We Are Beings of Light

We Are Beings of Light!

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We Are Beings of Light“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good.” – Genesis 1:3-4

Yogananda taught that each of us is an individual expression of God’s one radiant light. He came to the West to help us awaken that light within, that it might shine more fully through our lives.

Yogananda once looked upon a group of disciples and said, “You have no idea how beautiful you all are—I see you all as light.” Yogananda, like all true masters, could perceive the light of the soul—ever shining through the darknesses of this world.

“As moving pictures are sustained by a beam of light—so are all of us sustained by the Cosmic Beam, the Divine Light pouring from the projection booth of Eternity.” – Paramhansa Yogananda

Just as the rays of the sun cannot shine clearly through a mud-splattered window until it has been cleaned, so too, this inner light cannot be fully expressed through our lives without spiritual purification. This purification comes through deep meditation, selfless service, and self-offering born of introspection. Continue reading →

Woman in pronom position at sunrise over the ocean

Self-Surrender: The Pathway to Bliss

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Woman with hands in pronam position at sunrise over the ocean

In higher consciousness, we discover an answer to every problem that life presents. As we lift our awareness from the little ego-self to the great soul-self, we rise above the level of every challenge—above the consciousness of pain, fear, and discouragement.

In the joy of soul-consciousness, we realize that we are one with God and that, in that oneness, we are connected to all life. With that understanding comes the awareness that when we help another, we are helping our own higher self; when we lift another, we ourselves are lifted. Therefore, the soul is ever kind, compassionate, and giving. It wants to serve God by serving all.

Kindness, compassion, and the desire to be helpful are all natural expressions of that lifted consciousness. We can offer ourselves up to the divine through our service to others, and in that service, we deepen our experience of inner joy and peace. Continue reading →

Swami-Kriyananda-Centennial

A Tribute to Our Friend and Guide Swami Kriyananda

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Ananda Devotees Sharing Light with the World

Ananda Devotees Sharing Light with the World

I’m writing these words from the Expanding Light Retreat at Ananda Village in California’s Sierra Nevada Foothills, joined by some 750 kindred souls celebrating the 100th anniversary of Swami Kriyananda’s birth.

This has been a deeply uplifting week. We shared meditations, inspiring talks, devotional chanting, a beautiful concert of Swami Kriyananda’s music, his play The Jewel in the Lotus, and warm conversations with fellow devotees—all in celebration of the life of Ananda’s founder, Swami Kriyananda.

There has been a palpable feeling of expansive joy throughout the week—a sense that, through all of us present, Swamiji would continue to grow and expand Ananda’s worldwide work of sharing Yogananda’s teachings and vibration with the world. Continue reading →

Karma Our Divine Teacher

Karma: Our Divine Teacher

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Yogananda The Purpose of Life is to Be Educated and Entertained

Paramhansa Yogananda

“We all come into this world to be educated and entertained,” Paramhansa Yogananda once observed—then he added with a wry smile, “but how few are either educated or entertained!”

We each have many lessons to learn from life, and karma is among our primary teachers. Will we fear and resent this teacher’s firm hand, or welcome it with gratitude for the important lessons it has to offer us?

My first-grade teacher, Mrs. Class, was not what one would call warm and fuzzy. She was a strict, often extremely stern disciplinarian, and like most of the children in her class, I was intimidated by her. Continue reading →

Young man meditating on OM near a river.

OM Sweet OM: The Pathway to Self-Realization

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Young man meditating on OM near a river.OM is within, and all around us. It lies at the heart of all things, animate and inanimate. It is through OM that we have journeyed away from our home in God—into this world of maya and delusion—and it is through OM that we will find our way back to our true nature of oneness with God.

Yogananda used two spellings for the cosmic vibration: OM and AUM. Although AUM is the more accurate Sanskrit form, he often used the shorter spelling, OM, as well—especially in poetic writings. For simplicity, I will use the more commonly recognized OM in this article.

Occasionally, Yogananda would take some of the disciples to a movie. When the movie reached its most exciting part, he would tap them on the shoulder, point to the beam of light coming from the projection booth, and say, “It’s all just a play of light and shadow.” Continue reading →

Woman writing in her journal

Introspection: The Key to Spiritual Progress

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Woman writing in her journalParamhansa Yogananda said that we cannot stand still on the spiritual path: we are either moving forward or we are moving backward. He also said that the minutes are more important than the years. If we want to see improvement over the years, we must start by making the right effort today.

A few years ago, I was the service manager for an electrical contracting company. The owner often told me, “You need to inspect what you expect.” He meant that, as a manager, I needed to keep an eye on our crew to make sure they were meeting our quality standards.

The same thing can be said about managing our inner kingdom of attitudes, habits, and thoughts. These determine success or failure on the spiritual path: whether or not we are moving in the right direction. We need to inspect what we expect. Continue reading →

Peace-Meditation

Finding Peace in Tumultuous Times

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Paramhansa_Yogananda

Paramhansa Yogananda

Peace is often one of the first things we experience in meditation. It is one of the eight aspects of God as described by Paramhansa Yogananda. As such, the feeling of peace in deep meditation is an experience of communion with God.

Because even beginners often feel a sense of profound peace in meditation, peace is sometimes considered to be less important than, say, seeing light at the spiritual eye or communing with the sound of AUM. Yet peace, born of inner communion, is greatly needed in these tumultuous times. It can lift us above unrest, anxiety, and fear Continue reading →