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The post Attune to the Divine Plan for Your Life appeared first on Clarity Magazine.]]>
According to the divine plan, a soul exists in this world only to discover the purpose of life. Once he discovers that purpose, that soul does not have to reincarnate again. God intended to liberate each of us after a short wisdom-guided existence in this world, but we, through ignorance, prolong the misery of earthly life by reincarnating again and again.
A soul who is guided by cosmic wisdom knows that he came to this earth principally for the divine plan, through the medium of his own past actions. The person who has mastered his desires quickly sees that endless rebirths are caused by self-created desires. Such a person forsakes all fruits of actions and performs all actions with the sole desire to please God and to fulfill the divine plan. Actions performed with the thought of pleasing God produce no new karma.
No matter how wonderful the vocation you may be following, if it does not satisfy your heart, you can be certain you are not following the right path. Though they don't know it, most people form their innate heart's desire between the ages of three and twelve. Observe yourself carefully and you will find running under the current of your many desires a specific definite desire, which has been ignored. That ignored desire which has been always with you, coaxing you to open your mind and listen, is the real archangel of success which you should follow.
Perhaps someone started you on the path of working as a traveling salesman. You try your utmost, you think and plan, but you do not succeed. If you analyze yourself, you may find that from childhood you had an inclination to have a quiet home with a little garden to grow vegetables, where you could rest and enjoy peace, and perhaps occasionally paint a picture of the landscape.
Perhaps this desire to grow vegetables came percolating up through your subconscious from a prenatal existence, or by early residence on a farm, or perhaps it was strongly urged by someone who knows you very well. If your enthusiasm and ambition are already seized by the desire to be a farmer, why attempt to walk uphill against your own already formed tendencies?
The way best suited for you, based on a compromise between your idealism and the practical demands life, is the path you should follow. For instance, do not give up your desire for gardening, even if you can only have a garden in your backyard, even if you have to take a job in a city to earn money for your family's basic needs. Live in the country if possible and spend most of your weekends finding your peace and enjoyment by working in your garden.
Whatever path your heart's desire tells you is the royal highway of your life—that is the path you should follow in order to reach the abode of lasting peace and happiness. People are never happy travelling in the wrong direction.
Along with identifying your innate deepest ambition and building your moneymaking methods around it, the divine plan for your life requires that you not only consider the happiness of your own heart, but also try to include in your happiness the happiness of other needy ones.
Every day try to uplift a physically, mentally, or spiritually sick individual as you would a member of your own family. Only then will you fully satisfy your soul. Most people are unhappy because they forget to harmonize their earthly duties with the demands of the divine plan.
Make service rather than money your goal and you will see the entire plan of your life change. You will never be left out. The wise who perform all actions with the consciousness of God know that the divine plan does not compel a soul to be born again and again into this misery-making world. You are on the right path when you concentrate not on the fruits of your actions but on performing your duties only to please God, in the understanding that all duties are assigned to you by Him.
People are wrong when they assume it is impossible to carry out business projects successfully without desiring the fruits of one's actions. The truth is that when people in business work mainly for themselves and their own material gain, they are not nearly as alert, wise, and happy as when they perform their duties just to please God.
To work with non-attachment does not mean one should work like an automaton without any thought of the results to be gained from one's activities. It means, rather, that one should find contentment in working energetically to fulfill the divine plan in life without thinking of oneself as the sole beneficiary of one's actions.
The fruit of actions performed only to please God not only satisfies the divine plan but benefits the actor without entangling him in mundane desires. Thus, any individual who performs duties only to please God can remain in the world in a state of liberation and, after death, will not be forced to be reborn.
In other words, every individual can eat, sleep, walk, exercise, look after his family, safeguard his health, earn money, and do good deeds in the world to please God rather than to satisfy selfish desires. A person who performs actions only to please God is untouched by success or failure and enjoys the satisfaction of a peaceful conscience which is happy to work for God. It is only when our actions fail to fulfill the divine plan for our lives that we suffer.
As a soul tries to find out what activities he should perform according to the divine plan, he discovers that he has to work out many tendencies born of his egotistical desires in former incarnations. The Bhagavad Gita teaches that the devotee should work out such tendencies by performing all actions just to please God.
For example, if by virtue of egotistical desires one was a businessman in a former incarnation, and later, through disillusionment with business life followed by death, was reborn in the house of a spiritual teacher or a yogi, such a soul should perform the duties of his present life with the thought of pleasing God alone.
If this particular individual feels the urge to repeat a material business life, he should eliminate that desire through discrimination, telling himself, "I will pursue only the divine duty of knowing God in this life, and nothing else." If, however, he does not find satisfaction with an exclusively spiritual focus, he should also carry on a material activity, saying to himself, "Since I am impelled by desires of a former incarnation to carry on a business, I will work out this desire by performing my duties to please God, not my egotistical self."
Strong prenatal evil tendencies can be severed by the sword of wisdom. When one is unable to do that, finding his spirit willing but his flesh weak, he should ask the aid of God to release him from activities compelled by powerful subconscious tendencies which suppress his power of discrimination.
Earth life is not predestined. Every human being is given free choice to accept the divine plan of existence or to follow the path of ignorance and misery. Hence each person should use his free choice to find out those duties of life which please God and ensure liberation from the wheel of birth and death.
If, from today, you live according to the laws of God, then no matter how small the part you may be playing on the stage of life, you will know that you have been playing your part rightly, as directed by the Stage Manager of all our destinies. And remember, your part, however small, is just as important as the biggest parts in contributing to the success of the divine plan. Make a little money and be satisfied by living a simple life and expressing your ideals, rather than have lots of money and worries without end.
Even though it may be difficult for a person to know what his life's duties are, still, if he lives rightly, the voice of his inner conscience will guide him to the right thing that he should do in everything. Essential to this process is the practice of meditation, which alone can truly change a person. Through the regular practice of meditation, a person can more quickly work out the errors of many lives, regain the forgotten perfection of the soul, and begin to perform all actions only to please God. Such a person lives on earth with divine approval and great inner satisfaction. At the end of this life, he is devoid of all reincarnation-making desires and becomes liberated in God.
Such people, when they meet failure in spite of mathematically planned business ventures, are not discouraged but try continuously to work successfully to please God alone. Similarly, when they meet with prosperity they are not unduly elated and are content with the thought that they have pleased God by successful activity.
Hence, the Gita says: "Avoid egotistical activity and non-activity; concentrate on intelligently, ambitiously, and intuitively acting only to please God through the guidance of conscience."
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The post Keys to Transcending Ego and Negativity appeared first on Clarity Magazine.]]>
Swami Kriyananda gave a marvelous definition of the ego as "a bundle of self-definitions." Through many lifetimes the ego's tendencies evolve: from dull and brutish, to clever but self-interested, to altruistic and self-sacrificing, and, finally, to saintly. Only then are we ready to drop the ego altogether in the realization that we are eternal beings of light. A vital first step in this process is to let go of negative self-definitions.
There are two ways we can look at ourselves. There are our actions, on the one hand, and our thoughts and emotional reactions on the other. We can control our actions to a certain extent, but it's much more difficult to control our negative thoughts and emotional reactions. However, we can learn to do this by catching the negative reaction before it becomes strongly engrained in the mind.
Paramhansa Yogananda said that if we start to become mentally critical of someone or to speak in a negative way about another person, we should immediately start speaking ill of ourselves. Doing that begins to reverse the pattern of thought that looks at the world outside of ourselves and deems it inadequate: "This doesn't measure up to what I want." "This isn't good enough." "That isn't how I'd do it." All such thoughts separate us from God because God is just as much in the other person or situation as in us.
A dear friend of ours gave us a wonderful bit of advice on this issue. She said that if she ever starts speaking critically of someone, she will always at least end her statement by saying, "Just like me." This is an excellent solution, because it takes us off the pedestal. Instead of saying, "I don't have that problem. I'm without flaws," we are saying, "How can I be better than anybody else?"
When somebody once addressed Christ by saying, "Good Master," Christ replied, "Why call you me good? The only one that is good is our father who is in heaven." Any virtue that we have, anything about us that people admire, is God expressing through us. It's not we in our limited humanity.
Whenever Swami Kriyananda did something remarkable, people might say, "Oh, Swami, what a wonderful lecture," or "What a wonderful book." Always he would respond by saying, "God is the Doer." That understanding was the secret of how he was able to accomplish so much in his life: He always acted with the awareness that God was the Doer.
Kriyananda once told the humorous story of the time he was working on a new book and someone praised him for his writing. The next day, when he returned to the book, he thought, "I'd better work very hard at this, because I don't want to let my public down." As soon as he had that thought he could think of nothing more to write, because he was in his ego and there was no divine flow. He then laughed at himself and said, "I'm not doing this. God is doing this through me." Always try to catch such reactions before they become an engrained pattern.
