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Autobiography of a Yogi (October 2020)
In his highly-acclaimed book, The Life of Yogananda (2018), the author, Philip Goldberg, has this to say; "Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi was a seminal text for me. I had already discovered Eastern philosophy and yogic practices such as meditation, but the iconic memoir expanded my knowledge, strengthened my commitment, and inspired me to dive deeper into my own spirituality. I continued to learn from Yogananda’s writings, and when I researched his life for my 2010 book, American Veda, I came to admire him as a giant of modern spirituality whose contribution to the transmission of India’s ancient wisdom to the West was second to none. I also came to see that his life story was more moving, complex, and compelling than even his ardent followers realize. He was a world-class spiritual master with a unique and important mission ..... He danced to the beat of a cosmic drum that no one else could hear." |
"His crowning achievement, and the most enduring monument to his earthly expedition, was Autobiography of a Yogi ..... It has sold at least 4 million English-language copies and has been translated into nearly 50 languages. ..... Regardless of which edition readers acquired over the years, the ad slogan used today would have applied: “The book that changed the lives of millions.” That was especially true as the staid ’50s gave way to the tumultuous ’60s, when a large segment of baby boomers embraced Eastern spirituality as passionately as they opposed the Vietnam War. In counterculture circles, the autobiography, with the now-familiar ochre-colored background to the deep-eyed visage of Yogananda in the Standard Pose, was by far the most beloved, borrowed, gifted, and ripped-off spiritual text. If you were lucky enough to know George Harrison, you might have received one from the stack he kept on hand to give away. ..... Now, more than seven decades after its publication, it can be found everywhere from small-town school libraries to hipster health food stores and, of course, amid the fancy outfits and accessories in the shops of yoga studios that owe their existence, at least in part, to the book and its author."
“You would be hard-pressed to find anyone on the spiritual path whose life has not been influenced by this profound work of literature.” ~ Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series
“Autobiography of a Yogi is regarded as an Upanishad of the new age .... the immortal nectar of India’s Sanatana Dharma, the eternal laws of truth, has been stored in the golden chalice of Autobiography of a Yogi.” ~ Dr. Ashutosh Das, M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt., Professor, Calcutta University
And finally, from the Goodreads website;
"This acclaimed autobiography presents a fascinating portrait of one of the great spiritual figures of our time. With engaging candor, eloquence, and wit, Paramahansa Yogananda narrates the inspiring chronicle of his life: the experiences of his remarkable childhood, encounters with many saints and sages during his youthful search throughout India for an illumined teacher, ten years of training in the hermitage of a revered yoga master, and the thirty years that he lived and taught in America.
Autobiography of a Yogi is at once a beautifully written account of an exceptional life and a profound introduction to the ancient science of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. The author clearly explains the subtle but definite laws behind both the ordinary events of everyday life and the extraordinary events commonly termed miracles. His absorbing life story thus becomes the background for a penetrating and unforgettable look at the ultimate mysteries of human existence."
Named one of the best spiritual books of the twentieth century, Paramahansa Yogananda’s remarkable life story takes you on an unforgettable journey that illuminates the deepest secrets of life and the universe — opening our hearts and minds to the joy, beauty, and unlimited spiritual potentials that exist in the lives of every human being.
Below are brief excerpts from this extraordinary book. Some of the excerpts are quotations from others as recorded by Yogananda; these are duly noted - most of these are from Sri Yukteswar, the guru of Yogananda, as well as Lahari Mahasaya, the guru of Sri Yukteswar. The excerpts are grouped by topic into the following sections;
“You would be hard-pressed to find anyone on the spiritual path whose life has not been influenced by this profound work of literature.” ~ Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series
“Autobiography of a Yogi is regarded as an Upanishad of the new age .... the immortal nectar of India’s Sanatana Dharma, the eternal laws of truth, has been stored in the golden chalice of Autobiography of a Yogi.” ~ Dr. Ashutosh Das, M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt., Professor, Calcutta University
And finally, from the Goodreads website;
"This acclaimed autobiography presents a fascinating portrait of one of the great spiritual figures of our time. With engaging candor, eloquence, and wit, Paramahansa Yogananda narrates the inspiring chronicle of his life: the experiences of his remarkable childhood, encounters with many saints and sages during his youthful search throughout India for an illumined teacher, ten years of training in the hermitage of a revered yoga master, and the thirty years that he lived and taught in America.
Autobiography of a Yogi is at once a beautifully written account of an exceptional life and a profound introduction to the ancient science of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. The author clearly explains the subtle but definite laws behind both the ordinary events of everyday life and the extraordinary events commonly termed miracles. His absorbing life story thus becomes the background for a penetrating and unforgettable look at the ultimate mysteries of human existence."
Named one of the best spiritual books of the twentieth century, Paramahansa Yogananda’s remarkable life story takes you on an unforgettable journey that illuminates the deepest secrets of life and the universe — opening our hearts and minds to the joy, beauty, and unlimited spiritual potentials that exist in the lives of every human being.
Below are brief excerpts from this extraordinary book. Some of the excerpts are quotations from others as recorded by Yogananda; these are duly noted - most of these are from Sri Yukteswar, the guru of Yogananda, as well as Lahari Mahasaya, the guru of Sri Yukteswar. The excerpts are grouped by topic into the following sections;
The sections are self-contained and can be read in any order (although it may help to read Section 1 before Section 2 and Section 3 before Sections 4 & 5.)
Clicking on a name will take your directly to that section. A return link back to the start of this posting is provided after each section.
Clicking on a name will take your directly to that section. A return link back to the start of this posting is provided after each section.
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Meditation 
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Meditation is fundamental to the spiritual teachings of the East. As such, meditation is the cornerstone of Yogananda's teachings. The following are some of the key thoughts expressed in the book on this topic. Yoga is a method for restraining the natural turbulence of thoughts, which otherwise impartially prevents all men, of all lands, from glimpsing their true nature of Spirit. Like the healing light of the sun, yoga is beneficial equally to men of the East and to men of the West. The thoughts of most persons are restless and capricious; a manifest need exists for yoga: the science of mind control. In deep meditation, the first experience of Spirit is on the altar of the spine, and then in the brain. The torrential bliss is overwhelming, but the yogi learns to control its outward manifestations. The universal appeal of yoga is thus its approach to God through a daily usable scientific method, rather than through a devotional fervor that, for the average man, is beyond his emotional scope. “Outward longings drive us from the Eden within; they offer false pleasures that only impersonate soul happiness. The lost paradise is quickly regained through divine meditation." ~ Sri Yukteswar "Even he with the worst of karma who ceaselessly meditates on Me quickly loses the effects of his past bad actions" ~ Bhagavad Gita "Meditation furnishes a twofold proof of God. Ever-new joy is evidence of His existence, convincing to our very atoms. Also, in meditation one finds His instant guidance, His adequate response to every difficulty." ~ Sri Yukteswar "It [yoga] promises undreamed-of possibilities ..... the perfect and appropriate method of fusing body and mind together so that they form a unity ..... This unity creates a psychological disposition which makes possible intuitions that transcend consciousness.” ~ Carl Jung “Ever-new Joy is God. He is inexhaustible; as you continue your meditations during the years, He will beguile you with an infinite ingenuity. Devotees like yourself who have found the way to God never dream of exchanging Him for any other happiness." ~ Sri Yukteswar |
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Kriya Yoga 
Babaji
(guru of Lahiri Mahasaya) 
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The specific yoga technique that was taught by Yogananda (and the other spiritual masters mentioned in his book) was Kriya Yoga. This is an advanced form of Raja Yoga, the Royal Path to God. Known for millennia, the technique was lost during earth's Dark Ages. It has now been revived and is available to all seeking souls. The following excerpts include comments about Kriya as well as mention about higher states of consciousness attained by advanced practitioners. “The Kriya Yoga that I am giving to the world through you in this nineteenth century,” Babaji told Lahiri Mahasaya, “is a revival of the same science that Krishna gave millenniums ago to Arjuna; and that was later known to Patanjali and Christ, and to St. John, St. Paul, and other disciples.” "The cries of many bewildered worldly men and women have not fallen unheard on the ears of the Great Ones. You have been chosen to bring spiritual solace through Kriya Yoga to numerous earnest seekers." ~ Babaji, speaking to Lahiri Mahasaya The Kriya technique, which is simple, embodies the art of quickening man’s spiritual evolution. Hindu scriptures teach that the incarnating ego requires a million years to obtain liberation from maya. This natural period is greatly shortened through Kriya Yoga.***
Kriya Yoga is thus “union (yoga) with the Infinite through a certain action or rite (kriya).” A yogi who faithfully practices the technique is gradually freed from karma or the lawful chain of cause-effect equilibriums.
Untying the cord of breath that binds the soul to the body, Kriya serves to prolong life and to enlarge the consciousness to infinity. “The ancient yogis discovered that the secret of cosmic consciousness is intimately linked with breath mastery. This is India’s unique and deathless contribution to the world’s treasury of knowledge." ~ Sri Yukteswar The body of the average man is like a fifty-watt lamp, which cannot accommodate the billion watts of power roused by an excessive practice of Kriya. Through gradual and regular increase of the simple and foolproof methods of Kriya, man’s body becomes astrally transformed day by day, and is finally fitted to express the infinite potentials of cosmic energy. The advanced yogi transmutes his cells into energy. Elijah, Jesus, Kabir, and other prophets were past masters in the use of Kriya or a similar technique, by which they caused their bodies to materialize and dematerialize at will. Samadhi is a blissful superconscious state in which a yogi perceives the identity of the individualized soul and Cosmic Spirit. In the first state of samadhi (sabikalpa), the devotee shuts off all sensory testimony of the outer world. He is rewarded then by sounds and scenes of inner realms fairer than the pristine Eden. An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light. A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns, continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems, tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my being. ….. The divine dispersion of rays poured from an Eternal Source, blazing into galaxies, transfigured with ineffable auras. Again and again I saw the creative beams condense into constellations, then resolve into sheets of transparent flame. ….. I cognized the center of the empyrean as a point of intuitive perception in my heart. Irradiating splendor issued from my nucleus to every part of the universal structure. ….. Suddenly the breath returned to my lungs. With a disappointment almost unbearable, I realized that my infinite immensity was lost. Once more I was limited to the humiliating cage of a body, not easily accommodative to the Spirit. As often as I quieted the two natural tumults [the breath and the restless mind], I beheld the multitudinous waves of creation melt into one lucent sea; even as the waves of the ocean, when a tempest subsides, serenely dissolve into unity. A master bestows the divine experience of cosmic consciousness when his disciple, by meditation, has strengthened his mind to a degree where the vast vistas would not overwhelm him. Mere intellectual willingness or open-mindedness is not enough. Only adequate enlargement of consciousness by yoga practice and devotional bhakti can prepare one to absorb the liberating shock of omnipresence. The divine experience comes with a natural inevitability to the sincere devotee. His intense craving begins to pull at God with an irresistible force. Sri Yukteswar taught me how to summon the blessed experience at will, and also how to transmit it to others when their intuitive channels are developed. I have transmitted the Cosmic Vision to a number of Kriya Yogis in East and West. In the initial states of God-communion (sabikalpa samadhi) the devotee’s consciousness merges in the Cosmic Spirit; his life force is withdrawn from the body, which appears “dead,” or motionless and rigid. The yogi is fully aware of his bodily condition of suspended animation. As he progresses to higher spiritual states (nirbikalpa samadhi), however, he communes with God without bodily fixation; and in his ordinary waking consciousness, even in the midst of exacting worldly duties. Most men are utterly incapable of summoning those irresistible powers of devotion that are effortlessly possessed only by a few ekantins, “singlehearted” saints found in all religious paths, whether of East or West. Yet the ordinary man is not therefore shut out from the possibility of divine communion. He needs, for soul recollection, no more than the Kriya Yoga technique, a daily observance of the moral precepts, and an ability to cry sincerely: “Lord, I yearn to know Thee!” “Divine union is possible through self-effort, and is not dependent on theological beliefs or on the arbitrary will of a Cosmic Dictator.” ~ Lahiri Mahasaya “Kriya Yoga, the scientific technique of God-realization will ultimately spread in all lands, and aid in harmonizing the nations through man’s personal, transcendental perception of the Infinite Father.” ~ Babaji The blessed role of Kriya Yoga in East and West has hardly more than just begun. May all men come to know that there exists a definite, scientific technique of Self-realization for the overcoming of all human misery! Had India no other gift for the world, Kriya Yoga alone would suffice as a kingly offering. |
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Law of Miracles 
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Autobiography of a Yogi abounds in stories involving "miracles." As Yogananda and other masters explain in the excerpts below, these are not really miracles but are events that are based on an understanding and use of higher laws that are known to those who have tuned into their God-minds; A “miracle” is commonly considered to be an effect or event without law, or beyond law. But all events in our precisely adjusted universe are lawfully wrought and lawfully explicable. The so-called miraculous powers of a great master are a natural accompaniment to his exact understanding of subtle laws that operate in the inner cosmos of consciousness. The motion-picture art can portray any miracle. From the impressive visual standpoint, no marvel is barred to trick photography. A man may be seen as a transparent astral body that is rising from his gross physical form, he can walk on the water, resurrect the dead, reverse the natural sequence of developments, and play havoc with time and space. The expert may assemble the photographic images as he pleases, achieving optical wonders similar to those that a true master produces with actual light rays. At night man enters the state of dream-consciousness and escapes from the false egoistic limitations that daily hem him round. In sleep he has an ever recurrent demonstration of the omnipotence of his mind. Lo! in the dream appear his long-dead friends, the remotest continents, the resurrected scenes of his childhood. That free and unconditioned consciousness, which all men briefly experience in certain of their dreams, is the permanent state of mind of a God-tuned master. Innocent of all personal motives, and employing the creative will bestowed on him by the Creator, a yogi rearranges the light atoms of the universe to satisfy any sincere prayer of a devotee. The law of miracles is operable by any man who has realized that the essence of creation is light. A master is able to employ his divine knowledge of light phenomena to project instantly into perceptible manifestation the ubiquitous light atoms. The actual form of the projection (whatever it be: a tree, a medicine, a human body) is determined by the yogi’s wish and by his power of will and of visualization. Great saints who have awakened from the cosmic mayic dream and have realized this world as an idea in the Divine Mind, can do as they wish with the body, knowing it to be only a manipulatable form of condensed or frozen energy. Though physical scientists now understand that matter is nothing but congealed energy, illumined masters have passed victoriously from theory to practice in the field of matter control. All scriptures proclaim that the Lord created man in His omnipotent image. Control over the universe appears to be supernatural, but in truth such power is inherent and natural in everyone who attains “right remembrance” of his divine origin. "Thought is a force, even as electricity or gravitation. The human mind is a spark of the almighty consciousness of God. I could show you that whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely would instantly come to pass." ~ Lahiri Mahasaya “[Lahiri Mahasaya] knew this world to be nothing but an objectivized dream of the Creator. Because he was completely aware of his unity with the Divine Dreamer, Lahiri Mahasaya could materialize or dematerialize or make any other change he wished in the dream atoms of the phenomenal world." ~ Sri Yukteswar "All creation is governed by law. The principles that operate in the outer universe, discoverable by scientists, are called natural laws. But there are subtler laws that rule the hidden spiritual planes and the inner realm of consciousness; these principles are knowable through the science of yoga. It is not the physicist but the Self-realized master who comprehends the true nature of matter. By such knowledge Christ was able to restore the servant’s ear after it had been severed by one of the disciples.” ~ Sri Yukteswar Autobiography of a Yogi recounts many, many stories of "miracles" of various types. These are typically described in a casual, matter of fact style that reflects the author's understanding of the science behind them. They were not miracles to him. In the next two sections are excerpts from the book that provide examples of healings and physical materializations. |
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Healings |
Autobiography of a Yogi contains many stories of healings that were carried out by Sri Yukteswar, Lahari Mahasaya and other spiritual masters. Below are three of these stories: |
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"Sir, you seem sad. What is the trouble?” Lahiri Mahasaya made this sympathetic inquiry one morning to his employer.
“My wife in England is critically ill. I am torn by anxiety.” “I shall get you some word about her.” Lahiri Mahasaya left the room and sat for a short time in a secluded spot. On his return he smiled consolingly. “Your wife is improving; she is now writing you a letter.” The omniscient yogi quoted some parts of the missive. “Ecstatic Babu, I already know that you are no ordinary man. Yet I am unable to believe that, at will, you can banish time and space!” The promised letter finally arrived. The astounded superintendent found that it contained not only the good news of his wife’s recovery but also the same phrases that, weeks earlier, the great master had uttered. The wife came to India some months later. Meeting Lahiri Mahasaya, she gazed at him reverently. “Sir,” she said, “it was your form, haloed in glorious light, that I beheld months ago by my sickbed in London. At that moment I was completely healed! Soon after, I was able to undertake the long ocean voyage to India.” |
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One of my friends, Sasi, spent a number of happy weekends in Serampore. Master became immensely fond of the boy, and lamented that his private life was wild and disorderly. “Sasi, unless you reform, one year hence you will be dangerously ill.” Sri Yukteswar gazed at my friend with affectionate exasperation. “Mukunda is the witness; don’t say later that I didn’t warn you.” Sasi laughed. “Master, I will leave it to you to interest a sweet charity of cosmos in my own sad case! My spirit is willing but my will is weak. You are my only savior on earth; I believe in nothing else.” “At least you should wear a two-carat blue sapphire. It will help you.” “I can’t afford one. Anyhow, dear Guruji, if trouble comes, I fully believe you will protect me.” “In a year you will bring three sapphires,” Sri Yukteswar replied. “They will be of no use then.” ..... A year passed ..... One day I was visiting my guru at the Calcutta home of his disciple, Naren Babu. About ten o’clock in the morning, as Sri Yukteswar and I were sitting in the second-floor parlor, I heard the front door open ..... I raced down the stairway. Sasi was ascending. ..... He threw himself at Sri Yukteswar’s feet, placing there three beautiful sapphires. “Omniscient Guru, the doctors say I have pulmonary tuberculosis. They give me only three months to live! I humbly implore your aid; I know you can heal me!” “Isn’t it a bit late now to be worrying over your life? Depart with your jewels; their time of usefulness is past.” Master then sat sphinxlike in an unrelenting silence, punctuated by the boy’s sobs for mercy. An intuitive conviction came to me that Sri Yukteswar was merely testing the depth of Sasi’s faith in the divine healing power. I was not surprised a tense hour later when Master turned a sympathetic gaze on my prostrate friend. “Get up, Sasi; what a commotion you make in another person’s house! Return the sapphires to the jeweler’s; they are an unnecessary expense now. But get an astrological bangle** and wear it. Fear not; in a few weeks you shall be well. ..... It is as impossible for you to die of tuberculosis as it would be for the sun and moon to interchange their positions.” Sri Yukteswar added abruptly, “Go now, before I change my mind!” |
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** Though jewels and metal bangles have remedial values for the body, Sri Yukteswar had another reason for recommending them. Masters never wish to appear as great healers: God alone is the Healer. Saints, therefore, often cloak with various disguises the powers they have humbly received from the Lord. Man usually puts his trust in tangibles; when persons came for healing to my guru, he advised them to wear a bangle or a jewel in order to arouse their faith and also to divert attention from himself. The bangles and jewels possessed, in addition to their intrinsic electromagnetic healing potencies, Master’s hidden spiritual blessing.
“Electrical and magnetic radiations are ceaselessly circulating in the universe; they affect man’s body for good and ill. Ages ago our rishis pondered the problem of combating the adverse effects of subtle cosmic influences. The sages discovered that pure metals emit an astral light which is powerfully counteractive to negative pulls of the planets." ~ Sri Yukteswar Pearls and other jewels as well as metals and plants, applied directly to the human skin, exercise an electromagnetic influence over the physical cells. Man’s body contains carbon and various metallic elements that are present also in plants, metals, jewels. The discoveries of the rishis in these fields will doubtless receive confirmation someday from physiologists. Man’s sensitive body, with its electrical life currents, is a center of many mysteries as yet unexplored. |
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Sri Yukteswar
Lahiri Mahasaya
Jesus calls Lazarus
from the tomb |
“Rama was suddenly put to a severe test,” Sri Yukteswar continued. “He contracted the disease of Asiatic cholera. As our master [Lahiri Mahasaya] never objected to the services of physicians at times of serious illness, two specialists were summoned. Amidst the frantic rush of ministering to the stricken man, I was deeply praying to Lahiri Mahasaya for help. I hurried to his home and sobbed out the story. “‘The doctors are seeing Rama. He will be well.’ My guru smiled jovially. “I returned with a light heart to my friend’s bedside, only to find him in a dying state. “‘He cannot last more than one or two hours,’ one of the physicians told me with a gesture of despair. Once more I hastened to Lahiri Mahasaya. “‘The doctors are conscientious men. I am sure Rama will be well.’ The master dismissed me blithely. “At Rama’s place I found both doctors gone. One had left me a note: ‘We have done our best, but his case is hopeless.’ “My friend was indeed the picture of a dying man. I did not understand how Lahiri Mahasaya’s words could fail to come true, yet the sight of Rama’s rapidly ebbing life kept suggesting to my mind: ‘All is over now.’ Tossing thus on alternating waves of faith and doubt, I ministered to my friend as best I could. He roused himself to cry out: “‘Yukteswar, run to Master and tell him I am gone. Ask him to bless my body before its last rites.’ With these words Rama sighed heavily and gave up the ghost. “I wept for an hour by his bedside. Always a lover of quiet, now he had attained the utter stillness of death. Another disciple came in; I asked him to remain in the house until I returned. Half dazed, I trudged back to my guru. “‘How is Rama now?’ Lahiri Mahasaya’s face was wreathed in smiles. “‘Sir, you will soon see how he is,’ I blurted out emotionally. ‘In a few hours you will see his body, before it is carried to the crematory grounds.’ I broke down and moaned openly. “‘Yukteswar, control yourself. Sit calmly and meditate.’ My guru retired into samadhi. The afternoon and night passed in unbroken silence; I struggled unsuccessfully to regain an inner composure. “At dawn Lahiri Mahasaya glanced at me consolingly. ‘I see you are still disturbed. Why didn’t you explain yesterday that you expected me to give Rama tangible aid in the form of some medicine?’ The master pointed to a cup-shaped lamp containing crude castor oil. ‘Fill a little bottle with oil from the lamp; put seven drops in Rama’s mouth.’ “‘Sir,’ I remonstrated, ‘he has been dead since yesterday noon. Of what use is the oil now?’ “‘Never mind, just do as I ask.’ My guru’s cheerful mood was incomprehensible to me; I was still in an unassuaged agony of bereavement. Pouring out a small amount of oil, I departed for Rama’s house. “I found my friend’s body rigid in the death-clasp. Paying no attention to his ghastly condition, I opened his lips with my right index finger; and managed, with my left hand and the help of the cork, to put the oil drop by drop over his clenched teeth. As the seventh drop touched his cold lips, Rama shivered violently. His muscles from head to foot vibrated as he sat up wonderingly. “‘I saw Lahiri Mahasaya in a blaze of light!’ he cried. ‘He shone like the sun. “Arise, forsake your sleep,” he commanded me. “Come with Yukteswar to see me.”’ “I could scarcely believe my eyes when Rama dressed himself and was strong enough after that fatal sickness to walk to the home of our guru. There he prostrated himself before Lahiri Mahasaya with tears of gratitude. “The master was beside himself with mirth. His eyes twinkled at me mischievously. “‘Yukteswar,’ he said, ‘surely henceforth you will not fail to carry with you a bottle of castor oil. Whenever you see a corpse, just administer the oil. Why, seven drops of lamp oil must surely foil the power of Yama!’ “‘Guruji, you are ridiculing me. I don’t understand; please point out the nature of my error.’ “‘I told you twice that Rama would be well; yet you could not fully believe me,’ Lahiri Mahasaya explained. ‘I did not mean the doctors would be able to cure him; I remarked only that they were in attendance. I didn’t want to interfere with the physicians; they have to live, too.’ In a voice resounding with joy, my guru added, ‘Always know that the omnipotent Paramatman [literally, Supreme Soul] can heal anyone, doctor or no doctor.’ “‘I see my mistake,’ I acknowledged remorsefully. ‘I know now that your simple word is binding on the whole cosmos.’” As Sri Yukteswar finished the awesome story, one of the Ranchi lads ventured a question that, from a child, was doubly understandable. “Sir,” he said, “why did your guru send castor oil?” “Child, giving the oil had no special meaning. Because I had expected something material, Lahiri Mahasaya chose the nearby oil as an objective symbol to awaken my greater faith. The master allowed Rama to die, because I had partially doubted. But the divine guru knew that inasmuch as he had said the disciple would be well, the healing must take place, even though he had to cure Rama of death, a disease usually final!” |
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The spiritual law does not require a master to become ill whenever he heals another person. Healings ordinarily take place through the saint’s knowledge of various methods of instantaneous cure in which no hurt to the spiritual healer is involved.***
*** However, taking on the karma of disciples may result in a master choosing to experience physical ailments, as mentioned in the Free Will and Karma section. |
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Physical Materializations 
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Autobiography of a Yogi contains several stories of spiritual masters materializing objects, including their body-forms, in various locations for specific purposes. Below are brief excerpts on this topic;
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Seeing the Future 
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In the web posting entitled The Enigma of Time (July 2018) on the What's New page of this website, a model of time is presented that is based on the teachings of both mystics and modern scientists. A brief excerpt follows; "There is an Eternal Now that encompasses all time; the Present Moment, the "most probable" future and a past that is consistent with the Present Moment (see The Probabilistic Universe posting for an outline of the "most probable" future concept). The Eternal Now stretches across all events of time and provides a vast panoramic view from the beginning to the end of the universe. The Eternal Now can be visualized as a movie film strip made up of countless static, standalone movie frames in which the entire movie from start to finish can be seen all at once. For the vast majority, who currently only have access to their lower ego-minds, only a very small portion of the Eternal Now movie can be seen. The ego-consciousness plays the static frames, or snapshots, of this limited portion of the movie in succession to create the illusion of continuous motion in our lives and the universe ..... For those with access to the higher consciousness of their god-minds, the full movie, the complete panoramic view of the Eternal Now can be experienced all at once." And so it is that the spiritual masters mentioned in Autobiography of a Yogi had the ability to see the full movie film strip of individuals who crossed their paths. The film strip of the future represents the most probable future based on the most likely decisions and actions to be taken by individuals. Should an individual make a decision or take an action in the future that is not his most probable one, then the movie changes and presents a different future. We see how this unfolds in the story of the healing of Sasi above. By viewing the movie film strip of Sasi's life, Sri Yukteswar foresaw the upcoming health problem for the boy. Sri Yukteswar also saw that the film strip could be changed if Sasi made better life decisions going forward and he so advised Sasi. By ignoring Sri Yukteswar's advice, Sasi's health problem ensued. Autobiography of a Yogi has other similar stories. As well, some general seeing the future stories are also described in the book. Below are two examples; “Sir, what a sour fruit! I could never like strawberries!” My guru laughed. “Oh, you will like them — in America. At a dinner there, your hostess will serve them with sugar and cream. After she has mashed the berries with a fork, you will taste them and say: ‘What delicious strawberries!’ Then you will remember this day in Simla.” ..... [many years later] ..... When a dessert of strawberries was put on the table, my hostess picked up a fork and mashed my berries, adding cream and sugar. “The fruit is rather tart; I think you will like it fixed this way,” she remarked. I took a mouthful. “What delicious strawberries!” I exclaimed. At once my guru’s prediction in Simla emerged from the fathomless cave of memory. I was awestruck to realize that long ago his God-tuned mind had detected the program of karmic events wandering in the ether of futurity. |
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Mr. E. E. Dickinson
Swami Vivekananda
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The following story was told to Yogananda by a disciple of his, Mr E. E. Dickinson. "It is a long story, one I have kept hidden within me.” Mr. Dickinson looked at me shyly. “The beginning was dramatic: I was drowning. My older brother had playfully pushed me into a fifteen foot pool in a small town in Nebraska. I was only five years old then. As I was about to sink for the second time under the water, a dazzling multicolored light appeared, filling all space. In the midst was the figure of a man with tranquil eyes and a reassuring smile ..... “Twelve years later, a youth of seventeen, I visited Chicago with my mother. It was September 1893; the great World Parliament of Religions was in session. “‘Mother,’ I cried, ‘that was the man who appeared at the time I was drowning!’ “She and I hastened into the building; the man was seated on a lecture platform. We soon learned that he was Swami Vivekananda of India. After he had given a soul-stirring talk, I went forward to meet him. He smiled on me graciously, as though we were old friends. I was so young that I did not know how to give expression to my feelings, but in my heart I was hoping that he would offer to be my teacher. He read my thought. “‘No, my son, I am not your guru.’ Vivekananda gazed with his beautiful, piercing eyes deep into my own. ‘Your teacher will come later. He will give you a silver cup.’ After a little pause, he added, smiling, ‘He will pour out to you more blessings than you are now able to hold.’ "..... Years passed; no teacher appeared. One night in 1925 I prayed deeply that the Lord would send me my guru. A few hours later, I was awakened from sleep by soft strains of melody. A band of celestial beings, carrying flutes and other instruments, came before my view. After filling the air with glorious music, the angels slowly vanished. “The next evening I attended, for the first time, one of your lectures here in Los Angeles, and knew then that my prayer had been granted. "For eleven years now I have been your Kriya Yoga disciple,” Mr. Dickinson continued. “Sometimes I wondered about the silver cup; I had almost persuaded myself that the words of Vivekananda were only metaphorical. “But on Christmas night, as you handed me the little box by the tree, I saw, for the third time in my life, the same dazzling flash of light. In another minute I was gazing on my guru’s gift that Vivekananda had foreseen for me forty-three years earlier — a silver cup!” Publisher's Note: Mr. Dickinson met Swami Vivekananda in September of 1893 — the year in which Paramahansa Yogananda was born (January 5). Vivekananda was apparently aware that Yogananda was again in incarnation, and that he would go to America to teach the philosophy of India. An interesting detail that Mr. DIckinson did not mention to Yogananda but later recounted is that as he went up to the lecture platform in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda greeted him by saying, "Young man, I want you to stay out of the water!" |
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Science 
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Many of the remarkable scientific discoveries of the early twentieth century occurred prior to the writing of Autobiography of a Yogi in the 1940s. Yogananda explained the underlying spiritual nature of some of these scientific findings, as evidenced by the excerpts below. The physical world operates under one fundamental law of maya, the principle of relativity and duality. God, the Sole Life, is Absolute Unity; to appear as the separate and diverse manifestations of a creation He wears a false or unreal veil. That illusory dualistic veil is maya. Many great scientific discoveries of modern times have confirmed this simple pronouncement of the ancient rishis. Fundamental natural activities all betray their mayic origin. Electricity, for example, is a phenomenon of repulsion and attraction; its electrons and protons are electrical opposites. Another example: the atom or final particle of matter is, like the earth itself, a magnet with positive and negative poles. The entire phenomenal world is under the inexorable sway of polarity; no law of physics, chemistry, or any other science is ever found free from inherent opposite or contrasted principles. Physical science, then, cannot formulate laws outside of maya: the very fabric and structure of creation. Nature herself is maya; natural science must perforce deal with her ineluctable quiddity. In her own domain, she is eternal and inexhaustible; future scientists can do no more than probe one aspect after another of her varied infinitude. Science thus remains in a perpetual flux, unable to reach finality; fit indeed to discover the laws of an already existing and functioning cosmos but powerless to detect the Law Framer and Sole Operator. In the creation of the universe, God’s first command brought into being the structural essential: light. On the beams of this immaterial medium occur all divine manifestations. |
Albert Einstein
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Among the trillion mysteries of the cosmos, the most phenomenal is light. Unlike sound waves, whose transmission requires air or other material media, light waves pass freely through the vacuum of interstellar space. Even the hypothetical ether, held as the interplanetary medium of light in the undulatory theory, may be discarded on the Einsteinian grounds that the geometrical properties of space render unnecessary a theory of ether. Under either hypothesis, light remains the most subtle, the freest from material dependence, of any natural manifestation.
