touched by the tyranny of the ego‘s delusion. Establish your...

Never lose your equilibrium un-

der the stress of any external

circumstances. They come and

go, like clouds in the breeze;

stand firm on the rock of your

unchanging immortal existence.

Swami Ramdas

I always thrilled at the touch of

Sri Yukteswar‘s holy feet.

Yogis teach that a disciple is

spiritually magnetized by the

reverent contact with a master;

a subtle current is generated.

Paramhansa Yogananda

You are surrounded with the forces of desires, fears and hab-

its. Who is the you that is surrounded? It is your Self, un-

touched by the tyranny of the ego‘s delusion. Establish your

identity with your true Self, which by extension is connected

with the Supreme Self, or God, and you will have absolute

freedom, a blessed peace which surpasses all understanding.

Yogacharya David Hickenbottom

Papa remarked: ―Ramdas is a little child. But Mataji says Ramdas is

obstinate sometimes. That is a fact. When Ramdas met Ma Anan-

damayi some years back, we talked together for some time. She ad-

dressed Ramdas as ‗Pitaji‘ [Revered Father]. Ramdas objected to it

and said he was only a child and she was his mother. She said, ‗No‘.

Then Ramdas told her that he was actually a child, because he had no

teeth, and that she was his mother because she had teeth! Ma Anan-

damayi laughed and had nothing more to say.‖ Reverend Mother Yogacharya M. Hamilton

Dedicated to the Realization of God and Service to Him in All Forms

The Cross and The

Lotus Journal

June 2010, Vol. 11, No. 2

The cross and lotus symbolizes the unity between East and West. The lotus is the sign of

illumined consciousness, the thousand petal lotus of the crown chakra. The cross is the sym-

bol of the body surrendered to the will of God. Following the way of the cross results in the

resurrection of illumined consciousness.

The Cross and the Lotus, symbol of man. East and West blended, join hand in hand.

Marching toward the infinite light and life divine. Lift up your eyes and see the star,

descending from heaven where e’er you are. Be filled with the peace and ecstasy of God’s almighty love.

Aum-Amen. The Reverend Yogacharya Mother Hamilton

The Cross and The Lotus Journal is published by

The Cross and The Lotus Publishing

P.O. Box 1864, Mount Vernon, WA 98273, U.S.A.

Website: www.crossandlotus.com

E-mail: [email protected]

© 2010 The Cross and The Lotus Publishing is dedicated to the publication of materials

that promote God-realization. Our spiritual lineage begins with Jesus Christ and Babaji and

flows down to us through Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar, Paramhansa Yogananda

and Yogacharya Mother Hamilton.

The Reverend Yogacharya David Hickenbottom continues this lineage with the help and

support of many sincere devotees. We are dedicated to realizing God and serving devotees of

every race, color, creed and religion.

Mother Hamilton often said she was the product of two fully illumined Masters, her own

Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, and Swami Ramdas. We therefore feature articles about

Swami Ramdas and Anandashram. We bow to the feet of Saints and realized Masters of all

religions.

The Cross and The Lotus Journal Page 31

Journal Editors: Larry & Cate Koler

Calendar of Events June 20 Father‘s Day

21 Summer Solstice (4:27 a.m. PDT)

July 1 Canada Day

4 Independence Day

25 Guru Purnima

25 Babaji‘s Remembrance Day

Aug. 14 Papa‘s Mahasamadhi Day (1963)

Sept. 22 Fall Equinox (7:11 p.m. PDT)

26 Lahiri Mahasaya‘s Mahasamadhi Day (1895)

30 Lahiri Mahasaya‘s Birthday (1828)

30 Swami Satchidananda‘s Mahasamadhi Day (2008)

Mahavatar Babaji, The Source of Kriya Yoga

And the First Guru of our Lineage

0 The Cross and The Lotus Journal

From the Master’s Kitchen One of the recipes originally published in Master’s Lessons

Tomato and Orange Salad

Tomatoes

Oranges

A little minced onion

Mayonnaise

Lettuce

Add onion to mayonnaise.

The tomatoes and oranges

may be peeled, sliced and

arranged alternately in a ring

on a bed of crisp lettuce with a mound of dressing in the center,

or the tomatoes may be peeled and cut four or five times three-

fourths of the way down and opened to form a flower. Sections

of orange may be placed between the ―petals‖ with plenty of

mayonnaise in the center and around the base of the ―flower‖,

which rests on crisp lettuce. This makes a very colorful, as well

as delicious, salad.

Comments from our C&L

chef, Angela Victory

I blanched the tomatoes for 10

seconds in boiling water to re-

move the skins easily and chose

to do sliced rings. Aiden helped

mix up the dressing; we did pur-

ple onion for color and added a

squeeze of lemon to brighten up

the mayo. This was super fast to

make and suits a summer menu.

I like the idea of visual impact

when creating the flower with

petals; this would be great for a

special meal when an impres-

sive salad is wanted.

Ph

oto

s b

y M

ike

Vic

tory


Dear Friends,

Recently I again had an encounter

with death. Each time I have been

with a body whose life had fled

away, it has had a significant effect

on me. I remember my grandfa-

ther‘s body lying in a casket; some-

one whispered that he looked like he

was taking a nap. I had seen my

grandfather napping before, and I

was keenly aware that he did not

look like a ―napper‖! There was the

obvious fact that he was not breath-

ing, his skin was lacking normal

pallor, yet there was something more—his ―life‖ was gone; there

was a definite absence of spirit. I was in my teens, but I knew

something precious and intangibly-tangible was no longer there.

A few weeks ago Carla‘s mom left the body. We found her in

her bed; her soul had moved on, her body now an empty shell.

Death is a constant reminder and campaigner to discover a

changeless Reality where rust and moth do not corrupt. [Mat

6:20] Many people may encounter death in a profound way that

shakes their basic assumptions about what is real and lasting, but

then the illusion that they will live on and on resurrects itself

again and they once more settle into complacency. There are a

blessed few who, upon witnessing death, are sufficiently dis-

turbed that it provokes them into a quest for the ultimate verities,

to answer the questions: who am I, what is the true purpose of

my life and is death a finality from which we never awaken?

