“Come, come, whoever you are,
Wanderer, idolater, worshiper of fire,
Come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
…Come, and come yet again.
Ours is not a caravan of despair”.

~Rumi

“Go not far, Sassi! nor give up the quest,
Walk not with your feet, yet sit not quite content
All connection with joys of life snap,
Walk with your heart, that journey may soon end.”
………Bhitai [Sur Sasui]

Christmas

To bring divine awareness into our human consciousness
we must outgrow the limited conventional concept of Christ.
To me Christmas is a thought of spiritual grandeur –
a realisation that our minds are an altar of Christ, the Universal
Intelligence in all creation. Jesus was born in a little crib, but
the Christ Spirit is omnipresent.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Self-Realization Magazine”

Silence

Be with people in silence; don’t spend precious time
and energy in idle talk. Eat in silence; work in silence.
God loves silence.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, SRF Lessons

Christmas

Lift your eyes and concentrate within. Behold the
astral star of divine wisdom and let the wise thoughts
in you follow that telescopic star to behold the Christ
everywhere.
In that land of everlasting Christmas, of festive,
omnipresent Christ Consciousness, you will find Jesus,
Krishna, the saints of all religions, the great guru-
preceptors waiting to give you a divine floral reception
of everlasting happiness.
–Paramhansa Yogananda, “Metaphysical Meditations”

Dukh Mein Simran Sab Kare, Sukh Mein Kare Na Koye
Jo Sukh Mein Simran Kare, Tau Dukh Kahe Ko Hoye

[In anguish everyone prays to Him, in Comfort  none do
To one who to  prays even in happy times, how sorrow could ever touch
–Sant Kabir]

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
–Zarathustra

Sayeen Itna Deejiye, Ja Mein Kutumb Samaye
Main Bhi Bhookha Na Rahun, Sadhu Na Bhookha Jaye

[Give so much, O Lord, sufficient to fulfill the needs of my Family
I too should not starve, nor the visiting mendicant go unfed]

Sant Kabir Das

Silence

     The habitual silence  of Sri Yukteswar was caused by his deep perceptions of the infinite.  No time remained for the interminable  “revelations” that occupy the days of teachers without Self-realization.  A saying from the 

Hindu scriptures is as follows:  

“In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion.  In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Autobiography of a Yogi”

When I was, Hari (God) was not, now Hari is and I am no more: All darkness vanished, when I saw the Lamp within my heart. The effulgence of the Supreme Being is beyond the imagination: In effable is His beauty, to see it is the only `proof.’ Him whom I went out to seek, I found just where I was: He now has become myself whom before I called `Another.’

Sant Kabir Das

W h e re there is light, darkness is no more. Where there is Knowledge, ignorance is absent. And, as the folds, the veil and the valley of separation are all in the domain of ignorance, a Perf e c t Master—who is the “Sun” of all Knowledge—can, in the twinkling of an eye, impart God-realization to anyone he chooses.*God alone is real, and as we are permanently lodged in the Divine Beloved, we are all one.

Meher Baba 

God Speaks

If my happiness at this moment consists largely in reviewing happy memories and expectations, I am but dimly aware of this present. I shall still be dimly aware of the present when the good things that I have been expecting come to pass. For I shall have formed a habit of looking behind and ahead, making it difficult for me to attend to the here and now. If, then , my awareness of the past and future makes me less aware of the present, I must begin to wonder whether I am actually living in the real world.

Ajahn Sumedho

Solitude

The spiritual path is like a razor’s edge. It is not
simple at all. Seclusion is the price of greatness and
God-realization. When I am alone I am with God.
That is the way you should be.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, in a talk to disciples

“Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.”

