Week 16: T0 Each According to his Faith
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 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.
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!
Excerpted from Week 16 To Each According to his Faith
May the Showers of Thy Love Flood Through the Walls of Color, Class and Race-Prejudice
By Paramhansa Yogananda
From the Book Whispers From Eternity
The kingdom of my mind is cluttered with the trash of delusion. Pour down showers of Thy power, that my capital city, Discrimination, be no longer mud‐strewn due to spiritual carelessness. Send streams of mercy inundating and washing away the filth of ignorance within myself. Let the down-pouring of Thy love cleanse dirty streets of race, color, and class prejudice. Bathe my untidy children of lingering prejudice in the waters of Thy wisdom.
Cover every dark path of my life with rose‐carpets of Thy love. Inhaling Thy fragrance, and treading softly on a cushion of blossoms, I will run with hastening footsteps to Thy palace of perfection.
What inspired me from this week’s reading from the Rays of One Light was…
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.
The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita
(6:47) He who, full of faith and love, becomes fully absorbed in Me, I regard as best attuned to My path to perfection.
What is that path? It is the balanced, moderate path explained thus far in the Bhagavad Gita.
Krishna emphasizes faith not as blind belief, but as the certainty born of complete intuitive understanding and acceptance. He emphasizes love because, without devotional love, the seeker cannot (as Swami Sri Yukteswar put it) set one foot before the other on the path to God.
From the book The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita By Swami Kriyananda
Having faith and trusting my intuition...I was guided to share the whole twelfth Chapter from the Bhagavad Gita…
ARJUNA
Lord! of the men who serve Thee--true in heart--
As God revealed; and of the men who serve,
Worshipping Thee Unrevealed, Unbodied, Far,
Which take the better way of faith and life?
KRISHNA
Whoever serve Me-as I show Myself--
Constantly true, in full devotion fixed,
Those hold I very holy. But who serve--
Worshipping Me The One, The Invisible,
The Unrevealed, Unnamed, Unthinkable,
Uttermost, All-pervading, Highest, Sure--
Who thus adore Me, mastering their sense,
Of one set mind to all, glad in all good,
These blessed souls come unto Me.
Yet, hard
The travail is for such as bend their minds
To reach th' Unmanifest That viewless path
Shall scarce be trod by man bearing the flesh!
But whereso any doeth all his deeds
Renouncing self for Me, full of Me, fixed
To serve only the Highest, night and day
Musing on Me--him will I swiftly lift
Forth from life's ocean of distress and death,
Whose soul clings fast to Me. 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, worshipping 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! find
Refuge in Me! let fruits of labour go,
Renouncing hope for Me, with lowliest heart,
So shalt thou come; for, though to know is more
Than diligence, yet worship better is
Than knowing, and renouncing better still.
Near to renunciation--very near--
Dwelleth Eternal Peace!
Who hateth nought
Of all which lives, living himself benign,
Compassionate, from arrogance exempt,
Exempt from love of self, unchangeable
By good or ill; patient, contented, firm
In faith, mastering himself, true to his word,
Seeking Me, heart and soul; vowed unto Me,--
That man I love! Who troubleth not his kind,
And is not troubled by them; clear of wrath,
Living too high for gladness, grief, or fear,
That man I love! Who, dwelling quiet-eyed,
Stainless, serene, well-balanced, unperplexed,
Working with Me, yet from all works detached,
That man I love! Who, fixed in faith on Me,
Dotes upon none, scorns none; rejoices not,
And grieves not, letting good or evil hap
Light when it will, and when it will depart,
That man I love! Who, unto friend and foe
Keeping an equal heart, with equal mind
Bears shame and glory; with an equal peace
Takes heat and cold, pleasure and pain; abides
Quit of desires, hears praise or calumny
In passionless restraint, unmoved by each;
Linked by no ties to earth, steadfast in Me,
That man I love! But most of all I love
Those happy ones to whom 'tis life to live
In single fervid faith and love unseeing,
Drinking the blessed Amrit of my Being!
Seeking God is not a Selfish Thing it is Generous, it is the Most Important Thing of all
I was touched by a talk by Swami Kriyananda on “What is a true Friend?” Inspiration From the Bhagavad Gita.
And I thought I would share it with you all today…I transcribed some of his words that resonated with me from the talk…
When one member of the family becomes a monk it lifts the whole family… and those people who oppose by their relatives for becoming monks or nuns, for giving there lives to god. If those relatives understood they themselves will be greatly blessed…
If you do have a tie with them, even if it’s a blood tie and that tie is karmic and it will help them
If you even become dedicated to God, if you become a sincere devotee, even if you don’t seem to be entering into family affairs you will be helping to uplift them…
Seeking God is not a selfish thing it is generous, it is the most important thing of all
Be a friend to yourself
What is a True Friend?” Inspiration From the Bhagavad Gita With Swami Kriyananda
Chapter 6 Stanza 5
Let man uplift himself by his own effort, and let him not debase himself. Indeed,
one’s self is his own greatest friend—or (if he so chooses) his own greatest enemy.
You Remain Our Friend
Lyrics
When we need You, You descend, Seeking grieving hearts to mend. By hate unaffected, You remain our Friend. On a cross rejected, Doomed to meet a shameful end, Still, with love perfected, You remain our Friend.
Choir
Long we feared to face Your love, Lest our emptiness it prove. Now at last our hearts we give You, Who remain our Friend.
Composed by Swami Kriyananda, performed by the Ananda World brotherhood Choir in Palo Alto, 2008
When I First Started my Conscious Search for God
I Never Knew what Would Unfold for me
When I first started my conscious search for God I never knew what would unfold for me. All I knew is that I had to be the one to help change my family karma, I never knew what it would involve, but I never thought that by choosing the path of God, the path less travelled…that it would mean, that they would not be a part of my journey too…
If I am honest it has been a lonely path and there are times when I think about my family and friends and what they must think of me for choosing the path of God and taking my vocation, my call to be a minister seriously.
Sometimes it brings a great deal of upset but I wouldn’t change anything for the world and I trust all things happen in God's natural timing…
Listening to Swami Kriyananda say that choosing God is not a selfish thing it is a generous thing to do… and when we chose to put god first.. it helps to uplift our family's karmic ties. Has helped ease my guilt greatly...because for the past year with Mary Kretzmann in our healing prayers together we have been dedicating a space so that we can pray for our families 7 generations backwards and forwards. Where I have experienced beyond words and have been shown that Divine Mother is healing my family's karmic ties.
Which I am very grateful for… The chant that comes to me to read by Paramhansa Yogananda is I will be Thine Always
I Will be Thine Always by Paramhansa Yogananda
My Lord, I will be Thine always,
My Lord, I will be Thine always;
I may go far, farther than the stars;
I may go far, farther than the stars;
But I will be Thine always,
My Lord, I will be Thine always.
Devotees may come, devotees may go;
Devotees may come, devotees may go;
But I will be Thine always,
My Lord, I will be Thine always.
When I die, look into mine eyes;
When I die, look into mine eyes;
They will mutely say, I will be Thine always
My Lord, I will be Thine always.
Let’s take the chant I Will be Thine Always into our Silent Meditation Together…
Completion
Never be afraid of trusting yourself… And becoming your own best friend, we have one life… And when God or Divine Mother calls us they will call. And do, we must…
We must have the faith and the courage to put all our love into loving God first… And if you struggle with loving God first, love yourself before any other. Not from an egoic perspective but from a place of health and well-being and that you deserve more in this lifetime
Divine Mother will call us in many ways… Having full faith and putting all your love and devotion into God is not selfish it is the most loving thing we could ever do for ourselves and our family…