Letters from Asha

Ask Asha: Who Is in Charge of My Destiny?

2012-05-24T16:54:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

I am wondering how karma between people is carried on from lifetime to lifetime. For example, if one person has a strong attachment to another person -- perhaps a dying wife’s attachment to the husband she is leaving behind, or a dying mother to her son -- but the other person does not have the same feeling of attraction or attachment, can the attached person force his desires on the unattached one? Could my karma be determined by someone else’s strong desires? Could someone else’s will overcome my own will?

From RK

Answer

Dear RK:

The first thing you need to understand is that karma is always fair. Karma is a law, not a variable human opinion. It is the impersonal working of cause and effect in human life. Because most people don’t remember their past lives -- or even many parts of their present life -- or understand clearly their own motivations -- then or now -- fairness is not always self-evident or easy to accept.

It takes deep philosophical discernment to understand how, against all apparent evidence, karmic law is fair.

The modern tendency to see one’s self as a victim is, spiritually speaking, disastrous. Until you take responsibility for your own destiny, spiritual progress is impossible.

One important thing to understand, is that the lesson is not always to turn the other cheek, to be subservient in the face of abuse, or to think you are being punished and deserve what is happening to you. Not at all! Many times the lessons is to stand up for yourself, to have the courage to cast someone unworthy out of your life, or refuse to cooperate with inappropriate demands made of you by others.

Whatever it might be, there is always a lesson or you would not have drawn the experience. Even those who have had to face exceedingly difficult circumstances, often say, “It was not easy, but it made me who I am. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Karma, reincarnation, and the chakras are all one integrated system. None can be understood without the others.

Every thought, deed, response, emotion, or desire we have reflects the level of consciousness we are on at the moment that it happens. We act according to what we perceive as reality and in what we believe to be our own best interest.

Every act reflects an inner prompting toward happiness, ultimately toward bliss. Even if our responses are entirely misguided, it always, to us, seems like a good idea at the time. Otherwise we wouldn’t do it.

If someone treats you meanly and you respond with anger or carry out a cruel revenge, some part of you believes that anger and revenge is the way to happiness. This reflects a certain understanding of reality.

If your response to betrayal is compassion for that person’s ignorance, concern for the karmic consequences to him of his misguided behavior, and forgiveness for any hurt done to you personally, that reflects an entirely different perception of reality.

Jesus when crucified on the cross, instead of looking with anger at those who had so wrongly condemned him, prayed for their wellbeing. “Father, forgive them,” Jesus said, “for they know not what they do.” Spontaneous concern for the welfare of others, and forgetfulness of himself, expressed a God-united understanding of reality.

Eventually all of us will achieve that level of consciousness. In the meantime, we express who we are now.

Every level of reality has its own vibration. The chakras represent -- from the base of the spine to the spiritual eye -- a gradually ascending refinement of vibration -- from material to spiritual, from self-affirming to Self-realized. This is an oversimplification, but sufficient for this discussion.

Even though our human mind quickly forgets what we have done in the past, the energy that passes through us does not dissipate. Everything we do is recorded as a vibration in our chakras. These vrittis as they are called -- whirlpools of energy -- are stored in whatever chakra corresponds to the level of reality it stemmed from.

The chakras are part of the astral body. The physical body is a manifestation of the chakras, but when the physical body dies, the chakras remain intact, and move with the astral body into the astral world. The pattern of energy in the chakras determines what astral universe we are drawn to, and, eventually, the nature of our next incarnation.

Modern science confirms what great yogis have long asserted: matter is an illusion; everything in this universe is a manifestation of energy. The implication of this, which is just beginning to dawn on people, is that magnetism acting upon the energy nature of the universe is far more powerful than brute force.

The vrittis in the chakras generate magnetism and that magnetism -- acting upon the energy field which is the universe -- is the cause of everything that happens to us. That magnetism is the means by which karma is carried from one incarnation to the next.

Magnetism is not a matter of opinion or favoritism or whim or even the will of God considered as something entirely separate from ourselves. It is an impersonal fact. It is our karma, the accumulated result of everything we ourselves have done.

So, to your specific question.

The energy in the vrittis is only a vibration of energy at a certain level of reality. That reality could be described, for example, as the belief that security comes from having a certain amount of money. There is no vritti, however, called “money.” Money is a specific thing, and there are no material things in the chakras. The belief, however, and energy expended on the basis of that belief is recorded in the appropriate chakra as a vibration.

If the dying wife feels that her wellbeing is dependent upon having this specific man as her husband in a future life, the vibration of specific, personal, ego-based love is recorded in her chakras. Even if her love has been selfless, it is still ego-based because it is limited to one specific expression.

Yes, we do have repeating relationships with certain souls over many incarnations and love deepens and refines through repeated association. Still, even the most exquisite human love is only a stepping-stone to infinite love. We have close relationships with so many souls, from the perspective of one lifetime we literally cannot imagine how many.

Whether or not this wife will again find this husband, depends not only on the pattern in her chakras, but also on the pattern in his.

If he longs for her company in the way she longs for his that could draw them together. If he despises her, that could draw them together. If he fears being close to her again, that could draw them together. If he feels sorry for her, and worries about her wellbeing, if he lacks faith that God will take care of her and feels it is all up to him, that could draw them together.

In other words, there has to be some karmic lesson still to be learned from relating to her in order for them to be together again.

Overcoming a too-personal definition of love may be the very lesson that dying wife needs to learn. If the husband has already learned it -- loving his wife not only for herself but also as a manifestation of God -- he may not need to marry her, or perhaps anyone, ever again. Whereas she may have to live through who knows how many more cycles of personal love before she learns that it is love Itself that she craves, not any particular expression of it.

There is nothing wrong in this. We learn by experience. Karma draws the experiences we need, and, if we act with conscious attunement, we will learn from them. The more attuned we are, the more quickly we learn. The more we rebel against karmic law, the longer it takes and the more we suffer.

In the meantime, can one soul force karma onto another? No. Karma is always fair. There has to be a corresponding resonance for the two souls to be drawn together or for the conditions to manifest.

In the case of that husband and wife, if she has lessons to learn, but he has already learned whatever lessons that relationship has to teach him, her magnetism will find no corresponding resonance in him to draw them together, no matter how deeply she wants him.

Perhaps he will have transcended so completely that they will not meet at all. Perhaps she will find him, but he will not be compelled to give his life to her in the way she wants. Whatever karmic lessons remain for her, she will still learn them, but with someone else, not him.

Can the resonance be subtle? Definitely. Therefore honest introspection, prayer and self-offering to God is essential.

This is where Kriya Yoga comes in, as explained in Autobiography of a Yogi. Kriya works directly to dissolve the vrittis in the chakras. Dissolve the vritti and you dissolve the karma. You can get rid of it without having to live through it. That is why Kriya dramatically accelerates spiritual progress.

As you can see, this is an enormously complicated subject and I have only touched here on a few aspects of it. From Ananda you can find many books and other resources on the subject. Over the years I have written other letters and given many classes about this you may find interesting. They are available for free online.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Facing Your Fears

2012-05-17T09:31:00.001-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

I have often heard people say you have to “face your fears.” What does that mean and how do you do it? Fears plague me enough as it is. Why would I go out looking for them?

From S.

Answer

Dear S.:

In Autobiography of a Yogi, when Master asks Sri Yukteswar to tell him stories from his boyhood, Yukteswar tells only a few, each with a moral.

“My mother once tried to frighten me, with an appalling story about a ghost in a dark chamber,” Sri Yukteswar said. “I went there immediately and expressed my disappointment at having missed the ghost. Mother never told me another horror tale. Moral: Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.”

Sri Yukteswar included this in the handful of stories he told because fear is something that plagues most people. You are not alone.

Unfortunately, most of us lack the courage and clarity to do as Yukteswar advises. As a result, our lives are often ruled by forces we can’t name, and, in many cases don’t even know are there.

When I was eighteen years old, just before I was given my first book of spiritual teachings, I looked at the world around me -- the college campus where I was a freshman -- and came to the conclusion that the only entirely negative emotion was fear. I couldn’t see anything beneficial about it.

Whether or not that insight was true, it was a useful truth for me at the time. I was strongly influenced by fear, although startling less so than many of my classmates.

Just a few months later, I was given a book by Swami Vivekananda. It included, among other life-changing ideas, the statement, “Love casts out fear.” It was from the Bible, but I didn’t know it at the time. Since I had already focused on fear as the obstacle to be overcome, I was thrilled to have a method now for doing it.

It took me much longer to understand that it is love of God -- and God’s love for us -- that finally chases all fear away.

Kriya meditation dissolves fear by working directly on the vrittis in the chakras where subconscious tendencies are stored. Those who are tormented by unnamed fears, often come to the spiritual path in the hope that those fears will be dissolved by Kriya. In itself, this is fine. Too often, though, behind that hope is the fear of facing those fears.

“Just give everything to God,” is, for such people, another way of saying, “I’ll do anything but confront the ghost!” The primary ghost is the fear of seeing ourselves as we actually are. We are afraid of being judged unworthy, especially unworthy of God’s love.

This is ironic in the extreme, because God’s love is unconditional. Nothing we do can diminish His love for us. Love God and you will cease to fear His rejection. Receive His love and all your fears dissolve. “If you knew how much God loves you,” a French saint said, “you would die for joy.”

“Love casts out fear.” Meditate on that. It has endless depths of wisdom.

I have noticed over the years that even when the intention is a little off -- “Please, God, I’ll do anything You ask, as long as I don’t have to confront the fear!” -- I have found that Kriya still works. Eventually, we are brought face to face with the closet door, with no alternative but to open it. Sometimes this happens gradually and harmoniously, sometimes through sudden, even dramatic, karmic developments. If the person is sincere in his spiritual aspiration, inevitably it will happen.

This is often a deciding moment on the spiritual path. How much do we trust God and His love for us?

Swami Kriyananda tells us that when Paramhansa Yogananda was living at Mount Washington, many people came to be his disciple, stayed a short time, and then left. Often they justified their departure in terms of what they weren’t getting from Yogananda and what they would get by returning to a worldly life, or going on to another teacher.

In fact, Swamiji said, most of the time people left Yogananda not get away from him but to get away from themselves, or rather the necessity to see themselves clearly. In the presence of Yogananda, everything about each person was revealed. He was a pure light, a flawless mirror. Many people weren’t ready to see themselves that clearly so they moved away from the light.

The first step in facing a fear is to become aware of it -- to have the courage even to admit that it is there. The next step is to transcend it. Yukteswar did it all in one fell swoop. Usually it takes the rest of us a little longer. We have to try and fail and try and fail and try, try, try again. If we don’t give up we will succeed. Light always triumphs over darkness. Love casts out fear.

Merely keeping these fears below the conscious level does not erase them, or diminish their hold over us. Darkness is the natural habitat of fear. Rather than losing strength, the more we try to hide fear from our awareness, the more powerful it becomes. Finally the suffering it causes us is greater than our fear of facing it. That is the karmic moment I refer to above when God puts us in front of the closet and we have no choice but to open it.

I’ve noticed an odd fact about karma. If we have a negative tendency, rather than being born into circumstances that will help eradicate it, often we are born into families and conditions that make it worse. Until it gets so bad, as I have said about my own journey, that even I notice. In God’s infinite mercy, though, that realization seems to come only when our awareness of Him is great enough to give us the wisdom, grace, light, and love to get through it.

This is what Mother Theresa of Calcutta meant when she said, “God never gives us more than we can handle.” I have always enjoyed her further comment, “Sometimes I wish He didn’t trust me so much!”

In other words, we don’t have to go digging about in the darkness. Just do your positive spiritual practices with an open, receptive heart and mind. Not half-heartedly, though, but with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. God will show you what you need at the time you need to know it.

This doesn’t mean I am against psychological counseling. If you are a complete mystery to yourself, you may need the help of an impartial third party -- a counselor or therapist of some kind -- to help you sort out truth from fiction. If you feel this is appropriate for you, seek someone who is solution oriented, who sees therapy as a means to a goal, not an end in itself, who believes in God, preferably in the same way you do, or close enough that his or her guidance will be consistent with the teachings you follow.

If you feel your self-understanding and capacity for self-honesty have reached a functioning threshold, then on-going introspection and self-observation may be enough, perhaps assisted from time to time by meeting with someone whose impersonal wisdom you trust. If you don’t already have such a person in your life, go find one! We all need help!

Pay attention to your reactions to situations and to people, and how people react to you. Be especially attentive to anything that seems out of proportion, or unrelated to the apparent causes. Look for repeating patterns of disharmony, anxiety, resentment, or anger. See what triggers it.

If you know you have a major issue -- anger, for example -- see how it plays out not only in the big situations or relationships, but in all the small ones, too. I’ve noticed that the big disharmonies are almost always supported by a series of small ones. Often the big one is too much to tackle, but we can dismantle it brick by brick rather than trying to knock down the whole structure at once.

For example, if you are furious at the person who raised you, you may notice that anger is a response you have even when “it doesn’t matter,” like when someone cuts you off on the freeway, or fails to wash the dishes. It is all on the same wire and if you begin to snip it anywhere it will weaken it everywhere.

Be interested in what is true. Not in what you have always believed, or wish to be true, but simply what is.

Don’t, however, in the name of self-honesty become self-centered. Another truth I learned from that first spiritual book was, “Don’t think about yourself and you’ll be happy.” At the time, I couldn’t conceive of anything but a self-concerned life! I thought I was being spiritual by worrying all the time about whether I was doing well or badly in my efforts to be good!

I used to think that Self-realization meant perfection of the ego. It is a great trick the ego plays on us. The perfection we seek is impossible as long as we remain identified with the ego. Only when we forget the ego-self in the contemplation of God do we find what we are seeking.

I have a theory which I don’t think is actually valid, but it is a pleasant half-truth that serves me well. Instead of worrying all the time about how my ego-self is doing, I have accepted the fact that my ego-self will always be something of a mess. So just forget about it and love God! Love casts out fear. And when fear is gone, suddenly we know ourselves as we are -- One with the infinite spirit. And whatever little foibles the ego has seem as nothing compared to that enormous truth.

Ask God and Guru to guide you. Pray all the time. Don’t go near that closet door alone! Always take your divine friends with you. And when you put your hand out to open that door, be sure the other hand is gripping Divine Mother’s hand. In the presence of Her love, all fear vanishes.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Karmic Bombs

2012-05-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

I took Kriya a few months ago and it has really boosted my meditation practice. Before I struggled to find time; now there is always time to meditate. Everything was going great until this week when two nuclear size karmic bombs went off that may change the pattern of my life forever. I was doing okay with the first one but the second one took me down. The teachings say I should pray, accept, go with the flow. But I don’t feel like doing any of that. I am sad, angry, negative, and feel I am being punished for something, I don’t even know what. Why would God do this to me? Some people told me before I took Kriya, “Watch out! After Kriya initiation your whole life will fall apart!” I didn’t take that seriously before, but now I wonder.

From T.L.

Answer

Dear T.L.:

The ego sees life in terms of pleasure and ease. A powerful ego can define pleasure in a way a weaker person might not -- physical challenges, for example, the adventure of becoming wealthy, the courage to be a soldier may be a form of pleasure for one ego but not for another. However defined, whatever fits within the ego’s definition of pleasure and ease it calls “good.”

When life moves outside of that definition, as inevitably it will, the ego calls that “bad.” It may be the untimely death of a loved one, betrayal by people we trusted, advancing age, failing health -- the list of things that are not pleasurable and easy is a long one indeed!

From a spiritual perspective, the ego’s idea of good and bad is entirely irrelevant. What matters spiritually is not what happens to us, but what we become through those experiences -- whether we expand our consciousness to embrace a greater reality, or contract in the hope of avoiding suffering by rejecting reality itself.

Think of it the way a human mother responds when her five-year old child is afraid to go to kindergarten. Yes, she is sympathetic, but also unrelenting. She knows there is no future for her child just hiding at home. The child has to find the courage to expand into a greater reality. The mother is firm, she is also supportive, and helps with her love to give the child the confidence to expand.

It is the same with us and our Divine Mother.

It is common on the spiritual path to define God’s love in terms of all the nice things He does for us. We give our prayers, meditation, and donations and in return have a good job, nice house, and a parking place right where we need every time. This kind of “faith” is really nothing more than what a satisfied customer might feel after shopping at a good department store.

Maybe I am trivializing this a bit, but the point is an important one. Being a devotee is not a deal we have made with God. His love for us transcends mere pleasure and ease. What he wants for us, as Paramhansa Yogananda dramatically put it, is “To stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds!”

And that is also what we want for ourselves. Nothing less will satisfy. Even though at first we may cringe when we see the path we have to follow to reach the freedom our hearts crave.

So, no, you are not being punished, but, yes, you are being challenged to embrace a reality greater than the one you were living in before. You had it all neatly arranged and now that picture of pleasure and ease has been shattered, probably forever. Is that “bad” or is that “good”?

In fact, it is neither. It is merely an opportunity life has given you to expand or contract your consciousness. All external conditions are temporary. Sooner or later, whether by natural attrition or karmic bomb, everything changes into something else. Only consciousness is eternal. What you are in your consciousness will be with you always, no matter what conditions surround you. That is why God wants you to cultivate right consciousness.

God has given you an opportunity to push beyond your own definition of yourself. The fact that you have responded first with anger and negativity shows that you have much to learn. Rather than be dismayed at this realization of your shortcomings, be delighted! Those shortcomings were always lurking just behind the comfortable scene you had before. The fact that you were unaware of them did not free you from their stifling influence.

The bliss your heart longs to experience will never be yours until these limitations are overcome. Now you know and can get to work. Is that “bad” or is that “good”? You see it all depends on your point of view. Pleasure and ease? Or bliss for eternity?

As for Kriya Initiation causing these difficulties, let me put it bluntly: Don’t flatter yourself! To imagine that you have generated enough power in your Kriya practice to change your destiny in just a few months is, well, preposterous.

Or, to put it another way, if you had that kind of power you wouldn’t be suffering from the anger and negativity you describe, but would be floating in bliss.

Karmic bombs such as you describe have taken years, more likely lifetimes to build up and then detonate. If a gifted astrologer had looked at your horoscope the day you were born he probably could have predicted to the day when these things would happen.

Far from causing difficulties in life, Kriya is our safe haven. It gives us a way to move inward, away from life’s problems to the realm of spirit where our true self is untouched by mere outward shifting.

I think sometimes people want to blame Kriya for karmic troubles they face in the hope that if they just stop doing Kriya everything will come back to pleasure and ease.

If you abandon God, where will you go? And what will you find there?

I have noticed when people are faced with karmic bombs such as you describe, they use the event either to cling more tightly to God or as an excuse to run away. Often it comes down to a simple decision of where you seek comfort. Do you keep up your routine of spiritual practices, do you come to the Temple, do you participate in group activities and seek inspiration in the company of other truth seekers?

Or do you allow false reasoning to persuade you to stay away from the very things that would lift the darkness from you. “Oh,” the wounded heart will say, “I’m too sad to go to the Temple this morning.” Or, even more insidiously, negative thinking will persuade you, “I don’t want to bring others down.”

Don’t give in to thoughts like these. Darkness cannot be dissipated by beating at it with a stick, whether that “stick” is anger at God, fury with other people, self-recrimination, loss of faith, or tears. None of it will work. Darkness is dissipated by the presence of light. Seek the light in every possible way and you will be astonished to find yourself standing, if not unshaken, at least solidly on the two feet of faith and love for God.

That power, nothing can take away from you. So is the means to that end “good” or “bad”?

You see, God loves you, not because He gives you pleasure and ease, but because, in the end, He gives you Himself -- infinite freedom, unconditional love, perfect bliss.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Thoughts, Health, and Divine Union

2012-05-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

Can negative thoughts be overcome? How can we connect our soul to god? Can meditation heal every type of disease?

Pankaj, from India

Answer

Dear Pankaj:

Can negative thoughts be overcome?

Yes, of course negative thoughts can be overcome. As Master explains in Autobiography of a Yogi, thoughts are universal not individually rooted. Thoughts are a reflection of our state of consciousness. Change your level of consciousness and your thoughts also change.

A depressed person, for example, sees in every situation reasons for his depression. If that same person receives some good news and suddenly feels hopeful, he may look at the same situation and see reasons now to be positive. Nothing has changed except his state of mind.

Master said conditions are always neutral, whether we perceive them as happy or sad depends entirely on the predisposition of the mind.

Rather than trying to change individual thoughts, it is more effective to work directly on your state of consciousness. That means regular spiritual practices — meditation, study, prayer, chanting, affirmation. There is a long list of things to do.

When working to change thoughts, instead of concentrating on what you don’t want to be thinking (that can actually give more energy to what you are trying to get rid of!) focus on the state of consciousness you want to have.

