The Buddhist monk, Godo Nakanishi, once spent several days sitting quietly on a snow-covered mountain. The birds living there noticed him, but fear of humans kept them a safe distance away. As the monk continued to meditate, he became more and more absorbed in the inner silence. Gradually, the wild birds lost their fear and accepted Godo’s presence because of the wonderful peace he emanated. A few birds, apparently attracted to the serene monk, landed and perched on his motionless body.

The greater the yogi’s calmness, the more he lives in unitive consciousness. Notice how calmness intensifies perception, as you read the following visualization. Read each paragraph, then close your eyes and see its imagery in your mind.

Imagine your mind as a pristine lake… encircled by mountains. See how the lake’s surface reflects its surrounding environment—the mountains, trees, and sky.

Now… picture your thoughts as restless winds that ripple the lake’s surface. These winds prevent you from seeing a clear reflection of the mountains.

As your thoughts slow down and the breezes cease… you once again see the image of the mountains reflected perfectly in the lake of your mind.

When the lake was disturbed by restless winds, it couldn’t reflect the mountains clearly. However, when the lake was calm—mountains, rocks, trees, and sky—were perfectly imprinted on the lake’s surface. This is true also for the calm human mind.

Communing with Life

The birds landed on the Buddhist monk not because his body was a convenient place to perch, but because the birds were attracted to his aura of peace. Interestingly, this monk later founded Japan’s Wild Bird Society for the protection of native birds.

“Deeply felt silences [are] the core of our Kofon religion. During these times, the nature within ourselves found unity with the nature of earth. This is not ‘closeness with nature’ but rather an immersion in the common nature which pervades all life.” (Prince Modupe, West Africa)

The “common nature” that pervades all existence is: AUM; God’s loving presence vibrating throughout creation. There are many accounts of Himalayan animals being attracted to the sound of yogi’s chanting AUM. Hearing these stories, I decided to see if any animals at Ananda Village would respond to Cosmic AUM.

Downslope from where I live is a rock outcropping that local coyotes trot past every morning and evening. After my morning meditation, I walked to a large boulder, sat down and began chanting AUM. After five minutes, four ravens, in tight formation (like Blue Angel jets) flew low over my head. I had never seen ravens fly so close and choreographed before.

Hoping to attract a mammal, I kept chanting and after a short time, I happened to glance to my right and saw—standing thirty yards away—a coyote listening to the AUMs.

Seeing my head turn, the coyote trotted under a nearby tree, calmly laid down facing me, and listened intently to the AUMs for three or four minutes. The coyote then rose, circled in front of me, and again listened attentively to Sacred AUM, before going on its way.

Experience Stillness

“All worthwhile things in life are evolved in the stillness,” said Paramhansa Yogananda. “The calmer you grow, the more you will see the reflection of the universe within you.” I wrote the following A Lake Is Like the Mind meditation to help make stillness more real to our consciousness.

A Lake is Like the Mind

A saint once asked his disciple to meditate whenever he saw an expanse of water because it would remind him of the vastness of his soul. To practice A Lake Is Like the Mind, find a tranquil pool of water in a stream or pond. Ideally, the pool should be small enough to give you a feeling of intimacy and serenity.

The pool of water should be at least eight inches deep. Collect six stones about the volume of a duck’s egg. If the pool is tiny, gather smaller stones.

A lake’s surface—like the human mind—is always changing. Sometimes the lake is calm and serene, and other times a breeze, falling leaf, or splashing fish might ruffle its surface. In every case, the lake’s placidity is disturbed by something external to itself. Meditation strengthens the mind so that passing phenomena won’t disturb it, just as the lake’s deeper water remains unruffled no matter what happens on its surface.

To begin the exercise, find a comfortable place to sit that overlooks the water. Place your six stones beside you and gaze at the water, letting its placidity calm you. Stay in the present moment as best you can.

Every time you notice you’ve become distracted and are no longer grounded in the here and now, cast a stone in the water. Carefully observe each stone’s splash and the ensuing ripples spreading outward, and how the water (representing your mind) is disturbed and no longer mirror-like. Note the impact inattentive thoughts have on one’s awareness.

It’s normal to have thoughts during meditation. The trick is to let the thoughts pass by without seizing and embellishing them. When the stone’s ripples start to dissipate, feel yourself letting go of all thoughts, and delight in the joyful serenity that comes from living in the present.

Keep gazing at the water until all the stones have been thrown.

God communion requires stillness of mind, just as the surface of a lake must be completely calm to reflect the sky. Only in stillness can you discover the hidden depths of your spiritual nature.

Blessings of light,

Nayaswami Bharat

In the realm of Light where the river AUM flows into the Cosmic Sea, King Darshan told his subjects, “In three days, I’m going to make an important announcement.” The kingdom buzzed with anticipation; their sovereign, who’d ruled for many years, had always been generous.

