jason4648 introduction

July 30, 2009

Namaste -

First let me thank you for accepting me into this group. I appreciate it very

much. My name is Jason. I am 39 years old, married nine years with six children

and live in Indiana. My wife, Tanya, is an open-heart surgery team member at a

local hospital and I am a stay-at-home dad. Our children, five of whom live with

us, are between the ages of eight and seventeen. Three are mine, two hers and

one ours. We both have one previous marriage. Tanya is a Wiccan and I . . . I

was born to parents with no particular religious convictions. They divorced when

I was seven and my mother remarried six months later and has remained so ever

since. My step-father began taking us to an Episcopal Church on Sundays which

bored me to no end. Thankfully, by my mid teens we had quit going. Shortly after

graduation, I met some Pentecostals and rode that roller coaster for several

years.

During this period I joined the Navy and got married. My faith in

Christianity didn't last all that long and I started drinking and smoking

marijuana. In 1995 I began reading books published by ISKCON. Occasionally I

drove to Chicago to visit the Temple but the 90 mile distance kept me from too

much contact. My association was largely through reading, I never even chanted

regularly. I was still drinking and smoking dope during all this, so it didn't

get into my heart. My first wife and I divorced in 1999 and I married Tanya the

following year. My drinking slowed quite a bit when I married her and I quit

altogether about seven months ago. Marijuana is long since gone.

I'm looking for a form of spirituality which isn't so exclusive: " Jesus is

the only way, " or " Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead and all others

are demigods. " I've come to believe certain things over the years and I'm

trying to find a place to fit in. I believe that divinity is essentially one

and by virtue of being divine is at liberty to manifest in unlimited forms. I

do not believe that one form is superior to any other but that each form is

there for a reason and is attractive and precious to someone somewhere. God is

neither male nor female as we understand gender roles, but possessing unlimited

energy, male and female divine forms therefore exist. I accept the fact of

Karma, the cycle of birth and death and the personal nature of the soul. I

believe these things.

I do not, however, know what to do with any of my beliefs. I have no

relationship with any form of God/dess and I do not chant or meditate. I hunger

so much for a guru/disciple relationship, but ISKCON spooked me. I don't know

what to read, what to study, what to chant, what questions to even ask or who to

turn to at all. I am unguided, adrift and uncertain what action to take.

Jason

Indiana

July 30, 2009

welcome jason!

as the vedas say. there is one god but people call it by many names. this is what rings true to me.

my reccomendation to you is search search search. find what resonates with you inside. when it doesnt move away. when it does move closer. i have looked and looked for what resonates with me. this devi mandir, shree ma, and swamiji resonate every word and action with my heart. that is how i know what to move closer to.

i know i wont settle for anything less than there is only one god, there is only one goddess, and the god and the goddess are one. and it just so happens that this swamiji of the devi mandir is where i got that quote from =) great minds think alike heh.

i reccomend going through the videos and the audios on this page and for now you can fast forward all of the chanting and get to the question and answers. listen to the questions we ask and listen to his answers. alot of it is extremely practical guidance and has definatly changed my life.

as you find one text or one form of god that calls to you begin to learn more about it, eventually start chanting one mantra, meditating on that particular form. ask it to show you the next step. maybe it will bring you to another text or form of meditation.

its a free flowing movement in which the guidance of our own soul will lead us if we just show up and tell the divine we are ready to be sponges.

namaste i wish you the best! this is a great place to search and find your own way of practice!

jason4648 <jason4648

Thu, Jul 30, 2009 10:50 am

[www.ShreeMaa.org] jason4648 introduction

Namaste -

First let me thank you for accepting me into this group. I appreciate it very much. My name is Jason. I am 39 years old, married nine years with six children and live in Indiana. My wife, Tanya, is an open-heart surgery team member at a local hospital and I am a stay-at-home dad. Our children, five of whom live with us, are between the ages of eight and seventeen. Three are mine, two hers and one ours. We both have one previous marriage. Tanya is a Wiccan and I . . . I was born to parents with no particular religious convictions. They divorced when I was seven and my mother remarried six months later and has remained so ever since. My step-father began taking us to an Episcopal Church on Sundays which bored me to no end. Thankfully, by my mid teens we had quit going. Shortly after graduation, I met some Pentecostals and rode that roller coaster for several years.

