Devotion is an essential ingredient of one’s meditation practice. It sparks the initiative to meditate, sustains our practice, inspires depth in our practice, and magnetizes God’s response. I like to think of it as the language of Love between Guru and disciple. Devotion is not a commonly used word in the West but, in fact, we express our devotion in … Read More
I went to work for Swami Kriyananda in 1968, and my first day was an absolute disaster! But, like many disasters, it makes for a good lesson and a good story. I had been helping Swami with small tasks at his evening classes as a volunteer for many months. Then he asked me to quit my job as a social … Read More
Ah, love! Is there any other topic that inspires songs, poems, books and other creative works more than love? Such a “rabbit hole” of a topic, just like in Alice in Wonderland, especially when involving spirituality. When one asks the question, “What is God?” the answer can rightly be given as, “God is LOVE.” It’s said also that God is … Read More
Some might say relationships are a distraction on the path to God. There was a time when I thought this was true. Ram Gopal, the sleepless saint from Paramhansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi had a strong impact on my earlier opinions about this with his personal story: For twenty years I occupied a secret grotto, meditating eighteen hours a … Read More
