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How to Gain the Vision of God | Monastic Life Podcast 3

Click here to listen to How to Gain the Vision of God if you do not see the player above. The podcast length is 20:34 minutes.


 

Abbot George's Reflections on Monastic LifeWhen I was very young there was a television program called The Big Picture. Most people live in The Little Picture with small ideas and small goals, all short term.

But some live in The Big Picture, considering their life as a whole extending through many years, realizing that the small aspects will be forgotten, but the overall character of their life will determine their future beyond this world as well as within it.

Having this perspective, I wanted to be a living sacrifice, a living offering to God! I wanted to be able to stand unashamedly before the face of God and truthfully say: “Behold, I have forsaken all and followed Thee.” To be like Christ, not just in glory but in living sacrifice, like him, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” This was my aspiration–the aspiration of monastics throughout the ages.

An undivided heart

Monastic life is a life of undivided loyalty to the One. Jesus Himself warns us that “no man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” The religious egotist considers himself wiser than Christ, Whose words he tactfully ignores utterly. He knows better! He can certainly please himself and please God. (Ah, but Jesus spoke about serving!)

Those who love cannot run the risk of despising their Beloved and clinging to their own egoic god. How often we hear statements about what God “does not expect” of us and what “does not matter” to God. The problem is, when most people say “God” they really mean their ego “god,” that of course expects and cares about nothing that does not serve its own desires.

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Four First-Class Sadhus | Podcast

Click here to listen to Four First-Class Sadhus if you do not see the player above. The podcast length is 16:00 minutes.


Sadhu at prayerSadhu: a seeker for truth (sat); and a person who is practicing spiritual disciplines. Usually this term is applied to monastics.

In this podcast, Abbot George relates his experiences with four monks he met in India that were definitely of the first class. These were:

  • The Ganges island swami
  • His friend in black
  • The Swami who would not be a pet, and his guru who laughed.

Below is a transcription of his encounter with the first sadhu:


The Ganges Island Swami and His Sandy Mansion

At the beginning of 1963, Sri Anandamayi Ma instructed me to find a kutir in either Hardwar or Rishikesh where I could do sadhana. Thanks to Brahmacharini Atmananda, who was known to many pilgrims to India as translator, counselor, friend and smoother of the way, I was put in touch with an ideal devotee, Rai Bahadur Narayan Das who was the chief director and patron of the Sapta Rishi Ashram which I have already mentioned.

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