With a few equational strokes of his pen, Einstein banished from the universe every fixed reality except that of light. From science, then, if it must be so, let man learn the philosophic truth that there is no material universe; its warp and woof is maya, illusion. Under analysis all its mirages of reality dissolve. As steps in man’s awakening, the Lord inspires scientists to discover, at the right time and place, the secrets of His creation. Many modern discoveries help man to apprehend the cosmos as a varied expression of one power — light, guided by divine intelligence. The wonders of the motion picture, of radio, of television, of radar, of the photoelectric cell — the amazing “electric eye,” of atomic energies, are all based on the electromagnetic phenomenon of light. Motion pictures, with their lifelike images, illustrate many truths concerning creation. The Cosmic Director has written His own plays and has summoned the tremendous casts for the pageant of the centuries. From the dark booth of eternity He sends His beams of light through the films of successive ages, and pictures are thrown on the backdrop of space. Just as cinematic images appear to be real but are only combinations of light and shade, so is the universal variety a delusive seeming. The planetary spheres, with their countless forms of life, are naught but figures in a cosmic motion picture. Temporarily true to man’s five sense perceptions, the transitory scenes are cast on the screen of human consciousness by the infinite creative beam. A cinema audience may look up and see that all screen images are appearing through the instrumentality of one imageless beam of light. The colorful universal drama is similarly issuing from the single white light of a Cosmic Source. With inconceivable ingenuity God is staging “super-colossal” entertainment for His children, making them actors as well as audience in His planetary theater. After I had finished writing this chapter [Chapter 30, The Law of Miracles], I sat on my bed in the lotus posture. My room was dimly lit by two shaded lamps. Lifting my gaze, I noticed that the ceiling was dotted with small mustard-colored lights, scintillating and quivering with a radiumlike luster. Myriads of penciled rays, like sheets of rain, gathered into a transparent shaft and poured silently upon me. At once my physical body lost its grossness and became metamorphosed into astral texture. I felt a floating sensation as, barely touching the bed, the weightless body shifted slightly and alternately to left and right. I looked around the room; the furniture and walls were as usual, but the little mass of light had so multiplied that the ceiling was invisible. I was wonder-struck. “This is the cosmic motion-picture mechanism.” A Voice spoke as though from within the light. “Shedding its beam on the white screen of your bed sheets, it is producing the picture of your body. Behold, your form is nothing but light!” I gazed at my arms and moved them back and forth, yet could not feel their weight. Ecstatic joy overwhelmed me. The cosmic stem of light, blossoming as my body, seemed a divine reproduction of the light beams that stream out of the projection booth in a cinema house and make manifest the pictures on the screen. For a long time I experienced this motion picture of my body in the faintly lit theater of my own bedroom. A.D. 1700. That year ushered in Dwapara Yuga, a 2400-year period of electrical and atomic-energy developments: the age of telegraphy, radio, airplanes, and other space-annihilators. The 3600-year period of Treta Yuga will start in A.D. 4100; the age will be marked by common knowledge of telepathic communications and other time-annihilators. Dire pronouncements are occasionally published regarding an imminent “end of the world.” Planetary cycles, however, proceed according to an orderly divine plan. No earthly dissolution is in sight; many ascending and descending equinoctial cycles are yet in store for our planet in its present form. |
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WWI Visions 
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As a young man, Yogananda experienced two visions regarding World War I, as described in Autobiography of a Yogi. The stories of these visions have been covered previously in other parts of this website. They are repeated here, since they provide so much insight into this dream world that we occupy; One day I entered a cinema house to view a newsreel of the European battlefields. The First World War was still being waged in the West; the newsreel presented the carnage with such realism that I left the theater with a troubled heart. “Lord,” I prayed, “why dost Thou permit such suffering?” To my intense surprise, an instant answer came in the form of a vision of the actual European battlefields. The scenes, filled with the dead and dying, far surpassed in ferocity any representation of the newsreel. “Look intently!” A gentle Voice spoke to my inner consciousness. “You will see that these scenes now being enacted in France are nothing but a play of chiaroscuro. They are the cosmic motion picture, as real and as unreal as the theater newsreel you have just seen." |
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In 1915, shortly after I had entered the Swami Order, I witnessed a strange vision. Through it I came to understand the relativity of human consciousness, and clearly perceived the unity of the Eternal Light behind the painful dualities of maya. The vision descended on me as I sat one morning in my little attic room in Father’s Garpar Road home. For months the First World War had been raging in Europe; I had been reflecting sadly on the vast toll of death. As I closed my eyes in meditation, my consciousness was suddenly transferred to the body of a captain in command of a battleship. The thunder of guns split the air as shots were exchanged between shore batteries and the ship’s cannons. A huge shell hit the powder magazine and tore my ship asunder. I jumped into the water, together with the few sailors who had survived the explosion. Heart pounding, I reached the shore safely. But alas! a stray bullet ended its swift flight in my chest. I fell groaning to the ground. My whole body was paralyzed, yet I was aware of possessing it as one is conscious of a leg gone to sleep. “At last the mysterious footstep of Death has caught up with me,” I thought. With a final sigh, I was about to sink into unconsciousness when lo! I found myself seated in the lotus posture in my Garpar Road room. Hysterical tears poured forth as I joyfully stroked and pinched my regained possession: a body free from a bullet hole in the breast. I rocked to and fro, inhaling and exhaling to assure myself that I was alive. Amidst these self- congratulations, again I found my consciousness transferred to the captain’s dead body by the gory shore. Utter confusion of mind came upon me. "Well, I can stop my heart… why am I crying … why am I thinking that I am dead. I have practiced death, so I know what it is to stop the heart and go beyond. I am in that Eternal Joy." But still, the body dream was so real – I said this is death that has happened to me at last – the death that I thought never would happen to me ... Then I saw that Light and I said, "Cosmic Father, tell me, am I dead on the battlefield or am I sitting meditating in Calcutta?" He said, "Neither – you have been dreaming that you are sitting and meditating and you have been dreaming that you are dead. You are neither of these two dreams. You are this Light that created those dream delusions”…. and my delusion fled and I became that Great Light. ***
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In an audio recording of a talk he gave in 1949, entitled Beholding the One in All, Yogananda describes another conversation that he had with God on seeing this world as a cosmic motion picture show. Although not part of Autobiography of a Yogi, excerpts from this talk are provided below with the hope that they lead to a better understanding of the above; |
Vertical Divider
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I remember one day I was in the movies; movies have one fascination, because I see the whole world as movies. I was in the booth and I saw the operator was reading a novel and I saw this automatic machine was going on and the beam was causing on the screen a terrible horror picture.
And I said, “Lord, how is it. I have the whole show of the universe in front of me. You are this operator who is thinking of new plays and Your Nature is throwing this beam in the sky. And I see the hero and the villain are nothing but pictures. Nobody is killed.”
Many were being killed and shot in this picture but I saw from the booth it was the light that had created the villain and the light had created the hero.
And the Voice said, “….. and now you see that there is no villain, no hero, they are both pictures of my beam."
Realize that all this world which you see, of terrible wars and troubles is nothing but a picture show, cosmic motion picture show in the sky ..... Until you find that out, this world is a terrible show.
I said to God, as He was talking to me, “But Lord, look at the audience. They are howling and screeching downstairs at this horror show. I see it is nothing but pictures and light because I see the invisible beam. There are no murders in the beam, no heroes, no villains in the beam. But Lord, what about the audience – they don’t know it.”
Then the Voice said, “Tell them all to look at my beam within and they will realize that this show is given to entertain them, not to get mixed up with it.”
..... Do not get mixed up with this movie, these terrible movies of God. There is one purpose – to get to the beam…..then you will realize it was only a show.
..... everything is happening in your own thought.
..... Come into the beam of light and you will realize that all this world, which you see as terrible wars and trouble, is nothing but a picture show, a cosmic motion picture show in the sky.
You cannot be violated or harmed by stones, nor bombs, nor machine guns, nor atomic bombs. Remember the best shelter is in the silence of your soul. If you can develop that silence, nothing in the world can touch you – nothing in the world. And you can say, having which, no other gain becomes greater. Then you can stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds. Then you are not in any way touched by cold and heat, pleasure and pain. As soon as you are touched by these you are in the movie.
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Astral & Causal Worlds 
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Vedic cosmology identifies three worlds of existence: Bhuloka or the physical plane; Antarloka or the subtle or astral plane; and Sivaloka or Karanaloka or Brahmaloka, the causal plane, the world of the gods and highly evolved souls.
And so, within the game of creation, the metamorphosis of Spirit produces a triune production;
So as not to be too repetitive with the web posting mentioned above, only a sampling of Sri Yukteswar's quotes are provided below. “You have read in the scriptures that God encased the human soul successively in three bodies — the idea, or causal, body; the subtle astral body, seat of man’s mental and emotional natures; and the gross physical body. On earth a man is equipped with his physical senses. An astral being works with his consciousness and feelings and a body made of lifetrons. A causal-bodied being remains in the blissful realm of ideas.” “As prophets are sent on earth to help men work out their physical karma, so I have been directed by God to serve on an astral planet as a savior,” Sri Yukteswar explained. “It is called Hiranyaloka or ‘Illumined Astral Planet.’ There I am aiding advanced beings to rid themselves of astral karma and thus attain liberation from astral rebirths." “The ordinary astral universe — not the subtler astral heaven of Hiranyaloka — is peopled with millions of astral beings who have come, more or less recently, from the earth, and also with myriads of fairies, mermaids, fishes, animals, goblins, gnomes, demigods and spirits, all residing on different astral planets in accordance with karmic qualifications. Various spheric mansions or vibratory regions are provided for good and evil spirits. Good ones can travel freely, but the evil spirits are confined to limited zones." “The astral world is infinitely beautiful, clean, pure, and orderly. There are no dead planets or barren lands. The terrestrial blemishes — weeds, bacteria, insects, snakes — are absent. Unlike the variable climates and seasons of the earth, the astral planets maintain the even temperature of an eternal spring, with occasional luminous white snow and rain of many-colored lights. Astral planets abound in opal lakes and bright seas and rainbow rivers." “The earth-liberated astral being meets a multitude of relatives, fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, and friends, acquired during different incarnations on earth, as they appear from time to time in various parts of the astral realms. He is therefore at a loss to understand whom to love especially; he learns in this way to give a divine and equal love to all, as children and individualized expressions of God. Though the outward appearance of loved ones may have changed, more or less according to the development of new qualities in the latest life of any particular soul, the astral being employs his unerring intuition to recognize all those once dear to him in other planes of existence." "Visitors to the astral world dwell there for a longer or shorter period in accordance with the weight of their physical karma, which draws them back to earth within a specified time." "The nearly-free beings who are encased only in the causal body see the whole universe as realizations of the dream-ideas of God; they can materialize anything and everything in sheer thought." "Those who find themselves covered only by the delicate veil of the causal body can bring universes into manifestation even as the Creator. Because all creation is made of the cosmic dream-texture, the soul thinly clothed in the causal has vast realizations of power." “The undeveloped man must undergo countless earthly and astral and causal incarnations in order to emerge from his three bodies. A master who achieves this final freedom may elect to return to earth as a prophet to bring other human beings back to God, or like myself he may choose to reside in the astral cosmos. There a savior assumes some of the burden of the inhabitants’ karma and thus helps them to terminate their cycle of reincarnation in the astral cosmos and go on permanently to the causal spheres. Or a freed soul may enter the causal world to aid its beings to shorten their span in the causal body and thus attain the Absolute Freedom.” |
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Suffering |
This topic is addressed in more detail on the webpage Why is There Suffering? on this website. Below are a few excerpts from Autobiography of a Yogi on this subject.
"The creature finally turns to his Creator, if for no other reason than to ask in anguish: ‘Why, Lord, why?’ By ignoble whips of pain, man is driven at last into the Infinite Presence, whose beauty alone should lure him." ~ unidentified sage If joy were ceaseless here in this world, would man ever desire another? Without suffering, he scarcely cares to recall that he has forsaken his eternal home. Pain is a prod to remembrance. Wherever the soul is encased in the physical body or in the astral body or in the causal body, there the eagles of desires — which prey on human sense weaknesses, or on astral and causal attachments — will also gather to keep the soul a prisoner. Man’s forgetfulness of his divine resources (the result of his misuse of free will) is the root cause of all other forms of suffering. |
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Free Will & Karma 
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Free will and karma are considered in more detail on the webpages Karma and Reincarnation and Destiny and Free Will on this website. Below are some excerpts from Autobiography of a Yogi on these topics. The equilibrating law of karma, as expounded in the Hindu scriptures, is that of action and reaction, cause and effect, sowing and reaping. In the course of natural righteousness, each man, by his thoughts and actions, becomes the molder of his destiny. An understanding of karma as the law of justice underlying life’s inequalities serves to free the human mind from resentment against God and man. “All human ills arise from some transgression of universal law.” ~ Sri Yukteswar "By a number of means — by prayer, by will power, by yoga meditation, by consultation with saints, by use of astrological bangles — the adverse effects of past wrongs can be minimized or nullified.” ~ Sri Yukteswar “A child is born on that day and at that hour when the celestial rays are in mathematical harmony with his individual karma. His horoscope is a challenging portrait, revealing his unalterable past and its probable future results. But the natal chart can be rightly interpreted only by men of intuitive wisdom: these are few. The message boldly blazoned across the heavens at the moment of birth is not meant to emphasize fate — the result of past good and evil — but to arouse man’s will to escape from his universal thralldom. What he has done, he can undo. None other than himself was the instigator of the causes of whatever effects are now prevalent in his life. He can overcome any limitation, because he created it by his own actions in the first place, and because he possesses spiritual resources that are not subject to planetary pressure.” ~ Sri Yukteswar “The deeper the Self-realization of a man, the more he influences the whole universe by his subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less he himself is affected by the phenomenal flux.” ~ Sri Yukteswar "As soon as knowledge of the Reality has sprung up, there can be no fruits of past actions to be experienced, owing to the unreality of the body, just as there can be no dream after waking.” ~ Shankara Right use of man’s God-given will [is a] force more formidable than are influences flowing from the heavens. In nirbikalpa samadhi the yogi dissolves the last vestiges of his material or earthly karma. Nevertheless, he may still have certain astral and causal karma to work out, and therefore takes astral and then causal reembodiments on high-vibrational spheres. [Man's] freedom is final and immediate, if he so wills; it depends not on outer but inner victories. The metaphysical method of physical transfer of disease is known to highly advanced yogis. A strong man may assist a weak one by helping the latter to carry a heavy load; a spiritual superman is able to minimize the physical and mental troubles of his disciples by assuming a part of their karmic burdens. ….. Though he may allow it [his body] to become diseased in order to relieve other persons, his mind, unpollutable, is not affected. He considers himself fortunate in being able to render such aid. To achieve final salvation in the Lord is indeed to find that the human body has completely fulfilled its purpose; a master then uses it in any way he deems fit. A guru’s work in the world is to alleviate the sorrows of mankind, whether through spiritual means or intellectual counsel or will power or physical transfer of disease. Escaping to the superconsciousness whenever he so desires, a master can become oblivious of physical illness; sometimes, to set an example for disciples, he chooses to bear bodily pain stoically. By putting on the ailments of others, a yogi can satisfy, for them, the karmic law of cause and effect. This law is mechanically or mathematically operative; its workings may be scientifically manipulated by men of divine wisdom. He [Jesus] thus took on himself the consequences of others’ karma, especially that of his disciples. In this manner they were highly purified and made fit to receive the omnipresent consciousness or Holy Ghost that later descended upon them. Sri Yukteswar was signifying that, even as in his earthly incarnation he had occasionally assumed the weight of disease to lighten his disciples’ karma, so in the astral world his mission as a savior enabled him to take on certain astral karma of dwellers on Hiranyaloka, and thus hasten their evolution into the higher causal world. The burden of the years has no ill effect on a great yogi’s full possession of supreme spiritual powers. He is able to renew his body at will; yet sometimes he does not care to retard the aging process, but allows his karma to expend itself on the physical plane, using his present body as a time-saving device to preclude the necessity of working out remaining fragments of karma in a new incarnation. |
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The Poem Samadhi
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Yogananda wrote many poems. Most of these are found in other books, e.g. Songs of the Soul and Whispers from Eternity. However, one poem appears in Autobiography of a Yogi.
Entitled Samadhi, it offers a glimpse into what is experienced by one in the state of higher consciousness; of god-consciousness; of cosmic consciousness. This state is often referred to, in the mystical language of the East, as samadhi. It is our original native state before we became entrapped in maya's hypnosis. It is the state to which we shall all ultimately return. Mystics say that it is impossible to fully portray the state of cosmic consciousness to those who have not experienced it. As was mentioned in the previous posting on this website, poetry offers the closest way to depict such mystical states. And so, in his later years, Yogananda wrote the poem, Samadhi, "endeavoring to convey a glimpse of its glory." As one of his disciples said, "Yogananda did something no one before him, to my knowledge, has ever done, in describing with extraordinary lucidity the state of cosmic consciousness. People don’t realize what a fantastic feat that was—going into that state and then being able to bring it down to a level where he could verbalize it." The poem is quite long (over 65 lines). Excerpts are provided below; Vanished the veils of light and shade, Lifted every vapor of sorrow, Sailed away all dawns of fleeting joy, Gone the dim sensory mirage. The storm of maya stilled By magic wand of intuition deep. Present, past, future, no more for me, But ever-present, all-flowing I, I, everywhere. Thoughts of all men, past, present, to come, Smoldering joy, oft-puffed by meditation, Blinding my tearful eyes, Burst into immortal flames of bliss, Consumed my tears, my frame, my all. Thou art I, I am Thou, Knowing, Knower, Known, as One! Tranquilled, unbroken thrill, eternally living, ever new peace! Enjoyable beyond imagination of expectancy, samadhi bliss! Not an unconscious state Or mental chloroform without willful return, Samadhi but extends my conscious realm Beyond limits of the mortal frame To farthest boundary of eternity Where I, the Cosmic Sea, Watch the little ego floating in me. The sparrow, each grain of sand, fall not without my sight. All space like an iceberg floats within my mental sea. Colossal Container, I, of all things made. Flowing seas change into vapors of nebulae! Aum blows upon vapors, opening wondrously their veils, Oceans stand revealed, shining electrons, Till, at last sound of the cosmic drum, Vanish the grosser lights into eternal rays Of all-pervading bliss. From joy I came, for joy I live, in sacred joy I melt. Ocean of mind, I drink all Creation’s waves. Four veils of solid, liquid, vapor, light, Lift aright. I, in everything, enter the Great Myself. Eternity and I, one united ray. A tiny bubble of laughter, I Am become the Sea of Mirth Itself. |
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Various 
The Holy Land
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The following are some additional excerpts from Autobiography of a Yogi on a variety of subjects. “Forget the past. The vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames. Human conduct is ever unreliable until man is anchored in the Divine. Everything in future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.” ~ Sri Yukteswar Awakening of the occult cerebrospinal centers (chakras, astral lotuses) is the sacred goal of the yogi. Western exegetes have not understood that the New Testament chapter of Revelation contains the symbolic exposition of a yogic science, taught to John and other close disciples by Lord Jesus. John mentions (Rev. 1:20) the “mystery of the seven stars” and the “seven churches”; these symbols refer to the seven lotuses of light, described in yoga treatises as the seven “trap doors” in the cerebrospinal axis. Through these divinely planned “exits,” the yogi, by scientific meditation, escapes from the bodily prison and resumes his true identity as Spirit. The seventh center, the “thousand-petaled lotus” in the brain, is the throne of the Infinite Consciousness. No man lives who has not seen some of his prayers granted. “The Lord responds to all and works for all. Just as He sent rain at my plea, so He fulfills any sincere desire of the devotee. Seldom do men realize how often God heeds their prayers. He is not partial to a few, but listens to everyone who approaches Him trustfully. His children should ever have implicit faith in the loving-kindness of their Omnipresent Father.” ~ Sri Yukteswar “It is the Spirit of God that actively sustains every form and force in the universe; yet He is transcendental and aloof in the blissful uncreated void beyond the worlds of vibratory phenomena. Those who attain Self-realization on earth live a similar twofold existence. Conscientiously performing their work in the world, they are yet immersed in an inward beatitude." ~ Sri Yukteswar According to the mass karma that guides and regulates the destinies of animals, the deer’s life was over, and it was ready to progress to a higher form. But by my deep attachment, which I later realized was selfish, and by my fervent prayers, I had been able to hold it in the limitations of the animal form from which the soul was struggling for release. The soul of the deer made its plea in a dream because, without my loving permission, it either would not or could not go. As soon as I agreed, it departed. Spiritual sight, X-raylike, penetrates into all matter; the divine eye is center everywhere, circumference nowhere. I realized anew, standing there in the sunny courtyard, that when man ceases to be a prodigal child of God, engrossed in a physical world indeed dream, baseless as a bubble, he reinherits his eternal realms. If escapism be a need of man, cramped in his narrow personality, can any other escape compare with that of omnipresence? One’s values are profoundly changed when he is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture; and that not in it, but beyond it, lies his own reality. Great prophets like Christ and Krishna come to earth for a specific and spectacular purpose; they depart as soon as it is accomplished. Other avatars, like Babaji, undertake work that is concerned more with the slow evolutionary progress of man during the centuries than with any one outstanding event of history. Such masters always veil themselves from the gross public gaze and have the power to become invisible at will. For these reasons, and because they generally instruct their disciples to maintain silence about them, a number of towering spiritual figures remain world-unknown. I give in these pages on Babaji merely a hint of his life — only a few facts that he deems fitting and helpful to be publicly imparted. "Imagination is the door through which disease as well as healing enters. Disbelieve in the reality of sickness even when you are ill; an unrecognized visitor will flee!” ~ Sri Yukteswar “By ahimsa Patanjali meant removal of the desire to kill ..... Man may be compelled to exterminate harmful creatures. He is not under a similar compulsion …. to feel anger or animosity.” ~ Sri Yukteswar Because the very nature of God is Bliss, the man in attunement with Him experiences a native boundless joy. The dictum of Descartes: “I think, therefore I am,” is not philosophically valid. The reasoning faculties cannot shed light on man’s ultimate Being. The human mind, like the phenomenal world that it cognizes, is in perpetual flux and can yield no finalities. Intellectual satisfaction is not the highest goal. The seeker of God is the real lover of vidya, unchangeable truth. The plan of the divine lila or “sportive play” by which the phenomenal worlds have come into existence is one of reciprocity between creature and Creator. The sole gift that man can offer to God is love; it suffices to call forth His overwhelming generosity. We took ship over the sunny Mediterranean, disembarking at Palestine. Wandering day after day over the Holy Land, I was more than ever convinced of the value of pilgrimage. To the sensitive heart, the spirit of Christ is all-pervasive in Palestine. I walked reverently by his side at Bethlehem, Gethsemane, Calvary, the holy Mount of Olives, and by the River Jordan and the Sea of Galilee. |
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Final Thoughts 
Paramahansa Yogananda
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Although the above excerpts represent a small portion of the overall content of Autobiography of a Yogi, it is hoped that readers will be able to attune to the spiritual vibrations that suffuse this extraordinary book.