The ancient tale of Siddhartha Gautuma tells about three dis-

turbing encounters that were the genesis for his search for sacred

Nirvana. Siddhartha was a passenger on a chariot traveling over

his extensive properties. He saw a man on the side of the road,

covered in sores, moaning in pain. Siddhartha asked the driver to

stop. Having been kept ignorant of sickness all his life, he asked

the driver what was wrong with this man. When he learned the

man was sick, he asked if kings also got sick. He was told every-

The Cross and The Lotus Journal

one gets sick at some time or another in life. This scene was later

repeated with a man in advanced old age, and finally he encoun-

tered a dead man. He had not seen these three maladies, having

been carefully screened from illness, old age and death—death

being the final reality, even for kings. This was the beginning of

the awakening of Siddhartha who became the Buddha, the

Awakened One.

It is a strange thing that a part of our minds seems to screen

out sickness, old age and death as ultimate realities, just as

Siddhartha was unaware of them when he lived over 2,500 years

ago. At some point an event breaks through and sickness, old

age, or death is really encountered in a way that shakes us from

our denial. When Siddhartha had these encounters it made him

question the very purpose of life—if everything ends with death,

then what is this life really all about?

While death is a fact that is as much a part of your life as dis-

ease and old age, still it so often comes as a shock when one of

these three realities breaks through to your mind. Siddhartha

used those events to launch him into a quest for Truth. Any event

in life can be used as a propellant for deepening realization, or it

can shake your faith and take you into darkness; it all depends on

the choices you make in response to a crisis. Some may choose

to bravely get through grief and go on with little change; some

may seek to soothe the pain with alcohol, drugs or work; a few

may follow the Buddha‘s lofty example, exhibiting an unquench-

able desire to know the Truth.

My own relationship with those who have died, and all part-

ings, has significantly changed through the years. I remember an

experience I had at my grandmother‘s funeral when I was but a

few years on the path. The Methodist minister had not met my

grandmother; she was not a church-goer and he was in the unen-

viable position of speaking publicly about a woman he had never

met. He announced that he had once been an economics teacher

and went on to give a dissertation on the economic realities of

the early settlers of the valley where my grandmother had lived.

Inwardly I was feeling my grandmother as a living conscious-

ness; I had been meditating and practicing Kriya Yoga for a few


how bright and happy the children look—what a change the

school is making in their lives. Equally impressive was the spiri-

tual program for the children; along with standard curriculum

they learn meditation, yoga asanas, classical dance and sing and

play spiritual music. Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKVAu-

7bD00.

Swami Mangalananda plays the harmonium and sings tradi-

tional Hindu devotional songs. He has an angelic voice, plays

masterly, and introduces each number with a short explanation

about the origin of the song and loving tales of his beloved guru.

After joining in choruses of Om Ma, Sri Ma, Jai Jai Ma or Hey

Hey Govinda (Krishna) all felt the bliss of The Divine Mother

and The Lord in His most beguiling forms.

Devotees in Seattle, Bellingham, Maple Ridge and Vancouver

hosted Swamiji for concerts or informal get-togethers. It was

wonderful to gather with devotees of Ma‘s, devotees of Master‘s

and of other saints to sing to Guru and God. An especially de-

lightful meeting took place between Swami Mangalananda and

Dr. Siva Varma, the owner

of the Ayurvedic Centre

where the Vancouver per-

formance took place. The

doctor‘s family had hosted

Anandamayi Ma when she

visited Trivandrum when

he was a boy. Swamiji

thought that it was a most

auspicious way to end his

2010 tour.

May Anandamayi Ma

bless Swami Mangalan-

anda in this seva that en-

riches the lives of many. If

you would like to donate

to this worthy cause you

can do so through this US

non-profit: www.shantipurifriends.org.

Dr. Varma and Swami Mangalananda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKVAu-7bD00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKVAu-7bD00

http://www.shantipurifriends.org


A Visit from one of Ma’s children By Cate Koler

This May, as in the past two years, we enjoyed a visit from

Swami Mangalananda, a wonderful devotee of the great Bengali

woman saint, Anandamayi Ma (featured in Master‘s Autobiogra-

phy of a Yogi). Mangalanandaji is an American, who for the past

nine years has been living in Omkareshwar, India in an ashram

dedicated to his guru. Larry and I met him when he lived in an

ashram in Southern California and Yogacharya David met him

later when they were each visiting Anandashram. When he de-

cided to come to Seattle he contacted us.

Omkareswar Ashram (www.srianandamayima.org) has spon-

sored a free school for local tribal children (Adivasis), providing

instruction, uniforms and lodging for children who have no other

schooling available. Swami Mangalananda has been touring

Europe and America for the past several years, giving benefit

concerts to raise money for the school; the school operates en-

tirely on these donations. From their beginnings with just a hand-

ful of children, the school now provides instruction from K–12th

standard to over 550 students. The children come from families

of vegetable or trinket sellers or families who are beggars. He

showed a slideshow of the school; we were very impressed at

Swamiji‘s ever-present precious altar photos:

Pictures of Swami Kedarnath and Sri Anandamayi Ma


years at that time and my attunement had grown a little. While I

listened to this impersonal monologue that had little to do with

my grandmother I thought that this man could turn grief into

boredom faster than anyone could believe! With that thought I

felt my grandmother‘s laughter; I too suddenly wanted to laugh.

I had to work to hide my smile during this solemn service! It was

a brief encounter but one that made me know that death of the

body had no final claim on the soul.

During the succeeding years I have found more and more

openings at death‘s door. I do not say this lightly, nor does it

come with any drama. When I spent a year in silence and seclu-

sion at Cloud Mountain I became established in an inner aware-

ness of a deep, spiritual connection with those not physically

present. During this year a profound knowing came to me about

anyone my mind became focused upon. A knowing, a commun-

ing, a certainty that the individual and I were connected and

something sacred passed between us through that bond. It did not

make any difference if the person was living in a body or dead.

