The Essence of the Spiritual Path
Jitendra Guindon shares this deep inspiration during his Sunday service at Ananda Village, February 13th 2022. You can find the complete talk here.
Transcription
When reflecting on this topic of a time that I was with Swami Kriyananda and I was asking Swamiji many questions, and perhaps too many questions:
And at the very end, I felt very guided to ask him this one last question—very glad I did. And this question was, "Well, Swamiji, you know, Guruji has given you so much"—and it clearly was reflected in his life... of all that Swamiji gave to us and built Ananda for us. And so I said to Swamiji, "All the things that he has given to you: Let's play this little game of, you know, if you could only pick one thing out of all the things that Master gave to you, what would that be?"
And he played along with this, and he gave this deep thought, and reflected for about a minute. And with such sweetness and such love and power that flowed through him, he said to me, "Well, I suppose that if I could choose one thing: He helped me learn how to love God. Love of God is the only thing that matters. Okay?" And there is just this long pause and just so much love.
Our Guru has come to show us how to love God. He's come to show us also—and this is one of the blessings of Paramhansa Yogananda's teachings—is this simplicity: that he came to show that every individual can find God in this life.
And he gives great examples of this where there was a devotee who was asking many complex questions. "When reflecting, how do I find God?" And what was Yogananda 's answer with all these complex algorithms in some way that this devotee was exploring and trying to understand, Guruji's answer was "Love God; love God; love God; love God."
And we hear time and time again: We read Yogananda's writings; we listen to his talks; and he tells us: "Love God; love God; meditate; meditate; meditate.” And so this simplicity in which we have all been given the pathway to liberation—the pathway to dissolve that veil that keeps us from realizing that infinite love—it's a simple path forward.
And all the techniques that our Guru has given to us: energization, hong sau, kriya, you know, in some extended way, chanting, you know—all of these things the Guru has given to us: We must not get confused that within the technique lies the goal, but rather the techniques are given to us to empower us to change our consciousness, so that we may align ourselves in that river of grace within us from the Guru, because inevitably, that grace of the Guru—the grace of God—is what will liberate us, which will dissolve that veil.