Choose one or two chants, or an affirmation that speaks clearly and appropriately to your goal, and every single time a negative thought enters your consciousness, with all your willpower repeat the affirmation or sing the chant — out loud if possible but silently if necessary — until the negative thought simply has no space inside your mind to live.

One of the most difficult aspects of getting rid of negative thoughts is persuading ourselves that we really do want to get rid of them. Yes, of course, we say we want to get rid of them, but, in some way they must be serving us, otherwise we would drop them like a hot potato.

All states of consciousness, including the negative have a certain attracting power. Once we are in a negative place negativity uses what Master calls “our own false reasoning” to persuade us that we need to stay there.

Rather than engaging with each individual thought, better to wage war generally against the whole concept of negativity, treating any thought that wanders into your mind as a mortal enemy that must be banished instantly. Don’t entertain negative thoughts even for an instant! Go after them with your chant or affirmation as if your life depended upon it, because it does.

How can we connect our soul to God?

Your soul is always connected to God. Nothing can separate you from Him. What you are asking is, how can you realize your union with God. That is the whole spiritual path.

When I met Swami Kriyananda I was instantly attracted to him. I was just a neophyte, but somehow I sensed that his consciousness had no boundaries, whereas I felt so confined. The experience of meeting him was overwhelming in its simplicity. “He has what I want.”

That was more than 40 years ago and I have followed this path ever since. Still, at the beginning, I didn’t have faith in many fundamental aspects of it.

I had to consider, “Should I wait until I have more certainty before I dive into this life with Swami Kriyananda?”

I decided, “No, I need to go forward with faith in what I do know. The reason I don’t understand is because my intuition is clouded. If I do nothing, my intuition will remain clouded. If I do something — with full energy and commitment — my consciousness will change, my intuition will clear, and then I will know.”

And that is precisely what happened. I threw myself into the spiritual life as Swamiji presented it, acting on what I did know and taking a “wait and see” attitude toward those things that remained unclear. And in time, because of the grace of God and my sincere effort to receive it, my intuition developed and ... well, the rest is history.

Can meditation heal every type of disease?

The example of the ever-living, ever-youthful Babaji, described in Autobiography of a Yogi, tells us that consciousness is greater than matter. The resurrection of Jesus and Sri Yukteswar tell us that even death is not permanent for a person of Self-realization.

Meditation is not in itself Self-realization. It is a technique we use to help bring us to Self-realization. So even if practicing meditation does result in a lessening of disease, it is the change in consciousness, and the grace of God that consciousness may attract, that brings healing.

This is an important distinction. Otherwise we may take too much credit to the ego. "By the power of my meditation I have healed myself!" Then healing becomes the cause of a much worse disease: spiritual pride.

Generally speaking, people who meditate enjoy a more dynamic state of wellbeing than people who don’t. The physician who runs the clinic near Ananda Village has seen that those who practice Kriya Yoga, as a group, are far healthier than those who don’t.

Of course, Kriyabans also follow a number of other healthy habits — vegetarianism, exercise, refraining from drugs and alcohol — that contribute to their wellbeing. But there is no doubt that the powerful, subtle energy generated by Kriya practice also uplifts their health directly.

It is a mistake, however, to equate physical health with spiritual wellbeing. Some great saints have vibrant physical health, some are chronically ill. It depends on how God wants to play through them.

Those saints who are ill may be working out vestiges of their own karma, or maybe they are taking on the karma of others. That is between each one and God.

What meditation heals is your consciousness. It brings you in touch with your natural state of inner bliss. Often this brings about great harmony in the physical body, too. But even if the body remains ill, meditation can make it possible to transcend physical limitations, and in that sense it does heal all disease.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Loyalty in Love

2012-04-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

I’ve always had a longing to have a strong man in my life. Even the powerful, independent women I admire and seek to emulate, for the most part have had the benefit of strong men either as friends, colleagues, or partners. My problem is the one man I did love, who was powerful and good, is gone forever, but he stays in my heart and makes it difficult for me to love someone else in the same way. I think I am attached to the idea of being a “one-man woman,” but at the same time, I long to have a relationship now. Help!

From K.

Answer

Dear K:

Most people who accomplish in this world receive help along the way. Even those who live celibate or solitary lives are often guided, inspired, supported, and assisted by others with capacities that are perhaps different, but nonetheless equal to their own.

The soul has no gender. We are all equally male and female. Sometimes we incarnate as men, sometimes as women. Over the course of many incarnations we have to develop perfect yin/yang balance within ourselves. As we advance spiritually our ability to express equally both masculine and feminine energy increases. Usually then we are drawn to a partner who is similarly balanced, until the need for another person to balance our energy is transcended altogether.

For a strong woman like you to want the company or assistance of a strong man is only natural. As you see in the example of those women you admire, there is no contradiction between personal strength and the ability to form deep relationships with others.

You were fortunate to have for a time such a connection. Naturally it is a profound disappointment that it did not last a lifetime.

Now comes the question of life-long loyalty. How to resolve within yourself the continuing attachment to this man, the romantic notion of being a “one-man woman” with the fact that you have many years yet to live and you want to make the most of them spiritually, and in every other way.

“Loyalty is the first law of God,” Paramhansa Yogananda says. In order to progress spiritually, or accomplish anything in life, we have to commit ourselves and persevere in our commitment. Nothing great is ever accomplished without will power.

It is essential, though, to be loyal to the right thing -- to principles, to truth itself, not merely to the form those principles may take.

A spiritual organization, for example, over time may become loyal to the organization itself, not to the high principles upon which the organization was founded. True principles are eternal. Forms come and go. Misplaced loyalty too easily becomes fanaticism or narrow-minded stupidity.

Some spiritual traditions, for example, assert that divorce is a sin, an offence against God. Self-evidently, fickleness is no virtue, but nor is it always a victory merely to stay together when the price is the sacrifice of spiritual potential. Some life-long couples are deeply inspiring in the quality of their love for one another. Others look merely worn out.

I’m amused when I recall a woman widowed after 60 years of a quasi-victorious marriage. A spiritual person tried to comfort her by saying, “You’ll see him again.” Her frank reply was, “I think 60 years was long enough.”

One incarnation is a rather arbitrary span of time. We change physical bodies from life to life, but the expansion of our consciousness is a continuous, uninterrupted process. Death changes nothing except the context in which we seek divine realization.

The form of the man you loved, and the form in which you loved each other, is gone forever. Never again will you be together in exactly that way. The essence of what you love in each other, the true basis of your friendship, is untouched by the change in form.

In Autobiography of a Yogi, chapter 43, “The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar,” Yogananda explains that in the astral world we meet all those we have been close to, not only in the incarnation just finished but also in many different lifetimes. There is, however, no jealousy, no thought that if I love one I cannot also love others. Physical form imposes limitation. Love itself has no boundaries.

Yes, sometimes, an experience is given to us and we know that it will never be repeated. That does happen. “I’ve had the love of my life and there won’t be another.” Even though there may be some loneliness in that realization, there is also a calm, uplifting certainty that what God has given and what He has withheld are spiritually right for you.

In Autobiography of a Yogi this subject is also addressed. Yogananda’s mother died when he and several of his siblings were still quite young. His father never married again, but took on the task of being both father and mother to his eight children. Years later, Yogananda tried to engage a female servant to take care of his father. Adamantly, his father refused. “Service to me ended when your mother died,” he said.

In his case, this was a sincere expression of his inner reality. Always a deeply spiritual man, after his wife’s passing, Yogananda’s father lived an exemplary life of simplicity, austerity, and devotion to God.

I don’t think what you are describing is quite like that. To me it seems more of a wish that it were true -- romantic rather than a mature expression of your soul nature. Why would loving one person deeply make it inappropriate to love someone else in the same or even in a greater way?

This reminds me of a touching experience I had with a friend. His wife was pregnant with their second child and he came to me deeply concerned. “How can I be a good father to the baby that is coming? I love my first-born so much, I can’t imagine loving anyone else as much as I love her.”

All I could say was “Love is infinite. Don’t worry. It will be okay.” Soon after the child was born, with tears in his eyes he told me, “You were right.”

What you have learned about love is meant to be shared, expanded, and built upon. To hoard it, to focus only on the memory of things past, is a betrayal of the love you had, not loyalty to it.

Yes, karma plays a role. It may or may not be your destiny to have another relationship like that in this incarnation. There is no reason to think, though, that it is more noble not to have it.

Be completely sincere and open with God. Tell Him of your longings, and also of your confusion on this point. Pour it all into the lap of Divine Mother. Then follow the advice Yogananda gives for how to pray in Whispers from Eternity: “Be thoroughly convinced that He has heard you. And then -- go about your duties, seeking not to know whether God will grant your demand.” Talk to Him whenever your heart feels restless.

If it is spiritually beneficial to you, God will send you a partner. If none comes, know that God is helping you to grow in other ways. The way to meet karma -- to learn what it has to teach you so you can go on to the next lesson -- is to accept it calmly with joy.

I will pray for you.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Love God

2012-04-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

In many ways my entire life feels blessed, even charmed. I’ve practiced Kriya daily without fail for three years, studied all the writings, and listened to many hours of recorded classes. Desires are dropping away, and even those that do arise often are fulfilled in a very sweet way by Divine Mother. Every day I feel inspiration and love. Occasionally I have vivid dreams, which sometimes have included divine visitations. However, nothing outside of ordinary reality has ever happened -- no voices, lights, visible auras, sensing of vibrations, response to crystals, temples, etc. When my friends speak of these things I smile graciously but have nothing to say. Despite conscientious practice of the AUM technique, I don’t hear any sound, nor do I see the spiritual eye. I’ve witnessed no miracles. In some ways I feel I am spiritually “blind and deaf.” I do trust my own intuition enough to believe the teachings are true but I’m going on 100% belief. I feel just a little bit of experience would tip me over from belief to faith. Lacking that experience, it is hard to develop devotion. I feel equivocal even about the positive things because of this lack. I’m already middle-aged. How long will I have to wait?

From A.R.

Answer

Dear A.R.

Doubt is a special kind of purgatory, taking the sunlight out of the brightest day. You haven’t used the word “doubt,” but that is what you are describing. So many wonderful things happening in your life, and yet....

In his autobiography, The New Path, chapter 30, “A Divine Test,” Swamiji writes of his own battle with doubt. The solution, he eventually discovered, is love. Alas, you are doubly stymied -- because of doubt you hesitate to love.

I don’t know if anything I say can break this unfortunate cycle, but let me give it a try. I ask your forgiveness in advance if what I say feels flippant or too harsh. I deeply sympathize with your dilemma and hope by speaking plainly to give you a way out of this self-created limitation.

Let me start by rewriting your letter as a note from your son to you.

Dear Dad:

Thanks so much for raising me thus far. We have a great home. I love my room. The meals are fabulous and whenever I raid the refrigerator I always find something good. The clothes I have are super. I love my bicycle. You picked a good school and you are always there to help with homework. The new music system is fabulous. However, two of my friends now have motorcycles. Seems like I ought to have one, too. I’ve already told you this -- several times. You say you love me, but, well, how can I believe you since you know how much I want this motorcycle and you don’t get if for me? I’m already fourteen years old. How long am I going to have to wait before that motorcycle comes?

-Your Son

Maybe I’m misrepresenting you with this, but there are similarities.

Here is another way to look at it.

God’s love is omnipresent, unconditional, eternal. Every breath, your very existence is an expression of His commitment to you.

How have you responded? I’m not singling you out as being worse than any of the rest of us, but -- face it! -- for more incarnations than we can imagine, we have turned our backs on the only One who truly loves us. Madly we have pursued every possible dead-end, looking for love, as they say, in all the wrong places.

Finally it has occurred to you -- and to us -- that maybe, just maybe, God is the solution. So for three years now you have given him your Kriyas. And still -- no visible spiritual eye! No crashing waves of AUM! How inconsiderate of Him!

Of course, I am joking -- but not really.

I am reminded of an interview I heard on the radio. Two men in their early twenties had just become gazillionaires when a company they dropped out of college to form went public. The interviewer said, “Already you have earned fifty times more money than your fathers earned in their entire working lives. How do you feel about that?”

The young gazillionaires seemed surprised by the question. “After all,” one of them replied emphatically, “we devoted two years of our lives to building this company.”

It is not up to God to woo us. He has been faithful. It is we who have strayed. Now we have to prove to him that our love is sincere and unwavering. We are in no position to demand -- or expect -- tokens of His commitment to us. Still, you have been showered with them. Ah, but there are still other items on your list that haven’t come. Like a child at Christmas you are comparing your letter to Santa with the presents under the tree and feel that you have been shortchanged.

Am I being unfair to you? Maybe a little. The point is being a devotee is not a business transaction. It is a love relationship.

Back to the mythical question of your son and his motorcycle: How magnetic is it for you when your son makes his faith in your love dependent on the next expensive gift? How likely are you to give him that motorcycle? Not very likely because you know it wouldn’t be good for him, at least not with his present attitude. You love him too much to feed the delusion that material things are the proof of love or that emotional blackmail is the way to get what he wants from you.

There is no set standard of “proof” that God is obligated to meet. You say you trust your intuition -- maybe enough to put your mind behind your beliefs, but not enough, apparently, to risk your heart.

Again, perhaps I am being unfair, but that is how your letter reads to me. “Without these experiences I can’t develop devotion.” Which is to say, “Unless God meets my standard of proof I’m going to keep my love locked up inside of me.” Who do you think will suffer from that decision? You? Or God who is Love Itself?

Let’s put it another way: What are you afraid of?

Despite all that you’ve given to your son unless you come through with the motorcycle it is all over between you. Or so he declares. Kind of silly when you think of it that way, isn’t it?

I am not trying to mock you. I am only trying, in this rather extreme way, to help you see the implications of what you are saying. Your scientific inclination to weigh and measure sometimes serves the cause of truth, and sometimes blocks it completely. In a love relationship, there comes a point when you just have to go with your heart.

Sometimes reason doesn’t serve the cause of reason, it merely masks the truth, which in this case may be fear. What would a vibrating crystal or the AUM sound tell you that you don’t already know?

Swami Kriyananda tells a very instructive story about a fellow disciple named Daniel Boone who lived as a monk with Master at Mount Washington when Swamiji was there. Boone had many experiences of the kind you say are completely lacking in your life -- and were also lacking in Swamiji’s life he tells us. In the end, however, Boone left the ashram and the path, whereas Swamiji never wavered in his commitment or his whole-hearted self-offering to God and Guru in service and devotion.

Later he realized that Master gave Boone all those experiences because he was trying -- unsuccessfully as it turned out -- to save him from being swept away by delusion.

Do you think Master would hold back from you these experiences if, as you assert, they would help you spiritually? Can you imagine another reason why he doesn’t give them to you, for example, the need for you to have the courage to open your heart in trust to Him without the “final proof” you are looking for?

To call yourself “spiritually blind and deaf” -- even if you offer it only as a self-deprecating quip -- is an insult both to you and to God. Also you are holding a mistaken idea -- a dangerously mistaken idea -- that the experiences your friends have mean they are more advanced or more favored by God than you are. That’s the argument your son is using on you. “All my friends have motorcycles. Obviously, their fathers love them and mine does not.”

Such an attitude won’t help you develop devotion, nor will it create the magnetism to draw God’s love to you. He has showered you with blessings. You describe your life as “charmed.” Still -- well, no motorcycle!

And if you do give your son that motorcycle, will that secure his love forever or, later, will he doubt again and demand further proof? And if God gives you lights, will you then need a miracle? And once you have a miracle, will you then need another to insure that the first wasn’t just a lucky coincidence?

Once you start down the road of weighing, measuring, and conditional loving there is no end to it. Relationships do not succeed that way.

You have to love God because it is your nature to love and God’s nature to love you.

How can you know from your perspective in which direction true freedom lies? God has showered you with blessings. Like you with your son, God knows the road ahead better than you do. Accept with gratitude and in return, give Him your heart.

And if you feel you can’t, don’t try to solve the problem with reason. Above all, don’t presume to tell God what He needs to do in order to win your love! Seek devotion with devotion. Don’t pray for lights and sounds, which in them selves mean nothing and are not, in fact, what you seek. Pray for His grace -- above all, the grace to love Him.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Public Worship

2012-04-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

Dear Asha:

I grew up in the Bible Belt and my parents regularly took me to a church where public displays of piety were the norm. I was deeply embarrassed by these outbursts, coming as they often did from people I knew to be spiritually ignorant, even mean-spirited in their religion. I formed a deep-seated aversion to public worship of any kind. True spiritual feelings, I decided, must be kept within the heart; anything else is hypocrisy. Now deeply involved in Ananda, with a rich inner spiritual life of my own, I still find it hard to participate in public worship, and have done so only because Master says it is important. I used to think my reluctance was a virtue; now I see it as a hang-up. Can you help?

E.V.

Answer

Dear E.V.:

Freedom is the goal of the spiritual path: liberation from all limiting ideas and self-definitions. Moksha is the Sanskrit word. Stages toward moksha include freeing oneself from subconscious habits, unexamined ideas, and compulsions based on false premises. Your aversion to public worship falls nicely into this category of things to be overcome, as you yourself have realized.

“Reason follows feeling,” is something Master often said, meaning if we are emotionally predisposed toward a point of view we will find lots of good-sounding ways to justify it. It is quite common for the aspiring devotee to use true spiritual principles to reach false conclusions.

Fortunately, you have noticed. Good work.

Each devotee has his or her own relationship with God. Bhav is the Sanskrit word which means “spiritual mood” or way of approaching God. Some are, by nature, outwardly expressive, others deeply private. So it isn’t a matter of right or wrong.

However, certain principles do apply to everyone, whatever their bhav. The most important one here is magnetism. Master said that whether your energy flows outward to the world or inward and upward toward God is determined to a great extent by the company you keep. It was to this he was referring when he said, “Environment is stronger than will power.”

The point is unless you live in complete solitude (and even then, there are subtle vibrations that may still affect you) you are always in some kind of magnetic field generated by the consciousness of the people who surround you. Even alone in your own home you have neighbors nearby -- many of them -- and their thoughts, feelings, and attitudes bombard you constantly.

Swami Kriyananda lived for some years in an apartment in San Francisco when he was earning the money to start Ananda. It was well off the street, in a quiet area, and in terms of audible sound, exactly the same day or night. Still, during the night, it felt quieter, and more conducive to meditation and creative thinking, because everyone else was asleep, and therefore the apartment was less bombarded by their restless, worldly thoughts.

Yes, the stronger your own magnetism and the deeper your inner life, the less affected you will be. But it is naïve to imagine that you are unaffected.

The effect of the environment around is cumulative and lingering. When you cut onions to make dinner, days later you may still get a whiff of onions from your fingertips. Even if you have just been near the onions, your clothes and your hair may retain some of the odor.

Vibrations of thoughts and feelings are far more powerful than mere onions! It behooves us then to immerse ourselves whenever possible in the vibrations we seek to make our own. This is the reason Master spoke so forcefully about the importance of spiritual communities. Jesus, too, recommended to his disciples that they live together.

This is satsang, which means “the company of truth,” or “the company of truthseekers.” Yes, just hanging out with high-minded people is also satsang, but think how much more powerful satsang can be when everyone is dynamically focused on a high-minded expression. When we pray, chant, meditate, follow a ritual, listen to a discourse, naturally we are more powerful and united in our focus than we would be just sitting in a room together.

In an interview Swamiji gave about the importance of The Festival of Light -- the ritual we do at Ananda every Sunday -- he said that even when people meditate in the same room at the same time, still, often, they do not meditate together in the sense of consciously uniting their force to help one another spiritually.

Swamiji added that whenever he meditates with other people he consciously meditates with and for them.

So here is another way to look at it. Let your time of spiritual practice in the company of others be a time of giving to others. Pray on their behalf. Chant whole-heartedly, knowing that the deeper the response you receive from the divine, the more divine power there will be in the room for the benefit of everyone.

In the early years of Ananda, when we all lived together at Ananda Village, there was no question about going to Sunday Service every Sunday. It wasn’t about whether or not we enjoyed it or felt inspired. Although we did both enjoy it and feel inspired. But even if we hadn’t, it was our duty to go, an act of friendship to participate with full energy and concentration. Otherwise, the Service wouldn’t exist! The mere repetition of words by the one leading the Service did not in itself create the experience. What made it powerful was the commitment of each participant to go as deep as possible into the spirit, together.

“When enough people call sincerely enough,” Swamiji writes, “a mighty flow from the river of grace is deflected toward this planet; a new ray of Light is drawn downward, and all who tune in to it are uplifted as they never could be, were they to struggle merely on their own.”

