Light of the Spirit Blog

Untold Stories of Mahavatar Babaji of Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi”

August 14, 2017 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

To someone who wished I would write anything I might know about Mahavatar Babaji that is not in Autobiography of a Yogi.

I will tell you what others told me in India about Babaji.

Dr. Mukherji

Within a week of my landing in India in 1962, I was staying at the Anandamayi Ashram in Ranchi, less than a mile from the Yogoda Satsanga Ashram. “My” room was the free homeopathic dispensary in the daytime and my bedroom at night. It was wonderful. I was in India!

The dispensary was run by Dr. Mukherji, a disciple of Swami Purnananda who was a direct disciple of Babaji. In our conversations he told me some things that I gladly pass on.

Other names of Babaji

As recorded in Autobiography of a Yogi, the disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya called Babaji by several names: Mahamuni Babaji Maharaj, Maha Yogi, Trambak Baba and Shiva Baba. Purnananda and many of his fellow-disciples of Babaji simply called him Babaji Brahmananda. That appeals to me the most.

Babaji is not as inaccessible as many people think. He does not just roam in solitude in the Himalayas with only a handful of disciples with him. And though comparatively speaking few people stay with him, there is a small trickle of aspirants who come to spend some time with him.

Swami Purnananda stayed with Babaji more than one time in the Himalayas, sometimes for years. He told Dr. Mukherji that the famous Devendranath Tagore (see the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna), a Bengali philosopher and religious reformer, was a disciple of Babaji and spent quite some time with him in the Himalayas. When his even more famous son, Rabindranath Tagore, was in his teens Devendranath sent him to live with Babaji for three years.

Other disciples, other yoga sadhanas

There is also a misperception about Babaji and his spiritual mission. It is assumed that he only had one disciple “in the world,” Lahiri Mahasaya. What I have written here shows this is not true. Furthermore, it is believed that Kriya Yoga is the only practice favored by Babaji. But there are two of his disciples whose teaching contradict this.

Vijay Krishna Goswami

Vijay Krishan Goswami The renowned Bengali saint, Vijay Krishna Goswami (also in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna) was a disciple of Babaji. He was of the Vaishnava philosophy and taught to his disciples and the public in general the continual repetition and singing of the Maha (Great) Mantra that is found in the Kalisantara Upanishad:

Hare Rama, Hare Rama,
Rama, Rama, Hare Hare.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,
Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare.

I can tell you an amusing story about Babaji’s rescuing Vijay from his shrewish wife–at least for a while.

Vijay and his wife were in Brindaban where Krishna lived until the age of twelve. Vijay’s wife was always complaining about his ascetic ways and all the time he spent spreading the message (for which Babaji had commissioned him) of the Maha Mantra and the time spent with his disciples–much like the wife of Babaji’s disciple, Lahiri Mahasaya.

After days and days of this fussing, as his wife was continuing on and on with her complaints, Vijay silently prayed: “Gurudeva, please free me from this misery!” Immediately his wife found herself in the Himalayas with Babaji and his holy band. She remained there a while and then walked all the way back to Brindaban, arriving there six months after her disappearance. She was much more docile after that.

Neem Karoli Baba

Another very famous disciple, also not a Kriya teacher, was Neem Karoli Baba who lived to be over three hundred and fifty years old, and was reputed to be an incarnation of Hanuman, the great devotee of Lord Rama, an avatar who lived in Indian thousands of years ago.

For three and a half centuries Neem Karoli Baba taught people to continually repeat the sacred mantra Ram–the name of Rama. (Many yogis of India repeat Ram, but do not consider it the name of the avatar, but a name of the Absolute Itself. Interestingly, Ram is also a Hebrew name of God.) Several books have been written about Sri Neem Karoli Baba. I only saw him once, and every moment I looked at him I was literally drunk with bliss.

Finally I want to tell you about three people I have met that saw Babaji.

An attorney

One was a supreme court lawyer living in New Delhi. He had never heard of Babaji, but one time when on pilgrimage to Varanasi, he was sitting in the evening at Dasashwamedh Ghat. An extraordinarily beautiful woman came up to him and simply said: “Follow me.” He did not know it, but this was Babaji’s sister, about whom Yogananda wrote in Autobiography of a Yogi.

He followed her through dark narrow alleyways and then down narrow stairs into an underground cave. Only a single light was burning there, and by its light he saw a young man with bright red hair sitting there in meditation. The woman motioned for him to sit. When he asked who the man was, she only said: “Great Babaji,” and indicated he should not speak.