One of the features of Paramahansa Yogananda's world mission was to leave behind much written material for future generations. This is a rare gift. Three of Yogananda's books can be considered monumental;
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The web posting The Story of Issa (December 2017) on the What's New page of this website looked at the life of Jesus and includes many quotations from Yogananda's The Second Coming of Christ.
Perhaps a future posting may provide excerpts from Yogananda's majestic translation and commentary on the Gita.
“As a bright light shining in the midst of darkness, so was Yogananda’s presence in this world.
Such a great soul comes on earth only rarely, when there is a real need among men”
~ C. Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram
"A rare gem of inestimable value, the like of whom the world is yet to witness”
~ Swami Sivananda, Divine Life Society, 1952
"The divine purpose of creation, so far as man’s reason can grasp it, is expounded in the Vedas. The rishis taught that each human being has been created by God as a soul that will uniquely manifest some special attribute of the Infinite before resuming its Absolute Identity. All men, endowed thus with a facet of Divine Individuality, are equally dear to God." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, from Autobiography of a Yogi
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Addendum — Autobiography of a Yogi (January 2021)
At the beginning of the last web posting, i.e. Autobiography of a Yogi (October 2020) on the What's New web page, mention is made of the highly-acclaimed book, The Life of Yogananda, by Philip Goldberg. This book was first published in 2018. A paperback edition was released in 2020 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Yogananda's arrival in America. This addendum takes a brief look at The Life of Yogananda. The following sections are included; 1 - The Author 2 - Reviews of the Book 3 - Excerpts from the Book 4 - Final Thoughts |
The Author 
Philip Goldberg
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The following bio is a shortened version taken from the author's website; Philip Goldberg is the author or co-author of numerous books; a public speaker and workshop leader; a spiritual counselor, meditation teacher and ordained Interfaith Minister. A Los Angeles resident, he cohosts the Spirit Matters podcast, leads American Veda Tours and blogs regularly on Elephant Journal and Spirituality & Health. Like the beloved Dodgers of Philip’s youth, he was born and raised in Brooklyn and moved to Los Angeles. In between, Philip made stops in Manhattan, New England, Pennsylvania, San Francisco and Iowa. As a college student in the 1960’s, he shuttled uncertainly from one major to another. After giving up on academia and taking his first job (creating a halfway house for developmentally disadvantaged youth in Massachusetts), Philip pursued answers to the Big Questions that conventional religion, psychology, politics and philosophy had failed to provide. He was drawn to the pragmatic mysticism of the East, at first through public thinkers like Alan Watts and Aldous Huxley, and then directly from the texts of Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism — especially Vedanta and Yoga. This led inexorably to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation. Philip spent much of the 1970’s teaching TM. |
In the meantime, Philip continued earnestly pursuing his lifelong quest for illumination. What he learned about that mysterious undertaking (from his own experience and conversations with fellow travelers) he wrote about in Roadsigns on the Spiritual Path: Living at the Heart of Paradox.
Sometime in the mid-80s, Phil realized that his path — integrating yogic ideas and practices into modern life in the USA — was rather typical of 60s-era seekers. He started researching the phenomenon and soon realized that its impact was bigger than he thought ..... in 2010 American Veda was published. The book earned good reviews, won awards and spawned related ventures.
Phil’s first book after American Veda was a comprehensive biography of the master teacher Paramahansa Yogananda. The Life of Yogananda: The Story of the Yogi Who Became the First Modern Guru was published in April, 2018. The paperback was released in 2020.
His latest book, published in August, 2020, is Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times: Powerful Tools to Cultivate Calm, Clarity, and Courage. It arrived in the middle of the global coronavirus crisis. Phil would rather the need for his book had not been so acute, but he is humbled and honored that it has so much to offer in these, the craziest times in memory.
Sometime in the mid-80s, Phil realized that his path — integrating yogic ideas and practices into modern life in the USA — was rather typical of 60s-era seekers. He started researching the phenomenon and soon realized that its impact was bigger than he thought ..... in 2010 American Veda was published. The book earned good reviews, won awards and spawned related ventures.
Phil’s first book after American Veda was a comprehensive biography of the master teacher Paramahansa Yogananda. The Life of Yogananda: The Story of the Yogi Who Became the First Modern Guru was published in April, 2018. The paperback was released in 2020.
His latest book, published in August, 2020, is Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times: Powerful Tools to Cultivate Calm, Clarity, and Courage. It arrived in the middle of the global coronavirus crisis. Phil would rather the need for his book had not been so acute, but he is humbled and honored that it has so much to offer in these, the craziest times in memory.
Reviews of the Book |
Below are some reviews of The Life of Yogananda. There are a few common themes that arise from these reviews;
I have included quite a number of reviews. Together, they tell a wonderful story in their own right. |
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“Philip Goldberg sheds new light on the incredible story and illuminates the forces that made Yogananda a spiritual teacher and role model for the ages.” ~ Deepak Chopra, M.D., author many books including You Are the Universe and The Healing Self |
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"There is a new biography about Paramhansa Yogananda—the first serious biography that I know of for the great master ... Mr. Goldberg is most often generous in understanding what Master was trying to accomplish and the obstacles he had to overcome. He also makes it a point to stay with the facts based on his research ... The author brings to light many interesting facts about Master’s life that I had not known before ... This biography does not carry the shakti-power of Master’s Autobiography, nor do I think he got everything right. However, this biography is an important supplement to understanding the life and teachings of this great God-man."
~Reverend Yogacharya David R. Hickenbottom, author of My Spiritual India and disciple of Yogananda |
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“The Life of Yogananda is a profound and exquisitely written account of the life of one of the most renowned spiritual masters of our time, and is essential reading for anyone on a spiritual path… In a mysterious but unmistakable way, this book pulsates with the very presence, blessing, and transmission of Yogananda’s limitless wisdom and grace. With insight, clarity, and his own depth of consciousness, Philip Goldberg takes you on a virtual pilgrimage that will uplift you, inspire you, and illuminate your own journey of awakening.”
~ Dr. Barbara De Angelis, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Soul Shifts and The Choice for Love |
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"In this intensely researched book, Phil Goldberg describes the deep commitment and tireless effort of Paramahansa Yogananda to bring the spiritual teachings of India to the West. He reveals the many obstacles that Yogananda had to overcome in order to bring a light into the darkness.”
— Krishna Das, American vocalist known for his performances of Hindu devotional music known as kirtan. Author of Chants of a Lifetime |
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“With spiritual elegance and integrity, Goldberg provides an intimate portrait of the life of Yogananda, the trailblazing guru of North American yoga’s influential early years. Through engaging stories and unique perspectives, Paramahansaji shines through this biography as an enlightened master and creator of a great spiritual legacy.”
~ Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape International Spiritual Center and author of Spiritual Liberation |
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“Paramahansa Yogananda is probably the dominant figure behind the Western Yoga movement and its spiritual roots, the veritable father of Yoga in the Western world, living and teaching in America for more than three decades. Philip Goldberg presents a detailed and informative biography of the great master, reflecting his daunting challenges in bringing the profound Yoga teachings of self-realization to the United States of the early 20th century.”
~ Dr. David Frawley, D. Litt., director of American Institute of Vedic Studies and author of Yoga and Ayurveda |
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“This exceptionally written, wise, profound biography of one of the 20th century’s greatest spiritual pioneers is essential reading for all those who want to understand deeply the growing marriage between Eastern and Western spirituality. I am so moved by and grateful for Phil Goldberg’s humble mastery of tone and truth in this marvelous book.”
~ Andrew Harvey, British writer, religious scholar and teacher of mystic traditions. Author of over 30 books, including The Hope, Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi |
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“Philip Goldberg has masterfully assembled a colorful tapestry of stories detailing the intricacies and complexities that comprise the life of Paramahansa Yogananda. Goldberg’s work enables us to understand Yogananda as both mundanely human and extraordinary, while providing a detailed inside understanding of this remarkable human being and spiritual leader who has, and will continue to, inspire generations of spiritual seekers. This is a must-read for all who have read Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi and wish to better understand the story behind one of the world’s most remarkable human beings.”
~ Richard Miller, clinical psychologist, writer, researcher and scholar of yoga. Author of many books including Yoga Nidra and The Search for Oneness |
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“The Life of Yogananda is a tremendous gift: a chance to meet from the ‘outside’ the spiritual genius we met on the ‘inside’ in Autobiography of a Yogi. That book shared what was important to Yogananda; this biography shares why Yogananda is important to you. If you’ve read the Autobiography, you must read the biography. If you haven’t read either, you must read both.”
~ Rabbi Rami Shapiro, writer, teacher, and speaker on the subjects of liberal Judaism and contemporary spirituality. Author of many books including The Prophets and Holy Rascals |
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“Yogananda was more than just a popular guru who brought Indian spirituality to the United States. He was also a spiritual genius in the art of living, and his impact and legacy transcend the traditional divides of race, ethnicity, nationality, politics, and religion. In The Life of Yogananda, Philip Goldberg meticulously peels back the mystical layers in order to reveal the man behind the myth.’’
~ Varun Soni, Ph.D., Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California. Author of Natural Mystics |
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“When I was 15, Ram Dass gave me a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi and the gates of the universe opened. Yogananda’s account of his spiritual journey emboldened me to commence mine. Now, all these years later, Phil Goldberg has compiled the stories behind the stories! What a treasure.”
~ Mirabai Starr, author of God of Love and Caravan of No Despair |
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“This book is a gift for anyone interested in the yogic journey. Deeply informed by Phil Goldberg’s years of practice and study, it explores the life of one of the great spiritual masters of the 20th century. Yogananda’s work has had enormous influence on the development of yoga and spirituality in the West, and continues to influence us to this day. In this new biography, Phil offers us a full portrait of an extraordinary man.”
~ Sally Kempton, author of many books including Doorways to the Infinite, Meditation for the Love of It and Awakening Shakti |
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“The story of meditative ‘Eastern’ spirituality in the West doesn’t exist without Yogananda; yet the story of Yogananda, in anything like a full telling, hasn’t existed till now. Philip Goldberg, with the clear eyes of the diligent scholar and the open heart of the passionate, lifelong spiritual voyager, is the right person to tell it.”
~ Dean Sluyter, meditation teacher and author of many books including Fear Less, The Zen Commandments and Natural Meditation |
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“In making Awake, we discovered what a monumental task it is to represent a spiritual giant like Yogananda in all the many layers and facets of his life and personality. Philip Goldberg has done a terrific job of capturing the complexities of such a world teacher. His contribution will be a valued source for anyone interested in the life of this extraordinary individual.”
~ Paola di Florio, Lisa Leeman, and Peter Rader, filmmakers of Awake: The Life of Yogananda |
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“With a rare combination of solid research and spiritual inspiration, Phil Goldberg, author of the seminal book American Veda, now brings us The Life of Yogananda, a timely biography of the yoga master whose life has inspired millions. The book is a fresh look into the life of Paramahansa Yogananda as an organizational leader, spiritual master, and modern-day saint. Goldberg shines a light on Yogananda’s humanity and his divinity, making the book a compelling and inspiring read.”
~ Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian, spiritual director of the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment. Author of Path of Wonder and Living for the Sake of the Soul |
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“The Life of Yogananda is a thrilling read and a definitive sourcebook for this great master’s life. Anyone interested in Yogananda will find this book a grand discovery for its little-known stories and details about his eventful life. With great care, integrity, devotion, and excellent research, Phil Goldberg has given us a revealing and accurate look into what has made Yogananda so well loved by millions of spiritual seekers.”
~ Joseph Bharat Cornell, author of many books including Deep Nature Play and AUM: The Melody of Love |
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“Phil Goldberg provides a much-needed and utterly fascinating link to the understanding of one of the greatest spiritual leaders of our time. He has done his homework and we are all the beneficiaries! The Life of Yogananda has been exhaustively researched and painstakingly presented by a man uniquely qualified with a deep understanding of east and west cultures, spiritual traditions, psychology, and historical relevance.”
~ Joseph Deitch, American business executive and philanthropist. Author of Elevate |
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"Nearly eight years ago Philip Goldberg’s American Veda made the case for how much America has absorbed from India ... Now Philip Goldberg is back with The Life of Yogananda ... Goldberg takes us day by day, week to month to year, through the details in the life of a saint, as many feel, whose work has transformed millions of lives ...While it’s clear how much Philip Goldberg cares about his subject, this book is no hagiography ... Goldberg’s prose is a marvel, going down as easily as ice cream on a hot day."
~ Paul Chaffee, publisher and editor of The Interfaith Observer |
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"A thoroughly readable biography of perhaps the first, and to date the most influential, integrator of Eastern and Western philosophical traditions, the remarkable Yogananda ... A brilliant account of what history will recognize as one of the most significant lives of the 20th century"
~ Ken Wilber, American philosopher and writer on transpersonal psychology. Author of many books including A Theory of Everything (2000) and The Religion of Tomorrow (2017) |
Excerpts from the Book |
The following are brief excerpts from the book The Life of Yogananda by Philip Goldberg; |
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Final Thoughts 
Note - The difficulties that great spiritual leaders often face reminded me of a quote attributed to the 16th century Spanish mystic, St. Teresa of Avila.
The following excerpt is taken from a translation of the book The Life of Saint Teresa; “Oh, my Lord!” she exclaimed, with her usual loving familiarity, “when wilt Thou cease from scattering obstacles in our path?” “Do not complain, daughter,” the Divine Master answered, “for it is ever thus that I treat My friends.” “Ah, Lord, it is also on that account that Thou hast so few!” |
To the many reviews above of the book The Life of Yogananda, I add my own; Like most new books that I encounter, I tend to do a first perusal by thumbing through the pages and reading random selections. This helps give an initial intuitive feel about the general content. Doing so with this book initially caused me to stop reading any further. The issue had nothing to do with the author but instead was all about me. As one who considers Yogananda to be one of the most illustrious spiritual giants to have graced this planet, I had a hard time reading about the "human" side of this great master and all the difficulties, betrayals and problems that he faced, particularly during his many years in America. Then I recalled the many difficulties encountered by other great spiritual leaders who had been given a world mission, e.g. Jesus and Buddha, and realized that this is all just part of the drama of this crazy dream that we call reality (see the note in the column on the left). I then went back to reading The Life of Yogananda and was deeply impressed. The backdrop of American society during the 1920s through 1940s that Goldberg describes is indispensable to the story of Yogananda's work in America. The impressive research that the author has done reveals much new information about the great master's work, particularly during the years in America. "No book can capture the true essence of a soul like Yogananda, but it can describe the footprints he left on the sands of time and space. My goal was to render an accurate, fact-based description of those exceptional footprints." ~ Philip Goldberg Philip Goldberg fully achieved his goal, and then some. As one of the book reviewers wrote, he "shines a light on Yogananda’s humanity and his divinity." And he has done so with a smooth flowing style so richly described by another reviewer, "Goldberg’s prose is a marvel, going down as easily as ice cream on a hot day." A loving undertaking and an insightful journey. A masterful achievement, Mr. Goldberg. |
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Who Are We? (April 2021)
Most of us are completely caught up in the drama of our daily lives. There always seems to be something to fully occupy our minds - family and other relationships, work, school, meals, household chores, finances, health, etc. We deal with a whole myriad of emotions, happiness, sadness, anxiety, depression, grief, loneliness, anger, fear, desire, hope, amusement and excitement, amongst others. Rarely do we stop, step off the treadmill and ask ourselves some fundamental questions, e.g. Who are we? Is this body-form that I call myself my true identity? If so, what happens when this body-form dies? Luckily for us, there are answers to these questions. Over the ages, a number of individuals have penetrated to the core of reality and have discovered just who we are. |
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This posting consists of the following sections: 1 - Introduction 2 - Quotations from Paramahansa Yogananda 3 - Quotations from Sri Yukteswar 4 - Quotations from Swami Abhayananda 5 - Quotations from Others 6 - How to Re-Discover Who We Are? 7 - Final Thoughts |
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Introduction 
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Each of us is a god. Each of us has a soul. The soul is our true self - immortal, boundless, formless awareness of indescribable bliss. So say those remarkable individuals who over the ages and in all lands have directly experienced the ultimate Truth - the mystics who have pierced the veil of illusion and discovered our true identity. In order for us to play the game in this universal playground, we are under the spell of cosmic hypnosis that makes us believe that these body-forms which we occupy are who we are. But it is not so. It is all an illusion. You may protest and say that it is obvious that your body-form is your true self. Well then, you must accept that you are a vibrating mass of light energy of almost no substance - 99.999999999% empty space. For that is what modern science says the body is. Things are not what they seem. Each of us is a god. Each of us has a soul. The soul is our true self. Each of the quotations below from modern day mystics contains the word "soul." In concert, the quotations tell the story of our true existence. |
Quotations from Paramahansa Yogananda 
Paramahansa Yogananda
20th century spiritual giant 
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On our true essence as gods (souls) Man is not a body confined to a point in space but is essentially the omnipresent soul. God created each man as a soul, dowered with individuality, hence essential to the universal structure. The world’s scriptures declare man to be not a corruptible body but a living soul. For man, truth is unshakable knowledge of his real nature, his Self as soul. The rishis taught that each human being has been created by God as a soul that will uniquely manifest some special attribute of the Infinite before resuming its Absolute Identity. God, the Cosmic Dreamer, has separated His consciousness ..... with souls individualized from His own One Being endowed with the egoity to dream their personalized existences within the ..... drama of the Universal Dream. The Gita dialogue concerns itself with the process by which ..... man may reascend from the limited consciousness of himself as a mortal being to the immortal consciousness of his true Self, the soul, one with the infinite Spirit. Spirit projects the desire to create an individualized expression of Itself. The soul becomes manifest and projects the idea of the body in causal form. On the bodies that each god/soul occupies in its journey through creation God intended man to behold the human body and mind as delusive thought-forms that provide the soul with a means to experience the Lord’s cosmic drama. Human beings were created by God with a unique endowment possessed by no lower forms: awakened spiritual centers of life and consciousness in the spine and brain that gave them the ability to express fully the divine consciousness and powers of the soul. Man’s soul consciousness - the realization of his oneness with the eternal, all-blissful Spirit - has descended through various gradations into mortal body-consciousness. The very tenuous first covering of the soul, which individualizes it from Spirit, is one of pure consciousness; it is composed of God’s thoughts or ideas that cause the other two sheaths. Thus it is referred to as the causal body. The soul thinly clothed in the causal has vast realizations of power. [Man's] astral and physical body have evolved from a causal body of consciousness, which is the fine covering that gives individual existence and form to the soul. Every soul is garbed with its own unique individuality. When a soul changes its fleshly garment from one incarnation to the next, donning a newly inherited racial and familial appearance, it is no longer recognizable to those who look only to physical features. But ...... [there are] telltale indications in the eyes, facial features, and bodily characteristics that reveal certain similarities to the soul’s garb in a former existence ..... The eyes, especially, change very little, for they are the windows of the soul. At death of the physical body, a soul garbed in its astral form ascends to the astral heavenly level merited by the balance of that person’s good and evil actions on earth. ..... While persons of wicked deeds are attracted to astral nether regions and may experience something akin to periodic dreadful nightmares, the majority of souls awaken in a luminous land of incredible beauty, joy, and freedom, in an atmosphere of love and well-being. When the astrally garbed soul leaves the astral world, at the end of its astral life, it is attracted to parents and an environment on earth (or to similar inhabited planets in other island universes) which are suited to the working-out of that individual’s store of good and bad karma. The earth memories of astral beings gradually fade, but they meet and recognize many of their loved ones lost to them on earth—so many mothers, fathers, children, friends, spouses, of so many incarnations; it becomes difficult to isolate special feelings for one over another. The soul rejoices to embrace them all in its consciousness of universal love. In the incarnate state it is the astral body that is the real body, the purveyor of life, sensory powers, consciousness—more tangible than the gross atomic form, and powerfully invulnerable to sickness, diseases, and troubles. On man's struggles with ego/body-consciousness There is constant conflict between the forces of the materialistic senses (engaging the consciousness in the pursuit of external pleasure) and the pure discriminative power that tries to return man’s consciousness to its native state of soul-realization. Man stakes all his bodily kingdom, all his power of soul bliss, in gambling with the deceitful, matter-inclined senses, only to be overpowered by them—i.e., the pure discriminative intelligence of the soul is ousted from its reign over the bodily kingdom and sent into exile. The soul, as the ego, ascribes to itself all the limitations and circumscriptions of the body. Once so identified, the soul can no longer express its omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. It imagines itself to be limited—just as a rich prince, wandering in a state of amnesia in the slums, might imagine himself to be a pauper. The soul, while dwelling within the body, becomes identified with its physical and mental experiences and forgets its divine nature; it masquerades instead as the body-circumscribed ego, the pseudosoul. Gratifying the body and ego with material experiences and possessions can never compensate man for his lost infinite soul-happiness. Man has falsely identified himself with the pseudo-soul or ego. When he transfers his sense of identity to his true being, the immortal Soul, he discovers that all his pain is unreal. Souls, descending into form to experience the Lord’s cosmic drama of maya-creation ..... are diminished into limited egos entangled in mortal relationships, circumscriptions, and national and social identities. Blind attachments lead to selfishness, quarrelsomeness, delusion of permanent possession, inharmony, worries; and on a national scale produce commercial greed, desire of wresting the possessions of others, and terrible wars. After accumulating a bewildering collage of adventurous and often painful incarnations, the beleaguered soul cries, “Enough!” and a serious search for emancipation begins. God intended His human children to live on earth with an awakened perception ..... and thus to enjoy His dream-drama as a cosmic entertainment. Alone among living creatures, the human body was equipped, as a special creation of God, with the instruments and capacities necessary to express fully the soul’s divine potentials. But ..... man ignores his higher endowments and remains attached to the limited fleshly form and its mortality. The ordinary man ..... cognizes himself as so many pounds of flesh rather than as pure consciousness indwelling as the soul. Through the small outer windows of the five senses, body-bound souls perceive nothing of the wonders beyond limited matter. On the process of man's re-attainment of his god/soul-consciousness When the soul is concentrated within rather than manifesting outwardly, it is one with the absolute Spirit, ensconced on the throne of ever new bliss within the thousand-petaled lotus, in a region beyond circumscription by the three bodies In the first state of samadhi (sabikalpa), the devotee shuts off all sensory testimony of the outer world. He is rewarded then by sounds and scenes of inner realms fairer than the pristine Eden. The advanced yogi may rejoice in this blissful achievement of samadhi [union of soul and Spirit in cosmic consciousness] many times, yet find that he cannot maintain this union permanently. He is drawn down again into ego and body consciousness by his karma—effects of past actions—and by remnants of desires and attachments. But through each triumphant contact with Spirit, the soul consciousness becomes strengthened and more firmly in control of the bodily kingdom. At last, karma is overcome, the lower nature of desires and attachments is subdued, and ego is slain—the yogi attains kaivalya, liberation: permanent union with God. The liberated yogi may then discard his three bodily encasements and remain a free soul in the ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss of Omnipresent Spirit. Or if he chooses to descend again from his samadhi into the consciousness and activities of his body, he does so in the sublime state of nirvikalpa samadhi. In this highest state of externalized soul consciousness, he remains in his pure soul nature, untouched and unchanged, with no loss of God-perception. By meditation, man’s consciousness is transferred from the body to the soul, and through the soul’s power of intuition he experiences himself not as a mortal body, but as immortal indwelling consciousness, one with the noumenal Divine Essence. On the powers and bliss of our true selves as gods (souls) As souls, individualized sparks of unconditioned Spirit, children of God are immortal, free from any dependence on materiality. Within the soul is a source of infinite realization. With the all-seeing intuitive perception of his soul he could see God in any aspect, materialized out of the Vibratory Light, or in divine oneness embrace his Father as the Formless Absolute. God created a wondrous human form to be charged by cosmic energy, and to live in a free, unconditioned divine state ..... God made man immortal, to reign on earth as an immortal ..... he was to return to the ..... Eternal Blessedness by consciously dematerializing his physical form. To remain in the world of illusion while experiencing the indescribable bliss of the Sole Unmanifested Reality makes one’s hold on the body tenuous indeed ..... So even in the highest states of divine oneness, the outer nature of the God-united retains some degree of the individualized consciousness of egoity and delusion, just to keep body and soul together. Through awakening the “sixth sense,” intuition, ..... the soul’s consciousness, instead of being tied to the material plane, is free to roam in the boundless, eternally joyous empire of Spirit. |
Quotations from 
Sri Yukteswar
Guru of Paramahansa Yogananda 
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On our true essence as gods (souls) Man is a soul, and has a body. On the bodies that each god/soul occupies in its journey through creation God encased the human soul successively in three bodies — the idea, or causal, body; the subtle astral body, seat of man’s mental and emotional natures; and the gross physical body. Man as an individualized soul is essentially causal-bodied. A soul, being invisible by nature, can be distinguished only by the presence of its body or bodies. When the gross physical receptacle is destroyed by the hammer of death, the other two coverings — astral and causal — still remain to prevent the soul from consciously joining the Omnipresent Life. When desirelessness is attained through wisdom, its power disintegrates the two remaining vessels. The tiny human soul emerges, free at last; it is one with the Measureless Amplitude. Souls in the causal world recognize one another as individualized points of joyous Spirit. On the process of man's re-attainment of his god/soul-consciousness Completing there the work of redeeming all causal karma or seeds of past desires, the confined soul thrusts out the last of the three corks of ignorance and, emerging from the final jar of the causal body, commingles with the Eternal. When a soul finally gets out of the three jars of bodily delusions, it becomes one with the Infinite without any loss of individuality. On the powers and bliss of our true selves as gods (souls) The soul expanded into Spirit remains ..... intoxicated with its ecstasy of joy in God’s dream of cosmic creation. |
Quotations from Swami Abhayananda 
Swami Abhayananda
Modern day mystic 
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On our true essence as gods (souls) Each of us is an individual soul that is distinct and unique. Here, for example, is the Muslim mystic-philosopher, Ibn Arabi (1165-1240): When the mystery of the oneness of the soul and the Divine is revealed to you, you will understand that you are no other than God. The seers who authored the Upanishads had known in themselves the great Unity and had declared for all to come thereafter that the soul of man and the Lord of all creation were one and the same. On the bodies that each god/soul occupies in its journey through creation Individualized souls, we must not forget, are manifestations of the Divine. Nonetheless, while inhabiting or being associated with bodies, they pass through various experiences which may serve to forge a strong bond with the material world. However, over time, the indwelling Divinity instructs those ‘individualized souls’ by those very experiences in the errors of their ways and returns them by various and sundry ways to the awareness of their true nature. On man's struggles with ego/body-consciousness The soul’s excursion into the material realm is frought with difficulties and dangers and may bring with it many painful and binding impressions. These must be resolved and released in order for the soul to regain its blissful freedom. And so. the process of soul-evolution may be prolonged and stretched over a number of soul-incarnations. The soul is identical with the transcendent Source of all, and is supremely, absolutely, free. In its transcendent aspect, it is always free, immutable and unaffected by the bodily conditions or worldly circumstances of individuals. However, when the soul identifies with the conditional, it is bound; it is subject to being carried along in the floodwaters of the archetypal forces of Nature. The habits of past karmic tendencies are very powerful in their influence; and they can lead us where we don’t necessarily want to go. On the process of man's re-attainment of his god/soul-consciousness Soul is able to search within itself and ascend in consciousness all the way to God. If it were not an expression of the Divine, it could not do that. When a soul rises to the vision of God, it is no longer soul, but is merged in and made one with God, so that it is ..... God Himself who is seeing Himself. |
Quotations from Others 
Swami Vivekananda
19th century mystic 
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On our true essence as gods (souls) "We are in reality that Infinite Being, and our personalities represent so many channels through which this Infinite Reality is manifesting Itself." ~ Vivekananda "The Atman within [the individualized soul] is your real nature." ~ Vivekananda "One should understand that the Atman is ..... distinct from the body, senses, mind and intellect ..... and is the witness of their functions." ~ Shankara "The mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world. The harmony between their views confirms the ancient Indian wisdom that Brahman , the ultimate reality without, is identical to Atman , the reality within." ~ Fritjof Capra, in The Tao of Physics "You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body." ~ C. S. Lewis I am not this hair, I am not this skin. I am the soul that lives within. ~ Rumi On the bodies that each god/soul occupies in its journey through creation "The soul is immortal. ..... Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals... and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and well, in some strange new disguise."~ Ralph Waldo Emerson On the process of man's re-attainment of his god/soul-consciousness The power of meditation separates ourselves from the body, and then the soul knows itself as it is – the unborn, the deathless, and birthless being." ~ Vivekananda On the powers and bliss of our true selves as gods (souls) Look within. Within you is the hidden God. Within you is the immortal soul. Within you is the inexhaustible spiritual treasure. Within you is the ocean of bliss. Look within for the happiness which you have sought in vain. ~ Sivananda "The soul advances and ..... becomes one with the Divine Mind - but not to its own destruction: the two are one, and [yet] two." ~ Plotinus "The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience." ~ Emily Dickinson |
How to Re-Discover Who We Are? 
