THE JOURNEY
You’ll have had days or moments the place you felt God was chatting with you with particular insights. I wish to share one of many days when the Lord spoke to me by means of nature relating to meditation.
I took a day journey with the monks of Ananda Village to Desk Mountain in Northern California within the late spring of 2023. The hike is usually over flat terrain, highlighted with stunning canyons, creeks and waterfalls.
We trekked for just a few hours, having fun with the panorama and the small flowers, and stopped by one of many valleys to eat a lightweight lunch and watch some birds. The spotlight of highlights was a trek down a slender and pretty steep canyon, to relaxation on the backside of a waterfall.
We took turns standing beneath the waterfall. It was heat and nice, and its sounds had been very soothing. It was mid-afternoon, so the solar was brilliant within the sky. The earlier winter introduced heavy snowfall, so the waterfall was flowing strongly, fed by the faraway snowmelt. It moved periodically from left to proper over a distance of about 15 ft, making it onerous to catch. Doesn’t it typically really feel that God performs hide-and-seek with us?
Standing on the foot of the autumn, bathing within the heat of the water, listening to its nice, rhythmic melody, and searching up by means of the water into the sunshine of the afternoon solar, it felt as if Divine Mom had led me to a nature scene that mirrored the inside expertise of yoga meditation.
THE INNER JOURNEY
Desk Mountain
First, a little bit inside anatomy. The Kriya Yogi works with the energetic channels within the backbone. The ida and pingala are, respectively, the rising and descending currents of vitality within the backbone that correlate with the inhalation and exhalation of the bodily breath. It’s doable to nonetheless or “neutralize” these currents by means of pranayama strategies, akin to Kriya. The stilling of the ida and pingala correlates with deepening interiorization; the gradual slowing of the bodily breath, the cessation of psychological restlessness, and the onset of inside calmness. This results in the mystic key of yoga apply, the awakening of kundalini vitality, which is locked on the base of the astral backbone, or sushumna. As soon as kundalini is woke up, it rises up the sushumna, giving the yogi a concomitant expertise of bliss within the deep spinal channel. For this reason the backbone has been known as a river of vitality, and why Jesus spoke of providing residing water because the true supply of inside rejuvenation.
This gives a mannequin of yoga anatomy as a information for meditation apply, however it’s nonetheless solely a mannequin. The mannequin of an atom is conceptually helpful, nevertheless it fails to mirror the vitality and exercise of a single drop of water, which consists of an unfathomable variety of atoms. Likewise, with Kriya, we profit from understanding our inside anatomy, however the fact of yoga (union with God) have to be explored, found, and realized by means of the yogi’s devoted and devoted apply.
Sculpture of Lahiri Mahasaya
AS WITHIN, SO WITHOUT
Let’s return to Desk Mountain. Standing on the base of the waterfall, I imagined myself as a yogi poised to take a seat in meditation. The waterfall was just a few hundred ft excessive, impressing me with a way of dimension. Bathing in its regular (albeit swaying) column of water felt like being centered within the energetic river of the inside backbone. Wanting as much as the solar and making an attempt to glimpse its rays by means of the distortion of the falling water mirrored the trouble of focusing on the religious eye in meditation, of making an attempt to understand the Divine Gentle by means of the restlessness of the thoughts.
A puzzle has many items. As soon as they’re all put collectively, it’s best to take pleasure in the whole image and disrespect the separating strains. As soon as we develop into aware of all of the completely different elements of meditation, it’s best to let go of their separateness and enter into the expertise as a single, intuitive stream.
I’m ever with those that apply Kriya. I’ll information you to the Cosmic Dwelling…
There are occasions after I really feel a particular blessing from one of many gurus. On at the present time, I felt that Lahiri Mahayasa’s blessings had been with us. He was a Yogavatar with a particular mission of bringing Kriya Yoga to truth-seekers on this age, and he additionally gave shut, intimate steerage to disciples of their Kriya apply. Lahiri provided this comfort to these disciples who couldn’t journey to be with him, “I’m ever with those that apply Kriya. I’ll information you to the Cosmic Dwelling by means of your enlarging perceptions.” This was an everlasting promise, as true in the present day as when he uttered it.
We spent period of time in that little cove however that interval of meditation was temporary in comparison with the time it took for us to trek there. So too in our lives, the time we’ve to spend in meditation is brief in comparison with the hours we spend in exercise and sleep. Nonetheless, it’s time nicely spent. We should always do our greatest to weave collectively our meditation and actions. If we convey God into all the pieces, we are going to discover that our actions feed into our meditation apply, and the fruit of our meditation apply will naturally feed into our actions.
Life itself is a pilgrimage, and every day we are able to make the inside trek into divine bliss. We are going to uncover what Yoganandaji known as a transportable paradise, a divine pleasure that accompanies us all over the place and will be shared with all.
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