Transcript
[0:13] Good morning,
and welcome to our service
[0:16] here at the Glendale Temple
of Self-Realization Fellowship.
[0:20] And a special welcome
to anyone who may be visiting
[0:25] our temple or be new to the teachings
of Self-Realization Fellowship.
[0:30] Let's please rise
for our opening prayer.
[0:36] And let us focus the gaze
at the point between the eyebrows
[0:40] at the spiritual center,
the Christ consciousness center,
[0:45] as we pray.
[0:48] Heavenly Father,
[0:50] Mother,
[0:52] Friend,
[0:54] Beloved God,
[0:56] Jesus Christ,
[0:59] Bhagavan Krishna,
[1:01] Mahavatar Babaji,
[1:04] Lahiri Mahasaya,
[1:07] Swami Sri Yukteswar,
[1:11] and our guru,
[1:13] Paramahansa Yogananda,
[1:16] saints of all religions,
[1:19] we bow to you all.
[1:23] O Heavenly Father,
[1:26] as Thou art all things
[1:28] to all people,
[1:31] teach us
[1:33] to find Thy presence
[1:36] right within ourselves
[1:40] in the ever-new,
[1:42] ever-increasing joy
[1:45] of our souls.
[1:49] Aum.
[1:53] Peace.
[1:54] Amen.
[1:58] So, please be seated.
[2:03] And again, for anyone
who may be new to our temple,
[2:07] we always begin our services
with a period of meditation.
[2:11] Because scientific yoga meditation,
[2:16] pranayama meditation,
[2:19] that is the most effective way
[2:23] to bring about the prayer
that we just had —
[2:27] to have the, to give us
the experience of true religion.
[2:35] The highest experience of religion
is the experience of God —
[2:42] of knowing ourselves
[2:44] as one with God's bliss.
[2:50] God, as far as our human comprehension
is able to conceive of it,
[2:58] God is ever-new,
ever-increasing joy.
[3:02] This is in the Hindu scriptures
described as Sat-Chit-Ananda,
[3:08] but it's also referred to
in all other true religions
[3:12] as rapture, ecstasy,
samadhi, nirvana,
[3:18] but it's a joy that never ends
[3:23] and just keeps increasing.
[3:28] That's what we want;
[3:30] everyone wants it.
[3:33] This is the native state
of our beings.
[3:36] We're souls.
[3:38] Most people —
and everyone is seeking this goal —
[3:42] but most people
are seeking it unconsciously
[3:46] through outer pursuits that they think
are going to give them happiness.
[3:51] They're looking for this joy
[3:55] through physical pleasures,
[3:58] through fulfilling material desires,
[4:00] but these things they don't
really ever satisfy completely.
[4:06] And oftentimes they end in pain
and disillusionment
[4:10] and suffering because these
[4:14] joys that come through
the physical body,
[4:19] by definition the body
is going to die.
[4:24] But physical death
is not the end of us;
[4:27] we're immortal souls.
[4:31] So, the whole purpose of life
is to get out of this encasement
[4:38] in the physical body process,
[4:40] which can take
[4:42] many incarnations —
[4:45] coming back again
and again and again.
[4:48] If we are seeking
in the wrong ways,
[4:51] we get to come back
in another physical body
[4:55] and live another life
[4:56] to work out our desires, again,
[5:00] that don't really satisfy us,
[5:02] so that when we die
we can come back again.
[5:06] So, a much more effective way
[5:11] to attaining this goal of life
[5:13] is fulfillment through
different religious practices
[5:19] and through beliefs.
[5:22] And belief is very good,
[5:25] but by itself
it's not enough.
[5:29] And our guru,
Paramahansa Yogananda,
[5:32] who brought these teachings of
Self-Realization Fellowship to the West
[5:36] back in 1920, he pointed out
that belief alone
[5:40] will not give the soul
a permanent place
[5:44] in heaven after death.
[5:48] Just believing that you're
going to go to heaven
[5:51] because you've gone to church
[5:54] is not going to guarantee
that you don't get to come back
[5:58] and have more reincarnations
[6:01] in the physical body
on this plane.
[6:04] He says, “The soul is bound
to the body by cords of karma,
[6:10] woven by lifetimes of material desires,
behavior, and habits.
