Talks and Writings by Paramhansa Yogananda
Special Christmas Meditation by Paramhansa Yogananda from Metaphysical Meditations
I shall behold the only begotten, only reflection, of transcendental God, the Father, born in the womb of all finite matter and vibration as the only Christ Intelligence, shepherding all Creation to an intelligent, Divine end.
“A Christmas Letter to Students, All Individuals, and All Nations”
That is the real reason why we celebrate His birthday – in order
to remind ourselves of the divine qualities of Jesus and to awaken ourselves
to a realization of the enlightening, loving Christ Presence in our own
consciousness.
This Christmas morning we invoke the spirit of Jesus, the spirit of
Christ to descend upon our consciousness and give us the realization of
infinity.
Jesus was born in the cradle of Christ Consciousness twenty centuries ago. His universal Christ Consciousness is reborn in every wise man. Are you ready in the coming Christmas to expand your soul to behold within yourself the birth of the Omnipresent Christ?
At this season my body is far away in India, so I shall celebrate Christmas with the Christ Joy, or Krishna Joy, ever omnipresent in your hearts.
Millions of people are expecting to celebrate the coming Christmas purely
as a social event. Very few are looking forward to it as the time for
spiritually remembering Christ and for exchanging the lasting gifts of
soul and heart qualities.
During this coming Christmas Season, open a new portal of sublime devotion so that the Christ Omnipresence will be able to come anew within your consciousness.
The New Year has come to greet you with new hopes, new determination, new will-to-achieve, new activities.
Our old tutor of last year has just passed away. Let us all remember the valuable lessons that he taught us and thus dedicate our future actions on the altar of the coming New Year.
Behold, through the gates of the New Year, the distant gaudy decorations of future achievements glimmering at you and daringly luring you to give pursuit. Simply watching them with the hope of accomplishment will not count. You must start racing calmly at top speed, performing more miracles of greater speed on the way.
Your success in life does not altogether depend upon natural ability; it also depends upon determination to grasp the opportunity that is presented to you. Opportunities in life come by creation, not by chance.
If you have made up your mind to find joy within yourself, sooner or later you will find it. Seek it now, daily, by steady, deep, and deeper meditation within, and you will surely find everlasting happiness.
To bring response to your prayers, you must pray intelligently with a
bursting soul, seldom aloud, mostly mentally, without displaying to anyone
what is happening within. You must pray with utmost devotion, feeling
that God is listening to everything you are mentally affirming.
Through tests we learn life’s lessons. Tests are not meant to crush
us: They are to develop our powers. They come through the natural law
of progress and are necessary for us to advance from lower to higher steps.
Mind is the source of all your troubles and all your happiness. You really
are stronger than all your tests.
Why do worldly suffering and world-misery arise? When people all over
the earth are happy and prosperous, they are in tune with God, and the
entire vibrations of the earth in relation with the planets are harmonious.
But as soon as one nation starts fighting with another, or the selfish
industrial gourmands try to devour all prosperity for themselves, it brings
about depression.
Soul vibration results when a person is always conscious of being with
God, and when you are with such a person, you feel the presence of God.
That is the vibration to carry with you wherever you go, so that whoever
comes in contact with you may forget all but the power and love of God.
He who listens to the advice of Jesus Christ, and lives it, is settled
in the home of lasting Bliss, founded on the rock of eternally intuitive
wisdom. Such a wise man’s spiritual bliss is never destroyed by the
rain of difficult spiritual trials, or by the advent of the flood of accumulated
sorrowful events, or by the mighty wind of death.
The relationship of guru and disciple depicts the only real way to retrace
the truant soul’s footsteps back to God. In the beginning it is wise
to compare many spiritual paths and teachers, but when the real guru and
the real teaching are found, then the restless searching must cease. The
thirsty one should not keep seeking wells, but should go to the best well
and daily drink its nectar.
Invoke God as power in the temple of consciousness during the day. Let
every action and every word that you utter be tinged and tipsy with God-love
intoxication. Talk and act sensibly as a man who keeps his senses awake
and in command. Be drunk with God and let every action of your daily life
be a temple of God’s memory.
Just as electricity flows into the bulb through a wire passage, so the
Cosmic Force flows through the medulla into the spine and its seven centers.
The spinal cord may be likened to a wire. In it are located these seven
centers of light which are the subcenters for the conduction and distribution
of life current throughout the body.
When you act in the world, forgetting God, you have changed your center
from God to matter. And this grafted material nature will throw you into
the whirlpool of change and will stifle you with worries and sorrows.
Now revert to your own nature. Change your center from material desires
to desire for God.
All those who know the methods of enlarging the capacity of their consciousness
by right meditation will be able to receive or comprehend the vast Spirit
and, being identified with spirit, would become reflected spirits or Sons
of God.
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