Occasionally I hear the arguments from atheists, “There is no proof of God.” And yet, a glance around us demonstrates an intelligence so monumental as to convince any open skeptic. The idea that the universe, the earth and the biosphere of the earth could all happen by random mutations and chance, even allowing for billions of years of evolution, really cannot explain the complexity of design that goes into a flower, an animal or human being.

The human body is demonstration enough. In the human body a hundred trillion cells (estimates vary, 37 to 100 trillion), imagine that, a hundred trillion cells, and ten times that many micro-organisms (good bacteria) operating in the gut that some call the “forgotten” organ, are all working in an efficient manner that keeps a heart pumping, and a series of organs that are performing uncountable functions all the time. Could human intelligence design and make such a body? While we are busy mapping the body, and describing many of its functions, we are light years, if ever, from being able to make one from scratch. And yet that is what this universe has done.  

And the human body is just a fragment of all creation around us—the atomic and sub-atomic functions that sustains and surrounds us, the unmeasured stellar systems, look in any direction and you see miraculous life self-creating, refining and improving. It is quite a lot to take in. And yet, in its colossal nature, this physical creation is but God’s footstool. (Isaiah 66:1)

And for all the magnificence of this creation we see all around us, it is merely reflected intelligence. When you look at a building, you see the reflected intelligence of the architect, not the intelligence itself of the man or woman who designed the building. If we want to know that intelligence itself, it would help to have a conversation with the architect, and you will see the nature of his or her thought, what went into the design and the construction—there is so much to be learned. Add another layer to that of having a conversation; if, in your time with the architect you could actually experience his mind at work, get a glimpse into his inner intelligence? Experience his thoughts in your own mind.

Then we consider once again the creative intelligence that has gone into bringing forth life, all of life–imagine being able to glimpse that mind! Albert Einstein, the great physicist, famously said, “I want to know God’s thoughts – the rest are mere details.” What a wonderful concept. And this is what mystics and yogis have claimed: in stilling the human mind you can be illumined with the way of knowing things even as God does.

This is quite a statement, yet, what if you saw this world as God sees it? When Jesus picked up a simple lily flower and said, “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these (Luke 12:27).  What was he seeing in that lily? Was he seeing it as God sees it? I think, “Yes.”

I have seen this world transform into a living expression of Divinity. I think, “Yes, this is how God sees creation, perfect, blissful, an expression of purity and such beauty.” And when we look out and fail to see the world with those qualities? Perhaps it is because we do not see this world as God sees it. Perhaps we insist on our own interpretation of what we see, and perhaps we are only insisting on our own ignorance—our own limited vision of what truly is. Indeed, as Jesus said in the Gospel of St. Thomas, “The kingdom of heaven is spread upon the earth, but men do not see it.” It is time to know the mind of God, to awaken to an entirely new way of seeing this world.

After the Civil War it became a tradition to decorate the graves of soldiers killed in battle. With over 600,000  dead soldiers from that terrible war, there were very few families not touched by the tremendous toll. With time, the honoring of those who gave their lives in battle continued with World War I & II and subsequent actions by the military. The end of May continued to be a time of honoring and remembering.

For many, the day is also a time for remembering family members no longer here. My father took a leading role in organizing flowers for the graves of family members buried in the Yakima Valley. Since childhood and down to recent years Memorial Day was an annual family gathering. My parents, aunts and assorted relatives made procession to graveyards in Sunnyside and Zillah to place potted plants on or near grave stones. And we were joined by thousands of others who also gathered at their own family gravesites to do the same. With a large Hispanic population in the area, the tradition is very festive with bright shiny decorations, large pictures of more recently passed relatives, sitting in lawn chairs and making a day of it. For all, the graveyards are a quiet reflection, well attended and vibrant with color in honor of military, ancestors and family members passed.

It is a day of telling stories about family members, my aunt Kay in particular was a keen family historian and recounting memories and family lore was always a favorite part of this tradition. One such story was about my great grandfather and mother.  Aaron came to the Yakima Valley as a young man with dreams. He Purchased desert land cheaply, traded a pig for some sapling fruit trees, and he had a house—well, really it was a tent. It would be some time the next year before the canal was to be built, so he made a yoke and hung a bucket on each end and would set off to the river, a few miles away, to fetch water for drinking, bathing and watering his fruit trees.