You can change today if you make up your mind not to express negative thoughts towards any person or situation in your life. Instead of saying, "This isn't the way I like it," simply say, "Let God take care of it." When you do that, you discover that the situation usually resolves itself.
The words we use are extremely important. Language is how we articulate our perceptions, but it affects those very perceptions in turn. Just as the words you use to describe someone become the way you view him, so also do the words you use to describe yourself become your self-image. One of the easiest and most powerful ways to refine your bundle of self-definitions is to make sure to use positive not negative words. Try to have a positive acceptance of your accomplishments. This leads to having positive expectations and, therefore, courage when undertaking something new or challenging.
Train your mind to use positive words. It is not that hard. If the habit of negativity is deep, it may take some time and effort but, if you are watchful, you can catch yourself and substitute positive terminology for negative. Cease to see yourself as "a failure," and instead become "determined to succeed." See all others, too, through a positive lens. Our words, you see, are self-fulfilling.
Swami Kriyananda once told us, after we had received a critical letter from someone, "You are doing the best you can for who you are." This has long been our fallback position: If we don't feel we have succeeded, we don't say we "can't do it," but rather, "We're doing the best we can for who we are. We'll do it better the next time."
Little steps lead to great accomplishments. Positive egoic definitions lead finally to the only true self-definition: "I am one with God."
Usually we can prevent ourselves from doing something negative, but it's also possible to do a good thing with the wrong motivation. What you're doing may be impressive in the eyes of others, but if you're doing it to get praise or recognition, it's tainted by ego.
A man who was adept at the more esoteric yoga postures once visited Anandamayi Ma, the great woman saint of India who is mentioned in Autobiography of a Yogi, and offered to demonstrate them for her. However, while he was showing her some very difficult postures, she was looking off into space. She responded in this way because he wasn't doing the postures with the right spirit. He was doing them with the thought, "Look at me and how impressive I am."
If you're not doing your spiritual techniques with the spirit, "Lord, I am offering this to You in devotion with all the sincerity of my heart," then you are not doing them in the right way.
Always be sincere with God. There's no prototype of what it looks like to be spiritual. What a particular person is doing may look totally bizarre, yet that person might be very close to God. Forget the form and focus on the spirit of what you are doing. The right spirit is simply to love God.
Radha was one of Krishna's greatest devotees. Once Krishna asked her, "Do you practice yoga and meditation?" She replied, "Oh, I would, Lord, but I think of you with such love that I can't stop long enough to be able to practice these things." The spirit behind the techniques is what keeps our sadhana fresh and expansive. Without that, our sadhana very quickly becomes uninspired and dry. Having met devotees from all over the world, it often seems that the ones who please God most are those humble souls who are not overly concerned with their own spiritual stature.
There was a time during the life of Jesus Christ when the Pharisees were determined to trick him into getting in trouble with the powers in Rome. One day they approached Jesus and said, "The publicans say we should pay a tribute to Rome; what say you?" With brilliance, insight, and without any rancor, Jesus said, "Hand me a coin." He held up the coin and asked, "Whose picture is this?" The Pharisees answered, "Caesar's." Jesus then said, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but render unto God what is God's." In other words, pay the world its due. Abide by it laws. But always give God first place in your heart.
The goal of the spiritual path is to shift our self-definition from the ego to the soul. The soul is our true nature and is aware of its unity with God. But our soul nature is usually hidden from us by the ego.
The closer we grow, through our love of God, toward a consciousness of unity with Him, the less we are bound by the limitations of this world. The closer we grow to the light, the more we live only in the spirit of God, and the more we see that we are all one.
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The post Lost in Transit appeared first on Clarity Magazine.]]>
It was a last-minute vacation inspired by a small window of free time at the end of our daughter's school year. I was able to find a reasonable airfare on a no-frills airline, and in order to save money on the high luggage fees, I packed my daughter's clothing and mine in a single suitcase. When we arrived in Paris early Saturday morning, my husband's suitcase was one of the first to come tumbling out of the luggage carousel but, after waiting until all the bags had been claimed, we realized that mine had been lost in transit. Nonetheless, I was certain that the suitcase would show up later in the day on another flight. After filling out the necessary paperwork, we went on our way and settled into the apartment we had rented for our stay.
Late that afternoon, after a beautiful day of strolling through the City of Lights, I called the baggage office and was told by the agent that unfortunately, our luggage had not been found. By that time, jet lag had set in, and without too much thought about the missing suitcase, we went to sleep. The next morning, when I called the baggage agency as directed, the news was the same: no luggage. "Please call back tomorrow."
Before leaving for our trip, I had purchased a few new items of clothing for myself, and my daughter. I had carefully selected what I would pack, conscious of the limited space in the shared bag, and had even tried on possible "outfits" to make sure everything I packed would look good together. At one point during this process, as I viewed myself in the mirror, I felt a gentle reminder from Divine Mother that I was putting too much energy into what I would wear and how I looked.
The truth is, I have always had an attachment to clothing. I worked for ten years in the fashion business as a clothing designer. As part of that work, I travelled to Paris and other European cities twice a year for inspiration and to attend trend shows. Since then, I have been aware of the strong connection between personal identity and clothing. Our clothing and personal style signifies to others, in overt or subtle ways, who we are, what we like and, in some cases, what our beliefs are.
During the time I was in the apparel design business, there was an unspoken understanding that as a designer one needed to look a certain way, especially when travelling abroad and representing a famous name brand. I had been immersed in these values for an entire decade of my life. Now, many years later, as I was packing for our family vacation, I realized that my earlier attachment to dressing a certain way was still part of my consciousness: When visiting Paris, I had to look good!
Monday came and went, but still no luggage. I purchased a few necessities for my daughter and myself and then washed our clothes at the laundromat next door. Tuesday morning, day four, brought ominous news: The airline didn't have any idea what had happened to my bag. Up until that point I had been fairly relaxed about the situation, enjoying the beauty of Paris and marveling that my nine-year-old daughter was positively giddy with the realization that she didn't have to change her clothes to go to bed.
When I heard this seemingly final declaration of loss from the airline, I had an unexpected visceral reaction: I felt sick to my stomach. This feeling of physical discomfort surprised me, but I realized at once that the causes were multilayered, reflecting deep issues relating to self-identity and attachment. I would have to make do with the casual travel clothing I had worn on the plane for the duration of our visit to the city of high fashion. Who was I, if I wasn't "in style"? Obviously my ego was involved.
The other issue related to material loss. Although I had been trying to apply the concept of inner renunciation to many areas of my life, I had to face the hard truth: I missed my stuff. I also knew I could fill the lost suitcase three times over with clothes in my closet at home, which made me self-critical and embarrassed over my feelings of loss.
I remembered what Swami Kriyananda had said: The spiritual path is directional. Renunciation in its various forms is a goal to which we aspire, and begins to happen quite naturally as we mature spiritually. But it is not something that can be forced upon someone who is not ready.
I went to the chair that I had been using for meditation, closed my eyes, and mentally went through the lost suitcase. I followed Swami Kriyananda's advice on dissolving attachments: to make a mental bonfire, check the feelings in my heart, and then toss all of my attachments into the fire, watching them burn to ashes one by one.
First, I mentally burned the idea that I should look a certain way while visiting Paris and made peace with the reality of my situation. Then I tossed into the mental bonfire each article of clothing in the lost suitcase: the well-loved sweater given to me years ago by a dear friend; my best dress and favorite jeans; the brand-new running shoes and other items I had purchased for the trip; a beautiful leather belt with a treasured vintage buckle; hair dryer; purse . . . all of my daughter's clothing. One by one I said goodbye.
After completing the purification ritual and then meditating, the stomachache was gone. I put the issue of the lost suitcase behind me and began to feel a sense of inner freedom.
Over the next few days, I began to realize how little I truly needed. I realized also how losing my suitcase had highlighted a powerful subliminal thought pattern tied to self-identity, which had obstructed my efforts to expand into a higher level of consciousness. I now saw the entire experience as a blessing from Divine Mother, a necessary step in my spiritual journey that enabled me to release mental debris left over from a long-forgotten time in my life.
We had been in Paris eight days when we received a call from the airline: the luggage had been found and would be delivered within the next 24 hours. The next evening, around 11:00 pm, the night before we were to leave to return to the United States, the buzzer rang. Behind the door, looking like an old friend turning up on the wrong day for a party, stood my luggage. As I dragged my heavy, overstuffed bag up the stairs and down the hall to the apartment, the metaphor of "my baggage" wasn't lost on me. I opened the suitcase and looked at all the items I hadn't needed. I thanked Divine Mother for returning them and for teaching me an important lesson.
