Paramhansa Yogananda was a towering giant among saints—one of those few who come from age to age, having been sent by God with the divine mission of guiding mankind out of the fogs of delusion into the clear light of divine understanding. He’d been sent to America, a “new world,” and one better adapted to new rays of consciousness that are destined to take mankind upward, into higher and higher ages.

Yogananda came to America’s shores with a message of divine promise and hope. His role was to set the highest example for others and to burn off the impeding karma in America that militated against an inwardly, more spiritually, directed energy in man. It was a heroic life he lived this time, and a life destined to have a major impact on civilization itself.

An impact on the entire Western world
I used to wonder why Yogananda had spoken to us repeatedly of his incarnation as William the Conqueror of England. After all, there must have been other and less controversial lives that he lived. Over the years, I’ve come to understand that Yogananda made sure we never forgot that incarnation, because his present lifetime, too, was destined to have a similar impact on the world.

Several historians have written that William the Conqueror’s influence on history has been very great—much greater, indeed, than most people realize. Indeed, his legacy has had an impact on the history of the entire Western world.

Yogananda’s legacy will have a much greater impact because the world has, in a sense, shrunk in size. To circle the globe today requires less time and effort than it did in those days merely to travel from one country to another. He spoke to us repeatedly about his incarnation as William the Conqueror because he wanted us to realize the history-making importance of his own present incarnation, so that we might set our own sights accordingly.

The need to inspire positive expectations
In this country, Yogananda found it was necessary to “lure” people to the spiritual search. Yogananda had said to his guru, “You are the goldsmith, who deals with pure gold. I am the jeweler, who must add alloys to shape his jewelry beautifully.”

The “alloy” that Yogananda introduced in America was one of cheerful, positive expectations—hope, in other words, and faith in the possibilities of a new approach to fulfillment, in an endeavor that would often, in fact, require much more effort than peoples’ first expectations.

Since the typical American is hardly famous for his patience, Yogananda, in order to reach him, presented his teachings as being at least “sure-fire” in their effectiveness. And he was perfectly right. Meditation and yoga practice increase one’s happiness and peace of mind within a matter of days. I have observed many visitors to the Ananda retreat, for example, and have seen them in a single weekend derive benefits that are really striking.

The higher purpose of the spiritual path is, however, infinitely higher than mere peace of mind or happiness. But in America, where the most people ever hoped to achieve was to get to heaven after they died, and to live there, in self-limitation, for all eternity, there was a need to awaken them to an understanding that the soul’s true destiny is final and complete union with God. They needed to be inspired to take the first serious steps toward that union, by the practice of yoga meditation.

And as Yogananda said, those who seek God sincerely find out very soon that, in the search, they are finding all that they ever truly wanted.

Sincere seekers and suffering humanity
In 1935 Paramhansa Yogananda was telepathically summoned back to India by his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar. While he was in India, Yogananda visited the ashram of Ramana Maharshi, a great saint in southern India.

Most saints are not concerned with the needs of humanity as a whole. Their concern is with getting out of the cosmic dream. But my guru, as an avatar, had both a qualitative and a quantitative work to do. The role of avatars is also to raise humanity, as a whole, to a higher level of consciousness. Yogananda’s mission was both to sincere seekers and to suffering humanity. His teachings were destined to offer people everywhere a major incentive to improve their lot by pointing them in the direction of ever-greater spirituality.

No doubt to satisfy his curiosity as to Ramana Maharshi’s attitude, Yogananda asked the saint what he thought of mass upliftment. “There can be no good accomplished except through personal enlightenment,” was the reply. Yogananda’s kind and gracious nature prevented him from pursuing this subject to its logical conclusion, and he allowed Ramana Maharshi to have the last word.

Later, however, Ramana’s brother, who was no saint and very ego-centered, tried to get Yogananda into an argument on the point—no doubt to persuade him of the uselessness of the work he was doing in promulgating truth by lectures, books, and the like. Ramana Maharshi, seeing his brother from inside the satsang room, called to him quietly, “Come away.” He knew Yogananda’s stature.

A return to a sense of high destiny
The Master’s return visit to his motherland, though it was only for a year, had a significant impact on raising the level of Indians’ faith in the high spiritual destiny of their own country. That faith had been brutally shaken by the three-hundred-year reign of the English. When the Muslims had invaded India, they conquered by the sword, mercilessly killing any who resisted their religion. Still, India had remained proudly upright.

When the English came, however, they sneered at these “brown heathens,” whom they considered utterly beneath them. This demoralizing blow undermined Indians’ faith in themselves.

Mahatma Gandhi was the primary force which returned India to its own sense of high destiny. To a lesser but still-important degree, Paramhansa Yogananda’s visit played a role also in this national upliftment of consciousness. His India visit also became for him, in a true sense, a sort of fulcrum in his mission on earth. For these reasons, it was a very important period in his life.

A gradual shift toward “qualitative” good
When Yogananda returned to the West in 1936, there was a subtle shift in his way of reaching people. It was as though his outward service, which had been ordained by God, was now directed more inwardly. The first part of the Master’s mission was dedicated primarily to performing “quantitative” good, through public lectures and outward activities of many kinds.

The last part of his life saw a gradual shift toward more “qualitative” good. Sincere disciples began coming to him, and the true and deeper aspect of his mission began to flower: his training of direct and devoted disciples who would carry on his work, and who would display before the world the universal importance of his teachings.

In his earlier years, he had presented himself in such a way as to give people the impression that what he had accomplished, they could accomplish easily. He belittled himself, in order to make it easier for others to identify with him. During his last years, however, he challenged his disciples to meet him on his own actual, exalted level in infinity.

New teachings for a new age:
Paramhansa Yogananda will, I believe, become known throughout the world as the guru of this Dwapara Yuga, or Age of Energy. His teachings highlight the importance of energy-consciousness, the unity of true religions, and expansive, God-affirming attitudes:

Magnetism
Yogananda devoted much of his teaching to explaining the importance of the concept of magnetism. For success in every field of endeavor, he said, including the spiritual, far more is needed than steadfast effort. Success depends at last on the power of the magnetism one develops. The right, magnetic attitude can accomplish more than brow-furrowing hard work.

In future, the importance of magnetism will be taught in every school. People will consider it an obvious fact that knowledge itself is far less important to success than a person’s magnetism to attract whatever he wants. Students in future will be taught that the very facts one needs can be attracted by right, magnetic expectation. Intuition (which is itself magnetic) can guide one to the right conclusions far more unerringly than the piecemeal efforts of intellect

True Christianity and true Hinduism:
The teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita are, point for point, the same as those of Jesus. The only difference is that where Krishna’s emphasis is on achieving freedom through desireless action, Jesus emphasized, rather, the need for devotion. His people had become too much preoccupied with understanding, in all of its ramifications, the Law of Moses.

A new type of renunciation
In true renunciation the point is not so much to focus on what one is giving up as on the freedom that comes when one doesn’t depend on anything outward. A year after my arrival Yogananda placed me in charge of the monks, a task I carried out mostly through my attunement with him.

My efforts evolved over the years into a new expression of the monastic spirit: less world-rejecting, and more God-affirming; less ego-suppressing and more ego-expanding in sympathy for all. Our new renunciate order for the new age is, I believe, in complete accord with his wishes.*

A “church of all religions”
Yogananda said that the future religion of the world will be Self-realization. Self-realization is both a universal principle and the underlying religion of the whole universe. It was to this universal principle that Yogananda referred when he called his Hollywood church “a church of all religions.”

At that time, few people could understand that truth. Few, even today, have any clear idea what this phrase means. Yogananda never invited ministers from other churches to speak at his Hollywood church, for they would have come without an understanding of what they could contribute, apart from their own dogmas.

A world-transforming legacy
Like William the Conqueror’s, Paramhansa Yogananda’s legacy is destined in many respects to be world-transforming. What is his legacy? What were the specific gifts he brought to mankind? Let me list those I know.

1. He encouraged people to come together in communities. This he did, repeatedly and sometimes fervently, almost from the very beginning of his mission. I myself have built eight such communities so far, in which all together about a thousand people live.

The Master also spoke a great deal about the world’s future: about a worldwide economic depression, “much worse than the one in the thirties.” He spoke of wars of massive destruction. The image I have formed in my mind is of cities everywhere vanishing from the face of the earth, and of little, intentional communities springing up everywhere. People who live their beliefs and ideals together would constitute a force that, gradually, would uplift the world.

2. Schools everywhere are causing anxiety among parents, who feel their children are being overburdened with knowledge. A serious problem is that children are taught, whether explicitly or implicitly, that life has no meaning. In fact, modern education is basically atheistic. In consequence, there are many adolescent suicides.

In America, the ground was not yet fertile for initiating Yogananda’s educational ideas. My guru said to me, “Our way works better for the present: mature adults, eager to come to us for training, instead of boys with varied karma going off, after graduation, in countless different directions, and most of them to a worldly life.” I have been able, however, to create his type of schools on three continents, and their impact promises to be enormous, at a time when people everywhere are losing faith in modern educational methods.

3. Paramhansa Yogananda’s writings embrace a wide array of important topics, and are bound to become greatly influential.

• His book, The Science of Religion, makes the simple but all-clarifying statement that everyone on earth is seeking only two things in life: to avoid pain, and to find happiness. This simple truth will, in time, become the basis for a new system of ethics; a new definition of success; and a new approach to social upliftment. I myself rewrote this book, and because I wasn’t allowed to give it the same title, called it: God Is for Everyone.
• Another book the Master wrote was Scientific Healing Affirmations. In this book he taught people how to use their mental power to cure any number of physical ailments. More and more, already, people are coming to understand the healing power of the mind. Affirmations help to focus that healing power, and to increase its effectiveness enormously.
• He wrote Whispers from Eternity, which shows the right and best attitudes for approaching God.
• He wrote commentaries on the actions and teachings of Jesus Christ. I believe these commentaries are destined, in time, to eliminate the innumerable sects of Christianity, and to convince everyone that the essential message of Jesus lies far beyond any organization, far beyond any system of mere beliefs, in the inner communion of the soul with God.
• He also wrote what was, in some ways, his most important scriptural commentary, on the Bhagavad Gita, which outlined for everybody an entirely new and transforming way of life.

4. I believe his life will also change society in far-reaching ways:

• It will make businesses in general aware that success is most surely theirs who put service ahead of gain.
• Home life everywhere has been suffering, as new life directions divide couples that once would have walked in the same direction, together. Yogananda brought so much clarity to the very purpose of life that these forks in life’s road will become less and less frequent.
• Governments, usually, are whirlpools of power-seeking. Government in future will become smaller, as politicians come to see their role as being, primarily, one of service.
• Prisons will become places not of punishment, but of supportive correction.
• Armies will focus more on defense than on aggression.
• Policemen will become conditioned to expect cooperation from people, rather than opposition, for the people themselves will understand better that, since the true goal of life is happiness, one can find more of what he really wants by sharing with others than by taking from them. People with strongly negative karma will continue to express negativity, but overall, basic social attitudes will change, and will bring greater harmony to mankind everywhere.

Such, finally, is the legacy of Paramhansa Yogananda. The world will become a better place, because he lived. His aura of love will prove—so I fervently believe—to have cast its spell over the whole world, and in time to have made our whole planet a better place in which to live.

Excerpted from Paramhansa Yogananda, A Biography, with personal reflections and reminiscences, by Swami Kriyananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers

*To learn more about the new renunciate order started by Swami Kriyananda, click here

 

Each human being is a medium through which God’s magnetism flows, but humans allow many things to obstruct that magnetism, and very few people are truly magnetic. However, the right kind of magnetic power can be developed.

We may hear someone say, “Oh, I met a friend who is so magnetic; he inspired me and expanded my consciousness.” This is the kind of magnetic power that we all want – attracting, uplifting and expanding. This type of magnetic power is a quality of Spirit. It expands the consciousness but does not stupefy it, as does hypnosis or animal magnetism.

Magnetic power comes from within
Our magnetism is determined by our habitual attitudes and actions. To become magnetic to others, you must make yourself attractive from within. Sattwic actions, including meditative activities, are those that help you realize the pure image of the Self within. Someone with a sattwic personality is sincere, kind, accepting, and possessed of great self-control – qualities that are highly magnetic and produce a good effect on oneself and others. Positive behavior, control of speech, and kind words are qualities which clothe the soul in spiritual magnetism.

Ego-inspired attitudes and actions obstruct the free flow of one’s energy and are demagnetizing. The mental habit of criticizing others, regardless of whether the criticism is gentle or severe, has a darkening effect on the consciousness and drags a person down into greater delusion. When you occupy your mind with an unholy interest in the failings of others, you also rouse and stimulate your own pre-natal bad habits.

Try not to give in to moods. The darkness of moods will invariably be reflected in your facial expressions. The best cure for a bad mood is to try to do something that will raise your energy level and put you in a good mood. Always stay away from people in ugly moods, to prevent them from spreading to you their epidemic of inharmony.

“Learn to behave”
I can never thank my guru enough for constantly saying to me, “Learn to behave.” Like many people, I thought I was a winged angel and that nobody could say anything to improve me. However, as wisdom grew, I found that I could see myself better in the mirrors of calm minds, especially in my Master’s unprejudiced mind, than in the little mirror of my own hazy understanding. And I discovered there was a difference between how I assumed others viewed me and how they actually viewed me.

It is easy to see the faults of others but very difficult to see your own faults and to conduct yourself properly. If you can find your own faults without developing an inferiority complex, and can keep busy correcting yourself, then you will be using your time much more profitably than wishing others to be better. Your good example will do more to change others than your words or wishful thinking.

Like attracts like. Whatever you want others to be, first be that yourself, then you will find others responding in like manner to you. If you want to be loved, start loving others who need your love. If you expect others to be honest with you, then start being honest yourself. If you want others to sympathize with you, start showing sympathy to those around you. If you want to be respected, you must learn to be respectful to everyone, both young and old. If you want a display of peace from others, you must be peaceful yourself.

The glow of sincerity
Sincerity is a quality of all highly magnetic souls. All the great ones – Jesus, Buddha, Babaji – possess this quality. Many people, to gain fame or outward success in the world, sacrifice their sincerity and self-respect, but they never derive real satisfaction from the achievement of their longed-for goals. Man’s nature is many-sided and demands all-around development, which includes being sincere and truthful at all times.

