In this article I would like to address this question in the context of disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic, “Autobiography of a Yogi.” While these thoughts can be easily applied in other situations, it’s easier for me to be more specific doing it this way. Hopefully, what I have to offer isn’t limited to those disciples … Read More
Sunday, September 22, we entered the Fall Equinox when the days of sunlight begin to “pale” in relation to the hours of darkness. The northern hemisphere begins moving towards the winter solstice when we have the fewest hours of sunlight. The equinox and solstices have special human significance in their relation to the sun. Since ancient times, the sun has … Read More
There is a way out of bad karma, but the “way” is narrow and straight and “you” get left behind. You want to hear more? What is karma? Karma is the self-balancing after-effects of previous actions, including thoughts and emotions, not just physical deeds. Thus, the term “karma” includes what is ordinarily considered “good” karma as well as “bad.” However, … Read More
Thank you for asking! I returned today from a seven day (Mon-Mon) seclusion at Serenity House (the cottage in the back of the Heart Song Hermitage property). The sellers of the property more or less left intact the furnishings of this fairly new cottage (which they used to rent out regularly via AirBnB). Thus, it is well appointed and fully … Read More
“Awareness precedes control,” my teacher, Swami Kriyananda would say. The “battle of Life” that high achievers and devotees refer to begins with awareness of who and what we are and the contrast with who and what we’d like to be. In this video I offer several techniques to help one develop mindfulness including one seldom shared that is given to … Read More
Paramhansa Yogananda taught that “The drama of life has for its lesson the fact that it is simply THAT: a drama!” We don’t know where we came from or where we will go when we no longer have a human body. We don’t know where the universe came from, or why. Both scientists and metaphysicians tell us that this world … Read More
Today (as of publication, June 20, 2024) is the longest day of sunlight in the northern hemisphere. Soon the warm to hot days of summer will appear in July, August, and perhaps even September. Will we remember the ice-cold days of winter and the great blizzards that have blanketed us indoors for days at a time? Or, will we just … Read More
Since ancient times the solstices and equinoxes have been celebrated by people around the world. Why? In our urbanized lifestyles wherein we often cannot see the stars, the moon and even the sun, and where nature is replaced by steel and concrete, we might ask ourselves this question: why all the buzz around the Solstices (and Equinoxes)? Why the buzz around a new moon … Read More
I just finished reading a book recommended to me by a friend: The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life’s Perfection by Michael Singer. Michael Singer describes himself as a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda and hints that he visited Ananda Village twice long ago, but he keeps both of these facts at a distance in his book. Living on his own with no … Read More
Jean-Paul Sartre, the nihilist-existentialist author wrote “In this world that bleeds, all joy is obscene.” That’s a grim condemnation of the quest for happiness which is all but universal in human consciousness. Sartre and others like him did, however, experience the absurd obscenity of the madness of two world wars in the first half of the twentieth century and it’s not difficult to understand … Read More
How often have we heard Jesus’ words and how little do we live them. But what does it mean to love your enemies and do good to those who spite you? I saw a social media posting that declared that these words of Jesus were out of date. That post was from a Christian, BTW! Jesus was unfairly put to … Read More
In a recent interfaith discussion, the question of “Who is a saint” came up. On one side there were traditionalists who were inclined to say that a saint was one who had done miracles that could be proven and who otherwise lived a heroically spiritual life. On the other side, were those who said “We are all saints, potentially or in our … Read More
Can you recall the rural train crossings with the big X sign on which the words STOP, LOOK, LISTEN are written? You’re supposed to stop your vehicle before cross the tracks (which don’t have electric gates); roll down the window; look both ways, and listen for the sound of a train BEFORE crossing the tracks. STOP, LOOK, LISTEN is solidly … Read More
It is not uncommon to have Catholics recite the countless miracles (and resurrection) of Jesus Christ and his holy saints down through the ages and the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin as proof of the validity, presumably exclusive, of their faith. Protestants might insist that one can only be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ for it is necessary to take Jesus Christ … Read More
Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the now classic “Autobiography of a Yogi,” lived in America during World War II. He considered that war to be a just war which would also have the effect of accelerating the dissolution of colonialism including, especially, the British rule of India and many other countries. In the last years of Yogananda’s life (1893-1952) he warned … Read More