[6:16] Only the life current
can change one's life,
[6:21] destroying these millions
of karmic records.”
[6:29] He's talking about life current.
[6:31] This is the prana in our bodies,
[6:34] the life force that we
actually learn to control
[6:38] in scientific yoga meditation.
[6:43] But when we do this, he says,
“Then one is born again;
[6:49] the soul opens the inner window
of oneness with the Spirit
[6:53] and enters into the perception of the
wondrous omnipresence of God.” —
[7:01] which is why we want to learn
to meditate deeply.
[7:07] This is the most effective way there is
to control that life energy in the body.
[7:13] “The true yogi,”
Paramahansaji says,
[7:16] “withholding his thoughts,
will, and feelings
[7:20] from the false identification
with bodily desires,
[7:27] uniting his mind
with superconscious forces
[7:31] in the spiritual shrines” —
[7:34] these are the chakras
in the spine —
[7:39] “in the spinal shrines,” he says,
[7:43] “thus this yogi lives in the world
as God hath planned;
[7:48] he is impelled neither by
impulses from the past
[7:51] nor by fresh motivations
of human witlessness.
[7:56] Receiving fulfillment
of his Supreme Desire,
[8:00] he is safe
[8:02] in the final haven
of inexhaustibly blissful Spirit.”
[8:11] So, with that introduction,
[8:15] let's have a short meditation.
[8:18] And if we know techniques of meditation
such as Hong-Sau, let's practice this.
[8:25] If we don't know any
of the meditation techniques,
[8:28] what let's do is just
first sit in the meditation posture,
[8:32] which is with the feet
flat on the floor
[8:36] and the spine away
from the back of the pew.
[8:41] And we sit with the hands,
palms upturned
[8:47] at the juncture
of the thighs and abdomen.
[8:51] The elbows are back,
[8:53] the chest is out,
[8:55] chin parallel to the ground.
[8:57] And then, most importantly,
is to focus the gaze of the eyes
[9:02] at this point between
the two eyebrows,
[9:06] because at that point
we will see, in time,
[9:09] as we go on with these practices,
[9:11] we will see the light
of the spiritual eye.
[9:16] This is the doorway
[9:20] which is the exit
from the physical form
[9:24] into those higher states
of consciousness,
[9:27] into superconsciousness,
[9:29] Christ consciousness,
[9:31] and cosmic consciousness.
[9:35] So just focus your gaze
right at that point as we meditate.
[9:40] But let's begin
[9:42] with the preliminary breathing
exercise our Guru gives,
[9:46] which is we exhale the breath
[9:49] and now double inhale
[9:52] and tense the whole body
[9:55] and relax and exhale.
[9:59] And again inhale,
[10:02] tense
[10:04] and relax.
[10:07] Again inhale,
[10:10] tense,
[10:13] relax.
[10:16] And one more time inhale,
[10:19] tense
[10:22] and relax.
[10:26] And now
[10:28] just go into the presence
[10:31] of that light
of the spiritual eye.
[10:33] If you don't see any light,
just keep focusing
[10:37] your attention at that point,
[10:42] because God is right there,
[10:45] right within us.
[15:21] It's nice to be back.
[15:24] As many of you are aware,
I was in India for about five weeks.
[15:29] I got back just
a little while ago.
[15:33] And actually, this was my second
time being in India;
[15:37] the first time was exactly
fifty years ago, 1976,
[15:43] when I was visiting
[15:48] on a bottom budget
tourist basis,
[15:52] and I had no religious perspective
at all at that time.
[15:55] But this time I went with
Brother Keshavananda,
[16:01] who I referred to always as
Swami Keshavananda,
[16:06] and he referred to me as
Swami Prafullananda,
[16:10] because we were visiting as monks
of the Swami Order, which we are,
[16:16] and as guests of our
Yogoda Satsanga Society of India,
[16:20] which is the counterpart
of SRF in India.
[16:26] And so we went to nearly
all of the YSS centers
[16:30] and nearly all of the sites that are
associated with the life of our Guru
[16:37] in India
[16:39] when Paramahansaji
lived there himself.
