in divine subjects. We need to convert intellect to sacred knowledge.

Convert intellectual information to sacred knowledge. Take prayer and affirmation after meditation. Affirm a statement, visualize it and affirm it. For example, when you pray “Father, Mother, Friend, etc.” pray it, affirm it, visualize it, feel it. This turns information into sacred knowledge—and this is how the healing begins. Healing begins with the sadhana of yoga.

See others as souls and treat them accordingly. Meditation is the dynamic connection to the source of true knowledge. We can change our identity from human to divine!

2010 Convocation – Satsanga ~ Brother Jayananda

If it’s not in Master’s teachings it’s not important. Keep questions simple and practical, like “how do I develop devotion?” These are the kinds of questions that help us.

How do we use these teachings to improve ourselves.

Did Master say anything about 2012? Brother doesn’t know but he says if anything does happen that we will all be okay. He traveled to India in 1987 when there was an earthquake (and other smaller quakes, too) in Los Angeles. Brother asked Brother Bhaktananda why there were quakes and he said it’s because people are putting the thoughts out there.

As yogis we can put positive thoughts out there. So we’ll be here at convocation in 2012. See you then!

Question #1 –On the Hong Sau Meditation Technique. Keep in simple. Concentrate. When you practice keep at it. This technique has the ability to slow the breath and make us much more calm. Daya Ma had the ability to focus 100% on one thing at a time. We need to do this in schools and just not teach subject matter. How to learn is just as important as what to learn. We need to learn to concentrate and sit still.

Question #2 – What do you do when the mind is so restless you can’t calm it down?

4 Things are Important:

Breathe
Life Force
Analyze your Life – are your senses being instantly stimulated?
Increase your Concentration – by giving things 100% concentration. Think about threading a needle – that’s 100% concentration – do that with the rest of your life.

First of all, analyze your life. Are you getting emotional about things? Are you not concentrating? Introspect at end of day. Practice being a yogi all the time. The mind of the average person is restless and easily distracted.

We have to learn to take our meditations into daily life and vice a versa. Calm the mind by right living – balanced life. Engage in plain living and high thinking. Calm the mind and eat right. We need to be able to slow the breath.

Question #3 – If souls escape earth through reincarnation when they reach self-realization, how do we improve the current population? If the most advanced souls leave, we are left with lesser people. Brother says that this earth was not meant to be a graduate course – we are meant to be on this earth to learn certain lessons and when we learn them we move on. We won’t make this earth into a graduate college. God set up the yugas in a certain way. Master used to yell at God for setting things up this way. God set up the evolutionary process. It’s really not our problem.

Question #4 – Body as temple for the soul. God tests disciples in many ways. Sometimes we see people having tests, having diseases. Ma says you can’t judge people – those who are really struggling we can’t judge – those souls are often progressing faster than those going along easily. When tests come, have faith that the Guru knows your test and is helping you. God wants us to be successful on the spiritual path.

Question #5 – What is God’s grace? God’s grace is a manifestation of God’s love.
50% of our karma is taken by God’s Grace
25% by the Guru
25% by the devotee

Question #6 – What is a blessing and how does one offer and receive it? A blessing is anything that offers one a greater consciousness of God’s presence. The greatest way to bless people is to change yourself. Then you can let the blessings flow through you. Master says change yourself and you will have done your part in changing the world. We can help people by encompassing them in our love.

Question #7 – Why are we supposed to keep spiritual experiences secret? Why can’t SRF or devotees discuss hearing the OM or seeing the Spiritual Eye, etc.? How can you prevent the ego from taking over? Master said that when you talk about spiritual experiences you lose them. If you feel peaceful, tell others. Just don’t get into the details of your meditation. You can talk about having a wonderful convocation experience, but leave the details out. The OM sound is not a competition; it’s a science, a natural progression in meditation. Some people go their whole lives with more or few experiences in meditation. For some, it’s like a circus. It depends on what you need – what the Guru thinks you need. You will develop in meditation, but don’t share what is sacred. There comes a place where you don’t want to share these things; where you won’t have the words to express them.

Lahiri Mahasaya experienced Babaji’s presence. He then told his friends. His friends asked him to call on Babaji. Babaji appeared then scolded Lahiri Mahasaya: “You called me for a trifle? If you need me I’ll come.”

Question #8 – Is there a hierarchy within our line of Gurus? There’s no difference between the Gurus, no difference once you get to a certain stage. Our techniques are founded on Christ in the West and Krishna (founding of Yoga) in the East. Master said though I emphasize Jesus and Krishna, I honor the divine truth flowing through the one God.

Question #9 – Will Master protect my children? You are thrown together in a family – there’s a karmic connection. Have faith in Master’s protection – in the Guru’s protection. Be an example yourself. Talk to your children. In their younger years they are more receptive. Drugs are one of the worst scourges of society – encourage kids to stay away from drugs – talk to kids as a friend.

If you show children that you care about them, if they having a loving family that they can go back to when they make a mistake, they won’t stray far from the path.

Question #10 – Yugas – In a descending age, how do you improve? Humans are always linear so you’re always improving, despite what yuga you’re living in. The environment in lower ages isn’t as conducive to growth.

Question #11 – Purchasing a home – how aggressive should one pursue homes. Master wants us to become good yogis and successful people. Read the booklet, “How to Be Victorious in Life” – it will help you to know what and when to do things – right activity. The Guru says that success is the ability to bring to yourself what you need when you need them (magnetism). If you identify what the problems are the solutions will follow. We all come into this life with karma and samskars – ways of interacting with the world, tendencies that prevent us from having what we want in the world. Look at those tendencies, introspect and try to change daily. Do it now – don’t procrastinate. When Daya Ma thinks meditation, she meditates.

