S-TII * P.54 YOGODA SAT-SANGA FORINIGHTLY INSTRUCTIONS BY PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA Ae (To be Confidentinlly Reserved FR MEMBER'S USE ONLY) SSSESSSSSSESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS GOD IS EVERYTHING God 19 written all over the azure hilis, The blades of grass tterble With the dewdrop tears of God. Goa is woven into the cloth Of the golden blue sky. God is mitted into the stems of blossom! DHOHHOHODOOD OOODHOHDOOOGD God is beine written all over the blue waters Ry the fingers of wavelets, God 1s fragrant in my love, God is patterine in rmindrops on the pavement, f Making watery daisies. * God is the light cmstantly oxtinguishing 5 Te darkness of ignorance, God is sleeping _ On the bosom of the grim rocks. ; So.) ss. 0s He has trickled tears of light Into the gems in the prism of hidden mines, And He bestows His sites On all appreciative Souls, God is the snered smile on rosy lips. God is the-rdiver of life Inunéating the soil of all Souls. 8 s 8 s S I saw Him woven into the burning stars, 8 And patterned in the des igns s s s s SS! Of iefeles and snowflakes, Continued) ISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS95. 3 foanuvanane PRAECEPIUM “O Divine Father, Thou art just behing my prayer, but why dost Thov seam so far away? Thov dost tremble throveh’ my feelings, and Thy Presence pushes through the vei] of my thovehts, yet Thou scomest so far away. Come, Father, take aymy ‘th Come, Father, come! Listen to the votee of my prayer. I want to mow Thee, I want to talk to Thee. I wnt tovhear Thee shenk to me, I want to pray to Thee and know that Thou dost hear my vrayer. Show me the way that leads to Thee," WHY PEOPLE DO'NOT FIND cop, AND HOW TO SURELY, FIND HIM: PART IT a LIVE BY GOD-POWER why mst,God's children go hungry? ~The Soul, identified with the Satan-desecrated human body, feels hungry, and in tuming to the earth-products for nourish-pee Page Two ment, remains earth-bound. Thus the Soul forgets that it enn live like God by God's Cosmic Fnerry, ¥very min should ask, as the blind kin in the Geeta asin a: "Gathered together in the hodily Kinedom are the warriors of the pre- natal and post-natal good actions arrayed against the pre-natal and post-natal evil actions. “that have they done? Which side was eon? Evil on earth was not all created by mn's wrong actions (evil Karma) ,accumlated during my incarnations. Evil existed from the time the Cosmic Satanic force first misused the Cosmic Energy to create tmperfeot things ond Beings, Even when Adam and Eve were created, Satan foresaw that if they remined perfect on carth, and were doma~ terialized and drawn back into God, there would be nothing left for him to do, and he would lose his power, so, oven in that early period, Satan had already turned against God, and had created such patterns af imperfection os physicnl temptation, to make Adam and Eve tram eress the perfect laws and become earth-bound throveh the crention of imper~ fect desires. There was no evil in God,” Satan precipated evil by the misuse of his GOD-GIVIN free choice, and his power of creating finite things. Goa might have anticipated the origin of evil in Saten through His Om nisoience, yet He organized this Cosmic Play in order to enjoy Himself Yhrovgh His mony selves, and because He knew that, ultimately, His goodness would bring a11 things back unto Him, After God gave independent power to Satan, who had been an archangel, to create perfect finite things, Satan misused his indenen= dence, as n revellious genernl sometimes turns agninst his King, Ever since then Satan has created an ugly counterpart for every beautiful creation of God, in man's body, mind, and Soul, and in Nature, God ercated a beautiful body to be charged hy Cosmic Energy, and to live ina free, uncond‘tioned, Divine state, but Satan created hunger, and the lure of the senses, For mental power, Satan substi tu- ted mental tomptat' on; for Sovl's wisdom, Satan invented delusive ia= norance; for beautiful Nature, Satan substituted ugly warfare, discase germs, earthquakes, cataclysms, floods, and other disastors. If there were no individval and industrial greed, selfishness, sex temptation, nor false ambitions, this earth would be free from physical and moral crimes and mr, By these misfortunes, Satan is ststonatucakkt fugetudg God's verfect plins of unselfishness, inter- national cooperation, self-control, and true ambition, which includes the happiness of other people in one's own happiness, brotherhood, and so on, SPIRI WAL PERCEPTION Usually, heaven is pictured as containing beautiful things which please the senses of vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, ‘The Spiritual aspirant thinks of Heaven ns a place of glorified earthly enjoyments., In renl= ity, when the devotee, in meditation, has to be cuiet, peéring behind the sereen of darkness, he wonders if it is not foolish to relinquish the tangible pleasures of the senses for the intangible, invisible Pleasures of the Spirit. The Spiritual aspirant who sleeplessly meditates can command his Sovl-identified, Bliss-saturated consciousness to centralize the Spiritual perception. This perception is the grand chariot of the devotees, with which they move from the wilderness of the misery- flming senses throvgh the oasis of the spinol Spiritual centers on to the plane of omnipresent consciousness in the brain, According to the quality of his Spiritual advancement, the devotee ann