Saturday, July 10, 2010

Who am I?

In the reading at the Ananda Sunday Service for July 11, Jesus explains that as a branch of a tree cannot bear fruit unless it remains part of the tree, so life itself comes (and comes more fully) as we consciously live in the awareness of God’s presence within. Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita, declares that all who are glorious are but a spark of the glory of God.

Some of us have just returned from the July 4th weekend at Ananda Village where we welcomed Swami Kriyananda back from India and Italy. His life is a dynamic illustration of what it is to live consciously as an instrument of God.

Swamiji (the suffix “ji” expresses respect and closeness) frequently recounts the story of how he, as a young minister being trained by Paramhansa Yogananda, experimented with how to have God act through him. Once, while giving a Sunday Service talk, he paused to see if God would speak through him. While the audience was gripped in suspense thinking he had frozen out of fear (of public speaking — he had not), he waited for God to speak for upwards two full minutes! Well, you can guess that God did NOT speak.

He realized in this dramatic experiment that he had to do the speaking but, while doing so, he had also to invite God to speak through him: through his thoughts, inspirations, and understanding. As a popular and effective public speaker who speaks from inspiration and without prepared notes he has demonstrated the power of this approach thousands of times.

Swamiji has composed over four hundred pieces of music but once, when a student commented on the strong need and desire that the student had to compose music. Kriyananda remarked that he felt no such need. Music, he said, simply came to him when he needed it for the purposes of his ministry. In fact, his first foray into composing songs came when he visited Yosemite National Park and sang folk songs with others. He knew that devotional chants would not touch these young people but the usual folks songs had no message he felt in tune with.

So, on the drive home to San Francisco, a song suddenly came to him. While driving (he admits this was unwise) he scribbled the words and melody on a napkin. Thus began several decades of composing music. The songs came in response to the desire to serve God in tune with the teachings of his guru, Paramhansa Yogananda. The inspiration was not, in other words, driven by his own desire to compose music for its own (or his own ego’s) sake.

This illustrates beautifully how we can each act as a divine instrument. “How may I serve Thee, Lord?” is the prayer that opens the floodgates of divine power and inspiration. Most of the time we think in terms of what I want to do; how I feel right now about this or that.

As Krishna teaches in the Bhagavad Gita, we are compelled by nature to act. “I will reason, I will will, I wll act, but guide Thou my reason, will, and activity in everything that I do.” This prayer Yogananda has given to us shows us the spirit with which to act.

Paramhansa Yogananda wrote in his famous life story, "Autobiography of a Yogi," that divine vision is center everywhere, circumference nowhere. God is not to be found in some antiseptic corner of distant space. God is within us. All we need to do is to improve our knowing and realization of this simple fact. Daily meditation is the most effective way to experience God’s presence on a consistent and ever deepening way. In an experience of cosmic consciousness Yogananda said “I cognized the center of the empyrean as a point of intuitive perception in my heart.”

We can no more “kill” the ego than can consciousness itself ever be extinguished. For God, who is consciousness itself, exists at the heart of every atom. Thus to “know thy Self” is to reach that center and dwell there. The more frequently we commune with God within ourselves the more we begin to identify with that center and to act from and in harmony with its innate intelligence (which includes love, joy, and peace).

At the same time we must also work at re-directing the deeply embedded tendency of ego to assert itself and to want to steal the center stage of our attention. Humility is not self-effacement. Instead it is self-honesty! How small we are in size; how brief our lifespan in relation to the universe around us; how few are our talents; scant, our knowledge. In tune with divine grace, however, we are infinite: infinitely wise and unconditionally loving.

The constant reference of all actions, feelings, and perceptions to the false self of the ego is what we should re-direct. I saw a New Yorker Magazine cartoon of a down-and-out man sitting at bar saying to a fellow patron, “I’m nothing, yet I’m all I can think about!” It is not easy to expand our consciousness beyond self-interest. Nishkam karma (action without self-interest) is how Krishna counsels the devotee to act.

A story from India that Swamiji frequently tells is one he heard Yogananda relate. A man who was pestered by a demon came upon a mantra that would get rid of the demon. So one day the man recited the mantra onto a special powder and when the demon appeared the man threw the powder at the demon. The demon laughed saying “Before you could say the mantra I entered the powder!”

One day Swamiji awoke to discover that after working assiduously to develop humility, he was suddenly infected with the (thankfully passing) thought of how “proud” he was of his newly found humility!