[16:43] But I must say that going as a swami
was a very different experience
[16:49] than going as a
bottom budget tourist,
[16:54] because I experienced
[16:58] the reverential respect
[17:01] that's part of the great
Indian religious tradition
[17:07] toward those who wear
the renunciant garb
[17:13] of a swami, you know.
[17:15] And everywhere we went, we were dressed
with the traditional dhoti and kurta,
[17:22] and people recognize this
all through India,
[17:27] and they respect this.
[17:29] And I quickly understood —
they're not bowing down,
[17:33] you know, and they were touching my feet,
which is something I'm not very used to
[17:38] and very comfortable with —
[17:39] and I quickly realized
they're not doing this for me,
[17:44] but it's what the cloth represents.
[17:50] And of course, there are
many, many changes
[17:52] I saw that took place over
the 50 years since I've been there.
[17:56] But one quality
that has not changed
[17:59] is that of the devotional intensity
[18:04] that permeates
the Indian consciousness.
[18:09] And this devotional quality,
[18:12] it's been part of the Indian culture
for thousands of years.
[18:17] But I saw it firsthand
in so many temples
[18:22] and shrines and sites
that we visited,
[18:25] and there's nowhere else in the world —
I've been a lot of places
[18:30] in this world —
but nowhere that matches,
[18:34] or comes close,
[18:35] to what India has in terms of this
[18:39] devotional intensity,
I would put it.
[18:43] And like when in temples,
like in Brindaban,
[18:47] which is where the Lord Krishna
grew up, you know,
[18:50] and we hear all those stories.
But, so there's shrines,
[18:54] there's temples for
the Lord Krishna.
[18:56] But we went on a Saturday
when it's a busy day,
[19:00] but it wasn't a particular holiday,
and that's when it's really busy
[19:04] is on holidays, you know,
the holy days —
[19:08] but just on a Saturday, the crowd
wanting to get into the temple,
[19:14] just to be able to see
[19:17] the image of
the Lord Krishna there.
[19:20] That's the point of this
going to the temple
[19:26] is to see the image.
[19:32] And it was a crowd
[19:35] that just kept getting
squeezed tighter and tighter
[19:39] on all four sides
as thousands of devotees
[19:44] were just inching
their way forward
[19:47] to get this experience
of upliftment
[19:51] and blessing that they feel
from just seeing
[19:56] the image of the Lord Krishna.
[20:00] But I also noticed
[20:03] in India a tolerance
of other religions.
[20:08] And it's a view that contrasts
a lot with many other religions
[20:13] that claim exclusivity to God.
[20:19] But during my journey
through India this time,
[20:23] I was so impressed
by numerous examples
[20:26] of the universal
acceptance of religion.
[20:32] And this is what I want to
focus this service on,
[20:36] is the universality of
India's religion.
[20:42] Because in places
such as in Rishikesh,
[20:45] we went to the ashram
of the Divine Life Society there.
[20:50] And right there in the center
of their courtyard
[20:55] is a tall pillar,
[21:00] goes up maybe 15, 20 feet,
[21:02] but it has inscribed
in the pillar
[21:08] the religious truths from
over a dozen various religions,
[21:16] all around the world.
[21:18] And then in New Delhi,
when we went to the Baha’i temple there.
[21:23] It's the Lotus Temple, which is just,
it's grandly beautiful.
[21:30] It was so impressive.
[21:32] But here they welcome
[21:35] people of every faith
to come and worship in their own way.
[21:38] It was packed.
[21:40] It was magnificent to see.
[21:43] But everybody's welcome
to come and worship
[21:47] in whatever way you wish
[21:51] in this beautiful, peaceful,
and spacious sanctuary.
[21:56] But I think the place that was
[22:00] one of the most striking examples
of this religious universality
[22:06] was the shrine of Kabir,
[22:09] which is in Varanasi or Banaras;
it's — city’s called both.
[22:15] It's also called Kashi,
which helps to make things confusing
[22:20] for poor westerners.
[22:22] But there in Banaras,
Kabir, he lived with, he was a saint.
[22:28] He lived in the sixteenth century;
he was just a humble weaver
[22:34] who lived, I was told,
to be about 120-years-old.