Imagine if you were living in some remote area, the only devotee for miles around, how you would hunger for the opportunity to share inspiring times with others. You have the good karma to be in good company. Embrace it with gratitude.

As for hypocrisy.... Well, just because some people who express spiritually are hypocritical, doesn’t mean that spiritual expression in and of itself is hypocritical. You have to take it case by case. But I can see that you have already moved past this misunderstanding and are now looking for a way to pick it up by the right string.

Try self-offering to God in the company of others for the benefit of others as a reason to participate and see if that helps.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: More on Forgiveness

2012-04-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

In response to a recent letter, “Should we forgive everything?” we received the following additional questions:

From M.A.

I thought the true philosophy was to love one for all that they are but more so for what they are not! When it comes to deciding to choose self-love over abuse, that's the dilemma...let go and move on!

From L.E.

How did you forgive the person you write about? I am trying to find out how so I can use that as a model to forgive people in my life who have hurt me. Also, aren’t we lowering standards of a relationship if we think that our partner can do anything, then change and be forgiven?

Answer

Dear Friends:

Forgiveness is a complicated subject. Everyone involved has karma that has to be faced and worked out. Seldom do you have simple, happy endings.

On one side is the person who feels offended, even abused. On the other is the transgressor, whose actions, words, or attitudes caused the injury. There is also how you feel in your heart, which may be different from how you need to respond outwardly.

From the beginning of my spiritual life I adopted the policy suggested by Swami Kriyananda of trying to understand any question from the highest perspective. For me this means asking: What would Swamiji do? How would Master respond?

Most of the time, their way of being is far above what I can achieve, but keeping their example in view illuminates the path that I am walking, tells me which way is forward, and gives me some idea of how to get there from here.

You would think that the lives of saints and masters would be free of disharmony. In fact, the opposite is true. Great souls seem to attract hurt and betrayal, usually inflicted by people to whom they have opened their hearts in loving friendship. There are many reasons for this. One is simply the dual nature of this universe. Whenever light ascends darkness tries to snuff it out. Not a pleasant thought, but one proven again and again throughout history.

The other reason is that these great souls incarnate to set an example of how to live in this world. We incarnate because we have karma to live through -- unlearned lessons that have to be faced. They have no karma of their own, but take on the appearance of karma, or the karma of their disciples in order to help us learn right action in all circumstances, no matter how difficult.

Several of Yogananda’s long-time disciples later turned against him, even dragged him into court, and tried to destroy both his work and his reputation.

After one treacherous disciple left the ashram and moved to another part of the country, every year Yogananda sent him a case of mangoes, and every year the disciple sent the case back unopened. Yogananda said it would take a few lifetimes, but in the end that disciple would return and soon after he would achieve spiritual freedom.

Swami Kriyananda has had to endure extraordinary persecution from his own gurubhais. For twelve years they dragged him through the courts attempting to destroy his work and his reputation. They even tried to take over the copyrights to his books and music! It would not have been dharma to let them succeed. He had to fight back, with great energy and determination. Inwardly, though, his love for them is unchanged.

And looming over any discussion of forgiveness is the crucifixion of Christ, and his immortal words, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

This kind of forgiveness may be beyond us now, but it is where we are going. Still, we have to be practical in our idealism. It doesn’t work to paste upon our limited consciousness an ideal of behavior we cannot yet achieve. That is a recipe both for failure and guilt. Then we have the original problem plus a psychological complex on top of it. Definitely not the road to freedom!

I always start with the simple thought, “God knows what He is doing with me.” I may have desires and opinions, but He knows. Even if, in worldly terms -- i.e., viewed from the outside -- the situation seems entirely unfair God knows what He is doing with me.

He can be trusted to bring me what I need at the time I need it, and to give me the strength to use what He sends for my own highest good.

Yes, this is idealistic. Yes, most of the time I can’t get there right away. There may be many long days and nights of wrong attitude before the light dawns. But even if I fail to achieve right attitude in the moment, I do my best not to define myself by my mistakes.

I make a distinction between those actions, attitudes, thoughts, and feelings I commit and those I am committed to. I find this helps. Even in the worst of moods, a part of me still remembers: Eventually I will get over this. I know that I will because wrong attitude makes me suffer, and I don’t like to suffer.

All we ever experience is our own consciousness. If our inner life is filled with anger, resentment, grief, and disappointment life is pretty miserable. Even if circumstances give us every reason to feel justified in our misery, the question is: Who suffers?

Christ-like forgiveness is the high destiny we all must reach for the sake of our own happiness.

I read a very touching article in a magazine about a woman whose daughter was murdered. Even after the man who did it was sent to prison for life, the mother continued to seethe with anger. Finally she realized that her anger was killing her. The man who took the life of her child was taking her life as well. She decided to go to the prison and confront the murderer in the hope of finding some resolution.

At first it was difficult even to be in the same room with him. But she felt she had no choice, so she persevered. Gradually she began to see him, not as a monster, but as a fellow human being who had also suffered much in his own life. The end of the story is that they grew close and she became like a mother to him.

She never condoned what he did but she accepted it. Not as good or beautiful, but as a reality that had to be faced. Expansion of consciousness happened also for the murderer. He had no comprehension of the suffering his action had inflicted. Only in getting to know the bereaved mother did he come to understand that his actions had consequences.

As he faced and accepted responsibility for what he had done, and truly repented, it was possible for the woman to forgive and open her heart to him in love and compassion. She provided for him an example of the all-forgiving love of God. And she, too, experienced that all-forgiving love. The channel is blessed by that which flows through it -- an uplifting ending to a sad tale.

One of the questions my first letter prompted was, “Aren’t we lowering our standards when we let people think they can do anything they want, then change, and be forgiven?”

We are all on a journey from delusion to Self-realization. Any progress along the path should be celebrated, not punished! If a person has overcome a delusion, has genuinely become a better person, then it is no lowering of standards to welcome that person back with open arms. To do so is to affirm the possibility of expanded consciousness for all of us.

If, however, the change is not genuine, if the misbehaving partner is taking advantage of the forgiving partner and has no intention, or, more charitably, no ability to change his behavior, then we have to go to the next level of complexity: the distinction between inner feeling and outward action.

There is no reason to carry anger or resentment merely because someone you love has proved incapable of responding nobly to the love that you’ve offered. We’ve already been over that ground. Now we come to the question of the appropriate response.

To give someone the impression that you are there to be abused, that whatever they do is fine, that their actions have no consequences, is neither love nor forgiveness. Almost always it is guilt or fear trying to pass itself off as some more elevated quality. It is not always easy to sort this out but it has to be done.

A friend was describing to me a relationship she is caught in with an elderly relative. The elder does everything he can to take the joy out of my friend’s life. As she recounted what the relative had said, I interrupted to ask, “You just sat there and let him to talk to you like that?”

“Yes,” she said, “I did.”

“I would have walked out and not come back,” I said. “It is not good for him to speak like that. And it is an offense against the divine within you to let yourself be treated that way.”

Let me add here that if my friend had been unaffected, I would have responded differently. If she were detached and could joyfully give love to an unhappy old man no matter how he treated her, then that might be a spiritual service worth offering.

But she was deeply affected, all the joy drained out of her. That is why I spoke as I did. Everybody’s karma has to be considered.

We are all equal before God. You are not more important than others, but neither are they more important than you. Humility is not self-abnegation. Humility is self-honesty, seeing things as they are.

You have to be impersonal about yourself. It is not about what you deserve or don’t deserve in a self-preoccupied way. It is a question of dharma, what is right.

I remember years ago a woman wrote to Swamiji to say she was leaving her husband after seven years of marriage. “Whenever I try to meditate, he turns the television on as loud as possible. When I speak of spiritual things, he makes fun of me.”

Privately, Swamiji said, “She put up with that for seven years? I wouldn’t have taken it for fifteen minutes!”

No reason to be angry, but no reason to stay and be abused either!

Another question I received was, “How were you able to forgive the person you wrote about who caused such trouble for Ananda?” In that case, it was no effort. The karma wasn’t personal.

In a situation where I was personally involved, however, I discovered something that may be of value to others. When I first started on the spiritual path I became angry at a friend I felt had mistreated me. Over the course of some months I found that my inner diatribe against him gradually focused on a few specific incidents. Finally I asked myself, “Why do I think only of these?”

After some reflection I saw that in all those situations, true principles were at stake. Even at the time, I knew something was very wrong, but didn’t have the courage to speak.

My friend had not been aware of those principles. He had done the best he could with the understanding he had. To be angry with him was like railing at a three year old for not being able to read.

I, by contrast, had consciously violated dharma. When I realized this, I stopped being angry with my friend -- and became angry with myself! Getting closer to the truth, but still not good!

It took some time longer before I could forgive myself. Finally I was able to see myself the way I saw him: I did the best I could with the understanding I had. What more can we ask or ourselves or each other? His error was in understanding dharma; mine was in lacking the courage to act. Even when we fall short, reality has to be faced.

I am not proud of my cowardice, but there is no reason to be ashamed of it either. There is no shame in being three years old and unable to read. When we rail against what is, there is, literally, no end to our fury, and no way of satisfying it. We have to be practical in our idealism.

There is no shortcut to forgiveness. We have to persevere until we have purged from our hearts the need for someone else to be responsible for our suffering. No matter what the facts of the situation, the truth is we are responsible for our own consciousness.

Pray all the time for the grace of God. Grace changes everything and there is no question then of forgiveness, there is only love.

Blessings,

Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Should We Forgive Everything?

2012-03-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

On the surface, my question has an unambiguous answer,and I know what it is. But please, help me here.

My partner claims to have been in pain for years over an inability to 'connect to the world' with symptoms similar to Bipolarity but not diagnosed as such. He has a deep understanding of spirituality, but I broke off with him after 15 years over his constant straying.

He explains it away as a result of the pain he was going through and now he says he has healed and wants me back. And wants to grow spiritually together.

Can people really change?

When one commits to love and forgive EVERYTHING, does it include inconstancy?

-Anonymous comment
in reply to Ask Asha: The Reason for Attractions

Answer

Dear ....

I am not certain what part of the answer you feel is unambiguous. Probably you mean the issue of forgiveness.

Yes, love forgives all, including infidelity -- above all for your own peace of mind. To consider yourself a victim, to feel that the world and the people in it “owe” you a certain standard of behavior is to doom yourself to constant suffering and disappointment.

So in terms of how you should feel about this man who has treated you so unkindly, do your best to purge from your heart any feelings of anger or betrayal. Don’t whitewash what he did, however, in an attempt to overcome your negative feelings. Forgiveness is not to run away from the truth but to face it squarely and then see it from a higher perspective.

We all make egregious mistakes. Divine Mother understands and forgives our transgressions. It behooves us to learn to see one another through Her eyes.

That said, however, Divine Mother also enforces quite impersonally appropriate consequences for our actions. When what we do is not in harmony with divine law, we suffer. Selfishness brings misery. It is the way we are made.

Bad enough that you were made miserable by this man’s wrong actions in the 15 years you were together. You don’t want to make yourself miserable in all the years -- even incarnations to come -- by continuing to hold onto the bad feelings created. Give them to God. Let this man work it out directly with Divine Mother. You don’t have to be in the middle of it.

As for the question, “Can a person change?” Of course, everyone can change. Paramhansa Yogananda puts it in a rather humorous way, “A saint is a sinner who never gave up.” We are all divine in our essence, equally children of God.

Some people, however, manifest that divinity clearly. Others manifest to various degrees egoic self-interest.

Unfortunately, just because a person declares himself healed does not mean that he is healed. Maybe he genuinely believes he is; maybe he is only affirming. Here is where the answer is far from clear-cut.

You describe your friend at least in the past as experiencing intense mental pain. Perhaps he felt helpless in the grip of his own suffering. One can see reasons for compassion but it doesn’t exonerate him.

All I’ve received from you is a brief note, but in the few words you offered there is a phrase that, if accurate, causes me some concern. Referring to his past wrong actions you say, “He explains it away as a result of the pain he was suffering.”

Part of true healing is to take responsibility for one’s actions. Taking responsibility includes, insofar as it is possible, making amends. One step of the Twelve Step Program, for example, is to find those you have hurt and do what you can to fix what you broke. Not always possible, but you have to try. Otherwise there is a big gap in your healing.

To “...explain it away...” is not the same as taking responsibility.

A man who had lived at Ananda for a time later did his best to harm the community, Swami Kriyananda, and many of his former friends by aggressively spreading false and malicious rumors about us. His lies caused great difficulty for many people.

Years later, after the dust had long since settled I happened to meet him again. He came on with great friendliness then began to speak to me about the importance of forgiveness and healing. His point was that I, as a long time member of Ananda, should be expansive enough in my consciousness to forgive him for the trouble he had caused.

My response was, “Have you changed? Do you repudiate the attitudes and actions of the past? Are you willing to make reparations? Will you apologize to all those you hurt? Will you take back your lies?”

His answer was carefully crafted. “I’m sorry that some of you suffered.”

I responded, “That’s no answer! Are you sorry for the part you played in causing that suffering?” To that he made no response, which said all I needed to hear.

He was not willing even to acknowledge that he had acted improperly! Instead he was trying to shame me into believing I would be acting improperly if I didn’t welcome him back with open arms!

I bear him no ill will. But, as I explained to him in no uncertain terms, it would be irresponsible of me to welcome him back into my life and the life of Ananda if he showed no actual proof that he had changed. He was trying to take advantage of Ananda’s well-known generosity of heart.

“Be practical in your idealism,” Yogananda said.

The question is not, “Can a person change?” The question is, “Has he changed?” And if so, “What is the proof?” His assertion alone is not enough.

You can forgive him, but that does not mean you should take him back!

Be practical. Is the mental suffering he endured a thing of the past? Is he now a happy man? Does he demonstrate in his life the ability to endure suffering without passing that suffering on to those he purports to love and who love him?

I would move very cautiously. To be foolish is not the same as being spiritual.

Be open to him if you feel to, but don’t be in a hurry. If his transformation is genuine and sincere, he will understand that after all the pain he has inflicted on you, he has to win your trust and forgiveness, not presume or demand it. If he doesn’t see this, that in itself is a cautionary sign.

Naturally I hope that his healing is real but please don’t be blinded by your desire that it be true. Pray deeply that God guide you to the right decision.

In divine friendship,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Blank Mind - Dangerous or Desirable?

2012-03-22T14:42:00.001-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

Hello everybody,

every now and then i come across the term "a blank mind". Can you please explain to me in detail what a "blank mind" is? I have read that one shouldnt drink alcohol or take drugs because they can make the mind go blank which can me dangerous. I have also read that one shouldnt meditate with a "blank mind". English is not my native language but when i translate the word blank into german it means empty. If i then google "empty mind" i get loads of articles about how important it is to have a blank (empty) mind in meditation. So now iam totally confused. I would really love your help on this one. Thank you very much

Carina
From Germany

Answer

Dear Carina:

The only meditation I have studied and practiced is Kriya Yoga as taught at Ananda. Kriya to me includes not just the technique learned through initiation after a year or so of preparation, but also the whole approach to spiritual life brought to the West by Paramhansa Yogananda.

I was fortunate to find this path early, to be deeply inspired by it, and to have never felt the need to explore deeply any other way. So what I know of “blank mind” meditation was either told to me by others or picked up in snippets of reading here and there.

It seems wiser then for me to describe “blank mind” from the point of view of Kriya — which recommends against it, as you have discovered — rather than trying to speak for it from the point of view of those who teach it.

I prefer to do this also because often the words we use in languages other than Sanskrit to describe subtle states of consciousness are given meaning by those who use them and are not always self-evident or consistent from one tradition to another. Sanskrit has specialized in describing states of consciousness whereas the speakers of other languages have not focused on these inner realities to the same extent and do not have such a specific vocabulary.

This is a good example. “Blank” or “empty” mind in the Kriya tradition is not offered as a positive image, whereas in other traditions it forms the heart of the practice. Perhaps this is a fundamental disagreement or perhaps it is just semantics.

In Kriya practice, the emphasis is on devotion and will power. A blank mind is considered undesirable insofar as it is the result of low or passive energy. If by “blank” one means “still and focused” that would be entirely different. “Still and focused” are words we often use in Kriya because they are more precise than empty or blank.

Even though meditation involves relaxation, the art of it is to let go of tension without also lowering one’s energy level. We know how to put out energy on the conscious level by keeping the mind and body active and busy. Meditation requires that we still both the mind and body, but not — as we are habituated to doing — falling into a state of subconscious sleep.

Rather we must take all the energy that we usually direct in an outward way, and use it to keep the mind and body absolutely still in a state of complete, relaxed, alert awareness.

No surprise that this is not so easy to do! Among other reasons, this is why in Kriya we do not recommend meditating while lying down on your back, even though this position allows you to relax with a straight spine. The association between lying down and falling asleep is simply too great for most people to resist!

Because in meditation we have to withdraw our attention from what usually preoccupies it — mundane activities and thoughts — and because where we are going is a state of awareness often unfamiliar to us before we experience it — sometimes people will say, “Make your mind blank,” or “Empty your mind.” The meaning here would be to withdraw it from where it usually rests.

The problem is succinctly described in the a statement taken from the scientific study of the natural world, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” What this means is that when one force is withdrawn, another will rush in to fill the now empty space.

In meditation, an empty mind is very difficult to achieve. As soon as you withdraw your attention from one preoccupation, another will rush in to the fill the vacuum.

Thoughts, Yogananda explains in Autobiography of a Yogi, are not individually created, but universal streams of consciousness that we attune to and receive. We are not separate from the universe, but merely an individual expression of greater realities than just our own ego.

The art of meditation, as explained in Kriya Yoga, is not to attune yourself to nothing. Some meditation methods conscientiously avoid any mention of higher realities, especially God. They may even pride themselves on what I have heard called “non-deistic spiritual practices.”

Kriya Yoga is not like that. Kriya Yoga is about attuning to God. Satchidananda is the ideal way to describe it, since the word “God” in English has no clear meaning. Satchidananda means “ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss.” It is definitely Something. Not emptiness. Not a blank mind.

So in Kriya practice we are encouraged to withdraw from mundane realities and focus with great will power and relaxation (it is simple, but not easy!) on the Divine. Whether we define that impersonally or personally, as I said, it is definitely Something other than emptiness.

The danger of an empty or blank mind comes from two possibilities. The first is simply that in trying to become blank, one may too easily fall into low, passive energy, which will not bring success either in meditation or in any other area of life. Think about it. Do passive, uncreative people without will power accomplish anything in any field? No, they don’t. Why, then, would this approach bear positive fruit in meditation? Doesn’t make any sense.

The other danger of the blank mind is the possibility of possession by disincarnate entities. "Nature abhors a vacuum." If you are not using your mind, someone else may rush in to fill the empty space. Wow! That is scary! Definitely not something you want to mess around with.

No sincere teacher would recommend a way of practice that is doomed to fail -- i.e., passive and low energy -- or dangerous to his students -- i.e., opening to disincarnate entities. So I must assume that the words “blank” and “empty” mean something different than the way I am writing about them here. As I said, I am not educated in those paths. I respectfully concede that the seeming disagreement between Kriya Yoga and other teachings that emphasize “blank” or “empty” mind may simply be the different way we interpret those words. I sincerely hope so.

Both alcohol and drugs do lessen your ability to control your own mind. They blur your focus and lessen your will power. The long-term effect of marijuana use, for example, which some people consider to be a “harmless” drug, is the inclination not to put out will power to accomplish goals. Under the influence of marijuana, trivial things appear profound, small stimulation brings great enjoyment. The “munchies,” for example are considered to be one of the great happy effects of marijuana — a delight in eating that is far greater than usual.

As a result, habitual marijuana users begin to rely on getting high as a way to enjoy life and miss completely the divine truth that the greater our awareness, the more dynamic our will power, the greater the sense of satisfaction.

One need not live in constant fear of being taken over by a ghost, nonetheless, the fact is, that disincarnate souls hover around in great numbers the places where people drink and take drugs looking for opportunities to slip into a physical body that is not their own, either for the duration of the substance induced stupor, or longer if blank-minded passivity has become that person’s habit.

Disincarnate beings like this died so focused on physical pleasures that their progression through the astral world and eventually into another physical body of their own has been derailed by their consuming desire to experience again the pleasures they feel have been taken away from them. Or, even worse, they are beings seeking to have power over others. Bad news any way you look at it!

Normally, disincarnate beings are held at bay by the fact that a body is fully occupied by someone else. There is no room for another consciousness to come in.

However, diminishing self-control and awareness by drugs or alcohol, or deliberately reducing your will power and blanking the mind, can be a way of opening the door for someone else to move in.