From Journey of Self-Realization, “God sends to you those experiences you need.”

With right attitude life is simple. Form good habits by acting in the opposite direction of bad habits.

God will show you what you are lacking so don’t run away from your experiences. You will just have to deal with them at another time.

Question #12 – Husband & Wife – wife not as drawn to meditation. People experience this in various forms. Think about how you can change yourself. You’re drawn together – married – what practical things can you do? Pray about it. Don’t fun away from problems. Guru is putting us in situations that help us to change. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we’ve been given tools that have been changing us in fundamental ways. As you meditate through the years you will find it brings you blessings greater than you could have imagined.

2010 Convocation – “Living with a Positive and Joy-Filled Attitude” ~ Sister Namita

Brother Chidananda began by reading a letter from Sri Daya Mata. She was delighted to hear about our devotion and receptivity to the Guru. She wants us to look upon this week as a new beginning. Go forward with an increased trust in God and Guru’s love. Never identify yourselves with limitations. You are precious to God. Everything you offer from your heart has God’s blessings. You are Master’s shining jewels shining around the world. You can have a positive influence. Take with you the light of God’s love and radiate it to the world.

Sister Namita
Master would start his talks by asking “how feels everyone?”

“Awake and Ready!”

Answer Master as if you are ready to conquer the world!

“I shall go forth with the courage of a hero and the smile of a conqueror.” ~ Master

When we get in touch with truth we are effected, purified, uplifted.

The Guru promised – whoever cries to me with the right spirit will never be the same again.

Each one of us is a different person, a better person, a more spiritual person for having heard Guruji’s gems throughout the week. Every effort we make in loving God is preparing us for the ever-new joy we are seeking.

Great joy and laughter: the sound of a soul waking up. Laughter is good healing. Live with a positive and joyful spirit. Guruji gave us so much counsel that if we take it to heart it can really change our lives.

Essentially, conditions are always neutral. Conditions are neither good nor bad. Our mind perceives them as good or bad. Our perceptions change how we see our own personal experiences. Two people can have the same experience – one can become embittered while the other can be strengthened.

Don’t be a Pollyanna – there are times we need to face sorrow. This is the lot of all human beings.

Rise above with courageous spirit within. Problems will disappear if we cultivate the right attitude of the mind.

How do you arrange your mind? You have a choice. We have control over how we are going to react, how we are going to rearrange our minds. Will we choose understanding, resentment, bitterness? When facing challenges remind yourself that you can choose how to react – will you become angry or will you grow in understanding?

Look at Nelson Mandela – how many years he spent in prison. He says we tend to focus on external factors. Yet internal factors are more crucial to one’s growth as a human being. Service, humility, absence of vanity – qualities that give inner joy.

Every time you’re inclined to react to situations, do you remember that conditions are neither good or bad – that they are neutral? We get to choose how we are going to react. Easy? No. Worthy? Yes!

Have a sense of humor… not to take our life so seriously. Be able to laugh at yourself. Whatever comes into your life – take it joyfully and not personally. It is so freeing not to take life so seriously.

Watch your thoughts and do a little editing. Replace not-so-divine thoughts. We will start feeling God’s presence instead of His absence. Keeps your mind filled with thoughts of God.

Think of a garden. Will you plant a stinky weed in your garden? Pluck out the stink weeds in the mind. Don’t let anything take your consciousness away from God. Is it not wonderful to live, think, and feel God all the time.

Remind yourself of the truth that you are joy. Joy is your true nature. We are nothing but sparks of God’s infinite body. We are tiny sparks of his consciousness. “For joy I came, for joy I live.”

Trouble is that most people look for joy outside of themselves – on waves of likes and dislikes. Master asks us, why not seek joy directly? That beautiful joy is what we bring with us from the astral plane. That beautiful joy is who we truly are. During the first years of our lives we are still connected to the astral plane. Day by day we can lift ourselves up and go walking with our divine Gurus until we are aware of this beautiful realm we are in. Imagine in your every moment being in the consciousness that Divine Mother and the great ones share.

One obstacle we face that prevents us from feeling joy in our lives is desire. Wrath springs only from desires. Analyze your thoughts and actions – they are compelled by some desire. It may be subtle but it is there. Desires are running our lives.

You can’t attain salvation unless you free yourself from desires. Let go of the desires that enslave you. Go on a desire –reduction diet! When man reduces desire for this world he finds true joy. Transmute worldly desires so there’s more room inside us for divine joy.

Expectations. Can we say what Sri Yukteswar said about not expecting anything from others? This attitude will take us to a more peaceful life. We will not be hurt.

Desire My Great Enemy chant. Remain in the castle of peace within – this is how you get rid of desire.

If you learn to give every desire to God, He will see to it that your good desires will be fulfilled and your bad ones destroyed.

Master had a playful spirit and a sense of humor. When you ask Master for something, be very specific. Be authentic – do away with masks. Who is behind the mask, the façade? The real you minus the fear and human problems that cover up your beautiful soul.

Be sincere, honest, free from hypocrisy and self-seeking. Be one with God. This enables us to live as Guruji suggested we do and for the light of God to kiss our face.

Shakespeare: This above all — to thine own self be true. Then thou canst be false to any man.

What Gandhi said, felt, and did was all the same. He remained true to himself. He wouldn’t wear his suit – he wore his cloth no matter what. How divine to be so unmasked, so yogi-like… to always be so in harmony.

Self-forgetfulness can lead to greater joy. Think of God more. Empty consciousness of I, me, and mine and fill it with you, you, you Lord. We need to think less of ourselves. Think more of God.