On the day of the king’s decree everyone in the kingdom came early to the Royal Palace. In the crowd stood Elisabeth, a quiet, beautiful seven-year-old girl. Elisabeth deeply loved the king and would always sit near him during his public appearances.

As the king entered the hall, everyone became quiet. Darshan said, “The time has come in my spiritual life for me to give away all my riches. I want you, my loyal subjects, to enjoy them. Please, take any of the treasures in the palace you desire.”

The people gasped, clapped their hands and shouted with delight. A mad scramble ensued; people were running everywhere. Some raced to collect the crown jewels, while others ran to grab the palace’s costly paintings and other treasures. Not everyone behaved in a correct manner—some were fighting over the most expensive items. In no time at all, the king’s wealth vanished into the arms of his happy subjects, each one carting off as much as he or she could carry.

During the commotion, Elisabeth remained sitting serenely before the king. He looked at her inquiringly and asked, “What do you desire, my child.” Elisabeth stood up, held the king’s hands, and replied, “I want you, my Lord. Only you.” The king’s face lit up like a thousand suns. King Darshan gazed at young Elisabeth with great love and radiance.

Except for Elisabeth and the king, the palace was deserted. The king’s generosity and benevolence were already forgotten. The citizens of the realm were engrossed in their newly acquired riches. Soon, however, a strange thing happened. People began to grow tired of their acquisitions; many sold their treasures and some had theirs stolen. Soon the people possessed few of the royal riches.

For Elisabeth, however, the king’s true wealth lived in her heart. Every moment of her life, afterwards, was blessed with his radiance and light, for King Darshan had given Elisabeth himself.

Renunciation: The Joyful Path

“I have found bliss, peace of mind, and universal love that I would gladly have given all the riches, fame, and social approval for only a taste of what has become my constant experience.”
—Swami Kriyananda

Material desires confine one’s awareness of Cosmic Consciousness to a tiny portion of matter. Once Paramhansa Yogananda observed Dr. Lewis, a highly advanced disciple, gaze longingly at an expensive car. Immediately Yogananda said, “Doctor, watch your desires!”

Desire directs energy: devotional thoughts interiorize the consciousness, while worldly desires draw the consciousness outward.

The goal of meditation is to interiorize one’s consciousness. Practitioners of meditation often complain how difficult it is to calm the mind. Actually what meditators need to calm are the desires of the heart: the likes and dislikes. To still the mind one must quiet the heart.

Swami Rama Tirtha said that to find God, there are two things every devotee must do: affirm the Real Self and deny the little self. To cooperate with (and honor) meditation’s inward flow, the yogi must, as best he can, let go of those desires that sabotage his efforts.

Jesus said, “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.” When the devotee renounces lesser desires, meditates faithfully, serves the Divine in others, and lovingly thinks of Him throughout the day, that devotee’s whole being—like a mighty river—flows rapidly towards God.

Swami Kriyananda said, “That which the ego relinquishes is reclaimed forever in cosmic consciousness.” The more we renounce lesser things and realities, the more we’ll soar in the skies of Spirit. In Autobiography of a Yogi, Yogananda tells of the levitating saint, Bhaduri Mahasaya, who was once praised by a disciple for renouncing family riches. Bhaduri mildly rebuked the disciple: “You are reversing the case…. I have left a few paltry rupees, a few petty pleasures, for a cosmic empire of endless bliss…. Shortsighted worldly folk are verily the real renunciates! They relinquish an unparalleled divine possession for a poor handful of earthly toys!”

A Renunciate Order for Everyone

Do you deeply love God? Is communion with Him your life’s defining goal and ambition? If you said yes, you might be interested in the new renunciate order inspired by Paramhansa Yogananda and founded by Swami Kriyananda. Although this Order originated at Ananda, it’s a universal order and disciples from many traditions have taken initiation. The Order is for every lover of God—whatever his or her religious affiliation and walk in life. It is for those who understand that seeking God energetically is life’s true purpose.

The Naya (new) Swami Order emphasizes the positive aspect of renunciation: soul expansion. Both single and married devotees can apply; there are four vow levels of renunciation. Here is the beautiful Pilgrim’s Vow of Intention.

The Nayaswami Order is infused with Paramhansa Yogananda’s power. Joining the Order unites you with over 1,000 souls who deeply desire God. Order initiates have universally commented on how taking vows in the Order has transformed their lives.

When he founded the Nayaswami Order in 2009, Swami Kriyananda felt tremendous bliss and said, “I have a soul-tingling feeling that this new Order is the watershed of a new era of spirituality on earth.”

To find out more about the Order and read Swami Kriyananda’s book, A Renunciate Order for the New Age visit www.nayaswami.org.

