Sunday Service Reading #28

From Rays of the One Light
Self-Reliance vs. Self-Reliance
(to long readings)

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within. The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Last week we considered the need for attunement—with God, with the gurus, with the wisdom of others—until we make that wisdom our own. There is a strong, and in fact valid, belief nowadays in the need for standing on one's own feet rather than depending weakly on others to carry us by their strength.

Swami Kriyananda was once asked, “What is the best yoga posture?” “That one,” he replied, “which sets you squarely on your own two feet.”

Our strength must come from within. If that strength comes from the ego, however, instead of from soul-consciousness, it is like a guitar string without its sounding board: the notes it emits will be thin and feeble. Our strength must come from within, but must be coupled with recognition of our inner link with broader and higher realities.

The Bhagavad Gita says in the tenth Chapter:

Everyone in this world whose life is glorious, or prosperous, or powerful—know that his achievement is but a little spark from the great sun of My effulgence.

Jesus in talking to his disciples emphasized also the power of attunement with his own consciousness as a ray of the Divine. For this ray had descended already, through him, in response to their devotion; it was a sign that God was already “listening” to them with receptive attention, and did not require to be wooed in that way any longer. In the passage preceding the one that we read last week, Jesus said:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

This was the meaning of Paramhansa Yogananda's counsel also, when speaking more intimately to the disciples of the need for attunement with him.

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

VIDEO of Asha's Service on this Subject from 7-11-10

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Asha's Service on this Subject from 7-11-10

VIDEO of Bharat's Service on this Subject from 7-11-10

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Bharat's Service on this Subject from 7-11-10

VIDEO of Asha's Service on this Subject from 7-12-09

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Asha's Service on this Subject from 7-12-09

VIDEO of Anandi's Service on this Subject from 7-13-08
NOTE: In order to get this video to start: after you click the start arrow you
must also move the slider slightly forward. Then it will play as normal.

MP3 For Download (or online listening) of Anandi's Service on this Subject from 7-13-08

MP3 For Download (or online listening) of Padma's Service on this Subject from 7-12-09

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of another of Dr. Peter's's Service on this Subject from 7-15-07

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Asha's Service on this Subject from 7-13-08

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

#28 Abiding in God
(Titled: Secrets of Higher Attunement in Rays of the Same Light and Numbered 27)

This passage is from the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 15, Verses 1-4:

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

"Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." 

Commentary

In this passage of the Bible, as also in the passage that we read last week, Jesus emphasized that people cannot develop spiritually if they separate themselves from the greater reality of which they, and all men, are a part. Nor, he implied, can anyone even be creative, in the truest sense, if, while acting, he sees himself alone as the doer, not God.

Jesus was particularly referring to attunement to the Christ Consciousness, in which he dwelt. His words, however, can be applied on many levels of reality.

One who isolates himself in his ego, whether because he is proud or self-involved, limits his power. If a guitar string is stretched tightly but not attached to the instrument's sounding board, the sound it produces will be weak. The life of man, too, is fruitful to the extent that he recognizes and expresses some aspect of a greater reality than his own.

Try listening sensitively to people's voices. In those of egotists, or of people who are intensely self-involved, see if you don't detect a thin — almost a brittle — quality, suggestive of their self-imposed isolation, their aloofness from the realities of others. 

Then, try listening to the voices of people whose sympathies are expansive. See whether you don't detect a certain richness in their vocal timbre — the overtones of a generous nature.

If a person wants to grow spiritually, he must realize that spiritual development can be achieved only by attuning oneself to a higher reality. He cannot create that reality: He can only perceive it.

Truly wise, then, is he who seeks to receive understanding, and does not presume himself capable of inventing it. Such a person, recognizing his need ever to learn and grow in wisdom, will naturally adopt an attitude, in a sense, of discipleship toward life.

Inevitably, the true seeker will recognize his need for guidance from others, wiser than himself. It is a sign of discernment, not of passivity, on his part. It denotes no lack of originality in himself that he seeks out those of more developed wisdom. Only the egotist thinks that creative talent can be his own private possession. (As well might the stained glass window of a church pride itself on the brilliance of the sunlight shining through it!)

Egotists, even when life compels them finally to admit the existence of a higher reality, rarely will accept guidance from anyone. Their attitude toward truth itself is proprietary.

The eternal secret of wisdom, however, is humility. And what is humility? Quite simply, openness, self-honesty. Man's own ability cannot but be limited, no matter how carefully he cultivates it. But God's power is without limit.

Because truth is infinite, man assumes a heroic responsibility in setting out to find it. Egotists, proud of their intellectual prowess, tend rather to imagine that they have only to strike out in the general direction of Infinity, and they'll surely get there and home again in time for supper! Yet great men and women have devoted their entire lives to the search for truth.

Anyone who recognizes the enormity of the task will surely welcome whatever assistance he can get. Even to become a competent artist, the novice, if he is sincere, will study under experts. How could he expect, on his own, to learn skills that have been developed over centuries?