Many crimes are committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Afterwards, the one who is imprisoned for the dastardly deed may say, “I have no memory of doing it and no idea why I would have done it.” Sometimes it was that person’s subconsciousness given free rein because conscious control was obliterated by mind-altering substances. But it can also be that, literally, someone else used his body to do it.

The good news is, meditation practiced with will power, with a focus on higher realities, protected and guided by a guru, unequivocally slams the door against intrusion by these lower entities. There is no possible entry into your mind when you have lifted it, or are sincerely trying to lift it, into divine attunement.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

The Pune Community

2012-01-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

Dear Everyone:

I am sitting at the gate in Dubai waiting to board the plane for the 16-hour (yes, 16!) flight to San Francisco. So by the time you get this I will be snug in my own bed in Chela Bhavan. Already India is fading and my “other life” is coming into focus again.

I do want to write to you though while the impressions of Ananda Pune Community, where I have been for the last week, are still vivid in my heart and mind.

This is my third try at this letter. The first two bogged down in too many physical details, because the physicality of the place is also a big part of the story, but I’ve decided not really the central story. Building a community from absolute bare ground, as they are doing, makes every little accomplishment -- a path, a flower, a building -- something huge to celebrate.

And there is much to celebrate: two lovely homes, one for Swamiji, the other built by Dharmadas and Nirmala, six “kutirs,” little studio apartments for one or a cozy twosome, although, this last week, 4-5 girls were sharing the one next to where I stayed with Lila. A guesthouse with six rooms, a converted existing structure that now serves as kitchen, office, and sleeping quarters for one or two, plus a large covered porch where all the meals are served.

A bathhouse, a temple with a thatched roof and screen walls -- sufficient here where it rains heavily but only gets cool, not cold.

And dust -- did I mention dust? The same wonderful fine red dust of my spiritual childhood at Ananda Village. And also, did I mention steep hills? The community is one side of a valley bounded by modest size hills. Our land starts about half up one side and goes to the ridge top. About 30 acres, nearly all of it steep.

There is also a huge in-progress building project to construct some dozens of flats that will belong to various future community residents from all over India and across the world.

The hope was that the flats would be ready in time for Swamiji’s arrival at the end of 2011. What a glorious plan: to have the community start with Swamiji in residence and in January, Uma and Kirtani were coming from Assisi Ananda to lead a month long community “ashram program,” as they call it there, to bring all the new residents into one spirit for their Ananda life.

Things rarely go as planned, however, and the flats are months from completion. Kirtani ended up with a detached retina in one eye that, thankfully, has been treated with 100% success, but going on an airplane was out of the question.

But when God closes one door he opens another. So Uma came over as planned, and then, the late-scheduled surprise was the arrival of all of us just the day before the program was set to begin.

Without completed housing, not as many of the future residents could come and many for only a portion of the month. Still, it has been a great gathering of the tribe, especially this first week, and I have had the enormous joy of being right in the middle of it.

I am greatly impressed by all that has been accomplished in terms of manifesting the community. Having lived through the early years of Ananda Village I know how much tapasya and sheer guts and will power is needed to turn bare land into a liveable community. But what has filled my heart with joy and my spirit with confidence for the future of Ananda Pune Community is the light of Master shining from the eyes of so many who are here.

This gathering turned out to be divinely orchestrated in many ways. Nirmala and Dharmadas have been key leaders in India since the beginning (2003) and now Swamiji has asked them to come with him to Italy to work on recording a new program he has created, called “Ask Me About Truth.” It is a conversational question and answer series and they play their “Tell me, Swamiji....” role just perfectly. They’ll film in Italy (he leaves for Europe in 3 weeks) and then depending on how much they get done may also come with him to America in May. After that they will make their home in America or Europe.... to be decided.

Swamiji asked Jaya and Sadhana Devi to come from Gurgaon back to Pune (they have lived there before in their India sojourn) to fill in the space left by Nirmala and Dharmadas. He also asked Durga and Vidura to lend their wonderful spirit and creativity to the mix. Jyotish and Devi came to help with the transition. Uma came for the program. Anand (Kirtani’s husband) ran into immigration trouble and was temporarily exiled from Italy (where he has lived for 20 years), and took refuge in India (now it is all straightened out and he can go home). I came just for fun.

The result, as you can well imagine, has been a wonderful mish-mash of energies from everywhere, much to the delight of everyone.

The carefully planned month-long program was immediately scrapped in favor of a more informal opening week, at least, of “let’s get to know each other.”

Many names I had heard and faces seen only in photographs are now friends of my heart. And, because of the internet, I found myself also already known by many through the book about Swamiji and other of the resources we have been passing out for so long.

India is the meeting place for devotees from everywhere, so in our little program of some 40 people, permanent, temporary, and future residents of Ananda Pune, there were eight countries represented: India, America, England, Russia, Switzerland, Italy, Uruguay, Brazil. I don’t think Palo Alto qualifies as a country unto itself, but we are well-represented: Victor lives there now, Ashok and Raj came for the month, and Vijay Bault formerly of Palo Alto was also there. Baljinder and Sonya, and baby Himraj, now of India, formerly of northern and southern California, first met Swamiji at a satsang at the Palo Alto church. Ramani arrived for a visit of several weeks the day I left. And, of course, Biraj (and Lahari) have been part of Ananda India for years -- although soon he’ll be heading back to California, where Lahari is already ensconced.

Even more than usual, there was a sense of one heart, one spirit, one mind. National origin just didn’t enter into the discussion, except as an interesting aspect of “many expressions of One Spirit.” We were all there for God and nothing else mattered. Sometimes we needed a little “English to English” translation, however, with the variation of accents and pronunciations. And impossible not to smile when our friend fresh “off the boat” from England spoke of the “Hoosband” that she “loooves.” But that just lends spice to the soup!

In the week that I was there, the morning classes were led by the more recently Nayaswamis. Then in the afternoons for several days we had smaller group informal discussions, really just to give us all a chance to get to know one another.

After all these years I’ve come to be able to recognize a certain look in the eyes of Master’s children. And when you see that, you know that the call from Guru has been heard, and those responding have both the sincerity, and the will power to carry out what Master asks. Success is assured. It is just a matter now of the not-inconsiderable hard work needed to bring the ideal manifestation from the ether into this world.

A few days after we arrived Narayani organized a Sunday morning brunch. Anand made his “special pancakes” (they are yummy!). The dining porch was decorated lovingly, and Swamiji joined us for a festive breakfast.

He didn’t give a speech or satsang, but just sat quietly at his table, gazing lovingly at the devotees there. He looked around carefully at each one, greeting those who came to him or smiling at others from across the room. With a blissful smile he said to those sitting next to him, “They are all wonderful people.”

Dhuti is also visiting here (I forgot to mention that) and she has pulled the choir together so they sang for Swamiji. “They are all angels,” he said after the first song.

They sang some lighter numbers then performed “Blessed.” I don’t think I have been more deeply moved by that song (and it is already one of my favorites). Every word carried such profound meeting there, in this newly-forming community, where we are planting Master’s ray in the country of his birth. “Blessed the life that is given to God.” Yes. Yes. Yes.

A small school is also starting, both with some of the “village” (i.e., local) children and children of the soon-to-be residents. At the breakfast, a group of children also performed with great enthusiasm a few of Swamiji’s songs, much to their delight and the delight of all the adults watching.

After that event, for the rest of the week, Swamiji did not participate in any public way. He prefers to stay mostly in his home, working now on the script for the movie about the life of Yogananda. And also, amazingly, editing yet again the book “Yogananda for the World.” I didn’t think it could be made any better, but he did, and he did...make it better. I don’t know if the new version is yet on the website. He added a chapter called “Character Assassination,” quite interesting. So check www.yoganandafortheworld.com and if you see that chapter listed you know the newest version is there. Even if you have read it already, there are enough changes that it is worth looking over again.

Swamiji said he was still slightly discontented with the book before the latest editing, but now he feels it is done. What he did was make it even more impersonal, saying there are two ways to approach Master’s legacy -- sectarian and nonsectarian. SRF has taken the sectarian approach; Ananda the nonsectarian. Very interesting.

After that he started working on the script for the movie about Yogananda. He is about half done and needs to finish that soon (before he leaves India, I think) so that work can get underway. He is working with the Italian director who did that movie we all enjoyed so much, “Moscati,” about a saintly doctor. So everyone is expecting this to be a beautiful film...

I’ve only heard about the script, haven’t read it yet myself. Let us all keep it in our prayers, that Master lead Swamiji in just the right way, as he always does. Imagine what it will do for Master’s work if a beautiful film could be made that actually carries his teaching and his vibration. Jai Guru.

In the late afternoons, Swamiji often invited a few of us over for tea. Sometimes for a “walk,” which consisted of a paved path leading from his house to a small pavilion on the hillside. Making this walkway -- completely level so Swamiji can negotiate it -- was a loving gift from Nirmala and Dharmadas. His house is near the top of the hillside where the community is located. From the pavilion you can look across the wide valley to hills on the other side -- a lovely, expansive view of mostly undeveloped countryside.

Heavenly, as you can well imagine, to be perched there under the canopy, sitting around a small table on padded wicker chairs, talking with Swamiji about the movie of Yogananda, the beauty of the setting, the dedication of the disciples gathered there to build the community. Moments in eternity.

Swamiji’s home is well built, spacious, light and airy. The main area is living room and dining room combined, large enough to hold satsangs, which Swamiji often does. When he is not in residence, it serves as the community temple. Off the living room there is a kitchen toward the back, then to the side a large bedroom and after that an office -- everything Swamiji needs for him and his staff to carry on the creative business of his life.

One of the challenges (among many) of founding this community is working out the relationships with the surrounding villagers. Watunda, the nearest one, has been there for 1000 years. Life is very simple in these villages, little or no electricity, many of the houses are made of mud, with thatched roofs and dirt floors. Walking through the village yesterday morning, on the way to the village square, we stepped off the path to make way for cows -- lovely white cows with curved horns -- and passed the village women with their water pots at the community water source, chatting together in a lively way as they all filled their containers. Even though there were signs of changing times -- occasional motorcycles parked in the courtyards, even a satellite TV dish -- elements of life, you could see, had been unchanged for generations.

Yesterday was “Republic Day,” the celebration of India’s freedom, and the school children raised the Indian flag, sang the national anthem, then did for us a demonstration of coordinated calisthenics. Very dear, as children always are.

Having Ananda springing up in the middle of their valley has elements of an alien spaceship landing. Even though we say, “We come in peace,” not everyone is so sure. Or, on the other side, self-interest springs up with astounding determination. Seeing our apparent limitless wealth, many are eager to see -- more often to demand -- that we also do for them whatever we are doing for ourselves.

Much of the community has been built by laborers hired from this, and other villages, so there is nothing secret about what we are doing. Swamiji’s vision for this Ananda Pune community also includes uplifting the lives of these villagers, not so much with direct charity, as with solar electricity, education, job training, medical care.

He bought for the temple in Watunda a beautiful statue of Shiva. It was to present this statue that we went over there together yesterday. It is a good start but it is going to take time.

Fortunately, Aditya, one of the Ananda monks is also a doctor and speaks the local language and has just the right way of presenting Ananda and relating to the villagers with dignity, respect, and also a calm centeredness in the goodness of what we are doing. Jaya is also well known and much liked by the local village leaders, so gradually it will all come into focus.

All part of the adventure of building community.

Here is a link to many photos that Durga took. (A few are from our Goa adventure and also from Swamiji’s trip to Goa in December. I think it is easy to see which ones those are.)

I love being in India. While I was there it was the only reality, and a blissful one indeed. But as soon as I turned my direction toward home, all the joy of life with this community came to the fore, and I am so happy to be back among you all.

Blessings and love in Master,
asha

Goa to Pune

2012-01-19T20:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Everyone:

It is impossible, being with Swamiji now, not to think about the passage of time. He will be 86 in May. And none of the rest of us are getting any younger either!

My parents both died in their early 80s and I helped them through the last years of their lives. But I left home at 18 and somehow never identified them with any particular age. We didn’t really grow old together.

By contrast, my life has been defined by Swami Kriyananda since 1969, when I was 22 years old. And now, well, I’m not 22 and neither is he 43, as he was when I met him.

He has used his body vigorously, to carry Master’s work to the far corners of this planet. Until recently, by will power alone he could command the body to fulfill whatever intention he set for it.

Years ago, when he was writing the Oratorio, he was stricken with serious heart problems. His circulation slowed down and those responsible for his physical well- being were justifiably alarmed. Swamiji’s response was simply, “Satan is trying to stop me from completing this work.” And he went forward, regardless of the threat to his health, perhaps his very life, perceived by others. Virtually the day he completed that great musical work, the physical symptoms receded.

Swamiji’s physical body has often been the battleground between the force of his will and Master’s to express what is needed to fulfill the “great work” Master commissioned him to do, and the forces of darkness that want to extinguish, or at least diminish that light.

Over the years we have grown accustomed to these periodic battles. It hasn’t always been easy for Swamiji’s friends to stay strong in these moments, but we have done our best.

Now, of course, a different reality is setting in. In the introduction to his book, A Renunciate Order for a New Age, I describe the experience of a few years ago when it seemed the span of Swamiji’s life had come to an end, until, in a matter of moments, Master healed him and, seemingly, extended his life for some years to come.

Swamiji explains it simply, “I still have work to do.” Mainly now it is the movies and a series of radio and perhaps TV programs. At least that is what he sees before him still. His body still responds to his determined will, and Swamiji continues to write and occasionally to give public programs, like the recent book launch in Mumbai. But Swamiji is the first to point out that 86 is a ripe old age and nothing of this world lasts forever.

When I met Swamiji for the first time in 1969, as I wrote in my book about him, and as many of you have heard me say, I felt an instant connection with him. He walked into the room and I recognized, not so much him, as his consciousness. The words that formed in my mind were, “He has what I want.” Already for some years I had been studying the teachings of Self-realization through Vivekananda and Ramakrishna (as I mentioned in my earlier letter). So I knew about Self-realization and spiritual advancement, but this was the first time I saw it manifest in a living person.

The notable fact, that I have been contemplating lately, is that the relationship with Swamiji was formed without reference to anything but his consciousness. He hadn’t spoken a word. I had no idea of his personality or his intelligence or any aspect of this particular incarnation. What I felt was only consciousness.

Then he spoke, and I was profoundly impressed. I don’t remember anything he said, I only remember my response: “This is the most intelligent man I have ever met.”

Even at the time I thought of that aspect of his nature as a bonus, a gift from God, but not the reason why he inspired me. In all these forty years since, naturally, I, and many others have formed a bond also with that side of his nature. With his personality, his strength and dynamism as a human being.

All of that dynamism is still within him, but the stage of his life and the age of his body have changed the way it is expressed. Most (but not quite all) of his work is done. The course of Master’s work has been set. It isn’t necessary, nor is it possible, for him to be engaged in the world with the same unrelenting will power Swamiji has shown for so many decades. Even in the company of his closest friends, there is more silence around Swamiji now.

Last summer in the filming for one of the movies a small satsang was arranged and Swamiji read a P.G. Wodehouse story. Afterwards he said that would be the last time he did that. “Too much laughter,” was his explanation, “too outward.” He wasn’t telling us to stop enjoying stories in that way. He was saying, simply, that it was no longer his bhav to do so.

Not long ago someone sent me a snippet of video taken at the old Meditation Retreat sometime in the 1970s. Swamiji was then in his 40s, and often dressed in Indian clothes. In this bit of film he was wearing a dhoti -- the skirt-like Indian garment. In the film, he walked out of the temple, bent over and picked up his sandal, and standing on one foot put on his shoe. The dhoti separated a little and you could see his muscular calves.

Now, like many people of his age -- my father, my father’s older brother whom I also assisted in the last years of his life (he passed away last year at age 95) -- he needs assistance even with simple tasks, like putting on his shoes or walking.

Consciousness is the same. Consciousness is unchanging. But the body is ephemeral. Not only his, but ours, too, of course.

The relationships we all have, not just with Swamiji, but with each other, are built slowly, over many years, through shared experiences of many kinds -- meditation, satsang, celebration, service, social. Everything outward passes away, even our personalities. But insofar as we have been united in the consciousness of God, that remains with us, and unites, for eternity. Spiritual family transcends time, space, and all physical limitations.

Some years ago I was sitting in my apartment in the community and there was a large picture of Master on the wall. I don’t remember the context, but I found myself alone, looking at that picture. I am not given to anything resembling visions, but in that moment there was a sense of Master’s presence. It occurred to me, with the force of more than ordinary thought, that I, and all the many friends with whom I have shared this incarnation, came for only one reason: To serve Master’s cause, to be with Swamiji, to help him in this “great work.”

Yes, many other desires have also animated my life. I can’t pretend otherwise. But no matter how much they may have dominated or defined me from time to time, always, underneath, there has been one consistent note: to help Swamiji fulfill Master’s commission.

On Swamiji’s 80th birthday we had a huge celebration at Ananda Village. For the final event hundreds of people were gathered in the garden at Crystal Hermitage. For the third or fourth time we sang “Happy Birthday” to Swamiji and presented him, as I recall, with yet another splendid cake.

Various tributes were offered to Swamiji, then he took the microphone to respond. He repeated to us something we had heard before. After Master’s passing, Rajarshi Janakananda, Master’s spiritual successor, repeated to Swamiji the same words Master had spoken, “You have a great work to do.” And on one occasion (at least) Rajarshi also said, “And he [Master] will give you the strength to do it.”

On his 80th birthday, Swamiji looked out over the huge crowd of devotees, and said, “And you are the strength Master gave me.”

For the last week we have been with Swamiji at a resort in Goa, a place we have visited several times before. Beautiful, relaxing, a joy to be with him and other life-long friends.

Just for fun, I had my palm read by a man who comes to the resort to provide this service to the guests. He didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. In fact, most of what he said seemed self-evident, until I remembered that he knew nothing at all about me except what he “saw” in my palm.

Just to satisfy your curiosity, he said that I am articulate, serviceful, have lots of friends, and, he said, will have a long life.

I mentioned this last before I say, “How quickly an incarnation passes.” And how little the details matter! What looms so large along the way really fades into nothing compared to whatever central meaning one has built one’s life around.

And what joy to live for God, to be part of this great work, to have been a witness to Swamiji’s life lived for Master.

So, enough of the eternal, here’s a little of the mundane.

The resort, as you can see from these photos, is beautiful, because spacious, well designed, filled with natural beauty. The buildings are well designed, the rooms airy and filled with light, but simple, so you feel more as if you are in your own home than in someone’s palace. Much more enjoyable for people like us.

Because of all the blue clothes, other guests often ask us who we are. I answered a woman’s question by saying, “We are part of an ashram.”

She looked at me rather quizzically, and said, “When I think ashram I think more austerity than...well... .this,” indicating our surroundings. We were sitting in what is really a first-class spa, both waiting to have a massage.

I saw it suddenly from her point of view and said only, “There is lots of austerity in our lives. We come here to relax.” But I don’t think she was convinced!

In fact, I don’t think of this life in terms of austerity at all. Years ago, when I first came to Ananda, I lived in a trailer so small I could almost touch both side walls when I extended my hands. And I couldn’t do any of the energization exercises inside that involved raising my hands above my head.

There were some holes in the floor (ventilation as far as I was concerned) and sometimes grasses started to grow through those openings. Raccoons would occasionally break in. To this day, a certain page of my first edition of The Path has the red-dirt footprints of a raccoon who made his way into my trailer when I was away and walked across the book open on my table.

For a time a family of porcupines lived underneath the trailer and as I lay on my bed at night I could hear them eating away at the supports which anchored the trailer to the hill. (Eventually we trapped the porcupines and took them far away.)

Forget indoor plumbing. Simply not an option. It was amazing luxury when I got cold running water inside.

Once during that time someone spoke of the austerity of life there. “Austerity?” I was genuinely puzzled. It had never occurred to me to think of that trailer as anything but pure bliss! It was a detail, unimportant compared to the central meaning of my life: Master, Swamiji, Ananda.

Of course, time passed and circumstances changed. Many of us would have been content to live at that level of simplicity forever. It was Swamiji who insisted that we needed to create a place also of outward refinement and beauty. “In America especially,” he said, “where money is not that hard to come by, people will think there is something wrong with our teachings if we continue to live in such a poor way.”

If people coming to Ananda see outward beauty it will inspire them to believe that our teachings, too, are beautiful, he explained. We have seen that the Temple and the courtyard surrounding it, the beautiful lawn and trees and gardens in our residential community, have awakened interest in the spirit behind those places. In fact, it is really the spirit that people respond to even in the outward expression of it.

Now, spending a week in this resort in India, it feels neither austere nor luxurious. It is merely a detail. The central meaning is lifelong friends, Swamiji, and the divine opportunity given to us by Master to serve his cause.

We are now in the airport -- airports are the ideal time to write letters! -- on the way from Goa to the Pune Community.

This is the start of a month-long training program for community residents which we will all be part of for the time we are there -- for me, one week.

I’ve never visited this community and I am eager to see and feel it and ... perhaps not until I get to the airport on the way home -- write to all of you about it.

joy,
asha

P.S. Because I have used the word consciousness so many times in this letter, I thought you might be interested in a question I received on that concept and the answer given.

Dear Asha,

I appreciate all of your insights on Master's teachings. I was wondering if I could ask you a very basic question. You mention consciousness over and over in many of your talks, as does Swamiji in his books. Is it possible to define what you are referring to? What is consciousness? What does it mean to meditate on Master's consciousness?

Thank you in advance,
Paul
California

Dear Paul:

I wrote to Swamiji's secretary, Lakshman, and asked if he could refer me to something Swamiji has written on this subject, because I couldn't remember anywhere that he has answered this question.

He responded that he doesn't think Swamiji defines consciousness anywhere in his writings, for a very interesting reason, something he has heard Swamiji say.

Consciousness is the underlying reality of everything. You can't define it because everything in creation is defined by it, not it by anything else.

Having said that, in practical terms, the way I use the word, and Swamiji also does sometimes, it means our understanding of life, our awareness, attitudes, the vibration on which we function.

Although in a recent e-mail to me, Swamiji made a distinction between understanding and approach to life and consciousness itself. So you see, any definition does not really define it.

As for meditating on Master's consciousness, fortunately, that is an experience, not a definition. I think the answer is in the Bible, referring to Jesus, "To all who received him to them gave he the power to become the Sons of God."

The best way I have found to do it is to try to put aside my own reality and enter into his. I don't know how clear that is. Perhaps if you experiment you'll understand what I mean. It isn't about praying to him, or asking him to come. It is lifting oneself into the light that he is, and then accepting and merging into that (to the extent that I can!). There are no ideas at that point about what one is doing. It is communing. Which is of the heart, not the intellect.

Hope this helps!

joy,
asha

India Book Launch and Vivekananda's Rock

2012-01-12T14:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Everyone:

We landed at the Mumbai airport just before the book launch event was scheduled to begin. We thought we might make it in time at least for the end of the program, but nearly 45 minutes later, still waiting for our bags, it was obvious there was no chance.

So we were sitting in the lobby of the Oberoi hotel, just checking into our rooms, when the door of the elevator opened just a few feet away from us, and out came Swamiji, with Jyotish on one side, Narayani on the other, and Lila, Devi, and Miriam following behind.

They were just returning from what turned out to be a hugely successful launch of the new biography of Master, just published in India. The hall was filled to capacity -- 1200 people -- with another 400 watching from the foyer on video screens.

When they entered the hotel lobby we didn’t know any of these facts. All we saw was Swamiji’s blue eyes radiating so much bliss that it was impossible to focus on any other reality. At the event, Swamiji spoke for more than an hour, responding, it seems, to the warmth and receptivity of the audience.

The program is posted online so you can see it there for yourselves.

Soon after we were able to sit at dinner with Swamiji, Jyotish, Devi, Narayani, and Sri Karthikeyan, our long-time friend in India who introduced Swamiji at the program. Many of you know Karthikeyan from his visits to Ananda during Spiritual Renewal Week. He is a national figure in India, the former head of the equivalent of their FBI. Now he devotes himself to working for religious unity and political peace. He is a kind and noble man, an ideal expression of the finest characteristic of the Indian people.

It was a joy to see the sweet and respectful friendship between Swamiji and Mr. Karthikeyan as they discussed Ananda, its work in India, the excellence of the program just completed, and generally the future of India and the world.

When we arrived in Mumbai our plan was to see Swamiji that evening, then leave for Goa the next day at noon. Swamiji, with three others, was going first to a place called Kanyakumari at the southernmost tip of India, then coming to Goa afterwards.

His journey was a pilgrimage to a place just off shore, a granite island, really a huge, steep sided rock about the size of a football field, known as “Vivekananda’s Rock.” On that small island there was an ancient temple to the goddess Parvati and a more recently constructed temple (1970), dedicated to Swami Vivekananda.

Vivekananda, who died in 1904 (or thereabouts) at the age of 39, was the foremost disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, a spiritual master who lived in the Kali Temple near Calcutta in Dakineshwar in the mid-1800s.

There is a close connection between Master and Sri Ramakrishna. Master Mahasaya, described with such reverence by Master in his own Autobiography, was a disciple of Ramakrishna. He is also known as “M,” the author of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, a compilation of the extensive and detailed notes he took of every meeting with his master. The chapter in the Autobiography, called “The Heart of a Stone Image,” is about the statue of Mother Kali at the temple at Dakineshwar where Ramakrishna lived.

Vivekenanda fulfilled for his guru the same role Swamiji has played for Master: the one who carried the teachings of the guru to the world.

Vivekananda was a young man when Ramakrishna died. Soon after, he set out alone to walk the length of India as a wandering sadhu. When he reached the southern tip, Kanyakumari, he saw, just a few meters beyond, the granite rock that now bears his name.

Here three oceans collide: the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean. The waters are turbulent and apparently no boatman was willing to take Vivekananda across, so he swam to the rock. For three days he meditated there until he received what became the guiding vision of his life, to revitalize India and carry his master’s teachings to the world.

This was at the end of 1892, they believe Christmas Day. The next year, which also happens to be the year of Master’s birth, 1893, Vivekananda came as a delegate to a Congress of All Religions in Chicago, bearing his master’s message of the unity of all religions.

Because Vivekananda’s writings were my introduction to Self-realization teachings, I have long known this story and have wanted to see this rock for myself since the age of 19. But in all our trips to India we never came close to this point.

In April 2010, Swamiji received a reading from the ancient sage Agastya, through the modern day pundits who are the custodians of Agastya’s writings. It is believe that these writings are from Treta Yuga, a higher age when the obstacle of time is dissolved. Agastya readings are similar to the Brighu readings, another sage probably from that time, being about the past, present, and future of many individuals living now, including details that made it unmistakable that the sages were able to accurately see future events.

The Agastya reading for Swamiji was exceedingly positive, promising success of every kind -- spiritual as well as with his work in the world. The reading drew a close parallel between Vivekananda and Swamiji, and the pundits urged Swamiji to make a pilgrimage to Vivekananda’s Rock, saying it would bring great benefit to his life and work.

Gradually Swamiji came to feel that he should heed this advice from Agastya, and thus planned this trip to Kanyakumari, planning to take just Narayani, Miriam, and Dharmadas with him, thinking a smaller group would be more convenient and less distracting to the inward purpose of the journey.

However, on the way to the breakfast table on Monday morning, just an hour or so before he was to leave for his flight, Swamiji suggested that Jyotish, Devi, Nirmala, David and I should come along. So over breakfast, fights were cancelled, new flights booked, hotels reserved, and other reservations changed.

Soon we were all set for a flight leaving just a few hours after Swamiji.

Kanyakumari is too small to have an airport, so we had to fly in and stay the night at a place three hours away and then drive the next day to the hotel where we would stay the night, not far from the ferry that would take us to Vivekananda’s Rock.

All the plans were made so quickly that when the taxi driver taking David and me to the airport said, “What airline?” we had to stop the car and ask others, “What city are we going to?” We didn’t even know. Trivundrem it turned out to be.

The next morning we drove the 80 kilometers -- three hours of driving -- to Kanyakumari, had lunch at our hotel, then immediately drove to the ferry. It was “high season” for pilgrimage to that spot and we had been told the line just for tickets was an hour wait. To our surprise, we were able to go right to the window.

Getting that far, however, was not an easy journey for Swamiji. Compared to the crisis he recently endured, his health is much better. But at the age of nearly 86, travel of any kind, especially in India, is not easy for him.

The weather was hot, the day sunny, with the light reflecting off the waters around us. The breeze was strong, and the way quite crowded with other pilgrims, many talking noisily and quite outward in their enthusiasm. In any crowd, our group would have stood out. Narayani, as a brahmacharini, was dressed in bright yellow, all the rest of us in blue.

Swamiji chose to walk as much as he could, but when the way was too steep, we had brought a wheelchair from the hotel for him. He cannot walk without assistance, so with a friend on either side, and one nearby pushing the empty wheelchair, our whole group, as you can well imagine, was a circling field of energy with him at the center.

All of us being old friends, we intuitively worked together to move ourselves and him safely from the car, down the long hill to the ferry dock, through the crowds onto the boat, then off onto the stone pathways of Vivekananda’s Rock.

Not surprisingly, the Indians were respectful of Swamiji, for many reasons including the fact that, although not strong physically, he was determined to visit this holy place. So no one objected when, as necessary we ignored or removed “Do not enter” signs when we needed to take a shorter, ramp route to our goal.

On the rock there is also a small ancient temple to Parvati where we stopped first, meditating for just a few moments, then circumambulating the inner shrine where a mark in the stone is said to be Parvati’s footprint.

We had been told that on the lower level of the temple to Vivekananda there was a meditation room. So we scouted it out ahead of time then took Swamiji there. For about 10 minutes we meditated together. I think most of us spent our meditation praying for Swamiji, that Master bless him, that whatever promise Agastya saw for him in this pilgrimage be fulfilled.

Swamiji has given so much to us and to so many in his lifetime. It was an honor and a joy to be able to help him in any way, even something so small as doing what we could to ease the physical challenge of visiting this rather rugged and remote spot.

Fortunately, much of the rock and some of the temple was accessible by ramp. But to reach the main room at the top of the rock, the only way was up a long flight of steep stairs. Swamiji was determined to do all that could be done at this place, so, with assistance from others, and several stops to recover his breath and strength, he went up the stairs and into the temple proper.

It was made of rock and marble, no chairs, but if it had been set up it probably would have held about 100 people. There were two smaller shrines in the back of the room -- to Ramakrishna and his wife Sarada Devi -- and a larger than life-sized statue of Vivekananda in the front. Black marble pillars supported a very high ceiling.

The guard gave Swamiji the use of his wooden stool, and for a few minutes he sat leaning against a pillar.

Then we were done. Going down the stairs was difficult, but not nearly so hard as coming up. No one in the long line of pilgrims waiting to join the ferry objected when we took Swamiji to the front of the line and boarded the ferry. Then it was back up the long steep hill to the cars. Swamiji made no attempt to walk this part, but allowed us to move him in the wheelchair, several working together because it was so steep.

We drove a short distance then stopped for tea. There had been little conversation since we started. Our concentration had been on helping Swamiji complete this pilgrimage. It wasn’t only the physical challenges. There had also been a feeling that we needed to focus our energy to cut through a kind of swirling chaos all around us. It would be obvious to say the chaos was generated by the many rajasic people making the same journey we were on but it also seemed to emanate also from a more subtle level.

It was as if we were, for a time, passing through some slightly altered dimension.

Tapasya is often a part of pilgrimage. Tapasya is austerity willingly undertaken to achieve some divine goal, and certainly for Swamiji this was a great effort. Now he and we were all spent and gratefully collapsed around the restaurant table, glad to be in the air-conditioned room out of the wind and hot sun.

Swamiji spoke two words, “Masala chai.” There was some discussion about whether these two words might be the last words spoken by this great soul. Fortunately, the universe responded quickly. Tea and “nimbu pani” (water with lime juice) soon revived Swamiji and us all.

That night and the next morning a sense of blessing grew, which Swamiji also referred to at breakfast the next morning.

It is not often one can go on pilgrimage with Swamiji, so we counted ourselves deeply fortunate to have come with him. And, as it turned out, it would have been exceedingly difficult for the small group original planned to have managed alone.

Swamiji had no interest in repeating the bumpy car ride, so he got a first-class train ticket back to Trivendrum, the only such ticket available we were told . Three others bought tickets in other classes but as it turned, regardless of their tickets, all four traveled in first class seats -- actually full-length bunks -- while others of us went by car.

One night again in Trivendrum , and now we are on the plane for Mumbai to make a connection to Goa. Unfortunately you can’t fly directly from Trivendrum to Goa so this will be ¾ of a day spent in traveling.

David and I had imagined that we would have three quiet days in Goa on our own before Swamiji arrived, but that plan was scrapped for this wonderful adventure.

Blessings to all...

Joy,
Asha

Ask Asha: My Mother Was Bitter When She Died. How Can I Help Her Now?

2012-01-05T14:10:00.000-08:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

I saw Swami Kriyananda’s video "What Happens After Death" and now I am worried about my mother’s “afterlife”. She doesn't believe in God and became a very bitter and difficult person. I can feel her unhappiness but can’t get through to her. I love her and I know that she has a kind heart underneath. I always believed that angels and passed "loved ones" will be there to guide us into the spiritual world. Will my mom experience this also? I can’t stand the thought of her not experiencing love and relief.

Carina
from Europe

Answer

Dear Carina:

God is no tyrant. His law is impersonal and always fair.

God lives within us and is not fooled. If your mother has, as you feel, a kind heart, be certain: God knows and will respond. “God reads the heart,” is how Paramhansa Yogananda explained it.

Justice after death is not subject to human whim. Your mother will perceive the highest reality of which she is capable. The soul longs to reunite with God. It seeks the Light the way a river seeks the sea.

Be assured, angels and other divine beings will help your mother in the astral world. But she can’t rise beyond her actual state of consciousness. I suspect during her lifetime you, and perhaps other friends, tried to coax her out of her bitterness. But if she was determined to hold onto it, probably nothing you said or did could change her.

Dying does not in itself liberate us from self-induced limitations. To the extent that we define ourselves by those limitations, to that extent — even in the astral world — we are still limited.

If her bitterness is more than personality, but extends also to a rejection of divine realities, there is no way that even God Himself can force her to open to a Light she doesn’t want to receive.

We learn through the satisfaction of Bliss to seek more Bliss. We also learn through the absence of Bliss — that is, through suffering — to question ourselves and, eventually, open to realities we may have formerly rejected.

Think about your own years growing up with your mother. Perhaps now you are a mother yourself. Certainly there are times when a child rebels against necessary — but in the perception of the child, unpleasant — requirements. Going to school, for example, or learning to share with his siblings, or doing his homework — or not eating the whole cake in one sitting!

The child may be angry, rebellious, or grief-stricken at what is being imposed upon him, but a good mother will not yield to the whim of her child. She knows the future and the child does not.

It would not be love on her part but mere cowardice to cave into his emotions when the child’s future is at stake.

So it is with our Divine Mother. She knows that all souls must learn what appear to the ego to be hard lessons. She knows the future and we don’t. Only through transcending the ego and embracing the Infinite will we find the satisfaction our heart longs to receive.

You and your mother played the part in this life of parent and child, but that is merely a garment you wore for this one incarnation. Now that she has discarded that “garment” — the body that carried you in its womb — your relationship has gone back to its underlying truth: friendship in God.

If you want to be a true friend to your mother you must now help her in the way Divine Mother would help her. To pray merely that she be happy is like giving the child the whole cake so he will stop crying. You must show the same courage and faith in God that you want your mother to have.

What you must pray for now is that your mother learn whatever it is that Divine Mother is trying to teach her. That she find within herself the courage, devotion, humility, and wisdom to move forward in her divine understanding, not merely in her ego-based feelings.

Your mother has very good karma: she raised a devotee who can now pray for her, not merely for her temporary comfort, but for her eternal well-being.

It is natural to feel sympathy for your mother’s suffering. It is a good thing to have a tender heart. But that heart must also be guided by wisdom. Too much sympathy may not be helpful to her at this time.

To become bitter is not helpful to the soul. When your mother made that choice she dug for herself an unpleasant pit of wrong understanding. Now she is living in that pit and has to decide whether to stay there or climb out.

Be assured, your mother got herself into this difficulty and she can also extricate herself from it. You need to respect your mother the way a mother needs to respect her child.

Yes, she is having a hard time now, but she has the power within her to overcome. And she will. A good mother doesn’t panic merely because her child is struggling. She stands by with calm faith.

Your prayers can help her. Especially if you pray in the right way: with gratitude for what she gave you, with tender concern for her feelings, but also with courage and faith that she can and will awaken to higher realities.

I answered another similar question on May 27, 2011, called “When a Loved One Digs Themselves into a Pit, Do What Works.” That is posted here, too, and you might find it helpful.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: No Shortcut

2011-12-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

[Note: “Letters from Asha” will be going on holiday for the rest of the month, to resume in the new year. But please continue to send in your questions!]

Question

You talk about getting a perspective on the fleeting nature of human life. From that point of view, everything could be called trivial. When should I say, “This is trivial” or “This is important”? Seems the definitions are subjective. I may be dismissing things too often as “trivial” or at least people are telling me that I am. If I am traveling on a train, should I not look out the window, because the only thing that matters is the destination?

Swamiji has often used the example of how we create pain for ourselves -- lets say, by tying a string tightly around our finger till the finger turns blue -- then we release the self-created conditions that caused the pain -- i.e., untie the string -- and say how relieved and happy we feel. I feel that I have been “tying strings” around my soul for many lives. I don’t want a mere hug from God. I want to LOVE the Infinite. You have said it is not enough to say we love something or aspire to it we also have to work to achieve that goal. I see myself doing foolish things, I know they are foolish, I have done them before, but I am not able to act on what I know. Help.

From K, in India

Answer

Dear K:

I think you are asking for two things here, neither of which the Ananda way to Self-realization can provide.

First: Rules and definitions you can substitute for intuition

Second: To reach the goal without walking the path

As my mother aged her body began to fail. Everyday tasks became more and more of a challenge. “Getting old is not for sissies!” she often said to me.

Same could be said about the spiritual path. It is not for sissies. You have to risk. You have to fail. You have to fall to the ground. You have to get up again. It takes courage. In Swamiji’s course on discipleship that he wrote 60 years ago for the monks in SRF, he said the first essential attitude for the devotee is courage.

Wherever you are now there is always a way to go forward. Doesn’t matter if you have been over the same ground a thousand times. If it is where you find yourself (again), the only thing you can do is move from there.

What is forward for one person, however, is not always forward for someone else. Depends on where you are standing. So no simple rules, no dogmas, no formulas. Not for yourself or for others.

If Mahatma Gandhi, in the middle of the movement to free India, decided to abandon that effort and use his fame instead to open a private law practice, everyone would think that he had fallen. If your lazy uncle finally gets off his cot, and uses his law degree to make a lot of money for the family, everyone would say, “Well done.”

Imagine the rim of a bicycle wheel with spokes leading into the center. We are all spread out at different points around that rim. God is the center. All starting points are the same, and all spokes lead to the center. What direction leads to the center depends on how the rim is oriented from your point of view.

Devotees north of center have to go south; those south of center have to go north. People make a dogma of the direction in which they are moving. Those heading south declare, “South is the way!” Those going north are equally vehement. Both, of course, are wrong.

Progress is directional in relation to the center from wherever you.

Now, instead of thinking of many different people, think of all the different aspects of your own nature as individual points of consciousness around the rim.

For a while you may work on moving one aspect of your self toward the center -- developing a particular talent, for example. Then you may focus on something entirely different, perhaps raising a family.

Intuitively I have always known that we must strive for excellence in everything we do. For a long time, though, I couldn’t exactly work out philosophically why. If everything in this world is ephemeral, why bother? Isn’t that obvious?

In Swamiji’s book, The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, I found an explanation. (Look up gunas in the index.)

He speaks of the Guru as “triguna rahitam.” This means one who has transcended the three gunas, the fluctuating energies that make up the material world. Tamo guna is darkening, confining, downward pulling. Rajo guna is activating, restless. Sattwa guna is calm, uplifting, peaceful.

To determine what is forward for you, ask yourself, “What guna, or combination of gunas, am I manifesting?” Too often a clever answer, like “Why bother? Nothing is real,” is just tamo guna allowing fear and laziness to rule you.

Look how much energy Master put out to establish his work in this world. Look at Swamiji’s efforts to build Ananda. Great masters and highly evolved souls have always put out tremendous effort to achieve whatever task God has given them to do.

Swamiji will go over a manuscript dozens of times before he considers it ready for publication. When members of our community were first learning to sing the music he had written, sometimes he would stop them in the middle of a public performance to correct some aspect of what they were doing.

Some people protested that he was embarrassing them before others. (Interestingly, the singers themselves always welcomed his guidance and never complained.) Swamiji’s response was, “They need to put out the energy to do it right.” Singing the notes wrong was a symptom. Tamo guna was the problem they needed to overcome.

Whenever we fail to achieve excellence it is because we have not been able to transcend the confusing influence of the gunas. For the same reason, we don’t see God, even though His presence is all around us. We need to become like the masters, triguna rahitam.