During this period I joined the Navy and got married. My faith in Christianity didn't last all that long and I started drinking and smoking marijuana. In 1995 I began reading books published by ISKCON. Occasionally I drove to Chicago to visit the Temple but the 90 mile distance kept me from too much contact. My association was largely through reading, I never even chanted regularly. I was still drinking and smoking dope during all this, so it didn't get into my heart. My first wife and I divorced in 1999 and I married Tanya the following year. My drinking slowed quite a bit when I married her and I quit altogether about seven months ago. Marijuana is long since gone.

I'm looking for a form of spirituality which isn't so exclusive: "Jesus is the only way," or "Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead and all others are demigods." I've come to believe certain things over the years and I'm trying to find a place to fit in. I believe that divinity is essentially one and by virtue of being divine is at liberty to manifest in unlimited forms. I do not believe that one form is superior to any other but that each form is there for a reason and is attractive and precious to someone somewhere. God is neither male nor female as we understand gender roles, but possessing unlimited energy, male and female divine forms therefore exist. I accept the fact of Karma, the cycle of birth and death and the personal nature of the soul. I believe these things.

I do not, however, know what to do with any of my beliefs. I have no relationship with any form of God/dess and I do not chant or meditate. I hunger so much for a guru/disciple relationship, but ISKCON spooked me. I don't know what to read, what to study, what to chant, what questions to even ask or who to turn to at all. I am unguided, adrift and uncertain what action to take.

Jason

Indiana

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August 1, 2009

Hi Jason, Seek out gurus who unite like Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Shree Maa,

Ghandi, Neem Karoli, Anandamoyi Maa, Paramahansa Yogananda, Sri Aurobindo,and

the like.

please learn to meditate and tap into the divine spirit within you. It's only

through personal experience one realizes the eternal truths of the sages. Not

simply blind faith in this or that religion or guru.

Here's an article from one of my favorite teachers. I hope this helps

In Joy

-Bhavananda

" I shall speak to you at some length upon the subject of 'Yoga and the Christian

Religion' because most of you are from a Christian background, very pious and

very religious. Some are only Christian because they are born Christian, but

some are halfway going to the Church once in two months, but all are from a

Christian background, may be some Roman Catholic, may be not, may be Protestant,

may be Methodist, may be some other. Some of you are Jews. Whatever religion you

belong to, when I speak about Yoga and the Christian religion, it could equally

apply to Yoga and any other religion. So, what is the connection between Yoga

and one's religion? One takes it for granted that Yoga is of the Hindu religion,

and asks: 'What is the connection between, this Hindu thing and my religion?'

Anyone belonging to another religion must wonder. So, it is worth-knowing how to

relate Yoga to religion. Is it like other religions or are there sharp

divergences between Yoga and other religions? If these things are not clear, may

be some would feel a sense of guilt. 'O, I am a Christian, am I doing the right

by coming and taking to Yoga? Perhaps, I am being a little irreligious in the

particular area of my interest in Yoga.' Thus, a vague sort of uneasiness may be

felt.

First and foremost, it has to be known that Yoga has arisen from a background or

basis of the Hindu religion. It has its origin in India and it is part of the

Hindu religion. But it is not Hindu. It is a universal science that has arisen

out of the Hindu religious ground-a science that has risen above religion. It is

a universal technique. Because in Yoga, as it is given in the Yoga-Darsana of

Patanjali, one of the six systems of philosophy, no particular dogma is laid

down and no particular God is pointed out for your worship. Yoga doesn't say

that you must worship Rama or Siva or meditate upon Krishna, or you must worship

Kaali or Durga, or Hanuman; Yoga has nothing to say upon all these things. Yoga

doesn't say that you must repeat any particular Name of God. Yoga only says that

repetition of one of the Divine Names is one of the ways of concentrating the

mind. It says repetition of the Divine Name. You may repeat the Divine Name, you

may say the prayer of Jesus, you may say Allah, you may say Rama, you may say

the name of Siva, or you may say some other Name if you are in some other

religion, but it does not specify that Name and also whom to worship. The

All-perfect Divine Being, who is ever-free, ever-perfect, free from all the

imperfections, ever-free beyond Maya, the Supreme Purusha, means the Supreme

Being, Almighty Father in Heaven, Allah, Jehovah, you can call it by any name,

it does not matter, the ever-free Being is not bound by Maya, and who is free

from affliction, who is of the nature of Bliss-Absolute, Consciousness-Absolute;

that is the object of meditation to be attained, that is the goal of Yoga. So,

it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of Yoga; it does not give

for you a goal other than the goal of your religion. It does not point out a God

different from the one pointed by your own religion—Christianity, Islam,

etc.—and it does not give a special name of that God so that you will have to

change Gods. It does not give any special name to the one God. Emerging from the

ground of Hinduism, it goes beyond religion.