I woke up very early the next morning in preparation for our flight, and while quickly checking emails was overcome with a sense of shock and loss. In disbelief, I read the news that one of our beloved gurubhais from Ananda New England had been killed in a car accident while driving home with her husband from a day of satsang with fellow devotees in Maine. As is often the case with sudden, unexpected loss, I felt as though I must have been dreaming: a beautiful, young friend, whom I had seen a few weeks before at our annual Kriya retreat—gone?
The taxi to the airport arrived within minutes of my learning this distressing news. With deep sadness and a heavy heart, I heaved the overstuffed bag into the trunk of the car. The expression "You can't take it with you when you go" was pounding in my head. The luggage now became emblematic of the process of individual incarnation. It occurred to me that before birth, our soul knows which desires and attachments we need "to wear" in our new incarnation for eventual purification and release, and it meticulously packs them into "the suitcase" of our life.
He travels fastest who travels lightly—so writes Swami Kriyananda in Sadhu Beware. My friend's sudden death was also a reminder that the spiritual journey is a solitary pact between each individual and God. When the lessons of this lifetime are learned, we shed the body and leave behind the people and things we've loved. The trip is over and we make our way back home, aware that everything we've ever truly needed we have carried within us all along.
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The post The Power to Transcend All Obstacles appeared first on Clarity Magazine.]]>
Paramhansa Yogananda told the story of how he had helped a youth named Jotin overcome his anger. Jotin had lost a number of jobs because of losing his temper too readily. Every time a boss scolded him, Jotin would become angry and slap him. Yogananda had previously taught Jotin to meditate, and Jotin now sought his advice on how to rid himself of anger. Yogananda told him that, while meditating, he should offer the habit upward, surround it with divine energy, and "let that energy wash away the habit you wish to destroy."
Every day, for weeks, Jotin practiced this simple technique. One day he told Yogananda gratefully, "Mukunda, I have overcome my anger." Yogananda decided to test Jotin to determine whether the change was firmly established. Recalling the many enemies Jotin had made, Yogananda told a few of them to do everything they could to make Jotin angry. They all gave it a good try, but Jotin never faltered for a moment. He had, indeed, overcome his anger.
Paramhansa Yogananda often said, "In one gram of flesh there's enough potential energy to keep a whole city in electricity for a week." You have that energy within you, but it has to be released. How do you release it? You do that not only by withdrawing the energy from false channels and having it available for your own use, but also by directing the energy in an upward way so that it becomes reinforced by the Divine. The more that you can take whatever energy you have and offer it up to God, the more it becomes a divine power which has no limit.
If you have a quality you want to overcome, think of the opposite quality that you want to develop. Jotin did not meditate on his anger; he meditated on the thought of peace. Anything you meditate on will become stronger. Meditate on peace and you will find that your inner peace will gradually become stronger and stronger, until finally your anger vanishes.
People often think of goodness as a sort of sweetness, a kind of passive kindness, but it's much more than that. There is power in goodness. One of the things that I didn't like about the movie and the book, The Lord of the Rings, is that they depict the evil people, but not the good ones, as having power. They present the view that by being good, you're rather bumbling, but nonetheless stumble onto the right path. Frodo and all the good people in that story are sweet, innocent, and often foolish.
Like The Lord of the Rings, the Ramayana is an epic, but Ram, Hanuman, and the other heroes are portrayed as having great power. The truly good people I have met are the saints, and they are not weaklings by any means!
One of the things that astounded me about living with Yogananda was his power. He had great power, which I've seen in all great saints. Behind their sweetness, behind their love and forgiveness, is power. My Guru was the sweetest person I've ever met, but he also possessed great power and he never compromised that power. He wanted to make us strong, and he inspired us to understand that if we wanted to become strong, we had to be willing to take charge of our own lives.
This kind of understanding and power is the ideal, and this is what Yogananda infused into Jotin. It was through that power that Jotin was able to overcome anger. Through the infusion of that kind of power, peace becomes a dynamic reality in itself. It is in no way passive. Your inner strength develops to the point that you realize that anger is a threat to that peace.
There are eight different aspects of God. Two of them are peace and calmness; many people think of them as one and the same thing, but they aren't.
Peace is the cessation of restlessness, and it is the aspect of God we experience first. It's very healing, like "a weightless waterfall" as Yogananda described it, and is wonderfully releasing and freeing. But calmness is the power of the soul which helps you to cut through delusion. That calmness comes when you go deeper into peace.
It was calmness which enabled Buddha to say, "I will sit here under this bodhi tree until I solve the mystery of life." And he sat there for forty days and forty nights. How many people have that kind of resolution? It took tremendous will power to do that, to be able to sit there for so long and channel all of his energy upward to God.
Maya, or delusion, has its own conscious power. To try to tempt Buddha to abandon his resolution, Mara (death), as Satan was known then, created illusion after illusion, including images of past pleasures and human fulfillments. But these fulfillments no longer meant anything to him. At the end of forty days, he rapped on the ground with his knuckles and uttered these immortal words: "Mara, I have conquered thee." It was deep calmness that enabled him to do that.
These different aspects of God are aspects of your own higher Self. You can't create divine power on your own, but if you ask God to infuse that power into you, He will give you more and more strength. The way to do this is to offer your heart's feelings up to the point between the eyebrows. Direct your energy there again and again. Eventually you will find such a strength coming into you that you will be able to drive out of your mind all harmful emotions, including anger, fear, and any form of pettiness.
You have to make the effort to overcome whatever is holding you back. God is not going to do it for you. Too many people in religion think that God's grace does it all. You first have to open yourself to that grace, and doing so takes considerable effort. Once you make the effort, however, you discover, bit by bit, that all the obstacles that enclose the soul and make us think we are our personalities and separate from everybody else—all of these get washed away by devotion, by meditation, by Kriya Yoga, by the Guru's help on our behalf. Most important of all is to love God, far more important than any yoga technique, although yoga can be a means of helping you to love Him more deeply.
The beautiful thing is that when the flow of grace is strong, it washes everything away, even obstacles you thought you could never overcome. Gradually you begin to see that these limitations are not who you truly are. There's no strain involved. When you feel divine love in your heart, you don't have to sit there with a notebook and ponder what love is. You simply think, "My God, it's obvious."
In your meditation, you will see that qualities you've worked on, sometimes despairingly thinking, "I'll never change"—all of a sudden those obstacles simply are no longer there. You won't recognize yourself as the person you've now become.
But you have to be firm with yourself. You have to say, "I know what I have to do," and then do it and not worry about the opinions of others.
Yogananda favored calm, determined renunciation over emotional rejection. When one feels emotional rejection, there usually lingers inside him also a subconscious attraction. Opposites always attract. Think of a pendulum. The more you push the pendulum in one direction, the more it's going to swing to the opposite direction.
Yogananda told me the following story during a discussion at his desert retreat. He said, "I met a young woman years ago in Mexico City. She taught yoga and was very committed to this path. One day I asked her, 'How do you feel about marriage?' Her answer quite surprised me.
"'I have given my life to God,' she fairly shouted with intense vehemence, 'and I will continue to serve Him alone, without a mate, faithfully, devotedly, every year of my life, UNTIL I DIE!!!'
"'My goodness!' I exclaimed. 'Why that emotion? One must renounce emotional feelings, also. I was going to compliment you on your spiritual commitment. Seek God lovingly, seek Him one-pointedly, but seek Him also with deep calmness.'"
If you want to achieve a spiritual goal, there must be fervor, even intense fervor. But you won't achieve it through emotional rejection. When you decide to give up something for God, do it calmly, with great determination. Don't allow your emotions to become involved. Any genuine determination will have calmness in it, and behind it.
Once you've truly overcome a particular karma—a desire, disappointment, whatever it may be—you experience calmness. If you experience any fear of the karma, like a fear of death, for example, then you haven't yet overcome that karma. When you are completely impersonal, impartial—that's when you can be more certain that you have overcome it. And that's the way to overcome, even now. If you feel an intense emotion—fear, rejection—give it to God.
We must do God's will. Krishna said to Arjuna: "Do your duty. Fight the battle of life!" If you fight that battle—not angrily, not with a feeling of hurting anybody, but with the sense of simply doing your God-assigned duty—you will experience a supporting divine power. That power will feed your inner life, and you will become stronger and stronger in yourself.
The more you walk hand in hand with Him, the more you will experience the peace of knowing that no matter how difficult life becomes, in the end, everything works out. The more you do things with God, the more you will find that He takes care of you in ways that seem miraculous. And you will discover a degree of inner freedom that you could never find by following your own whims and fancies.