To rail against yourself, Why do I keep making the same mistakes?” is, in itself, an expression of tamo guna. It makes you self-concerned rather self-expansive. Doesn’t matter what the obstacles are. You have to make the effort.

When Jesus was asked, “How to tell a false prophet from a true one?” he answered, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Ask the same question of your question, “Why bother?” The answer is, you can tell by the fruits.

Just sitting in the gym won’t make you strong, even if you go every day. You have to run on the treadmill and lift the weights. This world is a spiritual gymnasium. The “equipment” is the circumstances your karma has brought you. If you don’t engage, you arrive as a weakling, are helpful to no one, and leave worse off than you came, because you have squandered a God-given opportunity to expand your consciousness.

No one can or will force you to behave differently. Sooner or later, however, your own unhappiness will compel you to try.

As for finding a shortcut, there isn’t one.

To my everlasting embarrassment I remember a conversation I had with Swamiji. Well, not exactly a conversation because it was short, and he didn’t say anything.

I was facing a big challenge. To be fair to myself, it was a serious, life-long issue and I was far from the finish line when this happened.

I was explaining to Swamiji that everything in my life was going well, except for this one big problem. If I just didn’t have to deal with it, I told him, I would be so happy and so free. All of this I said mournfully, with tears running down my face.

Only later did I understand that what I said to Swamiji was, “If the spiritual path weren’t so hard it would be easier.”

In his wonderful way, Swamiji knew just how to respond to me. I already felt so sorry for myself I didn’t need more of that from him. Clearly, also, I was way beyond reason.

So he said nothing. Nothing at all. Not even with his face. “Expressionless” perfectly describes the way he looked at me. He just let what I said sit in the room without relating to it at all.

We sat like that in silence for what seemed like a few minutes. Then the phone rang. He answered it without even a glance of apology for the interruption. It was about an appointment with a doctor he was trying to arrange. Once that was settled and he hung up, it was clear the interview was over.

Don’t think for a minute that Swamiji was being rude to me. Even at the time, I could see his response was brilliant. “Enough already!” I got the message.

So I persevered. I cannot say I have conquered the delusion I was facing then, but, by the grace of God and Gurus, I have moved a good distance in the right direction.

I shudder to think what might have happened if, in that critical moment, Swamiji had shown even an ounce of sympathy. Of course he was much too wise to do that. He knew I would have seized upon it like a drowning person seizes a log. Except in this case, it would have taken me to the bottom of the sea, not safely to the shore where I was longing to go.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Mary, Mother of God

2011-11-17T07:50:00.000-08:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

What was the reason that God picked Mary to be the mother of Jesus ?

from JK

Answer

Dear JK:

This is going to be a long answer to a short question. There is so much theological confusion behind what you ask that even in a long answer I can only begin to unravel it. For the “rest of the story,” I urge you to read Swamiji’s book, Revelations of Christ as Proclaimed by Paramhansa Yogananda.

There is much controversy now about the life and teachings of Jesus. Historians, theologians, intellectuals, sociologists, politicians, even novelists are all offering competing theories. How is the devotee to know what is true and what is mere speculation?

Revelations of Christ gives us the answer: Look to the saints. Only those who share the consciousness of the Masters are qualified to speak with authority.

When Swami Kriyananda was a young disciple, sitting at the feet of his Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, he was present when Master dictated a revised set of lessons to be sent to the devotees. (Alas, never put into wide circulation.) In the first lesson, Master made this astonishing claim: The three Wisemen who came to visit Jesus in the manger were none other than three of the Masters in our line of Gurus: Babaji, Lahiri Mahashaya, and Sri Yukteswar.

Whether this was an astral visitation, a previous incarnation, or Babaji as he is now descending from the Himalayas, Master didn’t explain. There was, however, some enduring quality to their presence, because Master further explained that during the so-called “lost years of Jesus,” he “returned the visit,” traveling to India and Tibet to sit at the feet of these same Gurus. There are many traditions in the East that Jesus visited there.

Jesus lived only 33 years. Yet all four of the Gospels say nothing at all about 18 of those 33. It is preposterous to imagine that in the time Jesus spent with his disciples the subject never came up or that his biographers would fail to include this critical period of his life.

Self-realized Masters incarnate for no karma of their own, but to show those of us struggling to be realized the path to freedom. Spiritual practice -- sadhana -- and the relationship with the Guru are critical elements on this path. Almost every Master demonstrates in his own life how to be both a disciple and a sadhaka. Sometimes there is no apparent Guru, but still there is still a deeply devoted, disciplined, focused way of life.

Otherwise, it would be too convenient for disciples to say, “On your path you have to meditate and do austerities, but on our path, we just sit around and know God.”

Think how much of Autobiography of a Yogi is about Master’s search for his Guru, his years of training with Sri Yukteswar, and his intense effort to meditate and realize God. Yet he was born Self-realized. This wasn’t his own karma he was expressing; it was a freely chosen role to show generations to come how to achieve Self-realization.

The life of Jesus was just the same. Master tells us that when he was 13, Jesus left home and wandered for 18 years in India, learning from the Masters there and doing intense sadhana to set the example, and prepare himself for the mission ahead.

For some centuries after Jesus passed away, this part of his life was included in the Gospels and known by all his disciples. It helped define how they, too, should live if they would fulfill the destiny their Master offered them. “That which I do, ye shall do and greater things,” Jesus said. He promised Self-realization, not merely after death, but while living, as Jesus himself showed.

However, at some point, in Kali Yuga descending (the darkest of the ages on this planet, which reached its nadir at 500 A.D.), the Church began the process of making Jesus more and more “special.” Being steeped in the materialistic thinking of Kali Yuga, Church officials -- by now more bureaucrats than saints -- could no longer understand the true nature of their own Master and set about remaking his image to more closely resemble what they felt it ought to be.

It was at this time that those 18 years were “lost” from the Bible. Church officials reasoned that it would hurt people’s faith to think that Jesus had to undergo a period of training under the guidance of other Masters.

Some argued that it didn’t hurt the faith of the disciples who were with Jesus and heard about it directly from him, but that plea fell on deaf ears. And in the end those 18 years were removed.

As Swamiji points out, one proof that they were taken out, rather than omitted by the original writers, is that there is a complete blank where those years are concerned. The officials had the nerve to remove information, but they could not bring themselves to create new facts. Any biographer would have at least said, “And he grew up and worked in his father’s shop.” Instead, there is nothing.

Also removed around this time -- 553 A.D., at the Second Council of Constantinople -- were all references to reincarnation. The logic was similarly non-logical: “We need people to buckle down right now. We don’t want them to think they have all the time in the world to work things out.” Again, counter arguments fell on deaf ears. Even the Pope at the time, it is believed, opposed the ban. Still it was carried out. Removing reincarnation from the Bible proved a little trickier than the lost years, and some direct references remain. (See p. 311 of The New Path, by Swami Kriyananda.)

Now how does all of this relate to Mary the Mother of Jesus?

You see, what has happened is that by taking out of the “Christian” teachings the concepts of Guru, sadhana, and reincarnation, you have removed the whole idea of Self-realization. The Church accomplished exactly what it wanted. No longer can the devotee work on his own salvation, now it comes only through Jesus Christ, and-- here is the worst part -- through the intercession of “His” Church. Rituals, sacraments, blessings, absolutions, etc. were all gradually substituted for the direct connection between God and the devotee, which is the heart of Self-realization.

Thus “Christianity” becomes “Churchianity.” It is not when religion becomes “organized” that the damage is done. It is when the institution makes itself essential to the devotee’s salvation that true teaching dies.

The other purpose the Church had in doing this, besides strengthening its own position, was to make Jesus ever more unique and special. The teachings of Self-realization say that every soul has the same infinite destiny. That Jesus himself -- and all Self-realized Masters before and after him -- are souls like us who have completed the journey we are now on.

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect,” was not a compliment, it was a commandment.

But if Jesus is unique, as the Catholic Church now tells us he is, then the whole process of Self-realization is moot, in fact, impossible. Jesus never went through it, so obviously none of the rest of us will either. We must simply depend on Jesus (and the Church) for our salvation.

And since there is no such thing as reincarnation, and one lifetime is obviously not long enough to become “perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect,” the meaning of that statement must be other than it seems. Many translations of the Bible have been amended accordingly, “Be ye therefore good, as your Father in Heaven is good,” is but one example.

The Catholic saints who do make it to Self-realization (whatever the Church calls it) are an anomaly. There is no tradition within present-day Christianity to explain how it happens. They just appear, usually are fiercely persecuted by the Church, then canonized by that same Church after they die. They are persecuted, because without an understanding of Self-realization, saints cast doubt on the whole system. For example, according to the Church, all priests are ordained equally. How do you explain it then, when one priest is obviously more “ordained” than any of the others?

Because the Church has no answer to this question they usually try to bury the evidence, sometimes literally, by confining the priest to his cell, or transferring him to some far off parish where they hope he’ll never be heard from again. Read the life of Padre Pio for a modern day example.

Paramhansa Yogananda called his work “The Second Coming of Christ.” He came, he said, because of the request of Jesus to Babaji to restore the original teachings of Jesus, and the original teachings of Krishna (which have also been diluted) and show that in essence they are the same.

The Bhagavad-Gita explains divine incarnations in a more expansive and explicit way. “Whenever virtue declines,” the Gita says, “and vice predominates, I the Infinite Lord take visible form to destroy ignorance and restore dharma.”

Now, again, back to the question of Mary.

In his lifetime, Master spoke not only of that incarnation as Paramhansa Yogananda, but of several of his incarnations in the past, including as Arjuna and William the Conqueror.

He also mentioned previous incarnations of other in the line of Gurus: Lahiri Mahasaya had been Kabir and also King Janaka; Babaji had been Krishna; Sri Yukteswar incarnated when Master was William as his closest advisor, Lanfranc.

James J. Lynn, Master’s most advanced male disciple, whom he named Rajarshi Janakananda, had been with Master as one of Arjuna’s younger brothers. When Master was William, Daya Mata was his daughter; Swami Kriyananda feels he was Henry, one of William’s sons. (A fascinating book about William the Conqueror and his son Henry is Two Souls, Four Lives by Catherine Kaivari.)

The list goes on and on. In The New Path, in the chapter “His Last Days,” Swamiji describes in thrillingly poetic terms how families of souls form around a great Master, incarnating together again and again “to work out their salvation -- not only inwardly on themselves, but by interaction with one another. To achieve divine emancipation, it is necessary to spiritualize one’s relations with the objective world and with other human beings, as well as with God.”

“The stronger the family, spiritually speaking,” Swamiji goes on to say, “the greater its attractive pull on new souls that may still be wandering in search of an identity of their own. A family evolves with its individual members; at last it, too, becomes a ‘star’ in the firmament of humanity, and begins to produce great souls of Self-realization.

“As spiritual ‘stars,’ such great families become powerful for the general upliftment of mankind... Yogananda’s is one such spiritual family. His forms part of a greater spiritual ‘nation,’ of which Jesus Christ and Sri Krishna (in this age Babaji) are also leaders.”

I believe what the Bible tells us, that an angel came to Mary and told her of what was to come. She would have had the state of consciousness where she could easily commune with angels. She was not, however, some random, albeit pure-hearted girl who happened to catch the angel’s attention. Mary’s relationship with Jesus must have been formed many, many incarnations before. She was part of his spiritual family, one of those “great souls of Self-realization” that Swamiji speaks of. God chose Mary because Mary chose Him.

As we say every week in the Festival of Light, “Your chosen people have always been those of every race and nation who, with deep love, chose Thee.” The Festival goes on to lead the congregation in this prayer: “O Lord, with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength, I choose Thy love, I choose only Thee.”

There are also ancient traditions gaining new credibility that say Jesus was part of the Essene community, an enlightened group within Judaism that was still in touch with more uplifted teachings than most Jews practiced at that time.

According to this tradition, the Essenes knew that an avatar was coming and the community had been working together for a long time to prepare for him and the mission that would follow. Part of that tradition is that Mary was trained from a young age for her role as his mother. Who can say if this is true? Certainly it is apocryphal. For Mary to play the part she did, she would have to be highly dedicated and evolved before Jesus was born.

Understood this way, Mary is not merely an inspiration and a blessing she is also an example we can all follow of dedicated service to God, Guru, and mankind.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: An Ugly Divorce

2011-11-10T07:37:00.000-08:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

How is it possible to forgive or to let go of fear and anger when the person who hurt you continues, deliberately and unrelentingly, to do so? An ugly divorce, in which I did my utmost to remain civilized, has devolved into guerilla warfare where my ex uses our kids to "stick it to me." Particularly when my children are subjected to this sickness, my heart fills up with fear and a terrible anger. I do my best not to add to the strain on the kids. How do I rise above the hatred and live well?

From S

Answer

Dear S:

My heart goes out to you. It is hard to imagine anything worse than what you are experiencing. Every parent naturally wants for his children the best he can imagine. To see your family life fall so far short of what you may have hoped for is difficult karma indeed. Not easy to overcome, as you are finding out.

Still, what choice do you have? You cannot control the behavior of your ex. You cannot live your children’s life for them. It is their karma, too, to be caught in this “guerilla warfare.” Not that you should be indifferent to helping them through it, but for them, too, it is a reality that has to be faced.

One of the greatest obstacles to overcoming karma is that instead of wanting to face it, we want it to go away. Not surprising, or anything to be ashamed of, especially when those we love are being hurt.

In the Festival of Light, which we do at Ananda every week at Sunday Service (I don’t know where you live, but you can see the Festival as a live stream from Ananda Village) there is an allegory about the spiritual evolution of a little bird who represents our soul journey. The second stage of that bird’s adventure is “The Revolt.” He suffers from his own wrong action. He is given the right advice about how to change himself, but he doesn’t want to change. Instead of adapting to reality he prefers to insist on declaring a reality of his own.

The problem is, it doesn’t work. And even though “repeatedly he lost everything he had,” he persists in his wrong action for a long time. An afternoon for the little bird equals “eons of our time,” the Festival says.

Self-evidently you have no wish to continue in the reality you are in now. However, the law of karma is always fair. This is a very difficult truth to accept. Very difficult. No spiritual progress is possible, however, until you take that truth into yourself all the way down to your bone marrow.

Whatever is happening now is the exact result of wrong actions and wrong attitudes of your own in the past, perhaps not in this life but in incarnations you no longer remember.

I’m not trying to blame you or make you feel bad, hopeless, or helpless. Who in their right mind would inflict this kind of suffering on oneself and one’s children? Clearly, whatever dark actions in the past are being worked out in the present, are in the past. This is not who you are now.

You have learned many lessons. The mere fact that you are appealing to a spiritual source for help means that you have learned a great deal. Still, self-evidently, you are not free. The same is true for your children. The only thing to do now is devote yourself to learning whatever lessons remain.

What might those lessons be? It is not easy to penetrate our past lives and find the details of who did what to whom and how those consequences are playing out now. There are people who can do that for you. Not all are reliable or helpful in the way they present things, but if there is someone you know to be compassionate and trustworthy, you might consider a session or two. Sometimes to know the past life influences gives us the courage we need to persevere in the right way.

Even without that kind of understanding, however, the lessons are obvious. Even mindedness, calm acceptance, faith that God is in charge, even in a situation like this which seems so far outside what you would like to think of as the will of God.

The ego wants ease and pleasure. The soul wants freedom. As Swamiji wrote recently,
“Sometimes pain is the shortest route to freedom.” The ego doesn’t like this. Thus “The Revolt.” The soul, however, rejoices, no matter how difficult the road. Our higher self knows that on the other side of this wall of fire is bliss.

I suspect there is very little you can do to solve this problem directly. If you haven’t already explored legal options, I certainly would, but I doubt if there are laws against “wrong attitude,” which is what your ex is expressing in spades, and which you are also falling into.

The only solution to this is on the level of consciousness.

You are going to have to become a world-class athlete of consciousness. You’ll have to train all the time. When one of my friends developed cancer, she said to me, “I don’t have the luxury of having a single negative thought.” She was already one of the sweetest women I had ever met. Within herself, though, she saw room for improvement.

The situation with your ex and your children is your gold-medal event. Every so often you will have a chance to “compete” against your own wrong attitudes in that final round. In between, however, like any athlete, you have to stay focused on that upcoming challenge.

I’ve noticed that almost always the wrong attitudes that pull us to pieces in the major challenges of our lives are also expressed by us, in some form, in all the lesser challenges as well. Usually we don’t even notice that we are responding with anger, for example, or resentment, or hatred, because the intensity is low or nothing is at stake. Raging at a bad driver for example, or a roommate who leaves dishes in the sink, or the weather when it doesn’t cooperate with our plans may not seem relevant to your problem with your ex and your children, but it is.

Every time you respond to anything in your life in an inappropriate way you are cutting a groove of habit in your consciousness that will pull you right into it when the stakes get higher. You are making vrittis (whirlpools of energy) in your chakras that will influence your consciousness in every future situation. And, by contrast, every time you respond with calm, loving, uplifted energy, you are making a habit that will give you the strength you need when you need it.

Another factor comes into play here: the grace of God. Take one step toward Divine Mother and she will take three steps toward you -- or more. I call it the “Divine Matching Fund.” Put a penny of good energy into each of your charkas and Divine Mother will donate a dollar of Her bliss. You’ll see. It is amazing.

The only weapon you have in this guerilla warfare is your own consciousness. The good news is: consciousness is everything. Not only will it change your experience, it is also the primary influence you will have on your children, and the way ultimately to resolve this karma.

Remember: Where there is dharma (right consciousness) there is victory.

Not necessarily today, or even tomorrow, but eventually. Dharma always triumphs. This is the founding principle of Ananda and the secret of our success. Time after time it has proven true. Even when everything has gone against us, in the end, because we have always clung to right consciousness, it all came out in the right way. Please understand, that doesn’t mean we’ve always been perfect moment to moment. Everyone fails sometimes. Our perfection is that we have never given up.

God has taken away from you any margin you may have had to be casual about your thoughts and attitudes. He has also taken away from you the freedom to be lazy about your spiritual practices. You have to practice all the time having right consciousness so when the big challenge comes -- your ex and your children -- you will have the strength to remain centered in yourself.

Here is something hopeful to consider. Often when a person no longer gets the result they want from the action they are taking, they lose interest in repeating it. Your ex seemingly is quite successful in “sticking it to you,” as you put it. You need to find a depth of experience of God within that makes this tactic ineffective.

Your children, seeing your calm acceptance and joy, even in the face of extreme provocation, will also be impressed, and, we pray, inspired to emulate your example. You can’t depend on that in the short run, but “Where there is dharma there is victory.” It will affect them. And your ex -- eventually.

As for specifics, study the writings of Master and Swamiji on karma, affirmations, meditation. Really, you need the whole spiritual path!

Even though it doesn’t feel like grace right now, God is gifting you by challenging you to such an extent that you must turn to Him.

If you haven’t already done so, please submit your name and that of you ex and your children to the Ananda Prayer Council and every other group you may know that will pray for you. I will pray also.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: A Karmic Bump in the Road

2011-11-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

Two much-respected Ananda leaders recently hit a karmic bump in the road (literally). Sudarshan has ridden a motor scooter around Ananda Village for 15 years without incident, until a few months ago when he crashed going over a speed bump and seriously fractured his leg. For weeks he was virtually confined to bed, in intense pain and dependent upon Savitri, his wife of 31 years, for nearly “everything in the material world,” as she described it.

My friend S. wrote saying, “I guess I’m surprised they would have to go through something like this. It doesn’t truck with my tidy ideas about karma. I think of karma as being about bad things we did in the past, not about our future good. Maybe they are suffering in order to teach the rest of us to keep on keeping on? This is a tough one for me.”

Answer

Dear S:

About twelve times in twenty years, David and I, with Durga and Vidura, led pilgrimage tours to India to many of the holy places described in Autobiography of a Yogi. We took about thirty people each time, mostly devotees, mostly Americans who had never before been to India or any other “developing nation.”

Because of poverty and overpopulation, you see things in India you don’t see in America. Families living on the sidewalk, beggars, some sick or deformed, surrounding you on street corners, impoverished trinket sellers who follow you for blocks and won’t take “No!” for an answer.

(In defense of India, I have to say that in the twenty years between our first and last pilgrimage, the country has transformed. Prosperity is on the rise.)

Some people choose not travel to countries like India because they feel they couldn’t cope with sights like these. Many of our pilgrims, too, were concerned, but that didn’t keep them from coming.

Their reactions varied. Some moved comfortably through these new environments, others were always ill at ease.

After a while, a certain pattern emerged which I think is relevant to your question.

Whether or not a person could be at peace with the conditions he met in India was usually a reflection of how calmly he could accept in his own life the fact that suffering is often a necessary, in fact, an inevitable stage on the journey to bliss.