He sat there an hour or so looking at the radiant figure before him. Then in silence the woman signaled he should stand up and follow her. She led him back to Dasashwamedh Ghat and left without a word. Only a day or so after he returned to New Delhi he came across Autobiography of a Yogi and saw the picture of Babaji which was just like the yogi he had seen. Many times he went back to Varanasi seeking Babaji or his sister, but was not successful.

A woman-yogi friend

I met the above lawyer in the home of a woman who had also met Babaji. From her I learned the following.

Babaji's Cave When Babaji met Lahiri Mahasaya near Ranikhet, he took him to a cave where they had been together in Lahiri Baba’s previous life. That is commonly known as “Babaji’s cave.”

But Babaji has several caves, and one has a most peculiar character. It is located in a dense forest populated by many ferocious tigers and other dangerous animals. When someone becomes lost in that forest toward nightfall one of Babaji’s disciples comes and leads him to that cave. According to what the lost person is accustomed to at home, that is what he finds in the cave. Poor people find it very sparse, others find it simply furnished and well-to-do people find it luxuriously furnished–with carpets, chairs, tables and a comfortable bed. Each one if given the kind of food he would usually have at home. In the morning the disciple shows him the way out of the jungle. Some people meet Babaji himself in the cave, but some others do not.

My friend and three others went high into the Himalayas to find that particular cave in hope of seeing Babaji. They stayed in a simple guest house near the forest. One day as night was about to fall, they suddenly heard tremendous roaring of a tiger that seemed to be very near them. Remembering the way they had entered the forest, they began running as fast as they could, desperately praying to Babaji to protect them. The guest house was some miles away, but they reached in it twenty to thirty minutes! This was a miracle and a miraculous escape by Babaji’s blessing, they were confident.

Rescued by Babaji

Every day they went out searching. But after a few days my friend became very ill and ran a high fever. She urged the others to go on and continue their search for the cave, which they reluctantly did. After some time a radiant figure came in through the open door of her room. His features were not easy to see because rays of light were shining from his body, but he looked to her exactly like Babaji’s picture, and he had reddish hair in a knot on his head in the style of the ancient sages rather than hanging down as in his picture. He sat and had a long conversation with her on spiritual matters. (She never told me what was said.) Then he said: “The others are coming, so I will leave now.” He started for the door and melted away from her sight.

For the next three or four days the same thing happened. But the time was running out for the other pilgrims and they had to return to their jobs. So my friend told them to go ahead and she would try to get to the railway station several miles away in some manner. This they did not want to do, but she insisted, and the next day they left.

That afternoon, the radiant yogi returned as usual, but told her that she must leave and get treatment in Delhi, otherwise she would die. “But I can’t walk,” she protested. “Then I will carry you on my back,” he said. And so he did. He carried her luggage and she held on around his neck and away they went. In another miraculously short time they were at the station. The yogi put her in a compartment, said farewell, and was gone.

As she sat waiting for the train to start, she began to pray: “O Master Babaji, if this was really you who visited me and brought me here, come back and let me see you and be sure.” Nothing happened. The train started up, and as it gained speed leaving the station, suddenly Babaji was there standing on the platform. Her heart leaped up and she tried to get up and leave the train, but it was going too fast.

The next station was quite a distance away, but she prayed: “O Babaji, please come to the next station. Then I will know it is really you I have seen.” She was so invigorated by her desire that she was able to feebly get up and out of the train when the train stopped at the station. She went up and down the platform looking, looking and looking here and there. But saw nothing. The conductor blew his whistle and she hurried back to the train but stood in the door looking out, planning to jump out onto the platform if Babaji appeared. The train was picking up speed, and when it was going so fast it was impossible for anyone to get out of the train, suddenly Babaji was there, standing and looking at her. Then she knew the deathless master had truly come to her and saved her life. She and her son told me this just as I have now related it to you.

A yogi-friend

The preceding two accounts were told to me during my first pilgrimage to India. Early on in my second pilgrimage I was staying at Sivanandashram in Rishikesh in the Himalayan foothills. There I met a very well-known and respected young yogi of North India and spent much time with him.

One afternoon he began asking me about Babaji, and if he ever left the Himalayas. I told him that he definitely did and came down to the plains at the feet of the Himalayas. “Well, I saw him in the Lucknow train station only a week ago,” he told me. Then he described to me how he had seen a young man with long, bright red hair waiting on the platform of the Lucknow station with several other men. All were simply dressed like Himalayan yogis.