When we love someone, we don’t think so much of our little selves. We think of the one we love.

Divine Mother is always very very near as the force that guides your life.

Relate everything to Divine Mother. Love transforms everything we see. We live with rose-colored glasses and live in a world of inner enchantment. We know when love has touched our hearts.

We love our friends – we have chosen them so let’s choose God and Guru as our best friends, our eternal friends. Talk to them. They are very very near. Listen to their answers because they do answer us.

We can trust God and Guru totally. We can trust the love they have for us and that what comes to us is for our greater good.

“God has sent you to me and I shall never fail you.” ~ Master said to his disciples.

Jesus told his disciples that he will be with them always — until the end of the world.

We are loved so much that we cannot comprehend it. The Divine loves us and wants us to live a very high life – the best life possible… A divine life we can create ourselves.

Realize God loves us so much – let’s reciprocate that love in our lives.

Ever new joy night and day, O Lord!

2010 Convocation – “The Guru’s Unconditional Love for Each Disciple” ~ Sister Preeti

Guru is He whom God appoints to lead you out of darkness into the land of eternal light.

God uses the Guru to attract and guide lost souls back to God. The Guru plays a part in God’s divine plan for each of us.

The Guru extends His hand to act as a personal guide. He holds a light to guide the way, offering encouragement each step of the way.

We may have many teachers, but only one Guru.

We have to take the Guru’s hand and allow Him to guide us. We have to be ready to accept our Guru.

Prem-Avatar – divine incarnation of love. Prem=love, Avatar = soul who attains union with spirit and returns to earth to help mankind.

“O I will come again and again… if need be a trillion times as long as I know one stay brother is left behind.” Master’s promise to us.

The Guru loves us just as we are right now. Does the mother love the baby any less because he doesn’t know how to walk yet? We do not have to earn the Guru’s love. Our shortcomings do not bother the Guru. The Guru focuses on the divine potential of each disciple.

Jesus reached out with compassion and understanding to his disciples. He offered his unconditional love to all who were receptive. Jesus saw a divine strength in Peter to build a foundation for his teachings. His love and faith in Peter was unchanged, even though Peter denied him three times. Even Judas was not forsaken by Jesus. Jesus had long before accepted Judas as a disciple. Judas earned salvation in India in the 20th century from Jesus.

Ordinary love is selfish. Divine love is without condition, boundary and change.

“The Guru’s Love” – a poem written by a westerner in the 1950s… “You may come to him for a few seconds… his love is unchanging…”

Precious unchanging love is eternal. We hold a secure place in the relationship incarnation after incarnation. Guru watches over us from birth to death. He is calling to our souls.

Babaji to Lahiri Mahasaya: “Though you lost sight of me… never did I lose sight of you… I followed you like a mother following her young.”

Eternal and unconditional. The Divine love and friendship between Guru and disciple is eternal and without condition. Human love often contains conditions.

Sri Yukteswar to Master: “I give you my unconditional love.” Master was received back by Sri Yukteswar after he left him. Sri Yukteswar: “I do not expect anything for anyone… so then actions can not be in opposition to me. I am happy only in your true happiness.”

“A new commandment I give unto men – that ye loved one another as I have loved you. ~ Jesus’ to his disciples.

“Only love can take my place.” Master’s promise to Ma, but words meant for all of us.

“Lord, Thou has given this monk a large family.” ~ last line in AY Master thought of convocation as a large family.

The Guru’s love is also personal – the Guru/Disciple relationship is personal. Sometimes it’s hard to feel in our hearts that Master came for us. The Guru extends his hand to each disciple personally.

We deepen our personal relationship with the Guru by feeling he is always by our side.

Each disciple has a personal story to tell about how Master came into their lives. The Guru’s love embraces every disciple. Never doubt your Guru’s love.

How can each of us experience the Guru’s love and friendship in a tangible way? How can we deepen our relationship? We have to start where we are right now and build on that relationship. Some of us are motivated by feeling, some by reason. We have to nurture the relationship each day. There is great joy and comfort in saying the Guru’s affirmations.

When one has found one’s Guru, one should have unconditional devotion to the Guru.

Both head and heart has a place in all relationships. A mutual give and take of love and trust and loyalty.

There must be a foundation of give and take. The Guru’s hand is always extended to the disciple. The more we reach out, the more we open ourselves to receive his love. By giving our heart’s devotion to the Guru and by receiving the Guru’s love in return, we know what it’s like to love God. Love and friendship need to flow both ways. Sri Yukteswar promised Master his unconditional love and then asked Master if he would offer him the same.

When we give our love to the Guru, he takes it and gives it to God.

Open communication, sharing of hearts and minds. We can be completely open with our Guru and feel safe. The disciple bears his soul to the Master. The Master bears his heart to the disciple.

Take your joys and problems to your Guru. Don’t be shy – he knows everything anyway. He is completely open when we bear our souls to Him.

Never try to deceive the Guru, because you cannot. He is right inside our heart and feels every one of our thoughts. Look for ways of thinking the Guru near.

Keep photographs of the Guru in many places you frequent during the day. Look at his picture and talk to him. Look at him at eye level so you can look right into his eyes. Sister keeps a picture nearby and starts her day talking to the Guru.

One who knows God can be a voice for the silent God.

Chant with him. Feel you are in Master’s presence as you listen to his voice, for indeed you are.

Hold Master’s hand when you want to keep him close. Sri Yukteswar held Master’s hand and led him to his first residence.

We have to learn to trust the Guru and the Guru’s love. His is pure, unconditional and eternal love.

