ContentsChristmas & New Year Message
Answer the Call of Christ
Clear Quartz
The Science of Yantra
Mother Kali: Part 2
Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi
Detective Ramakrishna
Second Coming of Christ (Review)
Journal of a Soul
Meditation on Christ
Selected Articles
Christmas and New Year Message
by Swami Shankarananda
In a few days begins the new year; a new year of uncertain-ties. It is the time of discovering life’s greatest purpose for you. Look for reasons that you are here. Know in yourself that God has a high and divinely noble purpose for your existence; to know God and to know the needs of others around you. In the New Year, ask yourself these questions: Am I aware of others around me?Do I care for those with deep and complex problems? Do I have a genuine concern for others’ problems?
These questions, if answered affirm-atively, will enable you to discover and develop God’s greater purpose for you. You need to treat divinity with Divinity. In this way you will surely attain Divinity. Make people, not things, your priority because, believe me, that is God’s priority.
by Swami Shankarananda
In a few days begins the new year; a new year of uncertain-ties. It is the time of discovering life’s greatest purpose for you. Look for reasons that you are here. Know in yourself that God has a high and divinely noble purpose for your existence; to know God and to know the needs of others around you. In the New Year, ask yourself these questions: Am I aware of others around me?Do I care for those with deep and complex problems? Do I have a genuine concern for others’ problems?
These questions, if answered affirm-atively, will enable you to discover and develop God’s greater purpose for you. You need to treat divinity with Divinity. In this way you will surely attain Divinity. Make people, not things, your priority because, believe me, that is God’s priority.
During the new year, observe your thoughts, attitudes, states of consciousness and behaviour. Ask yourself the following:
Am I always optimistic? If yes, explain how and make note of some aspects of your optimism. If no, understand why and develop this in a positive way.Are my thoughts rational? Do I think, speak and act with conscious intentions? Are all of my beliefs true? Are my actions constructive and productive? Do I always adhere to a wholesome lifestyle regime? Am I becoming increasingly self-aware? Am I completely focused on essential matters? Am I measuring my spiritual progress by the standards and expectations of others? Have I read at least one spiritual book in the past year? (Inspired by Roy Eugene Davis)
Be optimistic about the New Year. Look for genuine Divine things or events in whatever you do. Do not waste your energy on things that create for you secondary worlds of stress and emotional pain. Know yourself as a unit of pure Super-consciousness. Always strive for that state of being.From now until the beginning of the New Year, do yoga daily, meditate daily and plan wisely what you need to accomplish and experience in 2005 and other new years. Remember and acknowledge the power that is nurturing and maintaining the universe and you, and improve your ability to co-operate and share with the people around you.
I pray with you daily, that God places his Blessed hands upon each of you in 2005; that he removes all aspects of pain from you; that you have a pain-free 2005; and that your highest self may be present in the New Year.
Book ReviewThe Second Coming of Christ
The Resurrection of the Christ within You
A revelatory commentary on the original teachings of Jesus
By Paramahansa Yogananda
Published by Self-Realization Fellowship
ISBN 0-87612-555-0
“In titling this work The Second Coming of Christ, I am not referring to a literal return of Jesus to earth ... a thousand Christs sent to earth would not redeem its people unless they themselves became Christ-like by purifying and expanding their individual consciousness to re-ceive therein the second coming of the Christ Consciousness, as was manifested in Jesus ... Contact with this Consciousness, experienced in the ever-new joy of meditation, will be the real second coming of Christ - and it will take place right in the devotee’s own consciousness.”
The Resurrection of the Christ within You
A revelatory commentary on the original teachings of Jesus
By Paramahansa Yogananda
Published by Self-Realization Fellowship
ISBN 0-87612-555-0
“In titling this work The Second Coming of Christ, I am not referring to a literal return of Jesus to earth ... a thousand Christs sent to earth would not redeem its people unless they themselves became Christ-like by purifying and expanding their individual consciousness to re-ceive therein the second coming of the Christ Consciousness, as was manifested in Jesus ... Contact with this Consciousness, experienced in the ever-new joy of meditation, will be the real second coming of Christ - and it will take place right in the devotee’s own consciousness.”
In this unprecedented masterwork of inspiration, Paramahansa Yogananda takes the reader on a profoundly enriching journey through the four Gospels. Verse by verse, he illumines the universal path to oneness with God taught by Jesus to his immediate disciples, but obscured through centuries of misinterpretation: “how to become like Christ, how to resurrect the Eternal Christ within one’s Self.”
Never before available in its entirety, this landmark work by one of the most revered spiritual leaders of our time, transcends divisive sectarianism to reveal a unifying harmony underlying all true religions. A groundbreaking synthesis of East and West, it imparts the life-transforming realisation that each of us can experience for ourselves th promised Second Coming - awakening of the all-fulfilling Divine Consciousness latent within our souls.
