The wisdom of Paramhamsa Yogananda.

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Beyond the bells of earthly desires Paramahansa Yogananda The vaguest of all conceptions is the human idea of god. Man's researches about food, finance, health and human relationships are quite extensive and definite. But do you realise how easily you are satisfied with untested concepts of god? You see a little work of god in nature, you hear people talk about god, you read the scriptures about him, but did you ever set out with a definite aim or intention actually to verify your beliefs about god, or to find out for yourself what god is? Some people wonder who made god. The question is born of ignorance, and this short dialogue shows why. An Arabian once met a Hindu. The Arabian, who lived mostly on dates, asked the Hindu if dates grow in India. "No," replied the Hindu. "Well," queried the astonished Arabian, "how do you Hindus live?" So we reason according to our own mentality. We ourselves are results of causation; therefore, we think all things are from a cause. But that isn't so. God is causeless. In him, there is no cause and effect. He is like the ocean. The ocean may have a storm whipping up waves upon its surface, but the ocean is not created by the storm. Nor can the waves say: "We were created by the storm, therefore, the ocean is made by the storm." Suppose there is a jar of salt water in the ocean and the opening is corked. If you take the stopper out, the salt water inside the jar will become one with the salt water of the ocean. Similarly, a human being lives in the ocean of cosmic consciousness, but he does not know god. A portion of god is locked up in the jar of flesh and closed by the stopper of ignorance. In this manner we are moving in god without being aware of him. When nothing else was, spirit was. What is spirit? It is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new joy. When spirit began to create, it became three: * The consciousness of god beyond creation, sat; * The

consciousness of god in creation, kutastha chaitanya (Christ consciousness); and * The cosmic vibration which is aum. That vibration was condensed into planets and all creation that we see. We say that every human being is an expression of the great, vast spirit. It is marvellous to see how human beings, without any motors, without any wires, without any visible source of electricity, run smoothly. But how do most people use this priceless machine? As a rule, it wakes up in the morning, eats breakfast, goes to work, goes to lunch, then goes back to the office, comes home, has dinner, then perhaps goes to the movies; then it goes to sleep, to wake up next morning and do the same thing all over again, day in and day out. We are controlled by radio-active and vito-active energies unleashed by god. Just as ships may be moved by remote-control radio, so our beings are motivated and controlled by the infinite spirit which is present everywhere. But the point is this: Just as the sunlight falling on the water in a cup which I keep moving becomes divided by reflection into a million suns, so spirit is reflected in each human body and mind as individualised spirit, or soul. Although this soul is a reflection of spirit, it is identified with the body. Hence it is trying very hard, through processes of evolution, to free itself from the cage of the body. If I held a cup filled with water under a lamp, at the same time causing the water to move in the cup, I would have a distorted reflection of the light in the cup,

and that reflection is not the real light; but if you could not see the lamp you might be deluded into thinking that the distorted image or light in the cup is real. The soul is reflected from spirit in the body, and it is caged in the body, so the soul seems to have all the limitations of the body and of the mind; therefore, we must resurrect the soul from the thraldom of the body and the mind and reunite it with the spirit. Thought is infinite. Every word represents an ideal conception of the Infinite because behind every word and thought there is a manifestation of the Infinite. Many waves of thought are dancing in the waves of consciousness, but behind that there is the great unceasing ocean of truth. Our expressions are waves of the ocean of

understanding. We say that god is invisible to us, but in reality he is visible in the mighty manifested universe. God is everything - not just one thing. One wave is not the whole ocean - the ocean and the wave together constitute the ocean. Thus all manifested things and the unmanifested pure cosmic consciousness constitute spirit. (Courtesy: Yogoda Satsanga Society of India) "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." -

Aurobindo.