Yoga is a Religious Science, which means that it goes beyond religion, and

assumes a universal characteristic. Secondly, Yoga is a science for Man. It is

not a science either for an Easterner or a Westerner, an Oriental or an

Occidental. Yoga is for man on earth. It was given to mortal man on this earth

of birth, pain and death. It was given to man on earth, no matter what he is or

who he is; and it is given to man for all times. It was not given to an ancient

man or medieval man or a modern man, or anyone who might come, wanting to go

beyond all sorrow, pain and suffering, go beyond bondage and delusion. If he

takes to this path, it brings him to the place of supreme experience. So it is

the answer to the need of mortal man, on this earth plane. So it is something

that is the property, the heritage of humanity—Yoga is the heritage of humanity.

It does not interfere with religion. What does Yoga do? Yoga supplies to the

life of man and makes up for certain lack brought about by religion failing man

or man failing religion. There is a condition created by the failure of religion

administering to man's highest needs, or the failure of man to take advantage of

religion or properly utilise his religion which it is, we cannot say.

Some say religions have failed. I say, no. Man has failed to follow religion. It

is not due to religion that man suffers. It is due to the neglect of religion,

the ignoring of religion and its teachings and its wisdom. Mostly, this is the

situation. But in some places where religion has become totally

institutionalised, it has become a great impersonal structure, and lost living

contact with the individuals. Under it, then, it becomes barren of real spirit.

It becomes only a pattern for dogma and ritual, and ceremony and belief. You are

a Christian; if you say 'I believe in salvation through the blood of Christ'.

Yes, I believe, then you are a Christian. You are a very good Christian; so go

your way. Do what you like, drink, smoke, break all the ten commandments, but

you are a Christian. Religion has come to mean just accepting certain things

which an institution has set to be the very heart of religion—a set of dogmas,

and if you say you accept all this, then, you are a religious man. But, then,

this is not religion. In each religion there is a certain spiritual content

which has direct relevance to that part of you which is your innermost essential

being, which is your innermost reality, a true, essential reality, and where

religion fails to touch that part of your being, and loses its concern with

that, and only concerns itself with the way in which you live, your social life

and pattern of your social life, and your domestic life, whether you pay your

tithe and whether you attend the Church regularly once in a week, or whether you

go through all the various sacraments. You Baptise, and you are Christian. It is

interested only in that but not in that highest part of you. It never asks you

to question yourself or query 'What is the purpose of my life? Why have I come

here? What have I to attain? What is the true meaning of my life? What is my

goal?' In organised religions, the structure does not encourage you to ask these

questions, does not insist that you raise these questions and seek an answer and

make life a quest of that great goal which you ascertain through the answer. In

such case, religion is not ministering to you in depth, while it is ministering

to you on the surface. It fails to deal with you in that dimension of your being

where you are the real being. Other dimensions are touched and affected, but

that dimension is left untouched.

So, when the spiritual content in religion is no longer active, no longer

progressive, then that religion has petrified. It is not alive in such cases.