Blessings of light,

Nayaswami Bharat

The ego is the soul identified with the body. Egoic consciousness makes one self-absorbed and oblivious of other realities. When one is immersed in nature, the “body vanishes and the freed soul goes abroad.” (John Muir) Only by expanding beyond the physical body can one commune with God.

People enjoy being in nature because there they see ennobling qualities they want for themselves. In its myriad forms, nature helps enrich and expand the soul. Sri Ramakrishna asked his disciple Master Mahasaya to meditate whenever he saw an expanse of water, because the placidity of water reminds one of the vastness of God.

Richard Jefferies, the English poet, spoke of everything in nature—a flower, a lake—as “touching him and giving him something of itself.” He “spoke to the sea… and desired its strength.” He addressed the sun, and consciously drew upon the soul equivalent of its light. He looked at the sky, gazed into its depths, and felt the “blue sky drawing his soul toward it, and there it rested.”

Feeling nature’s essence within your body and all around you helps you feel God’s body. The best way to feel nature within you, Swami Kriyananda says, is to relate from your center (the spine) to the center of everything you observe. When you see a striking rock or tree, commune with its spiritual essence; feel it becoming alive in you.

In India there was a hermit who had an unusual way of praying. While the other hermits recited the scriptures, repeated mantras, or practiced breathing exercises, the “atypical” hermit expressed his devotion differently. After coming out of his cave, he’d greet the morning sun, enjoy the sunlight on the Ganges, and listen to the birds. Every time he saw something that delighted him, he’d joyfully clap his hands in approval and exclaim, “Well done, Lord, well done!”

“All life leaps like a dancer when gazing I see only Thee.” (Swami Kriyananda) When the consciousness expands, and all nature becomes one’s body, one feels oneself moving in and delighting in everything.

May you, like the hermit, see and delight in God everywhere.

To Practice
The Sky and Earth Touched Me

Go to a beautiful natural area that feels vibrantly alive, such as a small stream lined with maple trees, a flowery mountain meadow, or an aspen forest. (One can also do this exercise indoors by looking out a window.)

Ask Divine Mother to reveal Herself to you through all Her forms and appearances: the flying birds… flowering trees… and distant ridges.

1. When something captivates you, relate to it from your center to its center. Commune with its spiritual essence, feel it becoming alive in you.

2. Feel that aspect of nature awakening equivalent soul qualities inside you. For example, a towering mountain may inspire feelings of soul aspiration.

3. Lovingly look at what has captivated you, and mentally include its name in the following sentence: The _________ touched me… and gave me part of itself. For example, if you observe a raven soaring high in the sky, say, “The raven touched me… and gave me part of itself.”

4. Continue to practice as you sit or walk, saying, “the _________ touched me,” or “Divine Mother touched me.”

Be aware of the inner lift of pleasure the sight gives you, and share that feeling with God.

One day, when Jesus was surrounded by a jostling crowd, a sick woman of great faith quietly and lovingly reached out and touched his robe. Because of her devotion, she was instantly healed. Jesus asked his disciples, “Who touched me?” Though many people were touching Jesus, only the woman touched him with the kind of love that drew his spiritual blessings.

Most people, John Muir said, are like little marbles, rigidly alone, “having no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything.” God, however, has surrounded each soul with other people and with nature’s beauties to help him expand his consciousness and self-identity. The more you commune with the divine in nature, the more you’ll feel the joy of the universe passing through you.

Blessing of light,

Nayaswami Bharat

Suddenly the quiet man stood up and walked into the office. A few minutes later, the office manager came to the door and announced, “Thank you all for coming today. We have hired someone for the job.”

Why was the quiet man hired?

While the other men were talking, the office manager had tapped out in Morse code, “If you hear this message, come in and accept the job.” Only one man was calm enough to hear the message.

Paramhansa Yogananda was once asked why his most advanced disciple, Rajarshi Janakananda, progressed so quickly on the spiritual path. Yogananda replied, “He knows how to listen.”

Listening brings attunement; Swami Kriyananda has defined attunement as harmony. Meditation is one of the few human activities where one isn’t imposing his will on the environment. As one progresses in his meditation practice, he feels a growing sense of soaring self-offering to God.

When the great woman saint Anandamayi Ma met Swami Kriyananda and other disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda, she was pleased to see how soft and open they were. True discipleship, Swami Kriyananda once said, makes one receptive to all of life—even a tree.

The disciple who constantly listens is always learning and expanding his consciousness. There is an amusing story about President Teddy Roosevelt, who was a great man and did a lot of wonderful things for the United States. But he also had a big energy and always wanted to be the center of attention.

Teddy Roosevelt planned to go hunting in Africa once his presidency ended. Hearing that a famous English big-game hunter was in the United States, Teddy wanted to meet him to learn about Africa. They eventually met in the President’s office for a two-hour conference. As the dazed Englishman was leaving, a curious reporter asked the famous hunter, “What did you tell the president?” The exhausted visitor replied, “I told him my name.”