In other words, as Master put it, an easy life is not necessarily a victorious one. And what are we looking for: ease or victory?

From the ego’s point of view, the purpose of life is ease and comfort. America is particularly dedicated to this “ideal.”

This is not, however, God’s perspective. What He wants for us is Eternal Bliss. The comfort of the moment means nothing Him compared to Eternity.

Do you understand that? Just to be sure, let me put it another way, in terms of questions you might ask yourself.

Do you rebel against the conditions of your life, or do you see, even in hard times, the hidden hand of God leading you from delusion to bliss? In the midst of difficulties can you find calmness and courage by remembering other hard experiences that in the end taught you important lessons and brought you even greater joy?

In other words, are you reconciled in your own life to the fact that suffering is a part of growth?

Compared to the saints we are all children in the way we operate because our perspective is so limited.

An Ananda mother told me that from the time her daughter was an infant the she and her husband were careful always to say grace before eating, ending the prayer with the words, “AUM, Peace, Amen.”

When her daughter was about three years old, she finally organized her thoughts enough to ask a question that had been bothering her for a long time. “Mommy,” she said, “why do we only bless the Peas and the Almonds?” For all those years, that’s what she understood of “Peace, Amen.”

Here’s another story of the “Gospel According to Children.”

A young child came home from Sunday School and announced happily to her mother, “Don’t worry anymore, Mommy, the quilt is coming.” The mother accepted this bewildering news graciously, not wanting to show her ignorance in front of her child, but after the daughter, went to bed, she called the Sunday School teacher.

Turned out the lesson had been, “Be of Good Cheer, the Lord will send you the Comforter.”

The point of these stories, besides being delightful, is to say: It is all in your point of view.

Karma is neither bad nor good. It simply is. It is energy in motion that has to be resolved. Everything in the end resolves back to zero. Quite an astonishing thought. Every upward moving wave has to be balanced by a trough. No matter how high the waves nor how deep the troughs the overall level of the ocean remains unchanged.

Karma is the waves. Truth is the ocean. We call karma “bad” if it makes us uncomfortable and “good” if it feels pleasurable. This, however, is childish.

The only “good” karma, in the final sense, is having no karma at all. Finishing the game. Coming to rest in the Spirit. Dissolving the ego and becoming jivan-mukta -- freed while living.

Yes, our friends were made very uncomfortable by the motor scooter accident -- he in the physical pain and disability of a broken leg, she by having to give up everything else to take care of him. She called her blog post about the experience, “Never Say: I Need a Break.”

And yet, if through meeting this challenge with “calm acceptance and joy,” as we say every week in the Festival of Light, this apparent “suffering” becomes the means through which the ego is further dissolved, is it “bad” or is it “good” karma?

You see it is all in your perspective.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Alien Invasions in Ancient Times

2011-10-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

[Davy from Belgium asked a long question which we have summarized here.]

The question stems from statements made by Master in Conversations with Yogananda. In #36, Master confirms the truth of UFO sightings, and says someday we’ll travel to other planets as easily as we go now from continent to continent. In #44, Master responds to the desire of some disciples to visit Mt. Shasta in California because they have heard that ancient masters live there. He said there are no masters living on Mt. Shasta, but there have been “colonists.”

Davy asks about research, supported by “Sumerian tablets found in Iraq,” that say Earth has been visited by beings from other planets, who have tried to gain power over earthlings and that perhaps the darkness and seeming satanic influences on Earth now are because of these invaders. He speaks of these dark, reptilian creatures interbreeding with earthlings, feeding on negative energy, etc. In this context he mentions the vast numbers of ways the three gunas can manifest. He also asks about lower astral entities and how to protect ourselves from them.

Answer

Dear Davy:

Many of your questions are answered in the book just published by Crystal Clarity, The Yugas, by Joseph Selbie and David Steinmetz (Sanskrit names: Purushottama and Byasa). “Yugas” are the different ages — long periods of ascending and descending consciousness — that have happened on Earth over many thousands, in fact, millions of years.

Starting with information given by Sri Yukteswar in The Holy Science, and Master in Autobiography of a Yogi, the authors did extensive research to find supporting facts in history, geology, archeology, religion, and science. They then wove these facts into a fascinating narrative that puts into perspective past, present, and future.

UFOs, interplanetary travel, invasions or colonization from other planets — all of these are included, not in detail but in concept. I think you will find it helps you put into context other research that you have read.

There is also a website, The Yugas.

In the meantime, here are a few thoughts about the questions you have raised.

Your ideas about invasions of other species, interbreeding, creatures feeding on negative energy are all, in a sense, true, but perhaps not exactly in the way you are seeing it.

The drama of creation is the same everywhere. Whether on Earth, Mars, or on planets not yet discovered, the only “plot” in the universe is consciousness trapped in ego-based self-interest gradually becoming free. Everything is a manifestation of the Divine. And everything seeks to return to its Creator.

Ego-based self-interest often expresses itself in cruel and hideous ways, feeding, as you say, on negative energy. It is not that beings caught in this delusion are in themselves evil. They are merely misguided, utterly confused as to the source of their own happiness.

Look at the Chinese takeover of Tibet, Communism under Stalin, the Nazi takeover of Germany. If you want to believe the cause is alien invaders, who have systematically mated with human beings to create an evil race, feel free to do so. I don’t think it is factually true, but it does describe the spirit of what we see in history. At times madness descends, and it is comforting to explain it some way other than merely the degraded potential of human consciousness.

But in fact, it is our own potential. Not you, not me — not anymore. Master says, however, that before the soul attains liberation it experiments with every possible alternative. We try everything to see if it will give us happiness and only when we have drunk each cup to the dregs are we convinced. We don’t learn from being told; we only learn through our own experience.

This isn’t pleasant to contemplate. Among other things, it speaks of a very long time before we become liberated. But why else are we so certain that some behaviors will never bring us happiness? We don’t merely believe; we know.

This is why we have to be so patient, both with ourselves and with others, as we gradually work our way from darkness to light.

In every aspect of creation there are egos striving to be free, expressing themselves in some combination of the gunas — the three levels of consciousness: dark, active, and light.

Some people, some planets, express a preponderance of one or the other. Earth at this time is a mixture. The difference in the overall consciousness of various planets at various times is one of the many fascinating things explained in The Yugas.

In #41 of Conversations with Yogananda, Master is asked if we always reincarnate on Earth. He replied that there are many populated planets in the universe and where we go depends on our level of spiritual development. We choose a planet that is appropriate for what we need in that incarnation.

Technological advancement alone does not ensure purity of consciousness. What we see on Earth right now makes that clear. We have the technology to blow ourselves to bits and no guarantee that we won’t do it. It is the nature of early Dwapara Yuga — which is where we are now. Consciousness is rising but technology is rising faster. Eventually it will work out, but those on the planet now may experience the unpleasant “growing pains” as consciousness catches up to technology. (All of this is explained in The Yugas.)

Once interplanetary travel becomes common, as Master says it will, the idea of interplanetary invasion also rears its ugly head. Yugas run in a cycle 24,000 years long — 12,000 years each of ascending and descending consciousness. There are four yugas in all (we are just entering the second) and war continues into the third Yuga. By that time, space travel will be common so we can only assume that something of Star Trek can easily be reality — planets and planetary species getting all mixed up in peace and war.

The good news in all of this is Master’s comment in Conversations #41. We go to the planet that is spiritually appropriate. He does not say we go where it will be easiest or most pleasant. For all of us, too, are engaged in the great Cosmic Drama of consciousness trapped in ego-awareness seeking its home in the Divine.

All of this is fascinating to contemplate, and thrilling to read about (Did I mention the book The Yugas?!) but in the end, our job is the same. To love, serve, and meditate. For in that way we will gradually liberate ourselves from the only cause of suffering: bondage to ego.

The yugas are a planetary phenomenon, dictated, as The Yugas explains, by external astronomical realities (a planet’s position relative to the center — and therefore the source of energy — of the galaxy in which it orbits).

Self-realization is individual. The planets and the yugas are only the backdrop in front of which the process of realization takes place. Great masters have lived in every yuga, from the highest to the lowest. We go to the planet that provides for us the right context to work out our karma and gradually then to escape from ego into the consciousness of God.

As for astral entities, yes, they do exist. Sometimes souls after their bodies die are too attached to the material plane to leave this world for the astral spheres. They become ghosts, clinging to places and people that vibrate on their wavelength. Not all astral entities are evil; some are merely confused.

A young mother who dies, for example, may be so attached to her baby, and so worried about his well-being, that she will cling to the house or family where her baby lives. Even though her intentions may be good, her actions are not, because they show a lack of faith in God’s plan. Eventually such a person has to learn to trust God, and go on with her own destiny.

More negative attachments, like drinking, drug addiction, over-sexuality, cruelty, or hatred, can also bind a person to this world even after death. Those are the entities that seek to enter into other people’s bodies so that they can experience the material “pleasures” they crave.

Such an invasion, however, can only happen when a person gives up control of his own consciousness — which is what happens when you become drunk, high, or over-stimulated with sexuality. Many crimes are committed when people are in these states. Afterwards the person may not even remember doing it. It is not only the effect of the substances they may have ingested, it may also be because someone else came into their body when they were effectively “out to lunch.”

Not a pleasant prospect, certainly, but one easily avoided! Even when you meditate, don’t just go blank. Lift your consciousness upward to God. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can wander into the “dark side” and be strong enough to “handle it.” Maybe you will be, maybe you won’t. Don’t gamble with something so important as your own consciousness.

Ultimately, Light is the only reality. Concentrate on that, focus on the Masters, and you will always be protected.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: New Experiences and Negative Friends

2011-10-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

I meditate daily. Lately I have been experiencing vibration internally — very strongly when I am still but perceptible during activity. It started in my spine, then my heart chakra, now in my throat. I’ve been awakened at night with a whooshing sound, which feels Divine. Everyday I ask Guruji, Babaji, and Divine Mother for guidance. My life is being altered and I am changing. There are moments of insecurity but mostly what I feel is a deep, trusting love. Is this normal?

I have a friend, however, who is not accepting these changes in me. She says I am fooling myself. When I respond that I am feeling and hearing the Divine Mother, this friend gets very negative. As a result, I have distanced myself from her. I feel her negative energy of anger and resentment. She says I am making bad karma for myself. Am I? Is there a better way to handle this?

Maia, from USA

Answer

Dear Maia:

When you begin to meditate and ask God to guide you it naturally awakens energy in the spine and increases the upward flow. This can manifest in many ways, including those you describe. As you are finding, these experiences are wonderful and bring with them a sense of being touched by the Divine.

Your spiritual effort is awakening “the natural love of the heart,” as it is often called. This is a great blessing and very positive for your life. “Everything in future will improve,” Sri Yukteswar said, “if you are making a spiritual effort now.”

Because these experiences are new for you, at least in this incarnation, to feel unsure is also a natural response. If you moved to another country, you would find many familiar elements — people eat, drink, sleep, talk, laugh, love everywhere. At the same time, there would be aspects that would be confusing. So on side you would feel completely happy and at home making new friends in a new country, and on the other hand you would feel insecure.

After a little while, though, when you become familiar with the customs of your new country, the insecurity will vanish.

Entering the spiritual path, getting deeper into the life Divine, is entering a new way of life — delightful, adventurous, promising, but also unfamiliar.

So, the answer to your question, “Is this normal?” is “Yes.”

The response of your friend is, alas, also “normal” in the sense of quite common. She may, in fact, be genuinely concerned that you are getting yourself into something that won’t in the end prove beneficial. She is not showing much respect for your judgment, but at least we can imagine that she has your best interests are heart.

Even if she does, however, she is not behaving in a way that would make you want to spend any time with her right now. You may love her at a distance, but if she is going to insult your judgment and negate these precious experiences, why would you want to be with her?

Your choice to distance yourself is quite appropriate both from a spiritual and a merely social point of view. Even if she means well she is not behaving well. Why expose yourself to that?

Also, when the tree of spiritual development is just a sapling, you have to build a protective fence around it. Even a mighty oak when still a twig can be broken by a mouse. If protected at the beginning, however, it can become a mighty oak, able to shelter and support many souls.

You simply can’t afford to expose yourself to this kind of energy.

Yes, she is still able to direct it toward you through the ether. But that is really her problem, not yours.

Because this world is just a reflection of what we have inside ourselves, people often accuse others of what is actually happening to them. In this case, your friend says you are getting bad karma, presumably for distancing yourself from her.

Friendship is an important value. But a lower duty (dharma) ceases to be a duty when it is replaced by a higher one. In this case, your devotion to the spiritual path is a higher duty than maintaining this friendship. She has forced you to choose. There is no question: God first.

It is not good to say to or even about anyone that they are getting “bad karma.” That is the yogic equivalent of the old fundamentalist accusation, “You are going to hell!” Fortunately, the fate of others is not in our hands. God is in charge.

Still, without accusing her as she is accusing you, it is unfortunate that she has decided to respond this way. Some people feel threatened by the spirituality of others. Perhaps deep inside she knows you have taken the higher path and feels shamed or jealous by the contrast between what she is doing and what you are doing.

Maybe she is just jealous because you have someone else in your life — Divine Mother — who means more to you now than she does.

All of this is unfortunate. But no, you are not getting bad karma from trying to get closer to God, even if, as a side effect, it creates distance between you and your friend.

Still, watch your heart. Even if she provokes you, inwardly keep a kindly attitude toward her. It is not wrong, however, to respond sharply to her if necessary. When people insult something that is dear to you, you don’t have to take it silently. You can speak frankly. Even if your words are strong, however, keep a kindly attitude toward her inside. When a mother scolds her child, she doesn’t cease to love the child. In fact, sometimes she loves the child even more.

This doesn’t mean you have to think about her much or at all. And if thinking about her puts you on the wavelength of her anger and therefore disturbs your peace, do not think about her at all. Don’t even pray for her. You are still a sapling and have to protect yourself.

Tell Divine Mother that you are not able at this time to be her friend, so She will have to take over for you. Then turn your attention away from your former friend and don’t think about her again. If your friend changes, of course, you can welcome her back into your circle. But if she remains angry at you for being a spiritual seeker, you must keep your distance.

These things happen. In life we have to make choices if we hope ever to accomplish anything. Focus. Concentration. Discipline. These are the means to worthwhile goals. Sometimes sad things happen along the way — like the loss of friends who don’t understand. Give it all to Divine Mother.

Where there is dharma, which is to say, right action that leads to God consciousness, there is always victory. The best way to be a friend to this woman right now is to do the right thing spiritually, which is not to let her bad energy pull you down. In the end, she too will be blessed. For when we make spiritual progress, even if the egos of those around us who don’t understand disapprove, their souls rejoice. Your spiritual progress also uplifts them, even if they don’t know it.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: If He Isn't My "Soulmate," Should I Marry Him?

2011-10-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

Hello, Due to circumstances I have to marry someone without my full consent. My parents think that this is the perfect situation and this marriage will bring me a lot of happiness.The man that I am marrying is a good person. But, I am not attracted to him.I don’t get the feeling that he is my soulmate. I have lost a lot of faith in God-the only thing I asked god all of my life is for me to be with my soulmate. Do soulmates exist? I am bitter towards God &parents. How can I marry someone I dont love?

KT
from USA

Answer

Dear KT:

I am very concerned about you and even more concerned for your husband-to-be. To enter a marriage unwillingly is a recipe for disaster.

With every little disappointment or conflict you will throw into your husband’s face the fact that you never wanted to marry him anyway. Not a pleasant prospect for him.

You say he is a good person. Then out of consideration for him — quite apart from your own happiness — you should stop this marriage now.

You say you “have to marry” but if you are old enough to marry, I presume you are old enough to walk in and out of a room under your own power. I presume you can get a job, a passport, or anything else you might need in order to have your own life.

What you are saying is that to avoid this marriage you will have stand up to people you are not accustomed to defying. You will create disharmony and be perceived as willful and ungrateful. Perhaps the pleasant home you now share with your parents will become far less pleasant.

In other words, it will be inconvenient for you not to marry him. That is not the same as saying you “have to marry him.”

Do take this seriously. If you are going to be rebellious and unwilling in this marriage, don’t enter into it. It isn’t fair to the poor man who will be stuck with you for the rest of his life.

Now, that is one side of the question. The other side is, “Is this a suitable marriage?”

You say he is a “good person.” Are you compatible in other ways? Do you have similar interests? Education? Goals in life? Cultural and spiritual values? How well do you know him? Does he come from a good family? I am not talking about social status, but rather is his family harmonious, loving, kind? Is he a man of good character? Of noble habits?

What about you? Are you a good person? Do you have high values? Do you have noble habits? Are you generous and loving by nature? Are you willful and self-centered?

There is a spiritual reality called “soulmates,” but it exists on a level far beyond romance and marriage. Paramhansa Yogananda referred to soulmates only a few times in all his years of teaching and in all his writing. That’s because he knew everyone would immediately lower the concept from the spiritual level on which he was speaking to the question of men and women falling in love.

Soulmates, as Yogananda described it, is a union of spirit that comes as part of final liberation — moksha. At that point you have transcended the physical completely.

For the most part, when people speak of “soulmates” they are not talking about what Yogananda was referring to. In fact, usually they mean just the opposite — a gender based attraction that is both romantic and sexual.

Is there a reality to a having a “special connection,” whatever we call it, on this level? Of course there is. Our relationships are determined by past life associations. Whenever we meet friends from past lives the present is always colored by whatever happened before.

Is there only one destined romantic partner for us in each incarnation? Not likely.

Over the course of incarnations we have innumerable wives and husbands. Each relationship helps us learn certain lessons and develop needed qualities within ourselves. Relationships naturally repeat over the course of incarnations.

It isn’t possible to learn all our lessons in the relatively short span of one lifetime. But we have so many lessons to learn, we have to experience life with many different people in order to face and overcome all the various karmas.

I live in America where we are accustomed to choosing our own marriage partners, usually without help from anyone. I wish I could tell you that the perception, “We are soulmates” at the time of the wedding ensures a happy marriage. As far as I can see, it does not. I don’t want to go so far as to say it guarantees failure, but I will say that too much emphasis on how unique and special the attraction is between the couple often leads to an ego-based connection that does not stand up well against the test of time and changing circumstance.

Yes, I know this is hard to understand. Frankly, I did not understand it myself when I was 20 years old. Experience has been my teacher. Over the last several decades I have performed many marriages and done a great deal of marriage counseling, often helping people through the painful process of divorce. And I have been married 30 years myself.

Yes, of course, finding your marriage partner attractive is a great help to your relationship! But the kind of instant attractiveness, especially sexual attractiveness, that is so highly valued these days is not the most important factor in success together. Romantic and sexual feelings can be generated for a wide variety of reasons, not all of them spiritually inspired or helpful over the long haul.

I don’t mean to make light of your intuition. We recognize our friends from past lives. That’s a fact. And love at first sight that lasts for a lifetime does happen.

What I have learned is this: It is not hard to love someone. If you are sweet, tender-hearted, generous, understanding by nature — loving comes easy.

What is very challenging is to make a life together. To make a home, to raise children, to be loyal through the hard times, to understand and support one another, to earn a living, to be faithful — that is the difficult part.

This is what parents think about. Having lived long enough to raise you into adulthood, they know first-hand what really counts in a marriage. In a culture where parents are involved in the choice, they will definitely look for lasting values, and will be, as you find them, not particularly interested in your ideas of “attraction.”

Yes, attraction is important, but attraction that grows out of respect and appreciation for a depth of character that may take time to reveal itself — that is the kind of attraction that makes for a happy marriage.

And yes, it may be possible to have it all, but attraction alone is not the deciding factor. Character is.

You say you have lost faith in God because all you ever wanted was to be with your soulmate and you feel this man is not the one.

Here is a question, “How well do you know him?” Are there objective reasons for your “feeling” that he isn’t the one for you? Sometimes we don’t know our own minds.

Another question, “How much do you trust your parents?” Do you feel that they know you well? Have they shown themselves to be insightful where you are concerned? Are they generous by nature? Are they bullying you into this or is this an act of genuine, thoughtful, loving concern for you?

I guess I have asked you lots of questions, as much as answering the ones you have asked, but this is such a personal situation, it seems you need to look deeply within and try to weigh the factors objectively.

You may still come to the same conclusion: That this is not your husband. Your parents are likely to take you more seriously, however, if you approach this matter in a serious way.

An obvious solution is to postpone the wedding — but not necessarily cancel the whole idea. Maybe if you have more time to get to know this man, to meet his family, to spend time with him, to experience whatever it is about him that your parents find so suitable, that the whole idea will be more attractive to you. Or, it will be so obvious that it isn’t a good match that it will be less difficult to extricate yourself from it.