[22:39] And he spent nearly all of his life at
this same place, which now is the shrine
[22:45] there in Varanasi.
[22:48] And he was revered
in his own time as a saint
[22:52] by both the Hindus
and by the Muslims.
[22:58] And there were large communities
of both there at that time.
[23:03] But Kabir,
he actively spoke against
[23:07] the differences
that separate religions.
[23:12] And he particularly
criticized the
[23:17] external aspects of religion,
[23:20] which can very much
separate peoples and beliefs,
[23:25] thinking that my way is the right way
and your way is wrong.
[23:29] He said in one of his poems;
he wrote many, many poems.
[23:36] And one of these, speaking with
the voice of God, he says, “O servant,
[23:42] where dost thou seek Me?
[23:45] Lo! I am beside thee.
[23:49] I am neither in temple
nor in mosque:
[23:54] I am neither in Kaaba
nor in Kailash;”
[24:00] Now Kaaba, of course, that's in Mecca,
the holy site of the Muslim religion.
[24:07] And Kailash, that's the holy mountain
in the high Himalayas
[24:13] of the, holy to the Hindus.
[24:14] He said,
“I am in neither Kaaba nor in Kailash.
[24:20] Neither am I in
rites and ceremonies.”
[24:23] He's just pointing out
don't look for the ultimate God
[24:28] in these specific places.
[24:31] God's everywhere.
[24:32] “I'm right beside thee.”
[24:35] You don't have to go
[24:39] a long distance to find God.
[24:43] And so he pointed out again and again that
these outer ceremonies and just physical
[24:48] locations they're not essential.
[24:51] And he also pointed out
that our faith doesn't determine
[24:58] whether or not
we can attain this goal.
[25:01] He said, “Hindus and Muslims
alike have achieved that End,
[25:08] where remains
no mark of distinction.”
[25:14] In other words, people,
devotees of both religions, all religions
[25:21] have achieved the final land
[25:23] where there's no mark of distinction;
there's no difference
[25:27] in any way between you
and God and everything.
[25:35] It was interesting because
just a couple minutes,
[25:38] we'd been there maybe at this site,
which, it's a shrine now,
[25:42] but we'd been at this compound for
about 10 minutes and the man in charge
[25:49] of the shrine
came out to greet us.
[25:52] And he explained that
he travels around the world
[25:55] giving talks about Kabir's
life and teachings
[25:58] and he'd just gotten back
the night before from London.
[26:01] But seeing here we were swamis
[26:04] at the shrine,
he was happy to give us a personal tour.
[26:07] So, he took us all around
[26:10] and then he took us into
his own private room for tea.
[26:15] So that was kind of special
and he told this
[26:18] story that I had not heard before
about Kabir, about his death.
[26:24] And he said,
“But finally when he had to die,
[26:30] Kabir decided not to leave his body
in Kashi, in Banaras, in Varanasi.
[26:36] Why?
[26:38] Because at that time,
and even today,
[26:41] people believe that if somebody
dies in Kashi, in Varanasi,
[26:44] they will go to heaven.
[26:48] Kabir questioned this belief asking,
‘How is it possible?’
[26:54] There was another place
known as Maghar
[26:58] where people believed that if someone
dies there, they will go to hell.
[27:04] So in about 1580
[27:07] when Kabir was
119 and 6-months-old,
[27:13] he decided to leave Kashi
and go to Maghar to die.
[27:18] So, when he went to Maghar,
there were many people
[27:23] who came with him,
like the king of Kashi
[27:28] who was a follower
and disciple of Kabir.
[27:31] And so,
all these other Hindus came.
[27:33] But in Maghar at that time,
it was ruled by a Muslim king,
[27:41] and the Muslim king
was also a devotee.
[27:45] And so, when Kabir left his body
there in Maghar,
[27:49] the Hindus and the Muslims
started quarreling
[27:54] about who should have
the right to bury Kabir
[27:59] because they have
different ceremonies
[28:03] between the Muslims
and the Hindus.
[28:06] And this is where it ties in with
[28:09] what our guru Paramahansaji has
written in his “Autobiography of a Yogi.”
[28:14] And I'll just quote
from that now:
[28:16] “At the time of Kabir's death
the disciples
[28:18] quarreled over the manner
of conducting the funeral ceremonies.
