Practicing the Presence of God
Watch this inspiring Sunday Service talk with Shyama Arati Davis, recorded at Ananda Village on April 16th 2023.
Every individual has a unique path to follow. But some practices and attitudes are essential to all who want to grow spiritually and find true happiness. Shyama shares those practices and how we can apply them in our daily life.
The reading for this week from Swami Kriyananda's book Rays of the One Light is
"To Each According to His Faith".
Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within. The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.
In the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 3, we read: Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
It is a common experience, shared by most people, that when a person errs he experiences a desire to hide that error from his conscience instead of holding it up for purification. Error clutches its misdeeds to itself, and resists correction, though it is only in the state of purity that we can achieve perfect freedom. It requires an act of will to offer that awareness up to the light, and to hold it there until one’s inner darkness is completely dissipated. For every state of consciousness has its own attractive power. And the more we allow that attraction to act upon us, the more we attract to ourselves the objective circumstances and experiences natural to it. Our faith is the attractive power of our underlying state of consciousness.
Goodness attracts goodness; it takes goodness even to see goodness. Evil attracts evil, and it takes evil even to see evil – that is, to take special note of its existence. Whatever there is in you of darkness or light, offer it up to the heights. In the Supreme Light alone will we find salvation. Accept nothing less in yourself as your lasting reality.
As the Bhagavad Gita says, in the twelfth Chapter:
Cling thou to me!
Clasp Me with heart and mind!
So shalt thou dwell Surely with Me on high.
But if thy thought
Droops from such height; if thou be’st weak to set
Body and soul upon Me constantly,
Despair not! give Me lower service!
seek To reach Me, worshiping with steadfast will;
And, if thou canst not worship steadfastly,
Work for Me, toil in works pleasing to Me!
For he that laboureth right for love of Me Shall finally attain!
But, if in this Thy faint heart fails, bring Me thy failure!
Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.