Journal of a Soul
Message from Pope John XXIII
Extract From Light of Sohum: Christmas 2002
Night has fallen; the clear bright stars are sparkling in the cold air. Noisy, strident voices rise to my ear from the city; voices of the revellers of this world who celebrate with their merrymaking, the poverty of their Saviour. Around me, in their rooms, my companions are asleep and I am still wakeful, thinking of the mystery of Bethlehem.Come, come Jesus, I await You.Mary and Joseph, knowing the hour is near, are turned away by townsfolk and go out into the fields to look for a shelter. I am a poor shepherd, I have only a wretched stable, a small manger, some wisps of straw. I offer all these to you. Be pleased to come into my poor hovel. Make haste, O Jesus, I offer you my heart; my soul is poor and bare of virtues. The straws of so many imperfections will prick you and make you weep. But, O, my Lord, what can you expect? This little is all I have. I am touched by your poverty. I am moved to tears, but I have nothing better to offer you. Jesus, honour my soul with your presence; adorn it with your graces. Burn this straw and change it into a soft couch for your most Holy Body.Jesus, I am here waiting for your coming. Wicked men have driven you out and the wind is like ice. Come into my heart. I am a poor man but will warm you as well as I can. At least be pleased that I wish to welcome you warmly, to love you dearly and sacrifice myself for you.But in your own way, you are rich and you see my needs. You are a flame of charity and you will purge my heart of all that is not your own most Holy Heart. You are uncreated holiness and you will fill me with those graces which give new life to my soul.O, Jesus, come. I have so much to tell you, so many sorrows to confide. So many desires, so many promises, so many hopes. I want to adore you, to kiss you on the brow. O, tiny Jesus, to give myself to you once more, forever. Come, my Jesus, delay no longer. Come, be my guest.Alas, it is already late. I am overcome with sleep and my pen slips from my fingers. Let me sleep a little, O Jesus, while your Mother and St Joseph are preparing the room. I will lie down to rest here, in the fresh night air. As soon as you come, the splendour of your light will dazzle my eyes. Your angels will awaken me with sweet hymns of glory and peace and I shall run forward with joy to welcome you and offer you my own poor gifts: my home, all the little I have. I will worship and show you all my love, with the other shepherds who have joined me and with the angels of heaven, singing hymns of glory to your Sacred Heart. Come, I am longing for you.
Meditation on ChristFrom Pathway to Peace through Jesus the Christ
by Swami Narayani
Meditation on Jesus the Christ means to turn the mind within, in a relaxing manner. Fix your attention on the Christ Consciousness and endeavour to merge into Him, feeling His vibration of Peace and Love.Sit erect - keep the spine erect. When the body is in a state of equilibrium, it feels weightless. The next step is to watch your own breathing. Become one with the breath, watching it go through the nostrils, flowing into the lungs and out of the lungs and out through the nostrils.
by Swami Narayani
Meditation on Jesus the Christ means to turn the mind within, in a relaxing manner. Fix your attention on the Christ Consciousness and endeavour to merge into Him, feeling His vibration of Peace and Love.Sit erect - keep the spine erect. When the body is in a state of equilibrium, it feels weightless. The next step is to watch your own breathing. Become one with the breath, watching it go through the nostrils, flowing into the lungs and out of the lungs and out through the nostrils.
Now try and listen to the breath. you may start by making just a little sound while breathing in and out, but that sound must fade away. With it the mind will also go in - go within. Go within and keep doing that until you hear the inner silence. Now associate the following words with the breathing: As you breathe in, “Jesus Christ is ever with me.” As you breathe out, “Jesus Christ have mercy on me”. Continue until you feel him in your soul. If you learn to repeat His name with the in-going and out-going breath, then a rhythm is established and the rhythm goes on. You are now not conscious of repeating the Prayer mentally, but of listening to it. This is very important. I am not repeating it - there is no effort at all, but I am listening to the Prayer that goes on, that my breath seems to repeat. Side by side, visualise His Divine Presence. You can do it in any manner in which Christ Jesus appears to you in the region of your heart. Feel His Divine Presence expand and fill your whole physical being, so that you begin to feel: “It is not I, but Christ Jesus exists here. There is no I, but only He exists here.” His Divine Presence is not confined to this body. It overflows this physical being, enveloping this room, enveloping this world, enveloping the whole solar system, reaching out to the very limits of the Universe and beyond. As you go on in this manner, the consciousness becomes aware of the sound of His name and the form of His Divine Presence. Your mind, your heart, your ego, your entire inner being becomes merged in Jesus the Christ.
When there is an intruding thought, let it come and let it pass. Be rooted in His Consciousness. Feel His Love, His Compassion, His Suffering, His Oneness, His Peace. In the meditative prayer you were repeating the Prayer of Christ. Now you make contact and wait. Just be silent and listen for that still small voice of the Lord. “Be Still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10).
Your meditation ended, slowly open your eyes and get up in stillness. Now take this Peace, this compassion for all, into your life in the world, so that the Essence of Jesus the Christ will pour from you to others naturally, because you will have become His channel of Love and Purity.