You see, we are infected by the demon ego and cannot extricate ourselves from its influence by the mere wishing. We must introduce into the magnetic aura of our consciousness a current of energy from above. This current (shakti) is the awakening of our latent divine memory which is transmitted by the guru directly or through living disciples. Yogananda once remarked to some others “Look how I have changed Walter.” (Yogananda called him "Walter.")

So when we receive, or fail to receive, praise we must learn to re-direct our attention to where it belongs: God. Don’t laugh AT people but laugh WITH them! Another New Yorker cartoon shows two hyenas walking along and one says to the other, “You mean all this time you’ve been laughing AT me, not WITH me?”

Swamiji has often told the story how one evening he hosted a dinner party for well known authors during the course of a conference on communities. Though he was the host and the only one among them who had actually started a community, the others were better known to the public. During the party they completely ignored him as they talked with each other about their upcoming books and programs. Kriyananda simply chuckled to himself and enjoyed the experience of being ignored.

“But you’re famous!” someone once objected to Swamiji when, during a casual sidewalk conversation he introduced himself. Most famous people act self-important creating and perpetuating a cycle of ego affirmation.

Stilling the ceaseless flux of thoughts, emotions, and restless actions is the essence of meditation. Refocusing our attention from the ego-self to the divine Self in the I-Thou relationship using whatever form of God we hold dear (whether guru, deity, or divine attribute) is the key to Self-realization.

Swamiji's life has been one of intense service and meditation. He has shown enormous creativity and inspiration in the arts, in organizational matters and deep wisdom in lecturing and writing. Through him has come the sacred chants, ceremonies, and music that comprises Ananda's devotional services. Creativity and enthusiasm have too frequently been suppressed and condemned in the religious life as being pride filled and assertions of ego. This is an error, if an understandable one.

In his over sixty years of public service, Swami Kriyananda has demonstrated the power, the grace, and the bliss of living for God alone. What he, or anyone else has done, we can do! For as Krishna promises us, “even a little bit of this practice will free us from dire fears and colossal sufferings.”

Joy to you,      Hriman

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Independence Day!

Dear Friends, hundreds of Ananda members are travelling to Ananda Village in northern California to welcome Swami Kriyananda (Ananda's founder) back from Europe and India. July 4 is also the anniversary date of the founding of Ananda Village in 1968.

So this is an auspicious moment to consider what is freedom and what is Ananda's relationship to it! Most readers of this article understand that from the soul's perspective freedom means freedom from untruth and ignorance. Freedom from delusion also is the doorway to the one thing we all seek: happiness (or more accurately and absolutely, we would say immortality and unalloyed, ever-new bliss - the soul's permanent and true state of Oneness with God).

The principal of duality (the existence of the opposites which, like an engine, drives the great drama of life) dictates that truth lies at the center of those opposites. But to land with pinpoint accuracy upon that center when we and everything in creation is in ceaseless flux means that this still point is not easy to find and tends to seem like a moving target. Thus it is that on the spiritual path truth cannot be expressed in precepts or examples except by imperfect analogy and with a certain taint of irony and paradox.

To return to the subject of freedom, then, we find that to achieve soul freedom appears to require entering into a kind of voluntary servitude! At least from the ego's standpoint, the spiritual life, with its daily disciplines, ego-submission to inner or outer authority, and the giving up of pleasures and comforts is like going off to jail. But that's the irony and the price of admission. To most people the need and reasons for such giving up are obvious.

The problem we have is that "we" don't want to. Or, to be perhaps more fair and reasonable, we are not sure whether the brass ring on the "other side" is worth the price of the ride! Thus to assuage modern sensibilities, much of what passes as spirituality has been quietly sanitized of the vestiges of "cross-carrying" burdens.

There is a positive side of this, lest we wax too cynical. According to Paramhansa Yogananda and his astrologically oriented guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, planet earth is in a long and upward arc of rising consciousness. We naturally tend to be upbeat and want to look for the positive. We don't find inspiration hanging from a cross (mea culpa, mea culpa).

Indeed, even in past centuries when suffering was the summum bonum of the spiritual life, one Christian mystic proclaimed that "a sad saint is a sad saint indeed!" Or, as Swami Kriyananda wrote in the poetic and inspired Festival of Light ceremony (performed on Sunday's at Ananda temples throughout the world), "And whereas in the past suffering was the coin of our redemption, for us now the payment has been exchanged for calm acceptance and joy."

It is important in these times to emphasize that a life of moderation, simplicity, devotion to God and his saints, service to humanity, and silent inner communion with the soul brings to us a satisfaction that no outer success or pleasure can ever offer.