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"Sooner or later, after a few or many painful incarnations, the soul in every human being will cry out to remind him that his home is not here, and he will begin in earnest to retrace his steps to his rightful heavenly kingdom." ~ P. Yogananda The cosmic hypnosis of maya keeps us enthralled in this cosmic playground for many, many, many lifetimes - alternating between physical and astral body-forms. As noted above, at some point the search begins to find our true identity as gods, i.e. to re-discover our native souls - immortal, boundless, formless consciousness of indescribable bliss. "At the end of each earthly sojourn the soul emerges from its fleshly prison, garbed in its heavenly causal and astral coverings of consciousness and life energy—an “angelic” contrast to the corruptible physical form. Astral freedom is temporary for those whose karma compels eventual return to physical incarnation; but those who transcend the self-woven cause-effect nets of earthbound desire progress by continuing spiritual effort through ever higher spheres of the astral heaven and the even finer causal heaven, eventually earning enrollment in the Heavenly Host of perfected beings. Thus does each soul rise to its source in Spirit." ~ P. Yogananda We enter the virtual reality game of creation by donning body-forms and then become entranced with the body-forms and forget that we are gods. In order to re-discover our true selves as gods/souls, we have to put the virtual creation game on pause, on hold. Once the game is paused, we remember our true selves outside the game - i.e. we remember our true soul nature as gods. How do we put the game on pause? We must temporarily stop the action by making the body perfectly still and by silencing the constant chatter of thoughts. When one tries to do that, one discovers just how restless the body-form is and just how relentless the stream of thoughts are. That is why the mystics of all ages and all lands have suggested that one should practice meditation. Meditation is the key to putting the creation game on pause. Much more on this topic can be found in the Journey of Awakening section of this website, in particular The Path to Awakening page. "From the heavenly causal and astral spheres every physically incarnate soul has descended, and every soul can reascend by retreating to the “wilderness” of interior silence and practicing the scientific method of lifting up the life force and consciousness from body identification to union with God." ~ P. Yogananda "These souls, enamored of the material world, become disoriented, bound by their own attachment to matter; but by a deliberate reversal of its intention, an individualized soul is able to look within, examine itself, and ‘see’ its Origin, its higher Self, thereby regaining awareness of its true, eternal identity." ~ Swami Abhayananda |
Final Thoughts 
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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"Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool" The essence of who we are is magnificently captured by the 12 word phrase above, written by the 19th century New England Transcendentalist poet and spiritual adept, Ralph Waldo Emerson. In order to play the game of creation, Spirit creates souls/gods - individualized extensions of Itself. To make the game interesting, the gods are given a split consciousness. Part of the consciousness of each of the gods knows that its real self is the soul - that it is a god, that it is Spirit Itself. Part of the consciousness of each of the gods thinks that it is the body-form. However, the intent is that each of the gods be able to easily switch between its pretend consciousness as a body and its true awareness as a god. Unfortunately, the virtual creation game is so enthralling that the gods forget their true selves and are left with the sole awareness of the body-form. Our mission is to recover that lost memory of our true selves; to recover our Paradise Lost. The mystics, who have re-discovered the blissful awareness of their true selves as gods, come to tell us, over and over again, that we are not the body, we are the soul. We are gods. 
"It is not the material form that constitutes our true and eternal identity, but it is, rather, our soul that is our true being, our eternal source of life and joy. ..... Our material form is merely a transient appearance that serves as our terrestrial vehicle." ~ Swami Abhayananda "You are the soul, free and eternal." ~ Vivekananda |
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Do Animals Have Souls? (May 2021)
The last web posting, Who Are We? (April 2021), addressed the topic of the soul of man. In preparing that posting, a search on the word "soul" was carried out amongst the writings of various mystics. Inadvertently, this search uncovered a number of references on the topic of the souls of animals, particularly from the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda. Since this is a topic that is not commonly addressed and is one that is not only interesting in its own right but also in relation to the soul of man, it is briefly covered here. This is by no means an exhaustive consideration, but merely a collection of quotations that were stumbled upon; all from the writings of Yogananda (unless otherwise noted). |
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Note - All of the images in this posting (except for the first and last) were captured by the highly-acclaimed Spanish wildlife photographer Marina Cano, whose brilliant photographs capture her deep empathy with animals ("sometimes I really, really would love to feel what they feel, to be on the other side. I'd love to just become one of them and have that wild spirit inside"). Several images are from her book, "Wild Soul" (2020).
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Introduction As a preface, and to put some context around the following quotations, perhaps it is useful to briefly review the basic premise of creation as described by the mystics, as follows;
Spirit’s projection of the illusion of a universal playground may be said to be similar to that of someone in today’s world putting on a Virtual Reality headset and enjoying a VR game. In both cases, the players enter an illusory world that has been created from light energy and assume a body-form within the game (in Spirit’s case, a countless variety of body-forms). The player's true self exists outside of the game, but within the virtual environment they get to enjoy pretending to be entities other than their true selves. |
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The Evolution of the Soul
In the quotations below, Yogananda includes minerals and plants amongst the forms that Spirit assumes within Its virtual creation and describes a process of evolution from one form to another. The term “superman” is used below to denote the evolution of a “normal” human into one who has regained the awareness of his true nature as a god. Note that the quotations come from several different writings of Yogananda and as such there is some repetition of ideas below. The repetition may help with comprehension of this esoteric topic. As individualized souls, Spirit progressively unfolds Its power of knowing through the successive stages of evolution: as unconscious response in minerals, as feeling in plant life, as instinctive sentient knowledge in animals, as intellect, reason, and undeveloped introspective intuition in man, and as pure intuition in the superman. In the course of evolution, the soul sleeps in stones, awakes drowsily in the trees, becomes conscious vitality in animals, and expresses self-conscious discriminative vitality in man. In the superman, the soul manifests its true nature of superconsciousness and omnipresence. Spirit expresses Itself as beauty and magnetic and chemical power in minerals and gems; as beauty and life in plants; as beauty, life, power, motion, and consciousness in animals; as comprehension and expanding power in man; and again returns to Omnipresence in the superman. The soul evolves from the mineral kingdom through the plant and then the animal kingdoms before reaching incarnation in a human form. Thereafter, through repeated cycles of human births and deaths, with their intermittent lessons, the soul ultimately finds perfect expression in the superman, the man of God-realization. It is said that after eight million lives traveling the successive steps of upward evolution like a prodigal son through the cycles of incarnations, at last the soul arrives in a human birth. As a person under hypnotic influence can be made to act as if he were a different personality, so God evolves souls out of Himself and hypnotizes them by delusion (maya) into perceiving themselves as encased in animal or human bodies. The hypnotized person cannot get out of his unreal state without being dehypnotized. By wisdom and self-analysis and by the grace of God, man can get himself dehypnotized from cosmic delusion and forever forsake his recurring dreams of incarnations. He can then return to the perception of the pure soul, united to the Spirit in the dreamless state of blessedness. Each evolutionary phase thus manifests a fuller measure of Spirit. The animal is freed from the inertia of minerals and the fixity of plants to experience with locomotion and sentient consciousness a greater portion of God’s creation. Man, by his self-consciousness, additionally comprehends the thoughts of his fellow beings and can project his sensory mind into star-studded space, at least by the power of imagination. The superman expands his life energy and consciousness from his body into all space, actually feeling as his own self the presence of all universes in the vast cosmos as well as every minute atom of the earth. In the superman, the lost omnipresence of Spirit, bound in the soul as individualized Spirit, is regained. |
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Souls Occupying Animal Forms
The following quotations relate to souls occupying animal forms. Animals, bound by instinct, have very limited intelligence. Animals have perceptions and consciousness, but not the intellect to discriminate between right and wrong. Animals are instinct-guided; unlike men, animals have no power of free will. An animal’s life is predestined; man’s is not. As animals have no free will, being guided primarily by instinct, they accrue no karma for their actions. Animals, not subject to individual karma, are under the sway of group or mass karma. The cells of flowers, plants, animals, and human beings were intended by God to live recharged by Cosmic Energy and not by cruelly feeding on one another. Sensitivity was given to man only to protect the body; without sensation, one could cut himself badly and not know it. Sensitivity was never intended to cause pain. Animals have not developed this faculty to the degree that man has, hence they experience less pain. Otherwise, the cruelty practiced on animals in some methods of killing would be intolerable. As a young man in India, Yogananda started a school that taught a mix of academics and spirituality. At one time, the school had a pet deer that the students loved. One day, the deer became ill and Yogananda used his yogic powers to keep the deer alive. The following quotation relates to this; According to the mass karma that guides and regulates the destinies of animals, the deer’s life was over, and it was ready to progress to a higher form. But by my deep attachment, which I later realized was selfish, and by my fervent prayers, I had been able to hold it in the limitations of the animal form from which the soul was struggling for release. The soul of the deer made its plea in a dream because, without my loving permission, it either would not or could not go. As soon as I agreed, it departed. |
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The Human body-form vs the Animal body-form Though the physical body of man was generally patterned after the physiological and anatomical instrumentalities that had resulted from the long process of evolution of animal species, human beings were created by God with a unique endowment possessed by no lower forms: awakened spiritual centers of life and consciousness in the spine and brain that gave them the ability to express fully the divine consciousness and powers of the soul. The human body was therefore not solely a result of evolution from beasts, but was produced through an act of special creation by God. The animal forms were too crude to express full divinity; man was uniquely given the potentially omniscient ‘thousand-petaled lotus’ in the brain, as well as acutely awakened occult centers in the spine. (Sri Yukteswar quote) You don’t know how fortunate you are to have been born as a human being. In that you are blessed more than any other creature. At one end of the human scale, we find brutelike individuals, those just evolved from animal bodies; at the other, and glorious, end of the evolutionary chain, the great masters and Godlike sages appear. The mass of humanity lies sandwiched between these two extremes. |
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God is equally present in every being - human or animal. |
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Destiny and Free Will - Revisited (September 2021)
This topic was first addressed in the webpage Destiny and Free Will as part of Our Adventures in Wonderland section of this website. A follow-up to this was a web posting in September 2016 entitled Another Look at Destiny and Free Will on the What's New webpage. This is the third time this topic is being addressed. This latest look was prompted by a series of email exchanges between Swami Abhayananda** and myself beginning in January of this year. The exchange started with Swami Abhayananda sending me a revision to one of his articles that he thought I might find interesting. The article contained the line, “All things move together of one accord. Assent is given throughout the universe to every falling grain.” |
It was not the first time I had seen this line. It is sprinkled throughout his books and articles. It is one of the few lines from all of his writings that has not resonated with me. To me, it appears to negate the concept of free will. I decided that I should finally address this with him. So, I sent him back the following question;
"How do you reconcile the free will that is assigned to each soul with the statement, “All things move together of one accord. Assent is given throughout the universe to every falling grain?"
Swami Abhayananda responded by sending me an excerpt from one of his books. It didn't help. Anticipating this, he sent me another selection from his writings. Again, it did not resonate.
I knew I would need some time to let the topic of destiny and free will once again percolate within my consciousness. While doing so, I spent time researching the views of other mystics. While I had done just that as part of my initial postings on this subject, this follow-up review went deeper.
This is not as easy a topic as I had initially thought. A Google search on "destiny and free will” yields results that are all over the map. The views of philosophers and scientists can be dismissed - the intellectual mind is no match for this question. The mystical mind is required. But even here, the views of the mystics did not seem to converge.
Much effort was expended to reconcile what appeared to be different views amongst the mystics. And just to complicate things, conflicting statements were sometimes given by the same mystic at different times. How can that be?
Finally, it became intuitively clear that the solution to the dilemma lay in who was being referred to when addressing whether or not we have free will. Each of us has more than one identity; one identity may have free will while another may not.
This posting consists of the following sections:
"How do you reconcile the free will that is assigned to each soul with the statement, “All things move together of one accord. Assent is given throughout the universe to every falling grain?"
Swami Abhayananda responded by sending me an excerpt from one of his books. It didn't help. Anticipating this, he sent me another selection from his writings. Again, it did not resonate.
I knew I would need some time to let the topic of destiny and free will once again percolate within my consciousness. While doing so, I spent time researching the views of other mystics. While I had done just that as part of my initial postings on this subject, this follow-up review went deeper.
This is not as easy a topic as I had initially thought. A Google search on "destiny and free will” yields results that are all over the map. The views of philosophers and scientists can be dismissed - the intellectual mind is no match for this question. The mystical mind is required. But even here, the views of the mystics did not seem to converge.
Much effort was expended to reconcile what appeared to be different views amongst the mystics. And just to complicate things, conflicting statements were sometimes given by the same mystic at different times. How can that be?
Finally, it became intuitively clear that the solution to the dilemma lay in who was being referred to when addressing whether or not we have free will. Each of us has more than one identity; one identity may have free will while another may not.
This posting consists of the following sections:
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1 – Who Am I?
2 – Man as Spirit 3 – Man as a god 4 – Man as a vehicle of the gods 5 – Man identified as a body 6 - Final Thoughts |
** Swami Abhayananda is a modern day mystic whom I have quoted extensively in this website. A collection of quotations selected from his many books and articles was posted in April 2019 as The Writings of Swami Abhayananda on the What's New webpage.
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Note: After completing this posting, I sent the link to Swami Abhayananda. He sent me back a reply that included the following words:
“Let me emphasize to you how valuable your examination of the free will question is. You have done a masterful job of revealing the many sides of this topic, and you deserve the highest praise and gratitude of everyone who is privileged to read your treatment of this issue ….. please accept my heart-felt thanks.” |
Who Am I? |
In order to answer the question on the left, it may be useful to begin by briefly reviewing the basic premise of creation, as espoused by the mystics.
According to mystics, there exists an entity that is unfathomable to the normal human mind. This entity can be referred to as Spirit. The closest that Spirit can be described is that It is an infinite consciousness without form - boundless awareness, ever-existing, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. During periods of no creation, only Spirit exists - infinite awareness of ever-new joy. All alone. Nothing else. |
For entertainment purposes, Spirit conjures within Itself the idea of a creation that would consist of various dream structures.
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When you’re drawn up to the One,
You’ll find yourself alone. … Wherever You look, You see none else but You. … There’s none else but You anywhere. In such a lonely timeless life, What else is there to do but dream Up worlds and populate them With imaginative forms caught up In crazy, impossible plots and toils? What else would You do When there’s none else but You? ~ Swami Abhayananda |
This dream of creation exists entirely within the consciousness that Spirit is.
Spirit takes on a dream form and enters Its dream creation in order to enjoy creation from within. This form is often referred to as Ishvara, God within creation. And then, in order to enhance Its enjoyment of the dream creation, Spirit creates unique, individualized extensions of Itself in untold numbers. These are the souls, the gods. The gods initially enter creation in the very subtle and adaptable causal forms. Later they assume fixed, ethereal astral forms and later, the much more rigid physical forms. In whatever form they assume, the gods are given free will and co-creation powers so that Spirit can enjoy and grow Its dream creation through each of the god-souls. The forms that the god-souls assume are merely the vehicles by which they experience creation. Although the forms are equipped with a limited ego-consciousness of their own, their original and primary purpose is to follow the direction of the higher consciousness of the god-souls. In this highest level of creation, the body-forms are the means by which the gods exercise their free will within creation. As such, the body-forms themselves do not exercise free will. Their actions are determined by the god-souls.
However, in order to make Its dream creation more interesting, Spirit puts the god-souls under a spell of maya, or cosmic hypnosis, such that the gods forget their true identity and for a time believe that the body-forms that they occupy are their true selves. They now believe that the body-forms are real, autonomous, separate entities that operate under their own volition.
This situation remains over the course of many, many lifetimes until the body-forms eventually regain their original status as the vehicles of the gods. More on this in other sections of this website, including the recent posting Who Are We? ( April 2021) which includes the following quotations from Paramahansa Yogananda:
The soul, as the ego, ascribes to itself all the limitations and circumscriptions of the body. Once so identified, the soul can no longer express its omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. It imagines itself to be limited—just as a rich prince, wandering in a state of amnesia in the slums, might imagine himself to be a pauper.
The soul, while dwelling within the body, becomes identified with its physical and mental experiences and forgets its divine nature; it masquerades instead as the body-circumscribed ego, the pseudosoul.
In our original state, each one of us is a god. Under the spell of maya, each of us comes to believe that our body-form is our identity. After many, many lifetimes, alternating between physical and astral body-forms, the higher consciousness of our god-selves eventually awakens and we regain our awareness as gods.
During the period that we believe our identity to be the body-form, our higher god-mind is pushed to the background and the lower ego-mind comes to the fore.
As such, we can deduce that we have various identities as we travel through the dreamland of creation, as follows;
1 - Man as Spirit - Our ultimate identity beyond creation. Eventually each of the souls acquires the full consciousness of Spirit.
2 - Man as a god - Our true existence within creation. Unlimited awareness. Unlimited free will to experiment and experience creation.
3 - Man as a vehicle of the gods - The intended role of the body-form that man assumes within creation. The body-form is intended to be the means by which one's unlimited god-self experiences creation. In this role, the limited consciousness of the ego-mind that is associated with the body-form is held in check and controlled by the higher consciousness of one's god-self. The god-self makes the free will choices. The body-form is happy to forgo ego-mind choices in favour of the unlimited bliss attained by following the choices of one's god-self.
4 - Man identified as a body - Forgetful of one's true self, man loses access to the unlimited awareness of his true self. Man now thinks that the body is his self and he follows the dictates of the lower ego-mind. The ego-mind has free will, but it is constrained by the strong impulses of the senses that push it in often unwanted directions. As well, man identified as a body falls under the law of karma. As such, many occurrences in his life are the pre-determined destiny of his karma from the past and are not free will choices.
Spirit takes on a dream form and enters Its dream creation in order to enjoy creation from within. This form is often referred to as Ishvara, God within creation. And then, in order to enhance Its enjoyment of the dream creation, Spirit creates unique, individualized extensions of Itself in untold numbers. These are the souls, the gods. The gods initially enter creation in the very subtle and adaptable causal forms. Later they assume fixed, ethereal astral forms and later, the much more rigid physical forms. In whatever form they assume, the gods are given free will and co-creation powers so that Spirit can enjoy and grow Its dream creation through each of the god-souls. The forms that the god-souls assume are merely the vehicles by which they experience creation. Although the forms are equipped with a limited ego-consciousness of their own, their original and primary purpose is to follow the direction of the higher consciousness of the god-souls. In this highest level of creation, the body-forms are the means by which the gods exercise their free will within creation. As such, the body-forms themselves do not exercise free will. Their actions are determined by the god-souls.
However, in order to make Its dream creation more interesting, Spirit puts the god-souls under a spell of maya, or cosmic hypnosis, such that the gods forget their true identity and for a time believe that the body-forms that they occupy are their true selves. They now believe that the body-forms are real, autonomous, separate entities that operate under their own volition.
This situation remains over the course of many, many lifetimes until the body-forms eventually regain their original status as the vehicles of the gods. More on this in other sections of this website, including the recent posting Who Are We? ( April 2021) which includes the following quotations from Paramahansa Yogananda:
The soul, as the ego, ascribes to itself all the limitations and circumscriptions of the body. Once so identified, the soul can no longer express its omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. It imagines itself to be limited—just as a rich prince, wandering in a state of amnesia in the slums, might imagine himself to be a pauper.
The soul, while dwelling within the body, becomes identified with its physical and mental experiences and forgets its divine nature; it masquerades instead as the body-circumscribed ego, the pseudosoul.
In our original state, each one of us is a god. Under the spell of maya, each of us comes to believe that our body-form is our identity. After many, many lifetimes, alternating between physical and astral body-forms, the higher consciousness of our god-selves eventually awakens and we regain our awareness as gods.
During the period that we believe our identity to be the body-form, our higher god-mind is pushed to the background and the lower ego-mind comes to the fore.
As such, we can deduce that we have various identities as we travel through the dreamland of creation, as follows;
1 - Man as Spirit - Our ultimate identity beyond creation. Eventually each of the souls acquires the full consciousness of Spirit.