“I could not quit looking at him,” the young monk told me. “I have never seen anyone like him in my life. I knew this had to be a great soul. When the northbound train came, he got into a third-class coach with the others, and as the train left the station I realized that this must be the Babaji of Yogananda’s autobiography. The thought had not occurred to me before. I believe he kept me from realizing who he was until it was too late to approach him.”

So that is what little I know.

Post by or related to Yogananda:

Who Are the Ideal Householder Yogis?

August 6, 2017 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

Q: Someone told me that the Indian scriptures say if householder yogis only engage in sexual relations at night they are actually brahmacharis. Is this so?

I have come across this in some “scriptural” books myself more than once. Nevertheless, this statement is not only false, it is foul. Do not believe it. I have read the dharma shastras on the rules for the grihasta life and they are far more stringent I can assure you.

But since you mention “householder yogis,” let me assure you that all such talk is usually just empty air. Three men are held up as examples of “householder yogis” to the world: Sri Ramakrishna, his disciple Durgacharan Nag and Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya. Let us look at their examples, which are holy indeed.

Sri Ramakrishna

Sri Ramakrishna was first of all a monk, a member of the Puri branch of the Swami Order. Ramakrishna was his monastic name.

His family and the owner of the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple decided that celibacy had made his brain overheated and that if his brahmacharya would be broken then he would be “normal.” So first of all, the owner of the temple took him to a house of prostitution in Calcutta and left him there until “it” would be done. When he went back he found Sri Ramakrishna seated in samadhi while being worshipped by the prostitutes who upbraided him for daring to attempt defilement of such a holy man.

His family had gotten him married for the same nefarious purpose, but the bride was a child at the time. So after the Calcutta failure it was decided to send Sarada Devi, his now-adult wife, to live with him in the temple and end his brahmacharya. What they did not know was her exalted spiritual status.

One night he asked her: “Have you come here to bring my mind down to the lower planes?” “Why would I?” she replied, and they lived together in unbroken virginity. He worshipped her as Kali and she worshipped him as Kali. After his mahasamadhi she carried on his work as a supreme jnani and yogeshwari. Read their biographies and their spiritual discourses, especially The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, and decide who in India or America are really householder yogis.

Durgacharan Nag

Durgacharan Nag declared to his parents that he wished to never marry, but they lied to him and told him that he need not break his virginity–just get married and live with his wife in celibacy. Being a pure soul and of impeccable honesty he could not conceive of the real intentions of his mother and father.

So he married and through the years endured the complaining, haranguing and demanding of his parents and his wife that he break brahmacharya and have children. But he held firm and left this world still a brahmachari. Swami Vivekananda said that he had travelled throughout India and the world and had never met anyone the spiritual equal of Nag Mahasaya.

Lahiri Mahasaya

Yogiraj Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya was secularly employed, married and had children when he met his guru, Mahavatar Babaji, in the Himalayas. There he became a yogi, and from that time onward lived in perpetual celibacy with his wife.

For twenty-five years afterward he worked in a government office, returning to his home to spend the entire night in deep meditation, and most of the days when the office was closed. After his retirement he spent night and day in his small room where he received disciples and spiritual inquirers.

You can read in Chapter Thirty-One of Autobiography of a Yogi about his wife complaining to him regarding this “neglect” of his family. One of his children died while he was discoursing on spiritual subjects with his visitors. When the wailing from the upper floor announced the death, someone asked if they should leave. “They are doing their work and we are doing ours,” was his calm remark, and continued his teaching. Such are the ways of a true householder yogi.

Two more

Bhagabati Charan Ghosh, householder yogi Gyana Prabha Ghosh-Yogananda's mother, householder yogi As I say, these three are continually cited by those who have no intention of following their actual example. And I can add two more: the parents of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Regarding these two great yogi-saints, Yoganandaji wrote: “Early in their married life, my parents became disciples of a great master, Lahiri Mahasaya of Benares. This contact strengthened Father’s naturally ascetical temperament. Mother made a remarkable admission to my eldest sister Roma: ‘Your father and myself live together as man and wife only once a year, for the purpose of having children.’” That Yogananda would reveal this to the world shows how important he thought this information would be to serious married yogis.

How outrageous that these virgin and celibate holy men and woman would be the excuse for “yogis” to live a selfish and materially-conscious married life the same as any desire-controlled ignoramuses who live for their own interests and gain. They are not yogis but bhogis, those who live for their own enjoyment and self-satisfaction.

Further Reading:

Stories About Yogananda’s Second American Disciple: Warren Vickerman

August 1, 2017 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

yogananda-warren vickerman To someone who asked for more about Warren Vickerman, the second American to become a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda.

