From the depths of slumber,

As I ascend the spiral stairways

Of wakefulness,

I will whisper:

God! God! God!

Thou art the food, and when I break my fast

Of nightly separation from Thee,

I will taste Thee, and mentally say:

God! God! God!

No matter where I go, the spotlight of my mind

Will even keep turning on Thee;

And in the battle din of activity, my silent war-cry Will be:

God! God! God!

When boisterous storms or trials shriek,

When worries howl at me,

I will drown their noises by loudly chanting:

God! God! God!

When my mind weaves dreams

With threads of memories,

Then on that magic cloth will I emboss:

God! God! God!

Every night, in time of deepest sleep,

My peace dreams and calls, Joy! Joy! Joy!

And my joy comes singing evermore:

God! God! God!

In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping,

Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving—

My Soul will constantly hum, unheard by any:

GOD! GOD! GOD!

Tied up, steeped in bad habits is mankind—and these bad habits are constantly being fed, while the good ones are starved. The undesirable guests have filled the seats in the auditorium of your mind, and the good ones are hardly granted an audience, so go away discouraged.

To develop good habits, you must nourish them with good actions; and to do this it is necessary to be in good company. Environment is very important, for it is stronger than will power.

Human beings are traveling matterward. The searchlight of the mind is constantly being thrown outside, whereas it should be thrown inside. People are running and running. But there is no place in the world where they can flee from themselves.

You must face yourself! If you pray for success, but have failure thoughts within, you are like a man who sends another on an errand and that one is attacked by robbers on the way. The thieves who take away your success are your own bad habits. You send your prayer-children to God without protection, and they are waylaid by robbers of restlessness on the way before they reach God. Of Course, God hears your prayers, for He is everywhere and all-knowing; but under certain conditions He does not answer those prayers.

Once there was a king who told one of his subjects that unless he could answer a certain question he would be hanged. The man said: "Tell me the question." The king then spoke as follows: "Where does God sit, and which way does He look—North, South, East, or West?" The man went home to think and told his servant that he would be killed unless he answered the king in a fortnight. The servant said to his master: "Let me go for you. I will answer the question." So the servant went to the king and said to him: "First, let me sit on your throne, because while I answer your question I am your master." The king surrendered his throne to the servant and then asked him: "Where does God sit, and which way does He look—North, South, East or West?" The servant on the throne made answer: "Bring me a cow." So a cow was brought. Then the servant said: "Where is the milk?" The king answered: "In the udder." "Nay, Sire," said the servant, "the milk is not only in the udder, but throughout the cow, for the milk is the essence of the cow."

Then the servant asked that a bowl of milk be brought; and when it was brought to him, said to the king: "Where is the butter?" The king said: "I see no butter." The servant answered: "The butter is throughout the milk. Just churn the milk and the butter will become separated from it. Thus, as the milk is all through the cow and the butter is throughout the milk, so is God everywhere." So did the wisdom of the servant save the life of his master, for the king received the correct answer to his question.

If you ask for yourself this same question, you will receive a like answer, for you must milk His Presence from all vast Nature, and you must churn Him from the diluted mind by power of inspiration.

God is not the monopoly of the Yogis or Swamis. He is in the heart and soul of every being. And when you open within yourself the secret temple in your heart, you shall read the book of life. Then, and then only, will you contact the living God. And then will you feel Him as the very essence of your being. Without this feeling in your heart, there will be no answer to your prayers.

When I was a child, I wrote a letter to God. I was so little I could hardly write, but I thought I told Him a great deal. I did not ask anything for myself. I asked to be told something about Himself. And every day I waited for the postman to bring me the answer to my letter, never doubting that it would come. And one day it did come. He came to me in a vision. I saw the answer of God written in letters of shining gold. I could scarcely read, but the meaning came to me. He said: "I am Life! I am Love! I am looking after you through your father and mother!" Then I understood. I felt God!

If your prayers reach God, it matters not if your sins be deeper than the ocean and higher than the Himalayas. He will destroy them. For a time, perhaps, you may sink underneath strata of darkness, but still you are a spark of an Eternal Flame. You can hide the spark, but you can never destroy it.

God is in everything. When you have Him, you have everything.

Whatever I wish for now comes to me immediately. So I must be careful in my wishing. First and last, I wish for God. But when I wish for others, I have to struggle, for I have to fight their Karmas. You must be careful though. You must not wish for God, while secretly wishing for something else, saying to yourself: "First, I will wish for God, and then surely I will get the automobile I want." That is not right. You cannot fool God.

We must seek unity of our consciousness with God’s consciousness. When we have that, our prayers will not be waylaid. We are not beggars. We are sons of God.

Never pray for anything, unless you have first attained God. Do not fool yourself. Wake up and say to God: "I will forsake everything until I know Thee." Do not pray for anything in the world until you feel your identity with God. He knows what you need. Seek Him until you find Him, until your whole being throbs with His power and glory.

Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Do not rest until He answers. Ask with all your heart, again and again: "Reveal Thyself! The stars may be shattered. The earth may be dissolved. Yet my soul shall cry unto Thee—’Reveal Thyself!’"

At last, like an invisible earthquake, He will suddenly make Himself manifest. The inertia of His silence will be broken by your steady, persistent hammering; the walls of silence will tremble and crumble, and you will feel that as a river you are flowing into the Mighty Ocean, and you will say to Him: "I am now one with Thee, whatever Thou hast, that same have I."

And then you will be consciously face to face with YOURSELF at last. The auditorium of your mind will be crowded to overflowing with the holy guests of your own divine thoughts. Beggars of grief and discord and pain will not be able to enter there and their wails and sighs will be drowned . . . in the harmony of an ever-singing and never-weary choir of happiness and peace.

Our Father-God - as the light of the sun maketh the earth to rejoice - so may the light of Thy Divine Love and Truth fill our hearts with rejoicing.

As we approach the duties of another day may it be with an eye single to Thy Glory - and may the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight - O Lord - our strength and our redeemer.

Protect us, we pray Thee, from all evil.

May brotherly love abound and may we strive diligently to serve Thee - throughout this day and forever. Amen.

Our Father- God -Thou whose love is from everlasting to everlasting - we thank Thee for the blessing and mercies Thou hast bestowed upon us this day.

We pray that Thou wouldst overrule our every thought, word or deed that has not been in accordance with Thy Divine Will.

We thank Thee for the knowledge Thou hast vouchsafed unto us - that there is no death.

Grant unto us, we pray Thee, the fulfillment of Thy promise - that Thine Angels shall have charge concerning us.

Protect us, we pray Thee, from all evil influences - enlarge our knowledge of Thy Truth. May we be humble in spirit - earnest and faithful in our efforts toward the advancement of Thy Kingdom on earth. To Thee shall be the Glory and Honour - now and forever.

We ask all in the name of Christ - our Lord and Master. Amen.

Dusk and the dark must turn

To the dawn’s red flower;

For day and its glories burn

In the midnight hour.

Sorrow and doubt will grow

Into joy again;

For love and love’s blessings glow

In the heart of pain!

Before showing what our everlasting possessions are to be, and in what sense they are from Eternity of God’s giving, and of time and man’s improving, it is necessary to prepare the Way of the Lord before Him.

Above all things, the student must have an open mind towards all truth, and an earnest desire for the very fullness of Divine Life and Knowledge.

As long as the mind is closed to all but some one Religion, or to a part of one, it is useless to talk of the final things. No one is ready for the immortal possessions, and the City of God—the Cosmic Consciousness—when Religion has not become inclusive. Many still remain connected with a religious organization who, at the same time, only regard it as one of the many forms of association that are the offspring of man’s desire for friendly relations with others.

Whether belonging to a church or not, the true attitude towards all churches is one of possession. They are for man, not man for them. In this sense, while belonging to none, all belong to you.

The final Religion of man must include all religions. With this hospitality of mind, there must be the turning of the desire of life towards the Spiritual and Divine, as well as to the natural and human. If the ideal of life does not include God as well as man, I shall seem to you only as one who dreams.

O! have no condemnation for those who are, as yet, undesirous of God. God has been so misconstrued and misrepresented that the true hunger for God cannot be satisfied by, and so rejects the idea of God as commonly taught.

The Living God has no condemnation for those who cannot find Him. God is hidden and undiscoverable by mind alone, that man may have the strength that comes of searching and finding Him by living up to His own loftiest ideal of Truth and Love.

When the seeker is ready, He Who seemed to be the unknowable is found and known.