* * * * * *
From talks and articles.
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The post Obesity and the Spiritual Path appeared first on Clarity Magazine.]]>
PVH: Yes. Between 1960 and 1980, obesity rates in the United States doubled. Today 68% percent of Americans are overweight; that includes 34% who are obese, which is a more serious form of overweight. Nearly one in five children and adolescents are obese. Since 2010, America and Mexico have been vying for the dubious distinction of having the fattest people on the planet.
Q: What do you see as the main causes of the rise in obesity?
PVH: There are multiple factors. One is the increase in inexpensive, calorie-dense, unhealthy foods that are heavily advertised. It's possible to order many of these foods by phone and have them delivered to the home or office. Studies show that Americans don't like to spend time preparing food. Given a fast option that's also inexpensive, they will often choose it even though it isn't healthy. Once people get used to eating those kinds of foods, their taste buds adjust and they begin to prefer them.
The second factor is that the cost of healthier foods has gone up, especially fruits and vegetables. It's been shown that even when money is not a major issue for people, they will often choose these unhealthy foods because they are cheaper and more convenient.
Q: Do you agree that stress is a factor in the dramatic rise of obesity?
PVH: Yes. Stress contributes to obesity in its effects on hormones that affect appetite and obesity. The main one is cortisone, or cortisol. If people are stressed most of the time, they tend to have higher levels of blood cortisone, which in some people contributes to obesity.
Q: What are some of the non-medical societal consequences of obesity?
PVH: There's an element of stigma associated with obesity. The fatter people are, the more difficulties they encounter in certain areas of life: finding suitable employment, qualifying for job promotions, making a sale, finding a mate, having friends who enjoy spending time with them and being seen with them. Some airlines now require that people above a certain weight or size purchase two seats. For one person I know, having to pay for two seats doubled the cost of an already expensive flight.
Q: Why is obesity such a difficult disorder to control medically?
PVH: The studies on obesity treatment show that the vast majority of people who are 50–80 pounds overweight will never lose the weight. That's how discouraging the statistics are.
Q: Does a spiritual perspective on life offer any understanding of obesity and how to address it?
PVH: Yes, it does. For some people, food is the only thing in life they can afford that offers any fulfillment. Since they can't afford more expensive outward things, they turn to food for that sense of fulfillment, and they do it to excess.
People who are sincerely on the spiritual path are not looking for happiness outside themselves; they are looking inward to satisfy their need for happiness and fulfillment. This inward focus especially characterizes those whose path includes meditation as one of the primary practices. Regular meditation imparts a deepening sense of peace, calmness, and joy which spills over into daily life. Meditators are usually happy people.
Even apart from the fulfillment it imparts, meditation also tends to moderate a person's desire to eat. Most people who meditate regularly tend to have a lower and more balanced appetite. It is also very difficult to meditate deeply when the stomach is overloaded with food.
Q: People associated with Ananda follow the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi. Do his teachings on diet offer any guidance relevant to the challenges of obesity?
PVH: Yes, they do. Following Yogananda's teachings on diet means gradually eliminating from one's diet overly processed foods and focusing more on foods that are naturally produced. Yogananda said that Americans eat too much protein. He recommended milk and nuts as healthy proteins, but not in overly large amounts.
Overall, it's much easier to understand the importance of Yogananda's dietary recommendations now that we understand their effects on the microbiome, the healthy bacteria in the colon, which thrive when one's diet includes plenty of fiber, fruits, vegetables, and water that's not highly chlorinated. To promote microbiome health, I also usually recommend a quart and a half of water a day. Another thing I often suggest is taking a probiotic each day and emphasizing fermented foods, the natural probiotics.
To combat obesity, medicine is now encouraging people to have a healthier microbiome. For the microbiome* has a huge impact on how we handle calories. When it grows healthier, people's overall physical functioning improves, as does their choice of foods. Often their energy level is higher and they become much more interested in exercising and being active.
Q: People writing about obesity suggest that cognitive behavioral therapy can be helpful in overcoming eating habits that contribute to obesity. Do Paramhansa Yogananda's teachings offer any guidance here?
PVH: If we take Yogananda's teachings and try to fit them into an established discipline, the result would be a combination of aspirational psychology and cognitive behavioral therapy. Both disciplines involve changing one's thought patterns and behavior. Overcoming obesity requires that a person do both things.
Q: Paramhansa Yogananda saw spiritual cooperative communities, like Ananda, as models for living in this new age of Dwapara Yuga,** which began in 1900. Does living in one of the Ananda communities open up possibilities for dealing with obesity that are not generally available to the population at large?
PVH: Yes it does. In cooperative spiritual communities we try to work together and be supportive of one another. Knowing that any of us could have a health or an economic challenge at any time, we're committed to helping each other, not just ourselves.
The size of the community is also a factor. We live in communities where it's possible to know most people. We might not meet a new person for six months or a year, but eventually we get to know them, at least to some extent. Anybody we bring into our community is part of our family, and of course we want to help them if we can. At the same time, in a community based on spiritual principles, there's much less of a tendency to feel helpless or that we don't have very much control. There's much more of a sense that it's up to us to take charge of our lives.
Q: Are there any other aspects of living in this higher age of Dwapara Yuga that make it easier to bring obesity and the problems it creates under control?
PVH: Yes. Information is much more widely disseminated. Once it becomes common knowledge that an activity or practice is unhealthy, people tend not to do it. Today, for example, there's a much greater understanding that alcohol use is unhealthy than there was a hundred years ago. As a result, except for younger people who may be experimenting, alcohol use has gone down significantly.
Q: How is the obesity epidemic related to the transition into Dwapara Yuga?
PVH: A characteristic of Dwapara Yuga is that society as a whole is becoming much more efficient—much more energy efficient, much more time efficient. Machines and electrical power have replaced many forms of manual labor.
During the lower age of Kali Yuga, which ended in 1800, very few people, apart from the wealthy, had what we would consider free time. If they weren't at their jobs, they were home doing some other kind of work.
If you go back 150 years, many people were farmers. Even if they weren't farmers, they might grow some of their own vegetables or have a chicken in the backyard, things like that. Today, people don't have to grow their own food in order to have enough to eat. Very few of us raise any food ourselves, which is much more efficient, but one of the unfortunate consequences is that many of us eat much worse.
Q: Do you envision any new treatment options for obesity as society enters more fully into Dwapara Yuga?
PVH: I think our treatment options for obesity will harmonize better with good, healthy eating habits. There will be a clearer understanding of obesity as an illness to be addressed when the first signs appear instead of waiting until people become seriously overweight. If people seek help when they are only fifteen or twenty pounds overweight, we can help them. Anybody can lose twenty pounds, but a person who is eighty or more pounds overweight has at best a one in two hundred chance of losing weight.
One weight-loss specialist whose articles I follow pointed out how very simple changes in a school setting can have a dramatic impact on weight loss. I mentioned earlier that childhood obesity has increased significantly. This expert describes how installing standard water coolers in certain schools led to a reduction in obesity among the students. The schools involved in this experiment installed water coolers with generous cups throughout their buildings, and encouraged the students to drink as much as they wanted. The results were impressive: there was a significant weight loss among the students in these schools compared to other schools that did not add water coolers.
Q: Why would drinking more water cause weight loss?
PVH: People often tend to confuse thirst with hunger, and if their only option to drink is a sugary drink, they will drink it even though it's not the healthiest choice. This is especially true of school children.
Q: I assume that many overweight adults confuse thirst with hunger. Would drinking more water help them as well?
PVH: Absolutely.
Q: We know that exercise plays a role in weight loss. How important is it compared to one's diet?
PVH: There's a synergistic effect if you do the two together. Even brisk walking for half an hour a day, as Paramhansa Yogananda recommended, increases your calorie burning for hours and hours afterwards. Also, the more physically fit you are, the more active you tend to be normally. You choose leisure activities which are not sedentary.
Q: Are you optimistic about the future?
PVH: Yes. Three-fourths of all health care spending in the United States is attributable to obesity. The country's disability program is greatly oversubscribed due to obesity-related health problems.
But just as happened with alcohol, people are becoming increasingly aware of obesity's overall harmful effects on health.
* To learn more about the impact of the microbiome on overall health, see, "The Human Microbiome and Its Importance to Your Health," an interview with Dr. Peter Van Houten, Clarity Magazine, February 2015.
** In The Holy Science, Swami Sri Yukteswar writes that in 1900, the world entered a new age called Dwapara Yuga, defined by heightened awareness of energy as the underlying reality of the material universe. For an in-depth discussion of Dwapara Yuga, see Religion in the New Age, by Swami Kriyananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers.
