Prayer and Meditation (eBook)

Wisdom Library of Swami Amar Jyoti

Swami Amar Jyoti (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
160 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-9864-1 (ISBN)

Infos

The Wisdom Library of Swami Amar Jyoti includes Satsangs (wisdom teachings) given from 1975 until 2000. The chapters in each volume were edited from oral recordings and originally appeared in Light of Consciousness Journal. With simple language and clarity, these are universal teachings apply to any path yet transcend all paths. Volume 2: Prayer & Meditation focuses on the spiritual and scientific meaning of prayer and meditation, how to grow in a peaceful, relaxed way to higher consciousness. Each chapter takes seekers deeper into the silence and stillness of Oneness, Illumination, God-Consciousness, which is the birthright of every human being.

The spiritual awakening on earth that Gurudeva reveals is the glorious destiny of mankind, once freed from our limited identity of self. Lovingly and ceaselessly, He continues to uplift and purify each of us for this awakening, for His way is the ancient relationship of the Guru to the disciple, the candle lit directly from the burning flame of Truth. Prabhushri constantly reminds us that we are at a breakthrough into a new age, where religions will be transformed into direct awakening and communion with our Highest Source. Like a mother whose love knows no bounds for her child, the Guru guides and nurtures the disciple on his or her own path to perfection, revealing the attainable Reality of God Consciousness. Swami Amar Jyoti was born on May 6, 1928 in a small town in northwestern India, not far from the banks of the Indus River. His parents named Him Rama. His childhood interests were many: science, math, music, writing, cycling, drama and sports, and He brilliantly excelled in all of these. His college education was temporarily interrupted by the crisis of the partition of India in 1947 when He transferred to a college in Mumbai (Bombay). Much beloved by family and professors, He shocked everyone with the decision to leave home a few months before graduation, saying, 'I'd like to read an open book of the world for my education.' At the age of nineteen, without money or any particular destination, He took the first train He found, eventually arriving in Calcutta. It was 1948. Refugees were pouring over the border of East Bengal (now Bangladesh) into West Bengal by the thousands each day. For some time Prabhushri worked in an aviation company in Calcutta where He was offered a partnership. Instead, He chose to leave the company to become a volunteer for the refugees. Living on a railway platform near the border of India and Bangladesh, He soon headed the entire volunteer corps there, working tirelessly 20 hours or more each day. After about ten months, the flood of refugees subsided, and He returned to Calcutta. There, a Senator who had witnessed His work at the border offered Him a high government position for rehabilitation of refugees, but He turned it down. He lived in Calcutta and later moved to the outskirts of the city in a quiet ashram where He pursued classical music, sitar, religious studies and prayer. It was during this time that visions began awakening in Him. He began to meditate and do yoga and attended puja (traditional worship) at a nearby temple of a well-known saint. In a short while He 'knew' His life work. As He described it, He picked up there from where He had left off in the last birth. Very soon, He retired to Himalaya where He lived in silence and meditation for about ten years, one-pointed on the Goal of Liberation. Many places of pilgrimage were visited during those years, walking on foot many miles each day. But a small cave at Gangotri, the temple village near the source of the Ganga River, was the place of His greatest spiritual disciplines, awakenings and, finally, Illumination. The first Ashram Gurudeva founded was Jyoti Ashram, under Ananda Niketan Trust, located in Pune, Maharashtra, India. In 1961 He accepted an offer by a devotee to visit the United States. Again, He traveled unknown, though He soon attracted many who had never seen such a Holy Man. He was eventually persuaded by the sincerity of American disciples to Sacred Mountain Ashram in 1974 and Desert Ashram in 1978. After four decades of traveling, giving Satsang and Retreats, establishing Ashrams and guiding innumerable souls to higher consciousness, Gurudeva took Mahasamadhi-conscious release of the mortal body-on June 13, 2001. His Samadhi Sthal was dedicated in Pune, India, in June 2002.

