Light of the Spirit Blog

Breaking False Spiritual Bonds

August 2, 2020 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

Broken Chains - freedom from false gurus

To some people that found after twenty years that the guru they had been following was a fraud.

First of all, please accept my deep and sincere sympathy for this terrible shock that has come to you. I myself followed with total faith more than one false guru and practiced several worthless yogas that led nowhere. So I know your suffering.

It was not any external person or factor that led you to seek God, but your own divine Self. Therefore I ask you to not let this discourage you. In similar situations, many people have simply given up the search for liberated consciousness, but that is a grave mistake. They were seeking God, and God is still there and still to be sought and found.

Please only do what your heart, your inner Self, tells you. But I would like to share with you what I have found to be true:

God alone is the Guru. Anyone who claims to be a guru is either sincerely mistaken or a fraud. In no case should they be listened to.
You are an irrevocable part of the Infinite being; your divine Self cannot be taken from you. In your inmost being there is always arising the call to return to Infinity.
In life we oftentimes seek for something and become disappointed in our failure to gain it. We do not quit. We find another avenue and go on. It should be the same in our spiritual life. We should turn from the mistaken endeavor and keep on seeking. There is nothing else to do, because finding God is the only purpose we shall ever have.

It took me many years and a great deal of disappointment and disillusionment, but finally I found a practice that has proved to be true, and that every day since has blessed my life. I have written about it in my book Soham Yoga: The Yoga of the Self. You might want to try it, and I will be glad to answer any questions you might have regarding it.

But do not trust my word: trust your own inner guidance.

God is yours and you are God’s.

Further Reading:

What If I Don’t Have Faith?

July 29, 2020 by Light of the Spirit Monastery

More from our series “Wisdom of Sri Gajanana Maharaj of Nashik”

Gajanana Maharaj on Faith It might be asked: Is there any use in carrying on the japa of Soham without faith in its efficacy?

The answer to that is that the repetition of the japa will always be useful, even though done without faith. It will never do you any harm. No doubt all the shastras and saints lay stress on faith, and hence the above statement will appear contrary to their teachings. However, if you go deep into the matter and observe minutely, you will easily be able to reconcile the two statements.

Without having faith–although it may be in the subconscious mind–no one will be induced to practice the japa. As soon as a person begins to repeat the japa, faith is there accompanying the japa like its shadow. If we carefully follow this argument the seeming contradiction will cease to trouble us. A real mumukshu or devotee will never be deceived by the seeming contradiction, and will never allow his mind to be disturbed and turned away from the path. [Read more…]

The Unmanifest (Avyakta)

July 22, 2020 by Light of the Spirit Monastery

Gajanana Maharaj on the Avyakta

More from our series “Wisdom of Sri Gajanana Maharaj of Nashik”

The power of the Avyakta is such that it will more than suffice for solving all possible difficulties in your worldly life

If you repeat the Soham mantra in your mind, by continuous practice your mind gets concentrated upon it. The concentration may be called dhyana. If this force is uninterruptedly stored up in your heart, be sure that you have obtained the goal of human life.

Somebody might say, “We have carefully listened to what you have told us. But what would be the use of all this for solving the practical difficulties of our actual life in this world?” No doubt this question is very important.

If your difficulties remain as they are, all this effort of japa and concentration would be useless and good for nothing. But I say this with all emphasis, that once you get the experience of the Avyakta, in any way or by any method, the power of the Avyakta is such that it will more than suffice for solving all possible difficulties in your worldly life. There is no necessity of your trying anything else for that purpose. You should only try your best to obtain the experience of the Avyakta by any method you like. Once that is done, you will get such a power that it will either drive away all possible difficulties which beset you, or all difficulties will automatically disappear. [Read more…]

Those Who See God: Alive in Divine Consciousness

July 18, 2020 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

alive

Part 4 of Making Attraction and Aversion Work For Us, Not Against Us, a commentary on the 7th Ode of Solomon, written in Apostolic times.

The Seers shall go before him, and they shall be seen before him. And they shall praise the Lord for his love, because he is near and seeth.

Those who see God are ever before his Face, and wherever they go they bring with them that sacred Presence. Fortunately I have known quite a few holy people like this. If I wanted to be with God I went to spend time with them. They have been of various spiritual traditions, for God knows nothing of our artificial boundaries and foolish attempts to have an exclusive franchise on his love.

