the cross and the lotus journal · paramhansa yogananda ... east and west blended, join hand in...

My Beloved said in un-mistakable words, “Until you transcend the relative, phenomenal life and know you are absolute Truth, there is no liberation for you from the thralldom of fear and death, sorrow and pain, doubt and hate. Rise, rise, my child, from all dualities and dwell in the immutable, infinite Truth and Existence.”

Swami Ramdas

Jesus came to demonstrate the forgiveness and compassion of God, whose love is a shelter even from exacting law. The Good Shepherd of souls opened his arms to all, rejecting none, and with universal love coaxed the world to follow him on the path to liberation through the example of his spirit of sacrifice, renunci-ation, forgiveness, love for friend and enemy alike, and supreme love for God above all else.

Paramhansa Yogananda

There are times when you do not think your life matters; that who you are, what you think, say or do has no effect on this world or that you would not be missed. This is simply not the truth. God did not create one person or thing in this colossal creation that does not have an essential purpose. Live your life with full purpose, for you have Divine intention behind you.

Yogacharya David Hickenbottom

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The Cross and The

Lotus Journal

December 2017, Vol. 18 No. 4

Dedicated to the Realization of God and Service to Him in All Forms

Mother Hamilton – 1960s

The cross and lotus symbolizes the unity between East and West. The lotus is the sign of illumined consciousness, the thousand petal lotus of the crown chakra. The cross is the symbol of the body surrendered to the will of God. Following the way of the cross results in the resurrection of illumined consciousness.

The Cross and the Lotus, symbol of man. East and West blended, join hand in hand.

Marching toward the infinite light and life divine. Lift up your eyes and see the star,

descending from heaven where e’er you are. Be filled with the peace and ecstasy of God’s almighty love.

Aum-Amen. The Reverend Yogacharya Mother Hamilton

The Cross and The Lotus Journal is published by

The Cross and The Lotus Publishing U.S.A.

Website: www.crossandlotus.com

E-mail: [email protected]

© 2017 The Cross and The Lotus Publishing is dedicated to the publication of materials that promote God-realization. Our spiritual lineage begins with Jesus Christ and Babaji and flows down to us through Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar, Paramhansa Yogananda and Yogacharya Mother Hamilton.

The Reverend Yogacharya David Hickenbottom continues this lineage with the help and support of many sincere devotees. We are dedicated to realizing God and serving devotees of every race, color, creed and religion.

Mother Hamilton often said she was the product of two fully illumined Masters, her own Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, and Swami Ramdas. We therefore feature articles about Swami Ramdas and Anandashram. We bow to the feet of Saints and realized Masters of all religions.

The Cross and The Lotus Journal Page 35

Journal Editors: Larry & Cate Koler

Calendar of Events

Dec. 3 Advent

12 Hanukkah (sundown)—ends sundown Dec. 20

21 Winter Solstice (8:28 a.m. PST)

25 Christmas Day, Mother Hamilton’s Birthday (1904)

27 Swami Ramdas’ Sannyas Day (1922)

Jan. 5 Master’s Birthday (1893)

24 Mother Krishnabai’s Mahasamadhi (1989)

31 Mother Hamilton’s Mahasamadhi (1991)

Feb. 14 Ash Wednesday (First day of Lent)

26 Yogacharya David’s Birthday (1954)

Mar. 7 Paramhansa Yogananda’s Mahasamadhi (1952)

9 Swami Sri Yukteswar’s Mahasamadhi (1936)

20 Spring Equinox (9:15 p.m. PDT)

30 Passover—ends sundown April 7

Good Friday

Apr. 1 Easter

Center News Camano Island: Davidji gave a talk and a House Blessing

was performed by Davidji and Rev. Jill for Jerry and Lois Hick-enbottom’s new home. All enjoyed a potluck lunch afterwards.

Maple Ridge Center: On Nov. 12, in celebration of Swami Satchidananda’s birthday, devotees participated in meditation & a kirtan, followed by a potluck lunch. Regular services are now held on Monday evenings at 7:30.

Seattle Center: Swamiji’s birthday was celebrated at the Sun-day service with a YouTube talk by David and flowers & prasad.

David visiting Centers: Before leaving again for California Davidji and Carla visited the following centers and Yogacharya David gave a talk: September 24-Victoria; October 15-Port Townsend; October 22-Seattle; October 29-Ashland.

“When two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20

4 The Cross and The Lotus Journal

From the Master’s Kitchen “Vitality beverage ” – Fasting and Special Diets – Pt. 3 of 3

• Celery: 2 stalks, chopped

• Carrots: 5, chopped

• Water: 1 qt.

• Parsley: 1 bunch, chopped

• Dandelions, turnip greens or spinach, including stems: 1/2 qt., chopped

• No salt or spice

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

(1) After putting the celery and carrots through a meat chop-per, boil them lightly in the water for 10 minutes. Add selected greens and parsley and boil 10 minutes longer. Strain the mix-ture by squeezing through cheesecloth.

(2) Use the same ingredients, but do not cook them. After put-ting them through the meat chopper, strain them in the above way. Drink one cup of the beverage, prepared by either method, at each of the three meals.

This vitality beverage has been found to be very effective ton-ic in case of rheumatism, various stomach disorders, including acute indigestion, chronic catarrh, bronchitis, and nervous “breakdown.”

Comments from our C&L chef, Angela Victory

I thought seeing as there’s a lot of talk about fibre these days and how we’re not getting enough of it, I would use all the fibre by putting the veggies through my Vitamix blender. We are off to our early yoga class tonight and always want something light before-hand. This seems the perfect solution. Now, if you were trying to treat one of the above conditions, then I would prepare the Vitality Beverage exactly as Master explains for the highest benefits. Perfect health in God!


Dear Friends,

This world can be a very rough and tumble arena in which to be a partici-pant. I was once uplifted into a wonder-ful experience in which I clearly re-membered my life before coming to this earth-plane. That world and its citi-zens were sensitively attuned to higher spiritual thought and vibration. Even as a fish swims in water, a worm thrives in dirt, and a bird lives to fly, so the worlds beyond are discreet, available to only like-minded inhabitants; those with lower inclinations and habits simply cannot migrate to the more refined worlds—no more than a worm can fly. To come into this earth, which has such mixed consciousness without the restrictions of the higher worlds can come as a great shock to a refined soul.

Advanced planets are not rare in the higher spheres, and they are beautiful beyond compare. Surely there are times when those of this material plane glimpse a superior beauty that transcends this world—a special sunset or vibrant field of flowers, some idyllic setting that has such a transcendent beauty that it lifts you up and moves you to the core. In truth, there are artists, poets, lovers of nature, mathematicians and scientists who occasionally perceive the radiant beauty of the astral or causal worlds; in that moment the curtain lifts and one may truly experience higher reality—a glimpse of heaven.

