History

Eternal Truths

Teachings of
Gurus and Swamis

Symbology and
History

Church of
the Children

Teachings of the Gurus and Swamis

AUM BABAJI

God dwells equally in all, I serve God in all. May you realize and practice this truth.

SHYAMACHARAN LAHIRI

Birth and death are soul's appearance and disappearance in the realm of time and space. They are the fulfillment of God's law and purpose. Soul is immortal, eternal and everlasting. God himself created the soul of man and endowed each soul with immortal life.

Rebirth of soul is the divine law of its progress towards the perfection of God.

Religion is the returning of soul to God. Man is a soul. Therefore religion is the essence of his being and the only path of his life and love, self-expression and joy.

Meditation is the only way whereby the reality of God and his divine attributes of infinity, eternity and universality are realized.

When one realizes God within himself, he perceives his all-abiding presence everywhere.

SWAMI SRIYUKTESWAR

When the heart is made perfectly pure it receives the Spiritual Light, and anointed by the Spirit, man enters the kingdom of God which is within himself. At this state he realizes himself as an integral part of God. But gradually, through profound contemplation which is true worship, he becomes one with God and realizes his real nature with the illumination that the whole universe is but his own Self.

As man is the likeness of God, directing his attention inward, he can realize the power, peace and omniscience of God within his will, feeling and consciousness.

SWAMI YOGANANDA

The proof of the existence of God is not in books, nor in the words of others. It is in your self. Pray to God.

God is realizable. God is knowable. You can do without anything else, but you cannot do without God. And remember the Beloved can only be known in the secrecy of your devotion. You must make love to the Divine Beloved in the temple of your silence with the continuous asking, 'Reveal Thyself, reveal Thyself'.

Underlying the teachings of all religions; Christianity, Mohammedanism, Hinduism, there is one truth remaining; that unless you know yourself as spirit, as the fountainhead of Bliss, separate from mind and body, your existence is devoid of meaning. We can know God only by knowing ourselves, for our nature is similar to his. Man has been created in the image of God.

                                           SWAMI PREMANANDA

There is a divine harmony throughout the whole universe. It is the harmony of oneness. This universal harmony of oneness is called love. Love is oneness of soul. It is the unity of spirit. In our heart we feel the inspiration, power, beauty and joy of love, personal as well as universal. In love we feel God in our heart. Soul is our true and immortal self. In our soul we realize our identity with God.

What happens to us when we attain the perfection of God? We become God, we realize that in our spiritual self, our soul, we are infinite, eternal and universal. We are the One, the omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent Spirit. We are the divine individuality that is cosmic and all pervasive yet transcendental and absolute. In our soul and in soul alone do we realize the perfection of God and become one with him.

Love is the universal message of soul. The perfection of love is the bliss of oneness.

Soul is inseparable from God as the ray is from the sun. Discarding the consciousness of name and form, soul merges in oneness with God.

Mind formulates the concept; soul reveals the truth. When the mind is harmonious with the soul, the heart rests in peace.

Soul is the spiritual self of man. The adventure of soul is within the kingdom of God. The journey of the soul ends in the perfection of God. When the soul is united with God, everything is transformed into one cosmic Spirit.

                                         SWAMI KAMALANANDA

The mystical Kingdom of God-consciousness spoken of by Christ as the "Kingdom of heaven within you," is the sanctuary of meditation. It is "mystical" in that its existence is not perceptible by the senses. Yet it is certainly not known to us in the negation or abstraction of any part or aspect of life.

It is not an emptiness or void, but a realm fully inhabited by life and consciousness: by the soul of ideas and the spirit of all things.

It is not the limited world we live in, but it is the limitless and whole universe that lives within us, formed of pure, illumined or enlightened consciousness. To speak of it as if it had its own existence apart from us or distant from us is misleading and false. As the mystic Kabir described it, "If I say it is outside me, my inner world is ashamed; if I say it is only within, that is falsehood."