Those who have found God are the Awakened. The spiritual world is no longer a state entirely apart and unknown from the natural. The world is on the eve of a great spiritual awakening. Man is waking up to the fact that GOD IS, and that He is knowable even as man is knowable. This discovery is made by the opening in man of a state of Cosmic Consciousness—in sight, hearing and touch of the spiritual world.

The people and things seen in dreams and visions are the people and direct creations of god. In this way, God thinks and feels Himself into man. In this way, the Life of God in all its many attributes is passing over into the life of man: THIS IS THE LANGUAGE BY WHICH GOD SPEAKS TO MAN. This language is to be learned, and the consequence of such growing intercourse is to be understood.

This state of consciousness is the recovery of the lost powers of delight. This is the life that is to redeem or clothe the abstract ideas of the mind with the living beauty of the soul. This is also the Living Word that is to beget, even in the body, the power of the Immortal Life.

LIFE is the end of life. Life in the body rests upon food. This food is the very flesh-and-blood form and substance of the living God. This manifestation of God is the Son of God. The continual sacrifice of the form, that other visions may come, is the death of the Son. The blood of the Son—the Lamb of God that redeems the world—is this very life of vision.

When man, by knowledge of the works of God in Nature and by actual experience of God in this life of the people and things of the Spirit, has drawn into his own life the Universal Intelligence and Cosmic Consciousness of God so long that they have become his own thought and consciousness, he will in the work of creation have no more need of the ministry of death. Then the spiritual force will be so one with the natural that life of the body will be continually renewed.

While many today have, in idea, caught a glimpse of this law, it has yet to be justified in the visible power of immortal life. While it is right to recognize this as the goal, the way thereunto is not by making this the end and object of life. Those who have found God have no fear to die as long as that is a necessary servant of Life. Those who are nearest to this goal think the least about it. Such ones are so given to all the many interests of the perfection of the natural, to the life of each in all and all in each, that they have no room for any desire apart from the Mighty Desire of God for the completion and perfection of the race.

The Immortal Life of the Redeemed will come as the crown and fruit of all loyal and loving service. To draw this out and distinguish it as the purpose of life is ever to fail in comprehending the very nature of life. In order to gain our Eternal Possessions, we must learn to know and value every portion of the toil and pain of time, for upon this spirit of labor and suffering has been placed the iniquity or one-sidedness of the natural without the spiritual and of the spiritual without the natural.

First the natural, then the spiritual. The rich, strong, free, beautiful life of natural intelligence and consciousness of the worth of the things of time, is the only opening of the gates through which the final things are to come forth into manifestation.

Many will seek these things who have more need to be seeking how to live naturally, and decently; how to take care of their bodies; how to feed their minds with the knowledge man has gained; and how to be kind and considerate towards those who stand in touch with them in the many human relations. Unless these things are gained, such souls need the dominance of some organized religion, and the ministry of the laws of man rather than the interpretation of the mighty Laws of God.

These Lessons (YOGODA) are for the gentle, strong men and the beautiful, loving women; the lovers of all truth, and the true lovers and friends of our mortal world. They are for the free and the brave; for the broad-minded and generous-hearted; those who feel they are the product of many lives and who have in them a deathless passion for all that pertains to earth and man as well as to Heaven and God.

These Lessons (YOGODA) have been prepared, because in the process of the work of interpretation through many years of fellowship with the Living God, many who have been brought into touch and sympathy with this writer have become subject to this order of Cosmic Consciousness.

It is believed that by this means the influence of this work may be enlarged, and those who are seeking the Way may be helped to find it. The Lessons are not so much to teach you alone, but to help you to find out what you may know.

Do not try to commit these things to memory, but rather to read them devotionally, to practice, and then to watch for the stars to come out in the firmament of your lives. Then, if in dream or vision, you are perplexed, write and tell in what way; and a word of counsel, born of long experience, may be just the thing you need.

The conscious practice of lessons will cast out fear. And do not expect things to be easy. God makes this language dark and mysterious, that we may have the growth that comes of learning to solve these mighty enigmas. He comes i the clouds of the dark and mysterious forms, and yet these clouds are charged with the living waters of consciousness that can make the earth or intelligence of man fruitful with the final and immortal life of God, made manifest in the flesh!

One day Mother Philosophy sent her children, the Sciences, out in to the world with the command: "Go find what may be known." When they returned, young Botany said: "I have observed a rose. The rose is a flower, composed of root, stem, thorn and blossoms. The blossom itself is composed of petals."

"How many petals?" asked Philosophy.

"Ask Mathematics," suggested Botany.

"There are different numbers of petals on different kinds of roses," volunteered Mathematics. "On one red garden rose I counted more than fifty petals, while on a wild rose I did not find half so many."

"What do you mean fifty?" asked the Mother.

"Fifty is twice twenty-five, and twenty-five is ten plus fifteen," replied Mathematics. "All numbers are based on the unit, one."

"But what do you mean by ‘one’ and what is the end of numbering?"

"I do not know, but as a rule the red rose contains more petals than the white rose.

"What do you mean by red and white?"

"Ask Art," said Mathematics.

"What can you tell me, Art?" asked Philosophy.

"Red is a color, your Majesty," answered Art. "White is sometimes called a color although, technically speaking, it is not a color.

"Then why is it ever considered a color?"

"I cannot tell. It really never is called a color excepting by some ignorant fellow, like Mathematics."

"What is color?"

"Color is one means by which the eye informs the mind of particular qualities of various forms and substances. Colors for painting pictures are composed of pigment."

"What is pigment?"

"Ask Zoology."

"Pigment," said Zoology, "might better be defined by Physics or Chemistry than by your humble servant. However, I should say that pigment is a sort of coloring matter derived from minerals and the tissues of certain animals an insects. Pigment is—"

"Enough!" said Philosophy. "I shall now draw my own conclusions, partly from what you have told me and partly from what I believe to be true. I am not censuring any of you. Doubtless you all have done as well as you could, but you must learn to do better. Your definitions confuse me. You do not speak clearly, even if you know what you mean. All of you together have told me nothing of the life of the rose. Some time, when the rose is dreaming, tip-toe near her and listen to the beating of her heart; or, surprise her some bright evening when she is singing a colorful song to a star above her—and then return and tell me something of the real life of the rose. I have an idea that next time you will be able to report something very beautiful concerning the soul of the rose. In the meantime, I wish that all of you would remember this: the art of living is of greater importance than the science of life."

God is an anthropomorphic personality, or His Kingdom as a geographical point in the cosmos, is an unsuspected phantasmagoria of the innocent minds. The conformist whose power of judgment and criticism is fettered by conventional beliefs and disbeliefs is the one to whom the conception of a personal god and physical heaven seems to be indispensable. The theological religions of the world have different concepts regarding the subject. However, it is not quite improbable that the millions of stars and planets that spin the immeasurable space may be abode of different existences. Yet to sail on the uncharted sea of imagination without the proper guidance of reason betrays ignorance and superstition. It is a curious travesty of the human understanding that most people have a horror of the art of doubting. As there is a certain amount of mental torture involved in the process of doubting, people select the easier path of least resistance. To doubt is to dare, and daring demands the blood of courage. Why should a man be afraid of the torture of doubt? Truth is never born in the human heart without its attendant pains. True knowledge is born of such pangs.