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Until you attain Oneness, you will always be seeking, whether spiritually, materially or humanly. Therefore you see that the material world is insatiable. This is not because it is bad but just the very nature of things. You cannot expect perennial satisfaction from changeful material phenomena. We can hope eternally, but it does not satisfy us. Therefore seeking will never end until we become one. Sobriety teaches us to take things appropriately, which is what I call common sense. Some call it renunciation, dispassion or detachment, but it is simply common sense. We cannot be one in the body or in the mind, as they are relative and dualistic by their own nature. What constitutes Oneness is the same substance in all: Spirit, Light, God, Consciousness. In that, we are already One, always were and always will be. Until you attain Oneness, you will always be seeking, whether spiritually, materially or humanly. Therefore you see that the material world is insatiable. This is not because it is bad but just the very nature of things. You cannot expect perennial satisfaction from changeful material phenomena. We can hope eternally, but it does not satisfy us. Therefore seeking will never end until we become one. Sobriety teaches us to take things appropriately, which is what I call common sense. Some call it renunciation, dispassion or detachment, but it is simply common sense. We cannot be one in the body or in the mind, as they are relative and dualistic by their own nature. What constitutes Oneness is the same substance in all: Spirit, Light, God, Consciousness. In that, we are already One, always were and always will be. Falling short of that, we are wallowing in dualistic patterns and relativity, expecting the same results as being one in Consciousness. The joy you seek, the satisfaction you seek, the peace you seek, the love you seek are all attributes of Oneness, not relativity. Those who wisely accept and see this relax and become sober, and common sense is born. "e;This simple thing I didn't understand for so long. I read all these books. I exercised my legs and arms for all these years. I banged on doors. I searched and asked and did so many rituals, but it is such a simple matter."e; When you arrive at that understanding, at that relaxed point, it is simple. We do say that truth is simple and God is simple. This is not a great philosophy or a special way of thinking; it is just common sense... Grow in a peaceful, relaxed attitude and raise your consciousness through your spinal column... Not by forcing but with a very peaceful, releasing and relieving attitude. When you reach there the Light shines. In that crowning Realization you will see that everything is One... When that Light travels up the spinal column, Consciousness shines. It is indescribable. They have called it Illumination, Liberation, the thousand-petalled lotus. Not only does it radiate from your body, when you reach there you will see that it is everywhere. The Light, Consciousness, is pervading, within you and around you, in every particle and space. That Consciousness, the Source, is the energy that sustains you. (Excerpted from Chapter 1, The Goal of All Seeking)

Textauszug

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PRAYER on the yoga path? As I wrote in Retreat Into Eternity, “Prayer is for your own opening rather than to make God hear. He already knows.” In other words: prayer is for self-purification rather than asking for things. The fundamental need in prayer is that we lack something, or to know something, so we pray to God because He knows. Prayer implies either your nothingness or at least that you are incomplete. Therefore the cornerstone of prayer is humility. This is not just a gesture of body, but an inner attitude of humility that must be inseparable from prayer. Even if you are asking for spiritual things, prayer has no meaning if it is not coupled with real humility. Another purpose of prayer is that it opens your heart, which means that you are coming out of ego.

This is where the whole science of prayer starts: that you begin to contact that which is Cosmic, the Unknown, God. When you touch That, you begin to receive. Prayer makes this kind of connection. Then when some contact is made—from being humble, from not knowing or having, and establishing the existence of God who could help you—I feel at that point the function of prayer is over. Prayer with heartfelt humility brings you to contact the fringe of that Unknown or God; then mind and ego begin to melt. This will happen automatically if it is a genuine prayer, so much so that after some time, maybe minutes, hours or days, you automatically go within. Rightly done, prayer should lead you to meditation.

When you pray humbly, your heart is purified. You begin to be absorbed, to relax, to go within. Then ultimately you enter into Silence where prayer just stops. Prayer will not directly give you the highest vision, but it will lead you to Silence and absorption such that you will forget you are praying. That Silence or God is the whole fruit of your aspiration. So prayer is a very important factor. There are some yogis, such as in raja yoga, who feel that there is no place for prayer. Technically, prayer has no place there, but you could still pray if you want to. It will not clash with the path. But orthodoxy and dogmatism are everywhere, even in science, raja yoga, or the path of devotion. I have met quite a number of yogis who were well meaning, but if they heard that I or someone else prayed while being a yogi, they would tease or taunt. I remember when it happened with a few, and I stopped telling them anything. Better to keep quiet and just do what I wanted to do. As long as prayer helped me, whether I was a raja yogi, a hatha yogi, a Christ yogi or whatever it was, it did not matter to me what they thought.

I do believe, therefore, in integral yoga, and that many paths and many views together can help without being on one path only, but you have to be sincere in everything you do. There are many things that lead you somewhere until you reach something else, so I do not take prayer as the last word in full God Realization. Jesus kneeled and prayed, as you have seen in paintings. After all, it is vibratory. It reaches you to touch the fringe of something else, but beyond that prayer cannot go. There it ends. This is how I see that prayer works, spiritually and scientifically. There is no doubt that prayer is the most purifying factor because you are surrendering your ego. You are asking something from God that you do not know; you are affirming that you are nothing. But if you lack true humility, genuinely being nothing before Him, prayer will not be effective. One more thing I think I should say about prayer: you have to be sufficiently pure-hearted for it to be effective. Of course, you can pray anytime, with whatever condition of mind and soul, but it may not bring the intended results if your heart is not reasonably pure.