What we call death changed in meaning, for I felt no separation

from anyone who had passed from the body.

With this awareness fear passed from me in regards to death.

In addition I came to know that being focused on gaining or los-

ing material things, even health and mental acuity, were no

longer absolutes needed for happiness. I felt—rather I knew—

that when the soul is released from the body all such concerns

pass with the body. What the individual is left with are those in-

visible virtues that are built over a lifetime: character, an attitude

of service, love, truthfulness, kindness, generosity, etc. In stark

contrast, the things we own or covet—status in the world, what

the body looks like and so many preoccupations of the mind

while living on this world stage—pass into distant and meaning-

less memories.

When we leave the body behind we also leave so much of the

ignorance that is associated with the body. Generally speaking,

at the time of death we pass into the astral realm and there we

enjoy the finer vibrations associated with a higher life. The soul

understands now, as perhaps it never understood in the material

http://www.srianandamayima.org


world, the deeper nature of spiritual attunement and the beauty

of the inner life. This is not to say that one is automatically a re-

alized soul, however for a soul determined not to live in dark-

ness, a refined understanding that is more closely attuned to the

Divine now becomes self-evident.

Death has much to teach us if we would become its willing

students even while living. We would learn to focus on what is

really important in life: to be life-long learners, to love and allow

ourselves to be loved in return, to be generous, to know that we

have come to accomplish certain tasks and to strive to accom-

plish them, and most of all to grow in spiritual consciousness. It

is an interesting thing that moving into the astral realms, what

most people would associate with being in heaven, is not the end

of our journey. There are states of inner spiritual attunement that

evade the notice of astral citizens; there is much, much more to

experience and realize. [In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it

were not so, I would have told you… John 14:2 ]

The wonderful thing is this: we do not need to wait until we

die before we can have access to these rarified states of con-

sciousness; this is what meditation is really for. We can know

the highest states, far beyond the astral heavens; there is no arti-

ficial limit to what you may accomplish even while you are in

the physical body. In fact, as the song says, if I can do it here, I

can do it anywhere: this is the truth. You can pass beyond this

body, the astral realm, even the fine causal realm and go directly

into the absolute freedom of Spirit.

This is the great Truth that Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, and all the

great avatars and prophets have come to make known. Only an

uncomprehending world invents reasons why you cannot realize

God, even going to extremes by persecuting those who say what

should be a self-evident truth! The real death spoken of in the

scriptures is not the death of the body, but it is the death of the

idea of separation—separation from the great spiritual Reality

that is holding you in Its Hands, even now. Reach out your hand,

and you will feel the Hand of the Infinite.

With loving pronams,


Presence was lifted up, enriched, transformed. This was continu-

ous and without exclusion, from the waiters and passing staff, to

the people sitting in a wide circle from us, whose care-worn

faces softened, and troubled expressions melted away! Such sub-

tlety of transmission was her signature, as natural as breathing.

Suddenly, she looked directly at me.

―Aren‘t you ready to order?‖ she asked.

Startled, like a deer in the headlights, I responded instinctively

without filters.

―Of course, Mother. Thank you. I was just searching for some-

thing on the menu that was Vegetarian.‖

Instantly, I felt a profound shift. (I knew that I had been found

out.) Something was about to come down hard, like a gavel.

(This was my emotion, and I wanted to dart for cover, but knew I

was caught in a transparent vortex.)

But Mother said with such authority and supreme tenderness,

placing her hand over mine:

―I want you to see, God is equally present, and everything in

existence moves and breathes and has its being, imbued with His

perfect Light‖

―I want you to be of Universal Consciousness!‖ She empha-

sized. ―Never again allow your mind to grow rigid or self-

righteous about food. Let God‘s perfect Light feed you! Whether

served a meal in a small hut by people too poor to produce a

feast, or by a king from a palace; recognize that it is God alone

in human form who stands before you. He is the Source of all

hunger! He is the nourishment that sustains you! He is the Love

that will draw you home!‖

We were both lifted up into such a state then, that even the air

itself seemed like food! Mother and I both had an extraordinary

meal of beef and vegetables, marinated in a symphony of sauces.

It was the most beautiful meal I had ever tasted in my life!

That was the day I relinquished all dietary obsessions for the

rest of my days. (Except for fine chocolates, which on rare occa-

sions, persist in their power to tantalize my soul.)


Memories of Mother Food for Thought

By Rebecca Barnowe

No amount of study can prepare a disciple for the invisible

work initiated by contact with a Master.

Consider an invitation for lunch by Mother. Such an honor! I

so longed to present myself as gracious and receptive in her

company. Yet, two minutes after hanging up the phone, I started

to become congested with fleeting certainties….

Had I lived honorably since our last meeting? My mind was

suddenly a ferris-wheel of sprouting grains, wheat grass and car-

rot juices (all from my earnest study of nutrition in the early sev-

enties—all so cutting edge for that decade in America.) Or, was

it! My composure and confidence imploded.

Like a well-rehearsed script that begins dissolving before

show-time, higher, wider energies began pouring in from all

sides. Mother was the consummate Master, ‗living in the world,

but not of it.‘ I saw her before my mind‘s eye, impeccably

groomed, a true God-lady far ahead of her time. Her refined sen-

sitivities and her adherence to pure truth, summoned an un-

speakably timeless beauty, a delicious laughter, and the spa-

ciousness of mind that spoke invisibly across boundaries.

How could I keep any personal bearings? Like a water-color

painting whose edges of color begin bleeding, softening, and

producing new tones, my soul caught the delicate promptings of

her arrival!

She appeared, and all apprehension vanished in the under-

stated subtlety of her every feature. Her gentle bearing set me

completely at ease. I watched her intently, like a time-release

photographic image, wanting to record every detail in the depths

of my soul.

