Yogananda stated in his writings that if
we use the mind properly, we can understand that God is beyond mind and
intellect and that his true nature can be felt through the soul’s power of
intuition.
We cultivate soul intuition through
meditation. When meditating, we can also perceive the astral light by focusing
on the spiritual eye, or the eye of intuition. It is through this light, that
our tangible creation is made. Beholding this light, one feels unity with all
things.
The ordinary person lives in this world
but is unconscious of its relative nature and purpose. The purpose should be to
attune ones consciousness with God’s consciousness and thus be in a state of
oneness.
At this moment most people in the
developed world are enjoying relative ease. But when we look at Egypt, Jordan,
Libya and other parts of Africa we see great unrest. We witness floods, forest
fires, earth quakes in many parts of the world.
This general unrest causes disharmonious
vibrations throughout the world. Imbalance in vibrations can cause atmospheric
changes that are responsible for floods and other disaster that have become
very common.
People have become blind to the
consequences of their actions. Blindness causes one to err and thus bring
suffering to him and others.
Man has been given everything he needs
for the enfoldment of his innate potential. God gave man freedom but man is misusing
it.
It is selfishness, greed and short
sighted self-interest that are the cause of pain and unhappiness we witness in
the world.
The root cause of the world’s troubles
is this selfishness born out of ignorance. This is why there is so much
unhappiness.
Happiness lies in making other’s happy,
in forsaking self- interest. It lies in bringing joy to others.
‘All things whatever ye would that men
should do to you, do ye even so to them’.
Matthew 7:12
In today’s world, we live no longer in
isolation. We can no longer just care for people in our own country, but for people
in all countries and all countries need to care for one another. A man of God
indentifies with the whole world.
Many of us are like puppets. We dance to
the strings of habits, emotions, passion and sense pleasure. This binds our
soul to worldly things. We are unwilling to cut the strings because we prefer
to live in ignorance. Yet, it is when the fog of ignorance, delusion and
shallow thinking is removed, that we begin to see our world more clearly.
We need to realize truth, Self and God
realization. Realization is not something to be learned from books; it comes
from personal experience.
To attain to God realization, which
every religion should teach its followers, one must go beyond mere dogma and
follow what Jesus realized. He didn’t teach that his followers should worship
him as a personality, but rather experience what he experienced in his oneness
with God. This can be only attained through meditating on God and by following
His laws. To worship Jesus, because he is Jesus is not enough. One must embrace
the universal ideas of love, forgiveness and compassion that he taught and
strive to be like him.
Lahiri Mahasaya, the guru of Paramahansa
Yogananda stated that knowledge prepares the way to love. One cannot love, what
one does not know. Knowledge of God must therefore precede love for Him. This
knowledge comes with the practice of one’s spiritual discipline, one such
discipline is Kriya Yoga as outlined in the Autobiography of a Yogi.
Yogananda suggested that we live in the
consciousness of Spirit, and that attachment to material possessions will lead
to disappointment.
He urges us to meditate and contemplate
the nature of God; to become Self realized and see God in everything.
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