centralize his - -car of Spiritual Ferception on any plone, The ever-avake devotee feels in his Soul-saturated blissful state that he beholds his chariot of Spiritual perception situated right between the crooked sense-tenden— cies and the discriminative tendencies. The man who fs restless and happy, working and worrying day and night to make money, does not know of the superior joy of medita- tion, so he does not like to meditate. Instead, he would rather play chess, gossip, or use his tine in @nsuming or ysting precious hours to no purpose, in preference to secking the superior cvor-now joy in meditation. Most devotees, not knowing the positive side of the renunetation of the bad habits of restlessness for higher happiness, give up medita- _ ting after a fow'trials and plunge into the oddics of ordinary hnbits of living, and are drowned in ignorance. But the real devotee should use Spiritual imgination and shovld not yicld to the memories of rest= less habits, which say: "Mr. Mind, 1t te no use meditating in the dark. Go out and have n good time every day going to the movies, and so forth,” while the mind imardly says: "Do not do avay with the pleasures indulged in by most people and sit in fruitless meditation.” No matter how many times a man suffers from very powerful ht- tacks of sense-habits and restlessness-producing materia) desires, he finds that the moditation-born, occult soldiers of this life and past lives still come to his aid. A man who is always restless and nover moditates thinks that he is all right because he has become accustomed sitsibeins, tuplats.of xenthes essness. However, as soon as he tries to moditate and be calm, he finds resistance from the tad hnbits of mental fickleness, Then, again, when the habits of restlessness try to usurp the throne of the devotee's eonsciousness, they find the occult soldiers of past lives offering resistance, PRAY UNGEASINGLY, Do away with the mockery of mechanical, loud UNTIL GOD ANSWERS YOU praying. Shake off the false satisfaction of believing “just something" about God. You must know God, You must know how to rouse Him consciously and tangib= ly and make Him answer your demands. Do not rest until you have heard His voice consciously. You can ease your conscience by claiming that pressure of business prevents you from praying and meditating, but you can have no excuses for not offering Him deep mental whispers at any time, in the temple of activity, or on the altar of silence. No matter what you may be doing, you are always free to whisper your love to God, until you consciously receive His response. This is the surest way to contact Him in the mad rush of present-day life, You know that whenever you wont something very mvch, no matter what you may be doing, no matter where you may happen to he, a constant mentally whispering desire oo the object forcibly ves in the back~ ground of your mind. is haunting, real ire for anything is ealled a “mental whisper The mind constantly whispers to itself what it wants, Such mental whisp bear no resemblance to parroted It 4s spontaneous and s tly works itself into a aynaric 207 Never be satisfied until you seo unmist response. If you are never satisficd and at tt deing discouraged, keep on meditating and prayi God will come to you as Krishna, Jesus, or Lahiri Mahasaya, or ary other of the Great Masters, as they were actually when they lived on carth. >inS-ITI * P54 -Page Four- while praying, know that no mntter if God does not answer you, He is listening to you, and 1f you enn convince Him that you want Him above atl else - as badly as you want money, love, and power, then He will talk to you. Remember, the mother does not answer to the ery of the child who 18 tricked to camsolntion by toys, but she comes to the incessant~ ly erying navahty baby. Become the Divine Naughty Baby. Do not be satisfied with tho demonstration of earthly toys in ansver to your prayer orics. Pray silently, ery silently, unheard by any, in your own Langunge of your heart, without stopping, for God, until He an- swors you. It 1s best to meditate, pray, and cry before a picture of Lahiri Mohasaya or of Christ, or any Guru-Preceptor's picture until you see or feel that one of them responds. You must consciously contact God, and finding Him first, you will have attained dominion over yourself and over ai} your limiting conditions, Your greatest and most important engagement is with God and seeking His Truth through the oyes of wisdom and daily discipline. SHIRA ITE THE APOLOGUE SAINT WHO ATE FIRE PART II. a No sooner had Saint Sananda finished his encouraging specch “then the wleked disciple, Narkat, began to whisper to the other ais= ciples around him: "Look at ovr tencher and listen to his venl- vitalized speech. No wonder he can mk cheerfully beeause of his second helping of meat, but think of us, “o poor folks are walking with energy from fruit juices only, and they have already evnporated under the seething glare of the sun.” Saint Sananda, being highly advanced spiritually, was oll- ynowing, and through his intuition telepathically knew about the dovbt-crenting, dissatisfaction-generating words of his wicked @is- ciple, Markat., So, he suddenly walked back to Markat, and in front of many other discontented disciples he ensvally said: “Dear Markat, would you like to eat what I cat? Can you digest what I eat?" Dis- cdple Markat, thinking that Master vas going to offer him veal cutlets, omphaticnlly said with assurance: “Honored