When one man I knew would speak to a group there would an all-pervading sense of heavenly joy and sweetness. What he said was wise, but the inner experience was beyond all words. I was only a teenager then and had not yet read Yogananda’s definition that God is joy, but I certainly experienced it. Another blessed soul was a frail little lady who literally blazed with white fire which I could feel from a distance. She lived in constant spiritual vision.

It is true: God is “glorified in his saints” (II Thessalonians 1:10). He is their song and they are his. So before we see God he sends his holy ones to give us a “foretaste of glory divine” as Fanny Crosby put it. Such exalted souls dwell in God’s love “because he is near and seeth” them as surely as they see him.

And hatred shall be taken from the earth, and along with jealousy it shall be drowned. For ignorance hath been destroyed upon it, because the knowledge of the Lord hath arrived upon it.

All the evil passions that are as demons tormenting humanity on this earth which they have turned into a hell spring from one cause: ignorance. This is why the great teachers of India, especially Shankara, insist that spiritual wisdom (jnana) alone brings liberation from the bonds of ignorance. When the knowledge of God (Brahmajnana) enlightens the consciousness then hell becomes heaven without our needing to go anywhere.

There was a spiritual adept in China who was a devotee of Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light. Once as she was walking along softly reciting the invocation of Amitabha a spiritual wiseacre said to her contemptuously: “Tell me grandmother, do you think Amitabha Buddha is listening to you in his paradise?” To his surprise she shook her head, continuing her invocations. “Then if Amitabha is not in his paradise, where is he?” insisted the smart-aleck. She pointed to her heart and kept on walking and reciting.

The idea of peace on earth in a social and political sense is as silly as expecting mental institutions to cease having mentally ill people living there. This earth is where the spiritually crazy are put. Someone once asked Yogananda if he believed in hell. The Master smiled and asked: “Where do you think you are?” But peace and joy can prevail in the heart of God’s devotee wherever he may be. It is an individual matter, but none the less glorious for that.

Let the singers sing the grace of the Lord Most High, and let them bring their songs. And their heart shall be like the day, and like the excellent beauty of the Lord their pleasant song.

In the deepest sense, the “songs” of the righteous are their very lives. So they “sing the grace of the Lord Most High” by living in his grace and embodying it in their lives. They are a message of love to both God and man. Their hearts are illumined by the “Sun of Righteousness” and shine outward into the hearts of those around them who are sensitive enough to pick up the “broadcast.” Their song-life will be perfect reflections of the Face of God, the beauty of the Divine. All who hear it will rejoice in the joy it also brings to them.

And let there be nothing without life, nor without knowledge nor dumb. For (the Lord) hath given a mouth to his creation, to open the voice of the mouth towards him, and to praise him.

This is a profound counsel. The spiritual aspirant must ensure that he is truly alive on every level, that no aspect of his heart or mind is dormant, but rather is living and shining in/with the Light of God. Every atom of his being is to be conscious and fully functioning. No part of him should be unconscious or without a real effect. This is the new birth which Jesus announced to the world.

“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:1-8).

In time the entire cosmos must become awake and alive in Divine Consciousness and be manifested as consciousness Itself. For intelligence is inherent in every atom of creation so it may open itself toward God and become living praise unto him.

It is this to which Jesus was referring when his enemies told him to silence those who were welcoming him into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He told them: “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40). And he did not mean that mute matter would be crying out in a mechanical, unconscious sense, for he had also said to these same opponents: “I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Matthew 3:9), enunciating the metaphysical principle that every atom is a potential sentient being, as it is the body of a spark of intelligence whose destiny is to evolve upward to humanity and far beyond to divinity.

Confess ye his power, and show forth his grace.

Although we should certainly “speak the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11), we must also ourselves perform wonderful works and “show forth his grace.” The Beloved Disciple wrote: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (I John 3:18). Quoting Isaiah, Jesus had said: “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). Again, it is the mind, heart, and life of each one of us that the ode is speaking about.

The final ten verses beginning with “And for its salvation…” have another, prophetic, meaning as well as that which we have just considered. I was told by an Orthodox rabbinical student that in Israel he had learned of a Jewish mystical tradition that the Messiah was to come two times: first as Son of Joseph and be rejected by Israel and later as Son of David and be accepted as the Messiah. Jesus was born at the beginning of the Piscean Age, and now that it is the beginning of the Aquarian Age there are those who believe that he is to appear again.

To them these verses are a prophecy of this Second Coming in which he shall appear with disciples who will have taken birth to work with him in his mission. A new era will open up for those on the earth who truly “seek the kingdom” while the others will go on just as before. I say this, because it is vain to suppose that the whole world is going to turn into a paradise by the mere birth of anyone, even such a Master as Jesus. The world is a vast lunatic asylum and will continue to be one. Jesus will come to heal and deliver those that “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). The rest will in time also awake and arise, as shall every sentient being in the universe.

