“Lord, we left You countless eons ago. Ours was a holy mission. You charged us to learn great lessons from life: to be fruitful in the gifts You had given us; to expand and multiply them.” When Yoganandaji, meditating in a storeroom of his Ranchi boys’ school, saw in vision a sea of faces staring intently at him, he knew … Read More
Answering God’s call to service
In the autumn of 1861, Lahiri Mahasaya, then in his 33rd year, undertook the 30-day, 500-mile journey to Ranikhet in the Himalayas, there to meet for the first time Babaji, who materialized for his beloved disciple a golden palace and there initiated him into Kriya Yoga. Far away in America a terrible civil war was raging. But here in these … Read More
What We Give to God Comes Back to Us a Thousandfold
When Lord Krishna played the role of a boy chela in the Avanti ashram of Guru Sandipani, He formed an intimate friendship with His fellow disciple Sudama, a Brahmin boy so impoverished that his clothing was in tatters, and so free of material attachment that he paid no attention. He was affectionately known as Kuchela, meaning “poverty-stricken” or “dressed in … Read More
Be a Channel of Divine Blessings
“Greater can no love be than this: From a life of infinite joy and freedom in God Willingly to embrace limitation, pain, and death For the salvation of mankind. Such, ever, has been the sacrifice Of the great masters for the world.” Such is the divine gift to mankind of Christ, of our Masters, of the great saints of all … Read More
A Reminder of God
Shivaratri, 2018. The community gathered in Hansa Temple for a nightlong celebration in honor of Shiva, the supreme yogi. Chanting together, meditating, giving and receiving divine love and divine joy, we moved into a realm of Spirit, our own true home. The light of a candle was offered before the altar, offered to each of our Masters, then held up in offering before a devotee.
Finding Joy
“O waves that we are on the bosom of the Infinite Sea, joyfully together let us celebrate our own greater reality. . . . Whereas suffering and sorrow, in the past, were the coin of man’s redemption, for us now the payment has been exchanged for calm acceptance and joy.” When the winter birds began to arrive, among them three Northern Flickers … Read More
God is Always There
During an all-day Christmas meditation this past month we sang a chant specially blessed by Paramhansa Yogananda during an all-day meditation that he used to lead: Do not dry the ocean of my love With the fires of my desires, With the fires of my restlessness. For Thee I pine, for Thee I weep. “Christ is here,” Yogananda told those … Read More
Stories of Gratitude
Swami Kriyananda’s children’s songs touch that deep inner place — in adults just as much as in children — where the untrammeled soul longs simply to live in God, where our essential response to life is gratitude to the Giver of all, where sharing what we have with others and with God flows as naturally as breathing: Thank You, God, for the smile of … Read More
From Ego to Freedom
In the soul’s journey from ego-involvement to freedom, everything of this world has to be taken away — or, as our understanding grows, given away freely — so that the soul may be an empty vessel to receive and become the joy that God wants for us. One great disciple of our Master was heard to cry out, while under anesthesia for yet another … Read More
The Story of Tukaram
“Ours was a holy mission,” Swamiji writes in A Festival of Light. “You charged us to learn great lessons from life: to be fruitful in the gifts You had given us; to expand and multiply them. Alas, we abandoned our mission. Instead, we hoarded selfishly. Nor did wisdom come to us when, repeatedly, we lost everything we had.” God’s saints … Read More
