Treasures Along the Path

1/23/82

Relationships can be our greatest opportunity for spiritual growth.

Kriyananda tells us that Yogananda said, “Until we can win the love of others, we cannot expect to win God’s love.”

Kriyananda also described a situation where people caused him suffering. Instead of reacting with anger, he said to himself, “I am happier loving than hating.  If I am happier giving love than reacting with resentment, then it’s not my problem how they treat me. It’s my problem how I react. It’s my problem the kind of thoughts I put out. I choose to love, purely and simply because I’m happier when I love and I don’t see why I should suffer twice.”
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Receptivity for God’s Grace – open yourself to grace and you’ll have grace

Opening to God’s grace removes obstacles. We don’t need to worry about all the little details of our karma because when we are open, God’s grace will dissolve all that karma.
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11/2004
The story of Rama and Sita is tragic, but it has a positive outcome.

Rama and Sita were exiled from their kingdom.

Sita was abducted, but Rama finally was able to free her from this bondage.

The story speaks of loyalty and the highest dharma.

There are spiritual benefits of service to one’s spouse and family.

A Way of Awakening Aasta TV series from India – 365 twenty minute talks

Kriyananda reads a passage from his book Conversations with Yogananda, and gives commentary.
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5/6/1974

Rajarshi Janakananda was the foremost disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Rajarshi was a self-made millionaire who became a saint by daily meditation and deep devotion. He carried out his worldly affairs with the thought of God.

There is no excuse for not doing a good job for whatever we set out to do.

Rajarsi saw all things as a part of God.  He put God first. He was a saint first and a businessman second.

He meditated long hours each morning.  Once he was asked, ‘How can you afford to meditate most of the morning and get to work late each day?’ He replied, ‘I can’t afford not to meditate long hours.’

Rajarshi understood that everywhere you go, and at all times you can carry on the Divine Romance.

He never thought of himself as having anything to offer. He never thought of himself as having anything to do. It was always God and Guru doing it through him.
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8/7/82

Leadership: A Spiritual Journey tells us how outward development and action can be an aid to our spiritual progress. Leadership is a self-offering to others.

Kriyananda discusses the qualities of non-attachment, centeredness, service, patience, and magnetism, and helps us to understand their importance from both inner and outer perspectives. For example, regarding service;  leaders must offer their work and themselves humbly to others, or they risk falling from ego centeredness. Yogananda was humble and respectful to all whom he met, although he towered above them spiritually.

When dealing with negative people or negative personal traits, Kriyananda reminds us to work on only one battle at a time. We can’t reach our goals by forcing issues — we have to build our foundations carefully and ensure the energy is right. We must fight the battles we can win which gives us strength to conquer the more difficult ones.
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Circa 1999

If you do karma yoga with the thought of being guided by God, you are more likely to develop your intuition.

When we act as God’s instruments in our work, we can learn how the superconscious mind works. If we are seeking freedom, we need to be unattached to the fruits of our actions.
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8/11/1984
Human relationships are a tool for greater spiritual awareness.

Creating harmony in our relationships is an art.

Learn to be harmonious with others – transcend the little self. Being harmonious can help us become aware of a much larger reality.

Try to see God in everyone, including those we find most challenging.

You can appreciate a person for what God is manifesting through them. Try to focus on their good qualities, even if their human qualities may be challenging.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

Some of the atoms that were in the body of  Jesus are in our bodies right now. But does that make us much different? Only on one possible condition. That His consciousness so blessed those atoms that they influence us. But everything comes back to consciousness and that’s the interesting point that we have reached in our evolution of understanding as a civilization.
Now toward the beginning of this century science discovered also that matter doesn’t even exist except as a vibration, a manifestation of energy! And many sort of avant-garde physicists today say that energy looks very suspiciously as though it were a manifestation of consciousness.

All these things are new discoveries, but they were said thousands of years ago by great sages who had realized a higher state of consciousness and discovered that everything really is only a matter of  thought. It’s an idea. Your body’s an idea. Your thoughts are not even your own. Just as the atoms that pass through your body go on and enter the bodies of others and go on and on around the world, and perhaps around the universe.
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I would like to talk a little bit about this aspect of troubled times.  But I would like also to emphasize that whether or not the outward world causes us difficulty, we know very surely that there are times in our lives when we face trouble.  And when we can learn how to face that trouble with equanimity and with strength, when we can learn that the cause of that trouble is that we have brought it on ourselves rather than we are facing a period of near bad luck.

When we can learn that we are the cause of whatever good or ill comes to us personally or as a nation, or as a planet.  Then we can learn also how to bring ourselves to a position where we can draw good times to ourselves.

Or when bad times come, to learn how to develop that kind of strength within ourselves that we draw the best from those bad times and come to understand rather, that truism that Paramhansa Yogananda uttered when he said, "Remember, there are no such things as obstacles, there are only opportunities."
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/