 As a young man he thought prospects were looking good—it was a good time to marry. However, the sage covered desert did not bloom young ladies at the time, so he set off over the mountain pass to the big city of Tacoma. There he met a young woman who had moved with her family from Nova Scotia. Now Tacoma and Nova Scotia share the fact they are near water, with green trees and vegetation. They met, decided to marry and Nellie moved with her new husband to their new “home” in the desert. It was January, and it was cold, bleak even. Apparently, either he had oversold the state of his “home,” that is the general consensus among the ladies of the family, or she had imagined it to be more than it was, but she was definitely not happy with the state of things as she found them. Cold and dreary in January, a few sticks in the desert ground that would some day be an orchard, and a tent to live in is not what she had anticipated!

However, these were pioneers made of tough stock. “You do what you have to do” to get by, to survive, and work for a better future. They were a couple with deep faith in God, and eventually built their wood framed and clad home, it had a proper roof and sporting glazed windows—the house continues to stand on the same property today. It is now surrounded with shade trees and orchards and farms stretching off across a verdant valley. What changes water and hard work can bring to desert, with ground anciently fertilized by rich volcanic ash from nearby Mount Rainier and Adams. Like many in America, the dream has been that you can work hard and build a future; not just for yourself, but for prospective generations as well.   

Memorial Day is also called Decoration Day, for decorating the graves with flowers and giving homage to those who went before us. As we grow in spiritual awareness, gratitude is something that grows as well. None of us would be here if not for our ancestors. We would not have the life we have if there had not been those willing to give their lives for a greater cause. We have much to be grateful for, and though today we may not live close to those festively clad graveyards, we can decorate the memories of those who have gone before us with flowering gratitude.

I bow in gratitude to my ancestors, to all of our ancestors, and affirm with our hard work we may pass down to future generations even better lives for them—that the day will come when wars and terrorism are but memories, and the only “trumpet calls” we hear are the ones that awaken our souls in God.

May 5, 1892 James (Jimmy) Lynn, Saint Lynn as Master referred to him, was born on this day near Archibald Louisiana. What a remarkable example of a modern businessman becoming an accomplished yogi. For those who say their lives are too busy to meditate, here is a man running multiple business enterprises, a householder with a wife (who was not in favor of his being Master’s disciple), with all the pressures and demands that his position came with, and still he found time for deep meditation and gaining a high spiritual perfection. Master gave Saint Lynn the distinction of the name Rajasi, king of yogis.

In a talk given in 1960 Mother recalls Rajasi at a Kriya Initiation: “I remember that one time Master was giving a Kriya Initiation in Los Angeles. When you practice Kriya over a long period of time, you can practice it very little before you go into ecstasy—at a certain time during your development the Life Force will immediately leave your body. Well, Rajasi was sitting in the front row, and Master was telling all the different devotees how to do Kriya. Rajasi, because he had been doing Kriya for many years was able to leave his body—he was a master in his own right—and he slumped immediately to the floor. Well, Bernard rushed over and pressed the jugular vein in order to bring the Life Force back into the body—yogis have this method where they can return life to the body. So finally, when Rajasi went in front of Master to receive the initiation, Master laughed at him (and Rajasi had a bald head), and he patted his head, and he said, ‘Well, you left us for a little while, didn’t you?’” (Mother laughing)

And this is what Rajasi once said in a talk to devotees, “”One of the blessings I have received in my friendship with Paramhansa Yogananda has been permanent relief from a state of nervousness, a state of strain, an inward state of uncertainty. I have gained calmness, peace, joy, and a sense of security that cannot come to anyone until he has found the true security of the soul.” and “How heavenly is the company of a saint! Of all the things that have come to me in life, I treasure most the blessings that Paramhansaji has bestowed on me.”

Rajasi was a tremendous help to Master both spiritually and materially, and we are the grateful beneficiaries of his taking incarnation with Master so that we might have living examples of what is possible for both human evolution and involution. We bow to the great Light shining through your life Saint Lynn.

Change is the nature of this world. This is a simple fact, yet there is a part of the brain that, to make sense of this world, looks to those predictable things in life to help us to find assurance and order. Assurance that the world is safe, order so that we might navigate this world and find happiness. So, while certain parts of the brain are looking for order, change comes and upsets that looked for order—change that can make us feel shaken to the core.

When we enter the spiritual way of seeing things we seek to transfer our looking for assurance, safety and order from this world to our growing union with God. But, as Mother says, Rome was not built in a day, and neither does man attain his God-realization overnight. It is a process, one we seek to quicken—as Master said, not to go by the bullock-cart method, but to take the airplane route. Through deepened God-experience we recognize that the inner assurance of knowing God is the only constant in life—for everything that is born will die, everything that is created will one day disappear.