2 - Man as a god - Our true existence within creation. Unlimited awareness. Unlimited free will to experiment and experience creation.
3 - Man as a vehicle of the gods - The intended role of the body-form that man assumes within creation. The body-form is intended to be the means by which one's unlimited god-self experiences creation. In this role, the limited consciousness of the ego-mind that is associated with the body-form is held in check and controlled by the higher consciousness of one's god-self. The god-self makes the free will choices. The body-form is happy to forgo ego-mind choices in favour of the unlimited bliss attained by following the choices of one's god-self.
4 - Man identified as a body - Forgetful of one's true self, man loses access to the unlimited awareness of his true self. Man now thinks that the body is his self and he follows the dictates of the lower ego-mind. The ego-mind has free will, but it is constrained by the strong impulses of the senses that push it in often unwanted directions. As well, man identified as a body falls under the law of karma. As such, many occurrences in his life are the pre-determined destiny of his karma from the past and are not free will choices.
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In the sections below, we look at each of mankind's identities listed above and hear what the mystics have to say about it, as regards free will and destiny. While most of the quotations are from Swami Abhayananda, Ramana Maharshi and Paramahansa Yogananda, the words of a few other mystics are also included. |
Man as Spirit 
Swami Abhayananda
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Our ultimate identity beyond creation. Eventually each of the souls acquires the full consciousness of Spirit. Creation is a free will act of Spirit. Swami Abhayananda addresses our ultimate identity, our quintessential self, in the following quotations. Spirit and mankind are not two, but one; ergo, Spirit's free will and mankind's free will are ultimately one and the same. "It is only a linguistic quandary that we fall into when we regard ourselves and God as separate entities and consider one to be determining the other. There is only One in this universe; it is He who, as us, is freely making all the choices. Each individual being (soul) chooses according to his or her evolutionary development, but it is He alone who is manifesting as each individual at every step on the evolutionary scale. Therefore, we must admit that everything is determined by God’s Will." "We have the sense that our individual will is free because we are, in fact, not merely an individual soul; we are the one Consciousness who is determining everything, who truly is free. In other words, while we may believe ourselves to be separate individual entities responsible for our individual actions, the fact is that our true, eternal, identity is God, who is alone the one responsible for every action." "The notion of an individual self apart from the one eternal Self, is merely an illusion. The ‘ego’, or ‘I’ awareness, is not a thing that afflicts us; it is simply an illusory perspective in which one believes oneself to be a singular and independent being among a multitude of beings and objects—as opposed to the view which identifies with all of existence as one indivisible Self. And it is ‘mystical experience’, or ‘the grace of God’, that provides a glimpse into the egoless state, where there is only the one conscious continuum, where there is only the One Being, and the awareness that It is who you are!" "He manifests the universe of His own free will, as a play, or sport." "Our essence, the one Divine Consciousness, is the only true ‘I’ in all the universe and beyond; It is everyone’s eternal Identity." "When we speak of the free will of the soul, we forget that the One is all inclusive - He includes all wills ..... From the standpoint of God, the entire unfoldment of the universe, including all choices made, is one ..... 'All things move together of one accord; assent is given throughout the universe to every falling grain.'” |
Man as a god 
Paramahansa Yogananda
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Our true existence within creation. Unlimited awareness. Unlimited free will to experiment and experience creation. In the quotations below, Paramahansa Yogananda addresses mankind's role as a god, as a soul, and outlines the free will that comes with this role. "A dreamer is the creator and sustainer of the destiny—both good and bad—of the images in his dream. Similarly, in the cosmic dream, the Divine Dreamer is the Creator and Sustainer of all beings, and the Dispenser of their destiny through their good and bad karma. In this sense, God predetermines to a great extent the happenings in His cosmic dream and the parts to be played therein by His dream actors. This doesn’t mean, however, that man’s fate is wholly predestined by an authoritarian Deity. God is the Maker of destiny, but He has given man the power to react upon destiny. Each human being receives from God the gift of free choice by which he can make changes in himself and his world environment. This very power of free will is an expression of the image of God in man, the image in which man is made—the soul or individualized consciousness of God." "By the power of maya or delusion, the Spirit similarly assumes many forms, manifesting Itself as numerous human beings endowed with free choice, working their way through various evolutionary stages—good or evil, bound or free, attached or nonattached, desireful or desireless. It is only because of restless delusion that men feel themselves apart from Spirit, and do not perceive His immanence within themselves and all Nature." "The Lord sustains the human soul but gives it full liberty and free choice either to identify itself temporarily with the body and its egoistic experiences or to identify itself with His transcendental Spirit." "All souls come from God—individualized rays of pure Spirit—and evolve back to their native perfection by exercise of their God-given free will." “All happenings are determined by a conjunctive effort between God the macrocosmic Creator, and God the microcosmic creator through individualized expression in man.” “Although life is governed by a cosmic plan, we have freedom to change our part in the drama.” “We can say that God made this earth not only as a hobby, but also because He wanted to make perfect souls that would evolve back to Him. He sent them out under the cloak of delusion, or maya, but endowed with freedom. That is the greatest gift of God.” “All aspects of my life, the minute details of my plans and actions, are governed by the influence of the will of God on the free choices made by my will." ~ Jesus of Nazareth (paraphrased by Paramahansa Yogananda) |
Man as a vehicle of the gods 
Ramana Maharshi
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The intended role of the body-form that man assumes within creation. The body-form is intended to be the means by which one's unlimited god-self experiences creation. In this role, the limited consciousness of the ego-mind that is associated with the body-form is held in check and controlled by the higher consciousness of one's god-self. The god-self makes the free will choices. The body-form is happy to forgo ego-mind choices in favour of the unlimited bliss attained by following the choices of one's god-self. In the quotations below, Ramana Maharshi addresses the identity of man as a vehicle of the gods. Questioner: Are only important events in a man’s life, such as his main occupation or profession, predetermined, or are trifling acts in his life, such as taking a cup of water or moving from one place in the room to another, also predetermined? Ramana Maharshi: Yes, everything is predetermined. [see Note One below] “It is true that the work meant to be done by us will be done by us. But it is open to us to be free from the joys or pains, pleasant or unpleasant consequences of the work, by not identifying ourselves with the body or that which does the work. If you realise your true nature and know that it is not you that does any work, you will be unaffected by the consequences of whatever work the body may be engaged in." “'Not an atom moves except by His Will” expresses the same truth, whether you say 'Does not move except by His Will' or 'Does not move except by karma'. As for freedom for man, he is always free not to identify himself with the body." "If the agent upon whom the karma depends, namely the ego, which has come into existence between the body and the Self, merges in its source and loses its form, how can the karma which depends upon it survive? When there is no ‘I’ there is no karma." Question: I don’t understand what work I should do and what not. Ramana Maharshi: Don’t bother. What is destined as work to be done by you in this life will be done by you. [Note One] - The teachings of Ramana Maharshi were primarily formulated by his disciples recording his responses to questions. Ramana Maharshi became well-known in Europe following the publication of Paul Brunton's book, A Search in Secret India (1934). Many visitors from England and elsewhere made their way to India to seek spiritual answers from Ramana. He graciously took the time to respond to their queries and his words were then recorded by his disciples. Some confusion arose from this practice, in that Ramana would provide answers consistent with the spiritual development of his questioner. As such, he sometimes gave different answers to a spiritual novice as compared to a spiritual adept. For example, it was known that Ramana provided three different descriptions of creation, depending on who was asking. He would say that all three answers were correct within the context of the questioner's consciousness. And this confusion is apparent in the answers that he gave on the topic of free will vs predetermination. In this case, compounding the confusion was that Ramana Maharshi would also consider the different identities of man in giving his answers. He usually referred to man in his native state as a god and would say that the ego was "non-existent." As such, if he didn't say which identity of man he was referring to in giving an answer, it was likely man's native state as a god. As such, the body was merely the soul's vehicle, as in the quotation here. In some cases, Ramana Maharshi specifically said which identity of man he was referring to (see quotations in the section below) and the answer regarding mankind's free will was quite different. |
Man identified as a body 
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Forgetful of one's true self, man loses access to the unlimited awareness of his true self. Man now thinks that the body is his self and he follows the dictates of the lower ego-mind. The ego-mind has free will, but it is constrained by the strong impulses of the senses that push it in often unwanted directions. As well, man identified as a body falls under the law of karma. As such, many occurrences in his life are the pre-determined destiny of his karma from the past and are not free will choices. As noted below, mystics acknowledge the gift of free will that is given to mankind, even during the periods of time when man falsely identifies himself as the body; "Free will exists together with the individuality. As long as the individuality lasts, so long is there free will. All the scriptures are based on this fact and advise directing the free will in the right channel." ~ Ramana Maharshi "Destiny is the result of past action; it concerns the body ..... Why are you concerned with it? Why do you pay attention to it? Free-will and Destiny last as long as the body lasts. But wisdom transcends both." ~ Ramana Maharshi "There is one spiritual issue on which science, secular society, and the various religious traditions all agree: the freedom and accountability of the human will." ~ Swami Abhayananda "[Edgar] Cayce would repeatedly say that even the Lord of Lords could not accurately predict future events because human free will can alter and change the future.” ~ Kevin Williams (author and researcher on Cayce and NDEs) "Individualized selves possessing the instrumentalities of a human body and mind are gifted with the power of free choice and independent action." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda “If you have faith and do not doubt, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen, and nothing will be impossible for you.” ~ Jesus of Nazareth (paraphrased) "If Jesus were sure that all his twelve disciples were prisoners of destiny and that eleven were ordained to remain faithful to him, he would not have asked: “Will ye also go away?” Jesus knew that the disciples, though influenced by karma and cosmic law, still had free will to be with him or to forsake him." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda As mentioned above, man identified as a body falls under the law of karma. Good and bad choices result in good and bad karma respectively. Karma's primary purpose is to be a "prod to remembrance" of man's true nature as a god. "We humans are of a two-fold nature; we are, in essence, identical with the divine Consciousness, our Divine Self, which assures us of a free will; and we are only secondarily products of the creative Power (Nous or Brahma) which begets the material body-mind complex along with its accompanying karmic tendencies." ~ Swami Abhayananda "Thus, the immortal soul-images of God forgot their already perfect immortality. They began to exercise their free will in pursuit of a desire for temporal fulfillment. But desire begets a brood of desires, enticing immortals into a mortal labyrinth of cause and effect comings and goings, earthly births and deaths." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda "Man is endowed with free will and should not abdicate his freedom of choice and action. To ensure right action, the challenge to the seeker after Self-realization is to overcome prenatal and postnatal bad habits with good habits, and to increase actions that are initiated solely by wisdom-guided free choice, emancipated from all karmic, habitual, and environmental influences." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda "God had planned to liberate the human soul after a short wisdom-experience on this earth. Through misuse of his free will, however, man became earthbound, involving himself needlessly in a prolonged series of reincarnations." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda "Endowed with free choice, man has misused his independence and identified himself with a transient body and a cosmos of antithetical organized chaos. He should train his mind away from restlessness to the perception of changelessness. The ordinary individual, through restlessness, perceives only the tumultuous universe. The man following the art of yoga (inner calmness) perceives the immanent-transcendent ever tranquil Spirit." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda “What does it avail you to attribute the cause of misery to the happenings of life when that cause is really within you?” ~ Ramana Maharshi The karmic load that each of us carries varies according to the deeds one has performed in this and previous lifetimes; “Some souls can freely choose their own conditions in which to be born and complete their missions. Other souls who have made too many mistakes in past lives and who have become dangerously influenced by worldly desires, are incarnated into conditions chosen by law of karma at a time and under circumstances best suited to help them with their karmic debt.” ~ Edgar Cayce "An intrinsic quality of the soul is free will; the fully illumined yogi is a man of free will. The brutish man is bound, almost like an animal, to his instincts or unthinking material habits bequeathed by Nature. The higher an individual rises in the scale of evolution, the more he exercises his soul prerogative of free will." ~Paramahansa Yogananda As described below, each of us ultimately controls our own destiny by our own resolve and the strength of our free will. It is assuring to know that a determined will is more powerful than karma. “Karma is the destiny created for oneself by one's free actions. In actions are included thoughts and sensations, motives, good or bad emotions, etc. While working out an old destiny one is bound to create a new one by the manner in which one reacts to its operation. Here then comes the place of free-will. We are not free to alter the trend of an old karma, for example, in the choice of our parents, country, the circumstances of our birth and environments; or our physical and mental fitness and abilities. These are forced on us: we cannot change them. What we can change is the manner in which we receive and work them out. We are all agreed that there are many things in which the decision lies in our hands: the decision is ours, the action is ours, the motive behind the action is ours, the mental attitude with which we do the action is ours too. This then is the field in which we are allowed freedom of will, and it contains the seeds of our future destiny. We can shape that destiny as we will.” ~ Ramana Maharshi "With a determined dependence on and identification with the Divine Self, the individual will has the free and final word on the course of the life it rules." ~ Swami Abhayananda "Karma is governed by one’s will power. What is to be does not necessarily have to be. Man’s free will and divine determination can change the course of events in his life." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda "Even the recorded experiences of the past which hold such a grip on us from lifetime to lifetime may be overcome and thwarted by our own determined will, since that will has sprung from a universal and divine Will." ~ Swami Abhayananda “Do not blame karma, or anybody else, for what you are. You can undo what has been done, through the exercise of a determined will.” ~ Papa Ramdas "It is the coward and the fool who says this is his fate. But it is the strong man who stands up and says I will make my own fate." ~ Swami Vivekananda “Each man, by his thoughts and actions, becomes the molder of his destiny.” ~ Paramahansa Yogananda "When man is disillusioned by the lesser temptations of sense pleasures, he seeks the supreme temptation of life, God’s bliss. In this way man learns to use His divine gifts of discrimination and free choice to find the Reality behind the appearances of life." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda "Eventually, the inner magnetism of Spirit will cause that individualized consciousness to seek the way to ascension through the choice of right action that links it to the uplifting divine power inherent in Nature’s laws." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda “What he has done, he can undo. None other than himself was the instigator of the causes of whatever effects are now prevalent in his life. He can overcome any limitation, because he created it by his own actions in the first place.” ~ Sri Yukteswar "Christlike masters by inner vision can discern the exact influence of the effects of already performed actions in men through many incarnations. However, the karmic outcome is conditional on certain circumstances; events can be changed by the interjection of the strong influences of free will." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda |
Final Thoughts 
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As noted at the beginning of this posting, the topic of free will vs destiny is not an easy one. In the quotations below, Swami Abhayananda captures the ambiguity and confusion that is often associated with this subject; "But there is that other perspective which sees that God (the Divine Mind), who is the Driver, is in fact the very Consciousness that knows Itself as ‘I’ within the individual soul; It is indeed the very Self and essence of man, comprising his real identity. Intuitively we sense our own infinite freedom of will, or something close to it, and reason as well seems to demand a freedom and independence upon which to base individual responsibility for our acts. "If every event in our lives is determined by God," we ask, "where then is our freedom of choice? Where is the possibility for virtue, for choosing the path of righteousness over the path of evil? And how is it even possible to progress morally and spiritually by one's own efforts if all is in God's hands? How could we be held responsible for our acts if every sentiment, emotion, thought, or act is determined by God?" "Just as light and matter, photons and electrons, viewed from different perspectives, appear to be either wavular or particulate, our identities, viewed from different perspectives, may appear to be either contained in and identical with the universal Consciousness or manifest as distinct individual souls. Likewise, viewed from those different perspectives, we may appear to be either totally determined by universally interconnected causal factors or independently free to choose our own actions." "The free will that we experience during our brief imaginary existence is really His freedom of will ... The only ‘I’ was His all along ... we exist in Him, and what we think is ours is truly His. ‘I’ and ‘Him’ are ultimately not two; and so, there is no contradiction here." "We may picture the entire array from The One to manifested universe as a 'raying out' or a 'projection' from an interior center—a sort of telescoping outward of a projected image, becoming at its "screening" in the phenomenal world a something elaborately conditioned, though it is unconditioned at its single source. At the source, it is one, eternal, unconditional; at the other end of the projection it is a multitude of souls, all intricately conditioned. Soul has, therefore, two aspects, two identities: in its origin it is eternal Divinity; in its temporal display, coupled with matter, it is still Divine, but it is also a thing limited and burdened by conditions." "These are questions which must occur to anyone who thinks deeply about such matters. But these questions are framed on a presumption of duality where none in fact exists. For we and God are ultimately not two. And it is only a linguistic quandary that we fall into when we regard ourselves and God as separate entities, and consider one to be determining the other." "The question of "free will" is one which has fascinated the minds of men since first man looked to the heavens and deduced a Creator. And, though the answer to the problem is very simple, it is difficult for most minds to assimilate which have not gotten in the habit of allowing for two answers to be true which appear to logically contradict each other. Such an attitude is required of physicists for whom light, and energy itself, must be seen as both a particle (quanta) and a wave, whose respective qualities are mutually exclusive. What is required is the ability to freely shift one's viewpoint from one frame of reference to another." "We consist of waves on the one ocean of Consciousness, and are, at the same time, individualized entities, independent souls—we are both free and causally determined at the same time. Such an understanding, acknowledging that these two apparently opposing notions are in fact complementary to one another—however challenging that may be to our current worldview and to everyone’s sanity—would go a long way to resolving the long-standing metaphysical dispute concerning who we are—the One or the many." And finally, we come back to the quotation that was the impetus behind this posting, i.e. “All things move together of one accord. Assent is given throughout the universe to every falling grain.” "Sometimes we forget that all that exists in this world is created and controlled by God. All things do indeed move together in accord with His Divine Will, and assent is given throughout the universe to every falling grain. This is an unmistakable truth, experienced by the mystic, but I understand that for all others, it is not at all evident, and must remain merely a matter of faith." "The apparent contradiction between the words “all things move together of one accord” and the declaration that man possesses a “free will” is resolved when it is understood that these two viewpoints pertain to the perspectives of God and Man, respectively. From the perspective of Eternity, all things do indeed move together of one accord (in fact, these words were spoken from that perspective); and from the perspective of man, he does indeed possess a free will by virtue of his derivation from the absolute freedom of God. Both of these statements, as well as both of these perspectives, are true and correct, and not, as they seem, ultimately contradictory." |
The following quotation from Paramahansa Yogananda is perhaps a good way to wrap up this posting. It offers a ray of hope for those who may sometimes feel powerless in the face of obstacles of destiny that may be encountered on the pathway of life.
"The karmic law of cause and effect projects into the ether vibratory potentials of future events that are a probable outcome, or effect, of previously initiated causes. Future events forming in the ether from causes originated by human actions are not always inevitable; they evolve and can change dramatically according to the transmuting power of man’s free-will actions integrating into those karmic vibrations."
The following quotation from Paramahansa Yogananda is perhaps a good way to wrap up this posting. It offers a ray of hope for those who may sometimes feel powerless in the face of obstacles of destiny that may be encountered on the pathway of life.
"The karmic law of cause and effect projects into the ether vibratory potentials of future events that are a probable outcome, or effect, of previously initiated causes. Future events forming in the ether from causes originated by human actions are not always inevitable; they evolve and can change dramatically according to the transmuting power of man’s free-will actions integrating into those karmic vibrations."
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*** i.e. not waiving Intellectual Property rights to vaccine patents. If IP rights were waived, the vaccine would have been more readily available to those in poorer countries around the world.
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To a Dear Friend - Part 2 (January 2022)
Recently, I received my annual Christmas email greeting from a dear friend. It included the wish that "these turbulent and unprecedented times would be over soon and our fellow human beings would have better days ahead of them." A wonderful sentiment. However, at the end of his email, he added the following; "This pandemic proved what I always believed. The human race is selfish beyond words. They do not share (not waiving vaccine IP*** to prevent millions of people in poor countries from dying) and they do not care about each other (not wearing a mask or getting a vaccine or staying home). What one likes, one does and to hell with others! No wonder God does not show his face. If you were him and you had created this sorry human race, would you want to show your face? I know I would have been in hiding too! As I have said before, I am ashamed of my own species." These remarks reminded me of the brilliant comedian, author and social critic George Carlin, who eventually became so disillusioned by the actions of his fellow human beings that he declared “I no longer see myself as a part of this species." Some additional quotations from George Carlin appear in the left column of the section below. And so, are the views of my dear friend and George Carlin correct? Are humans little more than uncaring, selfish beings? To get the answer, we need to examine the words of the mystics who have penetrated to the core of reality and have provided much insight on this topic. This posting consists of the following sections;
Note - This posting is called "Part 2" because a previous posting was written 5-years ago, once again in response to a Christmas email from my dear friend, i.e. To a Dear Friend (January 2017). It appears on the What's New? webpage herein.