Sir, just try your food on me and see how fast I can melt it with my digestive fire." Whon the forty aisciples reached the ond of their firty-mile joumey, they were casunlly told by their Master to tarry a little while around a huge fiery furnace, where a smith was proparing and cutting red-hot nails. On the other side a big enlf was being roasted. ™Me Master Saint, being welcomed by the blacksmith, said: "Well, children, sit ina cirele around this fire before ontering the village, for I am going to offer you some very vitalizing food which I have prevented you from enting for a long time. But before I invite you all to cat, I want Markat to come nnd sit by me, for he has assured me that he will.ent and digest what I eat.” The hungry Markat, beside himsolf with joy at the sight of the Prospective veal ronst, lenped to his sent beside the Master Saint, No sooner wns the disciple Markat seated than Saint Sanandn nut his hand into the pile of red-hot ombers and nnils and began to svnllowS-III * P.54 “Page Five- them as fast as he could, as if he were eating chopped venl ment. While the Saint was cating these fiery nnils and embers calmly, he amilingly but forecfully said to his disciple Markat: “Come on, keep your promise and ent what T ent, and then we will see whether you oan digest it or not,” (Concluded in Next Praeceptuml ILPLALILDEPLALPE: HEALTH CULTURE FOOD PREPARA TION Instend of courting that ultimate upheaval re- PART IT sembling a wholesale tumbling of building blocks about one's head, let us cultivate calm, poised, clear-sighted deliberating quality of studious comsiderntion of the subject up. for analysis, fortified by actual comprehension of the in= trioate problem tackled, Right here we feel it incumbent unon us to issue the precaution against that "little knowledge which is a danger-— ous thing;" that gathoring of little bits of hearsay from unreliable quarters, Althovgh the Will Power demonétrated and the sacrifices entailed wher it comes to giving up foods that once hnd a strong appeal are com- mendable, it 1s possible that the substitutes are not thoroughly under- od. and ndjusted to the individual revvirements, thus laying teal nerstone for future disaster. It is woll to work from the “middle the road," thus obtaining a good view of cither side, and developing therefrom the capacity to choose which side shall eventually be accept- ed for personel preference and demonstration. It may be a slower process, but only in the beginning, and certainly a safer one. Attempting to skip ahead of schedule in eyolu- ' tionary progress is likely to send us sevrrying back to make up those bits of skipped roadway at a time when tho backward stride would mean moze to us in, say, price, than if we had been content to cnlmly, sen- sibly, cosider each step deliverntely particularly in the beginning. There is obtainable nt the household departments, some Health Food stores, and drug-stores a cooking parchment paper. It is odorless, tasteless, and few foods stain it or lenve a erense deposit, so it oan de vsed mony times over ngnin, It is especially recommended for cook= ing vegetables (though by no means confined to that class of food} paramountly because it prevents the valuable mineral snlts and pre-~ cious natural and delicate flnvors from escaping into the water in witich it 1s cooked. Another argument in favour of.its use, is that cooking utensils remain clean because it is only necessary to rinse them afterwards instead of resorting to laborious scouring. They are inexpensive, cor Ing the initinl cost of the sheets which may be used over and over nzain for months. A number of aifforent kinds of foods can be cooked at the same time, without the odor or flavor of either inter- ferine with ench other.S-ITI * P54 Page Six- FORTNIGHTLY INSPIRATION BEGIN YOUR MEDIMTAY DAY 0 Sleeping Image of God, wake up! Make the determination and the effort to know the right nw which will enable you to keep your most important enzagement with yourself - to know yourself (sovl). Do not say: “I will meditate on the Cosmic Being tomorrow? That tomorrow may never come, Bezin your meditation today. To- day's practice will stimlote the desire to meditate tomorrow deep- er, whereas this day's nezligence will wenken your eraving. Do - not be lured by bad habits and paltry useless vanity-engagements into crowding out God~contnot, The world creates in you bad habits, but the world wil] not stand responsible for your actions springing from those habits, Then why give all the time to the world? Reserve even an hour a day for actual Sovl-to-Sovl God-Renlization. Doesn't the Giver of the world itself, of your family, money, and everything, de~ serve one twentyfourth part of your time? Some people do all things imperfectly because of enreless- ness, inertin, and lack of sustained purpose, Get a zood teacher teeewe(a Guru), decide upon the best and avtckest method of neattation as tavehtby the erent Saints-and Master Minds of Tndin, and the meditate deeper and dseper every dey, praying to God with a burn- ing heart: "Reveal Thyself.¥ Continue to do this day after day, month after month, and year after year in good faith and you wii find that you have at lnst realized Sod Consctonsness. @-@.0-0-0-9-0 FORTNIGHTLY AFFIRMATIO Ld I will mingle my inner devotional whispers with the prayers of Saints and continuously offer them in the i temple of silence and activity until I can hear His whispers loudly, everywhere.” eH HK HOOK eae