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| The Blessed Master,
Paramhansa Yogananda The
Guru Disciple Relationship "The characteristic features of Indian culture have long been a search for ultimate verities and the concomitant disciple-guru relationship." Thus begins one of the great spiritual classics of all times, the Autobiography of a Yogi.* Years before the writing of this book, there was a meeting of the author of this book, Paramhansa Yogananda, and one who was to become one of his preeminent disciples, The Reverend Mother Yogacharya M. Hamilton, lovingly referred to by her disciples as Mother. The year was 1925, the place was Seattle Washington. At that meeting, when Master looked at Mother she experienced a shock that went through her entire being; from that moment on, she was his. Like Lahiri Mahasaya, Mother would follow a householder’s path to God. That is, while actively engaged in the world, raising children, maintaining a home, even under trying times of the Depression, Mother carried on as a secret Yogini, ever faithful to Master, Paramhansa Yogananda. Later on Mother was to become a Center Leader; then Yogananda ordained Mother a minister, and finally gave her the title of Yogacharya**, meaning teacher or master of Yoga. Master gave Mother rare permission to initiate others into Kriya Yoga and in this way Mother became, in time, a Guru in her own right. As disciples of Mother we have known Master as our Param-Guru. It is from this perspective we follow the Guru-Disciple lineage with all of our heart, mind and soul. Mother lay all that she was at the feet of Master. It was he who awakened the sleeping God within her. She said many times that she felt him to be so great in God that she thought of him as the Christ come again. Babaji, so long before, had sensed the need of great souls in the West who would benefit from India’s hallowed traditions of the Guru-disciple relationship and the Soul awakening yoga techniques that are the timeless treasure of India. Mother was certainly one such soul who would take the teachings to their ultimate conclusion, Conscious Oneness with God. When traveling in India in 1998, I sensed the tremendous difference in cultures between India and America. A renewed appreciation came to me for what Master went through in coming to the West and living here for so many years; but how we have benefited from his sacrifices! Master started many great works here in America. He spawned a large organization, and subsequently other teachers and organizations came about as well. Of course, for a realized Master, they always know their real work is in the transformation of souls from the bondage of ego-consciousness to becoming ever free in God-Consciousness. Themselves, ever free in God, no mundane limitations of being inside or outside an organization can be applied to a great Master or their disciples. Yogananda sought to bring all into the spiritual heights he enjoyed in God. This is always the true work of a Spiritual Master. A true Master makes you feel as if God is very close, very intimate, and very knowable. Master did this for Mother, and Mother did that for all who followed after her. This living link is the greatest work for any realized Master. Like a brilliant diamond, God and His perfected ones may be seen by countless glints of light emanating from multifaceted Spirit. We hope by the sayings, stories and experiences that Mother related to us about her great Guru, you may catch glimpses of that Light yourselves and be inspired and lifted closer to that perfection known by such great spiritual luminaries as Master and Mother. *Paramhansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi. (New York: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1952, 4th edition), page 3. **Master gave Mother the title Yogacharya, one of six in his worldwide organization, and the only woman. Normally a woman would be called a Yogacharini. Mother was ever loyal to her Guru and used the title Yogacharya, as he had given it to her. Spiritual Masters often go against social convention as God directs them. Those with complete faith in their Gurus follow them full heartedly. |
Four Passages About Master Yogananda Taken From Mother Hamilton's Talks: I remember the time when I was down in
Los Angeles, and I had the very great privilege of having Master invite me
to Encinitas, and I was down there for three days. I got there through
Sister Gyanamata, bless her, because the other people there weren't going to
let me see him. But she managed to arrange it for me, and he invited me
down. So I had three days with him, and I stayed right at the hermitage. - Mother Hamilton (From Talk No. 640424) But I want to tell you this story. In the early days when I was with Master I was in Seattle, he was down in Los Angeles, and I went through terrific experiences. I was very, very, very poor. I had these three little children to take care of, and I had a husband who couldn't work. And so, because of that, I had one dress to wear. I was lucky if I got one meal a day. I was many times very, very cold, very hungry. I remember when I carried my second daughter I was cold up to my hips all the time, and I had very, very little to eat. It's a wonder they ever got here. But, on top of that, during the Depression I stood in a breadline for two solid years asking for food in order that they might eat. I was a very, very proud woman and, believe me, I lost my pride because my love for my children was greater than anything else. And so every time I would -- naturally, this took a tremendous toll out of me physically -- every time I would get in such a condition that I thought I was going to die and I couldn't go on any longer (I had the full responsibility for the support of the whole family, I was father, mother, bread earner, wife, everything about it), I would wire to Master and ask him to pray for me. Immediately, when he got this wire, the tremendous power that he had would flow to me until my whole being would be rejuvenated, and I could go on for a little longer. - Mother Hamilton (From Talk No. 640400) "You know, in the beginning, when Master started out, he had not anything. He started out in a mud hut [in India, then] with about six people someplace in Boston. And from there look at this that has happened today. This great soul has taken literally thousands and perhaps millions to a much higher