Previous articles on the Seventh Ode of Solomon:

Five Quick Questions for Abbot George

July 12, 2020 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

Ask the Abbot–quick questions

Q: How do I exhaust all my vasanas totally in this life before death, so that I will no longer transmigrate/reincarnate totally?

Even if you do not exhaust all your vasanas in this life, if you have been constant in your sadhana you can be freed from returning to earthly embodiment. Instead, you will go to a higher world (loka), and if you continue in sadhana there you will gradually ascend from level to level until you transcend relative existence altogether. You need only have the needed determination and persistence.

“Therefore be a yogi” (Bhagavad Gita 6:46).

I have heard that on the path of sadhana a sadhak reaches a stage where he experiences samadhi. Then it is very difficult for him to maintain himself in his body and so he leaves his body forever; he dies. Is this true? I’m a little afraid of this situation.

Swami Trigunatitananda quote There are a lot of silly things said in the contemporary yoga world, and this is one of them.

Sadhana is the path to mastery, and those who attain genuine samadhi (not some pathological state produced by a false method learned from a false teacher) will easily maintain the body, only leaving it at the right time consciously and intentionally.

So keep up your sadhana diligently, remembering the motto Swami Trigunatita, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, hung on the wall of his ashram in San Francisco: Do Or Die. But You Won’t Die!

What is the meaning of the term “Mahakaal” as associated with Lord Shiva?

Mahakala literally means great or endless time. It can also mean cosmic time; undivided time; timelessness; and Shiva in his aspect of dissolver (not “destroyer”). Brahma creates, Vishnu maintains and Shiva dissolves the universe at the times of Pralaya. Shiva never destroys, he liberates. But those who cling to what he dissolves accuse him of being destructive. Sri Krishna himself says in the Gita: “I am mighty world-destroying Time” (11:32).

I have heard terms like “bliss beyond intoxication,” “supreme bliss” etc., with regards to meditation. What is this?

They are nonsense, basically: the propaganda of the yoga cults who peddle their guru and his “yoga” to their dupes.

There is, however ananda, the bliss of the individual atman, and paramananda, the bliss of the Paramatman. This we must seek.

Does a person really become very powerful if he has mastery over his senses?

If a strictly disciplined person masters the senses, he has power over them. If a yogi masters the senses then he is able to go beyond the senses into atmic consciousness which is beyond power or shakti. This second way is the way of the wise. Certainly power can be gained, but that is not the way to moksha, only to further egoic bondage.

More Questions and Answers:

The Road to Happiness

July 8, 2020 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

More from our series “Wisdom of Sri Gajanana Maharaj of Nashik”

Every human being is ceaselessly trying to acquire happiness

Every human being is ceaselessly trying to acquire happiness or to increase his share in it and to avoid pain, or at least to lessen it as much as possible. But the experience is just the contrary. He is ever feeling the lack of something and is always plunged in misery. Things which are pleasant in the beginning end in sorrow, and misery is always on the increase and gets the upper hand.

As man does not really understand wherein lies his happiness, he passes his days in the vain hope of securing happiness some time or other. Death catches him in its grip while his search for happiness is still going on. People do not profit by the example of their companions and fellow-beings, and so continue the same search and follow the same path. They, however, do not stop to think wherein lies real and lasting happiness.

A man, if he thinks deeply about this, will come to know that all things in this world which appear pleasant are perishable and false like a mirage. They either cause pain or increase the pain which is already there. No one, however, acquires this insight. On the contrary, everyone is entangled more and more in this snare of misery and finds it difficult to see a way out of the maze.

It is therefore necessary that some royal road should be pointed out so that people going by that path might root out this unending sorrow and pain and reach the destination where there is everlasting peace and happiness. I am putting before the world my experiences in order that people might find an easy, short and sure way of reaching this goal of everlasting happiness.

When you get experience for yourself, you will be sure that you are on the right path. [Read more…]

The Journey to God Through the Practice of Yoga

July 4, 2020 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

Journey to God-practice of yoga

Part 3 of Making Attraction and Aversion Work For Us, Not Against Us, a commentary on the 7th Ode of Solomon, written in Apostolic times (to be available as a paperback and ebook later this year).

For he it is Who is incorruptible, the perfection of the worlds and their Father.