There are human perceptions that raise consciousness up, but do not strictly qualify as spiritual experiences. To be a true spir-itual experience it indeed lifts you up, and it puts you in touch with a sacredness that transforms you. This transformation puri-fies you, reveals to you the better person within, and connects you to a state of consciousness that universalizes your aware-ness. If it does not do this, it may be a wonderful experience, but it is not truly spiritual.

Many people have had at least one spiritual experience in their lives. Perhaps, because it is so sacred, or the fact that such expe-riences are not commonly spoken of, they do not tell anyone about it. Such a hallowed connection may happen in a time of

The Cross and The Lotus Journal

crisis and deepened prayer, or while in a surpassingly beautiful natural setting, it may come as an answer to a deep question, or it may just come suddenly and unexpectedly; whatever the trigger-ing event it lifts you into supernal realms, reveals Divine Nature directly—bypassing the intermediary of the intellect. The notion that this kind of experience can be cultivated, made a constant feature in life does not enter the mind of the brief visitor.

Others of us actively yearn for our true home, feeling we must be in this material world by some mistake. We seek a world of likeminded souls devoid of bullies, murderers, thieves and liars. This desire for something higher, better and free from the de-mands of materialism drives us in our spiritual pursuit. When I first met Mother Hamilton I was more of the mindset to escape the bonds of this worldly prison. However, in meeting Mother, I discovered something unexpected—she embraced this world as a living expression of God—not something to be shunned but to be experienced differently.

Indeed, the higher worlds are not simply someplace else, but are actually woven into the fabric of this worldly existence—for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. When I met Moth-er, I did not have those eyes or ears, but it made me consider the possibility. Reading Papa Ramdas’ In Quest of God gave me a glimpse into this new concept that God is all around us, mani-festing as this material existence. It is one thing to accept this in theory, quite another to perceive it in daily life. Slowly the glimpses grew—in these experiences the higher world I knew before was revealed as being here as well. Walking through the woods was magical, the material world became transparent, re-vealing such exquisite beauty, transporting me, as it were, to the world I had known before, only it was right here.

My spiritual quest changed direction—rather than escaping this world for another, I was finding God here and now. I did not need to astral travel, die, have a near death experience or any other relocation program; it was all here, all about me for my purified mind to experience. It was a matter of my consciously perceiving this reality by rising above attraction and repulsion—for identification with these dual forces acted like static interfer-ence to my perceptivity of the universal Presence. In the univer-sal vision of God as my all and all in all, it made no difference if I were alive (in this body) or dead (to this body). I was discover-ing that God-experience is universal, wherever I am, there it is.


When you are ready to come out of the asana, slowly lift your torso back up, releasing the arms and sitting tall again. Draw your feet towards you and gently press your knees together. You may find your comfortable seat again and continue medi-tating, or slowly find your way up to standing—either way, sense any changes in your body, mind, and spirit and rejoice in this new openness!

Modification for Chair Yoga:

Sit down on your chair, facing for-ward. Lift your right leg up, bend-ing at the knee and crossing your ankle over the opposite thigh with the foot in a flexed position. Lengthen the spine upward and breathe deeply, preparing to go inward as described above. On an exhalation, lengthen your torso over your bent leg, either resting the hands on your right thigh or leg, or interlacing the fingers and resting the hands on your right leg. Allow the chin to release slightly toward the chest as you soften and ease into the pose with your re-

laxed breath. Follow the meditation described above. When you are ready to come out, slowly lift the torso to an upright position and gently uncross your right leg, bringing the foot to the floor. Notice any differences in the right side from the left. Repeat this deep stretch and quieting forward bend on the left side.

Benefits: Strengthens the back, tones the abdominal muscles, opens the hips and backs/sides of the thighs. Quiets the mind, relieves fatigue, stress and over-stimulation. Creates a built-in yogi’s cave! May the deep quiet of the season be with you fore-most every moment. Om Christ Om. Namaste.


Yoga and Health Kurmasana (Tortoise Pose)

By Briana Jones

Props: Firm, even floor space, yoga mat, optional: two bed pillows.

Inspiration: “In the temple of silence, in the temple of peace. I will meet Thee, I will touch Thee, I will love Thee. And coax Thee to my altar of peace…” – Paramhansa Yogananda

Practice: Choose a time of day when your body is warm—after exercise or perhaps a shower so that your muscles are re-laxed and ready to stretch. Begin seated on your mat in a com-fortable position. Bring the soles of your feet together and draw the feet away from you a bit, forming a diamond shape, with your legs resting against the floor. You may choose to place a bed pillow under each knee to ease the stretch in the hips and back of the thighs.

Sit up tall, lengthening the spine and breathe deeply. Prepare your body and mind for turning within. Relax your eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. On an exhalation, slowly lengthen your torso forward over your legs as you thread your arms under your low-er legs, palms down and fingers pointed away from you. Rest your hands on the floor, along the outside of your ankles or feet.

Work with the sensations in the body, backing off if you feel any pain, and find-ing a place where you can tolerate easing into this deep opening stretch in the hips. Let your chin relax slightly toward your chest.

Breathe, and continue your journey inward, with-drawing your senses, and allowing your thoughts to quiet. Think of the tortoise, retreating into his inner landscape, shutting out the world of danger and distraction. In this dark, quiet space, find your connection with God. Be with Him in all safety, all love, all peace.


Yoga cosmology says this is all God’s play, His lila. The no-tion of a play is entertainment, fun, joy, and interesting twists and turns along the way with its gains and losses. Seeing this world as God’s sport brings a new sense of relationship with it. We are here to play our part well, but it is done with a light heart, feeling that we are the instrument, God is the operator. It is all so different than how I thought about it before coming to Mother—it is so much better!

Yes, like any drama there are difficult passages. However, knowing that God is the doer, the sole producer and director be-hind the scenes, and through knowing that Presence you are with the Creator in the projection booth, even while the little dancing lights on the film screen continues the drama—it makes you free, even while the play/lila unfolds. World is God proclaimed Papa! What a transformation that makes—Divinity within, Divinity without and all about. Heaven is to be found everywhere, exactly where you are, for God is there.

This was the first time he was taken by Ram into solitude for His Bhajan. Now, he felt most blissful sensations since he could here hold undisturbed communion with Ram. He was actually rolling in a sea of indescribable happiness. To fix the mind on that fountain of bliss—Ram, means to experience pure joy! Once, during the day, when he was lost in the madness of Ram’s meditation, he came out of the cave and found a man standing a little away from the mouth of the cave. Unconsciously, he ran up to him and locked him up in a fast embrace. This action on the part of Ramdas thoroughly frightened the friend who thought that it was a mad man who was behaving in this manner and so was afraid of harm from him. It was true, he was—yes, he was mad of Ram, but it was a harmless madness which fact the visi-tor realised later. The irresistible attraction felt by him towards this friend was due to the perception of Ram in him. “O Ram, Thou art come, Thou art come!”—with this thought Ramdas had run up to him. At times, he would feel driven to clasp in his arms the very trees and plants growing in the vicinity of the cave. Ram was attracting him from all directions. Oh, the mad and loving attraction of Ram! O Ram, Thou art Love, Light and Bliss. Thus passed his days in that cave.

