Achariya "Ajay" Jeffrey Bauer
Speaks on "Grace of God"
Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 11:00am
Next Thursday families and friends across our nation will gather together to celebrate the Thanksgiving Holyday. We will rightly give thanks for family and friends, for the plentitude of food to nourish us, for the wonderful homes in which we live and raise our children, and for countless other “earthly” blessings we are grateful to have received. But let us make sure we pause for a moment to give thanks to Him from whom all blessings flow. Quoting from Swami Premananda’s Seven Mystic Holydays, “God has given us this life to unfold and manifest his attributes and he has granted us immortality in order that we may realize our oneness with Him.” God is the material and substance of this earth, which has come into being that we may live and grow by his grace. Let us give thanks to God whose grace nourishes and guides all of life.
—Achariya Ajay
From the Gurus and Swamis: AUM
"Thou Perfect giver of Bountiful Life,
Open my mind and heart to Life
That I may be ever mindful of the blessedness of human birth.
Thou hast given me this life to realize Thy Life,
This mind to channel Thy Light,
This Heart to offer Thy Love."
—Swami Kamalananda, Reflections On Still Waters
"God has enshrined his divinity and perfection within our soul. His divine attributes comprise the sublime virtues of our soul. He has given us this life to unfold and manifest his attributes and he has granted us immortality in order that we may realize our oneness with him. Blessed is the heart wherein the spirit of thankfulness is an ever-abiding virtue."
—Swami Premananda, One Hundred and One Noble Qualities
"True human life is a process of sacrifice of the immediate, the individual and the apparent for a realization of life that is eternal, infinite and formless. That process of resolution of duality's contradictions, separation and incomprehension is yoga."
—Swami Kamalananda, Frontiers of the Spirit
Noble Thoughts:
"Think of something for which you are grateful today. Say thanks. I am grateful to You, Giver and Sustainer of life, for having granted me another day of life. Your love and faith in me is truly overwhelming."
—Rabbi Terry Bookman, The Busy Soul
"Thou that hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, a grateful heart. . . .
Not thankful, when it pleaseth me;
As if thy blessings had spare days:
But such a heart, whose pulse may be Thy praise."
-George Herbert, The Temple
"We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us.
We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us with water.
We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases.
We return thanks to the corn, and to her sisters,
The beans and squashes which give us life.
We return thanks to the sun, that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.
Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the good of his children."
-Iroquois Prayer, quoted in Earth Prayers, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon