God Within

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Energisation excercises

Master practiced the Energization Exercises every day to show us how important they are. Twenty-seven trillion body cells are being energized. They help us realize we are a soul, the master of the body. When the Energization Exercises are practiced regularly and perfectly, they will rid us of desires, psychological and physiological diseases.

-- Br. Balananda

Convocation, 2014

A VERY INSPIRING GANDHI JAYANTI TO YOU!

“The tiny 100-pound saint radiated physical, mental, and spiritual health. His soft brown eyes shone with intelligence, sincerity, and discrimination; this statesman has matched wits and emerged the victor in a thousand legal, social, and political battles. No other leader in the world has attained the secure niche in the hearts of his people that Gandhi occupies for India's unlettered millions.” ( Guruji in A.Y. Ch. 44)

Scriptural Study

Join us for a *one-hour group meditation, followed by an hour of group study* of "The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You." 

*Wednesday, August 19, 2020*

*Timings: 9:30 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.*

*Thursday, August 20, 2020*

*Timings: 5:30 a.m. - 7:30 a.m.*

Feel free to join the first hour only, the second hour only, or both! All are welcome. 

Visit srfonlinemeditation.org/calendar

Free digital magazine - Jan - Mar 2020 issue

Download for free YSS magazine in this link Https://yssi.org/freedigysm 

MAN IS KEPT HYPNOTIZED WITH DELUSION

 Delusion is so strong that it is pretty hard to believe it is delusion when you have needs and no money to meet them. It is difficult to believe that this world is maya when you are sick and suffering. But when you constantly keep your mind in God, you will realize that this world is His dream.

 This is why in India we don't pay as much attention to physical healing as to the healing of the soul's ignorance. To heal the soul of ignorance - that is, to remove the delusion that covers the soul - is the greatest of all healings, because that healing is lasting. And when you heal the soul, then you realize the body is nothing but a dream shell in which the soul resides.

~ SRI SRI PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA,

PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL METHODS OF HEALING,

THE DIVINE ROMANCE, Pg 169

How you can talk with God?

The demand for the Lord's reply should be strong; a half-believing prayer is not sufficient. If you make up your mind: "He is going to talk with me'; if you refuse to believe differently, regardless of how many years He has not answered you; if you go on trusting Him, one day He will respond. 

—Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, 

"How You Can Talk With God"

Quotes from YSS magazine - year 2005

When your mind is single-pointedly fixed on God, you reduce all of life's experiences to denominator. By constantly relating everything to Him,

you remove all of life's unnecessary complexities and are no longer troubled by the things that excite or upset others.

"He did this; she did that; I didn't get promoted; that person got recognition; I was ignored." So what? Has that

anything to do with your relationship with God? I know what that discipline is like; I have lived it. And I also know very well it's liberating effects.

-- YSS magazine,  2005

letter from Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda to this devotees

A copy of a letter that Paramhansa Yogananda wrote to a devotee in India in 1951. It is filled with timeless advice and blessings. 

*Imagine that Guruji has written this to you:*

I have received your letter and thank you for writing to me about your difficulties. Do not be discouraged by them, but realize that for many lives you have been used to following habits or whims of the mind and now, when you are trying to bring the mind under your control, it naturally rebels against such discipline. Most devotees undergo this experience to a lesser or greater degree, so it is nothing to worry about. The important factor is to keep on trying to better yourself. No one can do this for you. You must whip the mind into submission through the constant application of will power.

Remember that you are a child of God, created in His divine image. These weaknesses which you have put on do not belong to you. You must be strong and conquer them, one by one, if you would know God. At the same time, be not discouraged when you fall, but lift yourself again and again out of your mental lethargy by longer and deeper periods of meditation.

If you apply the teachings every day, you will see yourself change. Do not expect to change all at once, but by continuous effort and faith in God the change will take place.

Above all, love the Father, in spite of your weaknesses. Love Him unconditionally, and mentally surrender yourself to Him. In Him will you find the fulfillment of all your longings.