– by Swami Ramdas. His Sannyas Day is Dec. 27th.


Letter to a Devotee Dear _________,

We all have subpersonalities that are parts to our whole self. Quite often, especially when shocked or traumatized, a part of us can become like an island, feeling quite separate and apart. The emotional charge attached to this split-off part from a trauma can be very strong, and makes you feel trapped in a time and place when you had few options and even fewer resources. Your task is to bring these parts back into a sense of wholeness in your self.

First, be the dispassionate observer of these inner parts as they come into your awareness. As you observe a past situation con-nected with the emotional charge of sadness, anger or fear, see the emotions moving through you, breathing them through as they pass from you, flowing out of you. Have compassion for the part of you that was in a bad spot and has subsequently carried that emotional charge for so long. No longer resist this split-off part, rather join with it—breathing the emotional charge through, you feel a calm settle in—the previously disparate part merges back into you. Through working with these inner parts each one of them will eventually become part of you, yet retain their indi-viduality (this is a mirror image of what souls do in God-consciousness; we merge into God, no longer separate and apart, yet there is a sense of individuality as long as we retain a form.)

And when is this work done? When all the parts are in union with the Self—making you whole. When complete, you are cog-nizant that all of these parts are all legitimate aspects of you—and all are working together in harmony. That is in the micro-cosm, what is in you. And in the macrocosm, in all creation? Through your spiritual work, you—a fragment of God—come to know that you are part of God, and God is in you. All creation has been brought into being in order to consciously know that all of its parts are God, and in yoga-union all creation then works harmoniously together in perfect unity. The One in the many, and the many in the One. You are leading the way for the world by doing this work, a noble and mighty work that is in truth the destiny of all creation.


me very strongly that I should not keep this secret. After a lot of meditation and “checking in” that it is the right thing to do, I will do my best to describe in words the great gift I received.

The time together, as always, was a delight. Focusing on God and Gurus, laughing with friends, wonderful food and a beautiful view, and then it happened. At the end of one of our sessions David said something to the effect of “receive the gifts of the Gurus.” This hit me like a bolt of lightning; it was no small thing. These gifts were not some general, “the Masters had gifts”; it was specific; there was something to be received this weekend.

At the end of all official events that day I wanted to continue to meditate in the meeting room. After a time, the presence of Lahiri Mahasaya became so “thick” that I opened my eyes at every sound, thinking the Master was in the room. Focus on the Master became deeper and more singular, and suddenly behold Lahiri Mahasaya! Smiling in all sweetness, joy and bliss before my inner vision. Then he did something most unexpected. He ripped open my chest and sat inside, the image was very much like Hanuman revealing Rama and Sita inside his heart. He then said, “Now I live here, whenever you have a negative thought or feeling about yourself you are no longer referring to yourself, but to me.” I knew instantly I could never harbor negative thoughts towards Lahiri Mahasaya. What better gift could ever be re-ceived?

I am eternally grateful to God, Gurus, fellow spiritual soldiers in God’s Army and Loon Lake, such a perfect place for intense sadhana.

The September 2017 group. Chad is in the back row, far left.


Gifts from Loon Lake By Chad Hickenbottom

All of God’s aspirants have times available to them to deepen and intensify their sadhana. Loon Lake retreats are not only that—they include great fun, and joy in friends and familiar souls all marching in God’s army. In the end, I have never regretted going, however, sometimes as the retreat approaches I think, “What was I thinking? Why would I want to go there? There must be a million more things I’d rather do; spending the weekend sitting on the couch sounds like a far superior option.” As this inner dialog builds, anxiety levels can reach near panic. I have learned to

love this reaction over the years, as the self is thinking of any excuse not to go, while the Self knows I would only be in such a state if some good spiritual progress was about to be made.

Approaching the September Loon Lake this internal struggle was in full swing. A long-forgotten weapon was being used against me. Growing up I had bouts of depression; though I didn’t know it at the time my soul was crying out for spiritual connection. I often felt empty, like a great part of me was miss-ing; my initiation into Kriya Yoga satisfied this void and my depression flew the coop. The last two years it seemed to be returning, and was now the primary ego-tool keeping me sepa-rate from God in general and in trying to prevent me from going to Loon Lake. After a lot of struggling I found myself arriving at Loon Lake.

The theme for the September retreat was a focus on the great, great Master Lahiri Mahasaya. Can there be any better subject? The idea of spending a weekend deepening the relationship with Lahiri Mahasaya was a great thrill.

I experienced something that I thought I would never share, so precious and sacred an experience it was. However, it came to

Davidji giving his blessings


On The Throne of Omnipresence By Paramhansa Yogananda

[Mother read this during our featured talk on the next page. Master’s birthday is celebrated on January 5th.]

I sit in the super-conscious chamber of bliss. Once in a while during the diurnal solar hour, I come down into my parlor cham-ber of consciousness. Then I open the doors of music, vision, fragrance, taste, and touch—and let the fairies of song, color, fragrance, taste and tenderness come and dance before me. They make me laugh; they make me cry. When I cry too much and become bruised by the wounds of trials, I close the doors of the senses, lest even the aroma of the rose or the song of the nightin-gale divert me.

Then I race through immeasurable space into the chamber of sleep and dreams. There I lie quiet beneath the many sheets and quilts of darkness. After a while, perhaps when I have had enough of sleep, I open a secret anti-chamber and get into the chamber of dreams, and there I begin to play my home-made films of experiences in the movie house of the subconscious mind. There, in this movie house, I do just as I please. I weave the golden cloth of dreams with the silken threads of sweet memories, that I may write the name of God thereon.

I am His child, the prince of the cosmos, son of the Omnipo-tent. I tarry in the chamber of changes and play with the senses in the chamber of consciousness, or in the little cinema room of my dream movies. But when I am through with these two cham-bers, once in a while I roar through space in the plane of my fan-cy into the region of unplumbed darkness. Since darkness is something, I try to get beyond its yawning gulfs on to the shores of eternal void. There, in the land of oneness, no dualities, not even dreams, dare to disturb me. I am the king of all creation, the factory of the cosmos, the king of all things, the prince of intuition-omniscience. I am the prince of peace, the king of three worlds, sitting on the throne of my omnipresence.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. – James 1:17


New Year’s Eve Message An Excerpt from a Talk Given by

The Reverend Mother, Yogacharya M. Hamilton

in Seattle on December 29, 1974

[Bible Reading is Exodus, Chapter 34, verses 8-22.]

Looking Back on the old Year

This is the end of an old year. It is a year which we have made to be what it is…whatever is good, we have earned, and it is God’s blessing upon us. What has not been good is due to our own lack of seeking Him and that Light within ourselves alone. There can be no doubt about it.

