Week 23: Why do Devotees Fall?
Our Affirmation For June
Stanza 6:
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are they whose self-offering to God is effortless and complete, secure in the knowledge that all other desires are foreign to the soul.
In the purity of their knowing, they shall see God.
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
“Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?”
This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and kept the purse, and bare what was put therein.
Then said Jesus, “Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you: but me ye have not always.”
In the second Chapter, Sri Krishna states:
If one ponders on sense objects, there springs up attraction to them. From attraction grows desire. Desire, impatient for fulfillment, flames to anger.
From anger there arises infatuation (the delusion that one object alone is worth clinging to, to the exclusion of all others). From infatuation ensues forgetfulness of the higher Self.
From forgetfulness of the Self follows degeneration of the discriminative faculty. And when discrimination is lost, there follows the annihilation of one’s spiritual life.
Excerpted From Week 23 Why do Devotees Fall?
94. Demand for Freeing the Mind from Mental Bacteria
By Paramhansa Yogananda
From the Book Whispers From Eternity
O Father, Thou art in my mind:
I am clear and pure! O Father,
Thou art my strength;
Thou art my power—
I am all Thy strength and power.
I am whole!
What inspired me from this week’s reading from the Rays of One Light was…
The Bhagavad Gita gives a graphic explanation of how easily the mind can be drawn downward, once it begins to feed on wrong attitudes. In the second Chapter, Sri Krishna states:
If one ponders on sense objects, there springs up attraction to them. From attraction grows desire. Desire, impatient for fulfillment, flames to anger. From anger there arises infatuation (the delusion that one object alone is worth clinging to, to the exclusion of all others). From infatuation ensues forgetfulness of the higher Self. From forgetfulness of the Self follows degeneration of the discriminative faculty. And when discrimination is lost, there follows the annihilation of one’s spiritual life.
This week I thought we would ponder over these words and think about how it applies into our lives. Then we will take the chant, Hare Krishna! into our meditation together to honour and thank Krishna for his words of pearls and wisdom.
Hare Krishna! by Swami Kriyanada
Lyrics
Hare, hare Krishna, ha-re, ha-re! Hare, hare Krishna, ha-re, ha-re!
Hare, hare Krishna, ha-re, ha-re! Hare, hare Krishna, ha-re, ha-re!
Hare, hare Rama, ha-re, ha-re! Hare, hare Rama, ha-re, ha-re!
Hare, hare Rama, ha-re, ha-re! Hare, hare Rama, ha-re, ha-re!
Hare, hare Guru, ha-re, ha-re! Hare, hare Guru, ha-re, ha-re!
Hare, hare Guru, ha-re, ha-re! Hare, hare Guru, ha-re, ha-re!