The very first person I had a conversation with at the Hollywood SRF Center was Annie Vickerman, the wife of Warren Vickerman (“Vickie”). She was taking care of the little octagonal bookstore. We became good friends and in later conversations she occasionally told me some things about him.

Warren meets Yogananda

A young man of deep introspection, Vickie came to realize that the breath is the foundation of the mind, and that the restless, uncontrolled breath is the great obstacle to deep spiritual perception. Though living in New York City, he somehow learned that a Swami Yogananda was living and teaching in Boston.

Intuitively feeling that the swami held the key to his dilemma, he managed to find his address and went, unannounced, to Boston. As he was walking up toward the house in which Yogananda was saying, the Master came out onto the porch. Stopping right where he was, Vickie asked: “Can you help me to get rid of the breath?” Yoganandaji smiled and said: “Come right on in!” And he did, and became his second disciple in America.

Two cooks and an outsider

Yoganandaji often stayed with the Vickermans in New York. Vickie was an excellent cook, so the two of them often spent hours in the kitchen cooking up Indian specialities and creating new ones. Whenever Annie (who could not cook at all) entered the precincts she was immediately shooed out and the door closed as the experts continued their culinary conquests.

Discerning the truth

Warren was serious about finding God and expected other yogis to be the same. Neither could he be fooled by talk. A man visited the Vickermans one day and Annie listened to him recite his spiritual experiences and insights to Vickie. Immensely impressed, when the man left Annie told Vickie: “That was remarkable, wasn’t it?”

“It was all lies, not a word of truth in it,” was Vickie’s brief retort. “How do you know?” asked a bewildered Annie. Sitting down, Vickie quietly said: “Because I was watching his heart chakra the whole time.” So much for that!

Little patience with nonsense

Vickie became a highly developed yogi, and for many years led the Self-Realization Fellowship center in New York City. This naturally entailed his meeting many seekers and often becoming their advisor. Much like Yogananda’s guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, Vickie had little patience with nonsense, earthly or psychic.

One day a woman came to him in great distress. “Oh! What shall I do? Every time I start to meditate I fly up astrally out of my body and hit my head on the ceiling!” Vickie looked at her with a glint in his eye and then said forcefully: “Lady, when you are in that state there is no ceiling!”

Saint John’s vision

One day Annie came across a modern language translation of the Bible. She read out to Vickie the part in Revelation about Saint John’s vision of Jesus standing in the midst of seven golden candlesticks (in the King James Version). The translators used the term “lampstands” which they felt modern people could relate to. Vickie’s comment was: “My God, it sounds like Saint John’s vision took place in Macy’s Department Store!”

Almond Joys and levitation

Vickie meditated nearly all night sitting on his twin bed. Annie would be in the other bed reading. Just before Vickie began to meditate, he would open the drawer in the table beside his bed and bring out a handful of Almond Joy candy bars that Annie loved. Tossing them over to her, he would say: “Here, enjoy yourself.”

And she did. Eating the Almond Joys, she watched as he went deeper and deeper into meditation, entering samadhi without breath or heartbeat and sometimes levitating off the bed. And that was how she fell asleep every night.

Hollywood carpet

Vickie owned a carpet company that made very high quality carpet, so he donated and had carpet installed throughout the Mount Washington headquarters and the Hollywood Church. It was a deep blue color and still in use when I lived next door to the church in 1961 and 1962.

A little about Annie

Now, even though you did not ask, let me tell you about Annie herself whom I have always admired greatly.

Annie was born into the topmost stratum of New York City society known as the Four Hundred. Famous people whom even I had heard about or seen on television were her close friends. Her best friends were Wanda and Wally Toscanini, the daughters of Arturo Toscanini the great conductor. Three to four nights of every week she would have dinner with the Toscanini family, and it was always spaghetti, at the demand of the Maestro.

The Four Hundred and the One

In 1924, Swami Yogananda came to New York and spoke in Carnegie Hall. Annie went to hear him and became his faithful disciple. The life of the Four Hundred was the only life Annie knew, but when many of the Four Hundred derided and denounced the Swami, Annie cut nearly all her social ties and made his disciples her only close friends.

After Vickie’s death she moved to Hollywood and lived just around the corner from the SRF Center. She single-handedly managed the bookstore and often filled in as cashier in the cafe Yoganandaji had created. In later years she lived in Encinitas near the hermitage.

Truly it can be said of Annie: God and Guru were her life.

Epilogue:

In my first conversation with Annie, which took place in the bookstore, she told me something that I now pass on to you, as it is from the Master himself.