Be sincere with all and above all, be sincere with yourself. Watch your thoughts to be sure they are right. When your thoughts are right, sincere and helpful words, and good deeds, will naturally follow. Carry the vibration of sincerity with you wherever you go. People will feel this vibration. Sincere, sweet words are nectar to thirsty souls.They contribute to the happiness of people in the home, in social outings, in churches, and in business offices.

Above all, never forget to smile, not the mask-like smile without truth and sincerity behind it, but the sincere, radiant smile that comes from a light, joyful heart, which belongs only to the “good” and cannot be worn by the wicked. Learn to emanate sincere smiles and to wear the glow of sincerity on your face.

Consideration for others
Consideration for others is a wonderful quality and gives you the greatest attractiveness. Practice it! Consideration for others means being aware of them, listening to them, and being attentive to their needs. Try to develop an intuitive awareness of the needs of others.

Let your supreme goal be to make others happy in order to gain happiness for yourself. Take a genuine interest in the problems of others. Every time you meet a receptive human being, make him feel your interest in his physical, mental, and spiritual welfare. Never neglect to do whatever you can for yourself in the forms of others. Live by the principle, “Each for all and all for each.” In getting for yourself, you must get for others too.

Remember that whatever you do attracts those same actions to yourself. If you set the example of selfishness, people will practice selfishness on you, but whatever you freely give to others with love, yields an ever-increasing harvest of happiness. Find happiness in helping whoever crosses your path.

Once a certain well-known teacher in India was invited to participate in a religious congress in Chicago. He and fifteen of his followers were coming through Los Angeles on their way to Chicago. I invited him to Mount Washington, where we prepared a great banquet for them. At the last moment, there came a telegram from him in Hawaii. He had felt the inspiration, suddenly, to return to India. No master would have behaved in such a way!

People would do well to understand that the masters do not behave erratically, even though they are guided by the flow of inspiration. In dealing with this world, they honor its ways. And they are ever true to their word. Moreover, if they are obliged to mix socially with others, they are considerate of people’s feelings.

Self-control and peace-loving behavior
Exercise extreme vigilance in maintaining your self-control at all times.You must be able to put on at will the apparel of your best disposition whenever you come across people with combative mentalities. Above all, be so peaceful that nobody can get your goat.

It is human weakness to get angry and scold, but it shows divine strength to be able to hold the reins over the wild steeds of your temper and speech. No matter what the provocation may be, behave yourself and by calm silence or genuinely kind words, show that your kindness is more powerful than the other person’s ugliness.

Civility, heartfelt courtesy, and continuous good will are the panacea for all bad behavior. You can teach your quick-tempered friends and dear ones to mend their faults through the example of your own magnetic, peace-loving behavior a million times better than by harsh words. If you remain even-minded by holding a calm disposition and, at the same time, are both forgiving and firm in your own principles, then you will inspire the wrong-doers to reform themselves.

Dissolve all inharmonious vibrations
Divine magnetism is the power of all powers. By meditating regularly, you become increasingly charged with the pure magnetism of God. Think of God so constantly that He is with you wherever you go. When you meditate and live in the consciousness that you are God’s child, you gradually dissolve all inharmonious emotions and vibrations.

Always keep in tune with the Divine Magnetic Power. When your prayer bursts from your heart and God gives up His vow of silence and speaks to you — you will have gained divine magnetism.

From lessons and articles.

Related reading: How to be Happy All the Time, by Paramhansa Yogananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers. To order click here

Q: Cliff, You’ve had an unusually successful life as a pioneer and inventor in the computer field. A CNN article describes one of your inventions as having “launched the text-messaging phenomenon.”

For years now, you’ve also had a strong spiritual life that includes the regular practice of meditation. Looking back on your life, can you identify any single event that helped shape who and what you’ve become today?

CK: I would say it all started with my exposure to the writings of John Lilly when I was a student at the University of Michigan in the 1970s. When I entered college I thought I’d become a mathematician. I had almost completed a math major when I read about the research Lilly was doing on dolphin communication. Reading about dolphins and listening to recordings of humpbacked whales, I became obsessed with whales and dolphins and switched my major from math to zoology.

John Lilly’s writings also introduced me to the idea that our beliefs can often shape the material reality we experience.  Previously, I had become more or less a complete materialist – thinking that eventually physics would give us all of the answers. But Lilly’s concept was fascinating to me, and became a kind of springboard into exploring the spiritual realm.

Q: Given your interest in zoology and dolphin communication, why did you decide to become a computer scientist?

CK: A few years after college, I was about to head to California to offer my services to John Lilly, who was then building a computer interface for human/dolphin communication. But I realized I might need to have some computer skills, so I enrolled as a graduate student in the computer science department at Michigan State University. There I met Dr. John Eulenberg, a pioneer in the field of augmentative and alternative communication, and I became very interested in this new field.

Q: What is augmentative communication?

CK: Augmentative communication is the field of providing technology for people whose disabilities prevent them from using any of the more or less standard channels of communication. Some individuals are unable to speak intelligibly, type on a standard keyboard, or even use sign language – they have no way to express their thoughts or feelings. Augmentative communication provides such people with new technology that enables them to generate language, written and spoken.

Q: Was Michigan State a leader in this field?

CK: Yes, but at that time – the late 1970s – the field was very small. The computer industry was just blossoming and the idea that there were now tools that could really make a difference for people with disabilities was a very new concept. I just happened to be in the right place to be able to study under John Eulenberg, who was exploring and developing ways for people with disabilities to communicate by using the computer.

Q: What, if anything, did you do as a graduate student to develop new ways of helping people?

CK: At that time, all of the communications systems for people with disabilities required that they fit into an existing model. Essentially the message to them was, “OK here’s the system. Learn to live with it.”

I wanted to turn that around and say, “OK, what’s natural for you? What can you do with your body to generate a signal that the computer can respond to? Can you hit a switch? Can you control your head movements?  For a person with cerebral palsy, for example, simply moving an arm to hit a specific key on a computer keyboard can be a major effort.

So I conceptualized a system in which we would attach electrodes to an individual that would detect the person’s nerve activity if a muscle moved – even if the person only barely started to try to move. The idea was to give people much greater control and to allow the individual to say, “OK, I want to use this particular movement as a signal.”

I was trying to put the focus back on the individual, and on what a person could actually do, instead of saying, “Here’s how you have to adapt to the system. Take it or leave it.”

Q: It sounds like you were trying to empower the individual. Is that true?

CK: Yes.

Q: Was Dr. Eulenberg supportive of what you were doing?

CK: Yes, he was.

Q: When did you create your first invention in this field, something that resulted in a patent?

CK: It was during my first job after I completed my doctoral studies. I took a job in Ohio where I designed and built what became known as the Liberator, a special purpose communication device for people who couldn’t speak. Pressing certain keys would activate either letters or “icons” that would bring up words and phrases, and the Liberator would speak the text that was generated.

While designing the Liberator, I came up with an invention that reduced the number of keys one had to push to activate the system, so that it would automatically switch between generating letters and icons. This made it a little easier for a disabled person to use the device.

Q: Was creating that invention an important moment in realizing what you could do with your life?

CK: Yes, and I became very excited about that aspect of it. Computer programming sounds like a very rote field but, in fact, it offers a lot of opportunities for creativity. When I’m writing a computer program, I may know from the start what I want it to do, and how people are going to use it, but then, as I go along, I find creative new ways to accomplish those goals. Sometimes I might end up creating a whole new way to interact with the technology — and that’s where the invention aspect comes into the picture.

Q: From what I’ve read about your inventions, all of them seem to have the common thread of making it significantly easier for people to communicate. Is that correct?

CK: Yes.

Q: Did the Liberator prove useful to people who couldn’t speak and needed augmentative communication?

CK: Yes. The Liberator did a lot of things that no other system had done before, and it was quite a step forward for non-speaking people at that time. But special purpose devices like the Liberator are very expensive to produce. By the time they’re produced, their technology is often out of date. I’ve always believed that a better approach for many people with disabilities would be to find ways to enable them to use mass market computer technology.

Q: Is it correct to say that you were able to put that belief into practice when you came up with the two inventions that have attracted major national attention: T9 and Swype?

CK: Yes – at least that was the original intent. Both inventions were initially conceived of as serving people with disabilities but in both instances, I could see that this new technology would also be useful to the cell phone mass market.

Q: Both T9 and Swype have had a very big impact on the cell phone industry and on cell phone use. Can you explain briefly what these two inventions accomplish?

CK: T9 was the technology that made it possible for cell phone users to type much more quickly and easily on a typical cell phone keypad with only 12 keys. T9 was not solely my invention. Two friends and I invented it during the mid-1990s.

The Swype technology came along in 2002. This was well before cell phones with touch-screens began to emerge. There were only a few specialized devices that had small touch-screens. But I believed that eventually people would want their phones to have touch-screens; when the iPhone finally came out, this vision came true. However, people found that it was much harder to tap out a message on a touch-screen keyboard than on a real keyboard. It took more time and typos were very common.

Swype solves these problems by allowing a person to spell words by gliding a finger across the keyboard — tracing a path through the letters of a word rather than tapping out each letter. The Swype software automatically inserts spaces between words and corrects spelling and other mistakes.

Overall, Swype is a much faster and more efficient way of inputting text on a cell phone. And most people just find it fun to use.

Q: I understand that in both cases you were able to sell these inventions – along with their patents – to large corporations?

CK: Yes. In 1999, AOL acquired Tegic Communications, the startup company we formed to market T9. Nuance Communications acquired Swype – the name we used for both the technology itself and the startup company that developed it – in 2011. Coincidentally, Nuance had previously acquired Tegic from AOL in 2007, so this was a kind of a homecoming for me.

Q: From what I’ve heard, the acquisition process involving large corporations can be very uncertain and stressful. Did being on the spiritual path when you were trying to find a corporate buyer for Swype make the process less stressful?

CK: The negotiations around the sale of a start up company can be very intense. Starting Tegic and developing T9 took us to the brink of bankruptcy quite early in the process, so yes, it was rather stressful.

But there was much more at stake with Swype than with T9. Eight years of effort had gone into developing Swype. We had succeeded in making a great product and had obtained valid patents. But because we were on a playing field with huge corporations looking for multi-million dollar profits, and with so many different factors at work, it was entirely possible that those eight years of work could have been pretty much for naught. Even in the final stages of the process, it was not at all clear what the outcome would be.

It was only because of the non-attachment and peace of mind that the spiritual path and practice of meditation have brought me, that I could look the possibility of failure squarely in the face and say, “OK, Master. If this is all a spiritual test and everything we’ve worked for goes nowhere, then that’s the lesson I need to learn.”

Really accepting that possibility in my heart took away so much stress. I’m not saying I was perfectly non-attached, but the process would have been much more stressful without the understanding and the faith to accept that possibility. And I was so grateful for that understanding and faith.

Q: After selling both inventions, were you able to fulfill your original intention of making the new technology available to people with disabilities?

CK: Yes. After the sale, I am once again working with Mark Illing, one of the software engineers who was involved in the development of T9 and who worked with me through many years to create Swype. We are now finally working together to try to create new applications of the T9 technology to assist people with disabilities.

Q: Will you be able to do the same with the Swype technology?

CK: Yes. In the acquisition of Swype, Nuance permanently retained close to half of the Swype staff, myself included. During the negotiations with Nuance, I was able to say, “I want to spend some time taking these technologies back to the disabilities realm. They’ve had a huge impact on the cell phone mass market but they were designed to help people with disabilities and I want to continue with that work as a significant part of what I do.”

Nuance graciously accepted those terms and, in terms of budget allocations, is supporting the disabilities work in a very significant way.

Q: Your commitment to helping people with disabilities suggests that dharma or “right action” is very important to you. In fact, your mentor, John Eulenberg, was quoted as saying that you “believe in doing good.” *

Do you see your commitment to helping people with disabilities as a form of dharma? Have you ever thought of it in these terms?

CK: I think a commitment to dharma is part of my nature, probably something I brought over from the past. There are times when in a specific situation it’s not always clear what is the dharmic thing to do, and trying to see the dharmic way has not always been easy.

Over time I have come to know that the best thing I can do is to try to become quiet, to meditate, and try to hear what Master is whispering. But yes, even if I didn’t think of my work as dharma at first (it just seemed like the best thing I could be doing with my time), I can now see it as a form of dharma.

Q: It seems that your commitment to dharma goes beyond helping people with disabilities and is a guiding principle in your life. One of your Swype associates describes you as having “incredible business ethics.”* Apparently he trusted you enough to agree to become CEO of Swype without a contract. Can you explain how that happened?

CK: As Swype grew, we needed someone to run the company and handle the marketing and sales to cell phone manufacturers, and it’s a tough job. I brought in Mike McSherry, who became Swype’s CEO. It was an intuitive decision. Though he’d never been a CEO, he felt like a kindred spirit and something told me, “Get this guy!” From the beginning there was such a level of trust between us that we simply shook hands and said, “OK, let’s do this together and we’ll be fair about how we handle this.”

There was no written contract and we didn’t even specify verbally, “OK, you’ll get this percentage of the company or such and such a salary.” Mike worked for several months before we could even understand the best way to define his relationship to the company.

Q: Everything seems to have worked out?

CK: Everything has worked out very well.

Q: You mentioned that your decision to hire Mike McSherry was “an intuitive decision.” What role has intuition played in your invention process?

CK: A big one! Whenever I experience problems or obstacles in my work, my practice is to focus very hard on resolving them. But it’s usually when I’m not focusing on the problem that, all of a sudden, boom! There’s the solution.

One example took place when we were first developing the Swype software. The devices we were using to run the software did not have much computational power – the software could have easily swamped them. I had to find a solution. For a few days I just didn’t know what to do. Then, while I was looking at a certain geometrical shape, the solution came in a flash.

Q: When you encountered these kinds of problems or obstacles, did you ever pray for solutions?

CK: Yes, I definitely appealed to God and Guru. Often when I’m stumped, I try to open up to the Divine to show me what I’m missing. Sometimes answers come in the middle of meditation.

Q: You mentioned that it took eight years to develop Swype. Was that because you encountered numerous problems or obstacles along the way?