We consider the ultimate Goal as being one with Pure Consciousness or God. Until we attain that oneness, our seeking will not end. This is not only intellectual but Realization, where me is lost. That is the goal, whether we achieve it today or a million years hence. Nondualistic Oneness is the answer. Without that we will be seeking always, consciously or unconsciously. It is not assertion of the philosophy of Oneness that makes us one. On the contrary, that could actually be scholarly ego or even spiritual ego. It is a matter of non-dualistic Realization, where you and That become one. Even Jesus said: “I and my Father in Heaven are one.” He also said that the kingdom of God is within you and everyone.

Until you attain Oneness, you will always be seeking, whether spiritually, materially or humanly. Therefore you see that the material world is insatiable. This is not because it is bad but just the very nature of things. You cannot expect perennial satisfaction from changeful material phenomena. We can hope eternally, but it does not satisfy us. Therefore seeking will never end until we become one. Sobriety teaches us to take things appropriately, which is what I call common sense. Some call it renunciation, dispassion or detachment, but it is simply common sense. We cannot be one in the body or in the mind, as they are relative and dualistic by their own nature. What constitutes Oneness is the same substance in all: Spirit, Light, God, Consciousness. In that, we are already One, always were and always will be.

Falling short of that, we are wallowing in dualistic patterns and relativity, expecting the same results as being one in Consciousness. The joy you seek, the satisfaction you seek, the peace you seek, the love you seek are all attributes of Oneness, not relativity. Those who wisely accept and see this relax and become sober, and common sense is born. “This simple thing I didn’t understand for so long. I read all these books. I exercised my legs and arms for all these years. I banged on doors. I searched and asked and did so many rituals, but it is such a simple matter.” When you arrive at that understanding, at that relaxed point, it is simple. We do say that truth is simple and God is simple. This is not a great philosophy or a special way of thinking; it is just common sense.

Desire is insatiable. Why do you not accept it? Why is your mind such a stubborn monkey? And then in trying to justify that monkey, you get lost in complexities. That is where confusion and restlessness start. It dissipates your energy and then you begin to form your own answers, a kind of philosophy to justify whatever it is. Truth remains elusive through your own thinking, justifying, feelings, actions and desires. Do you feel satisfied? Do you feel happy about it? If you are honest you will say no. If you are stubborn or egotistical you may not, but stubbornness does not make us peaceful. Those who spend their time and energy being simple are wise. Those who have even the slightest pride about knowledge will not reach the Kingdom of God. You never know who is accepted at the feet of the Lord.

It is not a matter of speculation; it is a matter of knowing. This comes when the mind relaxes and tumbles down. Then you see clearly what you were justifying. Without exception you will see that your previous justifications were based upon desires, wishful thinking or imagination. That is where repentance comes in: seeing where you were wrong. Up to that point you will go on arguing, discussing, trying to prove you are right. That is complexity. All of this is just restlessness of mind. The best thing is to just relax, go within, and come to some relative awareness or common sense. Then you will see more clearly.

You may think that you have prayed to God, now it is up to Him, but that is a puny way of thinking. Someone comes to me and says, “Swamiji, I prayed very fervently, very genuinely, about such and such thing last night but it didn’t happen.” I say, “Is your life prayerful in the sense that you do not ask out of selfishness? Is your life prayerful in the sense that you look to God or your Master for guidance for what you should do, not only for what you want? Are there not many things in your life that you do not pray for at all but just believe ego and act?” If we employ prayer only when our boat gets stuck, it mostly will not work. Life has to be prayerful. You may say, “Oh, I didn’t want to trouble Him”—as if God could be troubled! These are ego tricks. Ego depends upon itself in many things, so why humble itself before the Lord? But when something critical happens, we begin to pray, “Lord what are you doing? I’m really heartfelt praying to you, genuinely—believe me. Please listen. This is not what I wanted.” I am trying to expose the tricks of mind behind prayer. Otherwise I maintain as a principle that genuine prayer and the prayerful life should work. Go deeply into this.

Wisdom, Consciousness and God’s vision are not born with a restless mind. It has to be very peaceful, quiet, as if coming to nothingness. The point where “me” is lost is where wisdom is born. Wisdom is a principle; Consciousness is a principle; God is a principle that is already there. If you say you are wise, you are implying that there are times when you are a fool too. Consciousness is not a dualistic objective realization that you could attain and come back and tell your honey about. It is Oneness. You are fully satisfied. You are perfectly relaxed. You are perfectly awake. You will have no questions.

True wisdom has no “ism” or dogma or denomination. When we give it a name and form it becomes a denomination or religion. Suppose there are some beings on another planet who do not speak or hear but have inner communication like clairvoyance or clairaudience. There would be less confusion and therefore no problems of semantics, dogma or...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 29.4.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-9864-1 / 9798350998641