How is your meditation apply going?
“How’s your meditation apply going?” I used to be requested this query by a devotee one morning after Sunday service at Ananda Sangha Delhi. I used to be 19 years outdated. I had solely not too long ago learn the Autobiography of a Yogi and located Ananda Sangha to be taught Kriya Yoga as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda.
My Struggles with Habits & Self-Management
I replied to the query with a pinch of embarrassment. “My apply goes advantageous however I’ve this foolish behavior of binge-watching motion pictures. I do know it’s dangerous however typically I can’t keep away from it. It’s an enormous distraction and is affecting my meditation.”
My fellow devotee consoled me and suggested me to not fear. “Watching a film from time to time is definitely okay. Furthermore, destructive habits will fall away on their very own after a while,” she added.
It was past my understanding how a behavior might simply fall away by itself! But, that’s precisely what occurred. That behavior simply began to wither away. Patterns of conduct that appeared compelling to me have been not enticing. I used to be amazed!
I had been concerned about common self-help books since my teenagers. Each e-book I learn burdened the significance of willpower and self-control to beat private limitations. Naturally, I believed I needed to wage a battle in opposition to my decrease tendencies and I all the time felt like a lone warrior surrounded by enemies with out enough weaponry.
Kriya Yoga: My Interior Transformation
Now, for the primary time, I felt that I wasn’t preventing alone. Similar to Arjuna had Krishna as his charioteer within the Bhagavad Gita, I had a Larger Energy serving to me to rise above limitations. It opened my eyes to the facility of Divine Grace.
These experiences have been intensified after I acquired Kriya Yoga initiation. My apply modified me (and continues to take action) from inside. Earlier than, I used to be attempting to repair myself from the surface and now, Kriya is fixing me from the within. I had beforehand struggled to interrupt freed from sure destructive habits with out a lot success however with common Kriya apply, these habits dropped like ripened fruit from a tree.
Tales of Lives Modified by Grace
I’m not the one one who has had such experiences. Many meditators and kriyabans (those that apply Kriya Yoga) discover that their lives are fully modified to the purpose the place they hardly acknowledge their previous selves in any respect! A big a part of this internal transformation is the victory over self-limiting wishes and tendencies.
Paramhansa Yogananda had a pupil who had a dramatic expertise alongside these traces. He was an alcoholic. His dependancy however, he was decided to be taught and apply Kriya Yoga – however with a bit of twist. Since he couldn’t depart whiskey alone, he would do his kriyas with a drink in a single hand and his rudraksha beads within the different. This went on for fairly some time, till someday he not wanted that bottle anymore. He turned a non secular alcoholic and God’s bliss was the one intoxicant he wanted.
God doesn’t thoughts your faults, He minds your indifference!
We’d really feel spiritually discouraged, confronted with the myriad faults and tendencies we’ve but to beat, however heed these phrases of Paramhansa Yogananda:
God doesn’t thoughts your faults, He minds your indifference!
We don’t want to fret about the entire issues we have to transcend and neither ought to we really feel responsible about previous dangerous actions. As a substitute, we are able to give attention to these items – loving God and bringing His mild into our lives by way of meditation and proper non secular residing.
I as soon as heard a narrative a couple of disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. He had a pernicious behavior of consuming giant quantities of ice cream. He knew it was not good for him and needed to beat it. But, as with all different behavior, the urge to eat ice cream was overwhelming.
However the disciple got here up with an excellent thought – the subsequent time he had the urge, he would go forward and get the ice cream however preserve the picture of his Guru proper in entrance of him. Then he would benefit from the ice cream whereas his Guru — and whereas the Guru was him! As you may think about, this didn’t go on for a really very long time.
After just a few rounds of this experiment, the ice cream appeared to lose its tempting energy. What was earlier so enticing, now appeared a bit of foolish. Thus, he was capable of break away from the maintain that the behavior had on him.
Making an attempt to Show My Worthiness
In my efforts to enhance, I’ve typically been deluded to assume that I’ve to make myself worthy of God’s love and style. I’ve realized that God’s grace is ever-present to assist us rise above delusion. After we open to His grace by doing our non secular practices and being in tune with the Guru, we cooperate with that Divine Energy.
Turning into Receptive to the Divine Inside
In the end, I found that no progress is feasible with out God’s grace and that His grace will not be reserved just for a selected few. We’d like solely to open the curtains if we wish the daylight of His grace in our lives. As soon as God’s mild enters our consciousness, all darkness is banished perpetually.
You can’t drive sin out of the thoughts any greater than you may beat darkness out of a room with a stick. By focus on delusion, certainly, you might solely improve its maintain in your thoughts. Convey within the mild of God, nonetheless, by way of deep meditation and devotion, and the darkness will vanish as if it had by no means been. -Paramhansa Yogananda
Could all of us be ever extra receptive to His shining presence in each second, and in each atom of creation.