How can we trust that the Guru’s love will always be there for us? Give Master the love you have felt for deceased loved ones.

We have to know and trust that the Guru is looking out for us. He has a better vantage point. He knows our past, present, and future. Like a wise father/mother, he may withhold things from us.

If we look back over our lives, we can see Master’s hand in our lives. Lay your desires at Master’s feet. When we trust the Guru, we are blessed with a tranquil heart.

Loyalty must flow both ways. The Guru will never forsake you. He will faithfully guide you back to God.

“I will be your friend from now to eternity, even if you err, for then you will need my friendship more than any other time” ~ Master

Our Guru will even embrace us with his love, no matter how many mistakes we make. Once the Guru has been found, you need to remain loyal to him through death and eternity.

Open your heart and keep him close in your thoughts.

How to realize his help and guidance in our lives? He is ever present. Never doubt he will always give his help to us. God’s love flows through the Master, to those whose are receptive to his transforming touch.

In AY, there are many stories of disciples being blessed by the Master’s transforming touch. Lahiri Mahasaya didn’t recognize Babaji until Babaji touched him on the forehead.

Sri Yukteswar possessed a transforming power. At his touch, a transforming light went through his being.

To be touched by a Master’s hand only requires inner attunement, not a physical touch. We want to become attuned so we can be receptive to the Guru’s touch.

What does the Guru’s help look like? We have to know and follow his guidance. Without attunement we can’t be receptive to the Guru’s guidance. Never doubt the Guru’s ability to help. God’s power flows through the Master to the disciple as long as the disciple is receptive. We might know we need the Guru’s help, but we might have expectations as to what this help looks like. We need to be receptive. Pray to attune yourself to the Guru.

How to attune ourselves? It naturally grows as we work on our personal relationships to the Guru.

Right activity and meditation – a balancing act. The long arm of Maya reaches in and pulls us away from balance and meditation. Every truth seeker should be able to express the dual nature of Martha & Mary (from the Hoffmann painting) – dutiful actions and absorbed meditation on God – a life of balance.

If we think of the Guru strongly at the beginning of meditation, he will strengthen our meditations. We can ardently attune ourselves with the Guru when we meditate on his picture.

Meditation is the time to set aside our worldly concerns to offer our devotion to God and Guru. So at the end of meditation, we can ask questions to the Guru. If concentration on the guru is deep, we will receive insights. If our concentration is deep enough, we will get answers in the form of new inner perceptions.

Study the Guru’s teachings. Start your day by reading something of Master’s. God speaks through a devotee through the teachings.

We have to have a willingness to change ourselves’ when we put Guru’s teachings into practice, we will begin to change.

The world is a school but many treat it as a playground. Work in partnership with the Guru.

Although the Guru is willing to come back a million times, no one wants to be the stray brother he comes back for. Know his unconditional love supports us at all times. When we feel loved and accepted as we are it makes it easier to introspect and see what we need to change in our lives. We have come so far already. We have a practical tool for affirmation. It takes the will and willingness to change:

I can change!
I have the will to change!
I will change!

It’s amazing the ability we have to change. The Guru’s sole purpose is to guide us to self-realization.

Take the Master’s hand and let him guide you.

2010 Convocation – “Create a Life of Spiritual and Material Success” ~ Brother Satyananda

At Young Adult Satsangas Brother Satyananda is often asked “How can we be successful in life?” Brother, in turn, asks them “How do you define success?” Success is defined by the following:

1) in order to be successful in life we need to experience God

2) a quality lifestyle that balances the spiritual and material

3) useful work that contributes to mankind and the planet.

What are the finer things in life? Happiness that grows within our hearts. Life is complex, and it is constantly changing. Maya affects us, so we need a fluid life strategy that keeps us focused on our goal. With Raja yoga we can look forward and backwards at the same time.

So how do we create a fluid life strategy? By looking at the 4 ashrams of Vedic life as presented in the Bhagavad Gita. The 4 ashrams follow universal pattern of evolving human needs while providing a classical concept with a new millennium update. Brother presents this concept for you to develop on your own soul journey—we need to apply these to our personal lives.

The 4 ashrams:

1)Bramacharya: celibate student life (for youth: early teens to early 20’s). In ancient times this stage was spent living in an ashram with a Guru. During this time samskars (sleeping desires and habits, some of which are good and some of which are not) — karmic seeds — are waiting to sprout. Samskars awaken before attunement with God develops. Satan lays a vicious trap. Samskars awaken before wisdom awakens. Samskars and blind-will spell trouble. Wisdom guided will—attunement with God needs to be developed. Lesson 2—evolution of human will, blind will, wisdom-guided will.

There is an ancient antidote: discipline (self-discipline) which helps with samskars in youth.

In this age we don’t have hermitages, but we do have resilience. Resilience is a soul quality. One caring parent or one wise adult can bring out the resilience in children. This will encourage self-control and self-discipline. Read the chapter in the Autobiography of a Yogi entitled “Years in My Master’s Hermitage” as this chapter will teach you much about parenting.

If anger manifests itself at an early age, the parent (s) will need to discipline and teach transmutation (tense and relax). Parents can watch children and observe virtues and encourage them. A wise sage would cultivate virtues and notice natural virtues. Encourage good qualities in a child.

Success in the first Bramacharya sets the course for the next stage. One ashram lived wisely offers more opportunity. For teens to be cautiously courageous they need to be set on a wise course. Don’t be afraid, but don’t be stupid—the world eats stupid for lunch. As confidence grows, you can take risks.