Teddy Roosevelt’s need to put himself forward prevented him from learning about hunting in Africa.

Calming the emotions leads to love and communion with higher realities. Paramhansa Yogananda said, “The calmer you grow, the more you will see the reflection of the universe within you.” All good things come from stillness, and in sustained stillness, deep listening is possible.

Listening is sincerity. The mind and will are powerful forces; one’s energy naturally flows toward the object of his concentration. When the yogi concentrates on God, the yogi’s whole being moves toward the Blessed One and invites His loving response.

May your yearning for God draw you quickly to Him.

In divine friendship,

Nayaswami Bharat

Whatever comes of itself, let it come, but I am ever content in my inner heart.

—Swami Kriyananda

“When you can be happy in the present,” Paramhansa Yogananda said, “then you have God.” I experienced this truth one day after losing my way in the mountains.

It was late spring, and snow still covered the Sierra Nevada high country. While hiking back to my car, I went down the wrong side of a ridge and into unfamiliar territory.

When I realized my mistake, there wasn’t enough daylight left to retrace my steps. I didn’t have a coat so it was imperative that I get to lower elevation and warmer, snow-free ground. I knew that continuing my present course would eventually bring me to a road—if not that night, certainly by the morning.

Fortunately, in my early twenties I had learned in dramatic fashion the importance of staying centered in oneself. In Death Valley, friends and I were staying with the chief naturalist at the national park. I went for a long walk late one afternoon, going much farther than I intended. I realized that I couldn’t make it home before dark.

I wasn’t afraid, but I was embarrassed that people might have to look for me, so I began to jog back.

Twinkling lights soon appeared from the park staff’s residences; I was still miles away. Then the night enveloped me, making it impossible to see my immediate surroundings. I had traveled cross-country, so there wasn’t a trail to follow. I continued to run toward the far, distant lights.

Suddenly, the sandy, pebbly soil gave way to hard rock. I immediately stopped; solid rock, I knew, might mean a cliff ahead. Peering into the darkness, I inched forward and tossed a rock in front of me. It took the stone too long to hit the ground: a rocky precipice was just ahead.

I realized how close I had come to disaster and was glad that I’d been paying attention. After feeling and searching with my feet, I found a steep ravine and carefully made my way down the thirty-foot high cliff face.

After descending the rocky precipice—and breathing a sigh of relief—I had a revelation: I couldn’t afford to worry about inconveniencing others. I needed to concentrate completely on my current surroundings and situation. Once I become clear on this, the rest of the trip was uneventful.

Now, descending the unknown ridge in the Sierra Nevada, I drew on my previous experience in Death Valley and felt completely relaxed. I realized that I might have some challenges ahead and may be bivouacking for the night. I focused my mind on God and offered myself into His hands. Knowing that fear and imagination often cause unwise decisions, I was determined to remain calm and centered in the presence of God. As I did so, I found my walk becoming more and more joyful, even though the daylight was nearly gone and the outcome uncertain.

Well after sundown I reached a large lake and began walking along its shore. When it was almost dark, I saw in the distance two men fishing from a boat. I wanted to ask them where I was but since yelling such a long way would disturb my inner peace, I kept on walking, feeling God’s presence, which was only thing that seemed important.

When I came to a small cove, I saw another a fishermen on the far bank. Now I was able to ask him in a calm, normal voice the name of the lake. “Spaulding,” he replied, as he and his other fisherman friends walked away. I was familiar with this lake; I now knew where I was.

Minutes later, as I cautiously made my way in the dark, I heard one of the fisherman ask, “Why don’t you know the name of the lake?” To his direct question, I calmly explained how I had come to the lake by mistake. The man exclaimed, “But your car is twelve miles away, and it’s nighttime! We’ll drive you there.”

My fisherman’s friends disagreed with this plan, and I couldn’t blame them. I was feeling so free and blissful inside that I didn’t want the night to end. I sat in the backseat of their car, comfortably letting things unfold, as they discussed quite energetically whether to drive me or not. I was totally fine with whatever they decided.

My friend and advocate eventually convinced his friends to drive me to my car. While driving my own car home that night, I felt deeply grateful to God for helping me experience the joy of accepting life’s circumstances and not allowing time-consciousness to destroy my serenity.

Thoughts on Contentment and the Eternal Now by Swami Kriyananda

• The more non-attached you can be in yourself the freer you will find yourself to be. The more you completely accept the present, the more energy will be released for you to enjoy the present.
• How much is lost in life by people who perennially wish things other than they are! Who complain unceasingly, and tell themselves that the world owes them more than it is giving them!
• Only by living properly right now, at the changeless center of the moment, can we arrive at that point where we exercise complete control over our lives.
• Contentment has been said to be the supreme virtue. Contents means living behind the present moment.
• In God, no time exists; there is only now. The illusion of space and time is produced by movements of thought [restlessness]. Without movement, Absolute Consciousness alone would remain.

