May 19, 2013 by Nayaswami Susan McGinnis

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Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Last week we contemplated the well-known story of Martha and Mary. Traditionally, this story has been offered to show the two classic approaches to salvation: the first, through action, and the second, through prayer. The excuse of the Marthas of this world has always been, “The church needs its Marthas, too.” Treatises, moreover, have been written to justify the Martha approach to piety, praising her self-sacrifice as, perhaps, an even higher demonstration of devotion. (Thus do the unmeditative workers in religion try to justify themselves!) Yet the fact remains that Jesus rebuked Martha. Elsewhere, moreover, he spoke of the virtue of feeding the hungry, curing the sick, and housing those who were homeless. It wasn’t that he disapproved of serving people.

Wrong attitude was the object of his criticism. What he was criticizing was forgetfulness of the true goal of right, spiritual action. Good deeds, outwardly, without inner communion with God, will result in good karma but will not bring final freedom from all karma.

The Path to inner freedom was described by Paramhansa Yogananda in these words: “Be always calmly active, and actively calm.”

As it says in the Bhagavad Gita, the second Chapter:

He who is not shaken by anxiety during times of sorrow, nor elated during times of happiness; who is free from egoic desires and their attendant fear and anger: Such an one is of steady discrimination.

Do your duty in life – so counsels this great Scripture elsewhere – but never lose sight of Him to whom all action should be dedicated.

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

May 12, 2013 by Nayaswami Padma McGilloway

Nayaswami Padma McGilloway

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Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

One of the most famous stories in the Gospels is that of Martha and Mary. Jesus, visiting the home of Martha, was teaching while her sister Mary sat at his feet absorbing his divine love and wisdom. Martha, meanwhile, busied herself with serving her guests, and was upset with Mary for not helping her.

“‘Lord,’ she cried, ‘doesn’t it matter to you that my sister has left me to do all this serving alone? Please ask her to help me.’

“‘Martha, Martha,’ Jesus answered, ‘thou art careful and troubled about many things.

“‘But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’”

This story is classic, for Martha’s complaint is very understandable, and not, on the surface of it, spiritually wrong. Jesus might well have told Mary to get up and help her. Nor do we really know that he didn’t, considerate as he always was of others’ needs. But the teaching here doesn’t concern the obvious dilemma of devotees: to work for God, or to spend all one’s time in prayer. It concerns, rather, the attitude of the mind.

Jesus didn’t tell Martha: “Martha, you are doing too much.” He told her, rather, “You are letting your work affect your inner peace.” That was the contrast: not work vs. contemplation, but restless preoccupation vs. peaceful absorption under all circumstances.

As it says in the Bhagavad Gita, the second Chapter:

Actions performed under the influence of desire are greatly inferior to those which are guided by wisdom. Happiness eludes people when they act from self-interest. Seek shelter, therefore, in the equanimity of wisdom.

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

Prem-Shanti Rider

May 5, 2013 by Tyagi Prem-Shanti Rider

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Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

We begin this week with a passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 5:

Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; . . .

If ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the tax collectors the same?

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even pagans so?

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

This teaching is a continuation of last week’s lesson. To love all equally is possible only by seeing God everywhere – in others as well as in oneself. See whatever comes to you unasked for as a manifestation of His will. Be grateful for the pains you experience, for they are healing strokes of His love. Sometimes, healing is effected only by strong measures, but His love for you is manifested in the very attempt to heal.

Strive always to be impersonal, as though whatever happens to you were happening to someone else.

Persecution gives us the supreme opportunity to deny the thought, “This is happening to me,” and to affirm our inner freedom from the thought of ego. Don’t allow the negative perceptions of others to become your own self-definition.

Seek God: This is the true goal of life – though how difficult to cling to in the midst of hatred, spite, and persecution! The Bhagavad Gita tells us in the seventh Chapter:

Out of thousands, one strives for spiritual attainment; and out of many blessed true seekers, who strive assiduously to reach Me, one, perhaps, perceives Me as I am.

O truth seeker, be one, among all those thousands, who seeks the supreme goal!

April 28, 2012 by Nayaswami Hriman McGilloway

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Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

The passage this week is from the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 5.

I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The easiest explanation for these words is that they were spoken in criticism of the scribes and Pharisees, particularly since Jesus was often verbally attacked by them, and stood up to them fearlessly. However, it wouldn’t have been much of a challenge to the disciples, who aspired to spiritual perfection, to tell them, “Don’t be like those who lack any such aspiration.”

Jesus in fact says only a few verses later, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

What Jesus was referring to here, then, was the self- righteousness of the priests. Don’t seek perfection, he was saying to his disciples, in the image you project toward others. Don’t be satisfied with a goodness born merely of ego-definitions. The highest virtue is to transcend the very thought of personal virtue in the realization of God alone as the Doer. Before this realization, even the thought, “I am kind,” or, “I am truthful,” is self-limiting.

As it says in the Bhagavad Gita, the seventh Chapter:

Yet hard the wise Mahatma is to find,
That man who sayeth, “All is Vasudev!”

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

April 21, 2012 by Nayaswamis Hriman and Padma McGilloway

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Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.