[28:22] The exasperated master
rose from his final sleep.”
[28:30] He was dead.
[28:31] He got up.
[28:34] This is what you can do
if you're a master.
[28:37] “And he gave his instructions.”
[28:39] He said, ‘Half of my remains
should be buried with Muslim rites.
[28:45] Let the other half be cremated
with a Hindu sacrament.’
[28:51] Then he vanished.
[28:54] And when the disciples removed
the shroud that had covered his body,
[28:58] nothing was found
but a beautiful array of flowers.”
[29:05] And so those flowers
were then divided half and half
[29:09] between the Muslims
and the Hindus.
[29:11] And the Hindu portion
was enshrined there at this site,
[29:15] at this shrine that we
were visiting right then.
[29:20] And I must say I had one of
my nicest meditations in
[29:24] Banaras right there
at that shrine.
[29:28] But Kabir's life and his teachings,
they exemplify
[29:32] what the Lord Krishna says
in “Bhagavad Gita” in chapter 4, verse 11,
[29:38] where the Lord Krishna says,
“O Arjuna!
[29:42] in whatever way people are
devoted to Me, in that measure
[29:47] I manifest Myself to them.
[29:51] All men, in every manner of seeking Me,
pursue a path to Me.”
[29:59] And so, the Lord Krishna is saying
all religious paths; they're legitimate.
[30:05] And so, it's wrong to declare that
anybody is worshipping the wrong way.
[30:12] And the Lord Krishna goes on: “As men
of various natures offer their devotions
[30:17] to Me in different ways,
so do I variously respond,
[30:22] according to their
heart’s desire,
[30:25] their degree of understanding,
and their manner of worship.”
[30:30] You see God responds differently
to different people
[30:35] according to how
they are perceiving God.
[30:38] It's a two-way interaction.
[30:42] "All beings,” said the Lord Krishna,
“regardless of their mode of seeking,
[30:46] wend their way to Me.”
[30:52] And this lends itself to the very broadest
possible definition of what religion is.
[30:58] Because it includes not just those
who are outwardly religious,
[31:03] but everybody.
[31:06] Materialists who are
seeking wealth
[31:09] and material pleasure as
the ultimate goal of their lives.
[31:13] Well, God is literally
all things to all people,
[31:16] and God manifests to
[31:20] everyone in the way
they are seeking their happiness.
[31:26] And the Lord Krishna
goes on in the next verse.
[31:29] “Desiring success of their actions
here on earth, men adore the gods.”
[31:37] But the gods here
is in lowercase.
[31:40] And our Guru explains
[31:42] this is a reference
to desiring various ideals
[31:47] which can be material wealth
or pleasure or power.
[31:55] And so, our Guru explains,
[31:58] “The materialist knows that proper action
will bring success to his endeavors;
[32:04] his thoughts and prayers
propitiate the ‘gods’
[32:09] of those forces and factors necessary
to accomplish his material goals.”
[32:14] You see, it's a cause-effect principle
of the universe that you do the right thing
[32:21] and the desired results,
they come back to you — it'll manifest.
[32:25] And this is why all people
in this planet right now,
[32:31] 9 billion or so,
they're all religious in this context.
[32:37] Even though it often seems
there's nothing about
[32:44] religion to their lives.
[32:46] But people are here
to fulfill their goals
[32:52] for their understanding of
what will make them happy.
[33:00] And right now,
[33:02] our world is perfectly situated
for this mentality of
[33:10] human being to come back
and fulfill those goals.
[33:16] And our Guru said:
[33:18] “Success in obtaining material
goals and pleasures is relatively easy
[33:24] in a world fashioned
for this purpose.”
[33:28] That's why we have billions
of materialists in the world right now.
[33:34] It's okay.
[33:38] “Thus, man pursues the obvious
immediate gains, the ‘tangibles,’
[33:45] all of which are
treacherously evanescent.”
[33:52] Evanescent means temporary;
they disappear
[33:57] because that's the trouble
with seeking just material goals.
[34:02] They bring about relatively
small results compared with
[34:06] the results of spiritual action.