If, then, the universe is maintained by ceaseless change and the opposition of opposites, the experience of happiness cannot be known without its opposite: unhappiness. If you had the perfect life as you would imagine it, you would eventually be restless, bored, and unhappy. It didn’t take much to get Adam and Eve to leave paradise, right? Yogananda commented that the reason God doesn’t talk openly with … Read More
In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, Adam and Eve are placed in a paradise. Instructed not to eat the fruit in the middle of the garden from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You know the rest of the story. Adam and Eve disobeyed and ate the fruit and were banished from the garden by God. How … Read More
God created the universe but life contains suffering as well as pleasure; satisfactions and accomplishments, as well as sorrow and failure. If evil exists, perhaps as a conscious force, did God create it? Questions such as these run to the core of our human experience posing an existential paradox. If one posits that the creation does not require a conscious Creator in order to exist, then the questions are merely academic and … Read More
It is most ironic that Jesus’ crucifixion was ostensibly justified on the charge of his being a threat to Roman hegemony. Not only was that far from the truth but some of the Jews of his day would have preferred that Jesus HAD BEEN a threat to the Roman occupation. Both sides got it wrong, you might say. It is also ironic that … Read More
This Sunday, March 24, is Palm Sunday. In the story of Palm Sunday long ago, Jesus enters Jerusalem riding a donkey as crowds received him chanting “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of God!” Ah how fickle is public acclaim. Only days later, the crowd shouted “Crucify him!” But we do this daily or weekly too, don’t we? Maybe you come … Read More
In the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8, verse 5, Krishna tells Arjuna that “He who, at the hour of death, thinks only of Me enters unquestionably into My Being.” This advice is all but universal throughout the ages. But woe to anyone who thinks by this shortcut to erase a lifetime of misdeeds. One might be unconscious at the time of death; or, death … Read More
March 7 and March 9, respectively, are the annual anniversary dates for the deaths of Paramhansa Yogananda (1952) and his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar (1936). How does “mahasamadhi” differ from an ordinary human death? “Maha” means “Great” and “samadhi” refers to the highest state of God-consciousness, or cosmic consciousness. When a liberated saint or master leaves their human body and their passing … Read More
We read often that more people each year describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” Who can blame them? Are they throwing the “baby out with the bathwater?” We are not islands, despite the poet’s claim. As we help others we are helped. The question becomes one of choosing those with whom one is in harmony with you, knowing that … Read More
Yogananda’s life as he shared in his famous autobiography was a search for both universal truth AND the “concomitant” disciple-guru relationship. Here in the West we often hear Christians insist that if “You do not accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior you will go to HELL!” That’s enough to make one run for the hills. But what if it … Read More
Kriya Yoga, made popular by Yogananda’s life story, can be described in many ways: it is a technique of meditation; it is given in the relationship of discipleship to the Kriya Yoga masters; it is part of a family of raja yoga meditation techniques; and, it has several levels.
This week begins a four-part class in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Yoga Sutras are among the core scriptural sources chosen by Paramhansa Yogananda when he came from India to the West to share the ancient wisdom of India. There are innumerable sources from which Yogananda could have chosen in addition to which are countless commentaries by some of … Read More
I read a poem by the medieval woman saint, Mirabai as quoted by Yogananda in Chapter 7 of his life story. For “all thy getting, get understanding” and that understanding is not of the mind but of the heart. Love is joy; love is enthusiasm; love is respect; love is acceptance. And while virtue cannot by itself take us into … Read More
Few people realize the connection between Gandhi and ML King. King was a follower of Gandhi. He visited India and met with Gandhi’s successors. In his first civil rights protest in Montgomery, Alabama, he made Gandhi and his teachings household word in the deep South!
According to legend, the female Sphinx lived outside the city of Thebes and tested travelers with a riddle: what creature has one voice but, in the morning, has four feet; in the afternoon two feet; and in the evening, three feet?
“The characteristic features of Indian culture have long been a search for ultimate verities and the concomitant disciple-guru relationship.”
This sentence encapsulates the timeless and ever timely reality that life is both objective AND subjective.