Most people have had one or more of their windows of life jammed shut for years. As a result, they suffer from chronic maladies. Their remedy lies in discovering how to open those windows themselves and bask once more in the all-healing rays of the Divine.

2. Right attitude toward diet
You must strike a balance between non-attachment to outer things and sensible concern for your present realities. So long as you are centered in body-consciousness, you must take sensible care of your body and follow the God-made laws that govern health and the physical body. At the same time, don’t over-emphasize the importance of the body or become too fastidious about diet. Many food faddists only weaken their systems by depending excessively on dietary principles.

Since you have to eat, eat the right kind of food. Choose a balanced diet, stick to it, and then forget the body. Devote your time to meditation and right living.

3. Do’s and Don’ts of Proper Eating
Every day the tissues of the body must be supplied with the proper body-building materials. In plastering a house, if you mix less lime in the sand, the plaster will begin to fall off in a short time. Similarly, our bodies decay when not “plastered” with the right type and quantity of body-building elements. The body begins to lose vigor, the tissues become flabby, the skin begins to wrinkle, and the cells begin to lose their building power.

In planning your breakfast, lunch, and dinner, be sure to give your body the proper type and quantity of body-building materials.

Eat sparingly of the right foods
Overloading the stomach with unnecessary food is one of the most common abuses of the body. Eat sparingly and notice the great change in your health for the better. Eating too much at one meal, followed by lack of exercise, develops the body disproportionately.

Eating freely of fruits and vegetables will greatly benefit your health, whereas eating too much starchy food and protein retains the poisons in the body.

Drink milk each day
Drink at least a glassful of good milk each day. Milk is the only food except eggs that alone can support human life. Drinking milk will help prevent old age and the sudden deterioration of the body, which result from not giving the body all the elements necessary for its healthy maintenance. Drink milk alone or with fruits—never with meals.

Avoid drinking ice water
Doctors say that drinking ice water lowers the temperature of the stomach thirty degrees. This is shocking and disastrous to an individual’s digestive power. Never drink ice water with your meals or when you are overheated. It’s best not to drink water of any kind with meals.

Eat only when hungry
The man who eats without real physical hunger is skating on the “thin ice” of digestibility. When he begins to tax his poor digestive power by greedily gulping unmasticated food in large quantities, and washing it down with ice water, he opens the door to illness and disease.

Eat in an atmosphere of calmness
Other important considerations in eating and digesting food are:

1. Proper selection of food
2. Attractive appearance and aroma
3. Pleasant environment

One should always partake of food with a thankful, joyful heart. Keep mealtimes calm and pleasant, and avoid eating when under the stress of emotion.

4. Analyze your mental diet
Have you ever analyzed your mental diet? It consists of the thoughts you think as well as the thoughts you receive from close contact with friends. Good thoughts are nourishing food for the mind, but thoughts of any other nature are poisonous to both mind and body. Peaceful thoughts and peaceful friends produce healthy, magnetic minds, whereas the wrong sort of friends produces inner disquietude and an unwholesome, gloomy mind.

No matter how busy you are, do not forget to free your mind regularly from all worries. Do not allow them to torture you. Remember that they were made by you. Learn to remove the causes of your worries without permitting them to worry you.

5. Add the “magnetic diet” of sunshine and oxygen
The magnetic diet consists of such food substitutes as sunrays and oxygen, which can be assimilated and converted into energy more quickly than solids and liquids. Oxygen and sunshine should have a very important place in people’s lives, because of their direct energy-producing quality.

When you are tired or hungry, take a sunbath and you will find yourself revived and recharged with ultraviolet rays. Inhale and exhale several times outdoors or near an open window, and your fatigue will be gone. A fasting person who inhales and exhales deeply twelve times, three times a day, is able to fully recharge his body with energy.

Practice the following exercise three times a day: Exhale slowly, counting from 1 to 6. Now, while the lungs are empty, mentally count from 1 to 6. Inhale slowly, counting from 1 to 6. Then hold the breath, counting from 1 to 6. Repeat eleven times.

6. How to remain youthful
You must take care of your body machine. As the years roll along, do not give up—as so many people do. Always be interested in life. Keep the mind busy by creating and doing new things. The infinite powers are at your command. Just as the ocean can help any wave to retain its form, so also can the everlasting ocean of Immortal Power behind the human body continue manifesting itself as that youthful, vital form.

Daily exercise
Walk daily and bathe your body in the bacteria-killing sunshine. During the winter months, take time to go skating, skiing, and walking. Breathe the fresh, crisp, invigorating air of winter. Perform some sort of exercise every day until perspiration breaks out over your whole body. Your colds and other similar ills will soon disappear.

Sufficient sleep
Sleep can be induced at will by lying on the back, closing the eyes, tensing and relaxing the body, and dismissing all thoughts. Try this until you learn to sleep at will.

Healthy teeth
Diseased teeth produce many ills. After eating, give your teeth a cleansing “shower bath.”  If you have no toothbrush handy, rinse your mouth with water ten times after each meal.

Periodic fasting
One of the main causes of arthritis, rheumatism, and many other diseases is autointoxication, which is due to faulty elimination. Uneliminated, decayed food stays like a paste on the walls of the intestines and is absorbed into the bloodstream. Disease naturally follows.

A three-day fast once a month on orange juice, with a laxative each night while fasting, will expel poisons and do much to make the body strong, healthy, and youthful to the last days of life.

Smile from the heart
There is no better reviving tonic than a genuine smile, and no beauty greater than the smile of peace and wisdom glowing on your face.

7. Rejuvenation through relaxation
Physical relaxation
For complete relaxation of the body, first gently tense the entire body. Then relax and withdraw all energy from the body and remain relaxed, without the slightest physical motion. The complete absence of motion and tension from muscles and limbs is “relaxation.” Imagine that the body is jelly-like, without bones or muscles. When you can do this, you have attained perfect muscular relaxation.

Deep relaxation with AUM
Sit on a straight chair, with your spine upright. Expel the breath quickly and hold the breath, counting mentally 1 to 10. Inhale slowly, hold the breath, counting 1 to 10. Repeat ten times. Then expel the breath and forget it.

Concentrate on the toes of the left foot and say “AUM” mentally on each toe. Do the same to the toes of the right foot. Then concentrate on the sole of the left foot and then the right foot, saying “AUM” on each.

Concentrate on the left and right calves, mentally saying “AUM.” Do the same with the left and right thighs, left and right hips, navel, abdomen, liver, spleen, stomach, pancreas, heart, left and right lungs, left and right hands and arms, left side of neck, right side of neck, and front and back of neck.

Say “AUM” mentally, concentrating on the pituitary gland, pineal gland, medulla, point between the eyebrows, mouth, tongue and uvula, left and right nostrils, left and right eyes, left and right ears, cerebellum, and cerebrum.

Then go up and down the chakras: coccygeal, sacral, lumbar, dorsal, cervical, medulla, and Christ Center at the point between the eyebrows, mentally chanting “AUM.” Try to feel that the whole body is surrounded within and without with the holy vibration of AUM.

Mental relaxation
Mental relaxation consists of the ability to free the mind from haunting worries over past and present difficulties. Mastery in mental relaxation comes with faithful practice. It can be attained by learning how to free the mind of all thoughts at will and to keep the attention fixed on the peace and contentment within. By the regular practice of meditation you can achieve mental relaxation.

8. Rejuvenation through “super-relaxation”
“Super-relaxation” is the complete, voluntary withdrawal of consciousness and energy from the entire body and mind through the practice of meditation. By the practice of meditation, one achieves complete mental relaxation by releasing the consciousness from the delusion of duality and resting the mind in one’s true nature of unity in Spirit. One also achieves complete physical relaxation, inhibiting decay and the breaking down of bodily tissues. This keeps the bloodstream pure and promotes physical rejuvenation.

9. Draw on limitless cosmic energy
Willingness and determination keep the blood vitalized with life-energy. If you can maintain an attitude of joyful willingness at all times, you will find your body constantly supplied with fresh cosmic energy drawn into the body through the door of the medulla oblongata. Your blood will be charged with life-current, making it immune to the invasion of bacteria.

To keep your body vibrating with life current, strengthen your willingness and determination in everything.

10. The highest form of rejuvenation
The highest form of rejuvenation is to unite the human consciousness with the infinite Cosmic Consciousness through meditation. When you are able to feel your body as vibrating currents in the ocean of Cosmic Consciousness, you will find not only perpetual rejuvenation in the soul, but also in the body. Meditation is the greatest way of resurrecting your soul from the bondage of body and all your trials. Meditate at the feet of the Infinite. Learn to saturate yourself with Him.

Excerpted from: How to Achieve Glowing Health and Vitality, by Paramhansa Yogananda, available from Crystal Clarity Publishers. This book will be available in February 2012. To pre-order click here

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Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, is the god of success, wisdom, learning and prosperity. He is the destroyer of obstacles, vanity and evil.

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Ganesh Chaturthi

From what I’ve seen, Ganesh Chaturthi”is the biggest yearly festival in Pune. Each year families install an image of Ganesha in their home, offering it special worship for up to ten days.

During Ganesh Chaturthi, families, neighbors, and groups gather for cultural events, reunions and special ceremonies. It’s a time of goodwill across sectarian boundaries; religious and social groups sponsor the construction of temporary pavilions where larger statues of Ganesha are installed and decorated. Some of these statues can be huge and very lavish, especially in Mumbai where they sometimes exceed 25 feet in height.

You’ll see the pavilions all along the roadways, curtained during the day to give Ganesha rest and opened in the evening, festooned with colored lights and beautiful decorations. There is a lively competition between pavilions to see which is the nicest. Banners are everywhere and, at night, the beating of drums, loud music and processions come from all directions.

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A force for Indian unity

Ganesha is honored by all sects throughout India but he is particularly loved here in Pune, probably because it was in Pune that Lokmanya Tilak, an Indian nationalist of the early twentieth century, used the Ganesh Chaturthi festival as a rallying event for Indian culture, national pride, and independence from the British. Tilak used the festival to unite Hindus across caste boundaries and was instrumental in the transformation of  Ganesh Chaturthi from a purely religious occasion into a cultural celebration of Hindu values and culture. As the freedom movement grew and spread, so did Ganesh Chaturthi.

Ganesha is the god of “beginnings.” This is why he is often seen in temples, even in those dedicated to other gods. As the keeper of the entry, he is associated with the muladhar chakra, or coccyx center, and is said to be a great yogi. You can tell by his long elephant trunk, indicating the long breath, that he is adept at pranayama (energy control). He is master of the ego, represented by the mouse, vahana (his vehicle), and his big belly is said to contain all universes.

If you know the Mahabharata, you’ll remember that it was Ganesha who acted as Byasa’s scribe when he recited the epic tale of India. It is said that Ganesha was reluctant to take on such a big task but consented on condition that Byasa recite continuously and never make him wait. Byasa agreed but extracted a condition in return from Ganesha, that he not transcribe anything until he first understood its deeper meaning completely. Thus, Ganesha was forced to pause from time to time, allowing Byasa to keep ahead of him. Naturally enough, by the end of the book, Ganesha had earned his sobriquet as the god of knowledge. Elephants, so it is said, have a long memory and never forget.

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A transient image of the Infinite

Submersion Day marks the official closing of the ten-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Statues of Ganesha are paraded to the Mutha River near Pune for immersion in the fast flowing water, dissolving the earthly form temporarily inhabited by the Divine and releasing Him back into the Infinite. Swami Kriyananda writes that after the great seasons of worship in India such as Ganesh Chaturthi, the various images are immersed in rivers to keep devotees aware that the forms they worship are only transient images of the Infinite, and to help people to direct their ultimate devotion to God alone.

Many come as families lovingly carrying their small household statues to the river ghats where fathers perform a puja (ceremony) before submerging it into the water. Larger groups load more elaborate Ganeshas onto trucks, trailers or wedding chariots accompanied by bands and drummers while music blasts from huge speakers. Imagine hundreds and hundreds of these trucks, trailers or wedding chariots making their way from all directions to the river ghats, each led by crowds of dancing men amidst firecrackers, loud music, and horns.

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Good will and acceptance

Throughout India you’ll see Ganesha in multiple forms, holding varying objects in his many hands, usually numbering four but sometimes more. Sometimes he dances and at other times he reclines. Each family can have its own traditions of worship and every village its own legends. The symbolic iconography associated with Ganesha and tales of how he came to have his elephant’s head are endless.

The Western mind may sometimes find Ganesha hard to grasp. But I’ve found the tendency to be overly rational and the making of too many rigid categorizations unhelpful in India and best avoided. Ganesha is lovable.  He is what you choose him to be, a personification of an abstract ideal or a wise, loving, benevolent protector.

Ganesha has come to be one of the most universally recognized images of Hinduism, a symbol of cultural identity and a force for unity in a land of disparities. Swami Kriyananda writes that even a symbol can be imbued with a certain power if, through that symbol, one invokes God, and views the symbol as a reminder of the Infinite Lord.When I meditate upon Ganesha’s picture, I feel a projection of goodwill and acceptance, two qualities I love about India.

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 Gurgaon, India.

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

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

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When you are beset by overwhelming mental trials or worries, try to fall asleep. If you can do that, you will find on awakening that mental tension is relieved and that worry has loosened its grip on you.

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To experience complete physical relaxation, gently tense the entire body. Then relax and withdraw all energy from the body and remain relaxed, without the slightest physical motion. When you can do this, you have attained perfect muscular relaxation.

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Whenever you want to relax any body part, gently tense it, hold the tension in it counting from 1 to 3, then relax quickly and feel the energy withdraw. Keep the relaxed part still by forgetting it.

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When you wake up in the morning, don’t jump out of bed suddenly. First relax all parts and then give them a breakfast of energy by tensing your whole body slowly, then relaxing. Tense and relax gradually; do not jerk.

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Any time you are tired or worried, tense and relax the whole body, throwing your breath out with the exhalation, and you will become calm.

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People often talk of relaxation, but few know how to achieve it. Complete mental relaxation is voluntary withdrawal of consciousness and energy from the entire body and identification with one’s true nature in Spirit.

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The devotee who aspires to develop uniformly and steadily in spirituality must always keep the body quiet and not in perpetual motion and restlessness. Keep the breath quiet by proper breathing exercises, preserve the vital essence by self-control and good company, and calm the mind with the practice of concentration and meditation.

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By dispassionately watching the breath coming in and going out, one’s breathing naturally slows, calming at last the peace-disturbing activity of the heart, lungs, and diaphragm.

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By the Hong-Sau technique of meditation, one can reach the point of even relaxing the heart, and thereby rising above its compulsion to outwardness, experiencing death consciously, and eliminating one’s sense of the mystery of death and the fear of dying..

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Man lives in an atmosphere of air, which he requires even as a fish requires water. By rising above the breath in the breathless state, man can enter the celestial realms of light, where the angels dwell.

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*All quotations are from: How to Achieve Glowing Health and Vitality, by Paramhansa Yogananda, available from Crystal Clarity Publishers. This book will be available in January 2012. To pre-order click here

1. Forgetfulness of God
For many of us, forgetfulness of God is the main culprit holding us back spiritually. When we go days at a time forgetting our spiritual quest, the path gets dry and we lose our inspiration.

Some years ago, I (Devi) had a beautiful week-long seclusion at Paramhansa Yogananda’s retreat at Encinitas. I meditated for many hours every day and immersed myself in Yogananda’s consciousness. In the early evening I would watch the sun setting over the ocean. There was one day when the sunset was especially beautiful. The sky’s iridescent pastel colors looked like beautiful shimmery chiffon and the ocean was like rolling waves of velvet with streams of silver.

I remember thinking that the sky looked like Divine Mother in the most beautiful gown I had ever seen. There was a feeling of perfect, beautiful omnipresence, and I was part of that omnipresence.

Then I looked down and saw a bit of movement on the water. My focus descended from the vastness and beauty of the sunset to that little point of movement. Three or four people were surfing, and I began watching them and thinking to myself, “Oh, look he’s falling. No, he’s going to make it all the way in.” Suddenly all I could think about was that little human drama. I had totally forgotten Divine Mother’s beautiful presence. When I realized what had happened, it was like a slap in the face.

But that happens so often in our lives as devotees. We set a resolution—we say we’re going to remember God, but subconsciously there are contrary inclinations, and we lose sight of the high mountain of Self-realization and the expansiveness of Spirit. It isn’t enough to say we shouldn’t be forgetful, because the very nature of the mind is to flit and forget. We need to build in constant little reminders like japa or chanting. But the main antidote to forgetfulness is introspection. Yogananda talked repeatedly about introspection and how important it is for our spiritual progress.

Yogananda recommends that we practice introspection twice a day, morning and evening. In the morning we should set our resolutions for the day and in the evening, review our day and ask ourselves: “Did we use our will power to keep our resolutions, or did we become the tool of bad habits?”  Yogananda says that by “ever-watchful introspection” we can banish all the contrary inclinations that make us forgetful of God.

2. Negativity and avoiding the light
Paramhansa Yogananda spoke very strongly about not speaking negatively. His position on this issue contradicts much of modern psychology, but he said we should never talk about past hurts or bad experiences, or about any of the things people have done that bother us. Any form of negative expression opens the mind to negative thinking.

Yogananda said it was an abuse of God’s gift of memory to remember bad experiences and to dwell on them. We should use the gift of memory to recall uplifting and positive experiences. Using memory in this way helps to free us from karma.

Negativity can also take the form of watching movies or reading books that pull us down. The negative content of modern media can easily pull the mind into negative thought patterns. The same is true of certain kinds of news programs and political commentary. Most political commentary these days tends to be negative and polarizing.

Negative thinking is such an easy habit to fall into. Think of a river: When you step into it at the edge of the bank, the river doesn’t have much power. If you take only one or two steps into that negative current, it’s easy to get out. But the more you go toward the center of the stream, the more forcefully it will carry you into increasing negativity. It is important to catch your negative thoughts quickly and turn your mind toward something positive or beautiful.

People who are habitually pulled into a spiritual slump by negativity tend to avoid the very things that would help draw them in an upward direction: satsangs, group meditations, Sunday service. If you’re stuck in a downward pulling direction, one of the antidotes is to force yourself to go to uplifting events and places. Everything in the world has magnetism – people, places, thoughts – and environment is stronger than will power. Put yourself in the presence of upward pulling magnetism.

When you’re really stuck in a downward pulling thought pattern, the antidote is to work with the body, not the mind. Passive negativity doesn’t have enough energy to be redirected upward, so the first step is to do something that gets positive energy going — deep breathing, exercise, a walk, or some form of sport. Once the energy is moving again, find a way to help someone. Serviceful activity will help get you out of the negative stream and into the stream of positivity.

3. Restlessness and comparisons
The next culprit on the list is the tendency to get restless. We can be going along perfectly fine in our spiritual life and then all of a sudden we get the thought: “I need to go to the mall,” or “I need to relax and see a movie…” or “I’d like to have an outing with my friends.” Obviously it’s not a bad thing to get out and change our environment once in a while but if we have a habit of becoming restless, then we need to work against that habit. The complexity of the world is infinite, especially in this age of the internet. There are so many things we can get involved in—but the net effect of all this outward involvement is to draw us into a rajasic mode and away from God.

A less obvious form of restlessness is comparing ourselves with others. Once while still fairly new on the path, I (Devi) asked an Indian yogi who was visiting Ananda and giving a satsang, “How do we develop the kind of commitment that keeps us on the path for our entire life? He said, “Never compare yourself to other people.”

I thought, “What has that got to do with staying on the spiritual path?” Since then I’ve realized how important that advice was. Comparing ourselves with other people takes us out of our higher self into a sense of separation. It takes us into ego competition, into such thoughts as: “He’s so spiritual, she’s not so spiritual. I’m more spiritual than they are.” We can easily slip into feelings of superiority and negativity, or we can become discouraged about our spiritual potential.

Swami Kriyananda suggested a way out of a tendency to feel superior. He said we should strive to put our egos in a position of disadvantage, to look for ways we can take a back seat. This helps us disconnect from the sense, “I am important.” For feelings of discouragement, the solution is to offer such thoughts up to God, knowing that God is pleased when we strive to do our best with the karma we’ve brought over from the past.

One of the most powerful of all spiritual techniques is to keep our consciousness focused at the point between the eyebrows, the spiritual eye. Keeping our consciousness there banishes all restless thoughts.

4. Material desire and “unnecessary luxuries”
For many people material desire would be at the top of the list of things that hold us back from God, but most devotees aren’t strongly pulled by the usual material desires. Devotees are more challenged by what we might call “unnecessary luxuries.” These are the ways we indulge ourselves emotionally and psychologically: “I don’t really need to get up for meditation every morning. I’ll give myself the luxury of sleeping in twice a week.” “Though I need to lose weight, I’ll give myself the luxury of eating two big pieces of that dessert.” Every time we give into those indulgences, we’re giving in to our lower nature.

Sometimes those who’ve been on the spiritual path for awhile begin to think: “I’m a devotee. I’ve given my life to God. It’s probably okay if I go see that R-rated movie.” But it’s not okay. The consciousness is very malleable, and those images penetrate deeply. The downward pulls of delusion are so strong that we can never relax our vigilance. In a way, the longer we’re on the spiritual path, the more vigilant we need to be because it’s easy to allow bad habits to start creeping in.

We received a letter recently from a friend who as a young man had struggled with alcoholism, and was able to overcome it through a 12-step program. He was looking forward to his 30-year anniversary as a non-drinker. He wrote that he had attended a gathering of friends he hadn’t seen for a long time, and that he was the only one who wasn’t drinking. And he could feel a pull —“What’s one drink going hurt? You’ve been sober for 30 years.” He felt this battle going on within himself. He concluded the letter by saying, “I left the party, and I made my 30th anniversary.”

5. The non-use of Yogananda’s techniques
The ultimate culprit that holds us back spiritually is the non-use of Yogananda’s techniques. The failure to use the spiritual tools given by the Guru puts us out of attunement with him. The antidote is to start doing the very simple things he suggested. Sit and practice Hong Sau for an entire meditation. Try to go deeper and deeper. Ultimately the goal of Hong Sau is to go beyond the breath, into breathlessness. Try also to practice the AUM technique more, and especially Kriya Yoga.

We’ve listed five things that hold us back spiritually, but you don’t have to give into them. A simple formula that applies to all five is this: Anytime you feel pulled in a negative direction ask yourself: “What is the opposite of this direction?” Then put your energy into that positive direction. Yogananda says if you bring in the light, the darkness disappears even though it’s been there for a million years. As soon as you flip the light switch, it becomes light. You don’t have to wait another million years for the light gradually to cancel the darkness.

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What draws us to God?
Ultimately what draws us to God is the help of God and Guru. We can’t do it on our own. The Guru is that expression of God who has been designated to lead us out of darkness and into the light. Do everything possible to increase your attunement with the Guru. Draw from his power. Keep him in your heart. Try to feel you are a channel for the Guru’s vibration and that nothing exists except that vibration. More than anything else, being a channel for that vibration is what will draw us to God.

From talks at Ananda Village during February 2010 and August 2011.

Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi are the Spiritual Directors of Ananda Worldwide.

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The first two steps to finding out how wonderful a seclusion can be are:

1) To convince yourself that you not only really need a seclusion, but that you also deserve it, and

2) To get over any fears you might have of spending time alone and in silence—especially the fear that you might fail in your efforts to meditate more deeply and be closer to God.

Most people have these feelings in the beginning. You are not alone! If you do feel this way, it might be wise to talk to someone who loves seclusion and is a “veteran” in doing it. He or she can offer you the necessary inspiration.

If you’ve never taken a seclusion before, it’s best to start slowly. Try taking just a day or two at first. Then when you are more used to short seclusions, try for a longer amount of time.

“Find a place and book your space”
Here are a few other suggestions: Carefully plan ahead of time where you are going to stay and what you are going to do. The colder months of the year are often best, as life tends to be more naturally inward at that time.

“Find a place and book your space” as far ahead as possible. Life has a way of crowding in and taking over your best made plans. Don’t let anything interfere with your intention to seclude. Your seclusion place needs to be very quiet and preferably have a retreat-like environment — where any nearby people, such as the retreat staff, will respect your need for complete silence, privacy, and for how you want to spend your time.

It is possible to seclude where you live, especially if you live alone, or if the rest of your family will be away for a time. However, most long-time “secluders” will tell you that when they have tried to seclude in their usual environment, it hasn’t worked as well. Most find they need a different environment—to get away from it all.

It’s okay to be flexible
Write out your lists and proposed daily schedule ahead of time. Decide what you want to do, then decide what to take with you to make that possible. What reading materials do you want? Highly recommended would be reading about the lives of the great saints of all religions. Here are some other things to think about: music and tapes to listen to; meditation equipment; walking shoes; food.

But also be flexible! You may get to your seclusion place and find you are very tired (as is often the case) and simply need to sleep a lot for a day or so before getting on with your seclusion plans. Starting out with a good rest is really okay!

You may think you’d like to fast, but find you are hungry! Be prepared for that. Be ready to come up with new plans on the spot, if you need to. Let God and Gurus guide you carefully in both the planning stages and during your time at your seclusion place.

Don’t be attached to what you want to have happen. Relax and just be. Begin each day by saying, “What shall we do today, Divine Mother? Guide each moment. Thank You for giving me time to be alone with You!”

The ups and downs of a seclusion
For most folks beginning a seclusion, a primary goal is to have increasing times of prayer and meditation, along with all the things related to getting ready for deep meditation, such as the Energization Exercises, yoga postures, chanting, and inspirational reading. You definitely want to see prayer and meditation as the center around which your seclusion revolves.

But if you are taking a longer time of seclusion, you may find that there are some days when you simply cannot meditate as long as you had hoped. There will be ups and downs. Go with it!  If possible, take a nice long walking meditation in nature, and be with God in that way. Or do some journal writing and write a letter to God. There are many “meditative activities” which, though they really don’t help us quite as much as silent, sitting meditation, are still very powerful ways of spending time with God. And after all, spending time with God is really what a seclusion is for.

Remember the SILENCE part of seclusion. “Silence is the altar of Spirit.” If you must be around people for any reason, have an “IN SILENCE” badge to wear and point at if someone tries to engage you. Don’t make eye-contact with others. But best of all, stay completely alone and “speak” only to God in the language of your own heart. Keep that inward conversation going strong!

When things come up
What if things come up within yourself, so that you become frightened and feel you need to talk to somebody? This does happen. First, do your best to get through the experience on your own. Do something different and pray for insight. Exercise and fresh air often help quite a bit. Or a nice long shower or bath. Write about your experience in your journal. Try sleeping on it. Sometimes that’s all you need to gain insight and a fresh perspective. If all else fails, then find someone to talk to.

Try to isolate yourself from all such distractions as cell phones or any phones (turn them off), e-mails, internet connections, TV, worldly magazines or newspapers. Resist the temptation to “check my messages.” It may feel strange at first to be cut off from the world in this way. But that’s really the idea — to give you time to look at your world in a more interiorized way. You may wonder, when you return to your daily life, why all that constant availability seemed so necessary.

Your mental clarity increases
In seclusion you begin to see that your mind is like a glass of water which is cloudy with dirt and debris. By being very quiet and still, by praying and meditating more than usual, thinking uplifting thoughts, keeping company only with the saints and our line of gurus, all the dirt and debris begin to settle out.

As your, “mental water glass” becomes clear and clean, you begin to see life as it really is. When you reach that point in your seclusion, life looks SO DIFFERENT and so much more beautiful. You can pick up an inspiring book you’ve read before and feel as though you have a different book in your hands. Each sentence is written in flames of light—their perfect wisdom meant especially for you.

Your heart also becomes more open, softer, and more in tune with devotional practices. Chanting and devotional music become much sweeter and more uplifting. You can feel yourself soaring on wings of joy! God becomes “the nearest of the near and the dearest of the dear.”

“Seclusion is the price of greatness”
As the years go by, with each seclusion you take, you’ll grow more used to the rhythms of seclusion. You’ll probably find that each one is different. Some turn out to be just as you had hoped. Some do not. Some are great learning experiences. Sometimes you may weep to think that this time has to be over for now and that you have to return to daily life.

There is no question that seclusion, as Paramhansa Yogananda says, “is the price of greatness.” Greatness of spirit comes only with an increasingly closer walk with God—with feeling God’s presence within and all around you at all times.

On a more personal note, I have made it a priority in my life, for the past 30 years, to take a longer or shorter time of seclusion at least once a year. In my early years at Ananda, I was able to dedicate one day a week to a mini-seclusion. I know several people here who are still able to do that.

Now, close to Thanksgiving, I usually take 5-7 days in a housekeeping cabin at The Ananda Meditation Retreat. I choose that time of year because of its very inward feeling, because the autumn scenery is still beautiful for my daily walks among the hills, and because it’s close enough to Christmas that I can begin the process of “preparing the cradle of my heart for the coming of the Christ (Consciousness) Child.” My Thanksgiving seclusion is definitely one of the high points of the year for me.

My husband, Sudarshan, probably holds the “Ananda Village record” for the most time spent in seclusion. He spends 4 weeks a year, usually in February, in his little seclusion trailer, parked at a secret and remote location nearby. He does Yogananda’s 9-day Cleansing and Healing Diet for the first 9 days. I re-supply him with food about halfway through. When he returns home after all that time in seclusion, his eyes look angelic and his face looks about ten years younger and filled with divine light.

Because of his excellent experience in taking longer seclusions, he has written a little self-published booklet on the subject, called, How to Take a Personal Spiritual Retreat. If you are interested in obtaining a copy, please e-mail him: Sudarshan Simpson, sudarshan108@hotmail.com

Nayaswami Savitri teaches at The Expanding Light guest retreat at Ananda Village, and is the Director of Ananda’s Meditation Teacher Training Programs. She also serves as administrative assistant to Ananda’s Spiritual Directors. A Lightbearer and 33-year resident of Ananda Village, she is married to Nayaswami Sudarshan.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

Most of us have had these experiences, yet there are things we can do to rekindle our enthusiasm for meditation. A very important one is to pay attention to the attitude we take into meditation.

Change your attitude toward meditation

I had an experience with dryness in meditation which I overcame by adopting a different attitude toward meditation. At Ananda Village there is a weekly three-hour Kriya Yoga meditation which I usually lead. On the day of the meditation, I had a very busy workday and was rushing just to get out the door and make it to the meditation on time. It was a combination of my rushing to get there and also dragging my feet, if it’s possible to do both. My underlying attitude was one of unwillingness. I found myself thinking, “My mind is running all over the place. I can’t sit and meditate for 3 hours.”

As I got out of the car, I heard a voice. This voice had a lot of energy and enthusiasm so I knew it wasn’t coming from my current state of consciousness. I think it was the voice of my superconscious mind or soul. And this voice said with so much eagerness and enthusiasm, “This could be the night!” – that I listened to it.  I knew it meant that this could be the night that I would go into the final state of complete samadhi, complete union with God.

In Autobiography of a Yogi, in the chapter in which Paramhansa Yogananda relates his first experience of samadhi or cosmic consciousness, he tells us that just before that event, he was having a very restless meditation. It was then that Sri Yukteswar called him and said, “Your heart’s desire shall be fulfilled.” Sri Yukteswar touched him on the chest and Yogananda had the experience of samadhi.

So I knew from this voice that, “yes, this really could be the night.” As it turned out it wasn’t, but by going into that meditation with such a positive attitude, I had a very good meditation. It wasn’t the ultimate, but it was so much better than if I’d been thinking, “Do I really want to be here?”

In meditation, as in all aspects of the spiritual life, attitude is everything. If you’re having difficulty in meditation, work on developing enthusiasm and a positive attitude.  “This could be the time!” is a good attitude to take into every meditation.

Taking an attitude of positive expectation into every meditation is very important because the truth is: God could come to us at any time. We don’t know how much or how little karma we have left. Our job as devotees is to keep working at it day by day, with energy and eager anticipation, and, as Yogananda said, with divine inevitability the ultimate experience of oneness with the Infinite will come to the sincere seeker.

Offer your entire self

Paramhansa Yogananda said that if you want to succeed in meditation, you must develop devotion. But people who aren’t particularly devotional by nature often wonder, “What is devotion and how do I practice it?” Swami Kriyananda gave us an important key when he described devotion as “living our life and practicing the teachings with a sense of self-offering.” You should try to see devotion as the practice of offering yourself, with freedom and deep love, at the feet of God or the guru.

Many years ago, I had one of my frequent near-tragic encounters in nature that taught me the importance of learning to see devotion as a heart-felt sense of self-offering. What I learned from that experience, and what has proved true ever since, is the following important truth: if you can offer your entire self into the light of God with complete freedom, with absolutely no sense of compulsion, with no feeling of “What am I getting out of it?” but with love and gratitude—you’ll experience divine bliss.

What if you can’t see the light in meditation?  Then you can simply offer yourself at the spiritual eye, the point between the eyebrows, as if you were giving the gift of yourself to God. Swami Kriyananda said that when you concentrate on the spiritual eye, the Christ center, you’re actually looking at it from the medulla, the seat of ego. By the practice of offering yourself into the Christ center, you are taking the energy of the ego and offering it to God for purification. By repeatedly making that self-offering, you will gradually transcend the ego and become freer and freer within yourself.

Self-offering consists of offering all your positive attitudes, all the negative issues you’re struggling with, everything you own, anything you’re proud of, all of your tests, your entire being—and offering it either into the light of God or the Christ center. When doing any of Paramhansa’s Yogananda’s meditation techniques, always try to do them with a sense of devotional self-offering. During your daily work, and in relating to others, try also to feel that you are offering your life in service to God.

Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita said that “even a leaf offered with devotion is pleasing to Me.” Instead of offering just a leaf, offer your entire self. That’s what pleases God the most.

Attunement to the Guru

One time when I was visiting Swami Kriyananda in India, I felt very uplifted in his presence. As I was about to return to America, I said to him, “It’s easy to feel attunement with Yogananda in your presence. How can I continue to feel that way when I return home?” Since my work puts me in contact with many other devotees, I was asking this question for others too.

He responded, “What I do is ask myself, ‘Master, what would you do? What do you want me to do?’ I ask both those questions. For instance, while writing The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, I felt a real joy inside as if Master were saying, ‘This is what I want you to do.’ So it is not enough just to pray and meditate. We need to ask Master, ‘How would you handle this?’”

Kriyananda continued: “I also have found that mentally chanting ‘Aum Guru’ is a wonderful practice. If you maintain that practice day and night, even while you’re working and doing other things, it’s amazing how much you can change. You feel more and more desire for God, more and more purity of heart, more and more dedication. That’s what really matters.” Kriyananda has also said that mentally chanting “Aum Guru” will help you not only to attune to the consciousness of the guru but also to AUM, the creative power of the universe.

Our true nature is Satchidananda, “ever-conscious, ever-existing, ever-new bliss.” We don’t have to make some great achievement to gain that bliss. We don’t have to climb a high mountain. We simply have to meditate regularly, with the right attitude, and with a sense of devotional self-offering. Deepening our attunement to the Guru by asking for his guidance and chanting “Aum Guru” throughout the day is also very important. As these practices become more and more a regular part of our daily life, we will begin to experience the bliss of our true nature.

From an August 2010 talk at Ananda Village.

Nayaswami Devarshi, a Lightbearer and longtime member of Ananda, lives at Ananda Village where he serves as Director of the Kriya Yoga Ministry.

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I have no habits,
In eating, thinking, behaving
I am free, I am free.

I command Thee, O Attention
To come and practice concentration
On things I do, on works I do.
I can do everything
When so I think, when so I think.

In church or temple, in prayer mood
My vagrant thoughts against me stood
And held my mind from reaching Thee
And held my mind from reaching Thee
Teach me to own again, O own again
My matter-sold mind and brain
That I may give them to Thee
In prayer and ecstasy
In meditation and reverie.

I shall worship Thee
In meditation
In the mountain breast and seclusion.
I shall feel Thy energy
Flowing through my hands in activity
Lest I lose Thee
I shall find Thee in activity.

From Scientific Healing Affirmations, 1924 edition.

Related reading: Affirmations for Self-Healing by Swami Kriyananda. To order click here

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A: I think the authors did a brilliant job in bringing together all the latest research, including some of their own, on how religious beliefs and practices affect the brain. The book is well written and accessible to the non-scientist, but a scientist can also gain from it. I’ve thought about this subject deeply for years and I find the book very helpful.

One thing I really appreciated about the book is that the authors included studies of a wide range of different religions. Because of this, they were able to show that the positive effects of religious beliefs and practices on the brain are not tied to any specific religion or belief system.

Q: Does the book suggest that all religious beliefs and practices are helpful to the brain?

A: Generally speaking yes, but there are exceptions. The book shows that certain concepts of God are not helpful because they evoke negative emotions like anger and fear. The authors found that about half the people in the United States who believed in God, from a broad spectrum of religious disciplines, viewed God as authoritarian or critical. These people saw God as someone who laid down all the rules for them to obey — if they didn’t obey the rules, they would get “in trouble.” The studies show that concepts like these not only evoke anger and fear, but lead also to judgmental attitudes and intolerance towards anyone perceived as “different.”

From the standpoint of health, negative emotions like anger, fear, and intolerance activate the limbic system, the part of the brain that stores negative emotions and functions as the brain’s “fight or flight” safety net. All negative emotions, but especially anger and fear, release destructive neurochemicals into the brain which, over time, can cause cardiovascular disease and other serious health problems.

Q: Does the book discuss other practices, religious or otherwise, that are harmful to the brain?

A: Yes. The book explains that the brain engages in an ongoing process of “mirroring.” When you see someone who is angry, even if it’s just a picture of an angry person, your brain begins to respond in an angry fashion, and of course that response affects your limbic system. Watching violent movies, listening to music with violent lyrics, listening to military music—all of these have an arousing effect on the limbic system. Violent music and images in particular have a very negative effect.

Violent interactive video games present an even more serious danger. The video games today have become very realistic. There are video games in which you shoot down planes, and kill other people, and games in which you fight other people hand to hand. The young people playing the games are modeling aggressive and violent behavior, and their brains will respond as though the video reality were a true reality. The result is not only increased violence among young people but also more anxiety and depression.

What the book really shows, in an understandable way and backed up by scientific evidence, is why our mental diet—the environment we create for ourselves—is so very important. At the clinic where I work, we often caution parents of young children: “No television at all before age two and limit it very strictly until age five.” In those early years children’s nervous systems are so pliable that the exposure can be harmful.

Q. Does this process of mirroring also occur in positive ways?

A. Interestingly, mirroring also occurs when people smile. Even if you’re not smiling yourself, when you see a smiling face, your brain cells begin to mirror those of the person who is smiling. Frequent smiling stimulates the brain circuits that enable you to maintain a positive outlook on life. When Yogananda said we should all become “smile millionaires” he obviously meant it. We’re changing our brains, and the brains of others, just by smiling at them.

I was very pleased to find this research about the benefits of smiling. If I said to one of my patients, “If you smile, you will feel better,” he or she would probably balk if I didn’t have scientific research to back this up. So it’s very helpful to have studies showing that smiling is among the most important things you can do to maintain a positive outlook on life.

Q: What does the book say about the effects of meditation on the brain?