* * * * * *
Peter Van Houten, MD, lives at Ananda Village and is the founder and Medical Director of Sierra Family Medical Clinic near Ananda Village. He frequently writes and lectures on the brain and other "yoga and science" topics.
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The post Joyful Willingness appeared first on Clarity Magazine.]]>
In counterpoint to our father's impersonal focus on completing the job, our mother would arrive with lemonade, and would insist that we all stop working long enough to enjoy it. Between them, these surrogates for Heavenly Father and Divine Mother opened a window onto our true state as children of God. They gave us worthy service to perform, guided us carefully, and nurtured us lovingly. Bathed in parental affection, our natural attitude was one of happy willingness.
We were also encouraged to go beyond our regular chores—to find our own ways of making ourselves useful. Swami Kriyananda says it so well in "A Festival of Light": "Ours was a holy mission. You charged us to learn great lessons from life: to be fruitful in the gifts You had given us; to expand and multiply them."
Heading out on my own one summer day, I was taken over by the desire to build an earthen dam across the creek running through our cow pasture. My initial impulse was to help Dad on the farm, but it quickly mutated into an exercise in self-will—my project, my dam.
As fast as I shoveled dirt into the creek, just as quickly did the current wash it away. My solution: shovel faster! Eventually I managed to load on enough dirt to stop the water's flow. I watched the water rising—first with a feeling of satisfaction, then of dismay, as the water began finding its way through. Leaks sprang up everywhere: around the sides, underneath, and over the top.
By shoveling furiously and jumping on the dam to pack the dirt, I managed to stop the leaks. The water kept rising. The leaks reappeared. The sun was setting. I could hear my mother calling me in to dinner. With a last effort, I built the dam up higher. The water climbed to the top, the leaks reappeared, and the water began to flow in rivulets until, as I watched helplessly, my day's effort came apart and disappeared in a muddy rush downstream.
Looking back, what strikes my mind most forcefully, is not the dam washing away, or even the obvious lessons about discrimination, common sense, and attunement, but the expression of energy. Even without attunement to the Source of energy, a little boy—in his determination to finish what he had started—drew energy sufficient to keep him one-pointedly laboring, with no feeling of tiredness, for hours on end.
Some years later, now a teenager and an indifferent competitor in Pony Club events, I was approached, just before a high-jump competition, by a boy my own age. The rider for entry Number 7 had panicked, the boy told me, and was too frightened to compete. The horse was thoroughly spooked, all but unmanageable. Would I ride in his place? I was not normally a courageous, or even an adventurous rider; the jump course was far above my skill level (riding a calm trail horse over simple jumps a few feet in height).
Out of nowhere came a rush of enthusiasm—partly a desire to help the fellow; partly the courage that can come when someone else is afraid; partly energy moving unbidden inside, toward the challenge. Number 7, eyes rolling, ears laid back, shivering all over, erupted from the starting point toward the first jump—a complex arrangement of irregularly spaced parallel bars, the highest over five feet from the ground. All I was able to do was hang on and try to keep Number7 aimed at the center of the jump.
When horse collided with jump, the bars flew in all directions. Number 7 and I wheeled in erratic circles while three attendants scrambled to reassemble the jump. On our second go we made it over, this time knocking down only the topmost bar, and proceeded to the second jump. The announcer's voice came over the loudspeaker: "Thank you, number seven, you may leave the ring now." So strong was the energy committed to seeing this ride through to the end that the announcer's words blurred into a kind of background noise. Nothing seemed real except the flow of energy carrying us over the rest of the course.
Number 7 and I entered a kind of symbiotic partnership, drawn together into the same current. There were no more mishaps. By the end, Number 7 had stopped quivering, his breathing had become regular, and his ears had turned forward. My horrified parents rushed to console me for the embarrassment they assumed I must surely be experiencing. My own feeling was of energy and exhilaration: we'd made it! Number7 and I had both overcome our fear, had given our best, and had made it around a course far beyond our normal level of skill and confidence.
What had happened? Somehow, a window had opened into my consciousness, and through that window had flowed energy, enthusiasm, willingness—a connection, however crude and unknowing, to the immense power always available to us as children of God.
This connection to God's power, experienced only haphazardly in the years before coming consciously onto the path, grows naturally out of attunement. Attunement, Swami Kriyananda has often told us, stands supreme in importance for the devotee: attunement to guru's guidance, attunement to God's will. Self-will, self-involvement put the devotee out of tune, and so block the flow of divine energy; joyful willingness keeps the devotee in tune, and thus in touch with the energy of the Infinite.
On the 1985 pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Swami Kriyananda, we learned and practiced the songs from his oratorio, "Christ Lives," singing each song at the physical site of the scene from Christ's life that had inspired it. Kriyananda had meditated deeply at each site, had attuned his consciousness to Christ, and then, in joyful willingness, received and acted as a channel for the divine vibration implanted in each site by the still-living presence of Christ.
Singing these songs was a revelation. Myself not a confident singer, having no formal training, I was careful to position myself right in front of a devotee who was not only a magnificent singer but also deeply in tune with Kriyananda's consciousness. The power flowing through this great voice would catch me up, draw me into its wake until I could feel the true intention of the song flowing through me. All I had to do was adapt the sound coming from my own voice to the great current coming from behind. The experience gave me a profound respect for what it means to sing Kriyananda's songs. The singer is in training to become a perfect disciple, free from self-will, humbly open to allowing the music to move through his voice as a pure expression of God's will.
Swami Kriyananda's spiritual magnetism generated an attitude of joyful willingness in those around him. On one occasion, those of us who had accompanied him to a Reno speaking engagement were milling about in a large auditorium preparing for the evening. Having been in Kriyananda's aura for some hours, I found heart and mind emptying of every thought and feeling but the desire to be of service to Swami! Kriyananda, I think picking up on my state of mind, quietly spoke behind me: "Prakash, would you . . . ?" And I was off at a near-run across the auditorium; I made it half-way across before I realized I had no idea what Swami wanted me to do. I stopped, felt his amused gaze on me, turned around. There he was, smiling with joy and love: "bring me my umbrella?"
Building dams, riding horses, singing songs, fetching umbrellas: none of these has meaning except insofar as it is an expression of an inner state of uplifted consciousness. Only that act that arises from an attitude of joyful willingness has value.
I was present with Kriyananda during one of his kidney stone attacks. Outwardly he was grey with pain, perspiring, on his hands and knees. As shocked as I felt at his appearance, inwardly I could feel only a calm joy—not my own, but Swami's joy, even at such a time. Often in public talks he had told us of another crippling kidney stone attack, one that struck just hours before a Sunday service he was to give. Unwilling to ask anything of Divine Mother except to know and carry out Her will, he finally prayed in this way: "Mother, if You wish me to give this Sunday service, You'll have to help me." At once his excruciating pain vanished, to be replaced by a joy so overwhelming that, for sheer joy, he could barely speak.
As it happened, I was the backup speaker for that morning. Sitting in the back of a temple full to overflowing with people who were there to hear Kriyananda, I too was grey and perspiring, not knowing whether Swami would come, feeling small and inadequate. "Divine Mother," I prayed, "You know I can't do this alone. You've got to help me now." And as I prayed, I felt a wonderful warmth and calmness spread through my heart, then an expanding joy and lightness. What had happened? Kriyananda had come. He was just walking into the temple, his whole being radiating the perfection of joyful willingness—ready equally to continue suffering the pain of a kidney stone attack or to speak to all who would hear of his beloved Divine Mother.
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Nayaswami Prakash is a long-time member of Ananda. He currently serves at Ananda Village doing forestry and landscaping work. Before moving to Ananda Village in 1974, he taught English and Literature at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina.
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Unfortunately, very few people even attempt to live in the present. Most live in the past, filled with nostalgia or regrets, or in the future, filled with hopes or fears born of desire. More than any other factor, desires and attachments, by keeping people focused on the past or future, prevent them from living fully in the present.
Consider a typical detour: A man strolls down the street on a beautiful day. The birds sing in the trees, the sun shines brightly, and a gentle breeze carries the scent of flowers from a nearby garden. Feeling deeply contented, the man thinks, "How wonderful life is!"
All at once, he sees a beautiful bird perched on a tree limb just above his head. "If only I had a camera!" the man thinks. "I could catch this image on film and have it with me forever!" Although sudden, this desire begins to settle in his heart. The strength of this desire gradually grows until, at last, by scrimping and saving, the man has enough money to buy a camera.