understanding of truth than they ever thought to have before. And don't forget that when he first came here, anybody that was a Hindu, that had a dark skin, this being a totally Christian nation, they were heathens. He had rotten eggs and rotten tomatoes thrown at him; he was jailed in the South and blamed for a crime that he didn't commit. He had many trials and tribulations. He wasn't able to find a hotel that would take him or a motel, or any place that would house him, so he had to buy a car, and he had a station wagon built out of wood so that he could have a place where he could keep his food and sleep at night. That's what he had to go through when he started. I think to myself, If he could go through all of that, then nothing I have to go through is too great because I do it in service to him as well as to the inimitable God. "He was God to me in human form, and it was because of what he inspired me to become, it was a vision that he set before me that gave me the inspiration and the will and the desire to become as he was. He was my example the Lord had set before me for me to follow, and I tried to emulate him in every detail that I could. Still, he wanted no one to be a parrot. He many times made that statement, 'You cannot get "Yogananda realization."' He said, 'That one that called himself Yogananda I killed many years ago.' And there was nothing there but God. He was all-seeing, all-knowing, it seemed as though. He did things in a totally different way. God revealed things to me step by step, and step by step because I never go out after anything. I have never probed into the astral. I have never probed into the psychic or the clairvoyant realms. I just am totally subservient to God's will in these matters, totally surrendered to Him. So I take whatever He gives me because I know that He will give me whatever I need, about any situation, about any individual at any time I need it. And it has proven out right to a "T" so that I have been able to get the words, the thoughts, the actions of an individual so minutely that when we discuss it they are left gasping. But I don't invade anybody's privacy. "This man held out this vision that was so great that I wouldn't have cared if I'd had to go to prison for him. I would have gone willingly, and I almost came to that point one time because of many difficulties that arose after his passing. I was willing to die for him, and I gave him my life to use in whatever way he wanted to. And he took that life and he used it and I did die. I died for God. I died for the Christ. The Savior of my own body knew that it had to die, he had to die, if he will, in order that the Christ be born in me -- the true second birth which in truth comes at Easter, and not at Christmas. Don't forget that the birth that is celebrated at Christmas was the birth of the Son of man. But Easter is that one who is reborn again. It is the first birth of the real Christ within man, and it is tremendous. It is tremendous." - Mother Hamilton (From 800319 Talk) This morning I would like to read to you an article which Master wrote many, many years ago. It is entitled "The Unseen Church". "On the soil of Eternity I built an unseen church where all might worship. Here, under the blue dome, illumined by sun, moon, Aurora, Milky Way and wisdom lights, are gathered the assembled star families, island universes, solar systems, and the little Earth with its millions of families of many religions. Everyday, during the vesper hour, the flying angels of thought soar over Infinity calling mute and noisy beings to forsake their agelong slumber and join the cosmic service of awakening. The altars of one rhythm, united hearts of comingled lives of molten gold of cosmic union and electrified matter were dimly burning with His gentle, enchanting Presence. The comets arrived and shed their joyous tears of light. The stars poured their twinkles at His feet of eternity, and the prodigal souls shed tears of repentence for agelong forgetful wanderings. All the blossoms of the Earth opened their cork of petals and loosened their liquid fragrance on His omnipresent altar. The dew of devotion from the heart of all true tears meekly, but steadily, flowed over His feet of forgiveness. Love, hate, light and gloom, wisdom and ignorance, good and bad, all thronged into the church of all Creation. Then a silent sermon of the Infinite was heard in the silence. A silent song of mirth filled the chalice of all life. A silent smile of light drove the hidden gloom away from all. Under the silent spell of His sermon, love embraced hate, light hugged gloom, wisdom transmuted ignorance, good charmed bad, many religions embraced His one faith of Truth, many hearts dissolved into one altar of heart, many loves became His one pure love, and many souls became one spirit. And all of them sang with one voice, the chorus of one religion, one life, one truth, one goal, one devotion, one love, and one spirit." I think that's one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. what a poet he was! And how great was his love for God. He placed his love for God before anything or anybody in the world. He served Him tirelessly. He served Him day and night; no matter how many demands there were on his time, how tired he was, still he served. One time he told me that he had been sixteen days without sleep, sixteen days when he had not closed his eyes! Yet he was fully in the consciousness of God. When you put yourself ahead of God, you are always tired, you always have excuses. But when you put God, the Creator, ahead of the creature, He always gives you the strength to do whatever is necessary for you to do, without exception. I spend myself, or try to in a small way, the same as he did because I try to emulate him in all that he did for God and for God in humanity. Many times I am desperately tired, and sometimes this physical body is not all that it should be, and still I make the effort to come before you and to serve God in you. And if I can make that effort to come, so also can you. Yet, strangely enough, when I make it, I stand before you and I feel the bliss of His Presence, I feel that Power, I feel His Intelligence going through my thoughts, and my whole body is rejuvenated. My mind is rejuvenated, and I am a new person in Christ. - From Mother Hamilton, "Armchair Detective" Talk MS061676 |
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