[34:11] And they're short-lived —
they're evanescent because
[34:14] they're all left behind at death.
[34:16] No matter how wealthy you are —
[34:19] poof, it's gone when
you leave the body.
[34:22] And it's treacherous
[34:24] because the actions motivated
by material desire,
[34:29] they bring with them consequences
of negative karma and pain.
[34:33] And therefore,
[34:35] we can say that seeking happiness
through just material fulfillment,
[34:42] it's pseudo religion.
[34:44] It's not true religion,
[34:46] but it does lead eventually
to the true practice of religion
[34:53] after you've had enough
incarnations of suffering.
[34:59] So, it's a perfect plan.
[35:02] Nobody can escape.
[35:06] But for those who conceive of God
as ever-new bliss,
[35:15] the most effective way
that God responds is providing
[35:21] a religious path
that gives a way to ever-new joy.
[35:28] And this is the path of pranayama
meditation, as I explained before.
[35:34] And our Guru explains,
“By the proper and intense practice
[35:39] of Spirit-and-soul-uniting technique,”
that's pranayama,
[35:45] “the yogi attains mastery
and ultimate liberation
[35:49] in a relatively short time.”
[35:53] In other words,
[35:55] you don't have to stick around
for another thousand incarnations.
[35:59] “Relatively short!”
[36:02] Our Guru explains in many
other places, that's this life.
[36:09] It may seem like it’s a long time in this
life that it takes me to get there, but
[36:15] he says in this life it's possible.
[36:18] He says, “The yogi knows that
here and now,
[36:21] even while he is still
incarnate on earth,
[36:26] he can be successful
in attaining Self-realization
[36:31] by proper actions
of yoga practice.”
[36:36] You don't have to wait to die
to get there.
[36:42] But going back to Kabir now.
[36:46] To me, the most significant
aspect of Kabir's life,
[36:52] it's also mentioned there in our Guru's
“Autobiography of a Yogi.”
[36:58] But this is the point,
that Kabir received Kriya.
[37:04] He received the Kriya technique
from Babaji.
[37:09] Babaji gave the Kriya technique
to Lahiri Mahasaya
[37:18] and that's how
this whole path started.
[37:20] But Babaji didn't limit himself.
[37:28] He also gave the technique
to Shankara,
[37:32] who lived way before Kabir.
[37:35] But Kabir, he alludes
to the results of Kriya
[37:39] in one of his poems where he says,
“I have stilled my restless mind,
[37:45] and my heart is radiant.”
[37:50] You cannot still the restless mind
[37:55] just by believing in something.
[37:57] The mind's going to keep going on
and on and on and on.
[38:01] You still the restless mind
by pranayama.
[38:05] And this is also the foundation
for Kabir's understanding
[38:11] of the true path to God, which is not
through external rites and ceremonies,
[38:17] but metaphysically through
scientific Yoga meditation.
[38:26] And, of course, the high point
in my trip
[38:29] this last time was an opportunity
to go to Babaji's Cave, which is
[38:36] near Dwarahat in the
Himalayan foothills.
[38:41] And it's this cave where Lahiri Mahasaya
received the Kriya technique
[38:47] from the deathless master Babaji.
[38:51] And Babaji, in 1861 he
[38:57] gave the technique to Lahiri Mahasaya
and said, “Now is the time
[39:04] to go and teach this technique.”
[39:07] He didn't say that to Kabir
that I know of,
[39:11] but he did say it
to Lahiri Mahasaya.
[39:17] And that's where this teaching
[39:20] all began in this particular age.
[39:23] And the cave itself was a
wonderful place to meditate in,
[39:28] but I also had a
wonderful meditation in
[39:32] the bhavan there, which is
a little rustic meditation hall.
[39:37] It's about 100 yards down
the mountain from the cave itself.
[39:44] But what struck me there in this
bhavan, in this little meditation hall,
[39:50] there's a poster
[39:52] with a picture of Mrinalini Mata
and the words —
[39:55] Mrinalini Ma was, of course,
one of our recent presidents.