There are also those dogmatists to whom the world of knowledge is limited to their own understanding, beyond which, they think, nothing else could exist. Not unoften such spirit of blindfoldness leads to skepticism. Therefore, we should foster a spirit of honest doubts in broaching a subject but have to be on our guard not to be bluntly dogmatic or raise ungrounded doubts in the process of our investigation. A scientific attitude of life calls forth open-mindedness for the reception of truth. Huxley rightly remarked, "Sit down before fact as a little child; be prepared to give up every preconceived notion; follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing." Let such a spirit move the thinker. "Neither shall they say, ‘Lo here! or lo there!" for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." If the kingdom of God is not here, or not there, but within, so God and His kingdom are hidden in the heart of man. Such is the testimony of all sages. The Hindu Masters have always exhorted the spiritual India to enter into "the Cave of the Heart" in order to vision the glimpse of the Infinite. God smiles within and His kingdom stretches forth from pole to pole of our being. God is not here nor is He there, because He is in the heart of everywhere and therefore there is nowhere where He is not. Heart is the focus of creation. It is the center of love, purity, beauty, truth and humility amidst which shines the throng of Reality. Creation is the creator in motion. The Creator is the Ultimate Reality whereas the creation is the reality relative. "My Kingdom is not of this world." This world is comprised of phenomena, changes, relations and relativities. They dominate human minds, their actions, reactions and interactions. The color, sound, touch, sight and odour, present before human minds a panorama of seeming realities which trap man into the net of ignorance and sorrow. Unrealities momentarily satisfy him to be dissatisfied again. The seemingly true make him forget the truth eternal. The world of shadows keeps the world of light out of his sight. He enjoys the dream and never suspects the awakening beyond the border-line of his unconsciousness. This dream-land of unrealities is not the kingdom of God. The phenomena are nothing more than the touches of light and shade on the canvas of the Eternal Substance. While everything else changes, Reality remains unchanged. If it is not so, changes that constitute progress, could not be perceived by the ego. Changes are perceived because of their relativeness to the Unchangeable. The movement of the movable is perceived on account of the background of the Immovable. The Kingdom of Reality, therefore, is the unchangeable, immovable, timeless, spaceless substratum of all phenomena. Therefore those who are on the quest of the Holy Grail of the Eternal Truth have to dive beneath the phenomenal outlook on life and the world about them. As Boehme said, God is not above, but underneath. One has to look for God or Reality beyond the ken of his empirical experiences. Experiences as gathered by the senses are not the absolute instruments of knowledge. Relying on the absolute faithfulness of senses, Hume reduced mind into matter, as if mind were nothing but a series of sensations and man nothing but a sensuous animal. People who cannot see further than their sense-experiences are not admitted into the kingdom of truth. Why should we put such unequivocal trust on the senses, as in their very constitution they are deceptive and shut out the door-way to higher or super-sensuous experiences? Senses, are mostly tell-tales. Woe unto those who constantly thirst after the mirage of the world, knowing not what elysian joys are hidden underneath.

"Straight is the gate, narrow is the way that leadeth to life." The kingdom of truth cannot be reached by the gross experiences of life. One has to be baptised of the waters of love and fire of purity. One has to anoint the eye of his understanding with the light of disillusionment. As long as the dream of illusion will hang on the eyes, the sleep of man can never be broken, and the kingdom will not be manifested. Would that superficialities, subterfuges, externalities, and unnecessaries be abandoned in life that the reality may assert itself. Kant hit the nail on the head when he said that there are universal truths which cannot be proved or disproved by our sense experiences. To know them we have to subject our reason to sober investigation. But unlike Kant, the Hindu masters did not relegate the proof of God into the realm of the unprovable. To them, as to all mystics of the world, God is a Ever-Present Reality which can be perceived and felt by the love of the soul. God in man is enveloped in five sheaths. First in his physical body whose growth and decay depend on the gross material food. Then his Pranic or energy body which is the sustainer of his physical vitality and draws Prana or life energy from the cosmos thru natural or yogic breath. Third is his mental body whose seat is the brain and which function as feelings, thought ideas and so forth. Fourth is his wisdom body which brings the knowledge of discrimination in the field of his physical, Pranic and mental natures. When thru culture of his higher nature man can dwell in this plane of his being, he is classed as "a superior man" of Confucious. Above this plane is the Bliss body where he is enveloped in the hallow of joy and bliss. The ascension of man’s consciousness to this plane of his existence, brings him on the threshold of Divinity. His mind becomes aglow with the morning light of divine inspiration. His wisdom is tinged with the vision of All-Presence. All dualities and sorrows dwindle down in him. In other words, he becomes god-like. To know God we have to be godlike. Here comes the Freedom of Spirit, as well as freedom from all entanglements of pains and death. Immortality becomes a living reality. Now and Then, Here and There melt into one All Presence. Man reaches out to the fourth dimension of his being and, doing so, the heart of creation is revealed to him. Therefore our physical senses are not the only senses to know the world about or within us. Nor are mental senses the absolute along that line. Psychism develops super sensuous power which can delve into the supermental regions. But to touch the heart of God, one has to go above psychism and go right into the realm of spirit whose foundation is laid on love, purity, discrimination, concentration and living. Swedenborg, Boehme, and others can be put on the psychic plane; but Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, belong to the highest plane where God and man become one. "I and my Father are one."

Therefore to see God, first seek your true and highest nature. Embedded in you lie dormant God and His Kingdom. Culture a distrust in the senses and trust in the visions of the soul. Believe in reason but develop intuition. Recognize God within and without in the heart of all that live and move. Remember: "First seek the Kingdom of God, the rest shall be added unto you."

It has taken so much for my Soul’s fashioning!

There are dawns, dim and sweet,

Where soft shadows cling,

With Silence and Beauty, and a starling to sing.

There are noons of mad heat,

As if earth were afire

With sorrow’s deep-hidden, unsated desire.

There are nights in black mourning,

Like widows of Light;

And the depths and the heights,

And the blindness of sight.

There are roses as red as the blood of the heart,

And tender young lilies, living sheltered apart.

There are gardens of joy and deserts of pain;

The victor’s loud cry, and sighs of the slain.

There are echoes of prayers,

When the soul could not rest;

And a lullaby crooned to a child at my breast;

And the warmth of the sun

In the summer’s sweet breath;

And the cold as of death, without mercy of death.

There are tears never shed,

Raging floods held at bay;

And rivers of tears, sweeping reason away.

There are dreams only born for a butterfly’s day,

Like a flashing the skies of my life, then away.

There are hopes flowered full,

With the fruits of delight,

And little, frail hopes,

That were murdered one night.

There are songs whispered low,

For no being to hear;

And cries that rang screaming in passion of fear.

There’s a shadow, a star,

And the dew and the mist;

And war-ridden lips that mothers have kissed.

There is gain, and a goal that was only a loss;

And the agonized prayer of a world on the cross.

It has taken so much for my Soul’s fashioning!

The despair of the serf and the rule of the king!

The toppling of thrones, and the power to sing.

Little things! And big things!

Treasures hidden in vain!

The building, the wrecking, and building again.

Lovely things, ugly things!

I must face them at last—

My Soul’s fadeless records on Scrolls of the Past!

They are I! I am they! As perfume is made

From acres of blossoms

Knowing sunshine and shade.

I am they! They are I! WE are one and the same,

Ev’ry thought, ev’ry deed,

Ev’ry glory and shame.

For the Perfumer—God

—Gathers into His Hands

The weeds and blossoms

Of His farthermost lands;

And blending them, God-wise,

Maketh at last

Essence of Spirit from present and past.

The years are His Acres, we broadcast our seeds

For invisible harvests of flowers and weeds—

The joys and the sorrows,

The hopes and the fears;

The true and the false,

And the smiles and the tears.

Death is the Reaper.

The full harvest must be

In the Perfumer’s hands,

Ere the Soul may be free;

No longer the sowing and growing

—But reaping—Essence of Life

For Eternity’s keeping.

Oh, the dawn and the dark!

Oh, the joy and the grief!

The smiles and the tears, the doubt and belief!

It has taken them all, and the Perfumer’s art,

The weeks and flowers, and a dreamer’s heart!

It has taken so much for my Soul’s fashioning;

Life’s summer and winter,

Resurrection of spring—

And a song that the singer

must taste death to sing!!

In this first lecture on nervousness, I think is advisable to outline what I believe to be the causes of nervousness. Perhaps it would be best to first explain what is meant by nervousness. The layman’s view concerning this dreadful illness is so distorted that it is difficult for me, a nerve specialist, to explain in non-technical language exactly what is meant by nervousness. Perhaps the series of lecture-talks that I plan to give will make clear what nervousness really is. I can truthfully state that the troubles of more than seventy-five percent of those who have had any disease of long standing, a so-called "chronic" disease, is caused directly or indirectly by nervousness. It makes no difference what the symptoms may be, if they persist for a long time they are in most instances capable of being traced to an underlying nervous condition.

Even the most conservative authorities are now convinced that ulcers of the stomach, exophthalmic goiter, head noises, spots before the eyes, as well as many stomach and heart complaints, are the physical outgrowths of a nervous disposition. Even those who oppose my theories of nervousness admit that most cases of indigestion, with gas, attacks of dizziness, insomnia, etc., are traceable to a disordered nervous system. It is a mistake to believe that the term "nervous" can only be applied to those who shake, are jumpy or fearful. In many instances the nervous person is outwardly steady and calm, while inwardly he is being consumed by flames of fear. He may appear outwardly stolid, while inwardly he is shaken to his depths by feelings of impending misfortune. So bewilderingly complex are the physical and mental symptoms with which the nervous ones suffer, that it is no wonder that for centuries doctors have failed to understand the true significance of them.