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[Guest guest]

Thankyou for posting this Jagannath - it is wonderful to read it again

 

Jane

 

-

Jagannath Chatterjee

 

 

 

 

Beyond the bells of earthly desires

 

 

 

 

 

Paramahansa Yogananda

 

The vaguest of all conceptions is the human idea of god. Man's researches about food, finance, health and human relationships are quite extensive and definite. But do you realise how easily you are satisfied with untested concepts of god? You see a little work of god in nature, you hear people talk about god, you read the scriptures about him, but did you ever set out with a definite aim or intention actually to verify your beliefs about god, or to find out for yourself what god is?

 

 

 

Some people wonder who made god. The question is born of ignorance, and this short dialogue shows why. An Arabian once met a Hindu. The Arabian, who lived mostly on dates, asked the Hindu if dates grow in India. "No," replied the Hindu. "Well," queried the astonished Arabian, "how do you Hindus live?"

 

 

 

So we reason according to our own mentality. We ourselves are results of causation; therefore, we think all things are from a cause. But that isn't so. God is causeless. In him, there is no cause and effect. He is like the ocean. The ocean may have a storm whipping up waves upon its surface, but the ocean is not created by the storm. Nor can the waves say: "We were created by the storm, therefore, the ocean is made by the storm."

 

 

 

Suppose there is a jar of salt water in the ocean and the opening is corked. If you take the stopper out, the salt water inside the jar will become one with the salt water of the ocean. Similarly, a human being lives in the ocean of cosmic consciousness, but he does not know god. A portion of god is locked up in the jar of flesh and closed by the stopper of ignorance. In this manner we are moving in god without being aware of him.

 

 

 

When nothing else was, spirit was. What is spirit? It is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new joy. When spirit began to create, it became three:

 

 

 

* The consciousness of god beyond creation, sat;

 

 

 

* The consciousness of god in creation, kutastha chaitanya (Christ consciousness); and

 

 

 

* The cosmic vibration which is aum. That vibration was condensed into planets and all creation that we see.

 

 

 

We say that every human being is an expression of the great, vast spirit. It is marvellous to see how human beings, without any motors, without any wires, without any visible source of electricity, run smoothly. But how do most people use this priceless machine? As a rule, it wakes up in the morning, eats breakfast, goes to work, goes to lunch, then goes back to the office, comes home, has dinner, then perhaps goes to the movies; then it goes to sleep, to wake up next morning and do the same thing all over again, day in and day out.

 

 

 

We are controlled by radio-active and vito-active energies unleashed by god. Just as ships may be moved by remote-control radio, so our beings are motivated and controlled by the infinite spirit which is present everywhere. But the point is this: Just as the sunlight falling on the water in a cup which I keep moving becomes divided by reflection into a million suns, so spirit is reflected in each human body and mind as individualised spirit, or soul. Although this soul is a reflection of spirit, it is identified with the body. Hence it is trying very hard, through processes of evolution, to free itself from the cage of the body.

 

 

 

If I held a cup filled with water under a lamp, at the same time causing the water to move in the cup, I would have a distorted reflection of the light in the cup, and that reflection is not the real light; but if you could not see the lamp you might be deluded into thinking that the distorted image or light in the cup is real.

 

 

 

The soul is reflected from spirit in the body, and it is caged in the body, so the soul seems to have all the limitations of the body and of the mind; therefore, we must resurrect the soul from the thraldom of the body and the mind and reunite it with the spirit.

 

 

 

Thought is infinite. Every word represents an ideal conception of the Infinite because behind every word and thought there is a manifestation of the Infinite. Many waves of thought are dancing in the waves of consciousness, but behind that there is the great unceasing ocean of truth. Our expressions are waves of the ocean of understanding.

 

 

 

We say that god is invisible to us, but in reality he is visible in the mighty manifested universe. God is everything - not just one thing. One wave is not the whole ocean - the ocean and the wave together constitute the ocean. Thus all manifested things and the unmanifested pure cosmic consciousness constitute spirit.

 

 

 

(Courtesy: Yogoda Satsanga Society of India)

 

 

 

 

"Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

 

 

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