We can look back over the old year; we can see the mistakes that we made. We can see the things that we failed to do, that we should have done, if we were to follow the way of Christ and find God-the-Father within us. He [Christ] is the way-shower—but he is the son, not the Father—yet simultaneously he is both. He is both the son and the Father because God was, and then he issued from Himself and that first-born, that creation, which extended to the highest creation which was man, was the Christ—the first and only living Son of God. Jesus himself said, Ye are the temple of God. He also said, to all who received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. That means that this life within us, this intelligence within us, this


Memories of Mother By Rev. Larry Koler

In 1977 or so Yogacharya David and I found out that Gandhi’s grandson was going to be teaching two classes at the University of Washington. We signed up for both of them. One of the classes was on the history of his grandfather and the other was in the philosophy department and dealt with his own writings and ideas. Dr. Gandhi was an Oxford trained professor of philosophy and was at that time teaching at the University of Hyderabad. He was invited to Seattle to be a guest lecturer at UW.

One of Mother’s other devotees also attended a few of the classes on Mahatma Gandhi and later in the semester asked him to dinner to meet Mother Hamilton. I, too, was invited and I offered to drive Professor Gandhi to and from the dinner. I picked him up from his apartment above the only Indian restau-rant in Seattle at that time, “India House.” (This is now on Roosevelt Avenue but at that time it was on University Avenue, a few blocks from its present location.)

There were five of us for dinner and we had a very pleasant conversation. Mother and the professor talked about India mostly and places they had both visited there. Interestingly, I don’t remember much about any discussion about Gandhiji. Near the end of the visit, Professor Gandhi talked about a problem that he was having in his personal life. He and Mother had a short private discussion and then the evening together ended.

I had to deliver Professor Gandhi to a house in a nearby neighborhood, about 2 miles away. This was near the end of his time in America and he was trying to fit as many visits in as time permitted. As we were leaving, Mother pointedly looked at me, as I was closing the door and pronamming to her, and said, “Come right back.” Mother had a twinkle in her eye and I found myself wondering what that was about.

As we traveled west across the north part of Seattle we en-countered probably seven or eight traffic lights. I remember distinctly that I remarked to Professor Gandhi how odd that it was that we only saw green lights and so many times in a row. Not once did I encounter a red light all the way there and all the way back. It seemed impossible until I remembered that twinkle in Mother’s eye.


Guru’s Grace By Mataji Krishnabai

[Mataji’s Mahasamadhi is celebrated on January 24 this year.]

O Papa, the lover of the humble! When I reached the age of twenty, my husband passed away after a brief illness, leaving me behind with two sons, resulting in my detachment from my rela-tives and also giving rise in my heart to a growing dispassion towards the world. With a view to preserve my chastity you turned my mind toward you who are all and yet beyond. O limit-less Papa! Even when I was eighteen years old, you had brought me in contact with Sri Tammanna Sastri, a disciple of Sri Gondavali Maharaj, and he initiated me with a Mantra. Between the age of twenty and twenty-two I was again initiated by Sri Siddharudha Swami, Sri Chandekar Maharaj and Sri N.V.R. In-

deed, they are all yourself in those forms. In this way you augmented my devotion to you by the Darshan of these saints and I gained some peace. O all-pervading Papa!

At last, by your grace, in June 1928, I felt an intense longing to have you and you alone, and you drew me to your

presence. O Papa, the Divine Mother! The moment I saw you, my heart was flooded with joy. The rare delight I then enjoyed was similar to that of a child when it meets its mother after a long separation. Papa, you are indeed compassion personified. Within only three years of this child’s entry into your divine presence, you enabled her to realise your static, changeless and infinite Being. Just as the feeling of “I” ness in me pervades all parts of my physical being from head to foot and yet this “I” is distinct from the body, so also I came to know that I am at once the Universal Consciousness and the transcendent Truth.

A young Mataji serving her beloved Papa.


power within us, is God Himself in human form. But because we have been born in and indoctrinated with the idea of separation from God, we think that we still have to go to God.

Transcending Time

All of the philosophers, mystics, historians have been interested with this thing called “time” for centuries. It is a fascinating subject. Sri Yukteshwar, in his wonderful book, The Holy Science, said that time is one of the four beasts before the throne of God—as mentioned in the chapter on Revelations—time, space, the word, and the atom. These are the things of duality. These are the things in which man governs and controls his life. But he should not do this. True, we are subject to time to the degree that we must keep schedules. We must be to work on time; we must keep appointments on time; and also it says in the Bible there is a time for all things, a season for all things, and these things must be kept. But that is for man in the human state. When you have reached this great Light of your own soul; when you have truly picked up your cross and followed the Christ in order that you might be his disciple; then you, like me, can become co-heir—Christ within God. There is no doubt about it. Otherwise what is the reason for all of our efforts?

One Blazing Glory

He came to show us the way. He was the example—the shining light, the candle on a hilltop. And that candle has been burning for two thousand years to take men to this land of perfection, this land beyond duality. Does this mean that you die and you do not come back? No, it does not mean that. It means that what dies is your attachment, your possession by this human ego which is the anti-Christ within every man. It is this human ego which keeps you constantly from knowing and realizing who and what you are in God. If we would but make the effort to do what we should, our lives would become one blazing glory of the Lord.

I have seen people like that. There are a couple right in this audience now who have gone all the way to God and who are tremendous in the Light that they spread. The magnetism, the love, the purity, just shines forth from them and they are as a magnet to draw others to the path. You are involuntary drawn to such a one. Because, as I have said a million times and shall


again, because it is the Lord’s commandment: they love one another, they have loved the Lord with all of their hearts, their minds, their souls, and their strength and their neighbor as themselves. The Christ came to teach us this one great commandment of love, and through his example he taught us the lesson of service to all men. He gave freely of everything within the spirit.

What are the Real Riches?

Now we have to ask ourselves just exactly what all these possessions that we cling so dearly to our bosom are worth. Are they worth anything really? Now when I speak of possessions I’m not speaking about clothes or a place to live or a car, although those enter into it. I am speaking of the things that possess you in the way of the attraction to the senses. Your senses are constantly attracted to things in the outer. They are constantly attracted to that which keeps your mind away from God. Our whole western world is full of it—advertising on billboards, on television, on radio, in stores, people come to your door—and they are all whetting your appetite for the things in this material world. And they fail to recognize that the real goal, the real riches, are to be obtained in the things of the spirit, because that gold of the spirit sets you free.

Go Beyond all Limits

Time indicates limitation. Do you not realize that? We are governed and controlled by day and by night by the clock and it denotes limitation and it is only when you go beyond all limits that you are truly a free soul in God. When you do this, you come back and work into the world, if it is God’s will. And you become a Light because, although you live in a human body, you are totally one with God. And that humanness is there just as a clock, as a habit pattern. But the Real One inside, although working in a human form and in the world of duality, is totally and always one with God—moving, speaking, thinking, only at His direction—nowhere else, nowhere else.