Since ancient times we have had two lifestyles: householder and monastic (the role of monastic is the road less traveled by). Brother has been a monastic for 35 years, since 1975. Brother Anandamoy didn’t believe Brother wanted to be a monk but Brother persisted, and when Brother Satyananda got accepted Brother Anandamoy became his champion. When he first got his acceptance letter Brother Satyananda went and sat on the bluffs in Encinitas and cried.

For people choosing to live as single, Brother said Guruji has many fine disciples living a single life, especially women disciples content in their single lives. There is no stigma attached to being a single. Be honorable about it. From Whispers from Eternity, Brother read “Oh Lord may I realize……..thou and Guru will always be my only eternal friend.” Choose your direction in life.

2)Garhasthya: married householder life; young yogis; building families; building a shelter, a sanctuary; it’s a season to create a network & a lifeline of friends (usually encompasses the 20’s and 30’s)

Master sat alone in Boston and prayed, “Lord send me devotees and friends.”

This ashram stage usually involves building a family and professional life. This also needs to be a sanctuary. A sacred place in the home has value. Modern spiritual living can be a lonely enterprise. Master came here with no friends. God gives us blood family, but we choose our friends. Our community becomes our family. Indian families come to America and adopt people into their families—honorary family members: the godfather and godmother concept is expanded and they are treated as their own. We can adopt spiritually minded friends as family. Brother created a new term to describe this: nuclear spiritual family—this is something we can build. A nuclear spiritual family consists of those who love to care for others, and it’s important for singles to have their own spiritual family. Convocation is a place to expand our nuclear spiritual family. Glendale Temple has created caring friends to help people expand their nuclear spiritual families by helping those in need.

There is a sattvic approach to each profession. We can find a specialty that has a sattvic portion and we can advance Dwapara Yuga and this will attract Dwapara people to us. Our high spiritual values aren’t always compatible with our profession. Put spirituality on your resume—you can state it in many ways. Dwapara values are in demand. Aim for the best, the top of each profession. We can find a specialty that is a sattvic specialty. Master told us to become world citizens. Create a dynamic balance with God as the center.

Let your bright light shine. Good persons should not hide their good soul qualities. Extremely wealthy people are no more secure than the average person. Charity is an ancient form of giving—give to support Guruji’s work: affordable contributions activate karmic law and help the devotee. Serving and giving creates a partnership with the Guru.

3) Vanaprastha: retirement and contemplation (50’s, 60’s and early 70’s)

Step back from life a bit; restructure, rejuvenate and aim towards a deeper spiritual life. The empty nest is a wonderful opportunity to make a quantum life shift. The empty nest allows one to create a hermitage, clearing the heart to inspire divine inspiration. Do a makeover—don’t carry burdens to the grave. It’s normal for human beings to carry burdens to the grave. We can reboot ourselves now.

Possessions—we have too much stuff. Unload the junk. Get rid of stuff you don’t use but feel you can’t live without. Brother used the analogy of “Pandora’s Box” to describe how he gets rid of stuff. When he doesn’t have room for stuff anymore he puts it in a box underneath his bed and when the box gets full he puts a lid on it and donates it. He doesn’t look in the box or he’d take stuff out and put it back on the shelf. If you do this you don’t know what you give away but you’ll be better off for it.

Daya Ma keeps only what she uses, which is a quality of simplicity. Ma keeps gifts for a little while, uses them gratefully, and then she gives them away. In that way the blessing of the gift continues.

We arrive at this ashram stage of life overweight and under exercised. We have not taken the best care of ourselves. The body is resilient and can be replenished. We need to rejuvenate at this time of life. Brother offered the following tips for taking care of the physical body:

1) Right eating—educate yourself: calories consumed should equal calories burned.
2) Eat more sattvic foods: less salt and less sugar
3) Never eat more than you can digest
4) Medically supervised fasting can balance energy (one day a week on juices; one day a month on fruit)
5) Exercise more: we don’t exercise enough

You can be stronger at 50 than you were at 30. Engage in right thinking for a renewal of the heart and mind. We need to cleanse our consciousness and cleanse our heart. Take inventory and begin to purify your system and renew. We can love the new life. This is about recalibrating our life, putting God more into our lives. Use the wisdom of experience to build new dreams. Refresh our dreams to match our spiritual aspirations. Put God first.

Imagineering: making dreams happen. Visualize a new you with a new lifestyle. Think about what your day would be like as a modern yogi. Dream about these things even if they seem impossible. Dreams start with the impossible. The summer 2010 issue of the SRF magazine has an article by Master on imagination. The Guru supports your wisdom-guided dreams.

Regarding sex and celibacy: it’s ever fed and never satisfied. Sex becomes a routine and we think we need sex more than we do. A new paradigm forms: sexual desire can subside and passion for God can increase. Celibacy can occur naturally like the breathlessness in Hong Sau. With right spiritual living desire for sex can subside and longing for God can increase. Read more about Spiritual Marriage (pgs. 1204-1205) in The Second Coming of Christ. Love should be uppermost as sex is replaced by soul-communion.

The last two ashrams can deepen our relationship with God. Emotional and spiritual intimacy=sitting in silence together and enjoying God together.

4) Sannyas: monastic life

The last ashram—allows for more love with God. True friends can share silence with each other. Open new doors and windows of possibilities. The last portion of ashram life is most important because it is what you will be at the beginning of the next life. We need a new paradigm for material and spiritual success. Ignorance with fear and death is not for the elderly. This stage is a hermitage of freedom through universal love.

Seniors are more content, more satisfied, and have greater understanding. Sister Gyanamata said of old age that it was the richest time in her life, a hermitage of freedom through renunciation.