A: Of all the practices discussed in the book as helpful to the brain, meditation is given the greatest emphasis. One of the points the authors make that I really appreciate is that you don’t need to meditate six hours a day to begin to strengthen the areas of the brain associated with spiritual development. If you’re having trouble meditating long periods, you can start with 10-20 minutes a day and gradually increase the length of your meditation over time. But you can make meaningful brain changes by meditating 10-20 minutes a day for two months. Your brain will begin to function differently.

Q: There are studies supporting that conclusion?

A: Yes. The authors of the book did a study of people ages 35-69 which shows that when someone is meditating 10-20 minutes a day, within days, at a microscopic level, there is a growth of new dendrites in the brain. The dendrites are the extensions that grow out from the brain cells. Within two months it’s possible to see these brain changes on an MRI or PET scan, two of the most common brain-scanning procedures.

The incredible changeability of the brain is tied to the astonishing speed at which these dendrites can grow or recede. Since there are about 10,000 dendrites per brain cell, changes in even a handful of brain cells can make a difference in the overall functioning of the brain.

Q: The body ages, of course, but it sounds as though the brain, perhaps even more than any other part of the body, has an amazing ability to rejuvenate?

A: Yes. Although the cells of the brain and their dendrites deteriorate with age, the more you meditate, the more you preserve your cognitive functions and the ability to remember things as well as you did when you were younger. One thing I’ve said for years to my patients is: “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” To retain cognitive function a person has to stay mentally active. We now have scientific evidence showing that adding a meditation practice provides a very important additional bulwark against the loss of cognitive function with age, because it spurs the growth of new dendrites.

Q: What do the studies show about the effects of longtime meditation on the brain?

A: When we look at the brains of longtime meditators, what we see is a quiet limbic system and strong, robust prefrontal lobes. When a person meditates at the point between the eyebrows, the spiritual eye, his or her awareness is focused in the prefrontal lobes of the brain, the brain’s most superconscious area.

Focusing at the prefrontal lobes has an automatic quieting effect on the limbic system. The more you meditate and strengthen the prefrontal lobes, the more you inhibit activity in the limbic system. The authors cite studies showing that longtime meditators have limbic systems that are very calm, more “un-arousable,” and less reactive. Longtime meditators might be described as having, in Paramhansa Yogananda’s words, the ability to remain calm “amidst the crash of breaking worlds.”

Strong prefrontal lobes are also associated with improved stress management, increased emotional self-control, and greater social awareness and compassion for others—qualities we find in most longtime meditators. The studies have also identified an area associated with the prefrontal lobes called the anterior cingulate, which we now know relates specifically to the ability to feel compassion and to get along with other people.

Q: Are any other areas of the brain affected by longtime meditation?

A: Yes. When people are meditating and feel a sense of expansion, timelessness, and oneness with all life, there is decreased activity in the parietal lobe, which is a region in the rear of the brain. The parietal lobe function is known to be associated with our sense of time and space, and how we relate to others who are different from ourselves.

Q: Does the book explain why, over the years, meditators may experience God as more of a reality?

A. Yes. The research shows that the more you meditate on God, or on any concept or object that’s meaningful to you, the more real the object of your meditation becomes. For those who meditate on God, God becomes tangibly real—as real as any object they can see or touch.

These changes in perception are reflected in the area of the brain known as the thalamus, which is associated with mental concepts becoming tangibly real to a person. What’s also interesting is that we can now determine if someone is a longtime meditator simply by looking at a scan of the thalamus. The scan demonstrates very clearly that the thalamus of a longtime meditator functions differently from that of a non-meditator.

Q: Apart from meditation, how do Paramhansa Yogananda’s other techniques relate to what the authors discuss in the book?

A: The authors discuss a number of different practices including breathing techniques and positive affirmations, and discuss why they seem to be helpful. Science is still trying to understand exactly why these practices may be helpful, and research on these questions continues.

Toward the end of the book, the authors cite eight positive practices that the studies show to be beneficial for both neurological and spiritual health. One of the practices is smiling, which we’ve already discussed. Another practice they mention is repetitive finger movements.

The book shows that simply going through the finger movements associated with keeping track of mantras or saying the rosary, is both relaxing and neurologically beneficial. I think we can conclude, from this research, that counting kriyas using kriya beads, or the fingers, has a similar effect.

Q: Is there anything else you want to say about the book?

A: I think for anybody who teaches meditation or hatha yoga, this is an important book to read. I’ve talked about some of the studies on meditation. The book also discusses studies showing that hatha yoga, when done in a meditative way, has positive effects on the prefrontal lobes. This seems to me a good description of the way Ananda Yoga approaches yoga postures—with gentle stretches and calming, uplifting affirmations.

I’d also like to say that this is a excellent book for the general public, especially for people to learn how a meditation practice can transform their lives over time, even if they start by meditating only 10-20 minutes a day. Most people would like to be happier and to live less buffeted by the winds of fate. The book shows how to achieve these goals using techniques that science has shown to be effective.

Finally, it’s important to mention that Paramhansa Yogananda said that the central nervous system is the pathway to God—that we all find God through our own nervous system. This book shows that more and more, yoga and science are coming together on the vital importance of the nervous system spiritually.

Peter Van Houten, a Lightbearer and resident of Ananda Village, is the founder and CEO of Sierra Family Medical Clinic near Ananda Village.

Related link: click here to learn about our online meditation course.

To order How God Changes Your Brain click here

In his poem, God, God, God, which appears at the end of this article, Paramhansa Yogananda gives clear instructions on how to keep the mind more turned toward God. Yogananda tells us that in all aspects of life – in sleeping, waking, eating, working, serving, dreaming, meditating, chanting, divinely loving—the way to keep the mind focused on God is by silently repeating the mantra, “God, God, God.”

In the Ananda Purification Service, Paramhansa Yogananda says to the disciple: “Open your heart to me, and I will enter and take charge of your life.” How do you open your heart to the guru amidst all the busyness of life, or when worries howl at you?  One very important way of opening it is by chanting, “God, God, God.” You keep repeating that mantra in your mind and in your heart.

If you run into a problem or suddenly experience downward-pulling thoughts or feelings — repeat this mantra and attune to its divine vibration. Repeating the mantra will begin to purify your mind and heart until, eventually, you won’t have to have to push away those thoughts or desires. They will simply fall away; you will lose your appetite for them. But they won’t fall away unless you try constantly to purify your consciousness by chanting, “God, God, God.”

The repetition of this mantra will help drive out all other thoughts and desires, until your consciousness begins to rotate around that single phrase, “God, God, God.”  Make it a point throughout this year, 2011, to repeat the mantra constantly. Allow it to transform you.

From a January 2, 2011 Sunday Service at Ananda Village.

Sidebar:

God, God, God
by Paramhansa Yogananda

From the depths of slumber,
As I ascend the spiral stairway of wakefulness,
I will whisper:
God! God! God!

Thou art the food, and when I break my fast
Of nightly separation from Thee,
I will taste Thee, and mentally say:
God! God! God!

No matter where I go, the spotlight of my mind
Will ever keep turning on Thee;
And in the battle din of activity, my silent war-cry will be:
God! God! God!

When boisterous storms of trials shriek,
And when worries howl at me,
I will drown their noises, loudly chanting:
God! God! God!

When my mind weaves dreams
With threads of memories,
Then on that magic cloth will I emboss:
God! God! God!

Every night, in time of deepest sleep,
My peace dreams and calls, Joy! Joy! Joy!
And my joy comes singing evermore:
God! God! God!

In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping,
Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving,
My soul will constantly hum, unheard by any:
God! God! God!

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

How do we reach the point when we too can transcend all suffering —physical, mental or emotional? What are the causes of our pain, and what are some effective ways of dealing with it?

Much of the suffering we experience derives from two sources: 1) the force of delusion, and 2) our own bad karma, the effects of our past wrong actions.

Separate yourself mentally
The force of delusion is what makes us identify with our physical bodies rather than with our souls. We are misled into believing that we are our bodies, which are incredibly vulnerable. When Shakespeare in Hamlet speaks of “The thousand natural shocks the flesh is heir to,” he is in no way overstating the case.

Although our bodies are susceptible to physical pain, there are things we can do to transcend it. A first step is to learn to live in our bodies without thinking of them as ourselves. For example, when you are feeling tired, don’t think to yourself, “I’m tired.” Rather think, “This body is tired.” Similarly, if you’re not feeling well, don’t announce it to others; simply acknowledge to yourself that your body needs some care, but that you are fine. In other words, try to separate yourself mentally from physical discomfort.

If a specific part of your body is injured, there are techniques you can use to reduce the pain. One is to try to sit very quietly, calm the mind, and then mentally send light and energy to that part. Do this repeatedly with a focused mind, and you will find healing energy flowing to that body part.

We had a friend who badly sprained his ankle while snow hiking alone on a glacier in Canada. He knew he had two choices: to die of exposure on the glacier, or to try to overcome the pain of the ankle so that he could walk out. For one solid hour he visualized energy and light flowing to his painfully swollen ankle, and at the end of this time he was able to walk the several miles back to civilization.

Our natural state of soul joy
A second technique to separate yourself from both mental and physical pain is to concentrate the mind strongly at the point between the eyebrows, the center of soul-awareness. By concentrating there, we can change our consciousness from an awareness of suffering to an awareness of our natural state of soul joy.

Swami Kriyananda often tells the story of the time, as a young disciple, he suddenly found himself plunged into a dark mood. Trying to reason himself out of the mood did not work. Finally, in desperation, he concentrated with all his will power at the point between the eyebrows. After only five minutes, his depression lifted, and what had before seemed a cruel and indifferent world now seemed a place of wonderful possibilities. Through this simple technique, he transmuted his personal suffering into an expanded vision of reality.

“Don’t expect the world to be fair”
So much of our suffering comes from self-preoccupation and false expectations. Worrying about our problems or feeling sorry for ourselves only increases our pain. A friend of ours recently told his teenage son, who was complaining about the unfairness of life, “Don’t expect the world to be fair. If it appears to be fair, that’s just an accident.”

A rather strong statement, but one that will surely help the boy avoid future suffering. When we expect others to conform to our expectations of what is right or fair, we inevitably set ourselves up for disappointment. Always try to live more in the thought of your eternal soul nature. If someone wrongs you, try to forget it. When appropriate, also pray for that person.

Once a group of us were going on a skiing trip with Swami Kriyananda to Lake Tahoe. As we drove up into the higher mountains, a snowstorm suddenly descended; before we could stop to put on chains, we hit an icy patch and headed straight for the side of a Greyhound Bus parked alongside the road. No one was hurt, but our car was demolished.

As we got out of the car to survey the damage, we saw that the Greyhound Bus was headed for our destination. Leaving word with the police and the tow truck of our whereabouts, we grabbed our bags and boarded the bus. The other passengers were commiserating with us, but Kriyananda replied joyfully to them, “You know, in a week I’d feel just fine about all of this. Why waste a whole week dwelling on our misfortunes?” We went on to have a delightful skiing trip.

Dissolve the bonds of bad karma
The other major cause of our suffering is our own bad karma. When seemingly undeserved suffering comes into our lives, it is because at some time in the past we have, through our own actions, set into motion the events that have brought our painful circumstances. We cannot undo past mistakes—but we can deal with present misfortune in a way that will expiate our wrong actions with a minimum of suffering, and without incurring more bad karma.

First we must accept responsibility for everything that comes to us. If we put the blame on others, we will never understand the attitudes and tendencies that caused us to err in the first place. Try to have the attitude, “I have created this bad karma, and I can destroy it.” Steel your mind to deal unflinchingly with whatever comes. No matter what happens, always feel that you have the ability to rise above it. If you give up, or get discouraged, then the bonds of karma will triumph over you. If, however, you determinedly resolve to keep trying until you have succeeded, then even if you fail temporarily, you will ultimately win the battle of life.

Our own bad karma allows the entry of darkness and suffering into our lives, but with our will and determination we can overcome its power. One of our favorite statements by Paramhansa Yogananda is, “Life is a struggle for joy all along the way. May I fight to win the battle on the very spot where I now am.”

Karmic testing and a deep depression
Some years ago, I (Nayaswami Devi) went through a period of karmic testing that led me into a deep depression. Every morning when I woke up, I was discouraged to find that my mental state was worse than the day before. This pattern went on for weeks, until finally one morning I awoke with the thought, “I think I’m breaking into new territory here. I can’t remember ever feeling this bad.” I knew it was time to do something about it, before the depression really took control of me.

I found a beautiful card with the simple word “JOY” on it, and taped this on my window. Throughout the day, I kept looking at that card and affirming “JOY” with relentless determination. Whenever my thoughts turned back toward the darkness, I drove them forward toward the light.

This battle went on for days, but slowly I felt myself moving forward out of the depression. Then something really wonderful began happening. The momentum of positive affirmation that I’d built up to lift me out of the depression began carrying me towards greater and greater upliftment. I no longer was merely affirming “JOY,” I was experiencing it as a powerful living force within me. A period of deep and fulfilling joy, more intense than the suffering that preceded it, continued for several weeks.

Such is the law of karma. I had accepted that for reasons unknown to me, I had drawn this period of suffering. But by determining not to be overcome by it, and by putting out intense positive thoughts, I was able to draw to myself the happiness that had been so painfully eluding me.

Sometimes we need to escape
We can’t be warriors all of the time. Sometimes in the midst of trials, all we can do is to escape through sleep. This is fair, too, but try to see such periods as part of an overall strategy. Think to yourself, “All right, I’m going to escape into the subconscious realm for awhile, but only to renew my energy and determination to take up the battle again.”

Finally, the worst effect of our bad karma is to make us forget that we are all children of God. But when we regularly meditate and practice the presence of God, delusion and karma no longer have a hold on us. Faith and devotion to God enable us to overcome suffering because they lift us to the level of the eternal. As St. Theresa of Avila so beautifully said, “Let nothing disturb thee, nothing afright thee. All things are passing, but God never changes.”

Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi are the Spiritual Directors of Ananda Worldwide. An earlier version of this article appeared in Clarity Magazine in the 1980s.

Other Clarity articles by Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi are listed under “Jyotish and Devi Novak.”

Lying in bed, I remembered the story from Autobiography of a Yogi in which Paramhansa Yogananda as a young boy received an instantaneous healing by bowing mentally to the picture of Lahiri Mahasaya, his parents’ guru. So I visualized Lahiri and Yogananda, prayed to them, and then surrendered my life to them completely. I did not ask for physical healing. What I wanted most was to learn the lesson of my illness and to bring more balance into my life. I prayed deeply for the “ears to hear” and the will power to follow their advice.

Surprised at the answers
Over the next couple of years I started trying to remember to seek divine guidance before I did anything, the little decisions as well as the big ones, and to put more effort into having an ongoing conversation with God and Guru. Initially, in asking how I should spend my time, I was often surprised to receive a “no” to what I thought was surely a spiritually lofty activity and something I “should” be doing — like getting up earlier to meditate more.

But among the many lessons I would learn through this practice of surrender was to view my responsibilities as a wife and mother of two young children as a divine service. Rather than spending long hours meditating and serving outside the home, I needed to learn how to perform these traditional roles in a God-reminding way, diligently practicing the presence of God and remaining “even-minded and cheerful.”  Trying to do this well took all the energy I had.

Same questions, different answers
As my health improved and my children became older and more independent, I began receiving different answers to questions about how to spend my time—same questions but different answers. Now God and Guru were saying— yes, do get up earlier to meditate longer and— yes, do join a committee at the school and take on other responsibilities outside the home. But as more opportunities to do things outside the home presented themselves, and I kept getting “yes” answers, I began to wonder what was going on. Was I fooling myself about my guidance?

When seeking guidance, I focus both my energy and the question I’m asking at the point between the eyebrows, the spiritual eye. Important guidance can come in meditation yet it can also come when I’m taking a walk, quietly practicing the presence of God.

When the guidance is a “yes,” I usually experience it as an upward surge of energy at the spiritual eye. Sometimes that surge can be quite strong—strong enough to cause my head to bob. A downward flow of energy usually means a “no.” When the response is more subtle, and I can’t be sure that I’m reading the answer correctly, I will ask many times. Also, if I believe I might not be able to receive true guidance (as when I’m feeling a strong emotion, positive or negative) I will also ask more than once, often many times.

How can I do it all?
So I asked many times. And I became convinced that God and Guru were now guiding me to take on more responsibilities outside the home. The time came, however, when I expected (and hoped!) to receive a “no” when asking about still another new responsibility. It seemed obvious that this new activity would push me beyond my limits, and I was puzzled to receive a “yes.”

How could I do more than I was doing?  Already I was serving on two committees, writing yoga articles, doing research on yoga and brain injury, helping to establish two different yoga therapy teacher-training programs, facilitating a documentary film, keeping up with my children’s many activities, taking care of the house, and spending time with my husband.

But even as I asked the question, “How, is it humanly possible to do more than this?” I knew the answer: “I can’t do all of this, but God and Guru can do it through me.” I said: “Okay, if this is Your will, then I’m willing.” I took a deep breath and surrendered.

A bliss I’d never felt
I kept my spirits up as best I could, but it wasn’t easy. Most tasks took longer than expected. As one challenge resolved, new challenges took their place. I kept thinking that if I could just put one more hour (or one more day) into a project, then I could finally move on and get to work on the other projects. But problems and challenges kept surfacing, and I was falling behind with my other commitments. When I began to get less sleep, I became concerned. Lack of sleep had previously rendered me vulnerable to contracting pneumonia.

But I did not become ill, and I maintained this pace for months, doing my best to surrender everything to God and Guru. And they kept me going. I was doing much better with this “test” than I’d ever done with tests in the past: I was more often than not even minded and cheerful. The stress was not affecting the areas of chronic pain in my back. Seldom did I feel the need to over-indulge in food. Most important of all, I felt blissful whenever I kept my energy focused at the spiritual eye and asked the Divine to flow through me as I worked.

Once again I was “burning the candle at both ends,” but now I was asking the Divine to flow through me instead of trying to do everything by the power of my own will. I was acting as a channel for God’s will, not my own. I wasn’t doing it perfectly, but I had made huge leaps forward, and the result was a bliss I’d never before experienced.

A compassionate, loving friend
As I walk this journey of surrender I have often felt God and Guru’s deep compassion, patience, and love. Sometimes I’ve decided not to ask for guidance because my will was too weak to carry out a “no” answer to such things as eating extra helpings of dessert or going back to sleep in the morning. But I’ve learned not to hide during these times. I keep the conversation going. I might say: “Thank You for the opportunity and the free will to indulge my desires.” I then go ahead and enjoy my indulgence, but silently pray: “May all my desires be transmuted into one desire, the desire for You, Lord.”

When my will power is stronger, I might say: “I offer this situation up to You. I know this isn’t the best choice. I hope to be better in the future. But would this little indulgence be okay?”  When I ask in this manner, I always receive a loving, understanding “yes.”

I began this practice of surrender hoping to receive guidance on important matters. Since then, engaging in an ongoing loving conversation with God has become my main priority, and I now sometimes ask about “trivial” things, just to keep the conversation going. And I have learned that Divine Mother sometimes plays tricks on me. Once, for example, I asked for guidance on directions and eventually realized that the answer was taking me in the wrong direction. It was not a serious “mistake,” and I could see that the Divine was just having a good laugh with me. My relationship with God becomes even more of a loving friendship when we have fun together.

Inner freedom and bliss
Life has given me many choices, and I could easily spend all of my time doing a variety of different things, helter-skelter, full speed ahead. No longer. I now take comfort in making decisions based not on ego gratification but on the highest good that God and Guru would like from me. I don’t claim perfection in this practice, but as I get closer, I feel more and more inner freedom and bliss.

I’ve also learned that sustaining that bliss is an ongoing challenge. To feel God’s energy flowing through me, I have to keep reminding myself to ask for guidance, and to remain open and receptive. There is always room for improvement, but fortunately, I’m getting better at not forgetting to ask.

Nicole DeAvilla Whiting lives in Marin County with her husband and two children. She teaches Ananda Yoga at the Expanding Light Guest Retreat at Ananda Village and in Marin County, where she also leads an Ananda meditation group.

Related link: click here to learn more about our online course, Developing Intuition

Officer Stan Townsley of the San Francisco Police Department’s narcotics division is racing up a darkened stairway in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury District in pursuit of a drug dealer who is armed with a sawed-off shotgun. At the top of the stairs the man runs to the end of the hallway and turns, trapped and frantic, the shotgun his last alternative to 20 years in prison. He levels it at Townsley’s chest.

Stan looks into the suspect’s eyes, fighting back the awareness that he may die in a moment. “All I could think of was that I mustn’t lose contact with him,” Stan remembers. “So I looked into his eyes and projected my intention not to harm him. Police training had taught me that calm, deep breathing brings the mind under control, so I tried a few deep, deliberate breaths. That helped a lot; then I slowly held out my hand, palm up, projecting calmness and understanding. He dropped the gun and slumped to the floor.”

Stan (only the name is fictitious) is a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. Few of us have our yogic poise tested before the barrels of a sawed-off shotgun. But each of us, regardless of occupation, has experienced in some way the connection between breath, mind, and emotions.

Our breath reflects our inner energy
When we get angry, our breathing becomes labored and irregular. When we’re afraid, we breathe shallowly and rapidly, and may even hold our breath. In both cases, our breath reflects the inner condition of our energy, or prana.

Yoga teaches that the word “prana” refers to three separate manifestations of the same basic energy. In its most outward form, it reveals itself as the breath. More inwardly, it is the life force within our bodies. And most subtly, it is the subtle, intelligent energy that permeates all creation. By controlling any one of these, say the ancient texts of yoga, we can control the others.

Yoga teaches that energy control is central to spiritual development. Paramhansa Yogananda devised a series of “energization exercises” that teach a person to feel and progressively control the flow of prana in the body, and also to draw energy into the body at will. In writing about yoga postures, Swami Kriyananda shows how they affect prana in three primary ways: opening channels for its free flow, stimulating it into motion, and raising it upward in the spine. By giving us control of the pranic energy, the postures give us better control of the mind and emotions.

Those who can control just the life force in their own bodies reap considerable rewards: emotional stability, deep calmness, physical vigor. However, few people can feel the movements of subtle energy in their own bodies, not to speak of the movement of still subtler energies in the cosmos. That’s why yoga practice begins with what can be controlled – the physical process of breathing. If we can make prana move around in the body, we can learn to control it. And that’s what the yoga breathing techniques are designed to do.

Even small progress is helpful
To learn to interiorize our awareness completely can take many years, even whole incarnations. But even small progress in breath control can mean a great deal. The corresponding improvement in mental control can help us stay calm amid severe trials, to heal others with peace and kindness, and to concentrate successfully on our work.

Devi once carried a heavy box of delicate china up the hill from her house. Her arms got tired and she began to be afraid she’d drop the box. Stopping for a moment, she observed that her breath was tense and shallow. She breathed deeply a few times and immediately felt the life force flowing more strongly and her tension ebbing away.

Deep, open breathing accompanies an open, accepting attitude toward life. By reversing the tense, shrinking breathing that attends fear and anger, we affirm, “I am part of what’s happening all around me,” and thus we feel integrated again.

Changes in emotion and awareness
It’s easy to start learning to control our emotions using the tool of breath. First be aware that there are three stages of breathing and that each has special psychological significance. Inhalation is associated with an upward stimulating movement of energy and consciousness in the spine; retention of the breath helps to concentrate energy and attention; and exhalation encourages a mental state of relaxation, receptivity, and surrender.

We can work with these stages of breathing to change our awareness in helpful ways. When you’re in a depressed, negative mood, try making your inhalations longer and stronger than your exhalations. Often the direct, physiological route will take you out of a mood more quickly than trying to change your thoughts. Inhale deeply while visualizing a powerful upward flow of energy in the spine. This kind of “breath psychology” has been used successfully in the clinical treatment of depressed mental patients.

Simple breathing exercises like these affect us powerfully because the general tone of our thoughts depends on the movement of energy in the spine. “I feel uplifted.” “I’m on cloud nine today.” “I’m walking with my head held high.” “I’m dancing on air.” These expressions reflect the empirical truth that an upward movement of consciousness is accompanied by an upward movement of energy in the body. When we stimulate that upward flow of energy with the breath, we find our thoughts changing automatically.

Special breathing techniques
For the special purpose of energizing the body, Paramhansa Yogananda recommended vigorous “double breathing.” This consists of a short inhalation through the nose, followed by a long one; then a short and long exhalation through mouth and nose. Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, showed that double breathing empties and fills the lungs more completely than plain deep breathing does. For calming the mind for meditation, however, Yogananda recommended an even count for all three phases of breathing—inhalation, retention, and exhalation.

Yogananda also said that the mind is influenced by where in the nostrils the breath is felt to flow. People of prim, judgmental disposition tend to breathe narrowly through the center of pinched nostrils, as if to avoid taking in too much of a messy universe. Millions have become familiar with the heavy, power-seeking Darth Vader Pranayam. Breathing through the mouth pulls the energy downward in the spine and deprives the brain of part of its oxygen supply. Yogananda said that the most beneficial place to feel the flow of breath is in the upper nostrils, where oxygen can pass easily into the frontal lobes of the brain.

When the breath stops
What about not breathing? The breath stops when the mind is very calm in deep meditation. A simple meditation technique consists of watching the flow of the breath. This practice focuses the attention, which calms the mind. Mental calmness slows the breath, which further calms the mind. Thus a feedback loop is set up that leads the meditator deeper and deeper into calm, steady concentration.

Slowed-down breathing makes less work for the heart, which therefore slows its beat. Yogananda said that the heart chakra is the “main switch” that controls the flow of energy from the spine out into the extremities. When the heart slows, prana is automatically withdrawn into the deep spine, and the body enters a state of suspended animation in which oxygen is no longer needed, and breathing stops.

The doorway to cosmic consciousness
Some of the people whose cases were reported in the popular book Life After Life said that when their hearts stopped during surgery, they found themselves racing through a dark tunnel toward a brilliant white light that emanated pure love and joy. Swami Kriyananda says that this “tunnel” is the inner spine, which can be entered in deep meditation, and that the brilliant white light is the light of the spiritual eye.

Yogananda called the spiritual eye, at the point between the eyebrows, “the doorway to cosmic consciousness.” By focusing attention at the spiritual eye, we shift our awareness from the medulla oblongata to the frontal lobes of the brain, the centers of higher awareness. Yogananda said that when we learn to pass through the five-pointed star seen at the spiritual eye in deep meditation, we experience cosmic consciousness (samadhi). “I protest by the rejoicing which we have in Christ Jesus, I die daily,” wrote St. Paul, referring to the interiorized state of samadhi in which the breath has ceased, life force is completely withdrawn from the body, and one can leave the body at will.

Experience death joyfully
All of us are destined, if not to die daily, at least to die someday. By learning to race through the spinal tunnel into the light of the spiritual eye during deep meditation, we can experience death joyfully instead of with fear.

Breath! How marvelous that something so basic to mere existence can take us to the highest reaches of Self-realization. Vital to life, breath holds the secret of control over life itself.

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 link: click here to learn about our online meditation course.

Transformation: Through gradual and regular increase of the simple and “foolproof” methods of Kriya, man’s body becomes astrally transformed day by day, and is finally fitted to express the infinite potentials of cosmic energy–the first materially active expression of Spirit. Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramhansa Yogananda.

Q. Bryan, in 2008 you conducted a study to determine whether Ananda Yoga could help people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). What did the study show?

A. We found significant improvements in both the physical health and quality of life of those who participated in the study, essentially validating what Paramhansa Yogananda says about the positive effects of meditation and the Energization Exercises on the brain and nervous system. One participant did the practices everyday and had outstanding results in all the areas we measured. She had brain scans taken before and after the study which showed a reversal of the damage caused by MS.

For the study, I used the term “Ananda Yoga” to refer to the full range of practices offered at Ananda, including meditation, the Energization Exercises, postures with affirmations, and deep relaxation.

Q. What prompted you to do a study of how Ananda Yoga might help people with MS?

A. In 2007, a neurologist in Italy completed a study showing that persons with MS who took part in an 8-month Ananda Yoga program experienced a significant decrease in fatigue and depression. Upon learning of the study, the Expanding Light staff at Ananda Village decided to do an MS study that would validate these findings on fatigue and depression, but also look at the impact of Ananda Yoga on the physical symptoms of MS.

I am a long-time member of Ananda. When I heard of The Expanding Light’s intention to do a study, I felt that my background in neurologic rehabilitation research could help make the study scientifically stronger. I am a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and serve as a university faculty member, teaching and researching. At the time, I had just finished my doctoral thesis on treating MS. By studying MS, we were also seeking information that would be helpful to people with other neurological diseases.

Q. What was the purpose of the study?

A. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to determine if an 18-week Ananda Yoga program could effect improvements in strength, mobility, fatigue, balance, respiratory function, and in the quality of life of persons with early stage MS. “Quality of life” means how people perceive their physical and mental health, and how that perception affects their sense of well-being.

Multiple sclerosis is usually described as “progressive,” which means that you get worse as the years pass. That, however, is not a helpful perspective. There are many instances of people with MS who have made a complete recovery or have stabilized and not worsened throughout their lives.

In designing this study, we felt that Ananda’s spiritual perspective and yogic practices could be especially useful in offsetting the pervasive negativity that says that people with MS will inevitably “get worse and die.”

Q. What is multiple sclerosis and how is it caused?

A. MS is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the central nervous system. Some call it “the great crippler of young adults” because the onset is usually from 20-40 years old.

The cause is unknown and the symptoms vary widely, but the most common ones are: physical weakness, abnormal muscle tone, loss of balance in walking, respiratory weakness, impaired bladder and bowel function, fatigue, depression, and cognitive impairments affecting attention span, concentration, and memory. Fatigue especially is a tremendous challenge for persons with MS and the most frequently cited complaint.

Since MS affects people in the prime of their working lives, those involved in “mental” work can feel desperate about diminishing cognitive capacity. One of the participants in the study initiated a lengthy discussion among the group about the cognitive impairments of the disease (attention, concentration, memory) and how much more terrifying they were than the physical impairments.

Q. Other than the Italian study, did you draw upon any other studies in designing the Ananda Yoga study?

A. We looked at several studies that used traditional physical therapy or included only one yogic practice, such as postures.

However, while attending an international yoga therapy workshop, I had learned that the best researchers were discovering that the most effective yoga programs provide an initial period of immersion long enough to take participants out of their usual routines, and to allow them to go deeply into all of the practices. Offering yoga once a week in a community setting does not seem to have nearly the same effect as an initial introduction of at least one full day of immersion.

Additionally, it was becoming apparent to researchers that a “multi-component” approach (more than just postures and a brief meditation) was most effective, especially for improvements in mental health.

Our approach incorporated both of these “best practices.” We did an intensive 5-day workshop to start off the MS program, and Ananda Yoga certainly has multiple components.

Q. Who were the study participants and how were they recruited?

A. We recruited study participants from the MS Society of Northern California and through The Expanding Light Website. The Expanding Light also sent an announcement to its mailing list.

Twenty-eight people diagnosed with mild to moderate MS participated in the initial 5-day training. Nearly all of them were still working for a living, although a few had serious disabilities that altered their work and family lives.

Q. I understand that you tested all study participants before the start of the 5-day training?

A. We tested all participants on both the physical and quality of life impairments caused by the disease. This initial testing gave us a baseline to compare with later re-testing to determine how much the practices helped them.

After the initial testing, participants took part in classes and workshops in Ananda Yoga practices at The Expanding Light. They also attended classes discussing the scientific evidence showing the positive impact of yogic practices on the nervous system, especially meditation and the Energization Exercises.

After the 5-day intensive, participants returned home for 18 weeks of Ananda Yoga practice. We asked them to practice the techniques at least 3 times a week and to keep a journal. To support them in their home practice, we gave them an illustrated practice manual, and a DVD with a guided meditation, and a demonstration of yoga postures and Energization Exercises.

The Expanding Light staff kept in touch with everyone through weekly inspirational emails and monthly phone calls. The group proved very cohesive and they formed their own “mini community” with a blog that lasted at least two years beyond the study.

Q. Did participants have any trouble keeping up with their practices at home?

A. Some were only able to practice once a week, and a few practiced nearly four times per week. Most, however, were able to practice on average just under three times per week – about what we asked for.

Q. When the participants returned to The Expanding Light in May 2008 for re-testing, did you find that they had gotten better?

A. Most definitely. Every single area of functioning that we measured showed improvements for the group as a whole. These are particularly compelling results when studying a progressive disease such as MS, which is usually thought of as an ever-worsening condition.

Yet even more critical from a scientific perspective is that our re-testing showed that there were statistically significant (that is, beyond just a chance) improvements.

Physical improvements
To measure physical changes, we used standardized tests for balance, walking speed and endurance, leg strength, and respiratory capacity. We found improvements in the following areas:

• There were significant improvements in balance. This is important because folks with MS tend to have additional injuries and disabilities from falls. What is especially notable is that most participants, when retested for balance, achieved the highest level of “normal” balance that the standardized instrument could measure!
• Respiratory capacity improved significantly. This too is an important finding because one of the main causes of death in persons with MS is respiratory infection, brought on by weakness in the lungs and pulmonary muscles.
• Functional strength in the legs improved significantly, with several participants increasing their leg strength by 62%.
• Preferred walking speed, meaning the pace at which they normally walk, increased significantly, showing improved mobility.

Quality of life improvements
To measure quality of life changes, we used the standardized MS Quality of Life survey, and found improvements in the following areas:

• There was a nearly 50% decrease in anxiety for the group as a whole.
• There were significantly decreased levels of depression.
• There were significant decreases in the impact of fatigue on their lives, showing an average 77% improvement. The Energization Exercises showed the highest correlation with decreases in fatigue.
• Participants reported significantly improved levels of attention and concentration. The perception that they were functioning better gave people more self-confidence in their work and thus helped indirectly with job security.
• “Positive affect.” Participants reported significant increases in the amount of time they felt cheerful, calm, and peaceful. Interestingly, these gains correlated most strongly with more meditation practice.
• “Behavioral control.” There was a huge improvement in this area, meaning that folks were now feeling “in firm control of their behavior, thoughts, emotions, and feelings,” and more “emotionally stable.”

Q. Ananda Yoga includes a fairly large number of practices. Did the study show how many of the practices one needs to do to get the benefits, and for how many days a week?

A. We think that one explanation for the improvements is that Ananda Yoga is multi-component – it includes meditation, Energization Exercises, deep relaxation, and postures with affirmations. The data shows that with one exception, participants practiced every component of Ananda Yoga, but that they varied in how frequently they practiced.

While physical benefits did not correlate with frequency of practice, we found that the improvements noted in quality of life correlated strongly with the frequency of practice. For example, those who practiced 4 times a week showed significantly higher improvements in quality of life markers, and in a sense of “health and vitality,” than those who practiced fewer than 3 times a week. This finding suggests that more quality of life benefits are derived from a more frequent practice.

Q. What are the most important lessons and implications from the study?

A. The study showed that Ananda Yoga helps people with a significant chronic disease to be more uplifted, to be less depressed, to be less at risk of falling, to be much less fatigued, and to be more socially active because they feel less noticeably disabled.

For persons with a chronic neurological illness, perhaps the most significant overall result is that participants not only did not get worse, but they all improved. In medical science, developing a therapy that slows the progress of a chronic disease is considered a huge breakthrough. If, as this study suggests, a regular practice of Ananda Yoga can not only stop a “progressive worsening” of a chronic disease, but can also bring about improvements, then Ananda Yoga offers potentially positive benefits for everyone.

It is clear to me that we possess – in Yogananda’s teachings and especially in the expression of these teachings through Ananda Yoga — very powerful tools. We are only now beginning to have the scientific means to measure just how powerful they are.

Bryan Coleman-Salgado is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and teaches neurologic physical therapy as a full-time faculty member at California State University, Sacramento. He is a Sevaka life member at Ananda, and has been a yoga practitioner for 34 years.

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Of course you have. We all have. Once when Swami Kriyananda was working to change a habit, he remarked to Paramhansa Yogananda, “I’m trying hard, but the habit is strong.” The master replied: “Habits can be changed in a day. They are the result of mental concentration. If one has been concentrating one way, he can simply concentrate a new way.”

What is it to “concentrate a new way”? It means focusing your mind in a new direction, and putting a lot of energy behind your re-focused mind. But there’s another important aspect, one that I learned through experience.

Years ago I decided to tackle a tendency to get upset easily. When things didn’t go my way—especially when someone thwarted my desires—I would too often find myself somewhere between mild annoyance and outright anger. I wouldn’t explode, but I did boil inside. It even felt good sometimes—as though I were boiling the culprit (as I imagined he or she deserved). In time, however, I realized that the only person being boiled was myself, and such self-torture had to stop. But how?

“Let go of the desire”
Thinking of what Paramhansa Yogananda had said, I wondered, “How can I concentrate a new way? What should I concentrate on? An opposite quality: peace instead of anger? But how can I concentrate on peace when I’m angry, and there isn’t any peace to concentrate on?” I didn’t know where to begin.

Then Swami Kriyananda gave another clue: “Anger is simply frustrated desire. If you want to overcome anger, let go of the desire.” That made perfect sense to me. The only problem was that letting go of my desires often seemed several steps beyond where I could go. The desires seemed too ingrained.

But I had to try something. One day I came across Yogananda’s affirmation for overcoming anger, and I thought: “Here’s a tool. I’ll give it my best shot and see what happens.”

A first attempt at affirmation
It’s a long affirmation—and a powerful one.* It begins: “I make up my mind never again to wear anger on my face. I will never inject the poison of anger in the heart of my peace and thus kill my spiritual life.” Strong words!

This was my first serious attempt at using the technique of affirmation, and I was skeptical as to what I would gain. I had viewed affirmation practice as either wishful thinking, denial, or at best a way to bludgeon the subconscious mind into believing something. But I put these views on a shelf, trusting that Yogananda knew what he was talking about and had given us the tools we needed, even if I wasn’t confident that I could use those tools effectively.

How would Yogananda feel?
I decided to spend a day alone in nature, memorizing and repeating the affirmation with all the power I could muster. My mind was quick to protest: “C’mon, you don’t believe that ‘never again’ and ‘I cannot be angry with anyone’ stuff. Get real!” Yet something in me replied: “Okay, I’m not there yet, but Yogananda was. Let’s just imagine how he would have felt while repeating this.”

I began to affirm with the same certainty—as well as I could imagine it—that he would have felt. Even before I could memorize the entire affirmation, I began to feel a power in it. I was sure it was Yogananda’s power, and as I continued, the power got stronger. I began to sense how it would feel if the words of the affirmation were true for me, and no longer merely an affirmation. All day long, I put energy into affirming, and into feeling how it would be if I were free of upset forever. And that was exactly the word: free, a tremendous, exulting sense of freedom, like an eagle soaring high above “the storms of misery-making anger.”

I felt so expansive, so joyful, and so powerful that I wondered if perhaps I’d overcome the habit through the power of the affirmation.

“You can’t stay angry”
I didn’t wonder for long. The very next day, Divine Mother decided to show me what I had—or hadn’t yet—gained. Someone did something that so outraged me that I had to leave his presence lest I say words I might later regret. As soon as I made it to the safety of solitude, I sat down, my brain bursting with self-righteous outrage—and pain. I couldn’t reason my way out of it; I didn’t even want to. I was totally caught in my self-satisfied “I’m right, he’s wrong!” attitude.