We found our way to a table. She was so natural, bubbling

with the well-spring of life! Then, it began to happen: Through

the slightest gesture of her hands and eyes, everything in her


Letter to a Devotee Dear __________,

Mother gave individualized advice regarding the best diet for

an aspirant. She often said not to compare notes on what she

would say from one individual to another. However, there are

some generalities that I can say about Mother‘s advice on food.

First and foremost she wanted us to eat a balanced diet prepared

with fresh ingredients and cooked with care. ―Do not treat your

body as a trashcan,‖ meaning do not fill yourself with junk food.

Although Master advocated vegetarian fare and followed that

himself, he did allow for eating fish, fowl and lamb. Mother felt

that living in a northern climate demanded more from the body

and that animal protein was necessary, emphasizing that beef

and pork were to be avoided. In fact, Mother told some vegetari-

ans to start eating some fish or fowl.

There are those that believe eating animal protein disqualifies

one from being truly spiritual or moral. However, we note that

Jesus, Rama, Swami Vivekananda and many other spiritual Mas-

ters were not vegetarians: Jesus helped fishermen fish, Rama

was a hunter, and Swami Vivekananda ate fish and said, ―Do not

make a religion of the kitchen.‖ Who would gainsay these great

Masters and their state of realization?

What the body requires varies widely from individual to indi-

vidual, and it can change over time. To eat high quality food, and

to not treat the human body as a garbage can, are broad but sig-

nificant guidelines. Choosing your food well and preparing it in

ways that is pleasing to the senses makes good sense and helps

optimize health. The body should not run our lives, but we

should treat the body well even as we care for a vehicle when we

buy the right kind of gasoline and perform timely maintenance.

Do at least as much for your human body which is the vehicle

for gaining complete realization and performs service to others.

Food is an emotionally charged issue for many, if not most,

people. As with all powerful things in life we need to treat it

with care and respect. Do not assume what is best for all.

Continued on pg. 15


Change Yourself and You Will Change Thousands An Excerpt from a Talk Given by

The Reverend Mother, Yogacharya M. Hamilton

in Seattle on September 27, 1978

Mother Hamilton

Mother’s Bible reading is from Saint Matthew, Chapter 16, verses 24-28

The Fear of the Human Ego

I‘ve chosen for my subject tonight, one that Master talked

about constantly: ―Change Yourself and You Will Change Thou-

sands.‖ This is the truth; change yourself and you will change

thousands. In order to do that, you must pick up your cross,

which is your body, and follow the Christ which is within you:

constantly guiding you, directing you, watching after you, pro-

tecting you, taking care of you in every department of your life.

Everybody wants to hang on to this human life. We had a

question about fear the other evening. But the greatest thing, and

the only thing to fear, is fear itself. Why do you think that that

fear comes into your consciousness? It is the fear of this human

ego—that which in truth does not exist. It thinks of itself as sepa-

rate from God, and its fear is that it will lose its independence, its


Since Simon Newcomb in the late 1800s to the present day we

have more than a century of data to compare to. Here‘s Walter:

―We sat in the office, input the numbers provided by Yuktes-

war (24,000 years and 500 AD for apoapsis [furthest point in

orbit]), assumed eccentricity around the average of the earth‘s

orbit ellipse—and when we ran the numbers our jaws dropped.‖

Walter had discovered that the binary sun hypothesis more ac-

curately fit the actual ―precession‖ data than the lunisolar theory.

By way of updating the book, it‘s interesting to note that Wal-

ter and many others believe that the most likely candidate for our

sun‘s binary companion is the star, Sirius. Sirius is the brightest

star in the sky and yet it is not the closest star to us—so if this is

correct then much more needs to be explained. Another discrep-

ancy regarding Sirius is that our present understanding of gravity

indicates that any orbital relationship between our sun and Sirius

would have a time period much greater than the 24,000 years

that Sri Yukteswar claims.

No one has done more than Walter to verify the claims made

by Sri Yukteswar. I feel certain the master is guiding him.

The second reason for our meeting was so that Cate and I

could learn his background with Master and Self Realization Fel-

lowship (SRF). Walter told us that when he was 13 years old he

was riding in his parents‘ car as they passed by SRF‘s Encinitas

Hermitage. When he saw the lotuses on the building he was in-

stantly elevated into samadhi consciousness. Later he read Mas-

ter‘s Autobiography and learned about samadhi in the chapter

entitled ―An Experience in Cosmic Consciousness‖. This experi-

ence at such a young age launched him onto the spiritual path

with Master and has guided him to this very day.

Cate and I spent several bliss-filled hours talking with Walter

about God and the masters. We also told him extensively about

our years with Mother Hamilton. We all know what it is like to

meet with a true devotee—it is bliss itself. Walter has been a

Kriyaban for several decades now. He attends the Fullerton SRF

church. He also helps run a summer camp for them and he has

many friends among the monks and the larger SRF family.


Meeting with a Remarkable Man By Larry Koler

During a recent trip to Califor-

nia, Cate and I had the opportu-

nity to meet a disciple of Mas-

ter‘s, Walter Cruttenden. Walter

is the author of the book, The

Lost Star of Myth and Time, and

the screenwriter of the TV video

that many of you have seen,

―The Great Year.‖

This great devotee of Master‘s

is also an admirer of his param-

guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar.

Like myself, when he first read about Sri Yukteswar in Master‘s

Autobiography of a Yogi he was instantly smitten.

We had two reasons for meeting with Walter. The first was a

long-standing desire on my part to discuss questions that arose

from his book and later research (see www.binary-

researchinstitute.org) on the theories associated with Sri Yuktes-

war‘s contention that our solar system revolves around another

star and this revolution is the real reason for the anciently ob-

served and well-known phenomenon of ―precession.‖ Isaac

Newton postulated many years ago that this apparent very slow

movement of the fixed stars was a wobble or precession motion

of the earth’s that was caused principally by the moon and sec-

ondarily by the sun—the so-called lunisolar theory of precession.