This is an exposition of the nature of Ishwara. If we unite ourselves with him through yoga sadhana we shall become like him.

He has allowed him to appear to them that are his own, in order that they may recognize him that made them, and not suppose that they came of themselves.

One of the greatest flaws of any religion or spiritual philosophy is the presumption that spiritual truths can be figured out intellectually or by applying logic. Anyone with a modicum of self-observation is aware of both the limitations and the unreliability of the mind. This is why all authentic spiritual traditions tell us that the only viable working with the mind is that which enables us to go beyond the mind!

Maharshi Patanjali In the Divine Unity, the Supreme Spirit fosters the evolution of all the individual spirits which draw their being from It. Patanjali tells us in the Yoga Sutras that God himself is the Guru of all. (“Being unconditioned by time he is guru even of the ancients” 1:26.) Mostly he teaches through providing the experiences that their own higher minds determine, but he does at times teach them through intuitions that arise from the depths of their own beings where God is to be found.

The ancient tradition of India tell us that the primeval sages, the rishis, turning within in profound meditation, discovered Brahman as the essence of all Being, just as the ode says in this verse. Brahman is also our Source, the power which has enabled our manifestation within relativity and which empowers us to ascend to the Absolute.

For knowledge he hath appointed as its way; he hath widened it and extended it and brought it to complete perfection.

This is why we must persevere in the practice of japa and meditation, simple as they may seem. On the mechanical level they are simple (even childishly simple) but on the level of their effects they are as complex as relative existence itself. That is why the practice of yoga can deliver us from the nets and snares of relativity.

You will find that your experience of yoga practice will be infinitely varied. On occasion, of course, your meditation and japa may seem to be the same day after day, but that is because your inner and outer bodies are adjusting to the plateau of evolution your practice has brought you to. The effects are being assimilated and permatized during such periods. But after a while you will perceive yourself moving on in the depths of meditation to new areas of development. [Read more…]

New Book Now Available: “The Unknown Lives of Jesus and Mary”

July 1, 2020 by Light of the Spirit Monastery

The Unknown Lives of Jesus and Mary Compiled from Ancient Records and Mystical Revelations, by Abbot George Burke, is now available as a paperback and ebook at Amazon and other online retailers.
This week the ebook is on sale for only 99¢.

***

“There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” (Gospel of Saint John, final verse)

You can discover much of those “many other things which Jesus did” in this unique compilation of ancient records and mystical revelations, which includes historical records of the lives of Jesus Christ and his Mother Mary that have been accepted and used by the Church since apostolic times. This treasury of little-known stories of Jesus’ infancy, his sojourn in the Orient as recorded in the famous Ladakh Manuscript, and his passion, crucifixion, and resurrection, will broaden the reader’s understanding of what Christianity really was in its original form: a far more vibrant and conscious movement than what we see today in its place.

But this book is more than just a collection of ancient texts. Abbot George Burke’s illuminating and scholarly commentary adds a further dimension and relevance, and will guide you to a deeper understanding of how, as he puts it, “to manifest the inner Christ that abides within us all.”

The Unknown Lives of Jesus and Mary includes the text and commentary on these early writings:

The Protoevangelium Of Saint James
The Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus and Mary
The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary
The History of Anna, The Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Gospel of Thomas
The Infancy of the Savior
The Ladakh Manuscript, a manuscript found in a Buddhist monastery in Tibet telling of Jesus’ “Lost Years” and travels in India and Tibet
The Gospel Of Nicodemus
The Death of Pilate, Who Condemned Jesus
The Narrative of Joseph
The Book of John Concerning the Falling Asleep of Mary
Miscellaneous Sources

“An intelligent, respectful, and incredible perspective into an esoteric Christianity that is seldom seen. … The quality of the piece was a pleasant surprise.”
–River Ezell

***

Purchasing Options:

Note: This week the ebook is only 99¢

Get The Unknown Lives of Jesus and Mary Compiled from Ancient Records and Mystical Revelations from Amazon through this Universal Amazon link (it takes you to the Amazon store of your country.)

Or buy the book through one of these online stores through this one link.

How and Why God Draws Us to Himself

June 27, 2020 by Light of the Spirit Monastery

God draws us

Part 2 of Making Attraction and Aversion Work For Us, Not Against Us, a commentary on the 7th Ode of Solomon, written in Apostolic times (to be available as a paperback and ebook later this year).

My joy is the Lord and my impulse is toward him.

This is a completely theocentric matter. God is the total focus. As the desert father, Saint Arsenios the Great, said: “Unless you say: ‘God and I alone exist,’ you will never find God.”

