I was once visiting a friend who had recently given birth to her second child, a lovely little girl. Her first child, a precocious three-year-old named Tamara, was exhibiting definite signs of jealousy towards this newcomer with whom she had to share her parents’ attention.
As my friend lovingly cradled the sleeping infant in her arms, Tamara approached with a knowing look in her eyes and asked, “Mommy, is that baby icky?”
“Oh, no,” was my friend’s reply, “she’s very nice.”
Attempting to plant seeds of doubt in her mother’s mind, she left with the words, “You never know.”
I’ve sometimes wondered if Tamara grew up to be a reporter, since raising doubt in people’s minds seems to be the modus operandi of the news today. Elected officials, spiritual leaders, health experts, sports figures: no one is immune from having questions raised about their integrity or their hidden agenda. Sometimes the headlines stoop so low as not even to pretend to have backup facts, but simply ask a question: “Is it true that Martians are living inside Mt. Everest?”
The insidious thing about being fed a regular diet of such information is that it continually activates doubt, which is a state of consciousness. Over time it becomes a chronic condition that has little to do with any particular issue, but leads to uncertainty, anxiety, and loss of faith in anything.
Paramhansa Yogananda called doubt “suicidal.” He said that constructive doubt, which questions only in order to arrive at the truth, is all right, but that destructive doubt is a habitual state that eventually paralyzes the will. He went on to say, “Doubt is a mental insanity by which you absolutely refuse to recognize your own ability to cognize the world around you and to understand everything.”
What can we do to rise above chronic doubt and reclaim our ability to know what is real and true? It’s good to limit the time we spend looking at news or social media. Even the positive content that’s shared online can take us away from our center if we give it too much focus. True knowing does not come from avoiding negative input; nor, for that matter, from seeking positive input: Its source is not the mind or intellect, but rather a sense of deep inner awareness.
Swami Kriyananda had a remarkable ability to see past people’s outer personas, and to understand who they really were. This enabled him to help others and to bring out the best in them. His understanding came not from knowing facts about a person, but from being fully centered in himself and relating to that center in others. This ability is born of meditation and of having achieved deep inner stillness.
Yoganandaji said, “With a strong lens the sun’s rays, focused through it, can ignite wood. Yoga practice, similarly, so concentrates the mind that the curtain of doubt and uncertainty is burned away, and the light of inner truth becomes manifest.”
With that burning away of doubt, faith emerges. And with faith dawns the realization of God’s presence in our lives and in everything. Once our faith is strong, no negative innuendos or aspersions can convince us otherwise. We know what we know because we feel it in every fiber of our being.
In The New Path, Swami Kriyananda writes: “I believe that the time is approaching when countless men and women will no more think of doubting God than they doubt the air they breathe. For God is not dead. It is man only who dies to all that is wonderful in life when he limits himself to worldly acquisitions and to advancing himself in worldly eyes, but overlooks those spiritual realities which are the foundation of all that he truly is.”
What is this approaching time of which Swamiji speaks? It is a new dawn, when people seek and find their answers within through meditation and prayer. Only thus can we clear away the fog of doubt which obscures our ability to know truth. Faith, indeed, is the proof of things unseen, and it is through the eyes of the soul that we can see the divine truth hidden in everything.
Your friend in God,
Nayaswami Devi
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26 Comments
Thank you I always so enjoy your blogs. Your truths resonate deeply with me. God bless 🙏
The wisdom of this blog entry is surely influenced and infused with the Living Spirit of the Master Yoganandaji. Thank you so much with Prem and Om.
Dear Deviji,thanks for your words. Love
Helmut and Mayadevi
Jai Guru thanks for the golden words of Guru Ji and Swami Kriyananda. Every single mention of Guru Ji’s great words of guidance is a booster for us earthly persons. Regards Om Om Om
It’s n eye opener ,we all do the same mistake n tangle in own web of views. Thanks for such a blog
This came right when I needed it. Thank you.
Perfect timing for me, dear Devi. Thanks so much!
Thank you Nayaswami Devi for your refreshing reminder about the differences between constructive doubt and destructive chronic doubt. This messages needs to be shared far and wide right now!
Wonderful. A refreshing read!
Inspiring! and so timely a truth!
Deep gratitude.
Timely, wise, true guidance and reminder! Thank you 🙏🏽
Such a beautiful blog! Thank you for the light that you share.
I am a Truth seeker and have a lot of question to ask you. Will you please give me your whats app no , so that I can communicate to you directly ?……i have questions on Death, How can one pass on peacefully while contemplating on gurudeva Shyamacharan Lahiri mahashaya…….? Where and how shall i get the Initiation on Kriya Yoga ? Will you please teach me how can I concentrate and meditate ? What is kulakundalini Yoga ?……
Can i have your whats app no ? Regds, Supratim Daschoudhury
Very good essay…”a sense of deep inner awareness”…intuition,the souls power of knowing God.
Thank you for being there,for all the good that you are doing…that God is doing through you.
Thank you for this reading today. It really resonated with me and some things that are going on. Thank you for all the wonderful work you are all doing, and bring a new meaning to my life.
Thank you dear soul. I am reminded that I need to be constantly reminded of the One True Source of Truth: Love of God through meditation. I am truly grateful for all the reminders that Divine Mother sends me. May I ever be open to receive them and act on them. Namaste
What wonderful insight, something we ignore everyday. Doubt has become part of our life and this is why we need to do self analysis. This blog certainly has given me push in right direction. Whenever doubt comes, i will think of this blog and wonderful knowledge from our guru and Swamiji. Aum Tat Sat.
Dear Devi, Thank you, and Divine Mother who you channeled to me through this post. You told me exactly what I needed to hear. Meditation and Prayer.
Dear Nayaswami Devi Ji,
Thank you for this wonderful blog. Very helpful.
And many thanks for sharing the quote from Swamiji. Inspiring!
Aum
Prem
Thank you. Very logical.
Thank you, Nayaswami Devi, for resonating that deeper place of faith within; and for pointing out the difference between that and the intellect. The quote by Swami Kriyananda and your reference to the barrage of doubt implanted by modern culture remind me of something Joseph Campbell said in Sukhavati (Place of Bliss): “The culture has gone into an economic and political phase, where the spiritual principals are completely disregarded. The religious life is ethical; it is not mystical….The question is, will there ever be a recovery of the mythological, mystical realization of the miracle of life, of which our society is a manifestation, and all of us brothers and sisters in the spirit of this all-informing mythos.” How valuable it is to have teachers like you to remind us to shuffle off this mortal coil and to seek again the eternity within!
Much Love 🙏🏽 Thank You
Beautiful, Nayaswami Devi !
Thank you, very good affirmation of faith.
Just to say, the little girl mentioned in the beginning of the essay should not be judged upon or call her a “future reporter who implants doubt”, her jealousy is only the shadow of her need for love, she should given compassion and care, not criticism.
Om Sri Gurubhyo Namah.
I am new to this blogs and sessions held.
Initially I need to clear my doubts and negativity so I need mail of Deviji.
I can express freely and get proper guidelines.
Please help.