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God
Protects His Devotees
By Swami Kriyananda, from The
Path, Chapter Twenty-Three
In the almost thirty years that I have been on this path, I cannot
recall to mind a single instance where a disciple of Paramhansa
Yogananda has failed to find protection in time of real need. Considering
the length of time involved, and the thousands of disciples I have
known during this period, this is quite an amazing record.
The most striking
of these cases occurred among those whose lives were placed unreservedly
in the Guru's care. Dr. Lewis told of an episode when, on a cold
winter night in Massachusetts, he had been out driving. With him
were two fellow disciples, Mrs. Laura Elliott and Mrs. Alice Hasey
(Sister Yogmata). Suddenly, as they approached a narrow bridge,
they found their way blocked by another car that had skidded sidewise
across the icy road. A crash seemed inevitable.
"At that moment," Dr. Lewis said, "we felt as if
a giant hand were being pressed down on the hood of the car. We
slowed instantly to a stop, our car still safely on the road."
Señor J.
M. Cuaron, the leader of the SRF center in Mexico City, related the
following incident to me.
"I was badly in need of a job, but for a long time could find
none anywhere. Then one day an excellent offer came from a company
in Matamoros. Taking that job would mean moving away from Mexico City.
I therefore wrote Master to request his permission to put the SRF
center in someone else's charge. My letter was just a formality. I
was sure Master would congratulate me on my good luck. Imagine my
surprise, then, when he replied by telegram: 'No. Absolutely
not. Under no circumstances whatever accept that job.' I'll admit
I was a bit upset. But even so, I obeyed him.
"One month later the news came out in the papers: The company
that had offered me that job was exposed for fraud. Its officers were
sent to prison, including the man who had taken the post I'd been
offered. He hadn't been aware of the firm's dishonesty, just as I
wouldn't have been. But because of the position he held, he was imprisoned.
It was only by Master's grace that I was spared that calamity!"
Tests there must be in life, of course. They come especially on the
spiritual path, for if devotees are to escape the coils of maya
(delusion), they must be taught the lessons they need to develop in
wisdom. Master didn't shrink from giving us whatever tests we needed
to grow. For example, although on that occasion he saved Señor
Cuaron from ignominious arrest, he never helped him to find the employment
he so badly wanted. Señor Cuaron in fact had enough money to
live on simply, as became a world-renouncing yogi. Master saw no good
reason, evidently, to help him return to his former levels of opulence.
But our tests were always blessings; outright misfortune Master spared
us. And where a test was not required for a disciple's spiritual growth,
Master often removed it from his path altogether.
In 1955 I went
to Switzerland on a lecture tour. There I met a lady from Czechoslovakia
who told me a story concerning Professor Novicky, the late leader
of a small SRF group in Prague.
"One day," she said, "after Yogananda's passing, a
stranger came to Professor Novicky and requested instruction in yoga.
The professor didn't know what to do. Normally he kept his spiritual
activities a secret, so as not to expose himself to persecution. If
this man was a genuine seeker, the professor would want to help him.
But if he was a government spy, any admission of interest in yoga
might result in a prison sentence. Our friend prayed for guidance.
Suddenly, standing behind the self-proclaimed 'devotee,' Paramhansa
Yogananda appeared. Slowly the Master shook his head, then vanished.
Professor Novicky told the man he had come to the wrong place for
information. Sometime later, he learned that the man was indeed a
government spy.
Death must, of
course, come to everyone sooner or later. But I have been struck by
its beauty and dignity when it has visited disciples of this path.
A regular visitor to our Hollywood church died of a stroke. His wife
later told me, "In his final moments, my husband whispered to
me lovingly, 'Don't feel badly, dear. I am so happy! And I see a bright,
bright light all around me.'"
Another church member, who had known the Master since his early years
in America, exclaimed at the end of her life, "Swamiji is here!"
Her face was radiant; she smiled blissfully.
In case after
case I have seen fulfilled Yogananda's promise that faithful devotees
of his path would be protected. "For those who stay in tune
to the end," he added, "I, or one of the other masters,
will be there to usher them into the divine kingdom." Truly,
the words of the great Swami Shankaracharya have found justification
in Paramhansa Yogananda's life: "No known comparison exists
in the three worlds for a true guru."
It is perhaps the greatest sign of God's aid to His devotees that,
when the soul yearns deeply for Him, He sends to it the supreme
blessing of a God-awakened master to guide it along the highway
to Infinity.
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Spiritual Power of Yogananda
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