America has made its choice now in this presidential election. The world may well be facing troubled times, as the United States and all nations come to terms with a dramatic break from past values and models of government. Already waves of uncertainty, confusion, and fear are moving across the planet.
But whether the outcome was your personal choice or not, the question arises: “What do we do now?”
As global citizens we need to move into the future as positively as possible to help establish stability in these changing times. America was the first nation to be founded on higher principles of equality and human rights, and we need to uphold these ideals.
As devotees, we have a further responsibility. We must give our full strength to keeping our consciousness uplifted, holding God’s presence in our hearts and minds, and helping others to do the same.
Make the Right Choices Now
Learn to love heroically. Some years ago Swami Kriyananda shared with us a dream he’d had about impending world disasters. The message he received was that our answer to what lies ahead should be to “love heroically.” Try to act as expansively and selflessly as you can, and resist the pull to think of your own needs first. In hundreds of little ways throughout each day choose selflessness and kindness over self-interest and narrow-mindedness.
Even more than that, resist the temptation to contract your heart. Find a deeper capacity to love all unconditionally, with acceptance and without judgment. This is what the lives of all great spiritual teachers demonstrate for us.
Give more dynamic focus to your meditation. Practice the techniques of our line of gurus with increased dedication and fervor. Add a longer meditation to your sadhana each week. The attunement with higher consciousness that comes through deep meditation is our greatest aid, giving us the strength, wisdom, and calmness to deal with whatever may come.
Through this deepened attunement we also become clearer channels for higher consciousness in all of our activities. Be especially aware of expressing God and Guru in all your words and actions.
Deepen your connection with other devotees. Seek out and associate with like-minded people who are also striving to live in the light. Avoid negative discussions or arguments about whose opinions are right or wrong. This will only keep you enmeshed in maya.
If you are near an Ananda Meditation Center or Community, start attending more regularly. If you are already active in one, begin attending more group meditations and prayer sessions. Do Yoganandaji’s prayer for world peace and harmony with others regularly.
If there is no Ananda center close by, then join our Virtual Community online. This will lend tremendous support to your efforts to keep your consciousness rooted in peace. When we gather together with other devotees in these ways, we not only uplift our own lives, but also draw blessings to the world.
Cling to what is real and eternal. The affairs of this world, even of a great nation like America, are in the final analysis fleeting shadows on the screen of time. The only real, lasting things are God’s Peace, Joy, and Love. When moments of uncertainty, fear, or discouragement pull at you, remember to look past the shadows to the Divine Light constantly illuminating everything.
God is calling us now to build our own spiritual power. Let’s grasp this opportunity with energy and enthusiasm, and understand that it’s the dharma we chose for this incarnation.
Prayer for a United World, by Paramhansa Yogananda
“Let us pray in our hearts for a League of Souls and a United World. Though we may seem divided by race, creed, color, class, and political prejudices, still, as children of the one God we are able in our souls to feel brotherhood and world unity. May we work for the creation of a United World in which every nation will be a useful part, guided by God through man’s enlightened conscience.
“In our hearts we can all learn to be free from hate and selfishness. Let us pray for harmony among the nations, that they march hand in hand through the gate of a fair new civilization.”
In Master’s love,
Nayaswami Devi
p.s. Nayaswami Jyotish and I wrote a letter today to Ananda members, also in response to Tuesday’s election. You’re welcome to read it here.
*This is the title of a talk by Swami Kriyananda.
26 Comments
Thank you, dear great souls, for the Light you share with all the world through your deep attunement to God and Gurus. You have given us wise counsel for moving forward courageously and confidently through any challenges that come–be they political, social, or even personal.
Thank you for this. There will be many changes, but thank you for the strong advice to stay positive and deepen our sadhana. We need to stay centered in God to get through this and help others get through it too!
Thank you so much for your deep love and insight to stay close to God and our light that we must share with others through these uncertain and challenging times.
God bless you and all of our dear families across the world.
Namaste
Thank you so much for reminding us to stay calm and positive! We appreciate you and all the work you do.
Jai Guru ❤️️
Namaste,
Firstly I must say I am deeply disappointed to receive this email where politics has started to invade spirituality.
I am not a citizen of USA but I have been following the elections closely and respect the decision of the majority.
That is how democracy works.
By this email you have almost directly implied as if the choice made was not a conducive one for the world.
How do you know that?
None of us know anything for sure..as Geeta says…We are entitled to our duty and not to the fruits of it..so people have done their duty of voting..let time tell how things would work out.
I feel guilty to read the write up you sent me cos its as if everyone else in the world is sans fault and just one person who won the election is full of fault.
God…I think we need to reflect on this :
Do not judge, or you will be judged.
Whoever is without sin among you,..let him be the first to cast a stone.
Please stick to spirituality…dont drag in politics based on your personal choice for a President.
I agree with your words. Thank you
This was so beautiful to receive. Intuitive, encouraging and heart felt. Thank you for writing this. I am not a citizen of USA, b u t the ripples are felt. I am sure that the destiny of the planet is being played out as it should, even though some can’t see it and don’t know how to interpret what is happening, b u t change is what i was hoping for and it is coming. Beautifully said all of it!
Cling to what is real and eternal. Appreciate the reminder.
Thank you for the support and love you express. I have been working through my feelings and thoughts and talking
about it all because it is interesting. However, I remember Master’s direction to not buy into the delusion of the
world. Let my focus be on oneness in God.
Thank you so much for writing this. Since the results came in, I’ve had a feeling of unreality, as though it’s all just a bad dream. Your guidance is helping me to come to terms with what happened and see it as part of maya. I’m going to increase my prayers for a united world.
