Sunday Service Reading #1

From Rays of the One Light
At the Heart of Silence - The Eternal Word

In the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 1, these immortal lines appear:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Human vision beholds individuality and separation everywhere. Divine vision beholds the oneness of cosmic vibration, of which all things, no matter how diverse, are manifestations. Cosmic Sound—the “Word” of God—and Cosmic Light: These are eternal. The world, as revealed to us by our senses, is illusory.

In Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda relates an early experience he received of the divine aspect of reality:

Wise are we if we meditate on that experience of Yogananda's, and salvage from it even a breath of his inspiration. For, quite simply, there is nothing else! As the Bhagavad Gita says in the seventh Chapter:

I make and unmake this universe. Apart from Me nothing exists, O Arjuna. All things, like the beads of a necklace, are strung together on the thread of My consciousness, and are sustained by Me.

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

VIDEO of Asha's Service on this Subject from 1-2-11

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Asha's Service on this subject from 1-2-11

Below are not correct for this reading

VIDEO of Parvati's Service on this Subject from 1-10-10

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Parvati's Service on this subject from 1-1-10

VIDEO of Dave Warner's (Devarshi) Service on this Subject from 1-11-09
MP3 of Dave Warner's (Devarshi) Service on this Subject from 1-11-09

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Devi's Service on this subject from 1-8-06 (Master's Birthday Talk).

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Asha's Service on this subject from 1-13-08

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Catherine's Service on this subject from 1-13-08

Long Readings from the 3 Volume Set:
Rays of the Same Light

#1 Did God Create the Universe – Or Become It?
("Did God Create the Universe? Or Did He Become It?" in the original book)

This passage is from the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 1, Verses 4 and 5:

"In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

Commentary

The Bible is saying here that in the Word of God was life. This reference to life, as previously to the Word itself, is profoundly mystical. For as the life of man is not his body, but that which animates his body, so the life of the universe is that which eternally animates and sustains it: the indwelling Spirit of God.   

It was to this true, divine life that Jesus was referring when he said, in John 10:10, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." The life of which he was speaking was not sentience, merely. He spoke of human life without God, indeed, as a form of living death. His references to true life were always to the divine life within man.

St. John's Gospel begins with the statement that universal creation was brought into manifestation by the power of the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This Word, or divine creative vibration, is different from creation itself, just as the pot is different from the potter. The Word is God in that aspect of His consciousness which manifests and sustains His creation. It is at that level of reality that the divine life exists of which the Gospel speaks.

Vibration of any kind produces two manifestations: sound, and light. God's Cosmic Vibration is here described as the Word, because sound, in the form of words, gives utterance to human thought. Even so, God's Word gives utterance, or outward manifestation, to His ideas for creation.

The Book of Genesis, on the other hand, emphasizes the other aspect of Cosmic Vibration: Light. As we read there, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." (Genesis 1:3) That is why also St. John wrote, in this first chapter of his Gospel, "And the life was the light of men." All that which is light in us, and that which leads us forward into ever greater light, comes to us from God, never from mere affirmation, study and philosophy.

Many great saints have communed with God as both Sound and Light. As we read in Ezekiel 43:1,2: "Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory."

The abstract aspects of truth — such as how God manifested His universe — are less immediately important to us than the question of how we ourselves might grow closer to God. The essential thing to understand, then, is that God, in His aspects of Sound and Light, can be perceived by mankind in deep inner silence.

By deep inner communion with the Word of God — the Holy Ghost, as Jesus also called it — whether as Sound or Light, we can reclaim our eternal heritage in the Lord. Instruction on how to commune with these subtle realities forms an important part of true spiritual teachings.

Deep beneath the waves of your human restlessness, seek communion with the Supreme Lord, whose kingdom, as Jesus said, is within you.

Thus, through the Holy Bible, God has spoken to mankind.

This passage is from the seventh Chapter, the 8th through the 10th Stanzas:

"I am the fluidity of water. I am the silver light of the moon and the golden light of the sun. I am the Aum chanted in all the vedas: the Cosmic Sound moving as if soundlessly through the ether. I am the manliness of men. I am the good sweet smell of the moist earth. I am the luminescence of fire; the sustaining life of all living creatures. I am self-offering in those who would expand their little lives into cosmic life. O Arjuna, know Me as the eternal seed of all creatures. In the perceptive, I am their perception. In the great, I am their greatness. In the glorious, it is I who am their glory."