[40:02] She's now passed on, but
[40:04] it was these words that are
on the poster of hers
[40:08] that impressed me so much
I made a recording
[40:11] where she says: “Babaji foresaw
that the time was coming
[40:17] when this world must give up
its divisiveness,
[40:22] its sectarian hatreds,
its secularism —
[40:27] that along with the advance of
scientific knowledge and technology
[40:31] in this upwardly evolving era,
[40:35] humankind must
either learn to live together
[40:42] or it will destroy itself.
[40:47] By the sending of Kriya Yoga
to the West,
[40:50] the very essence of Truth —
[40:54] which has always been
nurtured and protected
[40:56] in this spiritual motherland
of India — ”
[40:59] this very essence of truth
“would eventually spread
[41:04] like a great light
over the whole world,
[41:09] gradually bringing peace,
understanding, unity,
[41:13] harmony, and brotherhood.”
[41:19] And so those who are, right here,
[41:24] practicing these techniques,
[41:31] you are very much part of
[41:36] this mission of spreading the light
[41:39] over the world that brings
understanding, harmony,
[41:45] unity, and brotherhood.
[41:49] So Lahiri Mahasaya,
[41:54] he lived about 350 years
after Kabir,
[42:00] and he brought the teachings
of Kriya to many disciples
[42:06] as well as Swami Sri Yukteswar,
who then
[42:12] taught it to his disciple,
Paramahansa Yogananda.
[42:19] And Paramahansaji then brought this
technique, this whole teaching
[42:26] to the West as a new dispensation.
[42:31] And I say new dispensation because
[42:34] Self-Realization Fellowship
is devoid
[42:37] of so many of the outer
religious devotional practices
[42:43] that we find in the East
and in the West.
[42:49] We have some,
[42:51] such as we pranam
when we sit down.
[42:56] We have our commemoration services,
but there is so much
[43:00] that we don't have which —
[43:03] these devotional practices
of other religions,
[43:06] they're real; the experiences
generated by those beliefs,
[43:13] they're very real, and this has
[43:17] held generations of followers,
both Christians,
[43:21] Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists,
Jains, many other religions.
[43:26] They have strong beliefs
[43:30] in their religious practices,
and performing those
[43:36] gives them reassurance
[43:39] of the validity of the belief.
[43:43] But, as deep as those
devotional practices may be,
[43:49] which involve, you know,
chanting, imaging,
[43:55] pilgrimages, rites, hymns, ceremonies,
prayer wheels, scriptures —
[44:03] they're not enough to give ultimate
liberation into cosmic consciousness.
[44:10] Because what this requires
[44:14] is refinements in the brain,
[44:18] refinements in our consciousness
[44:21] that are brought about only
[44:23] through a technique
such as Kriya Yoga —
[44:29] very, very difficult to
make this change
[44:33] in the cellular structure of our brain
and in the consciousness
[44:39] through external practices alone.
[44:42] And this is why,
[44:44] Paramahansaji explains, Lahiri Mahasaya
gave the sacred pranayama
[44:49] or Kriya Yoga technique
to the world again.
[44:52] Practice of this technique enables
man to gain control over
[44:59] his inner life forces
[45:01] and thus realize his oneness with
the Cosmic Life Force.
[45:08] Of all the ways of reaching Him,
pranayama is the quickest
[45:12] and most holy.
[45:19] But devotion is a necessary part
of this path
[45:26] of Self-realization as well.
[45:29] It's part of Raja Yoga,
[45:32] and Brother Anandamoy —
[45:35] many of us will remember he often
quoted Paramahansaji as saying,
[45:40] “Kriya Yoga plus devotion —
it works like mathematics;
[45:46] it cannot fail.”
[45:50] And, of course, within the body of
our Self-Realization teachings
[45:55] there's plenty of devotional
practices that
[45:59] fulfill this need, as it were.
[46:04] “In whatever way people are
devoted to Me, in that measure
[46:08] I manifest to them.”
[46:15] Our Guru gives us that vision.
[46:18] Kabir also
[46:22] gave us the vision
of cosmic consciousness.
[46:26] See, the problem —
[46:28] how many of us can explain
what cosmic consciousness is?
[46:34] I mean, I can read you stuff, but
[46:39] cosmic consciousness, it's
beyond our comprehension.
[46:43] And yet the Masters,
[46:45] they explain what it is
through metaphor and poetry.