This Newtonian theory started out as a simple equation with a

few constants to describe the motion. But over the years it has

proven difficult to match the actual motion with the theory and

geo-dynamicists presently employ 1,400 constants to match the

actual values. Walter had the vision to purchase special orbital

software which is capable of mocking up the motion of binary

stars. This simulation allows one to experiment with various sce-

narios mathematically and then compare this simulation to the

actual values that are known very precisely nowadays.


power to move and act on its own; to take credit for everything

that it does, to give itself all of the glory that should be given to

God alone. It is truly the anti-Christ within every man. And be-

lieve me, it sets up a battle because it is constantly deluding you,

telling you to hang on to the things of the senses, and putting

fear in your mind that if you were to let go of the things of the

senses and reach out for God alone, that somehow you will be

destroyed—you‘re going to have terrible experiences, you may

even die—and yet, you have to die in order to live.

Yearn for God

This human ego, the son of man, has to die in order that we

may be aware of the eternal light of God within ourselves. Now

this involves discipleship because it says, if you will not pick up

your cross and follow the Christ, you cannot be his disciple, and

that means exactly what it says. And so, the first step in picking

up your cross and following the Christ is to discover within

yourself a deep yearning for God; a yearning that is so great that

it supersedes your yearning for everything, for everyone else in

the world. If you would yearn after Him as you yearn after the

things of the senses; if you would yearn after Him as you yearn

to have a lover, a child, a husband, a wife—whatever—and put

into it everything you have, you would find that you would go

forth on the path very rapidly.

But we kid ourselves, we play games with ourselves. We tell

ourselves that everything else is more important and that God

always comes second. We have an awful time getting up a little

bit early in the morning and meditating upon God, of keeping

awake at night in order to do what we should to establish our

oneness with Him; and yet, He gives us 24 hours of the day. He

gives us our very life: the right to move and live and breathe and

have our being. It is His thoughts that constantly fill our minds.

It is His energy that makes it possible for us to do the creative

work that we do. It is His will that projects everything in this

world. We are co-creators with Him. He has given us this

blessed privilege, and still, we try to save this life. We try to

save the life that isn‘t worth anything and give up that which is

eternal within ourselves.

http://www.binaryresearchinstitute.org

http://www.binaryresearchinstitute.org


Do you not realize what you‘re missing? That when you make

the supreme sacrifice, even if you have the greatest fear in your

heart, that if you just plunge into the ocean of God‘s life, His

love, His bliss, that still you will live. But if you try to save your

life, you will lose it. You will go like any other ordinary human

being.

The Indwelling Presence

And it says in this chapter that before this thing happened—

this death—that many will see the Son of man in all of his glory.

That means that if the human being tries with everything he has

to realize his oneness with God, that before the regular human

death comes, that he will see the glory of the Savior crucified on

his own cross and arisen from the dead; that he will realize truth,

that he will have access to the source of all things. All things.

It‘s a tremendous thing when you think of God‘s omnipres-

ence, and you think, and you really realize the fact that there is

not one thought, one word, one action that you do that God is not

aware of because He is omnipresent. That seems such a vast

thing to think about when you say, ―How in the world can He

know everything, at every moment, in His omniscience,‖ when

everything is so vast, so multiplied. And the reason is: that He—

out of His own substance, His own form—made man in His im-

age, and He, Himself, is the eternal word which dwells in every

single form which He made. It is His consciousness, so He, Him-

self, is the indwelling presence. He is conscious of everything

you (as a separate human being, you think), think, say and do,

and you don‘t get away with a thing. The only person you fool is

yourself, and you keep yourself from eternal bliss, eternal happi-

ness, and eternal truth.

And that is a shame, because the more you go into the inner

sanctuary of your own being and you experience the bliss of

God‘s presence; you feel His great peace, His great love, and He

starts to feed into your mind all of the great knowledge, reveal

the hidden meaning behind the parables, gives you the true ker-

nel that‘s inside of the nut which covers up the truth. And you

see the expansion, and expansion, expansion. You see how He

works minutely in every form. His presence is there; His con-


The superman feels sensations, not on the surface of the body,

but in the brain. The ordinary man feels the cold or heat on the

body surface, sees roses in the garden, hears sounds in the ears,

tastes with the palate, and smells through the olfactory nerves,

but the superman feels all sensations in the brain. He can distin-

guish between pure sensation and the reaction of thought on it.

He sees sensations, feelings, will, body, perception, everything in

thought as suggestions of God dreaming through us.

The superman beholds the body not as flesh, but as a bundle of

condensed electrons and life force ready to dematerialize or ma-

terialize at his will. He feels no weight of the body. Body per-

ceived as electric energy cannot have weight. He sees the motion

picture of the Cosmos going backward and forward on the screen

of his consciousness, so he knows that time and space and dimen-

sion are forms of thought in which the Cosmic motion picture of

dreams is constantly playing new, true-to-touch, true-to-sound,

visible super-talkies.

The superman sees birth as the beginning of certain changes

and death as the change which follows earthly life. He sees birth

and death as changes playing on the Spirit as waves rise, fall, and

rise again on the bosom of the sea.

The man of realization has to climb different steps in the ladder

of self-realization as his consciousness moves upward from body

consciousness to Cosmic Consciousness.

First: By discrimination the yogi detaches himself from his

earthly possessions, and from his little circle of friends…

Second: Then the yogi finds his consciousness. Although freed

from the possessions involved in connection with the body, they

still tenaciously remain imprisoned in the body and in human

consciousness.

Third: Then the yogi by deep concentration tries to silence the

internal and external body sensations which invade his body.

Fourth: Then the yogi learns to quiet his breath and heart and

to withdraw attention and energy into the spine..

Fifth: When the yogi can quiet his heart at will, he passes psy-

chologically beyond the subconscious state…


smell, taste, hearing, sight, hunger, thirst, pain, passion, attach-

ment, sleepiness, fatigue, wakefulness, reasoning, feeling, and

willing powers. The consciousness of an ordinary man sleeps and

dreams, and fears death, poverty, and disease.