Commentary

Wise is the person who in all things beholds God as the Doer: who gives to God the glory for all that he does well; and who sees in his every failure the failure only of his perfect attunement to the Lord.

Wise is he who in all things sees the hand of God: who, in laughter, sees God's smile; and in sorrow, sees the tenderness of God's reproach.

For the world is a dream of God's. The appointed task of mankind is to awaken from the cosmic dream, and to live in conscious communion with Him by Whom and from Whom the dream was produced.

God, in this passage of the Bhagavad Gita, is saying not only, "I am in the water, the moon," etc., but, "I am the water, the moon, and each and every thing that exists." It would be easy to conclude from these words that things in themselves are divine. It was in this error that idol worship became a sin. For when we love the creation more than the Creator, we become trapped in pettiness, and forget who we really are: the children of the Lord.

What we must do is love all things in God's name. There is nothing wrong with seeing God in the clouds at sunset, and in a burst of sunlight through the treetops; with hearing His divine melodies through the songs of birds, and feeling His power in the blowing of the wind. But those who look to these manifestations for their inspiration, and forget the deeper Reality expressed in these things, sin against their own highest potential.

Things are divine not for their beauty — after all, not everything is equally beautiful, whereas God's presence is equally everywhere! — but for the fact that, locked in the heart of each of them, may be found some Godly message, some truth, some divine inspiration.

The rocks convey a message of steadfastness. The honey bee tells us wordlessly to sip only sweetness, not filth. The clouds offer an example of aloofness from petty earthly preoccupations, while offering their help impartially to all through the rain.

Behind everything we see, let us look ever to God's unseen presence.

Thus, through the Bhagavad Gita, God has spoken to mankind. Back to Top of Page

Longest Reading from the Book
The Promise of Immortality

#2 Did God Create the Universe – Or Become It?
("What Is The Source of Life?" in the original book)

Matter is energy. Energy, when perceived by the inner or spiritual eye, is seen as light; by the inner ear, is heard as sound. Cosmic light and sound are vibrations of Divine Consciousness. Both are the “Word” of God. From that vibration came the thoughts and energy-forms which manifested the universe. Life itself may be defined as conscious energy. As the Gospel of St. John states: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (1:4)

Human beings think of life as an outcome of the right combination of chemicals, or of the union of male and female cells: in any case the product of outer causes, rather than being itself the primordial cause. They think of things in terms of appearances; they look at life from the outside in, rather than with life, from their own living center. They seek understanding superficially, and never seem to realize the need for refining their own awareness.

The Bible in this passage emphasizes life as a cause, not an effect. It states that it is life which creates the body, not the body which creates life. Life, St. John states in frank opposition to most people’s view of things, is pre-existent in eternity. It is not brought into being by the body’s creation. Life is the indwelling spirit without which everything would be unconscious, unbreathing, and inert.

Life, always, is a radiation outward from a core of conscious vibration. The things made by man can only suggest, by shape and movement, the existence of an indwelling consciousness. Both life and consciousness, however, await manifestation at the heart of every atom, and await fulfillment in the spiritual development of human beings. The “light” of understanding is not the knowledge that dawns in the mind as information is absorbed from without. In fact, understanding is already innate in all of us: not as the result of education, but rather as the ability to recognize and relate intelligently to whatever information we receive.

Understanding, above all of spiritual truths, must be sought within ourselves. Only to the extent that we awaken inner awareness of them can we manifest our understanding outwardly. Churches and temples cannot give us wisdom. Understanding is self-discovered. As Jesus Christ put it, the real temple is the body.[1] Here alone, in stillness of heart and mind, can God be truly worshiped. We cannot draw Him to us by loud shouting, or by searching for Him in the sky. He hides at the wellspring of every thought. He inspires us to remember Him—increasingly so, as we invite Him to do so.

Divine consciousness is, as we read in the above verse, the true “light of men.” It is this Inner Presence which gives us awareness. Divine consciousness gives us cognizance of our very egos. Inwardness is, in this sense, a direction, not a static condition. It is a process of tracing every thought and feeling back to its source. This inward journey is the secret key to spiritual development. The more conscious we are of the light within, the more aware we become of the reality of life itself. This was what Jesus meant when he said elsewhere, “I am come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) True life is much more than existence, however aware and self-directed, though it is that also. True life is intense awareness of our existence. When expressed outwardly, it manifests as enthusiasm, whereas a merely aware existence manifests only as apathy, half-hearted reactions, or indifference. When experienced in the inner Self, life reveals itself as divine joy and bliss. What indeed is existence itself, if we, though existing, are not also glowingly alive? Merely to be is spiritual death! Jesus made this point forcefully in his reply to a prospective disciple who had asked his permission, before following him, to go and bury his father: “Follow me,” said the Master, “and let the dead bury their dead!” (Matthew 8:22)