Paramhansa Yogananda, in his poem Samadhi, stated:

Present, past, future: no more for me, but ever-present, all-flowing I, I, everywhere!

Through stillness we experience our unity with creation. The following simple nature meditation can help you unite more with the life and beauty around you.

Nature and Me Meditation

May you always live and rest in the Eternal Now.

In divine joy,
Nayaswami Bharat

Painting by Jan Tarr

Dear Meditator,

Years ago in Hawaii I had an experience at the ocean that beautifully illustrated the power of meditation and the guru.

While vacationing on the island of Kauai, I went to a beach to swim with a few friends. There I saw sets of ten-foot waves crashing along the shore. It seemed impossible to get through the high, turbulent surf. Yet, I knew it was possible. I could see swimmers beyond the surf bobbing happily in the gentle, rolling ocean. They’d made it through the surf. I wanted to be there with them.

Swami Kriyananda said that no one would ever seek God without the tangible example of liberated souls like the Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Paramhansa Yogananda. Seeing the swimmers beyond the surf was incredibly enticing and I longed to be with them. So I braved the crashing waves.

But the surf was too powerful for me and I was pounded and tossed about like a stick of driftwood. Defeated, I crawled out of the water onto the beach looking like a drowned rat.

After catching my breath, I stood up and again looked longingly at the swimmers. Meanwhile, a local “waterman” had been observing my attempt to reach the open ocean. He walked over to me and introduced himself, then shared the secret of swimming through ten-foot ocean waves:

“Swim on the surface until a waves approaches. Then dive and swim underwater until it passes safely overhead. Surface, and swim like mad until the next wave comes.

“When you dive beneath a crashing wave,” he cautioned, “hold your arms and hands in front of your face in case the wave pounds you into the seafloor.” With a big smile, he said, “This will protect you.”

The waterman’s advice and encouragement made all the difference. I followed his instructions to the letter and was able to maneuver through the turbulent surf, without too much excitement.

I joined the other swimmers who were happily gathered together chatting and reveling in the gentle rising and falling waves. As I floated peacefully, I felt embraced by an awesome, yet gentle love emanating and pulsing through the Great Ocean. “Oh make me Thyself,” Paramhansa Yogananda wrote, “that I behold my little bubble of self ever floating in Thee!”

Spiritual teachers tell us, “This world is a nest of troubles.” We don’t have to relate to surface, or superficial, realities on their own terms. If we live on the surface of life, far from our spiritual center, every passing wave will throw us.

When I tried to fight my way through the high Hawaiian surf, I was defeated. But when I dived beneath the waves, the surf’s power over me vanished.

Why not dive beneath the waves of life’s restlessness and limitations by regular, ever-deepening meditation and God remembrance? The Divine Presence awaits us at the center of our own being. The guru, at home in the oceanic consciousness of God, is ready and willing to guide us to the seas of Spirit.

When God sees that a soul deeply desires freedom, he sends him a guru. Just as the waterman’s instructions allowed me to realize my aspiration to reach the open ocean, the guru’s God-magnetism and careful instructions will enable us to pass successfully through all of delusion’s waves.

Remember the waterman’s sage advice. When creation’s waves loom above you, with their apparent destructive power: dive beneath them.

May your practice of meditation and God remembrance bring you ever increasing joy and freedom.

Blessings of light,
Nayaswami Bharat

Last week at Ananda Village I met two people who were experiencing challenging physical karma. They each had a wonderful spirit. I shared with them the following story told by Swami Sivananda, which I have rewritten. Both friends found the story extremely helpful and I thought you might, too. Swami Kriyananda called karma an expression of divine love. This story demonstrates how God lovingly guides us through every experience in life.

There was an Indian saint in Puri who completely dedicated himself to Lord Hari. One day, the saint became seriously ill with chronic dysentery and was quite helpless. Lord Hari, who greatly loved the saint, saw his plight and began caring for him through the form of the saint’s own servant.

The Lord did not want the saint to have to take another birth to work out his karma. So his devotee had to suffer from the protracted ailment. (Prarabdha is the portion of past karma that has been released and set in motion to bear fruit in one’s current life. It is like an arrow released from a bow. The archer cannot recall the arrow or change its flight. There’s nothing he can do to keep it from hitting its mark.)

Such was the saint’s karmic purgation. But think of this: throughout the intense karmic period, the Lord Himself became the slave of His devotee. Look at the unbounded mercy of the Lord. He Himself serves whoever surrenders himself completely to His wisdom and love.

Paramhansa Yogananda said when seeking a remedy for a physical complaint, we should remain mentally apart from it. Don’t let it disturb you. Accepting your karma calmly and cheerfully is the quickest way to overcome it.