Nonetheless, the pearl of great price cannot be debased. Freedom is not won without sacrifice. When I read about the Revolutionary War which gave birth to America I cannot be but astonished how few people sacrificed so much and how fragile was their margin of victory. Our political and military leaders never fail to remind us that freedom must won again and again, generation after generation.

And so too our soul freedom. Ananda Communities differ from many intentional communities in what seems a glaring absence of democratic and consensus driven decision making. This is because these communities are also ashrams where individuals willingly work together, cooperate, and attune themselves to "what's trying to happen." This includes listening and tuning into the guidance offered to us through what we describe as the "ray of light brought to earth by Paramhansa Yogananda and his line of gurus as represented through Swami Kriyananda, a direct disciple."

It's not that we treat Kriyananda's guidance or that of the leaders appointed by him as infallible. But we do practice the art of discipleship to divine guidance by listening first rather than reacting first; by drawing upon inner guidance and intuition rather than mouthing mere opinion or likes and dislikes.

The path to freedom involves a "give up" and a "take up." The giving up is of inclinations and tendencies inherited or brought over, or which affirm our ego and separate identity. The take up is the taking up of listening instead of talking, of serving without thought of self, and of loving without regard to being loved.

Freedom and Independence to each of you, from Ananda,

Hriman(anda)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Not WHAT but HOW!

  Secret of Right Action! For those who seek to act with integrity and in harmony with Divine will it is far from easy to know what is right action. It is so common, even (perhaps especially) in religion, to justify the means by the ends. How much injury and wrong has been done in the name of a worthy goal, a high ideal, or for the glory of God? How is easy it is to justify oneself. Is it not commonly said, "Even the devil quotes the scriptures."

Not only is it difficult to know what course to pursue but it is even difficult to know which consequences constitute success or failure! Is it "success" if we get by cheating? And don't we sometimes learn from our failures. How many have said that a seeming failure was "the greatest thing that ever happened to me."

For the secret of right action, and by extension, of success itself lies in the intention and the consciousness that motivates it. In cases (such as losing one's job) where we do not initiate the act, the same can be said for our reaction. If we respond with faith, calmness and creative energy, a seeming failure can be a life-transforming turning point.

We see a similar pattern in criminal or civil law. For example, the punishment for the crime of injuring another person may depend on whether the act was intentionally or accidentally inflicted. But note that punishment is not necessarily waived just because the act was unintended.

Many a high-minded soul is at a loss to know which choice is the spiritually right one. In the great scripture of India, the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna admits to his disciple Arjuna that it is very difficult to know what is right action. In Chapter Two of the "Gita" Krishna prescribes the wisdom of achieving union with God as the true and highest path. But in Chapter Three, Arjuna expresses his confusion for the fact that Krishna counsels Oneness with God (through meditation) while also enjoining Arjuna to take part in the great (albeit metaphorical) battle against his cousins (his lower nature) who have stolen his (soul) kingdom.

Krishna then explains that to achieve Oneness one must act. This appears to be a paradox, at least to the intellect. But it is right action that leads us to the actionless state, and right action starts as one performed without selfish motive. But Krishna goes further. Right action is not only one which lacks self-interest but in its highest octave proceeds from, and is expresses the consciousness (and intention) of, God and godly purposes.

It is far less important what we do than how we do it. No legitimate job or task is greater than another. Neither are outward spiritual works greater than mundane jobs as it relates to one's own consciousness if the latter is one's proper duty in life. Regardless of the "what," the how is with intensity of love for God, clarity of purpose, creativity and inner, divine awareness. This is as true for washing dishes as for sharing spiritual teachings. That which pleases God is that which pleases our own higher Self in the manifesation of greater of inner peace, soul joy, perception of God, and unconditional love.

The more that we open ourselves to God's presence in our life the more God will guide us toward right action and to true, soul freedom. Swami Kriyananda in his inspired account of Paramhansa Yogananda's teachings on the Bhagavad Gita (in his book, Essence of the Bhagavad Gita) counsels that to achieve God contact we should learn to relax our awarenness "upward" (to the point between the eyebrows) in meditation. Struggle and tension are self-defeating. To learn devotion to God isn't a matter so much of "trying" as it is to open oneself to receive God's love. By degrees we "fall in love" with God, who IS love!

Daily meditation, combined with right attitudes of self-offering, selflessness, integrity in fulfilling one's worldly responsibilities, creativity, and, perhaps most of all, the joy of God: these are the secrets of right action. Such action leads to freedom from (past) karma and increasing identification with God and soul qualities.