Various theories, exciting only laughter now, were seriously held to explain the cause of nervous symptoms. The most prominent of the ancient theories was that of demonic possession. Evil spirits were believed to influence the patient, and in many cases to possess him completely. Often the nervous one was condemned as a witch and burned. It is no wonder that throughout the ages and in every country, those who were so unfortunate as to be afflicted with nervous diseases would carefully keep their afflictions from the knowledge of others. But there were many who could not keep their misfortune a secret. The epileptic, for example, could not always hide from his neighbor the knowledge of his spells. Those who were morbidly depressed, those who were fearful lest they commit some terrible crime, could not always keep their idiosyncrasies a secret. They tried to account for their peculiarities by explaining that the disruption of some bodily organ caused it. But this did not always save them from misunderstanding and ridicule by the superstitious society of that time. Often the nervous one himself, influenced by the morbidity of his ailment, actually believed in and recounted the circumstances under which he was possessed by an evil spirit.

The theory of possession by demons is still believed by savage and semi-civilized people that live in outlying parts of the earth. Among them, the practice of propitiating evil spirits still prevails. It is interesting to note that such primitive practices still exist even in some civilized parts of the world, even in Los Angeles, although in somewhat modified form. Possession by evil spirits is emphasized. It is taught that nervous symptoms are caused by the spirit of a dead person who has intruded himself upon the patient’s body and does not realize that he is dead. Incidentally, I might remark that the prescribed cure consists in enabling such an earthbound spirit to realize his demise by good strong jolts of static electricity administered to the body of the patient. This is done in the hope that no self-respecting spirit of a dead one will care to hibabit a living body that is racked and scorched by powerful electric currents.

About sixty years ago, the theory of demonic possession was discarded. Men of science came to see that nervousness was a disease, that obsessive fear and anxiety were abnormal conditions of the nervous system, and that the unfortunate victims were really sick. As knowledge increased, it became apparent that epilepsy was not a visitation of the devil, and that the victims of tormenting thoughts were not beyond the pale of human sympathy.

Within the last thirty years, the causes of nervousness have been intensively studied. Researches into the causes of nervousness have been influenced by the materialistic and mechanistic concepts. Scientists and physicians have tried hard to account for nervous symptoms by the supposition that this or that tissue was disrupted or that one or another organ was not functioning properly. And in this manner originated the glandular, surgical and spinal theories of nervousness. The ever increasing cases of nervousness daily prove the inadequacy of these theories.

I believe that nervousness remained an incurable disease for so long because science has occupied itself chiefly with chemistry, muscle and bone, while the mind has been neglected. Man’s mind—the greatest manifestation of life on earth—the culmination of creative purposiveness—was not deemed worthy of serious consideration, and its relationship to nervousness remained unrecognized. Now, I say that nervousness is not a disease of the body, not a chemical disorder; it is not a mal-function of glands; but is a symptom of a disorganized mind. And lest I be misunderstood, I hasten to add that I do not refer to the conscious mind of the nervous person.

There is nothing wrong with the conscious mind of the nervous one. Nervous ones are not feeble minded. They are for the most part unhappy. The nervous one may be a person of unusual spiritual and intellectual development, who is horrified at the things his bodily appetites crave. He may be a despondent lover, or someone who is depressed and wounded by the sorrows of the world. Everybody knows such an afflicted one, who, overwhelmed by his woes, overburdened by a stricken conscience, crushed by a fear of—he knows not what—given over to doubt, self-accusation and despair, finally becomes a chronic sufferer from disrupted nerves, troubled mind, and enfeebled body. Chronic illness is not the prerogative of the dullard. Stolid fools do not become nervous.

The anxious, nervous, worried and depressed are those who have attained a high degree of spiritual understanding and refinement. They are people who have a high standard of morality and ethics. I have never seen a nervous person in whom the standards of life and duty to mankind are not highly developed. I have never seen a hysterical cow. The good natured, thoughtless, ignorant cow is never nervous. The tolerant, easy tempered, easy going ox, or the sleepy hippopotamus are never sick at heart. They do not suffer from troubled minds and wounded souls. They do not suffer from nervousness. Those who are tormented by nerves, the chronically ill, usually have good minds. In many instances they are brilliant thinkers and logical reasoners. They are usually people of magnificent character, spiritually developed and well-informed upon mental, psychic and metaphysical subjects. Far from having poor minds and thinking wrongly, we find that the best thinkers and most advanced philosophers, as well as the world’s foremost geniuses, were nervous and eccentric.

I myself have had the honor of treating the world’s foremost musical genius, a world famous diplomat, and a professor of philosophy. These geniuses of music, diplomacy and philosophy had good minds, but in spite of the fact that they possessed well-developed reasoning faculties and powerful intellects, they were, nevertheless, racked and wrenched by tormenting thoughts and morbid apprehensions. Nervousness is not a disease of the conscious mind.

Ten years of experience has shown me that nervousness is the outward manifestation of a conflict between conscience and those instincts and emotions of which we are unconscious. No wonder, then, that physical methods cannot cure nervousness. Space does not permit me to elaborate upon this point just now. However, I shall later speak to you about emotions. I shall speak to you of those emotional tendencies, instincts and desires of which we are for the most part unconscious. I will speak to you about our subconscious mind, which I deem responsible for nervousness. I shall take you through the chambers of the mind. I shall show you the conscious mind and I shall explain the subconscious, and prove to you that while supreme courage resides in the conscious mind, fear and anxiety may be the dominant characteristics of the subconscious. I will try to make clear to you how it is possible for love to reign in the conscious mind, while hatred and jealousy rage within the subconscious; and while kindness, altruism and divine understanding pervade the conscious mind, ignorance, bigotry, cruelty and superstition lurk within the subconscious. I shall show you how the conflict between the conscious and the subconscious actually results in nervous symptoms.

The only system of treatment that will dissolve the nervous symptoms is a system that is directed to the mind’s instinctive and emotional nature. The attention devoted by learned men of science to the study of diseases of the physical frame is most praiseworthy. Their efforts in many instances have been crowned by glorious achievements. However, not enough attention has been devoted to the study of that noblest manifestation of life—the human mind, the human soul.

Rational treatment of the nervous one must embrace physical, educational and psychological measures. It should not be forgotten that man is a complex being, a conscious spark of divinity embodied in matter, with a mind that reasons and a soul that feels; and that the spiritual part of his nature cannot be neglected or ignored without affecting the whole man to a greater or lesser degree.

Every physical ailment will, of course, disturb the nervous and emotional constitution; but nervousness is primarily an emotional disturbance and may be represented by many physical defects. Therefore, the doctor who can see only the heart, lungs, liver or spine, and not an individual having a distinct personality—a mind that reasons and feels—and a soul or spirit that aspires, is as incompetent to deal with nervous diseases as is the doctor who can see only mind and emotions, while he completely ignores that receptacle which is given us by an almighty Providence, and which we call our body.

Serve health drinks, uncooked soups, fruit and vegetable salads, fruit-nut cakes and confections—delicious and wholesome—will build and maintain perfect health.

Two inviting places;

Literature and health hints on request.

You come to me as peace in sleep,

As joy when I awake;

You come to me as sunshine

As my way through the hills I take.

You come to me in every flower,

In the breeze that blows my way;

You come to me as a song in my soul;

You come as love to stay.

Did you ever think of yourself as an electric battery? Probably not, unless you have studied Yogoda, a system for the harmonious and full development of body, mind and soul. Yogoda, as taught by its chief exponent, Swami Yogananda, reveals the fact that the human body, is very much like a battery. To work effectively, a battery must be charged and recharged and supplied with distilled water. The human body, to work effectively, must also be charged and recharged, not only with food, oxygen and sunshine, but also with that inner force or divine spark, with which so few of us are familiar.

Just what this inner force is, how it can be controlled and made to recharge the body with vital energy was explained to us by Swami Yogananda himself during an interview in the lobby of the Hotel Traymore, where he spent several days. His personality, by-the-way, is by far the most magnetic and impelling of any we have ever encountered. It is easy to understand why many men and women of high standing have accepted his teachings as heralding the dawn of a new era of peace and understanding. A half an hour spent with Swami Yogananda carried us out of the work-a-day world to heights we had never dreamed of attaining.

"It is just as easy to be peaceful and joyful as to be worried and disturbed," said the Swami, which, by the way, means the Great Master. "Develop the habit of smiling, no matter what happens and get complete control of your thoughts. They absolutely make or mar your life. People pay entirely too much attention to their physical being and think too much about what they should eat and how much they should rest. It is all a matter of will. I have never been tired in my life, and I get along on as little as five hours’ sleep a month. I never eat in the morning, and for lunch have a meal consisting of vegetables—preferably uncooked fruits and chopped nuts, with an occasional egg. For supper I take only a salad. But my whole life has been given over to the study of Yogoda, and what I have done, others can do also.