God wants us to experience the omnipresence of our soul. Our sun is a tiny speck in a sky filled with over 170 billion galaxies. Comets and lights flicker around the Cosmic Mother, Yogananda said, and still we dare to think we are our little bodies. It hurts Divine Mother when we say, “I love my little body home more than anything else.”

Just as one million cubic feet of air can be compressed into one cubic foot, so Cosmic Consciousness is compressed by egoic consciousness. When the soul identifies with the body, it confines its awareness of Cosmic Consciousness to a tiny portion of matter. When compressed air escapes its container, however, it rapidly spreads to fill the surrounding space. Our consciousness expands similarly when it breaks free of body-attachment.

The practice of observing the breath during meditation brings deep spiritual benefits — one of the most important is a sense of detachment from your physical body and mental processes. Every time you observe the breath without controlling it, you are affirming the attitude, “I am not this body.” Every time your mind wanders and you bring yourself back by repeating the Hong-Sau mantra, you are saying, “I am not this personality.”

Patanjali, the great exponent of yoga, said that when we no longer identify with our one little body, we experience ourselves in all bodies. Attachment to the body is the cause of all misery. “Break this jail of flesh,” Paramhansa Yogananda said, “and get out into the infinite.” By daily, deep meditation and constantly affirming our reality as vast Spirit, we can do this.

The Mother, a great disciple of Sri Aurobindo, tells of going into her garden to pick vegetables and mentally hearing some of the plants say: “Take me… take me.” Other plants stated resolutely, “Don’t take me… don’t take me!” When we meditate, each time the mind wanders in self-involvement, we are like the plants, saying, “Don’t take me, Mother. I’m busy playing in your creation.”

During every moment of meditation and daily life, let us be like the plants that eagerly say to the Divine Gardener: “Take me… Take me. I want to go with you, and live again in my Cosmic home.”

In divine friendship,
Bharat

Ego consciousness isolates us from the rest of life. Those who deeply merge with AUM, however, know, and say, “I am the whole universe. What can possibly harm me?”

In his book, Rays of the One Light, Swami Kriyananda wrote, “Human vision beholds individuality and separation everywhere. Divine vision beholds the oneness of cosmic vibration, of which all things, no matter how diverse, are manifestations. Cosmic Sound and Cosmic Light: These are eternal. The world, as revealed to us by our senses, is illusory.”

When one is deeply absorbed in AUM and feels its awesome power, the external world is seen as only a dream-thought. One knows, without a doubt, that only AUM is real.

Swami Rama Tirtha said blissfully, “Nature is my body,” because through deep communion with AUM he felt he was united with the trees and farthest stars. In his chant, “Marching Light,” he expresses the omnipotent confidence native to every soul who knows AUM. Below are excerpts from his poem.

The world turns aside to make room for me;

I come, Blazing Light! And the shadows must flee.

I ride on the Tempests, astride on the Gale,

My gun is the Lightning my shots never fail.

I hitch to my chariot the Fates and the Gods.

With Thunder of cannon proclaim it abroad:

Wake! Wake up! Be free,

Liberty! Liberty! Liberty! OM

The Cosmic Vibration is beyond duality; therefore, in its reality, there’s no opposite or opposition. In its consciousness, there is no myself against another — but myself as all others.

Swami Sivananda illustrated the universal consciousness of one immersed in AUM with this analogy: AUM is like a canvas with material objects painted on it. “The canvas is real,” he said, “but the pictures in the canvas are unreal because the fire [painted] in the canvas cannot burn your fingers, the knife in the canvas cannot cut your fingers, the tiger in the canvas cannot bite you. AUM is the only solid reality.”

Swami Kriyananda has written a marvelous visualization for affirming and experiencing the universal consciousness of AUM. You can use this visualization when you feel in opposition to anything or anyone, or to unite with AUM during meditation.

Imagine a choir composed of every atom in the universe, each one an individual, but all of them singing together in blissful harmony.

In your own mind, join that mighty choir, composed of all life. Determine from today on to sing in harmony with the universe. Don’t impose on the great anthem of life your little wishes for how you want the music to sound. Unite your notes to that Infinite Sound.

The more you do so, the more deeply you will know yourself to be an expression of the soaring anthem of Infinity.

—from Awaken to Superconsciousness

Nothing Can Touch You

“When AUM came,” a lady once said to Paramhansa Yogananda, “all my troubles vanished.” My friend, Mari, told me recently how her troubles had also vanished when she attuned to the consciousness of AUM.

Several years ago she was waiting to make a deposit at her bank when, suddenly, she found herself in the middle of a robbery. It was a highly stressful situation, and Mari said she “lost it” emotionally.

After the robbery, Mari was disappointed in herself for reacting so emotionally. To change this tendency in herself, she began chanting AUM all day long. Whenever there was a tense situation, Mari would silently and lovingly call on the healing power of AUM to calm herself and others.