CK: Yes, partly that and partly that I just had to keep refining and improving the system until it would “just work” for someone the first time he tried to use it. That’s not always easy to do.

One of Swype’s main features is that it’s “forgiving”— it corrects mistakes. But it took years to identify and correct potential mistakes. Often I’d be using the system and I’d try to enter a word and Swype wouldn’t get it right. I’d try to capture that case and use it to trace through thousands of lines of code to try to figure out where Swype went wrong and how to fix it. Delving into all of those individual cases took not only the most intense focus and concentration but also a lot of time.

Q: Looking ahead to the future. After you develop the disabilities version of Swype, what will you do next?

CK: Swype is currently 97% accurate in correcting mistakes. I’d like Swype to become 100% accurate. The technology that Nuance has available will help resolve the remaining ambiguities.

After that’s done, I’ll move on to something else.

******

Cliff Kushler is currently VP of Technology Innovation at Nuance Communications.  In 1987, upon his return from earning a Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo, he joined Prentke Romich Co. to serve as Director of Research in the design and development of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices, which provide comprehensive communication support for individuals with motor impairments that prevent them from speaking intelligibly, using a standard keyboard effectively, or using sign language.  This work led in 1995 to the co-invention, with his partners Martin King and Dale Grover, of the T9 text input technology in 1995 which was ultimately licensed on over 5 billion phones.

Following the acquisition of Tegic by America Online in 1999, Cliff left near the end of 2000 to pursue his own interests.  In 2002, he partnered with Randy Marsden and, again building on work to facilitate computer access for individuals with severe motor impairments, began the development of the patented “Swype” continuous path-tracing text input technology now broadly licensed on Android and other smart-phone platforms.  Cliff Kushler served as the CTO of Swype Inc. up until it was acquired by Nuance Communications in 2011. He has been awarded 33 US patents, as well as numerous corresponding internationally filed patents.

Cliff Kushler currently lives with his wife and son near Ananda Village and serves as a minister and light-bearer at Ananda Village.  

* See: “The Man Who Invented the Keyboard Twice,” by Mark Milian, CNN Tech, January 5, 2011.

God is omniscient. He knows all the thoughts that run through our minds — the yearnings of our heart, the little “tapes” of wanting this or wanting that. He is closer to our consciousness than we ourselves are because He is our consciousness. So the question naturally arises: Why should we pray if God already knows everything?

Praying to God helps us to open our consciousness to the flow of God’s grace. By praying, we make a conscious connection with God that otherwise wouldn’t be there, and thereby attune ourselves more fully to Him.

God’s grace is like the sunlight
Thirty five years ago or so, Swami Kriyananda and a few others of us from Ananda Village went to India where we were able to spend time with the great saint Ananda Moyi Ma. We had brought with us a number of malas and other treasured items that people wanted Ma to bless. When we presented these things to her, she said, “Why do you ask this body to bless these things? God’s grace is like the sunlight: it’s always shining down. Don’t you see that?”

We said, “Yes, we know Ma, but, please, could you bless them anyway?” And she very kindly did so. She was teasing us a bit but the point she was making was very important. God’s grace is always shining down; it is always with us. But we don’t often connect with it consciously.

Ananda Moyi Ma’s use of the image of sunlight was very appropriate. When the sunlight comes into a room through the windows, we can read without electric lights. But if we want to experience more of that sunlight, we have to make a conscious decision to go outdoors and expose ourselves to the sun.

In the same way, if we want our perception of God to be more than a dim reflection, we have to expose ourselves to His grace and draw upon it consciously. Prayer helps us focus our spiritual intentions through a request to God. By praying we draw more of God’s grace than we otherwise would.

What we should not pray for
When we pray, there is the question of what we should pray for. There are some things not to pray for. For one, if we are undergoing a challenging test, we should not pray that the test be taken away. Is God even likely to answer that kind of prayer? Is He likely to say, “All right, I’ll just remove the test so that you don’t have to learn to be kind; you don’t have to learn to be unattached?” Of course not.

Secondly, we should never pray that our tests be easier, yet we do it so often. We ask that our tests be made easier, so that we don’t have to give up our attachments, so that we don’t have to offer up all the delusions that are holding us back spiritually.

One of the main attitudes that keeps us bound to ego is the thought that our physical possessions, our talents, our ideas and other gifts are our own — that they don’t truly come from God. And it’s because of that delusion that we need to offer up everything to God repeatedly, until we finally realize that everything is God’s alone, that we have nothing outside of what He has given us, and that the sole purpose of our lives is to learn to become perfect channels for His will.

Why two highest prayers?
Paramhansa Yogananda gave us two prayers, both of which he said are the highest prayers one can pray. One might ask: why two prayers? Wouldn’t it be easier to have only one prayer?  But Yogananda said his path was a combination of meditation and service. The first prayer, “Father give me Thyself so I may give Thee to all,” is a prayer for deep meditation. To counter any tendency in the person praying to seek that grace egoically, the prayer ends with: “so I may give Thee to all.”

The second prayer is for proper activity or service: “I will reason, I will will, I will act but guide Thou my reason, will and activity to the right path in everything.”  The message of that prayer is: “Guide me so that I always act and think in attunement with You.” A devotee should always pray for deeper attunement – to want only what God wants for him – and nothing else.

Similarly, in praying for others, usually it’s better not to pray for a specific result – God knows their needs better than we do. Pray instead that God’s will and blessings flow through that person. When we pray deeply in that way, God will answer the prayer.

There must be a personal relationship
Swami Kriyananda has said that the most important line of the beautiful Lord’s Prayer is at the very beginning: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. And within this line, the most words important are: “Our Father.”

What Kriyananda is showing us through this illustration is that in prayer, there must be a personal relationship. When we pray, we must feel that we are God’s children, not insignificant beggars. We must feel that He wants the best for us and knows what that is better than we do.

The remaining words in the first line of the Lord’s Prayer –“hallowed be Thy name” – are also very  important. These words honor God. It’s very important to honor God, not because God needs to be honored, but because we need to experience our relationship with God in an uplifted way. God’s real name is AUM, the vibration by which He manifests creation. By recognizing and honoring that vibration, and making a conscious connection with it, we become open to His grace.

Paramhansa Yogananda once said to Dr. Lewis, “Doctor, you’re not praying correctly. You are praying to God; you should pray in God.” God is our own Self, but as long as we have an ego it’s easier to pray to God as if He were other than ourselves. As we go deeper in our spiritual life and begin to break down the hypnosis of separation from God, we can begin to pray from a sense of unity with God. Dr. Lewis was ready to pray from a sense of unity, which is a deeper form of prayer. However, until we overcome the delusion of separation, it’s more natural to pray as if God were outside ourselves.

A simple way to remember
We’d like to offer a summation and a simple way of remembering the basic aspects of prayer. For each of the five fingers we will give one of the five aspects of prayer, each of which is very important.

1. Familiarity
The first finger is familiarity. The Lord’s Prayer starts with “Our Father.” We start virtually all our public Ananda prayers with “Heavenly Father, Divine Mother, Friend, Beloved God.” Always pray to God as your own parent, your deepest friend, your own beloved. Make familiarity the beginning of your prayer.

2. Faith
The second finger is faith. We have to pray believing that God will answer our prayers, assuming they are righteous requests. Pray believing in the goodness of God, and in His eager willingness to fulfill our true needs, including our need for proper sustenance and right livelihood. Jesus expressed it beautifully in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” God will sustain us in every aspect of life, but to draw His grace, we need faith.

3. Frequency
The third finger is frequency. We can’t just pray once in the morning and assume it’s good enough for all day. At Ananda Village we pray before every meeting, and before meals.

Use every excuse to make a connection with God, either in formal prayer or in silent informal prayer. Feel that God is your companion and that you are sharing your life with Him. If you have a little heartache, share that with Him. If you are having trouble with someone, share that with Him. If you have a desire for something, tell Him about it. Don’t hold anything back. These kinds of “prayers” are going on in your mind anyway, so use them to make a connection with God by involving Him in them.

4. Fervor
The fourth finger stands for fervor. Hearing a recording of Paramhansa Yogananda praying dispels any delusion that saints are always soft and sweet. His voice thunders with power. Yogananda emphasized that prayers should be prayer-demands, with the emphasis on demands, and that’s what we hear when he prays. Wimpy prayers do not take us very far: “Oh God I guess I want to be good today, help me out – okay?”

Try to make your prayers powerful. Pray with real fervor. The stronger the energy, the more magnetic your prayer, and the stronger the response will be.

5. Follow the will of God
Finally, the last finger, the thumb, stands for following the will of God in everything. The deepest prayer of our hearts should be to know and follow God’s will in every thought, word, and deed. Our true fulfillment lies in attuning ourselves to the will of God for nothing else will really make us happy.

From an October 30, 2011 Sunday Service at Ananda Village.

Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi are the Spiritual Directors of Ananda Worldwide. Other Clarity articles by Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi are listed under “Jyotish and Devi Novak.

Related reading:  Whispers from Eternity by Paramhansa Yogananda, edited by his disciple Swami Kriyananda. See especially Yogananda’s introduction on how to use the prayer-poems in the book.

 

The following article is the sequel to, “The Game with Minutes: A Dialogue with My Self,” which appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of Clarity Magazine.* * This new article chronicles Nayaswami Maitreyi’s experiences with The Game with Minutes during the transition from life on the Isle of Man, in the United Kingdom, to life in Ananda’s fledgling Kriya Yoga community in Pune, India.

Nayaswami Maitreyi, a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, received the inner guidance to attempt to practice the presence of God moment by moment. Describing her approach, she writes: “Yogananda urged us to talk to God every second, in activity and in silence, with the unceasing desire of our hearts.” Also inspiring her in this effort were two other books: Practicing the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence (1634-1691), and Letters by a Modern Mystic, by Frank Laubach (1884-1970.

When God, whom Maitreyi refers to as “The Presence,” and whom she considers her higher Self, began to speak to her, she recorded His words. God instilled in Maitreyi an overwhelming desire to share His messages, which were not only for her but for all who aspire to know Him in this lifetime. Presented here are edited excerpts from a longer, more complete journal.

******

3rd April, 2011, Isle of Man, UK

Beloved, tears flow as You repeatedly show me how much You love me.

Last year, when we made the decision to sell our house and move to India, I offered up the entire matter to You. I knew without a doubt that You would look after us if we had intuited Your will correctly.

This deed you have done was in response, not to a prayer, but to a mere thought regarding the move to India. I thought, “When this house sells, it would be nice to sell privately without incurring expensive agent fees, and to someone who will give the asking price and let us stay living in the house after it is sold, rent free!”  A nice idea, I thought, but a fanciful one. I was wrong!

The advertisement had not even been made public when our buyer presented himself, privately. No fee incurred. His timing was impeccable. He is paying exactly what we needed, and he is happy to allow us to stay on in the house rent free for the three months until we are ready to leave the UK! And perhaps the most bewildering thing of all is that other than seeing a few photographs, our buyer – a work colleague – has not yet even visited the property.

I am so grateful. I cannot convey in words my feelings. I know without doubt that all paths are open regarding making India our earthly home.

Frank Laubach writes in his prayer diary that he learned by experience the truth that he needed only to keep close to You every minute, and You will do the rest.  I am beginning to find this out for myself.

Thank You, dear Beloved. Hold my attention always in Thee, for then I can do no wrong. What can I do to repay for Your grace other than to love You?  I have nothing else to give.

Amen

The Presence:

My child, when I see my own selflessly giving and asking nothing in return I bestow my pleasure.

7th April, 2011, Isle of Man, UK
Day 1 – Japa quest

Beloved, it would seem you are having a little joke with me. The other day I told you how I was struggling with my practice of japa. Yesterday a devotee wrote to me and asked for my help in keeping Your Presence. She was inspired to begin a forty-one day vigil of chanting Your name, beginning at dawn this morning. Before I knew it, I wrote back to offer my support by doing it with her!

My word is my bond, so here I am, since dawn this morning, chanting, “God, Christ, Guru.”  I must say, since I began You have been blissfully present the whole time, and I am faring far better than I thought I was capable. It proves to me how much harder I will strive to support another, than to support myself.

It is so important to be constantly giving. I can see, in this instance, how my supporting someone else will benefit me, even though the support was not offered with selfish motive. But there is even more to it than that. It is the promise that drives me, regardless of the recipient party. Not wishing to go against my word, I am strengthening my resolve.

Almost two years ago I promised myself to chant a full mala round of the Gayatri mantra every day.  I am still practicing it daily. A promise made to myself, or any other, is really a promise made to You.

May I feel You ever present in my heart, my Beloved, to spur me on through test and trial.

AUM, Amen

26th April, 2011, Isle of Man, UK
Day 20 - Japa quest

Beloved, it is dawning on me just how important it is to continuously be singing Your name in my heart.  Somehow it is steering me to the point of entering “the Silence” in my meditations. From my one previous experience of the breathless state, I recognize the signs of the senses beginning to lose their grip on the body.

Good Friday, I suggested that my deepened meditations and Kriyas may be coincidental to the japa vigil I am doing. Today I am of the mind that there can be no coincidence. The change in depth of my sadhana is too great and too sudden to be associated with anything else, as japa is the only addition to my practice of late.

I am finding that I am holding You in my awareness far longer than a second a minute. It is actually very difficult to hold You for only one second.  I am holding You for minutes and sometimes hours at a time. When I do, I feel truly alive in Your energy.

Beloved. I have spent my dismal past walking in the greys of ignorance. Let me now shine with Your Glory forever and forever, AUM, Amen.

2nd May, 2011, Isle of Man, UK
Day 26 – Japa quest

Beloved, I often bring to mind a saying of Master’s, “To those who think me near, I will be near.” * I have made this practice a reality in my life. I think of You, of Master, of my own dear Satguru, Sri Yukteswar. One thought and there you are, all three truly One. It is such a joy and comfort to know that You are with me always, and that in my forgetful moments, You do not go away. You are still watching and waiting patiently for my return.

The last two days Your presence has increased in intensity. I pray it will never cease to increase. Saying Your name, and feeling Your presence in each possible moment, is affecting my meditation and practice of Kriya. I am finding that the preliminary exercises to raise my conscious state are no longer necessary — I am there in a trice. In fact, of late, I have been in such a state of absorption in You, that I have found it difficult to even commence Kriya.