Then there are certain things that happen in life that shake us to our core. When Master came to America he enlisted the help of his friend from India, Swami Dhirananda. Dhirananda came and was a mainstay through the 1920s at Mt. Washington while Master travelled the length and breadth of America giving lectures and classes nearly non-stop. One day Dhirananda showed up in New York, where Master was lecturing, and said he was leaving the organization and demanded money from Master for the work he had done. Master agreed he needed money to start a new life and promised payments for years to come. However, the shock of this meeting took the wind out of Master’s sails, he even seriously thought of returning to India—permanently. Fortunately for us, he says Divine Mother took me by the ear, and told him to continue on. After some time spent in Mexico he returned to the work God had given him—even though a part of him simply wanted to wander on the banks of the Ganges.

Many “wake up calls” come to us challenging our attachment to the way we think this world should be, versus how it is in the moment. It may be illness, death, loss of job or relationship—this world can deliver some serious knocks and shocks. In my sadhana God systematically withdrew from me so many personal landmarks, first the mahasamadhi of my guru, then the loss of marriage, family, home, profession, taking me through two years of a “Dark Night of the Soul.” It stripped me to the bone, then ground the bones to dust and blew the dust to the four corners of the earth. I took a sabbatical from being a minister—for I, who was empty, how I could I serve others when I had nothing, not a thing I could give?

What we must know, these “wake up calls” come with a purpose—to wake us up! The Vedas say, Arise, Awake! When all we have is taken from us, then we must turn to God as our refuge, solace, comforter and guide. To not do so is to slide into darkness. Even then, so much darkness will eventually serve to awaken the Divine within—only, how much suffering occurs between slipping into darkness and doing the hard work of extracting ourselves from the deep well into which we have fallen.

Here is the good news, you may save yourself depths of despair by going to God now. Turn your attention to Him, in good times and in tough times. If illness creeps up on you, if pain of sorrow seeks to enfold you in its wings of separateness, if financial misfortunes weigh you down, if relationships betray you—then take God with you. Under stress we tend to close down. Do the opposite—open up to God. Breathe, open and allow the Divine Current to flow into you, allow the Divine Presence to glow within. Let go of the world, all things of time and space, all outer realities, and focus on God alone.

The Great Master said, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. (Matt. 5:4) Blessed are they that mourn—the reason you mourn is that you love, and love is the greatest gift of all. Love can be painful when you feel loss, but the Master says you shall be comforted. However, not all who mourn feel comfort. That is because in your loss you feel separated and bereft. But, there is a greater truth than isolation, a more profound way of being in this world. You are forever connected with God, and by turning your mind towards Him, that blessed Spirit comes into you and you into Him. This Holy Spirit comforts you, assuages the pain, makes you know you are never alone.

When Yogananda took the blow to the work he had given himself completely to for the previous decade, he turned to Divine Mother for comfort and guidance. And throughout the Dark Night of the Soul that God and Guru put me through, I somehow knew that it was Divine Will that was at work. To breathe, open, and allow your Divine Friend, Guide and Savior to gain entry into your innermost pain and aloneness means that you are on the pathway to wholeness, that you are growing in God—merging into Him even as He is merging into you. The path of the cross is the path to resurrection—from pain of separation to the bliss, light and wisdom of the Perfect One. This is the true assurance that we have so long been looking for—that God is with you always.

Life is not what you think. A few years ago, I had the specter of death following me for a year. That culminated in severe anemia that led to a diagnosis of tumors. This led to several operations—treatments and recovery from the treatments. Then recovery led to another stage, the past few years of remission from any tumors. This has been a lot of activity, unknowns that have ultimately led to a time of excellent health that I enjoy today.

And this was just one aspect of my life at that time, concurrently running with so many other parts, projects to complete and service to provide. Now, this is just one life, and since all life is sacred, multiply this life by so many billions of lives, all connecting, all important, all filled with powerful events that matter to the individual and to the lives that person touches.

And the essential point is this, while all these life-events are important, they are but a tiny portion of a much greater Reality. When you think of the ocean, the waves on the ocean’s surface are powerful and produce a lot of activity, still when compared to what is occurring below the surface, there is so much more ocean below than what is seen on the surface. You realize that the surface is but a miniscule percentage of the whole, and while not insignificant, especially to those busy riding the waves, surface living pales in significance to the real power and life found below. Worldly life is the wave action, the great Reality is what lies below.

Papa spent the first thirty plus years of his life tossed on the waves—as a boy eluding his school teacher to find a quiet spot to read Shakespeare, a young man learning the textile trade, being a husband and father—until he experienced a great awakening that led him in a completely new direction toward his beloved Ram. Mother lived as a little girl being hemmed in by the waves, rules her mother had to not leave the yard when playing, being the object of so much attention—as the only child of seven to live—a young woman making her way in a work world, with a glimmer of an awakening thought that there is more to existence, that she had a special destiny. But, so much lay hidden under the surface until meeting her great guru, who opened a window and showed her there was more to life.

