Kingdom come

December 24, 2005

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font-family:Arial">Alan

January 1, 2006

This is about a prayer, when I was young I was told it

was very powerful.

At the time, to me this prayer once prayed by most

children here every evening was a symbol of what never comes, a praying in vain.

I posted this page earlier, but here it is again with

a small correction and a text added.

The Norwegian bible uses ‘shell’, it did

also mean scale a long time ago.

Now it only means sea-shell And a falling shell

is something else.

My reference to scale is from the expression:

‘the scales fell from my eyes’

“And Ananias

went away and entered into the house, and laid hands upon him, and said,

Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus who appeared to you in the road in which you

came, has sent me that you may receive sight, and be filled with the Holy

Spirit. (18) And immediately

there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received sight

forthwith, and arose and was immersed;

italic">and taking food, he was strengthened.”

10.0pt;font-family:Arial">http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/kingdom_come.htm

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10.0pt;font-family:Arial">So this really must be for getting the opportunity to

repost this new year greeting from Bhuvaneswar on his list : )

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10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Alan

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Christmas Message from the book Awake! Realise Your Divinity!

Thy Kingdom

Come

By

Sri Swami

Chidananda

We are fortunate to have conceived of a way of life

where each day starts with the Divine Name, prayer and divine contemplation. By

the grace, love and goodwill of beloved and worshipful Gurudev Swami

Sivanandaji, in this holy ashram of his there is scope to constantly be in a

state of God-remembrance, to start the day with God, fill the day with God and

end the day with God. For in this God-filled atmosphere, in every direction,

one encounters something connected with God. In numerous places, with numerous

persons, upon numerous occasions one is brought into

italic">bhagavat-chintana, atma-chintana, tattva-chintana, one is

brought into the remembrance of God, into awareness of our higher goal, into

awareness of a greater reality, and into the awareness of a deeper purpose in

our life, into the awareness of the significance of our human status.

In this Iron Age, when

italic">adharma (unrighteousness), bhagavat-vismriti

(forgetfulness of God), vimukhi-drishti

(view against God), atyachara (irreligious

conduct) is the order of the day, consider the meaningfulness of this unique

God-filled way of life. Consider the normal trend of Kali Yuga and consider the

trend of your life. And to whom do you owe it? What is its value and how best

to utilise it? How best to benefit by it?

These are things which should be very much on our minds

as we approach the advent of the New Year and the advent of a great

avatara, a great descent of Divinity, who

proclaimed: "Seek ye first the Kingdom

of Heaven" and

"What availeth it a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own

soul?" He proclaimed the secondariness of all things in comparison to the

attaining of God, the attainment of the great Goal, which is the fulfilment of

the central destiny of man, the central purpose of life.

His greatest commandment was to adore God with all

your heart, with all your mind, with your entire being. Let your life be

whole-souled devotion to God, parabhakti. He

not only proclaimed this message, preached this teaching, but He lived this

teaching. He was perpetually and continuously engaged in doing good, helping

others, relieving suffering. At the same time, inwardly, He was permanently

rooted in God, perpetually in a state of God-communion inwardly. He literally

lived, moved and had His being in God.

He was the epitome of the Gita jnana upadesa. In Him we find the very

embodiment of Gita jnana and the

Gita yoga. "Yogasthah kuru karmani (Perform

action, being steadfast in yoga), mam

anusmara yuddhya cha (Remember Me and fight)." Be rooted in God

and do good to your fellow beings. He taught this and said that the secret of

this is to always be in a state of prayer within.

Prayer is a state of being linked up with God. Prayer

is a state of being connected in spirit with God inwardly. The apparent outer

part of you flows outwards towards prapancha,

towards samsara, towards

the aneka, the many, towards the

manifestation. The superficial part of you is ever moving outwards because the

mind and the senses are outgoing; whereas, simultaneously, the essence of your

being is constantly moving inwards towards God, constantly flowing Godward in a

continuous, unbroken stream.

Even as the rivers keep on flowing towards the ocean

or the sea, even so your antah-chetana, your

inner spiritual consciousness, is in a state of constant flow towards the

source and origin of its being. Inwardly your life is God-oriented. It is a

continuous, unbroken flow towards God, a current of consciousness flowing

towards God unceasingly. Externally, to fulfil obligations, do your duty and

play your part, you apparently flow outwards. But that which flows outwards

towards prapancha, towards samsara, towards the many, aneka, is not your real being. It is

something temporarily added on to you that flows towards prapancha

because it belongs to prapancha. Your real being that belongs to

God ever keeps on moving towards God. Your authentic, true life, genuine life,

is a constant Godward flow—through remembrance, through prayer, through

invoking His Name and grace. "It is not by bread alone that man lives, but

by the Name of God."

Thus Jesus taught us this

italic">yoga of God-centred living in the midst of activity. And He

Himself personified this state, the outer state of constantly doing good and

the inner state of constantly being rooted in God through prayer, remembrance,

the Name and dedication.

Our Father who

art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors;

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

Thus He taught His disciples to pray. "Thy

kingdom come" means "May Your kingdom come into my heart. May You

reign over my heart; not anything else—not gross passions, not

selfishness, not worldliness, not desire, but may You be the monarch of my

heart. You who are the ruler of Your kingdom, establish Your kingdom here, as

it is already established there in the inner dimension of the Spirit, the

unseen world of the Spirit."

That was the call to the Lord—to come and take

charge. "Rule over me. Rule over my life. Be my centre. May You alone

prevail and not my ego, not my ego-consciousness, not my ignorance, ajnana, not my

italic">avichara, not my lack of perception, but Your wisdom, Your

light, Your divinity. Let that alone prevail in the interior of my being. Let

me be thus filled with God, filled with Thee, filled with Divinity." That

was the prayer.

Upon the eve of the advent of this great teacher, let

us try to know, assess and understand the meaning of His teachings and the

place of His teachings in the living of our daily lives. This would be the most

significant and important part of our celebration of the day of His advent. Let

us try to find out the place and role that His teaching has to play in our

lives as spiritual beings, leading a spiritual life in a spiritual atmosphere,

in a God-filled atmosphere

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Kingdom come

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