I still forgot You for great stretches of time at the hospital yesterday, but as soon as I interacted with anyone, I found I was automatically looking for You in their eyes.

Oh Beloved, grace me with the courage to endure the might of AUM, and never to waiver as I am drawn forth into the roar of Your embrace.

SAT, TAT, AUM

13th May, 2011, Isle of Man, UK
Day 37 - Japa quest

Beloved, I was disgusted with myself as I walked out of the Intensive Care unit after my shift last evening. Yes, I remembered my quest at times, and yes, I was extremely busy, but that should not excuse forgetfulness. When God! Christ! Guru! sang in my heart, all was well and good. But when I forgot… I am ashamed to say that I became embroiled in a little gossip.  Light though it was, I did detect a certain meanness of heart – as Swami Sri Yukteswar would put it.

I gave myself “a good telling off” on my short journey home. I envisaged the unfortunate recipient of my meanness in Your light, and sent peace and harmony in my poor effort to make amends.

The Presence

My child, you have only to turn on the light to eliminate the darkness in a trice.  It is truly as simple a process as that.  You have conditioned your mind to expect a difficult path, to expect obstacles in your way, and also that it is usual to forget my presence!  Well, none of these things trouble you in my presence wherein you are not capable of gossip or meannesses of the heart. Change your attitude and you change everything.  Expect, rather, that it is usual to think on me always until your true nature fully reveals itself, of itself.  Do you not remember, of late, how everything on your path runs smoothly when you involve me in all you think, say, and do?

How hard is it really to form a habit of being continuously in my Presence?  As easy as it was to form one of denial!

SAT, TAT, AUM

17th May, 2011, Isle of Man, UK
Day 41 – Japa quest

Beloved, today is the end of my japa quest. “Have I been successful?” I ask myself.  Meditation is deeper, Kriya more blissful and I am well on my way to transcending body consciousness. In that sense, yes, a great success.  Was I successful in holding my attention in Your Holy Self for one second of every minute?  No!  I was pretty poor at that. However I did find that my attention was in You far more so than if I had not undertaken this extremely worthwhile exercise.

I have made the decision not to end this noble quest. I am going to continue in the hope that at the end of ten years, I too, as did Brother Lawrence, can glance back and say, “The first ten years were the worst, but it becomes easier after that!”

Amen

SAT, TAT, AUM

13th July, 2011, Isle of Man, UK
Beloved, I battle to keep my attention on these keys as You grace me with strong waves of ecstasy.  My first thought is gratitude and to simply allow myself to be, drinking the ambrosia of this sweet and heady wine, but my second is to give, because I have learned I must share you with all, so here am I before my computer in this gracious state.  I can only ask that You permeate some of the joy You are giving me now, through the words on this page, to infuse all who read them and are receptive to this grace.  May they be blessed eternally in ever-new Joy. Amen

The power in this grace is immense and almost intolerable. What would you have me do with it?

The Presence

Feed the hungry who would consume my body. Slake the thirst of those who would drink of my blood.

Your body is Your church, Your spiritual family, You in omnipresence!  Your blood is everlasting life, the Essence that flows eternally once Your body is consumed within, through the might of AUM.

So guide You me, Beloved, to Your will. Help me to reach these needy souls, but first must I eat of Your flesh, and drink from Your veins.

AUM, AUM, AUM

Yesterday I asked my Self what I could do to concentrate more effectively, minute by minute in You.  Your answer came, “Be as though Your very life depends on it.”

16th July, 2011, Isle of Man, UK
Beloved, my heart is heavy.  My endeavours to date seem so paltry compared to the effort of the saints that I am constantly driven ever harder. Friends of the world would tell me I am doing fine and far better than most, yet I would only hear the words of Satan.  There is no room for complacency. I must be hard on myself.  I long, but there is little joy in my longing.

I am heartened beyond measure when You come upon me in any given moment; and when the rumble of AUM dispels all ills. But when I cannot hold You, the heaviness returns. You have promised this great thing, so why, in my longing, do I not feel more joyous that I will be liberated in Your good time? I used to smile at this prospect. Now I cry for You.

Yet I am not sad in my joylessness. How can I be sad when I know the ache of my yearning is growing by the day? How can I be sad when the tears I shed are for You?

The Presence

If you would have me you must put me before all else.  You must long with every fiber of your being until you ache. For a time joy will elude you of necessity, for it is this yearning, this call from the heart that draws me to you.  Each tear shed in my name is felt in my heart. I am your shepherd, as you are my lamb.  I will gather you in my arms and carry you the rest of the way home when I can see that you have given all and there is nowhere else to go.

Tears flow as I write. Not tears of sadness, nor tears of joy, but tears of hope. The communion I experienced after writing the last paragraph is just too sacred for description, but You showed that Your love for me is great and that You are indeed in me as I write this missive.

Ah, my Own, let me share You with all in each moment, to let others know how much they are loved, and where to cast their gaze. Work through me that I may give Your love away.  Not just to those who love me, for there is no saintly feat in this, but to those that do not show me kindness, to those who would rob me, to those who would scorn and persecute me, to those who would be angry, and to those who would delight in ignoring me.

Although I can now genuinely empathize and offer compassion for such deluded souls, I am yet too weak to love these people wholly, with all my heart. But You can, through me, show them how to glorify each moment and to love from the heart.

Help me, Beloved, for the sake of all, to remember how to love… for there is nothing else!

AUM, AUM, Amen

19th September, 2011, Pune, India
Beloved, today You have seen my husband and me land on Indian soil. Heart- rending tears at leaving my beloved family behind were plentiful. As London fell away beneath the heavy wings of the Boeing 777, through misty eyes I cried inwardly, “But I must prove to You I love you more.” Despite my loved ones being housed safely in my heart, I cried halfway to India in remembrance of my little grandson’s guileless smile every time his eyes met mine, of the mixture of love and sadness in my beautiful daughter’s eyes, and the urgency in my dear son’s gripping embrace…but I must show You I love You more.

So this wrench of heart is what it feels like to sacrifice what is most precious to me. I know it is Your will that I should come to India. I paraphrase Saint Teresa of Avila when she said Your gifts are given according to the courage and the love we give You, and that our love is the measure of the cross we bear. My cross, for now at least, is the memory of my dear family in the last two days before our departure. But I know I will see them once a year, all being well, and that I will become stronger in my resolve to give all for the sake of Your love.

I stayed close to You throughout the flight, You, my only comfort; You, through the firmness of my husband’s hand clasped in mine, and warmth of his smiling eyes. I am wary of what lies ahead, but not afraid. I have You!

AUM, AUM, Amen

September, 2011, Pune, India
Beloved, I have not written in a week. You have not given me a chance to draw breath. I always assumed I would have less spare time in this pioneering environment than I am used to enjoying, and I can testify that I was not wrong in my assumption.

You are not sending me flowers or honey! I need to surmount all. I have come through unscathed thus far only because I have given you all my worries. When I hand them straight over, You have shown me, or guided me to solutions to any perceived problem. When I forget to do that, I suffer.

The Presence

My child, I ask much of you now and in the time to come. I have guided you to this place. You must be fearless, tireless, and determined to see my work done. You will learn to forget who you thought you were. You will remember what it is to know your true Self.

AUM, AUM, Amen

11th November 2011, Pune, India
Beloved, is having such a rare astrological date as this, the day before I take nayaswami vows, auspicious?  This week you have given me three visions. The first was a small tawny colored dog sitting alone on the edge of a ravine overlooking, what appeared to be, the Arizona wilderness. The second was a wall-mounted tap which was spouting clear, sparkling water. The third was the feet and ankles of a man, and the lower edge of his white robe.

Intuition tells me that the little dog alone in the wilderness represents the spiritual path as a solitary one. I am alone as I take a vow giving myself as wholly to You as my present consciousness allows. Intuition also tells me that the wilderness, which symbolizes “the Silence” — the place and condition we strive for in meditation — can only be achieved entirely alone.  No one else may enter with me, no thought invade the sanctity of this place. Having such a narrow entrance, the space inside stretches to Eternity.

The tap with running water speaks to me of the waters of Life flowing through my spine from the Infinite. The clarity and purity of the water represents pureness of heart and baring of the soul.

The third vision represents me placing myself at my Guru’s feet. As Your instrument, he is to replace my world, my consciousness, with his. My only goal is to attain Your constant presence by living, as You will, for all.

AUM, AUM, Amen

27th November, 2011, Pune, India
Beloved, in meditation You are transporting me deeper and deeper into Your realm. The more I give You of myself, the more, it would seem, that You give me of Your heart.

Willingly, nay eagerly, do I surrender this fickle self unto You. It leaves the sweetest feeling of release, of security in the knowing that You are taking safe charge of my material, mental, and spiritual welfare. But how do I surrender utterly?

So quickly do You send rapture when I first begin Kriya, or even just close my eyes in any given moment, but it is not enough to keep me with You constantly. My mind still distracts me, but You quickly bring me back to Your sweet presence. I can now accept that this is how things are at this stage in my development.

I have gone past the stage of feeling guilty and wretched at the thought of having momentarily, or worse, for hours, forgotten who I am and to Whom I should be directing my gaze. Bother Lawrence came to the same conclusion, that feeling wretched actually serves no lasting purpose; that great peace comes in acceptance of any situation for what it is in the moment, and not by putting myself outside the moment by the desire that the situation be different.

The tests You send me are tough — tougher than any I have ever known, but because You are with me, I am coping, and growing!  Oh, that everyone knew how life’s difficult and unpleasant trials become bearable if only we would place You first, before all else; that if we surrender our will to Yours, moment by moment, or even a second in each moment, we will change beyond recognition.

AUM, Peace, Amen

5th January, 2012, Pune, India
I was kept awake the other night by a dilemma. I felt the need to follow a certain action that I was uncomfortable with. The thought would not leave me and plagued my slumber. I got out of bed and prayed for guidance then meditated on it. It was something that I did not relish doing and I wanted to be sure, without doubt, that it was Your will.

Saint Theresa of Avila wrote that choosing Your will is very hard to do. For not only must we choose Your will, but we must be pleased with doing it, even if it may be in every way the opposite of that we would choose for ourselves. And how, one might ask, can we do Your will if it goes against our own natures?  We must love You with a love so pure that to please You surpasses all desire of our own.

Open our hearts, O Sweet Lord, that we may be so filled with Your radiance, Your love, Your sweetness, that there is room for nothing else but love for You, and You through all.

AUM, Peace, Amen

15th January, 2012, Pune, India
Beloved, the grace You are bestowing on me at this time is great; some too precious to put into words. Tough as life has been here I am finding Your bliss difficult to hide from those around me.

I find You do not want me to chant. I am drawn into AUM samadhi in an instant of the first line of a chant, unable to articulate a sound; unable to do outward prayer. You come upon me in any moment with tidal waves of rapturous bliss, in which everything else falls away to insignificance, leaving me alone in Your loving embrace.

Meditation is swiftly taking me to that place just outside Your door, or rather, the door that lets You in! Easier and easier does it becomes to hold Your presence for long periods, yet my lapses, alas, are equally long.

Beloved, I pray, more than anything, for the yearning of my heart for You to continue to grow from where it was last night. Grace us all with this longing, for until we long for You above all else, there can be no consolation found in this world.

AUM

Yet all the bliss You send me, Beloved, it is of no use unless I am equally grounded; that I thoroughly know myself and my faults. You could whisk me off to the highest sphere, but as long as I am bound to the karmic wheel I could not stay with You. I must know myself inside out and analyze how much of it I am holding on to, defying You to take it. From my center I must calmly monitor every thought and every deed, until the day I can truly say, “Maitreyi is gone!  Here is an empty vessel, my Lord, fill it as You will and use it for the good of mankind.”

Amen

7th February, 2012, Pune, India
Beloved, in meditation the other day the ashram dog who had placed itself on guard outside the temple, of a sudden began howling to the moon.  Others around me were disturbed by this, but I thought to myself, “Ah, my Beloved, if only we all howled for You like that.  You would be so sick of our wailing that You would come to us very quickly!”

When I introspect, I see that I am holding You in my heart and mind for longer periods of time. But although I forget You, it is not long before I return to the comfort of Your presence. It is so obvious to me, after much practice, that holding You for only one second in each minute is well-nigh impossible. It is only possible to hold You for much longer than one second!  Is that not a wonderful discovery?

I was contemplating an aspect of myself I was sure I had overcome, but discovered I had not. I do not wish to disclose what this fault is to any other but You, my Beloved, who tests us to see if we really are freed from whatever was binding us. You have tested me in such a way many times since moving here to India. Some tests I have passed, but some have shown I still have much yet to perfect. But my encouragement now stems from the good habit I see forming of consistently reverting back to You, consulting You on all levels as my dearest friend, lover, mentor, and protector.

17th February, 2012, Pune, India
Beloved, now You give me little time to read spiritual teachings, my favorite pastime, and even less so to write about how I take them to my heart. Yet in this time I am seeing the greatest growth. You are ever more present within me. I am listening for, and hearing, people speak in the language of the soul. No matter the words that someone utters, I feel what is in their hearts. From their vibration I can discern the level of response I must give. I see You in their eyes.

Your grace holds me in Your loving presence, as you see me striving and failing on my own. Your compassion to one who is so weak is an example to us all of Your love as unconditional. You recognize those who love you and reward them, yet You never cease to love those who do not. I take this wisdom to my heart as my guiding star.

O, my good Lord, my Beloved, continue to bless me as Your channel. Use me as You see fit to help those in need of You.

AUM, TAT, SAT

1st March, 2012, Pune, India
Beloved, we have come to a place together, where it is very difficult to leave Your presence.  How difficult it was, at the beginning of this journal, to hold You for very long. I have just returned from a short pilgrimage trip to Rishikesh, the home of the rishis. The most amazing blessings You sent me during my stay.

The five-hour train journey from Haridwar back to Delhi was a delight. Sitting, as I did in meditation as others dined around me, I dived deep, slowly muting, from consciousness, the veritable din of metal spoons rhythmically chinking against the many bowls of soup, being consumed by my fellow passengers. Soon I was intoxicated in Your presence. You have made Yourself so delightfully delicious to me that I do not want to withdraw from You. It is easier to will myself into Your presence than it is to will myself out of it, once in. Yet as wonderful a blessing this trip was to me, I could not live just taking from You like that, and I know you would not let me.  The blessings would soon cease if I did not share them with your children everywhere.