Then a quiet voice from a deeper level of my being whispered, “You can’t stay angry, you know, because you remember how it felt to be free from anger.” A shallower voice immediately shouted it down: “I have a right to be upset! It was a horrible thing to do!” But the quieter voice asked, “Still, wouldn’t freedom feel a lot better than outrage?” The shallow voice faltered, “Yeah, I suppose, but …” “Well, then,” intruded the quiet voice, “if you want to be happy—and you know you do—you’d better choose freedom.”

I knew that quiet voice was right, and I felt frustrated—and, at a deeper level, a bit amused at my frustration—that I couldn’t continue to wallow in my outrage. I did remember the freedom, and I wanted it more than the feeling “I’m oh-so-right and he’s oh-so-wrong.” I immediately went back to him and apologized sincerely for my reaction. (I later realized that what he’d done hadn’t been horrible at all. He had been doing me a favor that I had been too blind to see.)

Cultivating a hunger for freedom
Pondering that episode over the days that followed, I realized what that affirmation practice had accomplished. It hadn’t kept me from getting upset—obviously!—but it did enable me to avoid staying upset. Now I could place feeling upset side by side with feeling free, and choose between self-torture (sweetened with ego-gratifying self-righteousness) and a banquet of freedom.

I had experienced two important aspects of affirmation practice: First, in imagining how Yogananda would have felt when he did that affirmation, I was using my “feeling faculty”—energized by my will—to attune myself with the  consciousness expressed by the affirmation. The better I attuned myself, the more I was able to open the doorway to higher states of consciousness. I’ve since used this “just imagine” approach in many activities, from chanting and meditation to writing and speaking. It works.

Second, connecting with that state of freedom made me hungry for it. That hunger in turn motivated me to make better choices when tempted to get upset—and the more often I chose correctly, the weaker that temptation became. I had gained a powerful new ally: my craving for freedom—not my willpower, but my want power: “Yes, that is what I want!”

Now, whenever the unwelcome guest of anger threatens to visit—or more commonly, one of its milder siblings: impatience, annoyance, intolerance, resentment—I try to remember to ask it to stand side by side with freedom, so I can decide which one stays and which one goes. I may not always remember—or even make the right choice if I do remember—but I’m doing a lot better than I was before.

Cultivating right desires
This insight has guided my affirmation practice ever since, whatever the quality I’m trying to overcome or strengthen. My practice of Ananda Yoga (in which each yoga posture has its own affirmation, custom-fitted to the posture’s natural effect on consciousness) has been a powerful aid in this. By affirming with energy and concentration—and by cultivating the feeling of what I’m affirming—I both empower my efforts and fan the flames of my desire for success. The stronger that desire, the more my thoughts and actions fall into line with it—and the more my experience of life changes.

This was a valuable insight: affirmation requires will power and concentration, yes, but also feeling and want-power. I’ve found this principle to be true throughout the spiritual quest: God will help—can help—only when we give both our effort and our heartfelt desire. As Paramhansa Yogananda said: “No one can give you the desire for God. You must cultivate that desire in yourselves. God Himself couldn’t give it to you. For when he created human beings, He didn’t make them puppets. You must desire Him yourselves.”

Yes, success in affirmation — or in any technique of self-transformation — may take patience. Our habits won’t always “be changed in a day,” because our concentration—whether of will power or of feeling—isn’t always up to the task. But if we keep at it, using the tools Yogananda has given us, including affirmation, we will succeed.

* Overcoming Anger
by Paramhansa Yogananda
I make up my mind never again to wear anger on my
face. I will never inject the poison of anger in the heart
of my peace and thus kill my spiritual life.
I will be angry only with anger and with nothing else.
I cannot be angry with anyone because the good and the
bad both are divine brethren, born of my one divine
Father.

I will calm the anger of others by the good example of my tranquility,

especially when I see my brothers suffering from the delirium of anger.
Teach me not to kindle anger and thus devastate the
green oasis of peace within me and in others with the
conflagration of wrath. Teach me rather to extinguish
anger with the torrents of my unceasing love.
Heavenly Father, command the lake of my kindness ever
to remain undisturbed by the storms of misery-making
anger. From Metaphysical Meditations.

For two related articles by Nayaswami Gyandev:
Ways To Cultivate Deep Feeling

Exploring the Essence of Ananda Yoga™

Nayaswami Gyandev, a Lightbearer and longtime Ananda member, directs Ananda Yoga Teacher Training and other courses at The Expanding Light Guest Retreat at Ananda Village. He and his wife, Diksha, also lead retreats in other locations across North America and in India.

Transformation: Affirmation is man’s part of the labor of self-transformation. United to the flow of divine grace, affirmation becomes the sort of prayer that alone achieves results. The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, by Swami Kriyananda.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

The practice of keeping a journal can be very helpful to your spiritual life. Paramhansa Yogananda said that one of the most effective ways to develop will power is to engage everyday in creative writing. What could be more creative than to look at your life and extract from it the lessons and guidance that God has given you during the day?

I’ll give you the example of my own journal. To give my writing a direction, I choose a quality that I want to develop in myself, work on it, and write about it for a whole year. For example, I might select from the ten yamas and niyamas the nyama of cleanliness. First I might explore cleaning up the house, and ways to keep it clean. Then I might explore cleanliness of the heart and after that, purity of thought.

Through the year I would try to go deeper and deeper into the practice of cleanliness. Then on December 31, looking back over the year of journaling, I might think, “Just look at what I thought cleanliness was, and how much I’ve learned about what it really is!” Mahatma Gandhi said that by perfecting the single quality of nonviolence, he was able to perfect all the other spiritual qualities as well.

You could choose some other spiritual quality — loyalty, for example. Well, loyalty to what? You’d start with what’s closest: loyalty to your spouse, to your family, to your community, and expand from there to loyalty to truth, to God.

We can accomplish much more on the spiritual path when we focus our energy in a systematic way. Keeping a journal helps us to watch our lives more consciously, carefully, and deliberately.

Nayaswami Prakash:
My first year at Ananda Village I attended Shivani’s class series on Paramhansa Yogananda’s interpretations of The Bhagavad Gita. When she urged us to keep a spiritual journal, I dove right in—writing, over the next eight months, some 3,000 pages about everything that happened to me spiritually—which means, of course, everything that happened.

It was a wonderful experience. The most powerful effect that I noticed was that writing about the day’s tests and lessons cleared my mental state. I found myself going into meditation with a clear mind, free of the restlessness that is born of unresolved experiences.

My journal was essentially a letter to God, telling Him what I’d been up to, how I wished I’d acted, and how I intended to act should similar opportunities come my way again. During the day I’d jot down a few key words to trigger my memory in the evening. In time, I came to look forward to my evening journal writing time with tremendous enthusiasm. No matter what had happened, how badly things had gone, the journal was my way of giving it all to God, and, in doing so, being free of it.

The actual writing I would do in “chronological order”—following the sequence of events of the day. I quickly came to see that things happened in the order they did for a good reason.  By retracing my steps during the day, I could better see what this good—and on the deepest level, divine—reason was. I did not have set themes or topics—rather, I found that the day’s events provided an ideal testing ground for whatever attitudes or qualities I was working on anyway.

The whole experience brought God very close. I came to know Him especially as the Divine Friend, infinitely understanding, supportive, never judging, wanting only my own highest good.

While I was immersed in journal writing, I thought I would continue in the same way indefinitely. But of course journaling is only useful spiritually as long as it carries the devotee forward on the path. There came a day when my spiritual life took a dramatically different direction—a new and much more physically active form of service. Journal writing fell away. New ways of learning came to the fore. But behind the outward changes, the Divine Friend remained the unchanging reality!

An earlier version of this article appeared in Clarity Magazine in the 1970s.

Nayaswami Shivani, a Lightbearer and founding member of Ananda, lives and teaches at Ananda Europa in Assisi, Italy.

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

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

Every devotee must forsake the egoic thought, “I have meditated so much; therefore God must manifest Himself.” Along with deep meditation there must be deep devotion, humility, and surrender to God. God becomes entrapped in the net of the devotee’s unconditional devotion.

God loves mental whispers
Those who love God are always thinking of Him. You don’t have to fly away from the world. You can perform your daily activities and still think of Him. Just as the pianist is always thinking of her music, so the lover of God is always thinking of God.

God loves mental whispers. You are never so busy that you can’t whisper your devotion to God mentally. There is no possible excuse for not talking to Him inwardly. Whenever you have a real need, the thought of it is in your mind all the time, no matter what you are doing. You think, “If only I could have this,” or “if only I could do that.” That mental whisper is the real appeal of the heart. You can practice mental whispers anywhere, all the time. By this constant practice everything eventually vanishes but God.

See God in everything
Christian thinkers have denounced Hinduism because its teachings are pantheistic. Their error lies in thinking pantheism means worshiping God as everything, instead of as expressed in everything. In the highest sense God is none of the forms in which people worship Him, but it is helpful to use human concepts as a means of deepening our devotion to Him.

Isn’t it much sweeter to see His manifestations everywhere—His beauty in the sunset; His tears for human error in the rain; His tenderness expressed in a mother’s love for her baby? If God is omnipresent, isn’t it obvious that He must also be in everything? The flowers, birds, and the beauties of nature all speak of the Mother aspect of God—the creative, motherly instinct. When we look at all the good things in nature and feel a tenderness rise within us, we are seeing and feeling God in nature.

All things in creation, for those who love God, become reminders of Him. Through the beloved God helps one to find the selfless intensity of divine love. Through people’s children, He helps them to understand love as something precious, as a thing to be protected from harmful influences and nourished with devotion. We must, of course, seek God behind His veils, but even a veil may suggest the form that it hides.

Love is a selfless sharing
God is the ever-loyal Friend behind all earthly friends. Who could be a better friend than God? Through your friends, God shows you that love is a selfless sharing, without any hint of compulsion. Those who love others selflessly are already well on the way to learning the secret of divine love. All they need is to direct that love upward to God.

Radha, the greatest of the gopis, had that kind of love for Krishna, who felt free, therefore, to demonstrate his selfless, divine love for her, though in reality he gave that love equally to all. There came a time, however, when the other gopis grew jealous of Radha, and Krishna decided to teach them a lesson.

One day when Radha happened to be absent, Krishna suddenly, with a groan, cried, “Oh! Oh! I have a terrible headache! Please, won’t someone do something for me?” “What, Lord, can we do?” the gopis cried in desperation. “We’ll do anything!”

He replied, “If only one of you will press her feet on my head, my headache will go away.” The gopis gasped in horror. In India, it is sacrilegious to place one’s feet on the head of the guru. In deep consternation the gopis looked away.

After some time had passed, Radha appeared and learned of Krishna’s distress. She anxiously asked what she could do to help, and Krishna cried, “Please, just press your feet on my head! Nothing else will help me.”

“But of course, Lord. Instantly!” replied Radha.

“No! No! You mustn’t!’ cried the other gopis. “If you do, you will go to hell!”

Radha scoffed. “Why, if pressing my feet on our Lord’s head will give him one moment of relief, I will gladly go to hell for eternity!” She was about to do as he had asked, when Krishna sat up smiling. His headache was gone. And then the other gopis understood. They had been concentrating on their own safety, not on Krishna’s well-being. Now they all bowed before Radha’s greater, because selfless, love.

Human love is a reflection of God’s love
Through human relationships, God wants us to learn to love the Spirit within. Human love is so imperfect; it always ends in delusion. We must be in love with the Spirit behind the body before we can love others truly.

In one of my classes there were two beautiful young married persons. They were ideal lovers and the envy of all the class. The young man said, “If only I could get a job, we would be supremely happy. Please pray for me.” I said, “You shall have a job, but at the end of a year I shall visit you and see if that is all you need to be happy.” A baby was about to come.

One year later, I saw the young man. His back was bent, his brow was wrinkled, and he said with a bedraggled smile, “I got a job all right, but it is such hard work. However, I still believe in God.” Then I saw his wife. Another baby was coming and she greeted me with a tired, worried face, and said, “I never see my husband any more. He is working from eight in the morning until eight in the evening. We hardly have time to meditate.”

I said, “Look at my serene face. My love for my Eternal Beloved has only deepened. Wake up! Without God’s love, your love, which is merely a reflection of His love, will fade away. Feed your love with the ever-flowing power of God’s love, or it will wither into nothingness.”

The light of practical sympathy
Only one who has begun to feel his oneness with every human being can know what divine love is. We must love others not for their human personalities, but because they are manifestations of God, Who dwells equally in all.

The lesson of reincarnation is to neutralize the waves of likes and dislikes, of desire and aversion. We do this by the expression of kindness, forgiveness, and compassion to all, and by steadfast contentment in the Self. The light of practical sympathy dispels the darkness of separation and enables you to see all hearts tied with one golden cord of divine love. One who extends his love to friends and enemies alike finds the duality of love and hate vanish, and he beholds only the presence of one love everywhere.

Learn to see God in all persons, of whatever race or religion. When your mind is free from prejudice, when you unreservedly sympathize with everybody, when in mutual service you forget the little self—only then will you see the one measureless Self of the Spirit running through all.

You must yearn for God
One must yearn for God and churn the ether with the rod of devotion or He will never manifest Himself. Every night when you sit to meditate, pray to Him unceasingly. With the love of your heart, tear at the veils of silence again and again. Cry as you would to your mother or father: “Where are You? You made me. Come to me. You must come to me. You must!” Those who really mourn and wail for God incessantly, with ever-increasing zeal, are comforted by God’s own presence.

It is very difficult to reach God. If even a concert pianist must work hard to become successful in his profession, how much more earnestly must the devotee “work” at meditation and devotion in order to realize the Infinite!

Here, however, is an encouraging thought: Everyone who makes a sincere effort on the spiritual path will surely reach his goal. You cannot say that of worldly ambition. Not everyone can become a famous pianist, no matter how hard he tries. In every field of endeavor there is room at the top for very few. Everyone, however, can equally claim God as his Heavenly Father and Divine Mother. If our way of worshiping Him is incorrect, but the love of our hearts is selfless and pure, God will have no difficulty in correcting our error.

The most enjoyable experience possible
How should you love God? Love him as the miser loves money; as the drowning man yearns for breath; as the desert wanderer craves water. Love Him with the first love of true lovers. When you have learned to love Him with all your heart, you will have Him. You will then be a yogi–one who is united with God.

Union with the Cosmic Beloved is the most enjoyable experience possible. It is dream after dream, joy after joy; a thousand million divine romances in one, ever thrilling your heart. In every point of space you behold searchlights of His love, shining like a million suns. As often as you think you have exhausted His love, again and again, like a rolling surf, it crashes anew upon the shores of your mind. That is ecstasy!

From books and articles.

Growth: “The mark of spiritual growth is that for every setback there is an increased determination to succeed.” The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, by Swami Kriyananda.

Seclusion: a turning point
My first real breakthrough in my battle against mental restlessness came during one of my early weeklong seclusions at Ananda Village. Seclusions are usually a time for going deeper in meditation, but I began mine in a discouraged state. Certain recurring, negative thoughts had followed me into seclusion. Whenever I tried to meditate, I was assailed by thoughts of my imperfections as a devotee, and the notion that I wasn’t “good enough” to meditate well.

After two days of this, I became so desperate to escape the tyranny of my mind that I decided to take charge. When the discouraging thoughts began again, out loud I shouted, “Stop it, get out!” Then, out loud and with strong will power, I started instructing myself in the basic steps of meditation.

I guided myself through the full body relaxation exercise, followed by 6 to 8 rounds of measured breathing. (Inhale 8, hold 8, exhale 8.) Then I mentally guided myself through the Hong Sau meditation technique: I watched the breath, repeated the mantra, and absolutely refused to let anything divert my attention. I was completely focused on the mantra and the breath—my lifelines to peace.

A profound experience
Soon thoughts began to dissolve and I started to relax. Gradually I was feeling more and more peaceful. After about 20 minutes, I let go of the mantra and became absorbed in a deep state of peace. I went so deep that I wasn’t even aware of my own existence. There was no body, no mind, no “I,” only peace. The experience was profound.

Toward the end of my meditation, an image emerged. I saw myself as an adult, embracing a baby in my arms. I knew intuitively that I was that baby, and I understood the message: “If you want to achieve depth in meditation, you need to accept and embrace yourself as you are. Only then can you make progress.”

That meditation convinced me that I could experience deep meditation, perhaps even samadhi (oneness with God). What I most needed was to resist, with strong will power, the negative thoughts that were pulling me down.

Discovering Patanjali’s 8-fold path
After that, my meditations improved and I occasionally achieved deep states. Attending an Ananda class series on Ashtanga Yoga*—the 8-fold path to enlightenment as expounded by the ancient master, Patanjali—gave me my next step. I realized immediately that here was a time-tested approach for finding God that I could use to deepen my meditations.

I began by focusing on Patanjali’s yamas and niyamas, the ten moral guidelines and attitudes that help us to meditate deeply and to find God. (Non-injury, non-greed, contentment, devotional surrender, etc.)  I worked with one attitude at a time, for a month to a year, depending on my need.

Contentment, especially, was an important one for me. In working with contentment, I made a conscious effort to accept things as they came, to see the hand of God behind all that happened, and to surrender to whatever God wanted of me. I resisted the tendency to try to force things to happen, and tried not to envy anyone or to compare myself with others. I made God my partner in all these efforts, and whenever I felt discouraged or had difficulty facing a flaw in myself, I offered it at the feet of God and Guru, and prayed deeply that they help me to change.

These practices proved very helpful. Through the persistent use of will power, I became an active participant in my own self-transformation, and I felt empowered. To record the changes in my attitudes, I kept a diary of my progress.

The root cause of all restlessness
While working on the yamas and niyamas, I became aware of deeper layers of restlessness I still needed to overcome. The root cause of all restlessness is ego—with its desires, attachments, and self-definitions. Practicing the yamas and niyamas loosens the grip of ego by making us more detached and impersonal, less preoccupied with the little self.

But I felt I could do even more. Intuitively, I knew that filling myself with thoughts of devotion to God would also help. When thoughts of devotion are uppermost in our minds, there’s much less room for restlessness.

As a first step, I began repeating two mantras over and over, including, “Lord I am Thine. Be Thou eternally mine.” I repeated them at the end of my meditation and throughout the day, whenever I remembered. Initially the process was purely mental, but gradually the mantras began to permeate my being, and my heart connection to God deepened.

I also found Swami Kriyananda’s affirmation for devotion** very helpful, not only for deepening my devotion but also as a mantra to “slash” thoughts. The affirmation speaks of a “sword of devotion.” Visualizing myself with a sword, I would protect my feelings of devotion by slashing any desires that surfaced during meditation.

An ocean of peace within and around me
Toward the end of this 7-year period, I attended another Ashtanga Yoga class. During that class, I understood for the first time that true meditation begins only after one reaches the state of absorption (dhyana)—a state in which the ego is dissolved and we become one with a divine quality, such as peace or love.

I asked myself: where was I in this process? I was working on my attitudes and on devotion, but how often did I experience total absorption?  I took my new understanding as a challenge to deepen my meditation by achieving greater stillness of body (asana) and deeper states of interiorization (pratyahara), two of the steps in Patanjali’s 8-fold path.

Working with both these practices was like climbing a mountain—you can reach the top one step at a time, but strong will power is necessary. With asana, I started by sitting perfectly still for five minutes, while paying close attention to subtle muscle movements and tension in different bodily areas. Gradually I was able to sit for longer and longer periods until I could sit perfectly still for an hour or more.

Interiorizing the mind followed a similar course. I started with measured breathing and ended by visualizing the energy being withdrawn from my extremities into the spine. I followed this with Hong Sau, visualizing the little “I” (Hong) dissolving into Spirit (Sau). When sitting in the silence afterwards, I “cauterized ” any thoughts by visualizing a laser beam. Gradually I extended the periods of silence.

I worked with both these practices for about a year. Eventually, I was able to sit in the silence, undisturbed by bodily movements or restless thoughts, for an entire hour. Sometimes deep peace filled my heart, mind, and body. It was like becoming an ocean of peace—I felt it within me and around me. And I knew that nothing external could ever give me this kind of experience.

“Dying to the world without dying”
These practices led up to the second major turning point in my battle against mental restlessness: the eight-hour Christmas meditation at Ananda Village. Since I wanted to enjoy the entire eight hours without attacks of restlessness, I decided to prepare in advance.

A month before the meditation I fasted from all sensory input—no movies or mainstream magazines. I read only books by Swami Kriyananda and Paramhansa Yogananda. I kept a simple healthy diet and avoided sugar. From the moment I awoke until I went to sleep, I used my will power to infuse my soul with God, trying to be aware of the divine presence at all times—while walking, serving, eating, talking. Sometimes I fell short of my goals, but I kept trying.

The day of the meditation, I had only one desire: to disconnect from the world and experience the presence of God within. Mentally I etched on my forehead Yogananda’s definition of meditation: “Dying to the world without dying.” I was convinced that if I “died to the world,” I would go deep in meditation. I prayed deeply to God and Guru to help me do it.

After practicing each meditation technique (Hong Sau, Aum, Kriya Yoga), I tried to interiorize my consciousness more and more deeply. Next I recited the 23rd Psalm as a devotional self-offering to God and continued to sit in the silence. Once, when a desire was about to tempt me, Swami Sri Yukteswar’s beautiful promise came to mind: “Everything in future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.” Quickly, I slashed the thought. Five hours passed, and I was doing well.

During the meditation breaks, I avoided eye contact with people and stayed inwardly focused. Nothing existed for me, only the one-pointed desire to unite my consciousness with God. In the remaining 3 hours, I mentally repeated the Gayatri and Mahamritanjaya mantras (for purification and liberation) 108 times each, counting with my mala. If any thoughts came, I “slashed” them with the sword. After repeating each mantra, I would sit in the silence for about 15 minutes.

“When I meditate, don’t interfere!”
I put forth constant effort during the eight hours. At the end, I was mentally exhausted and felt only a little peace. Yet, my meditation practice improved immensely after that. By now, my ego knew that I meant it when I said: “When I meditate, don’t interfere!” The battle is not over, but with my ego less of an intrusion, I can relate more deeply to my higher Self.

I learned that we can achieve major progress in meditation by the conscious use of will power.  It takes constant effort and constant calling on God. Each step of the way, we must ask: “Lord, what do I need to change in myself to get closer to you?” When we ask with deep sincerity, God always answers.

Diksha McCord, a Lightbearer, lives at Ananda Village and teaches at the Expanding Light Guest Retreat. She was initiated into the Nayaswami Order in 2009.

* Ashtanga Yoga: The Eightfold Path of Patanjali:
•   Yama (control)
•   Niyama (non-control)
•   Asana (posture), stillness of body
•   Pranayama (energy control)
•   Pratyahara (interiorization of the mind)
•   Dharana (one-pointed concentration)
•   Dhyana (meditation, absorption)
•   Samadhi (oneness with God)

** Affirmation for Devotion, by Swami Kriyananda:
With the sword of devotion I sever the heart-strings that tie me to delusion. With the deepest love, I lay my heart at the feet of Omnipresence. From Affirmations for Self-Healing, Crystal Clarity Publishers. To order click here

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

The list of subjects to which Yogananda applied his cosmic vision is seemingly endless, and all this was in addition to his real mission—to bring us practical and proven techniques for soul liberation. No wonder he said, “If you do one-hundredth of what I’ve given you, it is sufficient.”

One of Yogananda‘s practical regimes for personal improvement that I’ve taken to heart is his “Nine-Day Cleansing and Vitalizing Diet.” Since the first time I tried it many years ago, I’ve experienced remarkable results, and have tried to do it with groups, a few others, or alone each year.

What is the Nine-Day Cleansing Diet? The brief description that follows provides all the information needed for you to successfully complete the diet.

The food allowed each day for the nine days is:
1 ½ grapefruits
1 ½ lemons
5 oranges
1 cooked vegetable with juice (quantity optional)
1 raw vegetable salad
1 glass orange juice*
3 cups of Vitality Beverage (one cup at each meal)

*to be taken every night before going to bed with ½ tsp. of senna leaves or Swiss Kriss, and later increase to 1 tsp.

Vitality Beverage:
2 stalks chopped celery
5 carrots (chopped) including part of stem
1 bunch chopped parsley
½ qt. chopped dandelion, or turnip greens, or spinach
1 qt. water
No salt or spices

The vitality beverage may be prepared in two ways, the first being preferable:

1. After putting celery and carrots through food processor, or chopping them finely, lightly boil them in the water for ten minutes. Then add selected greens and parsley and boil ten minutes more. Strain by squeezing through a cheesecloth.

2.  Use the same ingredients, but do not cook them. After putting them through a vegetable juicer, strain as above.

Drink one cup of the beverage, prepared by either method, at each of the three meals. That’s it—nothing more, nothing less.

The vitality beverage is essential to the cleansing action of the diet. I’ve tried both of the above two ways of preparing it and prefer the first, which involves boiling the chopped vegetables.

The raw vegetable method produces a juice similar to fresh carrot juice. The cooked method produces a bland-tasting broth similar, for those of you familiar with it, to Beiler’s “Potassium Broth” or Paavo Aerola’s broth, both of which are recommended for cleansing purposes. Try both the boiled and raw vegetable methods and decide for yourself.

What results have I experienced?

• Vitalization and healing of the body.
• Freedom from psychological dependency on food.
• Breaking of bad eating habits.
• Five to ten pound weight loss.
• Cleansing of skin, eyes, lungs and intestines.
• Improved health for a period of months.
• Increase energy level and need for less sleep.
• Rejuvenation of body and mind.
• Increased clarity of mind.
• Greater awareness of subtle flow of life force.
• Deepening sense of joy.
• Deeper, more inspired meditations.

Sound too good to be true? There are, let me assure you, challenges. It takes a strong will and self-discipline to finish the full nine days.

You may experience irritability in the first few days. Whether this reaction is caused by the release of toxins, I don’t know, but it’s wise to give someone on the diet a wide berth during the first few days. My husband, Jyotish, and I have an agreement that anything said during the beginning of the diet cannot be held against us. This plan has worked well, and we’ve stayed together through many successful attempts at the cleansing diet.

Sometimes people have headaches during the first few days, especially those addicted to coffee or black tea. The headaches seem to be caused by caffeine withdrawal.

You may also find a psychological change in your attitude towards food. Although you are actually eating large quantities of food, because the food is without salt, oil, or seasonings of any kind, it doesn’t provide the sensory satisfaction that we usually get from food. You may find yourself not interested in food at all.

Interested in trying the diet?
Here are a few tips I’ve discovered:

1. Practice Yogananda’s Energization Exercises at least once a day during the diet. Your awareness of subtle life energy is greatly increased at this time, and you can feel more sensitively the flow of prana through the medulla to the body parts.

2. Take regular sunbaths exposing as much of the body as possible to direct sunlight. Yogananda said you can receive up to ten times the benefit from solar energy if you consciously draw it into your body cells.

3. I find the Nine-Day Diet easiest to complete during the spring or summer months, which seems to be a natural cleansing time for the body. Also, because of the decreased caloric intake, the body tends to feel cold during the diet, which is less of a problem in the warm weather. In the spring and summer, there is also a greater variety of vegetables available for steaming.

4. Yogananda also recommends taking nightly warm baths with Epsom salts or some other good bath salt. The cleansing and rejuvenation of the skin produced by the diet are remarkable, and these warm salt baths aid in this process.

5. The regime of food consumption that works best for me is: Breakfast—grapefruits and vitality beverage; lunch—salad and vitality beverage; and dinner—steamed vegetables, lemons and vitality beverage, with oranges eaten through the day. Experiment and find what works best for you.

6. When coming off the diet, eat lightly and simply for the first few days. Someone once said, “Any fool can fast, but it takes a wise man to end his fast well.”

Yogananda called this Nine-Day Cleansing Diet “a method for rejuvenating the body cells and awakening the latent powers of the mind and the inner forces of the soul.” I heartily encourage you to launch into this spiritual adventure and challenge, and enjoy for yourself its remarkable benefits.

Reprinted from Clarity Magazine, July 1988. Nayaswami Devi, together with her husband Nayaswami Jyotish, is Co-Acharya (Spiritual Director) for Ananda Sangha Worldwide.

Other Clarity articles by Devi Novak are listed under “Nayaswami Devi.”

This woman (whom I’ll call Nancy) was at her bank, waiting to make a deposit when suddenly, she found herself right in the middle of a bank robbery. Nancy became very fearful and “lost it” emotionally. At the time, her basic response when something challenging moved into her life was to take two steps back.

Afterwards, Nancy was very disappointed in her response and thought, “I’ve got to do better.” To change this fearful tendency in herself, she put a great deal of time and energy into practicing the AUM technique* in meditation.

A way to overcome all fear
Communing with the sound of AUM in meditation is one of the easiest ways to become completely absorbed in the Divine. By regular communion with AUM, we overcome all fear, including the fear of death. Swami Kriyananda said when he first heard AUM in a dynamic way, the whole world could have gone up in flames and it just wouldn’t have mattered.

In addition to meditating on AUM, Nancy also did other things to attune her consciousness to the sound of AUM. She went through her day chanting “AUM Guru,” thereby seeking the Guru’s help in attuning to AUM. She reminded herself that everything she saw—the sun, flowers, birds, plants, people—was a solidified manifestation of AUM. Whenever a tense situation arose, she would silently and lovingly call on the power of AUM to calm herself and others.

A second bank robbery
Three years later almost to the day, Nancy was again at her bank when another robbery occurred. This time it was much more violent, and she was knocked to the ground. But from her three years of practicing the consciousness of AUM, she remained very calm despite all the commotion around her.

The tension was especially high in the area where the robbers were standing with their guns. Nancy decided to begin crawling “discreetly” toward the file cabinets where she would be farther away from the robbers. She said, “I wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem.” A terrified woman on the floor, sensing Nancy’s calmness, began scooting towards her. Nancy grabbed the woman’s hand and guided her around a file cabinet where they were both out of the way.

Later, during an interview with the FBI, Nancy was the only witness who could give an accurate description of the robbers. She was told that the odds of being involved in two bank robberies were incredibly low.

Nancy attributed her calmness to having attuned her consciousness to AUM. She said, “My response to life has become totally different. Now, like my husband, who always takes two steps towards everything that comes his way, I do that too.”

A loving unity with all life
Nancy’s story shows the inner strength and transcendence that come from communing with AUM. Paramhansa Yogananda tells us that by listening to the omnipresent sound of AUM, our consciousness gradually expands from the limitations of the body into the freedom of omnipresence where all life is one.

AUM is the cosmic vibration by which God created and sustains the universe. When we commune with AUM in meditation, we experience the divine unity and harmony underlying all creation—and we know without a shadow of doubt that the universe is not against us, but with us in loving unity. By communing with AUM, we enter into, and flow with, the stream of God’s love and bliss.

We tend to think, “Gosh, there’s so much in life that’s unpredictable.” But we know of other devotees who have been in life-threatening situations and have felt only calmness and a sense of harmony. Like Nancy, whenever a devotee makes a sincere effort in meditation to know God as Spirit and to live in His reality, God, seeing our sincerity, protects us when we’re in danger.

Like so many others, I too have had this experience. After some years of meditating and attuning to AUM, I came very close to drowning.

Trapped under a waterfall
It happened a number of years ago when I gave a week-long nature program at the Expanding Light Guest Retreat at Ananda Village. One day I took the people in the program to the river for a swim. It was June and the water was a little high. All of us were swimming near a beautiful waterfall about five or six feet high.

I swam a bit too close to the edge of the waterfall where the water was churning and I  was pulled underwater. Somehow my leg got stuck under the rocks. I tried to free my leg but couldn’t.

Surprisingly, I was very calm. I remember thinking, “Is this how I’m to go, Master?” It was as though I was watching myself going through the experience. I was running out of breath, but I didn’t become nervous. I simply continued trying to free my leg.

Finally the leg pulled loose and I was able to rise to the surface of the water and get a mouthful of air. But I was immediately thrown right back down under the water. Moments later I was again able to rise to the surface. I managed to get another quick mouthful of air before again being pulled under the water.

One of the men in the group noticed what was happening and he and two other men formed a chain. With the chain supporting him, one of the men reached down into the water, grabbed my arm, and pulled me to safety.

Reflecting on the experience afterwards, I was happy to realize that I’d remained calm the entire time. Many of us have had similar experiences where God has stepped in and protected us. From the deep calmness that we feel, we know that He is with us. Whether we live or die, we know we are safely in His hands.

The blueprint of AUM
A scientist at Yale University in the 1940s was studying salamanders and discovered something very interesting that also applies to us. A salamander egg contains an electrical field with the blueprint of the adult salamander. As the salamander starts to grow, the force field of that blueprint guides it to maturity. The same thing is true of plants. Every seed has the blueprint of the mature plant.

This is even more true of us. God has stamped our souls with His image of perfection. As Swami Kriyananda has said, “We aren’t physical bodies; we’re blissful manifestations of AUM.” As we enter into the consciousness of AUM, that image of perfection becomes more and more our reality.

Join the cosmic choir
Try to live more in the consciousness of AUM.  Remember that every sound you hear, even the honking of a horn, is an expression of the cosmic sound of AUM. Listen to sounds in nature as if they were the AUM vibration—the ocean surf, the wind in the trees, the singing of birds. This practice will help you hear the AUM sound in meditation.

The following meditation by Swami Kriyananda will also help attune you to the Infinite Sound:

Imagine a choir composed of every atom in the universe, each one an individual, but all of them singing together in blissful harmony.

In your own mind, join that mighty choir, composed of all life.

Determine from today on to sing in harmony with the universe. Don’t impose on the great anthem of life your little wishes for how you want the music to sound.

Unite your notes to that Infinite Sound.

The more you do so, the more deeply you will know yourself to be an expression of the soaring anthem of Infinity.**

Whenever you feel anxious or inharmonious, use this meditation to attune yourself with God and all creation. Live more in the consciousness of AUM. One who constantly sings AUM during his activities, and with his whole being, makes his life a continuous song of joy.

From an August 12, 2009 talk and other articles.

Bharat Cornell is a Lightbearer and longtime Ananda member. He works in the Sangha Office at Ananda Village as Meditation Support Coordinator. He is also the author of Sharing Nature Book Series.

*One of the meditation techniques introduced by Paramhansa Yogananda and taught by Ananda Sangha.

** From Awaken to Superconsciousness, Crystal Clarity Publishers.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

The dream has now turned dark for many people. Economically, we’re in a very difficult period. Millions have lost jobs. Whether the downturn will become a protracted depression or whether there will be catastrophic events, as some have predicted, we don’t know. But we do know that many people are fearful for the future.

The question for us is: how can we stay open and expansive in this time of uncertainty and turmoil? How do we remember that God is always supporting and guiding us? Three key attitudes will be our allies: Gratitude, Non-attachment, and Generosity.

Gratitude

Several attitudes help generate happiness, but first and foremost is gratitude to God for everything in life. Gratitude invites a flow of grace while grumbling blocks those sustaining rays and leaves us exhausted and bitter.

If we don’t appreciate God’s gifts, how can we hope to feel His presence or keep our hearts open? Without an attitude of gratitude, we reject the lessons He is trying to teach us.

It isn’t enough just to think about gratitude. We must actively feel grateful and express it consciously. When we open our hearts in this way we find that murky feelings of anxiety and isolation fade away. The antidote to negativity is to make it a habit, several times a day, to thank God for whatever you are experiencing at that moment.

Thank God for the hardships
Don’t thank Him only for pleasant things. Thank Him also for difficulties. Life is a mixture of ups and downs—of what we embrace as “positive” and reject as “negative.” But, since we so often misjudge what is good or bad karmically, it is best to thank God for everything: good, bad, and indifferent. Too often we’re like a patient spitting out the very medicine that can make him well.

Paramhansa Yogananda said he would correct only those who gave him permission to do so. How do we give him permission? Not with words but by opening our hearts to him. So, be grateful to God for everything. Sing Him love songs in the silence of your soul. Then see what that does for your heart.

Non-attachment

Second in importance is gratitude’s cousin, non-attachment. Our likes and dislikes splinter the world into little pieces, which is a classical definition of maya or delusion. Attachment is the main obstacle to knowing ourselves as children of Divine Mother.

With an attitude of non-attachment — simply accepting what is happening — we can respond to life according to what is right rather than what pleases us. Non-attachment doesn’t make us into some kind of machine. We still feel and, in fact, can feel more deeply than when we are in a reactive state.

The next time you eat a meal try to deeply experience the various tastes without judging them as either good or bad. You’ll see that non-attachment actually allows you to deepen your experience.

Like gratitude, non-attachment should be practiced on a daily basis. When an experience comes that you don’t like, try to accept it calmly and appreciate its hidden lesson.  Similarly, when something comes that you like, say “Thank you, God. I give any sense of attachment back to You.” By non-attachment we become supremely free inside.

An inner fire ceremony
Swami Kriyananda has suggested a technique to help with non-attachment. Visualize a fire at the point between the eyebrows and offer into the flames everything in your life.  Especially at night, before sleep, it is good to give God all your possessions, your emotions, your likes and dislikes, and, in fact your very life. Offer back everything and then go to sleep in a state of inner freedom.

It is very important to cast into that fire all those things you are reluctant to give up; money, relationships, job, children. These are the attachments that have the biggest grip on you.  When you are experiencing a state of worry or anxiety it is helpful also to practice this visualization as you wake up in the morning. That way you can start the day with a clean slate.

Another helpful technique is to visualize the heart as a golden ball with threads coming out of it. Each thread represents an attachment, some of them tiny and some the size of thick nautical ropes. But, however big, cut them away until that golden ball is completely free. Then polish it until it is bright and shiny. Doing that two or three times a day cleans your aura, develops non-attachment, and allows the heart’s natural love to shine forth.

Gratitude and non-attachment take you a long way toward being even-minded and cheerful at all times, a state of mind that Paramhansa Yogananda suggested we try to hold in all circumstances.

Generosity: Selfless giving to others

Selfless giving to others, even when in difficult circumstances, brings lots of joy. Paramhansa Yogananda and all great masters have chosen, from a life of complete freedom and joy in God, to reincarnate in bodies doomed to suffer hardships and death. Having no karma, they do this solely for our sakes. To be in tune with them, we, too, must learn to give selflessly.

“How can I serve you?”
It is very helpful to keep in mind that we don’t really have anything of our own to give; we are simply channels of Divine Mother. She is the source from which all things flow. To think otherwise is to diminish our potential. If we can but rid the mind of egoic self-definitions, there is absolutely no limit to what She can do through us.

It is very uplifting to pray to Divine Mother every morning, “How can I serve you? How can I see only You in others today?” Every person has something to offer, because God resides equally in everyone. In these difficult times, people desperately need our love and kindness.

A very natural way of giving to others is through simple kindness. When Swami Kriyananda goes into a store, he doesn’t treat the clerk like an automaton; he creates a connection. Often it’s just a little question or comment: “Oh, what a beautiful blue in that broach you’re wearing” —just enough to begin to create a bond that allows the person to open up. It’s habitual with him to shed a little bit of kindness and joy everywhere he goes. We should try, as Paramhansa Yogananda said, to be “smile millionaires.”

