From Joy I Came!

The New Year, 2003, has come upon us with a flourish of drama and of grace. The sudden death of our friend and fellow minister, Vasudeva Norman Snitkin, on Sunday, January 5, the day of the commemoration of Yogananda’s life and birth, opened the floodgates of heart and soul. An evening tribute to his life and friendship was a tribute to the life of a devotee and a spiritual warrior. The vast and oft-hidden web of souls who were touched and inspired in some way by him was momentarily glimpsed. “Trailing clouds of glory,” it seemed the veil which separates heaven and earth was momentarily parted that we might be reminded of our life’s purpose and destiny.

Divine Mother is asking us to be spiritual warriors for Her love. Many souls have incarnated in this age to share the light of universal understanding, respect, love for God, and love for Her in all forms and in all life. Paramhansa Yogananda, came at the behest of God, Christ, and the Masters to bring the spiritual power and grace that all who would “receive him” might be “the sons of God.”

Yogananda encouraged us to approach God in the beloved form of Mother. In his poem, The Lost Two Black Eyes, he says that in a vision, Divine Mother declared to him that “Your black-eyed mother whom you lost awhile was none else but I, only I.” Thus over the years we’ve begun to use a picture of Yogananda’s mother as a devotional focus. Swami Kriyananda has encouraged us to pray to Yogananda: “Introduce me to Divine Mother.”

The Cosmic Mother is none other than the Aum vibration heard deep in meditation. Listening intently in meditation, with devotion and concentration, Aum draws Her inexorably to our inner awareness. In his autobiography, Yogananda wrote “Patanjali speaks of God as the actual Cosmic Sound heard in meditation. Even the yoga-beginner soon inwardly hears the wondrous sound of Aum. Receiving this blissful spiritual encouragement, the devotee becomes assured that he is in actual touch with divine realms.” Swami Kriyananda says, “Listening to Aum you’ll find the greatest bliss imaginable. It is the loveliest sound in the universe. You’ll never tire of it. It thrills you to your heart.”

In the book, Essence of Self-Realization, Kriyananda quotes his guru: “Once, after a meditation at his desert retreat, Yogananda said to the disciples who were present, ‘This is the kingdom of Aum. Listen! It is not enough merely to hear Aum. You must merge yourself in that inner sound. Aum is Divine Mother. Aum Kali! Aum Kali! Listen: Oh, how beautiful it is! Aum Kali! Aum Kali!’”

It is not our beliefs that will “save” us, but the purity of our love. Let us, this new year, resolve to live more in the heart: calm, centered, self-honest, humble, and open to truth, divine truth and divine, unconditional love. Let the silver lining in the cloud of the passing of our gurubhai, Vasudeva, be to strengthen our resolve to live in the light of our soul’s immortality.

Blessings,

Terry and Padma