The August online satsang with Swami Nirmalananda Giri will be held on Saturday, August 2nd, at 12 Noon, EST.
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Light of the Spirit BLOG

Come back often to find new, valuable and practical articles to help you in your spiritual life. Below the latest blog posts we also list some of our most well received articles.
Wisdom Quote of the Day
“It is the actions of the mind that are truly termed Karmas. True liberation results from the disenthralment of the mind. Those who have freed themselves from the flutuation of their minds come into possession of the supreme Nistha (meditation).”
Swami Sivananda

Latest Blog Posts

Meditator amidst veggies

How a Vegetarian Diet Affects Your Yoga Practice

You cannot lessen the effect of yoga, but you can certainly lessen or even prevent your responsiveness to it and the effect it will have on you. Therefore you should understand responsiveness to yoga practice and the Benefits of a Vegetarian Diet.

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Yoga, God, and Gurus: an Important Perspective

The last podcast about God was philosophical, so in this podcast Abbot George will go into the practical side. It is the goal of every sentient being to evolve and attain union with God. Evolution takes place naturally as we move up the ladder from birth to birth until the level in reached in which we take charge and engage

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Kriya Yoga According to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Sutra 1 of Book Two of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Sutra 1. Austerity [tapas], self-study [swadhyaya] and resignation to Ishwara [Ishwarapranidhana] constitute Kriya Yoga. First let us define Kriya Yoga as Patanjali means it. Because many have read Yogananda’s autobiography they assume Patanjali means the method Yogananda named “Kriya Yoga,” but this is not at all so. The yoga methods

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Podcast: Plain Talk About God

In this week’s podcast, Abbot George discusses who God is, and what man is, and the importance of making God an immediate reality in our daily lives. Abbot George bases his talk on Paramhansa Yogananda’s valuable book, The Science of Religion. Here Yogananda says: “We should take religion and God out of the sphere of belief into that of daily life.

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The “Gospel of Thomas for Awakening” Now Available in Print

We are happy to announce the publication of Abbot George’s latest book, The Gospel of Thomas for Awakening: A Commentary on Jesus’ Sayings as Recorded by the Apostle Thomas in printed and ebook formats. The following is from the back cover of the book: “From the very beginning there were two Christianities.”  While the rest of the Apostles dispersed to

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Jesus Speaks of Meditation, Part 2

A Continuation of Jesus Speaks of Meditation: Wisdom from the Aquarian Gospel In Eastern Christianity, meditation is called Hesychia–a Greek word meaning Silence. A monastery is often called a hesychasterion, a place of silence. Regarding meditation, Jesus tells the magian: “The Silence is the kingdom of the soul, which is not seen by human eyes. When in the Silence, phantom

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Beyond Theory and Belief to Actual Experience

In this week’s podcast, Abbot George Burke speaks of the necessity of experience in spiritual life, and the fact that too often mere theory is offered as a substitute. The talk is from a satsang in which he comments on the preface to Raja Yoga, Swami Vivekananda’s analysis of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. He gives living examples of those who miss

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Featured Articles

Yogis Who Saw Jesus

The day our Original Christianity and Original Yoga website was launched we received an irate communication from one of those Western “Hindus” that believe they are more truly Hindu if they hate other religions–especially Christianity–and deny that Jesus ever existed. Here is our answer:
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The Many Advantages of Vegetarianism

 
You can indeed reap a lot of benefits by being a vegetarian and people have become more aware of the health benefits of being a vegetarian. Animal rights issues is only one of the reasons why people decide to go on a vegetarian diet. People are beginning to care more about the environment. However, the main reason why people go on vegetarian diet is because of health benefits.
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Seeing the One in All

In response to our recent blog posting about the reality of Jesus in the experience of India’s great yogis, we received a most heartening letter from India. I want to share parts of it with you and my reflections on it for I feel it presents the most authentic perspective on these matters.

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7 Steps to Misuse Your Power of Thought

 
Thought is power–magnetic power, particularly. That is, thought can draw or repel whatever is thought about, depending upon the polarity of the individual mind. Many times we see that people bring to themselves the things they continually think about, but we also see that thinking about something can repel it from the person.

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