With his desire for a camera fulfilled, the man now asks himself, "What new object can I possess?" Already he has seen different kinds of useful attachments for his camera. Should he buy one of those or should he buy one of the newer cameras with more advanced features? The satisfaction of one desire has set in motion a tendency in him to seek happiness by fulfilling other desires. No longer is he able to live in the present. Desires keep him living in a future that forever recedes.
Life does not prepare us to be non-attached. If you think you are non-attached, but when something you own is suddenly smashed beyond repair and you grieve for it, you may be sure that you were attached to it.
Material desires are merely an expression of the soul's longing for its native state: eternal bliss. This longing can be fulfilled only in oneself. That man strolling down the street, happily enjoying a beautiful day, was happier at that moment than he was after acquiring the camera. Sooner or later we, too, realize that we want a thing only until we get it—then we will look for "something else."
My Master, Sri Yukteswar, said to me, "You will tire of everything but the joy of God. When you realize that God is with you every minute, then that sparkling, bubbling, refreshing spring of joy will be yours." And you realize that, in this joy, you have found that "something else" you were seeking through the labyrinthine byways of false desires.
Even to live your best each day is not the deepest teaching, for today belongs to the flow of time, whereas perfect joy and awareness lie beyond time, in the eternal present. It is important, therefore, to learn to live behind the scenes of relative time, in the unchanging present. Only by living properly right now, at the changeless center of each moment, can you arrive at a point of complete inner freedom.
From the time I met my Master, I experienced in my heart a continuous, ever-increasing song of devotion for God. And when my song reached its peak, I experienced my oneness with Spirit and realized I was beyond time and space. I then understood that all the past scenes of my life were happening in the eternal present, and no longer could I grieve about loved ones who had left this world. They are all ever-present in God. I can still see them wherever they are.
The Self-realized yogi watches his childhood, youth and old age as though they were movies. After death his body passes through another change, but he himself, being always concentrated inwardly upon his true Self, is not limited by time.
It is not enough for you to believe that God is beyond time and space. You are also beyond time and space, and if you concentrate on your soul, you will realize that the change of the body at death is as simple as changing an old garment for a new one. You don't grieve about the loss of the old garment when you put on a new one.
1. Meditate regularly: The soul is bound to the body by desires, temptations, and worries, and you are trying to break through those chains. Meditation enables you to calm the ripples of desires on the lake of your mind and to experience the joy which is hidden within you. By meditating and concentrating within, you will become more conscious of your soul and less identified with your physical form. Eventually you will reach a point when you are no longer disturbed by life's ups and downs, and you will begin to realize the truth of your soul-nature: that you are not limited by time and space. You will begin to realize that you are one with the Eternal Spirit.
2. Show appreciation: Always bear in mind that this universe has a divine origin. It would be a mistake to hate this world with the rationale that you love God alone. Renunciation is essential on the spiritual path. Its purpose, however, is to help you overcome attachment to desires and temptations, not to prove your love for the Creator by abhorring His handiwork. You should appreciate the world as God's creation, but then remind yourself how much more worthy of appreciation is the Creator, who brought all of these material wonders into manifestation.
3. Fulfill your duties: Always, whatever you are doing, think that you are doing God's work. Each day say, "What can I do for God today?" To fulfill your duties in life may not be easy or immediately enjoyable. Attaining divine joy is a long-term proposition, but if you would attain freedom in eternity, you must discharge your duties in life, and not avoid them. Do your best today and forget tomorrow. Do not harass your soul with petty worries.
4. Disown things from your heart: Nothing belongs to you and everything belongs to you, but once you say, "This is mine," you have limited yourself. Never grieve for anything that is taken. Maybe in this life you will lose all things and yet, when you have God, you have everything. There is no limitation to what you can get. Enjoy the things you have, take care of them, but always try, in your heart, to disown them. It is very liberating to be able to disown all things in your heart.
5. Transcend age-consciousness: Never think of yourself as getting old. In the divine consciousness, there is nothing called "old" and nothing called "young," only the eternal present. The Self-realized yogi watches his childhood, youth, and old age as though they were movies. He is able to see all those who have left this earth, relatives and friends, wherever they are, because they are ever-present in God. These images appear before his inner gaze because past, present, and future are nothing but pictures in space. As he grows indifferent to the illusive consciousness of past and future, he develops eternal mental youthfulness.
6. Be even-minded at all times: Try always to keep a calm mind. An even-minded individual is like a mirror of discretion which reflects the true nature of seemingly favorable or unfavorable events. Such a person is not misled by emotional disturbances and is always prepared to act wisely. You will gain this unruffled calmness by deeper and deeper meditation.
"Before Abraham was, I am." In the above-quoted words, Jesus announced that in his consciousness there were no divisions of past, present, and future. Jesus did not say, "Before Abraham was, I was." He said, "Before Abraham was, I am," meaning that there is no time or space when he is not present.
Jesus, like all great masters who have awakened in God and forsaken the cosmic dream, had realized that time and space existed only in the imagination of God and, though temporarily real, were essentially unreal. Jesus, being one with God, was able to say, "Before Abraham was, I am." Any Christlike soul who attains the omnipresent Christ Consciousness finds his consciousness evenly present in the past, present, and future.
You can also say, "I am," but because you confuse yourself with the little body, you think you are limited by time and space. If your goal in life is spiritual victory, grieve not over what you have failed to accomplish so far. Concentrate all your energy on the present. Sooner or later your efforts will be crowned with glory.
From books, lessons, and articles.
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For about a year, walking up hills had become more and more difficult. I attributed the difficulty to emphysema, even though I'd never been diagnosed as having the disease. I'd been a heavy smoker for many years before I quit in 2001.Then, for another decade after I quit, I was exposed to heavy secondhand smoke in the Las Vegas casinos where I worked.
My meditations were usually very good, but a "sadness" for which I could find no explanation began to sweep over me. I was living at the Ananda Meditation Retreat, serving God and Guru by helping to open the hearts and minds of people in need of spiritual upliftment. So why the sadness?
Soon it became more apparent that something was seriously wrong. Mornings or at night, I began to feel discomfort in my chest. While cooking at the Retreat kitchen or serving in the office, I became short of breath if I moved too quickly. Soon I had to stop working altogether.
I found myself not caring very much about work-related matters I had previously regarded with enthusiasm. As my enthusiasm waned, I remembered that Swami Kriyananda, before he left his body, had spoken of no longer having the enthusiasm that had been a hallmark of his life. Could my own lack of it be a warning? I wondered.
Finally, I saw a doctor and learned that I had "hypoxia," a loss of oxygen that occurred when I walked even a short distance. An x-ray showed a "mass." After a series of tests, the findings were "stage-three lung cancer."
With the diagnosis confirmed, I saw my approaching death as coming from God, an opportunity to begin closing the doors on the concerns of the ego and to devote myself to passing the "final exam." Exams have never been my strong suit, but God through my Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, and my teacher, Swami Kriyananda, had already given me all the instructions I would need for this particular exam. By their grace, I had experienced in meditation the deep knowing that my soul was one with God, and I knew there was nothing to fear.
Throughout my life I had often given thought to how I would greet Sister Death. I would ask myself, "If an accident happened right now, what am I thinking? Where is my mind?" I'd always hoped I would have a warning of my impending death. Now, through God's grace, just such a warning had come.
The most natural response to the diagnosis would be to fight the disease by undergoing chemotherapy. Yet I already knew that chemotherapy would not produce a cure. Even if the disease went into remission, there was an eighty percent chance of reoccurrence. My solution was to meditate and ask God, "What is Your will for me?" The answer I received inwardly was, "It's your time." That answer brought not only a sense of relief, but feelings of freedom, joy, and peace.
Within each of us there is a deep knowing of what is right in such situations. For another person, fighting the disease might be best, regardless of the outcome, perhaps because in some past lifetime he prematurely gave up the struggle to live. The answer for me was to do everything I could to clear up my remaining karma.
Many of Swami Kriyananda's recommendations on preparing for death, discussed in his essay, "The Final Exam," are similar to those in the 12-step programs for overcoming addiction. I've been trying to live these principles since I became part of Alcoholics Anonymous thirty years ago. In a nutshell, the 12-step program involves forgiveness, self-honesty, and making amends. The ultimate goal is to learn to see things as they are, and not as we would have them be.
Making amends I had already focused on intensively as part of AA's 12-step program. Sometimes the amends were financial, such as repaying money I owed. At other times, they took the form of expressing gratitude. I was placed in a foster home when I was eleven years old. What I very much needed at that time was a mother, a role my foster mother refused to take on. Although she gave me a home, I nonetheless felt a huge resentment toward her because she was unable to give me what I needed emotionally. Years ago, as part of AA's program, I called her and thanked her for everything she had done for me. She was very congenial and offered me a home if ever I needed it.