AUM is the Great Comforter. Paramhansa Yogananda said that when you are in the consciousness of AUM, nothing can touch you.

Three years later, Mari was again at her bank when another robbery occurred. This time it was a much more violent one.

During this bank heist, Mari was knocked to the floor. But her long practice of thinking of and chanting AUM kept her calm and centered.

As Mari began crawling discreetly away from the robbers, a hysterical woman latched on to her and she guided the terrified woman out of sight of the robbers, where they both would be safe.

Later, during an interview with the FBI, Mari was told that the odds of being involved in two bank robberies were incredibly low. She was the only witness who could give an accurate description of the robbers. Mari attributed this to the calmness she felt from tuning in to the unifying presence of AUM.

While backpacking in California’s Southern Sierra Nevada mountains, three women from Ananda Village had a dramatic experience of the power of AUM. On the fourth day of their trip, a furious thunderstorm caught them at 10,000 feet. Loud cracks of lightning and massive explosions of thunder crashed around them. Torrential rain fell, then hail began to fall harder and harder. Desperate for shelter, they ran to a couple of small trees, which soon proved inadequate protection against the pounding hailstorm.

Seeing a large tree nearby, they bolted for its sheltering branches. Already wet, they struggled out of their packs and dug for their rain jackets. The temperature, meanwhile, had plummeted, and the hail began to fall even harder.

They knew they were in trouble. As drenched as they were, hypothermia was a real possibility. They badly needed shelter. Yet, standing under the highest tree around wasn’t wise — because tall trees are perfect lightning rods. They wondered aloud, “Do we risk hypothermia or lightning strikes?” Both options were dangerous.

Then one of the women began chanting to all-pervading AUM. The two other ladies quickly joined in. Suddenly, they felt as if a bubble of protection surrounded them. Their fear was gone — a feeling of awe and gratitude filled their hearts. For twenty minutes, they chanted and enjoyed the majestic show of lightning and hail. After the storm, everything was transformed into a white wonderland; they felt blessed beyond measure by the love and protection of AUM.

Being in AUM gives one absolute security. The whole world could go up in flames and it wouldn’t matter to you. Swami Rama Tirtha was a great devotee of AUM. He chanted it always — during lectures, conversations, and solitary walks in nature. Before he knew AUM, he said, every whiff of wind threw him off balance. But after constant practice and remembrance of AUM, he became completely free of fear, anxiety, and annoyance. He told his students, “If one man can do this, you can, too.”

Healing Techniques with AUM

If you are troubled before going to sleep, write AUM or Amen on your pillow with your fingers. Mentally visualize light around your body, look into the spiritual eye and say several times, mentally or loudly: I am Light. Darkness fly away.

Standing or sitting, touch both of your palms in front of your body, and then swing them to touch behind your back, and then forward again several times in rapid succession, chanting AUM, and you will be protected.

—Paramhansa Yogananda, Karma and Reincarnation

AUM Chant

Here’s a chant to help you stay in the consciousness of AUM: “Fill Me with the Sound of AUM” by Swami Kriyananda.

Success in meditation is determined by how dynamically we channel our mind and consciousness. In her book Grace, Nancy Mair tells how we can use our minds to attune to the subtle truth of anything we do. Her story below has great implications for everyone who meditates.

I first understood the power of the mind and how greatly it can effect change when it was demonstrated in my own life. I was an avid downhill ski racer during my high school years.

Painting by Swami Kriyananda

One year, I returned from summer racing camp with high enthusiasm and began my preseason training in July. I trained hard and diligently, three to four hours every day.

In early winter, the snows finally came. Going down my first practice course of the season, I caught a tip on a gate, fell, and tore a tendon and ligaments in my ankle.

I was in a cast until nearly the end of the ski season. I missed skiing tremendously, and under the circumstances, the only way I could enjoy it was by visualizing myself going down the slopes. I added to my mental pictures the many new pointers I had received from the coaches at ski camp. I mentally skied any time of day or night that I felt like it. It was the only way for me to appease my deep longing for the exhilaration of skiing.

My cast was eventually taken off, and I was ready to get back on the slopes the final few weeks of the season. My first day out, I discovered my skiing had improved to such an extent that my coach didn’t even recognize me as I made my first enthusiastic runs down the mountain. I couldn’t believe the change myself. My coach approached me at the end of the day and asked me how I had managed to improve so dramatically without being able to practice. I told him that I had been skiing in my mind, executing turns over and over again. He was astonished by my answer.

That summer when I returned to racing camp, the coaches there could hardly believe their eyes. They, too, asked how I managed to makes such phenomenal progress in my skiing, because they had never seen anyone change so much in just one year. I told them that I did as they had suggested the previous summer and pictured in my mind the way I should be skiing. I was unhindered by the actual physical practice, and I never failed to make the turns correctly in my mind. Once my mind “understood,” my body simply followed along.