Pema Chödrön (When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (Shambhala Library))

Solitude

So long as you have not found God, it is best not
to be interested in amusements. Seeking diversion
means forgetting Him. First learn to love Him and
know Him. Then it won’t matter what you do, for
He will never leave your thoughts.
— Paramahansa Yogananda, “Sayings of Yogananda”

After we have placed ourselves entirely in God’s hands with complete confidence in Him, we must not fear any adversity; for if some misfortune should befall us, God will know how to turn it to our good through ways which we do not know now but will know some day.
– St. Vincent de Paul

Every minute is eternity because eternity can be experienced in that minute.
Every day and minute and hour is a window through which you may see eternity.
Life is brief, yet it is unending.
The soul is everlasting, but out of the short season of this life you should reap the most you can of immortality.
God First! God Last! God Always! God Alone!

It is simple. We are where we should be, doing what we should be doing. Otherwise we would be somewhere else, doing something else.

By Richard Stine

“You have to find out what meditation is. It is a most extraordinary thing to know what meditation is – not how to meditate, not the system, not the practice, but the content of meditation. To be in the meditative mood and to go into that meditation requires a very generous mind, a mind that has no border, a mind that is not caught in the process of time. A mind that has not committed itself to anything, to any activity, to any thought, to any dogma, to any family, to a name – it is only such a mind that can be generous; and it is only such a mind that can begin to understand the depth, the beauty and the extraordinary loveliness of meditation.”

J. Krishnamurthi
1959 8th Public Talk, New Delhi

Masjid Dha Day, Mandir Dha Day
Dha Day Jo Kujh Disda
Par Kissay Da Dil Na Dhawee(n)
Rub Dilaa(n) Wich Wasda

Tear down the Mosque, tear down the temple
Tear down every thing in sight
But don’t (tear down) break anyone’s heart
Because God lives there

Bulle Shah – sufi Poet from Pakistan

When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God, when you want nothing, seek nothing, expect nothing, then the supreme state will come to you uninvited and unexpected.
-By Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

In one of His aspects, a very touching aspect, the Lord may be said to be a beggar. He yearns for our attention. The Master of the Universe, at whose glance all stars, suns, moons, and planets quiver, is running after man and saying: “Won’t you give Me your affection? Don’t you love Me, the Giver, more than the things I have made for you? Won’t you seek Me?” But man says: “I am too busy now; I have work to do. I can’t take time to look for You.” And the Lord says: “I will wait.”
— – By Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda,

You are not your body; you are the eye.

When you see the spirit, you are free of the body.

A human being is an eye – the rest is just flesh and bones.

Whatever your eye sees, you are that.

 – Rumi

Everyone can see the effects of God’s mercy. But who, except God himself, understands the essence of his mercy? 

Most people cannot understand the essence of any of God’s attibutes; they only know his attributes through their effects–and also through analogy. Only mystics have eyes to see the essence of God’s attributes.

– Rumi

Widen your consciousness and your memory will increase.
Consciousness is a much higher memory than the mechan- ical brain memory. I explained this to you one day, not so very long ago. I told you that the mechanical brain memory can forget — can mix up and deform things — but if you are able to estab- lish in you once again the state of consciousness in which you were at a given moment, you have exactly the same experience. And that is the only true memory. And this depends entirely on the development of your consciousness.

– The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-5, page no.270)

Human evolution and upliftment of consciousness do not come about through cultural or technological advance, but more by the blessing of spiritual unfoldment. In this sacred process, the Master-disciple relationship is paramount, so much so that it is known as the highest of all relationships on earth. It is the Guru who helps awaken the sleeping consciousness within each soul to the eternal Truth, the Oneness of the Divine and all creation. The Guru brings each soul a vision for an awakened life, based upon spiritual principles, through Satsang, Spiritual Retreats and personal guidance.

– Swami Amar Jyoti

The Buddhist scriptures say that if you hate others, nothing happens to the hated person, something happens to you, to your mind, to your heart. You can learn to love somebody, even one whom you hate, by understanding that he is a human being like you. Who am I to hate that person? Stop hurting and hating others, for it injures you. If you constantly injure yourself, it can lead you to an action that can never be forgiven by your own mind, by your own conscience. You are constantly killing your conscience. Stop doing that.

– Swami Rama