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1 - The Ego-Self
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“They are no more than unconscious players in the egoic game, a game that looks so important yet is ultimately devoid of true purpose. It is, in the words of Shakespeare, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” ~ Eckhart Tolle If asked who you are and the answer is "I am this mortal body and the thoughts within my mind. My life is contained within the local portion of the universe that my senses detect," then, for purposes of this posting, you are the ego-self. The ego-self is the state of the vast majority of people on this planet. The ego-self can have different levels. The evolving ego-self will be addressed below. This section will address the ego-self at or near its lowest level. At this stage, the ego-self sees itself as totally separate from everyone else. It has no idea where it came from or why it's here. Its primary motivation is to provide for the body - i.e. food, shelter, protection, sense pleasures, etc. It cares very little for others, unless they can be of assistance. At this basic level, the ego-self is not pretty. Modern day mystics have eloquently described this state as outlined on the webpage Ego-consciousness and God-consciousness on this website. Below are a few quotations from mystics who have experienced a much higher level of awareness. “We human beings are what we have been for millions of years - colossally greedy, envious, aggressive, jealous, anxious and despairing, with occasional flashes of joy and affection. We are a strange mixture of hate, fear and gentleness; we are both violence and peace.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti “If the history of humanity were the clinical case history of a single human being, the diagnosis would have to be: chronic paranoid delusions, a pathological propensity to commit murder and acts of extreme violence and cruelty against his perceived “enemies” - his own unconsciousness projected outward. Criminally insane, with a few brief lucid intervals.” ~ Eckhart Tolle “As long as you are run by the egoic mind, you are part of the collective insanity. Perhaps you haven’t looked very deeply into the human condition in its state of dominance by the egoic mind. Open your eyes and see the fear, the despair, the greed, and the violence that are all-pervasive. See the heinous cruelty and suffering on an unimaginable scale that humans have inflicted and continue to inflict on each other as well as on other life forms on the planet. You don’t need to condemn. Just observe.” ~ Eckhart Tolle “It is a great marvel to me that, despite the fact that we are all the embodiments of the Divine, of God Himself, the most predominant trait of all human beings is that they so hatefully despise each other, and constantly criticize and seek to harm one another.” ~ Swami Abhayananda Simply put, the base nature of the ego-self is nothing to be proud of. The observations of George Carlin and my dear friend cannot be refuted. However, is this the only state of existence for mankind? Is there a higher nature that each of us can aspire to? Is there a higher destiny? |
2 - The Higher-Self 
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The good news is we do indeed have a higher-self. Mystics who have attained this higher-self have universally declared that such a state is the ultimate destiny of all mankind. In our native state, we are each created as an individualized extension of Spirit. A god. A soul. Pure consciousness with unbounded awareness. We begin playing in the phantasmagoria of creation as this higher-self using the body-form merely as a vehicle by which to enter the playground. At that stage, the body form is seen as merely frozen light - essentially an illusory creation used solely for playing in creation. The higher-self has no particular affinity to any body-form. In fact, the higher-self has played in creation using untold numbers of different body-forms at different levels of creation. The problem arises when the higher-self becomes so enamoured with this game of creation that at some point it forgets its true nature as formless consciousness and begins to see the body-form of light as not only something real but also as its true identity. A colossal mistake. Thereafter, the higher-self has to work at recovering its true identity. In doing so, it is fighting against the cosmic hypnosis mentioned many times on this website that works to keep the higher-self in this state of delusion. A tough game. Some souls have managed to see through the cosmic hypnosis and have fully recovered the knowledge of their true selves. These are the mystics. Once again, they know themselves as immortal, boundless awareness and realize that the body-forms they occupy are not real - just vehicles of frozen light that allow an experience within creation. The body-forms have no sustaining reality. In fact, the higher-selves at some point leave the game of creation altogether and reside as infinite awareness of ever-new joy. Pure consciousness. Let's hear what those who have recovered their higher-selves have to say on this topic. Once again, most of the quotations below come from the Ego-consciousness and God-consciousness webpage. "Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool" ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson “The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.” ~ Eckhart Tolle “The state of consciousness that is considered normal and that has been running human history for thousands of years is not the only possible state of consciousness. It’s also not the most advanced state possible for humans. It’s nothing new. All the great teachings and teachers have pointed to the fact, since the normal state of consciousness is a state that is extremely deficient, a state that in the ancient teachings has been called suffering. The Buddha called it suffering, Jesus called it a state of sin and illusion, and the Hindus call it a state of illusion. So, all ancient teachings agree that the normal human state of consciousness is, as I call it, a state of insanity. Anybody can verify this for themselves if they look at human history, 90 percent of which - really, if you look at it objectively - would be called the history of collective insanity, with the enormous amount of suffering inflicted by humans on other humans and on themselves and other species.” ~ Eckhart Tolle "In normal everyday usage, "I" embodies the primordial error, a misperception of who you are, an illusory sense of identity. This is the ego. The illusory sense of self is what Albert Einstein, who had deep insights not only into the reality of space and time, but also into human nature, referred to as "an optical illusion of consciousness.” ~ Eckhart Tolle “Throw off the mask that enshrouds your real Divine nature and reveal yourself in all your magnificence.” ~ Papa Ramdas "It sometimes happens that a man, when bathing in the river, steps upon a wet rope and imagines that it is a snake. Terror will overcome him, and he will shake with fear, anticipating in his mind all the agonies caused by the serpent’s venomous bite. What a relief does this man experience when he sees that the rope is no snake. The cause of his fear lies in his error, his ignorance, his illusion. If the true nature of the rope is recognized, his tranquility of mind will come back to him; he will feel relieved; he will be joyful and happy. This is the state of mind of one who has recognized that there is no ego, and that the cause of all his troubles, cares, and vanities is a mirage, a shadow, a dream.” ~ Buddha “We live in confident certainty of our (illusory) individuality, regarding as "self" that kaleidoscope of transient mental impressions which is presented to our conscious awareness. But, say the mystics, this superficial play of thoughts, memories, sense impressions, upon the screen of awareness is but a mirage.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “Because you wrongly identify yourself with the body, you see the world outside you and its suffering becomes apparent to you; but the world and its sufferings are not real.” ~ Ramana Maharshi “Thinking that you are the physical form that you’re occupying, with its psychological make-up, and the stories that it tells itself about who it is and what has happened to it during its lifetime, is an illusion.” ~ Eckhart Tolle “That illusory separate identity, or individual ego, common to all embodied souls, is an extremely subtle and deceptive mirage. It masks the nondual reality … separating us from the awareness of our true Self.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “Plotinus acknowledges, as do the Upanishads, that the soul is capable of remaining blind to its Divine nature, its innate capacity, attributing an illusory ‘I’ to its transient embodiment, and thereby living a superficial life concerned only with sensual and emotional pleasures, promoting its own aggrandizement and individual welfare. But eventually it must revise its outlook; for, understand, the soul is nothing else but the Divine - as a ray of sunlight is nothing but sun. Its only real identity is Divine Consciousness. Its association with body establishes an ego-sense, the illusion of an ‘I’, a personal identity, associated with one particular physical entity in a spatio-temporal universe.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “You identify with the mental activity and the transient worldly forms, and, forgetting your real Identity, you become swept away in the agitated currents of the mind. It is just this false identification which is the source of all your woes and troubles.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “When you think about your mortal life and all your troubles and identify with them, you do an injustice to the consciousness of God within you. Affirm and realize "I am not a mortal being; I am spirit." ~ P. Yogananda “You are not the body. You are Pure Consciousness.” ~ Ramana Maharshi “You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop.” ~ Rumi “The devotee realizes that he is not the mortal body; he is the immortal spirit that became the body. This perception frees him from all sorrow. He realizes that, like spirit, he is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new joy.” ~ P. Yogananda “Know that you are not this restless mind, but that you are the immortal, all blissful, and changeless Spirit.” ~Papa Ramdas "He [man] has become so accustomed to thinking of himself as existing solely in the separate form with which he is associated that he has great difficulty in releasing his identity from the individualized body, mind and intellect. This “ego,” this individualized awareness of oneself as identical with these appendages is stubbornly insistent; it is this stubborn ego-identification that has been referred to as “bondage” in the Vedantic tradition. To become enlightened to the knowledge of one’s eternal, all-pervading Self is to know “liberation.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “From the time we are infants and discover this body and mind that manipulates us and in turn is manipulated by us, we feel certain that this body and mind is ourself, is who we are. That identification becomes so strongly rooted in us, that never once do we doubt that we are this particular mind and body limited in space and time, and any suggestion to the contrary strikes us as bizarre and absurd. But, say the seers, the Buddhas, it is merely a case of mistaken identity; that which is born, thrives for awhile, and then decays, is not who you are." ~ Swami Abhayananda Simply put, we are not the ego-self. The ego-self is an illusory state that seems real because of the state of cosmic hypnosis, or maya, that we are under. It is a very powerful hypnosis, but over the course of many lifetimes occupying many different forms, the hypnosis eventually loses its power and we each re-acquire our higher state. |
3 - The Evolving-Self 
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“The evolution of His cosmos brings into being sentient creatures, the most intricately evolved of these creatures being human beings. These beings inherit the eternal Consciousness of their Creator; but they also possess a false sense of individuality (called the ego) … This ego-soul continues to evolve in intelligence and awareness through numerous lifetimes, until at last it is awakened to its true Identity…. Having evolved, and having awakened to their true Self, such individualized souls are released from the need for further human birth, and live in the freedom and bliss of the one eternal Consciousness.” ~ Swami Abhayananda The world is not black and white. In between the lowest levels of the ego-selves and the highest level of the god-selves are found various levels of human beings at different stages of evolution. Take my dear friend as an example. In spite of saying, "I am ashamed of my own species, " he prefaced that statement by wishing that "these turbulent and unprecedented times would be over soon and our fellow human beings would have better days ahead of them." Compassion, caring, empathy - all qualities of the evolving soul returning home. Other traits that signal progress on the way home include; forgiveness, kindness, honesty, sharing, love, humility, patience, calmness and harmonious living. The evolving-self also distinguishes itself by using its inherent creative powers to add to the beauty and advancement of creation, for example scientific discoveries (e.g. electricity, quantum physics, relativity, etc.); technological advancements (e.g. computers, the Internet, communications devices, transportation systems, space travel, etc.); magnificent artistic creations (e.g. paintings, music, photography, literature, etc.); majestic architectural structures, and so on. From mankind's earliest days walking this planet, the evolving-self has taken many impressive steps, many giant steps, and has manifested multitudes of glorious creations. |
4 - Final Thoughts 
Suddenly, as though lifted on a wind divine,
I was elevated to a heavenly plane Where I was not the man I’d been before. ..... My mind descended once again to self and those I’d left Still struggling in the darkened cave, Still unimagining what bright place lay just above. ..... And as I went among the dreary folk, My eyes still brightened by the light I’d found, I told them of my discovered land ..... But none believed me. I was an embarrassment To friends and family who thought I’d lost my mind. ..... And though I tried to focus on the customary tasks Incumbent on the dwellers here below, I could not wholly give myself to thoughts And purposes of men enslaved, Nor take delight in shadows playing on the walls. ..... I saw a world More real, more glorious than this shadowed one below. ..... And, though I’m here among the rest, I stand there still, Immersed in light, delighting in the far-flung landscape that I saw. For in my heart my home is there; I’ll live there evermore. ~ Swami Abhayananda |
"Like an odyssey … I was born very far from where I’m supposed to be, and so, I’m on my way home" ~ Bob Dylan To my Dear Friend, I expect you will have no trouble agreeing to the first part of this posting. Given your strong beliefs, I suspect the second part will not resonate with you. But, who knows. In any case, five yours ago, you inspired me to write a posting to this website and you have done so again. All of the traits that I listed above for the evolving-self - you have them all. It is a privilege and honour to know you. Warm regards, Ken PS - I can almost hear you saying that the second part above is just based on beliefs. It is not. It is based on intuitive knowledge which goes far beyond mere beliefs. PPS - There have been and continue to be many, many examples of individuals who have re-attained their higher-self. Some have tried to tell their fellow man about this higher existence, but they meet with resistance and lack of interest from most (with the exception of those who have grown so tired of this lower existence that they are ready to accelerate their journey home). It is much like the allegory of the caveman from Plato's Cave (as described elsewhere on this website). The story postulates a caveman who, like his fellow beings, has spent all of his life in the dim confines of a deep cave. The only light comes from a fire which casts shadows on the cave walls and as such represents the only reality the cavemen know. One caveman decides to make the arduous climb up the top of the cave and out into the spectacular world outside the cave. He is stunned by the beauty of this world that he had never even imagined. Rushing back down into the desolate cave, he tries to tell his fellows about this marvelous world outside the cave. He has a hard time finding the right words, since caveman language has no words for things such as the sun, flowers, trees, oceans, mountains, etc. Most of his fellow cavemen are not interested in his story and remain convinced that the world within the cave is the only reality. However, a few adventurous souls do make the climb out of the cave and revel in the magnificent higher world outside. “I wish I could give a description of at least the smallest part of what I learned, but, when I try to discover a way of doing so, I find it impossible; for, while the light we see here and that other Light are both light, there is no comparison between the two.” ~ Saint Teresa of Avila “In the world of physics we watch a shadowgraph performance of the drama of familiar life. The shadow of my elbow rests on the shadow table as the shadow ink flows over the shadow paper. It is all symbolic, and as a symbol the physicist leaves it. ... The frank realization that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances.” ~ Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (highly regarded British astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, 1882 – 1944) “The outstanding achievement of twentieth century physics is not the theory of relativity with its welding together of space and time, or the theory of quanta with its present apparent negation of the laws of causation, or the dissection of the atom with the resultant discovery that things are not what they seem; it is the general recognition that we are not yet in contact with the ultimate reality. We are still imprisoned in our cave, with our backs to the light, and can only watch the shadows on the wall.” ~ Sir James Jeans (highly regarded British physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, 1877 – 1946) |
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A Glimpse into Paradise (March 2022)
Recently I was made aware of the IMERE website ( imere.org) that contains brief accounts of mystical experiences. Many of these experiences are based on published accounts of well-known mystics and poets but also included many otherwise "ordinary" folks. Over 100 accounts in all. In addition, the IMERE website invites readers to provide information on mystical experiences that they may have had at some point in their lives. To date, over 100 people have responded with their own accounts. With over 200 mystical accounts described, the website provides a wealth of information on the mystical experience. As such , I thought it might be interesting to see if there were some common features or themes found amongst these experiences. Below is the summary of these investigations. |
The posting consists of the following sections:
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1 - The Nature of the Mystical Experience
2 - To Whom does the Mystical Experience Occur 3 - Words are Inadequate 4 - Common Themes
6 - Summary |
Note#1 - Some elements of this topic were first considered on The Mystic Vision page of this website. Some material from that web page has been incorporated into this posting.
Note#2 - this posting features quotations (shown in purple) from many of the 200 mystical accounts mentioned above. Unlike other postings on this website, the source of the quotations are not identified, as there are so many and, in some cases, the names were not provided.
Note#3 - I have quoted extensively from the magnificent writings of Swami Abhayanada throughout this website. Shortly after posting this, I sent him the link, as he was the one who had introduced me to the website mentioned above. He graciously sent the following response; "You gathered all that material and fashioned of it a masterpiece of evocative vision. The descriptions of all of those mystic experiences together, like a bouquet of flowers, enhanced the beauty and power of each person's individual description, and presented for all souls a fabulous garden of divine majesty, color and glory. Well done!" Since Swami Abhayananda himself has been blessed with a direct encounter with God, his response holds considerable value.
Note#2 - this posting features quotations (shown in purple) from many of the 200 mystical accounts mentioned above. Unlike other postings on this website, the source of the quotations are not identified, as there are so many and, in some cases, the names were not provided.
Note#3 - I have quoted extensively from the magnificent writings of Swami Abhayanada throughout this website. Shortly after posting this, I sent him the link, as he was the one who had introduced me to the website mentioned above. He graciously sent the following response; "You gathered all that material and fashioned of it a masterpiece of evocative vision. The descriptions of all of those mystic experiences together, like a bouquet of flowers, enhanced the beauty and power of each person's individual description, and presented for all souls a fabulous garden of divine majesty, color and glory. Well done!" Since Swami Abhayananda himself has been blessed with a direct encounter with God, his response holds considerable value.
1 - The Nature of the Mystical Experience 
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To understand the nature of the mystical experience, it is perhaps best to go back to the fundamental view of creation, as espoused by the mystics. This has been covered in other parts of the website, so just a brief overview will be provided here. In periods of no creation, the only being that exists is Spirit. As best as can be described in human language, Spirit is ever-existing formless awareness - pure blissful consciousness without form. During periods of creation, Spirit creates a host of individualized extensions of Itself. Each of these unique individualizations of Spirit is known as a soul. A god. And each one of us is just that - a god, a unique, individualized soul. Spirit also creates a dream world of light energy into which the gods can enter to play. To enter the dream world, each god must take on a dream form, or body. Each of the gods is, in essence, Spirit in form. Creation can be looked upon as a means of entertainment by which Spirit can enjoy Itself through this host of unique gods. In order to make creation more interesting, Spirit introduces a form of cosmic hypnosis, by which part of the consciousness of each of the gods thinks that the dream creation and their dream bodies is actually real. This is the ego-self, or ego-consciousness of the gods. As well, part of the consciousness of each god retains the native knowledge of its true nature of being fully connected to Spirit; in fact, of being Spirit Itself. This is the god-self, or god-consciousness of the gods. While playing in the wondrous phantasmagoria of creation, the gods can pretend their bodies and the created world around them are real - all the while knowing that this is just an illusion. The problem arises when the gods get so infatuated while playing in creation that they forget their true nature as Spirit. They become dominated by their ego-selves and now actually believe that their pretend bodies are real and that the play world around them is real. At this point, the gods must find their way back to their true existence as Spirit. Such is the drama of creation. Each of the gods must find its way back home. A mystical experience occurs when one of gods, i.e. one of us, breaks through the cosmic hypnosis and re-acquires awareness of one's lost god-consciousness. During the experience, the memory of one's true nature of being fully-connected to God and being pure consciousness without form returns. The mystical experience may last for minutes, hours or even longer and then a return to the ego-self follows. However, the memory of the mystical experience remains and the belief of being a body-form is modified by the knowledge of one's true god-self. It is a wondrous experience and provides a glorious Glimpse into Paradise for those so blessed. Some may have many mystical experiences. In fewer cases, the mystical experience is continuous. The depth of the mystical experience can be explained by referring to the story of the caveman from Plato's Cave, an allegory that has been referenced many times on this website. If the caveman only remains a short time outside the cave before returning, he may only take in a small portion of the vastness of the existence outside the cave. The longer the visit, the more the caveman can take in. If the caveman makes several visits outside the cave, then his understanding of the wondrous world outside will grow. The wondrous existence revealed during the mystical experience follows a similar pattern. And, just like the caveman who ultimately leaves the dim cave existence altogether to live always in the magnificent world outside the cave, so it is that the ultimate goal of mankind is to forsake the dim world of the ego-self and live always in the indescribable bliss of one's god-self. |
2 - To Whom does the Mystical Experience Occur 
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The mystical experience has occurred to people from all walks of life and in all lands. People of all ages, including children, have reported mystical occurrences. To some it occurs while watching a sunset, or walking in the woods, or simply working in their garden at home. For most, the Glimpse of Paradise comes seemingly out of nowhere while for others, the experience is earnestly sought and attained after deep meditation. As such, it may seem that the granting of the blessed mystical experience is largely the result of serendipity by a capricious God. But it is not so. Based on the testimony of world-renowned spiritual teachers, the mystical experience only comes to those who have prepared for it. Those who seem to have randomly received a mystical experience had done such preparation in previous lives. For example, the twentieth-century spiritual leader Ramana Maharshi had his first mystical experience as a teenager in India, seemingly out of nowhere. But he acknowledged in his teachings that the experience must be earned - in his case, in a previous life. Paramahansa Yogananda also taught the same - the experience must be earned. Having said that, Yogananda, Swami Abhayananda and others also emphasized that the blessing of God is paramount in attaining the Glimpse of Paradise. Without attracting the grace of God, the experience does not come. However, Yogananda also said that for those seeking the experience, the grace of God is usually already there and the missing component is the necessary preparation by the individual (typically via dedicated meditation practice). |
3 - Words are Inadequate 
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When Plato's caveman returned deep into the dim recesses of the cave to tell his fellow cavemen about the magnificent world he had experienced outside the cave, he struggled to find words. Caveman language does not have words for mountains, oceans, sunshine, trees, flowers, rivers, etc. And so it is when someone returns from a mystical experience and tries to convey the occurrence to others. Human language is inadequate to express the magnificence of the mystical experience; e.g.
Despite the significant limitations of human language in describing mystical experiences, much useful information can be obtained, as evidenced in the sections below. Inadequate or not, these descriptions provide a powerful insight into the mystical experience. |
4 - Common Themes |
Based on a review of the over 200 mystical experiences mentioned above, a number of common features emerged. These are addressed below. In each case, short quotations from the mystical accounts are provided. |
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The Presence of God Perhaps the most overwhelming feature of the mystical experience is the awareness of God's presence. During the experience one becomes keenly aware of being in the presence of the formless, infinite consciousness of God. It is a remarkable and awe-inspiring event; e.g.
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Connection with God The feature of the mystical experience that is mentioned most often is "connectedness," the feeling that everything is "one;" that there is a unity of everything within creation and beyond. This would seem natural in that in their native state, all souls are connected to God and the mystical experience is a soul experience. The primary connection is with God Itself; e.g.
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Connection with All Things The connection or union that is mentioned so often includes a "one-ness" with all that exists, including the entire universe and everything in it; e.g.
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All is Love Those who experience God describe being immersed in a sea of overwhelming, unconditional love; e.g.
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Bliss In addition to love, those who experience God also describe being immersed in a sea of overwhelming, ineffable bliss; e.g.
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Peace that Surpasses all Understanding In addition to love and bliss, those who experience God also describe being immersed in a sea of overwhelming, profound peace - "the peace that surpasses all understanding;" e.g.
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The Ego and the Soul One of the remarkable events that takes place during the mystic experience is that the lower ego-self is replaced by one's god-self - a return to one's native immortal, boundless, limitless, ecstatic soul consciousness. It is a magnificent and joyous experience - total freedom from the limited body consciousness; e.g.
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Everything becomes No-Thing This is related to the experience described above of leaving behind the ego-self to become the god-self. Nothing remains of the ego-self's awareness. It is replaced by the awakening of the glorious new freedom of god-awareness; e.g.
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All is Consciousness In the mystic experience, one attains the native state of soul-consciousness - formless, boundless awareness; e.g.
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Timelessness and Eternity One of the remarkable features of the mystical experience is the revelation of the illusory nature of time, i.e. present, past and future are actually a single continuum of an eternal present. The motion of time is an illusion - part of the cosmic hypnosis that the ego-mind is subject to. More on this topic can be found on the webpage, The Enigma of Time (July 2018); e.g.
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The Universe Revealed During the mystic vision, one's infinitely expanded consciousness allows a view of the entire universe floating within the vast sea of space - a most thrilling panorama; e.g.
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The Many-Hued Light of Divinity "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). Light is the elemental building block of creation. All of creation is frozen light. Our bodies are frozen light. Light is all there is. Spirit's fundamental state is formless consciousness. When Spirit chooses to be seen, It is seen as light - either pure light or shaped into a form of Its choosing; e.g.
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I was Home - No More Suffering, Fear or Death In the mystical experience, the soul returns to its native state as an individualized extension of God. It has come home. All the suffering, fear and death associated with the ego-body disappears; e.g.
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Knowledge of All There is to Know Since one of the attributes of Spirit is omniscience, when one is in contact with Spirit during the mystic experience, that all-encompassing knowledge becomes accessible - revelation after revelation; e.g.
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Reality and Illusion The cosmic hypnosis makes us think that the world our ego-selves live in is real. But it is not. Reality is what our god-selves experience, which is the state of mind of the mystic experience. The world of our ego-selves in comprised of frozen light forms - an illusory dream world that appears real but is not. It's like watching a movie in which you have a role - entertaining but not real. Life is but a dream; e.g.
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5 - The Desire to Ever Remain in the Newly Revealed Paradise 
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Whether one has a single or many mystical experiences, a common wish is expressed by all - the desire to remain evermore in the wondrous new existence that they were blessed to enjoy. Like Plato's caveman, once they experience this new indescribably beautiful existence, they never want to return to their former world. When they do return to their former world, there is keen disappointment; e.g.
However, the memory of the wondrous mystical experience remains always and has a life-changing impact going forward; e.g.
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6 - Summary
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The mystic experience, in which one's everyday ego-consciousness is temporarily transferred to the consciousness of one's native god-self, is an awesome and wondrous life-changing event. As outlined above, the mystic experience is characterized by several remarkable and glorious features, as summarized below; The awareness of the presence of God
The feeling of unity with God, of actually being God
The feeling of being directly connected with everything in existence
An overwhelming awareness that a state of supreme love permeates everything
An overwhelming feeling of indescribable bliss
An overwhelming feeling of profound peace
A remarkable transformation of the lower ego-self into one's native, boundless, immortal, blissful soul consciousness
A stunning awareness that the formless consciousness of one's awakened god-self contains all worlds, universes and endless existence. And that everything is conscious.
A remarkable awareness that in this realm, time does not exist. Past, present and future merge into a continuous and fluid Now in which everything is in a state of timeless unfoldment. One has entered eternity.
A comprehensive understanding of the remarkable workings of creation - the rhythmic bringing forth and dissolution of incredible galaxies of light energy
An immersion into a sea of living light, beautiful beyond words
A return home to the soul's native state as an individualized extension of God. Pure joy. And with it, the disappearance of all the suffering, fear and death associated with the ego-body.
The astounding obtainment of an all-encompassing knowledge of all there is to know - wave after wave of revelations
A glorious awakening that this new blissful existence is the sole Reality and that the illusory world of the ego-self is but a dream - a vivid dream, but not real
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Whether one has a single or many mystical experiences, a common wish is expressed by all - the desire to remain evermore in the wondrous new existence. Like Plato's caveman, once they experience this new indescribably beautiful existence, they never want to return to their former world.
However, the memory of the wondrous mystical experience remains and has a life-changing impact going forward;
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And so, based the accounts of the mystical experiences of over 200 individuals from all walks of life, it is evident that a magnificent and wondrous world awaits us once we re-awaken our native god-selves. For some, they are always in that sublime world. For others, they have been granted a glorious Glimpse into Paradise. May all be so blessed. |
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"Realize the heaven within you, and all at once all the desires are fulfilled, all the misery and suffering is put an end to"
"I am without form, without limit,
Beyond space, beyond time,
I am in everything, everything is in me.
I am the bliss of the universe,
Everywhere am I.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That."
~ Swami Rama Tirtha
Rama Tirtha was an enchanting twentieth-century mystic who spent his later years living at the source of the Ganges River in the Himalayas. He was a renowned spiritual teacher, writer and poet. He existed in an ecstatic state of oneness with God.
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God Talks With Arjuna (June 2022)
The title of this posting is the name of Paramahansa Yogananda's book that provides a translation and commentary on India's most beloved scripture, The Bhagavad Gita. There have been many hundreds of translations in numerous languages of the Bhagavad Gita produced over the centuries. Yogananda's version, published in 1995, is quite unique in that it provides an extensive commentary on each of the 700 verses of the Gita. As such, the book is over 1100 pages long and comprises a two-volume set. As with all of Yogananda's writings, this book has been highly acclaimed by critics and everyday readers alike, e.g. "Another extraordinary work from Paramahansa Yogananda" "If there was ever a book which changes lives, it's this one" "Never has anything of this stature been written in the history of the entire canon of world spiritual literature" "The profound wisdom embodied in this work cannot be described. This will stand as one of the world's holiest of books throughout the coming ages to come." |
"God Talks to Arjuna is becoming recognized as that singular presentation of the Bhagavad Gita which will be studied and restudied by sincere seekers and scholars for ages to come."
"Each verse is followed by commentary and expansion that integrates your study of the Gita with the entire spiritual science of Raja (meditative) Yoga. Hundreds of thoughtful commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita have been published over the centuries; some have been finely crafted by brilliant intellects; only a handful have come from realized sages; in this long-awaited Self-Realization Fellowship edition we have the insights of a soul who has experienced and mastered all the spiritual heights extolled by this dearest of Indian scriptures."
This posting provides selected quotations from Yogananda's Gita commentary. The quotations have been grouped into a number of topics, which comprise the sections of the posting, as follows;
"Each verse is followed by commentary and expansion that integrates your study of the Gita with the entire spiritual science of Raja (meditative) Yoga. Hundreds of thoughtful commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita have been published over the centuries; some have been finely crafted by brilliant intellects; only a handful have come from realized sages; in this long-awaited Self-Realization Fellowship edition we have the insights of a soul who has experienced and mastered all the spiritual heights extolled by this dearest of Indian scriptures."
This posting provides selected quotations from Yogananda's Gita commentary. The quotations have been grouped into a number of topics, which comprise the sections of the posting, as follows;
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Note - All quotations shown below are from Paramahansa Yogananda and are extracts from
God Talks With Arjuna, The Bhagavad Gita, unless otherwise indicated.
For simplicity, the quotations are shown in purple, without quotation marks.
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1 - The Bhagavad Gita 
Arjuna and Krishna
Paramahansa Yogananda
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As mentioned above, The Bhagavad Gita is India's most endearing scripture. It is a subset of the great Sanskrit poem, the Mahabharata, and was written by the renowned sage Vyasa during the second half of the first millennium BCE. The Bhagavad Gita opens, dramatically, on a battlefield, as the warrior Arjuna turns in anguish to his spiritual guide, Krishna, for answers to the fundamental questions of life. The battlefield is a perfect backdrop, for the Gita’s subject is the war within, the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage if he or she is to emerge from life victorious. Arjuna’s struggle in the Bhagavad Gita is acutely modern. He has lost his way on the battlefield of life and turns to find the path again by asking direct, uncompromising questions of his spiritual guide, Krishna, the Lord himself. Krishna replies in 700 verses of sublime instruction on living and dying, loving and working, and the nature of the soul. This Bhagavad Gita that I offer to the world, God Talks With Arjuna, is a spiritual commentary of the communion that takes place between the omnipresent Spirit (symbolized by Krishna) and the soul of the ideal devotee (represented by Arjuna). I arrived at the spiritual understanding expressed in these pages by attunement with Vyasa, and by perceiving the Spirit as God of creation relating wisdom to the awakened Arjuna within myself. I became Arjuna’s soul and communed with Spirit; let the result speak for itself. I am not giving an interpretation, but am chronicling what I perceived as the Spirit pours Its wisdom into an attuned soul’s devotional intuition in the various states of ecstasy. Many truths buried in the Gita for generations are being expressed in English for the first time through me. And I again acknowledge that I owe much to my paramgurus, Mahavatar Babaji and Lahiri Mahasaya, and to my Gurudeva, for their revelations, which have inspired the birth of a new presentation of the Gita; and above all, to their grace in blessing my endeavor. This work is not mine; it belongs to them, and to God, Krishna, Arjuna, and Vyasa. The entire knowledge of the cosmos is packed into the Gita. Supremely profound, yet couched in revelatory language of solacing beauty and simplicity, the Gita has been understood and applied on all levels of human endeavor and spiritual striving—sheltering a vast spectrum of human beings with their disparate natures and needs. Wherever one is on the way back to God, the Gita will shed its light on that segment of the journey. |
2 - The Nature of God 
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For those under the delusion of ego-consciousness, the true nature of Spirit is difficult to comprehend. The following words are from one who had attained full god-consciousness. “I am the Cosmic Beam that creates the various dream pictures of life, not from any necessity, but from a desireless desire to express Myself as many dream forms. I am the Ultimate; nothing remains for Me to attain in My dream dramas, for nothing is outside of Myself. I continue, however, to produce My dream shows and to keep an active part in them, that My children, the individualized multiforms of My One Being, may similarly act in them as divine beings, and then return to Me in My dreamless home of eternal blessedness.” In their underlying unity, all true scriptures reveal the same truths about Spirit … The seeming differences of revelations are on the surface merely, caused by the racial and environmental influences surrounding the prophets. Each one is singing his own hymn of the same one Infinite. All finite dreams of creation exist in the formless consciousness of the ever-existent, ever-conscious, ever-new God of Bliss; but His cosmic consciousness can exist by itself, without the dream forms of creation. As God personified Himself in the soul of every human being, so to fulfill His purpose in creation He personified in many divine forms His multifaceted personality as the Creator, through which to govern the universal structure. Joining the ranks of these God-manifested angels and deities are the souls of liberated human beings who when freed choose not to dissolve their natures into the Infinite, but to remain in the higher realms of creation to work for the upliftment of still-evolving souls. Just as in slumber the unseen formless human consciousness can shape itself into dream images, so the Formless Spirit as the Creator God can inform His consciousness into any manifestation. |
God loves to dream Himself as separate souls. This gives [Him] an opportunity to play with the conscious dream-souls in His cosmic drama.