Having had five marriages, I also needed to make amends to my former husbands. During these marriages I was never at peace. In each marriage, my husband and I always wanted the other person to change. The 12-step program enabled me to take my share of the responsibility for these relationships not having worked, and to come to peace in the understanding that each of us had done our best. By taking responsibility for my mistakes, I was able to let go of any lingering negative feelings towards my ex-husbands.
With my children, the making of amends has been ongoing. For the last twenty-five years I have helped them financially and emotionally, even when that help was not acknowledged. I was not acting from guilt but from the awareness that these three children are my own, even though I was unable to raise them. I have prayed for them and also for the people who raised them, a practice which at first was not easy.
I am in touch with two of my three children. The third child, a son, I have only seen a few times in his life, most recently six years ago. Each day I pray for my children and send them love. It's important to me that they feel comforted, that they know I love them and, more importantly, that they know God loves them just as they are. Reassured by that understanding, I feel at peace leaving them.
For some weeks now I've looked at my life and have come to feel that there are no more amends to make. I have been fortunate in coming to terms with the life I've lived, the errors I've made, and their consequences. When it has not been feasible to make amends in person, I have asked Divine Mother and my Guru to send those souls the blessings they needed to be at peace. Some of my errors with my children only God can repair. Reaching a point of trusting that He would repair them helped set me free.
As my energy level declined, I experienced a natural withdrawal from involvement with work and outward service. At the same time, I did not want others to have to sort through and dispose of my belongings after I had left this body. With the help of a few friends, I've completed this process. I decided on what I still needed and what I could give away, now or later. The involvement of friends brought clarity and joy to the undertaking, and helped me realize that certain items that were no longer important to me might be useful to others.
Have I done a similar housecleaning with interior thoughts? The answer is "yes." I find myself asking: Do I have any regrets? Is there anyone to whom I still owe amends? Do I need to say things to others that I have not expressed? Can I continue to serve others, even though I am much weaker physically? Have I accomplished what my soul came to do in this lifetime? Am I done?
In answering these questions, I find myself at peace. I am coming to the end of a lifetime in which it has become clear that God loves me and that together we have been victorious. Ending life on this note seems perfect.
Knowing that, as death approaches, there will be physical pain and discomfort does not concern me nearly so much as the possibility of losing the awareness of my Beloved's inner presence. I have shed many tears in prayer I that I never lose this awareness.
A veil has dropped away. It allows my friends and me to speak openly of our love, and of the fact that life in this body is coming to a close. There is a joy in this openness.
Prayer is now easier for me than meditation. The practice of Kriya Yoga has always felt like an umbilical cord connecting me to the Divine. Now, because of the condition of my lungs, I can no longer meditate or practice Kriya for very long. Nonetheless, by the grace of God, whenever I pray or meditate even for short periods, I experience deep silence and stillness.
My one remaining test is not to be angry with myself for my role in possibly having created this karma of illness and early death through my 20-year addiction to alcohol and my 10-year addiction to cigarettes (two packs a day), practices which devastated my body. My Guru gave me this thought today as I spoke to him about my feelings: "Remember, it was God in you who was in darkness and acted in that way."
By the grace of God, I have been given the strength and clarity to take the next step. Although I'm at peace in knowing that it's my time to go, the prospect of leaving Ananda, the opportunity to serve, and all the love I've received is causing the sadness I sometimes feel. When you've put so much of yourself into something, it's not so easy to walk away from it even though the project is finished. I attained my life's dream when I returned to Ananda and was able to serve wholeheartedly with my spiritual family. If there's any sadness it is in leaving that life of joyful service.
Update: Nayaswami Brindey passed away peacefully in her home at Ananda Village on March 9, 2016, surrounded by her closest friends.
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The post Answering the Call to Pilgrimage appeared first on Clarity Magazine.]]>
Growing up, I always had a strong devotion to Jesus and Mary. At the tender age of three, a traumatic event had led to recurring nightmares. One night, waking from the nightmare, I knelt on my bed and made my first prayer-demand: "Mary! Please go tell Jesus I don't want any more scary dreams!" I was protected from nightmares for the rest of my childhood.
My devotional life deepened when my husband and I moved to Ananda Village in 1978 and embraced a meditative lifestyle. In 1985, Swami Kriyananda, the founder of Ananda Village, led a group of Ananda devotees on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Assisi. I would have loved to join the group, but Peter, then our youngest child, was only a year old. Leaving him behind for almost four weeks was out of the question. However, when the same pilgrimage was offered in 1987, my husband, Tim, wanted us to go. Tim believed that Peter, now age three, would be fine, but didn't want to push me into such an important decision.
When Tim and I attended a meeting about the upcoming pilgrimage, I sat in the rear of the room, torn between two forms of devotion, maternal and divine. As I listened, tears streamed down my face. This trip called to my heart. Much as I yearned for a time of dedicated spiritual focus, Peter's tender years caused me loving concern. Krishnabai, our eight-year-old daughter, I knew would have a wonderful time staying at her best friend's house.
One day while walking alone in the woods at Ananda Village, I poured out my heart to Divine Mother: "I want to go! But I believe it would be much better to wait until Peter is five years old, instead of only three!"
Divine Mother's silent voice resounded within me: "I agree with you. But five isn't going to happen." Her prophecy proved true. Political turbulence in the Middle East caused Ananda to suspend its Holy Land tours. Though I did not know more than thirty years would pass before Ananda offered this pilgrimage again, I did understand that, for me, it was now or never.
One evening, while Tim was upstairs doing prayers and bedtime stories with our children, I was downstairs washing the dinner dishes and still tussling with Divine Mother about this pilgrimage. My hands submerged in the warm, soapy water, I heard Her guiding inner voice: "You have to go, or else you have to get cancer, for there is no other way to teach you your lessons." Her message stunned me to my core. I knew that even if Peter suffered while I was away on the pilgrimage, that suffering did not compare to what my family would feel, losing me altogether to cancer. Inwardly I replied, "Okay! I'll go!"
As soon as Tim came downstairs, I told him about my inner guidance. A young family living a simple life, we did not know how we would pay for this pilgrimage, but we knew we were going.
Soon after, we learned that we would receive an inheritance from Tim's uncle Kenny. It provided enough to cover the cost of the pilgrimage, and then some. We could also now afford to add a spacious master bedroom to the two-bedroom cottage Tim had built for us when Krishnabai was a baby. In the days and weeks leading up to the trip, I prayed continuously to Divine Mother to watch over our children while we were gone.
Swami Kriyananda had recently written a spiritual ceremony called A Festival of Light. Initially he led the ceremony every weeknight in the Crystal Hermitage chapel, which was always filled to capacity. Even when other Ananda ministers began leading the ceremony, Kriyananda would sometimes put out the word early in the day that he would lead the Festival that evening. Once or twice a week, I played guitar and led the singing. Two days before embarking on our pilgrimage, I was scheduled to play guitar again. On this day Kriyananda did not announce until the last minute that he would lead the Festival. Because only a few people knew in time, the chapel was less than half full.
Early in the ceremony, Kriyananda read aloud from his book Rays of the Same Light. Partway through the reading, he put down the book and looked out at all of us. "What makes you so sure that when you go to bed at night you will wake up in the morning? There are no guarantees. Live like a genius. A genius puts all of his energy into whatever he's doing. Most people just stick a toe in to test the waters, but they keep the rest of their energy in reserve. Don't live like that. Give your all to Divine Mother. Throw yourself completely into the search for God. . . ."
Kriyananda spoke for several minutes in this manner. His words lifted me into a state of bliss. Distinctly the thought came, "I will be very surprised if I am still alive in one month." I felt deeply calm at this premonition of death. I had no fear whatsoever. I then revised my prayer of concern for my children: "Divine Mother, I realize now that You are the Eternal Mother of my children, and I am only their foster mother here on earth! I give them back into Your hands. Watch over them, bless and guide them, now and always!"
When Kriyananda resumed reading aloud from Rays of the Same Light, followed by the Festival of Light, I turned within. This gave me a few minutes to absorb what had just happened. I longed to behold the faces of my fellow devotees in the chapel, all of whom I assumed had shared my blissful experience.
When it was finally time to lead the singing, I was able to turn around and face the congregation. What I saw surprised me. Although everyone looked peaceful, as I had often seen people appear in Kriyananda's presence, only one person looked blissfully transformed. Her name was Cathy Kielhorn, a single mother of two boys. I felt happy that she had been blessed in this same way, and that we had shared something special.
Coming as this experience with Kriyananda did only two days before the pilgrimage, I was naturally concerned about my premonition of death. Would something happen to me on the trip? Some friends comforted me by saying that sometimes when people feel impending death, it is really that the ego, or a big chunk of it, is about to die. The goal of the spiritual path is to transcend the ego. I wondered if my pilgrimage would bring a profound transcendence of the ego.