Your True Goal

So, it would behoove each and every one of us to look back on this past year, to set down on paper the things that we have accomplished and the things that we failed to accomplish that we


Kahlil Gibran – Prophet and Mystic (1886-1931)

Kahlil Gibran, immigrated to America from Lebanon and be-came a visual artist, poet and writ-er. Publication of The Prophet made him famous. He was raised as a Maronite Christian but was also influenced by Islam (particularly the Sufis) and the Bahai faith. Gibran sought to bring east and west together; he believed in the “unity of being” and universal fellowship for all.

Comments on Gibran by Yogacharya David

Mother Hamilton regularly read from Kahlil Gibran, particu-larly from The Prophet. This is what she once said about Gibran after reading his chapter on Work is Love Made Visible:

Kahlil Gibran was one of the wisest men who ever lived. In this chapter on teaching, it says everything that I have been trying to tell you for years. I can teach you the Truth as I have experienced it myself. I can inspire you to seek it. I can give you love. I can give you understanding. I can give you a tender and listening heart. But I cannot go inside of you and do the work for you. It is literally impossible. Each of you have your own lives to live, your own God-realization to attain, and no one—not anyone in the world—can attain that for you. You must attain it for yourself. So this chapter on teaching is very, very true, and it says everything that I would say to you.

I remember a time when Mother said that The Prophet con-tained the greatest wisdom of any book in the world. Gibran’s poetic-prose style conveys as much in how it is said than truths that are spoken—combining both extraordinary beauty and wis-dom. Papa Ramdas used to read from Gibran’s Jesus the Son of Man while Mother sat at his feet. And, for a rare personal look at the Gibran’s life, Mary Haskell’s Beloved Prophet offers a won-derful portrait.


An excerpt of “On Work” from The Prophet

You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whis-pering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s in-most secret.

…And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

…Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night. – Kahlil Gibran


wanted to accomplish in God. And to make a new sheet, all snowy white, and set down on it one big goal: and that is the universal realization of your Oneness with God. Because contained in that one objective, that one goal lies the answer and the fulfillment to every other thing you want in this earth. Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and then all of these things shall be added unto you. Every thought, every word, every action that goes forth from man returns to him in kind. As ye give so shall ye receive.

Whatever Happens is a Blessing

Whatever goes forth from yourself in thought, word, and deed will return to you at some time. I have seen the most fantastic example of that within the last week that I have ever seen in my life. With somebody who, although filled with God, left the path where they had been and went on another one. And I tell you it hasn’t been very good; it really hasn’t been very good. And that person is suffering torture such as you cannot believe, humanly. But it is a spiritual experience—it is that one’s crucifixion, and therefore it is good. When you come to the point, where no matter what happens in your life, you see it as a blessing from God, then you have really arrived to a state of spiritual consciousness.

…Count every blessing—everything that comes to you as a blessing; because no matter what it is in the physical, in the human sense, it is an opportunity for you to stir up your faith, to find that power of God within yourself. And to know that He does everything for your highest good. And He does every moment of your life. It is the human in us, which must suffer in order that the divine may be born.

The Year is Before You

Let us look at this new year—can the year give us anything? We many time say to ourselves, “I wonder what the new year will bring?” The new year will not bring anything to you. It is you who will take into the new year that which will be either your reward or your punishment. Because the year in itself is set before you. It is empty—what are you going to do with it? It is up to each and every one of us to put in to this new year only that which is of God.


Mother Lives Only to Serve Him

If you can become what you should be in Him then He can use you as his servant. You are His beloved child and the more you give of yourself the more He demands of you. (Until you wonder sometimes when you’re in the state of human consciousness, how you can possibly give one more thing.) I think that He demands—I know that He demands this of me so much that if I had but one feeble flicker in this body, one feeble spark of intelligence and somebody came to me and said, “I need your help,” they could have that spark. And I think many of you know this. Because I cannot say no. God absorbs me, He possess me, I am filled with the power and the beauty and the bliss of His presence every moment. I live only to serve Him, I adore Him, I worship Him. Every bit of my life—it is His and I live a most enchanting life, very difficult in the human sense. Make no mistake about that.

As I have said before there are many who think, “how wonderful it must be to be a guru. Everybody comes and bows at your feet. Everybody comes and gives you such love; they give you great gifts, all this.” But also, they give you resistance. They ask you for God-realization and they resist your efforts to help them to what they say they want, every inch of the way. They try in no way to be the examples of the truth, which you teach. They fall flat on their faces sometimes. But this is the way of life. It is the way even of the savior, Jesus. When it says that Jesus fell, don’t forget he was born the son of man, even as you and I, in spite of what it speaks of the miracle of the birth. That miracle happened, but it happened within the man Jesus. Because from Jesus, the son of man, he graduated into becoming Jesus the savior, the Christed one, the Son of God. And so Jesus fell, even as you and I fall, flat on our faces every now and then on our ascent to heaven.

In Truth, We are He

Each and every one of us is a part of God. So therefore each and every one of us must one day realize, even as the Christ came to teach us, our eternal oneness with the Father. We cannot avoid it. Because God is eternal; He is all of life, and in truth, we are He. I and my Father are one this moment. Let me realize that within myself, every moment of my life, that is it He, it is He, it is He!


Visiting Anandashram the first time changed my life. What wonderful service the inmates give there! Completely selfless, neither wanting nor needing any acknowledgement or gratitude from the recipient. Pure Prem (love) and Seva (service)—these two Sanskrit words became the attributes I wished to live by.

In 2009 we purchased our present residence—a main house with a cottage—in order to accommodate an extended family arrangement, which lasted five years. When the cottage became vacant we wanted to be able to make the place available to fami-ly and other devotees when needed but also use it for extra in-come. I began a business at that time, renting the cottage out to guests on the Airbnb platform. We named the cottage, “C & L Garden Cottage,” thinking that the C & L could not only repre-sent Cate & Larry, but also Cross & Lotus.

The business has been very successful. We have guests from all over the world as well as the relatives of neighbors who need somewhere close-by to stay while visiting. In the summer, espe-cially, there is a high turn-over, so I am busy cleaning and at-tending to all the details. Each one deserves a job well done: as they say in India, “The guest is God.” I know that people re-spond to the smile I can now freely give and also, even if they don’t know it, they feel the Ram Nam and meditation that have taken place within the little oasis God has brought them to.

God designs the sadhana we need. This business is one of the ways He has chosen for me to serve. Prem & Seva. I no longer want to change anything about my life; it is perfect in Him.

C & L Garden Cottage


In Business with God “When you are in business with God, you are in business with

the whole world.” – Mother Hamilton

“To Serve Him all my Days”

By Cate Koler

When I was young, like many others, I entertained dreams of being famous: an author, an actress or a distinguished academic. However, God, in His wisdom, did not manifest fame or distinc-tion in my life. Instead, He wanted me to learn how to serve.