"Food can only do so much and no more. No truer words were ever spoken than ‘Man cannot live by bread alone.’ You are all too hurried in America and weary yourselves by rushing about making money for leisure which you cannot enjoy when you have it. Practice concentration every day of your life. Meditate and pray. Have faith that you may control your material and spiritual destiny by tuning in with cosmic consciousness, or the inexhaustible storehouse of cosmic supply.

"Yogoda teaches how to improve beauty of form, grace of expression, center of consciousness and the power of mental receptivity. It teaches how to control and exercise every muscle of the body. It also teaches you how to put on or take off fat. By its power you can make a success out of failure through intelligent control of your own forces."

Swami Yogananda practices what he preaches and demonstrated his animated talk by allowing us to feel his pulse, which beat quickly one minute and was entirely stopped the next. It was rather breath-taking to feel how he could change the beat of his heart and enlarge the muscles of his arm to three times their natural size. He is able to sit for hours at a stretch without the twitch of an eye or muscle.

"Nothing could possibly shake my peace or joy," Swami Yogananda continued, "even though the world should collapse. Fear and worry are man’s worst enemies, and he can rout these by will if he only tires., The subconscious mind is like a parrot and repeats whatever we tell it, so, instead of suggesting fatigue, complaining and troubled thoughts to it, suggest joy, opulence and peace, and these things, will be manifested in your life. Once the bodily habits begin to rule the mind it becomes difficult to make the body obey the commands of the will. That is why chronically fat people do not easily get rid of their fat, even if they diet. The intelligent cells have formed their own individual habits and do not respond instantly to mental commands, as they would if they had been trained to obey and not to disregard the superior mental forces which have the power to rule the body if properly trained and exercised.

"Among the suggestions that Yogoda students are taught to act upon are: work willingly, work untiringly, work, thinking and feeling the eternal energy flowing in you ceaselessly. Never suggest tiredness. Never talk fatigue. Never say ‘I am tired.’

"Health does not mean mere existence, nor clinging of life to the body. Keeping out of the hospital for a number of years does not necessarily mean health. To be able to resist disease, to bear strain and enjoy mental vitality, to feel the body as a luxury, as a bird feels when shooting through the air, and as a normal child does always, is health. Proficient Yogoda students feel themselves in the heyday of youth every day.

"Never forget to smile, not the mask-like smile without truth and sincerity back of it, but the honest, radiant smile that comes only from a light, joyful heart, which belongs to only the ‘good’ and which cannot be worn by the wicked. Remember:

‘When God smiles through your soul

And when your soul smiles through truth

And truthful actions,

And when truth smiles through your eyes,

Then that Prince of smiles

Is canopied beneath your celestial brow.

Protect that Prince of smiles,

In the Castle of sincerity.

And see that no rebel hypocrisy

Lurks to destroy it.’"

Swami Yogananda came to this country in 1920 as a delegate from India to the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston. People were so much interested in his message that the first Yogoda Sat Sanga Center in this country was organized there. Since then the work has spread rapidly throughout the states and the students of Yogoda in America number many thousands. How greatly it has impressed men and women of note is evidenced in the words of the late Luther Burbank when he said that if we could all put its message into practice it would "come as near to bringing the millennium" as any system of human training in history.

"A spark!" "A spark?"—for shame!

"A spark disturbs our clod?"

Alive, erect, aflame!

The burning bush of God!

The image of our God—

Evolved, complete, His plan:

The latent-heated clod

Bursts forth aflame, as man!

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In the March-April, 1930, number of "EAST-WEST," there was an article by the Author entitled "Healing the Sick: Bridging the Gap to the Etheric World." It was mentioned that a new force had been discovered, or rather a new use discovered for an old force, and now applied to healing the sick. This force is the Etheric Wave. Since the publication of that article there have been so many inquiries from readers wanting to know more about this new discovery, that it would not be fair now not to go further into the subject in an attempt to elucidate.

In the March and April, 1930, numbers of "The Theosophist," there are aritlces under the caption "Occult Study of Disease," by that Great English Occult Savant, Geoffrey Hodson. Anyone interested and able to understand such matters will miss a very unusual scientific and intellectual feast if he fails to read these articles, for, in scientific accuracy and practical application, they well become this Great Author.

In these, he goes quite extensively into the question of Etheric Waves as applied to healing. He predicts that—"the whole question of disease may be approached and perhaps answered in a new way during the next ten years . . . . treatments will become less solid and more Etheric in their nature, and will deal less with matter and more with force, less with forms and more with life and consciousness." He also states—"Any mechanical means which is to change tissue from an unhealthy to a healthy state, will probably be most effective if its effects are produced primarily at the Etheric level."

To the Author now writing, these thoughts and this prediction seem truly marvelous because what Mr. Hodson states as to his theory of disease and this prediction, coincide precisely with the theory and practice as demonstrated clinically by the Author and many other physicians, for about eight years past.

As stated in the beginning of the last article spoken of, almost daily we hear of new uses being found for this Etheric Energy, and now comes the announcement of a device invented by a Russian Scientist by the name of Theramin. The device is now offered as a commercial commodity to be installed in homes for anyone with a little training to play music "picked out of the air" by the hands and fingers. It is called the Victor THERAMIN. Another use made of the invisible waves. So it will be seen that in utilizing these waves in healing the sick, we are only applying a similar energy in a different way. But, since they are in this way being used to save life and end suffering, it is obvious that they are thus being made much more important use of for humanity than in any way previously discovered.

For the sake of clarity in what is to follow, let us briefly review the Etheric Body. The physical body is divided into two main divisions, the lower called the Dense physical and the upper the Etheric Body. The Dense physical is subdivided into three grades of matter known as Solid, Liquid and Gas, or Bone, Blood and Breath. This body is also referred to as the Chemical Body in contrast to the upper or Etheric.

The Etheric Body, also known as the Vitality Body, is subdivided into four grades of matter. But let it be understood that, though all the planes of the Ether are invisible to the dense physical vision, they, with the three subdivisions of the Dense physical, constitute the entire Physical Body of seven planes. For the sake of convenience hereafter, the Dense physical will be spoken of as the Chemical Body, and the balance of the Physical as the Etheric.

From the lowest and coarsest of the chemical body, up, and all through the etheric, and still on and up into and through the higher and subtler bodies, the energy waves get finer and finer and vibrate in proportionately more frequent periodicity. The etheric waves vibrate much more rapidly than those of the chemical, the Astral waves still much more rapidly, and so on all the way up to Spirit. All of the bodies below Spirit are still Spirit vibrations in different forms, or in other words, they are but Spirit taking form according to the rate of vibration that the Spirit is stopped off at on each plane of life. The only difference between lead and gold for example is that Spirit is vibrating at different rates, the gold being much higher than that of lead. "Spirit is matter in its highest manifestation, and matter is Spirit in its lowest manifestation."

The Etheric Body is well called the Vitality Body because it supplies the chemical body with its nourishment and vitality. All material , foods, chemicals, etc., taken into the body produce whatever effect they do, through the etheric body. They must first be taken into the chemical body and transmuted into etheric vibrations, after which these etheric waves are transmitted over the chemical body by the etheric fluid or coating of the nervous system, whence they are deposited into the ductless glands for general distribution to the chemical body.

Every form and plane of life is created by reason of the rate of Spirit vibration given it to sustain itself as created. If it becomes lower or higher in its rate, it becomes something else—takes a different form. These different rates of vibration are also arranged so that there is a perfect blending from one form or vehicle to another, altogether forming a perfectly harmonious alignment of intercommunicating vehicles or sheaths all the way from Spirit down to matter.

When these vehicles are so aligned, the power of Spirit may reach down through the various bodies and supply life, until it reaches the lowest, the chemical. But if harmonious alignment is in any way interfered with, the channel of force is obstructed, and the lower vehicles suffer for it. This effect is usually reflected down to the chemical body. As the chemical body is the lowest form of matter, it cannot take on a still different form by vibrating at a lower rate, so the natural consequence is deterioration, hence that is what takes place in the cells, which is the first manifestation of disease in the chemical body.

If the vibration of the Vitality Body is slowed down, it draws away or separates out from the other bodies. In this condition it is unable to deliver its vital cargo to the chemical body, which suffers directly and immediately by loss of vitality, depletion of energy, starvation and cellular deterioration.

The remedy for this condition naturally is to raise the frequency of the vibration of the etheric body to normal, reverse the process of disease. That is the true remedy as proved so frequently. It can be accomplished through the power of will or mind as is now so commonly done by those trained in the use of this faculty. Or it can be accomplished by any untrained person by use of the Mechano-Etheric Device developed for that purpose.