Every day I mentally skied exactly the way I wanted to — and my body learned how in reality by my focusing clearly, and with deep concentration. I had no idea that my thoughts were actually making any changes. It wasn’t until I was back on the slopes that I realized the importance of what I had been doing.

Just as Nancy became more proficient in her sport by “skiing in her mind,” practicing visualization techniques can greatly enhance your experience of meditation. Visualizations, Swami Kriyananda said, “help awaken the memory of your deeper reality.” Visualizations are effective because they powerfully direct and attune your will, mind, and consciousness to God.

I once had a dream that taught me about the power of thought in an exhilarating way. In the dream, I was standing on a hill overlooking a small lake. While I was gazing at the lake, a friend walking by said to me, “Go ahead, Bharat. You can fly.”

So I began to fly.

My flight path rose and fell with the rolling topography of the surrounding foothills. After going a short distance, I thought, “Why not fly in a straight line and become free of the land below.”

Immediately, I found myself flying strong and true — free from earthly limitation.

Then, feeling that there was more to experience, I said to myself, “Why not just ‘go’ there?  Flying seems so slow.”

Instantly, I arrived at my destination. Time and space were seemingly conquered — at least during my flight-dream!

This dream taught me that by focusing and directing the mind I could experience increasingly deeper levels of being. Similarly, Swami Kriyananda’s visualization, The Spiritual Eye Meditation, guides you beyond physical limitation to subtler and subtler levels of soul awareness.

The spiritual eye is the reflection of the inner spine, which is composed of three concentric channels of energy. Its outer golden ring represents the astral world; its circular blue field, the causal world; and its silvery star, Cosmic Consciousness. When the life force is interiorized after meditation techniques like Hong Sau, this visualization directs your energy and consciousness more deeply into the channels of the inner spine where soul bliss resides.

In this visualization, you imagine the golden tunnel of light of the astral world and “feel… a glorious sense of happiness and freedom,” and visualize the blue field of the causal world, and “expand your consciousness into that light” and experience “infinite freedom and bliss.”

During meditation, we often use visualizations. For example, we may imagine the guru sitting within our body magnetizing our effort, or we might imagine we are sitting on a bluff overlooking the ocean, feeling the waves flowing in and out as our breath.

“Imagination is the beginning of creation,” said George Bernhard Shaw, and imagining spiritual realities is a dynamic step toward perceiving these realities. Jesus Christ said to pray believing; it is essential that we imbue every moment of meditation with positive, soul-affirmation. God is a God of joy; to experience His bliss we should meditate with the strong mental attitude of inner joy and freedom.

Two excellent resources for visualizations are Swami Kriyananda’s book, Awaken to Superconsciousness and the Metaphysical Meditations CD, which contains thirteen guided meditations based on the mystical poetry of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Paramhansa Yogananda wrote:

As your body is the little body,
so God’s body is space,
and if you want to feel Him,
feel space in the body,
and all space beyond it.

May you always delight in the joy of your soul,

Nayaswami Bharat for the Daily Meditator

I was riding a bicycle on a country road surrounded by wheat fields, when a large falcon swooped out of the sky and began flying right beside me.

I looked at the falcon and the falcon looked at me—and then he smiled. The falcon had a magical presence. It began flying faster, so I pedaled harder to keep up with this magnificent being.

The falcon smiled again, this time seemingly to say, ‘Can you go faster?’ By pedaling furiously, I was barely able to keep up with its faster pace. It took everything I had to stay even with the falcon.

Seeing that I was still keeping up with him, the falcon dramatically increased his speed. To my surprise, I felt a force propelling me forward, and I was able to stay abreast of the rapidly flying falcon.

I wasn’t pedaling anymore; I was being carried along by the falcon’s presence.

Then the bird flew upward into the sky, and I found myself on my bicycle rising skyward with my falcon friend.

God wants to carry us into the skies of Spirit. Our job is to energetically and lovingly offer ourselves to God and let Him transform us.

The following words by Swami Kriyananda express a profound and encouraging truth about how one advances spiritually:

You may think, “I can never love God the way the great saints love Him. I’ll never have their fervor or joy.”

But you will find that as you keep reaching for God, He will uplift you. He will give you the power to find Him. You can’t generate that power yourself. But your love can draw that power to you.

Visualize before you a very young child reaching up with outstretched arms. Feel his childlike faith and conviction that you will pick him up.

His innocence and trust is irresistible. Feel your heart responding to the child’s beautiful innocence. Reach down and lovingly lift him up to you.

God Himself has given you the ability to love. He will respond when you offer yourself to Him with childlike love and trusting expectation. Then, He will reach down and lift you up into His Beloved Presence.

In divine friendship,

Nayaswami Bharat