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Paramhansa
Yogananda: Seeing God in Everyone
By Swami Kriyananda, from The
Path, Chapter Twenty-One
In some ways
it was, I think, his utter respect for others that impressed me
about Master the most deeply. It always amazed me that one whose
wisdom and power inspired so much awe in others could be at the
same time so humbly respectful to every one. I had always considered
respect to be something one gave only where it was due. And in a
sense, of course, Master gave it in that spirit, too, but in his
case it meant showing the deepest respect to all, because he saw
them all as God's children. As Master said once to Dr. Lewis, his
first disciple in America, "Remember, God loves you just as
much as He loves me. He is our common Father."
A certain religious
teacher in Los Angeles, a woman of considerable worldly means, once
helped the Master's work financially, and behaved consequently as
if she owned him. Master, as unbuyable a person as ever lived, continued
to act only as God guided him from within. Gradually the woman developed
toward him a sense of possessive jealousy, and on several occasions
spoke venomously to him, and hurled such insults as would have made
any ordinary man her enemy. But Master remained unalterably calm and
respectful toward her. Never sharp in his replies, ever kind, he was
like a fruit tree in bloom which, when an axe is laid to its roots,
showers its attacker with sweet-smelling blossoms. The lady gradually
developed the highest regard for him. She praised him to others, and
often took her friends and students to visit his centers. All her
anger and jealousy were converted into ungrudging esteem.
In Ranchi, India,
I was told a touching story dating back to Master's return there in
1935. It seems an anniversary banquet was planned at his school. Someone
was needed to preside over the function and give it official standing.
The name of Gurudas Bannerji, a prominent judge, was recommended.
Widely esteemed, this man was, as everyone agreed, the best possible
choice. Master went to invite him.
What was his surprise, then, when the judge coldly refused to come.
He knew all about India's so-called "holy men," he said;
he was looking at a typical example of them right before him. They
were insincere, after people's money, a drain on the community. He
had no time to speak for their worthless causes.
Master, though
astonished at this reception, remained unruffled. As he often told
us, "Praise cannot make me any better, nor blame any worse.
I am what I am before my conscience and God." After hearing
the judge out he replied in a friendly tone, "Well, perhaps
you'll reconsider. We should be greatly honored if you would come."
The principal of a local school agreed to preside in the judge's
stead. When everyone had assembled that evening for the banquet,
and the affair was about to begin, a car drove up. Out stepped the
caustic judge. Because Gurudas Bannerji was such a prominent figure
in those parts, the school principal readily offered up his own
place to him.
Following the banquet, there were several preliminary reports. One
dealt with the school's growth, and the number of students who had
gone on after graduation to become monks and religious teachers.
"If the present trend continues," the report read, "soon
all of India will be full of our teachers spreading the ancient
wisdom of our land."
It then came the judge's turn to speak. Rising, he said: "Today
is one of the happiest days of my life. This morning your Swami
Yogananda came to visit me. I felt great joy when I beheld him,
but I decided to test him to see whether he was really as good a
man as he looked. I addressed him as rudely as I knew how. Yet he
remained so calm, and answered me so kindly, that I tell you in
all sincerity he passed my test better than I would have dreamed
possible. And I will tell you something more: Never mind the numbers
of your graduates who are becoming monks. India has many monks.
But if you can produce even one such man as this, not your school
only, nor only our city, but our whole country will be glorified!"
Even as a boy,
the Master's magnetism was extraordinary. Dr. Nagendra Nath Das, a
Calcutta physician and lifelong friend, visited Mt. Washington in
July 1950. He told us, "Wherever Paramhansaji went, even as a
boy, he attracted people. His father, a high railway official, often
gave us travel passes. No matter where we traveled, within minutes
after we'd got down from the train a group of boys would have gathered
about us."
Part of the
basis for Master's amazing charisma was the fact that, seeing his
infinite Beloved in all human beings, he also awakened in them an
inchoate faith in their own goodness. With the impersonality of
true greatness, he never accepted the thought from others that he
was essentially any different from them.
And once, when
we were serving him, he remarked, "You all are so kind to me
with your many attentions." Karle Frost, one of the disciples
present, exclaimed, "Oh, no, Master. It is you who are kind to
us!"
"God is
helping God," Master replied with a sweet smile. "That
is the nature of His cosmic drama."
The closer we
drew to him spiritually, the less he sought to teach us by words.
"I prefer to speak with the eyes," he once told me. He
never wanted to impose his instruction on us from without.
His method of teaching, rather, was to help us to dig wells of intuitive
insight within ourselves. The closer we felt to him, the closer
we came to knowing our own, true, Self: the God within.
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Spiritual Power of Yogananda
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