Divine consciousness is the true life which enlightens human minds. That consciousness is only dimly manifested in people of little spiritual awareness. Nevertheless, God’s presence is in them also, for it is everywhere. Theologians err in their claim that only human beings have souls. Everything—even things that, to human perception, seem inanimate—has a soul, at least in the inchoate sense of being a dim manifestation of divine consciousness. The Lord Himself, through Cosmic Vibration, the “Word,” resides at the heart of everything.

The divine presence is not, however, manifested equally in all things. Just as human beings are more vitally aware than are the rocks, so great saints, who are spiritually awake in cosmic consciousness, manifest awareness more dynamically than ordinary human beings, who are spiritually asleep, dreaming themselves to be limited by their individual egos. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that the difference in awareness between an enlightened master and the unenlightened crush of humanity is as great as that which exists between ordinary human beings and the rocks!

The Bhagavad Gita states, in Chapter Seven:

“I am the fluidity of water. I am the silver light of the moon and the golden light of the sun. I am the AUM chanted in all the Vedas: the Cosmic Sound moving, as if soundlessly, through the ether. I am the manliness of men. I am the good sweet smell of the moist earth. I am the luminescence of fire; the sustaining life of all living creatures. I am self-offering in those who would expand their little lives into cosmic life. O Arjuna, know Me as the eternal seed of all creatures. In the perceptive, I am their perception. In the great, I am their greatness. In the glorious, it is I who am their glory.”

Wise is he who is able to perceive God as the hidden Do-er behind His multifarious roles in creation. Wise are we also, then, if we give God the credit for anything we do well, and attribute any failure simply to a deficiency in our attunement with Him. To blame ourselves, or to hurl accusations at others, is futile. Ignorance, and wisdom: Both are simply the tying and untying of the knots of cosmic delusion.

Wise are we, too, if we can sense in all things the hidden divine power: if we can see in human laughter God’s inward smile, and in human sorrow the tenderness of His compassion, or kindly reproach.

The world is God’s dream. Our allotted task is to wake from our own dreams within the cosmic dream, and to live in obedience to the Dreamer’s plan for us.

Everything should be loved for God’s sake—nothing, for its own sake. This was the message conveyed by St. Francis of Assisi in his wonderful “Canticle of the Creatures,” a hymn of thanksgiving to God for His love in creating “brother Sun and sister Moon.” Francis’s canticle was written not, as many believe, in praise of God’s creation itself, but in joyous love for its all-beneficent Creator. Had it been written merely in praise of Nature, it would have been, from the point of view of divine adoration, idolatrous. For while it is good to find inspiration in Nature’s beauty, it is best if that beauty inspires us to love God all the more fervently.

To deny to creation, however, the reciprocity of love that we receive through it from God, and all the while to tell ourselves austerely that we are reserving our love for God alone, would more than likely harden us in our egoism. For we honor God when we love all things in His name. We honor Him every time we find divine inspiration in a sunset; energy and joy in a burst of sunlight through the trees; heavenly music in the songs of birds; and inner freedom in every gust of wind. Everything becomes more wonderful when we perceive life’s inner secret: that at the heart of everything is Love Itself.

It helps also to look beyond things that only inspire us aesthetically. For God sends messages in many forms.

Consider the rocks: Are they not, in their massiveness and immobility, divine lessons in steadfastness? Consider the bees: Don’t they teach us, wordlessly, to sip only sweetness from life, and to turn aside from all anger and bitterness? Consider the clouds: Isn’t their message one of aloofness from petty, daily preoccupations, and of impartial service to all, as they themselves render when they send nourishing rain?

These are not imaginary projections merely, for the divine consciousness manifests itself through our very thoughts—the more so, the more we lift our consciousness up to God. Few people are naturally disposed to seek truth inwardly. For the rest especially, sources of inspiration can provide a faltering first step toward the inner light. It is God Himself, finally, who inspires us to seek Him inwardly.

God is perceived directly by the soul in the sound of AUM, and in the calm inner Light. Thus have great saints communed with the “Word.” As is stated in Ezekiel, 43:1,2: “Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and His voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.”

By offering up to God every experience we receive from life, and by communing deeply in ourselves with the “Word,” we shall reclaim at last our eternal heritage in Him.

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