Service, however, doesn’t always come naturally to a young woman who wants a creative, challenging and fulfilling way of making a living. I will never forget an early lesson: due to cir-cumstances I was working in a little roadside diner—not the most inspiring situation. One day, when I asked a customer what he wanted, he replied, “To start, just a smile, please.” Thinking myself too clever for such a job, I was taking it out on my cus-tomers, not giving them the kind of service everyone deserves.

What really changed my attitude about work was meeting Mother. She taught us to always do our best—whether our job was sweeping the streets or running a large corporation. Further-more, our lives could be a thing of beauty, no matter the circum-stances: for example, even if you were poor you could always put a cloth over a crate to create an attractive table. Devotees should keep the body and surroundings as clean and presentable as possible, so others would behold the temple of God within. “See God in everyone,” she taught. Love Him by serving them.

When I read Kahlil Gibran’s passage “On Work” I realized what I should aspire to: “Work is love made visible. And if you can’t work with love, but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of the people who work with joy.” Chanting Ram Nam helped me immensely too—whether it was during a summer job milking cows or working as a receptionist, I began to learn that nothing is mundane: all can be sacred. During the several years I ran a children’s theatre I found it much more fulfilling guiding young people in creative, character-building ventures than in striving for my own advancement.


So even as Jesus fell, so also we do. But like he, we can pick ourselves up and we can keep on going on this road to Calvary, on the way to Golgotha—which is the hill of the skull—until we become one with the blazing Light within our own consciousness. Then Judas, that which thinks of itself as separate from God, which is willing to sell life for thirty pieces of silver, hangs itself on the tree. This body is also referred to in the Bible, as the tree, as the church, as the temple of the living God, as the bush, as the road. It is the house in which the living Lord dwells every moment of His life. And until you can come to that realization of who and what you are in God you can never fulfill yourself. You will always truly be a failure; you will be among the living dead.

Pick up your Cross

Let us this year awaken to what is within us. This spiritual wonder, the wonder child. Let us pick up our cross and follow this savior within. Let us be willing to go all the way though the crucifixion, through the descension into the hell or the sub-conscience of our own being, where we meet or cross that which we have done, and which must be paid for. God will not give us more than we can bear. And we must hang on to Him with everything we have. Him alone. Because He is the sole doer in the universe. Jesus knew that so much that he even had the temerity to say, before Abraham I am. And he broke all the rules of grammar when he said it, but he did. And he realized that he was one with the supreme ego, this divine Ego. The great I AM of the universe. Abraham was the beginning—the father in the Jewish scriptures. But before Abraham was, the Christ existed, because he is that first and only begotten son which came from God. Not just only in one form but in every form that walks the earth. But he was the one who went all the way and who became the example for millions to come. And his name will never die.

But what we do in the name of Christ is unbelievable. Sometimes even today with the things that I meet, I think we are living in the days of the inquisition. You have no idea what it means to be in the spot where I stand and to have orthodox churches come at you and pray against you because you are teaching the truth instead of the parable. And to call you an angel of Satan and to pray against you for your death, for your


destruction. This is what has happened to me, but yet I stand among you—weak in body, it’s true. This body in which I live is still in very bad shape. But God is going to make it better because God is the sole power in this universe and His power is greater than any delusive force that anybody can call upon.

I have proven this many, many times with things that have come at me in my life. If God be with me who can be against me? And I know that. The physical body has to be taken care of; this is true; it must be fit to serve. But nevertheless, the Lord in this body is the same Lord that is supreme in every part of this universe. He is all there is. And He will, if it be His will, see this body through, and He will see that it lives to do great works in His name. I know that this is true, and I am doing everything I can to do what I can for you, in spite of the handicaps that I am working under at present, and they are great indeed.

What We Can do for Mother

The only way—you many times, all of you, ask me how you can help me—I will tell you how you can help me: you ask me to light the way for you, teach you the truth of the Christ, to take you to that realization of him within yourself. He is not to be found outside. He’s not going to come a second time outside in the heavens, from the heavens. Because it said he’s going to come out of a cloud of the heaven and he himself said that the kingdom of heaven was within, not outside.

…So, as I started to say, if you really want to help me then you will follow the Christ: you will pick up your cross, which is your own body and you will emulate him in every detail. You will take the guidance and the direction and the truth, which I teach you, and you will go to work on it. Because the greatest gift, the greatest thing that any of you can do for me, without exception, is to find your eternal oneness with God—to become blazing lights in His name, to spread His name, His fame, His glory, across the earth and you can only do that if you yourselves become that. And you cannot go before anybody in hatred or in anger or anything else, because if you do you insult the Lord in that one. Remember that he said, “Whatsoever ye do unto the least of these, ye have done unto me. So we have done these things against this Lord.


frail man sat behind the desk in the shadows and a younger man of about 40 or so was busily walking about the darkened room. He paused his hurried walking when he saw me and asked me what I wanted. I told him that I was looking for the President. When he inquired why?, I told him that I had a message from a Dr. Acharya and his wife, Sandhya. I was given the okay and told that the elderly man who was sitting behind the desk was the President. (It seemed to me that he was a little astonished that I didn’t know who the “President” was.) I slowly and respectfully walked past the desk and moved in closer to this silent, seated man, and introduced myself. He turned his head to get a better look at me and I smiled and said that I was there to deliver pranams from Dr. Acharya and Sandhya…and there it was! The knock on the door had been answered and that door had been flung wide open. GRACE poured out of the room behind his eyes and enveloped my whole being. He lifted his arm and right hand so that he could stroke the side of my face and I was im-mersed in a warm glow. We were there for an instant in a glow that seemed timeless and then his hand was slowly withdrawn. His eyes lingered for a second longer and then the man who had been scurrying around the office let me know that my time was up and before I knew it I was out the door and into the light of ‘day’.

But that grace, that grace, is still with me and the love and kindness in his eyes, and the touch of his hand on my face will never be forgotten. It was a beautiful and lasting gift; a blessing to be sure. And…was the gift of that grace meant for Sandhya? Or Dr. Acharya? OR me, the deliverer of the loving pranams? OR, had the love that Sandhya has for Ramana Maharshi miracu-lously been able to flow through my words to his heart? OR, could he just simply NOT bestow that look of loving kindness on every soul he looked upon? It seems that I may never be able to know the answer to those questions but what I do know is that I will definitely never take lightly the passing on of a message for someone ever again. I now see that it is a wondrous opportunity to be a vehicle for love to be exchanged and an honour.

A week later I wrote to Sandhya and expressed my profound gratitude for being the one who had been given the opportunity to deliver the message and receive that blessing. It was a special gift for which I will be eternally grateful. Ramana’s GRACE! Thank you, Ramana!


