Getting to Know God Through Meditation
Exploring the Eight Aspects of Divine Manifestation
Who Is God? Love Joy Peace Light Sound Calmness Wisdom Power Silent Thoughts
What and who is God ?
People go into churches, chapels and temples to pray to a God with no idea what God looks like and no confirmation they will receive a reply, but with a deep sense of knowledge that answers always come, whether in a passing thought,peace or love.
Many people speak of miracles in healing from an unknown mysterious source emanating energetically from somewhere in the universe. Yet, if we look back at our childhoods and search for the moments where we felt something really special during times of peace and calmness there is always a vague question about that momentous feeling and why does it remain the constant place of sweet relief from all pain. Why is it so hard to find that same peace in later years? Have we crowded our minds with millions of thoughts created through feelings of disharmony, pain and despair bringing one to the point of emotional over-reaction and blind misunderstandings, in every life circumstance that crosses our path.
Yet, in every joyful moment, peaceful silence, blissful contentment, restful calmness, inner light, inner wisdom, sound of sweet music and power of love we are, have always been and forever will be connected to the pulsing Aum of Universal Consciousness through our Soul.
This little book offers thoughts and experiences of by devotees of Paramhansa Yogananda, as a tangible presence in our daily life. As you read into the experiences of each aspect of God, now would be a good time to immerse yourself in the silence in contemplating this very essence of God.
Paramhansa Yogananda once wrote:
“Never mind if you cannot see Him or hear His knock at the gate of your heart. For a long time you have been hiding from Him and running away in the marsh of the senses. It is the noise of your own rowdy passions and the flight of your heavy footsteps in the material world that has made you unable to hear His call within. Stop, be calm, pray steadfastly, and out of the Silence will loom forth the Divine Presence.”
(Excerpted from an article by Nayaswami Jaya ‘To know God is to Love God’.. https://www.ananda.org/ask/to-know-god-is-to-love-god/ )
Kamala from her book Priceless Precepts.
It is of great benefit to us to consider the words of Paramhansa Yogananda when he said, “Many devotees are bewildered about the Manifestations of God, not realizing that there are 7 distinct Manifestations.” He added, “It would be well for all devotees to remember about these seven which can be felt in meditation.”
Swami Kriyananda from his book A Place Called Ananda
“I certainly can’t offer proof of God’s existence. But I do know this: What I seek in life, and what I think we all seek, is happiness. I have found that when I experience love, I am happy; when I don’t experience it, I am unhappy. Loving expands my sympathies; lack of it contracts them. If in the continued expansion of love I choose to see a demonstration of God’s existence, where is the harm? You can have your definitions. I prefer to concentrate on what I’ve found by experience. Frankly, I think that what we all want in life is not theories, but love.”
Nayaswami Anandi…
Nayaswami Asha …
3 Ways to Feel God’s Presence
Be a Channel
There are 8 aspects of God – light, sound, power, love, calmness, peace, joy, and wisdom. Master defined meditation as deep concentration on God or one of these aspects. For this purpose concentrate on just one each day. Take love as an example. See how many times each day you can express God’s love or kindness or compassion. Yogacharya Oliver Black always maintained a “bubble of joy” around himself. A shopkeeper in Los Angeles told us she saw an aura of light surrounding Swami Kriyananda when he walked down the street. When you are a channel for any of these qualities, you are in His presence.
Jyotish
Spiritual Director of Ananda.org
https://www.jyotishanddevi.org/touch-of-light/3-ways-to-feel-god-presence/
Love
COSMIC LOVE brings a great welling in the heart which includes everything in creation. It is felt intensely for ALL, with the Oneness wherein all division of “yours and mine” has vanished. When we know this deep and expanding love we are filled with GOD’S COSMIC LOVE. (Kamala)
Love infinite. Those who live in ego-consciousness think of impersonal love as cold and abstract. But divine love is all-absorbing, and infinitely comforting. It is impersonal only in the sense that it is utterly untainted by selfish desire. The unity one finds in divine love is possible only to the soul. It cannot be experienced by the ego. (Swami Kriyananda)
Take the thought of Love into meditation…
Breezes of Divine Love
In meditation, visualize yourself sending breezes of love and hope from your heart outward, into all in this world who grieve. Tell them to release their grief into the soothing breeze of God’s love for them. Imagine this breeze going out through you with God’s power, flowing out into the world, soothing all creatures with breezes of Divine Love. Send this love to encourage people, to release their pains, their attachments, and all their burdens into that breeze. Let it soothe them and take these pains away from them.
Joy
COSMIC JOY is found when one is so filled with Joy that there is a sense of floating, of walking on air, and which does not come from any reason or event in daily life. It permeates whatever one does. This means the devotee is in tune with God as Joy. The inner radiance is transmitted to others, and may be reflected in the eyes. Children often express this in their exuberance of spirit, with their desire to run, jump and dance. Their joy comes from within and is a spiritual happiness.
Joy is another aspect of God. Divine joy is like millions of earthly joys crushed into one. The quest for human happiness is like looking around for a candle while sitting out of doors in the sun. Divine joy surrounds us eternally, yet people look to mere things for their happiness. Mostly, all they find is relief from emotional or physical pain. But divine joy is the blazing Reality. Before it, earthly joys are but shadows.
Take the thought of Joy into meditation…
The Remembrance of a Special Joy
Recall a moment in your life of special joy, perhaps a moment close to nature, or perhaps a moment of closeness to another human being. Remove from that moment all sense of excitement or restlessness, so that it’s just a calm moment itself. Then remove from it also all sense of cause. Don’t associate it with what was happening at the time; don’t let your memory of joy exist except as a pure reality in itself. Don’t let the joy be associated with that scene or with that person with whom you felt happy. Just think of the joy itself in its pure essence. Hold on to that feeling now.
Peace
Peace is an early meditative experience. Peace, like a weightless waterfall, cleanses the mind of all anxiety and care, bestowing heavenly relief.
Later one feels the COSMIC VIBRATION. This is called Cosmic Feeling. Whenever a radio is turned on, or a piano is played, there is a vibration which can be felt in the wood. The same is true of an electric motor which makes a humming sound yet has, also, a vibration through the metal. This same way the Cosmic Om Vibration is present through our Being as Feeling in addition to hearing the Sound.
Take the thought of Peace into meditation…
Meditation on the Calm Sea
Think of a calm sea with no boundaries. This very calm sea expands to the horizon on all sides. There’s nothing anywhere to hem it in; it expands outward to eternity.