Non-attached and inwardly free
When you give to others, it’s important not to carry a merchant consciousness. Don’t think, “If I give them this, what will I get back?” Try to live more in the faith that the law of karma guarantees that you will get exactly what is coming to you. God and Guru will always show you what is for your own highest, spiritual good if you let them.

Your real reward, when you give to others in a selfless spirit, is freedom from want. The more you give away, the more non-attached and inwardly free you become. Then life becomes beautiful.

A poem by Yogananda says it beautifully: “I have nothing to offer Thee, for all things are Thine; I grieve not that I can not give, for nothing is mine, nothing is mine. Here I lay at Thy feet my limbs, my life, my thoughts and my speech, for they are Thine, for they are Thine.”

“Pay it forward”
It is best not to expect rewards for what you give to others. There’s a movie, Pay it Forward, in which a person helps someone who is in trouble. When the recipient says, “I’ll pay you back,” the giver replies, “I don’t want you to pay me back. I want you to pay me forward. Pay off your debt to me by helping three other people.”

And thus, waves of kindness spread in ever widening circles. In this spirit try to help others feel that they too are channels for the light and love, which the world desperately needs in these worrisome times.

These three together—gratitude, non-attachment, and selfless giving — are very powerful ways of attuning to God during times of difficulty. As Paramhansa Yogananda often said, “The channel is blessed by what flows through it.”

When we truly feel that we are acting as a channel for the Infinite, then not only will we be a source of strength to others, but we too will experience great freedom and joy.

Based on talks at Ananda Village, January 31, 2009 and February 11, 2009.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

Seemingly a daunting task
At the start of my spiritual search, I defined the spiritual path primarily as meditation. I was fortunate to have a very regular daily meditation habit from the beginning. While not always deep, I would tell myself, “At least I’m moving in the right direction, toward the true goal of life.”

It wasn’t until I had been meditating some years, and became involved with Ananda, that it finally dawned on me that success on the spiritual path was not just about meditation. It was a fulltime job that demanded a complete change in thought patterns. I was being asked to look at every moment of every day and to bring God into it, and I was supposed to do this while trying to deal with all the demands of daily life.

This was a daunting task. Even though I grasped it intellectually, my habit of using the rational mind to influence and direct my life was deeply ingrained and much stronger than my attempts to practice God’s presence. Often my daily life went on just as before.

A gradual shift
Once I committed to the spiritual path, God and Guru introduced circumstances into my life that pushed me in the direction I needed to grow.  First marriage and later, a baby, brought new challenges.

More recently I have been asked to serve in positions that require me to work closely with many diverse people, and I get pushed out of my comfort zone more often. As challenges arise, I remember more often to ask Divine Mother in the moment, “What would you do?” and to pray for guidance about specific situations and people.

Nonetheless, I can still get swept away in the busy details of life. I may have a nice morning meditation but then, boom! Here comes daily life.  After a couple of hours of responding to emails, answering the phone, dealing with the crisis of the day, I might remember, “Oh yeah, think about God and Guru.” Then the phone rings again and off I go.

The day will go by, and I will sit to meditate at night and realize that I had not called on God or Guru during the day. I remember more often than I used to, but not as much as I aspire to.

I’ve begun to realize that it’s mainly during moments of adversity that I remember to focus and draw on God’s presence, ask for guidance, or do japa. I’ve come to see how valuable the difficult times are, and how we can embrace adversity as an impetus to remember to practice God’s presence.

So I’d like to share a few things I’ve learned about turning emotional upsets into opportunities to call on God.

A four-step process

Recognize the upset
The first step is to recognize when I am off center. Most of us are really good at recognizing emotional agitation in others but less so in ourselves. In the midst of the upset, we usually see the problem as “out there;” something’s wrong with the world, with another person, not with us. But Yogananda teaches that events are neutral; it’s our reactions that cause us to suffer.

How do we recognize the agitation? It might be an unsettled feeling centered in the heart. It might be thoughts that keep coming when we’re trying to accomplish a task or sit to meditate: “Why did he do that to me?” “Why did they say that to me?” “I don’t want to feel this way.”

Some people live so embroiled in negative emotions—anger, worry, fear, hatred, jealousy, grief, pride, resentment— that an agitated consciousness seems normal. Fortunately, devotees have a meditation practice. The more we meditate, the more we begin to live in that calm inner center. When emotional agitation pulls us out of it, we recognize the need to do something to regain our inner calm.

Step back/disengage
After recognizing the agitation, do whatever you need to do to get out of the emotional whirlpool. Choose a technique: Do deep breathing. Silently chant “Aum Guru” or some other mantra. Focus at the spiritual eye and pray for calmness. Look at a photo of the Guru, especially the Guru’s eyes.

If possible, change your environment so that you’re disengaged from the outer stimulus that pushed you over the edge in the first place.

Separate yourself from the person or persons who upset you. Unplug from the media so you’re not reminded of the economic stresses that worry you, or the undefined fears of disaster that haunt your subconscious. Remove yourself from the surroundings that remind you of the loss of a pet or loved one.

I have found that the calming techniques are usually more effective if I can get a little space from what upset me in the first place.

Redirect the energy
One of the problems I experienced in trying to draw on God’s presence was that my efforts were plagued by low energy. My mind would get distracted, my prayers would be half-hearted, or I would slip into a subconscious state.

However, when feeling negative emotions, I noticed that even though I was in a negative vortex, my prayers and meditation efforts had much more energy and meaning. Suffering can thus lead to positive spiritual changes once we succeed in redirecting our energy and offering it up to God and Guru.

So when you’re alone, redirect that energy by using it to chant, meditate, and call on God and Guru to help you. When we put more energy into calling on God, He is much more likely to respond.

The initial response is usually a reconnection to interior calmness and joy. But, I have found that it can also take the form of alleviating the outward problem that precipitated the upset in the first place.

Gratitude
And then give thanks that someone or something “pushed your buttons,” and for the last several days you remembered to call to God because you were miserable. Thank God for giving you the opportunity to do that. By remembering how much calling on God helped you, you move closer to living always in His presence.

This approach in action
An example of how this approach can solve a problem in a dramatic way involved our son when he was a year and a half old. He became sick and couldn’t keep any food down. It seemed like a normal sickness, but after two days and he was still throwing up and crying, worry began to set in.

This went on for three more days. By day five we had seen a doctor, followed the instructions, but nothing had changed. Our son was still sick, and hadn’t eaten in four days.

More and more my wife and I were becoming caught in a vortex of negative emotions—fear and also anger because we weren’t getting any sleep. All along we’d been reading books trying to find an answer and asking everyone we knew for advice—but we had not called on God.

Finally, on the fifth day, we woke up and said, “Oh, let’s pray.” So we began praying and offering the situation up to God and Guru. We also put our son’s name on the community’s healing prayer list. Within a few hours Divine Mother sent the answer in the form of a community member who approached my wife and asked, “What’s going on?”

My wife filled her in, and the community member (who was Italian) said, “My son had something like that. Doctors in this country don’t usually recognize the symptoms, but it’s called acetona, and it’s a ketone imbalance. Here’s a homeopathic remedy, which I happen to have, that will take care of it.” My wife gave our son the remedy and within three hours, he was completely back to normal and eating.

But, we had been caught in such a powerful vortex that it had taken us five days to step back and remember to bring God and Guru into our search for a solution. Once we had disengaged enough to call on God, our fervent prayers were quickly answered. We still remember this incident, and are grateful for the lessons it taught us about the power of bringing God into our lives.

Transcending the greatest adversities
My son’s illness was a dramatic example of how adversity can remind us to call on God. Many people have transcended the greatest of adversities by clinging to God.

One instance that I read about recently is Corrie Ten Boom’s story. (The Hiding Place and Tramp for the Lord.) Corrie was a middle-aged woman living in the Netherlands with her older sister and father when the Nazis occupied her country. Hers was a very devout Christian family with a deep inner relationship with Jesus.

For hiding Jews in their house, Corrie and her sister were arrested and sent to a Dutch prison. Later, they were moved to Ravensbrook, a concentration camp deep in Germany, with unbelievably horrendous conditions. In both places Corrie and her sister led secret Bible sessions with other prisoners, prayed for people, and constantly drew on Jesus’ inner presence.

Corrie’s sister died in the concentration camp, but Corrie’s deep connection to God and Jesus gave her the strength to overcome her grief, hatred, and despair. She survived, was released, and later traveled around the world telling people that it was possible to transcend the worst adversities if you pray and call on God and Jesus.

She even went to Germany. Once, after giving a talk on forgiveness, a guard who had been at Ravensbrook walked up to her and extended his hand. He didn’t remember her, but she recognized him: he had been one of the cruelest guards.

She wrote that during those seconds, she wrestled with the most difficult thing she had ever done. She silently prayed, “Jesus help me! I can lift my hand. I can do that much, but you supply the feeling.”

Slowly she raised her hand and gave it to this man. At that moment, she was flooded with the most incredible love and joy. She wrote, “I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did in that moment.”

We have to learn our lessons
Life is a school and we can’t really drop out—we have to learn our lessons. The good news is that the masters promise that God will never give us a test we’re not capable of passing.

So remember to embrace the adversities that come. When we’ve made practicing the presence of God a more dynamic part of our spiritual life, we find that we don’t wait five days after adversity strikes to call on Him. It becomes second nature because we’re always involving Him in our lives.

Peter and his wife Marga are Lightbearers who have lived at Ananda Village since 1992. He has served as manager of the Meditation Retreat and the Expanding Light guest retreat, and currently is village manager in charge of planning and day-to-day operations of the community.

Resources:
To read, “Our Greatest Work in Life” by Swami Kriyananda, click here

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

Our Guru seldom praised me for my labor. But he did, sometimes, praise me for my devotion. For he was more anxious that we work to develop and perfect ourselves in this heavenly quality than that we do tremendous outward labor, but in forgetfulness of God. The chief purpose of his mission was to teach us, and all people, an inner, divine productivity.

I knew Master three and a half years. And if there is one point that stands out in my throng of sweet memories, it is the fact that what pleased him always, above everything else, was devotion, and a constant inward remembrance of God. Good work without devotion might have impressed him, but it never thrilled his heart.

How many weep for the Divine Mother as Master wept when he was a boy? Our greatest work in life should be to express that divine yearning, that love. When we can reflect it, we shall be able to work ten times as hard, and a hundred times as effectively, as we do when we draw only on our own scanty powers. When we think of the Lord first, our hearts sing for joy and all our work goes easily.

We must discipline the mind! Divine Mother has given us a project more urgent than the printing of any book, and that is to learn to live constantly in the consciousness of Her. Her deadline of death is more important, and less alterable, than any publishing date.

Our work should be a conscious, loving service to the Lord. It should be a devotional offering to Him.

*Excerpted from Letters to Truth Seekers, copyrighted 1973 (Currently out-of-print).

1. Blocks distracting odors
Often, during meditation, the nearby odors from such things as car exhausts, food cooking, cigarette smoke, or even upholstery in the room where one sits can be distracting to the mind, and indeed may also awaken mental associations that have nothing in common with the mood of inner upliftment.

The gentle, pervasive scent of incense can help to block that often-bewildering diversity of smells, smoothing them out into a single, prolonged, and continuous sensation that itself, especially with repeated association, becomes uplifting. Gradually that one, over-all scent becomes an aid, not a distraction, in directing the mind one-pointedly toward contemplating higher realities.

2. Creates an uplifted mood
A second benefit from incense pertains to the sense of smell itself, which is said to be the most memory-stimulating of the five senses. How often does the smell of something become immediately associated in our minds with some memory—perhaps from years ago, perhaps even from our early childhood.

The regular use of incense during devotional and meditative practices gradually causes an association of that scent with those practices. Thus, the scent helps one to return more instantly, without effort, to an uplifted mood.

3. Helps to focus the mind
The third benefit is more particular. During the yoga practice of watching the breath, the best place to concentrate on the flow of breath is the point where it enters the body. I don’t mean the nostrils, but rather where the breath enters the head. This point is, of course, quite close to the point between the eyebrows, the Christ center recommended in yoga teachings as the best point at which to focus one’s concentration.

An awareness of the scent of incense at that point, and the association of the scent itself with devotional upliftment, help one to keep the mind focused on the breath entering and leaving the body.

Excerpted from a longer article in Religion and the New Age, Crystal Clarity Publishers. To read the full article, click here

Q. Bharat, when did you first realize that nature was important to you?

A. When I was five-years-old. I was in my backyard and looking intently upward into a thick fog when all of a sudden, bursting through a gap in the fog, came a flock of pearl-white snow geese. It seemed as if the sky had given birth to them. Seeing the snow geese thrilled me deeply, and ever since I’ve wanted to immerse myself in nature.

By the time I was twelve, I was waking up at dawn to run through the wildlands near my home. I took such delight in everything I saw that I often ran right through the ponds and marshes.

Q. When did you know that your career path lay in doing something connected with nature?

It was when I was a student at Chico State University and majoring in international relations. In one of my courses I read a statement by a 19th century European leader who said, “I don’t want war, but I want my country to get what it wants.”

This was during the Vietnam War and I, like many others, felt a deep desire to bring peace into the world. But after reading that statement, I realized that the self-interest of people and nations made it very difficult to achieve world peace.

I had been spending many days in the wilderness and feeling at times a joyous sense of stillness and expansion. Recalling these experiences, I thought, “This is real peace. This is something true that I can share with others.”

So I changed my major to Nature Awareness. I was the first student to be accepted into Chico’s special major program, where a student could create a non-traditional degree. I also started a meditation practice to try to experience more regularly the joyous serenity and expansion I often felt in nature.

Q. After you graduated from Chico State, did you find a way to share with people the peace you experienced in nature?

A. By then I knew about experiential nature activities, which I had immediately recognized as a way to imbue nature encounters with a dynamic sense of joy and receptivity. After graduating in 1973, I began developing my own nature activities and sharing them at outdoor schools and camps.

Both children and adults enjoyed them immensely. The activities became very popular among educators and youth leaders, and soon nearly every Boy Scout camp in the western United States was using them.

Q. You later presented many of those activities in your first book, Sharing Nature with Children. What prompted you to write it?

In 1975 I joined Ananda and soon entered the monastery. I was under the impression that monks should not be involved in society, but knowing how much people loved the nature activities,  I decided to write them down for posterity. I thought I was writing the book as a last gift to the world.

Swami Kriyananda, however, had other plans for me. After Sharing Nature with Children was published, he suggested that one of the senior monks begin arranging autograph events to promote the book. It was due to Kriyananda’s encouragement that I began making public appearances.

Q. Sharing Nature with Children has been widely praised as a landmark book. What distinguished it from other nature books?

A. Most nature education books then available engaged only the intellect. I wanted to engage people’s hearts and intuition so they could deeply experience nature. The book was also practical, with easy-to-use activities and inspiring stories that captured people’s imagination.

Paramhansa Yogananda said that rather than explain things to people, we should help them put out the kind of energy that brings them onto the wavelength of what we’re trying to teach. Each nature activity in Sharing Nature with Children is a little discipline that helps children and adults become more sensitively aware of nature and their higher Self.

Q. Why did eight years pass between your first and second book?

A. I was planning to write a sequel to Sharing Nature with Children when Swami Kriyananda asked my wife, Anandi, and me to become leaders of the developing Ananda Palo Alto Center. He said, “The work you’re doing in nature is wonderful, but you’ve come to Ananda to find God and I have to honor that.” So I suspended all of my nature work for the three years we were in Palo Alto.

Kriyananda’s words were really about following God’s will and embracing divine opportunities. Serving in Palo Alto was very helpful to me spiritually and also gave me the understanding and tools to write a much better book. From teaching the meditation classes at the Ananda center, I gained a deeper understanding of the importance of stillness and inner receptivity, not only for meditation but also for deeper nature experiences. Through prayer and meditation, I later found ways to apply what I learned in writing my second book, Sharing the Joy of Nature. *

Q. Can you explain how you were able to do that?

A. I created a system called “Flow Learning,” a way of sequencing nature activities to awaken in people a strong flow of energy and open them to an experience of absorption and expansion. An experience of absorption is the key to deeper nature experiences.

The great naturalist, John Muir, would become so absorbed in the natural world that he would lose consciousness of his own separate existence and feel himself merging with the totality of nature. His great love and reverence for life came from his experience of oneness with everything around him.

For Flow Learning to work, I also had to create many new nature activities. I would think of a spiritual principle from Paramhansa Yogananda’s teachings, hold it in my mind, and pray: “How can I create a way for people to easily experience this principle?”

“Expanding Circles,” for example, is based on one of Yogananda’s meditations where you expand your sense of self. In this activity, you sit quietly in nature and gradually, in stages, expand your awareness to encompass everything you see.

One woman who did this activity said, “At first I felt like I was composing a picture. After a while I found that I’d stepped inside and become the picture.”

Q. What has been the response to Flow Learning?

A. Very enthusiastic. Our Sharing Nature leader in Brazil gave a workshop based on Flow Learning for Amazon tour guides. They were skeptical at first but after several activities, one person approached her and said with deep emotion, “You are helping me find the forest inside of me! We don’t know the forest in this way!”

In Switzerland, the professors at a teachers’ college were so enthusiastic about Flow Learning that right after my speech, one professor eagerly asked me, “What was life like before Flow Learning!”

Flow learning shows people how to awaken energy and direct it upwards for superconscious inspiration. For most people this is a revelation. Today Flow Learning is widely used by educators and corporate trainers throughout the world.

Q. Have Flow Learning and the new Sharing Nature activities caused people to become more interested in the spiritual life?

A. Yes. Through the experience of absorption, people achieve a deep level of peace and joyful expansion. Often they become interested in forming a meditation practice to cultivate and enhance the feeling they had during the workshop.

Often people are caught up with the mundane realities of life and fail to appreciate life’s underlying unity and harmony. But the understanding that we are a part of something larger than ourselves is Nature’s greatest gift. As people experience their larger reality, they become inspired and their life priorities change.

Q. You have offered sharing Nature programs in countries like Japan, China, Brazil, and Greece — places where the spirituality varies. What is the response of people who are Taoists or Buddhists or follow other spiritual paths?

A. When people experience divine qualities like peace or love, they become deeply appreciative, no matter what their culture or spiritual tradition.

I recently gave an “Inner Nature” workshop at a Zen community in Devon, England, and the leader there told me, “We wanted to include environmental awareness in our programs, but didn’t know how to do it and stay true to our spiritual calling. The Sharing Nature activities are perfect for us.”

Sharing Nature is based on universal principles. In Greece people said the Sharing Nature program was just the way Plato taught, and in Japan they said it was very Japanese.

Q. Sharing Nature has triggered a consciousness revolution based on direct experience through nature activities.  It has changed the consciousness of millions of people and given them the tools to change others. How can someone receive training to lead Sharing Nature programs?

A. In May 2009 I’ll be offering a five-day training and retreat at Ananda’s Expanding Light Guest Retreat. People new to Sharing Nature as well as Sharing Nature leaders from around the world will be attending. The program includes nature meditations, nature activities for children and adults, Flow Learning, and much more. It’s going to be a wonderful week.

* The name was later changed to Sharing Nature with Children, II.

To read the inspiring story of Sharing Nature around the world and to learn more about the upcoming May 2009 Sharing Nature Training & Retreat Week, go to: www.sharingnature.com

Bharat Cornell is a Lightbearer and longtime Ananda member. In addition to his nature activities, he works in the Sangha Office at Ananda Village as Meditation Support Coordinator. His many books on nature awareness include, Listening to Nature.

Yet some inner doors remained closed to me. In time, I realized the truth of something else that Yoganandaji emphasized: Higher success, whether in worldly or Godly pursuits, requires creativity, intuitive understanding, and direct perception of truth. In short, I needed feeling.

What is feeling?
Feeling is a response that’s awakened in us as we focus our awareness on something: a person, an event, a circumstance. It’s a way of gaining understanding, and it’s very different from the way the intellect understands. The intellect understands via description and analysis, from the outside; it is centered in the brain. Feeling understands via relationship and, in its higher expressions, from the inside; it is centered in the heart.

Examples of feeling include the speechless appreciation of a beautiful nature scene, or the sense of expanded awareness that comes from gazing at a sky full of stars, or a mother’s sense of complete self-giving when looking at her child. Feeling also has negative expressions: emotional reactions like anger, fear or despair.

Feeling is the only way we can truly know something. Reason and intellect can be misled because they are forever at the periphery of their object. Only feeling has the potential to penetrate to its essence.

This is the highest expression of feeling: soul intuition, our ability to perceive reality directly and accurately. It’s only through intuition that we will realize the Self. As Swami Kriyananda has said, “The way to God is through the heart.”

But feeling, too, can be misled. The more we cling to the ego, the more we tend toward emotion, which distorts our perceptions. But as we relax away from ego and calm our feeling nature, we get a progressively more accurate picture of reality, until at last we see reality as it truly is. This higher expression of our feeling nature is what I will call “deep feeling.”

In contrast to willpower, which is all about doing, feeling is more about awareness. It’s subtle, but not mysterious. It simply requires sensitive listening, from a place of calmness, expansiveness, and receptivity.

I’d like to share a few simple ways in which the principles of Ananda Yoga can help you develop and refine those qualities, and thereby deepen your feeling capacity.

The power of calmness
Calmness is the first step toward deep feeling. Without calmness, we can become mired in the shallow feeling of emotion. A calm mind is important, but as Swami Kriyananda points out, deeper feeling requires a calm heart as well:

In teaching meditation, people speak of the need to calm the mind. In fact, it is the heart that needs to be calmed. That is why devotion is fundamental to success in meditation. When the heart is calm and one-pointed in its focus on God, the mind is also still because there are no restless feelings to disturb it.

“Calm” doesn’t mean “inactive.” It’s powerful and dynamic, yet refined and relaxed. The practice of yoga postures is a wonderful way to calm the heart.

Forward bends and twists do this beautifully. So do simple sitting poses like Vajrasana (Firm Pose), which not only quiets the body and mind, but also imparts an inward direction to your energy. Its affirmation, “In stillness I touch my inner strength” helps you still the heart as well as the mind, thus deepening your feeling capacity.

Yoga breathing techniques promote calmness as well. For example, Measured Breathing: inhale 6, hold 6, exhale 6 (or 8-8-8, or 4-4-4, or whatever works for you). The smooth, even cadence calms the breath, which in turn calms both mind and heart. For even deeper calmness, practice it in Vajrasana.

Feeling involves listening
Calmness sets the stage for listening. To truly understand something, we first must slow down and listen to it, feel it. Meditation is the ultimate listening exercise, but for many people, listening to the body is easier. In our fast-paced culture, many of us will benefit greatly from being more sensitive to the body, rather than merely ordering it around. Following are two ways to practice listening.

Select any yoga posture that you enjoy. Enter the pose s-l-o-w-l-y, gracefully, over the course of many breaths. “Place” your body in the pose, rather than forcing it. Notice every little movement; feel the different muscles as they engage and disengage. Listen to how each body part feels. Is it relaxed, or tense? Alert, or dull? Comfortable, or uncomfortable?

That’s a good warmup, but deeper listening is not about myriad details, but rather a single essence or direction. With that in mind, do the pose again, letting your body tell you how to proceed. Don’t think about each movement; instead, listen and follow. Try to feel inwardly the essence of the pose—not the body’s habits—leading you into position.

Do the same thing with Measured Breathing. Listen to your body to feel the right count for you, the count that gives you the greatest degree of calm awareness. Yes, use willpower to ensure the equal counts, but don’t “dominate” your breath. And don’t try to think your way to your perfect count; try to feel your way to it.

Such simple listening exercises can help you significantly to develop your listening capacity, and thereby your capacity to feel.

Expand beyond the “little” self
Another key to deep feeling is expansion. In Art as a Hidden Message, Swami Kriyananda writes, “an inward contraction upon the ego limits a person’s ability to experience deep feeling.”

Just think of the many ways in which people contract upon the ego: a superiority or inferiority complex, selfishness, fear, greed, defensiveness, judgment, desire for fame or power—the list goes on. Here’s a lovely exercise that shows how self-expansion increases your ability to experience deep feeling.

Choose a person whom you know and sit for a minute or two, trying to tune in to that person—to feel some part of that person’s deeper reality in whatever way you can. Then do your entire asana or meditation practice with the thought of sending the benefits of your practice streaming to that other person. Let every technique, every moment, be completely for the benefit of that other person. You’re merely a channel for those benefits.

At the end of your practice, try once again to tune in to that person. You’ll find that you’re much better able to do it, because you’ve expanded your awareness to include him or her. You have a feeling connection, not merely a personality connection.

Receptivity: the most important key
Calmness, self-expansion and a listening attitude prepare you to engage your receptivity, the subtlest—and in some ways the most important—key to deeper feeling. Receptivity is much more than openness; it is magnetic openness, being intensely and expectantly welcoming to what you wish to feel. And there is nothing that fosters such magnetism more than love.

George Washington Carver, the great American scientist and saint, put it succinctly, “If you love it enough, anything will give up its secrets to you.” By giving love, you open a channel of understanding with the object of your love. Whether it’s an inanimate object, an activity (e.g., cooking or a sport), or a living entity (plant, animal, human, or God), love helps you begin to resonate with it, which promotes an intuitive understanding of the object of your love.

Here’s a practice that can help you cultivate love within yourself. In The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, Swami Kriyananda writes, “To practice the yoga postures with spiritual feeling is to find that they help to develop that feeling.”

To apply this in yoga practices, make every movement with love. Love the vitality you get from the practices or techniques as well as the relaxation. Love what you can do, and love the challenge of what you can’t yet do so well. Love the process of ever-easier breathing. Love the quietness of body and mind. Love the blessing of the priceless gift of yoga from the great masters. Feel love as a quality that always exists in your heart, even when you’re not practicing postures or meditating.

Then, at the end of your practices, send that love to another person. (Hint: If you choose a person you don’t know, it will be easier to feel a deeper, impersonal love because your love is not about anyone’s personal qualities.) After a time, stop sending, and simply feel love in your own heart, a love free from any outward associations.

Meditate on that love—a love that is self-existing because it’s not about anything or anyone, and offer that feeling upward. The more strongly you can do this (strong feeling, that is, not strong will; willpower’s only role is to help you stay focused), the more magnetic and receptive you will be to God, the Source of all love.

Small steps to deep feeling
Any of the above practices can help us develop feeling. And like lifting weights to gain strength, exercising our feeling capacity will help it grow ever stronger, until at last we can perceive, we can feel, the subtlest levels of our own being. That is when—and how—we will know God.

Gyandev McCord, a Lightbearer and longtime Ananda member, directs Ananda Yoga Teacher Training and other courses at the Expanding Light Guest Retreat as Ananda Village. He and his wife, Diksha, also lead retreats in other locations across North America.

An aura is an electromagnetic energy field which surrounds all things. Paramhansa Yogananda explains that the aura radiates outward from a central core of energy within the energy or astral body.  As perceptible light, auras are visible to some people, though invisible to most.

Perceiving  auras
Auras are most often sensed or felt, rather than actually seen with our physical eyes. We may say, for example: “You’re looking bright today,” or “He’s walking around with a dark cloud over his head.” You have no doubt met people whose very presence emanated an indefinable power.

In Autobiography of a Yogi, Yogananda describes the “feeling quality” of certain auras. He writes that Mahatma Gandhi emanated “an all-pervasive aura of peace and devotion”; Therese Neumann, “an aura of peace and joy”; and Rabindranath Tagore, “a soothing aura of charm, culture, and courtliness.”

Yogananda, of course, was also able to see auras. When the train bringing Sri Yukteswar to Serampore was pulling into the station, Yogananda exclaimed joyfully, “The whole train is filled with the light of Master’s aura!”

An inward awakening of energy
There are many indications that people have long been able to see auras. Renaissance painters, for example, usually painted a halo of radiant light around the heads or bodies of saints, angels, or holy persons.

Swami Kriyananda explains that spiritually sensitive persons often see an astral light, or aura, around the bodies of saints, and especially around their heads. In fact, the more one’s inner energy increases through deep meditation, the more one gradually becomes aware of that energy as a light radiating outward from the chakras and around the body as an aura of light.

This light shines with a variety of colors, depending on a person’s state of consciousness. Very generally speaking, the warmer colors like red, orange, and yellow indicate a high level of energy. Blue, indigo, and violet reflect calmness and a spiritual orientation. The brighter the color or light, the more spiritually refined the consciousness.  Around people of lower awareness, the light becomes progressively dimmer.

The auras of saints
Kamala Silva, a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda for many years, describes his aura in The Flawless Mirror:

All through the years, whenever I saw his aura, it was a “pure brightness of light.” A blue radiance extended beyond this light and haloed his head; a golden glow outlined the light around his body.

Swami Kriyananda writes that he tries consciously to expand his aura when speaking or addressing a group:

One thing I have found helpful is to ask Yogananda to expand my aura that it fill any auditorium in which I am speaking, or to encompass any group I address, no matter how small or large. Indeed, I feel this expansion.

People tell me that this, more even than any words I utter, is what reaches them. When I meditate with a group, I try also to feel him expanding my aura to touch all who are present.

In Asha Praver’s book, Swami Kriyananda As We Have Known Him, a devotee relates an experience of seeing Swami Kriyananda’s expanded aura:

The first time I heard Swami Kriyananda speak…a golden aura began to fill the room. It looked like the angel hair you sometimes see on Christmas trees, only instead of white, it had this beautiful golden color. I watched as it wound itself around the hall until everyone was enveloped in it…. The most important thing was not what Swamiji said. It was being in that golden aura….

“Things” have auras, too
Places also give off a kind of aura. In some places it is very subtle and in others, it is obvious, even to less sensitive people. There are churches where you immediately feel caught up in the love of those who have worshiped there. Similarly, there are homes that seem to welcome you and surround you with warmth.

Even books and other literary works have auras. Swami Kriyananda describes his college experience of seeing a halo of white light around the greatest literary works such as Homer’s Iliad and Shakespeare’s plays. The light he saw around lesser works was diminished in intensity and darker in color. Around ordinary literary works, he saw no light at all.

He notes, also, that false spiritual teachings similarly have no aura except perhaps “some sort of grey mist.” The Bhagavad Gita, by contrast, conveys to the reader “an aura of the highest revelation.”

Aura photos
There are now cameras and various devices that can photograph people’s auras. When Swami Kriyananda visited a metaphysical bookshop in Australia during a lecture tour, the bookshop owners, a husband and wife, offered to take his photograph with an “aura camera.”

The resulting photo, which he later shared with friends, is covered from edge to edge with deep indigo blue, through which his face and upper body are only dimly visible. Most aura photos, according to the bookstore owners, show a mixture of colors, through which the person is clearly visible.

The bookstore owners also showed Kriyananda several aura photographs of themselves. He comments:

The colors in these photographs, and the way in which they blended together, corresponded strikingly to what I sensed about their personalities. They were pleasant people; therefore the colors surrounding them were pleasant also. It struck me how much more effectively these “aura” photos captured them than any normal photograph could have.

The wife showed me two more “aura” photographs of herself. One of them had been taken after a physical healing; the other one, just before the healing. The contrast between these two was remarkable.

People often ask whether they should have their aura photographed or analyzed. Remember that your energy is like a river that is constantly moving and changing. The colors in your aura at this moment will probably be different an hour from now, possibly quite different tomorrow if something in your day goes wrong, and very different right after your next deep meditation. Love, fulfillment, sickness, sadness—these are all reflected in the aura.

Strengthening the aura
We can strengthen our auras on a daily basis, and also in times of special need, by increasing our energy and will power. Especially important is doing everything we can—physically, mentally, and spiritually—to increase the stream of positive energy within ourselves. Saying “yes” to life greatly increases the flow of positive energy.

Energization Exercises, meditation, hatha yoga, Kriya Yoga, devotional chanting—all these are vitally important for helping us keep a strong aura at all times. Here are a few other ways to strengthen your aura.

• Yogananda suggests that devotees wear an astrological bangle/bracelet made of metals (gold, silver, and copper) of specific purity and weight. Certain gemstones worn touching the skin may be used in the same way.

• Whenever you see colors that you like especially, absorb them into yourself; let them vitalize your aura. Liking for a particular color may suggest a need for it in your aura, as the craving for a particular food may indicate elements that are lacking in one’s diet. Try wearing a color you might ‘hunger’ for, or inhaling a bright clear color into your aura whenever you feel the need.

• In the privacy of your meditation room, place your arms down at your side. Then, mentally chanting AUM, bring them upward, straight out to the side, with your palms up, until you join the palms high above your head. Mentally create an aura of upward-moving light around your body. Repeat this exercise several times and also throughout the day, as needed. If you are in a public place and cannot comfortably move your arms as suggested, visualize the process instead.

• As you meditate, feel that the surface of your body is not your skin, but an aura of light surrounding your body. Expand this aura. Feel as if, with every outgoing breath, you were gently inflating a shining balloon of radiant light. Now, reach out in all directions around you with finger-rays of astral light. Touch, feel, and explore the greater reality of the Spirit around you. Try to sense behind everything the subtle presence of divine consciousness.

• Always imagine yourself surrounded by an aura of divine light. Live more within that light. Expand it consciously. Include in it the people around you and the space within which you live. Rest or move surrounded by the aura created by your inner peace.

A cloak of light
If a person’s aura is strong, the negative consequences of his bad karma (and even mass karma) will have a greatly lessened impact. Only when your energy flow and will power are weak can you be influenced in a negative way. In the long run, dynamic energy is the most important aspect of healing. It creates an aura around us that wards off disease or negativity of all types.

Work to strengthen your aura through your spiritual practices. Then strive always to radiate light and joy to everyone, and to the world around you. Swami Kriyananda writes that “the secret of happiness is learning how to pass through life’s storms with a peaceful heart, its aura enclosing you like a cloak of light.”

Savitri Simpson, a Lightbearer, lives at Ananda Village and serves in the Sangha Office and as a teacher at The Expanding Light Guest Retreat.

The practice of meditation is different, however, from the actual experience of meditation as a state of being. To experience God in his various attributes, we need to practice those things that will help lift us up into attunement with God’s higher consciousness. For this, there are a number of visualizations and meditations that are very helpful.

For example, if you meditate on peace, and on those things that will help you become peaceful enough in yourself to receive His peace, it will be easier for God to come to you as peace-you will be open at that window of your mind. The more specific your mediation or visualization, the clearer your attunement with it.

The kinds of questions we ask God determine the kind of answers we receive. If we have a clear idea of the experience we’re seeking, we’ll have a  greater chance of having that experience.

Peace
Think of the rays of the moon bathing the countryside, your mind, and your heart, filling you with peace. Feel these moon rays of peace entering in through the pores of your skin and filling your body, even to the marrow of the bones, until your whole body becomes peace. Feel this peace expanding outward from your body so that both you and the moon rays are bathing the whole countryside with that luminous peace. Feel this peace expanding beyond the countryside to the farthest boundaries of eternity until you feel that all space is being illuminated and bathed in the peace of your own being.

Meditate on a calmly flowing river as it moves majestically down toward the sea. Feel that all your life is a river of calmness flowing with purpose, not rushing off in a hundred directions at once, but a calm, sedate flow always moving toward an ultimate purpose—a purpose which is vast like the sea. Feel all the other little movements of your mind being drawn into that one movement, as if in its wake, to flow with the river. Feel that a new movement then takes over and that this new movement contains meaning, and a grand meaning at that.

Calmness
Think of yourself as sitting in the midst of space with stars millions of miles away from you in all directions. Feel that you have no body and that you are sitting on nothing; you’re just a point in space. Expand that point of space to include the sun, the stars, the galaxies. Feel that you’re sitting in that vastness of space, beyond time. This is the truth out of which you have come, the truth in which God lives, and the truth to which He calls you back.

Think of the sunrise on eternity, not the sunrise on a planet full of insects, birds, waving trees, and all the things that keep this world such a busy place–none of these things, just eternity. Think of the sun rising onto this eternity and its rays spreading outward and outward with power, joy and great calmness, until you realize that this is not the physical sun but the light of the Son of God which gives life to everything.

Love
Imagine an angel of light holding a flame-tipped spear to your heart. Imagine him holding it there until your heart bursts into flames of love—a love that’s not painful but exhilarating and that burns everything in you that isn’t made of that love.

Imagine one of the Masters gazing deeply into your eyes. Feel those eyes drawing all pain, all disappointments, all bitterness from your heart, through your eyes, and saying to you: “These are my burdens now; they’re no longer yours.” God in His compassion would take your burdens from you. Let Him do so through His love, drawing these pains out of your heart, through your eyes, and into His all-compassionate eyes.

Send rays of love and hope from your heart to all in this world who grieve. Tell them to release their grief into the soothing breeze of God’s love for them. Imagine this breeze going out from you with God’s power, flowing out to the world, soothing all creatures. Send these rays of love to encourage people to release these pains, these burdens into that ray.

Joy
Imagine yourself in heaven surrounded by saints and angels smiling upon you in greeting. Think that they approve of you. Yes, they know that you’ve done wrong things. Their smiles are for what is good in you, what is Godly in you, and that is the real you. The other things don’t count; the other things you can overcome because you are God’s child. Think of yourself that way, and think of them as blessing you on all sides.  Join them with rejoicing, with freedom. Imagine yourself dancing and singing with God’s joy.

Recall a moment of special joy in your life, perhaps a moment close to nature, or of closeness to another human being. Remove from that moment all sense of excitement or restlessness, so that it’s just the calm moment itself. Then remove from it also all sense of cause so that it isn’t associated with the experience where you felt happy. Just think of the joy in its pure essence.

Focus that joy in a point of bliss at the point between the eyebrows, and know that any ray of bliss that you send out from this point can dispel every cloud of sorrow. Imagine now your own mental sky. Do you see any dark clouds of regret or sorrow? God doesn’t want you to hang on to those things.

Send bliss into the heart of that cloud, and with those rays of bliss, gradually change that cloud into light. Then gradually disperse that light so that there is nothing but space, sky and bliss. Now expand your bliss until it fills the blue sky and then, from the heavens, reflects downward to all mankind, to all creatures everywhere.

Light
Think of how the sun rays shine down through a cloud. Think of a cloud of human darkness or a cloud of your own ignorance, and think of the sun rays shining down into this cloud, into this darkness. Think of yourself as rising up with those rays from this darkness, and bursting through the cloud into the blazing light of the sun behind the clouds. Feel that you are in communion with God’s light, that His light is speaking to you, and that you are absorbing yourself into that light.

Think of a light that is falling like a refreshing rain of rainbow colors. Instead of an ordinary rainbow, each individual drop creates a rainbow. Think of the sun as being so all surrounding that it creates rainbows out of every drop and that those rainbows shine in all directions. Feel that you are being rained on by rainbows on all sides, and that in this beautiful light you lose all sense of being anything other than light yourself.

Sound
Meditate on the ocean surf, soothingly coming upon the shore, bathing it and taking away its impurities. Think of the shore as your own mind, and the surf as bathing your mind and gradually taking away all dross and freeing you to go out and merge into the great ocean.

Meditate on a deep bell reverberating across the countryside and onward to infinity. Think of how, when a deep church bell rings, there are reverberations of that sound that come afterwards and seem to expand outward and outward. Think of yourself expanding outward with that sound into a great ringing voice of God in eternity.