Goethe, often described as one of the greatest geniuses who ever lived, credited most of his greatness to the amassed wisdom of others.

Great masters, who have scaled the heights of spirituality, strongly insist on the seeker's need to be guided by someone familiar with the way. Those, on the other hand, who insist on the seeker's need to find his own way are invariably people of shallow spiritual attainments. To whose advice ought one to listen?

The spiritual path is beset with countless pitfalls, countless tempting detours, countless false leads. One who refuses the guidance of experience betrays either monumental ignorance, or else a resolution to set out on the journey solely to impress others. If his aim is to impress, on rounding the first bend he will probably hide in the bushes, and there await nightfall before returning to his former haunts. No sincere seeker, certainly, will ever reject genuine guidance if it comes his way.

Jesus Christ, great master of the spiritual life that he was, served as a channel for God's light. He had brought it with him to earth, like Prometheus, to guide and inspire souls who were lost in spiritual darkness. Those true disciples who sought to attune themselves to the Christ Consciousness in him, and to his divine guidance, discovered God's way of bringing souls back to Himself.

The way to come to God is not only to recognize our need for attunement with a greater reality than our own. It is to realize that the vine from which nourishment can be drawn exists already. Its ramifications spread outward from God-realized masters into the lives of sincere truth-seekers.

To know God, one must unite the little branch of his human consciousness to the soul-sustaining power flowing into this world through great masters, whose realization is rooted in the infinite light and love of God.

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

This passage is from the 10th Chapter, the 41st Stanza:

"Everyone in this world whose life is glorious, or prosperous, or powerful — know that his achievement is but a little spark from the great sun of My effulgence."

Commentary

No tree can grow to its full height in poor soil. No cloud can assume radiant colors unless it is illumined by the sun.

The reason people find it difficult to recognize God's power as the true source even of worldly success is that He operates behind the scenes. They see success as depending on outward causes. They fail to realize that it depends first of all on a radiation of divine energy outward from the very center of one's being.

Religiously minded people, too, seldom perceive within themselves the subtle cause of whatever success and failure they attract in life. Theology itself tends to concentrate on man's outward role on earth, while defining God's participation in human affairs as divine intervention from without.

God, of course, acts also outside the will of man. We can never create independently of Him, however, any more than we can construct a building without using materials that He first brought into existence. Our very thoughts are only borrowed from His infinite consciousness.

A child once opened up a seed and exclaimed in disappointment, "There's nothing here!" Yet, from that seed might have grown a mighty tree. God's presence within us, similarly, is invisible to the human eye; to many people, therefore, it seems nonexistent. Yet that presence alone is the highest secret of genius.

To understand this truth deeply, reflect on something that has been demonstrated by modern science, and that great masters have always averred, namely, that matter is only a vibration of energy. Any success, then, that we draw to ourselves in life depends not only on how well we deal with material realities, but, more particularly, on how well we relate to those realities as energy.

A flow of electricity generates a magnetic field. The stronger the flow, the stronger the magnetic field. In human terms also, a powerful energy-flow is more important to the end results of an undertaking than any material force one can set into motion. For one's energy-flow generates the magnetism by which he attracts whatever good or ill is his lot in life. Within every human being lies the true source of all his success or failure.

On a subtler level even than that of energy, success depends on how consciously we relate to the realities in our lives. Great masters have always said that the ultimate reality is divine consciousness; that matter and energy both are essentially manifestations of consciousness. What is needed above all, then, to attract success to ourselves is a strong mental expectation.

Paramhansa Yogananda declared, "The greater the will power, the greater the flow of energy." From this axiom one may infer another: "The greater the flow of energy, the stronger the magnetic field it generates." By the quality and strength of that magnetic field, we can change our so-called destiny.

This means that, the more we make ourselves clear channels for God's power and inspiration, the more radiant, happy, and successful we cannot fail to be. As Jesus Christ said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

In this week's Gita passage, as in countless other stanzas from this great Scripture, we find expounded not only abstract philosophy, but practical teaching as well. For Sri Krishna clearly implies here that, in order to shine in any field in life, we need not depend on outward efforts alone. Rather, we should strive to live consciously in God, at the center of our being.

In our outward direction of energy, too, we should try to manifest from the deepest level within ourselves God's calm, unfailing guidance and strength. Let us live no longer in the thought, so common to mankind, that to succeed in life we must do constant outward battle.

Material struggle is always accompanied by a certain amount of nervous tension and anxiety. Action, however, that is rooted in the consciousness of God's power is ever calm and serene. The more one dwells in a state of attunement with Him, the more restful one becomes in the certainty that whatever is one's due in life will be attracted to him naturally — without undue effort on his part; and that it will help him to grow towards ever greater inner peace.

Our most important job in life, always, is to invite God's participation in everything we do.

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

Longest Reading from the Book
The Promise of Immortality
NOTE: This book ends at Reading #26.

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