Start right now doing little services for others, no matter how small they may be. Feel that you are serving the God in them. And should you fall in trying to lift yourself, get up and try, try again. Never allow yourself to feel discouraged.

God bless you and your family. My prayers will be with each of you.

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

How to go deep in meditation?

To go deep in meditation requires focus; it requires concentration.

That's why the first technique Guruji gives us is the marvelous Hong-Sau technique of concentration. 

In the beginning of our spiritual search, we're usually full of enthusiasm. We really make effort in our meditations, and often get very good results because of that.

But as the years go by, there is a tendency to slacken a little bit and just go through the motions.

 You sit down to meditate and the mind says, "Oh, it's been a tough day!" And ten minutes later you're still thinking about what a tough day it's been; you haven't even started to meditate. In struggling against this myself, I've found that it can be overcome if I make an effort to get myself charged up for meditation, give myself a good pep talk: 

"OK, mind, we're going to meditate. I don't want any backtalk from you.

Focus on the Hong-Sau technique, and don't even think about wandering off!" Summon up intensity; and you will find that the mind obeys, and you go deep quickly. Keep on keeping on. That's the whole secret of spiritual success: Never give up!

--  Brother Achalananda  SRF Magazine 1996

Guided meditation on peace

Guided Meditation

Guided meditation on peace 

Your change will change this world! You are the hope of this country! #...

Babaji

Happy Janmashtami

Parmahansa Yogananda - Affirmations -1

"Peace fills my body.

  Peace fills my heart and dwells within my love. 

  Peace within, without, every where."

                                             - Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

Quotes from Guruji - 1

That God has given me the privilege to serve is my blessed good fortune. I want nothing; my only desire is that I may establish this work as a divine oasis where aspiring souls may quench their thirst.

—Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

Paramahansa Yogananda - For Love of Gurudeva

You are a member of the worldwide human race. Don't forget it. You must love the world as you love your nation and your family...it is by fellowship with God that fellowship with man must be established; because only when you know God and see Him in all can you love the Jew and Christian, Muslim and Hindu, with the same spirit...

We are all aliens here. No territory belongs permanently to any country. The hand of time eventually erases all nations. Their boundaries don't last, because they represent divisions that have been carved out by force. I believe a time will come when in greater understanding we shall have no boundaries anymore...

Today, the best country to live in is America. I am not saying this to flatter you, but because it is the truth. Here you have freedoms and material advantages and opportunities unknown in many other nations. Don't abuse those privileges and blessings. Remember that the only justification for life is to unravel the mysteries of this universe. The only justification for human existence is to find God. The Lord hopes you will learn to love the Giver more than all His material gifts.

Paramahansa Yogananda, Divine Romance, 'A World Without Boundaries,' 1939

Omnipresent Guru Paramahansa Yogananda

A disciple residing far away from the guru may practice a spiritual method of communion. The guru, one with God, is present everywhere including the wisdom center (the point between the eyebrows) of all men. At the end of meditation each day the disciple should concentrate at the point between eyebrows and visualize his Guru. Thinking of him with love and devotion, the diciple should ask the questions he wants answered. If visualization and concentration on the guru are deep, the chela will invariably receive silent answers to his questions in the form of accruing inner perceptions. In this way the advanced disciple can contact the Guru even after the master has left the mortal flesh for invisible Omnipresence.
 
- Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda 
(God Talks With Arjuna, The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, Verse 34)

Babaji's Great Disciple Lahiri Mahasaya ( Guru of Swami sri sri Yukteswar Giri )