Yoga is a wonderful answer because the prime concern of Yoga is the spiritual

reality within you, the attainment of the spiritual goal for which you have

taken this human birth; that is the prime concern of Yoga. Yoga is the path to

God-realisation. Yoga is the path of Divine Experience, and the Divine

Experience is the heart of religion. Trying to attain God-realisation is the

very heart, the very essence of religion. That is the inner spiritual core of

religion, and where that spiritual core has been neglected and cast aside, and

is forgotten, then religion is only there as a great forum; a great structure is

there, but inside there is no one living. There are a hundred houses, only a

built palace is there, no one is living. It is a deserted palace. Like that,

religion becomes a huge imposing structure with no life; and if such has become

the religious life of any person, be he a Christian, a Catholic, a Protestant, a

Jew, a Parsi, or a Muslim; if such it has become, then Yoga comes as life-giving

waters, the living waters to revive that withering, languishing inner spiritual

core, that innermost spiritual path that has been neglected and dried away. Yoga

comes as the life-giving force. Once again it makes spring into life the

spiritual centre of your religion. It makes your religion alive for you. It can

make religion alive for anyone, be he a Christian or a Muslim, and it gives back

to you the life within your religion. It is the common experience of many people

that after Yoga came to them they started being really religious. After Yoga

came to them a Christian became a real devoted Christian, started going to

Church, started reading the Bible and trying to find out more interest in the

words of Jesus, began to understand the meaning of many things he is now doing

in the name of Christianity, which he otherwise stopped doing because he found

it to be meaningless,—'I find no meaning, it is mechanical'. It has no meaning,

and once now he has found meaning, he begins to get interested in it. He begins

to practise the teachings. Many things which were just meaningless once, become

now meaningful. So one becomes a better Christian. In many cases Yoga has helped

a person to find the inner meaning of his religion. He begins to see the reason

behind the practice and then he begins to take more interest in his own

religion, understand it better than he understood it before. Yoga restores to

people whatever religion they may belong to. It restores to people the inner

spiritual content of their religion. It restores to people the spiritual life

which is the centre of any real religion, lacking which religion becomes merely

an external facade. Yoga restores, makes it alive, makes it green, brings it

forth into life. Yoga can be applied to Christianity and to any other religion.

In what way does it differ? That also we shall see. It differs in its refusing

to accept the doctrine of 'original sin'. It does not call man a sinner. It may

call man a fool but it doesn't call him a sinner. Man is God playing the fool,

or, man is God who has lost his way home, wandered away, stumbling and running

about in circles. It clears up the path, puts light and puts man on the path

again and says, 'go ahead now, go straight to your home'. So it doesn't want you

to consider yourself a sinner. And the other thing is this: Much of

Christianity, unfortunately, in certain of its areas, becomes wholly a

preoccupation with avoiding hell, trying to avoid hell, and somehow or other

slip past the doors of heaven; somehow or other, even if you are not fully

qualified for it. Yoga says: 'This is a little childish, you have got something

more glorious. Why do you play this game of heaven and hell?' Yoga rejects hell,

and Yoga rejects heaven also. Go to the Creator of heaven, the Master of heaven.

Why heaven? Heaven is also a petty desire. You don't want it. 'I want God. I

want to experience God, the Supreme Being, the Master of heaven'. Yoga concerns

itself with God, not heaven or hell. You can say these are some of the

differences, the way that Yoga differs from Christianity. It is where orthodox

Christian doctrine differs from Yoga.

Yoga restores the most precious part of religion, which, unfortunately, by and

large, is not present. In most of the major religions of the world, except in a

microscopic section of people who enter into monastery for all life, the nuns

and the monks, who somehow or other concentrate all their life upon this

spiritual content, except for them, by and large, normally, the spiritual

content is found to be lacking in religion. But since the impact of Yoga over

the past fifty years, gradually, we see a very wonderful phenomenon, a revival

is taking place in the Christian world, emphasising this inner spiritual aspect,

your connection with this Godhead. There are many such examples. Some of them

are working like the apostles. In the early days, some of them were really

fired, like Pentecostal inspirations. They are all good signs. Yoga is presently

doing that, restoring to religion the religious life of any being. It restores

to him the spiritual quality, the spiritual factor and that is the greatest

thing that it does. It doesn't disturb your religion. It doesn't contradict your

religion. In no way does it contradict anything. It says: 'wherever you are,

whatever you are, try to find God, try to live a noble life. Purify yourself of

the lower nature. Shine with virtue. Create in yourself divine qualities and

awaken the divine within you, and move towards God.' That is the central message

of Yoga. It can be harmoniously incorporated into any religion and the religious

life of any being, any faith to enrich that religion and make it alive and take

you towards the true goal which is the goal of any religion. " --Swami Chidananda

Saraswati Maharaj

, " jason4648 " <jason4648 wrote:

>

> Namaste -

> First let me thank you for accepting me into this group. I appreciate it

very much. My name is Jason. I am 39 years old, married nine years with six

children and live in Indiana. My wife, Tanya, is an open-heart surgery team

member at a local hospital and I am a stay-at-home dad. Our children, five of

whom live with us, are between the ages of eight and seventeen. Three are mine,

two hers and one ours. We both have one previous marriage. Tanya is a Wiccan and

I . . . I was born to parents with no particular religious convictions. They

divorced when I was seven and my mother remarried six months later and has

remained so ever since. My step-father began taking us to an Episcopal Church on

Sundays which bored me to no end. Thankfully, by my mid teens we had quit going.

Shortly after graduation, I met some Pentecostals and rode that roller coaster

for several years.

> During this period I joined the Navy and got married. My faith in