The Etheric or Vitality Body has other functions which make it essential to the maintenance of the chemical body. It delivers Prana to the chemical body, without which no chemical form of life, plant, animal or human could live but for a short time. Further, it selects out the colors from the sunshine and from matter taken into the body and distributes these various spectral colors to the different parts of the body, according to their polarity.

For this function there are seven chief Etheric Centers of Chakrams corresponding in location to various parts of the anatomy or organs of the chemical body. No. 1 is at the base of the spine; No. 2 at the navel or solar plexus; No. 3 at the spleen; No. 4 at the heart; No. 5 at the throat; No. 6 between the eyes; No. 7 at the top of the head.

The vitality globules of prana are gathered in by the spleen center, the main distributing center, and carried to all of the centers to be distributed to the chemical body in general. The spleen centers also gives a general distribution of a rose color that is essential as a nerve builder and restorer.

The various spectral colors are also delivered to the spleen center whence they are disseminated to the other centers according to the needs of the various organs or parts of the chemical body.

Red, orange and dark purple are carried to the center at the base of the spine; green to the navel center; yellow to the heart center; blue and violet to the throat center, the center of clairaudience; yellow, violet and blue to the top of the head. The chakra between the eye is the center of clairvoyance.

Life in all of its phases and planes is a matter of polarity. It is inherent in the atom, the cell, the organs, the body as a whole, and the Universe.

This explains how the various etheric vibrations of sunshine, foods, drugs and all matter taken into the chemical body is able to find the indicated organ or tissue for the given color or rate. All material has a given effect on the body according to its predominating spectral color waves. This is therefore true of all drugs. All cathartics for example have a predominating wave of yellow; All sedatives of blue, and so on all the way through the entire Pharmacopaeia.

In a separate article, Chromo-Therapy (Color Treatment) will be gone into thoroughly; and in another —foods, how and why they work as they do, considered from the metaphysical viewpoint; also, proper combinations of foods, what to eat, and, more important, what not to eat, and why.

No church bells call me to worship,

I hear no thundering prayer;

But I enter my Temple of Silence

And find God waiting there.

Silent, receptive, enlightened,

My soul in its glory stands;

And I am One with my Maker

In the Temple Not Made By Hands.

The "City Beautiful" has long been a dream of humanity. We have tried to vision it in imagination, in vain. Always, we remembered our crowded, commercial cities, with only touches of beauty and harmony, here and there.

But at last the dream has come true, every detail perfectly created in marble and brick and cement and stone, in boulevards and gardens and parks, in flowers and shrubs and trees.

The sea, shimmering in the sun and wave-stirred under the stars. Mountains like sentinels keeping watch with God.

As if a magic line were drawn at a certain, definite point—North, South, East and West—the atmosphere seems to change. Flowers are robed in brighter colors,—the red rose, redder still,—the white rose, fairer than ever,—blue blossoms rioting in azure,—green leaves like emeralds polished in dew.

At first, it does not seem like a city at all, but a limitless Garden of Beauty and Peace. Then, one sees scattered roofs of hidden-away houses, never one rood standing out glaringly from the others, but all blended in harmony like musical notes of the scale.

One wishes to stop and rest, not only physically and mentally, but in spirit. Fairyland, once but a dream of lost childhood, spreads before startled eyes in unimaginable glory.

This is not an advertisement, but a dreamer’s grateful tribute to realized Beauty in a world gone mad with noise and skyscrapers and hustle and bustle, ambition and strain.

No wonder our own Galli-Curci chose this spot out of all the world for her home. The Italian Fountain in the great Public Square must have made her eyes dim with memories. When I walked over her lots, a wild bird was singing its heart out there. Some day, the great singer whom all the world loves will here let her voice go forth in the divine harmony of her genius. But I like to think that there will be times when the famous singer will be silent and listen to a bird, understanding each trill of the little throat, and the musical message of the small, glad heart.

Impossible to describe the loveliness of this blessed place. Impossible to find words in all the gathered-together languages of the world, to make a silent or sound picture of these thousands of acres made into plots and parks for the benefit of lovers of home. Something within me whispered that word—"home"—almost as soon as my feet trod the ground and my eyes began to take in the living loveliness of it all.

Dreamers founded this "City Beautiful" of mine; only those with spiritual vision and divine understanding could create as they have done. And only Idealists could have made it possible, as has been done here, for those rich in love of beauty, but not otherwise, may purchase peace and beauty and almost unbelievable privileges of education and play and quietness.

Only think of being born at Palos Verdes, of going to such a School as I saw there, classically lovely in every outline, with everything that can be given for the mental growth of a child.

Think of living there throughout a whole lifetime, taking only short trips to the world, every now and then, if a woman or a child, and having such a refuge after business hours, if a man. Imagine the result, physically, mentally and spiritually.

I believe that in such surroundings and influences, a new race will be born, a race of super-men and super-women, stripped of the fevers of ordinary living; men and women with strong bodies, brilliant minds and developed souls, hastening the evolution of humanity to its most sacred goal, Cosmic Consciousness or oneness with God.

They call us Mystics.

Are we mysterious? If so, how?

They have the intense love of life—

While we love the life of intense love,

In quest of the Ultimate Reality and Truth.

If we have denied and renounced

The world of Phenomena, Nescience and Maya,

Hurting not a soul but loving all,

Without stealing into a passive mood,

But always awake in an active joy:

Is not such a mysticism

A sane philosophy of life

For those who live the life

And show others how to live?

If all the stars were of the same size,

And all the flowers were of the same hue—

If all minds were of the same type,

Monotony would rule this earthly life.

Mystics have their mystic use.

As they perceive the unperceived thoughts,

As they see the unseen realm,

As they touch the untouched spirit,

Mystics show the super-strength,

They exhibit the super-mind,

And they preach the super-science!

This is their mystic use!

I have not come to you to give you intellectual sermons. I do not like to blindly give you the thoughts of others. You can read books for yourself. When I speak to you, I shall tell you what I feel of God. I shall tell you what I hear from God. It is my privilege to bring to you a message that will help you to realize God, and to develop yourselves harmoniously, physically, mentally and spiritually.

I have spoken to thousands, and aroused the feelings and emotions of the multitude. But now it is my desire to train a band of souls, who would not remain satisfied with intellectual reasonings and a superficial knowledge of God, but who would night and day make the effort to contact the God Whom I have found.

Why are your prayers not answered? Because of the evil seed elements in your subconscious mind, the bad habits of the past that stand between you and God. I wish you to read the Scientific Healing Affirmations daily, because health is not a permanent thing. There are destructive forces constantly lurking within you, as the result of past actions; therefore, you must be constantly watchful to counteract those forces. If you pray for success, but your subconscious mind is working against you, saying all the time: "I will not succeed," how can you succeed? How can you aspire to reach God with empty, dead prayers? Pray until you positively KNOW. Yogoda gives you the method whereby, through true and faithful application, you shall attain to God.

You must do away with the traditional ideas of your sinfulness and weakness, and insist fearlessly that you are a child of God. Always remember that. Release your mind from your countless matter-bound-desires; for until you let them go, you cannot see the flame of God.

In "Whispers From Eternity," I have laid, side by side, the feelings of the Great Masters. Let us take Moses. His was a martial spirit, such as befitted the time in which he lived. All great souls have met the need of a certain time. Goodness does not mean weakness. Goodness is a power that knows how to fight the forces of evil. If goodness has no stamina, it will be destroyed. Goodness must be harnessed with strength. Strength means power, and power is the ability to conquer. So the martial spirit of Moses was needed to meet the need of the time in which he lived.

One of the greatest contributions of the Jewish religion is the conception that there is only one God, but many prophets. No one should be put above God. Even though the waves and the ocean are one, still the ocean can never be taken for the wave. The ocean is the substance; the wave is one of the forms of the substance. The substance is the unchangeable; the forms are many and changeable. The substance is spirit; the forms are ever varying expressions of creation.

The greatest thing in the christian Bible is the statement that God made man in His Image. In this image lie all the qualities that are in the Spirit. In the drop are all the chemicals that are in the lake. We are made of spirit. It is false to say we are mortals, yet this mortal concept has grown so strong that it has become our second nature. We may know that we are made of spirit, but the consciousness of sin holds us in bondage.

Confession was a good thing; but it became, in certain cases, a mechanical affair. To recognize one’s errors and discard them, is true repentance. And unless the spiritual doctor is told about the symptoms and spiritual troubles of his disciple patient, he cannot very well help him. But confession is meaningless and harmful when the spiritual advisor himself is not free from the disease he aspires to cure in others.