Power
Meditate on fire. Think of that fire burning up all inner dross. Think of it as a great bonfire into which you are casting all attachments, all desires, all bad actions of the past and all memory of those actions. You are casting them into the fire to become purified so that you can lift yourself up in freedom to God’s love.

Meditate on the sun rays filling the world and your whole being with strength, vitality, enthusiasm. Think not just of the physical sun but the powerful sun of God’s great energy. Think of the energy that was required to create this vast universe as the power behind you. Try to attune yourself to this power; don’t be afraid because this is also the power of freedom, the power of victory. Just as we harness the powers of nature, so also we can use this power for our good.

Wisdom
Envision all things as transparent, dreamlike, insubstantial: the earth, the trees, your loved ones, your body, your possessions. Dissolve them all into the infinite. Nothing remains now, only you, bodyless, without thoughts, without personality – only you in your own true essence, your own causeless, infinite, eternal essence, which is that part of you which is a child of God.

Excerpted from: Meditation: What It Is and How To Do It. To buy a recording of the talk (CD or MPs), call Treasures Along the Path, (530) 478 7656 or email treasures@ananda.org.

Once settled in the community, Bill participated in community events, enjoyed coming to meals, and taught a yoga class at the local senior center. Slim and athletic in his sixties, he loved to hike and was once an avid skier. Then, three years ago, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

A deeply rewarding friendship
Today Bill and I are going on our weekly walk. It takes us about an hour and we enjoy sharing what’s going on in our lives. But mostly we talk about God, the spiritual path, and the challenges we face as devotees.

Before his illness, Bill and I had occasionally taken walks, but we started going for regular walks when he agreed to help me with a project. I was completing the requirements for a bachelor of science in nursing and needed to do a holistic case study on someone with a chronic disease. Not only was Bill kind enough to oblige, in the process we forged a deeply rewarding friendship.

As we walk, Bill reminds me to keep my arms swinging. I last for about 30 seconds and place my hands back in my pockets. Bill says that the “trainers” at his weekly exercise class try to get everyone to swing their arms. Since this is particularly difficult to do if the Parkinson’s is advanced, the trainers offer walking sticks and encourage the class to use them like ski poles. I realize how fortunate I am to be able to swing my arms, so I silently practice gratitude and give it another try.

The appeal of warmer weather
Having grown up in New Jersey and skied most of his life, Bill is used to cold weather. But today it’s about 42 degrees and that’s a bit chilly for us both. The conversation changes to Florida and warmer weather. Bill has been talking about Florida for some weeks now. Although he enjoys the community and the friends he has made, a warmer, dryer climate is very appealing. Parkinson’s affects the joints and muscles causing stiffness, especially in cold weather.

Bill has friends in Florida and will be visiting soon to check it out as a possible place to live. His only living relative, a brother, also lives on the east coast.

Bill knows that to meet the challenges of Parkinson’s, he needs to raise his physical, mental, and spiritual energy. He believes that miracles do happen and that a recovery from Parkinson’s is a very real possibility. It is this thought that keeps him going. He says, “The key for me is not to lose hope.”

A disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, Bill’s faith is built upon years of practicing yoga and meditation, and reading the Bible. In his daily sadhana, he spends about half of his time doing deep relaxation, visualization, and affirmations. The rest is spent meditating in the silence and feeling God’s presence. He tells me: “In the silence I don’t have Parkinson’s. Everything is all right and I feel at peace.”

Grateful for the entire body
Currently, he is working with the concept of gratitude. Bill has a lot of low back and neck pain, hoarseness of throat, and fatigue. He visualizes what is working well in his body, gives thanks for what is healthy, and expands that gratitude out to the entire body. His affirmation is: “I rest and relax in God’s perfect love. My mind is at peace and my body is healed.”

Near the end of our walk, I ask Bill how his practice of the Energization Exercises is going. He has been doing them in bed because of balance problems. Just then, Bill stops in the road and starts doing the calf tensing exercise. He gets a big smile on his face because he is able to do it today! We talk about how doing the Energization Exercises strengthens our will and ability to direct the life force.

The most healing remedy
I also ask Bill how Parkinson’s has changed his life. He responds with a story. “I was riding the light rail one day when I noticed a fellow in a wheel chair. Instead of arms, he had two floppy stubs. He had no lower legs. Our eyes met and a connection was made. I wanted to go over and hug him. I guess I recognized myself in him and wanted to let him know he was loved, that it was all going to work out, and that he was in God’s hands. I now have great empathy for those who are dealing with chronic physical, mental, or emotional issues.”

In my work as a hospice nurse, I have seen that the knowledge that one is loved is one of the most healing remedies available. Hope of a cure may be gone but not for a “transition” full of compassion, kindness, and dignity. Patients and family are deeply reassured to know they will not be abandoned, and that loving help will be available during the final weeks and hours.

The potential for isolation
Later, Bill and I have tea together. He starts to cough while drinking the tea and I ask if he has been having any difficulty swallowing. He says he has had some problems. He is at risk for aspiration pneumonia because of a poor swallow reflex related to Parkinson’s. He is also at risk for falling because of muscle stiffness in his legs. Bill says: “I am learning that I am not the body, but spirit in the body. The only thing that counts is my personal relationship with God.”

With any chronic illness there is the potential for isolation. Bill doesn’t mention it directly, but I sense he is already feeling a bit of this and, for this reason also, is looking towards Florida. He is still able to drive and shop, but no longer teaches at the senior center. He had been living alone, but six months ago a family in the community changed their sleeping arrangements and offered him the master bedroom. Even so, I know he is concerned about becoming a “burden.”

Have I done my best?
Though Bill and I have never discussed it, surely the thought must come: When will this lifetime end? How will I look back on my life’s story? Will I be satisfied that I did my best? Even when we do our best, our general conditioning is to think we could have done better, something Yogananda cautions us never to do.

In his writings on “Evening Hospice,” Swami Kriyananda offers a number of suggestions meant for the end of life, though certainly of benefit at any time. Some of the most important are:

• Relinquish attachments.
• Release the grip of ego-consciousness.
• Offer every regret into God’s love and infinite consciousness.
• Forgive past hurts and betrayals.
• Give out universal love to everyone, even to so-called enemies.
• Concentrate on infinity.
• Practice devotion.
• Overcome fear by realizing that you are not this body.

Transforming before my eyes
These are not suggestions that can be knocked out in a day or two. They are life-long pursuits requiring daily attention.

But they are certainly the issues Bill is now addressing. Every day he practices relinquishing attachment to a body that no longer obeys him, releasing a bit more “the grip of ego-consciousness,” and offering “universal love” to everyone.

Thinking of how I’ve faced lesser challenges, I am humbled by how well Bill has succeeded in raising and focusing his energy. It’s as if he were taking a crash course in Self-realization with extremely challenging subjects, requiring him to be fully present, moment-by-moment.

And he is transforming before my eyes. Whether or not his disease is cured, a miracle is already in the making.

Post Script: Bill recently moved to a graduated living community in Florida where he has a small studio apartment. Though he misses the community and our weekly walks, he is enjoying the warm climate and the opportunity to spend time at the beach. If he continues to deteriorate physically, he can remain in the community and move from independent living to assisted-living, then to intermediate care, and finally, if necessary, into full time care.

Kent Baughman, a Lightbearer and founding member of the Ananda Community in Portland OR, currently works as a hospice nurse and case manager in Portland. His goal is to create an Evening Hospice program based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

“Never go to bed at night until you have convinced your mind that this world is God’s dream.” - Paramhansa Yogananda.

There are many theories as to why we dream, but rarely, if ever, does any scholar or scientist dare give a definitive opinion. They say, “We simply don’t know for sure.” Paramhansa Yogananda, however, did dare to say: “I know exactly why and how we dream.”

Life itself is a dream
One of the major themes of Yogananda’s teachings is the importance of cognizing the dream nature of the universe. He explains that the way we dream mimics the mechanism that produces all of life: life is like a movie projected on the cosmic screen of space; our nightly dreams are like little movies within the big movie of life.

Dreams come to us to strongly hint that what we call reality or life is not as real as it may seem. This is the primary reason we dream! Other theories for why we dream may have some validity, but they are not nearly as important as this central concept: we dream to help us understand a basic reality of life: Life itself is a dream.

The cosmic dream: intensely vivid
Life, even for ordinary human beings, possesses a certain dreamlike quality. Things happen that make us ask: “Am I dreaming? Perhaps I should pinch myself to wake up!”

Nevertheless, when we are awake, we generally are convinced of the reality of the world around us, in part because we awaken daily to the same “scenario.” Also, this cosmic dream was created by God and lacks the vague, slightly irrational quality of most human dreams; it thus seems truer than our own nightly dreams.

What is reality
There’s a story Yogananda often told to illustrate these principles. A farmer was standing by a tree, absorbed in thought. His wife came rushing up, weeping, to announce that a cobra had just killed their only son. The farmer made no reply. Stunned by his seeming indifference, the wife cried, “You are heartless!”

“You don’t understand,” the farmer replied. “Last night I dreamed that I was a king, and that I had seven sons. They went out into the forest and all were bitten by cobras and died. Now I am wondering whether I ought to weep for my seven dead sons in that dream, or for our one son who has just been killed in this dream we are dreaming now?”

The farmer was a man of spiritual vision. To him, the material world and the subconscious dream world were both equally unreal. Most people dream at night, but few take their jumbled dreams seriously. So the greatest lesson dreamland has to offer is that we must not take our earthly experiences too seriously either.

Yogananda: “Avoid subconscious dreams”
Ordinary dreams emerge mainly from the subconscious. Yogananda emphasizes that these ordinary, subconsciously produced dreams are to be avoided; they offer neither pure rest nor helpful instructions. A person who is highly developed spiritually seldom has such dreams.

The more we live a spiritually-oriented life focused on prayer and meditation, the more likely we are to experience superconscious dreams, which come from our Higher Self or God. Superconscious dreams offer guidance and deep inspiration; or they depict future happenings, which, good or bad, always come true.

They also give hints of spiritual progress, and include messages that motivate the ego to make the effort to return to its home of permanent bliss in God. Occasionally the superconscious inserts such messages into subconscious dreams.

Semi-superconscious dreams (conscious sleep)
Yogananda describes another type of dream that resembles superconscious dreams: semi-superconscious dreams or “conscious sleep.”  Like superconscious dreams, this type of dream is also a prophetic, enlightening, or spiritually helpful dream.

In her book, The Flawless Mirror, Kamala Silva, a Yogananda disciple from age fifteen, describes a semi-superconscious dreams that contained an important warning:

Evening. I felt a tremendous need to sleep in a very different way than being sleepy. It was as if being drawn into it. When I closed my eyes for sleep, I was with Master seemingly at once and intensely aware. It was an outdoor setting.

Master indicated that [I] was to go far up a road…. I paused there, momentarily, looking up at Master. He was on the edge of the dirt embankment about twelve feet above. With a cane he moved a small stone, but it seemed to loosen and dislodge another one, the size of a football, and his expression was one of great concern as the large stone came forcefully down toward me. I couldn’t tell where it might hit! I felt a strong air current as it moved past me.

I said to Master, ‘I couldn’t tell which way to move, so I stood still.’ He replied very gravely: ‘Yes, sometimes that is also God’s way.’

This experience came to have a tremendous meaning in my life, portending a great karmic blow. When it came I wanted with all my being to move, to act, to do something, but the divine inner guidance of God and Guru continued to be the same for me that I had experienced in this vision: to ‘stand still.’

Dreams vs. visions
Superconscious visions occur when one is able to consciously withdraw the energy from the muscles and heart and direct it one-pointedly to the point between the eyebrows. The breath and heart slow down or cease altogether.

Superconscious visions can occur while awake or asleep, with eyes open or closed. They are accompanied by feelings of heightened awareness, blessing, and joy.

There is also another, spiritually higher type of vision, or “super-vision,” where one can actually talk to a saint or master. This type of vision usually comes only to someone who has attained a high state of God-consciousness.

The meaning of dream symbols
Many people are fascinated by dream symbols, but Yogananda recommends that we put energy into deciphering only those dreams that have a superconscious message. Until we are highly developed spiritually, most dreams will come from our subconscious and merely reflect our present mental state.

Superconscious and semi-superconscious dreams often contain uplifting and instructive symbols. Here is a partial list of superconscious dream symbols from Yogananda:

• A huge fire: the burning of past karma.

• Water: divine perceptions through meditation.

• A boat: one should seek the right guru.

• Altars: God-communion or marriage with an extremely spiritual soul.

• The sun and the moon: the Father and Mother aspects of God.

• Flowers: the budding of blossoms of creative wisdom.

• A feeling of expansion in space: the feeling of omnipresence felt in meditation.

Become king of the three kingdoms
To gain more control over our lives, Yogananda suggests that we learn to enter the subconscious dream state, and the conscious and superconscious states at will. He gives the following instructions for learning to fall asleep at will:

• Sit against the back of a chair. Close and lower your eyes, as though gazing downward. Dismiss all restless thoughts; feel yourself becoming drowsy.

• Let go, fall asleep, or at least try to doze. Repeat this until you are submerged in the dreamland of sleep as soon as you close and lower your eyes.

• When you are heavy with sleep, quickly tense the whole body and sit upright with a straight spine. Lift and open your eyes and look straight ahead at one object without winking. Take a deep, invigorating breath and banish sleep at will!

Waking at will
To wake at will:

• Every night, before dropping off to sleep, command your subconscious mind to wake you at a different hour. Continue making this suggestion to the subconscious mind until it obeys.

• Fall asleep with the thought that a matter of vital importance depends upon your getting up at your appointed hour.

Entering the superconscious state at will
After we are able to fall asleep instantly or to wake at will, we can begin to practice entering the superconscious state at will. Yogananda explains:

• Fix your vision at the point between the eyebrows.

• Try to go instantaneously into a state of deep peace or joy.

In shifting from the conscious to the superconscious plane, your lungs must be nearing breathlessness and your heart calm. The regular practice of deep meditation helps one achieve this.

Fully awake in cosmic consciousness
The lowest state of subconscious sleep and ordinary dreaming inevitably falls away as the superconscious becomes more predominant in our lives. Through self-effort and grace, superconsciousness evolves into full cosmic consciousness.

A person fully awake in cosmic consciousness perceives this cosmos for what it is: a dream manifested by God. Fully aligned with God, he too is now able to effortlessly materialize and dematerialize the illusions of the cosmic dream.

Savitri Simpson, a Lightbearer, resides at Ananda Village. This article is excerpted from her new, self-published book, The Meaning of Dreaming: Paramhansa Yogananda’s Teachings on Why We Dream and What Our Dreams Mean. You can purchase the book from the author at savitri@ananda.org or (530) 478-7560 x7019.

Should We Analyze Our Dreams?
by Swami Kriyananda

The difficulty with psychoanalysis, as we know it today, is that it makes people too self-conscious, when what we need is to get away from being overly self-consciousness and self-involved. If we think: “I did this, and I did that, and I did the other thing,” we are going to be pulled down by all these “I-thoughts.”

We have a marvelous laboratory for testing this theory here at Ananda Village. For nearly forty years, we’ve seen that in every case, those who were happiest were those who thought least about themselves, and those who never really found happiness were those who were always worrying about themselves and whether they were wrong about this or that in their past.

We need to get rid of that attitude—and the same applies to dream analysis. Too much dream analysis makes us preoccupied with ourselves.

Most dreams do not have the kind of significance that some people who teach this kind of therapy try to insist. Most dreams have no meaning at all, being a product of subconscious “ramblings.”

I give a good example of this sort of overly analytical thinking in my book, Hope for a Better World. I describe what I call my “Glenn Miller” dream. I woke up feeling, “Oh, that was good fun!” But if I had tried to analyze the dream in detail, I would have gotten nowhere.

The most important thing about a dream is how you feel about it after you wake up. It’s condensed into a feeling—do you feel good or do you feel bad? But there’s much too much attention given to dream analysis.

However, sometimes a dream is a true superconscious dream. That kind of dream uplifts you. It’s wonderful to have such dreams! You see Paramhansa Yogananda or some saint and you feel such joy. That’s a blessing!

Remember that we do get some karma from dreams, because there’s still the thought: “I am doing this.” So it’s best that we get rid of that thought. Much better: just go into superconsciousness.

Divided in two directions
In order to look for “the best,” you must make comparisons, judging one thing superior and all others as inferior. People who say, “Only my religion is the best,” create dreadful divisions in the world. More spiritually mature people recognize that each individual has his or her own “best way.”

All religions face the problem of intolerance; it’s a part of human nature. Energy can flow in two directions: either toward more and more differentiation, comparison, and prejudice or upward toward more unity, love, and joy.

Tendencies in human nature
But it isn’t only the different religions that divide people; it’s also different temperaments. Paramhansa Yogananda said that there are a variety of ways to experience truth. But if any one aspect excludes others, it can create imbalances that drive truth away.

For example, there are those types that Yogananda called the “emotionalists,” people who demand more and more emotion in worship until they get into such an emotional frenzy that it drives God away. (We can never really drive God away, since he is our very essence, but we can drive away our ability to perceive Him.)

Too little feeling can also drive away God-perception. This describes the “intellectualists,” people who think that by careful definition they can somehow find God. That’s like carefully defining the taste of an orange instead of actually tasting it.

The ugly head of intolerance
Yogananda referred to the third group as the “fanatics” or “dogmatists,” those who allow dogmas to substitute for the direct experience of God, and zealously seek to impose those dogmas on others. A fourth type is the “liberalist,” people who have so little sense of direction they can’t move toward any goal.

These are all tendencies in human nature. But, when any of these is overemphasized, the true experience of God must wait. And when one’s preference is presented as the “best” or “only” way, intolerance begins to rear its ugly head.

The soul will direct us
How, then, do we arrive at an experience of God? Jesus answered the woman of Samaria by saying, “God is a Spirit,” and we must worship Him “in spirit and in truth.”

“In spirit” means that we have to go into a realm subtler than sensory experience. We tend to want to experience God as we do the outward world—through the senses. God, of course, is in everything, but He is hidden in the things of this world. To have the direct experience of God— the state of “Self-realization”— we have to go beyond the senses into a deep, inward state of stillness.

The soul knows that it is a part of God and yearns for the direct experience of its true nature; everything else gives only fleeting contentment. Ultimately, it is the soul that directs us to find our fulfillment inwardly.

Who yearns to be a paraplegic?
A study looked at the long-term “sense of happiness” or “satisfaction” of various groups of people. They found that paraplegics tended to be just as happy as those who had won the lottery.

Now, that’s a “mind-blowing” concept when you stop to think about desires and life-goals. Who wants to be a paraplegic? Nobody! How many people yearn to win the lottery or the equivalent? Almost everyone!

Paraplegics however, because challenged outwardly, begin to find happiness inside, which is in the only place it can be found. Finding happiness is the whole goal of life. You don’t need to change that goal; you just need to seek it inside yourself rather than outwardly in things.

Engage all parts of your nature
In our search for God, we have to engage all aspects of ourselves, especially the heart. When in balance, all parts of our nature can help us spiritually.

Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Yogananda explained that each of these phrases has a very deep, mystical aspect to it. “With all thy heart” means that we have to focus all of our love on God and stay constant in that love.

We usually begin our prayers with, “Heavenly Father, Divine Mother, Friend, Beloved, God,” because these are the ways we experience love in this world: through the love of parents, our beloved, or friends. Ultimately the love between guru and disciple is the most precious of all because in that relationship, the soul’s unconditional love can burst into a full flowering.

Do everything you can to protect it
The most helpful strategy on the spiritual path is to increase your devotion. To start a campfire, you hold a match to sticks or straw and produce a small flame, which you must carefully prevent from going out. The first small flame of devotion in your heart is like that. Once ignited, you must do everything you can to protect it and let it grow.

Gradually, as the flame of devotion grows, you can add more and more fuel – kindness to everyone, friendship to the lonely, service to God, — until the flame of love becomes a blazing fire. People will be drawn to that light and warmth.

This is what we see with saints. People will travel from across the globe just to bask in the warmth of their love for God. The essence of a saint is that there is nothing left except love for God. Everything else has been burnt up in the fire of their devotion.

“All thy mind, soul, and strength”
“With all thy mind” means that the state of inner communion requires complete concentration. If our mind is divided and restless, we can’t perceive our unity with God.

“With all thy soul” refers to our soul nature, which is eternally united with God. The more we dissolve our ego tendency back into our immortal soul nature, the more we experience our unity with God.

“With all our strength” does not mean to pray with greater and greater tension. It refers to our life force. If we want to worship “in spirit and in truth,” we have to offer God all our life force by reversing its normal, outward flow and redirecting it inward. As that happens, the senses calm down, the mind is controlled, and our devotion flows one-pointedly toward God.

Ultimately there is no “neighbor”
And so, this prayer, “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength,” is really a description of deep meditation—of worshipping God “in spirit and in truth.” When we are able to love God in this way, the other part of the prayer, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” becomes easy for us.

We began with the woman of Samaria asking, “What is the best way to worship?” We end with Jesus saying, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” not like thyself. Your neighbor is not “kind of similar” to you. Ultimately there is no neighbor; there is only one Self, one God.

In the oneness brought by deep meditation, we see the face of God shining back at us through all forms. In the end of this beautiful drama of life, there is only God helping God and God loving God. And in that state our souls finally come to rest.

From a May 29, 2007 talk at Ananda Village.

Jyotish and Devi Novak are acharyas (spiritual directors) for Ananda Sangha Worldwide. Jyotish is also spiritual director for the Ananda Sevaka Order, worldwide.

Other Clarity articles by Jyotish and Devi Novak are listed under “Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi.”

Being at Ananda accelerated our spiritual growth tremendously; our inner life was deeply blessed. But our family was also growing (three children eventually), and we soon had new responsibilities to fulfill.

The challenge of earning a living
In the days before the internet, it was tough making a living in an extremely rural area. We lived very simply: we had a large garden and I sewed many of our clothes. I was mostly a stay-at-home mom and did childcare, sewing, or baking to bring in a little income, but for years, there was no money to cushion against the unexpected.

This gradually created a sense of “lack,” which developed its own magnetism. Our family had to experience several episodes of extreme financial difficulty before Tim and I found the right balance between living simply and being able to joyfully attract the money we needed. In fact, we focused so much on “spending less” that it was a “light bulb moment” when we realized we actually needed to “earn more.”

The cabinet shop: a hard teacher
The vehicle for much of our “instruction” was the Ananda cabinet shop. As a capable craftsman, Tim soon became manager. At that time, however, small cabinet shops tended to be high overhead and low profit; the least little breeze of a housing recession would nearly blow them over.

In a very serious recession in the early 80’s, two thirds of all the cabinet shops in the county went bankrupt. Tim was the last to throw in the towel.

Tim found other work in town, but eventually started getting calls for his beautiful cabinetwork. He started up again privately, renting the old cabinet shop space. We had some good years and also some bad years.

Suffice it to say, the bad years gave us a taste of real hardship. Through it all, our family life was happy and we retained our inner peace. But when simplicity goes too far, it starts to feel like poverty.

To disconnect from the unpredictable housing industry, Tim began making meditation benches.* Later, he also made hammer dulcimer musical instruments, and some wonderful recordings. These ventures started slowly, however, and we were still primarily dependent upon the cabinet business.

A mounting stack of bills
In the early ‘90s, there was another housing slowdown, and the cabinet business really took a hit—we were right back into the same struggle to survive. I was then running the fledgling Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry from home.

One day, in desperation, I placed my hands on a mounting stack of bills and prayed, “Divine Mother, I have no idea how we are going to pay these bills. You will have to show me how.” I then sent divine healing energy into that pile of bills.

An hour later, I was offered a nurse’s aide position three nights a week for an elderly couple nearby. I slept in a private room but would answer their bell as needed in the night. I got $100 a night, and was home with my kids by breakfast! The pile of bills soon disappeared.

“This isn’t about the economy”
Things were better for a little while, but Tim’s business still struggled. At this point he said, “This isn’t really about the economy, it’s about my karma. I’m going to do Master’s ‘material success affirmation’ until this karma is GONE!”

Previously, I couldn’t relate to this affirmation, but now it was quite obvious we needed it. At first Tim and I simply read it aloud together, but once we memorized it, we felt its deep power. Tim would say it 30 times a day. He described the process as “removing cobwebs of disbelief from my mind.”

One day, soon after we memorized it, I was feeling anxious about some upcoming bills. But now Yogananda’s powerful words were implanted in my mind, right beside that fearful sense of lack. I realized I had a choice. So I said the affirmation again, with power! Things improved immediately.

A huge turning point
This period was a huge turning point for us. We felt many inner blocks dissolve. Tim felt the inner guidance to “hold up each business decision to the spiritual eye.” In the past, his business struggles often came after taking on a “bad” client when cabinet jobs were scarce. Now that he trusted his intuition, there were no further financial setbacks.

In time, Tim’s meditation bench business became the family’s primary source of income, especially once he had a good website. We were able to meet our obligations and even save a little. Life was still fairly simple, but at a higher level.

An opportunity to expand
In June 2006, Swami Kriyananda invited Tim to perform one of the main roles in his play, Jewel in the Lotus, during the 2007 International Mahasamadhi Retreat in India. Tim wanted me to go, and also our youngest son, David, who still lived at home.

All of a sudden this looked like a very expensive trip! How were we to pay for it? We didn’t have money for international travel for three people, and I didn’t want to go into debt again. I found myself almost resenting the expense of the trip, yet I wanted to be receptive to God’s flow.

Swami Kriyananda’s new course, Material Success through Yoga Principles, teaches how to magnetize abundance as needed, without getting trapped in the desire for luxury.  Studying these lessons helped dissolve a few remaining blocks about money, giving me inner “permission” to receive God’s blessings to meet any needs in life.

So, I prayed, “Divine Mother, I hope you have a plan, because we sure don’t…”

A “thank you” from Divine Mother
In July, I received a number of unsolicited donations earmarked for the trip, almost the exact amount of my plane ticket. Based on what the donors said, the money seemed like a “thank you” from Divine Mother for my years of service through Ananda’s Healing Prayer Ministry.

In September, Tim was given some “free miles” to cover his plane ticket, but we were wondering how we would manifest the rest of the money for the trip (David’s plane ticket, hotel costs, etc.). Later in the month, when Tim and I were visiting beautiful Lake Tahoe and gazing down at the expansive view, I started to affirm with him half-jokingly, “Who brings in the orders? God brings in the orders!”

Suddenly, we were joyfully invoking God’s support to flow through Tim’s meditation bench business. September was Tim’s biggest month ever, October was even bigger, and so it continued….

A desire to serve others
At the heart of our affirmations was the desire to serve others—by taking the play to India and by energizing the new Indian healing prayer ministry. This expansive motive inspired us to affirm exuberantly, much more so than if the trip had been only for ourselves.

Later that fall, when I was asked to teach piano lessons to Gaurja, an exchange student from India, I realized I had really begun to trust Divine Mother’s “financial flow.” Since Gaurja’s funds were limited, I didn’t charge for the lessons even though we still lacked all the money for the upcoming trip. Surprisingly, giving these lessons proved to be great fun, and a joyful balance to my service in the healing prayer ministry.

To teach Gaurja, I used the piano in the Ananda Village thrift store—years ago, I had sold my old, worn-out piano and never replaced it. I soon realized, however, that I needed my own piano for the convenience of teaching at home and to brush up on my playing.

Searching online, I found a very high quality electric piano priced 80% below retail, but still much more than we wanted to pay. Amazingly, it felt right to Tim and me to buy this piano. It made no sense! I was giving piano lessons for free, and we were leaving for India soon, yet the inner feeling was calm and very expansive. We ordered the piano.

Almost the exact amount
Soon after, we left for India. After two nights in the hotel, I casually mentioned to Sangeeta, Gaurja’s mother, that I felt lonely at the hotel and missed being with other devotees. Before I even knew what was happening, Sangeeta had arranged for us to stay in the homes of two devotee families in India, only a short car ride from our ashram. This turned out to be a delightful highlight of the trip.

Once back home, we realized that without hotel bills to pay, we now had enough money to pay for the piano. It almost worked out to the exact amount.

A growing sense of trust
I am deeply grateful to be more in tune with this expansive flow of abundance. My heart is more openly trusting of God’s flow, even when I don’t know how it will all work out.

As this grows trust grows, I am able to serve in more and more ways, with fewer limits. It’s time to let the music, the healing prayers, and the abundance flow.

*meditationbench.com

Mary Kretzmann, a Lightbearer and Ananda Village resident, serves in the Sangha Office as Director of the Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry.

Material Success Affirmation
by Paramhansa Yogananda

Thou art my Father
Success and joy
I am Thy child
Success and joy.

All the wealth of this earth
All the riches of the universe
Belong to Thee, belong to Thee.

I am Thy child.
The wealth of earth and universe
Belongs to me, belongs to me,
O belongs to me, belongs to me.

I lived in thoughts of poverty
And wrongly fancied I was poor
So I was poor.

Now I am home and Thy consciousness
Has made me wealthy, made me rich.
I am success, I am rich.

Thou art my treasure, I am rich, I am rich.
Thou art everything, Thou art everything.
Thou art mine.
I have everything, I have everything.
I am wealthy, I am rich.

I have everything, I have everything
I possess all and everything
Even as Thou dost, even as Thou dost.
I possess everything, I possess everything.

Thou art my wealth.
I have everything.

From Scientific Healing Affirmations, 1924 edition.

To raise the energy above the manipur, one must concentrate simultaneously at the spiritual eye. It is helpful while practicing this technique to chant AUM mentally at the point between the eyebrows. Thus, the lower energies will be raised and spiritualized.

This is the practice, often ridiculed in the West, of “contemplating one’s navel.” In fact, one’s concentration should be on the chakra in the spine behind the navel, not on the navel itself. The gaze should be directed toward the point between the eyebrows, the spiritual eye, to uplift the energy toward spiritual awareness.

Focus on the third chakra has a special virtue. It stimulates the consciousness of self-control. When the energy of this center is directed up toward the brain, it generates great power of self-control. Lahiri Mahasaya taught concentration on this center at the start of the meditation period, so as to ground the mind and establish it in attitudes of firmness and resolution.

Excerpted from The Promise of Immortality and Awaken to Superconsciousness (Crystal Clarity), and a June 17, 2007 talk at Ananda Village.

Laubach devised a remarkably effective adult literacy program known as, “Each One Teach One.” However, his primary aims were always spiritual—to live his life in a moment to moment relationship with God, and to inspire others to do the same.

“A university man’s religion”
Swami Kriyananda tells us that there was nothing in Laubach’s religious training to suggest that an inner world of divine realization existed. Kriyananda writes that “it was divinely natural and right for him, in the context of his own spiritual development, to turn his perceptions outward.”

Laubach’s own words support Kriyananda’s perception. Writing about his life before 1930, he describes himself as having a “the university man’s religion:”

I believed that Jesus was probably the best man who had ever lived. But that memory of Jesus lacked power.

Then I had a personal experience of Christ in Mindanao, Philippine Islands, which left me sure that he not only lives, but lives in my heart. When he entered my heart, he brought to me a tender compassion for the multitudes which has been the driving power of my life ever since.

Laubach grew up in Pennsylvania, in a fundamentalist Christian environment, the son of a prosperous dentist. His interest in religion began at a young age and by early adolescence, he had discovered, in the town library, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, a devotional classic on prayer and contemplation.

At age 16, Laubach decided to make the ministry his life’s work. He graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1913, and received a PhD from Columbia University in 1915. It was during his seminary years that he became acquainted with Brother Lawrence’s book, The Practice of the Presence of God.

A long standing ambition
After being ordained a minister of the Congregational Church, Laubach felt a calling for missionary work and volunteered to serve in the Philippines. He intended to work with the Moros (Moslems) on the southern coast of the island of Mindanao, one of the few areas that had not been Christianized.

However, within a few weeks of arriving in the Moro city of Dansalan in the province of Lanao, Laubach and his wife were forced to leave. The United States Army, which controlled the area, considered the Moros much too hostile to Christians.

The Laubachs settled on the northwest coast of Mindanao where they did missionary work. In 1922 they moved to Manila where Frank Laubach served as a pastor of an interdenominational church and helped establish Union Theological Seminary. But his longstanding ambition was to bring Christianity to the Moros.

An atmosphere of tension and suspicion
After fifteen years, hostilities among the Moros subsided and Laubach immediately made plans to return to Lanao. For the time being, his wife and family were to remain in Manila.

Unsuspectingly, Laubach walked into an atmosphere of tension and suspicion. Some of the Filipino Christian teachers who had previously come to Dansalan had violated local customs. Several of the teachers were killed and at least fifty of their schools burned down.

Laubach encountered hostility and indifference everywhere he went. After a month, he had to acknowledge to himself that he was beaten.

God speaks to him
Laubach was not only discouraged over his inability to win over the Moros. He was also profoundly dissatisfied with his spiritual life. Recalling the books by Thomas a Kempis and Brother Lawrence he had read years before, he realized that he was still not living his days “in a minute by minute effort to follow God’s will.”

Determined to keep the constant presence of God, he prayed with renewed fervor and asked, “What, Father, do you desire done? What, Father, do you desire done this minute?”

Each evening at sunset he climbed Signal Hill, a twenty-minute walk from his house. There, overlooking the lakes, mountains and the distant sea, he often prayed aloud and listened with all his soul for an answer. One evening, in the depths of despair, his lips began to move; it seemed that God was speaking to him through his own voice.

“My child,” the voice said, “you have failed because you do not really love these Moros. You feel superior to them because you are white. If you can forget you are an American, and think only how I love them, they will respond.”

Laubach answered, “It is the truth, God. Drive me out of myself. Come and take possession of me and think Thy thoughts in my mind.”

And the voice said again through his own lips, “If you want the Moros to be fair to your religion, be fair to theirs. Study the Koran with them.”

Learning from the Moro priests
The next day Laubach went to the Moro priests and told them that he wanted to study the Koran. They responded eagerly, thinking he wanted to become a Moslem.

They brought with them a list of the four holy books of Islam—the Torah (the laws of Moses); the Zabur (the Psalms of David); the Kitab Injil (the gospel of Jesus Christ); and the Koran of Mohammed. *

Laubach explained as well as he could in their language, “From childhood I have studied the first three books on your list.” Partly in English, partly in the Moro tongue, the priests talked of Jesus as the holiest prophet after Mohammed.

Having finally established a bridge with the Moros, Laubach was now ready to tackle the problem of illiteracy, which to him was an essential first step before talking to them of religion. His first project was to create a dictionary of  “Maranaw,” the Moro language. A printing press and a building for a school soon followed.

The Moro priests and a group of young Moros often expressed their gratitude: “You are the first who has ever tried to appreciate us,” they insisted.

Meeting God face to face
Not only was Laubach’s work showing outward results, his spiritual experiment was also bearing fruit. He wrote: “Now I like God’s presence so much that when He slips out of my mind—as He does many times a day—I feel as though I had deserted Him and lost something very precious in my life.”

In letters to friends and relatives, Laubach shared his inner experiences:

How infinitely richer this direct first hand grasping of God is, than the old method which I used and recommended for years: the reading of endless devotional books. Almost it seems to me now that the very Bible cannot be read as a substitute for meeting God soul to soul and face to face….

I have tasted a thrill in fellowship with God…. This afternoon the possession of God has caught me up with such sheer joy that I thought I never had known anything like it. God was so close and so amazingly lovely that I felt like melting all over with a strange and blissful contentment.

The birth of “Each One Teach One”
The reading campaign was a great success. When the depression of the 1930s and lack of funds threatened to cripple the work, Laubach arrived at the “Each One Teach One” concept—a revolutionary idea, whereby everyone who knew how to read must teach someone else.

This concept became the cornerstone of Laubach’s adult literacy program, and the foundation for teaching adult literacy on a mass basis, using volunteer teachers. His new teaching method soon spread throughout much of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

In spite of years of intense travel and activity, Laubach continued his “game with minutes” in which he challenged himself to think of God at least once each minute. Having disciplined himself to rise at 3 or 4 a.m., he wrote, prayed and meditated during the early morning hours, and recorded in his diary his daily struggle towards spiritual perfection.

In the mid-1930s he wrote a booklet, The Game with Minutes, designed to show others how to practice the presence of God.

The secret “interview room”
Many years later Laubach had a vision of God and Jesus together in a long room. Jesus spoke to him, saying it was time for him to take “a long stride toward becoming a full-grown son of God.” Jesus explained:

Your game with the minutes was in the right direction, but tonight you are going beyond that game into the game with moments. One of your songs which best express the goal for you is:

Moment by moment
I’m lost in His love.
Moment by moment
I’ve power from above.

Jesus said that from then on, Laubach was to spend each “day and night, with the door wide open into the secret interview room with us.” In an obvious reference to the spiritual eye, Jesus explained that the interview room was “in the front of your head: When you wish to consult us, lift up your eyes a little and there we are, not beyond the stars but just over your own eyes.”

Intense and constant work
As Laubach approached his eightieth birthday, he was asked about the seeming conflict between his trust in God and his habit of intense and constant work. He said:

As far as my faith is concerned, I believe that God is running the universe.  He is going to work out everything. If He doesn’t work it out through one of us, He will work it out through another who is willing. But I must not forget that these things will not come through me unless I work with all my might.

Frank Laubach died June 11, 1970, at the age of 85.

Nakin Lenti, a minister and long-time Ananda member, serves in the Sangha Office at Ananda Village.

*Muslims do not regard Muhammad as the founder of a new religion, but as the restorer of the original monotheistic faith of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. Most Muslims today believe that the Jewish and Christian scriptures have been corrupted and are not the original divine revelations.

Meditation: the point of greatest leverage
Paramhansa Yogananda said that our spiritual path is a combination of meditation and service. Service purifies the consciousness when done correctly, that is, without the desire for the fruits. For most of us, however, meditation is the point of greatest leverage. If we can meditate longer and more deeply, we will make faster spiritual progress than in any other way.

Yogananda defined meditation as “concentration on God or one of His qualities,” such as: love, joy, peace, calmness, wisdom, light, sound and power. The challenge is concentration.

If you can concentrate more deeply, your meditations will be more fulfilling and their depth and length will automatically begin to increase. When you are deeply concentrated, you won’t want to leave your meditation.

How do we bring more focus in our meditation? The key, by and large, is training the mind into a habit of concentration.

Focal points for concentration
Each of the meditation techniques of Ananda’s spiritual path has a specific point of concentration, a way to focus the mind and energy. The Hong Sau technique involves concentrating on the breath.

When doing Kriya we focus on moving energy up and down the spine, and looking into the light at the spiritual eye. With the AUM technique we focus on the inner sounds.

If we feel devotion in our meditation, we concentrate more deeply on that feeling. And if we’re visualizing Yogananda or some other Master, we focus on his image. Prayer and chanting, too, give a focal point for the mind.

Expect to go deep
The first few minutes of each meditation are very important, and we need to develop a habit of starting immediately with deep concentration.

It’s helpful to go into your meditation room expecting to have a deep meditation. It’s also important to establish a kind of psychic barrier that says, “When I come in here, I don’t bring cares, or worries, or projects.”

Take away the permission
Most of us have a tendency to concentrate briefly and then to drift into mental restlessness, the mind vacillating between periods of concentration and periods of mental drifting. We can stop this with a strong act of will.

As soon as you catch yourself not concentrating, train the mind to immediately focus again. The longer you let your mind wander, the more you give permission to its restlessness. So, take away that permission.

Over the years I’ve discovered a few helpful tricks. While in meditation a thought will sometimes come into my mind, perhaps about a project I’m planning. When that happens, I’ll mentally say, “After I’m done meditating I’ll put my mind to that, but not now.”

It works often, but not always. On rare occasions, if the thought is too persistent, I’ll write it down a on a little pad of paper so I don’t forget. Then I can resume meditating without the nagging anxiety of losing an important idea.

Mental chanting can also help break cycles of restlessness. The key is to do whatever is needed to get the mind to stay focused one pointedly on the object of your meditation.

Practice in daily life
Our ability to concentrate in meditation is enhanced if we practice it also in daily life. Recently we were in an airport and there was a television about fifty feet away from where we were sitting. We were too far away to hear or see anything other than the images on the screen, flashing and changing every two or three seconds.

We normally don’t notice how quickly images change because we’re absorbed in the content. But watching TV trains us to be restless; it’s teaches the brain to demand new stimulation every three seconds.

Train yourself to do one thing at a time, to do it with deep concentration, and to finish it. If you have ever seen Swami Kriyananda at work you will know exactly what I mean. His focus is extreme.

We’ve seen him reviewing letters brought by his secretary. Then someone comes in who urgently wants to speak with him and you can almost see the person’s fluttering emotions.

Kriyananda knows that the person and the emotions are there. He may even acknowledge the person very briefly. But, he stays focused on the letters, signs them, and finishes his task. After that he turns to the person with full attention.

It’s a very clear demonstration of concentration. He’s not trying to read letters, relate to the person waiting, and talk to his secretary all at the same time. When you work that way, nothing gets done right. Multi-tasking is not a yogic practice. In fact, it breeds mental restlessness.

Always start with Hong Sau
It’s very important to begin your meditation with the Hong Sau technique. By not doing Hong Sau, you start with a handicap. Hong Sau is a bija mantra that helps calm the astral energy in the spine, which in turn, helps calm the breath and focus the mind.

Hong Sau isn’t just a technique for beginners. It’s one of the cornerstones of our spiritual path. If you have gotten out of the habit of doing it, it would be good to retrain yourself to start each meditation with Hong Sau. I would recommend doing it for a minimum of ten or fifteen minutes.

Try to focus on solely on the breath—feeling it and gradually observing it closer to the point between the eyebrows. Practice with the sense that you are becoming so concentrated that you are going breathless.

Hong Sau, done deeply, will train the mind to stay concentrated. As you learn to maintain that focus, your practice of the other techniques, and your meditations in general, will become deeper and deeper.

The focused feeling of the heart
It is good to vary the mix of the techniques you practice. Those who have been initiated into Kriya Yoga should always try to do their Kriyas in each meditation.

But, other practices are important also. Give some time to visualization, especially of the Guru’s face and eyes. Inner prayer, chanting, or repeating “Reveal Thyself” or “Om Guru” over and over also gives you a very clear target for concentration. But verbalization can only take you so far.

You should try to get behind the words into the deep feelings the words are trying to express. This devotional yearning of the heart to be in God’s presence is something much deeper than the mere reciting of the words.

Both will and feeling are needed
Successful practice of any technique requires that we engage the full power of both our will and feeling. Yogananda taught that in doing the Energization Exercises, we should tense with will, then relax and feel.

Each technique of our path has both a particular point of concentration (as discussed earlier) and also a particular focus for the feelings. With Hong Sau we focus the mind on the breath. But, the feelings should also be directed toward a sense of deep relaxation into the spiritual eye, and a yearning to be free of the body.

The practice of Kriya Yoga involves using your will power to move the energy up and down the spine. Yogananda said, “ The greater the will the greater the flow of energy.”

The more you do Kriya with intensity, the more you strengthen the upward flow of energy in the spine. But, the deeper practice of Kriya requires that we also try to feel that energy.

Going beyond techniques
Finally, there comes a time in meditation when we need to let go of all techniques, relax deeply, and feel God’s presence. Many people leave their meditation without doing this.
But, real depth of meditation demands that we go beyond outer practices, and simply be in the presence of God. Try to become absorbed in the inner silence or in the vibration of His love or joy.

Then try to increase the intensity of that feeling and to expand it. Feel that you are expanding that feeling farther and farther, beyond all limitations of your body and personality.

Yogananda said that when listening to AUM, we should try to feel the sound expanding first throughout the brain, then the whole body. Then try to feel it expanding beyond the body until you become all space.

AUM practiced like this can take you to an extremely deep place in meditation. Floating in these expanded states—of AUM, calmness, love, or joy—will break down the sense of ego and bring us back to our soul nature.

“All I want is You”
Try not to block the depth of your meditation with wrong attitudes. Some of the more common wrong attitudes are: a sense of unworthiness, of not being ready to know God, that God is distant from you, or that you need to do something to deserve His presence.

Pray or meditate with the consciousness that you’re already in the state you’re trying to achieve. God is already in each one of us as much as He possibly can be. All He is waiting for us to do is to realize that and to say, “ I don’t care about anything else—all I want is You.”

Spiritualize each day
It’s very important at night, before you go to sleep, to give everything you have, and everything you are, back to God, so that you’re not clinging to anything in this world. And try to wake up with a chant or prayer in your mind—some awareness of God—so that the end and beginning of your day are spiritualized.

Then, when you go into the meditation room, go in with the intention of diving deep right away, and staying deep for as long as you can.

From an October 18, 2006 talk at Ananda Village.

Jyotish and Devi Novak are acharyas (spiritual directors) for Ananda Sangha Worldwide. Jyotish Novak is also acharya for the Ananda Sevaka Order, worldwide.

What Is a Jivan Mukta?
by Swami Kriyananda

Paramhansa Yogananda gave the following explanation of the stages of spiritual awakening: A master, having shed every vestige of ego, merges his consciousness in God. At this point he becomes what the Indian scriptures term a jivan mukta: one who is free in spirit even though living in a physical body. Such a great soul, no longer trapped in delusion, has won release from the bondage of desire. His reality, now, is God alone.

A jivan mukta still carries in his subconscious, however, the memories of his past, ego-motivated deeds. These memories must be expunged also, released into cosmic consciousness. The jivan mukta must realize that the Infinite Dreamer has ever resided at the heart of his human actions. He was their central reality, merely obscured by egoic ignorance.

That divine presence must be realized in even the most mundane memory. Even criminal actions are but veils the ego casts over its inherent divinity. An enlightened master, having released into soul-freedom the last of his karmic memories, becomes a param mukta, or fully liberated soul. Such freedom is rarely achieved on this material plane of existence, but it does occur.

When a fully liberated master is reborn on earth, he comes in response to humanity’s spiritual needs. In this case, he is an avatar, or divine incarnation. Through him, God radiates a power greater than even that of a param mukta. One who is fully liberated in this life can save his direct disciples, but a divine incarnation can bring to God as many as come to him with devotion.

Excerpted from The Promise of Immortality, Crystal Clarity Publishers.

Other Clarity articles by Jyotish and Devi Novak are listed under “Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi.”

Was meditation to blame?
Was this crisis caused by meditation? At the time it seemed possible for I had begun to experience a feeling of disconnectedness, and other unusual feelings, only after I had started meditating. Afraid to have another emotional catastrophe, I stopped meditating altogether.

During the next 18 months, I often fell into deep moods. Life seemed to have little value or purpose. I believed in Yogananda’s path, but was frightened to do the one thing he seemed to suggest above all others—meditate—for fear it would make my situation worse.

At this time, at age 20, I was living in the greater Seattle area, sharing a home with my parents and younger brother, delivering pizza, and wasting most of the rest of my time with “fillers” and distractions. Then, one morning—April 22, 2003—I woke up with an intense, even desperate, desire for God.

Too desperate to give up
I consider this the greatest miracle of my life. It changed everything. That same morning I tried to meditate and again experienced a disconnected feeling, but I was now too desperate to give up.

Searching for help, I found the main Ananda website and wrote the person in charge of meditation support. Because I lived near Seattle, he suggested that I contact Terry McGilloway, one of the spiritual directors at Ananda Seattle.

Meeting Terry turned things around. He was able to guide me to meditate in ways that worked. One of his first suggestions was that I try meditating with open eyes, focusing on some object slightly above the “horizon line.” I was surprised to find that this worked marvelously.

A dramatic difference in my attitudes
Before too long, I was able to meditate without trouble—gradually, using closed eyes. I soon noticed a dramatic difference in my attitudes—an increased ability to be happy, and to appreciate life. Years of depression began to evaporate in the light of meditation.

I’m still not clear what all the issues were. In part, I believe my attitudes about meditation needed correcting. At least some of my disconnected feeling came from the attitude: “When I meditate, I am detaching myself from the world.” A more helpful understanding might have been: “When I meditate, I am expanding myself to become the world, and everything in it.”

Meditation becomes enjoyable
After participating in the Ananda Seattle community for a year and a half, I moved to Ananda Village in February 2005. Seven months later, I moved to the Ananda Meditation Retreat as part of Ananda’s new monastery. Living in a place where people come to seclude, and where silence is often practiced, I came to appreciate meditation in a new way.

I was now meditating not only because it would help me find God, but also because I enjoyed it. It became a fulfilling act, in and of itself.

The challenge of ongoing “moods”
I do not go through depression like I used to, but I still sometimes face difficulties with moods. I would have once called this depression, but “moods” implies a temporary state, which is what they’ve become. Living closely with other devotees makes it impossible to withdraw from people the way I used to.

For example, I am often asked how I am, and if I mention my difficulty, I sometimes receive helpful advice. More than once I have been saved from weeks or months of sorrow by a few kind words, or simply by being in a friend’s presence.

Over time, I have become more committed to meeting my moods “at the crest.” Swami Kriyananda has said that the highest gains come when we raise our energy to meet our spiritual tests as soon as we see them coming. This is called meeting them “at the crest.” Applied to meditation, it includes, among other things, spending the first several minutes of meditation concentrating with extra intensity.

To meet my moods at the crest, I had a double challenge. I not only needed to raise my energy level, but I also had to fight the mood’s tendency to pull my energy down.

A six-week test
The most difficult test I had was with a lengthy (six-week) mood in the spring of 2006. Right at the outset, I sprained my ankle. I received a lot of kindness and sympathy, but because of the mood, I could barely muster up enough positive energy to be grateful for the support! Thankfully, Nitai Deranja, head monk and longtime Ananda member, and I had a helpful talk during that time.

On spiritual path, he said, we all need “different gears.” He explained that sometimes it’s like you’re running downhill and everything is wonderful. Other times it’s hard even to get up in the morning. He encouraged me strongly to continue to make the effort to meditate. “Otherwise,” he said, “if you stop, life will become very difficult.”

In fact, I did cut back on meditation. Most things had become difficult, or even painful, to do, and meditation was very near the top of the list. Even so, my habit of going to morning meditations was strong enough that I was able to get to most of them. Importantly, I still always meditated at least twice a day.

Only two things are needed
During that same talk, Nitai said something else that was very encouraging. He said that to find God, you need only two things: “aspiration and perseverance.”

“Well,” I thought. “Surely I can put one foot in front of the other. Nothing else is even needed!”

One evening a few weeks later, I was meditating in the Meditation Retreat temple. Toward the end of the meditation, I felt a deep joy wash over me, as though I had been safely lifted from dark waters onto a calmly floating raft. The emotional suffering wasn’t gone, but I didn’t mind. The joy was more powerful.

God had taken care of me
The mood faded after about six weeks of suffering. At the time I thought I had done very poorly in meeting it at the crest. But six weeks is a drop in the bucket compared to the years I had preciously spent in depression. This time, with the help of good friends and a good environment, I had generated enough energy to draw God’s grace and break the mood in less than two months.

This was my first real experience of being sustained by a higher power during severe testing. God had taken care of me; I wasn’t fighting life’s battles alone. And because I had maintained my meditation practice, the return to “normal life” was like hitting the ground running.

Immediately afterwards, there was another challenge to face, not a mood but a test that seemed more dangerous. A friend encouraged me to meet it at the crest; this time there was no mood pulling my energy down and I was able to do it. As I raised my level of energy, I found that there was an energy that reached down to help me.

Overcoming your difficulties before they fully reveal themselves gives one a tangible sense of inner freedom. Increasingly, in moments of trial, I have come to rely more and more on God.

Together these tests marked a turning point, after which I was less afraid and more ready to give myself to God, even in small struggles. Like King Arthur pulling the sword from the stone, God can pull victory and joy from the rocky path of any spiritual test.

Meditation changes the brain
A few months later, I heard a talk by Peter Van Houten, a physician at Ananda Village who writes and lectures extensively on the brain. He explained that concentrating at the point between the eyebrows in meditation can eliminate one of the main causes of depression–low serotonin levels in the pre-frontal lobes, located directly beneath that point.

Meditating at that point gradually brings serotonin levels back to normal. All of Yogananda’s meditation techniques involve concentrating at the point between the eyebrows.

My life has changed completely because of meditation. Surprising, then, that I had thought meditation would make life worse; it has made it much, much better. I had once thought it a cause of troubles, but now I am finding it’s a solution.

Nabha Cosley resides at the Ananda Meditation Retreat and works in the computer department at Ananda Village, designing and developing websites.

But that aspect of God’s will that perpetuates creation is not what we’re usually referring to when we speak of His will. We’re speaking of the aspect that loves us deeply and wants to draw us back to His love—that responds to the highest in us and draws the highest from us.

The same for everyone yet also different
In a general way, this aspect of his will is the same for everyone, but it will also be different, depending on what we need to work out in order to become free.

There is a very strange story that Paramhansa Yogananda told from his early years in India. When he was a young man, many people looked to him for political leadership and hoped he would lead India in a revolution against the British. Having been a great warrior in past incarnations, he had that kind of magnetism.

He told them, “No, God will free India in my lifetime by peaceful means.”  He could see what would come in the future.

But to one man who sought his help, Yogananda said, “It’s your karma to do it. Go ahead.” This man went ahead but was later caught and executed.

I asked Yogananda, “Why, if you knew that India would be freed by peaceful means, did you tell him to do that?” He replied, “It was his karma. He had to go through that in order to grow.”

The masters aren’t very concerned about death because they know there is no death. If, in the process of learning your lessons, you have to leave this body, that’s not important. They see it as going from one play to another.

A very subtle process
Knowing God’s will is a very complex and subtle process. It involves many levels of understanding and gradual growth toward deeper and deeper sensitivity, attunement, and wisdom.

For example, you might feel motivated to campaign for somebody to become president. That’s not the highest goal but if you weren’t capable of anything higher, it wouldn’t be wise of God to say,  “Don’t do it.”

He’d say, “Sure go ahead. That’ll be fine.” And you would think, “Oh, He wants me to do it.” But that may not be the case.

Stepping stones to the highest
Many times God allows us or even wills for us to do certain things as stepping-stones to the highest.  It may be God’s will for you to be president of an organization. For another it may be to write books, paint paintings or go into business.

But these are just to help you learn certain lessons. His real will isn’t any of those things. What he really wants is for you to reach the point where you realize is that none of that really matters.

God’s highest will is the same for everyone—that we merge back into Him. Subsidiary to that is whatever takes you in that direction.

Intensely active for God
Some people may say, “Well, if it’s God’s will that I unite my soul with him, then it must be God’s will that I meditate and not do any work.” This seems to make sense except that there are many things that you have to work out before you can meditate properly.

As Yogananda put it, you have to be intensely active for God before you can attain the actionless state. You not only have to meditate, you must also do those things that bring the rest of your life into alignment with that meditative frame of mind.

I once met a wealthy man who, unfortunately, saw these two aspects of his life as inimical to each other. He told me that his real life began when he came home from work and meditated—that’s when he could really live for God.

Unfortunately, this was a wrong understanding. We should incorporate our spiritual life into everything we do. When you can take care of your family, work at the office, etc., but do it all for God, you then begin to advance on all fronts. Everything you do gives power to that final thrust of merging into the Infinite.

The ability to pull back
God is not going to appear on a cloud and tell you his will, so how are you to know? Yogananda used to say, “Seclusion is the price of greatness.”

It may mean literal seclusion, but it certainly means the ability to pull back from the fads, and what everyone else is saying, and to go within and consult your heart.

Be sure you’re not attached
The more you can become centered and non-attached in the heart, the more you’ll know what to do. Attachments cloud the issues.

It’s like the time I bought my first harmonium. When I returned with it to Mt. Washington, I saw Yogananda outside his elevator and I said, “Master! Master! Look what I have!”

Of course he saw this wave of attachment and excitement, so he looked at it, played it a little and said, “How nice, I’m buying it.” I thought he wanted it for himself.

But the truth was he wanted to buy it for me. He didn’t tell me because he wanted to teach me a lesson. So I said instantly, “Oh no sir, I’m giving it to you.”

Had I been calmer and able to listen more carefully to what he was saying, I would not have made such a big deal of renunciation. I would have been able to accept whatever he wished to give me.

Don’t hold back
So first get clear—feel that you aren’t attached. Once you have a feeling you can trust, don’t hold back. Even if the guidance you receive is not a complete answer, it’s important to follow it.

The more you follow it, the more that guidance will come. If, in your sincere desire to follow God’s will, you make a mistake, God will correct that mistake.

The energy flow will guide you
But it’s better to use your energy in a mistaken way than not use it at all—just to keep the energy flow strong. Otherwise, if you’re too cautious, you block the energy and the intuition won’t flow.

It’s that energy flow, perhaps more than anything else, that will gradually guide you in the right direction.

But, always listen and don’t presume. If you keep listening, you will know when the guidance shifts. Often the first feeling is only temporary and other fine tunings come later.

Use common sense
Follow your intuition with common sense. In evaluating guidance, always make sure it’s in tune with what the great ones have always said. Throughout history, those who have found God have never disagreed with each other.

None of them has ever said, for example, that “God isn’t love; God is hate.” Any guidance you receive that is not in tune with these realities is highly suspect.

How others respond
Once you’ve acted on the guidance you’ve received, the reactions of other devotees can provide helpful corroboration.

If the people who seem to be in tune are responding to you in a positive and harmonious way, that’s an indication that you’re doing the right thing. If you’re doing something right, the outward results should be harmonious.

But then, look at the life of Christ. He was doing all the right things but he was crucified. Can we therefore say he was doing something wrong? Of course not. That’s what makes knowing God’s will such a subtle and complex process.

Asking for a sign
Yogananda’s intuition was, of course, perfected, yet even he would sometimes ask for a sign. When we were planning to go to India in 1951, he used to say, “I won’t believe we’re going until we get on that boat.”

He was uncertain about the trip and he asked Divine Mother to give him a sign. Well, the sign came unfortunately through me, to my lasting embarrassment.

Yogananda hadn’t wanted anyone to know about the trip, but one disciple somehow guessed and talked to me as if he knew all about it. I assumed he did and responded in that way.

Well, he hadn’t known, he was guessing. He was physically unwell and went to Yogananda and said, “Are you really going to leave me in this condition?”

Yogananda said, “That was a sign. Now we can’t go because this negative energy has come to block it.”

It’s interesting that a Master would work that way. But he was showing us that Divine Mother will give you helpful signs. You have to learn to watch for them and, most important, to understand them from within.

Don’t talk about your intuition
To know God’s will, perhaps the most important things are to have a respect for your capacity for being mistaken, as well as for God’s capacity to somehow get through your ignorance. Listen to the guidance you receive in the heart; that’s the clearest of all. The more you can become centered and clear in the heart, the more you’ll really know what to do.

Don’t talk about too much about your intuitions. When you talk about them, you tend to lose them.

Remember always to follow that aspect of his will which leads you towards freedom from the ego and union with him. What God really wants is that you know Him.

Excerpted from a 1983 talk. See also, Intuition for Starters by Swami Kriyananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers.

Visualize yourself in that infinite state. Identify yourself with it in order to awaken within you that lost memory of what you are in reality: children of Infinity. For that alone is what you really are.

Over the years, Swami Kriyananda has also urged us to memorize the poem and to recite it daily.

“I could never do that!”
I was meditating during my first seclusion in 1979 when the thought came to me very strongly that I should memorize the poem. My initial reaction was, “I could never do that!”  For weeks afterward, I tried to put the thought out of my mind. Memorize the poem? The task seemed too difficult to attempt.

First of all, there was the length of the poem and the unfamiliar spiritual imagery. I had never seriously tried to memorize anything, and a poem that long and complex was daunting, to say the least.

An Awesome Challenge
In retrospect, I think my initial reluctance may also have been a response to the awesome challenge of samadhi itself. A vast gulf separated my state of consciousness from that ultimate state. Was it realistic to think that I could ever bridge that gap? It’s one thing to think of samadhi as something desirable in a vague, far off future, but when actually confronted with the challenge of aspiring to that level of consciousness, it’s easy to fall into a sense of unworthiness.

I suspect this may be true for many people. I once attended a Sunday service at an Ananda colony where the minister asked for a show of hands of people who had memorized Samadhi. Interestingly, not one hand went up.

Writing it out over and over
Despite all my ”legitimate” reasons for not doing it, the thought persisted: ”Memorize that poem!”  One day I thought, “Well, if I really wanted to memorize it, how would I go about it?” I decided to try to memorize a few lines at a time, beginning with the opening lines:

Vanished the veils of light and shade,
Lifted every vapor of sorrow,
Sailed away all dawns of fleeting joy….

I wrote these lines out over and over again, until I was certain I knew them. During my morning and evening sadhana, I would repeat them silently after practicing the meditation techniques.

When the time felt right, I memorized a few more lines. And after that, a few more. In time my enthusiasm grew, and it wasn’t long before I had memorized the entire poem. Since then, reciting the poem has become a regular part of my daily sadhana.

“Expansive to the mind”
Swami Kriyananda has often reminded us that Yogananda, in writing Samadhi, accomplished something never before done. Kriyananda explains:

Paramhansa Yogananda did something no one before him, to my knowledge, has ever done, in describing with extraordinary lucidity the state of cosmic consciousness…. People don’t realize what a fantastic feat that was—going into that state and then being able to bring it down to a level where he could verbalize it, and make it seem thrilling and immediate to our consciousness.

Yogananda said that, “Even to contemplate the cosmic vastness is expansive to the mind.”  Indeed, the more we contemplate this level of reality, so very different from the material world we live in, the more dynamically real and attractive it becomes.

By reciting the poem, one gradually begins to accept on ever-deeper levels that this higher reality not only exists but is our true home, and a yearning for that state begins to arise. What initially seemed a remote possibility becomes an attainable goal, to be pursued with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Energize your sadhana
Samadhi offers a wealth of possibilities not only for expanding your consciousness but also for deepening your meditations. Here are a few things that I’ve found helpful:

Getting the feel of the poem. Try listening to Swami Kriyananda’s reading of Samadhi on the CD, “Metaphysical Meditations.” Kriyananda voice, combined with the classical music, beautifully captures the consciousness of the poem.

Combating restlessness. Reciting the poem before you meditate gives you another tool for combating restlessness. When we find ourselves too caught up in day-to-day concerns, the poem’s cosmic depiction of reality offers a deeply comforting perspective.

Avoiding “automatic pilot.” One of the pitfalls of reciting anything repeatedly is that you begin to parrot the words absent-mindedly. To keep your practice fresh, it’s very helpful to focus on a phrase you find particularly inspiring and to repeat it over and over, like a mantra.  Some possibilities are:

• “All space floats like an iceberg in my mental sea.”

• “Thou art I. I am Thou, Knowing, Knower, Known as One.”

• “From joy I came, for joy I live, in sacred joy I melt.”

• “Eternity and I, one united ray.”

Short and long meditations. If you have only a short time to meditate, try reciting only the second half of the poem, beginning with, “Thou art I, I am Thou.” This takes about five minutes. In longer meditations, reciting the poem several times can be very helpful in attuning more deeply to Yogananda’s consciousness.

Attuning to nature. Reciting the poem mentally during a walk immediately after meditation is a wonderful way both to keep your energy uplifted and to attune more sensitively to the divine presence in nature.

One of his greatest gifts
Samadhi is one of Yogananda’s greatest gifts to his disciples. Recited regularly, it becomes another way to deepen our attunement to Yogananda. Only with the Guru’s blessings can we achieve the ultimate goal of union with the Divine. For as the poem itself reminds us: “By deeper, longer, thirsty, guru-given meditation comes this celestial samadhi.”

Nakin Lenti, a minister and long-time Ananda member, serves in the Sangha Office at Ananda Village.

In The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, Swami Kriyananda offers some clarity: “To remain more in the Self means to live more in the spine, and at the point between the eyebrows. The yogi’s awareness of the spinal energy must ever be directed upward.”

Most people live at their periphery (i.e., in the senses) rather than in their center, in the spine. The senses help us function in this world, but when they become the focus of our lives—as advertisers hope they will—our energy habitually goes outward, away from the Self, rather than inward to the spine and upward to the spiritual eye.

In this article, I’d like to explore ways to develop this powerful spiritual skill of living in the spine—anytime, anywhere.

Becoming aware of the spine
When yogis speak of living in the spine, they’re referring to the “astral spine,” the primary channel for life-force in the body. It’s in the center of the body, just in front of the vertebral column.

To experience the astral spine, let’s begin with its more-familiar neighbor: the physical spine. For many people, even that is not a living reality, but the following simple exercises can give one a better sense of it.

Stand or sit upright, and sway the body left and right. Now, mentally resist the swaying with your physical spine: As the body sways to one side, feel as though the spine is pulling you back to center, just as a tall pine tree brings itself back to upright after the wind has blown it to one side.

This resistance gradually reduces the swaying until you come to a point of perfect balance in the center. Then sway the body forward and backward, again resisting the swaying with the spine until you come to center.

Now sway your body in a circle, without moving your feet. Mentally resist with your spine the outward-moving (centrifugal) force of the circles, so that you gradually spiral inward, your movements becoming less and less, until you come to a stationary upright position. Then circle in the other direction, spiraling inward.

With these exercises, you can cultivate a better sense of your physical spine. As you gain awareness of the astral spine (see below), you can do these resistance exercises with the astral spine.

Keeping a straight spine
One should always stand and sit up straight, right? But why? To investigate, compare standing (or sitting) with a straight spine versus slumping. Stay in each position for several breaths, observing how the position affects your breath, your energy level, and your state of mind. Notice how, when your spine is straight, it’s easier to breathe, you feel more energetic, and your mind is clearer and more alert than when you slump.

Your physical spinal posture also affects your astral spine, which in turn affects your state of mind. When the physical (and thus astral) spine is “bent,” the flow of life-force to the brain can be diminished, dulling your consciousness, even bringing on negativity. A straight spine, on the other hand, leads to a more energetic, positive attitude. That’s why Yogananda used to warn, “A bent spine is the enemy of Self-realization!”

Centering in the astral spine
The word “centered” is common these days: “He’s really off-center today,” or “She’s a very centered person.” There are deep yogic principles behind such expressions, and one way to experience them is through balancing asanas (yoga postures).

Your balance depends on where your concentration is, where the center of your reality is. That’s a real key to the asanas—and to life.

To explore this, stand on one foot and concentrate on the other foot, making it the center of your reality. Hard to balance, isn’t it?

Now concentrate on the wall in front of you, with deep interest in the texture of the wall. Again, wobble city! In both cases, your balance is compromised because your awareness is not at your center.

Do it again, gazing at the wall without focusing on it. Concentrate on your astral spine, in the center of your torso. Even if you don’t yet feel the astral spine, concentrate on that area as the center of your reality.

Your concentration is now on where you’re gazing from rather than what you’re gazing at. You’re more centered in the spine. It’s a very different experience.

Breathing in the spine
Another excellent way to become more aware of, and centered in, the spine is to “breathe in the spine.” Yoga says that energy rising up the astral spine causes us to inhale, and energy descending the astral spine causes us to exhale. Focusing on this process can be a wonderful aid to living in the spine.

Sit upright and touch the tip of your tailbone with one forefinger, the medulla oblongata area with the other. Visualize a hollow tube, about as thick as your thumb, connecting those two points.

Breathing deeply, see energy flowing up through that tube with each inhalation, and down with each exhalation. Inhale fully, expanding your abdomen, then your lower ribs, then your chest, then relax in reverse order as you exhale.

Continue breathing this way, and move the first finger to the spiritual eye. Now visualize energy flowing up and down the entire astral spine from tailbone to medulla, then forward to the spiritual eye, then back down.

This flow is real; visualizing it will gradually help you experience it. Now relax your hands to your lap and continue the breathing and visualization.

In time, breathing in the spine will become an objective reality, giving you a wonderful key to taking charge of your energies—and your life.

But there’s even more:

Acting from the spine
When you live in the spine, every action originates in the spine, and reaches completion by returning to the spine. In The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, Swami writes,

I have found when skiing that if I deliberately center my awareness in the spine, feeling all my movements to be radiating outward from that center, I can ski very much better. One who can remain consciously centered in his spine will always be poised, ready to meet any situation that arises—even as a man who is well-balanced while running can turn quickly, whereas one who is not will very likely fall if he turns too suddenly.

Try these helpful exercises:
Walk from the spine: Let each step emanate from the spine. Don’t overthink this, lest walking become a complicated activity! Just feel it. It should be both refreshing and centering.

Move from the spine: In the “fencing” exercise in Yogananda’s Energization Exercises, you step one foot forward and thrust the opposite arm forward, double-exhaling and tensing that side of the body. As you do this, feel and visualize both the movement and the tension-causing energy coming from the spine. As you double-inhale back to the starting position, feel both the movement and the energy returning to the spine.

Speak from the spine: Before you express a thought, try to feel inside, in your spine, whether it is true to who you are, to who the listener is, to the situation at hand, to Truth. At first, this is tedious, because the mouth loves to be on “autopilot.” With practice, however, it becomes not only natural, but a huge relief: You’ll become quieter, more truthful, more attentive to others’ feelings and ideas. Your words will have more impact on others—and you’ll get into much less trouble!

Enjoy from the spine: Whenever you enjoy something—good food, a hot bath, a walk in nature—refer your enjoyment back to the spine. Feel the spine as the origin of your enjoyment. Don’t allow the thought that your enjoyment comes from the outward experience. If that were true, everyone would enjoy the same things—and clearly they don’t.

No, the outward experience merely reminds you of your inner capacity for enjoyment. Realizing this brings freedom, because your enjoyment of life becomes much less controlled by circumstances.

Get a practice partner
Above all, know that you’re not “living alone” in your spine, for this is where Divine Mother dwells within you most palpably. Make Her your partner in practicing these exercises—over and over until living in the spine becomes second nature. The results are well worth the time and effort. As Yogananda said of such practice: “Most people don’t have the patience to practice it. I had the patience.”

Gyandev McCord, Lightbearer and longtime Ananda member, lives at Ananda Village, teaches at The Expanding Kight guest restreat, and is the director of Ananda Yoga worldwide.

Meditation on the Spine
by Gyandev McCord

In learning to “live in the spine,” the following visualization from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Explained by Paramhansa Yogananda can be very helpful:

You are not the rose, which scatters petals afar on the summer wind. You are not the body, which scatters energy abroad on winds of worldly desire. You are the subtle essence of reality, of all beauty and perfection. The essence that is you changes never.

Withdraw the energy of your body into your own center, in the spine. Relax.

Release your mind from its ceaseless busyness. Relax.

Cast onto the wind all desires and attachments of your heart. Relax.

As you breathe naturally, feel your breath rising through the spine with every inhalation, then descending with every exhalation.

Train yourself to become more conscious, throughout the day, of your own center in the spine.

In his book, Meditation for Starters, Swami Kriyananda explains the best way to carry meditation-born awareness into daily life: “By developing a consciousness of your own center in the spine,” he writes. “Live outward from that center, rather than inward from your periphery.”

As you begin to learn this truth through your own direct experience, your life will begin to change in wonderful, magical ways.

This means, first and foremost, putting out energy with will power. Paramhansa Yogananda said, “The greater the will, the greater the flow of energy.”

People who are far from saintly but have a great deal of energy sometimes make very quick spiritual progress, while others, with every good intention, don’t seem to change very much over the years. The problem, usually, is lack of will power. To raise the Kundalini, we need to do everything with intensity.

We want conflicting things
Often our will power is weak because we want conflicting things. We’ve committed our energy to things we don’t consciously remember but remain in the subconscious mind.

People under hypnosis (which I don’t recommend because of its debilitating effect on the will power) have sometimes relived a past trauma and gone into paroxysms of grief. Some deep-seated negative experience had not yet been released. There are many such things in the subconscious that add up to a huge commitment of potential energy.

The death wish is another kind of conflicting energy. All of us have both a life wish and a death wish. It’s not that everyone wants to commit suicide, but this same consciousness can express itself subtly in unwillingness, in the use of drugs or alcohol, in too much sleep—in the many ways we seek to escape reality by becoming less aware.

This is why Yogananda used to say that “fillers” were the worst thing—turning on the TV or leafing through a magazine when you have a spare moment. They dull our concentration and awareness.

Anything that affirms our ego or moves us toward lessened awareness strengthens Kundalini’s grip on us. We need at all times to express more and more conscious living.

“I’m afraid to love people”
We see the death wish also in the fear of loving. One person was perfectly honest about it. He said “I’m afraid to love people because then they’ll love me and I’ll have to do more and more things for them.”

But once you do it, you realize there’s no strain in it. The more energy you put out, the more you draw, and as you feel more energy, you feel joy. The happiest people are invariable people of high energy.

When you have lots of energy, you feel that nothing can stand in your way, not sleep or fatigue or anything. A very high-energy yogi I met in Kashmir once asked me what time I got up in the morning and I said, “Four o’clock.” He said, “Ugh! That’s for householders! You should get up at one o’clock.”

We all fear that perfection
Fear of spiritual progress is another aspect of the death wish. On one level or another we all fear that perfection.

I once went through a time of being desperately afraid of peace. I longed for it with one side of my mind, but I was scared to death of it with the other. The ego thinks: “What if I go to bed at night and suddenly all I’m seeing is light and I can’t get to sleep?” The ego doesn’t like it, but the soul loves it.

We need to have enough faith to at least put one foot in front of the other and not worry about what cosmic consciousness will feel like. We need to think, well, since a little bit of meditation has made me happier, a little bit more will probably make me still happier —and let the future take care of itself.

It’s dangerous to raise the Kundalini by force
Some books say that it’s dangerous to raise the Kundalini and advise you not to do it. Well, you won’t find God until you raise it. The danger comes from techniques that force the Kundalini to rise.

I remember one disciple of Yogananda’s who was doing a certain Kundalini–raising technique for long periods every day. One day he felt this tremendous heat, like a red-hot poker, rising up his spine. It was frightening and very painful. He did everything he could to relieve the pain, including getting under a cold shower.

When Yogananda saw him, he scolded him. He said, “I told you not to do those exercises because they can be very damaging. If you generate an energy that you’re not ready for, it can burn up your nervous system.”

Raising the Kundalini by generating energy from the base of the spine, even when not dangerous, isn’t effective in the long run. There may be an immediate benefit. It may even give you a certain powers, but you’ll eventually fall from that.

Give supportive and loving thoughts
To raise the Kundalini you need to generate the magnetism in the upper part of your spine, and especially at the Christ center between the eyebrows, to draw that energy upwards. This happens automatically when you live a joyful life, a loving life, when you are completely positive, always saying “yes” to life.

A wonderful daily practice would be to support other people’s wish to grow spiritually by finding good things to think and say about them, even if they have faults. Mentally pray for a person if you’re in his company. If you see a person looking sad, mentally send him a prayer.

Don’t be concerned about their reaction. Give supportive and loving thoughts for your own sake. Be in that central core of love rather than on its periphery in the world of reactions. Make your service, your meditation, and your entire life a self-offering up to God and Guru.

Changing the direction of your energy
What will especially help in raising the Kundalini is to become more aware of the flows of energy in the spine. Every thought we have brings a corresponding movement of energy in the spine—a rising energy with the positive thought and a sinking energy with the negative one.

For example, when you see something beautiful and think, “I like that,” there will be an upward movement of energy in the spine. When you see something ugly and think, “I don’t like that,” there will be a downward flow of energy.

Often, it’s difficult to turn our thoughts in a positive direction, so another way to change your reaction is to change the flow of your energy. Drawing the energy up to the spiritual eye will cause your thoughts to flow in a positive direction.

In my book, The Path, I tell of an instance when I was able to pull out of a sudden and violent negative mood by changing the flow of my energy. Since I couldn’t reason or affirm my way out of this mood, I went to my meditation “cave,” and there plunged my mind deeply at the Christ center between the eyebrows. Five minutes was all it took. By the end of that time my mood was so positive that I no longer needed to affirm anything.

The link between the body and mind is energy. Controlling the energy and directing it upward changes your mental focus. When you raise your energy upward, that very energy clarifies the mind and brings understanding.

Kriya Yoga is such a very high science because it enables you to gradually gain control over this inner flow of energy. One of the ultimate goals of KriyaYoga is to awaken the Kundalini and draw it upward.

Feeling the movement of the Kundalini
As you learn to bring your energy into the spine and offer it upward to the Christ center, you will automatically begin to feel an upward movement of energy from the base of the spine.

You may feel spurts of energy going up. You may feel a rotating current. You may feel a surge of energy and joy. This is the Kundalini awakening. The more deliberately and consciously you live in the spine, the more that energy rises.

As that happens, you will find that Kundalini is not a” thing,” a phenomenon. It’s your consciousness. You are transmuting your lower self into your true Self, which is an expression of God.

Excerpted from The Art and Science of Raja Yoga (Crystal Clarity Publishers) and the 1984 talk, How To Awaken Kundalini. To obtain a copy of the talk, call Treasures along the Path, (530) 478 7656 or e-mail treasures@ananda.org.

Thus we see that the principle of action and reaction in physics—for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction—applies to human beings through the law of karma: As you sow, so shall ye reap. If you sow evil you will reap evil in the form of suffering; if you sow goodness, you will reap goodness in the form of inner joy.

Matter responds to thoughts
To understand karma you must realize that thoughts are things. The very universe, in the final analysis, is composed not of matter but of consciousness. Matter responds, far more than most people realize to the power of thought, whether expressed directly or through actions.

People seldom think of their own thoughts or actions as bad, but if they create disharmony for others, those waves of disharmony will inevitably return to them in the form of suffering. Human suffering is not a sign of God’s anger with mankind; it is a sign, rather, of man’s ignorance of the divine law.

One lifetime is usually not enough to close the circle on the countless acts initiated during an individual lifetime. The law of karma is therefore inextricable from its companion, the law of reincarnation. Each would be incomplete without the other.

Offsetting negative mass karma
By and large, what returns to you in the form of karma is what you have generated through your own past actions. But there is also mass karma.

Whether, and to what extent, an individual’s karma is influenced by mass karma depends on the strength of his individual karma. Not all who die in a plane crash, for example, necessarily had the karma to do so.

The karma of the majority may simply have been stronger than that of the minority to live. Those, however, with a strong enough karma to live will be saved, either during the crash itself or by not taking that flight in the first place.

For example, the mother of an Ananda Village member had booked a flight to California.. Shortly before she left her house, her daughter phoned and suggested that she visit at a later date, so she cancelled her reservation. The airplane crashed and everyone on board was killed.

To offset any potential negative mass karma, it’s always good to pray before you make a trip, go out in a car—or whatever. Pray and put your life and safety in God’s hands.

Getting out of karma
The source of all karmic involvement is attachment to the ego; thus the first step out of karma is severing yourself from egoic involvement in any action you perform. This has two aspects, acting without desire for the fruits of your actions, and seeing God as the Doer—as the sole causative agent.

To achieve nishkam karma, action without desire for the fruits of action, we must neutralize the waves of likes and dislikes in the heart. We do this gradually through ever-deepening meditation, and through expressions of kindness, forgiveness, and compassion to all. As you become more inwardly free, you will be increasingly less affected by life’s inevitable ups and downs.

So work on your reactions to outer circumstances. Be happy inside, knowing that you will never be able to change things to make them ever pleasing to you outwardly.

Always feel that God is acting through you
Another aspect of getting out of karma is seeing God as the Doer, as the sole causative agent. During activity, never feel that it is you who are acting. Pray to Him, “Lord, Thou art acting through me.” Essentially it’s a matter of inner attitude. Yogananda often told a delightful story that makes this point beautifully.

Devotees of Krishna or “gopis,” as they were called, would each day cross the Jamuna River to take Krishna an offering of fresh cheese. One day, however, the river was flooded and the gopis couldn’t cross.

“What shall we do?” they cried. And then they remembered Byasa, a great devotee of Krishna, who lived on their side of the river. “Byasa is a saint,” they said. “Let us ask him to perform a miracle to help us cross the river.” They went and asked him to help them reach Krishna.

“Krishna! Krishna!” Byasa shouted, pretending to be displeased. “All I ever hear is Krishna! What about me?”

The gopis were very embarrassed. The cheese was for Krishna, but they didn’t dare refuse Byasa since they’d asked him for help. So they offered him a little bit. Byasa, however, ate, and ate, and didn’t stop eating until he could swallow no more, leaving only a small portion for Krishna.

When he’d eaten as much as his stomach could hold, he somehow carried himself to the riverbank. There he cried, “O river Jamuna, if I have not eaten anything, divide up and part!”

“What is he saying?’’ the gopis whispered among themselves. “First he stuffs himself like a pig and now he cries, ‘If I have not eaten!’ What possible good can come of this adventure?”

To their amazement, the river parted! Not pausing to ponder this mystery, the gopis rushed across to the other side. There they found Krishna asleep in his hut.

Usually Krishna was standing outside his hut, eagerly awaiting their visit—and the cheese. “Lord,” they cried, “aren’t you hungry today? We’ve brought you your cheese.”

Krishna opened his eyes sleepily and said, “Oh, thank you but I’m no longer hungry. That fellow, Byasa, on the other bank has fed me too much already.”

Byasa, you see, had offered the food first to Krishna, and had thought of him constantly while eating it. He didn’t eat in ego-consciousness, but only in the thought that Krishna was eating through him. In this way, every devotee should feel that God is acting through him.

Developing a strong aura
Yogananda taught that if a person’s aura is strong, the negative consequences of his bad karma will have a greatly lessened impact on him, even though the karma must, of necessity, return to him. A strong aura might be compared to the protection an umbrella gives when it rains.

Yogananda frequently counseled the wearing of astrological bangles as a means of artificially strengthening the aura. To this counsel, however, he would often add, “Never forget that devotion to God is the greatest ‘bangle.”

The law of karma is impersonal and operates mechanically. But we can change that for ourselves and for others by prayer, by right action toward them, and by loving them as manifestations of God, Who dwells equally in all.

But the ways to mitigate its impact, whether for you or for others, come down to a few simple rules, the most important of which is to ”love God.” As Jesus said, ”To one who loves much, much is forgiven.”

From talks and books.

I first learned of chanting from friends I met at a yoga retreat who taught me two of Paramhansa Yogananda’s chants. This discovery was like artesian water surfacing in a sun-baked landscape. From one day to the next, I began humming these new, uplifting melodies and, in time, moved to Ananda Village.

Soar above worry and small-mindedness
From the beginning, chanting for me has always been a form of japa—practicing the presence of God. Whenever there’s a lull in activity or I need to raise my energy, I automatically turn to chanting. For example, if I’m doing a lot of phoning, I chant until someone answers, and between phone calls. This keeps my energy strong and uplifted and makes phoning a fun job.

Many times I have found that after focusing deeply on a chant, it stays with me and comes to my aid when I need it, helping me to stay in the present, above all worry and small-mindedness. Sometimes I’ll wake up in the morning humming or singing a particular chant and feel uplifted the Divine.

Most of the other benefits of chanting are well known—it can mitigate restlessness, soothe the nervous system, and prepare the body to meditate. In longer meditations, chanting intermittently can help you meditate longer and more deeply.

All that is good and uplifting
Chanting also attunes the heart’s devotion to all that is good and uplifting in nature. AUM is the root of all sounds in the universe. As we chant, we enter into a vibration that speaks to us of the power of the universe and of our own higher Self.

Once when in seclusion, I heard a robin singing just as I was about to play the harmonium. After I started to chant, the robin continued to sing, loudly and clearly—above my voice, above the harmonium. It felt as though together, we were joyfully singing with Divine Mother.

Another time while singing with our choir at an outdoor Sunday Service in our Sacramento community, I became aware of a flock of birds flying by in the distance. For a moment, I felt myself as part of these birds, beholding our community from above and hearing these beautiful melodies.

We were as one being, attracted to the vibration of a spiritual oasis by which we felt blessed and nurtured. Through the power of music, all sense of separation had dissolved.

Many voices singing in a whisper
Ultimately we must remember, as Patanjali, the great exponent of yoga says, that the real chanting is in the silence of our hearts. As you go deeper into a chant, your awareness becomes more and more internalized. Eventually it is as though the chant is being effortlessly sung within your own being.

To internalize and deepen your chanting, whisper chanting is very helpful. Once when we were gathered for morning meditation in one of the apartments in the Ananda Sacramento community, we found ourselves unexpectedly forced into whisper chanting.

We had just acquired the apartment complex, and people who were not part of Ananda were still living in the apartments. Some of the tenants were openly antagonistic to the new “owners.” In the middle of our chanting there was a loud knock at the door and someone yelling at us! It was one of tenants who had been seeking every possible opportunity to harass us. He now insisted that we stop chanting and that if we resumed—or ever chanted again— he would call the police!

We had actually been careful to chant very quietly, so as not to bother anyone, but we decided to sing even more softly and without the harmonium. Imagine many voices singing in a very soft whisper, in unison, and in harmony. It turned out to be a great improvement, much more devotional, and for many of us, a deep blessing.

“Spiritualized chants”—a different kind of music
Paramhansa Yogananda wrote countless chants while in God-intoxicated states of samadhi. These chants were thereby “spiritualized” and have the power to change the consciousness of those who sing them with devotion. This fact alone puts his chants in an altogether different category from most other kinds of music.

One of the beauties of Yogananda’s chants is that they communicate, simply and clearly, subtle and inspiring spiritual truths. In Ever New Joy, for example, we sing of the expanding joy that comes as we advance spiritually.

The chant, Who Is in My Temple? describes the body as a temple containing “lights” or chakras. As our chakras open through meditation and devotion, our inner light strengthens, banishing the darkness of delusion. (“Darkness like a dark bird flies away.”) To sing this chant reinforces these truths.

Some of Yogananda’s chants were intended as antidotes to negative states of consciousness— melancholy, worry, insecurity, lack of devotion, etc. A good example is, I Have Made Thee Polestar of My Life.

One sings:
“Though my sea is dark and my stars are gone, still I see the path through Thy mercy.” As we chant those words, we find our faith in God deepening and our consciousness embracing the attitude that, “No matter what, I am yours. I am safe.”

Swami Kriyananda, too, has written many chants that have the simplicity and power of prayer and mantra. In fact, he initially suggested that the following chants be used as prayers—Reveal Thyself, Lord I Am Thine, and I Want Only Thee.

Everyone can learn to chant
You don’t have to be a “singer” to chant! I’ve seen many people who thought they couldn’t sing develop the desire and the confidence to try—and to become very good at it. Often it is more a question of one’s abilities simply not yet being developed.

The same is true with playing the harmonium. Recently someone asked me to teach her how to play the harmonium. She had no experience and seemingly no aptitude for this sort of thing.

Early on I asked her, “Why do you want to do this?” She said simply that she loved the chants and wanted to learn how to play them. With devotion and concentration, she was able to learn a number of chants, and to do them well enough to lead some of our community sadhanas.

Chanting pointers
Here are a few ways to deepen and uplift your chanting:

• Familiarize yourself with Yogananda’s and Kriyananda’s chants. They are simple and easy to follow.

• When considering which chant to sing, listen in your heart and inwardly pray for the appropriate chant in that moment.

• If you are new to a chant, focus on the words. Try to understand their meaning and open yourself to the truth they communicate. Enunciate the words and charge them with your energy. Let them rally your innate soul hunger for truth and inspiration.

• Don’t chant absentmindedly. Try to tune into the power and consciousness of the Masters. When I chant I concentrate at the spiritual eye and visualize Yogananda there. I chant to him and try to feel His presence.

• Consciously use your voice to express sweetness and devotion. In this way, you can actually transform the quality of your voice. Sweetness of voice is often one of the first signs of spiritual growth in the devotee.

• Try to take the chant deeper by chanting more softly, and then in a whisper. You’ll find that the voice naturally quiets and softens as you focus your attention more inwardly.

• Eventually the chant becomes wholly inward. Outward activities may demand your full concentration, but when the mind withdraws, it easily resumes its inward chant.

The goal of all chanting
Ultimately, the goal of chanting is to help us merge with AUM in deep meditation. Of all sounds, AUM is the most lovely. As Swami Kriyananda says, “It is the one sound you never grow tired of.”

For further reading on chanting and the power of music see the introduction to Wave of the Sea, a booklet of chants sung at Ananda. Maria McSweeney and her husband, Ananta, are acharyas (spiritual directors) of Ananda Sacramento.

Thou Art My Life—To sweeten a sour disposition.

Divine Gypsy—When feeling enslaved
by any habit or person.

I Will Be Thine Always—For bereavement,
loss or parting of friends.

In the Temple of Silence—When feeling
worried or angered.

Where Is There Love? —When feeling
forsaken or disillusioned by earthly
love.

My Soul Is Marching On—To banish
fear, failure or discouragement.

No Birth, No Death—For overcoming
religious, racial or social prejudice.

Desire, My Great Enemy—To conquer
material desires.

From This Sleep, Lord—For overcoming
fear of death.

Deliver Us From Delusion—For freedom
from ignorance, sickness or
failure.

Redirected to the point between the eyebrows, the creative force awakens one’s powers of spiritual perception and bestows the ability to create spiritual or material works of genius. The evanescent excitement in physical communion is nothing compared to the bliss that follows from directing the creative impulse into the brain region.

Why control the creative force?
The creative instinct is Nature’s means of creation and should not be converted into a play with the senses. The more one indulges in sex life, the more the intelligence and life force go downward into the sex nerves and compel the soul to live on the sex plane.

Physical desires can never be appeased, and over-indulgence is destructive to health, especially the nervous system. It is also destructive to the spiritual life, causing a person to experience increasing disharmony and unhappiness.

The purpose of marriage
In marriage, human love can never last unless its overriding purpose is to express divine love. Sex, intellectuality, beauty, money, culture, or personal magnetism cannot hold a marriage together.

Today nearly all marriages are preceded by only a little love, with passion predominating. In such cases, sex takes the place of love, and true love, which is unconditional, quickly slips away from the heart.

Follow the path of moderation
The ratio between love and physical indulgence is this: the greater the love the less the physical craving; the greater the physical indulgence, the less the love.

As love increases and physical consciousness decreases, human love evolves into divine love. Both souls then realize that it was always God they loved through the illusion of human love.

Self-discipline and moderation in physical relations in married life leads to progressive mastery over the creative impulse. Couples who rise above the physical plane and continuously strengthen the love of their souls reach the point where they express divine love in every aspect of their lives.

Attracting a spiritual mate
You cannot attract a spiritual soul through animal magnetism. Souls who have not spiritualized their creative impulses draw unto themselves wrong mates.

If you attract a person by spiritual magnetism, you will meet your soul companion. Unmarried people who never break the law of celibacy create in themselves a powerful spiritual magnetism that draws their proper mate.

For women this also means being dressed with the magnetic qualities of sincerity, wisdom, understanding, thoughtfulness, presence of mind, true learning and all-around efficiency.

How to avoid mistakes
Unmarried people, in choosing their life companion, should consult their parents and, above all, persons with inner vision. The horoscopes of the couple, if properly applied, can also be helpful.  In India, most marriages are happy, permanent, and highly spiritual because entered into according to these principles.

The spiritual way of avoiding mistakes in choosing the right companion is to affirm deeply after meditation: “Heavenly Father, bless me that I choose my life companion according to Thy law of perfect soul-union.” If you practice this affirmation for six months with deep faith, you will marry your right companion, or the Divine Father will cause sudden unfavorable circumstances, preventing a wrong marriage.

Regaining your spiritual magnetism
Spiritual magnetism, if lost through indiscretion in marriage or in unmarried life, can be regained through meditation and other practices.

First, undesirable physical consciousness must be destroyed in the mind. Do not feed your creative instinct with degrading thoughts. Avoid anything that stimulates the creative impulse through the sense of sight, touch, or discussing undesirable stories.

Diet is also important. Eat more raw vegetables, fruit, nuts, and proper substitutes for meat. Eat little or no meat. Using the creative energy in sports or strenuous physical exercise is very helpful.

Transmuting the creative impulse
During sex excitement, the best way to transmute sex impulses is to inhale and exhale deeply. Inhaling and exhaling withdraws energy from all parts of the body, especially the sex region, and concentrates it in the heart and lungs.

While inhaling and exhaling, the mind should be kept busy affirming: “I want to transmute sex energy into spiritual energy. I want to turn it Godward to spiritually create.” Through this affirmation, the brain becomes a spiritual magnet, pulling the transmuted energy from the heart and lungs into the spiritual cerebral reservoir.

Immediately after the sex impulse disappears, one should meditate or read a passage of Scripture. One can also engage the mind in creative, inventive, business, or literary work—whatever you find most absorbing.

The more you practice this technique, the more you will transmute the sex impulse and overcome sex temptation.

Having children
Parents who desire a spiritual child must prepare their minds months in advance. Thoughts of inviting a noble soul into the body temple must predominate.

During physical union, the mind should be kept at the point between the eyebrows, directing the holy work of creation. It is important not to allow the mind to become identified with physical passion. The Hindu Scriptures say that during this time, a life current is generated, serving as a doorway.

Thoughts concentrated upon physical pleasure attract sensual souls. The better souls, however, turn away at a distance, preferring to wait rather than accept rebirth in an undesirable place.

When marriage is unnecessary
Marriage is unnecessary for those who are wedded to the ever-intoxicating Bliss- God. That is why Jesus, St. Francis, Swami Shankara, and Babaji were unmarried. They had found perfect love, perfect joy, and a perfect mate in God.

If you cannot find your soul companion, do not marry. It is better to remain single than to enter into a wrong marriage. Through meditation and related techniques, unmarried people can unite the creative force with the soul-force within.

Better than marriage, or ineffectually trying to weld unsuited souls together, is the union of the soul with God. A union with God will bring perfect love and eternal fulfillment, free from the disappointment of human love. Such a union should be the goal of every soul.

From articles and lessons, 1925-1935.

Have you ever reached a point like this with your sadhana, where it just wasn’t giving you what you wanted? You have if you’re like most devotees. So what can we do about it?

My first thought was just to let it go for a while, hoping it would work itself out. This approach has a natural appeal, as in, “Let’s see if I can fix this without putting out any energy.” It has worked remarkably well for me over the years with mechanical things, which often “fix themselves.”

But sadhana? I don’t think so. Sometimes we’re experiencing such a “karmic storm” that about all we can do is wait for it to pass, but too often (as in the case of my boring meditations), this approach is just a waste of time. And haven’t we wasted enough time already?

In fact, I realized that I’d already been subconsciously trying this approach for a while and nothing had improved. “Okay,” I thought regretfully, “I guess I have to do something.” But what?

“Technique-tweaking” to the rescue
Our culture has a popular universal answer: “Change what you’re doing; variety will solve your problem.” Don’t like your job? Quit and get another. Having marital difficulties? Get a divorce and marry someone else.

In my case, I tried tinkering with my spiritual practices: a different mix of the meditation techniques—more prayer, affirmation, chanting, different yoga postures, etc. And yes, making little “technique tweaks” helped by providing a variety that perked up my interest.

Before long, however, I was bored again. My “fix” was temporary because it didn’t address the underlying cause of the problem. The difficulty wasn’t what I was doing; it was how I was doing it.

A question of attitude
We may think meditation techniques are mechanical procedures, but the telling factor is usually attitude, not mechanics—and my attitude had been wrong: I’d been meditating based on what I get out of it.

And while we can’t avoid some of that attitude—why else would we practice at all?—we risk viewing our practice in terms of whether it pleases us, instead of whether it pleases God. (“Okay, God, I’ve been meditating regularly for years now. Isn’t it about time for some deeper experiences? More joy? Maybe a vision or two?”)

Once we catch the mind working like this, it’s easy to see how ridiculous it is. Consider the saint in Autobiography of a Yogi, whose only concern, after having meditated 18 hours a day for 20 years, and 20 hours a day for another 25 years, was whether he had succeeded in pleasing God!

If this makes you squirm, (I sure don’t like to dwell on it very much), it may be better simply to recall that central principle of karma yoga: nishkam karma: action without desire for its fruits. As much as we want to experience divine bliss, fathomless peace, and all that other good stuff, those are the fruits of the practice—and the more we focus on the fruits, the less we’re focusing on the practice itself, and on God.

In fact, the fruits of spiritual practice—and of all action—are God’s business, not ours. As Sri Krishna told Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita: “You have no right to the fruits of your actions. Your only right is to action itself.”

In other words, our business is what goes into our practices not what comes out of them. I used to hate that idea. “Why act at all, if I can’t determine the outcome?” Confessions of a control freak, I guess.

What if the results were up to us?
Now, however, I find this idea very freeing. Certainly we can influence the outcome—concentrating is better than daydreaming, for example—but we can’t determine it fully.

What hurts, in fact, is to think that the fruits of our practice are up to us, because then despair can set in: “I’ll never get there!”  Now that’s pain.

Greater minds than mine have had the same thought. In the Bhagavad Gita, after Krishna gave Arjuna the teachings of yoga, telling him of its sublime qualities, Arjuna responded: “But Krishna, I don’t experience those high states. My mind is so restless, chaotic, powerful, obstinate—it’s like trying to master the wind!” (Who among us cannot relate to that?!)

Krishna’s response was: “True, that’s the nature of the mind. But you can master it—by sadhana and by dispassion”— dispassion, in part, toward the results of your own sadhana.

Why worry about something that’s none of your business in the first place? Think instead: “My job is to make a quality effort; the results are up to God.”

Or to put it a different way—lest it seem that God bestows divine favors simply on whim—we may be intellectually open to Divine Mother, but on some level, we may not yet be open enough for Her to come in.  As Yogananda once said to a disciple who was asking for help and felt he was not getting it, “If you shut me out, how can I come in?”

Asking the right question
The masters assure us that if we keep on trying—with energy!—we will attain what we seek. So when I’m dissatisfied with my practice, I don’t ask, “What am I not getting?” Rather, I ask, “What am I not giving?” It’s usually easy to find an answer, such as:

• Be fully present—Letting the mind roam among all my projects, obligations, and fantasies is not a spiritual practice. A quality effort begins with staying engaged with what I’m there to do.

• Practice with gratitude—Here I am, practicing techniques that can bring liberation. Might I not practice with gratitude to the Source of those techniques?

• Be self-giving—The lover seeks to please the beloved, not himself. What a beautiful attitude for sadhana! How can it help but draw God’s presence?

• Prime the pump—Do I practice with whatever I can manage of the states that I seek—joy, or love, or peace—and eagerly anticipate even more? This is a powerful application of the law of magnetism to spiritual practice: the more you’re “on the wavelength” of what you seek, the more you’ll experience it.

• Be enthusiastic! —Do I look forward to my practice, or has it become dull routine? Let me make each asana, breath, or Kriya an experience to savor, rather than simply “counting down” until the practice finally ends.

All these are very down-to-earth matters. We can manage them if we’re willing, (granted, that is sometimes a big “if”), because they are our business, and nobody else’s.

In the case of my boring meditations, I realized that my solution was the last one of these: “Be enthusiastic!” I had been waiting for my practice to become interesting, instead of meditating with interest. I recall thinking, “Okay, if You won’t take me deep, at least You could make Yourself more interesting than my daydreams and projects, so I can stay more concentrated.”

As in, “Please, please, don’t make me put out more energy. That’s too much work!” Another ridiculous thought.

Time to roll up my sleeves
I now faced the option I’d been trying to avoid: working to put interest into my meditations.

Then I thought: “Wait a minute! It’s not about working; it’s about interest. When I want something, it’s no work at all to be interested; it happens naturally. So let my interest come naturally from my heart’s desire for God.”

I started beginning my meditations with one of my favorite prayers from Yogananda. I silently repeated it over and over with high energy, like an affirmation, going deeper and deeper into my heart’s yearning:

Divine Mother, with the language of my soul I demand Thy presence.
Thou art the essence of everything, and I am Thy child. I am awake in Thy presence, for Thou art the Light. Make me see Thee in every fiber of mybeing, in every wisp of thought. Awaken my heart! (Inner Culture, July-Sept 1941)

My meditations immediately began to shift. Yes, it took some energy—it always takes energy to change directions—and it wasn’t a night-and-day difference right away. Yet there was a definite shift, and it became stronger over time, (until I forgot again, of course, and had to remind myself again).

I began to feel more fulfillment in my meditations – not because I was swimming in an ocean of divine love or having visions (I wasn’t), but because I was concentrating on what I could give during meditation: my complete attention, my energy, my sincerity, my longing.

When I remember this, I can relax more because I know that I’m completely in my own business rather than in God’s business. I know that I can happily leave the results in God’s hands—where they’ve been all along anyway.

What a relief!

Gyandev McCord lives at Ananda Village and teaches at The Expanding Light Guest Retreat. He serves as Director of Ananda Yoga, Worldwide.

Thomas is the superintendent of a small, rural school district. He had recently suspended the high school wrestling coach for verbally abusing his players. The suspension had enraged the coach and his large, extended family—so much so, that some of them had physically threatened Thomas.

One Sunday Thomas was working alone in the district office, when four cars came to a screeching halt in front of his building. Out came a furious mob of the coach’s relatives. As they charged into the building, Thomas called his daughter to notify school security.

In the seconds remaining, Thomas centered his energy within and waited for the approaching storm. His “guests” barged into his office and began yelling, trying to intimidate him. Calmly, and without fear, Thomas listened to their tirade about why he was wrong to suspend the coach, and then quietly explained why he had made that decision.

The coach’s relatives were very physical people, who respected strength. Thomas’ demonstration of courage and centeredness won them over. Soon afterwards, they not only accepted but also helped to resolve the situation with the coach.

Centered energy is stronger than dissipated, reactive energy. The more centered we are, the more outer events adjust themselves to our inner control.

Meditation is the art of learning to live from one’s center. It brings our consciousness dynamically into the spine, putting us in tune with God and our spiritual nature.

Lahiri Mahasaya’s advice for overcoming any problem was always the same—to meditate more. Through regular meditation, we literally change our destiny.

Joseph Bharat Cornell, an Ananda Lightbearer, serves at the Sangha Office, where he oversees the meditation support website: www.learn-meditation.org. He and his wife, Anandi, live at Ananda Village.

With amazing skill the artist has captured the moment of decision, just before she agrees. Her gaze is downward and her mind inward. In another second she will look up and accept the blessings and the responsibility of being a channel for God.

The story of every saint
The essence that Della Robbia caught in ceramic, of a soul agreeing to do the will of God, is the story of every saint. All great souls echo this theme, since doing the will of God without reservation is how one becomes a saint.

We too, each of us, have countless opportunities to do God’s will. Not, perhaps, being asked by a glorious angel, but in little ways that ask us to discard the negative and choose to act with kindness and patience and self-sacrifice. As Jesus put it, “Whatsoever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.”

Here is an interesting challenge: Try, during the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season to spend a little time realizing that God is playing the role of everyone with whom you interact. See Jesus masquerading as the store clerk, as your co-worker, and the members of your family.

How to know God’s will
It is not always easy to know the will of God, nor, even if we know it, to follow it if it goes against our desires. Here are a few key principles that will help.

Pray with non-attachment. In order to know the will of God, we must be open to hearing what He has to say. We will miss His whispers if the storm of our desires is too loud. When you pray to know His will, first open your heart in readiness to accept whatever comes. Don’t expect His guidance to always feel easy—God is interested in waking us from the sleep of delusion, not in rearranging this dream world so that it feels slightly more comfortable.

Project your question clearly and powerfully from the spiritual eye. Then feel for the answer in your heart center. The answer should come with a calm certainty. Don’t trust answers that make the heart excited or restless. Also, God’s answers often come through our conscience. Pay attention when your higher Self is trying to tell you something.

Tune into Yogananda or another great knower of God. See what his writings have to say on the subject of your question. Mentally ask him for advice, guidance, and blessings. If you have a photograph of him on your altar, gaze into his eyes—often they will communicate an answer to you. If you can visualize his eyes clearly in meditation, the communication may be even more direct. The more often and deeply you ask for his guidance, the more clearly you will feel it.

Follow the guidance you receive. Test it a step at a time and watch carefully for the results. This may take faith and courage.

Finally, know that the will of God is always an extension of His qualities: love, joy, peace and compassion. Never trust “guidance” that does harm to another soul. Ultimately, He wants us to know that we are all His children and that He loves us and wants only our true happiness.

A special grace
The holy season of Christmas carries with it a special grace, with the thoughts of men and women more attuned to the Christ consciousness. This mass consciousness can help us in our individual efforts. God’s blessings are more tangible now, like the warmth of the sun as spring approaches. If you take the opportunity to tune into those blessings it will transform the Christmas hubbub into a truly holy season.

Jyotish and Devi are acharyas (spiritual directors) of Ananda Sangha Worldwide. Jyotish is also  acharya of the Ananda Sevaka Order, worldwide.

Other Clarity articles by Jyotish and Devi Novak are listed under “Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi.”

A life-transforming practice
But if we really do it, this practice has the potential to transform our lives. Practicing the presence of God is a central aspect of this spiritual path and an enormously powerful practice. To be able to hold onto the consciousness of God’s presence in daily activity is a very high spiritual state. If we were able to do it throughout the day, even the hard times would seem like wonderful times.

Practicing the presence of God begins with the desire in the heart to be closer to God. As Sri Yukteswar put it, “We can’t take a single step on the spiritual path without love.” In this context, Sri Yukteswar’s meaning is love for God, the desire to be close to Him.

Now we don’t have to produce that desire, thank goodness. It resides in our souls. In fact, the most powerful force in the universe is the soul trying to recover its unity with God. We need to bring to the fore this dynamic desire to reunite with God, and nourish it so that it becomes more and more powerful.

Practice outwardly first
So how do we get there? Well, it takes a lot of energy to get there. On the deepest level practicing the presence of God means to feel Him in ourselves and in the world around us.

Because our minds are habituated to outward expression, the first level of practicing the presence of God is to have a more continual relationship with Him in an outward sense. We should try to think of God in a form that attracts us—Yogananda, Divine Mother or perhaps another.

But whatever the form, try to think more of God. Connect your life with Him in an attitude of self-offering. Carry on a conversation with Him throughout the day.

The ability to pray continuously
There’s that beautiful story in The Way of the Pilgrim, by an anonymous Russian writer, about a man who, one day in church, heard the priest say that one should pray continuously. That idea stayed with him and he began to wonder how he could do it.

He began asking people how one could pray continuously, and was led from teacher to teacher until he met one who knew how. The teacher said to him, “I want you to repeat five hundred times a day this simple prayer, ‘Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me,’ and come back in a week.” When he came back, his teacher doubled the number.

Week after week the man returned and the teacher kept increasing the number until the man’s lips and tongue became numb from repeating the prayer, and his fingers became calloused from moving the rosary.

But gradually the prayer began to go deeper and deeper into his conscious and subconscious mind until the day came when his teacher said he no longer needed to count, and that he should continually practice the prayer during his waking hours.

As he did this, he found that the prayer took on a life of its own. He would wake up in the middle of the night and the prayer was still going on. It was as if his heart were repeating that prayer.

Finally, he achieved the state of being able to pray continuously. And the remainder of the book is about the remarkable things that happened as he walked through the countryside in such an uplifted state.

Not an “I and Thou” relationship
This is an extraordinary state to reach and one we should all strive for. But, extraordinary as it is, even that isn’t practicing the presence of God on the deepest level. There’s still an “I-Thou” relationship with God, a bit of separation.

We should strive for the state where there’s no separation between us and God.  This is the deeper aspect of practicing the presence of God. But how do we get there?

On our spiritual path we have the techniques of yoga. By practicing Hong Sau and Kriya Yoga we can withdraw the life force from the senses and calm the mind in meditation. When the mind is calm we begin to feel God’s presence.

Yogananda said that when we meditate, we should try to feel the presence of God in certain ways—as joy, love, or peace. Choose one of these divine qualities and try to feel that vibration deeply in the heart. Try to become so connected with it that you identify yourself as that quality.

Become identified with God
When you can identify yourself as joy, love, peace or any of the other divine qualities, you are identified with God. You are actually practicing the presence of God. Then, if you can stay in that vibration after you leave meditation, and project it as you go about your work, you will be practicing the presence of God on the deepest level.

Unless we can feel God’s presence when we’re most quiet and centered, we aren’t going to feel it when our minds are engaged in the turmoil of phones ringing, people upset at us, and all the events of daily life. Maybe we can remember to think of Him a few minutes a day here and there. Or we can set our watches on a beeper so that once an hour it reminds us to say a little prayer. But it’s mainly affirmation.

To practice the presence of God successfully throughout the day, you first need to do it deeply in an inner way. It’s a rare person who can repeat a prayer so deeply and continuously that the mind spontaneously goes into a meditative state.

A slow process
Each day in meditation we should try to reach the state where the life force and consciousness are withdrawn. We should try to go deep enough in meditation to feel God’s presence. If we can feel God’s love or joy deeply in our hearts, and then stay in that vibration for five minutes outside of meditation, it will transform our lives and the lives of those around us.

This is a slow process. We need to be very accepting of ourselves because it’s not easy to do. So don’t get down on yourself or on others. It doesn’t help the process at all.

Just put intense love, devotion, and self-offering into your meditation. Offer up to God every thought, every attachment—everything that keeps you from practicing the presence of God. Then, after you feel God’s presence, go out and try to practice it for five minutes a day.

From a 1999 talk. Jyotish Novak is Spiritual Director of the Ananda Sevaka Order, worldwide.

Other Clarity articles by Jyotish Novak are listed under “Nayaswami Jyotish.”

Before becoming pregnant, I was meditating at least two hours a day and teaching 12 – 15 yoga postures classes a week. I was the San Francisco Ananda meditation group leader. Now, with two young children, I was doing none of that.

Judgmental thoughts
Before my first pregnancy I ran into a yoga teacher who told me that since the birth of her first child, she had given up teaching. I noticed she had also gained weight.  My words were consoling, but thoughts were judgmental: “I would never be like that!”

I visualized myself not only as the dedicated and loving mother, but also the practicing yogi, and resolved to be teaching yoga classes six weeks after giving birth, as slender as I was before pregnancy.

I was slow to accept that the birth of my first child was changing my life more profoundly than I had expected. My attempts to get my spiritual practices back on track ended in frustration. I was also gaining weight.

Reality slowly sank in. Late one night as I was up once again rocking my beloved child, my body and mind tired from lack of sleep, I made a decision that changed my life.

Dealing with guilt
First I had to come to terms with my guilt over having judged the other yoga teacher, and to let go of trying to live up to an impossible standard. I realized that holding on to preconceptions about what I should be doing was making it harder for me to deal with the challenges of the moment.

I was then able to accept that life was not the way it used to be, and would never be again. Period. For me, this was a huge and positive step.

Finding a middle ground
Still, I couldn’t just put my spiritual practices on the shelf. Surely there must be a middle ground. What could I do in my current circumstances? Holding a baby, rocking in a chair, I couldn’t meditate but I could chant AUM at the chakras. I tried it and it worked.

Then and there I decided that each day I would always find ways to deepen my attunement with God and Guru, no matter how modest. At the time, I had no idea how profound this decision was.

Prayers of gratitude
Caring for young children can open our hearts and expand our consciousness. It’s an easy and natural way of increasing our devotion to God, if we offer our heart’s expanded love up to the Divine.

When my heart overflowed with love for my child, I would try to tune into the spark of the Divine within him. I offered prayers of gratitude to God for entrusting this soul to my care. Thus began my practice of conversational prayer, which I did regularly throughout the day.

After starting this practice, I was blessed to feel my heart opening to God and all of life. To this day I continue to thank God for the many blessings in my life, especially the blessing of my husband and children.

An opening toward inner freedom!
Swami Kriyananda has said that when we react emotionally to a flaw in another person, it’s because we haven’t come to terms with the same flaw in ourselves. Many things upset me, but I had no clue as to how they mirrored my flaws. As I went about my daily tasks, I began to observe my reactions and ponder my motivations.

In time, I saw the subtlety of this teaching. Someone might say or do something I would never do. But on some level my thoughts were in sympathy, or I was holding onto a fear or misconception that tied me to that behavior.

By constantly reminding myself that I had the power within me to control how I responded to situations, I trained myself to think before reacting emotionally. Whenever I “blew it” and reverted to old habits, I would review the situation mentally and visualize how I might have responded differently, and how I would respond in the future.

I found this practice enormously beneficial. I now have fewer “buttons” and those that remain are much less volatile.  What an opening toward inner freedom!

A change in consciousness
One day, with my son in a stroller, I found a treasure at a used bookstore–an out of print edition of The Master Said by Paramhansa Yogananda. Two sayings in particular were of great help.

The first saying is so simple that it’s easy to underestimate. Yogananda says that keeping our attention focused at the point between the eyebrows throughout the day will greatly speed our spiritual progress. I loved this advice and began to focus my attention at the spiritual eye as often as I could.

Right away I felt the positive effects. I thought I would never forget to place my attention there for at least a good part of every day. “Simple” does not necessarily mean easy.

I was shocked one day when I realized I had gone through the entire day, and most of the previous day, without focusing at the spiritual eye. Eventually I placed notes in various places around the house as reminders.  It’s a habit that needs to be cultivated, but the benefits are enormous—more energy, a change in consciousness, increased intuition, and greater attunement with Yogananda.

Increased focus and clarity
In this same book Yogananda counsels us to “routinize” our lives.  I knew that regular routines were important for babies and children, and I was trying to establish them, but it was a foreign concept. My life had been one of constant change, new projects, and candles burning at both ends.

Yogananda’s emphasis on routines motivated me to establish them and to work on sticking to them.  It was well worth the effort—not only for the focus and clarity it has brought into my life, but also for the overall calming effect it’s had for the whole family. Although I still struggle with consistency, my energy is much more focused.

A new way to serve
I went back to teaching six months after the birth of my first child. Instead of teaching several classes a week, I taught one mother/child class. Gradually I taught a few more classes, but with the birth of my second child, I again stopped, this time without expecting a quick return.
Even though the desire to serve others through teaching is strong in me, I was more and more content to stay home and serve God through my husband and children.

I’ve always loved the story Swami Kriyananda tells about an Indian sadhu who achieved great powers, but was led to two souls more highly advanced spiritually than he. One was a wife who had attained that state by serving her husband, the other a butcher whose path to God was caring for his elderly parents.

Serving my husband and children are the roles God has given me at this time. The more I play these roles with deep attunement, the more I am able to please Divine Mother. Tears come to my eyes when I think of the love and grace she has given me over these years.

It has taken me eight years to re-establish a regular meditation practice. I would never have sought these alternative ways to deepen my attunement had I regained my regular meditation practice sooner. I continue all of them to this day.

Nicole DeAvilla-Whiting lives in Marin County and teaches Ananda Yoga in Marin and at The Expanding Light guest retreat at Ananda Village.

Yogananda writes:

Why forgive one who wrongs you? Because if you angrily strike back you misrepresent your own divine soul nature—you are no better than your offender. But if you manifest spiritual strength you are blessed, and the power of your righteous behavior will also help the other person to overcome his misunderstanding.

The desire for vengeance is a karmic cage that imprisons both individuals and cultures into enduring suffering. If you carry a strong enough desire for vengeance into your after-life, you will have to reincarnate in circumstances where you can fulfill that desire.

But then your “victim” will have to get his chance for vengeance. On and on goes this terrible cycle until you can say “Enough, let God, not me be the judge.” You will pass a great test of karma if you truly pray that God forgive your adversary.

Why carry the heavy weight of negative emotions from past events? Isn’t it time to lay down your burden? Forgiveness is the way to cut yourself free.

Yogananda said that through the forgiveness of Jesus “an unseen monument of the mightiest miracle of love was established in each heart.” Most of Christ’s more obvious miracles were not greatly important for themselves, but rather to give proof to his divinity and his teachings. “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.”

Imagine, for a moment, if we could perform some of the miracles of Christ. How would they improve the world? Would mankind be better off if we could change water into wine? Not really. Would the world be improved if we had the power to cure the lame and give sight to the blind? Yes, of course, but modern medicine has already accomplished many such feats and yet mankind’s consciousness is not greatly enhanced.

But think now for a moment about the miracle of forgiveness. How vastly improved would this world be if forgiveness could replace hatred? If the blessing of forgiveness were given to mankind tonight as we slept, we would wake to think we were in paradise.

Perhaps it is too soon to expect everyone caught in a cycle of pain and hatred to forgive their enemies. But it is not too soon for you or me. We have only to choose to forgive. This choice is within our grasp. Let the miracle of forgiveness start with us. Let it start now, in this very moment.

Here is a beautiful and inspiring prayer-demand from Yogananda on forgiveness:

Teach us to forgive others who offend us most, inwardly first, then outwardly. Bless us, that we may scatter the fragrance of forgiveness, and impart sweet speech for sour exclamations, love for hatred, kindness for anger, and good for injury. Awaken us, that we may feel that even the most night-black soul is only an error-dreaming immortal. With the divinity of our forgiveness, inspire us to awaken him to the consciousness of his celestial sonhood, potential purity, and immortality.

Jyotish and Devi Novak are Acharyas (Spiritual directors) for Ananda Sangha Worldwide.  Jyotish Novak is Spiritual Director of the Ananda Monastic Order worldwide.

Other Clarity articles by Jyotish and Devi Novak are listed under “Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi.”

The secret of self-acceptance is…

FORGIVING OTHERS; for as we forgive, so are we ourselves forgiven by them, and by Life itself. By forgiving others, we acquire also the wisdom to forgive ourselves.

From Secrets of Self-Acceptance by Swami Kriyananda.

Dissolving the ego
This is not easy.  The ego is the soul identified with the body, and a very subtle instrument. But that’s all it is—an instrument for the soul to be able to function in the body. Our job is to break that identification and bring ourselves to the realization that we are that which is in all bodies.

Some people think of getting rid of the ego by suppressing it. They say, “I mustn’t accept this job or that job because it might feed my ego.” On the other hand, not accepting the job might be going against something in your nature that needs to be expressed, so that it can expand outward.

How are you to decide? The answer is to do everything not only for God but with God, and to offer everything that you do up to Him. When you act in this way, bit by bit you begin to dissolve any thought of separateness from God, any thought of ego.

The right way to act
When Yogananda spoke about healing, getting answers to prayers, and other types of actions, he always emphasized a very delicate line between you doing it and just letting God do it. Neither way works of itself.

I’ve often mentioned the time when, in the middle of a sermon, I stopped talking and stood there, waiting for God to continue. And I waited a good two minutes to see what He would say. I found that He didn’t say anything.

To do things with God doesn’t mean being passive. You must be wholly engaged, and act with great enthusiasm and love for Him—but without the thought that you are doing it. There’s a sense of, “Okay so I did it but that’s not me.”

It’s only when we act to the best of our ability, and also ask God to act through us, that we draw His power. That’s why Yogananda said, “My own but God-given power.” The way out of ego-affirming action is always to feel that you are using God’s power. Yogananda taught us to pray, “I will reason, I will will, I will act, but guide Thou my reason, will, and activity to the right path in everything.”

The egoic approach doesn’t work
On the other hand, there’s the opposite approach that says, “I’m doing it all.” A lot of New Thought people have this idea. They think in terms of manifesting, often a parking space for some reason, but whatever it is—they think, “If I have the right positive thoughts, I will make it happen.”

The ego can make a lot of things happen but somehow in the end things don’t happen in the right way. What you achieve is always just a little bit short of what you wanted. Or you end up getting what you worked for, but it wasn’t good for you because it wasn’t in the flow, and it blows up in your face.

Ultimately the egoic approach binds you because you are left with the thought that, “I did that, I made that parking space happen.” You then think, “Maybe I can make two parking spaces happen.” And you go on and on and you forget that there’s sweetness and truth in letting God into the picture. But the ego doesn’t like that. The ego wants to claim credit for everything.

But if you can say no, God really is the Doer and give it to Him—suddenly you find an extraordinary freedom and happiness in that relinquishment. There’s joy in knowing that you’re a part of something much bigger than your little self. The soul wants to be a part of the universe.

Don’t box yourself in
Many highly creative people rise to certain heights and then find it impossible to rise any farther. Many actually begin to lose their creativity. Why? The loss always seems to follow an increase of egotism. Their thought “I’m doing it all myself” blocks the energy at the seat of ego in the medulla and prevents it from flowing upward to the seat of superconsciousness at the spiritual eye, whence comes the highest inspiration.

When you say, “I did this. I made this happen,” even if you’ve done a good thing, you gradually box yourself into a corner where you are just that. Why go to your grave thinking of yourself as an artist or banker?  Why go to your grave thinking of yourself as anything?

God wants us to become the universe, and to know that we are in everything and a part of everything. You’re not bound when you can say, “Yes, it was done through me but I’m not that.”

Remarkable things happen
The ego thinks, “Well, I’ve got to be responsible for myself. I’ve got to think about how am I going to get ahead. I can’t expect God to pay my grocery bills.” And of course you can’t, in one way.

And yet, if you will make Him your partner and draw on His energy in everything you do, you will find, to an amazing degree, that He does pay your grocery bills. He does take care of you. When you do things with Him, the flow is right and remarkable things happen. You will find, also, that you can do a great deal more.

Make God your partner in every undertaking, and offer the fruits of your self-effort up to Him, seeking to please only Him, and acting above all out of love for Him. In this way you will soon learn that you are in truth a child of the Infinite, and that dominion—not egoic, but in the form of soul-mastery—over all things is your divine birthright.

From talks and articles.

The senses are a big lie!
We can’t see God with our human eyes because the eyes, the senses, are a big lie! Their purpose is to keep us caught in the delusion that the physical world we see around us is real and all that exists.  The Bhagavad Gita describes this world as “sukadukadam”—a world of pleasure and pain, a world of suffering. But we don’t really suffer.

It’s like being caught up in a movie. We go through a little ersatz exhilaration with the hero and a kind of suffering due to the villain, and we experience these emotions as entertainment. Why? Because we know the movie isn’t real.

Because we can’t see that the world isn’t real, we get caught up in “sukadukadam,” pleasure and pain. Rather than being entertained, we suffer. But it’s only the ego—the soul’s false identification with this little body and personality, that suffers. The soul never suffers.

In one of his lectures, Yogananda asked, “How do you determine if a person is having an hallucination?” He answered, “Because the other people around him don’t see the same thing.” “But,” he asked, “What if everybody in the room is having the same hallucination? How then do you determine that it’s unreal?” Well, you can’t.

When the people all around you share the thought that they’re separate from God, and from one another, then you don’t perceive it as a delusion. But a master can come into the room and say, “You’re all asleep and dreaming.” He’s the only one in the whole room who isn’t sharing the delusion of separation from God.

From time to time great masters come into this world to give us this message. Usually people don’t accept the masters because they’re still enjoying the dream. They like to try to manipulate it for their own benefit—to get more piles of dream dollars, the nicest spouse, and the highest status. And when a master says, “It’s all a delusion,” we have a tendency to crucify him.

We were born into a prison of the ego and senses. Because it is large and varied, and we can wander around the corridors, we don’t think of it as a prison. But this prison—the ego—keeps us trapped in the delusion that we’re separate from one another and from God.

This world is like a movie
In The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna, “By the power of yoga, I will free you to see the reality…” Yogananda said Krishna meant specifically the ability to see God’s pulsating show of creation and dissolution, beyond the ego and senses.

The whole universe is continuously being created and dissolved. But we don’t perceive it, just as, when we watch a movie, we don’t see that the scenes are being created and dissolved by little frames.

I’m old enough to remember watching test patterns on TV. The first time I saw one it was really interesting, but it soon paled because it was just that one picture. In a motion picture, the frames change fast enough to fool the mind into thinking that the movement is real.

If we went to a movie and only saw one frame, everybody would soon be looking up at the projection booth and crying out, “We want entertainment!” God knows we want entertainment, so He does exactly the same thing with this world. Through vibration He changes the frames so we can have a drama to like and dislike.

But if you can see behind the frames, beyond the world of the ego and senses, there’s a whole other reality. And that reality doesn’t contain death, ill health or any of the things that get us so caught up in the “sukadukadam” duality of this world.

Going beyond the cosmic delusion
How do we get beyond “sukadukadam?” As Patanjali says, “Now we come to the study of yoga.” Yoga could be summarized as a collection of techniques and attitudes that take you beyond the hallucinations of the senses. But we can’t go beyond the cosmic delusion so long as the mind is restless.

Most of us, when we try to meditate, have too much restless momentum in the mind and the senses. Instead of stilling the mind, we act as though we’re going to “think” our way to God. Or we expect to see God with our senses.

Yogananda said we should approach meditation as if we’re going into a “conscious sleep,” trying to be half awake and half asleep. In order to go to sleep you can’t have any thoughts or physical movements. These things block you from drifting off.  But you go to sleep easily when you let go of your thoughts and just relax.

From a yogic standpoint what happens in a state of sleep is that the life force withdraws from the senses and the muscles into the deep spine, where it rejuvenates us. That’s why we wake up refreshed. Yogananda called sleep “counterfeit samadhi.” It’s “samadhi” because the life force is withdrawn, but it’s “counterfeit” because there’s no conscious awareness.

In meditation we’re trying to withdraw the life force—but in such a way that we are neither asleep nor awake in the usual sense, neither active nor passive, but both. To get a sense of this, Yogananda suggested that we practice going back and forth between states of wakefulness and sleep.

Practice as you go to sleep at night: drift off, then wake up and go into an aware state for a few minutes. Then drift off again, then wake up. Gradually train yourself to consciously move back and forth between being awake and asleep, awake and asleep.

In superconsciousness you see God
In meditation we withdraw the life force from that part of ourselves that perpetuates the outward lie of the ego and senses, but we stay alert while doing it. As we gain control over the life force, we can go in to the deeper stages of meditation, into a kind of relaxed concentration and absorption that takes you beyond the senses into superconsciousness.

In a superconscious state, Yogananda said you’re able to see the universe being created and dissolved. You see the little ego floating in a sea of bliss, but you no longer identify yourself with that little ego. In that state you dissolve the ego.

In that state—not with the eyes, not with the mind, you see God. You come into an intuitive knowing of your unity with that which is creating the bubble, the sea, the light, the dark, the dissolution and the creation. You aren’t even perceiving at that point. You’re just there. You’ve shifted your sense of identity from the most limited aspect of who you are to the most expanded.

This is what this path, this great gift of Yogananda’s to the world, is meant to do. The science of Kriya Yoga, the other techniques, the service, the satsang—have but one design: to help us release the ego, release our limitations and become absorbed in the great sea of Spirit from which we came, in which we now dwell, and in which we have always been.

From a February 22, 2004 talk at Ananda Village.  Jyotish Novak is Spiritual Director of the Ananda Monastic order, worldwide.

Other Clarity articles by Jyotish Novak are listed under “Nayaswami Jyotish.”

Meditation Exercise: Join the Cosmic Choir

by Swami Kriyananda

Imagine a choir composed of every atom in the universe, each one an
individual, but all of them singing together in blissful harmony.

In your own mind, join that mighty choir, composed of all life.
Determine from today on to sing in harmony with the universe.

Don’t impose on the great anthem of life your little wishes of how you
want the music to sound. Unite your notes to the Infinite Sound.

The more you do so, the more deeply you will know yourself to be an
expression of the soaring anthem of Infinity.

From Awaken to Superconsciousness by Swami Kriyananda.

A deep yearning of the heart
Devotion is a vital component for success in any field. I’ve yet to meet a world-class athlete, artist, nurse or farmer who didn’t have a deeply felt, intense yearning to do the best possible job in their field. It’s devotion that motivates them to undergo long hours of effort and other hardships until they can say, “That’s the best I can do.” They never compromise the heart’s constant call to strive for excellence.

Devotion is a line of demarcation for those who pursue success in any field. In the spiritual arena, few if any can tap into the energy needed to succeed in the practice of meditation without devotion.

Devotion is the deep yearning of the heart for God. Kriyananda writes that “To seek God… without at least wanting Him would be self-contradictory. To want Him is to feel devotion to Him.” If there is no desire for God, the incentive to persist in meditation will be lacking.

Without devotion, we aren’t likely to enjoy meditation enough even to stay with it! In his poem, Samadhi, Yogananda says, “By longer, thirsty, Guru-given meditation comes this celestial samadhi.”

“Thirsty” is a reference to the deep yearning of the heart which eventually draws the divine response. Once the heart is open and receptive to the feelings of peace, love, and joy that flow from Spirit, we can meditate “longer” because these feelings, when experienced, are extremely enjoyable.

Where is your treasure?
Jesus admonished, “Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” When we treasure God more than the things of this world, our heart’s devotion naturally flows upwards to Him at the spiritual eye, the point between the eyebrows.

The more we let go of material desires that pull our energy downward and away from God, the more our heart’s energy is channeled into the upward flow to Spirit. Only when the heart is purified of outer attachments can we concentrate on the Divine with our entire being, not just our mind.

How can we increase our devotion?   Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “Even a leaf or a blade of grass offered with devotion is pleasing to Me.”

Devotion can be fostered by our approach to life. To see the daily blessings of our family and friends, the sunshine, our freedom, or our health—as gifts from the Divine, arouses the heart’s natural gratitude and joy. This practice will increase your devotion and deepen your meditation.

Devotion is our natural state
Reading books about the lives of devotional saints can help us feel devotion. Devotion is our natural state. We become increasingly more comfortable with it when reminded of it by saints who lived it so purely. Even to see a picture of a Padre Pio or Yogananda, and the devotion in their eyes, can help arouse our heart’s sleeping love for God.

Yogananda encouraged chanting as an especially effective way of tuning into the heart’s refined feeling. Chanting while concentrating in the heart helps us to relax and open the heart. We’re able to feel the vibrations of the Divine much more easily once devotional chanting has “primed the pump” of feeling.

Which chant is best? Whatever engages your heart easily and naturally. Sometimes, a certain chant will easily absorb us, whisking us past the conscious, rational mind into the superconscious dimension. Experiment with various chants until you feel them uplifting your consciousness.

Learn to identify obstructions
The more we keep our hearts in a devotional attitude of love for God, the more natural it feels to us. We then can more easily identify and avoid those things which obstruct our natural devotion.

Try to increase your devotion to the Divine and see if the depth of your meditations isn’t proportionally increased. Yogananda often said, “God watches the heart.” May you feel His love there always!

Ananta and his wife, Maria, currently serve as Acharyas (spiritual directors) of Ananda Sacramento.

The Sweetness of “Wistful Yearning”

by Swami Kriyananda

As much in yoga as in any other approach to the Infinite, one’s meditation must be filled with the sweetness of longing, and of love. It had been said that God has all things—all wisdom, all knowledge, all power—that there is only one thing He lacks: our love. It is in our power to give or to withhold this gift from Him.

Some yogis, over-preoccupied with techniques, postures, and pranayamas, with subtle energies and psychic centers, forget that without love all such efforts are wasted—like a mountain stream that loses itself in a vast desert. Love is the prime necessity. All one’s efforts in yoga should be directed with love, and offered on the altar of devotion.

If one would draw a response from the heart of the Infinite Silence, an attitude of respectful, loving attention is necessary. The egotistical attitude, “I can conquer all!” is self-defeating. An attitude of humility and surrender must be the guiding force in every self-effort to advance spiritually.

Feel in meditation that your heart center (situated in the spine opposite the heart) is like a flower with its petals turned downward. Mentally turn these petals upward so that they point toward the brain. Feel rays of energy flowing up from the heart to the point between the eyebrows. Awaken love in the heart and channel all this love upwards, as if to the altar of God, in deep meditation.

This is the end of chanting and mantras, of pranayama, of all self-effort: when the heart’s love flows upward in silence, with “wistful yearning” (to use my Guru’s
lovely phrase), toward the heart of God.

Excerpted from The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, by Swami Kriyananda.

As the firefighters approached, they heard faint chirping noises coming from beneath the ashes. There they found what the mother bird had willingly sacrificed her life for—her nest of baby birds still alive and unharmed.

Why are we inspired by this story? Because it reminds us that willing and loving sacrifice is one of the most noble things in life.

For the devotee, the process of inner transformation that expands our consciousness beyond the self is impossible without this one key attitude: self-offering. As we willingly offer all that we are to a higher ideal or reality, we open the floodgates of divine grace and blessings to inundate us. Self-offering is a natural step for the devotee when our love and longing for God have deepened through the practice of devotion.

When selfless love exists, there isn’t even a sense of loss, no matter what the sacrifice. This state of consciousness is beautifully reflected in Christ’s immortal words from the cross, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

“One cannot take one step forward on the spiritual path without the natural love of the heart.” These words from Yogananda’s guru, Sri Yukteswar, are particularly important today, given the skeptical and overly analytical mental environment that surrounds us. To devote oneself whole-heartedly to anything is seen as naïveté or as a loss of one’s “objective” distance. Yet the selfless giving of ourselves to what we love is the only true source of joy.

There is a beautiful story from the life of Yogananda’s most advanced woman disciple, Sister Gyanamata, that illustrates this. Even during the latter part of her life, when she was frequently ill, she joyfully performed whatever tasks her guru asked of her. When one of the younger disciples asked her somewhat critically why she so eagerly did whatever Yogananda asked, Gyanamata told her simply and humbly that never in her life had she known such joy as when doing the bidding of her guru. It was Gyanamata’s total devotional self-offering that made her the great saint that she was.

The practices of yoga and meditation are great aids in our spiritual development. The study of philosophy and spiritual teachings can help expand our consciousness. But until we can develop a personal relationship with God based on love and devotion—a love that is childlike, whole-hearted and magnetic—we can never fully enter into the flow of grace that ultimately leads to Self-realization.

During Yogananda’s speaking tours, he would rush out onto the lecture stage with his orange robes and dark hair streaming behind him. With dynamic enthusiasm he would shout, “How feels everyone?” The crowd would thunder back, “Awake and ready!” Years later one of his students was giving a lecture to a spiritual gathering. Wanting to follow the Master’s example, but not wanting to get carried away, he said in a staid voice, “I trust everyone is awake and ready.”

Lackluster commitment won’t bring us the spiritual results we want. As Yogananda said, “When will you find God? When all your desires for others 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. Then you will find Him.”

Jyotish and Devi Novak are Acharyas (spiritual directors) for Ananda Sangha Worldwide. Jyotish Novak is also Spiritual Director of the Ananda Sevaka Order worldwide.

Other Clarity articles by Jyotish and Devi Novak are listed under “Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi.”

As Paramhansa Yogananda said, “Remember that you are unhappy generally because you do not visualize strongly enough any of the great things that you want, nor do you employ steadfastly your will power, your creative ability, and your patience to materialize them.”

Visualizing a saint
With enough concentration and clarity you can actually draw a saint to materialize to you. Materializations are very rare, but visualizing a saint with deep concentration is a great aid spiritually. As Yogananda said, “When one visualizes a spiritual man and deeply meditates on his mentality and character, one can attract and imitate his spiritual magnetism. For the purpose of exchanging moral, mental, aesthetic, or spiritual magnetism, personal contact is not always necessary.”

Visualization is also a great aid for manifesting health, success in business, or even improving memory. For developing one’s memory, Yogananda recommended the following practice: “to look steadily at a certain object, or at some scenery, or in a store window, then turn away quickly and see how many of the details you can enumerate. The deeper your impressions, the more details you will be able to remember.”

A powerful tool for healing
Visualization is now being taught by hospitals throughout the world as a powerful tool in overcoming serious illness. Studies show also that students in a gym class who simply visualized shooting free-throws were nearly as successful as those who spent hours practicing.

When you visualize, picture the activity or object very clearly in your mind’s eye. It is even more powerful if you include other senses such as hearing, touch, taste, and smell. See and feel yourself going through the entire process in a completely successful manner. Repeating your visualization several times will help you reprogram your subconscious mind.

Contacting the superconscious
Yet always remember the supreme power that is behind all human success. Yogananda cautioned us that, “God is the secret of all mental power, peace, and prosperity. By visualizing abundance, you may strengthen your subconscious mind, which may in turn encourage your conscious mind, but the conscious mind will be hindered by karma—the working of the law of cause and effect. But when the human mind contacts God, it invokes the unlimited power of the superconscious.”

To help us develop sufficient power in our visualizations, Yogananda gave this affirmation: “Today I will develop the power of visualization and the power of hearing. I will concentrate upon one good thing strongly. I know that if I concentrate for long on a certain image, the life force becomes concentrated in the spiritual eye, reproducing an astral motion picture of that image.”

Visualize unity with others and all life
The following visualization will help you feel unity with others and with all life: Visualize a globe of blue light at the point between your eyebrows. See this life-force as both very powerful and intelligent. Now let it spread slowly until it illuminates your whole brain. It is descending down your neck, spreading out to fill your whole body. Let the light expand out beyond your body to fill the room you are in. Let it continue to spread, permeating your home and touching everyone near you.

As it touches another person, see them light up with the same blue glow that fills your body. Let the light continue to spread until it fills your town… your state… your country… and finally the whole globe.

See everyone and everything filled with this light. See it especially bright in all your loved ones… your friends… your associates. Now let it touch everyone with whom you have any sense of tension or conflict. Feel how the light connects you on a deep, non-verbal level. Let the light take on a vibration of friendship, connecting you on a feeling level. Let go of all differences and project your blessings through the light. Bless the entire world with the sacred light of God.

Jyotish Novak is Spiritual Director of the Ananda Sevaka Order worldwide. He and  his wife, Devi, are Acharyas (spiritual directors) for Ananda Sangha Worldwide.

Other Clarity articles by Jyotish Novak are listed under “Nayaswami Jyotish.”

In both running and meditating we can easily become discouraged if we focus too much on our present difficulties. Having an even-minded attitude will help you remain steady and positive in your meditation practice.

What is a good meditation?
The Buddha said that stilling the mind is the most challenging yet rewarding task we will ever undertake. We shouldn’t be surprised when we meet challenges along the way. Yet every effort toward inner calmness helps us transform ourselves over time. St. Teresa of Avila said, “A meditation is well done if all you did was fight distraction.”

In other words, a good meditation can be defined as one that you do! Every time you meditate—no matter how restless or peaceful you feel—remember that you are doing the most central of all spiritual activities for discovering true, inner joy.

Think more of giving to God
The best way to stay even-minded during your meditation practice is to think more about giving to God. Unfortunately, many mediators think only about what they can get from Him. Yogananda said that if God were easy to find, people would seek Him for the wrong reasons! The attitude with which we meditate is very important.

Of course you want to experience higher states of consciousness when you meditate. The way to do this, however, is to lovingly, yet dynamically, offer your whole being to God. It’s only when your attitude is right, and your heart is pure, that God can come freely to you. Otherwise you are likely to take spiritual experiences in the wrong way.

George Washington’s greatness as a general, it has been said, was not his victories, which were few, but his ability to keep his army in the field, no matter how difficult. This persistence eventually defeated the British and brought America its freedom. Likewise, your persistence in meditation will eventually free you.

Constancy draws God’s grace
The path of meditation requires consistent, life-long practice—you cannot expect to reach perfection in a few short months or years. However, the devotee who meditates regularly will find more and more that God’s love and joy are singing in his heart. This constancy also draws God’s grace to our practice.

Swami Kriyananda once said, “You may think, ‘I can never love God the way the great saints love him. I’ll never have their fervor or joy.’ But you will find that as you keep reaching for God, He will uplift you. He will give you the power to find Him. You can’t generate that power yourself. But your love can draw that power to you.”

Never define yourself by your perceived weaknesses, but by your aspirations, because they ultimately determine where your energy flows. Does not every water molecule eventually reach the sea? You are God’s child and He wants you to inherit His kingdom. When you meditate feel that you have Him already and that He is lovingly guiding your every effort.

Joseph Bharat Cornell oversees the Meditation Support Ministry in the Sangha Ministry Office. To learn more go to

http://www.ananda.org/meditation/support/

Any material vibration sent forth by the ego during meditation will dispel the consciousness of Spirit. Don’t be discouraged at this. By deeper meditation, learn to calm the breath and the senses.

Never mind if at first you don’t contact God. For a long time you have been hiding from Him—running away in the marsh of the senses. Seek Him by meditating deeply with utmost devotion. Steadily use your will power day after day, week after week, year after year, until the cosmic silence of ages is broken and you receive His answer.

You won’t have to wait for ages. You will find in deep meditation that God’s spirit of bliss will hover around you, and talk to you through the voice of peace. When ever-new, ever-increasing joy fills your silence, know that you have contacted God and that He is answering through the receiving instrument of your soul.

From Inner Culture, September 1939.

Meditation Support Website:
Learn to meditate; go deeper in your practice
By Joseph Bharat Cornell

Visit our Meditation Support Website and experience for yourself the clarity and power of Yogananda’s meditation practices.

Recently, one of our ministers was corresponding with a woman in England who was feeling overwhelmed by her illness—cancer. Encouraged by her contact with the minister, she went to the website and tried a few of the meditation techniques. After meditating for twenty minutes, she felt a profound calmness.

This experience of meditation—and God’s presence—totally changed her outlook. She has now become a source of strength for her family.

A woman from Byelorussia recently told us that it is extremely difficult to learn anything about yoga in her country. She was thrilled when she discovered the Meditation Support site and is now meditating regularly.

Wherever you live, you can now learn about meditation and receive ongoing guidance for your practice. Subscribers to the Daily Meditator, our free monthly meditation support newsletter, say that it has helped them establish a regular meditation practice after years of struggle. Contact us at: www.learn-meditation.org.

With the sword of devotion I sever the heart-strings that tie me to delusion.

With the deepest love, I lay my heart at the feet of Omnipresence.

Prayer

Beloved Father, Mother, God: I am Thine alone! Let others seek Thee—or seek Thee not; it matters not to my love for Thee. Through all life’s trials, my prayer is this alone: Reveal Thyself!

From Affirmations for Self-Healing by
Swami Kriyananda

There are several hundred prayers in Whispers—prayers for dealing with material needs, for overcoming trials, for transcending greed, to mention only a few.  Yet not one prayer says, “Give me a good job.” “Help me to find an apartment.”  Yogananda wrote Whispers for sincere seekers on the path of Self-realization, and he’s showing us how to pray with Self-realization as the goal.

The correct way to pray
To be effective, our prayer has to be that we get in tune with the Divine—that we have the courage, no matter what comes, to live in attunement with God’s will. Yogananda shows us over and over that “successful” prayers are those that uplift and expand our consciousness to an awareness of our oneness with the Divine.

Yogananda’s “Demand for Prosperity” is instructive. The prayer asks not for money or goods but for the understanding that “I am Thy child, and as such, have the right of possession over all things… Rescue my consciousness, shipwrecked on the tiny island of my body.”

Yogananda is showing us here that to meet the material demands of life, we must overcome any consciousness of “lack” or that “I am tiny and separate from God.” We don’t beg God to solve our problems for us; we pray for the consciousness that empowers us to attract what we need. A “begging” prayer actually limits the power of the soul to draw what it needs.

What pulls us down in life is not our circumstances, but our attitude toward those circumstances. Yogananda said that circumstances are always neutral; whether we see them as happy or sad depends entirely on our attitude. If we hold the right attitude, we can handle anything.

Without the right attitude, our consciousness is pulled down and we forget God. In Whispers, Yogananda shows us that, more than anything else, we need to pray for right attitude.

Learning to express divine consciousness
Thus, if harsh words or cruel behavior threaten to pull us down, we pray for an attitude of Christ-like forgiveness—to be able to “behave like the orange which, though crushed and bitten, fails not to impart its sweetness.” Or if we are facing seemingly insurmountable trials, we ask God not to remove the trials, but to turn us into warriors—“burn away all the dross of weakness in me; bring out the steel of endurance, and harden me into the strength of calmness.”

In other words, we pray for the will power, the energy, or the devotion needed to live in attunement with our divine nature.

The need for focused energy
Yogananda’s guidance on how to use his prayer demands breaks down into ten distinct steps. (See sidebar below) He tells us first to select a prayer that has personal meaning for us. It’s important to pick something that we’re in tune with and don’t resist with part of our mind.

Then we need to calm ourselves so that we can relate to the prayer deeply. Most prayers don’t work because we’re not focused enough. One of the ways to calm and focus our minds is by using the prayer itself, repeating it slowly and concentrating deeply on each word.

The power of visualization
Once we’ve grasped the prayer’s meaning, then in meditation we visualize that meaning as clearly as we can, as if we were living through it. “Prayer at Noon,” for example, describes God’s energy as the sun shining down on us: “Thou are invisible yet Thine energy flows through the rays of sunshine….”

It’s one thing to understand intellectually that God’s power flows into us as continuously as the sun shines on earth. But it’s another to take that meaning so deeply into our hearts that there’s absolutely no doubt. To do that, we need to picture ourselves in various situations.

For example, we need to think of all the circumstances that we’re ever in and ask, “is there ever a time when God’s invisible rays are not coming into me?

If I’m in the grocery store, can God’s rays penetrate to me there? When I’m driving my car on the freeway and hit a traffic jam—are God’s invisible rays present then?”

If in meditation we visualize God’s energy as the sun shining down in a variety of situations, then one day when we see the sun shining down—suddenly, it’s God’s rays coming into us. The two images begin to merge.

Nearly all of the prayers in Whispers describe ordinary realities: walking down a crowded street when the sun is shining; seeing a honey bee gathering nectar; going to the movies; swimming in the sea. Over and over Yogananda is telling us that if we want to progress spiritually, we must learn to see God in everyday life. Before we can transcend this level of reality, we must first spiritualize it.

We have to become “hungry”
To understand the meaning of a prayer, we must also take that meaning so deeply into our hearts we awaken our longing for the Divine. The key is to repeatedly “saturate” the prayer with devotion.

In meditating on the sun’s rays coming into us, it’s helpful to try to feel those rays coming into our heart and to receive them with great gratitude. If we are truly grateful for the sun’s rays, it’s but a short step to feeling that it’s Divine Mother’s loving presence shining down on us through the sun.

If devotion remains a challenge, the solution is to find a prayer-demand that speaks to that need. As devotees, one of the most important attitudes we can hold is devotion. A relationship of deep love and intimacy with the Divine removes any sense of separation between our lives and God.

Don’t dig up the prayer plant
Yogananda says to “Imbue yourself with faith that your heart’s craving is being felt by God.” He tells us to feel that God is listening and then, afterwards, “Be fully convinced that he has listened.” One of the best ways to do this is to visualize one of the Masters sitting with you when you pray, or to feel that God is inside of you.

Don’t doubt. Don’t go digging up the prayer plant by saying, “Well, I wonder if it’s going to come true.” We must accept that we’ve done our best, and that it’s in His hands. This attitude requires discipline because we’re fighting against the inclination to believe ourselves small and separate from God.

Sometimes we have to accept the fact that, by not answering, God has answered our prayer. His answer is that we must go through the trial or other difficulty and learn our lessons through that experience. Ultimately, to pray correctly, we must learn to see everything as coming from God.

These prayers have the power to re-educate our subconscious minds on a profound level. The more continuously and deeply we use them, the sooner we break through the limiting power of words and the power of Spirit begins to flows into all areas of our lives.

Excerpted from a November-December 2002 class series. The complete 5-class series can be ordered by calling 650 323-3363, ext. 206, or e-mail inform@anandapaloalto.org. Asha Praver and her husband, David, are Acharyas for Ananda Palo Alto.

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

Yogananda’s 10 steps for using prayer demands

1).  Select a demand according to
your need.

2).  Calm your mind.

3).  Meditate on the meaning of the
demand until it becomes a part
of you.

4).  Saturate the demand with
devotion and meditate upon it.

5).  Meditate more deeply, increase
your devotion, offer the demand
as your own heart’s outburst.

6).  Imbue yourself with faith that
your heart’s craving is being felt
by God.

7).  Feel that God is listening to the
silent words of your soul.

8).  Be thoroughly convinced that
He has listened to you.

9).  Go about your duties, seeking
not to know whether God will
grant your demand.

10).  Unceasingly meditate on God.

The latest scientific research on the causes, diagnoses, and treatment of headaches, reviewed in the book, shows that that the techniques and approach of Ananda Yoga are especially effective in breaking the headache cycle. Ananda Yoga treats the underlying mental and physiological origins of headaches, using relaxation, stretching, breathing, and positive affirmation.

An epidemic problem
Roughly half the people in the United States have had a severe headache at least once in their lives. Chronic headaches over time tend to undermine the sufferer’s emotional and physical health. Ultimately, even close social relationships can deteriorate—people who suffer from recurring migraine headaches are three times more likely to develop depression than those without migraines.

Due to inadequate treatment options, treating chronic headaches can be a frustrating experience for both doctor and patient. A surprising number of headache sufferers are convinced that finding an effective treatment without side-effects is a hopeless task.

Ananda Yoga—an ideal headache treatment
Ananda Yoga works in three different ways to help prevent and treat headaches:

Gentle stretching: The postures promote deep relaxation through gentle, tension-relieving stretching, done with a meditative focus.

Affirmation: The affirmations accompanying each yoga posture help to realign thought patterns and release mental tensions.

Breathing: The Ananda Yoga breathing exercises deepen the level of mental and physical relaxation.

Stretches for the neck and shoulders
To prevent or relieve tension headaches, the neck and upper back need to be kept flexible. Many types of neck stretches are helpful, but most people won’t do them regularly enough to gain any real benefit. The Ananda Yoga system offers a balanced set of stretches that are safe, beneficial, and pleasant to do, making it easier to maintain a regular practice.

Eagle arms
Bring your left arm up in front of you and bend it at the elbow, with your upper arm horizontal, and forearm vertical in front of your nose. Wrap your right arm underneath and around the left, until the palms come together.

Keeping your chest lifted and open, raise and lower your elbows until you find the position that affords the best stretch of your shoulders and upper back. As you hold the position and breathe easily feel the release of tension throughout your upper body: shoulders, upper back, arms, and wrists. With each exhalation, visualize the released energy pouring into your spine, your center.

Affirm mentally: “At the center of life’s storms I stand serene.”

Hold this position for at least 30 seconds, continuing the affirmation. Repeat on the other side, with left arm wrapping underneath right, for the same amount of time.

Variation
If you cannot bring your palms together (this is quite common), drape a yoga strap between your left thumb and forefinger. After wrapping your right arm as far as it will go around the left, grasp the strap with both hands and as your shoulders relax, gradually work your hands closer together.

To order, call 800-424-1055 or go to www.crystalclarity.com.

Peter Van Houten, M.D. is the founder of the Sierra Family Medical Clinic and has been practicing medicine for more than 20 years. He has written articles and lectured extensively on the brain and the human nervous system.

Rich Gyandev McCord, Ph.D. is worldwide director of Ananda Yoga, one of the largest schools of yoga in the United States. He has been practicing yoga for over 23 years.

Don’t be swayed from your goal
The positive side of the fire element, that element of fiery self-control, allows us to burn away all obstacles that keep us from the truth. An example of this is a story that Ramakrishna, a yoga master of India, used to tell.

In some of the regions in India where water is scarce, there are certain hours of the day when irrigation water is allowed to flow into each of the farmers’ fields; then it is shut off and channeled into other areas. On a particular day, two neighboring farmers were taking advantage of the flowing water, opening up passages for it to water their crops.

Both farmers were working very hard and becoming very tired. At that point, each of their wives came out to the field and told them to please come in as lunch was ready— it was time to eat.

One of them said: “Well, I know I shouldn’t, but what can I do? She wants me.” So he went.

The second farmer said very forcibly to his wife: “What do you mean by asking me to stop for lunch? Don’t you see I’ve got work to do? Leave me now, and let me finish!”

He worked very hard for many hours and made sure that the water reached all his crops. But the other farmer’s crops failed for lack of sufficient water, and he and his family starved.

The meaning of Ramakrishna’s story is that if you are truly devoted to your spiritual path, you don’t say: “Well, I did want to meditate, but inasmuch as you’ve asked me to go to the movies with you, what can I do but go?” If you really mean business, you’re going to have that fiery determination which won’t allow other people’s opinions or suggestions to sway you or stand in your way.

Gain control over your own energy
On the spiritual path we need fiery self-control. In everything that you do, do it with fire! Do it with energy! Do it with everything you’ve got! Many people think, “Oh, I don’t want to be attached to anything, and therefore, I’ll do everything half-heartedly.” But then they meditate half-heartedly, too.

It is important to remember that this fiery control means gaining control over our own energy. It’s not imposing our will on other people, or abusing or trying to force them in any way. The negative side of the third chakra can manifest as harshness, intolerance, cruelty, anger, and lack of consideration for anyone else. Those caught in this aspect of the fire element may become dictators, ruthless bosses, or just manipulators.

This world is intended to be a battlefield. We don’t want to do battle in such a way as to hurt people, but we must be very strong in order to accomplish our spiritual goals. Many people don’t see that point. They defer to others all the time, hoping to let other people do their spiritual work for them.

During the Great Depression, Yogananda often spoke of the importance of having this warrior-like quality, saying, “If I needed a job and didn’t have one, I would shake the world until it had to give me one!” This warrior quality was one of the main attitudes Yogananda expressed in his life—he was a man of enormous will power. Yet he was also a man of non-violence, a man of peace.

The secret of success
The real secret of success in this world is twofold: concentration and energy. The two really go together; they’re parts of the same thing. We concentrate our energy. But first we need to be able to have energy!

Yogananda’s “Energization Exercises” are extremely helpful in this. When we consciously direct energy to the muscles while tensing them, we become aware of the enormous amount of energy that is available to us. Then, with that greater awareness, we learn also how to withdraw that energy from the body and “relax and feel.” Relaxation is a key aspect of deep meditation—but relaxation while still being very aware, focused, and in no way passive, dreamy, or sleepy.

Geniuses or people of power and success are always people of great energy. They’re often very inconvenient to be around because they’ve got so much energy. But a genius will never whine, “Well, I don’t know, I think maybe, sort of…” Imagine Michaelangelo saying lackadaisically, “Well, gee, Pope, maybe I’d like to paint the Last Judgment, but (sigh), I don’t know. But, well, OK, I’ve got nothing better to do next Saturday. So… I guess maybe I might try.”

It’s impossible to imagine him that way! It was a huge project! When he put his mind to it, he put his whole mind to it, and he nearly killed himself in the process. Perhaps he was a bit fanatical, but to do a thing well, it must be done with a huge outpouring of energy.

Swami Kriyananda tells of this needed level of energy: “I’ve found in writing something, I probably have to go through it at least fifty times before I’m satisfied. I remember that in writing my autobiography, The Path, I experienced one of the best tests I have ever had to go through—because it was so difficult. Difficult, because I felt a great burden of responsibility in representing what I understood of my guru, Paramhansa Yogananda. To misrepresent him was my constant fear. I kept trying to do everything I possibly could to make it better.

“Many times I felt tempted to throw in the towel. I drove myself to the point that, literally, I would stagger when I walked. It was a tremendous test, but in fact that is the way to do a job well.

“When I completed The Path I went away to India and spent time in seclusion. Once you finish a big project, then try to withdraw from it. Try to feel the source of the energy you were using; then offer it back up to God, the universal, creative source of all energy.”

Become a warrior of self-discipline
On the spiritual path we need fiery self-control, because we’re putting a halt to habits that we’ve developed over countless incarnations. We’ve got to be determined to discipline ourselves like soldiers, to learn to hold the body still and to rise above body consciousness.

One of Yogananda’s disciples tells the story of how they were sitting out on the beach meditating. She was being eaten alive by little sand fleas, but she realized that she couldn’t sit next to Yogananda, who was sitting so absolutely rock-firm, and not be rock-firm too. So she willed herself to sit still. She said later that the experience gave her a great deal of will power from that time forward.

You’ve got to be a warrior in the name of self-discipline. In our work, in our play, in everything we do, we can bring into practice this inner fire quality.

Savitri Simpson, a Lightbearer and Ananda Village resident, serves in the Sangha office and at The Expanding Light guest retreat. To order Chakras for Starters call 800-424-1055 or e-mail clarity@crystalclarity.com

Realizing that she must have felt something, I asked her what she experienced. “I feel some joy, sometimes peace, and often deep devotion,” she replied. In that one sentence she showed she had actually experienced God, by experiencing three of His attributes—joy, peace, and devotion.

Even Paramhansa Yogananda in Autobiography of a Yogi, after repeated experiences of samadhi (mystical union with God), asked his guru whether he had found God. Describing his guru’s response, he writes: “My guru was smiling. ‘I am sure you aren’t expecting a venerable Personage, adorning a throne in some antiseptic corner of the cosmos… Ever new joy is God.’”

Swami Kriyananda defines meditation as “that level of absorption when one has an actual experience of God, or one of His attributes.” The Indian scriptures define those attributes as peace, calmness, light, sound, power, love, joy, and wi