If you do take that solution — to postpone and get to know him — I urge you to enter into it with good faith. Don’t be a sulky, reluctant person. Open your heart; be interested and sincere as you explore the friendship.

And if, for some reason, postponement is not possible, and, despite your doubts, you do marry him, I plead with you: Give your heart to the marriage. Be a friend to your husband. Be kind, supportive, loving. Above all, accept responsibility for having married him. Don’t blame him, your parents, or anyone else. Getting married is the act of an adult person, so behave accordingly.

And who knows? You may be surprised to find that God has brought your soulmate to you. He may turn out to be everything you hope for in a life partner.

That result is far more likely if you offer to him the kind of love and friendship you have dreamed of having with your soulmate.

Rather than giving up on God, pray that He guide you and help you, either to step away from the marriage if you can’t enter into it with sincere good will, or to make a success of it.

I will pray for you.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Feeling Ashamed for Believing in God

2011-10-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

In the world today it seems that it is almost wrong to believe in God. It is almost as if it is shamefull to believe. How do you stop feeling shame in believing ?

I know i should not feel ashamed of it but sometimes people make me feel ashamed that I believe in God.

L.
from Europe

Answer

Dear L:

If you are associating with people who make you feel ashamed to believe in God, I suggest you find new friends. If they are people you can’t escape from — co-workers or relatives — I suggest you walk away when people speak disrespectfully of the divine. Don’t engage in arguments you can’t win that only leave you feeling badly.

If you can’t separate yourself physically, withdraw inwardly. In the very moment pray deeply to God to give you the strength to resist their false ideas.

At this point on your spiritual journey your faith is fragile and needs to protected from the harsh doubts of others, the way a sapling is surrounded by a fence until its roots are deep and its trunk has thickened. Once you are established nothing will shake your faith. But for now be careful.

Master says, “Whether one’s energy goes outward to the world or upward toward God depends to a large extent on the company you keep.”

If possible, find groups or individuals that support you in your faith and spend your free time with them. If you can’t find anyone in person, then make Ananda Online your community. There are so many resources these days. Even when you are physically alone you can always be in the company of uplifted people through books, recordings, and music.

Blessings,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Escaping the Mental Prison of Doubt

2011-09-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

As a deep, full-fledged doubter, fully aware of the fact that the doubter is often the most miserable of mortals (knowing that doesn’t change the doubt), I have decided to take up Swami Yukteswar's challenge to examine your thoughts for 24 hours to find proof of god. The problem is that he doesn’t really go into much more detail. How should I go about it so that I will get a true result. If nothing happens, I don’t want to be accused (by myself) of not having done it right.

James
from US

Answer

Dear James:

I admire your determination to follow Sri Yukteswar’s suggestion. I don’t think I can help you, however, because I draw a different meaning from that passage. For the sake of our readers, I’ll quote it in full. It is on page 130 of the original edition of Autobiography of a Yogi, in the chapter “Years in My Master’s Hermitage.”

My guru [Sri Yukteswar] ordinarily was gentle and affable to guests; his welcome was given with charming cordiality. Yet inveterate egotists sometimes suffered an invigorating shock. They confronted in Master either a frigid indifference or a formidable opposition: ice or iron!

A noted chemist once crossed swords with Sri Yukteswar. The visitor would not admit the existence of God, inasmuch as science has devised no means of detecting Him.

“So you have inexplicably failed to isolate the Supreme Power in your test tubes!” Master’s gaze was stern. “I recommend an unheard-of experiment. Examine your thoughts unremittingly for twenty-four hours. Then wonder no longer at God’s absence.”

A celebrated pundit received a similar jolt. With ostentatious zeal, the scholar shook the ashram rafters with scriptural lore. Resounding passages poured from the Mahabharata, the Upanishads, the bhasyas of Shankara.

“I am waiting to hear you,” Sri Yukteswar’s tone was inquiring, as though utter silence had reigned.....

The passage goes on, but I am not going to quote it all. I only include the second incident to give support to my interpretation of the passage you are interested in.

It seems to me that what Sri Yukteswar is saying is that if the chemist watches his own thoughts for a day he will see that he himself never elevates his thinking to the realm where God exists, but spends all his mental energy on the mundane material plane. So, of course he believes God doesn’t exist.

In the next incident, too, Sri Yukteswar mocks someone so committed to his ego that there is no room for divine realization.

Because we are opposite in our interpretations, I read this section aloud to a group of long-time devotees gathered in our home. Most understood it the way I present it here, but some did agree with your interpretation, i.e., examine your thoughts and you will discover God.

In either case, there are no detailed instructions and I can’t think of anything more to recommend.

Perhaps if you simply do as he suggests and pay attention to your own mind for twenty-four hours, you will, as Sri Yukteswar says, see how you are creating your own doubts. Maybe that will be helpful. But I don’t think he is promising that at the end of the day you will be a believer. No such luck. There is no short-cut.

When an atheist once challenged Swamiji to give him some useful advice that didn’t include God, Swamiji suggested he define God simply as the highest potential he could imagine for himself, and then work to achieve that.

The problem you face is that your perception of reality is clouded by your doubts. Doubts not only cloud perception, they keep a person from taking constructive action. And if you never take constructive action, your consciousness will not change, and perception will remain clouded. It is a self-perpetuating cycle of misery.

I would suggest that you make no effort to resolve the bigger questions, but think only in terms of what can I do today, in this hour to expand my consciousness, to soften my heart, to help others. Don’t think about where this is leading but only the happiness right action can bring you in a moment-to-moment way.

If you do anything that helps you spiritually, that will help to clear your consciousness and clarify your perception, which, eventually, will help you overcome your doubts.

In Swamiji’s book, The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, his commentary 4:40 deals with how the doubter can escape from his mental prison. I encourage you to read that section and do your best to follow his advice.

I will pray for you.

Blessings,

Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Ask Asha: Reacting to Others' Nervous Habits

2011-09-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

[You can ask your own question here.]

Question

Dear Asha,

I feel very stressed whenever a person exhibits a nervous habit: foot tapping, gum chewing, hair twisting, nail biting, etc. Soon I will be visiting my son and daughter-in-law. I like my daughter-in-law but have difficulty being with her because she bites and chews on her nails most of the time, including while driving, walking, at restaurants, riding in the car, at home, etc. My strong reaction really interferes with being with her. I want to have a relationship with them both, but I dread going there because of my problem.

Do you have a suggestion for dealing with this? I don't seem to be able to handle it.

S.P.

Answer

Dear S.P.:

Whenever I find myself in the company of people who upset my inner peace, for whatever reason, I find if I can turn my attention away from own feelings, toward God and praying for them, I can change my attitude.

At the same time, because I am inwardly disturbed, connecting to God and getting my mind off myself is not always easy.

The solution came to me when surrounded by a group of beggars in India. For many reasons, it was not appropriate to empty my wallet into their outstretched hands. Among other reasons, I didn’t have enough rupees to satisfy all of them, and to give to some and not others would have made the situation even more chaotic.

Besides, I have to say frankly, even if they were needy, I didn’t like their consciousness and didn’t feel inspired to give them the money they were asking for.

Still, they were clearly unhappy, and I wanted to do something for them. Looking calmly into the eyes of those nearest to me, inwardly I prayed intently, “Divine Mother, bless us all.” The beggars had their reason to be agitated and I had mine. We all needed Divine Mother’s help. After just a few repetitions of this prayer, I could feel a divine peace descending on me and radiating through me to the beggars around me.

I wasn’t giving the beggars what they asked for, but I was giving them something they needed. They, too, calmed down and seemed to some extent satisfied.

Since then I have found this to be an ideal prayer in many circumstances. I use it when confronted by angry, homeless, or mentally deranged people, or anyone who makes demands of me that I am not able to satisfy.

Of course the power of the prayer depends on how sincerely and deeply I repeat it. I hope it is as effective for you as it has been for me.

Now, let us consider this from another angle. Why do you feel this way and is there anything you can do about it?

What if it were your son who had this nervous habit, not his wife? Would your love for him overcome your aversion to his mannerism? In other words, can you imagine loving someone so much that the habit wouldn’t bother you?

What if it was involuntary, a twitching that resulted from a stroke, for example? What if you developed such a disorder? How would you want your husband, your son, and your daughter-in-law to respond? And how would you feel if, instead of acceptance, they turned away from you?

Is your aversion to the habit itself, so that even if it were involuntary it would elicit from you the same strong reaction? Or is it judgmental, annoyance at what you consider to be weakness? Is your thought, “Why can’t she control herself?”

If it is the latter, isn’t it interesting that you can’t control yourself, but you are upset because she can’t control herself?

No one is saying that these are nice habits. They are unpleasant to be around and even worse for the person acting them out.

But there is a world of difference between observing impartially -- “Poor soul, so nervous all the time” -- and the kind of response you are describing.

What we judge in others is always a reflection of what we find distressing in ourselves. Our anger at our own weaknesses causes us to react intensely when we see the same weaknesses in others. Even though it makes no sense, we imagine that if we can expunge this quality in someone else it will also disappear from inside ourselves. Alas, it doesn’t work.

Perhaps you don’t have the specific manifestations that you speak of, but what do these habits represent to you?

A great deal is at stake here. Your poor daughter-in-law is not only driven by her inner compulsion to chew constantly on her fingernails, but she also has a mother-in-law who judges her for doing so. You dread visiting her. I suspect the feeling is mutual.

And how do you think that makes your son feel? And if his wife becomes so upset by your attitude toward her that he is forced to choose between his mother and his wife, who will he choose?

You say you can’t get rid of your reaction. I ask you, how much are you willing to risk in order to hold onto it? Perhaps you can use your helplessness in the face of this to create compassion and understanding for others who are also out of control.

Yes, it is difficult to overcome these deep-seated aversions. But God sent this woman and her annoying habit to you as a gift to help you grow spiritually. Your relationship with your son could also be at stake. If that doesn’t motivate you, what will? Sooner or later you will have to expand your heart and develop the compassion to accept others as they are. This seems like a good place to start.

Divine Mother, bless us all.

Joy,
Nayaswami Asha

[Questions and answers from other Ananda ministers worldwide can be found on the Ask the Experts page of Ananda.org.]

Request for Stories: Miracles and Answered Prayers

2011-09-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Swamiji has asked me to do something that I can’t do unless you help me.

Last spring, he started writing a book called, “Miracles and Answered Prayers.” Many of you responded to his request for stories.

Just as he was leaving for Europe, he said he didn’t feel to write the book himself and asked me to write it instead.

All the stories you sent to Swamiji I have, but there aren’t enough to make a book. I know the stories are there. Every one of us has experienced exactly what this book is about: God showing us His love and concern, sometimes in spectacular ways, sometimes with the quiet sweetness of His unmistakeable Presence.

We love the spectacular stories: that is the “Miracles” part. The “Answered Prayers,” though, are in some ways even more important. We expect God to intervene, as Swamiji has said, when one’s life is at stake. What is so touching is when He steps in simply to make life sweeter.

You may feel you want to keep those moments locked in your heart, but Swamiji seems to feel, in deciding to write this book, that it is time for us to share them.

I like to put names on stories, but if you prefer, your story can be anonymous. Only I will know and I promise not to tell.

The purpose of the hard times Master said are coming is to draw people back to God. A book of stories like the one we have to offer, could touch the hearts of many souls, and awaken many to God.

Stories about our path and Gurus are fine. But all traditions and every context are welcome. If you have friends or family with good stories, please have them call me, or gather their stories and pass them on.

To give you an idea of what we are looking for, I’ve included a handful of stories.

Most people find it easier to talk than to write. So send me your phone number and I’ll contact you. If you do write, please include lots of details, but it isn’t necessary to polish the writing. The book has a unified style and I have to edit every story to that flow.

In about a month I am going to take a “writing retreat” and to make that work, I have to have lots of stories. So I need to hear from you NOW.

Will you help? I would be so grateful.

You can write to me at praver@anandapaloalto.org or call 650.941.1481.

In divine friendship,

Nayaswami Asha

MIRACLES & ANSWERED PRAYERS

#1 from Tyagini Maitreyi

My husband Michael and I are shifting house and home some 4700 miles from the Isle of Man to Pune, India, to be part of the Ananda Kriya Yoga community there. Naturally, this is an expensive move. When we arrive we will be working as volunteers, for at this point in the community's development there are no paid positions for us. The only way to fund the travel, the shipping of belongings, the building of a residence, and perhaps years of living expenses, is to sell the house we live in now.

From the time we made the decision to move, I turned the whole thing over to Divine Mother. It was all too much to handle on my own. If we had intuited Her will correctly, I knew She would take care of everything. My fleeting thought was to sell the house privately (nothing lost in commissions), receive the asking price (no haggling with potential buyers), and being able to stay on some months after the sale (rent free would be ideal!).

I trusted absolutely and did not feel we even needed to advertise. Michael was less certain, and insisted we engage an agent. The advertisement had not even been finalized, let alone reached the gaze of the public, when a work colleague who knew we were leaving offered to buy the house privately -- no agent's fees -- for exactly what we were asking.

Even more amazing, except for a few photographs taken with our camera, he had not even seen the property. And as for our staying on for a few months after the sale? "No problem", the buyer, said. And what about rent? "No need for it!"

Divine Mother engineers perfectly, and in ways that defy all reason!

I am humbled and a little ashamed that even unwittingly I might have begged favor of Her. Not that I feel unworthy of God's attention or Her gifts, but I know there are so many worse off than I.

Still, why would I think that God's abundance is limited, that if Divine Mother meets my needs that She cannot also meet the needs of others? How foolish! She is Infinite. Truly, this human mind cannot fathom the greatness of Her love.

The sweetest gift of all is that through Her generosity I now know without a doubt that all paths are open and India will be our home.

#2 from Manisha

The decision to walk home late that night did not, at first, seem like a foolish one. It was only a mile to the lodge where I was staying, down a quiet rural road on a ridge top outside of Assisi, Italy. There was no traffic at this hour, and no bad characters to fear. I had come to Assisi to "walk in the footsteps of St. Francis" and while I didn't know for sure that he had followed the path I was on, it was certain he had gone on foot, as I was now doing.

For a while, the reflected glow from the Temple I had just left was enough to light my way. But the farther I walked, the darker it became. There were only a few houses in the area, and everyone seemed to have gone to bed. The sky was heavily overcast with no hint of moon or stars. Soon I could just barely make out the line where the pavement met the gravel shoulder.

I began to feel nervous. To still my beating heart, I sang quietly to myself, "Sri Yogananda, guide to inner freedom, steal into my heart of hearts. Banish my delusion."

Surrounded by that song, I felt less anxious, until it occurred to me that in this blackness, I wouldn't be able to see the narrow driveway that led to the lodge. I could walk right past it and never know.

Just then, off to the right, I saw a firefly. I stopped to watch. I had never seen fireflies before arriving in Assisi a few days earlier. St. Francis had special reverence for God in Nature, so it seemed appropriate that I should meet these magical creatures for the first time here.

The firefly passed in front of me and then hovered on my left. In the faint glow of his luminous body, I saw the entrance to the driveway.

He stayed with me all the way to the door of the lodge, then flitted away. Just as I stepped inside and closed the double doors behind me, a torrential rain began to fall.

#3 from Parvati

Looking back over sixty-some years of life, it is obvious that the reason I incarnated had only a little to do with my birth family. I don't have any siblings. It was just my mother and father, a few close relatives, and me.

In my mid-twenties I found my spiritual family and moved into the Ananda community. "Honor thy father and thy mother" is good advice, and I did my best to follow it, keeping in touch and visiting them a few times a year.

Fortunately, my parents seemed to accept the distance between us and never asked me to choose between them and my spiritual path. I'm glad they didn't, because in this life, I could not have chosen them.

After my father died, my mother naturally needed more support from me. Within a few years, her health had declined to the point where I had to move her closer to me. Visiting her nearly every day, taking her shopping and to see her doctors was not a hardship.

In fact, more of a friendship grew between us than we'd ever had before. She even expressed interest in learning how to meditate! That in itself was a miracle. Not that we ever got far with it, but it was amazing that she even asked.

Then her health really went downhill. She was so set against moving into a care facility of any kind that for the first time it occurred to me, "I might have to leave the ashram and take care of her."

"Is this what You want?" I asked Divine Mother.

I had to go deep inside before I could say sincerely and with joy, "If so, I will do it."

Four days later, easily and peacefully, my mother left her body.

#4 from Soma

My fear of pools of water has been so intense and so irrational that when I was a child, even the sight of the toilet bowl would cause my heart to race. I refused to go swimming, and did my best to avoid even the sight of an ocean, lake, or pond.

When my meditation teacher once encouraged me to, "Visualize an infinite sea," my visualization turned into a nightmare. Huge waves in the shape of monsters crashed over me, dragging me down into a black, roiling sea.

"This is obviously a tragic memory from a previous incarnation," the teacher said when I told her what happened. "Forget the ocean!" she advised. "Visualize instead an infinite expanse of clear blue sky."

Sky worked great and I continued to progress in my meditation practice and my life as a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. When the chance came to go on pilgrimage to America to visit the places where he had lived, I signed up right away, even though I was concerned about a few stops on the itinerary, "Lake Shrine," for example, and the "Seaside Hermitage," in Encinitas, California.

The trip was everything I hoped it would be. To meditate by the crypt where my Guru's body is buried, to see his shoes reverently placed by the edge of the bed where he slept was pure bliss.

When the Encinitas day arrived, my devotional ardor carried me, without conscious thought, right to the high cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean where he often meditated. Closing my eyes, I was transported into a deep experience of his living presence. A long time later (or so it seemed), I opened my eyes and gazed calmly out at the sea in front of me.

My lifelong fear was gone.

#5 from Richard

My head and arms were hanging out the car window, the way a dog likes to ride with his snout into the wind. I was about five years old in the era before children were strapped into car seats.

It was a curvy road and every time we went around a bend, I was tossed back and forth, squealing with delight. My father's best friend, "Uncle Mac," was driving. Dad was sitting next to him.

Even though my head was outside the car and the wind was blowing in my face, I distinctly heard a voice say, "Go see what your father and Uncle Mac are doing." It wasn't a thought; it was a voice. Although I couldn't remember when I had heard it before, the voice was familiar to me, and it didn't seem odd that it was speaking now.

"Okay," I said, pulling my head in and flopping my arms over the center back of the front seat.

In that instant, the door I had been leaning against swung open. Uncle Mac immediately pulled over. In stunned silence we contemplated how close we had come to tragedy.

#6 from Maghi

We were speeding down the freeway in the far left lane, heading back to Los Angeles after a week at Ananda Village. My husband Vasanta was driving; two friends were in the back seat.

Suddenly, without forethought, I said, "Let's stop for coffee!" Vasanta is a coffee gourmet and had made converts of us, so the immediate "Yes!" from all present was no surprise.

Still, I had barely finished my sentence before Vasanta crossed three lanes of traffic and started down the exit ramp. The moment we were safely off the freeway, the transmission seized up, stalling the engine and cutting off power to the brakes and steering. Fortunately, there was no traffic and the car coasted safely to a stop --right in front of Starbucks!

If Vasanta had hesitated even a few seconds, we would have still been on the freeway when he lost control of the car.

I don't think any church uses coffee during the communion service but for us it will always be holy beverage!

#7 from Richard

We entered the freeway at the same time as our friends, but rush hour traffic soon separated us. In an attempt to keep Eugene's car in sight, I moved over to the fourth lane on the far left. Soon I spotted him about a quarter of a mile ahead, one lane to the right.

There were three car lengths of open space behind him so I sped up to 85mph to move into the gap. As I came abreast of the car trailing his, I let up on the accelerator knowing that momentum alone would place me safely just where I wanted to be.

Before turning the wheel I checked the distances again. There was plenty of space behind Eugene, and in the rear view mirror I could see the trailing car already fading out of my peripheral vision. All clear.

I turned the wheel about two degrees to the right and felt the beginning of a smooth fade into the next lane. At the same moment I glanced into the right side view mirror. A pair of eyes, like a hunted animal cornered in a hollow log, stared back at me.

A fast-moving motorcyclist was heading for the same spot I was about to occupy. I was in the process of turning; we were milliseconds from impact. No time even to alert my wife in the passenger seat next to me. Death was at our side.

In that instant, the steering wheel came to a hard stop, as if at the end of its turning radius. My eyes were fixed on the eyes of the motorcyclist reflected in the mirror, but now I could also see his silhouette outside the passenger window as the air around us began to fracture, like ripples on water, wrapping itself around the front of the car and pushing it back into the left lane.

The motorcyclist turned his body slightly as he pulled into the lane in front of me, our eyes still locked together. Silently we acknowledged that we had been miraculously spared. Then he turned his head away, sped off down the freeway, and I never saw him again.