More than once when talking with Vickie and Annie, Master Yogananda told them: “In three generations you won’t even know I came to this country.” When they asked him what, then, was the use of his coming here, he replied: “I have planted the seed and it will grow. My work will go on, even if sometimes my name will not even be mentioned.”

(Swami Kriyananda wrote that the Master often said to those at Mount Washington: “When I am gone you all will change everything.” In a letter to Rajasi, regarding himself and the organization after his departure from this world, he wrote: “They will go their way and I will go mine.”)

More from and about Yogananda:

Meditator’s Guide to the Mind Part 2—Seven Important Lessons

July 25, 2017 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

Originally posted five years ago today, this post is ever-fresh. So we share this excerpt from The Dhammapada for Awakening again. This is the follow-up post of What Is the Mind?: A Meditator’s Guide, Part 1

Mind–the source

“Mind precedes its objects. They are mind-governed and mind-made” (Dhammpapada 1).

First there is the mind. It is possible to view “mind” as both the machinery of perception we have been talking about and the consciousness which perceives the perception, the consciousness that is unconditioned and permanent–in other words, the spirit, the eternal Self. “The Self is ear of the ear, mind of the mind, speech of speech. He is also breath of the breath, and eye of the eye” (Kena Upanishad 2).

From this higher aspect of Mind all things proceed–in both the macrocosmic and the microcosmic sense. From the Mind of God all things are projected that are found in the cosmos; and from the mind of the individual are projected all that are distinctive to his life.

We are all co-creators with God, even though we have long ago forgotten that and attribute everything that goes on in our life as acts of God. From this delusion erroneous religion has arisen–religion that thinks it necessary to pray to and propitiate God in order for the “good” to come to us and the “bad” to be eliminated from our life. It is this religion and its false God that Buddha adamantly rejected and from which we must be freed if we are to gain any true understanding of what is really happening to us from life to life.

The need for true religion

On the other hand, we need true religion–the conviction and aspiration for the uniting of the finite consciousness with the Infinite Consciousness in eternal Being. The call of the self to the Self is the essence of true religion, and in that sense those who would turn from death to life must be thoroughly religious. Any god that is separate from us is a false god; the true God is the very Self of our self. Though distinct from us, He is not separate. We are eternally one with Him. But we have to realize that–not just intellectually, but through direct experience. And that experience is only possible in meditation.

Seven Important Lessons

All right: mind precedes its objects, which are themselves governed and made by the mind. This has profound implications.

1. Karma is the creation of the mind–is simply the mind in extension. Karma need not be worked out or fulfilled; the mind need only be changed, or better yet brought into complete abeyance. Then karma is no more and its attendant compulsions–including birth and death–no longer exist.

2. Our entire life experience is but a mirroring of the mind. If something is not already within our mind it cannot be projected outward as a (seemingly) external factor or experience of our life. So our life is our mind in motion. By observing it we can come to know what is in our mind, just as by running a film through a projector we come to know what is in it. If we do not like what is happening in our life, the solution is to alter our mind. People who like to tell of how cruel, selfish, dishonest, and disloyal others habitually are to them are merely telling us how cruel, selfish, dishonest, and disloyal they are–potentially if not actually. Victims are only victimizers in a down cycle. The moment the upswing comes in their life rhythms they will go back to victimizing others.

Action and reaction are purely psychological matters, the film in the projector–the light and sound on the screen being only its projection. Change the film and you change the experience. Since objects come from the mind they can only be compatible with the mind and therefore express and reveal its character.

3. All the factors of life are really only thought, attitude, and outlook in manifestation.

4. Study your life and thereby know your mind.

5. You are always in control, even though that control may be on an unconscious level.

6. Change your mind and you change your life. (Do not forget that mind includes consciousness.)

7. Mary Baker Eddy was right: All is Mind and Mind is All.

Special Reminder

Dwelling in the Mirror cover

Abbot George’s new book Dwelling In The Mirror: A Study of Illusions Produced by Delusive Meditation and How to Be Free from Them is now available in print at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and in ebook format at these online outlets as well as Kobo.com, iBooks, Nook, and Smashwords.

The ebook version of Dwelling in the Mirror is on sale for only a few more days for only 99¢. In August, the ebook will go up to $2.99

“I totally loved this book! After running across many spiritual and self-help books filled with unrealistic promises, this little jewel had the impact of a triple Espresso.”
–Sandra Carrington-Smith, author of Housekeeping for the Soul

New Book on Avoiding Meditation Delusions

July 18, 2017 by Light of the Spirit Monastery

Light of the Spirit Press has just published a new book in print and ebook format: Dwelling In The Mirror: A Study of Illusions Produced by Delusive Meditation and How to Be Free from Them, by Abbot George Burke. And for a limited time the ebook version is on sale for only 99¢.