Physiologically. an ordinary man is limited by attachments to

name, fame, family, race, possessions, and the consciousness of

weight and feeling of the physical body. In other words, a mun-

dane man is conscious only of his body and its outer connections.

Mentally an ordinary man thinks that he is what books and in-

ferences about Truth have stated that he is. He remains hypno-

tized and limited by his own thoughts.

Spiritually the ordinary man cannot feel his presence beyond

the body except by imagination. By the flight of fancy a man can

move in imagination through the stars and vast spaces, but that is

imagination and does not belong to the domain of reality.

The superman‘s consciousness, on the other hand, finds the

consciousness in the body extended and awakened in every parti-

cle of space ambient (encompassing) Eternity. The exalted yogi

feels the body and all its perceptions as an omniscient Spirit and

not as an ordinary human being.

The spiritual man performs all actions of seeing, touching,

smelling, tasting, and hearing the good and the beautiful without

being attached. His Soul floats on the foul waters of earthly ex-

periences and of indifference to God like a lotus which floats un-

soiled or in purity on the muddy waters of a lake.

Physiologically the superman knows his earthly name and pos-

sessions without being at all possessed or limited by them. He

lives in the world, but he is not of the world. The superman may

seemingly feel hunger, thirst, and human limitations of the body,

but within he perceives himself as Spirit unattached by bodily

limitations. The superman may own much, yet he never sorrows

when all things are taken away. If the superman happens to be

materially poor, spiritually he knows he is the richest of all. The

spiritual man feels cold, heat, sees, hears, smells, tastes, and

touches like other individuals, only he remains unattached to the

senses.


sciousness is there; His power is there; His will is there; and it

spreads all over the world, and there is nothing but God any-

where. No matter what you need, what you want; everything that

you need an answer to is given unto you, and the unfoldment

goes on and on and on, and you sit there in awe and wonder,

wondering how you could be so fortunate as to have all of this

unfold before you.

See God Everywhere

When you get rid of this idea of separation, believe me, it is a

blessed thing to see God everywhere. As I‘ve said many times

before, and it is not original with me: God takes on many guises,

and there are many people whose personalities you certainly can-

not love, but you can love that infinite spirit in every single one.

And no matter what anybody says, thinks, or does about you or

to you, you can answer back—like the little boy heard in the

Alps the other night—the echo to what he put forth, ―I love you.

I love you. I love you.‖

If you have an enemy, go within yourself, visualize his face in

your point of Christ-consciousness here and tell him that you

love him with the love of God. See him perfect in God; see him

lifted up above all of the sordidness and the cares that have made

him whatever he is that is distasteful to you. But do not put upon

him your own burden of hatred, of resentment, of smallness.

So many times we think that everything and everybody around

us is wrong or doing the wrong thing; and yet, we could not see

it in that light unless we first have that within our own con-

sciousness. So the place to change is within yourself. And in or-

der to do that, you have to—when this yearning comes to you—

find your own path and your own teacher. And it requires abso-

lute dedication, absolute loyalty, absolute work, because no goal

was ever accomplished in this world without total dedication to

the perfecting of that goal. And the ones that go from teacher to

teacher, from path to path, are getting absolutely nowhere. They

may be getting intellectual knowledge, but they are not attaining

their God-realization because you have to stick to the one

teacher and to the one path if you are going to progress.


Be one-pointed in your Devotion

And still, many, because of the intellectual knowledge they

gain through following different paths, reading different books,

going to different teachers, set themselves up as teachers and feel

that they are qualified to direct the lives of others to where they

should go, to what they should do, and they haven‘t even started,

in that case, to put their feet on the first rung of the ladder. And

this is the truth. You‘ve got to be one-pointed in your devotion.

You cannot take the responsibility for other people‘s lives until

you, yourself, have realized God in all of His fullness and all of

His glory; until you, yourself, have paid the toll, the complete

price, for the knowledge of the truth. And the truth is that God is

and He is everywhere equally present.

But in order to find that truth, in order to realize it within your-

self, then you have to be totally dedicated to one path and to one

teacher, and that teacher—if that one is what he or she should

be—will bring you to that point where you go within yourself

and find God; and then, having attained that state of illumina-

tion, you will see Him in every path, in every teacher, and you

will bow down to each and every one because God is there.

It is not done to curtail your activity, to make you a slave to

any particular one, but it is done to help you; it is done to protect

you; it is done to keep you one-pointed in your love, your loy-

alty, your devotion for God, Christ and Guru, because that is the

one that God had chosen to take you to Himself. Nobody could

unglue me from my Guru. I am not interested in anyone else,

from the standpoint of their path, their teaching; and yet, I re-

spect the truth in every path, in every teacher. I respect it with all

my heart. I can mingle with them, but I have my own, and I will

never deviate from that.

Put Your Mind on God

You know, it‘s a strange thing, but every time any of the devo-

tees at Mount Washington would go to Master with a problem,

he wouldn‘t have long spiritual discussions with them, and per-

haps, many of them felt—well, they were being neglected, be-

cause why shouldn‘t God—or why shouldn‘t the Guru sit down


sion. Something is trying to consciously express all good and

something is consciously trying to foil all good with secret at-

tempt of evil expressions.

The human body is a veritable battle ground of the war be-

tween wisdom and ignorance, and between wisdom and con-

scious delusive force. Every spiritual aspirant, who wants the rule

of the Soul King in the bodily kingdom by defeating the rebel

King Ego and his powerful sense allies, must, every night before

sleep, introspectively compare and know the vast differences in

all their minutest details…

...Every night the student of the Bhagavad Gita should, through

his own introspection, ask King Soul and his children what they

accomplished as they gathered together, eager for battle of proper

management against untoward circumstances which affect the

body. The introspective person who follows the behests of King

Soul will find the bodily Kingdom teeming with mental and

physical prosperity, health, and the priceless wealth of wisdom.

In a body ruled by King Soul and his discriminative exercises,

the rebels of ego, anger, greed, fear, attachment, pride, and temp-

tation are all executed. The bodily kingdom, ruled by the superior

forces, manifests nothing but peace, abundance, harmony, and

wisdom. No disease, failure, or death can dwell in the bodily

kingdom during the reign of King Soul.

