Swami Kamalananda
Speaks on "The Mystical Source of Yoga"
Sunday, June 28, 2015 at 11:00am
The First International Day of Yoga (last week) heralded the ancient tradition with great promise for future generations. That the message was sent digitally around the world with carefully prepared videos captioned in languages reaching people world-wide was no small feat!
At the honorable invitation from the India Government, our own Srimati Carrie opened and “anchored” the entire event held on the Washington Monument mall.
Yoga (primarily Ashtanga yoga) was seen as an integrated and holistic approach and practice enhancing the life of body, mind and spirit through a system of postures linked together by breath and movement.
But there is more we know and a deeper appreciation we need that springs from the very source of Yoga. Though scientific, its province is greater than that of science. Though chronicled for thousands of years it is not historical. Though it is often understood as the premise for religious experience it is not a religion.
Without speaking in philosophical riddles we can identify the profound mystical source of Yoga that form our spiritual “roots” and our sacred heritage of God and Gurus.
I am thankful we have this subject for our final convocation prior to July-August closing, and I look forward to sharing a meal with you afterwards.
AUM —S.K.
From the Gurus and Swamis: AUM
"Dedicated unto
All the soul-temples of Christians, Moslems,
Buddhists, Hebrews and Hindus,
Wherein the Cosmic Heart is throbbing equally
always—
"And unto
All the multi-colored lamps of various true teachings,
In which shines the same one white flame of God—
"And unto
All churches, mosques, biharas, tabernacles
and temples of the world—
Wherein our own One Father dwells impartially
in the fullness of His glory."
—the “Dedication” from WHISPERS FROM ETERNITY, by Swami Yogananda Paramhansa
"There is no difference in the truths inculcated by the various faiths….there is but one method by which the world, both external and internal, has evolved ….. there is but one Goal admitted by all scriptures. But this basic truth is one not easily comprehended….
Only a few specially gifted persons can rise superior to the influence of their professed creeds and find absolute unanimity in the truths propagated by all great faiths."
—from "The Holy Science" by Swami Sri Yukteswar
"We are too concerned with acquiring knowledge of everything else but ourselves, and that is the root-cause of all our miseries. So long as we give ourselves to the understanding of the phenomenal world only, our knowledge is incomplete, and analytic, hence imperfect. Imperfect knowledge does not produce permanent peace. In the knowledge of our true nature we find the synthesis of the multiplicities of the objective world, the unity in diversity. Such knowledge produces peace. Wisdom is Self-realization."
—from "God, The Umiversal Reality" by Swami Premananda
"Creative Spirit"
"Soul is not a passive reality. It is ever active within our innermost consciousness. It dwells within this body of ours. It is incessantly performing its divine task of purifying our inner consciousness and revealing our spiritual oneness with God.
By its power it stimulates and inspires all our senses and sense faculties in acts of righteousness. Soul sanctifies our senses, spiritualizes our mind and purifies our heart. Soul leads us into the realization of our divine nature of godhood."
—from "Sayings of Shyamacharan Lahiri" translated by Swami Premananda
Noble Thoughts: ("Let Noble Thoughts come to us from all sides." —Rigveda)
"The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the power of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms — this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness."
—Albert Einstein
"There is one soul.
It is related to the world.
Art is its action thereon.
Science finds its methods.
Literature is its record.
Religion is the emotion of reverence that it inspires.
Ethics is the soul illustrated in human life.
Society is the finding of this soul by individuals in each other.
Trades are the learning of the soul in nature by labor.
Politics is the activity of the soul illustrated in power.
Manners are silent and mediate expressions of soul."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Depend on it, that rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully . . . .The yogi, absorbed in contemplation, contributes in his degree to creation: he breathes a divine perfume, he hears wonderful things. Divine forms traverse him without tearing him, and united to the nature which is proper to him, he goes, he acts as animating original matter. To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi."
—Henry David Thoreau
"I would develop in the child his hands, his brain and his soul.
"If they grow up in their natural innocence we won’t have to pass fruitless, idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and from peace to peace until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which consciously or unconsciously the world is hungering."
—Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, from "Yours Faithfully, Mahatma Gandhi," by Srimati Kamala