- Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri) is the founder and director of the Light of the Spirit Monastery (Atma Jyoti Ashram) in Cedar Crest, NM, USA.

In his many pilgrimages to India, he had the opportunity of meeting some of India’s greatest spiritual figures, including Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh and Anandamayi Ma. During his first trip to India he was given sannyas by Swami Vidyananda Giri, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, who had himself been given sannyas by the Shankaracharya of Puri, Jagadguru Bharat Krishna Tirtha.

In the United States he also encountered various Christian saints, including Saint John Maximovich of San Francisco and Saint Philaret Voznesensky of New York. He was ordained in the Liberal Catholic Church International to the priesthood on January 25, 1974, and consecrated a bishop on August 23, 1975.

For many years, Abbot George has been engaged in deep study of the spiritual unity (actual identity) of Jesus Christ and his teachings with India and Sanatana Dharma. It is his conviction that original Christianity (not contemporary “Churchianity”) and original Yoga are not just compatible, they are essentially one; that Jesus lived in India for most of his life, being a Sanatana Dharma missionary to the West, and that after his resurrection he returned to India and lived the rest of his life in the Himalayas.

He has written extensively on these and other topics, many of which are posted here at OCOY.org. Of major significance are: The Christ of India, Soham Yoga: Its Theory and Practice, The Bhagavad Gita for Awakening and his various commentaries on spiritual texts which you can explore in the Dharma for Awakening section.

Most of his writings available here at OCOY.org are also available in print and ebook formats at Amazon and other online book outlets.

A Question About Liberation from Creation Cycles

Beyond samsara is the Transcendent realm which is sometimes called Siddhaloka, the Siddha World. This is eternal. Those who attain ultimate moksha (for there is such a thing as liberation from rebirth in lower worlds but not from the higher worlds beneath Siddhaloka) dwell in that world.

The Dark Night of the Soul: What It Means and How to Deal With It

The dark night of the soul is a very simple thing. It is a stage in the evolution of a highly evolved human being when he is at a pivotal point in his development. All that has gone before, although it was of value in earlier times, is to be recognized as limited and something to be laid aside in order to enter into a higher segment of the aspirant’s life.