The consciousness in the superman is really Cosmic Con-

sciousness. He is not a victim of imaginary perceptions, fanciful

inspirations, or wisdom hallucinations, but he is actually con-

scious of the unmanifested Spirit and also of the entire cosmos

with all its details. A person who has become one with omnipres-

ent and omniscient God is aware of the coursing of a planet tril-

lions of miles distant and of the flight of a near-by sparrow at the

same time. A superman does not behold Spirit from the body, but

becomes one with Spirit and beholds his body as well as the body

of others, and all manifestation as existing within himself.

The perceptions of an ordinary human being in the body con-

sist of the sensations of body weight, internal sensations, arising

from the inner organs and breath in the body, sensations of touch,


Interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita,

The Song of The Spirit

By Paramhansa Yogananda

[Excerpt from East-West Magazine, August, 1932]

Translation and interpretation of first stanza.

Within itself the blind mind consulted introspection, the impar-

tial judge of all states of consciousness, asking: ―My children, the

crooked mental tendencies (Kurus), and the pure discriminative

faculties (the pure Pandus), eager for different psychological bat-

tles, what did they?‖ The blind boisterous mind wanted the intro-

spective faculty to reveal the battles between the sense-bent men-

tal tendencies and the pure wisdom-loving, discipline-loving, self

-control-evolving, wisdom faculties.

Elaborated Spiritual Interpretation

The Bhagavad Gita in the first stanza speaks of the glaring

truths of how life is a series of battles between spirit and matter,

knowledge and ignorance, soul and body, life and death, health

and disease, changelessness and change, self-control and tempta-

tion, discrimination and the senses. In the mother‘s body the baby

has to battle with disease, darkness, and ignorance. Each child

has to fight also the battle of heredity. The soul has to overcome

many hereditary difficulties. It has also to contend with the self-

created influencing effect of the pre-natal karma or past actions.

A study of the Bhagavad Gita is of little use unless it is applied

in practical life, so the vastness of the inner import of the first

stanza can only be understood when we know how to apply it in

various phases of life.

The Battle Between Wisdom and Delusion

In Creation this great battle between Spirit and the imperfect

expressions of Nature is continuously going on. Everywhere in

the world we can witness the silent battle between perfection and

imperfection. Everywhere the perfect wisdom patterns of Spirit

have to contend with the imperfect patterns of the universal delu-


and talk to them, at least for an hour or more, about their own

personal problems, whether they be in the human sense, or the

mental sense, or the personal sense, or the emotional sense. And

Master had one stock answer, all the time, with very, very few

exceptions, and that was, ―Put your attention up here, to the

point of Christ-consciousness.‖

Every problem that you have, if you will first take it to God,

then you will find that the problem solves itself. I have had this

happen in my own life time after time after time. Some things,

some situations, are very difficult to rise above: people come at

you pretty rigidly sometimes; and some of them blast you, they

insult you, they do this and that and the other thing, and they ac-

cuse you unjustly; and it‘s very, very difficult to deal with this at

times. But if you will just take a deep breath and let go of all the

fury inside of yourself and put your mind on God, rise above the

problem and think only of Him, you will realize that that one,

too, is God; and that the only problem exists in your own reac-

tion to it. And so quickly you learn to overcome, to see them

again as a child of God, and that‘s the greatest help you can give

anybody: to see them filled with God, to give them love, to give

them understanding. It‘s absolutely necessary.

True Humility

Some teachers say that you should cultivate humility. I have

seen people cultivate humility, and believe me, they are not

humble, because when you deliberately start to cultivate humil-

ity, immediately, you get this holier than thou attitude: I’m doing

this; I’m being humble; I am this, I am that, and I’m the other

thing. Some of them wear a sack-cloth and ashes and they go

around with long, drawn, sanctimonious, holier-than-thou ex-

pressions on their faces, and they haven‘t gone anyplace. They

are not humble.

Humility comes only by putting your full attention upon God,

by striving every moment to realize your oneness with Him, and

when that oneness comes, then this little self disappears, and

there is nothing but God in that form. And when that human

form is totally surrendered to God, then you cannot cultivate hu-

mility or anything else, because it is your will to do the will of


your Father. And every moment, the power of God is flowing

through your consciousness, through your whole being, and you

are whatever He makes you to be. You think, you say, you do—

everything in accordance with His direction; in fact, you do not

do it, He does it through this form which He has made. And it‘s

a tremendous position to be in, because it relieves you of the re-

sponsibility of making a decision as to what you‘re going to do.

Because if you‘re really totally surrendered to God, if you have

true humility, then you do not exist, and here you are, merely as

a witness of everything that the Christ does through you and for

you. It‘s a beautiful position to be in; absolutely beautiful.

I would like total dedication, total loyalty to God. I ask noth-

ing more of anyone of you than that. This is my greatest desire:

that you should find Him within yourself, that you should be

lifted up into the mountain of your own being and see the light of

God‘s infinite presence, to have yourself so filled with that light

that you shiver in the ecstasy, the bliss of that presence…

The Greatest Adventure

… You know that there‘s a tremendous upsurge now, a crying

out for spiritual knowledge, of spiritual truth. People are tired of

listening to promises because the promises were couched in par-

ables, and they look for everything that is promised to happen

outside of themselves, not realizing that the only place they‘re

going to find it is within themselves. All the answers, all of the

energy, everything is there. If you can‘t find your place, then go

inside and meditate, open up this spiritual eye, focus upon it and

focus upon it, and ask God to reveal Himself to you until you

have but to lift your eyes up there and the answers come, or they

come through your God-given intuition. The feeling and the pic-

tures come, and the certain knowledge that, this is mine, or this

is what I should do, or this is the truth.