For us, what is “below” the surface is experienced, if we are fortunate, in glimpses of a greater Reality—something we know exists but are not very conscious of it, even with the glimpses. To get to this greater Reality we must face a thin film of reality known as the subconscious mind. Through dreams and introspection, we gain greater awareness of the subconscious mind; those thoughts and emotions that are stored from times past, sometimes these memories are compressed psychic energy because they have been repressed. This reservoir of psychic energy can be a powerful player in a life, making fears, desires, both useful and destructive habits come to us from surprising depths. It is our past, the good, the bad, and the ugly bubbling up to the surface and costing us an enormous amount of mental energy to keep it at bay.

Besides the relatively thin layer of the subconscious mind, there is the vast Superconscious Mind—not usually directly perceived by the conscious mind. When the Superconscious Mind illumines the conscious mind it brings inspiration, intuitive flashes of truth, a higher order of Reality that supersedes either the normal waking conscious mind or the oftentimes murky depths of the subconscious mind. Even a glimpse of the beauty and transcendence of the Superconscious Mind can inspire life to new heights, awakens an awareness to a new way of experiencing a life—it is the doorway to the vast ocean that creates the waves of creation on the surface, but oh, is so much more.

The Superconscious Mind reveals what we call God, and God-consciousness. When this awakening occurs, what before may have been dismissed as myth, because it does not appear to belong to the surface waves of creation of the material world, suddenly takes on more than a theoretical potential, but a living Reality that is undeniable, powerful and enthralling. The old notion that the world of the five senses and what the human mind makes of this physical world is the ultimate reality falls away, and what is born is a vast Reality, the Reality of the tremendous ocean under the waves.

This Reality is blissful, enlightening, and leads to the supreme truth. The alternating waves of this material reality fade into a shadowy twilight compared to the rising dawn that reveals a bright and beautiful world all around. The astounded conscious mind discovers this Reality has always been with us, only the ordinary mind simply did not have the light to see it. The Buddha is a title that means the “Awakened One,” having the same meaning as the title the Christ, “The Anointed One.” It denotes the one who is awake to this greater Reality, sees it through newly awakened eyes, new understanding and awareness.

All those called to this path are here to awaken to this greater Reality. While we must navigate the waves on the surface of this material reality, our greater task is to explore the immensity below the waves. The story is told of the pearl divers. The pearl divers swim under the surface to find the valuable pearl, but only the divers who are willing to dive deep will discover it and know the wealth it promises. We too must learn to dive deep, to drop further down in meditation to truly experience the greater Reality. To merely play on the surface will never awaken this deeper life. God is bliss, ever-new joy, shining truth, and a living awareness of the eternal nature of life—all of this awaits the pearl diver for God-experience—it awaits you.

This past weekend we had our Loon Lake Retreat—we had a tremendous time together. My only wish is that all of us could be there for satsang. The topic was a meditation on trust, trust in God. The work that aspirants did at the retreat, then additional work done during individual appointments while we continued on at Maple Ridge after the retreat, brings up my deepening appreciation for the willingness, courage, determination, sincerity and openness that devotees exhibit in their desire to grow in God.

There is not a single aspirant who does not think they could do better—but the key to real progress is that both feet are put into the arena. I remember a time when I recognized that I always played it safe, never really committing myself to anything. At the time this was due to the fact that I did not fully believe in what I was doing in the world. Then I found my spiritual path, for the first time I was one hundred percent committed. Yet, the old habit of having one foot in and one foot out of the arena was still playing a role–it affected my sadhana.

One reason for playing it safe was that, if I did not succeed—so the unconscious reasoning went—I could justify that I had not really given it my all and thus preserve my ego. Well, this would not do. It was not acceptable to not be fully in the game, to not commit myself heart, mind and soul in order to realize God—my one reason for taking incarnation. This was the most important decision I have made in my life, and it has made all the difference.

There is such a tendency for the ego-mind to hedge its bets, to keep a safety valve available, to not be fully committed. When I see others jump in with both feet, do the work, make God first with everything they have, I stand in admiration and awe. I know that the results will come, that that one is standing on the cusp of something great. To meditate deeply, to serve the Infinite in all one does, to commit to using discrimination and making God first, and to love the Beloved with all one’s heart is to draw nigh to blessed Spirit.

Mother did not want a formal organization, or a church mortgage that must be paid, committees for this and that, she wanted us to avoid the traps and distractions to making God our single focus. We have our marching orders, we know what we must do, now it is a matter of giving our all, to have both feet in the arena and to go all the way to becoming fully realized. It is what Mother wants for you, it is what all the great masters want for you, and it is God calling to you, Come to Me—with both feet in!