To make our prayer-demands effective, we must first find unity with God. These Lessons are given to you for that purpose only, to help you gain that unity with God.

Do not let wrong and discordant things of the world worry you. It is true that there are many bad things in existence. But if a thing is bad, why make it a part of yourself? You are your own greatest enemy; and you are your own greatest friend. It is in your power to choose that which you want to make a part of yourself. This applies to thoughts and feelings and desires, as well as deeds.

We must always remember and affirm: "Thou art the Father Who owns this universe, and because we are Thy children, we own it too." I can hear some of your say: "How is that possible?" The trouble is, we do not know how long we have been in bondage with weakness and wrong thoughts, and we have no realization of the depths of the mischief that has already been done by not being consciously identified with the Father.

A list of "Material Suggested for Religious Programs Emphasizing Peace and World Friendship" has been prepared by a committee of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Pennsylvania Branch, in response to widespread requests for help in making up exercises for Sunday Schools, Churches, Clubs, Schools, etc., which would carry the spirit of international goodwill.

The list includes groups of Bible selections, hymns, prayers, worship, services, plays and pageants, posters, books for reference, and general material easily available at the source and price stated for each item.

NATURE has furnished hills, canyons, mountain views, ocean, rocky promontories, gorgeous sunsets, the best of soil and incomparable climate;

And MAN, in the persons of the world’s best landscape artists and city planners, has adapted to this the best modern thought in community building, which includes the

Devoting of nearly ONE-HALF of all the land to Public Use,—Parks, Schools, Boulevards, etc.

One cannot imagine from descriptive reading the delight of living here, but must visit the Estates and see for one’s self.

Prices vary so as to be within the reach of any one.

Call us for an appointment to visit what is rapidly becoming the most beautiful spot on the earth to live.

When we have learned to shatter ourselves

And be shattered—

To stand firm, as masters, ignoring all pain—

Then rises from out the wound of self

A song,

Mighty and strong as the heavens,

The Gods themselves!

And in the harmony of such stupendous souls

This world shall be redeemed.

Padmi, forgiven his past offenses and back permanently in his beloved native land, imposed upon himself double work and was a model citizen. But he still dreamed of Sama.

King Uma, Father of Sama, officially entertained the Commissioners from the Empire of the Sun, but refused their invitation to visit Atlantis. Whereupon, Sama herself departed silently in the night with the returning Commissaries, and a few Commissioners from her own land.

Tec, who loved Sama and had been spurned by her, reported this fact to the sick King. Tec was sent by the furious King to follow Sama.

Arriving at the Land of the Sun, the foreign Commissioners found a quiet, satisfied and happy people, and were welcomed fraternally and entertained in one of the great Temples of the Sun, being from that hour honored Guests of the Sun.

Finally, King Uma declared war against his daughter and her followers. Sama returned to face revolution in her country, and the death of her father followed his defeat.

After the king’s death, Kronos, Monarch of the Land of the Sun, ordered his Commission of the Ancients to show to the savage country this new form of Government.

They were shown how to rule for universal good instead of the good of the few. The Commissioners listened in surprise as they were told, if there were a man in all that extensive Empire who desired work and could not find congenial and suitable occupation, or if there were a single sick child who did not receive the proper care, these things would be stains on the Government and a shame on the King’s personality. And they were told that the King should be a loving Father to his subjects, taking care of them as his children, placing their happiness and welfare above his own.

The visiting Commissioners gave careful thought and study to this new way of governing where the King should visit all over his great Kingdom every seven years, so that he could live in close touch with his people and make their interests his own. In the new system, education would be free over all the land, the Priests having in their care national education for all citizens, without distinction of classes or sex, and teaching what we now call primary instruction, reading, writing, and something similar to arithmetic. In order to satisfy the most common needs of life, a general knowledge of these things was to be given to each citizen before the age of twelve.

As in the Land of the Sun, there would be no premiums and no punishments. The people would be taught to properly prepare foods, to establish the difference between good and bad vegetables and fruits; how to take care of themselves, so they would not become lost in the forests; how to manage the simple tools used by carpenters, bricklayers and other laborers; how to walk with no other guide than the Sun and the Stars; how to pilot a canoe, to swim, to climb and to jump with extraordinary ability, and how to assist the accidentally wounded and prepare medicines from herbs.

The people were also to be taught the Constitution of their Country, its habits, language, primary practice. When the pupils were ready to leave the Preparatory School, they would be able to build a comfortable home and know how to observe the sanitary rules. Each of the Professors responsible for their training would indicate the future trade of these pupils of the Kingdom, derived form their studies and training throughout the years. After graduating from the Preparatory School, the students would be promoted to another School of the Empire, and every child, no matter how humble or high his birth, could at last select his own career.

The Teachers were to carefully watch the pupils, in order to determine their fitness for the land career or that of the State.

The visiting Commission, highly satisfied, with everything made clear to them, desired to further know the land system of the Land of the Sun, and it was explained to them.

Villages and farms were supported by the State, with all the pupils carefully instructed for work and mental and spiritual progress.

All inventions were offered to the State, whereupon the board of Ancients would have constructed a small model, which, if successful in operation and useful to the people or the State, would become the property of the State and from that moment would be used freely in the whole Empire.

The studies of ingredients for fertilizing purposes were also surprising, as well as studies of irrigation and canalization of the sewers, far more efficient than now.

Machineries were plainer and rougher than those of today, but they seldom went out of order. There was also a wooden sower that consisted of a wide and low wagon which rolled over the farm, opening automatically, making lines of holes at certain distances, leaving in each hole a seed, and watering and covering it at the same time. Some of the machines were run by water, so the Ancients knew something of hydraulics. Their irrigation was perfect, and they took advantage of the weight of the water to raise it up the hills on large stairs which they built; therefore, vegetation was general, spread evenly all over the country.

The Council of Ancients, composed of seven members, convened for a thanksgiving meeting of the Sun. In the magnificent Temple of the Sun (the principal Temple of the whole Kingdom), a great feast was given. There was a beautiful sun made out of pure gold, which was illuminated by rays received from outside, due to a polish which brightened the metal so that the artificial sun, struck by the real sun, seemed like the latter, indeed.

The people entered the Temple and deposited offerings in front of the sun, precious stones, fruits and flowers. For they believed they owed everything to Him. It was a point of faith that all Light, Life and Power proceeded from the Spirit of the Sun.

The Priest, dressed in white and violet, with a sort of long cap trimmed with gold ornaments, stood in the center of the stairs where the Sun of gold was resting. In a soft, sweet voice, at the same time powerful and familiar, as if a father were telling a story to his children, he told that reverent audience of his Master, the Sun. In all sincerity, he stated that the Sun furnished all of them with everything for their well-being, because without Its glorious Light and Heat, the world would be dead, impossible to live in. And he said that through the Sun’s action, fruits and grains grew and ripened, to be used as food. Also to the Sun they owed the refreshing water, which was more important than anything else.

The Priest further explained that it was believed that behind this Sun there was another, unseen, Spiritual Force, which could be felt by those who harmonized their lives with the visible Sun. That as the invisible Sun fulfilled His duty toward the body, the Spiritual Sun guarded the Soul. And he told them to have no fear, that even as the Sun was often hidden by clouds and could not be seen, unless one could go above the clouds, so did the invisible Spiritual Sun remain hidden until the Spiritual eyes could pierce the clouds.

Then the Priest ended his address to the Sons of the Sun in the Empire of Atlantis.

The Princess Sama was immensely pleased and planned to change the government of her own Country as quickly as possible.

King Kronos gave a farewell dinner in Sama’s honor. Music was furnished by the best musicians of the kingdom, and everything they played was directed to the Sun, Moon, Stars, Love Sea, Wind, etc. During the dinner, the jealous savage Tec made an attempt to assassinate the good King Kronos, but Padmi interfered, and was seriously wounded. Tec was at once deported to the northern country. Padmi was gently taken to the Temple of the Sun and cared for by the wise and gentle Priests.

But Padmi was mortally wounded. Before dying, he asked the Princess Sama to annex her Kingdom to the Empire of the Sun. This she promised to do. Returning to her own Country, now being Sovereign, she made petition to King Kronos that the two Countries be united. King Kronos accepted. Great holidays celebrated the annexation, but King Kronos thought only of the beautiful Sama, whom he could not marry because the law of his country prohibited the crossing of blood.

Sama returned the King’s love and they met in secret.

The Council of Ancients foretold great catastrophes.

