(Note: this is a summary of Jamuna’s talk at Sunday Service on February 28, 2010.)

In today’s readings we hear that Jesus scolded the Pharisees for their complaint that His disciples did not wash their hands before eating. Jesus admonishes them for honoring only the letter of the law while missing the spirit. Consciousness, He says, is what ultimately determines a man’s spiritual stature.

How different from the nitpicking reasoned whine of the Pharisees is the experience of spiritual vibrations and consciousness! For example, when I was on pilgrimage in Calcutta in 2004, we spent the afternoon at Yogananda’s family home. In one of the rooms where we meditated was the spot where Babaji appeared to Yogananda in 1920 to bless Yogananda’s journey to America. We could feel in that space (84 years later) the highly charged spiritual vibrations of both Babaji and Master.

To recall the story from Yogananda’s autobiography, it was with intense prayers and copious tears that Master called to Babaji to confirm Babaji’s blessing upon this momentous undertaking. At last, Babaji appeared to him and announced “I am Babaji” and you are the one I have chosen to go to America.” Master’s joy was so great that he wanted to follow the mahavatar out of the room, but his feet were held fast to the floor. How can we grasp such an experience with just our minds? Yet, the supernal realm of Spirit is our home and our destiny.

The spiritual path is not primarily an intellectual journey, like a tour through a museum listening to historical information on headphones. It is through love and devotion that we grow spiritually, and draw to ourselves the wisdom and blessings of the great lovers of God. Yogananda put it this way, ”where religion rules, love grows dry; where theories rule, understanding diminishes.” Our society is dominated by dogmatism in religion and by theories of human behavior in psychology. We box people in and categorize them in order to simplify or eliminate the imponderables of life.

I am reminded of a story out of the inner city of Los Angeles in the 80’s. A man is riding in downtown L.A. when he finds himself in the crossfire of a shootout. Bullets are flying everywhere. His wife is killed and he is shot repeatedly. At one point he catches sight of a vision of his mother in the back seat of the car and he turns to better see her. She draws him into her heart and at that moment a final bullet enters his back. If he had not turned that would have been a fatal shot to the heart. Afterwards and in preparation for trial, his lawyer counsels him not to tell the full story to the jury because they will think he is crazy. When he gets on the stand he tells the story anyway. The jury is stunned. He is asked later why he defied his lawyer’s advice. He said if he had denied that God existed the last bullet might as well have taken his life.

In the book “Conversations with Yogananda,” Yogananda describes how he had wanted to know more about some of the details of Ramakrishna’s life and consequently he had a visitation from Sri Ramakrishna (the great saint of India in the 19th century). They sat together holding hands. Swami Kriyananda, then a young monk, asked Yogananda: ”Did he tell you about his life? And Master responded, “In the interchange of vibrations I got the whole picture.” This is where we are headed!

Blessings,

Jamuna