Visualization to Experience Soul Freedom

You can use this technique to not only calm your restlessness, but to feel freer in your consciousness.

Swami Kriyananda, the founder of Ananda, has said that “prayers never asked are never answered.” In this practice, you consciously offer to God everything that keeps you separate from Him. The Masters have promised us that God will free us from our limitations — if we give them, with deep faith, to Him.

The following visualization by Swami Kriyananda helps you do this:

Make it a point, every night before you fall asleep, to check the feelings in your heart. See whether any burrs of attachment still cling there, affixed by the desires you may have awakened during the day. If you find any such “burrs” there, mentally build a fire and cast them into it. Watch with a smile of relief as those burrs burn to ashes.

What is attachment? It is thinking of something as belonging to yourself. When you build that mental bonfire, cast into it, from your heart, every branch and twig of possession, of self-definition, of personal association in life. Tell yourself, “Everything in my life, including my very self, belongs to You.”

What you experience when you practice this is not important. What is important is that you give yourself completely to God. God will respond to your heartfelt devotion of wanting Him alone. It is His law. He must respond. He is waiting for His children to decide that they want only Him. Building a mental bonfire and consciously and lovingly casting your desires into the flames of Spirit is a beautiful way of telling God that you want Him.

Paramhansa Yogananda said that prayer is two, three — even one-hundred times more effective after we have interiorized our energy in meditation. When our energy is centered in the spine, our prayers have the conviction of our whole being behind them. So I recommend you use this visualization after doing Hong-Sau or another meditation technique.

The Blessed Lord knows what is in our hearts. Let us faithfully practice our meditation techniques; offer our love and life force to the Infinite One; and, if you feel so inspired — end your waking hours by building a mental bonfire and give everything back to God. Let the fire of Spirit purify you until only God remains.

Paramhansa Yogananda said that every desire must be satisfied. When we desire only God, He will come to us.

Start a New Meditation Practice or Inspire Your Current One

The 10-week Ananda Course in Meditation online course is designed to provide in-depth instruction in scientific meditation techniques that bring more peace, deeper relaxation, and focused concentration to every area of your life, regardless of outer conditions.

These techniques are based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi.

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