Thy will be done!

Amen

******

*As quoted in The New Path, by Swami Kriyananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers

Nayaswami Maitreyi became an Ananda member in 2008. Since that time she has given her life to the goal of Self-realization, and Paramhansa Yogananda’s mission. Service, for Maitreyi, comes in many guises, but serving devotees through writing is a major part of her life. Leaving behind family in UK, she relocated to serve at Ananda Pune, India with her husband, Michael, September 2011, and soon after took the Nayaswami vow.

**To read Nayaswami Maitreyi’s Spring 2011 Clarity Magazine article click here

**The Game with Minutes

At first, practice for no more than an hour. Begin the experiment by recording each time you think of God. Aim for one second in each minute.  It is amazing how difficult this is. Mark on a piece of paper each time you think of Him and see your score at the end of the hour. This experiment may be practiced anywhere, but until you begin to form a habit, a quiet environment is best. After forming the habit of thinking of God, let go of the paper exercise and gradually increase the time you think of Him each day, taking the practice into all aspects of daily living.

Q: Shanti, How did you first become involved in the field of addiction medicine?

SR: I was finishing my medical residency in the mid-1980s, when my husband, who was also a physician, was working at the emergency room at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, California. Because of his sensitivity and effectiveness in working with people with substance abuse problems, he was asked if he would be willing to become medical director of a small program the hospital had started.

He agreed and in 1984 he took that position at Sequoia Hospital. A few years later he founded The Sequoia Center, a drug and alcohol treatment center with both residential and outpatient programs. I worked with him from the start, first at the small hospital program and later at The Sequoia Center.

Q: Why were you and your husband drawn to this area of medical practice?

SR: We were drawn to it because addiction medicine is one of the few areas of medicine that incorporates spirituality. Both of us were on the spiritual path, and the prospect of being able to combine spirituality with the practice of medicine was very attractive to us.

Q: You are now medical director of The Sequoia Center?

SR: Yes, I became medical director in 2009 after my husband passed away. I’ve been involved in the field of chemical dependency for over 30 years, both through The Sequoia Center and my private practice.

Q: Can you explain why the spiritual component of The Sequoia Center program is important?

SR: In my opinion there can be no lasting recovery from addiction without a person discovering his or her spiritual path and following it. The natural tendency of the mind is to side with habit and the natural tendency of habit is to be contractive. It takes us back to what we already know.

What I’ve seen is that it doesn’t matter how people think of God, but that being able to look to a Power greater than themselves during difficult times gives people recovering from addiction the strength and understanding to move forward in more expansive ways and not be limited by past habits and conditioning.

Q: At The Sequoia Center, do you ever encounter resistance to the spiritual component?

SR: Yes. The Sequoia Center follows a 12-step format. Some people have concerns when they hear “12-step” because they think they have to be religious or believe in God in a certain way. On the contrary, the 12-step format is not at all dogmatic. If one Googles the phrase, “spirituality, definition,” over one million links appear. There are as many spiritual paths as there are people. The 12 steps help each person attune to his or her own unique path.

For example, last year I worked with a 42-year-old man who was diabetic and a late stage alcoholic, meaning his alcoholism had progressed quite far. He was an avowed atheist and was reluctant to come into a 12-step program. Our program was his third attempt at recovery in a program. For two weeks he did terribly. He was argumentative, acting out against all of the program rules, not doing assignments, complaining that the program was boring, and on and on. He was about to fail for a fourth time, so I decided to spend some time with him. I wanted him to have a chance to succeed. I felt his life depended on it.

I gave him the same advice Swami Kriyananda once gave to an atheist: that whenever he heard the word “God” from me, or in a group discussion, he think of “God” as representing the highest potential he could think of for himself – as representing the very best he could possibly be, which might even be better than anything he’d ever imagined until now. He agreed to try.

Within two weeks he was a leader in the program. This man had found a way to make spirituality work for himself and he was embracing it. He had desperately needed a “container” bigger than himself, something to lean on, and into, and a new understanding of how to be in recovery.

Q: Can you explain what recovery means?

SR: Recovery is often defined as a change in lifestyle and a change in attitude, not simply sobriety. It means working to improve your health and wellness, and to live a meaningful life in a community of your choice, while striving to achieve your full potential.

Q: Was it Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) that introduced spirituality as an essential part of substance abuse recovery?

SR: Yes. Before AA was founded in the 1930s, there was no successful treatment for alcoholism, and no treatment programs. The founders of AA caught people’s attention when they wrote about how engaging a Higher Power, a force greater than themselves, helped them stay sober. The time was right – people listened. The 12-step principles at the core of the AA program were later incorporated into treatment programs for other drug dependencies.

Q: Is there any scientific research confirming that spirituality is an effective aspect of substance abuse treatment?

SR: Yes. A recent survey of the research in this field shows that certain parameters of spirituality, (measured by spiritual experiences, gratitude, tolerance, humility, and other factors), increase during substance abuse treatment programs that incorporate spirituality, and that these newly attained qualities help individuals avoid relapse.*

Q: Assuming a person suffering from addiction sincerely wants to change, are there any unique problems he or she faces because of the addiction?

SR: Yes there are. Addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease characterized by chemical and molecular changes in the brain. Scientific research shows that these changes alter the way the brain works and impair a person’s self-control. I regularly see evidence of these kinds of changes in my work.

Q: What happens to the brain from repeated drug use, and how do these changes affect a person’s self-control?

SR: Nearly all drugs of abuse target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine, a neurotransmitter related to feelings of pleasure. The over stimulation of this system produces the euphoric effects sought by people who abuse drugs and teaches them to repeat the behavior.

The brain adjusts to the overwhelming surges in dopamine by producing less dopamine on its own. As a result, the ability to experience any pleasure is reduced. Because the brain is producing less dopamine, the drug abuser eventually feels flat, lifeless, and depressed, and is unable to enjoy things that previously brought him pleasure. Now, he needs to take drugs just to bring his dopamine function back up to normal. And, he must take larger amounts of the drug than he first did to create the same dopamine high.

Long-term drug-taking leads to profound changes in brain neurons and circuits. Brain-imaging studies from drug-addicted individuals show changes in areas of the brain that are critical for judgment, decision-making, learning and memory, and behavior-control. More often than not, these changes lead to impaired self-control.

Q: Is it because of impaired self-control that addiction is classified as a relapsing disease?

SR: Yes. The brain changes caused by addiction translate into decreased self-control. Even after a person goes through a successful recovery, long-term drug abuse can result in a kind of mental conditioning whereby certain “triggers” associated with the drug experience will cause a person to have sudden uncontrollable cravings, even after years of abstinence.

Q: Have you been successful in working with people with long-term drug dependencies?

SR: Yes. For example, a few years ago I took care of a man who had used methamphetamines (commonly known as “meth”) his whole life. He started at age 8 and I met him at age 56. He had been in jail much of his life and didn’t know one single drug-free person. His drug cravings were like demons and he had no sense of what a “normal” life would even look like. Yet he worked harder at his recovery than almost anyone I have ever seen.

After four months in our program in early recovery, he lived in a Sober Living Environment home for two years. Today he takes antidepressants and mood stabilizing drugs, but otherwise he’s drug-free. He leads regular Bible study classes, goes to 7 to 10 meetings a week for recovering addicts, and is totally dedicated to helping young addicts. One story like this gives me hope for everyone.

Q: Are antidepressants and mood stabilizing drugs a common part of long-term recovery treatment?

SR: Addiction is a treatable disease, but people may be working very hard to live a drug-free life, yet still have cravings or feelings of depression or anxiety even after twelve months of abstinence. To get them through these challenging periods, I might step in with pharmacological support (antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs, or even anti-craving drugs), and also try to reinforce continued use of their recovery tools (attending meetings, seeing a therapist, spending time with a drug-free support group, etc.)

There are many medications we can use to help the brain feel “normal” again. I use them all the time, and they are very important. But these drugs rarely solve the whole problem. I’ve often said to people, “You have to want this recovery as if your life depends upon it, because it does.”

Q: Are you saying, then, that motivation is the most important factor in a successful long-term recovery?

SR: In my experience, people with substance abuse problems only decide to seek treatment when something very, very painful has happened. Perhaps they’ve lost their spouse, a job, or their relationship with their children. Perhaps they’ve squandered the family savings, or a child’s college money. Maybe this is their third or fourth attempt at recovery. Reaching the point of knowing they have to seek treatment is called “hitting bottom.”

Yet it’s hard to take that first step toward change because there’s nothing about the process that’s easy. So yes, motivation is a very important factor.

Relapse rates for drug abuse are high but the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA)** has found that they are about the same as those for other chronic medical illnesses, such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma, which also have both physiological and behavioral components.** Treatment of any chronic disease always involves changing deeply imbedded behavioral patterns.

Q: Do you know of successful addiction treatments that don’t incorporate spirituality?

SR: There are many programs for people who will not use the 12-steps; while I don’t know the exact data, I know they work for some people. I have a young man in my outpatient practice who is taking a drug called Suboxone to keep his cravings for opiates down, and he has done well so far with about 9 months of sobriety. He has occasional lapses but he wants no part of any recovery program, and he is not interested in spiritual support.

There are also behavioral health treatment programs and self-help groups. NIDA research suggests that medications plus behavioral therapy can also work but that treatment must always be individualized.

Q: What attitudes or practices help a person stay sober or drug-free after completing a recovery program?

SR: I’ve mentioned a few already: being in the right recovery environment with supportive drug-free people; a commitment to continue working on recovery and spirituality; and serving others in need of recovery support. I would also add: practicing gratitude and forgiveness, and having a good sponsor – someone to turn to when things get rough.

Interestingly, these are some of the same attitudes and practices that keep a person connected to the spiritual path. The challenge for people recovering from addiction is very much the same: to keep going, doing the best they can, and to never give up.

Dr. Shanti Rubenstone is a Lightbearer with the Ananda Palo Alto community. She has been involved with Ananda since the late 1970s. She is also a practicing internist who graduated from Stanford Medical School in 1983. She is currently the Medical Director of The Sequoia Center, a comprehensive drug and alcohol treatment program, and she has a private practice called, “Transformational Medicine,” helping people transform their lives by turning obstacles into opportunities to live a life defined by wellness.

* Click here to see article, “The 12 Steps: Building the Evidence Base, ”by Valerie Slaymaker, Ph.D., in the May 2009 issue of Addiction Professional magazine, reviewing a series of studies supporting the value of spirituality in addiction treatment:

** Click here to see National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) website and publications discussing the effects of drug abuse.

A small group of us gathered in my home the other evening to watch a new electronic formatting of the old movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. There was a general feeling of relief when “Intermission” flashed on the screen and we were free to jump ship from that launch to Jupiter.

Blessed respite! The movie penciled in for me once again old, faded memories: the pale glow of drab expectations held by millions of a gray, loveless future labeled “Paradise.” In that two-dimensional “heaven,” man will have outgrown his emotions as “weaknesses.” The human being will be a strictly rational, unfeeling machine, with a heart like a dry riverbed on which shining pebbles of logic lie where they were placed, never to be washed away by any human joy or sorrow.

What is true intelligence?
What saddens me is to see in our times this excessive trend toward intellectualization. People equate intelligence with intellect, but not with awareness. The trend has become ever stronger, however, since the advent of science. What is particularly modern about it is the lingering belief that man will someday be able to develop mechanisms intelligent enough to out-think man himself. Computers have made this expectation a reasonable possibility.

An extraordinarily intuitive Indian lady whom I saw years ago on television was able to beat a sophisticated computer in the speed with which she reached computational conclusions. In one case she said (and was later proved right) that the computer had erred (perhaps owing to a mistake in its programming). Nevertheless, this was only one exceptional human being. Shall we say, at least, that computers are already more intelligent than the rest of us bumbling human beings?

What I object to is equating intelligence with facility at reasoning. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the proof of man’s inadequacy was that the robot, Hal, the supreme example of artificial intelligence, beat a brilliant human being at a game of chess. My own reaction is to ask myself, “Do I consider myself less human for the fact that I am not necessarily brilliant at chess?” My Guru once asked the whereabouts of a certain over-intellectual disciple named Bernard. On being told that the young man was playing chess, our Guru’s only reaction was to exclaim, “What a waste of time!”

Do you, who read this, think it really matters one way or the other whether a person is clever enough to win at chess? or to see the pitfalls in a crossword puzzle and step gingerly around them?

I who write this am not a “low-brow,” anxious to deprecate what I cannot equal. In fact, I myself was Bernard’s opponent in that deprecated chess game. (Much to his discomfiture, I beat him.) I once won a chess game against a reputed local champion by turning his own cleverness against him. He had a reputation for the clever use of his pawns. I therefore deliberately confused him by moving my pawns randomly, as if with deliberate purpose. He lost the first game, tied the next, then finally, rising in indignation, stalked away, conscious of having been merely fooled.

A distrust of intellectual cleverness
My own feelings about intellectual cleverness were, even then, more than equivocal. From early childhood, I simply distrusted it. There came a time, in college, when I realized that intellectuality was making me dry and unhappy. I remembered how happy I had been as a child and thought, “Where have I gone wrong? Isn’t happiness the true goal of life?”

A classmate at Brown University said to me one day, “If ever I have met a genius, it is you.” I was horrified by his seeming compliment. “What have I done,” I asked myself, “to deserve that opinion? All I’ve done is talk cleverly!” I blushed with shame, and from then on withdrew from the coffee table discussions at which I had, I suppose, been a Voice.

At last I saw what I’d been lacking: God! What, I thought, is human intellect? A puff of sand on the wind! Happiness is what I want. I will find that “pearl of great price” not by thinking my way to it, but only by getting my intellect out of the way and opening my heart to God.

Well, everyone who knows me knows also what happened then. I found Autobiography of a Yogi, and very soon thereafter became a direct disciple of the author, Paramhansa Yogananda. It was he who showed me the truth of the matter. People excuse themselves with the conveniently exculpatory statement, “Well, I’m only human.” What Yogananda showed me was the higher truth: “I am trying, but I’m not yet fully human!”