Ramana’s Blessing By Phyllis Victory

Sandhya Acharya loves Ramana Ma-harshi. Sandhya is the wife of Dr. S.H. Acharya, a teacher, whom I had met at the Gujarat Ayurved University in 2009, while I was attending a 3-month course. During Dr. Acharya’s lectures I often found tears running down my cheeks as he so eloquently spoke about the values of

Pancha Karma. The depth and understanding of his words touched my heart; deeply. And then gradually over the years, we all became good friends.

I came to know of Sandhya’s love for Ramana Maharshi one day, when she openly wept at the gift of a calendar from Rama-na’s ashram that I had brought for her. At the sight of Ramana’s image, tears rolled down her face and she fell into a deep state of meditation. In subsequent years, there were stories of visiting the ashram and walking up to the caves on Mt. Arunachala at 3 a.m. in the company of monkeys, cows and dogs. She was HIS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John and I had been given permission to spend 5 days as

guests of the ashram. (This meant that meals and accommoda-tion would be provided ‘by donation’ so that serious seekers could immerse themselves in the blessed vibrations of a space that Ramana Maharshi had so graciously infused those many years ago.) We did consider ourselves to be ‘serious seekers’.

Sandhya and Dr. Acharya knew that we would be staying at the ashram and a few days after we arrived I received a message “If you see the President (Sri V. S. Ramanan) or the manager please give them both our pranams.” Yes, of course. The request seemed simple enough; it was not unlike many “hellos, or so and so sends their love” that I had passed on; a passing on of a mes-sage; a courtesy, a small kindness. Always brief, heartfelt and efficiently dutiful. BUT this time it was, unbeknownst to me in that moment, a knocking at a very special inner door.

A few days later as John and I were leaving the great Hall after meditation, I passed an office that said “President” over the top of the door. I asked John to wait while I went in and stepped through the doorway (on a mission). An elderly and seemingly


It is our Own Savior Who is Crucified

I know I was so horrified, when I went through this tremendous experience in India in 1958, to see this vision of the Christ crucified on the cross. And I thought, “What terrible things these people were responsible for, to do this to this savior.” And three years later God lifted me up and He showed me that this, that I was so horrified about, was the savior on my own cross and that I had done this to him. It was quite a moment of revelation; it was quite a moment of upliftment and also of realization of the fact that what the Bible is trying to tell us, is that the story, the history of Jesus the Christ, is the story of every man who walks this earth. And that when man sees the vision of Christ, either crucified or glorified, he is seeing that savior within himself. But because he has been taught that there is only one in one human body who lived two thousand years ago, he has come to take that as a fact, but he does nothing about it himself, Why? Because he is hanging on to the coat-tails of Jesus the Christ, looking for a vicarious atonement. It is the savior within you that is crucified. It is that savior within you who saves you from sin or the idea of separation from God. It is that same savior within who uplifts you and takes you into the glory of who and what you really are.

What the Bible is, is this: …it contains the history of the evolution of every man; the manifestation of the Word of God is a story of that which is manifested without and within man. Because whatever happens within man also is vibrated outwardly and becomes history. So we have both, and many things have been done in the name of Christ, many people have been killed, many wars have been fought in the name of Christ. And they call this religion? I teach you the truth because I have experienced the truth within myself. God has lifted me up and through His grace revealed tremendous things and the price I paid was the price of my own individual life and it carried with it the human death-state.

Tremendous Revelations

And still I stand before you. What died was this human ego. I went through the state of purgatory—that is the state of purging. I went through down into the hell of my own being, the sub-conscience mind, and met there all of the things of the past. I


was lifted up and I was given tremendous revelations and I saw the glory of God. And as I was lifted up at one point, I was turned and saw behind me my spine and every single one of the spinal centers were lit up like a church. Because those are the sub-powerhouses that are governed and controlled by the electrical force of the brain and have jurisdiction over every certain body part within you.

Mother had to “Go the Way”

I have seen these things; I’ve experienced them. I’m not teaching you what I have read out of a book. I’m not teaching you what somebody else told me, that I listen to in a sermon—because you will find none of the things, or not very many of them, even in the Master’s lessons. But he came to teach me the way. But it was up to me to go the way and to reach that goal which he set before me. He couldn’t do it for me; he helped me all he could, even as I helped you. But I had to do it myself; I had to be willing to pay the supreme price. I had to come to the moment when my love for God was greater than my love for myself, for my human self. It was greater than my fear of death. It was so great that I said to Him, “Here am I, Lord, take me, do with me as you will.” And He did, He did, in great measure, and I am so grateful to Him in spite of what this body has been through.

This life has been the most fascinating, the most wonderful, the most exhilarating, exciting life that anybody could ever have, and I enjoy every minute of it, because God is life and life is God. There is none but He anywhere, how could it be otherwise when all things came from Him? This is His creation and without Him nothing was made. He is omnipotent—that means that only one power is in this whole universe. The things that we think of as evil are those things which man does through his misuse of the supreme and perfect law of God and he has no one to blame but himself.

What May I Do for God?

So let us make a year of new beginnings. Let us not say what the year shall bring to me but rather what may I bring to this year that is set before me? What may I do for God? How may I best serve Him? And the greatest way…that you can serve Him, is to find eternal oneness with Him.


were on their way, and this little boy was saved.

A little bit further he went. And he came to a girl that was suf-fering. And he said to her, “My child, what is the matter?” She said, “I am to be sold as a slave.” And he said, “Where are those who would buy you?” And she pointed to them. And he went over to them, and he said, “Here is my ruby. I was to present it to the King of the Jews, but I give it in return for this girl’s life.” And she was set free.

He wandered on and on. And he thought to himself, “I shall never see the King. Surely I shall never see his face.” And the years went by, and he became old and his hair was gray. And still he wandered on.

Finally, one day, he came to Jerusalem. And he saw a tremen-dous crowd of people gathered there. And he thought to himself, “I wonder what all these people are here for.” So he asked some-body, and this person said, “Did you not hear? This man whom they call Jesus is about to be crucified.” And he said, “Who is this Jesus?” “Oh,” they said, “he is the King of the Jews.” And he thought to himself, “Oh no, not the King. I must see the King.” But he fell beside the roadside. He was so weak, so worn out. And so finally someone came, and he said, “I am hungry. I am thirsty. I would see the King. If you will but take me to the King, I will give you this jewel.” And he parted with his emer-ald, the last perfect jewel that he had.

They tried to get him to the King, but still he could not be there. Still he could not. And he thought to himself, “I have failed.” And just as he was about to die, he heard a voice saying to him, “My son, you have not failed. Because it was I whom you saw. It was I whom you saved when you saved the little boy. It was I whom you saved when you saved the slave girl. It was I who invoked in you the spirit to want to see me. Here I am. Open your eyes and gaze upon me.” And the Fourth Wise Man looked, and the glory of the Christ filled his eyes and his being. And with this vision he passed into Paradise.

