Acharya Jeffrey Bauer
Speaks on "PURE IS MY HEART"
Sunday, November 30, 2014 at 11:00am
Purity has become a very important ideal in modern society. For the sake of our bodily health we rightly desire to breathe pure air, drink pure water and eat pure food. But what of our spiritual health? A heart that is filled with the purity of divine love ensures perfect spiritual health. We do not use the word “purity” in a moralistic sense but as in “of one substance.” Absolute “oneness” is the essence of divine love. In divine love we fulfill Jesus’ commandment to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” and “thy neighbor as thyself.”
—Acharya Ajay
From the Gurus and Swamis: AUM
"Value the sacredness of love above all. Believe in its power to transform, protect and guide you. Give up the idea that your innermost self is separate from others. In our struggles and sorrows as well as in our joyous attainments we are one on the path of life. There is great freedom, peace and blessedness in being able to "love thy neighbor as thy self." The world becomes our kin through kindness."
—Swami Kamalananda, “Reflections on Still Waters”
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"The devotee knows none but God. He has no other possession but love. In his love, he offers himself to God, the absolute self. God, who permeates and includes all, is the Ideal of Devotion."
—Swami Premananda, “The Magnetic Power of Love”
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"Make my soul Thy temple! Make my heart Thine altar! Make my love Thy home! May Thy love shine forever on the sanctuary of my devotion, and may I be able to awaken Thy love in all hearts."
—Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, “Whispers from Eternity”
Noble Thoughts
("Let Noble Thoughts come to us from all sides." —Rigveda)
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"Solomon says that all waters, that is, all creatures flow and return to their source. Therefore, it is necessarily true, as I have said, that similarity and fervent love draw up and lead and bring the soul into the first source of the One, who is the Father of all in heaven and on earth."
—Meister Eckhart, "Passion for Creation" by Matthew Fox
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"We should not hesitate to open ourselves more steadily to whatever experience of the Infinite we have, to purify and intensify it, to make it our object of constant thought and contemplation, till it becomes the originating power that acts in us, the Godhead we adore and embrace, our whole being is put into tune with it and it is made the very self of our being."
—Sri Aurobindo, "The Synthesis of Yoga"
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"If we love God and give ourselves to Him, we must give ourselves to the whole world...One of the holy miracles of love is that once it is really started on its path, it cannot stop; it spreads and spreads in ever-widening circles till it embraces the whole world in God...Every fresh soul we touch in love is going to teach us something fresh about God."
—Evelyn Underhill, "An Anthology of the Love of God"