Babaji's Great Disciple Lahiri Mahasaya

One of the earliest appearances of Babaji was documented by one of his most important disciples, the great saint and yogi, Sri Shayama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya. Lahiri Mahasaya was born in 1828 and while growing up he was taught several languages including Sanskrit. As a young man he closely studied the vedas and eagerly listened to discussions of learned brahmins. Lahiri was full of good qualities and well liked by everyone around him. By the age of 33 he had married and gotten a government post and received news that was to change his life. He was told to report to the city of Rhanikhet which sits at the foot of one of the highest Himalayan peaks, Nanda Devi. Once there he was immediately taken with the beauty of the Himalayan foothills and spent his evenings hiking high up into the mountain fastnesses. One day while he was hiking he heard his name being called and followed the voice high up to a clearing surrounded by small caves. There he saw Babaji Maharaj who addressed him familiarly by name and welcomed him after his long absence. Although Lahiri didn't know who he was he felt drawn to his presence. Babaji explained that in Lahiri's former life, he had been his guru and that Lahiri had been his advanced disciple, meditating for decades under his guidance in one of the caves that surrounded the mountainous ledge. With a touch to his forehead, Babaji awakened his memory of that past life they had spend together. Then Babaji induced in him the highest or Nirvikalpa state of Samadhi in which the individual wave merges with the Universal ocean of consciousness and attains the state of Cosmic Consciousness. Lahiri remained in unbroken samadhi for seven days and then Babaji brought him back to his human awareness and explained to him that Lahiri Mahasaya had taken his present birth for a purpose and that he was to be instrumental in spreading the Yogic teachings of union with God to the greater world beyond the borders of India.
Lahiri Mahasaya was given the task of setting the example of the ideal Yogi householder, maintaining job and family and living in the world, yet remaining peacefully poised in the bliss of inner awareness. The perfume of his spiritual greatness attracted dozens of followers. Lahiri spontaneously developed many siddhis or yogic powers and these further enhanced the faith and devotion of his many disciples. According to Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya was to be instrumental in bringing East and West together. This he did through the agency of his direct disciple Sri Priya Yukteswar Giri who in his turn was the Guru of Paramahansa Yogananda, well known in the West as the author of Autobiography of a Yogi. The disciple, Sri Yukteswar, wrote a treatise showing the parallels between the Christian (Western) and Hindu (Eastern) religions. At the urging of Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda in his turn moved to the West to California and introduced much of America to the Eastern Yogic science of union with God, independent of any specific religion. Thus was the practicality of the West blended together with the spirituality of the East. All this was foretold by Babaji in his initial meeting with Lahiri Mahasaya in 1861.

Part - 2 - Mahavatar Babaji - The deathless saint of Himalaya - Param Guru of Yogananda

At one time a solar eclipse was predicted. Because of the auspicious occasion, many people in the small town of Ranibag planned to take a dip in the River Gatum Ganga which ran along the outskirts of town. Babaji Maharaj happened to be staying there near the Shiva temple. As generally happened in his presence a large group had gathered, anxious for the chance to take part in the ceremonial bath along with Babaji during the eclipse. A group of others had already planned to bathe at Kurukshetra where the famous battle recorded in the Mahabharata had taken place long ago. That place was made even holier as the site where the Avatar Krishna had delivered his discourse to his companion Arjuna as recorded in the Bhagavad Gita. As it turned out, part of the group remained in Ranibag and the other part proceeded to Kurukshetra. When the moment of the eclipse arrived, the group that had gone on to Kurukshetra were amazed and delighted to see Babaji in their midst, wading into the River Ganga along with them.

When the group returned back to their homes in Ranibag, they were surprised to see that Babaji Maharaj had already arrived back from Kurukshetra. They asked the others when he had returned and were told that he had never left. He had remained in Ranibag to bathe with the people that had stayed behind. Thus they came to know that he had satisfied both groups by being simultaneously present in both places.
In 1911 Babaji Maharaj went to the city of Prayag and was seen by many people bathing in the river at one of the public baths. A photographer named Sorabji took two pictures of him while he was there. To everyone's surprise, when the pictures were developed, in one Babaji was wearing his shirt and tibetan cap, and in the other he was wearing no clothes at all. This even though both pictures were taken at the same time. The two pictures are shown below.


