Seasons of the Soul

Achariya George Adams
Speaks on "Seasons of the Soul"
Sunday, April 3, 2016 at 11:00am

This Sunday we have chosen for our meditation the subject, “Seasons of the Soul .” We will explore the spiritual journey of the individual and of human society as he/she and they seek to find meaning and happiness in this world of dual experience.

Currently, we are experiencing a change of seasons from winter, where we were deluged with snow, buffeted by the wind and treated to the extremes of cold weather; to a new season of Spring, where the trees that appeared lifeless and barren are now blazing forth in all their resplendent glory.  The harbingers of Spring have arrived with the crocuses pushing through the crust of the hard soil and the promise of the beautiful azaleas just around the corner. 

What do these seasons reveal to us?   First, they reveal that God, the Absolute, the One without a Second, the changeless Reality, both transcends and permeates all creation. 

Secondly, the Seasons reveal that the progression of Soul occurs not just in mankind individually, but in all nature. To quote Swami Premananda: 

“Bless us that we may realize thee within us, and thy presence in each and every object and being of the universe; That we may realize thou art sleeping in minerals, Dreaming in plants, awake in animals, conscious in human souls; That we may love all as part of our own soul in thy Cosmic soul.”

Finally, the seasons reveal to us that life is progressive.  As individual souls, we are traveling progressively “from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality.” Our spiritual goal is to unfold our innate divinity to its absolute perfection, in the words of the Blessed Nazarene, “to be perfect, even as the Father in Heaven is Perfect.”

As a society, we are entering into a season of unimaginable advances in knowledge and accelerated expansion of technology, what Swami Sri Yuteswar refers to as the age of Dwarupa Yuga.  With the advance of this great knowledge and technology, our spiritual idealism becomes even more essential for the future of humanity. It is critical that this advance of scientific and technical knowledge be complemented with an understanding of the unity of the Soul as reflected in the faiths of mankind. 

Please join us this Sunday!  All are Welcome!

—Achariya George
 

From the Gurus and Swamis: AUM

"Let us therefore, find God not only in Jesus of Nazareth, but in all the Great Ones who preceded Him, in all who have come after Him, and in all who are yet to come.  Our worship is unbounded and free. They are all manifestations of the same infinite God.…

Our salutations go to all the past Prophets, whose teachings and lives we have inherited, whatever their race, clime, or creed.  Our salutations go to all those God-like men and women who are working at present to help humanity, whatever their birth, colour or race.  Our salutations go to those who are coming in the future—living Gods—to work unselfishly for our descendants."

—Swami Vivekananda, Christ The Messenger

 
"The light is in the East.  The light of God shines at Kutastha, the spiritual eye.  
The practice of Kriya meditation illumines the entire inner being with the effulgence of cosmic consciousness.
Meditation establishes inner equilibrium.  It restores harmony within the nervous system, clarifies the mind, increases the will power and inspires constructive emotions.
Subjective serenity, self-confidence and fearlessness are inevitable fruits of meditation.
AUM and Kriya constitute the secret of meditation.  By meditation on AUM and the practice of Kriya, the fulfillment of the highest spiritual aspiration is attained."

—Shyamacharan Lahiri, Sayings of Shyamacharan Lahiri

 
"Heaven is not a place.  It is a state of consciousness; it is the state of pure-consciousness.  Immortality is not to be acquired, but to be discovered within.  While it remains concealed behind the mask of the human body we fail to recognize our immortal being.  Death is the discardance of one garment, and reincarnation is the putting on of another.  In this continuous play of the game of earthly life, the soul of man comes and goes, wearing a different costume consistent with its propensities."

—DHAMMAPADA,The Path of the Eternal Law, Translation by Swami Premananda

"Purnam adha purnam idam
Purnat purnam udacyate,
Pumasya purnam adaya
Purnam eva avasisyate.
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

 

Noble Thoughts

"The need of the world today is for a religion of the spirit, which will give a purpose to life, which will not demand any evasion or ambiguity, which will resemble the ideal and the real, the poetry and the prose of life, which will speak to the profound realities of our nature and satisfy the whole of our being, our critical intelligence and our active desire."

—S. Radhakrishnan, The Spirit In Man

 

"What I want to achieve—what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years—is self realization, to see God face to face, to attain Moksha.   I live and move and have my being in pursuit of this goal.  All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed by this same end.  But as I have all along believed that what is possible for one is possible for all, my experiments have not been conducted in the closet, but in the open; and I do not think that this fact detracts from their spiritual value."

—Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi’s Life In His Own Words