I do not know where this little story came from—out of the air, perhaps. One thing is certain, it is not written in any other book, nor is it to be found among the ancient lore of the East. And yet I have never felt as if it were my own. It was a gift, and it seemed to me as if I knew the Giver.” – Henry van Dyke


As Told by Mother “The Other Wise Man”

Mother retold this story during her 1960 “Christmas Service.” “The Other Wise Man” was written by Henry van Dyke, and published in 1895. It has been adapted numerous times—for print, stage and screen. This verse sums up the story: “Verily I say unto thee, inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou has done it to me.” Matthew 25:40.

I remember a story about the other Wise Man. He was to meet these original Three Wise Men (that were spoken of in our chap-ter) at a certain place. And he had left all of his earthly posses-sions except three beautiful, perfect stones which he had in a lit-tle pouch. One was an emerald; one was a red ruby; and one was a pearl.

And as he started out to keep his appointment with these three men, he came across a man who seemed as dead, under a date tree. And he thought to himself, “I am in a tremendous hurry, but I will get off of my horse and see if there is anything I can do to help this man.” And so he got down and he felt the man’s pulse and, although it was very weak, still he found that he lived. And he gave him of his water to drink and of his bread to eat. And the man was refreshed. And he thought to himself, “This is a good deed because this man will live.”

And he went a little bit farther. And his horse gave out, and he had to find another horse. And everything delayed him until at last he got to the place where he was to have met the original Three Wise Men, and they had already gone. So he thought, “I will catch up with them.”

And as he went along, he came to a village. And it seemed that he came in contact with these very men who had been sent by Herod to cut off all of the heads of the male children in the vil-lage in the hope that they might find the Christ and destroy him so that he would not be able to take Herod’s throne. And he went to the door of one of the women, and she said, “Oh please, kind sir, help me. I have my young son here, and I am afraid that they will take him.” So he stood in the door and, as the king’s soldiers came, he said to them, “Do you see this pearl?” he said. “It is yours. Isn’t this a beautiful jewel?” And the men were so greedy as they looked at this pearl that they reached out and took it and


Satsang with Swamiji “The Guru”

Guru is only one, but he has different forms. When you accept a Guru, you are actually accepting God as your Guru. God is only One. He assumes different forms in different places to teach different people.

The Guru awak-ens the disciple to the Reality and guides him step by step; but it is up to the disciple to do the spiritual practic-es and surrender his little ‘I’ (ego) so as to realize that he and his Guru are one. Actually, Guru and disciple are one but that has to be realized by the disciple through spiritual practice. Guru or God does not replace the individuality of a devotee. Guru shows the way and the devotee, by intense Sadhana, has to erase his ego and then realize the oneness.

The Sadhaka has to struggle hard to attain the highest goal—realization of the impersonal aspect of the Guru. This he can do only by Guru’s grace.

You are prompted to do Sadhana because of Guru’s grace only. The Guru has chosen to reveal himself in your heart and has started making you do the spiritual practices. Feel every moment that it is the Guru who is making you do the Sadhana. You have Ram Nam with you. Chant it constantly. It is He who moulds your life and does everything. So leave it all to Him.

If you entirely depend upon Him, he will guide from within and without—from within by giving you the right prompting to do certain things, and from without by bringing about external circumstances favourable to your acting according to the prompting. When you leave things to Him, you become carefree and will be at peace.

Source: Om Sri Ram Magazine, Summer 2004

Swamiji (center) with Davidji & Tuli Baba in 2005


Minister’s Message [Featuring the thoughts and inspirations of one of our three

ordained ministers.]

In the Darkness We Prepare for the Coming of the Light

By Rev. Jill Hough

So often with the coming of the fall season I felt the weight of the darkness come down on me like a familiar, heavy blanket. I would let it engulf me in the familiar lethargy and melancholy that felt natural and somehow comforting. It felt safe, not asking anything of me, allowing me to stop my growth.

This year, as I started to feel the traditional internal darkness descend as the days shortened, I thought I would address it differently. I looked through the darkness and when it seemed difficult to see the Light through the darkness, I reached out (in my mind’s eye) and pulled back the veils. I realized they were sheer and lightweight. They moved easily, and were the thinnest of veils. Each time I did this the Light had fewer and fewer veils concealing it.

It’s no accident that Diwali, Hanukkah, and Advent all utilize candles at the darkest time of the year. It is our challenge to recognize, as we go from the fall into the winter, that we must prepare for the birth of The Light within us. Just as the Earth prepares, so must we: metaphorically, physically and metaphysi-cally.

Just as the bulbs and roots of trees do, we can use this time of darkness to strengthen ourselves, to go deeper into who and what we are in God. We should wait expectantly for our Soul’s jour-ney to burst forth in Light and Radiance, pushing through the soil of ignorance extending to the Light.

What is gayatri? It really means, “Let me concentrate on that which illumines all.”

– Ramana Maharshi


My Gift for You

My Beloved, you ask gifts for those you love. You see them in the true light, resplendent in prosperity, health-filled, sane, hap-py, joyous, and then I say to you, but what of yourself? What gift do you desire? And I receive your answer, “Only that I know that Thou dwelleth in my heart, Lord, is enough for me.”

And yea, how well hast thou spoken, for where there is such deep consciousness of My Indwelling, all the affairs of your life are guided and moulded by that high vibration. You do not need to ask specific gifts when all that the Father hath is yours. I can give to you so far beyond your asking, that the things you would ask for now would be a childish tinsel toy tomorrow. I give to you perfect gifts of pure substance, and with them shall come peace and joy beyond all expectations. All circumstances of their coming shall be glad, smooth, joyous and complete. So you do well to say, “Only Thou Father;” and I who hold all Creation in the Palm of My Hand shall bring forth of My Abundance for you. – Eva Bell Werber

Merry Christmas & Happy Birthday, Mother!

[Mother, reading a birthday card she has just received—1980.]

“A loving birthday greeting for the dearest of all mothers; to wish you all the happiness you’re always giving others; to thank you for the things you’ve done in such a thoughtful way; and then remind you once again how much you’re loved each day. Have a wonderful birthday.” There are many, many names and all this money that I can use for God’s work.

Let me say that I appreciate very much your thanks, but I give it all to God, because without Him I am nothing. He makes me live and breathe, walk, sleep, eat, everything. I could not do one thing if it were not for Him, and I serve Him in each one of you with all my heart, my mind, and my soul. And any credit for anything that I do goes to Him alone, because without Him I am nothing. He makes all things possible for each and every single one of us. As I have said, I am the littlest one on the Christmas tree of life, I feel. That I can serve God in each of you is my greatest pleasure and my greatest privilege because I, too, am serving Christ in you each moment. I’m fortunate to have my birthday on Christ’s birthday.

the cross and the lotus journal · paramhansa yogananda ... east and west blended, join hand in...

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