[46:52] And Kabir put it this way:
he said, “In the beginning” —
[46:57] he said, “From the beginning
until the end of time,
[47:02] there is love between
Thee and me,
[47:07] and how shall such love
be extinguished?"
[47:13] Kabir says, "As the river
enters into the ocean,
[47:18] so my heart touches Thee.”
[47:23] Just close your eyes and
visualize the river
[47:28] flowing into the ocean,
[47:32] the river of your love
flowing into the ocean of God,
[47:40] your heart touching
the heart of God this way.
[47:50] And so it is that through the blessings
of the Great Ones
[47:55] — through Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya,
Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansaji —
[48:01] this path has been made
crystal clear.
[48:06] And no, it's not been made easy.
[48:10] Sorry, I can't help you with that,
[48:15] but
[48:17] the steady, correct application
of these techniques of pranayama
[48:23] in our daily meditations,
[48:26] coupled with the opening
of the heart's devotion
[48:30] in whatever way we feel
God is alive to us,
[48:36] this assuredly brings about
this highest goal.
[48:43] And so the one last point
I want to leave you with is
[48:48] the necessary blessing of the Guru
[48:54] as a part of this process.
[48:56] You cannot remove the Guru
from the formula.
[49:02] The Guru smooths the way
for the devotee.
[49:06] The Guru guards the devotee.
[49:09] The Guru imparts a vision of the goal.
[49:11] He gives the means
to fulfill that goal
[49:15] and also the inner assistance
[49:19] to every devotee according to
his or her individual needs
[49:25] to make that practice effective.
[49:29] Our Guru said:
[49:32] “The true guru is one
who can change
[49:37] the disciple’s brain cells
[49:40] by the spiritual current
flowing from God
[49:44] through his enlightened
consciousness.
[49:48] All will feel that change
who are in tune —
[49:51] who meditate sincerely
and deeply and,
[49:54] as in the practice of Kriya Yoga,
[49:58] learn to send the divine current
into the brain cells.”
[50:06] So this is what
the Guru does for us.
[50:09] And I want to just close
with these words
[50:13] of Kabir in his tribute
to the Guru:
[50:21] “It is the mercy of my true Guru
[50:25] that has made me
to know the unknown;
[50:30] I have learned from Him
how to walk without feet,
[50:34] to see without eyes,
[50:38] to hear without ears,
[50:40] to drink without mouth,
[50:44] to fly without wings;
[50:49] I have brought my love and
my meditation into the land
[50:54] where there is no sun and moon,
nor day and night.
[51:00] Without eating,
[51:02] I have tasted
the sweetness of nectar;
[51:05] and without water,
I have quenched my thirst.
[51:11] Where there is
the response of delight,
[51:15] there is the fulness of joy.
[51:20] Before whom can that joy
be uttered?"
[51:26] Kabir says, "The guru
is great beyond words,
[51:30] and great is the good fortune
of the disciple.”
[51:36] And now let us please rise
for our healing service.
[51:50] Let us pray: Heavenly Father,
[51:53] Thou art omnipresent;
[51:55] Thou art in me;
[51:58] Thou art in all Thy children.
[52:01] Manifest Thy healing presence
[52:05] in our bodies,
[52:07] in our minds,
[52:10] and in our souls.
[52:14] And now let us raise our arms
and chant Aum,
[52:17] sending forth vibrations of healing
for the body;
[52:30] for healing the mind;
[52:41] for healing the disease
of soul ignorance;
[52:51] and once more, sending forth vibrations
of peace, love, hope, and harmony
[52:57] to all the world.
[53:09] And now let us pray:
Heavenly Father,
[53:12] Mother,
[53:14] Friend,
[53:15] Beloved God,
[53:17] our Great Gurus,
[53:20] all saints,
[53:23] we bow to you all.
[53:26] O Heavenly Father,
[53:28] as Thou art
[53:30] all things to all people,
[53:34] teach me
[53:36] to find Thy presence
[53:39] right within myself
[53:42] in the ever-new,
[53:45] ever-conscious
[53:47] bliss of God.
[53:52] Aum.
[53:56] Peace.
[53:58] Amen.
[54:08] May God and Guru bless us all.
