Excerpts from a letter and statement from Swami Kriyananda to Ananda after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Dear Ones,
In all sincerity our first concern can only be for those whose suffering is right now. I cannot honestly spare my heart’s love for the people who perpetrated this suffering. Nor can I love them for the hatred and anger by which they define themselves. Yes, I love their souls, but I must leave their salvation to God. Within my own limited scope of feeling, my love must go primarily to those who are now suffering.
Surely, in an abstract sense I can love those enemies also, but they have invited God’s retribution for their crime. They have lessons to learn if they are ever to become receptive to God’s grace. While I’ve no desire to see them suffer, I leave the state of their souls to God; my present energy is for those whom they have made to suffer. The important thing is not to be drawn into reflecting others’ negative emotions.
What, then, do I pray for? I pray for myself, that I become a clear channel for God’s grace. My prayer goes to my fellow human beings, too, that as many be strengthened as I can reach in the divine light.
An ocean consists of countless little drops of water. If each of us, like those drops, offers himself up to God, praying, “Lord, use me as You will. Give me the strength to channel Your kindness and love to all—impersonally, not with personal pride or desire”—I think we will have done the most we can possibly do.
Thus only may we help most greatly our poor, belabored earth, beset as it is by hatred and ignorance. If we understand that, by loving, it is God’s love we express, He will surely flow through any barrier we erect of ego and self-interest, and uplift significantly the consciousness of the world.
One raindrop adds but a little moisture to the earth. Once, however, it unites with enough other raindrops, they become a mighty torrent of water flowing down to the sea. So also we, by uniting our energy and directing it toward the ocean of divine consciousness, can participate in the great drama that is being waged between the forces of light and of darkness.
In Master’s love,
Swami Kriyananda
From In Divine Friendship, Letters of Counsel and Reflection, Crystal Clarity Publishers.