All finite things are caused by the Infinite, but the Infinite Being – the Supreme Cause, the Thing-in-Itself – is not the effect of any cause.
The sole gift a human being may present to the Infinite Giver is love.
The Lord in His transcendent or inactive aspect in creation and the Lord in His immanent kinetic aspect as the Creator of the universe and beings are not two, but One: the Supreme Spirit, Ishvara.
The Cosmic Mother [Ishvara] could not exist nor operate without the power and guidance of the unmanifested Divine … He mysteriously manifests through her, making her feel that she is the creator, while in reality He is the unseen Origin of all.
God, as cosmic consciousness, is endless spherical expansion of blissful awareness.
All finite things are caused by the Infinite, but the Infinite Being – the Supreme Cause, the Thing-in-Itself – is not the effect of any cause.
The sole gift a human being may present to the Infinite Giver is love.
The Lord in His transcendent or inactive aspect in creation and the Lord in His immanent kinetic aspect as the Creator of the universe and beings are not two, but One: the Supreme Spirit, Ishvara.
The Cosmic Mother [Ishvara] could not exist nor operate without the power and guidance of the unmanifested Divine … He mysteriously manifests through her, making her feel that she is the creator, while in reality He is the unseen Origin of all.
God, as cosmic consciousness, is endless spherical expansion of blissful awareness.
3 - The Nature of Mankind 
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Mankind has a dual nature. The first is his native state as the immortal, blissful soul, his god-self. The second is his delusive state as a mortal body-form under the control of his false ego-self. God had planned to liberate the human soul after a short wisdom-experience on this earth. Through misuse of his free will, however, man became earthbound, involving himself needlessly in a prolonged series of reincarnations. Original man was uniquely endowed to express soul perfection, maintain divine consciousness and return to Spirit after a blissful sojourn on earth. Karma governs one’s destiny, but karma is governed by one’s will power. What is to be does not necessarily have to be. Man’s free will and divine determination can change the course of events in his life, or at the very least mitigate adverse aspects. Mankind is in pursuit of true happiness. Everyone, therefore, sooner or later will have to turn to the Source, and thereby will find the divine bliss of Spirit. The wise reach the goal quickly, through meditation; worldly people more slowly, by comparison of good and evil; while those who are now “wicked” will seek spiritual bliss only after many disillusionments prove the folly of their misdirected course. All happenings are determined by a conjunctive effort between God the macrocosmic Creator, and God the microcosmic creator through individualized expression in man. In the long pathway of reincarnation which ultimately leads to God, the soul appears in countless forms; the soul is not slain when the body dies; and even when the soul returns to Spirit, it does not lose its identity, but will exist unto everlastingness. |
Having once come into existence, the soul never ceases to be, even at the time of cosmic dissolution when all matter is resolved into Spirit.
Man is karmically forced to take birth again and again in a physical body. This compulsory confinement is alien to man’s real nature and gives offense to the illimitable soul.
The human body and mind are delusive thought-forms that provide the soul with a means to experience the Lord’s cosmic chiaroscuro [the play of light and shadow images]
4 - Ego-self and God-self 
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As mentioned above, mankind has a dual nature. The first is his native state as the immortal, blissful soul, his god-self. The second is his delusive state as a mortal body-form under the control of his false ego-self. After many, many hard knocks, mankind realizes that his joyous divine kingdom lies within, which is free from pain and suffering. The “I”, or ego – the dream projection of the soul – is what thinks and uses its powers of sensation to know and relate to the dream of material creation ..... Thought and sensation are not a part of the soul, but are the experience of the ego consciousness in the dream. The soul, as the ego, ascribes to itself all the limitations and circumscriptions of the body. Once so identified, the soul can no longer express its omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. It imagines itself to be limited – just as a rich prince, wandering in a state of amnesia in the slums, might imagine himself to be a pauper. When the veil of delusion is removed by deep meditation, he beholds himself not as a body but as an omnipresent being. In ecstatic awakening, the dark body-dream of the soul disappears as the soul realizes its oneness with omnipresent Spirit. The awakened soul, finding the absolute completeness of Spirit within itself, laughs at its ridiculous desires of incarnations in which so many times the Self, a prince of infinity, had impersonated a mortal beggar. The soul consciousness can say “I and my Father[Spirit] are one.” The deluded ego consciousness says, “I am the body; this is my family and name; these are my possessions.” Withdrawing the mind from indulgence in lower kinds of paltry pleasures of the senses, man enters a vast kingdom of unending joy. The wise man learns by meditation to differentiate between the indwelling immortal soul and its perishable bodily encasement. The material man takes life seriously and makes it full of worries, sorrow, and tragedy. The divine man makes life an enjoyable game. Man has not to acquire, but to remember, the soul joy within. |
By introspective analysis of the human condition involved in birth, disease, decrepitude, and death, the wise man avoids the inherent pains and evils of the domain of Nature’s changes by constant remembrance of his immortal, transcendent Self.
A half-awake dreamer is aware of his dream body without being attached to its dream activities. Similarly, a yogi remains unentangled who, even though functioning as the ego in his mortal dream-body, nevertheless perceives God as the Sole Reality.
After the fall, the state of divine consciousness was lost as well as the ability to see oneself as a soul encased in a wondrous body of consciousness, life force and atomic radiation. This was replaced by identification with the limitations of the gross physical form and the forfeiting of omniscient immortality and the paradise of Cosmic Consciousness.
The kingly soul, a perfect image of the omnipresent all-powerful Spirit, is sleeping in ignorance, dreaming that it is a poor mortal with afflictions and limitations. When by meditation this false body consciousness or ego consciousness disappears, the soul realizes its own status as the prince-son of the King of the Universe.
A man identified with his body becomes the ego. The ego views as reality the unreal world. When by yoga that man unites his ego with his soul, he beholds life as a dream of God.
5 - The Cosmic Hypnosis of Maya 
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The Cosmic hypnosis of maya can be viewed in different ways. For example, God may be viewed as a master Cosmic Hypnotist who uses maya to put a magic spell on mankind. Under the spell, the universe appears solid and real even though it is just a dream structure in the consciousness of God. Similarly, our body-forms appear real even though they are also dreams. So maya keeps us in delusion and unaware of our true nature as gods. However, without maya, there could be no creation, because everything would be seen as pure consciousness without form. Eventually, each of us overcomes the cosmic spell of maya and re-awakens to our native state as gods. Just as the light going out of the movie booth is seen to be a transparent searchlight free from any inherent pictures, yet images mysteriously appear on the screen; so God from His booth is emanating a spherical bundle of rays, invisible searchlights, which produce on the screen of space an endless variety of apparently real pictures. But the images are shadowy illusions; the only reality is God and His individualized consciousness in the forms that behold and interact in the play. God, the Master Hypnotist, through His power of maya has suggested to individualized souls to visualize the universe with all its intricacies and details. As a person under hypnotic influence can be made to act as if he were a different personality, so God evolves souls out of Himself and hypnotizes them by delusion (maya) into perceiving themselves as encased in animal or human bodies. The hypnotized person cannot get out of his unreal state without being dehypnotized. By wisdom and self-analysis and by the grace of God, man can get himself dehypnotized from cosmic delusion. The mayic cylinder of time and space produces the myriad patterns of creation that delight and awe both gods and men. Who but He created maya and its labyrinths of misery. |
Man may learn how to remain uninvolved in maya and how to view the panorama of life’s experiences as sheer entertainment.
6 - Good, Evil & Suffering 
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Why is there evil in creation? And why is there so much suffering. These topics were addressed in various pages of the Journey of Awakening section of this website, and in particular the web page Why is There Suffering? Some additional thoughts below from Yogananda's God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita. When man forsakes delusion he regains the inner paradise. The Gita therefore says that people suffer just because they do not open the eye of spiritual perception; they are immersed in the ever-changing outer world. Certain dogmas try to “explain away” evil by saying that God is perfect and cannot know evil; yet Jesus prayed to God: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” i.e., “Do not allow us to succumb to the influence and test of the evil created by Thee.” The Omnipresent Lord knows that He is the creator of evil. Good and evil must ever be complements on this earth. Everything created must bear some guise of imperfection. How else could God, the Sole Perfection, fragment His one consciousness into forms of creation distinguishable from Himself? There can be no images of light without contrasting shadows. Unless evil had been created, man would not know the opposite, good. Night brings out the bright contrast of day; sorrow teaches us the desirability of joy. Though evil must come, woe to him by whom it comes. He who is enticed by delusion to play the villain’s part must suffer the villain’s sad karmic fate, while the hero receives the hallowed reward of his virtue. Knowing this truth, we must shun evil; becoming good, we ultimately rise to God’s high estate—beyond both evil and good. A man who forgets his real Self for numerous lives becomes so riddled by suffering that he cannot stand himself or his own habits. As soon as he tries earnestly to improve, he discovers the path to divine joy. Eternal perdition, or final immersion in delusion, is impossible. A piece of gold, though hidden under debris as large as the Himalayas, will remain always gold. When the dirt is removed, the gold in its true nature shines forth. Similarly, a mountain of sin covering the soul cannot change its intrinsic nature as an image of Perfection. Man has been made in the divine image and can therefore never be eternally consigned to a limbo of delusion. It is impossible for a soul to become eternally evil because it is eternally good. |
The Lord never punishes anyone for evil actions. Man himself is the sower and reaper of his own sufferings. Foolishly going against the divine laws and the nature of his own Being, he is the sole cause of his own hurt.
Man himself by his actions reaps the results of his good and bad karma owing to the proper use or misuse of his free will. In this sense God does not remain in this universe as a watcher of human beings, constantly rewarding or punishing them according to their virtues or sins. But He has made laws, which do mete out invariable justice.
Note – in other writings, Yogananda also mentioned another process in creation – the Grace of God. The karmic law can be mitigated or erased by the grace of God - right actions and love can attract this precious gift.
7 - The Dream Universe 
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The mystics and modern science tell us that the universe is not what it seems - reality is much different than what our human senses reveal. To help in understanding this mysterious universe, many useful analogies/metaphors have been developed. In The Enchanted Universe section of this website, a web page entitled Helpful Creation Analogies looks at several of these creation analogies. In God Talks With Arjuna; The Bhagavad Gita, Yogananda refers to two of these creation analogies, i.e. the Dream Universe and the Cosmic Motion Picture show. Modern science has discovered that the various material elements are nothing more than differently vibrating atoms. The universe is a cosmic motion picture of dancing atoms, which in turn are energy-sparks—not matter at all but vibratory waves. The phenomenal spheres were created by God by condensation of light ..... all matter is merely the condensed thoughts or visualized dreams of God. It is the vibrationless Cosmic Consciousness that has become the one vibrating cosmic light. This light, projecting away from God, becomes shadowed with delusion, producing the cosmic motion picture of dream images, including the body of man. One's body, the separately existing images of other human beings and all material objects are streaming unceasingly from one Source: the consciousness of God. God’s dream motion picture is projected on the screen of space and man’s consciousness. The material world of solid, liquid, and gaseous substances – all are dreams of God introduced into man’s consciousness. The essential nature of matter is thus the mind-stuff of God. God has spun this eventful cosmic play on the stage of time to entertain us, but we take the shadows as serious realities. The yogi beholds all mundane scenes with undisturbed tranquility, knowing them to be only lights and shadows: changing vibrations of the Cosmic Beam. The superman sees the motion picture of the cosmos going backward and forward on the screen of his consciousness: he knows in this way that time and space are dimensional forms of thought, displaying cosmic motion pictures, dreams that are constantly new, infinitely varied. |
If a dreaming person becomes half-awakened, his consciousness embraces a dual comprehension: he partly believes his dream objects to be real, and partly realizes them as mind-spun or unreal. Similarly, in a “half-awake” state of ecstasy, a devotee beholds the world as manifoldness and yet also as a unified divine apparition.
Even as God by His mind power materializes His consciousness into the cosmic dream world, so man, made in His image, can also materialize ideas into a miniature dream world.
When the mind becomes powerful like the Creator’s, one can materialize or dematerialize his body or a universe, knowing them to be dream images of thought.
Advanced beings realize that the physical, astral, and causal bodies and the physical, astral, and causal universes are all dream condensations of God’s thoughts. Such masters are able to resolve everything into divine thought; they can instantaneously traverse eternity with the speed of thought.
Man’s unmodified divine consciousness, as the individualized soul, is the basis of all his expressions. God’s power of visualization has been inherited by man. Man creates his own illusions of reality and “materializes” or brings them into being or expression through his consciousness - thus is he a miniature creator, fashioning good or ill for himself and the phenomenal world of which he is an operative part.
“By itself the physical world is not fully real, but takes shape only as a result of the acts of numerous centers of consciousness” ~ Nick Herbert, Ph.D., from Elemental Mind: Human Consciousness and the New Physics
"A rose is a rose because man sees it as such; without him it would only be a pattern of energy vortices” ~ Marilyn Ferguson from The Brain Revolution
Cathedrals and primroses, works of art and works of steel – what a world the mind has constructed from the electrical storms in a few cubic centimeters of gray matter” ~ Raynor Johnson, Australian physicist
In a dream one may behold a battle between the righteous and the wicked, and may witness the killing of the evil by the good. On waking from the dream, the dreamer will realize that the killing of the vicious people and the surviving of the righteous were both an outcome of his interior imagination; there was no actual destruction. Similarly, Krishna told Arjuna that the battle between his righteous relatives and his wicked ones was nothing but a struggle witnessed by Arjuna in a state of cosmic delusion in which he was spiritually asleep.
8 - The Material Universe 
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Although to the mystic mind, the universe exists as a projection of consciousness that can be seen as a dream or cosmic motion picture, as mentioned in the section above, the ego-mind sees the material or physical universe as something real. The frozen light structures of the material universe are far more fascinating that most realize, as indicated below. In the Gita, the zenith of Krishna’s revelations to Arjuna comes in Chapter XI, the “vision of visions.” The Lord reveals His cosmic form: universes upon universes, inconceivably vast, created and sustained by the infinite omnipotence of Spirit which is simultaneously aware of the tiniest particle of subatomic matter and the cosmic movement of the galactic immensities—of every thought, feeling, and action of every being on the material and heavenly planes of existence. There are endless universes, tier upon tier, zone after zone, all revolving within him - floating island universes roaming in space. The universe created by God has many inhabited planets in the physical, astral, and causal cosmoses. The physical cosmos, with its many “island universes” floating in the eternal void, is encircled by a nimbus of radiant energy that melts away into the larger astral world. The astral cosmos is a grander manifestation of creation than the physical, and runs through and beyond the latter. In the astral cosmos many luminous galaxies of various densities, with their astral solar and stellar systems, are roving in a vaster sphere of eternity. The largest or causal cosmos contains countless causal galactic systems with their suns and planets, roaming all through the physical and astral cosmoses and far beyond their boundaries to the outermost sphere of vibratory space … In the causal universe, God’s finest creative forces of consciousness, and highly evolved beings with their intuitive processes, objectify universes from subtle divine thought forces. Astronomers know that the earth belongs to a certain galaxy and that many other island universes float in an infinitude of circular space. Someday other inhabited physical planets will be discovered; there will be interplanetary communication and travel …. Inventions of atomic-energy-powered planes moving with incredible speed will make obsolete all present-day airplanes and will someday enable us quickly to reach distant planets. |
Inhabitants of other physical worlds live under environmental influences far different from those of our planet. Beings who dwell on certain stars, for instance, absorb life energy directly; they do not breathe air like earthly beings.
In His vast creative display, the Lord has provided a place for every coterie of evolution and interest of His creatures. There are sattvic universes, which contain fundamentally good beings. There are rajasic universes in which the bulk of beings are passionate with desireful activity – this earth is predominantly rajasic in this stage of its evolution; in the strata between good and evil, it is about midway. Similarly, there are universes that are dominated primarily by tamasic or evil manifestations – bestial creatures as in earth’s prehistoric ages of dinosaurs and other ferocious beasts of land, water, and air.
An accomplished yogi can behold the physical cosmos and its beings as the cosmic dream of God. Or he can project his consciousness into the astral world and perceive its panorama of indescribably beautiful island universe and beings made of ethereal blendings of various colored lights. Or he can lift his consciousness into the sublime causal sphere, with its galaxies of dazzling wisdom-objects and beings and their interactions – a glorious diadem in the eternally still, endless skies of Spirit … or go beyond to the transcendent vibrationless region of God. He is able to perceive one portion of the Lord’s consciousness as the transcendental eternal peace, and another portion as the ripple of cosmic dreams – the worlds of creation.
The vast majority of beings, worldly men, keep on reincarnating on earth or like planets suited to their natures and desires.
Advanced but still imperfect yogis who are disappointed in this world are given a chance to experience the happiness available in the bright astral spheres, or are allowed to reincarnate on other planets of the physical universe that boast better conditions of existence than does our earth.
The lifespan for a whole universe, according to ancient seers, is over 300 trillion years – an Age of Brahma.
Whenever this earthly school has fulfilled its temporary purpose in God’s scheme according to cyclic timing, or whenever all the inhabitants have been completely educated in manifesting complete divinity, then, through a cosmic deluge, Spirit will not only release human beings but also the karma-tortured active atoms of the earth. In partial dissolutions, only certain areas of the earth are “dissolved,” such as the continent of Atlantis [about 9000 BCE] and the Land of Mu (Lemuria) in the Pacific.
9 - The Illusion of Time 
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This subject was addressed in the web posting The Enigma of Time (July2018) on the What's New page of this website. The following extracts from God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita offer some additional fascinating insights into this topic. Divine consciousness has no past, no future, because it is never interrupted, like man’s, by death or limitation. Eternal consciousness has one time – the ever present. God looks through the window of infinite consciousness on the films of finite happenings of the past, present, and future shown on the screen of time and space, continuously moving backward and forward in an eternal now. The Cosmic Dreamer is aware not only of His present cosmic dreams, but of all that went on within Him in the past, and of all that is going to happen within Him in the future – appearing and disappearing in His spaceless, timeless consciousness of an eternal present. In the highest consciousness, the devotee perceives the cosmic light, his own body, and all the scenes of creation to be moving within himself as a series of motion pictures. In this state the present, past, and future are revealed as one; all variety is merged in the unity of the Eternal Presence. |
Time and its corollary, space, as observed in the world of relativity, are “man-made” categories, suggested by Nature’s power of illusion.
Devotees who realize the dream nature of this cosmos and the dreaming power of God no longer rely on the misleading illusions of Nature’s measurers, the conclusions from which make creation seem often harsh and unjust.
God has no respect for “history”, man’s limited and erroneous conceptions of time and space, for He can produce any past being, object, or event instantaneously in His ever present dream consciousness.
God is the Eternal Consciousness, unchanging and indivisible, in which the illusions of time and space present an infinite variety of forms interacting in a progressive mode of past, present and future. When a dreamer travels around the world in his dream, he does so, not in time and space, but in his consciousness only. Similarly, the cosmic dream is occurring neither in vast space nor in a series of past, present, and future time, but in the Eternal Now of God’s dream consciousness.
10 - The Royal Science of Yoga 
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Raja Yoga is the highest form of yoga. It emphasizes the use of scientific meditation techniques as the fastest means by which one can awaken from cosmic delusion and return to one's native state as a god. Paramahansa Yogananda taught this path to his disciples. The specific Raja Yoga technique that he taught is known as Kriya Yoga. Yogananda also included other forms of yoga (e.g. bhakta, jnana and hatha yoga) as part of each disciple's sadhana, or spiritual practices. To know that he lives in a state of cosmic delusion is man’s first precious glimpse of truth. To learn and practice yoga – the method of deliverance from delusion – is to possess an incomparable treasure. Without the assistance of proper action, an individual cannot disregard the influence of past karma and by his free choice alone win freedom. For example, a man born with body-consciousness due to past karma … even though he wants only to remain in a state of God-realization in samadhi, his body compels him to exhale and inhale and thus forces his mind to remain on the restless plane of the senses. The devotee must therefore exercise his free choice to learn and to practice persistently the yoga technique of transcending body consciousness, so that he can gradually succeed in disconnecting his mind from the senses, body, and breath; then he can attain the coveted samadhi state of continuous God-communion. The Lord Himself here extols the royal path of yoga as the highest of all spiritual paths, and the scientific yogi as greater than a follower of any other path. Raja Yoga, specifically Kriya Yoga, is the quintessence of all yoga paths, the path especially favored by royal sages and great yogis in ancient India. By the practice of yoga man frees himself from the reactions of likes and dislikes by filling his heart with unchanging ecstatic divine joy, he sees clearly the true workings by Nature of the Lord’s cosmic cinematography. |
The creative forces have their origin in the kundalini, the coiled life energy in the base center of the spine that enlivens the sense faculties when it flows down and outward into the body, but which bestows enlightenment when “tamed” and uplifted to the higher centers of spiritual perception.
The yogi reverses the searchlights of intelligence, mind, and life force inward through the seven chakras to reveal finally the soul’s presence in the highest center (sahasrara) in the brain.
Both Sankhya and Yoga teach how to attain Brahman; Vedanta describes and discusses what is to be found by following the advice of Sankhya and, most important, by practicing the techniques of Yoga. All three philosophies point out the same goal, but Sankhya and Yoga must be followed first, for without their aid Spirit remains unreachable and unknown. Only after one has realized Brahman does the Vedanta discussion about Him become truly meaningful.
A yogi thoroughly trains himself throughout his life, practicing non-attachment to the objects of sense and harmoniously uniting his ego with his soul by disconnecting life force and mind from the senses. Thus he can withdraw his ego at will from the material world. Then, by sensory-motor relaxation, he learns to withdraw his ego, life force, and mind from the physical body into the inner organs and spine. By voluntary relaxation he withdraws his ego, life force, and mind upward through the seven cerebrospinal centers and unites them with the bliss of the soul. Finally he withdraws his soul (detached from its ego nature, his bodily operative consciousness, his life force, and his astral and causal bodies) and unites it with Spirit.
11 - Meditation 
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Meditation is a powerful method used to still one's ego-mind and to help awaken one's god-mind. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna extols the value of scientific methods of meditation to help overcome the cosmic hypnosis of maya. The yogi’s meditative efforts confront and in time remove all vestiges of prenatal and postnatal karma. Through meditative actions and helping others, in time he will feel the presence of Him who is ever conscious of the struggling devotee’s efforts. One who keeps on with his meditations and serviceful actions and perseveres with unabated zeal, will ultimately find Him. If even the mere desire for liberation ultimately leads one to liberation, as the sages promise, it is obvious that determined, steady efforts at meditation must immensely quicken one’s spiritual evolution. The yogi who goes into the depths of silence, the kingdom of God within, finds that as his consciousness and life force begin to withdraw from body consciousness, he soars though the aesthetic tunnel of the spine into the God-contact perceptible in the subtle cerebral centers as ever new Bliss. Enthroned in this palace of joy, the yogi never yearns again for the suffocating slums of sense pleasures. It is not hypocrisy to practice scientific meditation sincerely in a self-controlled quiet bodily posture, even if the mind is restless, when the goal is God. Eventually, this highest form of action will harmonize the restless mental state with the calm physical pose. When the mind and body are both quieted by yoga, the devotee quickly advances toward the joyous state of Spirit. With full devotion practice Kriya Yoga, and the increased life force coursing toward your brain will “cauterize” the seeds of all reincarnation-making good and bad karma grooved in the cerebrum and subconscious. |
When the life force that is withdrawn from the senses is concentrated in the thousand-petaled lotus in the brain, that powerful effulgence burns out all samskaras (habits, impulses, and other effects of past actions) lodged in the subconsciousness and superconsciousness of the brain, bestowing on the devotee freedom from all past karmic fetters.
When breath ceases in the Kriya Yogi, he is suffused with an incomparable bliss. He realizes then that it is the storm of human breath that is responsible for the creation of the dream wave of the human body and its sensations; it is breath that causes body consciousness.
Breath is the cord that ties the consciousness to the body and senses …. When the heart is controlled, breath control follows.
No devotee comes on earth only to meditate on the Lord and to do nothing else. Had that been his goal, he would have found many other worlds in God’s vast creation far better suited to his purpose.
The blissful Light shines behind the darkness; in deep silence, with closed eyes, any devotee may behold It. “Be still and know that I am God.”