Don’t waste time on pettiness. At this stage you have freedom to choose how much time you spend with family. You need boundaries. You are free to redefine family expectations. There might be complaints and criticism but there will be acceptance. For human love to become divine it must not have attachment. Have non-exclusivity in human relationships: care for all equally, always honoring free will. Set boundaries and redefine expectations to suit your spiritual life.

The greatest love you can experience is the universal love between you and God that you experience in meditation. There will come into your life a love like no other: the love of God and Guru.

Take from Brother’s talk the idea of sewing seeds of an ancient concept in a new way. This is our soul journey. Do a little bit of thinking and planning.

And do your spiritual homework.

2010 Convocation – Satsanga ~ Brother Sevananda

Question: Explain God to us. Sat Chit Ananda: ever conscious, ever new bliss. God will answer prayers and guide us. The ego knows that by philosophizing we keep God “out there”.

Question: How do you meditate? When meditating, it’s difficult not to intellectualize. Master said tune in and “get my meaning.” The difference between meditation and concentration is that meditation is the application of concentration. Use Master’s teachings and keep as simple as we can. The real education is to practice and then we can go back and study.

Question: How do we be still and know that I am God? Look at Man’s Eternal Quest. Practice the techniques and find out their meaning. It’s God talking to us. Know the aspects of God in you as peace, wisdom, and bliss. Keep the body still; still minds and settled thoughts become calm and clear.

Every person at sometime has a spiritual experience. Bro. as a child felt that presence, but wondered where God came from. God is the creator of the universe but spirit is the creator of God. The nature of sprit is beautiful and can’t be questioned.

Question: Please talk about animals. The devotee had to put their cat Pumpkin to sleep on Friday and is missing her so much that they feel like crying. Bro. says “cry, of course. It’s your pet. You loved it.”

Saints show poise when the rest of us would fall apart. In Mejda, when Ananta passed before cremation the body was placed on a cot outside the door. Father asked for cover to be removed and gazed longingly on his child’s face. On the following days father went about his routine. What power had father mastered to stay serene? Saints may not react outwardly but that doesn’t mean they don’t feel inside.

Emotions are energy and we can allow it to flow through us. When Sister Gyanamata passed there were tears in Master’s eyes. She was free, but Master had tears of love because on this side he would miss her. Each time we recall a little pain, when each one passes away, rejoice in the astral world. Expand hearts to loved ones.

Question: Is it possible to love someone unconditionally and be detached? Yes if you love them unconditionally you want what’s best for the person and be unattached. To attain divine love, we go through an unconditional state. We still care, but more so since we are detached. Read in The Divine Romance, “How Feelings Mask the Soul”. If something is mine, it’s my responsibility to keep it for all and see that it’s available to others. We own it but it’s not ours. It belongs to God really.

Question: Master writes about protecting loved ones. Please talk about parents protecting kids. Love them unconditionally. Believe it or not, they’re going to be okay. Set boundaries when they’re in your house. But we all have free will.

Our guru follows us wherever we go. We’re all equally special. We’ll all come back. We can’t save loved ones from those hard knocks. If an avatar can’t protect a person are prayers to no avail. Prayer has to help as it releases positive energy. Let go, meditate and leave it in God’s hands. Go to God and we’ll have safety forever for ourselves and those we love.

Question: Why are so many photos of Guru displayed? Isn’t this considered Guru worship? Master can give guidance. The reaction can be understandable to new people until they understand better. We have to deepen our understanding and get comfortable.

Bro. tells the story of Helen Keller who had an incredibly full life but if she’d been able to see she would have wanted to see the face of her dear teacher, Anne Sullivan. Our Guru loves us unconditionally.

Question: How do we pray for others? Last fall in the magazine Ma had an article on prayer. Help others with prayers—meditate deeply. Keep in touch with the omnipresent power.

2010 Convocation – “Deepening Our Practice of Meditation” ~ Swami Smaranananda – Board of Directors, YSS India

Love and greetings from Guruji’s ashram in India! Today, I am going to discuss guidelines to make meditation deeper and sweeter.

Man needs motivation to succeed in any endeavor.

What is the purpose of life? To live in perpetual joy.

Scriptures of the higher age say that perpetual joy can only be found in God. Meditation is the most effective way to contact the God of love and joy.

Swami tells a story of a man in a graveyard. A person is walking at night in a graveyard. It was dark and the path was not clear. He fell in a ditch. The ditch was deep and he couldn’t find a foothold. He was sitting in a corner. A second person fell in. The first person wanted to have fun and changed his voice. He completely frightened the second man who thought he heard a ghost. The second man found a way out of the ditch. He found motivation to get out!

The ghost of disease, disappointment, and misunderstanding are waiting. Why wait for a calamity to strike you to move?

Right now we should start thinking about God. We are not assured that our problems are solved, but the fears that come from them can dissipate with meditation.

No matter what happens to you – you can still be happy and joyful. This is the motivation for meditation.

Attitude

Start meditation with good intention. Why do you want to meditate? Ask yourself each time. Meditation is a good habit. I promised Guruji I would meditate 2 times a day.

“I am meditating now because God is waiting for me.” – This is the right attitude!

Put yourself in the presence of God and the Gurus then start meditation.

Brother Anandamoy was working in the retreat when our Guru was there. One day he finished his work in the morning and took a break for meditation. Brother Anandamoy went to the rooftop to meditate. He heard footsteps and assumed it was Master. He felt he was meditating with Guruji and went really deep. Later on, someone grabbed his foot and he realized it was the ashram dog. It was the thought that Guruji was sitting next to him that made him go deep.

This is why we have an opening prayer. Inviting God and Guru into our meditation.

