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 furnished (with a little help from our decor team).
It sits in a sunlit meadow facing East. I meditated on the porch and in front of the “fireplace” also facing East on a large sheepskin rug. The covered patio is perfect for morning energization exercises. The cottage is well ventilated and the kitchen ideal for simple living.
I want to share with you a few small inspirations. The arati song we intone every Sunday (“Father, Mother, Friend our God”) came into my mind while resting between meditations. Its words, even apart from its melody, struck me as a core daily prayer: equivalent, it seems to me, to the Christian prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven.” It contains the essence of the spiritual path with these words:
“Father, Mother, Friend our God, we Thy wonders all acclaim. May our thoughts be only of Thee, train our hearts to sing Thy name. All desires born of delusion here we lay, Lord, at Thy feet. Thy one light brought by our great masters make us ever one with Thee.”
Chanting is always an inspirational aspect of my seclusion. Most years I also take time to review the Ananda chants and brush up on them a bit. Each year one or two chants jump out at me with their message and vibration. This year the chant that touched me deeply is “Thy will not mine, Lord, Thy will not mine.” (You’ll find it in the Ananda chant book, “Wave of the Sea.” Written by Swamiji it is both simple and beautiful.
Much of my non meditation time was spent in reading two books about Padre Pio (the 20th century stigmatist in southern Italy): one book that Jamuna gave me months ago is called “Padre Pio: the real story;” the other was recommended by Jyotish in a recent blog: Padre Pio and I: memoirs of a spiritual son.
The memoirs book is personal and inspiring but most of the text is the inspirations and words of the author. The “real story” book is more scholarly but filled with dialogue, letters, as well as documented history.
Both ignited my Catholic samskars but, fear not, I’m sticking with Master. In fact, my appreciation of his New Dispensation runs even deeper as it is lurching us ahead into Dwapara leaving behind the intense emphasis on suffering.
Nonetheless, the life of Padre Pio, being both 20th century AND an idealized expression of discipleship to Jesus Christ, is more than worth the effort. He was the first (and only?) priest to have received the stigmata (wounds of Christ on his body). The wounds were painful but so also were the many afflictions he endured physically but, perhaps more so, the attacks from fellow clergy and others that he was subjected to.
Swami Kriyananda suffered too, both physically and from attacks from others, not unlike Padre Pio and he too accepted such tribulations not just for his own sake but for the spiritual benefit of others as did Padre Pio. For our souls, too, it’s not as if we are going to fly home free for the fact of being “good bunnies.” We have much karma to work out. Fortunately, Master tells us that we can work some of our karma out AFTER achieving liberation.
Nonetheless, the New Dispensation means that “for us now the payment (in suffering) has been exchanged for calm acceptance and joy.” [You may not know this but Swamiji added the ‘calm acceptance’ to the words of the Festival of Light some years after it was initially written.] I was reminded, therefore, that the spiritual path requires tolerance, forbearance and acceptance in addition to will power, devotion, and dharma.
Another small insight was triggered by the fact that Padre Pio fingered his rosary beads almost nonstop, muttering the Hail Marys under his breath.
I asked myself: “What is OUR rosary?” Why, our kriya beads, of course! While our lives don’t permit us to follow Padre Pio’s example literally, we are yogis and practice pranayama; therefore, our breath itself is our prayer to Divine Mother: whether moment to moment or and especially in the practice of Hong Sau and Kriya. Breath is the outer expression of our life force (prana) and can be seen as an expression of AUM, the Word, and is personified in the East as Divine Mother. Our worship, then, of Divine Mother has been given to us in the (more) impersonal form of pranayma: Life Force control, aligned with the anahat (heart) chakra.
A side question might be: How do we approach Divine Mother? We don’t address Divine Mother as Mary, the mother of Jesus. Nor do we literally worship goddess Kali as Master did. While Swamiji suggested we consider Master’s mother as Divine Mother, that hasn’t become a widespread practice as yet. Our communion with Divine Mother is our pranayama practice.
This led me to reflect upon the fact that Padre Pio would go into an ecstatic state while performing the Catholic mass: especially when reciting the sacred words of “Hoc est corpus meum” (this is My Body). He, as Catholic dogma teaches, experienced the living presence of Jesus Christ in the consecration of the sacred host in the mass.
I thought more about this and brought to my mind that Master teaches that the words of Jesus at the Last Supper at which he consecrated bread and wine as his body and blood are symbols for the indwelling Christ consciousness and the living divine Life Force, respectively. The eternal, unchanging substance of the creation is the reflection of God within creation as the indwelling intelligence and bliss of Christ consciousness at the heart of every atom. The “blood” of Christ is the “Word” or vibration of God which makes manifest both the visible and invisible energy of creation as prana. (Recall Sri Yukteswar’s chant: “Let pranayama be thy religion”)
In kriya we are partaking in Holy Communion: the kriya prana breath is the “blood” of creation, ever moving and changing; the focused awareness at the spiritual eye is the Christ, the unmoving consciousness and intelligence of creation that observes and regulates the kriya breath.
Returning now to how to worship Divine Mother, I recall that In the last years of Swamiji’s life his devotion to Divine Mother intensified. He began pilgrimages to the Holy shrines where Mary was said to have appeared. He didn’t make it to Mexico for Our Lady of Guadalupe (but Narayani did on his behalf). Master brought to us from India the worship of Divine Mother in a more universal form, just as he teaches that Jesus Christ is one among the avatars of history. The time has come for the feminine aspect of God to be recognized universally. It is absolutely fitting therefore that Catholic saints and popes have strongly emphasized devotion to Mary in the modern age.
The impulse to recognize the feminine aspect of consciousness is easily seen in secular society, whether elevated or debased, in the women’s liberation movement. Another way this is being expressed is in our love for nature because the visible world of nature is a direct manifestation of Divine Mother, as the vibratory aspect of God in creation. (This was first expressed by St. Francis 800 years ago.)
We, too, therefore, must find our way to worship Divine Mother as well. Aum is our symbol and living experience of Divine Mother but most of us need something more personal. For me, individually, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe (and the story behind it) has long provoked an interior devotion.
During my seclusion I continued my japa using Master’s chant “Door of My Heart.” A few months ago, I came across Master’s counsel while listening to a fairly new YouTube broadcast series called Wisdom of Yogananda. I don’t have a direct citation for his counsel but his words may be on one of the audio tracks published by SRF and/or in one of the three books of essays taken from Master’s lectures.
The last full day of my seclusion was yesterday, Sunday, August 4th. The reading for that day from LIVING WISELY, LIVING WELL reminded me of the simplicity of God’s inner presence. Here are the words (again):
God’s consciousness is center everywhere, circumference nowhere. In that fact lies the secret of divine simplicity. We can most nearly approach such simplicity by imagining God as a Person who has nothing to defend, and nothing to promote; who accepts everything as it is; who rejects nothing; who wants nothing from anyone; who sees everything in relation to its eternal, changeless reality; who is wholly without self-importance; who never condescends; and who waits patiently for us, His creatures, to untangle our psychological kinks and recognize that we belong to Him alone. Such is the nature of Absolute Bliss.
Returning at last to Serenity Cottage, I cannot overstate how peaceful and quiet it was there. Even the birds there were hushed.
For your soul’s sake and to support Heart Song Hermitage I urge you to consider your own private retreat in Serenity House. Take two nights (so you have at least one full day). Alternate chanting with meditation, and meditation with reading and journaling. Walk the beautiful grounds several times a day. Eat lightly and fresh. You’ll be refreshed in body, mind and soul.
Tomorrow, Padma and I take a few days at the coast.
Blessings to all!
Hriman