The wisdom path (Jnana Yoga) is long, dry, and hard. The Yoga way is short, easy, and strewn with perceptions of ever new bliss. Wisdom is not as impelling a force as divine bliss!
In this state [nirvikalpa samadhi] he can choose to remain awake in God, without viewing the dream of creation, or can remain in the “half-awake” blissful state, realizing the cosmos as a varied dream.
In nirvikalpa the devotee perceives the cosmic light, his own body, and all the scenes of creation to be moving within himself as a series of motion pictures. In this state the present, past, and future are revealed as one; all variety is merged in the unity of the Eternal Presence.
Pranayama, or Kriya Yoga, signifies one thing – controlling the life force in the body by conscious will so that it does not depend on oxygen, sunshine, solids, and liquids but on the inner source of cosmic life.
Methods of spiritual freedom are various, but the actual attainment of liberation by ascent through the spine is universal. Whether through the intense devotion and prayer of the bhakta, or the pure discrimination of the jnani, or the nonattached selfless actions of the karma yogi, the consciousness purified and concentrated thereby still makes its final ascent to God through the subtle spinal channels through which it descended into flesh.
Kriya Yoga, practiced deeply, will dissolve breath into mind, mind into intuition, intuition into the joyous perception of soul, and soul into the cosmic bliss of Spirit.
The meditating devotee who has felt, even once, the inexhaustible charm of the soul and its eternal relationship with God can never forget the joy of it … the haunting memory of that pure joy will call again and again to urge him forward on the divine path.
12 - Spiritual Guides 
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The cosmic hypnosis of maya that mankind is subjected to as part of the drama of this dream creation is so strong that mankind's ego-mind is unable to undo its spell. As we progress through many lifetimes, we learn by experience and by the advice of teachers that we encounter. When we reach the point where we have had enough of the drama of creation, God sends each of us a spiritual guide who is responsible for our awakening from the cosmic hypnosis. Such a one is referred to as a guru in the East and a master in the West. In addition, for the benefit for mankind as a whole, God occasionally sends an avatar, an enlightened being, who has a world mission to help raise the overall consciousness of mankind in general. This earth is a stage whereon a divine drama is being evolved. Whenever the majority of human actors misuse their God-given freedom, and by the creation of evil bring suffering and upset the divine plans … then God, the Cosmic Director, appears on the stage in a human form (an avatar) to instruct the amateur thespians in the proper art of living. |
God prefers to manifest Himself through partially liberated and fully liberated beings … because such souls were once ordinary human beings subject to all the temptations and delusions of Cosmic Nature. Such divine agents have sympathy, humor and understanding.
For those who reject the indignity of mortal encumbrances on their immortality, and who seek early liberation with the free choice to select their dwelling in physical, astral, or causal form or in formless Blissful Infinity, the Lord sends His avatars to show the way to hasten salvation.
A liberated disciple is completely loyal to his master, the guru who had shown him the way to liberation, but he always respects other avatars and masters.
Among these emancipated ones are the great gurus or spiritual preceptors appointed by the Lord to help mankind in silent, secret ways. They do not require any agent or “medium” to reach the truth-seeker who wants and needs their aid; they assist their disciples directly. Whether or not the devotee is conscious of such help does not matter; he will understand that he is receiving divine succor according to the way he himself changes inwardly and outwardly for the better.
Every prophet quantitatively helps society, the masses around him, who respond with a little ardor and some slight inner development. But qualitatively he concentrates on raising a small group to supreme spiritual stature, as did Jesus, Lahiri Mahasaya, and others.
“To keep company with the guru is not only to be in his physical presence (as this is sometimes impossible), but mainly means to keep him in our hearts and to be one with him in principle and to attune ourselves with him” ~ Sri Yukteswar, from The Holy Science
For those who reject the indignity of mortal encumbrances on their immortality, and who seek early liberation with the free choice to select their dwelling in physical, astral, or causal form or in formless Blissful Infinity, the Lord sends His avatars to show the way to hasten salvation.
A liberated disciple is completely loyal to his master, the guru who had shown him the way to liberation, but he always respects other avatars and masters.
Among these emancipated ones are the great gurus or spiritual preceptors appointed by the Lord to help mankind in silent, secret ways. They do not require any agent or “medium” to reach the truth-seeker who wants and needs their aid; they assist their disciples directly. Whether or not the devotee is conscious of such help does not matter; he will understand that he is receiving divine succor according to the way he himself changes inwardly and outwardly for the better.
Every prophet quantitatively helps society, the masses around him, who respond with a little ardor and some slight inner development. But qualitatively he concentrates on raising a small group to supreme spiritual stature, as did Jesus, Lahiri Mahasaya, and others.
“To keep company with the guru is not only to be in his physical presence (as this is sometimes impossible), but mainly means to keep him in our hearts and to be one with him in principle and to attune ourselves with him” ~ Sri Yukteswar, from The Holy Science
13 - Enlightenment 
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Each of us starts out as a god, a soul with the same characteristics as Spirit, i.e. boundless awareness of indescribable bliss, everlasting peace, love supreme, oneness with all that exists and knowledge of all there is to know. In order to play in the dream drama of creation, the soul puts on a covering of a body-form. If the soul forgets its true nature as a god and, in delusion, believes that the body-form is its true self, then the soul must undertake the process of liberating itself from this delusion to re-attain awareness of its original and native state as a god. This is often referred to as the process of enlightenment. “When a human form of God knows its true identity as God, then this human form may be said to be “awakened” or “enlightened.” But it is not any separate human “self” who is awake, but God who is awake in that human form of God …... Thus, in truth, there is no one who, as an individual human self, can be or become enlightened or awakened - there is only God who, in human form, may be either awake or not.” ~ Thomas J. McFarlane When worldly enticements are at last deemed not worth their toll of suffering and precarious wanderings in maya, and the player cries out from his core for deliverance, then the hidden God by His unseen touch melts the band of unknowing from man’s eyes of wisdom. That soul no longer has to blunder through the stygian darkness … God liberates that soul forever. Then in joy and more joy the Lord appears openly to His devotee. He makes known that man’s sojourn in maya was meant only for entertainment; and that if everyone found Him easily, then His cosmic lila of hide-and-seek would be over in a trice. He explains that His hiding was not meant to cause suffering, but to heighten the enjoyment of man’s ultimate, inevitable discovery of the Eternal Love. When a mortal being tires of groping through the darkness of unknowing, and uses his God-given intelligence to ask the right questions, follow the right actions, and demand enlightenment, God in His infinite compassion responds to that sincere entreaty. A man of God-consciousness learns to dream at will, perceiving then his dream world as reality. He learns, too, to dissolve his dream at will, realizing then that his dream creation was a mere mental phenomenon. All illusory nightmares gone, he merges his consciousness with the Divine Dreamer, ever witnessing the colorful premieres of “super-colossal” spectacle plays. |
By meditation, unceasing desire to regain his lost paradise, and divine grace, one can be liberated.
The quality of a yogi’s meditation and other actions … constitutes only 25% of the requirements for liberation. Another 25% depends upon the guru’s blessing, spiritually stimulating the disciple’s striving. But the guru’s help and the devotee’s effort notwithstanding, it is necessary to have also God’s grace, which may be said to constitute the remaining 50% of the requirements.
As a prisoner regaining his liberty after many years is suffused with happiness, so the yogi who emerges from the confinement of numerous incarnations into the freedom of Spiritual Identity is overwhelmed by inexhaustible joy.
The soul of the emancipated yogi can remain merged, if he wishes, in the Absolute, as the Absolute. Or the liberated yogi, owing to the retention of his God-created individuality (which can never be lost), may remain or reappear in the physical body in which he was liberated … or in any desired materialized form (such as one of the deities, or as incarnate in one of the avatars such as Christ or Sri Krishna), or as the All-Pervading Infinite.
Whether awake in Blissful Transcendence or consciously dreaming with God the cosmic fantasy of being, the liberated soul suffers no more the ignoble confinement that binds the majority to the ceaseless cycles of creation.
A sincere devotee beholds the entire cosmic dream of God as a projection on the screen of his own consciousness.
He is the soul, individualized ever-existent, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss, the pure reflection of Spirit, endowed with cosmic consciousness. Never a victim of imaginary perceptions, fanciful inspirations, or “wisdom” hallucinations, the superman is always intensely conscious of the Unmanifested Spirit and also of the entire cosmos in all its bewildering variety.
The emancipated being knows divine thought to be the matrix of creation; he too is now able to materialize thought into the shape of his former body or into the shape of any other body in which he may wish to appear. Or, by choice, he may remain merged in the Formless Absolute, in the bliss of the Transcendental Spirit.
When the mind becomes powerful like the Creator’s, one can materialize or dematerialize his body or a universe, knowing them to be dream images of thought.
He who is one with the Father is conscious simultaneously of the smallest and the greatest happenings in the universe. A devotee who perceives God in all beings feels naturally, as his own, the pleasures and pains of other beings … yet, beyond all experiences of duality; he realizes the cosmic blessedness of God ever transcendentally existent.
The liberated man, beholding Spirit as the Creator of countless universes; of the endless procession of angels, Manus, rishis, human beings, and the lower forms of life; and of the innumerable processes of their perceptions and the modes of their becomings, is filled with awe at the hitherto unknown oceanic vastness spread out behind the little wave of his consciousness.
Countless good souls have been liberated.
14 - Death & Immortality 
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Spirit is formless, ever-existing, consciousness - boundless awareness of indescribable love and bliss. As part of his dream creation, Spirit created the gods, the souls - individualized extensions of Itself. In essence, the gods, the souls, are the same as Spirit. Each of us is one of these individualized souls - a god. In our native state we are formless, boundless bliss - immortal consciousness of ever-new joy. To play in the dream creation, the souls occupy body-forms. At first, the body-forms are quite subtle, i.e. the thin film of the causal form that can take on any size and shape and can traverse creation at the speed of thought. Later, the souls occupy the more fixed, defined shapes of astral and physical forms. These forms are both coverings made of light energy, but in the physical forms, the light energy is held in shape by much denser bonds. One who is aware of his native state as a god can move about the causal, astral and physical universes and switch body-forms at will. However, most souls have forgotten their native state as gods and have come to believe that the body-forms that they occupy are their true selves. Their god-awareness has been overcome by ego-consciousness. |
The physical forms have a limited time span before they no longer function and need to be replaced. With god-awareness, such a transition to another form - physical, astral or causal is simple. For those trapped in ego-consciousness, such a transition is quite traumatic, since they believe that their true selves are dying.
Moving from a physical to an astral body-form for one in ego-consciousness feels like death - even though the soul can never die. The gods, or souls, are immortal. While suffering from the delusion of ego-consciousness, body-form transitions seem like the end, even though they are not.
Mortal man finds himself unprepared for death .... Man’s dimming mind is disturbed by the awakened memory of all kinds of battling good and evil karma of this life and of past lives ... The ego is aghast to discover that the long-familiar bodily instrument is becoming inert and insensible.
The ego enters a tug-of-war with death. So long as desire for physical life remains, the ego lodges adamantly in the brain and spine, even while a state of apparent death is manifesting in the physical form. When the ego utterly fails to arouse the paralyzed body, it reluctantly makes its exit in the astral body into the astral world.
Births and deaths are inevitable for man only during the state of ignorance in which he thinks he is the body.
Just as the dying hero on a motion picture screen has not really been slain, so the soul of man, playing a role in the cosmic motion picture of life, is ever living.
The deathless soul dwelling in the destructible body is ever constant through all cycles of bodily disintegrations.
Though the bodies of man be mortal and changeable, immortal is the soul within them.
Man’s individuality as an existent entity can never be erased from him. In the ordinary death-in-bondage, the soul of man merely changes its residence; and in the final death-in-freedom, the soul expands into the Spirit, at home in Infinity!
In the long pathway of reincarnation which ultimately leads to God, the soul appears in countless forms; the soul is not slain when the body dies; and even when the soul returns to Spirit, it does not lose its identity, but will exist unto everlastingness.
Moving from a physical to an astral body-form for one in ego-consciousness feels like death - even though the soul can never die. The gods, or souls, are immortal. While suffering from the delusion of ego-consciousness, body-form transitions seem like the end, even though they are not.
Mortal man finds himself unprepared for death .... Man’s dimming mind is disturbed by the awakened memory of all kinds of battling good and evil karma of this life and of past lives ... The ego is aghast to discover that the long-familiar bodily instrument is becoming inert and insensible.
The ego enters a tug-of-war with death. So long as desire for physical life remains, the ego lodges adamantly in the brain and spine, even while a state of apparent death is manifesting in the physical form. When the ego utterly fails to arouse the paralyzed body, it reluctantly makes its exit in the astral body into the astral world.
Births and deaths are inevitable for man only during the state of ignorance in which he thinks he is the body.
Just as the dying hero on a motion picture screen has not really been slain, so the soul of man, playing a role in the cosmic motion picture of life, is ever living.
The deathless soul dwelling in the destructible body is ever constant through all cycles of bodily disintegrations.
Though the bodies of man be mortal and changeable, immortal is the soul within them.
Man’s individuality as an existent entity can never be erased from him. In the ordinary death-in-bondage, the soul of man merely changes its residence; and in the final death-in-freedom, the soul expands into the Spirit, at home in Infinity!
In the long pathway of reincarnation which ultimately leads to God, the soul appears in countless forms; the soul is not slain when the body dies; and even when the soul returns to Spirit, it does not lose its identity, but will exist unto everlastingness.
15 - Final Thoughts 
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One of the features of Paramahansa Yogananda's world mission was to leave behind enchanting and enduring spiritual writings for the benefit of future generations. This is a rare gift (see note below). Three of Yogananda's books can be considered monumental; 1 - Autobiography of a Yogi. Excerpts from this extraordinary book have been provided in a web posting by the same name in October 2020 on the What's New page of this website. The web posting Addendum - Autobiography of a Yogi (January 2021) also addresses this book. 2 - The Second Coming of Christ. The web posting The Story of Issa (December 2017) on the What's New page of this website was inspired by this book. The Story of Issa looks at the life of Jesus and includes many quotations from The Second Coming of Christ. 3 - God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita. The web posting above completes the trilogy of addressing these three extraordinary spiritual classics. "The divine purpose of creation, so far as man’s reason can grasp it, is expounded in the Vedas. The rishis taught that each human being has been created by God as a soul that will uniquely manifest some special attribute of the Infinite before resuming its Absolute Identity. All men, endowed thus with a facet of Divine Individuality, are equally dear to God." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, from Autobiography of a Yogi "The veracity of the Biblical stories of Jesus is regarded skeptically by many in the modern age. Scoffing at supernormal capacities that challenge common prejudices about what is humanly possible, some staunchly deny that the God-man of the Gospels ever lived. Others concede a measure of historicity to Jesus, but depict him only as a charismatic ethical or spiritual teacher. But to the New Testament account of the Christ of Galilee I humbly add my own testimony. From personal experience I know the reality of his life and miracles, for I have seen him many, many times, and communed with him, and received his direct confirmation about these matters." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, from The Second Coming of Christ "As God talked with Arjuna, so will He talk with you. As He lifted up the spirit and consciousness of Arjuna, so will He uplift you. As He granted Arjuna supreme spiritual vision, so will He confer enlightenment on you." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, from God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita |
Note: The only other modern-day mystic who has written as extensively as Yogananda, is Swami Abhayananda. I have provided excerpts from his wonderful spiritual writings in the web posting The Writings of Swami Abhayananda (April 2019) on the What's New page of this website. That posting also provides direct access to all of his inspiring books and articles.
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Addendum - God Talks With Arjuna (October 2022)
Not long after posting God Talks With Arjuna, I received an email from Swami Abhayananda who remarked, "I took another look at your latest essay on Yogananda’s God Talks To Arjuna, and I realized that you completely omitted to say anything about what I felt to be one of Yogananda’s greatest advantages over every other Bhagavad Gita I’ve ever read, and that is the inclusion of an interpretation of all of the names of the cast of characters from the Mahabharata. It is those interpretations of the Sanskrit names which Yogananda has provided that add to the Gita an additional metaphorical meaning of which many Western readers are unaware. It is one of the striking features that most impressed me when first I read Yogananda’s version. |
The Gita is metaphorical on at least two levels: firstly, as you point out, the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna is a metaphor of each man’s relationship between his individualized soul and the Divinity within him, but there is also the metaphorical representation of the elements of a man’s body, mind, and soul in the names of the story’s cast of characters. I would have loved to see your treatment of that aspect of Yogananda’s masterpiece."
I responded that while I believe the metaphorical representation of the cast of characters of the Gita as described by Yogananda is singularly brilliant, I had purposely left it out because I felt the audience for such information is quite limited. Swami Abhayananda replied that he perfectly understood.
I then thought that perhaps I should have a second look at this topic and try to strike some middle ground of adding some new information regarding Yogananda's Gita masterpiece but without getting into too much, perhaps unwanted, detail.
And so, this posting is divided into the following sections;
I responded that while I believe the metaphorical representation of the cast of characters of the Gita as described by Yogananda is singularly brilliant, I had purposely left it out because I felt the audience for such information is quite limited. Swami Abhayananda replied that he perfectly understood.
I then thought that perhaps I should have a second look at this topic and try to strike some middle ground of adding some new information regarding Yogananda's Gita masterpiece but without getting into too much, perhaps unwanted, detail.
And so, this posting is divided into the following sections;
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1 - Introduction
2 - The Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita 3 - The Allegory of the Bhagavad Gita 4 - Additional Quotations 5 - Final Thoughts All quotations below shown in purple are taken from Yogananda's book, God Talks With Arjuna. |
1 - Introduction 
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As mentioned many times in this website, each of us has a dual nature; 1 - our ego-nature in which we identify with our physical body and our immediate surroundings and spend our time playing a role in this dream drama created by Spirit; and 2 - our god-nature in which we identify with our original state as a god - boundless, immortal awareness of ever-new joy, existing as formless consciousness with all creation seen as being within that consciousness. A witness to the dream drama of creation, which is seen as pure entertainment, without ever getting caught up in the drama. Our ego-nature usually consists of a blend of good qualities (e.g. compassion, generosity, forgiveness, calmness, love, etc.) and a host of bad qualities (e.g. hate, anger, selfishness, unforgiveness, etc.). The good qualities lead to harmonious relationships in the dream drama of creation while the bad qualities lead to inharmonies, wars, famines, etc. Most people lead their lives without spending much time thinking about any of the above. They may see the negative impact of some of their bad actions and try to improve themselves, but usually they only change as a result of major events that befall them. And so it is, lifetime after lifetime. At some point, the accumulated suffering of all these lives causes one's soul, or god-nature, to call out for an escape from the dream drama of creation. At that point, one starts the process of overcoming ego-nature and reaquiring one's native god-nature. It is not an easy process, as one's ego-nature does not want to give up its dominant role. And so a battle between one's dual nature takes place. Ultimately one's god-nature wins and one attains the indescribable bliss of enlightenment and liberation from the suffering of this dream drama. The Bhagavad Gita is an allegorical description of this battle, as outlined below. |
2 - The Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita 
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The Mahābhārata is the world's longest known epic poem consisting of over 200,000 lines of verse. It was written in the Sanskrit language in India sometime between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE by the great sage Vyasa. It describes the struggle between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, before and after the battle of Kurukshetra (a plain located in Northern India). These are actual historical events which took place between the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. The Mahābhārata also contains much philosophical and devotional material and is considered one of the world's great spiritual works. The Bhagavad Gita is a 700 line selection of verse taken from the Mahābhārata (chapters 23–40 of book 6). The setting is the eve of the battle of Kurukshetra. Arjuna, one of the main warrior princes of the Pandavas has asked Krishna, his charioteer, to bring his chariot between the two opposing armies facing each other on the plains of Kurukshetra. The Gita comprises the dialogue that then takes place between Arjuna and Krishna as Arjuna despondently surveys the vast armies arrayed against each other. The actual battle of Kurukshetra took place over many days, with the Pandavas soundly defeating the Kauravas. As mentioned above, the battle is also an allegorical description of the battle that every human being ultimately undergoes as one's higher god-nature fights and defeats one's base ego-nature. A very high level overview of this allegory is summarized below. |
3 - The Allegory of the Bhagavad Gita 
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"The Gita dialogue concerns itself with the process by which that descent [i.e. Spirit into matter] may be reversed, enabling man to reascend from the limited consciousness of himself as a mortal being to the immortal consciousness of his true Self, the soul, one with the infinite Spirit." "In a language of simile, metaphor, and allegory, the Bhagavad Gita was very cleverly written by Sage Vyasa by interweaving historical facts with psychological and spiritual truths, presenting a word-painting of the tumultuous inner battles that must be waged by both the material and the spiritual man." "Symbolically, then, this is the scene as the Gita dialogue commences: Man’s soul consciousness—the realization of his oneness with the eternal, all-blissful Spirit—has descended through various gradations into mortal body-consciousness. The senses and blind mind, and the power of pure discrimination, both reign in the bodily kingdom; there is constant conflict between the forces of the materialistic senses (engaging the consciousness in the pursuit of external pleasure) and the pure discriminative power that tries to return man’s consciousness to its native state of soul-realization." Below is a list of a few of the key metaphorical representations contained within Vyasa's carefully crafted story described in the Bhagavad Gita;
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4 - Additional Quotations 
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While the quotations below from Yogananda's God talks With Arjuna do not specifically pertain to the allegorical nature of the Gita, they are insightful in their own right and were not included in the first posting on this topic. "The sublime spiritual discourse of Bhagavan Krishna to Arjuna in the 700 verses of the Gita encompasses the essence of the ponderous four Vedas, the 108 Upanishads, and the six systems of Hindu philosophy—a universal message for the solace and emancipation of all mankind." "Incarnate man is encased in a physical body of inert matter, which is animated by a subtle inner astral body of life energy and sensory powers; and both his astral and his physical body have evolved from a causal body of consciousness, which is the fine covering that gives individual existence and form to the soul ..... The first transformation is the sense of “I” or ego as the experiencer—the pure or divine ego of the causal body of man, which individualizes the soul from Spirit." "When the soul descends into body consciousness, it comes under the influence of maya (cosmic delusion) ….. the soul becomes the limited ego, which identifies itself with the body and the body’s relatives and possessions. The soul, as the ego, ascribes to itself all the limitations and circumscriptions of the body. Once so identified, the soul can no longer express its omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. It imagines itself to be limited—just as a rich prince, wandering in a state of amnesia in the slums, might imagine himself to be a pauper" "In the macrocosm of creation a great battle between Spirit and the imperfect expressions of Nature is continuously going on. Everywhere on earth we are the witnesses of the silent struggle between perfection and imperfection. The flawless patterns of Spirit strive ceaselessly against the ugly distortions manifested by the universal delusory force of maya" "The ego nature ..... is a realm of darkness fraught with many fears, uncertainties, and miseries to counteract every brief moment of pleasure" "The superman’s body is the universe, and all things that happen in the universe are his sensations ..... he beholds the comings and goings of beings and universes as the workings of illusory maya superimposed on the singular cosmic consciousness of Spirit ..... he unites himself with the transcendent Spirit, beyond the dreams of manifestation, while also remaining immanent and active, with Spirit, in the cosmic dream drama.” “Man, made in the image of God, must learn to be transcendent like his Maker ….. and how to view the panorama of life’s experiences as sheer entertainment.” |
5 - Final Thoughts 
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“Every action is endowed with good, bad, and activating vibrations that produce their fitting results. Man, made in the image of God, is free to behave like a god, manifesting his divine nature, or to behave like a mortal." Most people are unaware of a battle between their lower ego-self and their higher god-self. Perhaps they may engage in an occasional skirmish, e.g. trying to overcome anger to become more calm or trying to overcome indifference to become a more caring person. But for those who have decided they want to fully return to their native blissful state of god-awareness, the battle with their lower ego-nature becomes intense. The ego-self has no interest in losing its dominance over one's consciousness. Just like the Kauravas in the Gita who refuse to allow the Pandavas their rightful claim to the throne, the ego-nature puts up a fierce fight to retain its dominance. And, just like the Kauravas on the Kurukshetra battlefield, the ego-self is eventually soundly defeated and the rightful god-nature returns to reign supreme in one's consciousness. |
"This, then, is the battle of consciousness that every man must fight—the war between the human consciousness that beholds the alternately pleasurable and suffering lives of mortals in delusive, changeable matter, and the cosmic consciousness of the soul, beholding the kingdom of all-powerful, ever-blissful Omnipresence!"
"Each person has to fight his own battle of Kurukshetra. It is a war not only worth winning, but in the divine order of the universe and of the eternal relationship between the soul and God, a war that sooner or later must be won."
"The spiritual battle ..... to overcome the lower states of consciousness and dissolve all egoity ..... [leads to] the victorious union of soul and Spirit in cosmic consciousness ..... The liberated yogi may then discard his three bodily encasements and remain a free soul in the ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss of Omnipresent Spirit. Or if he chooses to descend again from his samadhi into the consciousness and activities of his body, he does so in the sublime state of nirvikalpa samadhi. In this highest state of externalized soul consciousness, he remains in his pure soul nature, untouched and unchanged, with no loss of God-perception ..... As a result, happiness, health, prosperity, peace, discrimination, efficiency, and intuitive guidance pervade the bodily kingdom—a pure realm of light and bliss!"
"Each person has to fight his own battle of Kurukshetra. It is a war not only worth winning, but in the divine order of the universe and of the eternal relationship between the soul and God, a war that sooner or later must be won."
"The spiritual battle ..... to overcome the lower states of consciousness and dissolve all egoity ..... [leads to] the victorious union of soul and Spirit in cosmic consciousness ..... The liberated yogi may then discard his three bodily encasements and remain a free soul in the ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss of Omnipresent Spirit. Or if he chooses to descend again from his samadhi into the consciousness and activities of his body, he does so in the sublime state of nirvikalpa samadhi. In this highest state of externalized soul consciousness, he remains in his pure soul nature, untouched and unchanged, with no loss of God-perception ..... As a result, happiness, health, prosperity, peace, discrimination, efficiency, and intuitive guidance pervade the bodily kingdom—a pure realm of light and bliss!"
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