What makes you a complete human being?
To be a complete human being means to realize one’s own full potential as a child of God. Until then, one is still only a sort of robot, functioning with varying degrees of efficiency, but unable, as yet, to go beyond merely functioning.

The question is sometimes asked: “Will computers someday exceed human intelligence?” If it comes to specific problem- solving, why not? Computers are designed to spare man the effort of lengthy and tedious ratiocination. There are probably countless other reasoning functions for which computers would not be worth the trouble to program, but where they can serve us, I for one have no objection. The intellect is only, in any case, what we might call an “electronic mechanism.” It has nothing to do with actual awareness. Logic is not what lifts man above the animals. It is the much greater clarity of human awareness.

In that movie, someone said of Hal, “We’ve programmed him with some emotions, to make him seem more human.” Oh, yeah? Impossible, I say! The most they could have programmed into that computer would have been the semblance of such reactions. As for the emotions, it would be out of the question. Feeling cannot be programmed, for it is an essential aspect of consciousness itself.

People don’t seem to understand that consciousness is a more basic reality than rational intelligence –– more basic, and also more transcendent. Consciousness is our central reality. It cannot be defined; it can only be perceived. That perception, moreover, is intuitive, not rational. Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” He was quite wrong! He should have said, “I am” –– or perhaps better, “I am conscious of being” –– “and therefore I am able to think.”

Calm, intuitive feeling: the way to right understanding
The truth is that clarity of consciousness is the whole secret. Achieving clarity involves removing every obstacle to the achievement of that clarity. And the greatest obstacle of all is people’s present-day skepticism regarding intuition itself.

It is in fact feeling which guides the intellect. That is why scientists do their best to exclude feeling from every reckoning: they fear it might prejudice their judgment. They are quite right, of course. The trouble is, no one can really exclude his feelings. All he can do is drive them underground, where, operating in darkness, they can trick the intellect with false justifications.

What everyone needs is to calm his emotions, and thereby to develop intuitive feeling. Without feeling of any kind, the intellect can justify any conclusion, even the most monstrously evil. Without intuition, the intellect simply cannot be trusted. Only uplifted feeling shows the way to right understanding.

A stop on the way to our true destiny
Those “supermen” of tomorrow, depicted in the movie we saw, were men without emotions, and also, therefore (according to the shallow understanding of those who perpetrated that movie), without feeling. They worked entirely by intellect: frozen-faced, solemn to the point of grimness, emotionally unresponsive: mere human abstractions.

Hal, the so-named artificial intelligence in the movie, seemed more human than any of them. The only women I remember in the movie were two who came on only briefly, as stony-faced as the men. What a glorious future for mankind! Even in the present, when reflecting on the state of this poor planet, I find myself thinking, “What a bummer!”

The trouble is, it is equally a “bummer” to have an ego at all. So also is it to have emotions, rather than calm, intuitive feeling. Truly, being a human being is itself only a stop on the way to our true destiny: oneness with God.

From the essay, “Tomorrow’s Supermen,” Religion and the New Age,  Crystal Clarity Publishers.

Related reading: The Art & Science of Raja Yoga by Swami Kriyananda

“Getting old is not for sissies!” my mother often said when an aging body and debilitating illness made everyday tasks more and more difficult. “Still,” she would sometimes add, “it is better than the alternative.” The same can be said for the spiritual path: it is not for sissies, and it is better than the alternative, in this case a life lived only for self without God.

Even though, as the Bhagavad-Gita promises, “Even a little practice of this inward religion will save you from dire fears and colossal sufferings,” the spiritual path is no walk in the park. That’s why Swami Kriyananda says that the first essential attitude for the devotee is courage.

For years a friend of mine defined her spiritual life by the depth of her meditation. Then she was overwhelmed by a spiritual challenge that made meditation almost impossible. Still, day after day, she would sit in front of her altar, gazing at the photo of Paramhansa Yogananda and visualizing herself overcoming the challenge. It took several months, but eventually she did transcend and was able to resume her usual meditation practice.

When we fail in our aspirations and fall to the ground, we need to be able to muster the courage to get up and try again. Creativity is also helpful – the creativity to realize that there is more than one way to reach the goal. There is always a way to go forward.

The trap of spiritual laziness
I remember a conversation I had with Swami Kriyananda when I was facing a huge challenge. The challenge involved a serious life-long issue and I was far from the finish line when this conversation happened.

Mournfully, with tears running down my face, I explained to him that everything in my life was going well, except for this one big problem. If I just didn’t have to deal with it, I told him, I would be so happy and so free. Only later did I understand that what I had really said to him was, “If the spiritual path weren’t so hard it would be easier.”

Kriyananda knew just how to respond to me. I already felt sorry for myself and he certainly did not want to reinforce my self-pity. And in my current state of emotional upheaval, I was well beyond the reach of reason. So he said nothing — nothing at all, not even with his face. “Expressionless” perfectly describes the way he looked at me. He just let what I said hang in the air without relating to it at all.

We sat like that in silence for what seemed like a few minutes. Then the phone rang. He answered it without even a glance of apology for the interruption. The call was about an appointment with a doctor he was trying to arrange. Once that was settled and he hung up, it was clear the interview was over.

Even at the time, distraught though I was, I could see that his response was perfect: “Enough of this self-pity!” I got the message and persevered in my efforts to meet the challenge that threatened to overwhelm me. Even today I cannot say I have conquered the delusion I was then facing but, by the grace of God and Guru, I have moved a good distance in the right direction.

I shudder to think what might have happened if, in that critical moment, Kriyananda had shown even an ounce of sympathy. Of course he was much too wise to do that. He knew I would have seized upon it like a drowning person seizes a log. In my case, however, the log would have taken me to the bottom of the sea of my delusion, not safely to the divine shore I was longing to reach.

What happens to spiritual backsliders?
Intuitively I have always known that we must strive for excellence in everything we do. For a long time, though, I couldn’t work out philosophically exactly why. If everything in this world is ephemeral, why bother? Isn’t that obvious?

Paramhansa Yogananda gives us the answer when he describes a spiritual master as one who has transcended the three gunas, the fluctuating energies that make up the material world. Tamo guna is a darkening, confining, downward-pulling energy. Rajo guna is characterized by restless self-seeking. Sattwa guna, by contrast, is calm, peaceful, and uplifting. Although one guna or another tends to predominate in a person’s nature, all people represent a mixture of the three. A fully liberated master, however, has transcended all of them.

Whenever we recoil from the effort required to meet our spiritual challenges with energy and determination, we do so because we have not been able to transcend the downward- pulling influence of tamo guna. Swami Kriyananda writes that not all souls in whom tamo guna predominates are “new souls,” freshly arrived on the scene of human evolution. Many of them are spiritual backsliders — “old timers,” tired of the seemingly endless struggle, and willing to doze in ignorance again at least for a time.

How do you respond to challenges?
To determine what direction is forward for us when life gives us more than we can handle, it’s very helpful to look at our response to the challenge and to ask, “What guna, or combination of gunas, am I manifesting?” Any thought of giving up, or of blaming others, instead of seeing the experience as the return of karma we set in motion, is an expression of tamo guna. Even to rail against oneself, “Why do I keep making the same mistakes?” is an expression of tamo guna in that we become ego-focused and self-concerned rather than self-expansive.

It doesn’t matter what the obstacles are or how difficult they seem. Our responsibility is to make the effort to transcend them. Great masters and highly evolved souls have always put out tremendous effort to achieve whatever task God has given them to do.

When members of the Ananda Village community were first learning to sing the music Swami Kriyananda had written, he would sometimes stop them in the middle of a Sunday service to correct some aspect of what they were doing. Some people protested that he was embarrassing them before others. (Interestingly, the singers themselves always welcomed his guidance and never complained.) Kriyananda’s response was, “They need to put out the energy to do it right.” Singing the notes incorrectly was a symptom. Tamo guna was the problem they needed to overcome.

Whenever we fail to achieve excellence it is because we have not been able to transcend the confusing influence of the gunas. For the same reason, we don’t see God, even though His presence is all around us.

There is no spiritual shortcut
The spiritual path has been called a razor’s edge, in the sense that the way to enlightenment is straight, and very narrow. To deviate from it is to find, repeatedly, that there is simply no alternative to the one which saints in all religions have indicated: courage, strong will power, and unceasing effort to transcend our ego-based limitations. No one can or will force us to make the effort. Sooner or later, however, our own unhappiness will compel us to try. As for finding a shortcut, there isn’t one.

I’ve always admired the attitude expressed by one of my friends when she developed cancer. She said, “I don’t have the luxury of having a single negative thought.” Already she was one of the sweetest women I had ever met. Within herself, however, she saw room for improvement. Though she eventually succumbed to the disease, she embraced her challenge with such will power and determination that she left this world in a state of upliftment and soul freedom.

The law of karma is always fair. This is a very difficult truth to accept. No spiritual progress is possible, however, until we take that truth into ourselves all the way down to our bone marrow. Whatever is happening now is the exact result of our wrong actions and wrong attitudes in the past, perhaps not in this life but in incarnations we no longer remember. The greatest obstacle to overcoming karma is that instead of being eager to face it, we simply want it to go away.

The “divine matching fund”
I’ve noticed that almost always the wrong attitudes that pull us to pieces in the major challenges of our lives are also expressed by us, in some form, in the lesser challenges as well. Usually we don’t even notice that we are responding with anger, for example, or resentment, or hatred, because the intensity is low or nothing is at stake. Raging at a bad driver for example, or at a roommate who leaves dishes in the sink, or at the weather when it doesn’t cooperate with our plans may not seem relevant to whatever our current problem is – but it is.

Every time we respond to anything in an inappropriate way we are cutting a groove of habit in our consciousness that will pull us right into it when the stakes get higher. We are making vrittis (whirlpools of energy) in our chakras that will influence our consciousness in every future situation. And, by contrast, every time we respond with calm, loving, uplifted energy, we are making a habit that will give us the strength we need when we need it.

Another important factor comes into play here: the grace of God. It may seem like the path of least resistance to go with the established vrittis.  In fact, when we choose self instead of God we are swimming upstream.

The soul seeks God the way the river seeks the sea. Even if we are only treading water, but facing the right direction, the current of God’s grace carries us where we really want to go.

It is like that fundraising ploy you sometimes hear on the radio: “For every dollar you donate right now our sponsor will donate two dollars!” I think there is a cosmic law called the “Divine Matching Fund.” For every penny’s worth of effort we put out toward God, He puts out a dollar’s worth of energy to draw us to Him. Blissfully, then, we find our way home to Him.

Nayaswami Asha and her husband, Nayaswami David, are Spiritual Directors of Ananda Palo Alto. To learn more about Ananda Palo Alto click here

On the side of a mountain, overlooking a beautiful flower-decked valley in India, was a cozy hermitage. This hermitage was actually a cave, carved out of a rocky ledge of the mountain. Here dwelt a great Master with a devoted disciple.

When the dawn wiped away the darkness from the face of the hills, the Master and the disciple sang hymns together with the rising sun, which reminded them of the awakening of wisdom after the long sleep of ignorance. They smiled as Nature smiled after her night of silence.

While dawn still lingered over the valley, the Master would ask the disciple to sit upright in the perfect meditating posture and to listen to his teachings with complete attention. Thus, every day the disciple eagerly devoured the lessons falling from the lips of his Master.

One day, however, the Master noticed that his young disciple was absent-minded and restless, so he gently said to him, “Son, today your mind is not on my words; it seems to be wandering over the hills elsewhere. Pray tell me, what is the reason for your absent mindedness?”

The disciple respectfully replied, “Honored Master, I cannot concentrate on your lesson today because my mind is thinking about the newly-acquired tame buffalo, which is now grazing on the green verdure of the valley.”

The guru, instead of scolding the disciple, calmly asked him to retire into his silence chamber, close the door, and to think of nothing but the buffalo. One day passed. The next morning the Master looked through the little window in the silence chamber where the disciple was still meditating upon the buffalo. The Master asked, “Son, what are you doing?”

The disciple answered, “Sir, I am grazing with the buffalo in the field. Shall I come to you?”

The Master replied, “No, Son, not yet. Go on grazing with your buffalo.”

Another day passed. On the third morning, the Master again looked through the window of the chamber of silence and inquired, “Beloved Child, what are you doing?” The disciple, in a state of ecstasy, replied, “Heavenly Master, I behold the buffalo in my room, and I am feeding it. Shall I come to you with my buffalo?”

The Master replied, “Not yet, my Son. Go on with the vision of the buffalo, and of feeding it.”

Another two days passed, during which the disciple visualized and meditated upon the buffalo. On the fifth day, once again the guru spoke through the window of the silence chamber where the disciple was alone in complete ecstasy. “Son, pray tell me what you are doing now?”

The disciple bellowed, imitating the buffalo’s voice, “What do you mean? I am the buffalo. I am not your son.”

To this, the Master smilingly retorted, “All right, Mr. Buffalo, you had better come out of the silence chamber.”

The disciple would not come out. “How can I get out through that narrow door?” he rumbled. “My horns are too big and my body is too large.” Then the Master went into the silence chamber and brought the erstwhile “buffalo” out of his trance. The disciple smiled to find himself walking on all fours, trying to imitate the object of his meditation.

After a light repast, the disciple went to listen to the words of his Master. His Master asked him many deep, spiritual questions, all of which he answered correctly – more correctly than ever before. At last his Guru said, “Now, your concentration has reached the perfect state, when you are able to become one with the object of your study.

“You can begin, now, to try to make yourself one with your object of concentration. Concentrate deeply upon God until you feel that you have become one with Him. Practice constantly!”

From the Praecepta Lessons, 1938.

A person wrote that “patience and suffering” in the spiritual life ought no longer to be taught, as it was in the days of St. Francis of Assisi; that we are now entering an age when “overcoming, victory, and mastery” are the lessons man needs to learn.”

Dear _______:

I have always admired your courage, but when we assume a stance of opposition to others, we invite their fire in return. As I say, I admire your spirit, but since it has thrown you into this competitive attitude, and since to my mind the spiritual victory you speak of is betrayed when it is sought competitively, I find myself obliged to take issue with you even though, basically, we are in agreement.

