Ananda Sunday Services, 2010

That which the ego relinquishes, offering it up to soul-consciousness, is reclaimed forever in cosmic consciousness. Nothing is ever lost.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Nowhere do we find Jesus condemning, or even gently criticizing, other spiritual masters.

His criticisms were reserved for worldly attitudes, and for those hypocritical Pharisees who had allowed religion to become, for them, a pretense.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Jesus during his temptations in the wilderness overcame them, and thereby set an example for all time, by clinging the more determinedly to God.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

God’s hidden reality cannot be understood by the reasoning faculty. A willingness to seek the underlying reality behind appearances is essential for those who would know God.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Behind even God’s most open expressions there lies impenetrable mystery.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

The scriptures advise, not secrecy, but discretion in the sharing of truth.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

All the saints, aware as they are of the hazards of the adventure, agree on the importance of having a guide, or guru.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Passive dependence on grace hasn’t the magnetism to attract grace.

Boastful self-confidence, however, which closes itself off from the higher, divine power is shallow, brittle, and — given life’s many uncertainties — susceptible to ultimate failure.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Our strength must come from within, but must be coupled with recognition of our inner link with broader and higher realities.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

To the disciples, Yogananda spoke of the importance of attunement with the guru. To others, he urged the importance at least of attuning oneself to higher consciousness.

Can an eagle rise without support from the sustaining air?

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

The divine light — pure, calm, liberating — is the only final cure for every kind of delusion: ill health, emotional grief, and spiritual ignorance.

Seek it daily in the silence, in deep meditation.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

God is as much with us now as He will ever be.

It is not He who needs to come to us: We need to come to Him! And that process of coming is a matter of transforming our self-perception.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Divine blessings are not common in this world. They are extraordinary.

When they come, we should give them priority above every other consideration.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Doubt not the power of delusion. Respect it—indeed, fear it, though not in the sense of cowering before it.

For, as Yogananda said, “One is not safe until he attains nirbikalpa samadhi—the state of final union with God.”

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

The legend of Adam and Eve is allegorical.

It describes how the first human beings dissipated their spiritual energy, centered in the spine. The spine is the channel through which flows the river of baptism and of spiritual life.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

The overarching concern is to include in one’s worship daily, inner communion with the Lord.

God is Silence: He must be sought, therefore, in inner silence. God is Absolute Love: He must be sought, therefore, in the silence of love.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Do your duty in life, counsels the Bhagavad Gita, but never lose sight of Him to whom all action should be dedicated.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Jesus didn’t tell Martha: “Martha, you are doing too much.” He told her, rather, “You are letting your work affect your inner peace.”

That was the contrast: not work vs. contemplation, but restless preoccupation vs. peaceful absorption under all circumstances.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

See whatever comes to you unasked for as a manifestation of God's will. Be grateful for the pains you experience, for they are healing strokes of His love.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

The highest virtue is to transcend the very thought of personal virtue in the realization of God alone as the Doer.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Our faith is the attractive power of our underlying state of conciousness. Goodness attracts goodness. Evil attracts evil. Whatever there is in you of lightness or dark, offer it up to the heights.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Jesus Christ emphasized repeatedly the spirit, not the letter, of the law.

In Chapter 5 of the Gospel of St. Matthew he speaks of the sin of killing, and of the legal punishment attendant on that sin, but says that more important than the act is the desire to kill, or to do harm.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

The resurrection of Jesus, doubted by many but affirmed by those who were close to him, was a miraculous event, though one not unique in history.

Resurrection, Yogananda explained, means transformation, ultimately, from any lower state of being to a higher one.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Was Jesus a human being, merely? Those who, on Palm Sunday, called him king little realized the actual nature of his kingdom. He was far more than what they imagined. His consciousness, however, was centered in infinity.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

The great masters, including Jesus Christ, have always emphasized the divine potential of mankind. To encourage us, they address us as children of light, not of darkness.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Jesus, when addressing his critics, appealed to reason and common sense.

In his training of the disciples, however, he, like all great masters, encouraged in them the development of a higher faculty: soul-intuition. For it is only by intuition that spiritual perceptions are achieved.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Common sense goes beyond abstract reason, for it is rooted in actual experience.

Even common sense, however, is deficient when the judgment called for goes beyond sensory experience. Ultimately, what Jesus emphasized always, was intuitive perception.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Jesus taught that the intellect alone can never lead one to truth. Without love, indeed, there is no ultimate verity.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Many great saints claim to have seen God. If we ask, then, “Can God be seen?” rather than, “Can man see God?” the answer is, “Yes! Else those saints lied, and the scriptures themselves lied.”

For Jesus also said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Justice to all is a human law, though divinely inspired. Truth goes deeper than mere justice.

While following the law, we should strive always to trace it back to its origins in the vision of God.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”

This was the Bible passage Paramhansa Yogananda often quoted to his disciples.

“Be in tune,” he would tell them. “Delusion can’t touch you, if you will keep in tune.”

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Great avatars, such as Krishna and Jesus Christ, are born as babies even as we all are. They take human form, and go through normal human experiences as they grow from childhood to adulthood.

The important thing to understand is that, even as they are like us, so are we also like them. Their realization can be ours, too. They come on earth to show us our own divine potential.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Disciples saw the master clothed in human form, and therefore judged him in terms of his greatness relative to the greatness of other teachers.

Wisdom, however, sees the master’s very greatness in terms of a cosmic unity.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

The universe is not separate from God the Creator, but a part of Him even as our own dream-creations, during sleep, are figments of our consciousness. God’s is the life; God’s, the reality.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light

Divine vision beholds the oneness of cosmic vibration, of which all things, no matter how diverse, are manifestations. Cosmic Sound—the “Word” of God—and Cosmic Light: These are eternal. The world, as revealed to us by our senses, is illusory.

—Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light