Note: I bow to the commitment you make in knowing God, and all the support you give for this work we do in His Name. Pronams.

There are many forms of government, various kinds of legal systems, and methods of changing or not changing the status quo that is a patchwork covering the earth. Of course, the structure of government and legal systems are important, the founding fathers created a check and balance form of government so that structure would help keep things from devolving into despotism. However, whatever the form of government, legal system and opportunities for businesses are in place, there is one immutable law that will determine the greatest happiness for the most people—the law of love. Without this guiding principle, all forms of government and legal systems are simply empty shells.

When you have rule of law, but there is no love and compassion, then true justice will ultimately be sacrificed. When you have government and ruling bodies, and there is no love as a guiding light, it will become corrupt and it will not produce the greatest general good. When you have businesses, and there is no love behind its intention or its practices, then its goods and services will not truly benefit society.

Love, as spoken of here, is not sentimentality, but a guiding force. When you love, you will not do things that you know will bring about harm to yourself or others. When you love, you will not act out of greed, but with integrity, evoking the principle of love for one and for all. When you pass laws and regulations, you work for the highest good of all when love is your motivation.

In running a business, you might say, “I have got a business to run, I don’t have time to start the day with a group hug!” And if that is your view of the kind of love I am talking about, I would agree that this is missing the mark. Love is a far more important and vital of a principle than a mere show of emotionalism. Love speaks to something much more basic in you. When you go into business, of course you must earn a profit, otherwise the business will not be there in any capacity the next year. However, in running your business, does your service or product bring about some good? Good for the customers, good for employees, good for the community?

In dealings with customers, do you employ the Golden Rule, as J.C. Penney did when starting his first store—Treat your customers as you would want to be treated. The way you work with co-workers, employees, bosses—do you treat all others the way you would want to be treated if you were in their position? The very best owners, managers, and employees do exactly this. These Golden Rule types are the kind of people you want to work for and do your best, they are the kind of workers you want in your business, and companies with this motto branded into their thinking, words and actions are the kind of businesses you want to patronize.

When you are in a position of authority, do you set out with the intention to better the lives of people when you make decisions? This speaks to fundamental intention, and how that intention is translated into day-to-day behavior. Love considers, “What is for the highest good of all?” A policeman will take to heart the motto, “To Protect and To Serve.” Yes, laws will be enforced, occasionally with force, but all behavior of the police is governed by the overriding intention, what is for the health of the community? For a judge, a county administrator, a governor, a representative or leader of a country—what is for the highest good of all? You may not always get it right, but your intention is unwavering. This is acting out of love—not selfishness, greed, building a petty fiefdom, or responding to the thousand other lower motivations.

In seeking to treat the customer as you want to be treated or administrating with the intention for the highest good of all, it does not mean you gratify the demands of every person who walks through the door. First of all, you never will be able to do so. Secondly, what one individual or group wants may not truly be for the highest good of all. Love will legitimately say no to some—in fact, love demands the word no at times.

And love in service to others is not just for the good of the recipient. When you serve with love, when love flows through your thoughts, words and actions, it blesses you. Jesus said of the great principle: As you give, so shall you receive. This does not mean every person is going to treat you with love when you love them first. What it does mean is that when your focus is on love, giving good service, speaking the truth and offering kindness and compassion, and you do all this without expectation of receiving it in return, then you are saturated with the quality of love—because it has flowed through you, it blesses you. This is due to the nature of love I am speaking of, it does not emanate from you, rather it flows through you from something greater than just you.

When you are in integrity with this higher love you run an honest, clean/clear business, and you feel the purity of that honesty—you are left without stains on your soul. You do not ever need to look over your shoulder for someone coming up behind you because you have cheated or lied to them. There is a fair exchange of money for goods or services, both giver and receiver benefits from this transaction. This clarity of purpose, this purity of action is what you carry forward with you, it is a gift you have given to yourself, and to the world you interact with.

Every human misery can trace its roots back to wrong motive which results in wrong action. You punish or reward yourself and those around you according to the purity of your intentions. Beginning with and carrying through with the intention of love, not only rewards you internally—it is what defines the best business practices, the best government, and the best legal system. It is not always openly displayed through talking about love, but you know when someone is acting with integrity, sincerity, and working to give the best goods and services—you naturally want to reward them with more business, and recommend them to others.

Such love may not be listed on the business banner, but it is broadcast through the quality of its goods and services. Just think of a world in which each person serves all others with love—what a tremendous world that will be!