This book is essential reading for all meditators and spiritual aspirants.

The following is from the Preface to the book, by Abbot George:

“Over and over people have mistaken trivial and pathological conditions for enlightenment, written books, given seminars and gained a devoted following. I have encountered quite a few myself, including people who believed they were the Divine Mother, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saint Francis of Assisi, Archangel Michael, Lucifer and assorted famous masters of the past. One called our monastery and left lengthy narratives on our answering machine about herself because, she said, she did not want to die without anyone knowing about her experiences and attainment. Another one wrote me a note that simply said: ‘I am the Goddess!’”
“I have known more than one person who believed all their dreams were revelations of truth. And I have known some that continually predicted their imminent death for decades. Others told me how enlightened they were, including the one that had whiplash from ‘crashing into the divine light.’ What did they all have in common? They had an experience! Not of one of them was an intentional fraud. They believed their delusions based on their experience.”
“Most of these unfortunate people were completely unreachable with reason. Yet there are those who can have an experience and realize that it really cannot be real, but a vagary of their mind. Some may not understand that on their own, but can be shown by others the truth about it. For them and those that may one day be in danger of meditation-produced delusions I have written this brief study.”

In Dwelling in the Mirror you will learn:

Different types of meditation and the experiences they produce, and the problems and delusions which can arise from them.
How to get rid of negative initiation energies and mantras.
What are authentic, positive meditation practices and their effects and aspects.
An ancient, universal method of meditation which is both proven and effective.

“I am very grateful for this book, and for the clean, honest wisdom it dispenses, and I would eagerly suggest it to anyone who’s on a path of spiritual discovery. It was certainly not what I expected when I started reading, but by the time I reached the last page, I knew it was exactly what I needed to hear.”
– Sandra Carrington-Smith, author of Housekeeping for the Soul

Dwelling in the Mirror is available in print at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and in ebook format at these online outlets as well as Kobo.com, iBooks, Nook, and Smashwords.

As always, reviews are encouraged and welcomed.

Again, the ebook version of Dwelling in the Mirror is on sale this week for only 99¢.

The Benefits of Past Life Recall | Podcast

July 13, 2017 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

Past Life Recall podcast The subject of past life recall is a broad topic. So this interview of Abbot George Burke by our friend Bianca Vlahos of PBA-fm radio in Australia is a long one—just over 53 minutes.

Among the questions Bianca asks is “What is the main value in understanding our past lives?”

Here are some of Abbot George’s comments from the interview:

“When you understand what has caused the present situation, you can often understand that situation. Often also it will tell you, or you understand then, the way you should respond to the present situation and the way to go from this point on onward.”

Regarding difficulties in this life caused by past lives:

“That’s why this stuff happens to us, for us to learn how to make a positive response to a negative situation.”

Abbot George stressed the positive aspect of our growth from life to life:

“We are an unfolding story and every life is a chapter in that story. The next chapter can be maybe much more interesting and a much more happy chapter. If we do our best to be positive in this life then we can have a positive future. We created this present life and we are right now creating our future life.”
“None of us is helpless. We are creating our own life.”

Listen to the entire podcast interview to hear interesting stories of past life recall, and the effect it can have in our lives.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

If you do not see the player above (it won’t show in emails), click here to listen to The Benefits of Past Life Recall. Podcast length: 53:09 minutes.

Worship of God in India: Questions and Answers

July 8, 2017 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

Q: In India which is mostly worshipped: God with form (Saguna Brahman) or God without form (Nirguna Brahman)? Do you think that to worship the Personal God is better than to worship the Formless God?

Certainly in India Saguna Brahman is worshipped more than Nirguna Brahman. But we must not forget that Saguna and Nirguna mean with qualities (guna) and without qualities, not just with form and without form–though that is included. As usual it is good to turn to the Bhagavad Gita in this matter. There we find this in the twelfth chapter:

“Arjuna said: The constantly steadfast who worship you with devotion, and those who worship the eternal Unmanifest–which of them has the better understanding of yoga?
The Holy Lord said: Those who are ever steadfast, who worship me, fixing their minds on me, endowed with supreme faith, I consider them to be the best versed in yoga.
But those who worship the Imperishable, the Undefinable, the Unmanifested, the Omnipresent (All-pervading), Inconceivable, Unchanging, Unmoving, the Constant–controlling all the senses, even-minded everywhere, happy in the welfare of all beings–they attain to me also.
Greater is the effort of those whose minds are set on the Unmanifest, for the Unmanifest as a goal is truly difficult for the embodied ones to reach.
But those who, renouncing all actions in me, intent on me as the highest [goal] worship me, meditating on me with single-minded Yoga–of those whose consciousness has entered into me, I am soon the deliverer from the ocean of mortal samsara. Keep your mind on me alone, causing your intellect to enter into me. Thenceforward, without doubt, you shall dwell in me” (12:1-8).
Are Lord Krishna and Rama both the Personal God?