Thoughts & Concentration

If you have a problem with thought in meditation, you are not alone – millions of people have this problem. We can minimize the effect. You may not have any control on thoughts that come and go.

You have no control over the birds flying over head, but you can control a bird from making a nest on your head. With thoughts, let them come and go – don’t let them make a nest in your mind. Passing thoughts won’t disturb you, but don’t let yourself brood over a thought.

Sometimes Swami catches himself brooding. When he is thinking a brooding thought, he switches to a happy thought. He replaces the brooding thought with a pleasant thought. But don’t make it a habit and go from thought to thought.

You have to take a lot of soil to get 5 grams of gold. You have to process, process, process. If you sit for 15 minutes of meditation, you won’t have 15 minutes of deep meditation. Be realistic and don’t expect the whole meditation to be filled with joy. To get 10 minutes of joy, you need to sit for 60 minutes.

Take a glass and pour muddy water in it. The mud starts settling down until you have a clear glass of water. But it takes time. Same with meditation. Thoughts start settling and then you have a clean period when you can commune with God in stillness. Remember that with meditation the clarity that comes with meditation takes time.

Give enough time to practice techniques so you can have clarity.

The first 5 minutes of meditation are the most important because it sets a tone for the whole meditation. Practice the presence, chant, chant OM, etc. If you have a problem getting started, get up and come back to meditate later.

Group meditations help newcomers and veterans. We have a lot of inspiration this week at convocation. When you get back home, you lose the inspiration. When you lose it, get back to a group. Do a group meditation once a week or 2 weeks. The vibrations are high. The inspiration will always be there.

When small streams meet a larger water, devotion is assured. Same with group meditation. Master has put a lot of importance on group meditation.

Regularity

The most dangerous attitude is unwillingness to meditate. Delusion’s job is to keep man away from God. Regular meditations will help us to overcome unwillingness. Regularity is the key to most meditation issues such as keeping an erect spine, concentration, etc.

Never think whether to meditate or not – just sit down and meditate. Don’t ask yourself if you should meditate because you will find a reason not to meditate. Do you think to eat or sleep at night? When it comes to meditation, you think you have an option.

Meditation is essential. Why question it?

We need to meditate in the morning before we do any duties. To live a life free from worries and fears we need to meditate.

You don’t know if your meditation will be deep or shallow – leave that up to the Guru. Regularity of meditation is your responsibility.

Regularity is your only investment. You will get more than you needed.

If you start walking towards God, God starts running towards you.

Regularity should be an important part of your 25% effort. It’s our job to be regular in meditation, but the Guru’s job to help us go deeper in meditation.

Faith

One needs to have faith in the path one has chosen and in the Guru. But that’s not enough. One needs to have faith in oneself.

Do you have faith in yourself? We believe that Daya Ma has found God, but myself? No. We say subconsciously that we are no where close to the consciousness of a saint. But God is for everyone.

“The only difference between you and Yogananda is that I made the effort.” ~ Master

Every day is a new day to find God. Don’t impose conditions on yourself. God doesn’t put conditions on you. This year in meditation, you can have a response from God. Don’t put conditions on yourself. Have faith in you! Your last 364 meditations aren’t what is important. Today’s meditation is! In this evening’s meditation you can have a response from God.

Be cautious about your expectations about God’s response. Don’t impose conditions on God. At the end of meditation you’ll be able to feel a sense of well-being in your heart. You may not have a solution to your problems, but it’s okay. You have deep peace, joy, and well-being in your heart. That is a response from God. Don’t have any conditions – don’t avoid meditating because you are in a bad mood or too busy or too troubled.

Master says millions will find God by following this path. Thoughts of an avatar cannot be taken lightly. If so many millions are going to find God, can’t you be one of them? Why not? Definitely, you can be a part of the millions. Have faith in yourself. You don’t start your search with Kriya Yoga, you end your search with Kriya Yoga. Thousands of incarnations you have had sadhana. This is the climax, the last leg. Have faith.

Stillness

Our meditations have 5 stages:

1. Prayer – in an opening prayer evoke the presence of God from your heart with your own words.

2. Chanting or Reading (if you are alone). Do this to feel devotion.

3. Meditation Techniques

4. Practice of Stillness

5. Practice of Devotion

Don’t skip stillness! Step #5 is very important, but before that you need to sit in stillness. Enjoy the benefit of practicing the techniques. You feel the presence of God and Guru in the stillness

Swamiji chants Om Guru over and over – then puts himself in the presence of the Guru in his heart. You are in the heart of the Guru. He visualizes the picture of Master and the puppy. Just before Christmas he brings in Christ.

Be in the consciousness. Be one with the Guru. There is no talking. Just be with the Guru. The stillness will always come with the sense of joy. Experiencing, not thinking. Listening, not telling. God will be listening, too. This is time for communion – communing with your higher self. This can happen only in stillness. Then go to the devotional stage. At the end pray for yourself.

One or two keys – regularity and practice of stillness are more important in the practice of our meditations. In meditation, listen to God and God will listen to you.

Techniques are vehicles that take us to meditation. Stillness is meditation.

Of a 60 minute meditation, plan the last 15 minutes for stillness.

Rotate meditation techniques with stillness. Do 10 minutes of Hong Sau, feel stillness for a few minutes. Then Om, stillness, then Kriya, then stillness. After Kriya, longest period of stillness. Don’t race from one technique to another to another. Put stillness in between.

You want to feel so still and deep that you don’t want to get up. Stillness will do this.

We live in a world where we focus on dessert. Same with meditation. What am I getting out of it?