What does it matter to us to have greater awareness of this kingdom? Will it take us away from concerns for others and for the betterment of our world? Will we become aloof or reclusive? No. A living awareness of this spiritual kingdom will leave us in this world, but not of it. It will help us with our life in the world, enabling us to enjoy all the things that contribute to a full, rich and rewarding life. By it we will not become ascetics, but we will no longer desire mere things so that our longings rule us. We will learn to renounce that which burdens life with sorrow, disappointment and darkness.

We will inwardly become so free that nothing of the changing world of experience can diminish, betray, threaten or rule us. As the mystical kingdom enlarges in us, gradually the room for vain attachments and sense-identified self-consciousness (ego) diminishes.

Srimati Kamala and Swami Premananda
at the Skyview Farm, a 300-acre tree farm and
wildlife sanctuary (1985).

"AUM. Let us meditate on the glory of that effulgent Reality from whom the whole universe is projected. May He enlighten our minds. AUM."

Gayatri Invocation

By meditating upon whatever inspires the mind with the divine qualities of righteousness, inner illumination and subjective revelation are obtained.

Individual freedom is the foundation of religion. Liberty of mind is the first law of spiritual life, nay, of life itself. There should be no limitation whatsoever in the intellectual and spiritual pursuit of man. Freedom of conscience is a divinely ordained right of the human soul. One of the primary purposes of religious training is to awaken man to his God-given freedom. In its essence religion is the attainment of the realization of God in the freedom of the soul. Religion has not only guaranteed but has also guarded with the light of truth the absolute freedom of man's mind, intellect, conscience and soul. Religion stands as the eternal sentinel of the spiritual freedom of man. Subjective freedom inspires and guides objective liberty. But how are we to obtain subjective freedom? The way is meditation. Meditation liberates all the inner faculties of our mind, heart and soul. We must never permit our minds to be enslaved by sectarian views. Man must be given complete freedom in choosing his method of meditation in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience. Conscience is the voice of God within us. It is the silent counsel of our soul that we hear within us in the quietness of profound introspection. In selecting our method of meditation we must be exceedingly careful to see that the technique of our inner holy communion must always remind us of our inseparable spiritual oneness with God.

The purpose of meditation is not the immolation of the mind and its powers. On the contrary, one of the primary objectives of meditation is the attainment of complete liberation of the mental powers. Meditation liberates the mind from all bondage and negativeness. It purifies the mind and brings it to that dynamic state from which all its powers can be fully released and applied for clear vision and constructive ideation together with subjective poise and inner serenity.

Swami Premananda

A Kriya Meditation Series is conducted in the Temple on Wednesday evenings for seven weeks each spring by Srimati Kamala

To become subjective and to learn to meditate, the mind requires guidance. It requires something to focus on that is at first so interesting and so absorbing-so drawing to the mind-that all lesser and weaker, self-limiting or selfish thoughts, will drop away. It requires a light or an illuminating thought. We can see from this why spiritual study and the understanding of one's philosophy and ideal are vitally important. We can also understand why the use of a specific mantram (sacred symbolic word) and technique of meditation are held in such sacred esteem. And finally, we can appreciate the sublime power and purpose of the Mystic Cross, whose universal importance gradually dawns within our own consciousness with ascending meaning in illumination of truth. As we ascend this cross, the mind as the soul's instrument and the greatest power of the universe, must become so subtle and so pure in its self-reflection that it can draw from the reservoir of the cosmic life energy itself.

From dawn to dusk the sun shines forth
and the world appears to me as formations
in light and shadow.
As I watch the setting sun the same world
disappears into darkness.
Where is the creation's light now,
The Light which will pour into tomorrow's creation?
Has it retreated into a void?
Where is the Light?
Am I an explorer of the light of this world,
or seeker of Light from its distant source,
or the Light itself
ever illuminating?

                                                   Srimati Kamala

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