There came at last poor crops, changing weather, greater unrest. The Spirit of the Sun, irritated, produced great calamities. But the King was still faithful to Sama.

The wrath of the Sun-God poured destruction until sixty-four millions of human beings lost their lives.

A new day began, a new era dawned. The waves of the ocean now caress new Continents where Atlantis once worshipped the Sun.

Here, at last, in our new, young country there are unimaginable treasures of Ancient Art, gathered for the creative genius of long past ages and brought to us from the far country of Persia.

In our dear but commercial-minded and jazz-ridden America, when we go shopping for a rug, we choose from a great assortment the particular weave and design that we happen to like. We have our new purchase laid down as a floor covering, admire it or feel disappointed in it, have it swept daily with the very latest vacuum machine, and at last discard it for another selection, repeating this process indefinitely.

But in Persia—a rug is more than a rug, it is a symbol. At the Persian Art Centerss (actually here in America, founded by Doctor Ali-Kuli Kahn, Merchant, Philosopher and Lover of Beauty), every square inch is revealed as a living story, typifying interrelation of spiritual and material existence. And the most marvelous thing is, that the older the rug or tapestry, the more mellow and exquisite are the blended colors that seem melted together in everlasting loveliness.

To the Persian, all Art is reverently created in praise of the One Creator, and is only an exoteric expression of esoteric feeling and worship. The American, with only the training and experiences of the new, must be led step by step to appreciation of these ancient things. Without being taught to read and understand the hidden meaning, he would see in the most glorious creation of Persian Art only a very lovely piece of woven fabric, soft as satin and mellow as Autumn leaves under a gauze of mist. But serene Dr. Ali-Kuli Kahn lifts the cascade of beauty in caressing hands, and lo, this is what one sees:

"A heap of earth, representing the plane of existence. On either side of the earth-mound, a tiger attacks a gazelle, typifying the struggle to support material life. Slightly above the struggle are seen two peacocks, standing for the most gorgeous flowering of purely material living, the pride, wealth and beauty of the rich and successful. But by a slender stem of growth the TREE OF LIFE, meaning to the Persian a great spiritual teacher, grows out of the earthy heap, reaching upward into an open field of light and space. And on the branches of the tree (a cypress) one sees birds, standing for spiritually growing men, until at the very tip of the tree the eye reaches two birds holding serpents captive in their beaks. These happy ones have subdued the self that animates the peacock and the tiger below, and have entered a true spiritual plane of living."

And then Dr. Kahn explains another symbol story written in the weaver’s language of Persian lore;

"Here, the spiritual world extends in a circular manner. The Sun, or Spirit of God, at the center communicates spiritual life to the great teachers ranged in a circle about Him, who in turn pass the message on to others. This outward-growing spiritual development continues until a full spiritual circle is completed. Here the first idea is reversed and we are shown the fertilization of material life by religious life. For outside the circle of teachers is an open space, but, aspiring toward the center from an outer zone, are other trees growing inward. These have their roots in the square borders representing the finite empires of this world, which are warmed by the infinite truth and vitality of the center."

Those fortunate enough to live near enough to visit one of these Persian Art Centers, should not fail to do so. Carry away a material treasure, if financially possible, of course; but above all, seek to capture that spiritual Something which seems to hover within and above these old, old glories of human creation, lending to them a very sacredness of beauty.

Br. Nerod gave a series of thirty lectures in Long Beach, at Blackstone Hotel. Several hundred people attended. Br. Nerode also conducted two Yogoda Classes, Advanced and Higher Meditation Classes. He has organized a Center there, with meetings every Wednesday night.

Brahma Chari Nerod also conducted a series of eight lectures in Hollywood, at Garden Court. He was introduced on the first night by Dean Karl T. Waugh, Dean of Letters, Arts and Science and Professor of Psychology, University of Southern California at Los Angeles. And on the last night was introduced by Dr. Robert J. Taylor, Professor of Religious Education, University of Southern California at Los Angeles. Brahma Chari gave a very imposing ceremony on Higher Meditation.

At the last banquet given at Mount Washington Center, Professor R. J. Taylor, Dean of the Department of Religion, University of California, at Los Angeles, brought thirty college students to hear Brahma Chari Nerod’s lecture, and after the services were over, Brahma Chari gave forty-five minutes to the students to ask him questions of Hindu Philosophy and Religion.

Professor Martin Henry Neumeyer, of the Sociology Department, put several questions to Brahma Chari.

With exchange of fellowship and ideas, the banquet was served.

Swami Yogananda has been lecturing and teaching in the East, but is expected back in Los Angeles in the early part of July. He has spoken to large and enthusiastic audiences in many prominent cities, still further spreading the great Yogoda message.

The Hindu-American dinners at Mount Washington have been well attended, with unusually interesting programs. In May, the after dinner speakers were Captain Humphrey Read, founder of Nature’s Affinity Society, who gave an intimate talk on the life of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a close neighbor to the Read family; Dr. George A. Berson, well-known Psycho-Analyst of Los Angeles, drew a comparison, both serious and humorous, between Science and Superstition; Professor Neumeyer, of the Sociology Department, University of Southern California, and Professor Ken Nokozowa of the Oriental Culture Department of University of Southern California, gave interesting and instructive addresses; Miss Geraldine Cook rendered two beautiful songs; Doctor Robert Taylor, connected with University of Southern California at Los Angeles and who also conducts School of Comparative Religions at U. S. C., gave an educational address, and was instrumental in having a large number of his students at the dinner; Brahma Chari Nerod, Residential Hindu Teacher, was host, and Mr. James Warnack was Chairman.

In June, Dr. Ali-Kuli Kahn, founder of the Persian Art Center and Chairman of the Bahai Assembly, spoke on "The Bahai Revelations," and exhibited rare Persian antique textiles; there was a Piano Solo by Wilma Souvageol, a Violin Selection by R. S. Shryock, accompanied by Mrs. Shryock; the other speakers were Br. Nerod, Mr. Billie Benners, and Mr. James Warnack.

Due to the continued absence of Swami Yogananda in the East, it has been necessary to omit the May-June number of East-West. An extra number will be mailed to each subscriber, after the regular yearly subscription time has expired, to compensate for the loss of the unpublished May-June, 1930, issue. The March-April, 1930, issue was the last published before this present July-August, 1930, issue.

Upon reading the very first line in "Soul Symphonies," my full attention was gained. And I did not sleep that night until I had finished reading the forty-one poems, which cover the seventy pages of this exquisite little book.

When this inspired singer catches the echo of a fresh running streamlet, it ripples thru his poem with the song of all streamlets that are wending their way to the sea. If it be trees silhouetted against the twilight sky, he divines consciousness in them and to him they are alert sentinels keeping watch under the stars. In his nature poems he becomes the very soul of nature, nothing is overlooked, even from the bog he brings forth the purity and beauty of the lily. His spirit seems to merge into nature itself.

Mr. Warnack’s descriptive powers are unusual, for even in one line he often gives a complete picture. For example, "All day he had walked without compass." One feels that the dreamer who writes, is also walking "without compass" (it being the nature of a true poet to not circumscribe his life), but always, at every tune in "Soul Symphonies," one has the comforting feeling that the poet is not lost, but knows that whatever direction he travels will finally lead to the Cosmic Ocean.

It is this feeling of satisfaction that swept over me as I was finishing the book. Not one of the forty-one poems was left out of my consciousness at the end; for one end of each string leads from the poet’s heart, and the other end reaches the great Cosmic Heart. The combined songs finally swell into one harmonious chord, and this is why the book is correctly named "Soul Symphonies."

YOGODA Headquarters is a beautiful structure containing about forty rooms and two large halls seating about a thousand people. The grounds are seven and a half acres in extent, and are planted with camphor, date, palm, pepper and other beautiful trees, as well as plants, shrubs and wonderful flower-beds, making it one of the most beautiful spots in Southern California. There are two tennis courts with a stadium. The property has one thousand feet frontage on Mount Washington Boulevard Drive, and a twenty-five minutes’ drive from the heart of busy Los Angeles will bring you to the quiet hill-top location of this ideally-situated Center.

The Center commands an unsurpassed view of the city below, as well as of other nearby cities, including Pasadena, the "City of Roses." The Pacific Ocean sparkles in the distance, and at night the million twinkling lights of Los Angeles and distant cities amy be seen below, a veritable fairyland.

Week-day and Sunday classes and lectures are given, including a non-sectarian Sunday School for children. Mount Washington Center is open for meditation and visits of all Yogoda students, their friends, and the general public. The work of the internationally known Yogoda Correspondence Course is also carried on at this Center.