And it comes so clearly that it is pure logic, you cannot argue

with it, and it is beautiful. And the higher you climb on the

mountain, even after you are up on the summit; still there is all

the whole universe that you still have to conquer. You conquer

the universe within yourself and then you go on to explore God‘s

greater universe, and it‘s the greatest adventure in the world.


The fish taken out of the sea

is not without a consolation:

his dying is of brief duration

and ultimately brings relief.

Yet what convulsive death can be

as bad as my pathetic life?

The more I live the more I die.

When I begin to feel relief

on seeing You in the sacrament,

I sink in deeper discontent,

deprived of Your sweet company.

Now everything compels my grief:

I want—yet can‘t—see You nearby,

and die because I do not die.

Although I find my pleasure, Sir,

in hope of someday seeing You,

I see that I can lose You too,

which makes my pain doubly severe,

and so I live in darkest fear,

and hope, wait as life goes by,

dying because I do not die.

Deliver me from death, my God,

and give me life; now You have wound

a rope about me; harshly bound

I ask You to release the cord.

See how I die to see You, Lord,

and I am shattered where I lie,


My death will trigger tears in me,

and I shall mourn my life: a day

annihilated by the way

I fail and sin relentlessly.

O Father God, when will it be

that I can say without a lie:

I live because I do not die?


John‘s impassioned invocation may you awaken to that intense

mood that elevates your soul into the heavenly Kingdom of your

eternal Father-God.

[Note: I made changes to the translation of this poem. I capitalized the word Me

when St. John was referring to his higher Self, as well as obvious references to God.

English version by Willis Barnstone, Original Language was Spanish.]

I Live Yet Do Not Live in Me by John of the Cross (1542 - 1591)

I live yet do not live in Me,

am waiting as my life goes by,


No longer do I live in me,

and without God I cannot live;

to Him or Me I cannot give

myself, so what can living be?

A thousand deaths my agony

waiting as my life goes by,


This life I live alone I view

as robbery of Life, and so

it is a constant death—with no

way out until I live with You.

God, hear me, what I say is true:

I do not want this life of mine,


Being so removed from You I say

what kind of life can I have here

but death so ugly and severe

and worse than any form of pain?

I pity me—and yet my fate

is that I must keep up this lie,



Letter to a Devotee, Continued from pg. 7….

If the Guru sees a need, he or she will point that out to the in-

dividual. Find a food regimen that works well for you, that pro-

motes health and a sense of well-being. Then, set the body aside

and draw your life-force up to the ajna, the third eye, and sahas-

wara, the crown chakra at the top of the head. Entry into these

heavenly states of consciousness is the true sign of spiritual at-

tainment.

Atom, Atman, Adam

By Larry Koler

The Atom is the individualized throne of Spirit within all crea-

tion. The Atman is the individualized Spirit of man or his soul

that sits on that throne. Adam is man. The story of Adam repre-

sents the incarnate state—that is, Spirit in flesh. These three

words represent man‘s dilemma and his apotheosis at one and

the same time.

This throne, this privileged vantage point is both our limita-

tion and our delight. I read recently that the Queen of England

has to contend with hard-scheduled events for over 250 days of

the year. She is both a privileged being and yet…one enslaved in

a manner of speaking.

Are we birds in flight or are we birds in a cage? Are we roy-

alty or are we slaves? We must recognize the beauty of creation,

of incarnation and we must accept its necessary limitations for

this world to come alive and express God‘s beautiful ideas.

As our consciousness expands it fills up the cage we are born

in, with every niche explored. Soon the consciousness must

burst out of this cage in a new birth into a new and gigantic

world—and we will then find another, larger cage to fly around

in.

BUT, the saints assure us that there is a state ―beyond the be-

yond‖ as Meher Baba so perfectly expresses it, beyond the atom,

beyond the atman: the pristine State.


I Live Yet Do Not Live in Me I live yet do not live in Me,

am waiting as my life goes by,


St. John of the Cross

Introduction by Yogacharya David Hickenbottom

In this heartfelt prayer by St. John of the Cross, we find double

meanings of the words die, me, and life. St. John, one of the

foremost mystics of the Roman Catholic Church, is pleading as

an aspirant (really for all spiritual aspirants), for God to raise

him up into that mystical union for which he craves.

Rare Perfume By Sradha Devi

From God‘s garden gather Love petals.

Take care to fill your basket full,

While drops of crystal dew still cling.

Until at noon when heat is burning.

Go, take your well-filled basket

Along the dusty way.

Scatter these fresh love petals

Where weary children pass each day.

Think not your basket empty

As your last petal falls,

For the drops of crystal dew

Have kissed love‘s roses,

Distilled the moisture there,

Transformed the petal basket

Into a heart of Love, filled

With rarest fragrance—

The Perfume of our God.


It is a sign of grace when

you yearn, ache and feel you

are dying when you do not yet

have God-experience. Most of

humanity is unconcerned

about having union with God.

Those touched with Grace

yearn with all of their hearts

to join with their Beloved.

To die in the mystical sense

is to surrender all that you call

your own to the Infinite. It is

one thing to want to merge

into the Omnipresence, but it

is rare for one to go the whole

way and really do it. St. John

wants to surrender, but he has

not yet purified his mind to do so completely. This pain of yearn-

ing is the threshing floor that makes the devotee fit for being

consumed in the sacred feast of God-union.

Real living comes from consummation in Spirit, but for that

life to be realized you must die to your old life; then you may

ascend up the Jacob‘s Ladder of realization. There is the in-

between time in your spiritual practice when you yearn, yet you

cannot completely surrender; you are not who you were (I no

longer live in me), and you are not yet what you will become as

your true Self (I live yet do not live in Me). Anyone who has

been in love in a human sense but separated from the object of

their affection has an inkling of what this painful spiritual sepa-

ration from God entails.

When you surrender your little human self to your spiritual

Self, you become one with the all-pervading God-head. The little

self lives in a field of separation, but the true Self is in perfect

union with the inherent sacredness that is the essence of every

soul.

In this pleaful writing we find the deepest mystical meaning

expressing the attitude of a sincere lover of God. Through St.

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