Week 15: (Easter) Resurrection For Every Soul
Our Affirmation For April
Stanza 4:
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Matthew 5:5
Blessed are they who seek attunement with Truth.
They alone, of all human beings, shall find lasting fulfillment.
Swami Kriyananda
From the book
The Beatitudes: Their Inner Meaning by Swami Kriyananda
Rays of One Light: Weekly Commentaries on the
Bible and The Bhagavad Gita
by Swami Kriyananda
In the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 20, we read the inspiring account of Jesus’ resurrection:
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord! . . .
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in their midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
the Bhagavad Gita, in the ninth Chapter, tells us:
Ah! ye who into this ill world are come— fleeting and false—set your faith fast on Me! Fix heart and thought on Me! Adore Me! Bring Offerings to Me!
Make Me prostrations! Make Me your supremest joy! and, undivided, unto Myrest your spirits shall be guided.
Excerpted from Week 15 Resurrection For Every Soul
Teach me to use Every dig of Criticism to Bring Myself Nearer to Thy Fountain of Goodness in me
By Paramhansa Yogananda
From the Book Whispers From Eternity
Teach me to sport every scar of trials as a medal of Thy chastisement, dusky at first but now shining. Thy sacred hands were the giver, working through Thy ever-just law. Let therefore every teardrop of sorrow caused by the actions of others wash away some hidden taint in my mind.
Let every stroke of the pickaxe of wounding experience dig deeper and deeper into the soil of my understanding. Let every hurtful strike of circumstance into the soil of my comfort bring me nearer to the bubbling well of Thy solace in my heart. Let every gash of others’ hatred bring forth from me a loving cry for Thy love. Let all my trials be antidotes for bitterness, to bring healing solace to my soul. Let others’ unkindness inspire me to be more beautifully kind. Let their darkness not blind me, too, but stimulate me to seek Thy light. Let their harsh words remind me to use sweet words always. And let every bruise from stones of evil that are hurled at me intensify my inner fortitude, that I bless all with my goodness.
Inspire me to be like a jasmine vine, which sheds flowers on those who administer axe-blows to its roots. May I never fail to shower blossoms of help and forgiveness on all who try to cut me with their wickedness.
What inspired me from this week’s reading from the Rays of One Light was…
Resurrection, Yogananda explained, means transformation, ultimately, from any lower state of being to a higher one. Worldly consciousness cannot imagine such transformation except in terms of, perhaps, an improvement of the present mess of potage with the addition of a new flavoring. Divine consciousness, however, is capable of taking the base metal of worldliness and transforming it into the spiritual gold of divine wisdom and love.
What Does Resurrection Mean ?
I thought I would share with you all today some excerpts from the East vs West Magazine by Paramhansa Yogananda looking further into the meaning of what resurrection means
Resurrection—what is its meaning? It is life! To rise again! To rise to life! To rise—what and how? We must understand that resurrection means to live again. Every thing is undergoing a process of change. Then changes are either detrimental to the object which changes or are beneficial to it. For example, if I take this glass and strike it on the floor it would be changed, would it not? It would not be a beneficial change; it would be harmful to this object. But if I polish it up and make it shine, and clean it from bacteria, then that change is beneficial. Resurrection means any beneficial change that happens to an object or to a human being.
Resurrection means to resurrect the soul from the cage of ignorance; to lift it, to release the soul from the bondage of human life. Human life may be very beautiful, but it is just like a bird of paradise in a cage. You open the bird’s cage but due to love it may stay in—it does not want to fly away; but is that not a pity not to want to go out into the open from whence it came? It is afraid—and we, in meditation, say, "I am slipping—will I slip into the Infinite and never come back?" We are afraid of the skies. We have lived too long identified with the body. That is why we are afraid of our own infinite omnipresence—afraid to resurrect our omnipotence—afraid to resurrect our omniscience.
Resurrect Your Soul From the Hypnosis of bad Habits in Eating.
Resurrect your soul from the hypnosis of bad habits in eating. You must do lots of resurrecting in order to get to God. Not only right eating but moderation in all things and sunlight and exercise are just as important.
Then comes the question of resurrecting yourself from the consciousness of disease. That is more important than even meditating or trying to seek a remedy when you are sick. According to experiments of German scientists, many people are better because they do not analyze themselves or suffer from mental discouragement.
There is a close relation between the mind and the body, and destroying the consciousness of disease is important. Many times diseases have left us and our consciousness of disease brings them back again.