The pilgrimage was, indeed, beautiful, with divine blessings at every stop. One especially deep experience occurred in the courtyard outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. I felt infused with divine love even as we waited to enter the church. The Divine Beloved filled my heart. I was in love, except that my Beloved was within me and all around me. There was no separation.
Other deep blessings came in both the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and in the Golgotha chapel. Deep, silent, heart-wrenching tears filled my being as I wept in empathy with the women at the foot of the cross. This moment, I believe, was connected to the inner guidance I had received—go on the pilgrimage or suffer cancer.
Years later, vivid past-life memories revealed the scope of my involvement in painful events in the Holy Land, so painful that I wept for three hours. Although these memories are too sacred to reveal here, I can say that sometimes centuries-old debris needs to be cleared away before one can embrace God's everlasting love.
Many other sacred and blissful memories from that trip fill my heart. Divine joy opens the soul to whatever gifts God and Guru have to offer us. The Holy Land and Assisi pilgrimage was a profound chapter in my life, and the blessings continue to this day.
After the pilgrimage, Tim and I were happy to be reunited with our children. Almost immediately Peter developed a rash over his entire body, a condition I intuited was the result of emotions awakened by our absence. I also felt (accurately, as it turned out) that his condition would clear up in ten days.
My pre-pilgrimage premonition of death came again to my awareness during the pilgrimage: A moment came when my life was in serious danger, but I was protected. Then, two days after our return to Ananda Village, Cathy Kielhorn suddenly and tragically died of toxic shock syndrome. Though my heart ached for her and for her two young sons, I was comforted in remembering the blessing from Swami Kriyananda that she and I had shared in the Crystal Hermitage chapel almost a month earlier. I believe Swami Kriyananda made his last-minute decision to do the Festival of Light because of a nudge from Divine Mother. We are all connected.
Perhaps my prayer of offering my children back into Divine Mother's hands helped Cathy and her children as well. Cathy's death came just at the time given in my premonition of my own death. Perhaps my prayer for my own children somehow, by Divine Mother's grace, expanded to include Cathy's boys as well. Although some things must remain mysteries, I feel that through Kriyananda's words that day in the chapel, Divine Mother helped two young mothers.
The post Answering the Call to Pilgrimage appeared first on Clarity Magazine.]]>
The post Learn to Express Your True Personality appeared first on Clarity Magazine.]]>
All personalities come under four broad classifications: transcendental, sattwic, rajasic, or tamasic. Transcendental personalities are those who, like Jesus, Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Sri Yukteswarji, are one with God. Such personalities exhibit the following traits: omniscience; ever-new bliss; absolute wisdom; non-attachment; even-mindedness; fearlessness; sincerity; and stillness of breath, eyes, and body.
Sattwic, or good-manifesting personalities, are those who cultivate qualities which, from an altruistic or benevolent standpoint, produce a good effect upon oneself or others. Sattwic personalities are marked by the following qualities: spirituality, sincerity, and cleanliness in thought, word, and deed. Meditative activities connected with a religious organization dedicated to the upliftment of souls are considered sattwic activities.
Rajasic personalities are those who pursue acts of usefulness to themselves or others. A man engaged in business pursuits based on strictly moral principles, for his own good or the good of others, can be described as a rajasic personality. In other words, money-making through honest means for oneself or others constitutes rajasic activity. All material and social activities connected with religious organizations, such as collecting funds or building temples, are rajasic activities.
Tamasic or darkness-producing personalities are those who pursue dishonest, immoral, uncontrolled, or non-constructive lives. A person who manifests insincerity, jealousy, a gossiping inclination, greed, extreme anger, or other similarly harmful instincts can be described as having a tamasic personality.
Consciously or semi-consciously, people intuitively experience your predominant personality traits, whether spiritual (sattwic), business-like (rajasic), or selfish (tamasic). It is important, therefore, to know what your personality is so that, for your own happiness and well-being, you can change it for the better and not cause suffering to others by imposing on them a tamasic personality. All personalities, no matter how deeply rooted, can be changed into sattwic personalities by the application of strong will power and continuous self-discipline.
The personality can be compared to a dense forest, beyond which lies the beautiful, expansive land that God has promised you. To reach Him, you must somehow get out of the forest, and not waste time exploring its countless lanes. Unfortunately, most people have no understanding of how to get out of their mental forests. Every path they attempt ends either in a confusion of dense undergrowth, or leads them back to where they first started out. In time, the realization dawns on them that they are lost.
Analyze yourself and find out what your personality is, and see if you need to improve it or perhaps change it entirely. Personalities are formed from the seeds of actions left from previous incarnations. If from the beginning of your childhood you manifested sattwic, rajasic, or tamasic tendencies, then you can be certain that you brought that personality over from a past life.
Why is a baby born crippled? Only reincarnation can explain this fact satisfactorily. People behold it as a "sweet, innocent" baby, but in some past life that personality must have transgressed against God's law. This transgression deprived him of the consciousness of having good legs. Because the mind controls the body, when that person came back again into a physical body, he was not able to create a perfect pair of legs, and was born crippled.
Pre-natal tendencies are not imposed upon man by God, but are created by man himself through his own free choice. However, through the law of reincarnation, and the continuous application of proper methods of concentration and spiritual self-discipline, harmful pre-natal tendencies can be gradually replaced with sattwic qualities.
It is possible to develop the traits of specific individuals by constant attentive association with those individuals. Friendship and attentive association between two different personalities results in a mutual exchange of characteristics. If a person wants to become an artist, poet, or businessman, he should choose the best in that class and associate with that personality; by intelligently following that personality's counsel and example, he will take on his traits. However, if you want to become more spiritual, you should associate with people who have attained a high level of spirituality and learn from their example.
In addition to outward association, it's also possible to attract the spiritual traits of a certain personality by concentrating deeply upon that personality. For example, by deeply and continuously meditating upon the photograph of a saint, you can become like him. Similarly, by thinking regularly of God and saintly people, you can develop a sattwic personality. You will develop a sattwic personality more quickly if you not only meditate deeply upon God but also, in prayer, ask Him to change your personality.
Always keep in mind, however, that if your whole heart is with someone, you will draw not only the good qualities of that person, but also the defects. That is a very important reason why you should think only of saintly individuals. If you concentrate on thoughts of wicked people, unless you are stronger than they are, you will attract their qualities.
The ego, focused as it is on one body and personality, mistakes that apparently separate individuality for its true self. In reality, your selfhood is infinitely greater. The soul is made in the image of God. By meditating and going within, you are able to experience the bliss of your soul nature. The more you are able to sustain that consciousness outside of meditation, the more your personality will reflect His love, harmony, and goodness. That is your true personality. Your human imperfections are simply a graft on your inner divine nature. Dispel all inharmonious vibrations by meditating regularly and deeply.
In our souls we are immortal, but in our personalities we cannot reclaim the consciousness of that immortality until our human imperfections have all been rubbed away. Working on ourselves is like chipping away the extraneous stone on a statue; gradually the hidden image is revealed in all of its perfection. The lesson of reincarnation is to neutralize the waves of likes and dislikes, of desire and aversion, by expressions of kindness, forgiveness, and compassion to all, and by steadfast contentment in the Self. We must learn to love others not for their human personalities, but because they are manifestations of God, Who dwells equally in all.
To know who we really are—in eternity and not only for a few anguishing earth years—we must withdraw our consciousness from the sensory identifications which have defined our ego-consciousness. Even while living in ego-consciousness, we must think of ourselves as the heirs of Infinity. The better we succeed in identifying ourselves with the soul rather than with this little body and personality, the more real for us will become the words of the master Jesus Christ, who declared, "I and my Father are one."
People commonly misunderstand "Self-realization" to mean the development of their human personality to its highest potential. But "Self-realization" is a soul-potential, not a human one. You are important not because of your ego and personality but because, as a soul, you are a part of God. "Self-realization" means to realize your oneness with God and to be free of any identification with your body or personality.
By developing the individuality that is an expression of God's presence within you, your increasingly sattwic personality also becomes powerful and attractive. With the development of your divine nature, through meditation, you gradually cast off even lifelong limitations. You become detached from the body; you no longer feel identified with it. More and more, you experience your true Self, your oneness with the Divine.
Strive always to develop a personality that is derived from living in the continuous consciousness of God. Any other personality will bring disenchantment in its wake because all human expressions have their limitations.
From books, articles, and lessons.
The post Learn to Express Your True Personality appeared first on Clarity Magazine.]]>


text:
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