The Joy of Heaven

Swami Kriyananda offered a number of “secrets of meditation.” This one has recently been very helpful to me:

“Pray not as an outsider to heaven, but as one whose true home is heaven.”

 Especially when life is busy and it’s easy to become identified with the projects and the to-do lists, I have been trying to use this secret.

If I take a few minutes during the day and practice a short visualization and an affirmation, it helps me gain perspective and break the hypnosis of a confining, narrow view of reality.

You might like to try this visualization by Swami Kriyananda:

“Sit upright and close your eyes. Take a few slow, deep breaths and relax.

“Feel space all around your body, stretching out in all directions to infinity. Feel that space becoming a vast sea of light in which you are floating. Feel that light coming into every part of your body, from the soles of your feet to the brain.

Your body is now made of light, merged with the vast sea of light and space within and all around you.

Imagine yourself leaving this earth, flying upward into the vast blue sky, upward further still into outer space, toward the dim stars and distant skies lying beyond the eternal stillness of the ether. Joyfully leave everything behind you—all attachments, all that keeps you bound to his world. Affirm to yourself: I expand my consciousness to embrace infinity.”

On April 21, 2015, the Ananda residents had an opportunity to meditate in the Moksha Mandir, a day after Swami’s casket was placed beneath the newly completed shrine.

During that meditation I felt a deep yearning to be a speck of joy, floating in space.

After practicing our meditation techniques, I allowed myself to go with that yearning. I started with the visualization of space given above, and then I imagined myself to be a speck in infinity, a speck filled with joy.

At first I had to alternate between dissolving my consciousness of the small self, of form, and then identifying myself with being a speck of joy. As I continued the practice, I was able to absorb myself in joy, where no time or space existed, only the feeling of joy. At one point there was no more Diksha—there was only a speck of joy floating in space.

The more I absorbed myself in joy, the more stillness and freedom I felt in my consciousness.

Later that day, I happened to have lunch with an Indian devotee friend, and mentioned to her the desire to be a speck of joy. She replied that in many Hindu mantras, the Lord is described in the form of a dot. It is called in Sanskrit: “Bindu Rupam.” That dot encloses the whole universe.

The dot is complete in itself and all encompassing.

Afterwards, I realized that Swami Kriyananda’s consciousness permeated the Moksha Mandir, and I believe I was tuning into his vibrations of joy. His vibrations encouraged me to leave behind all self-definitions, and offer myself wholeheartedly to God. This is our true reality. This is true joy.

In his book, Religion in the New Age, Swami writes:

“Dwell on the thought of that freedom: freedom from all delusion, all desire, all attachment, and at last of every self-definition. Above all—if you are able to do so—rid yourself of the thought of any personal, separate, individual identity. You are a ray of God’s light. See your little sense of reality becoming absorbed in His infinite bliss.”

After practicing the meditation techniques, absorbing oneself in the divine quality of joy, can also help us share the joy of God with others.

Swami Kriyananda advised us:

“If you want to do one good thing in the world, the best thing you can do is to give other people joy.”

These two pieces of music by Swami Kriyananada convey the joy of heaven:

Life Mantra

Nostalgia For A Lost Joy
from the album “Life is the Quest for Joy”