Frankly, I have found too much of ego, not only in the teachings to which you subscribe, but in many of the schools of so-called “new thought.”  Victory is always desirable, but to define victory in terms of egoic fulfillments, and to claim personal credit every inch of the way, is almost an insult to spiritual truth. In a deeper sense it is even a kind of defeat. All this energy directed toward “manifesting” health, “manifesting” wealth, etc., would be fine were the victories not tied to such a petty outlook! Sometimes I get the impression that, in this view, the “ultimate proof” of spiritual development is the ability to drive downtown and quickly find a parking space!

Yes, I agree with you that passivity and dependence on others are, or should be, passé in religion. We’ve had quite enough of the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” approach to religion. It is certainly time people looked on religion as a pathway to inner strength and Self-realization. Beggarly attitudes are a mark of churchianity, but not of Christianity.

But what kind of strength do we really want? What kind of victory? You obviously haven’t studied the life of St. Francis, or you wouldn’t say that his spirit was one of “patience and suffering.” Joy was the entire essence of his life! His inner joy was so great that he simply did not care whether his body was well or not. His truly was a higher form of “overcoming.” For our physical health must be taken away from all of us sooner or later, if only in death. But divine joy is proved when we can hold onto it under the harshest worldly circumstances. It is such a soul only who deserves to be called a master.

Yes, I do believe that a part of the process of overcoming must be an ability to manifest whatever one needs in life. But in higher stages of understanding we see that we need nothing—that divine joy is to the soul eternally all-sufficient. It all comes back to the question of mental attitude. If we ask God to take care of us because we feel too passively helpless to take care of ourselves, then all we really need from Him is a good kick in the pants. Victory for us, at this stage of spiritual evolution, means learning how to manifest everything from parking spaces to a new home.

But once we’ve learned that we can manifest such relatively paltry things, our joy in them is bound sooner or later to pall. It is then that dependence on God assumes another hue. It becomes not passive, but joyous and positive—an affirmation of infinity, and of freedom from bondage to petty, egoic victories.

What we must overcome, essentially, is not merely a weak, cowardly ego, but egotism itself.

In divine friendship,

Swami Kriyananda

From Letters to Truthseekers. Crystal Clarity Publishers (currently out of print).

Related reading: In Divine Friendship, Letters of Counsel and Reflection by Swami Kriyananda.

I want to use my own will, but guide it ever, Father, toward the golden paradise of all fulfillment. For I would be infinity’s smiling child, confident of being imprisoned no longer behind bars of fruitless desire and withered hopes.

I would break the shameful cords of lethargy that have presumed to hold me, and step fearlessly into freedom. Released, I now blaze my way through forests of every limitation and delusion.

Oh, my little, vain ego may strut proudly, saying: “Behold my glory! Worship me!” But I will look through its transparent form and behold Thine unimaginable beauty clothed in the subtle form of the whole universe!

The silence-tuned hearing of my soul will ignore that tiny, boasting masquerader, my little self impersonating Thee, and will listen rapturously to the wind-borne, fragrant music of Thine own matchless voice whispering across the ages: “I am He!”

From Whispers from Eternity by Paramhansa Yogananda, edited by Swami Kriyananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers. To order click here

The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda, recorded and compiled by his disciple, Swami Kriyananda

The story behind The Essence of Self-Realization is as much an expression of Paramhansa Yogananda’s teachings as the Master’s actual sayings, lovingly recorded and compiled by his disciple, Swami Kriyananda.

The year was 1990. Kriyananda was working on the collection of quotations by Yogananda that became the book. The book itself was particularly central to Kriyananda’s sense of discipleship, to fulfilling the service with which his Guru had entrusted him. Again and again, in his years with Yogananda, the Master had urged Kriyananda to write down the words he had just spoken — to keep a record of his words, not only for those with him at the time, but for the upliftment of future generations of devotees. Now, in the same month of Kriyananda’s beginning work on Essence,  a letter came threatening a lawsuit that conceivably could block publication of the book.

Seeing obstacles as blessings
Kriyananda’s response? To redouble his efforts on the book. He saw the possibility of a lawsuit not as God trying to stop his work for Yogananda, but as just the sort of obstacle God might throw in the way of any sincere devotee embarking on an important spiritual undertaking. As he put it in one talk, such obstacles should be taken as a blessing — as God’s way not only of ensuring the devotee’s sincerity but also of helping him sharpen the blade of his discrimination, to become perfectly clear in his spiritual intention, and to raise his energy to the level called for by the struggle involved.

However, there was another dimension to the spiritual challenge Kriyananda faced. How was he to share the Master’s exact words after so many years? Kriyananda was putting the book together in 1990, and Yogananda had passed away in 1952.

The Master had given his young disciple a grace — to remember precisely his words, even many years after. Kriyananda first realized this blessing during his years with his Guru. Kriyananda knew no shorthand, and he found that his handwriting could not begin to keep pace with the flow of Yogananda’s inspiration. And yet he discovered that he could later recall the Guru’s exact words. He could hear Yogananda speaking the words in his mind, and he would then commit them to paper.

The practice of attunement
Even the recorded sayings were not always the end of Kriyananda’s practice of attunement. If Yogananda’s words, as recalled, seemed somehow incomplete, Kriyananda would hold up inwardly his remembered experience of his Guru speaking, and would listen for other words, other actions that would corroborate, strengthen and complete the essential meaning.

In his introduction to The Essence of Self-Realization, Kriyananda prepares the reader for the power and depth of Yogananda’s words: “Even today, the memory of his words and of his voice rings clearly in my mind, rich with wisdom, divine love, and the fullness of spiritual power — frequently combined with a delightful sense of humor. His conversations were sprinkled with anecdotes; they sparkled with metaphors, and contained the deepest insight into all levels of reality, human and divine, that I have ever had the great blessing to encounter.”

The sayings in the book are chosen for their relevance to the central theme: Self-realization. This is a book for the sincere spiritual seeker — a book to meditate on over a lifetime on the path, to return to again and again as the seeker’s spiritual journey brings changing challenges, developing understanding, and awakening intuition.

The subjects of the book’s twenty chapters address the stages of every devotee’s spiritual journey. A few examples:

• The Folly of Materialism
• The True Purpose of Life
• The Dream Nature of the Universe
• One God, One Religion
• The Law of Life
• Sin Is Ignorance
• Working Out Karma
• Grace vs. Self-Effort
• The Need for a Guru
• Ways in Which God Can Be Worshiped
• How to Pray Effectively
• Self-Realization

The Master’s wise and compassionate guidance accompanies the reader and lights his way. He finds himself no longer alone in his search, but supported and blessed by one who has gone before and so knows the pitfalls and the joys of the journey.

A sampling of the book
To give just a small sampling of the wonders of the book, I have selected one excerpt from “The Folly of Materialism” (where for most of us the spiritual awakening begins) and one from “Self-Realization” (the true goal of all spiritual effort).

“The soul cannot find its lost happiness in material things for the simple reason that the comfort they offer is counterfeit. Having lost contact with the divine bliss within, man hopes to satisfy his need for it in the pseudo-pleasures of the senses. On deeper levels of his being, however, he remains aware of his former, supernal state in God. True satisfaction eludes him, for what he seeks, while rushing restlessly from one sense pleasure to another, is his lost happiness in the Lord.

Ah, blindness! How long must you continue before, suffering from satiety, boredom, and disgust, you seek joy within, where alone it can be found? (“The Folly of Materialism”)

When will you find god? When all your desires for other things are finished. When you realize that the only thing worth having is Him. When every thought, every feeling is drenched with the love of God.” (Self-Realization”)

May we all, as we read these sacred word, hear the Master’s voice speaking to us directly, within our own consciousness.

To order The Essence of Self-Realization, click here

Nayaswami Prakash is a long-time member of Ananda. He currently serves at Ananda Village doing forestry and landscaping work.

The pilgrimage road to Badrinath is long and winding, symbolic of our own spiritual quest. Pilgrims in the old days, before the road, would walk the 300 kilometers from Rishikesh, but few do so now, with the exception of an occasional sadhu with water pot, blanket and staff (or its modern equivalent, an umbrella).

You still can see the old pilgrimage trail visible on the opposite hillsides, snaking from village to village. My imagination couldn’t stop thinking, “What would it be like to walk that trail, all the way, once again?”

Why go to Badrinath?
You may be wondering, “Badrinath? Why go there?” Badrinath is an ancient pilgrimage site, located at about 10,300 ft in the Himalayas at the headwaters of the Alaknanda River. It was through Badrinath that the Pandava brothers passed, as recounted in the Mahabharata, on their final journey to heaven.

All along the route from Rishikesh are temples, shrines and sacred spots associated with stories from the Indian epics, each with a tale to tell. Above Badrinath is the village of Mana where Saint Byasa is said to have lived while reciting the Mahabharata to Ganesha. In need of a pen, Ganesha broke off one of his tusks to use, so devoted was he to his task. His cave too is there.

During and after the reign of Ashok, Buddhism became the dominant religion in northern India, supplanting the ancient Hindu practices in Badrinath until Adi (the first) Shankara came, probably sometime during the first millennium AD. All agree that Shankara’s life and influence profoundly affected the religious practices and philosophy of India.

It was Shankara who revived and reorganized the ancient Order of Swamis into its present form. He established four maths (centers of spiritual worship/pilgrimage), one in each corner of India, to spiritually unify the country. To Badrinath he sent priests from his native Kerala to oversee the worship of Lord Badrinarayan in the temple and this tradition continues to this day.

Some say Shankara was a former incarnation of Swami Sri Yukteswar or of Paramhansa Yogananda, and indeed, there are many similarities between their lives. Yogananda said that Shankara was initiated into Kriya Yoga by Babaji in Varanasi.

A carved image of Babaji
Local lore says that upon the arrival of Buddhism, local devotees of Lord Badrinarayan  hid the stone image of his form in the Alaknanda River, to preserve it from possible destruction. Shankara is said to have divined, in vision, the location of the stone image and to have plunged into the rapids to recover it, a Herculean feat if true. One version of the story says he promised to restore the image if the local people would worship it appropriately.

Upon the villagers’ assent, he “raised” the stone from the river. In any case, the stone was installed in the temple and has been worshipped daily ever since. The smooth, black stone stands about 30 inches high and has upon it, in relief, an image of a yogi sitting in meditation pose.

The image looks strikingly similar to the drawing of Babaji in our Kriya Yoga tradition. It is said that the stone is not carved and that the image on it occurred naturally. Many, if not most, locals consider Babaji of the Kriya Yoga tradition and Lord Badrinarayan to be one and the same.

For all these reasons, Badrinath is considered to be a place to which devout Hindus should make pilgrimage if possible. Many of the Indians who participated in our pilgrimage spoke of having wanted to visit Badrinath since before they came to know of Yogananda. Once they had read Autobiography  of a Yogi, their desire increased. Badrinath is said to be in the region where Babaji lives, and many stories associated with personal encounters with him are centered there.

A purification in the river
All along the route to Badrinath are small temples and spots of spiritual significance. Merging with the Alaknanda on its journey downstream are other rivers descending from holy sites; a bath at each confluence (sangam) is said to wash away past sins and purify one for a visit to the temple in Badrinath. It was at the first such major sangam at Devprayag that we stopped for our first night’s rest.

Tradition demanded, of course, that we stop and bathe and so we all filed down to the river, crossed the footbridge and walked to the water’s edge. I, along with the rest of our group, made my way to the water and found myself being blessed by a friendly pujari. I took my dip, dunking myself three times in the cold water, and felt amazingly refreshed and clean.

Morning puja at Badrinath Temple
Badrinath is quiet at 4:00 am, the rushing waters of the Alaknanda the only sound to break the silence. Several of us rose early to take a traditional morning bath at the temple hot spring.There to the right of the bridge, from a lighted pavillion by the river’s edge, steam rose in the morning chill. I assumed that was the Tapta Kund, the place where hot water gushes from a natural spring to fill bathing tanks for both men and women.

By the time we had dressed and made our way to the temple,  the others in the pilgrimage group  had already arrived. We left our shoes with a friendly vendor and went in for the morning worship of Lord Badrinarayan. It’s only in the morning that the image can be seen uncovered.

The morning worship was a treat, but as a Westerner brought up outside the Hindu tradition, I approached the ceremony more as a detached observer than as a participant. I couldn’t help but remark mentally upon the attentive faces in the crowd, the colorful temple decorations, the head priest’s costume, the sounds of the bells, the hard floor and the drone of the chants. All these wonderfully new impressions were mentally stored, sifted and sorted during the ceremony, with the unfortunate result that I felt little divine presence.

The Nawal, who I later found to be a sweet, joyful man, seemed so stern during the ceremony that I wasn’t drawn in. I could sense that those who could attune themselves inwardly, received much more. I resolved to return at a time when I could meditate and be alone with the image….

Nayaswami Jaya is a founding member of Ananda and a Kriyacharya. Together with his wife, Nayaswami Sadhana Devi, he currently lives and serves the Ananda work in India.

To learn more about Ananda’s work in India click here

1. Make it a principle to avoid debt. If for any reason you need to borrow, make a serious attempt to pay off that debt as soon as possible.

2. Try every week, if possible, to put a little money aside. Don’t place too much faith in banks. During depressions of the past, many banks had to close their doors, leaving their depositors without recourse (or their money).

3. Don’t place too much faith in paper currency. The way in which governments are printing money in order to meet their national commitments, all the currencies of the world may well lose all their value in time.

4. If possible, keep a certain amount of money in solid assets such as gold, silver, gemstones or land on which to grow your own food. Should the dollar no longer be “worth the paper it’s printed on,” don’t expect other currencies in the world to fare any better.

5. If you possess wealth, practice non-attachment by realizing that nothing possessed can be permanently your own.

6. Be grateful for what you have, however little, and don’t resent life for what it hasn’t given you. Practice this attitude with deep sincerity and you will find abundance where you least expected it.

7. Develop an attitude of generous giving. As far as money is concerned, the more you give, and the less you desire money for yourself alone, the more you find that life itself will sustain you.

8. Simplicity is not poverty. It means reducing your wants so that material things don’t intrude on your inner freedom. Be ever comfortable within your means.

9. Meet all challenges by remaining calmly centered within, and seeking strength and guidance intuitively, in your inner Self.

10. Above all, place your trust in God. People who give selflessly to God find that He sustains them. Whatever energy they put out flows back to them, reinforced by the power that sustains the universe.

From the writings of Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Kriyananda.

Related reading: Money Magnetism: How to Attract What You Need When You Need It by Swami Kriyananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers. To order click here

There is no better panacea for sorrow, no better reviving tonic, and no greater beauty than a genuine smile. –Paramhansa Yogananda

Police Blotter

Suspicious person: Officer made contact with a man walking backward down a street. When asked, the man told the officer he did not want anyone sneaking up on him.

*********

Honest Abe

An investment banker decided she needed in-house counsel, so she interviewed a young lawyer.

“Mr. Peterson,” she asked, “Would you say you’re honest?”

“Honest?” replied Peterson. “Let me tell you something about honesty. My father lent me $85,000 for my education, and I paid back every penny the minute I tried my first case.”

“Impressive,” said the investment banker. “And what sort of case was that?”

“Dad sued me for the money.”

*********

Feline Delusion

A man went to a psychiatrist and said, “Doctor, I keep having this feeling that I’m a cat.”

The psychiatrist said, “Well, how long has this been going on?”

The man replied, “Since I was a kitten.”

*********

The Tate Family

In our church, we have a large family, the Tate family. These are the members of the Tate family who serve in our church:

Dick Tate always wants things done his way. Hesi Tate will often wait to make church decisions. Facili Tate will do anything for anyone in need. Medi Tate often thinks over things before starting a church project. Vegi Tate is healthy but never gets anything done. Agi Tate mostly stirs up trouble. Ampu Tate is the black sheep and cut herself off from the church family years ago. Ira Tate doesn’t know how to get along with most of the people in our church.

*********

How a Student Obtained 0% on an Exam

Q1.  In which battle did Napoleon die?
Answer:  His last battle

Q2.  Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?
Answer:  At the bottom of the page

Q3.  River Ravi flows in which state?
Answer:  Liquid

Q4.  What is the main reason for divorce?
Answer:  Marriage

Q5.  What is the main reason for failure?
Answer:  Exams

Q6.  What can you never eat for breakfast?
Answer:  Lunch & Dinner

Q7.  What looks like half an apple?
Answer: The other half

Q8.  If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become?
Answer:  It will simply become wet.

Q9.  How can a man go eight days without sleeping?
Answer:  No problem. He sleeps at night.

Q10.  How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
Answer:  You will never find an elephant that has only one hand.

Q11.  If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in other hand, what would you have?
 Answer: Very large hands

Q12.  If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?
Answer:  No time at all, the wall is already built.

Q13.  How can u drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
Answer:  Any way you want, concrete floors are very hard to  crack.

*********

Drafted

I didn’t enlist in the Army — I was drafted. So I wasn’t going to make life easy for anyone.

During my physical, the doctor asked softly, “Can you read the letters on the wall?”

“What letters?” I answered slyly.

“Good,” said the doctor. “You passed the hearing test.”

*********

Flight Training

As an amateur pilot wannabe, I knew I’d finally made progress with my flight training the day my instructor turned to me and said, “You know, you’re not as much fun since you stopped screaming.”

*********

A Reasonable Question?

The wife of a certain pedantic philosopher asked him to go out and buy her a bottle of oil. He was returning, later, with the bottle when he began to muse, “Now, is the oil really in the bottle? Or do my senses deceive me? Could it be, rather, that the bottle is in the oil?”

His wife met him at the door and demanded, “Where is the oil?”

“My wife,” the philosopher declared grandly, “I have just made an important discovery!”

“Where is the oil?” she repeated.

“I am coming to that,” he assured her. “Listen: I purchased the oil. Then, looking at it, I thought, “Yes, this is oil, and it appears to be inside the bottle. My apperceptive perception, however, doubts whether the oil really is in the bottle, or whether the bottle might not, possibly, be inside the oil.”

“Where is the oil?” demanded his wife.

“Yes, yes, I’m just coming to that,” he assured her hastily. “So then I upturned the bottle. And now, I think that maybe the oil was in the bottle!”

“You fool!” cried his wife. Picking up a broom, she beat him over his “apperceptively perceptive” head with it.

“Now I know,’ the philosopher concluded in triumph, “that the oil was in the bottle!”

 

God’s effort to unite strife-torn humanity manifests itself within your heart as friendship.

*********

To have friends, you must manifest friendliness. The more friendly you become toward all, the greater will be the number of your true friends.

*********

If you cannot conquer human hearts, you cannot conquer the Cosmic Heart.

*********

Your greatest security lies in the good will of others. If you are enthroned in the hearts of everyone, that is the greatest kingship.

*********

Friendship gladly foregoes self-interest for the sake of a friend’s happiness, without consciousness of loss or sacrifice.

*********

True friendship is broad and inclusive. Be a cosmic friend, imbued with kindness and affection for all of God’s creation, scattering love everywhere.

*********

Consider no one a stranger. Learn to feel that everybody is your kin.

*********

Wherever there is a lonely heart or a weeping brother by the wayside, and your heart goes out to that soul, you have expanded your consciousness toward true, infinite Christ consciousness.

*********

When you have formed a deep friendship that nothing can destroy, a friendship that has no compulsion in it and that increases constantly, you have found a true mate.

*********

When true friendship exists between two souls and they seek God’s love together, when their only wish is to be of service to each other, their friendship produces the flame of Spirit.

 

*All quotations are from: Spiritual Relationships, by Paramhansa Yogananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers.

Places Associated with the Life of Paramhansa Yogananda

Paramhansa Yogananda, in a previous incarnation as William the Conqueror, built what famous landmark in England?

1.    Saint Paul’s Cathedral
2.    Tower of London
3.    Stonehenge
4.    Buckingham Palace

Which place did Paramhansa Yogananda say deserved a special prize for uniqueness?

1.    Yellowstone National Park
2.    The Grand Canyon
3.    Yosemite National Park
4.    The Appalachian Trail

Where in New York City did Paramhansa Yogananda inspire an audience to chant “O God Beautiful” for and hour and a half?

1.    Central Park
2.    Madison Square Garden
3.    Radio City Music Hall
4.    Carnegie Hall

Where in Los Angeles did Paramhansa Yogananda’s mahasamadhi take place?

1.    Twenty-Palms Retreat
2.    Mount Washington
3.    Venice Beach
4.    The Biltmore Hotel

In what city did Paramhansa Yogananda first meet his guru, Sri Yukteswar?

1.    Serampore
2.    Kolkata
3.    Benares
4.    Constantinople

What city did Paramhansa Yogananda’s older brother, Ananta, challenge him to visit as a test of his faith in God?

1.    Delhi
2.    Kashmir
3.    Brindaban
4.    Istanbul

Where did Paramhansa Yogananda have a vision of the statue of the goddess Kali transformed into a living form?

1.    Rishikesh
2.    Dakshineswar
3.    Bangalore
4.    Singapore

Click here to view answers >>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers to Quiz

Paramhansa Yogananda, in a previous incarnation as William the Conqueror, built what famous landmark in England?

1.    Saint Paul’s Cathedral
2.    Tower of London
3.    Stonehenge
4.    Buckingham Palace

Answer: 2

Which place did Paramhansa Yogananda say deserved a special prize for uniqueness?

1.    Yellowstone National Park
2.    The Grand Canyon
3.    Yosemite National Park
4.    The Appalachian Trail

Answer: 1

Where in New York City did Paramhansa Yogananda inspire an audience to chant “O God Beautiful” for and hour and a half?

1.    Central Park
2.    Madison Square Garden
3.    Radio City Music Hall
4.    Carnegie Hall

Answer: 4

Where in Los Angeles did Paramhansa Yogananda’s mahasamadhi take place?

1.    Twenty-Palms Retreat
2.    Mount Washington
3.    Venice Beach
4.    The Biltmore Hotel

Answer: 4

In what city did Paramhansa Yogananda first meet his guru, Sri Yukteswar?

1.    Serampore
2.    Kolkata
3.    Benares
4.    Constantinople

Answer: 3

What city did Paramhansa Yogananda’s older brother, Ananta, challenge him to visit as a test his faith in God?

1.    Delhi
2.    Kashmir
3.    Brindaban
4.    Istanbul

Answer: 3

Where did Paramhansa Yogananda have a vision of the statue of the goddess Kali transformed into a living form?

1.    Rishikesh
2.    Dakshineswar
3.    Bangalore
4.    Singapore

Answer: 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clarity Magazine recommends the following books and movies:

Books

Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
by Stephen B. Oates

Martin Luther King, Jr. remains one of America’s greatest leaders. His unswerving dedication to non-violence in the search for justice and equality, and his respect for and dedication to the ideals of America, made him a hero for millions. This excellent biography provides us with a detailed account of the life of a man whose vision of America as a land of brotherhood, justice, and equality is still unfolding today.

Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award and the Christopher Award, this brilliant examination of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. portrays in detail both the man and the dream that shaped America’s history.

In My Father’s House
by Corrie Ten Boom

Focused upon Corrie ten Boom’s life and family in Holland before the outbreak of World War II, this inspiring book describes in moving detail their lives above the family watch shop in Harlem and Corrie’s memories of the family before the war and subsequent persecution. Corrie believed that their family life before the war prepared them for carrying out God’s work later and gave her the strength to survive brutal hardship and persecution and begin her worldwide ministry.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous 1844 – 1879
by Abbe Francois Trochu

In this inspiring biography of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes, Abbe Francois Trochu, a noted historian of great religious figures, gives us an extensive and detailed account of the life of this great saint. Beautifully set forth are detailed accounts of Bernadette’s eighteen visions of the Blessed Virgin and the challenges Bernadette faced as the recipient of these great blessings. Drawing upon a wealth of archival materials compiled during Bernadette’s lifetime, this book is without a doubt one of the finest books ever written about Lourdes and this humble, visionary saint.

The Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell

The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. In this widely acclaimed bestseller, Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, which is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.

The Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
by Joseph Ellis

In this fascinating and easy-to-read history dealing with the first decade of the American Republic, the author, Joseph Ellis, brings to life the vital issues and personalities from what is considered the most important decade in our nation’s history. He explores how a group of gifted but flawed individuals – Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison – struggled to set the future course of our nation and turn thirteen tiny nation-states into a viable union, capable of survival in a still-hostile world.

Quick Service
by P.G. Wodehouse

Quick Service, a novel first published in 1940, is a hilarious Wodehouse farce set in a country estate where various competing parties are attempting to fake the theft of an oil painting to secure the required trust money for various reasons — marriage, employment or, perhaps, to pay off a bad debt. It is a typically Wodehouse comedy, featuring impoverished but romantic youths, grouchy relatives, charming and resourceful friends, chirpy criminals, country houses, imposters, and servants. A wonderful antidote to the stresses and strains of 21st century life. Absolutely worth the read.

*******     *******     *******

MOVIES

The Railway Children, 1970
Based on Edith Nesbit’s 1906 children’s story, this moving film is about the adventures of the three Waterbury children and their mother whose lives are suddenly shattered when their father, who works for the Foreign Office, is mysteriously arrested by the police for allegedly selling state secrets to the Russians. Forced to live in a poor country cottage in the Yorkshire dales, the children become fascinated by a nearby railroad and, befriending some of the passengers, discover one old gentleman who may be able to help clear their father’s name.

Available: DVD; Rated G

The Way, 2010
“The Way” is a powerful and inspirational story about an American doctor who travels to France to collect the remains of his adult son who is killed in a storm while walking the Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of Saint James, an arduous 500 mile trek across Spain. Driven by profound sadness and a sense of loss, the grieving father decides to embark on the historical pilgrimage himself in an attempt to gain some insight into his estranged son’s life. Filmed entirely in Spain and France along the actual Camino de Santiago, this is a story of healing and renewal and an attempt to find greater meaning in life.

Available: DVD; Rated PG-13

Watership Down, 1978
Based upon Richard Adam’s best-selling novel of the same name, this animated feature is about a society of rabbits as they flee their doomed warren and seek to establish a new colony free of tyranny and human intervention. The film, an immediate success upon its release, became the sixth most popular British film of 1979. Since there are some scenes of violence, the film is not recommended for young children.

Available: DVD; Rated PG

The Founding of America, 2009
Watch history spring to life as you witness, in spellbinding detail, the inspiring early years of America’s struggle for independence and the men and women who risked their lives and their fortunes to bring this great country to life. With rare archival material, and commentary by leading historians, this DVD megaset presents historical programming at its comprehensive best.

Available from Amazon: DVD; Not Rated

Amazing Grace, 2006
Based on actual events, this historical drama recounts the life of William Wilberforce, an18th-century English politician who launched an aggressive, twenty-five-year campaign to abolish slavery in Britain despite staunch opposition from the moneyed interests and public indifference to his cause. In 1807, through his perseverance and determination, final victory was achieved and the slave trade was forever abolished throughout the British Empire.

Available: DVD; Rated PG

Finding Nemo, 2003
In this Oscar-winning animated adventure, two plucky fish, Marlin and Dory, search their underwater world for Marlin’s missing son, Nemo, who’s been abducted by a scuba diver and dumped into a dentist’s aquarium. When they discover Nemo’s whereabouts, the two companions, traveling a great distance, encounter various dangerous sea creatures in their attempt to rescue Nemo from the dentist’s office aquarium near Sydney harbor. In the meantime, Nemo, who can take care of himself, is finding his own way back to the sea.

Available: DVD; Rated G

Belle Verte (Beautiful Green), 1996
This delightful, family-oriented French sci-fi comedy deals with the noise, pollution and stress of modern day life in a humorous and simple way. As part of an intergalactic coalition that monitors the activities and evolution of planet earth, an alien space woman is sent to earth to gather information on the environment and the state of its inhabitants. She is shocked to learn how people are living and does her part to help planet earth become a better place.

Available: YouTube; Not Rated

What the Bleep Do We Know!? 2004
This interesting and provocative film combines documentary-style interviews, computer animated graphics and stunning special effects to explore in non-technical terms the cutting edge of quantum physics and its relationship to human consciousness. Engaging and entertaining, this moderately low-budget independent production was one of the sleeper hits of 2004, as word-of-mouth and strategic marketing kept it in theaters for an entire year, eventually grossing over $10 million dollars. A must-see for anyone interested in the connection between science and spirituality.

Available: DVD; Not Rated