Our Spiritual House and Heritage

Achariya George Adams
Speaks on "Our Spiritual House and Heritage"
Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 11:00am

This Sunday we have chosen for our meditation the subject “Our Spiritual House and Heritage.”  As we approach the Lenten season we give thanks for the priceless gift of our Spiritual Home and Heritage that inspires us to strive to live in the higher levels of our spiritual self with inner joy and contentment and to walk the path of self unfoldment together.

The season of Lent highlights our path of spiritual self-unfoldment. Lent is associated with the life of Jesus of Christ Consciousness. Its true meaning is found in the journey to Supreme Resurrection inspired through the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta (Absolute Monism). As Absolute Monists we reflect upon the message of Lent from its most universal perspective and incorporate the steps to Supreme Resurrection into our lives; also to express our gratitude to our spiritual ancestors for their spiritual gifts and dedication.

This Sunday we will begin the Season of Lent with “Ash Wednesday.” In the words of Swami Premananda of India in "The Seven Mystic Holidays," p24:

"In the inner life of the Christ, we find the real purpose of our own life. And we find,  step-by-step, how soul gradually progresses towards its highest perfection.  It is a gradual unfoldment, slow, steady but assured. It follows seven successive stages which may be verified in the lives of all godly souls—Moses, Buddha, Sankarachariya, Mohammed, Zarathustra, and many others. These great souls are universal and do not belong to any religious sect or denomination, but to all humanity.”

—Achariya George 


From the Gurus and Swamis: AUM

"When man understands even by way of inference the true nature of this creation, the true relation existing between this creation and himself; and when he further understands that he is completely blinded by the influence of Darkness (Maya) and that it is the bondage of Darkness alone which makes him forget his real Self and brings about all his sufferings, he naturally wishes to be relieved from all of these evils.  This relief from evil or liberation from the bondage of Maya, becomes the prime object of his life."

—Swami Sri Yukteswar, "The Holy Science"
 

"How are we to mediate upon that effulgent Reality, the God of Light?  We are to visualize a pure effulgence, a bright but soothing light within our body especially at Dorsal, the Anahata, the Spiritual Eye, the Kutastha; or the mystic thousand–petaled lotus, the Sahasraram. Then with devotion and determined thought silently, without moving lips or tongue, utter the Sacred Word, the Mantram,while at the same time contemplating upon its divine significance.  AUM:  I and my Father are one; I am that I AM and I am Brahman are some of the Mantrams of meditation on the God of Light."

—Swami Premananda, "The Gayatri Prayer"
 

"Jesus the Christ is not dead.  He meets with you and me here and now when we give him a place in our hearts.  He lives in the heart of every devotee through all eternity. He knew whereof he spoke when he said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”  (John 14:6).  This was not the statement of an arrogant mind but of one who had realized the Reality of God and sought to share the path of God."

—Swami Premananda, "Seven Mystic Holidays"


"Self-realization is not a new religion.  It is the most ancient of all religions.  It is as ancient as God.  It is as ancient as the Soul of man.  Self realiztion is not founded by any man, it is established by God.  When God gave man a Soul, with it He gave him his religion.  Self Realization."

—Swami Premananda, "The Religion of Man"

 

Noble Thoughts: "Let Noble Thoughts come to us from every side."  —Rig Veda


"The highest wisdom is for us to know that all is God.  Until each of us realizes our own inherent godliness and divinity, the name of God is just a word to us.  By the practice of meditation and by purification of the body, mind and heart, let us seek to fulfill the divine mission of our lives, guiding them by the illumination of wisdom, divine will, love and realization.  Let us ignite the light and love of Christ within us." 

—Swami Premananda, "Seven Mystic Holidays"
 

"The same Self when viewed in relation to relative categories is perceived as finite, but when it is cognized in its true nature it is realized as the Infinite.  To illustrate, we may take water as an example.  Water is water no matter where it may exist.  Yet, when water is bound on either side by its banks it is called a river, but when the same water reaches the shoreless sea it is designated as the ocean.  Here are many rivers of life, but there is only one ocean of existence.  Journeying through the various rivers of life we shall all reach the ocean of existence (pg. 111)."

—Swami Premananda, "Dhammapada" 
 

"Purnam adah purnam idam
Purnat purnam udacyate,
Purnasya purnam adaya
Purnam evavasisyate.
SHANTI SHANTISHANTI”

“That is Perfect; this is perfect;
Out of That Perfection emanates this perfection;
In the ocean of Perfection surge the waves of perfection;
Yet That Perfection is never lost.
PEACEBLISSPEACE”

—Ancient Invocation