Brahman is one, being both Saguna and Nirguna, and also beyond those distinctions. The same is true of every individual jiva as well. So whether we consider an avatara to be Brahman Itself or a perfectly liberated being, a siddha (as do the Sankhyas), the same applies.
[Read more…]

What Are the Many Faces of God?

July 1, 2017 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

Q: Reading Abbot Burke’s The Christ of India, (all in all a great book) I am a bit confused as to the disposition of Saint Thomas Christians on the matter of God? At one point, he states that they are Unitarian and at other times asserts they are Trinitarian, both practically and esoterically. Which is it?

It is both, because God is both Unity and Trinity. We must realize that since human beings are only on the first rung of the evolutionary ladder, the material universe, they really cannot comprehend the divine nature as it is, since it is beyond conception–but not beyond direct experience. As a result, we must speak of it in terms common to this world.

God is beyond all conception, and therefore is beyond both Unity and Trinity as we think of it. Yet in speaking of the possibility of interaction between humans and God and the ultimate realization of their oneness, we have to speak as well as we can, though only approximately. God is absolutely One, yet in relating to us manifests in a triune manner. And since God never changes, he must be essentially One and Three simultaneously, otherwise it could not happen. Yet, since even the concepts of one and three are from our side only, he is neither one nor three.

A child beginning to talk really does not have the mental development to understand what his mother and father really are as human beings. But they respond to his addressing them, even if he does not articulate “mother” or “father” clearly. In the same way, our reaching out to comprehend through language is an act of will which does lead us onward to increasing understanding and then transcendence of that limited comprehension into “open vision direct and instant” (Bhagavad Gita 9:1) which is beyond words. And in that vision we get beyond them, too.

To someone who, referring to the foregoing answer asked why it had to be one and three and not four, five, six, or any number.

You are absolutely right. Any number that applies to an aspect of God is perfectly legitimate. Here is an interesting section from the upanishads regarding this.

“Then Vidagdha Sakalya asked him: How many gods are there, Yajnavalkya? He answered, in accord with the following nivid (invocation of the gods): As many as are mentioned in the nivid of the hymn of praise to the Vishwedevas, namely, three hundred and three, and three thousand and three. Yes, he said, but how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya? Thirty three. Yes, he said, but how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya? Six. Yes, said he, but how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya? Three. Yes, said he, but how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya? Two. Yes, said he, but how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya? One and a half. Yes, said he, but how many gods are there, Yajnavalkya? One. Yes, said he.” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.9.1)

God is not like an egg or an apple that you can count him, so he is not really one, either. As the ancient sages of India have told us over and over, he is all and he is no thing. Therefore he is every number and no number.

The only ones who really understand this are the siddhas, the perfected yogis.

Further Reading:

Esoteric Christian Beliefs — The various esoteric Christian beliefs outlined in this article are blessedly outside “official” churchdom and therefore not a set of imposed dogmas but a spiritual perspective, the “mind of Christ” (I Corinthians 2:16) without which no one is a real Christian. Christian discipleship is spiritual practice–and the experience and knowledge gained from such practice–rather than the intellectual concepts of theology and dogma, but there is a certain broad framework, outlined in this article, within which the disciple works out his salvation, but theological details and their interpretation are left up to the individual. By Abbot George Burke.
Robe of Light — “Where am I?…How did I get here?” is more than a trite line from nineteenth century melodramas and novels. It is a query put forth by potential sages throughout the history of conscious mankind. When asked on a cosmic scale, it is bold indeed: What is this universe I keep finding myself in, and how did I get here? That is answered by esoteric Christian cosmology outlined in this article. By Abbot George Burke. Also available in print and as an ebook here.
Religion for Awakening — A profound study in practical truth by F. W. Pigott, an esoteric Christian bishop within the Liberal Catholic Church in Great Britain who wrote in the first half of the twentieth century. This is an edited–and occasionally adapted–version, edited by Abbot George Burke.
The Esoteric Christian Creed — Bishops Wedgwood and Leadbeater were adherents of the Non-dual (Advaita) philosophy of India as uncompromisingly taught by Madame Blavatsky, with whom Leadbeater lived for several years in India. This creed embodies that esoteric view. Commentary by Abbot George Burke.

Past Life Recall: Is It a Good or a Bad Idea?

June 23, 2017 by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

phoenix past life recall Q: Can someone today have had “no” past lives? Could this be the start of lives?

We have many, many reincarnations in lower life forms before we ever reach human form. (See Robe of Light.) By the time we are (primitive) human beings we have no doubt been around for more than one creation cycle. So every human being has a very long history behind them.

Which is the best link to a guided meditation for past life regression? Is there a script to guide through a past life regression?

My healer-friend Benjamin Bibb formulated a form of past life regression that enables someone to briefly experience previously lives. It is the only one I have ever used, and I am planning to eventually post that on our website.

There is a most interesting book: David St. Clair’s Lessons in Instant ESP, that has a script for past life recall. It is rather complex and lengthy, but certainly can work. It can be bought from Amazon.

What if someone can’t recall a past life/lives? How do they unblock this?

There is a very good reason for people not remembering their past lives, lest they get stuck in one and not move on and thereby retard their progress. So if someone draws a blank in trying to remember, it is better to drop the idea for a while and return to it occasionally to see if the blank remains. When the time is right, the memory will be available.

Sometimes people have lived on other planets in intelligent life forms very different from ours, so even if they remember, it either makes no sense to them or they do not believe it. It is not common, but it does happen.

Why do some people feel shame and embarrassment over the memory of a past life? Is this normal and why are people ashamed?

That is so subjective and personal that there is no simple answer for it. Certainly, a person might get a glimmer of a life that somewhere had an unpleasant or “shameful” element and feel shame and embarrassment even if that aspect has not surfaced consciously. It is good to be cautious at such times, perhaps waiting a while and then trying again.

I once remembered quite a bit about a childhood in a life three centuries ago. It made no sense to me: I lived alone with my mother in a large house and never saw anyone else but an elderly woman who was some kind of servant that came each day. When I was about ten years of age, I did meet two other boys my age. We became friends and often spent time together in a forest, but I never saw their homes or anyone connected with them. In my early teens my mother died and then no one at came near our house, and to escape starvation I wandered until I found a road and walked to a large city where I made a very poor living. One day when pondering the peculiarity of that life I understood: I must have been an illegitimate child of someone who kept my mother and I hidden away and my existence was strictly kept secret. Since the lapse of three centuries made me indifferent to such a life, I might have felt ashamed if the impressions of the social ideas of that time were still in my subconscious.

Learn more about reincarnation:

Update Available to Om Yoga Meditation

June 16, 2017 by Light of the Spirit Monastery

Om Yoga Meditation: Its Theory and Practice is available in print or as and ebook at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Smashwords,
and other online outlets.

Over the last few weeks we have been updating one of the most important resources on our website: Om Yoga Meditation: Its Theory and Practice by Abbot George Burke. In addition to being available for reading free online, and as a PDF download, the updated version is available on Amazon and other online outlets in print and as an ebook.

Recently Abbot George wrote about this new edition of Om Yoga Meditation:

“There is just no substitute for the material you will find in Om Yoga Meditation. It has taken me over half a century to bring it all together in that book, including the extra information in the new edition.”

Om Yoga Meditation: Its Theory and Practice is a thorough guide providing all the information that might be desired for a successful meditation practice, illumining the art and science of effective inner life.

Beginning with an in-depth explanation of what yoga is and what its goals are, and continuing with a background on the theory of mantra, Abbot George then shows the value of the unique mantra Om. He shows that Om Meditation is the original yoga, citing the classic scriptures of India and the testimony of the saints.

In Om Yoga Meditation you will discover the techniques for using Om in meditation, and how to make your meditation the most effective. You will also learn the foundations of the yogic life that will support and nourish your practice, and be given the keys to bless others as well as yourself using Om.

In this edition there are 54 additional pages, including two new chapters:

Chapter Five: The Subtle Anatomy of the Yogi and the Effects of Om Yoga
Chapter Six: Understanding the Aspects of Om Yoga Meditation

Here is what one reviewer says of Om Yoga Meditation:

“This book is exceptional. It deals with every possible aspect of both the subject and practice of this form of yoga in a style and manner that is simultaneously profound and intimately understandable.”
–Robert Arconti

We encourage serious practitioners of meditation, or those who aspire to learn about meditation and spiritual life to take advantage of this unique resource, whether you read it online, download the file, or purchase the book to study and add to your spiritual library.