Babaji Punished for Smiling

During the summer of 1914, Babaji Maharaj had enlisted to help in the building of some military barracks in the Ranibag area. On many occasions he was seen working on projects such as this as an ordinary laborer. The workers were carrying rocks on their heads moving building materials by hand.
At that time, the Minister of Education, one Pandit Jwala Datt of Almora happened to be passing through the area in his horse cart, on his way back to his home town. As he passed the line of laborers, he saw one of the men smiling at him. He was incensed that a mere laborer would act so familiarly with a man of his position. So he instructed his secretary to tell the laborer that he would be punished for his rude behavior. The secretary confronted the worker but the worker, who was of course the saintly Babaji, seemed completely unruffled. He merely told the secretary that he was smiling because the bell of the Badrinath temple had fallen down and many people were there trying to raise if back up again but there efforts were not working. Pandit Jwala Datt became even angrier at this and vowed to inflict his punishment if the story proved to be a lie. So he sent off a telegram to distant Badrinath to find out if the incident had happened. The reply came back confirming that the bell indeed had fallen down and people were trying to raise it back up.
Pandit Jwala Datt was humbled by the experience and baffled by the apparent omniscience of the saint posing as an ordinary laborer. This event completely changed his outlook on life. Before he had been learned but egotistical. Now he became humble and very devoted to Babaji. He spent the rest of his life in religious devotion.

Babaji took a job as a laborer when the dam at Lake Bhim Tal was being constructed. There had been several previous attempts to build a dam at the same location but they had all failed. But this time, with Babaji present, the construction was successful. For a time none knew his identity but after a while some people recognized the famous saint and shortly after that he disappeared.


The Proper Way to Meet a Saint

Near Nainital at the foot of the Himalayas there is a lake called Khurpatal. At the site of the lake, a village had sprung up and the people there planted gardens and sold produce in neighboring Nainital for their livelihood. Babaji Maharaj occasionally would stay in this quiet town along the placid lake and people from the region would visit to enjoy the blessings of his noble and loving presence.

Once while he was staying there a well educated young man learned of his presence and began to wonder about his identity. It was well known that Babaji had appeared to people unexpectedly in various places at widely scattered intervals of time. He was believed to be centuries old and quite a few thought he had been present for thousands of years. This man had heard that Babaji had been present at the battle of Kurukshetra which took place over 5,000 years ago. He reasoned that Babaji must really be Aswathama, one of the immortal warriors that had taken part in the battles. In the Mahabharata it is recorded that Aswathama was wounded on the top of his head and so the man concluded that this was probably the reason why Babaji Maharaj was habitually seen wearing a Tibetan cap or some other form of head covering.

The man was excited to prove his theory so he proceeded to Khurpatal and sought out the presence of Babaji. As soon as Babaji saw the man he informed him that as it was very hot, he was going to bathe in the cool waters of the lake and so he requested the man to help him by carrying his possessions to the edge of the lake. The man was very happy at this because he knew that Babaji would remove his cap before entering the water and thus he could verify whether his suspicions were true.

As they stood at the edge of the lake, Babaji asked the man to help him off with his clothes. As soon as the man touched Babaji, he was filled with an inexpressible bliss. In an ecstatic mood he helped Babaji into the water, bathed him and then dried and redressed him. As they were returning to the hut where Babaji was staying the man realized with great chagrin that in his blissful state he had completely forgotten to look for scars on the top of Babaji's head.

But Babaji knew his thoughts all along and said to the man with great equanimity, "Whenever you go to meet a saint or high spiritual soul, go with much devotion and faith. If you have any doubts, ask him for their clarification. Only those who are blessed by God can recognize a saint. Those who have a pure heart and those who are humble and egoless attain the grace of saints.The man then realized the omniscience of the saint and instantly became a true devotee.

In the winter of 1952 Baba Hari Dass was living in a room attached to a cave near a burial ground by the name of Ghati. The room was very cold in the winter and so he kept a fire burning inside the cave and meditated sitting close to the fire. It happened one time that as he was meditating, he lost consciousness and his body slumped to the left and his arm fell into the fire pit. When he came to awareness he saw the tall figure of Babaji Maharaj bending over him and removing his arm from the vicinity of the flames. Without a word, Babaji turned and left as quickly as he had come. Baba Hari Dass jumped up quickly in order to catch up with Babaji and bow to his feet but when he stepped outside Babaji had disappeared.