Meditation is the Greatest way of Resurrecting Your Soul From the Bondage of Body and all Your Trials…
Resurrect your soul from the dreams of frailties. Resurrect your soul in eternal wisdom. What is the method? Relaxation! Self-control; right diet; right fortitude; undaunted attitude of the mind. Refuse to be defeated. Don’t acknowledge defeat. To acknowledge defeat is greater defeat. You have unlimited power—you must cultivate that power, that is all.
Meditation is the greatest way of resurrecting your soul from the bondage of body and all your trials. Meditation! Meditate at the feet of the Infinite. Learn to saturate yourself with Him. Your trials may be heavy, may be great, but the greatest enemy of yourself is yourself! You are immortal, your trials are mortal; they are changeable, you are unchangeable. You can unleash the eternal powers and shatter your trials.
A Happy Easter Message by Swami Kriyananda
“Easter is a reminder, once a year – more than New Year, when you make resolutions which most people break within a few hours – to tell yourself: ‘As Christ resurrected himself, I want to resurrect myself.
Whatever I have been, whatever faults I have had, whatever attachments I have had, whatever I have done wrong in my life, that belongs to the past.’ Make this your affirmation during this Easter Sunday: ‘From now on I am going to be a saint.’”
The Divine Mother — Song by Swami Kriyananda
"The Divine Mother" is the last song that Swami Kriyananda wrote. The melody is from an opera by Bizet called The Pearl Fishers. Swami Kriyananda loved the duet "Au fond du temple saint" and put devotional lyrics to it. The video was recorded in the beautiful chapel inside Bastyr University in Kenmore, Washington.
Lyrics
Yes, it’s She, The Divine Mother,
She Who made the universe!
Yes, it’s She, The Divine Mother, Ruler of ev’ry heart’s desire!
Love more ancient, Bliss eternal,
May our hearts soon be merged in Thee!
A Guided Meditation with Jesus Christ
Now that we are in the Spirit of Resurrection let’s Prepare Ourselves for a Self Healing Meditation
called “A Guided Meditation with Jesus Christ” that intuitively came to me…
Concentrate on the centre of your heart for a while
And now concentrate at the point between the eyebrows
Let’s take a few moments just to visualize Jesus Christ
Seeing him as a normal person standing before you
Now see his enemies come towards him and nail him to the cross
Watch the flow of your thoughts and feelings
And let your stream of consciousness become ever finer
In the truth of you being
Take a moment and look into Jesus’s eyes on the cross
See Jesus's water running from his eyes and reach out to his enemies
In empathy and sympathy
Now see Jesus having compassion for his enemies
Nourishing them with his Divine Love
Now see Jesus look into your eyes
Nourishing you with his Divine Love
Watch the flow of your thoughts and feelings
As you flow with the freedom of perfect self giving
To merge with the ocean of infinite Divine Love of Jesus Christ
Let’s Meditate in Silence For a While…
Ananda Music
By Swami Kriyananda
Completion
As we see can through the writings of Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Kriyananda they both share and teach us in a simple way of how we can use resurrection in our lives…
Looking at ourselves and our lives to see what needs to be changed…is not always an easy path to take…
Jesus followed his father’s will and suffered greatly for it but he never let that stop him from helping and healing others, he even loved the people who created his suffering…
Jesus shows us from his example and his love how we can rise again and again from this world of Maya “delusion”…
The words from a song by Swami Kriyananda called Saint Teresa of Avila’s Admonition comes to my mind….
Let nothing disturb you,
Nothing affright you,
All things will pass, but God changes not.
Patient endurance
Brings you to vict’ry.
Once you have God, you’ll want nothing more.
God alone! God alone!
God alone’s all we ever need.
God alone! God alone!
God alone’s all we ever need.
Let the rest of this week be a blessing to you all, whether you believe in Easter or in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Our egos, our bodies, our habits, and our souls need resurrecting. We have to be the ones for our future, for our children, their children’s children, our families, our friends, for our world, our planet, and Divine Mothers Creation, to want to make the necessary changes…
Let our affirmation for this week be
I will rise again and again for you Jesus Christ...You are all we need…
Let’s us all rise, resurrect ourselves and empower ourselves today.
Aum Peace Amen
Blessings and Love
Rev Dinah Pemberton
P.S Here is a link to a Performance by the Ananda Village Choir
on Good Friday 2023 which I attended live online