Be like a noble officer with dignity and loyalty who knows that all his needs are being taken care of. Don’t look for immediate or daily rewards. If you look for a result, you will be disappointed. Just meditate.

Lack of results does not mean you are being denied. No meditation goes in vain – it goes into your astral bank account!

Convocation 2010 – “Kriya Yoga: The Royal Path to God-Realization” ~ Brother Vishwananda

Brother started off by saying it was a great joy and blessing to be there this evening. His topic goes to the heart of why we are here. Then he had an affirmation for the crowd that encapsulated his talk:

I set aside
All thoughts and cares
Of this material world
To go within
To be alone with thee

Our Guru gave us these beautiful words; it’s sort of as if we’re here saying these words with him. SRF is bringing the original ideas of Christ and Krishna so all people can follow one highway to the infinite.

One day Bro. accompanied Bro. Anandamoy to LAX to receive a Bro. from India. He asked Bro. A. if he’d like to sit and Bro. A said no. The plane was 2 hours late and Bro. A stood at the railing watching people pass—finally the visiting Swami came out and Bro. A said to Bro. V “just think, one day they’ll all be free.” Most people don’t know where they are coming from or where they are going; they are lost. Bro. A. was seeing those souls as God sees them.

What is going on in this world? The world is in chaos with a crisis on every level: financially, spiritually, and educationally. Our need is to understand one of the greatest revelations of our teachings. Sri Yukteswar talks of the Yuga we are in. We are coming out of the darkest age and we are several hundred years aged in Dwapara Yuga. Mankind is evolving. Dwapara Yuga is magnified by us becoming more aware of electrical energies. Bro. used several examples of this including one of the first computers made in 1943 (it actually wasn’t completed until 1946) at the University of Pennsylvania. This computer weighed almost 50 tons.

Mankind has become more aware of energies and Kriya Yoga is evidence of this. The science of Kriya Yoga is more than a technique: the science goes beyond the printed word. God sent a line of enlightened Gurus to bring this special dispensation to the world. God knew and knows what mankind is going thru. Kriya Yoga is a science based upon introducing the consciousness away from the material world to begin to experience the subtle energies in the body.

The science of Kriya Yoga follows the 8 steps of Patanjali:
1) Yama; 2) Niyama; 3) Asana; 4) Pranayama; 5) Pratyahara; 6) dharana; 7) dhyana; 8) Samadhi

Pranayama is the 4th step out of 8 and is a kriya yoga technique; the other four steps are experiences completely inside. 1) Yama is discipline and has the same latin root as disciple, meaning ready “to learn”; the corresponding Sanskrit word is tapas, which is heat, fire and purification: when you put something in the fire it gets purified. If we want to find out where mankind is going we need to focus on yama and niyama.

From the Holy Science: “Moral courage when attained removes all obstacles.” One comprehends his internal electricities. This state of mind is Dwapara and the heart becomes steady.

Where is mankind going? That’s the magic carpet ride—what God has given us—the means of salvation for this age. Bro. said that the roots of things that upset him are in yama and niyama. If you don’t follow these basics you will have a tug of war. This is the foundation of Kriya Yoga. Greed and lack of discipline are two huge problems.

The first sentence in The Autobiography of a Yogi is a proclamation of truth. An integral part of finding God is the Guru/Disciple relationship. That we are willing to introspect, that we accept Paramahansa Yogananda as our Guru means we are higher on the steps of evolution. Bro. told the story of when Master was handing out roses. The woman didn’t want they yellow rose he gave her—she wanted the red rose. He said, “You take what I give.”

You take what I give—why? Because the Guru see us in ways we do not; we need a guide—someone who has walked that path. In past lives we have worked hard with the yamas and niyamas. The Guru is able to see us as we don’t see ourselves. We need the Guru as someone who understands subtle energies. Master knows our past and our past desires. Master knows our present and future needs. We need to understand what a Guru is. He knows our karma, our tests and trials. He knows what we need.

There are those who come to SRF who can’t commit to the guru/disciple relationship. Some people have the idea they can change gurus. People go through hurdles before taking kriya yoga . Oftentimes the hurdle is a distrust of organizations. People don’t know what goes on in organizations, but Bro joked that he did and said it wasn’t all bad.

In a meeting with Ma they were talking about being broad-minded. She said, “before you can be broad-minded, you have to be one-pointed. A true guru is one who is one with God who does not live in delusion. Guruji is very much alive in spirit—alive in God. You need a guru to find God and you can’t question a Guru’s teachings—that comes directly from God. You have to have the attitude that you are a child of God. You are not this body or this restless mind. You can’t go here and there. You need to follow your Guru. Positive thinking—I can do this. I am a soul and I have a true Guru.

Brother Bimalananda had an attitude. During a satsanga at MC with Ma, Mas was reading Master’s teachings and she asked “is there someone here that loves Divine Mother as much as I do?” Bro. B jumped up and said, “Ma, I will!”. That’s an attitude. That’s a kriya yogi.

Sometimes life doesn’t seem to be fair. Life can be difficult and challenging even with the Guru’s teachings. Can 2 people ever agree on anything? There’s no perfection. No perfect plan. We live in a world of duality. Two people don’t agree on the same thing. There’s no perfection. No perfect plan. God sees the perfect plan. If we’re really following the teachings we will be able to see the plan of the Guru.

Persian carpet—one side is beautiful and the other side is crude. God sees the beautiful side.

The spiritual path isn’t that big. It’s only as long as the spine. Practice Kriya Yoga with an attitude like Brother Bimalananda’s. Ma said when dealing with people never let your consciousness fall below the heart chakra.

The purpose of life is to find your real true self.