Your wise words were needed and welcomed in these days of uncertainty. i will meditate and ask God and Guru for guidance in remembering that this is all lila and to stay calm. Joy to you both
Our attorney during the twelve years of SRF’s court case against Ananda refers to that time laughingly as “The War Years.” I was privileged and blessed to serve in Ananda’s legal office for two years of that saga, and I can testify that we felt Paramhansa Yogananda’s blessings every single day on the noble work that we were doing to free his teachings from narrow sectarian control.
The Bertolucci case presented us with a much different, and in some ways a far more severely trying challenge – our reputation was being dragged through the mud, and we were being vilified in the most untruthful and prejudiced way. It was all painful and hard to endure. I remember praying at the time to Paramhansa Yogananda to know what to think of it all, and how to behave. I heard his voice as clear as a bell, “Your role is to live as joyfully and expansively as possible. I will take care of these larger matters.”
That, certainly, is still true. Ananda welcomes a diversity of opinions on just about everything – the arts, politics, childraising, marriage, etc. – anything where there can be diverse viewpoints. What unites us is that we all are aware that we can ask for Truth in every situation that confronts us. The worst thing we could do would be to set up a system of “Spiritual Correctness” where only one side of any question is tolerated. That is what SRF has done, and it continues to be reflected in their scathing criticisms of Ananda and Swamiji. Basically, it says that if you are not us, then you are not true disciples of the Master.
I hope Ananda will not degrade into a group-think kind of church where only one set of political views is tolerated. The bland assumption that we all should have voted for the same candidate, and that if we did not we should be ashamed of ourselves, is not Paramhansa Yogananda’s way. I find that at Ananda I can work, sing, and laugh with people whose political views are exactly the opposite of my own, and that I can love them as true friends. That, to me, is what counts at Ananda – not whether you or I voted for Trump or Hillary.
Thank you! It’s an important message at this time.
Dear ones, I have been staggering under the impact of what has transpired since Tuesday, and battling waves of depression, shock and anxiety. But today, at last, I woke in a state of peace and calmness, sensing in my heart that God is ultimately, ever and ALWAYS in charge of the world and my life… and everything you wrote resonates with this deepest truth. It was a great reinforcement. I am sorry for the person who wrote the scathing criticism of your words in the comment section, totally missing your point and objective in writing it. Everyone with a clear understanding will take in your words, as I have, and receive great upliftment from them. Thank you so much, and I am ever and eternally grateful to be part of this blessed path. It does indeed serve to increase my resolve to strengthen my spiritual practices; most importantly, the intention to be an agent of God’s light and love for fellow beings in this beautiful world.
Dear Supriya Ji,
Namaste Ji,
There is no need to apologize for comments written by others even if the comments do not seem to sync with what we have in mind.
We are only responsible for our own actions and not for anyone else’s action..even though a collective Karma is sometimes hard to decipher.
Geeta says:
Sukha Dukhe Same Ktrva
Labhaalabhou Jayaajayaou
Be alike in happiness and sorrow,loss and gain and victory and defeat.
Yet again in Geeta Krishna says that only Self can elevate Self and do not let Self degrade Self…Self is the own’s own friend and also one’s own enemy.
Therefore since it was a comment section all types of comments are welcomed..comment are just opinions that does not eventually leave an imprint in the screen of Reality.
Every thought that traverses the universe eventually changes form and does not remain in original form.
So please do not let my comment make you feel apologetic cos that shows some degree of you being affected by it.
Its natural to feel uneasy when we read what we do not conform with..just like how I felt uneasy reading the email I received.
But at the end of the day no one’s opinions really matters for everything is transient.
Brahman Sathyam Jagat Mithyam(Only Brahman is Real…The World is Unreal as in Transient)
So take care..be happy.
Its not my intent to hurt anyone.
As long we are bound in the web of Maya duality is our middle name..therefore differences of opinion would crop up.
Thanks, Devi.
I’ll admit I’m doggedly optimistic. Can’t seem to help myself.
Bless you all.
Love joy peace. May God be with us.
I have no daught in my mind that if there is a need for divine intervention on the political drama to came,
Mahavatar Babaji is ready and he will make it funny .Om Om Om
Dear Nayaswami Devi ji,
Thank you for the blog. Very encouraging .
We thank Master and Swamiji for Shades Ananda , where we connect with like minded souls being part of Masters family.
As Master said Brother hood colony is the way to live in harmony. We would like to build more with his blessings where we live for God.
Aum
Prem
#shades# – typo
We thank Master and Swamiji for Ananda. :)
I want thank Renuka for her comments.Merriest are we when in laughing we laugh at ourself(who else is there)However,I there will be blood.Pray for Trump;pray for his doubles,forgive him his mistakes good men make them.Remind me I said that!”Everyday and in every way I am better and better in my self”
Thank you, Devi. Just what we need to hear! For future letters like this, would it be possible to ‘make them’ shareable on Facebook? I would love to post these on our Ananda Dallas Facebook page, as we do other posts from the Village. Many blessings to you and Jyotish.
Dear Nancy,
This blog is posted on Nayaswami Jyotish and Devi Facebook page and can be shared from there.
With love,
Thank you Devi, Nirmala and Darmadas,
Most of us at Ananda Sacramento were very upset of the results. Your letter and the service on Sunday helped us to calm and remind us that we have this path and we must stay to close to God and Master. Master said “Only God can take my Place” . We must trust with all our
heart and soul.
Dear Devi & Jyotish,
What if we encounter someone bullying another person – right in front of us – and principles are at stake. Of course we can pray for that person at that exact moment. Isn’t it ok to calmly intervene or support kindness and love in an active way? What do you think?
Dear Premi,
Yes, of course, it is right to “calmly intervene” in a negative situation that we are witnessing. Spirituality does not mean being passive in the face of wrong-doing, but to keep our consciousness uplifted as we actively stand up for right principles.
With joy,