Certainly religion is important, even essential, but it is only a instrument. No one admires the piano or the violin, but rather the brilliant pianist and violinist. Religion is a tool to be used by the seeker; the seeker is not to be a tool of religion.

On the other hand we cannot imagine a sane pianist or violinist claiming they have no need of a piano or a violin, so neither should we credit someone who says they need no religion. Nonsense is never sense.

There is within each one of us an elemental impulse toward God. Although our intelligence (buddhi) must cooperate in our return to God, still it is never a merely intellectual or emotional impulse. Rather it is inherent in our essential being itself. It is part of our eternal nature. Therefore to be an awakened person means to be experiencing and acting upon this godward impulse.

This path of mine is beautiful.

How is the path beautiful? “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). It is beautiful because it increasingly brings us nearer the Divine Beauty: God. Again, God is the measure of the matter, not the seeker or the mechanics or requirements of the search.

For I have a helper–the Lord.

We are not alone on the path. The Lord of Beauty himself is our companion. But he is not a passive companion. Rather: [Read more…]

The Ever-present Witness

June 17, 2020 by Light of the Spirit Monastery

More from our series “Wisdom of Sri Gajanana Maharaj of Nashik”

About a fortnight ago a learned shastri came to visit me. He had read some of the letters sent by me to my friends, and also the messages which I had given to some religious institutions, and owing to it a sort of respect had been created in his mind for me. He said to me, “Maharaj, the thoughts expressed by you are of a very high order. They receive much support from the Upanishads and treatises on Vedanta.”

I replied, “Punditji, you have considered the thoughts expressed by me from the shastric points of view and called them sound. This does not give me any very great pleasure. The reason is that I do not attach any importance to the delight obtained from high and beautiful thoughts of others. If you had expressed your agreement with at least one of these thoughts, having felt the truth of it from your own experience of the state mentioned in it, I would have felt highly delighted.

“If a person comes to me and tells me his own thoughts, the truth of which has been tested by his own experience, I will pay more respect to him than to a person who repeats like a parrot the thoughts, however high they may be, of great men like Sri Shankaracharya, Jnaneshwar or Tukaram. It does not matter whether the thoughts of the first-mentioned person are highly developed or not.

“I understand the minds of the various persons who come to me and ask me questions, because I have gone through those various stages and hence can identify myself with the stage of the questioner. I therefore never get irritated with any person for asking questions, however absurd they may be. The only thing required is that he must be thoroughly honest and sincere. I then answer his questions according to what my inner Soham suggests to me. The answer given by me will, I am sure, necessarily remove the doubts of the questioner, and he will see the clear path of truth before him.”

When that shastri heard this reply given by me, he was overcome with emotion and requested me to explain how Soham is always present as a witness in everybody’s mind.

Soham is always present as a witness in everybody’s mind

An ordinary man of the world is not conscious of this “I” which is always awake. As soon as a man gains consciousness of the ever-existing presence of this “I” he attains the goal of human life. This stage is known as sakshi avastha (the state where the “I” is consciously felt to be the ever-present witness). This Soham is ever present in every being in the form of his own Self. This Soham is continuously going on, it never stops. This Soham which is seen in all animate and inanimate things is my Jani Janardan (God present in all human beings), and wherever I use the word “Jani Janardan,” I mean by it this Soham, present in all.

If we carry on the japa with firm faith, we clearly realize after some time the power of the mantra. If we train our mind to entertain only good thoughts, not only are we ourselves benefitted, but our conduct produces good effects upon others also. This light of Soham inside us, sheds its luster on our whole life and makes it full of happiness. Its beneficial influence is also felt by the whole external atmosphere around us. The first thing required is firm faith without any doubts and misgivings, and the second is the continuous practice of the mantra japa.

If therefore you continue the practice steadily, the tendency of the mind towards good thoughts and actions will be more and more increased, and owing to the ceaseless contemplation of Soham there will gradually be the realization of your own inherent blissful nature, and the mind will be enjoying complete peace and happiness.

Brothers and sisters, if you carry on the practice of japa with full faith, and ultimately realize your oneness with Soham you, too, will become full of bliss like myself.

For unknown words, see A Brief Sanskrit Glossary on our website.

NOTE: Atmaprabha, from which this blogpost is taken can be found in Appendix One of our publication Soham Yoga. Other teachings of Sri Gajanana Maharaj can be found in Chapter Three of Soham Yoga.

You can also read Soham Yoga on our website here.